# Pollock v. Farmers' Loan Trust Company/Concurrence Field

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* Opinion of the Court
* Concurring Opinion Field
* Dissenting Opinions White Harlan
United States Supreme Court
157 U.S. 429
Pollock v. Farmers' Loan Traust Company
Mr. Justice FIELD.
I also desire to place my opinion on record upon some of the important questions discussed in relation to the direct and indirect taxes proposed by the income tax law of 1894.
Several suits have been instituted in state and federal courts, both at law and in equity, to test the validity of the provisions of the law, the determination of which will necessitate careful and extended consideration.
The subject of taxation in the new government which was to be established created great interest in the convention which framed the constitution, and was the cause of much difference of opinion among its members, and earnest contention between the states. The great source of weakness of the confederation was its inability to levy taxes of any kind for the support of its government. To raise revenue it was obliged to make requisitions upon the states, which were respected or disregarded at their pleasure. Great embarrassments followed the consequent inability to obtain the necessary funds to carry on the government. One of the principal objects of the proposed new government was to obviate this defect of the confederacy, by conferring authority upon the new government, by which taxes could be directly laid whenever desired. Great difficulty in accomplishing this object was found to exist. The states bordering on the ocean were unwilling to give up their right to lay duties upon imports, which were their chief source of revenue. The other states, on the other hand, were unwilling to make any agreement for the levying of taxes directly upon real and personal property, the smaller states fearing that they would be overborne by unequal burdens forced upon them by the action of the larger states. In this condition of things, great embarrassment was felt by the members of the convention. It was feared at times that the effort to form a new government would fail. But happily a compromise was effected by an agreement that direct taxes should be laid by congress by apportioning them among the states according to their representation. In return for this concession by some of the states, the other states bordering on navigable waters consented to relinquish to the new government the control of duties, imposts, and excises, and the regulation of commerce, with the condition that the duties, imposts, and excises should be uniform throughout the United States. So that, on the one hand, anything like oppression or undue advantage of any one state over the others would be prevented by the apportionment of the direct taxes among the states according to their representation, and, on the other hand, anything like oppression or hardship in the levying of duties, imposts, and excises would be avoided by the provision that they should be uniform throughout the United States. This compromise was essential to the continued union and harmony of the states. It protected every state from being controlled in its taxation by the superior numbers of one or more other states.
The constitution, accordingly, when completed, divided the taxes which might be levied under the authority of congress into those which were direct and those which were indirect. Direct taxes, in a general and large sense, may be described as taxes derived immediately from the person, or from real or personal property, without any recourse therefrom to other sources for reimbursement. In a more restricted sense, they have sometimes been confined to taxes on real property, including the rents and income derived therefrom. Such taxes are conceded to be direct taxes, however taxes on other property are designated, and they are to be apportioned among the states of the Union according to their respective numbers. The second section of article 1 of the constitution declares that representatives and direct taxes shall be thus apportioned. It had been a favorite doctrine in England and in the colonies, before the adoption of the constitution, that taxation and representato n should go together. The constitution prescribes such apportionment among the several states according to their respective numbers, to be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons.
Some decisions of this court have qualified or thrown doubts upon the exact meaning of the words 'direct taxes.' Thus, in Springer v. U.S., 102 U.S. 586, it was held that a tax upon gains, profits, and income was an excise or duty, and not a direct tax, within the meaning of the constitution, and that its imposition was not, therefore, unconstitutional. And in Insurance Co. v. Soule, 7 Wall. 433, it was held that an income tax or duty upon the amounts insured, renewed, or continued by insurance companies, upon the gross amounts of premiums received by them and upon assessments made by them, and upon dividends and undistributed sums, was not a direct tax, but a duty or excise.
In the discussions on the subject of direct taxes in the British parliament, an income tax has been generally designated as a direct tax, differing in that respect from the decision of this court in Springer v. U.S. But, whether the latter can be accepted as correct or otherwise, it does not affect the tax upon real property and its rents and income as a direct tax. Such a tax is, by universal consent, recognized to be a direct tax.
As stated, the rents and income of real property are included in the designation of direct taxes, as part of the real property. Such has been the law in England for centuries, and in this country from the early settlement of the colonies; and it is strange that any member of the legal profession should at this day question a doctrine which has always been thus accepted by common-law lawyers. It is so declared in approved treatises upon real property and in accepted authorities on particular branches of real estate law, and has been so announced in decisions in the English courts and our own courts without number. Thus, in Washburn on Real Property, it is said that 'a devise of the rents and profits of land, or the income of land, is equivalent to a devise of the land itself, and will be for life or in fee, according to the limitation expressed in the devise.' Volume 2, p. 695, § 30.
