woodpusher:
"The income tax became law during the Special Session of Congress that was called July 4, 1861.
This unapportioned income tax was unconstitutional.
Also established was the Internal Revenue Bureau, later renamed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enforce the then unconstitutional income tax." Lincoln's income tax was certainly not considered unconstitutional at the time, and one way we can understand this is to remember that the first proposed wartime income tax came from our Father of the Constitution, during Pres. Madison's War of 1812.
If our Father of the Constitution considered a wartime income tax entirely constitutional in 1812, then on what grounds would a Pres. Lincoln, or Congress, decide not to use the same tax to fund Civil War in 1861?
Mr. Madison's War of 1812 ended before Congress was forced to pass his proposed income tax, but sadly, that was not the case in 1861.
1814 Treaty of Ghent eliminated a need for a US wartime income tax proposed by Pres. Madison.
Note US Sec. of State, future Pres. John Quincy Adams, center:
Lincoln's income tax was certainly not considered unconstitutional at the time, and one way we can understand this is to remember that the first proposed wartime income tax came from our Father of the Constitution, during Pres. Madison's War of 1812.
Another way to think about it is to read the Constitution and the relevant U.S. Supreme Court opinion. Your blather questions whether the 16th Amendment had any purpose whatever.
The first federal income tax was instituted during the Civil War. It was unconstitutional, your mealy mouthed excuses notwithstanding.
Article 1, sec 2:
Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall 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.
Article 1, section 9:
No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
Prior to the 16th Amendment, any unapportioned direct tax was unconstitutional. The 16th Amendment was not meaningless surplusage.
Amendment XVI The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Your entire train of "logic" involving the "law of necessity" was rejected by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court.
The unanimous U.S. Supreme Court stated:
The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism, but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false....
Ex Parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2, 120-21 (1866)
The Law of Necessity is false, and each and every provision of the Constitution applies equally in war and in peace, and none of its provisions may be suspended during any claimed exigency of government.
This applied equally to the unconstitutional assumption of authority to suspend habeas corpus, the unconstitutional delegation of authority to suspend habeas corpus to military officers, and the unconstitutional failure to issue the required return of the writ of habeas corpus.