delivered the opinion of the. court;
Article 2 of the Tennessee constitution of 1870 provides":
“Sеc. 28. All property, real, personal or mixed, shall be taxed, but the legislature may except such as may be held by the State, by counties, cities or towns, and used exclusively for public or corporation purposes, and such as m'ay be held or used for purposes purely religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational, and shall except one thousand dollars’ worth of personal property in the hands of each taxpayеr, and the direct product of the soil in the hands of the producer and his immediate vendee.
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“Sec. 30. No article manufactured of the produce of this State shall be taxed otherwise than to pay inspection fees.”By chapter 258, p. 632, of the acts of Tennessee for 1903 it was, among other things, provided:
“Sec. 1. That all-property, real, personal and mixed, shall be assessed for taxation for State, county and municipal purposes, exсept such as is declared exempt in the next section.
“Sec. 2. That the property herein>enumerated, and none other, shall be exempt from taxation. . . . Sub-sec. 5. All
growing crops of whatever nature and kind, the direct product of the soil of this State in the hands of the producer and his immediate vendee, and manufactured articles from the produce of the State in the hands of the manufacturer.”
In the recent case of Benedict v. Davidson County, 110 Tennessee, 183, 191, the Supreme Court of Tennessee-held as follows:
“We are of oрinion that, under the facts in this record, the' logs upon the yard, .in the hands of the mill-operating manufacturer and his property, and lumber, rough and smooth, cut by him from such logs grown on Tennessee soil, are articles manufactured from the produce of the State, and exempt under the provisions'of section 30, article 2, of the constitution; and the demurrer was therefore properly overruled, and complainants, under the allegations of their bill, are entitled *116 tо recover back the taxes paid the State, and to perpetually enjoin the taxes assessed' by the county and city.”
For more than three years prior to January 30, 1905, the I..M. Darnell & 'Son Company, a corporation of Tennessee, was domiciled- in Memphis, in that State, and there owned and operated a lumber mill. Shortly prior to the date just named, pursuant to chapter 366 of' the acts- of Tennessee for 1903 (Acts Term., 1903, pp. 1097-1101), the value of'the рersonalty of the Darnell Company was assessed for taxation by the city of Memphis at $44,000. Of- this amount $19,325 was the value of logs cut from the soil of States other than Tennessee, which the company-had brought into Tennessee from other States and were, held by the company as the immediate purchaser or vendee awaiting manufacture into lumber, or consisted of lümber already manufactured by the company from logs which had been acquired and brought intо. the State from other States, as above-mentioned, and all of which lumber was lying in the mill yard of the company awaiting sale. The Darnell Company protested against this "assessment, asserting that it was not liable to be taxed on said sum of $19,325, the value of the property owned by it as the immediate purchaser of logs, brought from other States, or lumber, the product thereof. The ground of the protest was that the property represented by the valuation in questiоn could not be taxed without discriminating against it, as like property, the product of the soil of Tennessee, was exempt from taxation under the constitution and laws of that- State, and therefore to tax its said property would violate the commerce clause, section 8, Article I) of the Constitution and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The protest was overruled. Thereupon threat of distress and sale was made by thе collecting officer, unless the taxes on all the property were'paid. On January 30, 1905, the Darnell Company filed in the Chancery Court of Shelby County its bill against the city of Memphis-and -the collecting officer to enjoin the enforcement of the tax' as to the logs brought in from other *117 States, and the lumber, the product thereof as above stated, on the ground of the repugnancy of the tax to the commerce clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, beсause of the foregoing alleged discrimination.. At the same time it paid into court the amount of the taxes which were not in dispute. The sufficiency of the bill was challenged by demurrer, asserting in substance that the 'assessment complained of did not constitute an unlawful discrimination and was not repugnant either to the constitution of Tennessee or of the United States. Subsequently, by leave of court, an additional demurrer was .filed, which, in effect, asserted that, as the рlaintiff company was a citizen "of Tennessee, it could not be heard to complain of the tax, and that the enforcement of the same was riot repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment, and that as the property sought to be taxed was not. in transit or awaiting shipment out of the State, but on the contrary had reached its destination and was in the hands of the consignee and owner, who was a citizen of Tennessee, and had become a part of the general property of the State, the assessing of the same for taxation was not an interference with commerce between the States. The chancellor overruled the demurrer and decided the case in favor of the Darnell Company, because the court, as stated in the decree, was of the opinion “that the tax in controversy is in contravention of the rights of complainant as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, and particularly the interstate commerce clause thereof, and the Fourteenth Amendmerit thereof, as set out in the complainant’s original bill.”
