Still fighting the Civil War
By luck I find myself along with my family in the Charleston, South Carolina area getting a little r ‘n’ r (of course lucky us it’s supposed to be in the 100 degree zone the whole time we’re here), and that affords me the chance to enjoy a little southern hospitality and relax.
One of my favorite things about the low country (as they call it around here thanks to an affinity of swampy land at or below sea level down from the foothills of the Appalachains) is the local metropolitan newspaper - the Post and Courier. Founded in 1803 the P and C bills itself as the south’s oldest daily newspaper and it is a time honored tradition to which they remain true. The editorial page is dominated by folks that are strongly to the right of me (nice to see that some newspapers have a conservative editorial board) and the paper is filled with the kinds of stories that demonstrate a reverence for history and a longing for the good ol’ days (and a desire to return to some of those genteel times). And that’s why this item in their Sunday edition caught my eye:
FOUR SCORE AND APRIL 15th AGO
On this date a century and a half ago, the fabled emancipator Abraham Lincoln was weighing his options when it came to crushing the insurrection that would become the War Between the States. He was particularly worried about the loss of revenue collected at the cash cow ports along the Southeast, such as, say, Charleston. Like any good politician, he knew just what needed to be done. So he asked a few cabinet members whether the president could tax profit from “any kind of property, or from any professional trade, employment, or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere from any source whatever.” And income tax was born. Those words are from the Revenue Act, imposed by Lincoln on Aug. 5, 1861, repealed by Congress in 1871, passed in 1909 and ratified in 1913 as the 16th Amendment. Suitably enough, the country has fought over it ever since.
Now I recognize that nothing really nasty is said in this piece about Lincoln, but you’ve got to love the label of “fabled emancipator” which has little or nothing to do with the information about the income tax.
You don’t think some folks down here still bear a grudge do you?