In Jarman on Wills it is laid down that 'a devise of the rents and profits or of the income of land passes the land itself, both at law and in equity; a rule, it is said, founded on the feudal law, according to which the whole beneficial interest in the land consisted in the right to take the rents and profits. And since the act 1 Vict. c. 26, such a devise carries the fee simple; but before that act it carried no more than an estate for life, unless words of inheritance were added.' Mr. Jarman cites numerous authorities in support of his statement. South v. Alleine, 1 Salk. 228; Goldin v. Lakeman, 2 Barn. & Adol. 42; Johnson v. Arnold, 1 Ves. Sr. 171; Baines v. Dixon, Id. 42; Mannox v. Greener, L. R. 14 Eq. 456; Blann v. Bell, 2 De Gex, M. & G. 781; Plenty v. West, 6 C. B. 201.
Coke upon Littleton says: 'If a man seised of lands in fee by his deed granteth to another the profits of those lands, to have and to hold to him and his heires, and maketh livery secundum formam chartae, the whole land itselfe, doth passe; for what is the land but the profits thereof?' Lib. 1, p. 4b., c. 1, § 1.
In Goldin v. Lakeman, Lord Tenterden, Chief Justice of the court of the king's bench, to the same effect, said, 'It is an established rule that a devise of the rents and profits is a devise of the land.' And, in Johnson v. Arnold, Lord Chancellor Hardwicke reiterated profits of lands is a devise of the lands themselves' profits of lands is a devise of the lands themselves'
The same rule is announced in this country,-the court of errors of New York, in Patterson v. Ellis, 11 Wend. 259, 298, holding that the 'devise of the interest or of the rents and prf its is a devise of the thing itself, out of which that interest or those rents and profits may issue;' and the supreme court of Massachusetts, in Reed v. Reed, 9 Mass. 372, 374, that 'a devise of the income of lands is the same, in its effect, as a devise of the lands.' The same view of the law was expressed in Anderson v. Greble, 1 Ashm. 136, 138; King, the president of the court, stating, 'I take it to be a well-settled rule of law that by a devise of the rent, profits, and income of land, the land itself passes.' Similar adjudications might be repeated almost indefinitely. One may have the reports of the English courts examined for several centuries without finding a single decision or even a dictum of thier judges in conflict with them. And what answer do we receive to these adjudications? Those rejecting them furnish no proof that the framers of the constitution did not follow them, as the great body of the people of the country then did. An incident which occurred in this court and room 20 years ago may have become a precedent. To a powerful argument then being made by a distinguished counsel, on a public question, one of the judges exclaimed that there was a conclusive answer to his position, and that was that the court was of a different opinion. Those who decline to recognize the adjudications cited may likewise consider that they have a conclusive answer to them in the fact that they also are of a different opinion. I do not think so. The law, as expounded for centuries, cannot be set aside or disregarded because some of the judges are now of a different opinion from those who, a century ago, followed it, in framing our constitution.
Hamilton, speaking on the subject, asks, 'What, in fact, is property but a fiction, without the beneficial use of it?' and adds, 'In many cases, indeed, the income or annuity is the property itself.' 3 Hamilton, Works (Putnam's Ed.) p. 34.
It must be conceded that whatever affects any element that gives an article its value, in the eye of the law, affects the article itself.
In Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419, it was held that a tax on the occupation of an importer is the same as a tax on his imports, and as such was invalid. It was contended that the state might tax occupations and that this was nothing more; but the court said, by Chief Justice Marshall (page 444): 'It is impossible to conceal from ourselves that this is varying the form without varying the substance. It is treating a prohibition which is general as if it were confined to a particular mode of doing the forbidden thing. All must perceive that a tax on the sale of an article imported only for sale is a tax on the article itself.'
