The Columbia daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865, 1865-07-17
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Monday Morning, July y, 8, 1866.
Taxation <


must be established, in ORDER to reach a
right basis for assessment. The lands Of
! the low country are temporarily lost to
cultivation. The planters who titled
those lands are, IN most cases, denied to
use them. A certain tract of our sea-board
country has been lost to the, productive
resources of the State, and is no longer
available for taxation. It has been alb.
sorbed for military uses. The large plan
tations Of the middle country are all de-
stroyed. The labor employed on these
estates, if it suffices to feed the occupants,
will. have done more than we anticipate.
The general 6oaleucr seme,,t in estates is,
briefly, fatal to all the former calculations
upon which we based the taxation. We
must resort to newer standards, and such
as are equitable and duly proportioned to
the productive resources of the country.
This is the only just standard; but, mas
much as the country is in state of dis.
order, it is not easy to arrive at the facts
the critcria-upon which to found
healthy Judgment We are forced upon
the only tax-the only standard Of taxa
tlon-which will rightly reach all classes
and prevent inequality of taxation. We
have already stated what this tax should
be-a poll tax-by which evory Individual
in the community will be placed on an
equal footing, in the eye of the State. A
poll tax has been frequently made the
subject of odium. by demagogues, who
seek to f1atter voters. 1t has been held to
be an obloquy put upon q man that his
poll, or head, should be worthy of taxa
tion at all. But all this was mere balder
dash, and CANNON, and false pretence, and
humbug. A poll tax is the genuine repub-
lican tax-the democratic principle. 1t
puts Tom, Dick and Harry, Ben, Peter and
Sam, Bill, George ana Aminadab, all in
the same category. Nobody can complain;
nobody can reviIe or reproacn that he is
not rated as highly as his neighbor. It is
the simplest form Of taxation III the world
There is no complication in the world
The assessor has simply to ask, Have you
head at all?" If you have, you must
recognize its value, at 81 or 81 per caput,
as the case may be. How simple! low
complimentary! You certainly have
head, and though pin may make an
equal boast, you regard your individual
head with some living consideration-it is
your head-your peculium. You are not
sure, if your head were taken off, tn at it
would fit any other mans shoulders. Still
less are you prepared to permit the head
OF any man to take lodgment in the socket
between your shoulders. Clearly, your
head is modestly valued at 81 Pay for
it. like gentleman, accordingly. When
you tax property, irrespective of persons,
you tax sobriety, industry, intelligence,
ability, talents, science-all the virtues
and capacities which make a people
famous and successful. In taxing pro-
rerty, you let free the idle vicious, gam
ing. drinking and most worthless of your
people. These never accumulate The
taxation upon property is very apt to be
bounty to idleness. 1t s, indeed, one of
the insldious measures of agrarianism. BY
natural law. man is made to be accumu-
lative. His law lies in the rule, "He who
does not take care of his own family is
worse than an infdel" The baser kinds
of men are unaccumul alive. They ap-
proximate the beast creation, which never
provides for the morrow. As general
rule, be sure of this, that the best citizens
are those, generally, who are most accu-
mulative-who gradually collect around
themselves the necessaries first and then