PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 325 



pend the rules, take the bill from the Committee of the Whole, 

 and put it upon its passage. This motion, which required a two- 

 thirds vote, was defeated one hundred and six in the affirma- 

 tive to sixty-four in the negative. It was thus made evident 

 that, could the bill as it came from the Senate have been brought 

 directly before the House, it would have passed by a large ma- 

 jority, and probably have quieted for years all difficult and dis- 

 turbing legislation on this subject. 



When the office of Special Commissioner expired by limitation 

 in 1870, the appointment as chairman of a State commission, spe- 

 cially created for investigating the subject and laws relating to 

 local taxation, was tendered to its late incumbent by the Governor 

 (Hon. John T. Hoffman) of the State of New York, and accepted. 

 This new position afforded an almost unprecedented opportunity 

 and facilities for becoming acquainted with a practically new 

 department of taxation ; the taxes levied by the Federal Govern- 

 ment being mainly of an indirect character, and subject to con- 

 stitutional limitations ; while those of the States are mainly di- 

 rect, and practically subject to no limitations as to object, except 

 as respects imports, exports, and the property and instrumentali- 

 ties of the United States. The results of this new field of explora- 

 tion were laid before the Legislature of the State of New York in 

 the form of two reports (in 1871 and 1872), with an accompanying 

 draft of a code of laws. The facts developed on this line of in- 

 vestigation, and which will be restated with much additional evi- 

 dence in the following chapters, are generally regarded as antago- 

 nistic to the theory of taxation as accepted and taught by most 

 economists, and incorporated into statutes by lawmakers. The 

 Legislature to which these reports were submitted paid no fur- 

 ther attention to them than to order their printing. They were, 

 however, contrary to almost all precedent, reprinted in the United 

 States and in Europe. 



NOTE. The writer would take this occasion to acknowledge his great 

 indebtedness to the late Isaac Sherman, of New York, whose innate mod- 

 esty and desire to avoid publicity alone prevented a general recognition by 

 his countrymen of his great intellectual ability ; and that this characteriza- 

 tion is not unwarranted is proved by the fact that it was fully admitted by 

 such men of his time as Samuel J. Tilden, Charles O'Conor, and Rev. Dr. 

 Bellows ; and also by the circumstance that he was the one man of all 

 others that President Lincoln selected as his adviser in the most critical 

 periods of the war, and to whom he repeatedly tendered the highest civil 

 offices in his gift. Mr. Sherman took a deep interest in the work of the 

 New York State Tax Commission ; participated in its investigations ; con 

 tributed to its councils a very thorough knowledge of the views of Eng- 

 lish, French, and German writers on taxation, and of the cognate opin- 

 ions and decisions of American and European courts and jurists ; and is 

 entitled to equal credit for whatever of merit may pertain to its conclu- 



