Now It's Woodrow Wilson's Turn

Townhall.com ^ | June 30, 2020 | Pat Buchanan

[Pelham]

President William Howard Taft, Message Regarding Income Tax June 16, 1909:

“The decision of the Supreme Court in the income-tax cases deprived the National Government of a power which, by reason of previous decisions of the court, it was generally supposed that Government had. It is undoubtedly a power the National Government ought to have. It might be indispensable to the nation’s life in great crises. Although I have not considered a constitutional amendment as necessary to the exercise of certain phases of this power, a mature consideration has satisfied me that an amendment is the only proper course for its establishment to its full extent. I therefore recommend to the Congress that both Houses, by a two-thirds vote, shall propose an amendment to the Constitution conferring the power to levy an income tax upon the National Government without apportionment among the States in proportion to population.

This course is much to be preferred to the one proposed of reenacting a law once judicially declared to be unconstitutional. For the Congress to assume that the court will reverse itself, and to enact legislation on such an assumption, will not strengthen popular confidence in the stability of judicial construction of the Constitution. It is much wiser policy to accept the decision and remedy the defect by amendment in due and regular course.”

“Of course, no one can speak with certainty upon this point, but I have become convinced that a great majority of the people of this country are in favor of vesting the National Government with power to levy an income tax, and that they will secure the adoption of the amendment in the States, if proposed to them.”

https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/june-16-1909-message-regarding-income-tax

[AnotherUnixGeek]

These are speeches, not laws. The legislation which enacted an income tax on individuals and businesses was signed by Woodrow Wilson in 1913. We’ve had a federal income tax ever since.