On the record
Our Government was saved by its rigorous system of taxation imposed upon the people by themselves.
Source
gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “Our Government was saved by its rigorous system of taxation imposed upon the people by themselves.”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine credits the survival of the U.S. government during financial turmoil to the self-imposed taxation by its citizens.
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The right of the General Government to preserve itself in its whole constitutional vigor by repelling a direct and positive aggression upon its property or its officers cannot be denied.
Without the exercise of those functions which belong exclusively to the civil service, the laws cannot be executed in any event, no matter what may be the physical strength which the Government has at its command.
But this is a totally different thing from an offensive war to punish the people for the political misdeeds of their State Government, or to enforce an acknowledgment that the Government of the United States is supreme.
Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?
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