Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1884-10-04

ture the exclusive power of taxation
in express terms denied to both the
Executive and neutrality-suspicious. o
the Government, and which would be
incapable of being delegated to either
of them, even if the Legislature
thought proper to do SO.
| Second-That while the first section
tenth article of the Constitution, de
clares that" all real and personal prop
Ierty shall be taxed in proportion tt
its value" it, in the same sentence
prescribes that this property shall be
ascertained as directed by law
words " to be ascertained as directed
by law" give to the Legislature any
discretion to determine what is, and
what is not, personal property, tara6t'
under the Constitution, need not now
be inquired into; but clearly there
must be an "ascertainment," by the
Legislature, of the property deemed
subject to taxation, before the officers
of collection can enforce payment o.
taxes upon it. The Constitution may
in some of its provisions be self-exe
cutting; but that can not be the cast
when the special power is expressly
entrusted by that instrument to the
Legislature.
Third-That while the opinion OF
our Supreme Court of Appeals, in de.
claring the nconstitutionality of the
special act of March, 1866, and in con-
STRUNG the constitution of 1868, might
by its general reasoning afford plausi-
BILE and persuasive arguments against
the validity of other exemptions, yet
it will not be denied that the case re-
ferred to is not an adjudication upon
a similar provision in the present
! Constitution, nor is it an adjudication
upon that provision of law which ex-
empts agricultural productions of the
preceding year from taxation.
Fourth-That the agricultural inter
est of this State is entitled, from its
vast importance to our general pros
perity, from the numbers engaged in
it, and its equal diffusion over every
portion of our territory, to have fair
hearing of its rights before the proper
tribune of this State, before an ex-
emption for its benefit, which has
existed and been enforced under every
| Constitution with similar provisions
under which we have lived for the
past thirty-fve years, shall be sudden
| ly treated as null and void by any
executive or ministerial officer of the
State.
Fifth-That while we have the most
unbounded confidence in the honest
convictions, high integrity and patri-
otto motives of the Governor, all are
forced to the conclusion that his order
to the Auditor of the 18th of Februa-
ry, 1888, was in itself an assumption
of legislative power; not merely in
the fact that it virtually repeats an
existing law, but it confers, with the
Auditors circular, power upon the
assessors of this State of ascertaining
what is personal property as defined
by the Constitutional power which
| the Legislature itself could not have
delegated to these officers.
Sixth-That the uncertainty, per-
plexity and confusion which now
exist in determining what is personal
property liable to taxation under our
constitution, the discordant views, in
the absence of all appropriate legisla-
ton upon the subject, entertained by
the assessors themselves, the refusal
of some counties and many individ-
uals In other counties to conform to
these executive instructions, with the
inability to enforce them by legal
remedies must necessarily produce
the grossest inequality and injustice,
and ought of itself, independent OF
any constitutional view of the ques.
ton, to incline our patriotic Governor
to revoke his instructions and we
sincerely hope that he may do so.
Seventh-That for upward of CEN
fury it has been the fixed policy Of
Virginia and West Virginia to exempt
from taxation productions Of agricul.
ture and among many other reasons
we may suppose that policy to be
based, first, upon the Importance OF
giving every legitimate encourage
ment to that essential branch Ofindus,
try, and, second, because they have
taxed the land to its full value, its
animal power, its implements and
machinery of husbandry, and its labor
and all other capital employed in tbs
cultivation of the soil, and it seemed
manifest injustice and a departure
from all sound principles of political
economy to tax the capital so employ.
ed and at the same time the earnings
produced by that capital.
Eighth-That as the next Legisla
ture of West Virginia bids fair te
bring under discussion agricultural
interest of great Importance, it is
hereby recommended to the farmers
of Berkeley County, without respect
to party, to bring forward delegates
who are competent to maintain those
interests, and if they can not he main
tanned under the Constitution as it is
now written, that they be instructed
to submit an amendment to the Con
stitution that will carry out without
controversy the practical construction
of that provision of the present Con
stitution, which has been acquiesced
| in by Virginia and West Virginia
ever since that and similar provisions
have been part of the Fundamental
law under which we have lived.
Before the resolutions were adopt
ed, the worthy old patrician of {
grateful people, Hon. Charles james
Faulkner, rose up and with the
eloquence Of former days advocated
their passage. The invitation o
the farmers to address them he glad
~ accepted, and having had press
ing engagement for the day he fel
it his duty as citizen to forego thu
same and be present. The question
involved the interests of every farm
er and taxpayer in the county.
have seen the day when what were
called the Berkeley Resolutions
sounded like a trumpet over noun
tain and through valley, rousing thu