Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/493

 CH. XIV.] The lawyer, the physician, or the mechanic, must either charge more on the article, in which he deals, or the thing itself is taxed through his person. This the state has a right to do, because no constitutional prohibition extends to it. So, a tax on the occupation of an importer is, in like manner, a tax on importation. It must add to the price of the article, and be paid by the consumer, or by the importer himself, in like manner, as a direct duty on the article itself would be made. This the state has not a right to do, because it is prohibited by the constitution.

§ 1027. In support of the argument, that the prohibition ceases the instant the goods are brought into the country, a comparison has been drawn between the opposite words, export and import. As, to export, it is said, means only to carry goods out of the country; so, to import, means only to bring them into it. But, suppose we extend this comparison to the two prohibitions. The states are forbidden to lay a duty on exports, and the United States are forbidden to lay a tax or duty on articles exported from any state. There is some diversity in language, but none is perceivable in the act, which is prohibited. The United States have the same right to tax occupations, which is possessed by the states. Now% suppose the United States should require every exporter to take out a license, for which he should pay such tax, as congress might think proper to impose; would the government be permitted to shield itself from the just censure, to which this attempt to evade the prohibitions of the constitution would expose it, by saying, that this was a tax on the person, not on the article, and that the legislature had a right to tax occupations? Or, suppose revenue cutters were to be stationed off the coast for the purpose of levying a duty