Brushfire of FreedomThe Armory
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
The 16th amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1913, and gives Congress the right to create laws that tax our income. All of our income. Any kind of income. Every penny if they want. Even after we are dead. It was submitted and ratified in response to several court cases regarding direct and indirect taxation in an effort to clarify how the government could tax the people. The preceding 15 amendments granted more rights to the people or granted rights to those who had been deprived in the original writing of the Constitution, namely slaves. The 16th becomes the first amendment to grant specific authority to the federal government outside the initiation of legislation to support the previous amendments.
The 13th amendment to the Constitution make slavery and involuntary servitude illegal within the United States. It is the first of the Reconstruction Amendments and, in association with Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation as well as the 14th and 15th amendments, had the effect of freeing all slaves born within the United States and granting them full civil rights. The importing of slaves had been illegal for many years prior to the 13th amendment, and only three states had actual slavery practices when this amendment was ratified. It did however mark the beginning of the final end of slavery in the United States.
At first reading, these appear to be completely unrelated topics. There are however some basic principles that put these two amendments at odds, and call into question the validity of the 16th amendment.
The wording of the 13th amendment is fairly specific, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Indebtedness is a form of servitude, in that the debtor is required to provide service (in the form of payment and interest) to the creditor, making the creditor the master and the debtor the slave. In cases where an individual takes on this commitment, such as loans, credit purchases, etc., the debtor becomes a voluntary servant. However, the average employee has not been given the option to pay or not pay taxes. They have never been given the option to not pay capital gains or inheritance taxes. This debt to your government, that you are required to pay without question, based on laws created by those who often do not follow them, is in fact a form of involuntary servitude. If you use the “tax freedom date” as the marker for your length of service, you are a slave to this nation, without your consent, for nearly 1/3 of every year. You are a serf, a vassal, an involuntary servant, to the federal government.
We have abolished involuntary servitude in this country. We eliminated slavery with the 13th amendment. We then reinstated slavery with the 16th amendment, and made every man, woman, and even some children, of every race, creed, and color, slaves to the federal bureaucracy. It stands to reason that two amendments standing in such stark contrast to each other should not exist within the constitution. It would be like creating a law against murder, then granting permission to the government to kill citizens at their discretion regardless of guilt, circumstances, etc. There should be no question regarding the 13th amendment. Slavery is an abomination, a scar on this nation’s history, and its return should never even be considered. This leave only one possible solution to resolve the conflict between the 13th and 16th amendment.
It is time to abolish the burden to Americans that is the US Tax Code, and eliminate the involuntary servitude as required by the 13th amendment. It is time to eliminate the income tax, replace it with a usage tax system, and break the chains of bondage that have enslaved this nation since 1913. It is time to set free the spirit of individualism that is the defining factor of the American, let the people reap the benefits of their labors, encourage people to succeed, and remove the government from the role of slave master. Abolish slavery in the United States, repeal the 16th amendment, and free the American people.
Contact Ramarious Brushfire Home
Copyright 2009. The published content is the sole property of the author. Any copy, use, or redistribution of any portion of the material without the written consent of the owner is a violation of international copyright laws.