The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-01-02
THE CITY DEBT.
Shall Tax be Levied for the Payment
Of Past-due Debt and Accruing In
terest!
To the Officers Of the City Council of Charles.

/
To the Officers Of the City Council Of Charles
| ton:
GENrLEXES-As you are now about to make
assessments for the expenses Of the city gov
ernment, and may be disposed to include in
them estimates for the interest and insta!
ments past due, OF what is assumed to be, the
city debt, we, who question Its validity ant
taxable obligation, would ask you to consider
We feel assured you would not tax thai
debt upon US If you did not conceive thai
you had the authority to do so. That would
| be taking our money by force, Knowing your
| want OF authority to take 1t, and that were
robbery. There would be nothing conceivable
to distinguish 1t from that. grave offence
You are officers with power, In certain cases,
to execute for taxes, but the sheriff himself
would commit robbery or murder II he were
to take property or life without a warrant
More than this, you have accepted the Office
you hold, and have sworn to discharge its
duties, and you would scarcely conceive u
consistent with the obligations of that oath
to take s320,0 to the interest and s40O. 900 to
the past-due principal of q debt you DO not
think obligatory, or which you do not think
you have the power to enforce. We are en-.
tirely assured your action In the matter will
depend upon your sense OF your authority,
and that, without reference to the crimes II
would involve, you would not gratultously
infct upon the community the sunerlngs
such unauthorized burden must occasion.
Then, have you the authority? II 80, whence
comes it? From the charter, certainly, for In
that Is all your power. You are but eighteen
respectable gentlemen, without, aud utterly
incompetent to any act whatever affecting the
political futures of your ftllow-citizens. Is
it thence? In what clause of it ? Could you
take that charter, and under 1t make stock at
pleasure, not indicating the object OF II; issue
Stock to the construction of railroads beyond
the city, ana beyond the State-as you know
this has been made, and tax the interest and
principal of that stock upon the citizens. The
object of the corporation, declared In the
charter itself, Is to make the regulations ne
cessary to the preservative peace and order
of the town. The po,oers thereto are TO make
bylaws, rules and ordinances necessary, res.
pecting the "harbor, streets. lanes, public
buildings, engines. pumps, buckets, the poor
deserving people and negroes" and other
lesser matters, not more than sixteen IN all.
Is this stock q regulation; or bylaw, RUE
or ordinance or, If so, is 1t rule or regula.
ton respecting the harbor, streets, lanes.
or any other CT the subjects enume-
In general, every other bylaw or rregu-
lation necessary to the security, welfare,
peace, order and good government OF the
town" But this still gives but the further
power Of regulation, not the power to regulate
anu other s,bject. 1t does not say other sub
jects, but merely euery other by.tato or Te9u!d-
Noa, aud that 1t does not intend to include any
other subject, Is evident In the fact that the
next Legislature, In l7s5, BY amendment;
gave to Council Jurisdiction Of the '.price and
dsstzs OF bread, of lotterteS," Of the Jortifcd
tions, and of excavations along the custom
lane, Why this, If, under the general clause,
the Jurisdiction had been extended to dlscre-
tionary objects aud BY act OF 1917, the 1uris-
diction to open ana ,oiden streets was vested ID
o committee, and that, too, when the lurlsaie,
ton of streets was originally vested ~ Inc
Council. Clearly, the Council, by the general
clause, was not intended to have Jurisdiction,
even for the purpose of regulation, but over
the objects specifically enumerated. The terms
do not impart it. The subsequent amendments
exclude the implication of 1t, and It Is not TO
have been intended, for, If not confined to the
courts, churches and domestic relations
had been within the power.
~ regulation, of what is this stock,
obligatory upon the faith Of the city,
payable In ten or twenty years OF
six per cent.-the regulation OF some, the
object is not indicated, and that If regu!a'
lation OF individual property In Charleston.
Of some the object Is the construction OF Fall.
roads beyond the limits Of the town, and that
NAV possibly be regarded as IN regulation OF
those roads; but whether the one or the other,
it is Impossible the Legislature could have
intendeda power Of regulation 80 extensive,
mentioning pumps, engines and buckets that
they might be within the power, It is inco9-
celvable, 1t could have intended, notWlthsiand-
ing that the Council should regulate the whole
range of private property, and railroads 10
other States, besides. And iDconceiTable, also,
ifit had intended putting private property at
the discretion of the Council to be the basis Of
any issue of stock to any object whatever, 1t
would have Indicated this purpose by clause
which gave the power Of regulation only, ana na
that, only, In reference to certain enumerated
objects, and these the most obviously subject to
the authority of q municipal government.
Clearly under that charter you could not
make this stock. But, If 30, could you tax 1t
on us? Your only power In this respect Is to
make such assessments for the safety, conve-
nience, benefit and advantage Of the city as
ment expedient? Is 1t expedient to the safety
Of the city Many believe 1t will crush 1t. Do
YOU thinE otherwisei Is 1t e1pedlent to the
convenience of the city? In what possible
respect Ito the benefit and advantage of the
CITY? Is were ridiculous to suggest that the
exactiOn of this enormous sum Oh money from
this city in any state Of its fortunes, much less
from it now, 10 its present condition, can be
of benefit or advantage. We do, we think,
but Justice to your intelligence In assuming
that If these were original questions you could
neither find the power under this charter 10
make thls stock or to tax 1t on the people. 1t
Is not rule or regulation, and, therefore. you
could not make 1t. The payment Is not expe-
dent to the safety, convenience, benefit or
advantage of the city, and, therefore, you
could not tax iI-if the power to assess were
the power to tax, which it is not, at least to
the extent of issuing executions TO enforce
assessments, Tor execution requires special
power.
But 1t has been done; the obligation has
been incurred; and you are concluded, you
say, as to the expediency of this tax by the
action of your predecessors. Is this so? Had
they authority to make this stock you have
not? Did they act under other charter or
power? If you could not incur the debt could
they II q wrong to make 1t, is 1t less wrong
to enforce 1t made by others? This we will
consider In another number. TAXPAYER.
THE WEATHER THIS DIY.