pend the rules, take the bill from the Committee of the Whole, and put it upon its passage. This motion, which required a two-thirds vote, was defeated—one hundred and six in the affirmative to sixty-four in the negative. It was thus made evident that, could the bill as it came from the Senate have been brought directly before the House, it would have passed by a large majority, and probably have quieted for years all difficult and disturbing legislation on this subject.
When the office of Special Commissioner expired by limitation in 1870, the appointment as chairman of a State commission, specially created for investigating the subject and laws relating to local taxation, was tendered to its late incumbent by the Governor (Hon. John T. Hoffman) of the State of New York, and accepted. This new position afforded an almost unprecedented opportunity and facilities for becoming acquainted with a practically new department of taxation; the taxes levied by the Federal Government being mainly of an indirect character, and subject to constitutional limitations; while those of the States are mainly direct, and practically subject to no limitations as to object, except as respects imports, exports, and the property and instrumentalities of the United States. The results of this new field of exploration were laid before the Legislature of the State of New York in the form of two reports (in 1871 and 1872), with an accompanying draft of a code of laws. The facts developed on this line of investigation, and which will be restated with much additional evidence in the following chapters, are generally regarded as antagonistic to the theory of taxation as accepted and taught by most economists, and incorporated into statutes by lawmakers. The Legislature to which these reports were submitted paid no further attention to them than to order their printing. They were, however, contrary to almost all precedent, reprinted in the United States and in Europe.
Note.—The writer would take this occasion to acknowledge his great indebtedness to the late Isaac Sherman, of New York, whose innate modesty and desire to avoid publicity alone prevented a general recognition by his countrymen of his great intellectual ability; and that this characterization is not unwarranted is proved by the fact that it was fully admitted by such men of his time as Samuel J. Tilden, Charles O'Conor, and Rev. Dr. Bellows; and also by the circumstance that he was the one man of all others that President Lincoln selected as his adviser in the most critical periods of the war, and to whom he repeatedly tendered the highest civil offices in his gift. Mr. Sherman took a deep interest in the work of the New York State Tax Commission; participated in its investigations; contributed to its councils a very thorough knowledge of the views of English, French, and German writers on taxation, and of the cognate opinions and decisions of American and European courts and jurists; and is entitled to equal credit for whatever of merit may pertain to its conclu-
