The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-09-07
the decision Of the Supreme Court touching

we showed the futility of such a recommen-
datlons by proving that the law on the subject
| would remain precisely the same II the act
were repealed. The Supreme Court, at a tme
when there was no such statute, decided tnaI
tax could not be levied on United otaees ssooAS,
on the ground that such tax Is Iepusnail
TO the Constitution. 1t strikes us tnat writ
or ,Cl,oso ,,roti,n,1tv in such questions enables
him IN sneak with fppant contempt of such
a ;,,r;st as MARsHALL--wh0 rejud ses his JUS.
- md s;ts IN review on the court of last re-
sort ~sborId at least know that the decisions
If the Supreme Court cannot be reversed by
A., act of Congress. The Supreme Court can
al aside a statute for repugnance to the Con
stjtution, but we never heard it suggested be-
fore, that the rule would work both ways.
| The same paper hits three-fourths OF its
Copperhead contemporaries directly in the
face, when it says:
1t is known with tolerabIe certainty that
the Supreme Court, as now constituted, will,
as regards this question, abide the rule, Stare
dectSas. What good end can be served by rails
ing an ignorant clamor against long-settled
principle of constitutional law, which will re-
main alike in full force and ylgor, whether
crotchety newspapers think themselves wiser
than the Supreme Court or not2 "a
After stating that our present system of tax
alton is "crude, unequal and yexatious,' and
that it will favor any practical amelioration,
the World concludes as follows--and we com
mend the extract to our neighbor of the Ar
gus:
"But we hope that our zeal NAV be accord
ing to knowledge; that we may not impair
or influence and put Instructors in the way
OF practical reforms, by butting our heads
against the granite walls of the Supreme
Court, or by giving any just occasion to dam
aging cry of Reputation. Both from prin-
cLple and from policy, we win carry no banner
on which is not inscribed, in broad and legble
characters RESPECT FOR JUDICIAL DECI-
sIoNs, and, NvIoLABLE NATIONAL HONOR"
twill be recollectel that Judge Rice, in his
speech before the Democratic State Conven-
ton, admitted that the state or municipality
may not tax, the federal bonds, but insisted
that Congress itself should do so. Surprising
Congress could do this, it would not remove
the objection now raised against unequal tax
alton. Should Congress tax them ever so
much, that would not make them contribute
one iota towards the state and municipal bur
d Ems under VIII Itch the public Is now laboring.
The same inequality would exist, in these re-
| spects, as at the present time
The Burlington w.t. Sentinel, Demo
crate paper, says:
The Republican Legislatures of New
Hampshire and Connecticut have set the ex-
ample OF enacting state laws for indirectLg
taxing the United States bonds, by taxing the
incomes derived from them; the former state
by levying tax Of twenty five per cent. on
them, the latter of fifteen per cent. Our own
vt oxUa of q 49,
bonds, we expressed in our paper of the 4th
inst. We believe that they ought to be sub
ject to state and municipal taxation the same
as every other kind of property. But to ar
rive at this there is a right way and there is
wrong one. And the two Republican State
Legislatures above mentioned have chosen
this latter way, and have set bad example
for Others to follow. We regret to see that the
Democrats OF our own State, in several of
their recent County Conventions, have shown
asde3ire so follow this bad Republican exam-
pie, and to call for the enactment of a similar
law by our Vermont Legislature at its ap-
preaching session" -,n
Its not to be forgotten that the act of Con-
gress exempting these bonds from taxation
was passed at a dark hour in our country's
history, when the government was at the mer-
cy of Wall street and Chestnut street money
brokers, and an appeal had to be taken from
their greed to the people. The object was to
make public loan, and make it popular. If
the bonds, with liability to taxation, had been
put into the market, or rather, if government
had forced its credit in the ordinary way, the
presumption is thatnot more than seventy-five
cents on dollar could have been realized.
The choice of eyils-for money was necessity
as much as men for the army-was to provide
for such bonds as are now aloat The readi-
ness with which they were taken up is the
best vindication of the general wisdom of the
measure & 4 ss W .1.sF,sfs
1t was not desirable to 60 abroad to borrow
money; it was desirable to make our own peo-
pie the creditors of the Government, so that,
when peace should come the interest on the
public debt, instead of being sent out of the
country in gold, would be paid to our own peo-
pie, to go into general circulation, and so
quicken the pulses of business.
The same Vermont paper from which we
have quoted suggests the only sensible view
we have yet seen presented, for removing the
objections lying against the bonds on the
score of their exemption, and equalizing the
public burdens. II says: d as ait
We can procure state laws to tax govern
ment bonds, or whdt Is In effect the same thing,
The incomes derived from those bonds The
United States Courts, however on the presen-
tation of any case under those laws for theil
adjudication, viii set them aside as invalid, a.
every lawyer well knows. They would be OF
no use, therefore, to bring about that equality
of taxation which ought to exist, and could
only work, SO lar as they had any practical eff
feet at all, to impair the credit of the genera
government, which belongs to us all in com
mon and which we are all interested to main
tain.
As we remarked in our former article upon
the subject, the true remedy is not to pas
state laws-since the matter is beyond state
jurisdiction-but to procure proper Congress
ienal Legislation upon it. The existidg Gov
eminent loans, at least nearly all of them,
have not long to run, in case Government
chooses to end them. As their shortest limits
from time to time severally arrive let the loans
be replaced by other loans, which by express
act OF Congress shall be subject to the same
relative amount of state and local tax alton
that all other personal property has to bear
This would be practical, honest and constitu-
tional
KEN NEBUNK CAMP MEETING.