Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
A bare inspection in the annexed table of the differences produced by
the ration used in the deposit act compared with the results of a
distribution according to the ration of direct taxation must satisfy
every unprejudiced mind that the former ration contravenes the spirit
of the Constitution and produces a degree of injustice in the
operations of the Federal Government which would be fatal to the hope
of perpetuating it. By the ration of direct taxation, for example, the
State of Delaware in the collection of $30,000,000 of revenue would pay
into the Treasury $188,716, and in a distribution of $30,000,000 she
would receive back from the Government, according to the ration of the
deposit bill, the sum of $306,122; and similar results would follow the
comparison between the small and the large States throughout the Union,
thus realizing to the small States an advantage which would be
doubtless as unacceptable to them as a motive for incorporating the
principle in any system which would produce it as it would be
inconsistent with the rights and expectations of the large States.
It was certainly the intention of that provision of the Constitution
which declares that "all duties, imposts, and excises" shall "be
uniform throughout the United States" to make the burdens of taxation
fall equally upon the people in what ever State of the Union they may
reside. But what would be the value of such a uniform rule if the
moneys raised by it could be immediately returned by a different one
which will give to the people of some States much more and to those of
others much less than their fair proportions? Were the Federal
Government to exempt in express terms the imports, products, and
manufactures of some portions of the country from all duties while it
imposed heavy ones on others, the injustice could not be greater. It
would be easy to show how by the operation of such a principle the
large States of the Union would not only have to contribute their just
share toward the support of the Federal Government, but also have to
bear in some degree the taxes necessary to support the governments of
their smaller sisters; but it is deemed unnecessary to state the
details where the general principle is so obvious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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