They have
thus determined in favor of a more just and equitable system of
Federal taxation. The agents they have chosen to carry out their
purposes are bound by their promises not less than by the command
of their masters to devote themselves unremittingly to this
service.
While there should be no surrender of principle, our task must be
undertaken wisely and without heedless vindictiveness. Our mission
is not punishment, but the rectification of wrong. If in lifting
burdens from the daily life of our people we reduce inordinate and
unequal advantages too long enjoyed, this is but a necessary
incident of our return to right and justice. If we exact from
unwilling minds acquiescence in the theory of an honest
distribution of the fund of the governmental beneficence treasured
up for all, we but insist upon a principle which underlies our
free institutions. When we tear aside the delusions and
misconceptions which have blinded our countrymen to their
condition under vicious tariff laws, we but show them how far they
have been led away from the paths of contentment and prosperity.
When we proclaim that the necessity for revenue to support the
Government furnishes the only justification for taxing the people,
we announce a truth so plain that its denial would seem to
indicate the extent to which judgment may be influenced by
familiarity with perversions of the taxing power.
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