The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1857-01-27
An Appraisement Law.

creditable to the ability of our Legislation.-
They are an evil weighing heavily upon the
of the State, and discouraging to the
introduction Of capital and enterprise. If any
one of our present legislators wishes to serve
the public effectually, let him introduce an
act making it the duty of every County Audi
tor to furnish or publish the aggregate amount
collected in every form-of principal, penal
ties and costs of every kind, together with
the salaries of all officers attending to the |
fiscal concerns of the county-and with it
the exact amount actually expended for the |
public-other than for the assessment and col |
lection Of taxes-so as to show the people
how much real benefit they get for money
paid as taxes. IF either Dmocrats or Re2ub-
licans sincerely desire to enlighten the people
and produce really beneficial public reform.
there is no more effectual way of doing the
people service.
Bad as the system has been, there is danger
of its being made still worse A bill has been
introduced into the Senate, as new appraise-
ment law. more burdensome, iniudicious and
odious than the old law 1t provides that the
County Commissioners shall appoint an ap-
praiser of real estate, in each county, who
upon actual Uie10 shall make true valuation
of all lands, with the buildings ana all i'm
provements of every kind fences, bitches, &C.,
affixed thereto, taking in to consideration the
fertility and quality of the soil, the vicinity Of
n rail Al oIo
pike, plank State or county roads; their vicin-
ity to towns villages, cities, navigable rivers,
mill privileges, or any other advantages of
location. He is furthermore to give the exac:
quantity in every piece Of land, the measure
ment of every town in-lot and out-lot, which
are also to be valued on actual view, and their
cash value returned under OATH
The owner Of the property is to have no
voice in deciding its value; the whole subject
is left to the arbitrary decision of the APP
praiser.
To discharge his duties with any degree Of
conscientious accuracy, the Assessor must
gain as intmate>a knowledge of every acre Of
ground and every pannel of fence-every rod
every feld--as the farmer or owner has of his
own lands. He must not only walk over
every acre of land and assess it con actual
Vle,0," but he must explore its soil, and de-
termine its quality. He must, besides, be a
man of consummate judgment to determine
accurately the exact influence upon the value
of an acre of land, which railroad canal, a
clay, plank, q macadamized road mill seat,
village, town, or the running of steam
boat within one, two, five or ten miles from
it. These very delicate and difficult services
are to be obtained from man competent to
the task, for the liberal compensation Of one
dollar and fifty cents per day. Our law ma
kers must think genius and talents very album
dant among us, and sadly in want of bread, to
serve the public so cheap. But they perhaps
intended it for long job, and therefore put
the wages low; for a man who had any regard
for the oaths sprinkled through the act for
him to take, might begin with this year, in
some of the large counties, and complete his
task conscienciously, in the course of two Oh
three years; and after he had done, the Board
of Equalization might, in about the same
time, be able TO pursuade the owners of tht
property, that no injustice had been dont
them. AS a necessity of this system, tht
Board might as well be declared body in per
manent session.
The wisdom of legislative enactment i
proven by its adaptibility-its simplicity ant
it's silent self-executing operation. his bill
ifenacted into law, would put the Who'll
community in a muss, by the volumes oferror
and wrongs it would create.
One of its most striking features, for Dem
ocratic measure, is the distrust it evinces {
the honesty the people, in refusing to ALLOW
them to give the value of their own taxables
It is an insult and an impeachment of thei
integrity and patriotism-a violation of tn
we'll known principle that honest people ar
apt to value their own possessions as high a
their intrinsic worth will warrant; for posses
sion always enhances the value to the owner
No man depreciates his property for any pul
pose, unless he be dishonest; and when he
to verify his statement by an oath, to impl
that he can't be trusted, is to charge him wit
being capable of legal perjury. To change II
good, old simple mode of allowing the peop
the right to render an account of their on
property, subject to taxation, with which eac
owner can be more familiar than a stranger,
an indirect imputation upon the character
the people of this State, which every hone
citizen will resent, and spurn the ibellous a
thors of the act If they be professed Dem
Gratis, they violate the fundamental principl
of their protested faith-trust in the virtue al
integrity of the people. The act was introdu