PBINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 159 



posts or duties on imports or exports. By repeated decisions of 

 the United States Supreme Court, another provision has been 

 substantially ingrafted in the Constitution to wit, that neither 

 the Federal Government nor the governments of the States shall 

 tax any of the instrumentalities or exclusive property of the 

 other. The result is that, except for possible provisions in the 

 Constitutions of the several States, their respective legislative 

 assemblies may regulate, restrict, or appropriate the property of 

 its citizens to an unlimited extent, and may delegate this sover- 

 eign power to local municipal corporations created by them. In 

 short, in virtue of the power of levying unlimited taxes, the power 

 of the Legislatures of the States that make up the Federal Union 

 is as absolute as that of the Czar of Russia or the Sultan of Tur- 

 key. Not only may they take in this form all the property in the 

 commonwealth, but also the property of its citizens in other 

 countries. There is no Federal constitutional hindrance to their 

 taxing, to any amount, real estate in any other State or country 

 owned by citizens resident within their territorial jurisdiction. 

 The constitutional provision that private property must be paid 

 for when taken for public uses mainly refers, in the States, to the 

 taking of land for highways and other similar acts of necessity 

 by eminent domain.* 



How little the people of the United States recognize the fact 

 that they are living under a dual form of government, with like 

 powers to some extent, especially in respect to the exercise of 

 taxation, finds an illustration in the following incident. The 

 question was recently put to the writer by a gentleman who had 

 filled with ability the office of Governor of one of the leading 

 States of the Federal Union, how it happened that the Federal 



* " There is nothing in the Constitution of the State of New York which requires that 

 taxation shall be general, so as to embrace all taxable persons in the State, or within any 

 district of the State ; or that it shall be equal, or that it shall be in proportion to the value 

 of the property of the person taxed, or that it shall not be apportioned according to the 

 benefit which each taxpayer is supposed to receive from the object on which the tax is ex- 

 pended." People ex rel. Griffin vs. Mayer, Jf. N. Y., Jj.19, 1851. 



" There is no constitutional limitation upon the legislative power to tax the persons and 

 property of individuals within the State. The power may be exercised to pay debts con- 

 tracted before the property-holder comes within the jurisdiction." PampelJy vs. Village of 

 Oswego, Ct. of App., 1863, N. Y. 



" Unless restrained by provisions of the Federal Constitution, the power of the State as 

 to the mode, form, and extent of taxation is unlimited when the subjects to which it applies 

 are within her jurisdiction." Kirtland vs. Hotchkiss, Connecticut. 



" The Legislature can constitutionally impose a tax on all watches, pianos, carriages, 

 dogs, spirituous liquors, or other chattels without reference to their value. It can impose 

 an arbitrary tax upon any avocation or business without estimating its volume or value." 

 People vs. Equitable Trust Co. of New London, Conn., 1887 ; System of Taxation in tlie 

 State of New York, prepared by Hon. Julien T. Davis, at request of a committee of the 

 Legislature, 1888. 