On appeal the Supreme Court of Tennessee, in considering the demurrer, held the disputed tax not to be repugnant to. the Constitution of the United States, arid reversed the decree of the Chancery Court. 116 Tennessee, 424. The court eritered a decree against the Darnell Company and H. D. Mirior, thе surety on the appeal bond, for the amount of the disputed tax, penalty and interest. The company and Minor.prosecute this writ of error.
*118 As all the assignments of error relied on for reversal are but the counterpart of the reasons which led the court below to the conclusión that the tax was not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, we come at once to consider the affirmative conceptions on that subject expressed in the opinion of the court below, as affording the most direct method of disposing of the issues for decision. Those conceptions are of a twofold character, one relating to the commerce clause and the other to the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The court in its opinion conceded that the property embraced in the assessment complained of was purchased by the сomplainant in and brought from other States, or consisted of lumber produced from logs so brought into Tennessee, and that property of like character would not be subject to taxation under the state law if it had been produced from the soil of Tennessee. -But the levy of the tax was held not to be a direct burden upon interstate commerce, and hence, not repugnant to. the commerce clause • of the Constitution of the United States, as a result of the interpretation which the court affixed to previous decisions of this court concerning the operation of the commerce clause of the Constitution and the right of a State to impose a tax, even if discriminatory in character, upon property coming from other States, after such property had come at rest within a State and been commingled with the mass- of property therein. The court, after stating that the рrovision of the state constitution which authorized the exemption of -property produced from the soil’ of Tennessee had its inception in the “first constitution of this State, adopted on February 6, 1796, and hence formed a part of the fundamental • law of the State, when it was admitted by the act of Congress, approved June 1, 1796, ch. 67, 1 Stat. 491,” proceeded to state its reasons for holding that the discriminatory tax was not repugnant to the commerce сlause, as follows (p. 429):
“1. Upon the, averments of the bill it is manifest that, although the property sought, to be taxed was purchased by *119 complainant in and brought from another State, nevertheless it had become divested of any connection with commerce between the States and was at rest, commingled with and merged into the general mass of property of this State, awaiting sale to purchasers.
“Although the origin of property-may be in another State, nevertheless, when it is brought into this State and here merged into- the mass of general property, it at once becomes subject to the tax laws of this State.
American Steel & Wire Co.
v.
Speed,
110 Tennessee, 524-546,
“This principle was recognized and the holding of this court affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States
(American Steel & Wire Co.
v.
Speed,
“In
Kehrer
v.
Stewart,
As we are of opinion that the question for decision is clearly foreclosed by prior decisions of this court, which demonstrate that the court below misconceived the rulings of this court upon which it relied, we do not stop to analyze the reasoning of the court considered as an original proposition, but come at once to test its correctness by making a brief review of the decided cases relied upon by the court below and others not referred to which relate to the subjéct, and which are controlling.
As a prelude to a review of the cases referred to, we observe that while it is undoubted that it has -been settled'that where property which has moved in the channels of interstate com *120 merce is at rest within a State and has become commingled with the mass of property therein,, it may be taxed by such State without thereby imposing a direct burden upon interstate commerce, that doctrine, as expounded in the decided cases, including those relied upon by the cour-t below, has always expressly excluded the conception that a State could, without directly burdening, interstate commerce, discriminate against such property by imposing upon it a burdеn of taxation greater than that levied upon domestic property of a like nature.
The leading cases announcing the doctrine‘that ..a State may tax property which had moved in the channels of interstate commerce, when such property had become at rest therein, even before sale in the original package, are
Woodruff v. Parham, 8
Wall. 123, and
Brown
v.
Houston,
The statements just made adéquatеly point out the misconception as to the rulings.of this court upon which the court below placed its conclusion, since the court took no .heed of the express declaration concerning the nullity of any discriminating tax made.in the cases which the court relied on. The importance of the subject, however, and the statement' made by the court below as to the. long existence in Tennessee of the tax exemption in favor of the рroducts of.the soil of Tennessee, leads us to a brief review of other decided cases in this court which have long since clearly established the want *121 of power in a' State to discriminate by taxation in any form against property brought from other States.
In
Guy
v.
