Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump · ¶159

For much of the Nation's history, this taxing power was essentially a tariff power. The framers even considered (and eventually rejected) the possibility of giving the federal government the power to tax only through tariffs. The Federalist No. 35, at 211 (A. Hamilton). No surprise, then, that Congress's first exercise of its taxing power was a tariff law. P. Ashley, Modern Tariff History 170–171 (2d ed. 1910). And until the 20th century, tariffs “accounted for between 50 and 90 percent” of the federal government's revenue. J. Dobson, Two Centuries of Tariffs: The Background and Emergence of the United States International Trade Commission 1 (1976).

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