Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-04-29
HOW THE RARREERs OF LAW ARE
TO BE mROEEN rb0wN.

sess such tax on property and polls
as may be necessary to- pay teach
ers, or meet the incidental expenses
of causing to be taught the neces-
sary schools as now required by
law, five months in each year; and
should any further. tax then be
deemed necessary for the purpose
of building, or repairing, or fur
nishing school houses, they shall es-i
innate said amount, not to exceed
three mills on the dollar, or fifty
cents on each poll, and submit
the question of assessment, to
the legal voters of the district !"
and if the majority of the legal
voters of this district, present at
said meeting, shall vote for the
assessment, it shall be, assessed
This was handing the question Of
taxing the property-owners, two
thirds of whom are DISTINGUISHED,
over to irresponsible parties, The
white citizens of ClarksYille resist
ed this tax on the ground that it's
assessment was an unconstitutional
stretch of power. Judge Shackel-
ford, who was then the presiding
Chancellor, granted an injunction
restraining the collection of the
tax, and at the late session of the
Supreme Court in this city, he in
the meantime having been appoint
ed to the Supreme Court, the Judge
delivered an opinion, in which
Judge Smith concurred, declaring
the law unconstitutional and void.
Now for the sequel, In his address,
Judge ShackeIford says: 600 ad
"This decision gave serious offense to
the Superintendent Of Public instruction,
Gen. Eaton, and the whole machinery of
the office. The County Superintendent,
regulated by their grand head at the
capital, were brought into requisition
and force to have US overthrow in the
convention. Combinations were thus
formed, and the result is thus before the
people-Smith and weat overheard. A
tax amounting to 5000 year had
been levied in the sub district at Clarks.
Ville-a large sum to pass through q
few hands, not to educate the children,
but for incidental expenses. The
County Superintendent for that county
receives a salary of about $500.
This is taken from the school
fund. The levying Of this tax was the
entering wedge-the beginning of sys-
tenn that would have oppressed the PEG
pie with onerous taxes; thousands of dol>
lars would have passed through their
hands. The action of Smith and myself
had given them great offense, in de-
claring they had no power to levy the
tax. am as much in favor Of common
schools, as any man in the State; but
am unwilling, by any act of mine, un-
less | am compelled by positive law to
do SO, to permit the levy of taxes in adj
dition to the enormous burdens now upon
the people, and take from them their hard
earnings and give it to strangers who are
fattening upon our substance"
Judge Shackelford states that he
and Judge Smith in arriving at this
decision, were governed by a de.
cision of the Supreme Court of this
State, rendered in 1882, when
Judges Green, Catron and White
were on the bench, in which it was
held that the Legislature had no
power to delegate the right to levy
and collect tax. The constitution
of 1884 being framed in accordance
with this decision, Shackelford and
Smith, being the majority of the
court, held that the Legislature
could not delegate to the sub-dis-
trict directors the power to levy
and collect a tax, as prescribed in
the act of March II, 1868. Judge
Shsckelford declares that he "could
not have faced an honest Tennes-
see lawyer and have held other
wise" For this honest discharge
of duty the Judge tells the people
of Tennessee that the Superintend-
ent of Public Instruction and his
sub-agents throughout the State
have been working with might aud
main to have himself and Judge
Smith defeated in the convention,
and they triumphed. We desire
to call the particular attention of
the tax payers of the State to this
resolution. Here was an onerous
tax assessed upon property hold
ers in addition to the heavy tax
already imposed by the Legisla-
ture, and voted too mainly by men
who pay neither a property nor
poll tax, and when Judges of the
Supreme Court, in the conscien-
tious discharge of their duty, and
in the light reflected by the
great minds of Green, and Catron,
and White, declare this tax uncon-
stitutional, the Superintendent of
Public instruction marshals his
paid sHbordinates, and instead of
looking after the interests of the
schools in operation, they go into
political meetings and labor to have
these Judges defeated for this de-
cision, that others who they hope
will prove more pliable, may take
their places. They aren not content
with the taxes already wrung from
the people for school purposes and
misapplied by Radical officials, but
they make relentless war upon the
men who stand between them and
their pet scheme of still further