g to coerce the Court,
through the force of legislative and popular opinion, to overrule its
decision. Calmer counsels prevailed, however, and plans were initiated
to get over the difficulty by a constitutional amendment. Meanwhile,
steps were taken to eke out the national revenue by various excise
taxes, notably the so-called Federal Corporation Tax. This novel tax,
which was thought by many to involve a very serious encroachment by the
Federal Government on the powers of the states, will be discussed more
at length in later chapters.[1]

[Footnote 1: See Chapters X and XI, infra.]

The constitutional amendment as proposed by Congress and ratified by the
states provided:

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from
whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states,
and without regard to any census or enumeration."

Thus far we have dealt only with such limitations upon the federal
taxing power as are expressly imposed by the Constitution. As has been
seen, the only express limitations are that direct taxes shall be
apportioned among the states, that indirect taxes shall be uniform, and
that exports shall not be taxed at all. There are, however, certain
other limitations which we proceed to notice briefly.

The Constitution provides[1] that the compensation of federal judges
"shall not be diminished during their continuance in office." There is a
similar provision as to the compensation of the President.[2] No attempt
seems to have been made to tax the compensation of federal judges prior
to 1862. A statute of that year subjected the salaries of all civil
officers of the United States to an income tax and was construed by the
revenue officers as including the compensation of the President and the
judges. Chief Justice Taney, the head of the judiciary, wrote the
Secretary of the Treasury a letter[3] protesting against the tax as a
virtual diminution of judicial compensation in violation of the
constitutional provision. No heed was paid to the protest at the time
but some years later, upon the strength of an opinion by Attorney
General Hoar, the tax on the compensation of the President and the
judges was discontinued and the amounts theretofore collected were
refunded. There the matter rested until after the Income Tax Amendment,
when Congress again sought to impose a tax upon the income of the
President and the judges. A federal judge of a Kentucky district
contest