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

returning prosperity enables her to
be either just or generous, and even
then no compensation would restore
these exiles to the homes in which
they were born.
I would, therefore, respectfully ask
your assistance in ascertaining the
exact condition of the amount of
direct tax due and paid by this State,
and would earnestly entreat your CO.
operation, in order that, if it be true
that this State has overpaid its por-
ton of taxation, or should that not
be the case, if the State will assume
and secure the payment of the very
small balance that remains, that some
arrangement be made by which the
lands which, under the necessities Of
war, have been bought in by Govern
ment, should be restored to their
original possessors The only object
of this sale and purchase was to Sc
cure the payment of the tax. If the
payment of that tax has been or can
be secured, there is no further object
in making the law means of per-
sonal punishment, a punishment not
inflicted by a discriminating Justice
against special offenders, but simply
resulting from the accidental locality
of the sufferer.
/ would ask your attention to the
further additional extract from the
report of the Commissioner of In
ternal Revenue:
''Of the property purchased for the
Government at the sales for taxes,
leases Under Section of the Act of
June 7, 1862, have been made only
by the South Carolina Commission.
In South Carolina, too, and not else
where, resales Of lands bid in at the
sales for taxes have been made by the
Commission, under Section II of the
same statute. This section provides
that purchasers at the sale who shall
have faithfully served for the term of
three months as an officer, musician,
or private soldier, or sailor, in the
army, or navy, or marine service of
the United States, as a regular or
volunteer, and who shall pay one
fourth part of the purchase-money
shall receive certificate, and shall
have the term of three years in which
to pay the remainder. The amount
which will become due IN 1867 and
1868 upon the army and navy certifi-
Gates, issued as above, is S206, 994. 80.
In this State, also, a board of selec-
ton, appointed by the President of
the United States for that purpose,
and comprised in part of the Tax
Commissioners, under his instruc-
tions of September 16, 1868, selected
and reserved for military, naval, cha
ritable, educational and police pur-
poses, eighty-one plantations, stu
ated on the several sea islands of that
State.
"Under the same instructions, the
Commission made sale of homesteads
of ten and twenty acres each to heads
of families of African descent.
''Since December 10, 1868, there
have been GIT certificates of home
steads of this character, issued by the
Commission, most of which were
during the last fiscal year
1t is difficult to understand why,
looking upon these Acts as intended
to have uniform effect, SO very mark
ed all exception should have been
made of this State, and as the direct
authority Of the commissioners to
grant these leases ''extends only
until the said rebellion and insured
ton in said State shall be put down,
and the authority of the United
States established, and until the
people of said State shall elect a LIE
gislature and State officers, who shall
take an oath to support the Constitu-
ton of the United States, to be an
nounced by the proclamation of the
President, and until the first day OF
March next thereafter" Iwould ask
whether the time and conditions fo1
the termination of these leases do not
seem very rapidly approaching, and
if so, whether any principle of JUS
tice, or any good reason of policy,
would prevent the Government from
restoring the land so leased, to the
original owners?
Further, the commissioner, after
stating that most of the allotments o4
homesteads were made during the
last fiscal year, proceeds:
CATER the cessation of hostilities,
and on the seventeenth of May last,
the several commissions were direct
ed by this Office, in pursuance of the
Instructions of the Secretary Of the
Treasury, to suspend all sales OF
lands for taxes in districts before that
time in insurrection, until otherwise
ordered"
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