Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-12-02
LOCALIZED ROBBERY IN LOUI-
SIANA

AZ 10 WI III Nni1C " SuOW, iO1 Tie Gu
ification Of those who think the South
ern people FESTIVE without cause, what
sort of taxes are collected Just now in
Louisiana, and under what sort Of laws
Kellogg sends forth his steamboats,,
his GatliD guns, and his armed metrop-
olltans to enforcetheir prompt payment.
The NeaU Orleans Times of Nov. TO has
an article showing that piece of pro-
perty worth $1,000 in 1850, but which
now would not fetch more than $500,
was assessed in that year $40 for State
taxes, but now has to pay 500. This
IS an increase in twenty three years of
1000 per cent, i. e., where man paid
81 in 1850, he is now obliged to pay $40.
An atrocious feature of the law under
which these enormous taxes are collect
ed is a provision by which,
after thirty days, the de-
hnquent taxpayer "forfeits his
right to bring suit before any justice,
parish or district or State court, and
every court having jurisdiction within
the State shall deny and refuse to issue
a civil process of any kind or nature
whatever in his name or for his behalf"
until his taxes are paid. In other
words, if this twenty-fold tax, laid by
bogus Legislature for the support of a
fraudulent government, and In possible
payment of the interest upon swind-
ling debts, should By any chance not
be paid within thirty days after three
advertisements in some obscure paper,
or failing that, by hand-bill upon tree
or gate-post, the delinquent taxpayer
is OatIatced. Kellogg's metropoitans
may enter into and possess his proper
ty. He cannot go to court to eject
them They may cast him into prison
as an absconding debtor. He cannot
extricate himself; he has no standing
Whatever in court until he "shows his
pass" Such is the freedom of
which native Americans can boast in
this third quarter of the nineteenth
century, this age of progress and en-
hghtenment, when thrones are totter-
ing throughout the world, and the op-
pressed people of Europe are looking
to our land for their mode of future
governments.
A writer in the Nea1 Orleans Times
of Nov. 26 gives in round figures the
burdens under which Louisiana groans.
The State debt is about thirty millions,
while that Of the city of New Orleans
is twenty-five millions. Add to these
the small estimate of five millions for
the outside parishes, and we have a to-
tai of S60,000,000. The private indebt-
edness of planters, in the way of mort
cages and advances from foreign capt.
talists on crops, cannot beless than $780,
100000 making total Of Sl00,000,000,
on which interest must be paid contin-
ually. The report of the State Audi
tor for 1870 placed the entire taxable
property of the State at S25l, 246,0l7,
but SO great has been its depreciation
since, owing to Radical misrule and in
tensified taxation, that it wouldnot sell
to-day for more than S100,000,000-
thus, showing, that under the Kellogg
administration, all the property of the
State would not bring under the ham,
mer, the amount Of debts for which it
stands mortgaged. The total of taxes
for the current year is Sl2,72S, 900,
while the accumulation of back taxes
amount to nearly as muchmore-giving
an aggregate Of taxes, to be now col
lected by Kellogg's bayonets under
the above infamous law, as
about One-fourth Of the saleable
value of the property. These taxes are
enhanced by the gross injustice Of tax
ing the same property over again in the
hands of the holder and of the mort
eager. A. inherited from his father a
plantation worth $4,000, but years of
adversely have given B. mortgage on
it to the same amount-not its original
value, but all it is worth under present
misrule. So A. must pay taxes on S10,-
600 and B. must do likewise. This
grievance exists throughout the State
to a degree not dreamed of in the more
fortunate commonwealth. So much
for the rural districts. Of New Or
leans the writer in the Times says:
"As to the urban population of the
State, particularly the inhabitants Of
New Orleans, it may be safely asserted
which assertion would be confirmed
by their almost unanimous testimony,
if necessary-that hardly any one of
them, whatever may be his pursuits,
his capacity, his energy, and the ample
amount Of property he owns, has been
able to cover the current expenses of
the year, Notwithstanding the strictest
vigilance and economy. For the first
time, history, which is said to repeat
itself but too often, will have to record
a fact without precedent-which is
that in times of profound peace, in the
century of the Christian
Era, among people claiming to be the
most free and prosperous of all nations
on the globe, there is a city of 100000
souls, called New Orleans, and far
famed for its commercial advantages,
where two-thirds of the revenue of the
therein situated would not be
accepted as a gift on condition to pay
the taxes, and that there are in it daily
scenes of distress, which are as heart
rending as any invented by the fertile
imagination of Dickens"
SINCE government officials have be-