Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1868-10-24

Ihls decision of the Supreme Court ol the
| United States, nearly forty years ago, seems
to have settled the question that United
states stocks cannot lie taxed by States or
| by municipalities; and it has been acquiesce1
in by all parties from that time till now.
| The question whether the Government of
! the United States can tax its own stock or
not has never, to my knowledge, been adj.
! Judicated. That it has not been, is probably
due to the fact that it is patent to the mean
! est understanding, that any taxation by the
! Government of its own stock would be re.
| pudiatlon to the extent of the amour: of
such taxation. You say that you "remem-
Der that bonds, or other evidences of interest
bearing Indebtedness, originating in loans
then contracted, were issued Nv the Govern.
! ment during the administration of President
| buchanan, Mt a rate uf interest in gold OF
twelve per cent per annum :" and YOU ask
Were these public securities subject 70 tax.
alton on an equality with every other species
OF property ~ l have no means of Knowing
| whether these particular securities were
| taxed by States or municipalities They
| certainly were not 10y the General Govern.
ment; and doubt whether any other ever
attempted such taxation in the face of the
! Supreme Court of the United States. to
which | have referred you. But let that be
as 1t may, there is Il history about this
twelve per cent. per annum loan that the
| people should be slow to forget. 1t was
part of the rebellion Itself Howell Cobh,
former Speaker OF \ Democratic House of
Representatives, late Brigadier General in
the late army of the late Confederate States
of America, and then Mr. Buchanan's Secre
tary of the Treasury, carried these securities
in his carpet-bag in blanks to the city of
! New York, and alter slanderng the stocks,
traduCing the credit of the Government, and
announcing his opinion that they never
would he paid, but that he must have the
money foc them at any rate. offered them on
| the market, and then filled up the interest
/ blanks nt such rates as his political friends
chose to ask him to insert. Most of them
were paid in gold with the stipulated exor,
bitant rate of interest added after came
into this office, aud after the war had begun,
and when notwithstanding all this, the Gov
ernment was then obtaining loans at six per
! cent. per annum. This loan WAS made too
within a very short time after the same
honest Democratic Secretary OF the Treasury
had been using the funds in the Treasury,
Intended for the current expenses of the
: Government, in huviGg up in the market the
! sir per cent. bonds OF the United States. that
/ had then many years to run to maturity at
about twenty per cent. above their par value.
Think of it. He bought the immatured six
per cent. stocks at 100 and Immediately
/ thereafter, in an apparent time of profound
peace, and when money was abundant, sold
securities receiving par and stipulating to
pay at the end of one year ll2.
Was Cobb d fool, think you2
Not at all; he knew exactly what he was
driving at He was already at that early day
a traitor, and hoped, by his rascally manage
ment, to so cripple the resources and derange
the finances of the Government in whose
service he then was, and whose interest and
honor he had sworn, for pay, to protect, as
to make secession easy and sure. This man
the original carpet haggcr'--is now, as
| he was then, a leader and shining light in
the Democratic party. But this was only
part of the great conspiracy. While Cobb
was accomplishing this, his great financial
achievement in the interest of the coming
rebellion, Thompson, then Secretary of the
! Interior, made away with the Indian amnesty
trust funds belonging to the Government; !;
| Floyd, Mr.. Buchanan's immaculate Secretary
of War, robbed the Northern forts and ar
scnals of their arms and munitions OF war,
and transported them South, to he used
I against the Government and for its destruc.
/ tion ; and Toucey, the then Secretary Of the
Navy, o specimen brick OF Connecticut Dem
ocracy, fearing the loyalty and patriotism of
our naval commanders, ordered our vessels
of war to unhcard-of places in far distant
seas, where they could by no possibility I've
needed, but where they would be beyond
the reach of recall by the Government in the
day of its peril This is the party and these
are the men that now canvass and solicit the
votes of an outraged loyal pcople. Really
their former rascality is outdone by their
present impotence.
You speak of another proposition contain
ed in this same fourth resolution of the
Democratic Convention, wherein it is sub.
stantially proposed, that the lands of the
farmer and homesteads of the hbuIing peo-
pie shall pay ad ratOrem tax equal to that
paid on luXuries by the atiluent consumer :"
and you enquire "it the Government has ever
applied this principle to its method of rails.
ing revenue, suhjeoting all the agricultural
and producing property OF the country to
special burdens 2"
The only mode by which "equal taxation
of every species of property, according Ia its
real value" can be reached is 10y direct tar.
This manner of taxation has been resorted
to but four times in the histHy of our Gov.
ernment: The first time for So 600, 900, in
1898, during the administration of the elder
Adams. The second Tor the prosecution of
the war with Great Britain in 1913, for SO,
QUO, 900, in the administration of Mr.. Madison.
The third, during the same period, and for
n like purpose, was passed Jan. 8, 1915, for
So ZOO 900. But as the treaty of peace was
signed "a Client, 10y the Commissioners on
the part of Great Britain and tue United
States, fifteen days before the act was pass
ed, this tax was not collected. The fourth
aud the last act for the collection OF direct
tax was passed in August, 1861. 1t called
for $2O,O00,000. And to this day, alter
seven years, it has not all been collected from
the States.
This mode of taxation would bear heavy
upon the land, stock, and utensils of the
farmer; upon the house, shop, and tools of
the mechanic; and upon the small property
of the poor laboFing man. All this kind OF
property is, under present laws, entirely ex-
empt from General Government taxation
So, too, under such q role, tax would be
collected Ou all incomes OF $1,000 and less.
These too, under present existing laws, are
exempt from General Government taxation.
Under the proposed mode all the small
! means and the small incomes of the great
masses of our industrious people would he
taxed. Perhaps all this is intended, 50 that
t more taxes may be wrung from the poorer
t and the midding classes, that the bloated
aristocracy, with q foreign banker at its
head, Who now coptTols the Democratic