Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1854-08-21
For the Grant County Herald.
Taxes and Taxation.

For the Gyant County Herald.
Taxes and Taxation.
| Mr.. Editor: I am plain business man
have been reader of the Herald for seye
raj years, and naturally look to it for infor
nation concerning our County and State
affairs; l presume Others do the same.
Well, sir, it is known that we are soon t.
have another election, when, among othel
matters, we shall elect members for oul
State Legislature. That Legislature, be il
remembered, will have the power to make
appropriations Of money for whatever il
thinks proper OF desirable. To It's mercy
is committed the public treasury. If it is
lprofuse, corrupt, and reckless in the expen
ditures of money, you, |, and every one who
| is tax payer, must suffer for it. We, sir,
the tax payers have got to foot the bills
The tax gatherer will be around in 1855,
and we must ''fork ups" Half Of the citi-
zens Of Grant may die in the mean time,
but the tax gatherer win not die. The
tax gatherer for 1854, will be along in
good season, but not until after election
So we shall not learn from that parsonage
what we individually and collectively have
ito pay for the unbounded and unparalleled
Iprodigality Of the last Legislature And,
sir, l hope it viii be the last Of the kind
we shall ever see assembled in this State.
Perhaps you may think / am wanting in
respect for that body of Legislators.
don't know but / am. / certainly enter
tanned but little for it when t learned it
had made appropriations amounting to be-
tween 100000 and 100000. And I
confess have still less, when see what
that money was voted away for. For
some members of the last Legislature en-
tertain the most entire respect. | believe
them honorable, honest, upright men, who
are as scrupulous about the exdenditure of
the public money as they would be of their
own. They undoubtedly did all they cod
to Withstand this foray upon the public
treasury. But decisive majority was Of
a far different stripe. That majority too,
was backed up by the most INSCRIPTIONS
and wreckles Executive that probably ever
lgot control Of this or any other State 90
vernment. Of course / mean ssBarstow
and the Balance" They aided and abet-
ted all this plat'tdefing. In most instan-
ces, undoubtedly, they were accessories be-
fore the fact if they were not principals in
lit. Let an outraged people at the coming
election award to that guilty majority Of
Legislators, and their executive associates
the condemnation they so richly deserve.
And that this judgement may not be Civ
en- except upon full and sufficient evidence
[ propose to submit to your readers some
of the acts Of the last Legislature, with a
few plain criticisms thereon. And sir. il
your readers will follow me, give me a pa
tent and fair hearing, | think they NAV
be profted. Il will try and give them
some facts from which they will be able to
make some useful deductions. [ shall not
draw, either, for those facts, upon nv i'm
Iagination as a brilliant orator Of the Eng
lish Parliarfient was once accused Of doins,
No sir, shall refer mainly to a little pam
lphlet, which my neighbor, Squire p, has
Just got from Mr.. Cox, of your town. It is
the "deatsrdk Statutes" for 1851. Have
you seen 1t /: tits really precious roll
ume. Get a copy and look it through,
land remember that it is published stby all
thority," by some one up at Madison. Sc
| it is not all Wing lies.
Fir. Editor did you ever hear the anec-
dote about the old 1nisef of London, who
said he was always delighted with youn-
ger Pitts speeches in the House of Com
mons, because they rung with pounds and
pence from the beginning to the end p
Well sir, it would have done the old fell
lows heart good to have read the sGene-
raj Statutes of the State of Wisconsin for
1854" They ring with dollars and cents
from the commencement to the close.
I call your attention first to page 10, to
that rather interesting paragraph, which
reads as follows:
''There shall be levied and collected for
1.-THE year 1854, State tax Of two hundred
and twenty-five thousand dollars" &c.
Do you hear that, tax payers of Grant p
Two hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars State tax. But that is not all. I
venture to say that sum, as enormous as it
appears aid is, will not meet the current
expenditures Of this State for the fiscal
year by $4,000. Now how some of that
money has been and is to be expended, I
will tell you in my next.
TAx-P AVER