The 1861 Income Tax on This Day in History

This Day in History: The United States government levied the first income tax on this day in 1861 to pay for the war effort. This tax was 3% of all incomes over US$800; and it was rescinded in 1872. "This adherence to a terminal date is worth noting; it is a left-handed admission that the taxation of incomes was generally held to be obnoxious, perhaps unconstitutional, and was tolerated only as a temporary necessity."~Frank Chodorov

A more permanant income tax would come 50 years later under Woodrow Wilson in 1913, a man who also gave us World War I, the League of Nations, and Conscription (the draft). The income tax is bureaucratic slavery, after all, we work for months to pay, not ourselves, but someone else. Prior to the passage of the 16th Amendment (income tax) in 1913, the United States government funded its operations mainly through excise taxes, tariffs, customs duties and public land sales. 

Some have gone to great extremes to prove that the income tax was illegal and unconstitutional, notably Irwin Schiff who died in an American prison as a political prisoner.

Dickens Knew Taxes Started the French Revolution
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2017/06/dickens-knew-taxes-started-french.html

How They Viewed an Income Tax Over 100 Years Ago
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-they-viewed-income-tax-over-100.html

See also The History & Mystery of Money & Economics-250 Books on DVDrom

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