Excerpt from Documents Accompanying Report of Secretary of the Treasury

The Department has held the afiirmative in refervnce to each, but I think it would be better for Congress to remove the doubt. Ithas been also decided that the words, and not employed m a business, the income from which 1s taxed under the provisions of this act, used 1n the same section, do not refer to moneys, bank notes or other currency, but refer exclusively to credits. This ruling has caused considerable complaint, especially with the banks, and the question I think should be also settled by Congress, and in taxing moneys gold bullion should be taxed at its value in Confederate notes, because it is used extensively 1n some sections as currency, or a medium of trade. By paragraph three, section five, it is declared that every person, other than the distiller or brewer, who shall sell or offer for sale any distilled spirits, fermented liquors or wines, in quantities of more than three gallons at one time to the same purchaser, shall be 1egarded as a wholesale dealer 1n liquors. And also that all persons who Shall sell or offer to sell any such liquors or wines in quantities less than three gallons, &c., shall be regarded as retail dealers. Under this paragraph all wines are included and none excepted, and all persons who sell or offer to sell any wines, are liable to the tax. The ladies of the country manufacture, mostly for medicinal purposes, domestic wines from the grape black berries, elder berries, and perhaps other substances, and, under the present law, they are precluded from selling without becoming dealers in liquors, and paying the tax imposed on such. This, it is supposed, was hardly the intention of Congress No benefit will arise from it in the way of revenue, for they very seldom manufacture it in sufficient quantities to justify the payment of a spe cific tax, and the consequence is that the law operates as a general prohibition of the sale of such wines. The price of sugar used 1n its manufacture is so great that it is an object of importance to sell a por tion of the wine to lighten the expense of production, and it is of great benefit to the sick and wounded to be able to purchase it. The tax will not only diminish its production, but deprive the invalid of its use, because the producers cannot afford to sell it if they are re (paired to pay the specific tax. I would therefore recommend that a specific quantity of domestic wine made from the grape, and all Wines made from black berries, elder berries and other substances, be ex axation.

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