CHAPTER XLVI.

Revenue.

1. THE revenue of any government is its income, or money raised from any source whatever to defray the expenses incurred in its administration. These expenses are always heavy, are counted by millions, and the subjects or citizens of the government must pay them in some way; either by duties on imported goods, by direct taxation on property, by payments for certain rights and privileges conferred by the government, &c., &c. Different governments resort to different methods to raise their revenue.

2. The United States have always raised the greater part of it by duties on imported goods. These have sometimes been found sufficient to defray all expenses; and at other times insufficient, depending on circumstances of a high or low tariff, or on ordinary or extraordinary expenses of government. In times of war all these resources put together have been insufficient, and it has become necessary to borrow money to sustain it. War expenses have been the source of most of the national debts in all countries.

3. At the close of the civil war between the North and South, the national debt amounted to nearly 3,000,000,000 of dollars; and this in addition to the vast amounts paid during the existence of the war. This created the necessity for increasing the revenue of the country, and the government 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 licenses 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 fail 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 insufficient to defray its expenses. 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 which twenty millions of dollars were to be raised annually by direct taxes upon houses and lands in each of the States and Territories of 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 pay such a per-centage on whatever they made. Scarcely any calling, trade, profession, or 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 different, 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 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. He 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 licenses 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 the property liable to taxation, and the other to collect and receive the moneys so assessed. The collectors pay the moneys 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 purpose 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 twentynine 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 the tax laws, renders it quite unnecessary to dwell with much minuteness on their provisions in detail.

I hope this outline of the objects of the law, and the account given of the principal officers engaged in carrying it into effect, will satisfy the general reader. (7)