The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1867-11-22
Enormous Taxation in the United States

According to the most accurate statistics of
national finance the aggregate amount paid in
taxes in this republic Is greater than is paid in
any other country in The world. Last year the
tax laid by the general government alone reached
the enormous sum of five hundred and sixty
million dollars. But with the trxes of the Uni
ted States, the State, county, city-all taken to-
gether-it is estimated that not less than one
thousand million dollars annually 90 to pay for
the poor boom of government While the MT
tional government demands a percentage on ev-
cry mans income-a share in the profits of every
! stroke of businesS-and must be pnid for all
that we are permitted to eat, drink or wear the
State government taxes US TO an extent never be-
lore known and the amount Of municipal taxes
IL seen aud felt in the tremendous price of rents
and of Ill the daily neccssarics OF the people
that are bought and sold in the city. Such is
the burden of debt resting upon us that one-third
of all the property owned in the State would
barely relieve u.s.. One-third of every man's
property Is responsible for the Indebtedness of
the State and the nation, and the owner mnst
pay in taxes the interest on that vast debt Not
only does taxation so onerous not exist any,
where else, hut it was perhaps never before
known in the history of society
! In looking over the tax tables it seems bod
enough. AS officially shown in tie Treasury
Department reports, the load that the nation
saggers under naturally appals the thought of a
the only one on earth that hardly knew what IL
! tax-galherer WAS. But what is seen in the ta-
hles, bad rs it is, is not the worst. The figures
show only what WAS paid in. only what found
its way to the government Golfers, and that may
have been the smaller part of wh,t was taken
from the people. Tay-gatherers with us are cor
rurt beyond all possible plccedent. Populr
opinion ha,dly makes the d st notion between a
revenue Off er aud thief Stealing in place is
so common, so general, it is 81 much q recog-
niz i fact that this class of functiunary seeks po-
siiiOn only to acquire a sudden fortune, that no
one OF them any longer Feels called upon to deny
il through any supposed necessity to seem hon
est. From remote times the tax-gatherer was a
sc0undrel, publirans were robbers and the friends
of robbers, and Christian text classes "the publi-
c'n and the taxgathercr" as one in repuie and
performance; md those old fellows stol, meas
ure of cLmmin, may be, or n skin of wine. Per-
haps some fellow OF unusual boldness here and
there may have taken talent Of silver. What
pigmes of plumber Hundreds of thousands of
dollars make the small dust in the balance of
our revenue collectors, and place is hardly
worth the intrgues by which it is gained if it
does not promise II round million above all the
contingencies for term.
Do the people clearly understand their position
in all this Do they appreciate that of the vast
amount they pay in taxes large proportion is
rs unjustly taken as il it were taken by the high
wayman, and goes not even to sustain mismhn-
aged government, but to enrich the corrupt min
ions Oft prohgate party2 We may naturally
feel a certain sympathy for the people of the
South, beaten down BUNDLED by degrading laws,
and denied all the rights of freernen, that the
niger may outweigh them in the political scale;
but the people of the State must awake to the
perception that they have nearer and more posi-
tive reason than mere sympathy for joining their
voices to the rebuke that the whole nation is
utering against the recent dominant Republican
party-the party of negro supremacy, the party
that has piled NJ this enormous burden Of taxes
the party of unlimited, lndiscriminate robbery
in Office. All this terrible taXutioa is telling on
the material interests of our people in the worst
way, and thus the Republican party has come to
make itself felt in mems pockets, and men must
make thrir Reputation of such party felt ut
the polls in such good round terms as majority
of one hundred and fifty thousand Such
declaration the party will understand, but will
heed no other. 1t has got beyond all fear but
that Of the loss of power.-NeW York Herald,
N0v.2.