In Weston v. Council, 2 Pet. 449, it was held that a tax upon stock issued for loans to the United States was a tax upon the loans themselves, and equally invalid. In Dobbins v. Commissioner, 16 Pet. 435, it was held that the salary of an officer of the United States could not be taxed, if the office was itself exempt. In Almy v. California, 24 How. 169, it was held that a duty on a bill of lading was the same thing as a duty on the article transported. In Cook v. Pennsylvania, 97 U.S. 566, it was held that a tax upon the amount of sales of goods made by an auctioneer was a tax upon the goods sold. In Philadelphia & S. S. S.C.o. v. Pennsylvania, 122 U.S. 326, 7 Sup. Ct. 1118, and Leloup v. Port of Mobile, 127 U.S. 640, 648, 8 Sup. Ct. 1380, it was held that a tax upon the income received from interstate commerce was a tax upon the commerce itself, and equally unauthorized. The same doctrine was held in People v. Commissioners of Taxes, etc., 90 N. Y. 63; State Freight Tax Case, 15 Wall. 232, 274; Welton v. Missouri. 91 U.S. 275, 278; and in Fargo v. Michigan, 121 U.S. 230, 7 Sup. Ct. 857.
The law, so far as it imposes a tax upon land by taxation of the rents and income thereof, must therefore fail, as it does not follow the rule of apportionment. The constitution is imperative in its directions on h is subject, and admits of no departure from them.
But the law is not invalid merely in its disregard of the rule of apportionment of the direct tax levied. There is another and an equally cogent objection to it. In taxing incomes other than rents and profits of real estate it disregards the rule of uniformity which is prescribed in such cases by the constitution. The eighth section of the first article of the constitution declares that 'the congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.' Excises are a species of tax consisting generally of duties laid upon the manufacture, sale, or consumption of commodities within the country, or upon certain callings or occupations, often taking the form of exactions for licenses to pursue them. The taxes created by the law under consideration, as applied to savings banks, insurance companies, whether of fire, life, or marine, to building or other associations, or to the conduct of any other kind of business, are excise taxes, and fall within the requirement, so far as they are laid by congress, that they must be uniform throughout the United States.
The uniformity thus required is the uniformity throughout the United States of the duty, impost, and excise levied; that is, the tax levied cannot be one sum upon an article at one place, and a different sum upon the same article at another place. The duty received must be the same at all places throughout the United States, proportioned to the quantity of the article disposed of, or the extent of the business done. If, for instance, one kind of wine or grain or produce has a certain duty laid upon it, proportioned to its quantity, in New York, it must have a like duty, proportioned to its quantity, when imported at Charleston or San Francisco; or if a tax be laid upon a certain kind of business, proportioned to its extent, at one place, it must be a like tax on the same kind of business, proportioned to its extent, at another place. In that sense, the duty must be uniform throughout the United States.
It is contended by the government that the constitution only requires an uniformity geographical in its character. That position would be satisfied if the same duty were laid in all the states, however variant it might be in different places of the same state. But it could not be sustained in the latter case without defeating the equality, which is an essential element of the uniformity required, so far as the same is practicable.
In U.S. v. Singer, 15 Wall. 111, 121, a tax was imposed upon a distiller, in the nature of an excise, and the question arose whether in its imposition upon different distillers the uniformity of the tax was preserved, and the court said: 'The law is not in our judgment subject to any constitutional objection. The tax imposed upon the distiller is in the nature of an excise, and the only limitation upon the power of congress in the imposition of taxes of this character is that they shall be 'uniform throughout the United States.' The tax here is uniform in its operation; that is, it is assessed equally upon all manufacturers of spirits, wherever they are. The law does not establish one rule for one distiller and a different rule for another, but the same rule for all alike.'
In the Head Money Cases, 112 U.S. 580, 594, 5 Sup. Ct. 247, a tax was imposed upon the owners of steam vessels for each passenger landed at New York from a foreign port, and it was objected that the tax was not levied by any rule of uniformity, but the court, by Justice Miller, replied: 'The tax is uniform when it operates with the same force and effect in every place where the subject of it is found. The tax in this case, which, as far as it can be called a tax, is an excise duty on the business of bringing passengers from foreign countries into this, by ocean navigation is uniform, and operates precisely alike in every port of the United States where such passengers can be landed.' In the decision in that case, in the circuit court (18 Fed. 135, 139), Mr. Justice Blatchford, in addition to pointing out that 'the act was not passed in the exercise of the power of laying taxes,' but was a regulation of commerce, used the following language: 'Aside from this, the tax applies uniformly to all steam and sail vessels coming to all ports in the United States, from all foreign ports, with all alien passengers. The tax being a license tax on the business, the rule of uniformity is sufficiently observed if the tax extends to all persons of the class selected by congress; that is, to all owners of such vessels. Congress has the exclusive power of selecting the class. It has regulated that particular branch of commerce which concerns the bringing of alien passengers,' and that taxes shall be levied upon such property as shall be prescribed by law. The object of this provision was to prevent unjust discriminations. It prevents property from being classified, and taxed as classed, by different rules. All kinds of property must be taxed uniformly or be entirely exempt. The uniformity must be coextensive with the territory to which the tax applies.
