N.E. Non-Resistance Society debating points (not necessarily Garrison's):

• "That in payment of taxes and fines to the existing governments of this or any other country, non-resistants do not thereby sanction, and are not responsible for, the acts of government."
• "Resolved that the voluntary payment of militia fines, by non-resistants, is incompatible with the principles which they profess."
• "Resolved, whereas governments of violence, all with their murderous machinery, are upheld and sustained by military force and direct and indirect payment of taxes; therefore, Resolved that it is a violation of non-resistance principles voluntarily to pay military fines, mixed taxes, or to purchase taxed goods."

[Garrison] had earlier reacted to the cases of two conscientious objectors who refused to serve in the American military and refused also to pay the fines the government assessed to punish them by writing that there was “no reason why a military fine may not be paid, as well as any other  exacted by a government based on physical force” because “If, in paying a military fine, you countenance the militia system; then, in paying ordinary taxes to government, you sanction its rightful authority, and are responsible for its acts.” This, to him, was a reductio ad absurdum on the war tax resistance position.

It is argued, that “if voting under the Constitution be a criminal participation in slavery, the paying of taxes under it is equally so.” Without stopping to show that there is a fallacy in this argument, we reply, that, in the common use and understanding of the terms, no seceder will ever again pay taxes to the Government while it upholds slavery.  He may consent peaceably to yield up what is demanded of him, but not without remonstrance, and only as he would give up his purse to a highwayman. He will not recognize it as a lawful tax—he will not pay it as a tax—but will denounce it as robbery and oppression.