Morrison Waite

“ An assessment is only determining the value of the thing taxed, and the amount of tax required of each individual. It might be made by the designated officers or by the law itself. In the present case the statute required every savings bank to pay a tax of 5 per cent. on all undistributed earnings made or added during the year to their contingent funds. There was no occasion or room for any other assessment. ”

“ The amount of the debt was always a fixed sum in pounds sterling. The provision for the estimation of the value of this debt in legal-tender currency was, in our opinion, a regulation of the mode of collection, and not a change in the amount of the obligation. As promptness was required in the payment of taxes, and the amount to be paid in currency would not ordinarily exceed the value of the coin which was due, it was thought proper by the government to require its officers to make collections in currency. ”