PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 585 



this general idea of antagonism between the taxpayer and the 

 government is correct and has been in accord with the great mass 

 of the world's experiences. In fact, these conceptions undoubt- 

 edly originated with the first or old economists, who, living under 

 arbitrary, despotic governments, and unable to comprehend the 

 modern ideas respecting personal liberty and a free government, 

 came to the only conclusion respecting the nature of taxation that 

 their limited sphere of observation and experience would permit.* 

 And so to-day, under an absolute government, the interests of the 

 sovereign czar, sultan, emperor, king, whatever name he bears 

 are always in a greater or less degree in antagonism to those of 

 the nation, and these same conceptions have also to a large extent 

 been generally accepted in states whose form of government is 

 not monarchical, but free or popular, as in the United States, 

 where, through lack of intelligence or interest on the part of the 

 general public and of the law-makers, systems for raising revenues 

 have been built up and tolerated which almost without exception 

 are unjust in their administration and incidence. When an emi- 

 nent lawyer and member of the Constitutional Convention of the 

 State of New York in 1867-'68 stood up before that assemblage 

 when the subject of taxation was under consideration and said, 

 " I insist that a people can not prosper whose officers either work 

 or tell lies there is not an assessment roll now made out in this 

 State that does not both tell and work lies," f no man gainsaid 

 him, for no man who had ever given any attention to the subject 

 could. 



But such conceptions are not true of taxes levied under a 

 popular form of government, and in accordance with conditions 

 essential to justify their right to be called taxes ; for there is no 

 one act which can be performed by a community which brings 

 in so large return to the credit of civilization and general happi- 

 ness as the judicious expenditure, for public purposes, of a fair 

 percentage of the general wealth raised by an equitable system 



tenth of your seed, of your sheep, and your goodliest young men and put them to his 

 work," etc. And the prediction then made was verified, as under like circumstances it 

 has always since been. 



* With the old economists the state always preponderates. It is the master of the 

 citizen instead of being merely the steward of the nation. " It addresses the citizens impe- 

 riously. They are its contribuiables, and must pay. According to such doctrine, life is a 

 tollgate. They must give so much a head for the right of living in the country. Man is 

 the debtor of the state. Man pays, not the commodity, and the citizen remains the serf 

 of the state." 



" Under monarchical right, taxation is speculation by the king upon the people. In a 

 word, there is an antagonism between those who pay and those who levy taxes. Taxation 

 is the expression of that antagonism." M. Mcnicr. 



t Speech of Hon. M. I. Townsend, Delegate at Large, Constitutional Convention of New 

 York, 1867-68. Proceedings and Debates, vol. iii, p. 1945. 



