Speech #480036113

A case was cited and has been the frequent subject of citation on this side of the Chamber by Mr. Justice Miller. of the Supreme Court. in which he not only strictly limited the exercise of the taxing power anywhere by Congress or its still more untrammeled exercise by the States to kublic objects within the jurisdiction of the taxing power. but his language was that to lay the hand of power upon the property of one citizen for the purpose of conveying its benefits to another was robbery under the forms of law. That was the unanimous decision of the court of which he is a member. and yet not in one case but in ahundred cases. not inn singleline of authority or the current of authority. but what Judge Black called the torrent of authority has admitted the power of the Government to deal with the public lands for the purposes of education. for the purpose of the remuneration of soldiers. for the purpose of inducing immigration. for encouraging the growth of timber. for the purpose of facilitating railroad construction. There may be found a hundred decisions by the same court which distinctly as words can permit have denied the authority to exercise the power of taxation for any but a public purpose committed to the jurisdiction of the Government that sought to exercise it. Mr.