The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1871-09-30
How Long
rE'ron, the n. O. Picayunc.

the holders of property in New
Orleans now pay, III Federal,
State and municipal taxes, more
than ten per cent. of the total
assessed value of all personal
and real property within the
limits of the parish of Orleans.
According to the judgment and
deliberate opinion of business
men, not only tho people of this
city and Louisiana, but the peo-
pie Of the entire South, arc now
paying out in the shape Of taxes
more than the actual income up
on their property and industry.
We are working merely for our
subsistence, our victuals and our
clothes all our profits are alb
sOrbed in taxes.
Millions after millions come
into our Southern country every
year. New enterprises arc spring.
ing up. Our people are hopeful
and sanguinc. We have been
favored with peace, health and
fine crops. We have had but
few causes OF trouble and disor-
der. \ general desire to rccu-
pcrate from the losses of the war
has been felt. But here we are,
after six years and four months
Of peace, actually poorer than
VIC We're at the time of Lees
capitulation. We have all been
hard at work in the honest at
tempt to make 4 living. We
have not attempted the impossi-
blc feat OF retrieving our ancient
wealth and prosperity, but Tor
our homes, our families, our
friends and for the needy within
our borders we have laborcd
faithfully and steadily. From
the Chesapeake to the Rio Grande
there is population as indus
trious as any other on the green
earth. What has our labor
amounted to? What have we
to show for our industry In
what respect are we better Oft
now than five years ago?
Every dime of profit OH our
Southern farming has been paid
away in taxes. In the past five
years we have raised for export
fifteen millions of bales OF cot
ton, all paid for by foreign buy
ers, not in cash, but in nerchan-
disc, which paid an average duty
of more than thirty per cent; or
in other terms, the South has con-
tributcd to the Government five
hundred millions bales of cotton
in five years. Our indirect or
tariff tax has cqualed thirty or
forty per cent. upon the aggre-
gate exported product of our
States in all forms. Besides this,
in divers ways, we pay an inter-
nal revenue tax OF more than
two cents in the dollar. After
these heavy eNactions come our
State and municipal or parish
taxes, amounting to six or eight
cents in the dollar. SO that our
triple taxes, imposed by govern
ments in which we are not repre-
scnted, amount annually to one
tenth part of all the property Of
the Southern States.
This is more than the total
profit on our aggregated labor.
Some millions arc brought into
each State every year and in
vested in lands, and such acces-
sions are always most cordially
welcomed and very thoroughly
appreciated. But notwlthstand-
ing these acccssions We arc all
poorer to-day than when Lee
capituIatcd at AppomattoS. We
have had Our victuals and our
clothes, but all the profits OF our
labor have been paid away in
taxes. Literally VIC have been
working for the Government,
getting in return only what was
necessary for subsistence.
There is Il limit to taxation.
When public burdens are piled
so high that they can no longer
be carried, they must bc shaken
off. When taxes absorb all profits
and trench upon the original
capital, they are past endurance.
Sacred as the laws should always
be, the law which taxes the pco-
pic more than they make, and
eats in upon their capital, is past
all tolCratiOn. The laws which
SO tax the people are not true
laws, and ought not to be obeyed,
and when the people of Il State,
without their consent, are SO
pIundercd by the domestic pubIi-
can and the alien sinner, it is
their right and duty to refuse
payment Of these cNactionS, let
the consequences be what they
NAV.