New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-09-06

! Va eAO uOOe. All tul6 TeSl6tduCo auC
, evasion offered an excuse in the poverty
Of the people, and in the honest belief O.
} many that their taxes were improperly
assessed or applied When, however, ar
active. attorney with no care or con.
nection with the existing embarrassment
of the country, dedicates his time and
talents to the accumulation of wealth
by means of professional counsel te
financial burglars upon the treasury Of
the nation; when in the universal alb.
sorption of business enterprises in the
prosecution of dreadful civil war we
find the same adroit attorney absolutely
weaving in with his professional duties
large commercial ventures" we can not
but note great difference between the
enraged and ruined Southern citizen and
the cautious, thrifty and prosperous mil
lionaire.
Hence We are more disposed to regard
with indulgence the weakness and pre-
JUDGE which actuates the resister of taxes,
than the calculating cunning which
evades, upon any pretense, the payment
Of a tax which the law has left to his
honor to fix. There are perhaps few of
our taxpayers who had not contributed to
their cause by gifts of the most precious
nature, whether Of sons or substance.
Their fidelity to their cause, however mis-
taken, had contributed to impair their
ability to comply with subsequent obi
| cations. Attorney Tilden, however,
withheld his contributions to the cause
Of the Union at moment when all con-
| tributions must have been essential to the
success of the Union arms.
We have had school of mistaken
casuists who claimed that it was perfectly
right to "beat the government out of its
taxes" Such was the reasoning en-
ployed in behalf Of those who defrauded
the government out of the whisky tax.
1t was plain that these selfish and dis
honest men beat their fellow citizens out
Of the whisky tax which they put in their
own pockets, since other people had to
make good whatever the whisky knave
was short in payment of his taxes. We
have seen the distinction between what
man advises as an attorney and what he
believes as a man, carried to an extent
which would utterly discredit everything
that an attorney could utter profession
ally. Attorney Tilden put the extraordi-
nary construction upon his own oath that |
the true taxes could not be ascer-
tanned until his contingent fees and |
Commercial ventures" had been realized |
Now, it would be interesting to know
whether he conscientiously advised him
self as attorney, that this was moral
and patriotic construction of his oath?
We can not permit ourselves to believe
that Attorney Tilden deemed it proper to
'beat the government out of its taxes. "
1t does not seem that he entered very
warmly into the war. 1t even appears
that be regarded it as failure, but we
can not suppose that with many Of our
fellow-citizens, he considered
be was paying for dead horse in liqui-
dating tax on cotton or whisky. On the
contrary, the successful prosecution of
the war must have given great value
to Attorney Tilden's enterprises profess
,ional and otherwise commenced. His
evasion of taxes must then have been
based upon supposition that he was
lnder no obligation to pay up in full for
he maintenance Of a government until he
Knew whether he was to have govern
nent to protect him and his money. It
vas a question of consideration with At
orney Tilden. He perhaps reasoned thus:
Here am called on to pay taxes for the
support Of this government Suppose
his government goes down? Then there
esults TO me no consideration whatever
or my taxes. But if I do not pay taxes
he government may go down for want Of S
hem. This is serious dilemma. 1t may
e solved thus will pay such percent i
&c of my taxes as conscientiously think
epresent the chances of the govern a
lent to sustain itself. l will with i
old a percentage as penalty. +
hould the administration of Lincoln fail s
, take care Of me and my property, l t
ill treat the government as any other i
ublic contractor, and retain a percent S
60 of the compensation to be paid, on f
with the contract" This is an L
torney's argument in favor Of evading i,
ayment in full of taxes. We think it d
uch better than the open attempt to S
eat the government out Of its taxes. n
ttorney Tilder had ventured his whole Ii
rtune in the ship of the Union, whereof, fa
that time, Abraham Lincoln was mas T
r; he held bill Of lading. Why should s,
e have liquidated his full freight until b
} was satisfied that his cargo would ar Z
We in safety? fr
AKING LIGHT OF A SERIOUS MATTER. =
The Picayune and Times have not had =
Oh hearty laugh over anything since 8,
Democrat was chosen official organ of -
8 party, as over the attempt by band r.,
rufians in Pointe Coupee parish to as Il,
,sinate three we'll known members of b,
3 Legislature in a sklff while coming of
wn the river. 1t is too laughable for il
ything. The Picayune borrows happy m
"a from the we'll known farce of Mac ~
th, and opens the case in this happy