[wideawake]

I see. The federal government was unable to fund itself until it figured out a way to confiscate money from its citizens.

The Articles of Confederation kept taxation limited to the state level, so the federal government was starving to death.

The Constitution allowed the federal government to confiscate some money, and it kept a-rollin' until the inevitability of the federal income tax created the delightful situation we find ourselves in today.

[WhiskeyPapa]

I see. The federal government was unable to fund itself until it figured out a way to confiscate money from its citizens.

Obviously, you don't.

You don't -ever- have to pay a tariff. You can always buy domestic. There were NO federal taxes in 1790, and there were NO federal taxes in 1860. What Hamilton did in the 1790's was to offer bonds. He paid the interest on those bonds with the tariff revenue. It worked.

However, the so-called CSA DID put export tariffs on cotton -- something strictly forbidden in the U.S. Constitution.

Walt

[WhiskeyPapa]

The Constitution allowed the federal government to confiscate some money, and it kept a-rollin' until the inevitability of the federal income tax created the delightful situation we find ourselves in today.

If you like; but that was 50 years after Lincoln's death.

Here is something Lincoln said. See if you disagree:

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

Walt