The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-04-05
S. G,
Friday Morning. April s. 1879.
How We Are Taxed.

WIG 0ou0IhA hooSAoiy3 dAO p6uuluB LQ0
consideration Of bills to raise supplies,
and determine the proper rate of taxa
tion therefor for the current fiscal year,
the Union, as it has never failed to do,
came staunchly up to the support of our
dishonest and profligate State officials,
and urged an increase of taxation to the
figures which were finally settled upon.
Every mean and false device that un-
scrupulous cunning could suggest was
sesorted to, to instigate, impel and per-
suade the colored and the better in
clined white representatives, to give
their sanction to tho outrageous and
ruinons rate OF taxation which the
blood.suckers of the State had fixed
upon as the minimum required to crafty
their unholy avarice for twelve month.
One day We would witness u squirt of
venom upon the white people of the
State that could only spring from the
low, envious hate of a conscious vaga-
bond. Our white people were beslimed
as lazy. thriftless, dishonorable; in
short, no people on Gods globe are SO
degraded as the old white citizens of
South Carolina. according to the Union.
The next day would come howl of
Ku Klux horrors to add zest to the abuse
of the day before, and make the black
people believe it.
Then we would be edited, on the Coy
following, with unctious lectures upon
the moral obligation that rested upon
the State to pay fraudulent debts. Re-
pudiation was not to be thought Of; only
the dishonorable white people could
favor such an infamous procedure as
that. Fraud. forgery and theft might
with impunity stalk through the land,
and thrust their 'grasping talons without
hindrance into the pockets of the peo-
pie, but it would be base to repudiate
debt. however unjustly foisted upon You.
Again, and to cap the climax Of impu-
dence, we were informed that it was all
Democratic Misrepresentation and spite
against the so-called Republican admi-
nistration, that made it appear that the
State was heavily taxed. A parallel was
attempted to be run between the rate of
taxation on the cotton plantations of
South Carolina and the grain and dairy
farms of the North, by which it was
most successfully shown, if only the
facts had been truthfully stated, that
our public burden was vastly the lighter
of the two.
We replied to those arguments at the
time, and exposed their utter falsity.
But we were not in possession OF statis-
tics from the various States, and could
speak with no absolute certainty of the
comparative rate of taxation. We have
those statistics now. They are given in
the Nation, of the date of March %,
and taken from the census report of
1870, the highest and latest authority in
the land. The rate of taxation per thou
sand dollars is thus given for the various
States: y
Nevada, S26 81; Louisiana, 81 .85; Ar
kansas, Is. 33; Mississippi, 1856; Maine,
1886; Nebraska, II. So; Alabama, 14.77;
Kansas. IA Is; South Carolinas 13 80;
New Hampshire, 1888; Iowa, 1862;
California, 1925; Massachusetts. II. GO;
Minnesota. 1157; Oregon, 11.26; Virgi-
mia, 1l.2G; Florida, 1928; Missouri,
1882; Ohio. 1852; Maryland. 1890;
illinois, 1928; Georgia. 979; Kentucky,
9.48; Vermont, 907; West Virginia,
9.O3; North Carolina, 9.O2; Indiana,
8.51; New Jersey. 7.88; Connecticut,
1888; Wisconsin, 7.67; Michigan, 1852;
New York, TAT; Rhode Island, 7.3l;
Texas. ITO; Tennessee, CTS; Pennsylva-
MIA, 6.44; Delaware, 4.30.
In this table. South Carolinn stands
ninth in the list, and even then is far
ahead of the States which embrace the
s'grain and dairy farms" We invite
the attention of the Union to that fact,
and will be glad to hear what it has to
say why sentence either for gross igno-
rance or wilful mis.statements should
not be passed upon it.
But we are not half done yet. The
above statistics were made out upon
data furnished on the 1st of June, 1870.
In other words, the figures represent the