Mr. Justice Miller, in his lectures on the constitution, 1889-1890 (pages 240, 241), said of taxes levied by congress: 'The tax must be uniform on the particular article; and it is uniform, within the meaning of the constitutional requirement, if it is made to bear the same percentage over all the United States. That is manifestly the meaning of this word, as used in this clause. The framers of the constitution could not have meant to say that the government, in raising its revenues, should not be allowed to discriminate between the articles which it should tax.' In discussing generally the requirement of uniformity found in state constitutions, he said: 'The difficulties in the way of this construction have, however, been very largely obviated by the meaning of the word 'uniform,' which has been adopted, holding that the uniformity must refer to articles of the same class; that is, different articles may be taxed at different amounts, provided the rate is uniform on the same class everywhere, with all people, and at all times.'
One of the learned counsel puts it very clearly when he says that the correct meaning of the provisions requiring duties, imposts, and excises to be 'uniform throughout the United States' is that the law imposing them should 'have an equal and uniform application in every part of the Union.'
If there were any doubt as to the intention of the states to make the grant of the right to impose indirect taxes subject to the condition that such taxes shall be in all respects uniform and impartial, that doubt, as said by counsel, should be resolved in the interest of justice, in favor of the taxpayer.'
Exemptions from the operation of a tax always create inequalities. Those not exempted must, in the end, bear an additional burden or pay more than their share. A law containing arbitrary exemptions can in no just sense be termed 'uniform.' In my judgment, congress has rightfully no power, at the expense of others, owning property of the like character, to sustain private trading corporations, such as building and loan associations, savings banks, and mutual life, fire, marine, and accident insurance companies, formed under the laws of the various states, which advance no national purpose or public interest, and exist solely for the pecuniary profit of their members.
Where property is exempt from taxation, the exemption, as has been justly stated, must be supported by some consideration that the public, and not private, interests will be advanced by it. Private corporations and private enterprises cannot be aided under the pretense that it is the exercise of the discretion of the legislature to exempt them. Association v. Topeka, 20 Wall. 655; Parkersburg v. Brown, 106 U.S. 487, 1S up. Ct. 442; Barbour v. Board, 82 Ky. 645, 654, 655; City of Lexington v. McQuillan's Heirs, 9 Dana, 513, 516, 517; and Sutton's Heirs v. City of Louisville, 5 Dana, 28-31.
Cooley, in his treatise on Taxation (2d Ed. 215), justly observes that 'it is difficult to conceive of a justifiable exemption law which should select single individuals or corporations, or single articles of property, and, taking them out of the class to which they belong, make them the subject of capricious legislative favor. Such favoritism could make no pretense to equality; it would lack the semblance of legitimate tax legislation.'
The income tax law under consideration is marked by discriminating features which affect the whole law. It discriminates between those who receive an income of $4,000 and those who do not. It thus vitiates, in my judgment, by this arbitrary discrimination, the whole legislation. Hamilton says in one of his papers (the Continentalist): 'The genius of liberty reprobates everything arbitrary or discretionary in taxation. It exacts that every man, by a definite and general rule, should know what proportion of his property the state demands; whatever liberty we may boast of in theory, it cannot exist in fact while [arbitrary] assessments continue.' 1 Hamilton's Works (Ed. 1885) 270. The legislation, in the discrimination it makes, is class legislation. Whenever a distinction is made in the burdens a law imposes or in the benefits it confers on any citizens by reason of their birth, or wealth, or religion, it is class legislation, and leads inevitably to oppression and abuses, and to general unrest and disturbance in society. It was hoped and believed that the great amendments to the constitution which followed the late Civil War had rendered such legislation impossible for all future time. But the objectionable legislation reappears in the act under consideration. It is the same in essential character as that of the English income statute of 1691, which taxed Protestants at a certain rate, Catholics, as a class, at double the rate of Protestants, and Jews at another and separate rate. Under wise and constitutional legislation, every citizen should contribute his proportion, however small the sum, to the support of the government, and it is no kindness to urge any of our citizens to escape from that obligation. If he contributes the smallest mite of his earnings to that purpose, he will have a greater regard for the government and more self-respect for himself, feeling that, though he is poor in fact, he is not a pauper of his government. And it is to be hoped that, whatever woes and embarrassments may betide our people, they may never lose their manliness and self-respect. Those qualities preserved, they will ultimately triumph over all reverses of fortune.
