1836 Andrew Jackson - The Power to Tax will Destroy America

Andrew Jackson's support for states rights is often over-shadowed by his actions to uphold the strength of the Federal government during the nullification crisis of South Carolina.  But when it came to the treasury, Andrew Jackson believed in limited government, and the lure of power to corrupt.   Chief among the corrupting power, was the power to tax.  In 1836, Andrew Jackson warned congress of the dangers of taxing the people over and above the immediate needs of the federal government.   From weakening the state and endangering our liberties, to creating bureaucracy and redistributing wealth, his warnings, now seem more like a premonition of what we have become today.  

1. The Power to tax, endangers our liberties

"To take from the people the right of bearing arms and put their weapons of defense in the hands of a standing army would be scarcely more dangerous to their liberties than to permit the Government to accumulate immense amounts of treasure beyond the supplies necessary to its legitimate wants."

2. Collecting taxes creates Bureaucracy.

"it is apparent that no system of the kind can ever be enforced which will not absorb a considerable portion of the money to be distributed in salaries and commissions to the agents employed in the process"

3. Redistributing Wealth is unjust.

"It would be taking one man's property and giving it to another. Such would be the unavoidable result of a rule of equality"

5. Using tax revenue as banking capital is unjust.

"The possession and use of the property out of which this surplus was created belonged to the people, but the Government has transferred its possession to incorporated banks, whose interest and effort it is to make large profits out of its use."

6. There is no equal distribution of tax revenue.

"It would be easy to show how by the operation of such a principle the large States of the Union would not only have to contribute their just share toward the support of the Federal Government, but also have to bear in some degree the taxes necessary to support the governments of their smaller sisters"

7. Redistributing tax revenue is unconstitutional.

"Congress is only authorized to levy taxes 'to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States'. There is no such provision as would authorize Congress to collect together the property of the country, under the name of revenue, for the purpose of dividing it equally or unequally among the States or the people."

8. States will ask for more.

"The State legislatures, instead of studying to restrict their State expenditures to the smallest possible sum, will claim credit for their profusion, and harass the General Government for increased supplies."

9. America will eventually fall.

"Practically there would soon be but one taxing power, and that vested in a body of men far removed from the people, in which the farming and mechanic interests would scarcely be represented. The States would gradually lose their purity as well as their independence; they would not dare to murmur at the proceedings of the General Government, lest they should lose their supplies; all would be merged in a practical consolidation, cemented by wide-spread corruption, which could only be eradicated by one of those bloody revolutions which occasionally over-throw the despotic systems of the Old World."

Jackson's Farewell Address

Andrew Jackson's farewell address included words we wish every congressman in Washington would live by: "Congress has no right under the Constitution to take money from the people unless it is required to execute some one of the specific powers intrusted to the Government; and if they raise more than is necessary for such purposes, it is an abuse of the power of taxation, and unjust and oppressive."


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