The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1881-01-10


In the year lS5O.lS60, on q levy OF forty
cents upon the dollar OF assessed value
was IS O36 874. In 1850 1881, when every
species Of property Ia taxed, the revenue
cannot be counted upon for more than
f2, loo, COO net, although the levy Is now
since 1871, A ty cents. And whereas fpr'
merly the State levy Of forty cents was
substantially the whole extont Of our pub
lIc burden, now the aggregate OF city
county, State, and Federal exaCtions eqna.
a tax Of 81 per cent on the assessed value
OF property, or So S3I on every 500 Of oul
taxable values.
The expenses Of tho Stale government
now, under the most frugal Rdminist'a
lion, cannot be put at less han 81 400 900,
including the constitutional charge Of tn
free schools, and averaged aboutS II 600 600
until the ReadjustCrs came into power,
Yet our interest account under the Nc,
CulloCh bill. would stand for the year
1870 at | 200 1914; for 1880 at 81, l04, l04;
for 1881 al ST 003 l04; for 1882 at $l,(0B,.
0l2, ana for 1883, and each year succeed
ing TO 1890, al $0OB 500; Cr. II averaged loi
the ten years, at 81, O67,560 u year, For
the cushing twenty years lat 4 per cent J
the annual interest would be 81, 32O, l47;
and for the remaining ten years under the
bill lat 8 per cent? II would DO 81 6Ul 1883
a yeAr-and this the Flinders are wont :
call a 8 per cent. settlement 3, 4 and b
The utter impossibility Of meeting merely
the average annual interest demand oil
THE A'CULLocH BILL,
even during the period Of It's lowest rate,
need not BIO discussed.
Tie General Assembly, which so
thoughtlessly and presumptuously began
In 1S68-87 to treat this great problem, gave
another instance Of It's helpless inCapac
lily, when, after having ~unsdvisedly as
sumed tho entire debt Of the old State and
capitalized all interest in arrears, It aCtu.
ally levied a tax OF only fourteen cents on
the one hundred dollars OF valuation In
A divided and desolated State. Alta sub
seuuent session, In 1S60-67, this same Leg.
islature directed the Auditor 10 pay only
four per cent on the old principal Of the
debt, and expressly forbade him TO pay
any interest upon the SrFearsges OF Inter.
est which they had just authorized to BIZ
capitalized, though over eight millions OIL
dollars ($S, 2S7, S26) had heen funded under
the act. The %inadequscy Of 30 small a
levy as fourteen (l4) cents but too plainly
illustrated how little the representative
men OF the State In that day knew Of her
condition, and singulsrly proClAins the
inConsiderRleneps with which they so
hastily proceeded. The sequel proved that
the levy was even nsuilcient for support
Of gOvernm, ut alone. Yet no efficient
remedy was applied.
In the canvass OF 1860 tho enRrossing
topics Of conversation, TO the exclusion Of
almost everything else, were these clauses
OF prescription. The debt was never
alluded to-. The interest all concentrated
upon the DISTINGUISHING sections, and so,
when the Constitution was at snCe expur
gated ard adopted at the election 10 July,
1859, the Governor and Legislature thai
were chosen Vt the same time were wholly
uninstErCted as 10 the popular sentiment
| with respect TO the popular debt, AbouI
| which no information and no opinion had
been ELECTED. Yet II was this Legislature
under the special recommendation anC
urgency Of this Governor, that passed, OF
the last day Of itB session and under very
suspicious circumstances, what Is known