New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-01-10
WASHINGTON.
, n1prcT TAXES AMENDMENT.

A DIRECT TAXES AMENDMi'-'A' -
ASSESSING TAXES ACCORDING TO PoPOLAiIoN 90.
JUST TO THE soUTH-wEAITH A BE TIN 3d. oa,,0
SOUTH CAROLINA AND MAsSAChOSNii' wa
PARED. ,, -p,n,rSv I
txvov TUE RFGuIAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE ihiDo
W,s,rvcrox Ian. 9.-Among the amendments 10
an, C,o,,.,itrtiop of the United States which nave
~, r,ronosed in tho House this session Is one ny
n Pm Of Texas, providing that direct taxes
IN Lo Levied upon the States and the DlstIlct oi
Co1n,nbia in proportion to the amount OF property
r., contain instead of in the ratio of their popu
Iat;on IN that of the whole Union. Judge Reagan
would also allow the States and the DISTRICT 0,
Columbia TO make use of their own local onlcels anu
machinery for collecting such taxes snould tey 50
elect. provided that the Government OF inc ohi'eu
States retain the right to collect the tax l'se III any
State that refuses neglects to pay "
,be General Government within reasonable une
after the tax is levied.
Tbi. amendment is intended to correct what is
considered by the Southern people to be the grossly
uniust system of levyng direct taxes. Inc aoiii'S
Of any State to pay taxes depends not on It's popu
,a.on but rnon the amount of its productive prop
orty The present method of appOrtioning direct
,os ia the result of a compromise between the rep
oaor,otives Of the North and of the South in the
constitutional Convention. The representatives OF
no connted IN determining the number of represent
o6ves in Congress- State should have, while the
delegates from those States where the lnsu-
tuition of Slavery was weak and declining OBJ
;.c,ad Finally, it was thought fair that
tbree-6ftbs of the slaves should be counted ID
determining the representation of state III Con
gress provided the same proportion OF them was
also included in the population of the state, when
the basis for levyng direct taxes was TO he found
If the revenues of the Government had been
derived from direct taxes, this arrange
ment might have had some Of the elements
of fairness in it, but as direct taxes were
almost unknown before the late war, surplus
revenues having given the statesmen OF that PERIOD
more trouble than the problem how to raise them
the South always had undue influence IN the
National Legislature without giving any thing for II
in return.
Now the tables have been turned. Emancipation,
while il has added nearly million to the representa-
tive population of the South, has also increased by
the same number its taxable population without
aucmenting its ability to pay taxes. This is very
strkingly illustrated in the of South Carolina.
The value of property in that State i'll 1850 was
SiSl3S7 54, and in 1870 $20S, JAG, 9S9-a de-
crease of more than fifty per cent. The free popnla-
ton of the State IN 1850 301, PA and the num-
Ter Of slaves 402, 406; adding three-ffths of the
latter to the former gives $40, 657, the population
on which representation in Congress or direct taxa
ton would then be computed, and South Cardinals
share of any direct tax that might have been levied
would have been about one-tifty-eighth. In 1870
the population of the state (al free was 7O56O6,
and its share of any direct tax now levied would be
about one-ffty-fourth. In other words, while the
ability of South Carolina to pay taxes has been re-
duced more than one-half since 1860 her liability
to the General Government has been actually ILL
creased.
Comparing the case OF South Carolina with that of
Massachusetts we find that while the latter has but
pnetweuty-frst of the population of the Union, she
has more than one-ninth of the wealth. The per-
ecntage of taxation the property, should direct
tax be levied, would therefore be more than twice
rs great in South Carolina as in Massachusetts,.
The difference is not great, when the whole OF the
South is compared with the whole of the North, and
set the inequality of the tax is then oonsidsra
BILE. The Southern States had in 1870, less than
one-ffth of the wealth of the whole Union, while
they had more than one-thiTd of the population, 50
that should direct tax now be levied, the South
with one-ffth of the property would have to pay
One-thrd of the tax-the same amount of tax, on an
average would have to be paid on sixty cents in the
South as on one dollar in the North. From these
facts it will be that the Southern Representa-
tiyes will make pretty strong case in favor of
Judge Reagan's amendment.