er, under any authority or pretended authority in hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power or Constitution, within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto. And I do further swear (or affirm) that to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

So strong and comprehensive an oath as this was never before required from any officer of the government. It answers the requirements of the Constitution, and substantially comprehends all contained in any other forms heretofore used. It is at once an oath of allegiance, an oath of support of the Constitution, and an oath to discharge faithfully the duties of the office taken. This goes by the name of the TEST oath, and frequently "The Iron-clad Oath."

6. The object of binding all officers of the general and State governments, by oath, is to place them under the most solemn obligation to be faithful and honest in the discharge of their duties. They cannot be otherwise without committing one of the most flagitious crimes. And yet, lamentable to say, men have accepted office under these most solemn obligations, and have afterwards utterly disregarded them, and have been unfaith

ful in every respect, both in the support of the Constitution, and in the discharge of their official duties. For this cause, although we have an excellent form of government, perhaps the best in the world, yet in its administration a great deal that is wrong and corrupt is found; and fears have been entertained that it would be broken down and destroyed by the corruption of those who administer it. Good men should always be chosen to make and administer the laws in any country, and under any form of government.

CHAPTER XLVI.

Revenue.

1. THE revenue of any government is its income, or money raised from any source whatever to defray the expenses incurred in its administration. These expenses are always heavy, are counted by millions, and the subjects or citizens of the government must pay them in some way; either by duties on imported goods, by direct taxation on property, by payments for certain rights and privileges conferred by the government, &c., &c. Different governments resort to different methods to raise their revenue.

2. The United States have always raised the greater part of it by duties on imported goods. These have sometimes been found sufficient to defray all expenses; and at other times insufficient, depending on circumstances of a high or low tariff, or on ordinary or extraordinary expenses of government. In times of war all these resources put together have been insufficient, and it has become necessary to borrow money to sustain it. War expenses have been the source of most of the national debts in all countries.

3. At the close of the civil war between the North and South, the national debt amounted to nearly 3,000,000,000 of dollars; and this in addition to the vast amounts paid during the existence of the war. This created the necessity for increasing the revenue of the country, and the government to resort to direct taxation, in addition to all its ordinary resources, and

to all the money it borrowed to sustain the expenses of the war. And now after it is over, the taxes are continued for the purpose of paying its enormous public debt. This furnishes us with a forcible example of one of the great evils of war.

4. The proceeds of sales of the public lands have been another source of revenue to the United States, which few other governments possess; because their territory is not as extensive as ours, and they have but little if any public lands to dispose of. The empires of Russia and Brazil may be exceptions to this general fact.

5. Duties collected on imported goods, the sale of public lands, the income of the Post Office Department, and direct taxation, (when resorted to) are the principal sources from which the revenues of the United States are raised. There are comparatively small amounts, however, raised from other sources; such as the duties paid upon the tonnage of vessels, forfeitures of goods smuggled or attempted to be smuggled into the country; forfeiture of vessels engaged in the smuggling business, prizes taken in time of war, fees paid for licenses granted, and for services rendered by certain government officials, &c. But all these put together are insignificant in amount compared with the first named.

6. The revenues of any government afford a tolerably correct indication of its wealth, population and power. Small and weak ones have small revenues. Wealthy, populous and strong ones, have large revenues.

CHAPTER XLVII.

Internal Revenue.

1. In our chapter on Revenue, we observed that direct taxation was one of the means to which the government had to resort when the proceeds from import duties and ordinary sources fail to meet its expenses.

The late civil war caused an emergency of this kind. All former wars in which the United States had been engaged did not require one-quarter of the money for their prosecution that this did; and of course the ordinary revenues of the government were entirely insufficient to defray its expenses. This state of things became apparent soon after the war commenced. To meet it, Congress, as early as 1861, (the war broke out in April of this year,) passed an act called "the Internal Revenue Law," by which twenty millions of dollars were to be raised annually by direct taxes upon houses and lands in each of the States and Territories of the United States.

2. By subsequent acts not only houses and lands were taxed, but almost every sort of property and business. Licenses were required for persons to carry on their profession, trade or business; incomes were taxed; deeds, mortgages, notes, bonds, bank checks, and papers of almost every kind were invalid unless they had a revenue stamp upon them. Manufacturers had to pay such a per-centage on whatever they made. Scarcely any calling, trade, profession, or business or thing escaped it, directly or indirectly.