capitation

Updated: June 12, 2025

The most general objections to the first article, that biennial elections for representatives are a departure from the safe democratic principles of annual ones—that the number of representatives are too few; that the apportionment and principles of increase are unjust; that no attention has been paid to either the numbers or property in each state in forming the senate; that the mode in which they are appointed and their duration will lead to the establishment of an aristocracy; that the senate and president are improperly connected, both as to appointments and the making of treaties, which are to become the supreme law of the land; that the judicial, in some measure, to wit, as to the trial of impeachments, is placed in the senate, a branch of the legislative, and sometimes a branch of the executive; that Congress have the improper power of making or altering the regulations prescribed by the different legislatures, respecting the time, place and manner of holding elections for representatives, and the time and manner of choosing senators; that standing armies may be established, and appropriation of money made for their support for two years; that the militia of the most remote state may be marched into those states situated at the opposite extreme of this continent; that the slave trade is, to all intents and purposes, permanently established, and a slavish capitation or poll-tax may at any time be levied; these are some of the many evils that will attend the adoption of this government.

Paul Leicester Ford - Essays on the Constitution of the United States

I accounted for all this by her having heard, that it is a maxim with the principal inn-holders on the continent, to levy considerable sums on their guests, who travel with many horses and servants, though such guests should eat little or nothing in their houses; the method being, I believe, in such cases, to lay a capitation on the horses, and not on their masters.

Henry Fielding - Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon — Volume 1

No tax or duty shall be laid by the Legislature on articles exported from any State; nor on the migration or importation of such persons as the several States shall think proper to admit; nor shall such migration or importation be prohibited. No capitation tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census herein before directed to be taken.

American Anti-Slavery Society - The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4

The rapacious ministers of Constantius had exhausted the wealth of Gaul, by exacting twenty-five pieces of gold for the annual tribute of every head. The humane policy of his successor reduced the capitation to seven pieces.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2

That all should be taxed in equal proportion to their pecuniary means; that taxation should be a graduated percentage on income, rising as income rose; that all, whether rich or poor, should be taxed alike; that all should pay equal capitation, but unequal property-tax these are some out of many divergencies of opinion, and 'from these confusions' there is, Mr.

William Thomas Thornton - Old-Fashioned Ethics and Common-Sense Metaphysics: With Some of Their Applications

In the course of this history, we shall be too often summoned to explain the land tax, the capitation, and the heavy contributions of corn, wine, oil, and meat, which were exacted from the provinces for the use of the court, the army, and the capital.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1

In England, the different poll-taxes never produced the sum which had been expected from them, or which it was supposed they might have produced, had they been exactly levied. In France, the capitation always produces the sum expected from it. The more severe government of France assesses upon each generality a certain sum, which the intendant must find as he can.

Adam Smith - An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

The imposition of innumerable taxes, door and window, capitation and land taxes, drove the inhabitants to despair."

John Holland Rose - The Life of Napoleon I (Volume 2 of 2)

As a negro could not, at that time, be hired out for more than seven dollars and a half per month, the plain inference is that for the support of the State of Florida the negro might be compelled to give one month's labor yearly. Even by the capitation tax alone, without the incident of the costs, every negro man was compelled to give the gains and profits of nearly two weeks' labor.

James Gillespie Blaine - Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 : From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken.

John Fiske - Civil Government in the United States Considered with: Some Reference to Its Origins