Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1860-07-26

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erty would pay $500. So dirks pistols, ETC., paying
now $4,000, would pay $4,000 1t might be said that
license would be charged but then, as proposed
the amount raised would fall far short of the present
from that source. So in regard to the liquor tax
putting that at Mr.. Pools al UaIore rate of 10 cts
the 800, would result in serious deficiency there
AS for the tax salaries and professional incomes that
produced some thirteen thousand dollars of which il
appears that about twelve thousand are paid by lawyers
doctors, and public officers and about one thousand
tax upon the wages or salaries of overseers mechanics
etc. He thought the revenue law ought to be modified
SO far as concerns wages of oveseers and mechanics
lie did not why professional incomes should not
tribute their share to sustain the burdens of the State
The tendency of this uniform aG Ualorem system
would be to throw the burdens upon productive indus
try He referred to the cutlery about little negroes
der II years not paying taxes. He showed that were
all the negroes in the State under II years old taxed 80
cents piece the amount of revenue in addition to that
now collected would be forty thousand dollars. Apply
the uniform ten cents on the hundred dollars to money
at interest and there would at once that tem be
loss of revenue to the amount of $4,000, $4,000
more than the whole to be got from taxing all
the niger babies in the State. He enumerated and
summed up certain classes of articles upon which, by
change from the present SYSTEM to that propo
sed by Mr.. Pool clear loss of revenue would be sus-
tanned to the amount of $295,OOO, or $235OOO even
after deducting the amount of 100000 to be obtained
by taxing all negroes under II and so equally
with those taxed The taxes referred to are now
collected from luxures and from that class best able to
pay them. To change the system, and reqhire the
$2350O0 deficit to be made up from other sources from
every species of property would have tendency to
overburden and thus cripple productive industry, and
throw the weight upon those least able to bear it.
But this is great social well financial question.
Equal taxation has been used catch word no
1t is plausible upon the face of it, but unjust and i'm
polite when applied to all property, without reference
to its character A dollar year upon gold watch
worth $lOO and upon hundred dollars worth of land
would be equal in amount and rate of per centage but
would the burden of the tax be equal upon the rich
who can carry gold watch as luxury, or at best as
mere convenience, which could be dispensed with, and
upon the poor man to whom that 500 worth of land
may be indispensable for the production of bread to
sustain himself and family These apostles of ad Ualo
would take the greater part of the taxes off luxu
ries the very possession and of which indicates the
ability to bear taxation while they endeavoring to
nst prejudice against the niger, whose labor was
productive and the result of whose labor contributed
so largely to the prosperity of the State. The whole
thing is wrong in principle and in policy.
It also great sectional as well as social ques
ton. 1t proposed to call Convention on the fed
era basis On that basis the control of the Conven-
ton would be in the hands of the West. I'D ualoren
would increase the of the East and thus decrease
thn rnlat Of tho Wocfi in no nc
would lead inevitably to demand on the part of the
West for modification of the basis of representation in
that body and the substitution of the Federal or
the white basis, either of which would give the control
of both branches to the West He felt confident the
West would use their power well any other sec
ton, but be opposed to giving the control of both
branches to either the East the West The balance
of power now existing satisfactory to BOTH He was
opposed to doing anything calculated to set neg hbours
by the ears, or array section against section.
But the charge made that slave property did not
pay its share of the public burdens. Negro property
pays for State and County purposes some $3.50 5000
1t forms about onefourh of the whole property of the
State and pays about onefourth of the taxes raised
1t is said that negroes are taxed like white men, This
is not The Governor made a calculation of the
amount of poll tax which so slaves would pay during
e compared with that which 50 free persons would
pay under the constitution and laws as they now stand
The 80 free persons, supposng them to be half male
and half female, would pay $3.50 poll tax during their
whole lives. The so slaves would pay 1000. The
amount of revenue from the black poll 5 about % times
more than from the white poll while of the $5l OCO
paid by the white poll $4,000 comes from shareholders,
who also pay the taxes on the black poll.
1t is argued that land is taxed higher than slaves
If land is taxed too high, that argument to prove
hat slaves are taxed too low He believed that the tax
land might admit of reduction without injury to the
public treasury.
When people were called upon to change any part or
provision of their Constitution, they should look to the
history of such part provision, the persons by whom
t was inserted and the by which they were
moved to insert it.
In 1882 there was an dd Ualorem fever in North
Carolina. The Legislature passed an ad vdlorem law
which, after having been in existence for year. was
ound to work so badly, shat it repealed In 1884
be legislature passed law regulating the mode in which
axes should be levied upon negro property. The pro-
isions of that law were subsequently embedded in the
Constitution in 1885, the proposition to embody
aving been made by Mr. Whitaker, of Cherokee, it
icing inserted guarantee to quiet the reasonable ap
rehensiOns of the Eastern men, least oppressive sys
EN- OF taxation should at future time be adopted
ganst the slave labor of their section This provision
# the Constitution adopted with great unanimity
Men charging upon this provision as odious, inqui-
and through the vocabulary of abuse should
ecolect that the law upon which said provision is based
passed by the heroes and statesmen who fought the
attles of the revolution, and consolidated the govern
lent of tie State. That its embodiment into the
institution of 1885 approved by and voted for by
len like COL Louis D. Wilson, of Edgecombe Judge
)aniel, David L. Swain, Kenneth Rayner David Out
Nv, and by honest Old Nat. Macon himself It was and
covenant between the East and the West, offered by
ne West and accepted by the East The West will be
ue to her plighted faith. The East now paid large
Majority of the taxes of the State and that at time
oo wben with the consent of the East extensive pub
works. involving large expenditures of State money, il
re going forward at the West He bad argued with /