PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 307 



made familiar. In practically carrying out this idea, tlie chair- 

 man of the commission put himself in direct and frequent com- 

 munication with revenue officials and representative business men 

 from every section of the country ; and availing himself of the 

 power to take testimony, under oath, he often came into the pos- 

 session of important facts which in daily life had been screened 

 from the eye of the public. The result was that the commission 

 presented to Congress, in January, 1866, a report which gave for 

 the first time a full, clear, and exact statement of the curious and 

 complex scheme of internal and customs revenue that had been 

 evolved, as it were, out of the financial necessities contingent on, 

 the prosecution of a gigantic war : which involved the raising by 

 taxation during the war period (and exclusive of loans) of an ag- 

 gregate of over $2,000,000,000, and a not infrequent daily disburse- 

 ment (expenditure) of over two millions of dollars ; and in addi- 

 tion to this feature the report contained special and elaborate ex- 

 hibits on distilled spirits, fermented liquors, petroleum, cotton, 

 tea, coffee, sugar, spices, proprietary articles, and patent medicines 

 as sources of Government income, with estimates of the amount 

 of revenue which the Treasury might annually expect if taxation 

 at various rates on the same was to be continued ; the whole being 

 really the first practical attempt in the United States to gather 

 and use national statistics for great national purposes. 



On the termination by statute of the Revenue Commission, in 

 January, 1866, its chairman was appointed to an office specially 

 created by Congress, for a period of four years, with the title of 

 "Special Commissioner of the Revenue" of the United States; 

 and the duties of which were thus defined by statute : 



" He shall from time to time report through the Secretary of the 

 Treasury to Congress, either in the form of bill or otherwise, such 

 modifications of the rates of taxation, or of the methods of collect- 

 ing the revenues, and such other facts pertaining to the trade, in- 

 dustry, commerce, or taxation of the country as he may find by 

 actual observation of the law to be conducive to public interest." 



In this office, and invested with large powers, its incumbent en- 

 tered upon the work of co-operating with the appropriate commit- 

 tees of Congress " Ways and Means " of the House and " Finance " 

 of the Senate in reconstructing the then existing and extraordi- 

 nary system of the United States internal revenue ; and under his 

 initiation and supervision were originated almost all the reforms in 

 this department of the Government that were considered or en- 

 acted by Congress between the close of the war and the year 1870 ; 

 namely, the redrafting of nearly the whole body of complicated 

 and often conflicting statutes ; the reduction and final abolition 

 of the taxes on crude products especially cotton, salt, lumber, pe- 

 troleum, and the metals and most of the taxes on manufactures ; 



