by Romain D. Huret, The Huffington Post, April 14, 2014
To pay the expenses incurred in fighting the Civil War, the government of the United States sold bonds and levied several taxes, including a small graduated income tax. Despite the threat to the Union, an observer noted, "a Federal tax is always odious to the people." Each citizen of the United States "pays a tax every hour of the day," another man complained, "either directly or indirectly; for his income as well as his expenditures: for his business as well as his pleasure."
