which was decided early in 1796. Congress had levied, according to the
rule of uniformity, a specific tax upon all carriages, for the
conveyance of persons, which shall be kept by, or for any person, for
his own use, or to be let out for hire, or for the conveying of
passengers. In a fictitious statement of facts, it was stipulated that
the carriages involved in the case were kept exclusively for the
personal use of the owner and not for hire. The principal argument for
the constitutionality of the measure was made by Hamilton, who treated
it as an "excise tax,"[1487] while Madison both on the floors of
Congress and in correspondence attacked it as "direct" and so void,
inasmuch as it was levied without apportionment.[1488] The Court, taking
the position that the direct tax clause constituted in practical
operation an exception to the general taxing powers of Congress, held
that no tax ought to be classified as "direct" which could not be
conveniently apportioned, and on this basis sustained the tax on
carriages as one on their "use" and therefore an "excise." Moreover,
each of the judges advanced the opinion that the direct tax clause
should be restricted to capitation taxes and taxes on land, or that at
most, it might cover a general tax on the aggregate or mass of things
which generally pervade all the States, especially if an assessment
should intervene; while Justice Paterson, who had been a member of the
Federal Convention, testified to his recollection that the principal
purpose of the provision had been to allay the fear of the Southern
States lest their Negroes and lands should be subjected to a specific
tax.[1489]

From the Hylton to the Pollock Case

The result of the Hylton case was not challenged until after the Civil
War. A number of the taxes imposed to meet the demands of that war were
assailed during the postwar period as direct taxes, but without result.
The Court sustained successively as "excises" or "duties," a tax on an
insurance company's receipts for premiums and assessments;[1490] a tax
on the circulating notes of State banks,[1491] an inheritance tax on
real estate,[1492] and finally a general tax on incomes.[1493] In the
last case, the Court took pains to state that it regarded the term
"direct taxes" as having acquired a definite and fixed meaning-to-wit,
capitation taxes, and taxes on hand.[1494] Then, almost one hundred
years after the Hylton case, the famous case of Pollock _v._ Farmers