Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.* The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
Representatives and Direct Taxes
Taxation for Representation was a theme of our Government.
Representatives are to be paid by direct taxes. This meant that there would be a fee paid to the government to support Representatives.
The Constitution provided a representative for every 30,000 citizens. This tax would be minimal even today. Charging $1 a head would bring in $30,000. $5 a head would bring in $150,000. This is plenty to cover necessary expenses.
This tax would be similar to the temple tax that Moses was told to set up. Actually, this was paid by each male each time there was a census.
Exodus 38:26, "A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men."
Now days, the Constitution has been amended to not allow any more than 435 people in the House. If they had not limited the number, there would be over 7,300 people in it today.
The point is that it takes very little tax money to pay necessary expenses when spread out so far.
The census tax in Scripture was designed to fund particular projects that were needed beyond donations.
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