Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

THE PUBLICK LEDGER.

WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 7, 1815

A quere for the consideration of the gentlemen of the Bar. Whereas the 5th section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States declares 'That Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises,' &c. 'but all duties, imposts and excises, shall be uniform throughout the United States': and whereas, by a state law of Rhode Island, passed in June, 1798, the inhabitants of that State are exempted from a tax on household furniture; and by a similar state law the inhabitants of Massachusetts are entitled to a similar exemption: And whereas, the act of Congress laying a tax on household furniture, expressly provides 'That the objects taxed by it, which shall be permanently or specially exempted from taxation at the time of passing the same, by the laws of the State or territory, wherein the same may be situated, shall be exempted from the aforesaid enumeration and specification, and from the duties aforesaid,' by which it clearly appears that the inhabitants of both the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts are not liable to the aforesaid tax upon household furniture: Now then, quere whether the furniture tax, so called, is 'a uniform tax throughout the United States.' and if not, whether, it is not in itself, illegal and void, and may not be utterly disregarded or the collection lawfully resisted? I have endeavored to put the question with plainness and precision; a plain and precise answer will meet with a ready insertion in this paper.—New-York Evening Post.