PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. . 471 



on the carrier, was an indirect and not a direct tax. Another 

 point is, that a tax on carriages has not the compulsory element 

 which pertains to all direct taxes, as their ownership and use are 

 optional, which is the special characteristic of all indirect taxes. 



Substantially the same question involved in the carriage case 

 came up again (in 1874) before the same court (Springer vs. 

 United States, 12 Otto, 102 U. S. Reports, p. 85G), when a citizen 

 of Illinois resisted the payment of a national income tax on the 

 ground that such a tax was a direct tax ; and not being levied in 

 the manner prescribed by the Constitution, was not legal and 

 valid. From an economic point of view such a tax, as has been 

 before shown, is and always has been regarded as a direct tax ; 

 and on the hearing the plaintiff adduced in support of his posi- 

 tion the testimony, as found in their writings, of almost every 

 acknowledged authority on political economy or finance in the 

 English language Adam Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Wayland* 

 Brande, Say, Perry, as well as the Encyclopaedia Britannica and 

 almost every other cyclopsedia or dictionary of English or Ameri- 

 can origin.* The court, however, held as before, that under the 

 definition of a direct tax, as expressed in the Constitution, the in- 



* In all the debates in the British Parliament it is doubtful if any British statesman can 

 be named who has ever spoken of an income tax as other than a direct tax. The same 

 may be also affirmed of French authors and statesmen. The following citations of the 

 opinions of various recognized authorities are illustrative : 



" The taxes which it is intended should fall indifferently upon every species of revenue 

 are capitation taxes." (Adam Smith.) 



James Mill, under the title of " Direct taxes, which are designed to fall upon all sources 

 of income,''^ says, " Assessed taxes, poll taxes, and income taxes are of this description." 

 (Elements of Political Economy, p. 267.) 



J. R. McCulIoch divides his work on taxation into two parts ; Part I, on direct taxes, and 

 Part II, on indirect taxes, and under the head of " Direct Taxes " he treats of " taxes on 

 property and income^ 



Dr. Lieber, referring to the different modes of levying taxes, says: "The first way is 

 direct to determine from the statement of the parties concerned, or from official informa- 

 tion, the net income of persons. This kind of taxes are called direct." (Encyclopasdia Amer- 

 icana ) 



" Taxes are either direct or indirect. A direct tax is one which is demanded from the 

 very pei-ons who it is intended or desired should pay it. Direct taxes are either on income 

 or exi^enJiture. . . . Most taxes on expenditure are direct, being imposed not on the pro- 

 ducer or seller of an article, but immediately on the consumer. . . . The window tax is a 

 direct tax on expenditure, so are taxes on horses and carriages." (John Stuart Mill, Political 

 Economy, vol. ii.) 



When Sir Robert Peel brought forward his plan for an income tax in 1842, he said: 

 " Indirect taxation has reached its limits, and can no longer be relied on. My plan is this, 

 to levy an income tax," etc. (Parliamentary Debates, Ivi, 428 ; Ann. Reg., 1842, 72, 73.) 

 And Lord John Russell said in reply : " To resort to the desperate measure of an income 

 tax in such circumstances is nothing less than to proclaim to the world that your resources 

 are exhausted, that indirect taxation has reached its limits," etc. (Parliamentary Debates, 

 Ivii, 86, 147 ; Ann. Reg , 1842, 77, 79.) 



