Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-03-22
COMMUNICATIONS.

SIR: The cnsis at which the affairs of the town
have arrived is such as should cause people to
pause and reflect are they pass the rubicon-to
deliberate maturely before they, Curtius like.
precipitate themselves into the ABYSS which now
threatens TO ensulph us-they should ask them
selves if they can, by SO doing, rescue las did the
tabled Roman) their town from the gaping jaws of
destruction: and, if 50, whether the end will JUS
tify the means. There are some amongst us so
scepCal as TO believe, even to this day, that the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal will not be product
i've of advantage to the town of Alexandria
land their belief is based upon solid premises
Is it. then, polite for the people to suffer them
selves to be oyerburthened with taxes for the sake
of an experiment.; to make their little income less
for the purpose Of carrying on work for which its
most visionary advocates anticipate but little be-
ueit to this generation? These remarks have
been elected BY the introduction of revenue bill
into our Council and its passage by that body, as
well rs the tenor of the Councils general course
do not contest the right of our local legislators
to adopt these measures: they have, according to
their present charter, right on their side even to
the subscribing to Canals entirely remote from US,
and to the taxing Of the People, dd EJit,tna, to
pay for them-to the mourning of debt, the in
terest of which alone thew find it difficult to Ii
quidate-to the mortgaging to Dutch stockjob
bers the decaying shelter which is the widows and
the orphans only protector against the pitiess
blast.-All this they have right to do; but the
policy Of the measure comes in such questionable
shape, that we must be excused from pinuing
our faith il. This revenue bill Is as unequal i'm
bearing asst Is burthensome; it imposes taxes up
on some classed under the head of wholesale
merchants, whose income from their ayocation
will bear no comparisonwith that of others pay
Ing to the Corporation ealy the same amount: it
provides for the taxation of Flour Inspectors.
whilst the Clerk of the Court, Constables and
other function&ries, created by. and holding their
office at the pleasure of, the same authority. are
exempt. According to one of its sections. heal
ers of the body are made TO contribute s 10 an
nually, while healrs of the soul .ue free from its
effects: and by it, those whose principal business
is the buying and selling of slaves are made to
pay a tax, which does not operate upon very ma
ny whose income from the traffic is bv no means
inconsiderable-In fine, it is "a bill of abomi-
nations" We would not wish to say aught in
disparageIneut of SO august an assemblage as our
present COuncil--there is some intelect, and much
worth, concentrated there: but the deficiency of
interest on the part Of some, and of something
else equally as rs essentia) on the part of 9TH
ers, creates blemishes we would wish to remove;
vi
the old maxim, '.what can't be cured. must be en-
endured;" and We will be advised to submit, pa
iently, but "patience is no longer virtue,
that this body, such it is, should have the re-
gulating of all our local affairs, and the right of
taxing us, ad infnii,tm, is more than we can well
bear. would, therefore, .conjure the people bv
their best interests by their desire to prop up their
now sinking town, by their unwillingness longer
to bear the yoke of their task-masters. by the
dearest liberty of which freemen can boast, the
liberty of expressing their wishes at the polls: to
seek redress for their wrongs, in the only manner
in which redress can be found, viz: retroces-
sion to Virginia-the people We believe, smarting
with sense of their wrongs, weighed down by
the oppression of their rulers, are ripe for this
measure measure which will tighten our taxes.
improve our commerce, and franchise our citizens
Ia measure which our depressed condition loudly
calls for. which the exigencies of the times de-
inand. More anon, from
WE THE PEOPLE.