On the record
This provision plainly authorizes no taxation whatever, except for the raising of revenue to pay the debts and legitimate expenses of the government.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “This provision plainly authorizes no taxation whatever, except for the raising of revenue to pay the debts and…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner interprets the constitutional provision as limiting taxation to legitimate government expenses.
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More from Lysander Spooner
For all these reasons, they are not only modest and sensible, but really frank, honest, and honorable villains, contrasted with these courts of injustice, and the lawmakers by whom these courts are established.
They do not tell us that all liberty and order would be destroyed, that society itself would go to pieces, and man go back to barbarism, if it were not for the care, and supervision, and protection, they lavish upon us.
They do not tell us that we are the freest and happiest people on earth, inasmuch as each of our male adults is allowed one voice in ten millions in the choice of the men, who are to rob, enslave, and murder us.
They do not attempt to deceive us, or mislead us, or reconcile us to their doings, by any such pretences, impostures, or insults as these.