Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“Luther Martin believed the Constitution’s sweeping taxation power was one of its most dangerous features, a direct threat to both state sovereignty and individual liberty. Long before the Sixteenth Amendment and the rise of federal income taxes, Martin warned that the new government’s power to tax would concentrate control in the hands of a distant, centralized system – one that could crush the people economically and render the states irrelevant. His fierce opposition to the Constitution rested on this core concern: centralized taxing power would become a tool of oppression, not protection.” (04/13/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/04/13/taxing-power-luther-martins-anti-federalist-warnings/