Louis Alfred Nickolas Stalwart Institute

With regard to the 16^th Amendment, the Position of the Louis Alfred Nickolas Stalwart Institute is as follows:

1. The founders designed the federal tax system so that the federal government would not have authority to directly tax individuals resident in the country. This position is supported circa Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 (“…direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers…”) and Article I, Section 9, Clause 4 (No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the Census or Enumeration here in before directed to be taken.”) of the U.S. Constitution.

2. Prior to 1913, the primary sources of income for the federal government were a combination of tariffs and excise taxes.

3. In an effort to fund the civil war, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861 (which levied a flat tax of 3% on income above $800 per Annum), which was replaced the following year with the Revenue Act of 1862 (which levied a graduated tax of 3-5% of income above $600 with a sunset clause in 1866). These Congressional Acts were, generally speaking, well-received by the public and supported by contemporarily relevant left leaning political actors and organisations, despite the language of Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 and Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution.

4. An Amendment to the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 imposed a federal tax of 2% on incomes over $4,000 per Annum. Being opposed by the Western and Northeastern States (save New Jersey), wherein the tax was believed to be “un-Democratic, inquisitorial and wrong in principle,” the federal tax imposed by the 1894 Act was challenged in the Courts and was found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court a year later in 1895 on the grounds of it being an un-apportioned direct tax on income.

5. The debate over the 1909 Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act led to the enactment of a Resolution proposing the 16^th Amendment to be submitted to the state legislatures, which was Ratified by the requisite number of U.S. states at the time in 1913 – the same year of the passage of the Revenue Act of 1913. Four states (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Utah, and Virginia) rejected the proposed Amendment without ever Ratifying it afterwards, and just two states (Florida and Pennsylvania) never considered the Amendment.

6. The 16^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was the first in a series of Amendments to the U.S. Constitution afterwards that eroded a considerable number of the express elements placed in the U.S. Constitution to “straight-jacket” the federal government. Without the power to directly tax the individual, the federal government would have significantly less “fiscal and monetary resources” to so flagrantly embolden Corporatism, vehemently support War Profiteering, and administer gargantuan Economic Welfare Programmes.