Strange as it may seem, the Sixteenth Amendment (which gave the American
people the affliction of confiscatory income taxes) was never supposed to
have passed. It was introduced by the Republicans as part of a political
scheme to trick the Democrats, but it backfired.

Background

The Founding Fathers had rejected income taxes (or any other direct taxes)
unless they were apportioned to each state according to population.
Nevertheless, an income tax was levied during the Civil War and upheld by
the Supreme Court on somewhat tenuous reasoning. When another income tax was
enacted in 1893, the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional. In connection
with the two Pollock cases reviewed in 1895, the Court declared that the act
violated Article I, section 9 of the Constitution.