Mr. Sumner. It has expired. There was an understanding, when it was established, that it should live only into the year 1870. It has now reached its natural death, and no resurrection ought to operate upon it. An income tax is a war tax. It ought not to be made a peace tax. “The medicine of the Constitution should not become its daily bread.” I am against the continuance of this tax; and if the occasion required, I would go forward and assign reasons. But I am unwilling now to enter into any general discussion of the question, as it is not directly presented by the proposition before the Senate; but I hope the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman], who has charge of this bill, and is Chairman of the Finance Committee, will bear in mind the radical objection to any reëstablishment of this tax, and will also bear in mind another important proposition,—that the taxes of the country must be reduced. I have on another occasion, and more than once, said, “Down with the taxes!”—and I repeat the cry now. We cannot do better than to begin with a tax inequitable in its operation, and which, according to the original understanding when first adopted, was to end now.
After further debate, in which different Senators participated, Mr. Sumner spoke again, as follows:—
Mr. President,—I should not have said another word but for the very confident statement made by my friend, the Senator from Ohio, that at a proper time he will show the fairness of this tax. Sir, if he can show its fairness, he will do what no person before him has ever been able to do,—what no speaker in Parliament, no speaker in Congress, no writer on taxation or political economy has ever been able to accomplish. The Senator assumes in advance a very considerable task. Let me commend him to the candid, absolutely impartial, and authoritative words of Mr. McCulloch, in his work on Taxation and Funding. We all know the authority of this writer; none better can be adduced. A committee of this body might be well satisfied, could it have the sanction of this writer. Now what does he say of the tax on income? One would think he had listened to my honorable friend on this question. Of its effects he says:—
“It would no doubt have the supposed effects, [i. e. be successful,] could it be fairly assessed. But the practical difficulties in the way of its fair assessment are not of a sort that can be overcome. And the truth is, that taxes on income, though theoretically equal, are in their practical operation most unequal and vexatious.”[18]
Mr. Sherman. Read the paragraph immediately before that, in which he speaks of the theory of an income tax.
Mr. Sumner. I should rather read a paragraph after it, with the permission of the Senator. [Laughter.] I have read the chapter, and I understand it; and there are words here to which I call the attention of my friend:—
“After the Legislature has done all that can be done to make it equal, it will be most unequal.”
Strong language that!
“To impose it only on certain classes of incomes, or to impose it on all incomes, without regard to their origin, is alike subversive of sound principle. Nothing, therefore, remains but to reject it, or to resort to it only when money must be had at all hazards, when the ordinary and less exceptionable means of filling the public coffers have been tried and exhausted, and when, as during the late war, Hannibal is knocking at your gates, and national independence must be secured at whatever cost. An unreasoning necessity of this sort is the only satisfactory justification of taxes on property and income.”[19]