Birmingham state herald., 1897-05-25
l0IFS OFFICIAL RECORD The Mobile Tax Collector At- - tempts to Answer. Aszss  A VERY WEAK MAILING Says Changing Laws and Rulings Led to Diff
 ferences of Interpretation of His
 Duty as Tax Collector.
Mobile Register.

MODlle INtglStef.
 The following was received last night from the tax collector of Mobile county:
 MotdJe, Ala, May 21, 1857. To the Editor of the Register:
 On the 18th instant there came out Simultaneously in several newspapers what purported to be special" super subscribed ait Montgomery. and also pur- porting to copy certain records from the auditors office, which do me the greatest inJustuce. Every question, p-rsJTlal or pllLBic, has it's two sides; and just pub lie is not arlt to pass judgment unu-I b-th s.des be heald
 I havia filled the office of tax collector of M,5blle county for th4rty-elsnt years con secut1ve4y, sLve for two yeaA's, from lS91 and lS56 when was deleated by d hA0w- NUahing; aEi during the war, when Was in the confederate army doing my duty to my country. have never been ei-Nted to the offace without opposition; and not a Nine of the special lelISrFed to, but tsas been ventilated ard fully uEd rstooi at the time by the people wno have so often reelected me. To those who have pre- served a memory CH these things, lnay ali5 not new, p5r is there Tine in tiss-n to cause me or my friends single p1Eg of regret, nor to give my enemies c3uss GU just criticism of such official record. No suit has ever been brought against ma. nor compromise made for oee dt4lar of the moneys of the state which has gone into my pocket. That in the admtnis'tia- tion of so comp koased an office as that of tax collector oR Mobile county under con Stantly changing laws, passed by the ,eg. islatura, that l have committed no err5- g. . I would be more than human if cJcld deny, but that I have wiTfully or ether wise dotfrauded the sl.nte or the eCunty out of a. penny is as base a falsehSod as could be told or by reference inf f1ei from any publication that could be made.
 THE COMPROMISE. 4e
 The special sets out correctly the spetftien to the governor, attorney-gererdl and auditor under tb1 si5t of Eco. 13, 1878, to compromise claim mll11against me as tax colleCrCl, but as Audft-q' J. M. Car michael said at the time, not a dollar of the soate's money appeared to have gone into the collectors pocket" The win h.1e ma tier was thoroughly understood or .ffls' distinguished state officers would not have approved the c-mprcnise The whole sum claimed by the state was noth7 ing like the red ink indorss1 on the naa.rI gin of the record, but whatever that sanl- was, 1t had already been accounted fer by me to the state.
 The chief items of the claim made eislafrst ne by the auditor embraced the following items I had paid cut, but for which the auditor refused to give me credit:
 By long previous GUS om the. tax col leetor had paid to the tax assessor his full commissions, as the ssessor filed and completed his assessments. The assessor at that time, John A. Jaquess. had made many erront ousS assessments Among oth- CT things, he had made back assessments agafns, the several railroads in the coun- ty, aggregating large sum of money on which paid his commissions, as had been the custom, and these commissions stood as duplicate charg,= against me A ho6 T fall settlements with Auditor Smith, which accounts were opened by the auditor who succeeded him, and I was charged with large sum In assessors commissions on account of insolvencies and land sales and other matters, with which theapresS and the public were then fully advised which went to make up the aggregate of the sum for which it was no I:ss the interest of the state than due to me that a compromise was made under the law Tor $I616W. Tho compromise involved chargeS I deemed erroneous covering forty-fiVe years. I would have defended any suit the state brought against me ito recover the amount so claimed of me, and l belive successfully; but was then, as am today, comparatively poor man, a condition entirely consistent with my having successfully speculated on the state, as Special" would have the public believe of me. My chief bondsmen, M w Perry. Jacob Magee and Jas H Daugh-
 
 not desire ito have the burden of an urf- righteous judgment fall on my other bondsmen for what the auditor held as an official error on my part, not a de- fautt, and herce the compromise. Col IectorS all over the state were involved as was, and he compromise act was passed for our relief
 THE SUITS.
 I was sued, as stated by Special" but not for one dollar that ever went into my pocket or was ever converted to my own use, or the use of my fris nds The suits were not for money tha. I had col Iected, but for money had failed to col lect and to pay In, within the time ne s act had required collectors to pay in.
 To tbe charge of official misfea sarce in not collecting and paying within the time required by law large portion of the money then sued for. must plead guilty. The years through which failed to collect were years of panic, the people had no money, portion of the time our banks were suspended, 1t was hard for the people to get bread, the rich could raise money to pay their taxes, but many of the poor could not had not the heart 40 sell the roof from the suffering poor, and perhaps I indulged them when should not, for l was made to suffer for
 Pending the appeal to the supreme court of thei first case as quoted from s9th A s'Eansa. page 147. collected and pald into the Urea sury all of the money fn- volved in the suit but after its ter1n,na- , tion it was held that I must pay the in -- ferest on the money so pati in before the suit terminated and up to the time firal judgment was rendered by the supreme court As the case quoted by the ''sTpeciaT' shows that it was i1eclied in my favor. by the lower court. appealed. reversed and remanded, and tried second time, this interest amounted to quite large sum of money I did not think I justly owed, but had to pay.
 : The second suit. quoted as that of the county. involved substantially the same matters as that of the sltnte for the as- Ssessments for the county are made, col |, FetTteii and aiceoaNnted fer in the same manner as the taxes of the state
 SUIT NO. 2.
 As indicated by the "srscial' as a suit filed against me in the chancery court of Mobile. In this case I did not owe the county ore cent. The attorneys in the .Itsase withdrew and submitted it to ay'b- tration. was represented on that board ! by M G. Hudson and, after siteing for 7 several days the question narrowed down ,s. l.. z~f.