Baltimore,
“In view of these and other decisions of this court, it must be regarded as settled that no State can, consistently with the Federal Constitution, impose -upon the products of other States, brought therein for sale or use, or upon citizens because engaged in the sale therein, or the transportation thereto', of the products of other States, more onerous public burdens or taxes than it imposes upon the like products of its own territory. If this' were hot so, it is easy to perceive how the power of Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among, the several States could be practically annulled, and the equality of commercial-privileges'secured by the Federal Constitution to citizens of the séveral States be materially abridged and impaired
$ $ ‡ ‡ ‡ $
“ The State, it will be admitted, could not lawfully impose upon such cargo any direct public burden or tax because it may consist, in whole or in part, of the products of other States. The concession of such a power to the States would render wholly nugatory all National control of commerce among the Staltes, and place the trade and business of the country at the mercy of local regulations, having for their object to secure exclusive benefits to the citizens and products *122 of particular States. But it is claimed that a State may empower one of its political agencies, a'mere municipal corporation representing a portion of its civil power) to burden interstate commerce by exacting from thosе transporting to its wharves the products of other States wharfage fees, which it does not exact from .those bringing to the same wharves the products of Maryland. The city- can no more do this than it or the State could discriminate against the citizens and products óf other States in the use of the public streets or other public highways.”
In
Webber
v.
Virginia,
“If by reason of their foreign character the State can impose a tax upon them or. upon the person through whom the sales are effected, the amount of the tax will be a matter resting in her discretion. She may place the tax at so high a figure as to exclude the introduction of the fоreign article and prevent competition with the home product. It was against legislation of this discriminating kind that the framers of the Constitution intended to guard when they vested in Congress the power to regulate commerce among the several States.”
In
Walling
v.
Michigan,
“A discriminating tax imposed by a State operating to the *123 disadvantage of the products of other States when introduced into the first-mentioned State is, in effect, a regulation in restraint of commerce among the -States', ■ and as such is a usurpation of the power conferred by the Constitution upon the Congress of the United States.”
And-in -the course of the opinion, referring to state decisions announcing a want of authority in the several States to prescribe different regulations in relation to the commerce in certain articles,, dependent upon the State from which they were brought, the court thus referred to a decision of the Supreme Court of Missouri (p. 457):
“In State v. North, 27 Missouri, 464, where an act of Missouri imposed a tax upon merchants for all goods purchased by them, except such as might be the growth, produce, or manufacture of that State, and manufactured articles, the growth or produce of other States, it was held by the Supreme Court of that State that the-law was unconstitutional and void. The court says: ‘From the foregoing .statement of the law and facts of this case it will be seen that it presents the question of the power of the States, in the exercise of the right of taxation, to discriminate between products of this State and those manufactured in our sister States.’ And after an. examination of the causes which led to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, one of the. principal of which was the necessity for the regulation of- commerce and the laying of imposts and duties by a single government, the court says: 'But, whatever may be the motive for the tax, whether revenue, restriction, retaliation or protectiоn of domestic manufactures, it is equally a regulation of commerce, and in effect, an exercise of the power of laying duties on imposts, and its exercise by the States is entirely at war with the spirit of the Constitution, and would render vain and nugatory the power granted to Congress in relation to these subjects. Can any power more destructive to the union and harmony of the States be exercised than that of imposing discriminating taxes or duties on imports from оther States? Whatever may be the motive for such *124 taxes, they cannot fail to beget irritation and to lead to retaliation; and it is not difficult to foresee that an indulgence in such a course of legislation must inflame and produce a state of feeling that would seek its gratification in any measures regardless of the consequences.’ ”
The principle applied in the foregoing cases was also given effect in
Minnesota
v.
Barber,
In this connection we excerpt from the opinion in
Philadelphia Steamship Co.
v.
Pennsylvania,
“When the latter (imported goods) become mingled with the general mass of property in the State, they are no’t followed and singled out for- taxation as imported goods, and by reason of their being imported. If they were, the tax would be as unconstitutional- as if imposed upon .them whilst in the original packages. When mingled with the general 'mass of property in the State they.are taxed in the same manner as other prop
*125
erty possessed by its citizens, without discrimination or partiality. We held in
Welton
v.
Missouri,
As there can be no- doubt within the principles so clearly settled by the decided cases, to which we have referred, that, the disputed tax, which.the court below sustained-, was a direct burden upon interstate commerce since the law of Tennessee in' terms discriminated against property the product of the soil of other States brought into the State óf Tennessee by exempting like property when produced'from the soil of Tennessee, it follows that the court below erred in deciding the tax to be valid, without reference to the reasoning indulged in by it concerning the application of the equal protection clause of the *126 Fourteenth Amendment. The judgment below must therefore be reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
Reversed, and remanded.