Alexander Hamilton, a former Delegate to the Constitutional Convention from New York, using the pen name “Publius,” publishes “Federalist #12.” In paragraphs four, five and six he seeks to lend assurances that Direct taxes will not be the primary means to fund the federal government:
It is evident from the state of the country, from the habits of the people, from the experience we have had on the point itself, that it is impracticable to raise any very considerable sums by direct taxation. Tax laws have in vain been multiplied—new methods to enforce the collection have in vain been tried—the public expectation has been uniformly disappointed, and the treasuries of the States have remained empty. T he popular system of administration, inherent in the nature of popular government, coinciding with the real scarcity of money, incident to a languid and mutilated state of trade, has hitherto defeated every experiment for extensive collections, and has at length taught the different Legislatures the folly of attempting them.
No person, acquainted with what happens in other countries, will be surprised at this circumstance. In so opulent a nation as that of Britain, where direct taxes from superior wealth, must be much more tolerable, and from the vigor of the government, much more practicable, than in America, far the greatest part of the national revenue is derived from taxes of the indirect kind; from imposts and from excises. Duties on imported articles form a large branch of this latter description.
In America it is evident, that we must a long time depend, for the means of revenue, chiefly on such duties. In most parts of it, excises must be confined within a narrow compass. The genius of the people will ill brook the inquisitive and peremptory spirit of excise laws. The pockets of the farmers, on the other hand, will reluctantly yield but scanty supplies in the unwelcome shape of impositions on their houses and lands. And personal property is too precarious and invisible a fund to be laid hold of in any other way, than by the imperceptible agency of taxes on consumption.
[added 7/18/2026]
Subsequent Events:
Authority:
Articles of Confederation, Article XIII
ccc-2point0.com/Articles-of-Confederation
References:
Irwin A. Schiff, The Great Income Tax Hoax: Why You Can Immediately Stop Paying This Illegally Enforced Tax, (Hamden, Connecticut: Freedom Books, 1985), 27-28.
The Federalist No. 12, [27 November 1787]
founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0165
Current U.s. National Debt:
