Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/60

52 it is nevertheless true that the "co-relative" or "reciprocal" of taxation is protection; or, in other words, according to the political theory of our governments, national and State, and in fact of every government claiming the title to be free, taxes may be legitimately assumed to be the compensation which persons and property pay the State for protection. This assumption, it is believed, has been indorsed and accepted by every writer of repute on economic subjects who has discussed taxation from the time of Montesquieu down to a very recent period; an in the repeated instances in which this matter has come before the courts for adjudication, the highest judicial authorities have uniformly given judgment or expressed opinions to the same effect. In confirmation of these statements the following citations are submitted:

"Where there is no protection," said Judge Story (in the case of the United States vs. Rice, 4 Wheaton, 276), "there can be no claim to allegiance or obedience." Again the same eminent authority (in the case of Miles vs. Duryea, Cranch, 481) thus strongly expresses himself: "It is an eternal principle of justice that jurisdiction can not be justly exercised by a State over property that is not within reach of its process that is, property which it can not protect."

"Taxes are a portion which each individual gives of his