“Because 51 years elapsed between a flawed unconstitutional income tax passed in 1862 (quickly repealed) and the 1913 16th Amendment.”
It’s quaint how they thought they had to go to the trouble of amending the Constitution. It’s disturbing that anyone fell for it.
It took 51 years for the political criminals to find a way to bamboozle their unsuspecting fellow politicians and the general public. They are STILL laughing from the grave.
A federal income tax was declared unconstitutional in 1894 I believe.
Around 1911, a “compromise” was agreed to impose a federal corporate income tax and to submit a personal income tax amendment to the states (so a federal income tax could be collected from “the rich”). Now red states with farmers wanting lower tariffs ratified quickly. Other states with higher incomes were slower to ratify. In 1913 we got a federal person income tax. In 1914, WWI started and cheap tariffs didn’t matter because most of Europe was at war.