1. An income tax amendment to the Constitution was first proposed by Senator Norris Brown of Nebraska. He submitted two proposals, Senate Resolutions Nos. 25 and 39. The amendment proposal finally accepted was Senate Joint Resolution No. 40, introduced by Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, the Senate majority leader and Finance Committee Chairman.[17]
On July 12, 1909, the resolution proposing the Sixteenth Amendment was passed by the Sixty-first Congress[18] and was submitted to the state legislatures. Support for the income tax was strongest in the western states and opposition was strongest in the northeastern states.[19] In 1910, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, shortly before becoming a Supreme Court Justice, spoke out against the income tax amendment. While he supported the idea of a federal income tax, Hughes believed the words "from whatever source derived" in the proposed amendment implied that the federal government would have the power to tax state and municipal bonds. He believed this would excessively centralize governmental power and "would make it impossible for the state to keep any property".[20]
Three advocates for a federal income tax ran in the presidential election of 1912.[21] On February 25, 1913, Secretary of State Philander Knox proclaimed that the amendment had been ratified by three-fourths of the states and so had become part of the Constitution.[22] The Revenue Act of 1913 was enacted shortly thereafter.
According to the United States Government Printing Office, the following states ratified the amendment:[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution 2. Background
Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, an amendment proposed by Congress must be ratified by three-fourths of the states to become part of the Constitution. The Article permits Congress to specify, for each