Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-07-18


this reason the right to vote is more inn
portant 20 US, because without IL il is not
4, possible for us to cure the malady and
: distemper OF the State, arrest the squan-
deriDg of its means and the hcentious
= contracting of debts, and cut out the
= cancers ofcOrruption from the emScisted
/, bOdy-politic Of the State.
, With this right to vote withholden
from all except those Of a single party
or faction, there is no responsibility TO
guarantee honesty Of conduct IN our
: rulers and legislators. Their party sus-
tains them in whatever they do; and
the DISTINGUISHED cannot even find the
J, means to learn the 0amning facts. The
registration of voters is entirely un-
der the control of the Governor,
!. who may appoint registrars at pleas
ure. and annul the registration OF
81 the voters of q county, with
out being required to give any reason
y for doing so. The consequence OF this
? Omnipotence Of q party is, that there Is
no real republicanism in Tennessee, be-
cause no ruler or legislator is responsible
70 the people, or need fear any rebuke,
If guilty of corruption, extortion or the
unlawful exercise OF arbitrary power.
The school fund is gone,-how, no one
seems to know. Is any one made re-
sponsible for the disappearance OF that
> large and important fund? No one.
= The silence of the grave shrouds the
= whole transaction because those who
shared the fund among them belong to
I the dominant party in the State, and il
would perhaps suffer by their exposure.
It is not likely that it iUOuid suffer; for
when q Government is so organized
I and all the opposition are Gisfranchised,
frauds aud mRlfeasances serve as CO.
] a., E.- Z ala salv7
together. Party always protects and de-
tends its knsves. That is one Of its ne
eessities.
A Governmentsoor organized, and which
has so snnihilsted opposition, as that it
can only talk and not act, becomes an
Oligarcby OF the chiefs and managers,
sustained by the masses, in this case
I black as well as white, who are the
majority below them, and who will con-
tinue to support them, no matter what
| they do. The government of Tennessee
/ is utterly irresponsible; and this oligsr-
! chy possesses the tremendous power OF
/ imposing such barthens as they please
on the property Of those whom they dis
/ franchise. They hold the purse and the
/ sword, and in the Tribunals men pre-
side by no other warrant than the SOW
/ ereign will and pleasure of the one man,
| who assumes the airs and initiates the
/ follies of royalty.
The Declaration of Independence pre-
I ferred this, among other articles of I'm
parchment against the King Of Great
! Britain:
"He has refused to pass other laws for
| the accommodation OF large districts OF
people, unless those people would relin-
/ quish the right OF representation in the |
| Legislature-Arightin estimsble to them, |
] l..
And it impeached him, also, For i'm !
posing taxes on US without our CONSENT /
When the Constitution was made, the |
great struggle for the principle that |
taxation and representation should go |
hand-in-hand, was not forgotten, and It |
was embodied in that instrument, in the |
most positive and distinct manner, by /
these two provisions
REPRESENTATIVES and direct taxes /
shall be apportiOned among the several |
States which may be included within /
this Union, according to their respective |
numb ers, which sdan be determined,
etc."
"No eapitstion or other direct tax
shall be laid unless in proportion to the
census or enumeration herein before di-
rected to be taken"
The Constitution thus declared its
recognition of the principle that each
State should be taxed, not according to
its wealth, nor even to the number
Of its population, but in proportion
20 its representation in the lower
House of Congress. Not according
to numbers, because each State, how
ever small, was to have one Represents
tisc, sad so perhaps might NtaXed out
Of proportion TO its numbeFs and the
States in which slavery existed were
50 g. a q 3 -. /
only OF their slaves, and could only be
taxed in the same proportion. Not only
il no authority given the United
States by the Constitution to tax in
comes and earnings q certain per cent
um, but the power TO do ii is positively
excluded. II Congress had determined
what amount Of money to raise by d.
rect taxation, and apportioned it among
The States according to representation,
New York would probably not pay one
dollar where she now pays fifty, and the
burthen Of the new and poor States
would be propOrtiOnstely increased. The
people OF each State would pay, as it
was intended they should pay, in pro-
portion TO their political power in the
Union. The effect Of emancipation will
be, after the next census, to increase
the political power OF the South, all /
the negroes being counted in as
pertaining the numbers of their popu-
lation; while the immense mum Der of
white men who are disfraDchised, will
be counted to increase the amount Of tax
to be apportioned to each State. BY this
process, the burthen OF taxation OF each
OF these is doubly increased fret, by /
the addition Of two-ifths Of the negroes,
in ascertaining the number of the popu-
latioD; and second by the inclusion OF
Il. In, H.. /
are without vote, and have no political
power.
To disfranchise q man, therefore. and
tax him nevertheless, is as contrary to
the spirit OF the Constitution as it is TO
the dictates OF natural Justice. Whist is
just for the State lie just for the individ-
usl.
No people in the world will long sub
NIT, without an attempt TO throw off the
buTthen, to be taxed without being rep
scented. No people ought to do it. No
large class of prescribed individuals
ought to do it. And wherever this OPP
preston exists, and wherever faction
rules and DISTINGUISHES great numbers OF
persons saud the prOle,aires who have no
property levy such taxes on property as
they please, (" Extortion will be ths A.
SCISSOR, Fraud the Cashier, Confusion the
Accountant, Concealment the Reporter,
and Oblivion the Remembrancer.U In
the words of Burke: " An arbitrary sys-
tenn must always be corrupt one. There
never was man who thought he had
no law but his own will, who did not
soon find that he had no end but his own
profit"
All injustices ultimately turn upon and
rend their suthOrs. The disfrancbise-
meBt Of large bodies Of men, used to ex-
ereising the right Of voting, and whom
their enemies still continue to tax, ends
in their mpoverishment, while its con-
sequences are increased taxation to meet l.
wssteful expenditures and st last the
burthen thus created or increased shifts
to the shoulders OF the men to whose
folly it is owing, and they find that
more things than chickens and curses
come home to roOst. Is
Tyranny is poor provider. Il knows {
neither how to accumulate, nor how to
extract" But it well knows how 10 ex-
ssperate and to arouse hstreds that last
longer than 3 lifetime. We necessarily
tate those who Cypress us and tax us
without our consent.
I .,