US Presidency
1865

Here all men contribute to the public welfare and bear theirfair share of the public burdens. During the war, under the impulses ofpatriotism, the men of the great body of the people, without regard totheir own comparative want of wealth, thronged to our armies and filledour fleets of war, and held themselves ready to offer their lives for thepublic good. Now, in their turn, the property and income of the countryshould bear their just proportion of the burden of taxation, while in ourimpost system, through means of which increased vitality is incidentallyimparted to all the industrial interests of the nation, the duties shouldbe so adjusted as to fall most heavily on articles of luxury leaving thenecessaries of life as free from taxation as the absolute wants of theGovernment economically administered will justify. No favored class shoulddemand freedom from assessment, and the taxes should be so distributedas not to fall unduly on the poor, but rather on the accumulated wealthof the country.