Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/425

 CH. XIV.] An objection, of a directly opposite character, was also taken; viz. that the power of laying direct taxes was not proper to be granted to the national government, because it was unnecessary, impracticable, unsafe, and accumulative of expense. This objection also was shown to be unfounded; and, indeed, under certain exigencies, which have been already alluded to, the national government might for want of it be utterly prostrated.

§ 945. Other objections were urged, which it seems unnecessary to enumerate, as they were either temporary in their nature, or were mere auxiliaries to those already mentioned. The experience of the national government has hitherto shown the entire safety, practicability, and even necessity of its possessing the general power of taxation. The states have exercised a concurrent power without obstruction or inconvenience, and enjoy revenues adequate to all their wants; more adequate, indeed, than they could possibly possess, if the Union were abolished, or the national government were not vested with a general power of taxation, which enables it to provide for all objects of common defence and general welfare. The triumph of the friends of the constitution, in securing this great fundamental source of all real effective national sovereignty, was most signal; and it is the noblest monument of their wisdom, patriotism, and independence. Popular feelings, and popular prejudices, and local interests, and the pride of state authority, and the 53