Opinion of the Court. receipt of property by death. This proposition is supported by a reference to decisions holding that the several States cannot tax or otherwise impose burdens on the exclusive powers of the National government or the instrumentalities employed to carry such powers into execution, and, conversely, that the same limitation rests upon the National government in relation to the powers of the several States. Weston v. Charleston, 2 Pet. 449; McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 431, 439; Bank of Commerce v. New York City, 2 Black, 620; Collector v. Day, 11 Wall. 113, 124; United States v. Railroad Co., 17 Wall. 322, 327; Railroad Co. v. Peniston, 18 Wall. 5. But the fallacy which underlies the proposition contended for is the assumption that the tax on the transmission or receipt of property occasioned by death is imposed on the exclusive power of the State to regulate the devolution of property upon death. The thing forming the universal subject of taxation upon which inheritance and legacy taxes rest is the transmission or receipt, and not the right existing to regulate. In legal effect, then, the proposition upon which the argument rests is that wherever a right is subject to exclusive regulation, by either the government of the United States on the one hand or the several States on the other, the exercise of such rights as regulated can alone be taxed by the government having the mission to regulate. But when it is accurately stated, the proposition denies the authority of the States to tax objects which are confessedly within the reach of their taxing power, and also excludes the National government from almost every subject of direct and many acknowledged objects of indirect taxation. Thus imports are exclusively within the taxing power of Congress. Can it be said that the property when imported and commingled with the goods of the State cannot be taxed, because it had been at some prior time the subject of exclusive regulation by Congress? Again, interstate commerce is often within the exclusive regulating power of Congress. Can it be asserted that the property of all persons or corporations engaged in such commerce is not the subject of taxation by the several States, because Congress may regulate interstate commerce? Conveyances, mortgages, leases, pledges, and, indeed, all property and the contracts Opinion of the Court. which arise from its ownership, are subject more or less to state regulation, exclusive in its nature. If the proposition here contended for be sound, such property or dealings in relation thereto cannot be taxed by Congress, even in the form of a stamp duty. It cannot be doubted that the argument when reduced to its essence demonstrates its own unsoundness, since it leads to the necessary conclusion that both the National and state governments are divested of those powers of taxation which from the foundation of the government admittedly have belonged to them. Certainly, a tax placed upon an inheritance or legacy diminishes, to the extent of the tax, the value of the right to inherit or receive, but this is a burden cast upon the recipient and not upon the power of the State to regulate. This distinction shows the inapplicability to the case in hand of the statement made by Mr. Chief Justice Marshall in McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 431, "that the power to tax involves the power to destroy." This principle is pertinent only when there is no power to tax a particular subject, and has no relation to a case where such right exists. In other words, the power to destroy which may be the consequence of taxation is a reason why the right to tax should be confined to subjects which may be lawfully embraced therein, even although it happens that in some particular instance no great harm may be caused by the exercise of the taxing authority as to a subject which is beyond its scope. But this reasoning has no application to a lawful tax, for if it had there would be an end of all taxation; that is to say, if a lawful tax can be defeated because the power which is manifested by its imposition may when further exercised be destructive, it would follow that every lawful tax would become unlawful, and therefore no taxation whatever could be levied. Under our constitutional system both the National and the state governments, moving in their respective orbits, have a common authority to tax many and diverse objects, but this does not cause the exercise of its lawful attributes by one to be a curtailment of the powers of government of the other, for if it did there would practically be an end of the dual system of government which the Constitution established. The contention was adversely decided in the License Tax Cases, Opinion of the Court. supra, where (p. 470) the court said: "We come now to examine a more serious objection to the legislation of Congress in relation to the dealings in controversy. It was argued, for the defendants in error, that a license to carry on a particular business gives no authority to carry it on; that the dealings in controversy were parcel of the internal trade of the State in which the defendants resided; that the internal trade of a State is not subject, in any respect, to legislation by Congress, and can neither be licensed nor prohibited by its authority; that licenses for such trade, granted under acts of Congress, must, therefore, be absolutely null and void; and, consequently, that penalties for carrying on such trade without such license could not be constitutionally imposed." The court, after thus stating the argument, decided that the license was a mere form of excise taxation; that it conferred no right to carry on the business (the selling of lottery tickets and the liquor traffic) if forbidden to be engaged in by the State, but license was applicable whenever under the state law such business was permitted to be done. Many other opinions of this court have pointed out the error in the proposition relied on, and render it unnecessary to do more than refer to them. Lane County v. Oregon, 7 Wall. 71, 77; Veazie Bank v. Fenno, 8 Wall. 533, 547; National Bank v. Commonwealth, 9 Wall. 353, 362; Collector v. Day, 11 Wall. 113, 127; United States v. Railroad Company, 17 Wall. 322, 327; Railroad Co. v. Peniston, 18 Wall. 5, 36; California v. Central Pacific Railroad Co., 127 U. S. 1, 40. We are then brought to a consideration of the particular form of death duty, which is manifested by the statute under consideration. The sections embodying it are printed in the margin.1 1 Act of June 13, 1898, ch. 448. SEC. 29. That any person or persons having in charge or trust as administrators, executors or trustees, any legacies or distributive shares arising from personal property, where the whole amount of such personal property as aforesaid shall exceed the sum of $10,000 in actual value, passing, after the passage of this act, from any person possessed of such property, either by will or by the intestate laws of any State or Territory, or any personal property or interest therein, transferred by deed, grant, bargain, sale Opinion of the Court. It is at the outset obvious that the exact meaning of the statute is not free from perplexity, as there are clauses in it, when looked at apart from their context, which may give rise to conflicting views. It is plain, however, that the statute must mean one of three things: or gift, made or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the death of the grantor or bargainor, to any person or persons, or to any body or bodies, politic or corporate, in trust or otherwise, shall be, and hereby are, made subject to a duty or tax, to be paid to the United States as follows, that is to say: Where the whole amount of said personal property shall exceed in value $10,000, and shall not exceed in value the sum of $25,000, the tax shall be First. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be the lineal issue or lineal ancestor, brother or sister to the person who died possessed of such property as aforesaid, at the rate of seventy-five cents for each and every $100 of the clear value of such interest in such property. Second. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be the descendant of a brother or sister of the person who died possessed as aforesaid, at the rate of one dollar and fifty cents for each and every $100 of the clear value of such interest. Third. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be the brother or sister of the father or mother, or a descendant of a brother or sister of the father or mother, of the persons so died possessed as aforesaid, at the rate of three dollars for each and every one hundred dollars of the clear value of such interest. Fourth. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be the brother or sister of the grandfather or grandmother, or a descendant of the brother or sister of the grandfather or grandmother, of the person who died possessed as aforesaid, at the rate of four dollars for each and every hundred dollars of the clear value of such interest. Fifth. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be in any other degree of collateral consanguinity than as hereinbefore stated, or shall be a stranger in blood to the person who died possessed as aforesaid, or shall be a body politic or corporate, at the rate of five dollars for each and every hundred dollars of the clear value of such interest: Provided, That all legacies or property passing by will, or by the laws of any State or Territory, to husband or wife of the person who died possessed as aforesaid, shall be exempt from tax or duty. Where the amount or value of said property shall exceed the sum of $25,000, but shall not exceed the sum or value of $100,000, the rates of duty or tax above set forth shall be multiplied by one and one half, and where the amount or value of said property shall exceed the sum of $100,000, but Opinion of the Court. 1. The tax which it imposes is on the passing of the whole amount of the personal estate, with a progressive rate depending upon the sum of the whole personal estate; or, shall not exceed the sum of 3500,000, such rates of duty shall be multiplied by two; and where the amount or value of said property shall exceed the sum of $500,000 but shall not exceed the sum of $1,000,000, such rates of duty shall be multiplied by two and one half; and where the amount or value of said property shall exceed the sum of $1,000,000, such rates of duty shall be multiplied by three. SEC. 30. That the tax or duty aforesaid shall be a lien and charge upon the property of every person who may die as aforesaid for twenty years, or until the same shall, within that period, be fully paid to and discharged by the United States; and every executor, administrator or trustee, before payment and distribution to the legatees, or any parties entitled to beneficial interest therein, shall pay, to the collector or deputy collector of the district of which the deceased person was a resident, the amount of the duty or tax assessed upon such legacy or distributive share, and shall also make and render to the said collector or deputy collector a schedule, list or statement, in duplicate, of the amount of such legacy or distributive share, together with the amount of duty which has accrued or shall accrue thereon, verified by his oath or affirmation, to be administered and certified thereon by some magistrate or officer having lawful power to administer such oaths, in such form and manner as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, which schedule, list or statement shall contain the names of each and every person entitled to any beneficial interest therein, together with the clear value of such interest, the duplicate of which schedule, list or statement shall be by him immediately delivered, and the tax thereon paid to such collector; and upon such payment and delivery of such schedule, list or statement said collector or deputy collector shall grant to such person paying such duty or tax a receipt or receipts for the same in duplicate, which shall be prepared as hereinafter provided. Such receipt or receipts, duly signed and delivered by such collector or deputy collector, shall be sufficient evidence to entitle such executor, administrator or trustee to be credited and allowed such payment by every tribunal which, by laws of any State or Territory, is or may be empowered to decide upon and settle the accounts of executors and administrators. And in case such executor, administrator or trustee shall refuse or neglect to pay the aforesaid duty or tax to the collector or deputy collector as aforesaid, within the time hereinbefore provided, or shall neglect or refuse to deliver to said collector or deputy collector the duplicate of the schedule, list or statement of such legacies, property or personal estate under oath as aforesaid, or shall neglect or refuse to deliver the schedule, list or statement of such legacies, property or personal estate under oath as aforesaid, or shall deliver to said collector or deputy collector a false schedule or statement of such legacies, property or personal estate, or give the names and relationship of |