Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-09-03
CONDEMNED BY THEIR OWN
SHOWING.

min LnDHEHn0. nN6 nA14EGu GAu LnAEAEGh
dollars and Hinety-three cents. SS009,5I3 80
Ia 1885 they were sixteen milton, eight
hundred and thirty=seysn dollars and thur
ty-four1 cents. EI6, Kos, 437,A) more than twice
as much, and this amount was increased by
abstraction ofnearly q million dOtlGrs frOm
the Sotdiers' Relief Fund, and its appIica-
ton to the current expenses"
"1n Allen county alone the taxation for
for State purposes has run up from eleven
thousand thee undre and forty two dol
lars in 1855 to Twenty-Five Thousand one
ga 1eS Ior al were upward TWEEN
ty millions. In that year OYer two millions
we're raised for the Soldiers Relief Fund.-.
The next year. fearing to lay additional
taxes, even desiring to reduces them, they
took h money, thus levied, in direct ViO-
latton OF the constitution, n applied 1t to
aThey boast or reducing h state debt,
Let as see. In ten years they have paid OF
one million, n~inety-stx thousand two hua-
dred and sixty dollars and two cents Isl 1885,
80 o. Very good SO far; but / have shown
Twelve Millions more thai IN is5s. and in
another year eight millions more. In each
taxes OF 1856, eight times as much as they
have paid on the public debt during the
whole ten years.
Such, two years ago, was Mr.. P0ndle-
toms Indictment Of Republican man
sgement Of the State finances. Since
il was made the Democracy have had q
two yeRrR lease Of power in the State
and have had exclusive control-o of all
matters ~oftaxation and appropriation
Of the public money. They have
had nc war upon their hands, or
other extraordinary emergency increas-
ing the expenditures Of government.
Let us see what improvement they have
made on the management Of the Re-
publicans.
The taxes collected in the State for
all purposes in 1867 were s2O,617,97 z 81.
rhe Democrats obtained control Of the
Legislature in the Of that year
aud in the ensuing January assumed
the responsibilities of legislation with
such noisy promises Of retrenchment
as might have led the unsophisticated
to suppose they would make a large
reduction in the amount Of taxes. They
held a legislative session Of 1874 days
the longest ever held in the State-cer-
tainly long enough to enable them to
mature whatever measures of economy
and retrenchment they were:able toprO-
duee, the result was thst the taxes
collected in that year IS6s) amounted
to $21, o06, 822 "A, or nearly half a million
more than had been levied by the pre-
Republican Legislature.
But this is not all, or the worst
Since the taxes weae collected last year
we have had two sessions OfDem-
legislation and so-called re-
trsncbment. The result is that there
will be levied and collected within the
State for all purposes this year taxes
amounting to over tlpsaty-three millions.
or two and half millions more than
was collected in 1866 and fifteen mill
lions more than was collected in 1856.
Now until Mr.. PendletOn can make q
better showing than isis for the Demo-
cratic Legislature he had better not find
fault with the Republicans.
But while the aggregate Of tsxstion
has been thus increased under Demo-
cratic misrule there has been no cor
responding diminution OF the State
debt. The increased amount of revenue
has been applied TO paying the increas-
ed expenses of the State government
and not to relieving the State OF its OBJ
legations. While the Republicans with
an aggregate tax of sixteen to twenty
millions paid S~S,54s,6SO Of the public in
~debtedness in the years 1857, the DEM
ocrats with a tax of twenty to twenty
three millions paid in 1873 only $685.,
O35. That is, the Republicans with tax
alton from four to eight millions less
relieved the State of SI,255, 595 of
its debt than did the Democrats.
In 1865 the rate of taxation for State
purposes was 5 $40 mllls on the dollar
valuation, but in 1866 the Republican
Legislature reduced it to 81 mills
That is, the Republicans reduced the
rate of taxation from So cents per 500
to IS cents per 500. Can the Demo-
Gratis show any such reduction2 On the
contrary the rate of taxation for State
purposes remains the samethis yearthat
it was three years ago, in spite of all
their boosted retrenchment, and would
have been much larger had they not
taken part of the levy which had been
provided to pay the debt Of the State
and used it in meeting the increased
expenditures caused by the extraordin-
airy length and number OF their legisla-
tive sessions.
Mr.. Pendleton compares the amount
Of AXE levied for all purposes in 1856
with h mount levied in 1866, ten
years later, and proceeds to argue as if
the Republicans were wholly response
bic for the increase. He makes no al
lowance for the Immense growth in
wealth aud population during thoseten
years, and seems utterly unconscious
that a Democratic rebellion forced upon
the State an enormous extraordinary
expense for which the Republican Leg
islatures had to provide. For this ih-
creased expenditure, caused by
unnecessary war organized and wag-
ed wholly by Democrats, he as
sumes thai Republicans were alone
to blame, and be would have had
us provide the money and men to crush
q four years.rebelIion and preserve the
life of the nation, without adding a
dollar to the tax duplicate. But since
the Democrats have found Unnecessary
to add nearly three millions OF dollars
to the duplicate in two years Of pro-.
found peace, is it very strange that the
Republicans should have increased it
in about the same ratio in time dwarf
Mr.. Pendleton compares the levies OF,
1866 with that of 1856, as though the.
latter was h standard TO which. the
present levies should come. Butifthis
is so, why did moi the Democratic Leg<.
bring the levy of 1865 to that
standard ? If the Republican Legisla--
lure of 1866 is to be condemned for hav-
ing levied eight millions more than was
levied IN 1856, what is to become OF the