Power of Taxation

In Section 928 of his Commentaries on the Constitution, Joseph Story has the following to say about Congress's power of taxation enumerated in Article 1, Section 8:

Having thus disposed of the question, what is the true interpretation of the clause, as it stands in the text of the constitution, and ascertained, that the power of taxation, though general, as to the subjects, to which it may be applied, is yet restrictive, as to the purposes, for which it may be exercised; it next becomes matter of inquiry, what were the reasons, for which this power was given, and what were the objections, to which it was deemed liable.

Those Uncompromising Quakers

The Quakers lacked neither courage nor energy. It was not so much the actual content of their creed as the uncompromising obstinancy with which they hung on to it, and their attitude toward themselves, that were decisive. The two flaws fatal to the influence of this remarkable people on American culture were, first, an urge toward martydom, and a preoccupation with the purity of their own souls; and, second, a regidity in all their beliefs.

...

The Puritan success was accompanied, if not actually made possible, by the decline of American Puritanism as an uncompromising theology.

--Daniel Boorstin, The Americans: The Colonial Experience, Chapter 6