ABSTRACT
The federal tax collector’s hand would touch few southerners. Many southern states had also levied income taxes during the Civil War and continued them for decades afterward, while the region’s representatives in Congress consistently supported the federal income tax from the 1860s through 1909. The region’s heavy reliance upon sharecroppers and tenant farmers and its huge pool of agricultural labor combined to keep farm income below $300 per capita in every southern state, save Texas. The amendment also suffered because southern politics were those of faction rather than party. The requirements of one party rule prevented the Democrats from playing any of the roles that parties must play to make government function. Similarly, support for the amendment in most southern states spanned regional differences. It was equally supported by lawmakers from the East Texas cotton regions, from the Panhandle, from west Texas, and from the cities of the central plain.
