The Grievances: A Classic

Grievance 17 of 27

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent

1913 Form 1040. The first-- and as such, an instant Classic. 

[From The Good Years: From 1900 to the First World War (Walter Lord, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1960). How anyone could refer to the years that brought us the Federal Income Tax, the Internal Revenue Service, and the direct election of Senators as "the good years" is beyond me. But that's an aside.]

That's a poor photo. Here's the caption:

Anyone who escaped the impact of war almost certainly found his life altered by a new form that arrived in the mail-- the first income-tax blank. A married man making $20,000 discovered he owed Washington all of $160. "From a cloud no bigger than a man's hand . . . "

I had to look that cloud up. 

1 Kings 18:44

English Standard Version 

And at the seventh time he said, "Behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea." And he said, "Go up, say to Ahab, 'Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.'"

Translation: Clouds that look small on the distant horizon can bring big storms.

The annotated Declaration of Independence at the National Humanities Center annotates Grievance 17 thusly:

“Taxation without representation” became a rallying cry against British rule. In 1765 Parliament began imposing direct taxes on the colonies, which had no elected representation in Parliament. In the U.S. Constitution, money-related bills must begin in the House of Representatives which is directly elected by the people (as is the Senate since 1913, when the 17thAmendment ended senatorial election by state legislatures)

(Alternatively, just one year ago, JR The First decided to tax us.)

From a cloud no bigger than a man's hand... .