The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1886-06-03
BUY1NGTAx TITLES.
A Protect Against Robbing People Of
Their Peoperty.

BUYING TAX TITLES.
"A Protect Against Robbing People Of
Their Property.
At a recent mass meeting, held in
St. Paul, q committee was appointed to
prepare an address to the people of tho
state in regard to the business of
purchasing tax titles. The address
has been issued as follows:
TO the people of Minnesota:
The constitution and the laws, which
have heretofore been looked for by all
good citizens as the shield and anchor
of our rights and the best protection of
our property, are now invoked by GER
tain evil-minded men, as instruments to
wrest from us our property without
paying any consideration for it beyond
some Insignificant tax which may have
remained unpaid, or been marked I'M
paid, by the fraud, accident or mistake
of others over whom we had no control.
Many citizens have lost their property,
others have been compelled TO pay such
exorbitant and oppressive sums as the
greed and avarice of the tax title pur-
chaser chose to exact; while hundreds
of others are still held in the unyield-
ing grip of the oppressor, wLo refuses
to relax his hold while drop of blood
remains in his victim. Blood money
is the only price for which many citi
zens OF Minnesota are now allowed to
enjoy their own property-the fruit of
their own industry and good manage
ment. The Indians no longer threaten
our property; the grasshopper
has left us; the claim jump
or dare not dispossess an homes:
settler; horse thieves do not modest us
for fear of summary law, administered
impromptu. But an enemy turks in
our midst, as stealthy and cunning as
the Indian, as resembles and devouriug
as the grasshOpper as unjust and re-
CARELESS of right as the claim jumper;
and as much more dangerous and dis
astrous to our interests than horse
thieves, as the prey and booty repre-
scented in stolen lands and lots and
homes, amounting to millions of dol
lars, exceed in value the prey and boo
ty represented in horses, amounting
only to hundreds of dollars. The mo-
tive and intent of all is the same-to
grow rich and fatten on the property
of others; to take what does not belong
to them: to reap where they have not
sown; to get something for moth
ing. The methods are the same.
They come with stealthy step, like a
thief in the night, under cover of dark
ness, without warning, with no notice
to defend yourself, cowardly felonious-
ly. The crime is. therefore, the same.
Applied TO personal pr ,pcrty, it is
called larceny. And those who steal
personal property arc called thieves
and punished as criminals. We have
some protection from all such. But
the weIl-dresscd gentlemen who steal
your houses and lots and farms are
protected by the law, and entrenched
behind the statutes made by your Iegis-
latOrs and asked to be interpreted for
their benefit by your supreme court.
Laws, like the DracOnian code, written
in blood, confiscate the property of the
citizen for no crime or intentional de-
fault, and the courts are asked to so
interpret them as TO protec: the lccches
and vampires who suck your blood and
rob and plumber you. Made originally
with the legitimate purpose to collect
taxes, every safeguard originally
thrown around them to protect the Cit
izen from con!iscation and robbery has
been taken away, and now the law is
sought to be so interpreted as to pro
tect only the robber. Government was
never organized for such purposes, and,
when it has degenerated so low, bar
barism is rcinstated and civilization re-
manded to back seat. Imprisonment
for debt has long since been construed
to the rubbish of the past. Contisca-
tons of property, except for crime,
must e, with it. It has no place
among a free people and it must 60.
with all rascality and crime which FRO
fits by it, and with all its upholdcrs.
SHOULD NOT BE PROTECTED.
We believe the proud mgis of the law
should no longer protect it, nor the
sacred vestments of the judicial ERIN ne
be polluted By it. The conscience Of
an enlightened state has set lis seal of
condemnation on it, and sentence only
remains to be pronounced on it, il spite
OF the paper statutes, which are sought
TO he perverted 10 sustain it, The
Athenian code Of Draco placed the
smallest otfense en- par with the great
est crime, and punished likeness with
death the same rs murder. The high
est crime against civil governments
.reason-is punished with confiscat:on.
minnesota ]awgivcrs have sought to
punish the accidental omission to pay
a paltry tax with the same penalty as
the crime Of treasOn-cOnliscat'O on of
property. With this difference in fay
or OF treason, that the Co 1fiscaton en-
ures to the benefit OF the state and the
whole people, while, in the case of
the omission to pay the tax, the
conflscation cnures to the benefit
OF the thieves who lie in wait
to plundcr. Also with this additional
discrimination against the loyal citizen
and in favor of the traitor. The loval
citizen $ property is confiscated be-
cause the state S own officer has omit
ted to mark his taxes paid after he has
paid them. He is punished by the
state for what the state itself has done
or omitted to do-not for his own act
while the traitor is punished only for
his own act. We have thus to 90 back
nearly 1900 years to find parallel to
this outrageous pervcrsion of common
sense in the name of justice. We find
another parallel by going back into
history eighteen hundred years, when
the worst tyrant of his times caused
the laws to be posted so high the pee
pie could not read them. and then
punished their violators with death.
Minnesota has made her laws so that
our courts and offices can contiscatc
our property by publishing what is