[TheThinker]

This is true. However, I believe it was a wartime tax and was repealed shortly after the war.

Yep, the Supreme Court reapealed it and was again revived later. But the Civil War marked the birth of the income tax. Perhaps even Lincoln had to bow to the law of unintended consequences.

[Non-Sequitur]

Yep, the Supreme Court reapealed it and was again revived later. But the Civil War marked the birth of the income tax. Perhaps even Lincoln had to bow to the law of unintended consequences.

Which makes for an interesting question. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the income tax as unconstitutional. Since there was no corresponding confederate supreme court then would an independent confederacy have had an income tax for a longer period of time? After all they would have needed a funding source of some kind.