American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1845-01-02

amount OF tdAes collecteu Dy MN, on the DAY
appointed for that purpose, In the execution
of this duty, the bonds of collectors who had
failed to pay the instament due TO the Trcasu-
ry on the LIST of June, lS43, were put in suit;
and in my annual message at the last session,
the Senate and House were respectfully in
formed, that suits would be instituted for the
recovery of the instruments due on the LIST Of
september OF the same year, unless otherwise
directed by the Legislature. The subject was
taken into consideration, and by resolution No.
d, of that session, it was declared TO be the
sense of the General Assembly, that suits
ought not to be instituted, as proposed, before
the LIST of June last. Before the close of the
same session, law was passed W hich is con-
sdered as supersedng the discretionary autho-
rity which had been vested in the Governor.
By provision in the eighth section of an
act passed at December session 1913, chap.
POS, it is made the duty of the proper officers,
in those counties, Howard District, or the city
of Baltimore where there may be no collector,
to place annually in the hands of the Deputy
of the Attorney General toi such county, dis
trict, or city, list of all persons who may be
in arrear for taxes more than one year, and the
amount due from each; whereupon the Deputy
of the Attorney General, is instructed to OBJ
tain, by summary process before the county
court, judgment against all persons thus in ar
rear, upon which execution is to issue to the
sheriff. whose duty it is, without delay TO pay
over the money collected upon such exccu
tons, to the Treasurer, and on failure to do so,
his bond shall be put in suit Regarding this
as an act dispensing with the requirement upon
the Governor to institute suits as before men
toned, and seeing that it is applicable to all
the counties in the State, have not thought
it advisable to exercise the discretion, conferred
on me by the law and resolution above referred
to. 1t may, however, be as well for you to in
qnire, to what extent this act can be conve-
niently executed. 1t proposes to put under
execution, at one and the same time, so large
an amount of property, as TO make it doubtful
whether purchasers could be obtained for it on
terms not absolutely ruinous to the interests of
those unfortunately indebted. In the present
state of popular feeling, when spirit Of in-
subordination to the tax laws is openly mani
tested in more than one-third of the counties,
we may well question the propriety of any
measure which might furnish to the disafiected
even plausible excuse for further combinations
to resist or cvade their faithful execution.
A cause more predominant than any yet emu
inerated has, in my opinion, exercised a power
full influence in suspending the healthy and
beneficial operations of the revenue system of
the State. Fallacious expectations have been,
for years, generally and eagerly cherished, Of
| further distributions to the State from the Trea-
sury of the General Government Under a
firm conviction that these delusve expectations
could not be realized, the probable disappoint-
ment of all who entertained them was advert
ed to iii my first annual Message. In iecur-
ring to the subject now, there is no occasion for
indulging i'll conjectures. What then admitted
of discussion may now be treated as question
adjudicated. The Presidential canvass, with
which the whole country has been so much en-
crossed, is now over, The we'll known opn-
ions of the President and Vice President elect,
forbid prudent men to calculate upon the pay
ment of our public debt, out of the resources of
the United States. Besides if there was no
veto power i'll the path of those who seek, for
State purposes, part of the legitimate income
! of the General Movement, there are great
national objects to be gained by leaving all
those incomes where the Constitution has placed
them, to be appropriated to the common de-
fence and general welfare. The report of the
Secretary of the Treasury states the debt of
| the confederacy on the first of July to be S24,
| 74S, 1928. That debt is to be liqudated. We
learn from the same report that the surplus III
the general Treasury at the same date was ST.
s57, 1873 Ga The duties onforeign commerce from
| which this surplus arises, are to be reduced
Although majority should think otherwise,
the minority of the people of the United States
have a constitutional right to insist upon a re-
peal Of all taxes levied by Congress, when no
longer needed for the administration of the
General Government. Those who enact rev.
enue laws for the Union, cannot, with justice,
consider the separate interests, or apparent ne
cessities of the several States. The minority
in the coniederacy have right to be protected
from the influence of any such considerations.
The passage of laws, by majority, even of the
representatives of the people, which should be
Intended to produce surplus of revenue to be
applied to discharge the debts which the States
brought upon themselves, would be palpable
violation of the first principles of the Constu-
ton, and tyrannical exercise of ungranted
power. 1t will not be denied, that an express
grant OF such power would have led to the
rejection OF the Federal Constitution, when it
was Submitted to the States for adoption. An
attempt to exercise it without such grant would
be productive, Immediately, of consequences
that no good citizen could desire to Witness
Our Union, it cannot be too often repeated,
was founded on compromises of conflicting To-
cal interests. 1t must be preserved by a faith
ful adherence to the same governing principles.
Where surplus of revenue had incidentally
accumulated in the general Treasury, without
dlrec violence TO the rules of Interpretation by
which the meaning of the Federal Constitution
is to be ascertained, some contrarety of opin-
ions existed as to the mode in which the money
thus brought into the Treasury was to be put
into circulation: But there was then an avow-
ed concurrence of opinion as to the duties of
those who had enacted the laws ocsasionng
such accumuations,--te reduce or repeal all
taxes not clearly necessary for the Legitimate
and economical exercise Of the constitutional
authority under which they were established.
These views and opinions may not be now very
acceptable to people heavily burthened with
taxes. They are expressed, notwithstanding,
under a conviction of their perfect Truth, with
an earnest desire TO remove forever from the
l. L.