necessity for increasing the revenue of the country, and the Government had to resort to direct taxation, in addition to all its ordinary resources, and to all the money it borrowed, to sustain the expenses of the war. And now after it is over, the taxes are continued for the purpose of paying its enormous public debt. This furnishes us with a forcible example of one of the great evils of war. 4. The proceeds of sales of the public lands have been another source of revenue to the United States, which few other governments possess; because their territory is not as extensive as ours, and they have but little, if any public lands to dispose of. The empires of Russia and Brazil may be exceptions to this general fact. 5. Duties collected on imported goods, the sale of public lands, the income of the post office department, and direct taxation, (when resorted to) are the principal sources from which the revenues of the United States are raised. There are comparatively small amounts, however, raised from other sources; such as the duties paid upon the tonnage of vessels, forfeitures of goods,smuggled or attempted to be smuggled into the country; forfeiture of vessels engaged in the smuggling business, prizes taken in time of war; fees paid for licences granted; and for services rendered by certain government officials, &c. But all these put together, are insignificant in amount, compared with the first named. 6. The revenues of any government afford a tolerably correct indication of its wealth, population and power. Small and weak ones have small revenues. Wealthy, populous and strong ones, have large revenues. CHAPTER XLVII. Internal Revenue. 1. In our chapter on Revenue, we observed that direct taxation was one of the means to which the government had to resort, when the proceeds from import duties and ordinary sources failed to meet its expenses. The late civil war caused an emergency of this kind. All former wars in which the United States had been engaged did not require one-quarter of the money for their prosecution that this did; and of course the ordinary revenues of the government were entirely insuflicient to defray its expense. This state of things became apparent soon after the war commenced. To meet it, Congress, as early as 1861 [the war broke out in April of this year], passed an act called "The Internal Revenue Law," by the provisions of which, twenty millions of dollars were to be raised annually by direct taxes upon houses and lands, in each of the States and Territories in the United States. 2. By subsequent acts, not only houses and lands were taxed, but almost every sort of property and business. Licenses were required for persons to carry on their profession, trade or business; incomes were taxed; deeds, mortgages, notes, bonds, bank checks, and papers of almost every kind were invalid unless they had a revenue stamp upon them. Manufacturers had to such & pay percentage on whatever they made. Scarcely any calling, trade, profession, business or thing escaped it, directly or indirectly. So thorough a taxation the people never experienced before; and it is to be hoped they never will again. This is one of the fruits of war. But what makes this doubly aggravating, is that this was a civil war. The people have this enormous load of taxation to carry, to pay for killing each other. When will men learn war no more? When will men cease to be wicked and foolish? 3. To carry out the objects and provisions of this bill, it became necessary, in the first place, to divide every State and Territory into collection districts, entirely dif ferent, however, from the collection districts for the collection of the custom duties. These, as stated in another place, are located along the sea-coast, and on the shores of gulfs, bays and sounds, or on the shores of such navigable lakes and rivers as are accessible to vessels from some foreign country; whereas, the collection districts for the collection of the Internal Revenue are necessarily located in every part of each State and Territory, as much inland as along the coast. As far as practicable, they are made, both in number and territory, identical with the Congressional districts. 4. This law also made it necessary to create a host of new officers to execute its provisions. In the first place, an officer is appointed in the Treasury Department, and denominated the "Commissioner of Internal Revenue." IIe is, like all officers of his grade, appointed by the President and Senate, and receives a salary of four thousand dollars per annum. He is charged with the duty [under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury] of preparing all the instructions, forms, blanks, stamps and licences to be used throughout the country, by all officers and agents employed in the collection of these taxes, and to see to the execution of the law relating thereto. 5. Then comes an Assessor, and a Collector, each with a deputy or deputies, if need be, for every district. One to assess the value of all property liable to taxation, and the other to collect and receive the monies so assessed. The Collectors pay the monies so received into the Treasury at Washington, or into such banks or other places as may be directed by the Secretary of the Treasury. The money to be thus raised is apportioned to each State and Territory in proportion to their representation in Congress; and a separate account of this tax is kept in the Treasury Department with each State and Territory. 6. Much more might be said about other subordinate officers and agents employed by the government for the pupose of carrying out the provisions of the Revenue laws; and much more might be said about many of its details; for it contains an unusual number of provisions, in no less than three hundred and twenty-nine sections. But many of these have already been changed by subsequent acts, and will probably be modified by every Congress that may meet, until the whole law shall become unnecessary by the paying off of the whole national debt, or such a reduction of it as will enable the Government to dispense with this extraordinary means of meeting its obligations. The very frequent modifications of all tax laws |