The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1855-08-22
C. Communicative
For the Spirit of Democracy.
Belmont Chronicle Taxation = Whig

Belmont Chronicle Taxation = Wing
Mr. EDITOR From motives of par
tizan malignity, the Wing press of Ohio
has been in the habit of pouring out bru-
tai abuse on the unoffending citizens of
Monroe county. 1t, no doubt, affords
their malign spirits great satisfaction to
vilify and degrade large and respectable
portion of their fellow-citizens in the eyes
Of Virginia and Pennsylvania Other
topics failing, the Belmont Chronicle has
taken us up ON the grounds of our al
legged poverty. ~
A late writer in that sheet, after much
insulting and acrimonious language, taunt-
ingly and sarcastically exhorts US not to
revolt, not to rebel, not to dissolve the
union of the counties. And all this on
the ground that this county, last year
Q854,) paid shade less than fourteen
thousand dollars of taxes into the State
treasury. Just twenty years before that
time, Tin 1s34,) Hamilton county paid
into the State treasury sixteen Thousand
dollars, Ross county five thousand eight
hundred, Muskingum county five thousand
one hundred. No other county approach
ed these in the amountof its contributions;
The amount paid by Belmont county that
year, was in the near neighborhood of
three thousand dollars, not much more,
nor much less. / state from memory, not
having examined the documentsfor anum-
ber of years, but I have no fears of being
found substantially incorrect. The abuse
and ridicule and sarcasms and jeerings of
the Wing press about our poverty, are
perfectly gratuitous and unprovoked.
And, like the ordinary slang of thatpress
false. Monroe county is not an INDECENT
community absolutely. Few persons a
mongst us are in want of the neeessaries
and comforts of life. We are only indi-
gent in comparison with other richer coun-
ties in our neighborhood. The very fact
that we pay to the State in taxes, almost
as much as Hamilton did twenty years
ago, and almost three times as much as
any other county did at that period, is
convincing evidence, that our poverty is
not absolute but relative only. We ap-
pear poor because other and older COM
munities are richer. Hamilton county
was organized more than twenty years
before Monroe. But when will the licen-
tiousness of the Wing press grow weary?
When will indelicate and unsegupulous
men demand any portion of truth as a
foundation for their inyectives? e4.
f These. men were perfectly quiet, and
passive while enormous and excessive
taxation was levied upon the whole State,
for local and private purposes, to enrich
spectators and peculators and panders
I = - :
and plunderers. But now when taxation
is levied for purposes common to. every
section and every portion of the State,
for the generous purpose Of educating
every child in the commonwealth, their
wrath and clamor know no bounds. They
make the welkin ring with their complaints.
To spread happiness and virtue, and re-
ligion and knowledge among the masses
of the community, forms no part of their
ambition. They repine when they see
the poor mans child acquiring knowledge
at the public expense. Their abuse Of
the, Democracy is only cover. Their
heartfelt hostility is to the SYSTEM of com
mon schools. In their own imaginations
they compose the upper crust, call the
decency," q all the knowledge and they
repine at seeing those whom they arro-
gantly call the " Lower classes and whom
they desire to continue in the condition
of hewers of wood and drawers of water,
acquiring knowledge, which may. finally
enable them to assert their rights. Eel
low-citizens of Monroe, these men are
your enemies, they revile, they SANDER,
they abuse, they Willy, they degrade you,5
and if they could gull you out of your,
votes, they, would use them for their own
SELFISH purposes, and then laugh in; their
sleeves at you. They hate you, now; if
they could chissel you out of your votes
they would despise you.l And they would
despise you on the known principles of
human nature, for they know well that if
the people of Monroe are men of spirit,
they must hold the Whig press aud the
Wing party in detestation for injuries too
base, too foul, too malignant and too
uNPRovoKED to be easily forgiven. Come
out then, my friends from your habitations
this fall and rive the Damocrafic ticket