American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1845-03-07
few words and figures only, will make all

ness for one year, when the levy is made, usu-
ally about the LIST of May.
His stock then on hand is $4,000
Debt on books S75,O00-pl 90, 900
the state direct tax on which amount at 25 cts
on the 800 is S25"-&c. sc.
We should call this the reritablc poetry Of sta
tistics-nO such case or any thing analogous to
it exists on 1.-The Collectors books; and the'op-
pressed, hapess trader with his $40, 900 capital
and 100000 assessment never peopled any
other dominion, than the imaginative brain OF
ga sympathetic merchant and yet, this case
is about as substantial data, as the one half of
what is produced to illustrate and prove the re-
latively oppressed condition of the trading COM
munity.
In contrast to this case offguatire hardship,
we have list before us embracing tUty trading
and mercantile concerns-each having local
habtation and name, with the amount ofpo-
sitve assessment specifically stated, and the
point we arrive at in our estimate is, that all OF
$4,000, 900 of productive personal property, at
taches TO the aforesaid fifty parties, which does
not pay one dollar of city or state tax, and has
not done so for years.
This opinion, astounding as it may appear,
is amply confirmed by as ripe judgments on the
part of others as are to be found in this city
ton previously laid down by US, that in any as
sossment fairly relative as to personal and real
property in the city of Baltimore, it would be
ascertained that all of S30,000,0O0 value, at
taching TO the former would be found masses
sed and untayed
We profess to understand something OF the
theory of our laws upon the subject OF taxa
ton, and to be in some degree familiar with the
course of action under them.
One object, as laid down, is to tax stocks OF
goods in the hands of merchants and ira
ders, and the debts due to them,-the effect, is
to do no such thing in the great majority OF ca
ses and if some of the parties who have made
the most clamor upon the subject we are con-
sdering, would compare their own balance
sheets with the amount of their assessments,
they would arrive at practical demonstration,
which would set concusively at rest all theory
and speculation.
Assessments have not been periodically made
in Baltimore, as is asserted by GA Merchant"
in the communication to which allusion has
been made by us. They were made under
state authority in l94l, and the functions of the
assessors ceased Immediately; and from that Pc
Rod TO the present time, 'the appeal tax court
has had the entire control of the matter; and
! such have been the demands upon their time in
! deciding upon Attachments claimed upon taxes,
and in attention to real estate, and the progress
Of building throughout the city, that no time
has been allowed, with the greatest industry,
TO hunt up and assess personal property, in the
hands of those who had previously escaped OBJ
servation-or others who from time to time
have moved into the city and established them
selves in business, and as rule and a result,
those parties have continued to escape observa-
! a. ,,,I en- ND tha To tho
rule, are the fer, who rather by accident than
otherwise have been noticed and reached.
The consequence is, and we state it upon the
highest authority, our taxes are now levied upon
an assessment of about S57 800, 900, value in
real and personal property; whereas four years
ago, upon much smaller population, and up
on a much smaller amount of positive wealth
than is now possessed, they were based upon
about $50 100000
Under this ratio of procedure, when our po-
pulation shall have increased to 100000 souls,
and our aggregate wealth to $3.50, 200, 900, we
shall derive our revenue from $40, 100000 OF
assessments
The state of facts presented is as humiliatory
as true, and the working Of every day is calcu-
lated to make the condition of things more I'M
equal, onerous and odious, and our only pur-
pose in stating them to the public, has been to
elicit attention from such authorities as are
competent to interpose remedy.
We would invoke this remedy at the hands
of those in power, as an act of common justice
between man and man, and as means where
by the real estate of the city may be relieved
from portion of its oppressive burthens, and
rendered more of marketable commodity
We would ask it as an additional guarantee
that the city credit shall be preserved nviolate,
and as a means of restoring ard perpetuatlng
the credit of the State at large, an obligation no
less sacred; and as an element in the prosperl-
ty and advancement of the city, decidedly
paramount to all others that can effect its
progress
Are the half formed schemes of absolute and
partial reputation, which have derived form
and force under the condition Of delinquency
into which the State finances have fallen, and
which we blush to say, are to greater extent
than we had previously imagined, most UNI
blushngly talked of on the public Streets and
by men too, VIGOROUSLY less than half taxed,
but of decided wealth and mercantile promi-
nence, whose votes on every and all occasions
have been given either directly or indirectly in
favor of every measure of public credit, which
has resulted in the creation of our present debt
Are these schemes, we ask, and the question is
directly put to the calm judgment of all think.
ing men, and friends of law and order, to be
fomented and countenanced until all is lost OIL
shall they be slenced at once and forever by
manly rebuke and decided action? We use
strong language, but its adoption is forced upor
us by names, by facts and circumstances, under
which the heart sickens with disgust, and we
meet the responsibility of its use with thorough
fearlessness.
One argument in favor of partial repudia
ton, without any further effort to pay the en-
tire interest, has been borrowed from the fact
aSon '1sos Payne per
is alleged, that if Maryland would merge he
five and sic per ct. stocks into one bearing fou
per ct. interest, the English public would take
it up, thank us for the effort, and make the
stock par