How America Ran Without Income Tax — Until 1913 Changed Everything

For over a century, the United States government never once taxed what a citizen earned. Then one amendment changed everything. From the founding through 1913, Washington ran almost entirely on tariffs and excise taxes — at one point, 90% of federal revenue came from taxes on liquor and tobacco alone. This is the full story of how that ended: the short-lived Civil War income tax of 1861, the landmark 1895 Supreme Court case Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. that struck down the country's first peacetime income tax, the Populist and Progressive pressure that built for two decades afterward, and the four-year fight across state legislatures that ended with the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment on February 3, 1913. We trace the exact constitutional text that gave Congress its new power, what the very first income tax actually looked like — a 1% rate that touched less than 4% of American households — and how a tax built to reach only the wealthiest Americans grew, over the following century, into the primary engine of the entire federal government. Every claim in this episode is sourced from primary and authoritative records: the ratified amendment text, the Pollock Supreme Court opinions, the Revenue Act of 1913, and IRS and National Archives historical records. Contested historical claims are noted, not glossed over. #SixteenthAmendment #IncomeTaxHistory #USHistory #ConstitutionalHistory #GildedAge #ProgressiveEra #AmericanHistory #TaxHistory #WoodrowWilson #SupremeCourtHistory A few notes on why it's built this way: The Political Archives — Channel Disclaimer All content on this channel is based on documented historical events, declassified government records, and verified public sources. Videos may contain AI-assisted narration. This channel is for educational and informational purposes only. We do not promote conspiracy theories — only documented, verifiable history. © The Political Archives. All rights reserved.