On the record
The oppressiveness of a tax is not to be measured by the insensibility of the people on whose shoulders it is laid.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Sumner asserts that the burden of a tax should not be judged by the people's insensitivity to it.
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Nay, more,--if it would be criminal in these several clusters of States to reëstablish the Institution of War as Arbiter of Justice, then is it criminal in the Commonwealth of Nations to continue it.
It is a cause which, though long kept in check throughout our country, as also in Europe, now confronts the people and their rulers, demanding to be heard.
Out of this pernicious prejudice have proceeded that persecution and neglect which are the too frequent lot of the world's pioneers.
Controlled by such a code, employing such representatives, sustained by such agencies, animated by such Furies, and producing such fruits of tears and bitterness, it must be open to question.
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