The lesson of all history is to the effect that, save in the case of war or invasion, nations have rarely or never lost a freedom once possessed, except through the tolerance (born of indifference) of a succession of gradual and insidious perversions and weakening of those fundamental principles which must be maintained unimpaired to make popular liberty possible. And it is alike startling and discouraging to note how rapidly, in recent years, the United States, as a political entity, has been traveling in this direction.
Theory of the Power of Taxation originally entertained by the American People.—The idea of using the power of taxation for other purposes than that of obtaining revenue for defraying the necessary expenditure of the Government, was one hostile at the outset to all the beliefs and habits of thought of the American people; was totally incongruous with the social and political system which they instituted and expected, and was reluctantly admitted under the idea that the industries of a new country might need some temporary stimulus and assistance at the outset.[1] The party (old Whig) that in subsequent years specially advocated the policy protection to domestic industries, always also admitted that the Federal Government had no original right to exercise the power of taxation except for revenue, but it claimed that taxes on imports might and should be so adjusted as to afford protection for our infant industries. And in this they were joined by some members of the other great national party—the Democratic—who argued in favor of what was called "incidental" protection, or the protection which inevitably results in a greater or less degree from the imposition of duties without any such premeditated purpose.
Theory and Practice of Later Days.—But it was not until after the termination of the war in 1865 that anybody in the United States ventured to openly maintain or defend the proposition that protection was other than the incidental, and not the main object of the exercise of the taxing power, although this perversion of principle was tacitly recognized by the imposition and continuance of taxes which had for their intent, or resulted in a prevention of the raising of revenue.
Illustrative Examples of the Practical Perversion of the Theory and Principles of Taxation.—One of the most instructive examples of this kind was afforded by the imposition of a tax in 1869 of five cents a pound on the importation of crude or unmanufactured copper; which proved so prohibitive that in
- ↑ The doctrine of Hamilton was that while the payment of bounties for the encouragement of new industrial undertakings was justifiable, their "continuance on manufactures long established was most questionable."—Report on Manufacturers, 1791.