There is nothing in the nature of the corporations or associations exempted in the present act, or in their method of doing business, which can be claimed to be of a public or benevolent nature. They differ in no essential characteristic in their business from 'all other corporations, companies, or associations doing business for profit in the United States.' Section 32, Law of 1894.
A few words as to some of them, the extent of their capital and business, and of the exceptions made to their taxation:
(1) As to Mutual Savings Banks. Under income tax laws prior to 1870, these institutions were specifically taxed. Under the new law, certain institutions of this class are exempt, provided the shareholders do not participate in the profits, and interest and dividends are only paid to the depositors. No limit is fixed to the property and income thus exempted,-it may be $100,000 or $100,000,000. One of the counsel engaged in this case read to us during the argument from the report of the comptroller of the currency, sent by the president to congress, December 3, 1894, a statement to the effect that the total number of mutual savings banks exempted were 646, and the total number of stock savn gs banks were 378, and showed that they did the same character of business and took in the money of depositors for the purpose of making it bear interest, with profit upon it in the same way; and yet the 646 are exempt, and the 378 are taxed. He also showed that the total deposits in savings banks were $1,748,000,000.
(2) As to Mutual Insurance Corporations. These companies were taxed under previous income tax laws. They do business somewhat differently from other companies; but they conduct a strictly private business, in which the public has no interest, and have been often held not to be benevolent or charitable organizations.
The sole condition for exempting them under the present law is declared to be that they make loans to or divide their profits among their members or depositors or policy holders. Every corporation is carried on, however, for the benefit of its members, whether stockholders, or depositors, or policy holders. If it is carried on for the benefit of its shareholders, every dollar of income is taxed; if it is carried on for the benefit of its policy holders or depositors, who are but another class of shareholders, it is wholly exempted. In the state of New York the act exempts the income from over $1,000,000,000 of property of these companies. The leading mutual life insurance company has property exceeding $204,000,000 in value, the income of which is wholly exempted. The insertion of the exemption is stated by counsel to have saved that institution fully $200,000 a year over other insurance companies and associations, having similar property and carrying on the same business, simply because such other companies or associations divide their profits among their shareholders instead of their policy holders.
(3) As to Building and Loan Associations. The property of these institutions is exempted from taxation to the extent of millions. They are in no sense benevolent or charitable institutions, and are conducted solely for the pecuniary profit of their members. Their assets exceed the capital stock of the national banks of the country. One, in Dayton, Ohio, has a capital of $10,000,000, and Pennsylvania has $65,000,000 invested in these associations. The census report submitted to congress by the president, May 1, 1894, shows that their property in the United States amounts to over $628,000,000. Why should these institutions and their immense accumulations of property singled out for the special favor of congress, and be freed from their just, equal, and proportionate share of taxation, when others engaged under different names, in similar business, are subjected to taxation by this law? The aggregate amount of the saving to these associations, by reason of their exemption, is over $600,000 a year.
If this statement of the exemptions of corporations under the law of congress, taken from the carefully prepared briefs of counsel and from reports to congress, will not satisfy parties interested in this case that the act in question disregards, in almost every line and provision, the rule of uniformity required by the constitution, then 'neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.' That there should be any question or any doubt on the subject surpasses my comprehension. Take the case of mutual savings banks and stock savings banks. They do the same character of business, and in the same way use the money of depositors, loaning it at interest for profit, yet 646 of them, under the law before us, are exempt from taxation on their income, and 378 are taxed upon it. How the tax on the income of one kind of these banks can be said to be laid upon any principle of uniformity, when the other is exempt from all taxation, I repeat, surpasses my comprehension.
But there are other considerations against the law which are equally decisive. They relate to the uniformity and equality required in all taxation, national and state; to the invalidity of taxation by the United States of the income of the bonds and securities of the states and f their municipal bodies; and the invalidity of the taxation of the salaries of the judges of the United States courts.
As stated by counsel: 'There is no such thing in the theory of our national government as unlimited power of taxation in congress. There are limitations, as he justly observes, of its powers arising out of the essential nature of all free governments; there are reservations of individual rights, without which society could not exist, and which are respected by every government. The right of taxation is subject to these limitations.' Citizens' Savings Loan Ass'n v. Topeka, 20 Wall. 655, and Parkersburg v. Brown, 106 U.S. 487, 1 Sup. Ct. 442.
