The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-02-08

ing letter from Governor James L.
Orr:
EXECUTIVE OFFICE,
CHARLESTON, January 81, 1866.
To The Hon. The Secretary Of Me Treo-
sm.y.
SIR: AS Governor of the State of
South Carolina, it becomes my duty
to ask your attention to certain sub
jects of very grave Importance to her
interests, and the control of which
belongs to your department.
1t is unnecessary for me to do more
than to refer to the acts of the United
States imposing the direct tax, and
making provisions for its collection
i'll the ''insurrectionary States"
With these provisions you are per-
fectly familiar; and it is not my pur-
pose at present to call in question
either their constitutionaity or their
policy. Fortunately for the State
which I represent-fortunately, I
hope you will allow me to add, for
the whole country-the character of
''insurrectionary' no longer applies
to her. Accepting honestly tie re-
suit of the great contest which has
now ended, she has met the necessi-
ties of her condition, and her people
are endeavoring, with earnest end
single minded purpose, to retrieve
the disasters and destruction of the
last five years. In this endeavor, I
am glad to believe that both yourself
and the Administrator of which you
form so distinguished a part, cordially
sympathize, and I feel confident of
your patient and favorable considera-
ton. when I ask for such relief as it
is in your power to afford, from the
operation of laws passed in unhappy
times, and the necessity for which
has now ceased to exist
Owing to the fact that until the
surrender of Generals Lee and John
ston, only the sea- board of this State
was in the military possession of the
United States, it has happened that
in that section only of the State have
these laws been applied. Owing, also,
to this fact, and the consequent fact
that the forces Of the late Confederacy
interposed between this section and
the rest of the State, it has happened
that the proprietors of this section,
who were driven from their homes by
the armed occupation of 1861, have
been, during the war, entirely sepa-
rated from their estates, have neither
been able to learn the proceedings
which have been instituted under the
laws, nor have been enabled to take
advantage of the just and humane
provisions for redemption which these
acts contain. The consequence has
been, that these laws have been more
harshly and more strictly enforced in
this section of South Carolina, than
in any other portion of the South,
and from the inability of the parties
interested to receive the requisite no
tice, there has occurred an amount of
sacrifice by the sale of property more
enormous in character and more uni
versal in extent than in any other
portion of the country. I believe I
am warranted in saying that, from
causes entirely beyond their control,
not one of the owners of these es-
tates have been able either to pay his
taxes or to avail himself of the power
of redemption, while, in thousands
OF instances, estates of the highest
value have been sold for the smallest
amount Of tax, and bought for the
most inconsiderable sum. One in
stance to which L Will refer, in which
an estate, the market value of which
was $24, 900, was bought in by the
Government for $50, the amount of
tax due being even less than this in
considerable amount, and the Govern
ment being in possession at the time
of cotton taken from the estate to
more than a hundred times the
amount of the tax, is one illustration
out of many. The whole property of
this section of country, including the
entire Parish of st. Helena, one of
the most valuable portions of the
State, and portion Of St Luke's,
has completely changed hands, as far
as these acts can effect the change,
and has passed either into the posses
sion of the Government or Of third
parties.
The Commissioner of Internal Re
venue, in that portion of his report
which refers to the operation of the
Direct Tax Act, uses the following
language:
cit is evident from what I have
stated, that when the duties of the
Commissioners under the present
laws shall be completed, the burdens
imposed by it will have fallen une-