I had
neither time nor opportunity to study the excise system of Great
Britain; and hence the organization of the system of the United States
was based upon, and grew out of, the requirements of the law. I do not
deem this a misfortune. The public anxiety in regard to the
construction of the law induced a large amount of correspondence with
persons 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.
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