David Josiah Brewer

“ It is quite obvious that this injunction did not operate to take or carry away the goods of the plaintiff, nor cause the waste or destruction of, or inflict any damage upon, the estate of the plaintiff. It is true that the language of the statute is comprehensive, and embraces damage of any kind or degree to the estate, real or personal, of the person aggrieved; but the damage must be direct, and not the consequential injury or loss to the eatate which flows from a wrongful act directly affecting the person only. No part of the defendant's property was taken or carried away ”

“ But so long as the legislation is not colorable merely, but is confined to the enactment of what is in its nature strictly a tax law, and so long as none of the constitutional rights of the citizen are violated in the directions prescribed for enforcing the tax, the legislation is of supreme authority. Taxes may be and often are oppressive to the persons and corporations taxed ”

“ The constituted authorities may rightfully make one equal the other. The fact that action has been taken with regard to conditions of peace does not prevent subsequent action with reference to unexpected demands of war. Courts may not in this respect revise the action of Congress. That body determines the question of war, and it may therefore rightfully prescribe the means necessary for carrying on that war. Loan or tax is possible. ”

“ The plaintiff's right of recovery was rested upon the unconstitutionality of the act, and that was the vital question. The circuit courts of the United States 'have original cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several states, of all suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity . . . arising under the Constitution or laws of the United States.' 25 Stat. at L. 433, chap. 866.
That a case arises under the Constitution of the United States when the right of either party depends on the validity of an act of Congress is clear. ”

“ Geographical uniformity being, therefore, that only which is prescribed by the Constitution, the courts may not add new conditions, and the statute in question fully complies with that requirement. It is not the province of the judiciary to inquire whether the excise is reasonable in amount or in respect to the property to which it is applied. ”

“ The plaintiff's use of his property, and not the property itself, was affected by the act of which he complains.' See also Ferrill v. Brewis, 25 Gratt. 765, 770, and Lee v. Hill, 87 Va. 497, 12 S. E. 1052.
If we turn to the common law, there the rule was that if a party increased his own estate by wrongfully taking another's property an action against him would survive his death, and might be revived against his personal representative. ”

“ Some of these definitions were quoted with approval by this court in the Income Tax Cases, and while the phraseology is not the same in all, yet so far as the particular tax before us is concerned, each of them would include it. The tax on manufactured tobacco is a tax on an article manufactured for consumption, and imposed at a period intermediate the commencement of manufacture and the final consumption of the article.
It is practically conceded by one counsel for plaintiff in error that this is an excise tax. ”

“ Then came the act in question, which, for the purpose of providing means for the expenditures of the Spanish War, increased the charge to 12 cents a pound, specifying distinctly that it was to be 'in lieu of the tax now imposed by law.' Nothing can be clearer than that in these various statutes, the last included among the number, Congress was intending to keep alive a body of excise charges on tobacco, spirits, etc. ”

“ The term 'goods' is broad enough to include money, and as used in this statute must be held to be so inclusive, for it would be strange that a cause of action for taking and carrying away a thousand pieces of silver should survive the death of the defendant, while a like action for taking and carrying away a thousand dollars in money should not. ”

“ They are each methods by which the individual is made to contribute out of his property to the support of the government, and if an ordinary property tax may be repeated or increased when the exigencies of the government may demand, no reason is perceived why an excise should not also be repeated or increased under like exigencies. Counsel speaks of the power to impose an excise as an arbitrary, unrestrained power, but the Constitution, art. ”

“ The judicial power cannot legitimately question the policy or refuse to sanction the provisions of any law not inconsistent with the fundamental law of the state.' Chief Justice Redfield, in Re Powers, 25 Vt. ”

“ That which was possible in fact existed. A war had been declared. National expenditures would naturally increase and did increase by reason thereof. Provision by way of loan or taxation for such increased expenditures was necessary. ”