Smyrna times., 1868-11-18

required Dy the law every month, we are IN
formed, under protest, up to the first Of No
Vember, when the President, Mr.. Hinckley, by
instruction we presume from the board OF di-
Tection, notified the State Treasurer that he
should cease further payment after that date,
on the ground that the law is unconstitutional,
and therefore null and void. We presume the
F., W. & B. r. r. Co. have been induced 70
pursue the course they have adopted, by re-
cent decision of the Supreme Court of the U.
S. in the case of Crandall as. the State of Ne
vada, which is a similar case to their own.
| In 6 Wallace, this case is reported i'll full,
and we outline it for the benefit of the solons
of the Delaacarean, who affect to be the custo-
dians Of the States honor and sovereignty.
The language of the obnoxious statute ran
as follows; 'There shall be levied a captation
tax Of one dollar upon every person leaving
the State by any railroad, stage coach, or other
vehicle engaged or employed in the business of
transporting passengers for hire. :"
The counsel for the Nevadese contended that
this tax was levied, not on the passengers but
on the carrier, being tax on his business
This was but one of the arguments of evasion
put in plea, but without avail. The court, Mr..
Justice Miller delivering the opinion, decided
that the act levied tax on the traveller, and
was unconstitutional helanguage of the court
was explicit and broad, concluding with the
solemn declaration that for all the great pur-
poses for which the Federal Government was
formed we are one people, with one common
country; we are all citizens Of the United
States, and, as members ofthe same oommuni-
ty, must have the right to pass and repass
through every part of it without interruption,
as freely as in our own State; and tax i'm
posed by State for entering its territories or
harbors is inconsistent with the rights which
belong to citizens of other States as members
of the Union, and with the objects which that
Union was intended to attain Such a power
in the State could produce nothing but discord
and mutual irritation, and they very clearly do
not possess it."
Without referring at length to the history of
the act so much appauded and sympathetical-
ly portrayed by the Deldwdrean, in words ex-
pressive of deep sympathy for the people of
this State, and appreciation of the action of
that Legislature, We have only to inform that
journal, that had that legislature passed an
act giving bounties to volunteers, instead of
i've hundred dollars to drafted men who fur
nlshed substitutes, there would have been no
CONSUMPTION, no "remOrseless and corrupt Pro-
Vosts, no drawing of the fearful draft, - mo
Offering up of prayers by the mother of the
cherished boy about being snatched from her
nd hou oil =. e
of dollars which went into the pockets of sub
stitutes and substitute brokers, and which the
people of Delaware will now have to pay by
taxation. And the duty of the next legisla-
ture will be to make provision for payment OF
both principal and interest. Here is where
the shoe pinches taxing the people to pay
debt contracted by authority of disloyal men,
whose sympathy was with treason and rebel
lion; and whose very acts were unconstitu.
tional.
We say this debt would not now be hanging
over US as an incubus, had the legislature pas.
sed bounty act. The State could have filled
its quota of men without draft and the money
thus expended in furnishing men for the
armies of the United States would have beer
refunded by the General Government.
When the tax gatherer comes round to col
lect the assessment which must nocessasily be
made upon the farmer, mechanic and laborinq
man, to meet the accruing interest and provide
for payment of this i'll conceived and iniqui
tous debt, the people will begin to murmur,
and their murmurings will be as the mighty
waters rushing to destroy the authors of such
onerous burthcns, too gricvOus to be borne
This the DeIawdrean forsees, but there is nc
help for it.
But that recusant corporation, the p, w. &
B. r. K. Co., as the Delacarean pleases tc
term it, says " is controlled chiefly by its New
England stockholders, and the agents and SER
wants whom they select" That they have
no sympathy with the people of Delaware, OF
respect for the authority of this State"
Would this railroad have been built had il
not been for New England capital and enter
prise and would the people of the State have
received the benefits they now enjoy of fcommu.
nicating direct with Philadelphia, Baltimore
and New York, in the shipment of their fruit
and other produce, had it not been for thi,
IO Ihiuh uOL duu 81 uO the farm
ers and citizens generally. Then why attempt
to create prejudice among our people against
New Eng gland capital nd.cnterprise, when it i,
just what the State wants to develop its resour
ceS, increase its wealth and add to its popula.
T ton. That the New England stockholder,
should have no sympathy with the people Of
Delaware or respect for the authority of the
State, i true as the Dela,oarean asserts, may
10 IL IL.
/ Of Delaware themselves through their Legis
lature, in enacting obnoxious laws of an uncon.
stitutional character discriminating against
them.
This allegation, however, we take the liberty
to deny. The Railroad Co. have respected the
, authority of the State and complied with the
unconstitutional enactment Of its Legislature
until 1t had good grounds for resisting it as in
the case previously stated, when through its
President Ii resnectfullv nntifind 4ho 49, -.