Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-09-14
I am not sure that / do very-ciearly,

am not sure that / do very clearly
and says that q thousand dollars
worth of personal property is eXemp
from taxation and that sum adde,
!, to $3.50 makes 81 $50, the amount o
T property man must own. Whel
s l introduced my resolution ther'
/, was no thousand dollars worth o
r personal property exempt from tax
D alton. That exemption was made
: afterwards, and, of course, my reso
f luton had, and could have, nC
2 reference to any such exemption
2 But what has that got to do with
t 1t +? My proposition is simply this
that a man who does not pay any
: taxes shall not vote taxes upon
those who do. He said in one oi
his speeches, the other day, that
sfhere is a man who owns mules
: worth a thousand dollars, and yet
you do not allow him to vote upon
the proposition to tax the people to
build a railroad" Suppose he does
own a thousand dollars worth of
mules, he does not pay any tax upon
them; but the man who owns a
house and lot worth $3.50 or $500
pays taxes on it; and the great
crime that | committed was to de-
prive man who owns a thousand
dollars worth of personal property,
which he pays no tax, of the luxury
of voting a tax to build a railroad
or other improvement on a poor
man who owns $3.50 of real estate.
He says that is cutting the poor
! people off. 1t is not doing any such
thing. My proposition would cut
off man who owned a hundred
thousand dollars worth of United
States bonds, on which he pays no
taxes at all, and prevent him from
voting tax upon the poor man,
| who owns $3.50 or $500 worth of real
estate. Here comes the man with
! his hundred thousand dollars of
United States bonds and says, II
will use my money and buy up
votes want this railroad built
and | will get tax voted on these
people who own little farms worth
$3.50 or $500 and make them build
it. My hundred thousand dollars
worth of bonds are free from taxa
tiOn and / won't have any of the
tax to pay, but I'll make these small
landowners pay the tax and build
this road" / say to him, no, sir;
you may own your hundred thous-
and dollars worth of bonds, you
pay no tax on them and you shan't
be allowed to vote tax on others. /
With the Inauguration of uniVer- |
sal suffrage, something had to be /
done to protect -burdened people |
of the South against bare majority /
q 10
railroads; making man take stock |
in a railroad whether he wants to |
or not, or in any other internal inn /
proVement.
What did the Constitutional Con- /
ventiOn of Alabama do in 1875? |
When the delegates of that cOnven-
tiOn met, they felt the same thing /
your delegates felt when they met /
in 1870, there had to be something /
done with the Inauguration of uni
versal suffrage, to protect the people |
against this thing of voting tax |
upon them by bare majority vote.
The Constitution of Alabama pro-
vides, "the General Assembly shall /
have no power to authorize any
county, city, town or other subdi-
vision of this State to lend its credit /
or to grant public money or any !
thing of value in aid of or to any |
individual association or corpora
tiOn whatsoever, or to become a
stakeholder in any such corporation,
association or company by issuing
bonds or otherwise"
Now the Constitution of Alabama
absolutely prohibits the Legislature
fn i, /
county, town, etc., from taking
stock, etc., in any railroad. That
is the way they undertook to pro-
tect the people of Alabama against
the introduction of universal suf-
frage-took away from the Legisla-
ture all power to authorize anything
of the sort.
What did Mississippi do in 1868 f?
Its Constitution provides that "the
Legislature shall not authorize any
county, city or town TO become a
stOckhOlder in, or to loan its credit
to any company, association or cor
pOratiOn unless tWO-thirdS of the
qualified votes of said county, city
or town at a special election or reg
ular election to be held therein,
shall assent thereto"
The Constitution of Texas says,
that "all qualified voters of the
State who shall have resided for six
months Immediately preceding an
election within the limits of any
city or corporation shall have the
right to vote for Mayor and all
other elective officers; but in all
elections to determine expenditures
of money or assumption of debt I
only those shall be qualified to vote
who pay taxes on property in said
city or incorporated town.
That is the provision in the Con-
stitution of the State of TeXas-a
provision similar Othe one offered
in the Constitutional Convention Of
Tennessee. But they did not adopt
my proposition, but | was not we'd
ded to that resolution. | was look
ing to the protection of the tax
of this State from utter ruin
in the future. Your debt was then
thirty-five or forty millions, and |
wished to put on the brakes-tO cut
off the power to inflict still more
taxes on the people by popular vote.
This is what the convention did
duODbs anu II Wdo G0iA JihS OQt III .
idea exactly-that is, to effect the
same object:
But the credit of no county, city or Town {
shall be given or loaned to, or in aid of any I
person, company, association or corporation,
except upon an election to be first held by {
the qualified voters of such county, city or {
town, and the assent of three-fOuTths of the
votes cast at said election. Nor shall any
county, city town become a stOckholder
with others IN any company, association or ,
except upon like election and
the assent of like majority. But the coun- {
ties of Granger, Hawkins, Hancock, Union. {
Scott, Morgan, Grundy, Sumner,
etc, shall be excepted out of the provisions
of this section.
This was to protect the taxpayers
of this State from utter ruin. You
see under this clause of the Consti-
tuition it takes the votes of three ;
On-tax-payers to overcome the
vote of one taxpayer, for it says
that whenever a question of that
kind is submitted, unless three
fourths majority vote for it, it shall
not be considered as carried. Some
of the counties of the State said, we
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