Arkansas true Democrat., 1858-03-09
LITTLE ROCK, 2l March, 1858. ELIAS N CONWAY, Gorerno cf -trhm,sos


 Goreran" q -trhm,sas
 oiR-lne questions proposed in your ote to-day, are lst. Whether ali act to pro. va for making and rep,irns levces in Chicot 'oWtN,"' approyei 7th oi Jauuarv. 1857 k listitulonai, and whether the taxes for I.vee purposes may not be legally collected. and thei, o'ecuou enforced in the matner prescribed by tnaJ law? 7 |. Whether all lands owned by l"dividuals Ill Chcot county when assessed in tccprdarce with the provisions of that law are ""' bound Tor the taxes, although such lands were originally sold by tAe State as swamp an3 olerdowed land?'
 By the act aIIuied to, it was provided that ,here should be levied and collected in the county ot Chicot, an annual lcvee tax on all tIaVial lands iH such county, that would be benehed by leveeS, and which are 1T shall be taxable for State revenue, the rate thereof to be fixed by the county court for each year. com meEcmS with 1857, at not less than one fourth or one per centum, nor more than one per centum upon the assessed value of said land. the assessment and valuation to be fixed bv levee inspectors, whose election is provided for by the act no land to be valued at less than ten dollars per acre; that each levy inspector snail be the sole judge, and embrace in his as sessment list, such lands only as would be beue- hted by leVee work; and these assessments are to be returned to and passed on by the clerk of the county, and the amount of levee tax on each tract Is placed on the tax book, and the sheriff IS required to collect the same and pay it over to the treasurer ot the board of inspectors. as a levee fund; and to be expended in making and repairing levees Tn the county, ill the manner pre- scribed by the act
 These are the general features of the act and which seem to have been carefully drawn and considered; and although there are some parts ot It, when separately viewed which might seem to produce inequality, yet as whole, the result ot 1t appears to be the establishment of Just ami equitable system, founded upon the great Prlhclple of taxation, that those who are oenehted should bear the burden It was in tended to establish a general and permanent system of leveelng, against the inundaiions of the Mississippi, and which could probably be more ehectually done in that way than any other
 The power of the legislature, upon the sub lect o1 taxation IS sovereign and only limited by the constitution. and the compact between this State and the United States
 Under the constitution the county court ha. exclusive jurisdiction in ali matters relating to county taxes, disbursements of money for coun-
 
 be necessary to the internal improvement and local concerns of the county, to be exercised in obedience to laws however passed by the legisla- ture for the purpose of executing those powers. And It ls therefore the right, and ind iel the duty oi the legislature to provide and define bv law, county taXatlon; the amount, mode and manner o' It, and the purposes to which the moneys raised from taxation may be applied; alld this may be done by general or special acts County 9 Pulaskt US L-win 44rk 473. All property subject to taxation, must be taxed according to value, to be ascertainpd in snch manner as the General Assembly shall di- fecb making the same equal aud un form throughout the State, and no one species of pro- perty from which tax may be collected shall De taxcd higher than another species of pro- perty ol equal vaue' Const. sec. 2, art z. Digest, 67
 : AZ property subject to tarqtioa' This i'm | plies that no property. whether real, personal or mixed, IS taxable until made so by law, and that Is rue In theory and in fact Heuce, n selecting objects upon which the taxing power IS to bear, the legislature may in perfect obedi- ence to the constitution, entirely omit one spe- cies or kind of property and tax apother, for example, all slaves over three and under sixty years old, and thus the slaves, not coming with Tn that description, although property and valua- ble property too are not subject to taxation. 50 the law was declared to be by the Supreme Court of this State in the late case of The State vs Crihenden County January term, 1858.
 '' The Oalae to be Gscertoined iin such nanner as the General Assembly shall direct" Property must be taxed according to its value; but does that mean the value that the owner, or his neighbors may put upon it? If there was any