Taxation

David K. Walter, as quoted in Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer, edited L.K. Samuels, Freeland Press (2009), from chapter 9, “Taxation is Theft”, p. 92.

George Bernard Shaw, Caesar, in Caesar and Cleopatra, act 2 (1901).

Daniel Webster, McCulloch v. Maryland 17 U.S. 327 (1819). Usually reported as "The power to tax is the power to destroy". Webster, in arguing the case, said: "An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy", 17 U.S. 327 (1819). Chief Justice John Marshall reflected this in his decision, saying: "That the power of taxing it [the bank] by the States may be exercised so as to destroy it, is too obvious to be denied" (p. 427), and "That the power to tax involves the power to destroy … [is] not to be denied" (p. 431).