Year: 1874

@The Executive Committee Of the Tax-Pay.
ers' Convention, at their late meeting IN
Charleston, adopted and ordered to be pub
lished an address to the people of the State,
and form of constitution for the Tax Unions.
The address is as follows:


Fellow- Citizens: The Executive Committee
of the Taxpayers Convention, in pursuance
of the duty with which they were charged,
herewith present to you a plan for the organi-
cation of the Tax Unions throughout the
State The object of this organization is to
put into effective operation all lawful means
within our reach for the reestablishment of
an honest and economical administration of
government in South Carolina.


The committee do not deem it necessary to
argue with you upon the urgency of the occa-
sion, or the necessity of reform. The burdens
to which we are subjected are greater than we
can bear, and the proof is to be found in the
fact that the houses and lands of the proprie-
tary class are being forfeited to the State, III
quantity and number without parallel, from
sheer inability to pay the taxes. There can
be no stronger or more distressing proof Of
oppression than the systematic confscation by
the government of the property of the citizen
for non. payment of dues too excessive to be
borne. But when the moneys, extorted from
the people under the color of law, are also
systematically and shamelessly squandered,
plundered and stolen, another and more griev-
Gus wrong is added to the catalogue of enor-
mites, and the very acme Of the most vulg gar
form of despotic rule is reached. Such gov
erument forfeits all title to the name, and is
no better than organized spoliation and rob-
berry. It would be a slander and stigma upon
YOU to suppose that you will suffer this state
of things, so destructive and ignominious, to
continue, without exhausting every possible
human effort to put an end to it. Your his
tory, your traditions and your personal man.
hood forbid it there is no need Of reasoning
about it-if you be true to yourselves, your
instincts will all impel you in this direction !;
nor can you hope to redeem yourselves, with
out helping yourselves. Selfhel p will bring
you all other help We cannot believe that
there are not good men enough of all parties
in the State to rescue the government from
the men that are bringing ruin and disgrace
upon you, and to restore it to something of its
former respectability. To this end activity,
real earnest purpose, devotion to the cause
and thorough organization are necessary.
The Tax Unions will furnish the form Of Or
ganization, but you must breathe into it the
breath of life, and make it a living, active,
efficient and pervading instrumentality for
good. Especially should our young men de-
vote themselves to this work. The future, its
hopes and destinies, are all theirs. If they
do not try to shape it, there will be untold
miseries in reserve for them-not only ruin,
but shame and remorse, sure and perhaps too
late 1t is upon them that the blame will
rest, for it is now their time to come to the
front in this struggle under the law, as before
they came to the front in the more dreadful
issue of war; The same spirit and courage
that stood them in stead then, will stand
them in stead now Their cause will enlist
the sympathies of all good men throughout
the country. To put dishonesty to flight, to
rescue the good commonwealth from the
hands of those who have made her name a
by-word and reproach everywhere, is work
we'll worthy of an earnest concerted and per-
severng effort; and if it. be undertaken in
the proper spirit, and with a zeal and energy
proportioned to the exigencies in which we
are placed, it must and will be successful


In conclusion, we beg to commend to your
earnest, sober and faithful consideration these
words of wise, patriotic counsel, from the ad-
dress of their convention to the people of
South Carolina. Let the honest and we'll
meaning citizens, one by one, be brought into
the Tax. Payers Union, and made to work for
the cause of good government until the State
is redeemed. The eclat that attends the clash
of arms is wanting to such struggle, but no
cause can be more worthy Of the eearnest, faith
full and patient labor of one who loves his
people and his State.


| A triumph like this is not to be won by a