Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-04-15
MEMPHIS TAXES
Their Exleat asd ehaFaetsF-A Multiplicity
Of Public EVls-HsW to 0hVIats
Them.

George ". Gin, Esq
Your letter, addressed to me through
the columns Of the APPEAL, deserves q
more extended answer than 1 can now
give. Well may the inquiry be constant
ly made, how can a people live, still less
prosper, when subjected to the enormous
public burdens that now weigh down the
energies and hardly spare the life-bloOd
of this people. Within g brief period 1
may be enabled to state, with absolute
precision, the amount of public and pri-
Vate wealth, and the exact sum levied
upon the city and county by all the inge
NOUS machinery invented of late years,
nominsIly for the good government, really
fox the robbery of the people. You
must know that after the war there were
countless good fellows, good partisans,
who had been good soldiers, entitled, as q
matter of course, to soft places through
all their lives. When Brownlow reigned
he exerted a vast deal of ingenuity in
multiplying Offices for Union soldiers
You see how many we have here in Mem
phis. What q number of courts and
officers of courts, and what a countless
number of cOnstables and shysters of all
gradesl 1 have stated while Brownlow
was Governor more than five thousand
men in this city and county we're preying
upon the industry and toll OF the AK
burdsned people.
PROMISES BROKEN
It was hard to be borne, and the news
papers ofthe Conservative and Democratic
parties promised us perfect relief. L
would have you, MI. Gift, conducting, as
you do, an influential Agricultural jour
nal, tell me why the promises of conservs-
tism have not been kept. We are as horri-
bly, cursed so far as the numbers Of
officers are concerned, as when we
held up our hands in holy horror and
denounced with unmixed bitterness the
knavery of those who seemed to believe
that offices were made for the benefit of
individuals and not to promote the public
good. Great numbers of Ignorant people
who run the Ward msetings, honestly
think that public positions are only de-
signed to reward corrupt politicians for
base practices, or faithful party hacks for
the patience with which they have hauled
about the filthy excretiOns of parry.
Offices, and you newspaper men should
repeat 10 every day, we're made that the
many and not the few might prosper.
Offices are not proper rewards for party or
military services. II we have good
fellows who are too lazy to make a
too lazy by lar to render ut service in 3
public office, and therefore It is true that
Offices should seek men, and not men
offices, and therefore it is true that the
best and worthiest citizens stand alOOf,
while worthless brass rushes in. We
should have an asylum for the good fell
lows" but never put them in offices, We
propose to collect accurate statistics of the
cost of being governed under the present
BURDENsOME SYSTEM;
we propose to lessen through legislative
action, by half, the number of place hold
ers in the city and county we propose to
show that the people of this city and
county are mulcted by the several gov
ernments that plumber US, and by their
agents, hangers-On, shysters and other
employees to the extent OF about five nil
lions annually, and then we would claim
that even the existence Of Memphis be-
comes q miracle.
Respectfully,
". B. GREENLAW.