call the state into existence. They would be mentally blind if they did not see at once that intrusting to the state a power of unlimited interference with the citizen's right to property, they would create not a free government but a despotism.
The question may be here naturally asked. Is there any record in history of any assemblage of the founders of a state which discussed this subject, or took definite action in respect to it? In answer it may be said that the two most striking assemblages in history which resulted in the formation of states, and of which any record is preserved, occurred in connection with the first settlements of New England, and that which resulted in the formation of the Federal Constitution and the creation of the nationality of the United States. The assertion would hardly be warranted that the early plantations of New England were formal assemblages gathered together for the avowed purpose of forming a state. They were, in fact, land companies, and so far as the law then existing permitted, were incorporated as such. This act of incorporation, derived from a corporation created by James I of England in 1606, and known as the Plymouth Company, was in the first instance and at once used as the basis for forming a political organization by the members of a land company or plantation. The necessity of a revenue to defray the expenses of the organization or incipient government, and in default of which there would be no adequate protection to persons and property, or, what is the same thing, no civilization, was at once recognized; and probably the very first act of the assemblage of the members of the company, after the selection of persons to exercise authority, was to authorize the levy of taxes. These taxes were assessed and collected in all respects as they are now in the great States that have been the outcome of these feeble plantations, through what may be termed a process of political evolution. That is, the individual members of the various communities or their authorized representatives met in their "General Court," as it was called, made appropriations, and, in order to pay them, levied what they termed a "rate" or assessment. This levy was put into the hands of a constable, who proceeded to enforce or collect the tax, either in the form of work or commodities or money. There is furthermore no indication in the records of these early times of any limitation as to the extent or degree of assessment, and for the very obvious reason that it never then occurred to any one that the power of taxation could possibly be used for the destruction of private property or controlling the acquisition and distribution of property—the inventions of a later period. The taxation of those days was necessarily of the crudest possible character. It fell almost exclusively on real property, and what was manifestly tangible and visible, for the very good reason that there was very little of what is now
