difficulty in ascertaining the revenue system of each. This
could always be known from the respective codes of laws, as well as from
the information of the members from the several States.

The objection, when applied to real property or to houses and lands,
appears to have, at first sight, more foundation, but even in this view
it will not bear a close examination. Land taxes are commonly laid in
one of two modes, either by ACTUAL valuations, permanent or periodical,
or by OCCASIONAL assessments, at the discretion, or according to the
best judgment, of certain officers whose duty it is to make them. In
either case, the EXECUTION of the business, which alone requires the
knowledge of local details, must be devolved upon discreet persons in
the character of commissioners or assessors, elected by the people or
appointed by the government for the purpose. All that the law can do
must be to name the persons or to prescribe the manner of their election
or appointment, to fix their numbers and qualifications and to draw the
general outlines of their powers and duties. And what is there in all
this that cannot as well be performed by the national legislature as by
a State legislature? The attention of either can only reach to general
principles; local details, as already observed, must be referred to
those who are to execute the plan.

But there is a simple point of view in which this matter may be placed
that must be altogether satisfactory. The national legislature can make
use of the SYSTEM OF EACH STATE WITHIN THAT STATE. The method of laying
and collecting this species of taxes in each State can, in all its
parts, be adopted and employed by the federal government.

Let it be recollected that the proportion of these taxes is not to
be left to the discretion of the national legislature, but is to be
determined by the numbers of each State, as described in the second
section of the first article. An actual census or enumeration of the
people must furnish the rule, a circumstance which effectually shuts the
door to partiality or oppression. The abuse of this power of taxation
seems to have been provided against with guarded circumspection. In
addition to the precaution just mentioned, there is a provision that
"all duties, imposts, and excises shall be UNIFORM throughout the United
States."

It has been very properly observed by different speakers and writers
on the side of the Constitution, that if the exercise of the po