Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Report of Committee Appointed to Inquire How Much of the Legislation of Congress Is Abrogated by the Secession of the State
Taking them in the order of their enumeration, the first which presents itsclt is the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, i111posts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States. The object of this power was to enable the Fed eral Government to draw from the people of the several States the pecuniary means necessary for paying the debts of the United States and det'raying the expenses incident to the execution of its various functions. \vhile South Carolina was a member of the Confederacy, assenting to the compact. Of union as a part. Of the fundamental law of the State, the people of the State were bound bv all laws of the United States, laving duties or other imposts eon stitutionally passed and actually in force. The obligation to which they were subject was to contribute towards the support of the Federal Government to the extent. And in the manner prescribed by such laws. Their obligation to pay was cc-existent and correlative with the authority of the Government to exact and collect the duties or other imposts. But when the State withdrew from the Union and retracted its assent to the Constitution, the authority of the Federal Government to collect duties and other im posts from her people or within her limits, was revoked, and with the authority to collect, the obligation to pay them was at. Once extinguished. In other words, all such laws were essentially abrogated by the act of secession. The laws regulating the collection and payment of duties, being 111erely ancillary to those by which the duties were i111posed and depending entirely for their vitality upon the obligation to pay, and the authority to collect such duties, must also be annulled by the extinction of the power of the Federal Government over the people and territory of the State. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
