Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1856-01-12
Taking from the Sheriff the Collecting
of Parish Taxes!

HAsbe a representative body with full Lee
giisiiative powers, always liable to be summoned
together at any moment, to attend to the wants
and requirements of the parish. To the PEG"
Die of the parish it stands in the same relation
as does the Legislature to the people of the
State, or as Congress to the people Of the Uni.
on. The same obligations are imposed upon
the members of each body-each member SAX
ing an oath in substance to do his duty faiths
fully, conscientiously and impartialiy.
However much we may overlook a departure
from this oath by the State and National Lee
.gislatures-as excusable in a measure through
the heat Of politics--it assumes a low, con~
temptibIe and outrageous character, when the
principles of that obligation are disregarded
By the petty magnates of a Police Jury, ana
the peoples interests and convenience totally
d~isregarded in giving supercedence to a wish
to carry out a groveling party feeling, or an
equally groveling political spite.
An instance of this kind was made par
~ticularly prominent by an act of the Police
Jury of this Parish at its sitting last Monday
or we should say, by the vote of three out
of FIVE of the members, two being absent
and which act was made particularly objection
able from the fact of there not being a full
board present. We allude to the resolution
which took from the Sheriff the collecting of
the Parish Taxes.
From time immemorial the Sheriff of aber~
vile has been the tax collector of the parish.
It has long since been acknowledged as one OF
the regular ~perquisites of his office, as one Of
its regular duties. And why? Because it is
important 10 the people in several respects that
the Sheriff should be the Parish Tax Collector.
LIST. Because we are all we'll aware that the
planters (and being the largest tax payers,
there interests should be first considered) gen.
orally give drafts for the amount when there
tax receipts are presented; and it assuredly
will be a great Inconvenience and annoyance
to them, now that they have TO be called upon
by two different persons, instead of one as
heretofore, for the settlement of their taxes,
and forced to make two different payments 10
a matter where one sufficed for the same thing
formerly. 2dly. It is a great convenience to
jurors and others having claims against the pa.
IRISH, to have them cashed on the spot before
they leave town, or give them to him in pay
ment of taxes, as they may think proper, when
inclination or business calls them to the vicinity
of the Court House this latter Inconvenience
as made by the change, will probably be greater
among the people at large than any other. We
might state other reasons why the Sheriff of
the parish should be its tax collector, but we
presume the above are sufficient, in connection
with the facts that all former police juries con-
sidered him the proper person to fill that office
--that custom in fact has made it a law that
he should fill it-and for the corroborative rea'
son that the Sheriff of every other parish in
the State, perhaps, except the parish of Orleans,
is also the parish tax collector!
Upon this showing, there is one of but two
reasons Which, EUutu udFC ilfAuSASSu bAC u
gentlemen whose votes carried the resolution
which took from the Sheriff the collecting of
the parish taxes. Either that Jos. H. ERWIN
has been guilty Of some malfeasance in the
aforesaid office, or that the act was done TO fa-
vor a partizan in defiance of the peoples wisha
ea, and as a matter of petty political spite.
The first of these reasons is dismissed as
absurd and ridiculous for the name of the
Sheriff of lberville, 1--WE say it without fear Of
contradiction or the imputation of exaggera~
tion) wherever that name is known, is syuomy-
nous with integrity itself-and in the manner
Of performing his public duties, no one has re-
ceived a higher encomium than himself.
The second reason then is the one, and the
only one, which caused the passage of the re-
solution alluded to.
Are there any two intelligent men in che pa
IRISH who will lay their hands against their
hearts, and say that they believe the same act
would have been done if Mr.. Rms had been
elected? No. It was done for the reason we
assert, and none other and not only an injury,
but we consider il an insult to the people of
Tberville who elected Jos. H. Erwin to the
sherifalty. But enough. What else could be
srgtcted? These last words, indeed, const-
tute the whole gist Of the reasoning and argu.
ment necessary TO be used in the matter.
Look ont for Thieves.