The inherent and fundamental nature and character of a tax is that of a contribution to the support of the government, levied upon the principle of equal and uniform apportionment among the persons taxed, and any other exaction does not come within the legal definition of a 'tax.'
This inherent limitation upon the taxing power forbids the imposition of taxes which are unequal in their operation upon similar kinds of property, and necessarily strikes down the gross and arbitrary distinctions in the income law as passed by congress. The law, as we have seen, distinguishes in the taxation between corporations by exempting the property of some of them from taxation, and levying the tax on the property of others, when the corporations do not materially differ from one another in the character of their business or in the protection required by the government. Trifling differences in their modes of business, but not in their results, are made the ground and occasion of the greatest possible differences in the amount of taxes levied upon their incomes, showing that the action of the legislative power upon them has been arbitrary and capricious, and sometimes merely fanciful.
There was another position taken in this case which is not the least surprising to me of the many advanced by the upholders of the law, and that is that if this court shall declare that the exemptions and exceptions from taxation, extended to the various corporations mentioned, fire, life, and marine insurance companies, and to mutual savings banks, building, and loan associations, violate the requirement of uniformity, and are therefore void, the tax as to such corporations can be enforced, and that the law will stand as though the exemptions had never been inserted. This position does not, in my judgment, rest upon any solid foundation of law or principle. The abrogation or repeal of an unconstitutional or illegal provision does not operate to create and give force to any enactment or part of an enactment which congress has not sanctioned and promulgated. Seeming support of this singular position is attributed to the decision of this court in Huntington v. Worthen, 120 U.S. 97, 7 Sup. Ct. 469. But the examination of that case will show that it does not give the slightest sanction to such a doctrine. There the constitution of Arkansas had provided that all property subject to taxation should be taxed according to its value, to be ascertained in such manner as the general assembly should direct, making the same equal and uniform throughout the state, and certain public property was declared by statute to be exempt from taxation, which statute was subsequently held to be unconstitutional. The court decided that the unconstitutional part of the enactment, which was separable from the remainder, could be omitted and the remainder enforced; a doctrine undoubtedly sound, and which has never, that I am aware of, been questioned. But that is entirely different from the position here taken, that exempted things can be taxed by striking out their exemption.
The law of 1894 says there shall be assessed, levied, and collected, 'except as herein otherwise provided,' 2 per centum of the amount, etc. If the exceptions are stricken out, there is nothing to be assessed and collected except what congress has otherwise affirmatively ore red. Nothing less can have the force of law. This court is impotent to pass any law on the subject. It has no legislative power. I am unable, therefore, to see how we can, by declaring an exemption or exception invalid, thereby give effect to provisions as though they were never exempted. The court by declaring the exemptions invalid cannot, by any conceivable ingenuity, give operative force as enacting clauses to the exempting provisions. That result is not within the power of man.
The law is also invalid in its provisions authorizing the taxation of the bonds and securities of the states and of their municipal bodies. It is objected that the cases pending before us do not allege any threatened attempt to tax the bonds or securities of the state, but only of municipal bodies of the states. The law applies to both kinds of bonds and securities, those of the states as well as those of municipal bodies, and the law of congress we are examining, being of a public nature, affecting the whole community, having been brought before us and assailed as unconstitutional in some of its provisions, we are at liberty, and I think it is our duty, to refer to other unconstitutional features brought to our notice in examining the law, though the particular points of their objection may not have been mentioned by counsel. These bonds and securities are as important to the performance of the duties of the state as like bonds and securities of the United States are important to the performance of their duties, and are as exempt from the taxation of the United States as the former are exempt from the taxation of the states. As stated by Judge Cooley in his work on the Principles of Constitutional Law: 'The power to tax, whether by the United States or by the states, is to be construed in the light of and limited by the fact that the states and the Union are inseparable, and that the constitution contemplates the perpetual maintenance of each with all its constitutional powers, unembarrassed and unimpaired by any action of the other. The taxing power of the federal government does not therefore extend to the means or agencies through or by the employment of which the states perform their essential functions; since, if these were within its reach, they might be embarrassed, and perhaps wholly paralyzed, by the burdens it should impose. 'That the power to tax involves the power to destroy; that the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create; that there is a plain repugnance in conferring on one government a power to control the constitutional measures of another, which other, in respect to those very measures, is declared to be supreme over that which exerts the control,-are propositions not to be denied.' It is true that taxation does not necessarily and unavoidably destroy, and that to carry it to the excess of destruction would be an abuse not to be anticipated; but the very power would take from the states a portion of their intended liberty of independent action within the sphere of their powers, and would constitute to the state a perpetual danger of embarrassment and possible annihilation. The constitution contemplates no such shackles upon state powers, and by implication forbids them.'
