Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1881-06-17
UortG obofro imes
PORT TOBACCO:
Friday Morning, June 18th, 1881.
State Finances.

We publish elsewhere the statement of
Messrs. Heating and Compton, the treas
ury officers, in response to the charges
made by Gov. Hamilton in his recent
speech at the Maryland Institute, large
portion of which we published last week
The statement is made with terseness and
mathematical accuracy, and will thorough
ly explain ITSELF 1t will be regarded, we
think, as full and satisfactory answer to
the charges so recklessly made by Mr..
Hamilton against Democratic management
The gravamen of the Governors outcry
against the financial management, has been
that by the appropriation Of the bounty
taxes ''to other purposes" in violation of
the constitution, the refunding of the de-
Tense loan, which natures in 1883, to the
amount OF 100000 has been rendered
necessary, when, otherwise it might now
be fully paid. It will appear from this
statement of the financial officers that the
Governor is egregiously in error upon this
point. The statement of the treasury Of
fcers corroborates what was said by the
TIMES upon this subject some weeks ago
that the whole amount received from
bounty tax, only exceeds the necessary
disbursements under the bounty acts to
the amount of $161, 1921 o4, while the de-
tense loan has been diminished to a much
greater extent From this it is manifest
that the bounty taxes have not been "spent
for other purposes and that the refund
ing of the loan is necessary step.
1t seems that the treasury officers have
so fer deferred to the Governors demand
that they shall be judicial interpreters of
the constitution, as to undertake to differ
from his excellency in the construction of
sec. 81 of Art. 8; and we think his excel
lency and his friends will be forced to adj
NIT that they have got the better of him.
They contend that e..Defense loan vas
raised in defense of the State, and, as such
it came under the exception in sec. "a,
which authorizes the Legislature to soon
tract debts to any amount that may be ne
cessary for the defense OF the State" with
out levying any tax for its payment in fif-
teen years.
From this premise, they logically rea-
son that if the Legislature was not origi-
nally required to by the constitution
levy tax to extinguish this debt. then
there can be no constitutional prohibition
to their appropriating such tax, to the re-
lief OF the burden the bounty laws i'm
posed upon the Treasury.
This reasoning does not however. cx-
tend 10 the destruction of the sinking
funds, which had been provided for the
redemption of the other loans, but of
course the treasury officers are, as We have
said heretofore, in no way responsible for
this. It was the Legislature of 1872. that
abolished the fund. and ex-Gov. Whyte,
who approved the law, who are alone re-
spen sible for this. We think the exhibit
of the extent to which the State debt has
been reduced in ten years will be, under
all the circumstances, accepted by the
people as satisfactory.
There is much force in the point made
in the statement that the action of the
TauiSlaturo -nhal;Al:Ai---s-
fuhd, and Of the successive treasury Off
GERS in pursuance thereof, have been an
nully communicated to the people through
the official reports; and yet no criticism
or objection has been raised by Gov. Ham,
ilton in all that time till within the last
year. The treasury officers decline to pass
upon the motive that induces the Gov
erner's new found zeal in this behalf, but
the people will form judgement upon
the facts.