The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1860-03-20
DISTURBING THE CONSTITUTION,

The proposition by our opponents to disturb and
violate the compromises of our State Constitution,
meets with no favor from the democratic party or
the democratic press Of the State. We give below
some remarks from the Wilmington Journal which
timely, and pertinent to the question:
"The decision of the democratic Convention
upon ad uolorcm, as the issue made by our oppo-
nentS has been rather improperly called, is such as
we looked for and desired. 1t is in accordance
with the genius of the Democratic party 1t is re-
gardful Of plighted faith and conservative of the
sectional compromises of the Constitution We
remarked last week, that "neithet in State nor Ma
tional affairs the Democratic party consent to
array itself upon sectional ISSUE or for the abro
CATION of Constitutional compromises of sectional
difficulties. The result has shown that our con-
fdence was not misplaced.
Let us say another thing. We had last week
another instance of the non-sectional character of
the Democracy, in the stand taken by prominent
gentlemen from the West, as Hon. ". w. Avery,
Gov. Reid, aud others, in defence of the Consti-
tuition and it's guarantees.
Our opponents will make the attempt to create
the impression that they the peculiar friends
of the poor man, and that their movement is made
for the benefit of poor men, while in fact nothing
is farther from the truth In the first instance
the movement is made for the benefit of the leaders
who want to get back into power, and in the
second instance, their movement, if successful,
would have the very opposite effect to that which
they attribute to it,
Our opponents misead good many people,
among Democrats, by arguing that since the
Democratic party goes for al >o0Iorem the basis
of duties levied on imports by the general govern
ment, it is bound to 90 for the doctrine which our
opponents have recently discovered and to which
they apply the name in this State. Let US
sce:-
Ad ro1orena in the sense in which it is attempt.
ed to be applied to our State Constitution and sys-
TEN of State revenue, never was advocated by any
party in national politics, and never reduced to
practice by any system of government earth.
The advocates of ad valorcm in this State, go for
a uniform rate of per centage upon all property
alike. and only upon property To carry out their
idea, they would tax the stock and implements used
by the sturdy yeoman, to raise food for the sub
sstence of his wife and family, just as much per
cent. they would the supcrhuities of the wealthy
or the Injuries of the selfindugent. No Demo
cratic Tariff has ever done that. The tariff of
1916, framed by Gen. J. J. Mckay, did not do so.
Tie tariff of 1917 does not do So Coffee and Tea
admitted free. All classes of sprituous liquors
taxed thirty per cent. upon their value-ad
r0iorenn as the phrase is. In fact these schedules
and classes of goods taxed at nearly all rates
from l to 80 per cent. There is not any such
thing this horizontal uniformity of rate that
would-be reformers seek to introduce into our
State, even at the cost of disturbing those consti-
tutional compromises under which the different
sections Of the State progressing harmoni-
ously."
The Fayetteville Carolinian says: "You will find
opposed to taxing a family Bureau the same as
we would Billiard Table; pocket Bible the
same pack Of cards; the poor mans COW the
same as the rich mans carriage and four horses;
poor mans crockery and china ware the same as
the rich mans silver plate. These and host of
others, we are determined to oppose and in
doing act in accordance with the dictates of
honesty and sound political economy"
And remarking upon the subject, the Raj
eigh Press says: "Turn and twist they may;
apologize and explain much as they can, the
Opposition party is committed to a system of taxa
tion that will take in every article, however small
whether owned by widow a poor man with
ten children and nothing to eat except the scanty
earnings of the day; together with the bed on
which he rests his exhausted frame.
Talk about al rolorem. There is nothing so
we'll calculated to Cypress the poor as this hum
bug"
WEATHER STATISTICS.
Mai. A. A. Mckenzie has AGAIN favored rs with