The internal revenue act of June 30, 1864, in section 122, provided that railroad and certain other companies specified, indebted for money for which bonds had been issued, upon which interest was stipulated to be paid, should be subject to pay a tax of 5 per cent. on the amount of all such interest, to be paid by the corporations, and by them deducted from the interest payable to the holders of such bonds; and the question arose in U.S. v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 17 Wall. 322, whether the tax imposed could be thus collected from the revenues of a city owning such bonds. This court answered the question as follows: 'There is no dispute about the general rules of the law applicable to this subject. The power of taxation by the federal government upon thes ubjects and in the manner prescribed by the act we are considering is undoubted. There are, however, certain departments which are excepted from the general power. The right of the states to administer their own affairs through their legislative, executive, and judicial departments, in their own manner, through their own agencies, is conceded by the uniform decisions of this court, and by the practice of the federal government from its organization. This carries with it an exemption of those agencies and instruments from the taxing power of the federal government. If they may be taxed lightly, they may be taxed heavily; if justly, oppressively. Their operation may be impeded and may be destroyed if any interference is permitted. Hence, the beginning of such taxation is not allowed on the one side, is not claimed on the other.'
And, again: 'A municipal corporation like the city of Baltimore is a representative not only of the state, but it is a portion of its governmental power. It is one of its creatures, made for a specific purpose, to exercise within a limited sphere the powers of the state. The state may withdraw these local powers of government at pleasure, and may, through its legislature or other appointed channels, govern the local territory as it governs the state at large. It may enlarge or contract its powers or destroy its existence. As a portion of the state, in the exercise of a limited portion of the powers of the state, its revenues, like those of the state, are not subject to taxation.'
In Collector v. Day, 11 Wall. 113, 124, the court, speaking by Mr. Justice Nelson, said: 'The general government and the states, although both exist within the same territorial limits, are separate and distinct sovereignties, acting separately and independently of each other, within their respective spheres. The former, in its appropriate sphere, is supreme; but the states, within the limits of their powers not granted, or, in the language of the tenth amendment, 'reserved,' are as independent of the general government as that government within its sphere is independent of the states.' According to the census reports, the bonds and securities of the states amount to the sum of $1,243,268,000, on which the income or interest exceeds the sum of $65,000,000 per annum, and the annual tax of 2 per cent. upon this income or interest would be $1,300,000.
The law of congress is also invalid in that it authorizes a tax upon the salaries of the judges of the courts of the United States, against the declaration of the constitution that their compensation shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. The law declares that a tax of 2 per cent. shall be assessed, levied, and collected, and paid annually upon the gains, profits, and income received in the preceding calendar year by every citizen of the United States, whether said gains, profits, or income be derived from any kind of property, rents, interest, dividends, or salaries, or from any profession, trade, employment, or vocation carried on within the United States or elsewhere, or from any source whatever. The annual salary of a justice of the supreme court of the United States is $10,000, and this act levies a tax of 2 per cent. on $6,000 of this amount, and imposes a penalty upon those who do not make the payment or return the amount for taxation.
The same objection, as presented to a consideration of the objection to the taxation of the bonds and securities of the states, as not being specially taken in the cases before us, is urged here to a consideration of the objection community, and attacked for its unconstitutionality of the judges of the courts of the United States. The answer given to that objection may be also given to the present one. The law of congress, being of a public nature, affecting the interests of the whole community, and attacked for jits unconstitutionality in certain particulars, may be considered with reference to other unconstitutional provisions called to our attention upon examining the law, thouh not specifically noticed in the objections taken in the records or briefs of counsel that the constitution may not be violated from the carelessness or oversight of counsel in any particular. See O'Neil v. Vermont, 144 U.S. 359, 12 Sup. Ct. 693.
Besides, there is a duty which this court owes to the 100 other United States judges who have small salaries, and who, having their compensation reduced by the tax, may be seriously affected by the law.
