One of the powers inherent in government is that of raising revenue for the purpose of carrying on its legitimate functions. As the functions of the federal government are limited, so the purposes for which the powers of taxation may be exercised by it are limited; but as all the general powers of government are vested in the different departments of a state government, unless denied to it expressly or by implication by the state or federal constitution, so the purposes for which the powers of taxation may be exercised by a state are, in the nature of things, unlimited, save as specific limitations have been imposed. Nor is it necessary that the state constitution contain any grant of specific power of taxation to any department of the state government, for that power is inherent in any government having general powers, and is necessarily implied in the creation of such a government. Therefore we do not find in state constitutions the power to tax included in any express enumeration; but some limitations on or directions as to the exercise of such power are sometimes embodied therein.

As between the different departments of a state government, the taxing power belongs to the legislative department. Probably the very first conception of the existence of legislative power as distinguished from executive power, and of a limitation upon executive power, was that involved in the assertion of the right of some form of representative assembly to vote taxes for the purposes of government, and to exclude the monarch or other ruler exercising executive functions from levying money for the expenses of the government otherwise than as provided for and authorized by the representative body. The long contest in England for supremacy, between the king and Parliament, involved more frequently controversies as to the right of the king to raise money otherwise than by parliamentary sanction than the right to exercise any other function of government, and it was finally established, as a principle of the English constitution, that no taxes could be collected save as they were authorized by law - that is, by the action of the legislative branch of the government - and that the moneys thus collected should be expended only as authorized by law, that is, in accordance with appropriations made by Parliament.

The policy of Parliament in this respect was, and has continued to be, to make appropriations only for a short period, so that the king would be unable to carry on the government for any great length of time without the approval of Parliament. This principle is expressed in some of the state constitutions and is embodied in the federal constitution (Art. I, § 9, ¶ 7) in the provision that, "No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law j and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time." With reference to the support of armies, especially, has this jealous restriction of the executive power been recognized by the provisions of the state and federal constitutions. It is provided in the federal constitution (Art. I, § 8, ¶ 12) that no appropriation of money for the raising and support of armies, shall be for a longer term than two years. And in order that the power to raise and appropriate money shall be retained within the immediate control of the popular* branch of the legislature, it is usually provided in the state constitutions, as it is expressly provided in the federal constitution (Art. I, § 7, ¶ 1), that bills for raising revenue shall originate in the more numerous branch of the legislative body. But the practice of Congress, and of many of the state legislatures, illustrates more forcibly, even than the constitutional provisions, the prevailing conception that the power of taxation belongs peculiarly to that branch of the legislative body which immediately represents the popular will. By custom general appropriation bills, that is, bills for the expenditure of money for carrying on the government in its various operations, originate in the lower houses respectively of the state and federal legislative bodies, and such appropriations are usually made for the shortest practicable period, that is, for the term of one Congress or one session of the legislature.