http://www.oyez.org/cases/1792-1850/1796/ U.S. Supreme Court Cases, presented by The Oyez Project (www.oyez.org) en-us <p>In 1794, Congress enacted a law entitled "An act to lay duties upon carriages for the conveyance of persons." The law assessed a tax of sixteen dollars on each carriage owned by an individual or business. Hylton viewed the law as a direct tax in violation of the constitutional requirement that taxes passed by Congress must be apportioned, that is, laid according to the population and the number of representatives from each state.</p> http://www.oyez.org/cases/1792-1850/1796/1796_2/ <p>This case involved the Treaty of Paris, which established peace in 1783. A Virginian owed a debt to a British subject. A Virginia law provided for the confiscation of such debts on the ground the the debt was owed to an alien enemy. The British subject (actually, his administrator) sued in a federal court to recover on the bond. The administrator argued that the Treaty of Paris ensured the collection of such debts.</p> http://www.oyez.org/cases/1792-1850/1796/1796_0/