The constitution of the United States provides in the first section of article 3 that 'the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.' The act of congress under discussion imposes, as said, a tax on $6,000 of this compensation, and therefore diminishes each year the compensation provided for every justice. How a similar law of congress was regarded 30 years ago may be shown by the following incident, in which the justices of this court were assessed at 3 per cent. upon their salaries. Against this Chief Justice Taney protested in a letter to Mr. Chase, then secretary of the treasury, appealing to the above article in the constitution, and adding: 'If it [his salary] can be diminished to that extent by the means of a tax, it may, in the same way, be reduced from time to time, at the pleasure of the legislature.' He explained in his letter the object of the constitutional inhibition thus:
'The judiciary is one of the three great departments of the government created and established by the constitution. Its duties and powers are specifically set forth, and are of a character that require it to be perfectly independent of the other departments. And in order to place it beyond the reach, and above even the suspicion, of any such influence, the power to reduce their compensation is expressly withheld from congress, and excepted from their powers of legislation.
'Language could not be more plain than that used in the constitution. It is, moreover, one of its most important and essential provisions. For the articles which limit the powers of the legislative and executive branches of the government, and those which provide safeguards for the protection of the citizen in his person and property, would be of little value without a judiciary to uphold and maintain them which was free from every influence, direct or indirect, that might by possibility, in times of political excitement, warp their judgment.
'Upon these grounds, I regard an act of congress retaining in the treasury a portion of the compensation of the judges as unconstitutional and void.'
This letter of Chief Justice Taney was addressed to Mr. Chase, then secretary of the treasury, and afterwards the successor of Mr. Taney as chief justice. It was dated February 16, 1863; but as no notice was taken of it, on the 10th of March following, at the request of the chief justice, the court ordered that his letter to the secretary of the treasury be entered on the records of the court, and it was so entered. And in the memoir of the chief justice it is stated that the letter was, by this order, preserved 'to testify to future ages that in war, no less than in peace, Chief Justice Taney strove to protect the constitution from violation.'
Subsequently, in 1869, and during the administration of President Grant, when Mr. Boutwell was secretary of the treasury, and Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts, was attorney general, there were in several of the statutes of the United States, for the assessment and collection of internal revenue, provisions for taxing the salaries of all civil officers of the United States, which included, in their literal application, the salaries of the president and of the judges oft he United States. The question arose whether the law which imposed such a tax upon them was constitutional. The opinion of the attorney general thereon was requested by the secretary of the treasury. The attorney general, in reply, gave an elaborate opinion advising the secretary of the treasury that no income tax could be lawfully assessed and collected upon the salaries of those officers who were in office at the time the statute imposing the tax was passed, holding on this subject the views expressed by Chief Justice Taney. His opinion is published in volume 13 of the Opinions of the Attorney General, at page 161. I am informed that it has been followed ever since without question by the department supervising or directing the collection of the public revenue.
Here I close my opinion. I could not say less in view of questions of such gravity that go down to the very foundation of the government. If the provisions of the constitution can be set aside by an act of congress, where is the course of usurpation to end? The present assault upon capital is but the beginning. It will be but the stepping-stone to others, larger and more sweeping, till our political contests will become a war of the poor against the rich,-a war constantly growing in intensity and bitterness. 'If the court sanctions the power of discriminating taxation, and nullifies the uniformity mandate of the constitution,' as said by one who has been all his life a student of our institutions, 'it will mark the hour when the sure decadence of our present government will commence.' If the purely arbitrary limitation of four thousand dollars in the present law can be sustained, none having less than that amount of income being assessed or taxed for the support of the government, the limitation of future congresses may be fixed at a much larger sum, at five or ten or twenty thousand dollars, parties possessing an income of that amount alone being bound to bear the burdens of government; or the limitation may be designated at such an amount as a board of 'walking delegates' may deem necessary. There is no safety in allowing the limitation to be adjusted except in strict compliance with the mandates of the constitution, which require its taxation, if imposed by direct taxes, to be apportioned among the states according to their representation, and, if imposed by indirect taxes, to be uniform in operation and, so far as practicable, in proportion to their property, equal upon all citizens. Unless the rule of the constitution governs, a majority may fix the limitation at such rate as will not include any of their own number.
I am of opinion that the whole law of 1894 should be declared void, and without any binding force,-that part which relates to the tax on the rents, profits, or income from real estate, that is, so much as constitutes part of the direct tax, because not imposed by the rule of apportionment according to the representation of the states, as prescribed by the constitution; and that part which imposes a tax upon the bonds and securities of the several states, and upon the bonds and securities of their municipal bodies, and upon on the salaries of judges of the courts of the United States, as being beyond the power of congress; and that part which lays duties, imposts, and excises, as void in not providing for the uniformity required by the constitution in such cases.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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