powers expressly conferred on
Congress by the Constitution; that Congress was given power under the
Constitution to provide a currency for the whole country, and the act in
question was legislation appropriate to that end. The case does not
hold that Congress has any general power to tax franchises or privileges
granted by a state.

[Footnote 1: 8 Wall., 533.]

[Footnote 2: See 8 Wall., p. 535.]

The scope of this chapter does not admit of further reference to the
decisions. It is strongly urged, however, that none of them, rightly
construed, will be found to sustain the right of the General Government
to impose a tax upon the exercise of franchises granted by a state in
the exercise of its independent sovereignty, and that such a decision
would mark a new departure in our jurisprudence.

In the debates in Congress over the bill many good lawyers appear to
have assumed, somewhat too hastily, that the tax in question was an
excise tax on business or occupation like that involved in the Spreckels
case, and that the only constitutional question, therefore, was one of
classification under the provision of the Constitution that excises
shall be uniform throughout the United States. No less eminent a
constitutional lawyer than Senator Bailey of Texas, in a colloquy with
the junior Senator from New York, put the matter thus:[1]

Mr. Root: May I ask the Senator from Texas if I am right in
inferring from the statement which he has just made that he
does not seriously question the constitutional power of the
Congress to impose this tax on corporations?

Mr. Bailey: Mr. President, I answer the Senator frankly that I
do not.... I think the rule was and is that Congress can levy
any tax it pleases except an export tax. Of course a direct
tax must be apportioned and an indirect tax must be uniform.
But the uniformity rule simply requires that wherever the
subject of taxation is found, the tax shall operate equally
upon it.

I believe that Congress can tax all red-headed men engaged in
a given line of business if it pleases.... I have no doubt if
the tax fell upon every red-headed man in Massachusetts the
same as in Mississippi or Texas and all other states, the law
imposing such a tax would be perfectly valid.

[Footnote 1: _Congressional Record_ for July 6, 1909, pp. 4251 to 4252.]

The difficulty with this reasoning is that it overlooks the f