Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1902-10-09
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1902.
For Congress, Ninth Virginia District
COL. CAMPBELL SLEMP,
Of Big Stone Gap.
TAXATION AND REPRESENTATION


declare that taxation without represen-
talion" was an outrage and contrary to
republican form of government Thomas
Jefferson, when called upon to give bis
opinion as to who should be given the
right to vote under the first Constitution
framed for Virginia. stated that all men
who payed taxes or were subject to mill
tary duty should be given the right OF sui
NASge. His terse way of putting it was
that F''tbOse wing fight or pay'shOuld have
the right to vote.
Under our form of government those
who are not enfranchised are practically
without representation. They stand IN
the attitude of aliens. Being without a
voice in the selection OF the representa-
! tiyes who frame the laws of the land, they
should not be required to either tight Of
paw. Recognizing this as fundamental
truth, the Fathers of Virginia, in section o.
of the immortal Bill of Rights, declared:
THAT all elections ought to be free; ana
that all men, having sufficient evidence Of
permanent common interest with, ana at
tachment to, the community, have the
right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, OF
deprived of, or damaged in, their proper
ty for public uses, without their consent'o l
that of their representatives duly elected
Or bound by any law to which they have
not, in like manner, assented for the pub
public good.
This grand old section Of the ancient
"Bll of Rights" has been incorporated II
the ukase of the Democratic Constitutions
Convention which it proclaimed as tie
Constitution of Virginia. Standing there
it is no longer a great and unalterablt
truth, but it has been made glazing false
hood by the suffrage law Wild follows
Suffrage is no longer based y pom "evi
dence of permanent common interest with
and attachment to the community" ant
anew law has been written, which say'
that men can be taxed and be made to per
form all tie duties of citizenship "withou
their own consent, or that of their repre-
sentatives duly elected" 1t is also writ
ten that freemen, horest citizens, can b.
bound by laws to which they have not as
sented or to which they have not beol
given the privilege of dissenting.
An arbitrary price has been put upO1
suffrage. The man who pays one dollar c
faxes on property to the State can vote
but the man who pays one dollar hea
tax, one dollar county tax, and ninety
nine cents TO the State on property, canno
vote unle-s he is soldier, the son of
soldier, or can pass a satisfactory exami
nation before a partisan inqusition, Gale,
a board of registration, upon some section
of the so.caled Constitution of Virginia
Thus we find that thousands of uneducst
ed white men, who pay many thousand
of dollars into the State treasury for pub
lie uses. are being deprived Of their pfop
erty in violation of section 6, of the "bil
of Rights"
This has been done by the party in Vir
ginia that claims 10 be the Jeffersonih '
Democracy. They have fOisted upon IT,
people ALI instrument they call Constitl
ton, which depriyes them of the most 81
cred right that belongs to freemen, bu
which requires them to surrender the
property for public use by the payment 0
taxes and give their lives, if necessary, TO
the public defense. Great Britain required
the fathers to do these things without CIV
ing them representation, and revolution
came, free republic was established, TIT
"Bill of Rights" was written, land taxation
without representation was trampled un
der foot.
We again have the tyranical principle o
taxation without representation" fixeC
in Virginia. Will the honest, true men o
the old Commonwealth permit it to stand
AN UNCLEAN LEADERSHIP.
i