Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1884-10-23

~ 2 JOURNAL lI
T e'i-ns@ Thursday
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V 4 VERY ~, VA uBLIsHlNa COMFY.
A. a Yeartn Advance.
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ion, THURSDAY, Oct %. 1884
nz assepsmens La~s.
5#6lgs. Rzq,, 10 hls sAtur-
h s8ref.F TO thea%zEIrE 3
fsespt Reproduction of some extracts
from bic Argument before the late tedge
Bradford, delivered in the DATED Static
curt on January 2Olh, 1850 The object
Of Nj. Hizeins' Argument was to show
ihsl orr ASSIGNMENT System is reeist.a'
tioo OF voters within tho puryiew AZ }
meaning Of the sos OF Coassesa providii
Tor supervision OF the registration a
vosers;snd we are doing M HiSs MS zimpls
Justice when we say that be not o5ly
sustained bis position to The entire sasia
faction Of the court, but that ho alan
demonstrated to the community that onr
assessment system will beM searching
comparison with the Pennsylvania regi5
try law. Upon this point Mr.. Hissii
was very clear. After having exhaua.
lively discussed the merits of each
system, he said:
This Pennsylvania list is primarily list OF
taxables that il made by assessors ii has
the double quality Of being a list Of persons
taxed and a list Of voters the assessors sit
for the purpose OF having that list scruti
niged either by taking names off or putting
X names on ; it is prima facie evidence Of the
right to vote, but it is not conclusive it rs
subject to challenge and permits evidence TO
be adduoed outside Of it and permits such
evidence to be conclusive against the registry.
In other words, no fraud perpetrated or
attempted to be perpetrated through il can
be made effective and such is the Wise and
honest purpose of Cur own act.
The oitener we reOur to Mr. higgins
argument the mUrs firmly we are COZ
WINGED that I. is the most clear and cOgent
exposition Of the merits Of our Assessmeu t
sSSke5A ever made. We only wish We had
room reprint the argument in full
Pelhsps,we may yet fud room to do 60
Il 10 stf3fk and coherent enough TO con
vinea sssb Blaine man, il such thing
bspoHsible. We cannot resist the tempta
zion to give another extract from it.
Immediately following his statement q
the constitutional provision from which.
bur assessment laws spring Mr.. e ggina
ssid:
Prior to 1873, in the Utopian, l may say
the bucolic days, when nobody was ever sup
posed 10 perpetrate fraud, this action OF
y these laws-I won't say they were like the
dews of heaven failing alike upon the jusi
and unjust"-did bring the imposition OF
taxes and, growing cut Of that, qualiica
ton Of voters. guarded in some respects il i.
true but not 10 guarded as they have beer
since. But in 1873, system Of
laws was devised which very much
more regulated and guarded the action
OF the assessors and OF the collectors and oi
the levy court The first section Of that ac
said that it should not be lawful to place any
peIhpnB on Lne assesflleDl llsL unless Llel
owned property, except through the persona
knowledge OF the assessor There must be /
personal knowledge on the part Of thu
assessor-of what? That tue assessor shoult
be satisfied that such q person is Of Lawful
age and bona ide resident Of the hundred
or election district. Why? Because it wa
meant to provide against the abust
Of the assessment by fraudulent,
placing thereon the names OF per
sons not residing there with the inten
TO have them vote illegally at the election
And thus, you have, in the very first line o
the new act, the fact that they meant to pre-
vent fraudulent assessment-not thatt to,
much or too little tax might be collected i
was not with reference to the collection 0
taxes-but the fraud which they attemptei
to provide against was fraudulent qualifying
to vote on the part OF persons not entitled Il
do so.
Next is the repetition OF the 10th section O
the old act providing for the hanging up o
the assessment lists at certain times ant
places to be given to the people for the rem
edying OF wrong, if wrong had been done t
them, Up to the time they had no option
they had no day to qualify. The assessor i
required to go over his whole district and &c
the names Of everybody liable to assessment
but, lest he might fail to reach every one, tn
Law gives to the citizen the right to al
affirmative thing, and gives him hi
day in court in which to do il
There Is not only day and place named bu
what is requiredY However much and wei
the assessor may know the citizen that come
before him be is not permitted to put hl
name on but upon at1idavits as to bis ider
tity, age and residence All these safeguard
are thrown around the assessment lists, nc
from the remotest suggestion OF q purpose I
protect the counties of the State in respect [
rights Of revenue and collection Of taxes, bu
to protect the citizen Of the State in respeC
10 his right TO vote,
We CANNOT help but think tLst 81
Higgins will agree with us after tt
campaign ia Ovsr-thst tbe citiz9u wht
under the benign ipfusncs OF q szats,
which merits snch pvsiss from him, fsi
TO qualify himself to vote Goes not issery
the ballot.
There "a, however, as svsry tsir ma
knows very well great deal OF MOI
sense wTi.tn and spoken shout the nun
Der Of disfrsuchised 7ot5r7 in Delawar,
As we have said before, a comparison
the census returns for 1850 with th
Presidential vote Of flat year shows tht
Delaware will compare very f4vorabl
with most of the northern states in Til
Fespe0t, We reprOduoe the foura7