Thomas DiLorenzo LewRockwell.comApril 17, 2012:          

Today is "tax day," the first of which in American history was the work of — you guessed it — Dishonest Abe in 1862. It was The Great Railroad Lobbyist/Protectionist/Inflationist/Corporate Welfare Statist/Warmonger president who gave us the first "progressive" income tax.

Lincoln's chief tax collector, David A. Wells (head of the U.S. Revenue Commission) expressed the basic theme of governmental plunder through income taxation (which was not permitted by the Constitution at the time) when he said: "Wherever you find an article, a product, a trade, a profession, or a source of income, tax it!"  http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/110122.html