France, to stimulate the production of American sugar by offering to parties special inducements to invest capital and labor in the effort to develop the domestic sugar production in furtherance of such a national policy."

The power to levy taxes is one of the greatest, and to the citizen one of the most directly important, powers that can be exercised by any government. Within certain conceded boundaries, it is absolute, and unlimited save by the discretion of the law making power. It may be used to cripple or even destroy an industry or a business. The only refuge from its inordinate exercise, in this country, is by the peaceful revolution of popular elections. In our judgment, the true limitation of the power to impose taxes, conferred by the foregoing clause, is that the purpose must be public, that is to say, governmental.

"All definitions of taxation imply that it is to be imposed only for public purposes." Cooley on Taxation, 67.

"If there is any proposition about which there is an entire and uniform weight of judicial authority, it is that taxes are to be imposed for the use of the people of the State in the varied and manifold purposes of the Government, and not for private objects or the special benefit of individuals. Taxation originates from and is imposed by and for the State." Allen v. Jay, 60 Me. 128; Hanson v. Vernon, 27 Iowa, 28, 47; Matter of Washington Av., 69 Pa. St. 352, 363; Sharpless v. Mayor, &c., 21 Pa. St. 147.

"Vast as is the power of the Government to levy taxes upon its citizens, there are nevertheless limitations upon it of a very distinct and positive character which inhere in the very nature of the power itself. Some of these limitations are commonly declared in the written constitutions, but the declaration is rather from abundant caution than from any necessity, as the limitations are equally imperative whether thus declared or not." Cooley on Taxation, 41.

The authorities from which we have so freely quoted

refer directly to the power to tax as exercised by the legislatures of the several States; but the doctrine which they establish is plainly applicable to the taxing power of Congress.

A commonly accepted doctrine with respect to the legislative powers of the States has been that they are general in their nature and to a degree absolute, except where restrained by the provisions of their own and the Federal Constitution, and the necessary implications therefrom. On the other hand, it has been uniformly held that the Government of the United States is one of "delegated, limited and enumerated powers." United States v. Harris, 106 U. S. 629. In that case it was said: "Therefore every valid act of Congress must find in the Constitution some warrant for its passage. This is apparent by reference to the following provisions of the Constitution " (quoting Sec. 1, Art. I; Art. X, Amendments). Mr. Justice Story in his Commentaries on the Constitution, says: "Whenever, therefore, a question arises concerning the constitutionality of a particular power, the first question is whether the power be expressed in the Constitution. If it be, the question is decided. If it be not expressed, the next inquiry must be, whether it is properly an incident to an express power and necessary to its execution. If it be, then it may be exercised by Congress. If not, Congress cannot exercise it."

This distinction between the taxing powers of the general and the State governments is well described by the late Mr. Justice Miller, in the following words: "The United States being a limited form of government, one of the restrictions to which it is subject is in regard to its power to levy taxes. The States may levy them for a great many purposes for which Congress cannot, because to the States belong all the powers not delegated to Congress. Hence, while the Constitution of the Unted States has nowhere been amended by any limitations of its taxing power there has scarcely been a State constitutional convention in half a century that has

not imposed some restrictions upon the power of the State to levy taxes." Lectures on Constitution, 247.

If then, as we have seen from the cases cited, the legislature of a State has no implied power to grant subsidies or bounties to individuals, though, in a sense, the general welfare may be promoted thereby, a fortiori the Congress of the United States has no such power.

It would be an useless consumption of time to enter upon a discussion of the interpretation of the language contained in the first clause of Section 8, Article 1, of the Constitution; nor is it necessary to do so. Several theories have been indulged in that regard. Mr. Madison, in No. 41 of the Federalist, denounces the assumption that this clause "amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare," and says: "No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections than their stooping to such misconstruction." He evidently regarded it as a mere general expression and fraught with no special meaning as a substantive delegation of power. He says: "Nothing is more natural nor common than first to use a general phrase, and then to explain and qualify it by particulars ;" and then refers to the fact that this language is "a copy from the Articles of Confederation."

It may be remarked here, too, that many of the State constitutions contain similar general declarations; notably is this the case with Massachusetts and Maine, in both of which it has been held, as we have seen, that bounties cannot be given to individuals, in the promotion of the general welfare. Let it be conceded, however, that the words, "to pay the debts and to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States," are to be construed, according to the opinion of Mr. Justice Story, as a qualification of the preceding tax clause and as limiting "the taxing power to objects for the common defense and general welfare" (1

Story Const. 911); still the question remains, is the grant of a bounty to producers of sugar a constitutional exercise of the power of taxation as so understood?

We think the authorities cited above establish beyond question that the power of taxation, in all free governments like ours, is limited to public objects and purposes governmental in their nature. No amount of incidental public good or benefit will render valid taxation, or the appropriation of revenues to be derived therefrom, for a private purpose.

Although we have quoted liberally from authorities cited in support of these propositions, the importance of the question is such that we cannot refrain from quoting from the opinions of the judges of the Supreme Court of Maine, in response to the inquiry of the legislature of that State, language which expresses our views perfectly:

"Taxation, by the very meaning of the words, is for public purposes, and for those the right of the government is unlimited. The general benefit of the community resulting from any description of well-directed labor is of the same character, whatever may be the branch of industry upon which it is expended. All useful laborers, no matter what the field of labor, serve the State by increasing the aggregate of its products-its wealth. There is nothing of a public nature any more entitling the manufacturer to public gifts than the sailor, the mechanic, the lumberman, or the farmer. Our Government is based upon equality of rights. All honest employments are honorable. The State cannot rightfully discriminate among occupations, for a discrimination in favor of one branch of industry is a discrimination adverse to all other branches. The State is equally bound to protect all, giving no undue advantages, or special and exclusive preferences, to any." 58 Me. 593. Again it was said: "But the subtle and sophistical argument of those who are seeking their own private advantage by the use of the public purse is, that the successful establishment of a

manufacturing business, though the profits of it inure to private individuals, is indirectly a benefit to the community. But this is not an answer; it is simply a pretext for an invasion of the fundamental principles above stated." Id. 609.

If it may be for "the general welfare of the United States" to encourage the production of sugar by the grant of a bounty, it is hard to conceive why the producers of corn, wheat, cotton, wool, coal, iron, silver ore, etc., might not be paid a bounty also.

If Congress be conceded the power to grant subsidies from the public revenues to all objects it may deem to be for the general welfare, then it follows that this discretion, like all admitted powers of taxation, is absolute. Such a doctrine would destroy the idea that this is a Government of "delegated, limited, and enumerated powers," render superfluous all the special delegations of power contained in the Constitution, and open the way for a flood of socialistic legislation, the specious plea for all of which has ever been "the general welfare." It is a doctrine that we cannot subscribe to.

Still less are we able to subscribe to a doctrine that legislation may be enacted by Congress "in pursuance of a national policy analogous to that adopted by Germany and France," or any other government on the face of the earth. There is no inherent sovereignty in the general or in the state governments. The people are sovereign. Certain powers of sovereignty they have delegated with a free hand; others have been reserved. Legislation by the Assembly of France, the Reichstag of imperial Germany, or the Parliament of Great Britain, where power is unlimited, furnishes no proper precedent for legislation in this country.

Our Revolution began in a protest against the arbitrary power of legislation, especially with respect to taxation. The successful result of that revolution gave us our written constitutions, State and Federal, wherein the people, to guard against dangers to life, liberty and property, reserved