Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-01-14
Delinouent Lands.

Delinquent Lands.
The people are indignant because OF
the injustice proposed to be done in
selling the lands Of innocent purchasers
for taxes which were either paid years
| ago to homecoming officials, or at
any rate were all supposed by the pre-
sent owners to have been paid. The
evidence that there are thousands Of
such wronged owners comes to us day
after day and from every section of the
State. Read the following letter from
Amelia county:
Confiscation Of Lands I'm Virginia.
For the Richmond Dispatch.l
AMELIA COURTHOUSE, VA,
January IL, 1886.
The law providing for sale of lands
for delinquent taxes in this State is so
UBIQUITOUS and oppressive in its opera
ton, and is producing an alarm so
widespread, that it may well be called a
measure Of confscation. 1t is not con-
fined to the wornout and abandoned
lands, as might be supposed, but the
owners Of much of the best land in the
State, who have never failed to pay all
taxes assessed against them, have
been amazed to find their lands
returned delinquent, sometimes as
far back as twenty years. In
many cases this is the result of the
ignorance, carelessness, or dishonesty
ofthe officials of the State, and is not
in any sense the fault of the present
owners. In other cases it is the result
Of defective legislation, and in either
event the exaction Of these taxes now
by the State works hardship that is
intolerable, and is destined to arouse a
feeling Of indignation that will not be
easily allayed, and the party in power
will surely have to meet the people on
this question in some future day Of
reckoning.
Let me give you an instance Of the
unjust operation Of this law:
A gentleman in this county pur-
chased a tract Of land in 1880, and, as
every careful man should do, required
the vendor to pay off all delinquent
taxes assessed against it in the Audi
tors Office at Richmond, which was
done, as ne now distinctly remembers,
although he has not yet found the re-
ceipt. 1t may be he will not find it in
his own papers, or in those of the ven-
dor, as such papers are liable to be lost
or mislaid after so great lapse of time;
and if he does, perhaps it will only be
to find that some dishonest official in
that Office has never accounted for the
money, and he will be informed that
owing to some bubble Of the law the re-
ceipt is not binding on the State. This
land was returned delinquent for 1872
and 1873, in the names Of two different
former owners, neither of whom had
the shadow of title to it for more
than two years prior to 1872, as the re-
cords Of the clerks office plainly show
ed, and if the officers Of the State had
discharged their duties the land would
have stood on the land-books in the
proper name. and could not nave been
returned delinquent in the names of
former owners. What is the result?
An innocent purchaser is required to
pay the State and county SIS, principal,
interest, and costs, which, it may be,
has once been paid, and if not, which
he never would have been called on to
pay but for the unttness Of the States
own officers for the positions they held. !
1t may be safely said that in large !
majority Of instances where good lands
have been returned delinquent the bur-
den will fall not upon the real delin-
quents, but upon innocent purchasers
and holders. 1t will be seen from the
above that even the most careful man
cannot always protect himself against
delinquent State taxes. But how stands
the matter in regard to county taxes?
Prior to 1883 the clerks Of courts kept
no record Of delinquent county taxes,
and the only resource of the purchaser
was by search among old LANDLORDS
wherever he could pick them up and
wade through accumulations of these
for twenty years. Can the State afford
to perpetrate such injustice upon its
best citizens? Or, even taking polite
view Of the question, can she afford to
throw this impeachment in the way Of
land-buyers seeking investment within
her borders?
We have wise statutes of limitation
which give repose and peace to private
debtors and to landowners after a rea-
sonable lapse of time. Such laws arc
justly based upon the idea that after
time and death have had opportunity
to do their wonted work of destruction.
stale, and it may be iniquitous. de-
mands shall not be required of our citi-
zens, and the same reasoning should
apply to debts due the State. The old
doctrine that time does not run against
the King" has no just applicability to
a free and enlightened State in which,
at all events, there should be no de-
sire to I'll her Golfers by means
OF plumber exacted under forms Of
law. But with what grace can State.
whose books and accounts have been so
wretchedly kept in years past that no
expert can unravel them, do these
things? II is notorious that in times
past, and in the not-remote past either,
dishonesty, corruption, and gross in-
efficiency have not been strangers to the
basement Offices Of our Capitol, and
now the taxpayers are called upon to
bear the sins and answer for the mis-
deeds of such officials, put in office and
kept in office by our legislatures. Look
to it, ye legislators; "for Of all these
things We shall be called into judg-
mani - CIVIS