18611776 Club
Congress taxes incomes for the first time to pay for the war
Three cents on the dollar, only above $800, only because the guns at Sumter left no other way to pay for an army.
By the summer of 1861, the war Lincoln had hoped would be brief was already swallowing money the Treasury did not have. Congress had already called for 75,000 militiamen and tens of thousands more volunteers, and soldiers needed rifles, wagons, and pay. On August 5, 1861, lawmakers passed the Revenue Act, taxing incomes above $800 at 3 percent, the first time the federal government had ever taxed personal earnings directly…
