[camle]

very good! thank you for finding that article.

he is, however not talking about a sales tax, more of an excise tax. I'll have to study it some more later on though to be able to intelligently comment.

cheers!

[EternalVigilance]

he is, however not talking about a sales tax, more of an excise tax.

Sorry, but that is the equivalent of saying, "he is talking about Red Delicious, not Apples"...

[ancient_geezer]

he is, however not talking about a sales tax, more of an excise tax

Just what do you think an sales tax is, if not an excise, as peceived by those in the revolutionary & pre-civil war eras?

A LAW DICTIONARY
by John Bouvier, Revised Sixth Edition, 1856:
DUTIES. In its most enlarged sense, this word is nearly equivalent to taxes, embracing all impositions or charges levied on persons or things;

A LAW DICTIONARY
by John Bouvier, Revised Sixth Edition, 1856:
EXCISES. This word is used to signify an inland imposition, paid sometimes upon the consumption of the commodity, and frequently upon the retail sale.

"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
Thomas Jefferson: letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p 322