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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ...characters of the people at this early time, pertains to the custom of perfecting the taxable lists among the Northern and the Southern peoples. In Connecticut, the inhabitants were classed according to the religious societies to which they belonged, the church thus serving as the centre from which the work of the assessor started; in North Carolina and Georgia, on the other hand, it was usual for the captains of the militia to advertise a muster to which the people repaired with lists of their property. Thus, in the one case, the church-rolls, and in the other the rolls of the militia captains, were accepted as the most complete enumeration of taxable inhabitants. Since, however, this essay pertains to Federal rather than local taxation, we are precluded from following farther the facts presented in this report. Its only importance for our present purpose is to show upon what ground Secretary Woleott based his decision in favor of a Federal revenue system independent of local customs. So clearly did he recognize the conflicting character of the local revenue systems, that he conceived it impossible to make use of State-machinery for National taxation, and advocated the establishment of a new and independent system receiving its authority altogether from the central government. Some of the ideas respecting this system as they lay in his mind, may not be uninteresting. A capitation tax was rejected because it had a tendency to raise wages and thus discourage manufactures; it threw an undue portion of the burden of the public expense on the middle class of farmers; and, so strong was the opposition to it in various parts of the Union, that it was believed the expense of collecting it would be out of proportion to the net revenue arising...

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