sons in various parts of the country, and in the month of October
the letters sent numbered occasionally eight hundred per day. Many of
these letters were formal, and others were repetitions of those
previously given; but each day compelled attention to a large number
of new questions.

The practice of our office in the construction of the law was
controlled by a few leading principles.

First: to levy a tax in those cases only which were clearly provided
for by the statute and, consequently, whenever a reasonable doubt
existed, the decision was against the Government and in favor of the
contestant.

Second: In deciding whether an article was or was not a manufacture,
it was the practice to ascertain how it was regarded by business men at
the time the excise law was passed; in all cases abstaining from
inquiry as to the mode of preparation, or the nature or extent of the
change produced. If the article in question was regarded by the makers
and by business men as an article of commerce, and it was produced by
hand or machinery, it was the practice to treat it as a manufacture
under the law, unless specially exempt.

Third: Upon articles manufactured and removed for consumption by the
manufacturer, the tax was assessed precisely as it would have been
assessed if the articles had been removed for sale.

Fourth: In considering the law relating to the use of stamps, it was
the rule of the office to give that signification to the name used in
the statute descriptive of various instruments subject to stamp tax,
which was ordinarily given to such descriptive terms by business and
professional men. In the year 1901 it may be assumed that the
Internal Revenue Office will exist while the Government shall exist,
although it came into being as a war measure and as a temporary policy.

[* In the early sixties I was associated in the profession with a man
eight years my junior, John Quincy Adams Griffin. He was a man of
infinite jest, but lacking in fancy. His letters and other writings
would make a volume of no mean quality. His death came too early for
an extended and lasting reputation. In his sallies he did not spare
his friends, and he wounded his opponents. On one occasion as we were
upon the street I was induced to buy a paper by a boy's cry "Great
battle!" When I opened the paper the sheet was a blank. I said:

"What do you suppose will become of that wretch?"

Alluding to the fact that I was about fort