Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court November 29, 1876 (Macy v. Inhabitants of Nantucket)

Gray, C. J.

By the law of this Commonwealth, the prompt and unembarrassed collection of taxes is deemed to be so necessary for the support of the government, that the collection of taxes on personal property is enforced by distress or imprisonment, and in no other manner, except in the peculiar cases in w/iich the collector is allowed to maintain an action for them, such as where the person taxed