The Federal Direct Tax of 1798:
The Window Pane Tax

by JUDITH ANN MEIER
(excerpt from Volume 22, page 358 of the Bulletin of HSMC)

The vagaries of history are such that sometimes an odious decision or unpleasant event may many years later result in something very beneficial. Perhaps. the best example of this is the great strides in pharmacology and plastic surgery which came out of our recent wars.

So it was with the very unpopular Federal Direct Tax, levied in 1798 for the purpose of raising a war chest for the threatened conflict with France.

Data gathered to assist the local assessors in evaluating property has now, almost two hundred years later, provided detailed descriptions of houses and barns that are quite useful to homeowners, restorationists, historians, and genealogists.

On July 9, 1798, an act was passed by Congress providing "for the valuation of lands and dwelling houses and the enumeration of slaves within. the United States." The states were divided into districts and a commissioner was appointed by the President for each district, at a fixed salary. The commissioners were to subdivide the districts into assessment districts and to appoint for each district a principal assessor and a number of assistants. The assessors were to compile a list of houses, land, and slaves and then evaluate and assess them accordingly.

On July 14, 1798, Congress passed an additional Act to lay and collect a direct tax within the United States, fixing the amount to be raised at $2,000,000, of which Pennsylvania was to raise $237,177.72.

According to W. W. H. Davis, A.M., who wrote a definitive study of the Fries Rebellion in 1899, "When the dwelling and outhouses on a lot not exceeding two acres were valued at more than $100 and not exceeding $500, there was to be assessed a sum equal to two-tenths of one percent on the valuation. As the houses and lands increased in value, the rates were increased in proportion, so that a house, worth $30,000, would pay a tax equal to one percent of its value... Upon each slave there was assessed a tax of 50 cents. The fourth section of the act provided for the appointment of collectors, and the duties were to be discharged under instructions from the Secretary of the Treasury."

Reaction to the tax law was mixed, but in certain areas of Northampton, Bucks, and Montgomery counties, German farmers, incited by a vendue crier by the name of John Fries, resisted forcefully the efforts of the assessors to evaluate their property. Much has already been written about the Fries Rebellion, but a statement from Davis' aforementioned book sheds a great deal of light on the merits of the revolt:
"The law itself was a mild one, and no one who examines it at this day can see anything in it to cause such opposition to it. The rates were light and the burden of the tax fell upon the shoulders of those who were the best able to bear it. There was likewise a public necessity that the revenue should be increased as there was every probability of the government being driven into war with one of the most powerful nations of Europe . . . Another circumstance, in connection with the manner in which the law was executed, bad something to do with its great unpopularity. The officers exceeded their duties and went beyond their instructions. The assessors were only required by law to assess the houses, lands, and slaves, and were not directed to count the window lights of the houses, which was a duty superaddedby the officers who had charge of affairs. The fact of window lights being counted created suspicion in the minds of the people that it was done for the purpose of making them subject of a future taxation. . The abuse of the law had probably more to do with causing the disturbance than the law itself."

On March 20, 1799, the Secretary of War directed Gov. Thomas Mifflin to call troops to quell the insurrection in Northampton, Bucks, and Montgomery counties. William MacPherson, a brigadier-general in the Pennsylvania Militia from Philadelphia, was appointed Brigadier-General in the United States Army and was designated the commander of these troops. The militiamen marched into the counties on April 4. From his headquarters at Spring House, Montgomery County, on April 6, Brig. Gen. MacPherson issued an address to the insurgents, published in German. However, because the opposition to the law had quieted down and citizens had finally complied with the law, the address was thought to be highly provocative and inflammatory. Shortly thereafter John Fries was captured in Bucks County and later the remaining leaders of the rebellion were rounded up and held for trial. Though convicted of the charges, Fries was later released.

A portion of Gen. MacPherson's letter to the German insurgents sheds even more light on the Direct Tax and the spirit in which it had been levied:
"The poor man whose house, outhouses, and lot, not exceeding two acres, are worth less than $100 has nothing to pay; and if it were worth $100 the tax would be only 20 cents. According to same rule, other houses of a higher value pay as follows: If worth $200, 40 cents; $300, 60 cents; $400, 80 cents; and $500, one dollar, from which you will perceive, my fellow citizens, that the house tax is according to the value of the house, at 20 cents to $100; but for houses $500 to $1000, 30 cents; so that a house of the value of $600 will have to pay six times 30 cents or $1.80. If worth $700, $2.10; $800, $2.40; $900, $2.70; $1000, $3.

"At this rate the rich man with a house rated at $1000, has to pay three times as much tax as the poor man whose house is rated at one-half that sum, viz: $500; and thus the tax operates progressively to the most costly houses and opulent people, until the value of their houses is taxed in proportion, five times as high as those of their poorer fellow citizens, whose houses are worth only from $100 to $500. A house worth $100 pays 20 cents, which is only the one-fifth part of one percent. of its value; a house worth $30,000 pays $300, which is one whole per cent of its value, and consequently five times as much in proportion as the former.

"Hereby, my fellow citizens, you must be convinced that an opposition to this tax in our counties is not only contrary to the Constitution, the laws, and every principle of good government, but, in itself, inconsistent and ridiculous, as the tax which is opposed is the most easy on the poorest citizens, whom they irritate to opposition.

"Many of their houses, however, would have no tax to pay, and very few more than $1.00 each, for very few of their houses would be rated at more than $500. It is true, they will be subject to a land tax, but the tax on houses must first be deducted from the whole quota of the State, and what is then deficient will be laid upon the land. The houses in this state will probably pay the greatest part of the tax, perhaps the whole, and in that case, no tax will be laid upon the land, and those whose houses are rated at less than one hundred dollars will be exempt from the tax. As a further proof of the attention of Congress to the wishes and accommodations of the people they have, during the last session, repealed that part which required a statement of the windows of each dwelling house, and which, as it afterward appeared, was more disagreeable than necessary or useful. Therefore no further account of the windows has been demanded. To ascertain the value of the lands and houses was a difficult matter, and connected with a great deal of expense, but when once done need not be repeated. Great pains were taken and the most effective measures employed to elect people of good character who understood the business well, and whose interest were equally involved with their fellow citizens to have the business accurately executed. Besides, this act is not perpetual, being only for one year, and will not be continued unless the public good demands it, and not otherwise than with the consent of the people through their representatives. . ."