‘Scroggs says he is ready and willing to pay any amount of tax, but he would like them to leave his wife’s crinoline and other domestic trifles alone.’
This cartoon, which you can read more about at the Library of Congress, was published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper on July 19, 1862. It referred to the Tax Act of July 1862.
From the National Archives:
To fund the Civil War, a direct tax on property and an income tax were levied by an act of August 5, 1861 (12 Stat. 292), which also provided for a Commissioner of the Revenue and district collectors and assessors. These taxes were repealed by the Tax Act (12 Stat. 432), July 1, 1862, which created the basis of the modern internal revenue system, with an income tax and taxes on various commodities, businesses, products, and services. Income tax and all other internal revenue measures, except those imposed on tobacco and alcohol, and on dealers in those products, were repealed by an act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat. 488).
