The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-04-12
THE TAX RESISTERS' MEETING,

THE TAX RESISTERS' MEETING.
In the Courier of last Saturday appear
ed q communication over the names of
twenty-six persons of this Spanish, calling
for a meeting to be held at the Court
house in Opelousas, to-day, for the pur-
pose of resisting the payment of taxes,
etc. We are informed that sixteen out
of the twenty-six do not figure on the
assessment or tax rolls, and consequently
have no taxes to pay. Tax resistance
with themiis all fun. They have no
property to be seized, and they can laugh
with impunity at the trouble into which
tax resistance viii bring genuine tax
payers OF property holders. We pre-
sumo these n~On-prOperty holding, nom
taxpaying gentleme merely signed their
names to get rid of the opportunities of
some interested party, and will not even
attend the meeting where it would be
ridiculous for them to appear. They
would be laughed at by bona fde tax
payers, who would have to pay the cost
of resistance while these n~on-prOperty
holding gentry would get off with the
loss of nothing but a little superf1ous
gas in the shape of oficious and I'M
wholesome advice to those who know
better what to do than their advisors.
When one wants or needs advice in re-
gard to preserving his property, let him
go to a prOperty-hOIder who has made
his property and knows howto take care
of it, and not to one who has improperly,
and who has neither done the one nor
knows the other. Itist to behoped there
fore, that if the meeting is to be COM
posed Of tax resisters, they will exclude
from the same those resisters who are
not property holders.
Of the remaining ten, out of the twen-
ty-six, three have already paid their
State licenses. And Oneof them, we are
informed, has stated, since his name ap-
peared in the Courier as aforesaid, that
while he was pposedt to Kellogg, having
voted for McEnery, he did not intend to
offer any active resistance to the collec-
ton of taxes, but would pay his taxes,
and would not attend themeeting called
over his name. He has already made
arrangements to have his taxes paid,
and they will be paid among the first.
There are some things in connection
with the publication of these gentlemen's
names that we think rather singular.
Among them we do not see the name Of
a single one of the three members of the
legislature from this parish who sat in
the McEnery legislature. Among them
we do not see the name of a single indi-
vidual residing at OpelOusas, or Wash
ington, or in this immediate section of
the parish.
A tax resisters' list for signatures has
been kept at a certain popular stand in
OpelOusas, for several weeks, for sigma
lures; and that list has not been publish
ed. Why is this2 We have watched
the growth of this Opelousas list from
week to week, but candor compels us to
say that it's growth has not been rapid.
The first week it had one signature, the
next weekith had another and they were
all it had received up to last Thursday
evening. The taxpayers in the estab-
lishment where it is deposited, have not
even signed it. Why have not this Ope-
lousas list, the Washington, Chicot, Vile
Plate, Plaquemine Brulee, Grand Coteau,
eros Chevreuil, Arnaudville, and other
lists, been published? Have Big Cane
and Bellevue to bear the brunta and after
claps Of tax resistance in this parish?
do not think this would be fair. Let
those who are here on the ground, at the
seat of justice, and who have daily &C
cess to the courts without travelling a
long distance and being absent from
their homes and business al considerable
loss of time and pecuniary expense, test
this question of tax resistance first and
put their property in jeopardy; then, if
they succeed, the people from Big Cane
and other distantparts of the parish, can
suit. In the meantime, it would
be foolish for the Big Cane people to al
low themselves to be used as cats paws.
If they are wise, they will not be here
to-day; or, if they are, they will turn
over the tax resisting business to those
who reside here on the ground where the
question is to be decided.
The Courts Of this parish, both District
and Parish, will sustain thepresent State
government, as matters now stand it is
their plain duty under the rulings of the
Supreme Court. Under such circum-
it is very evident that the tax
resisters would come to griefif the ques-
ton was brought before the Courts but,
under the law, their property would be
seized and sold without the intervention
Of any Court.
We commend to the attention of our
resisting readers the items we pub
fish relative to this subject, some of
are taken from strong Democratic
sources.
ADVICE TO TAxPAYERs.-We think
that class of our citizens who did not
see it then, are now beginning to see
sensibleness of our advice, or rather
suggestion, to pay their taxes to the
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