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liable to the payment of the tax, where such person or persons are known, together with the sum payable by each person on account of the said direct tax as aforesaid. And where there is any property within any collection district, liable to the payment of the direct tax, not owned or occupied by, or under the superintendance of any person resident therein, there shall be a separate list of such property, specifying the sums payable, and the names of the respective proprietors, where known. One of each of those lists shall be furnished to the district collector within 60 days from the time when the different lists shall have been received from the assistant assessors. The collector, on receiving the lists, shall give the principal assessor three receipts, one on a correct copy of the lists, the other two on aggregate statements of the gross amount of the taxes to be collected in his district. The receipt which is written on the copy of the lists shall remain with the principal assessor, and shall be open to public inspection; the other two shall be transmitted, the one to the secretatary, the other to the comptroller of the treasury. Each of the collectors, or his deputies, shall, within ten days after receiving his collection list, advertise in one newspaper printed in his collection district, if any there be, and by notifications to be posted up in at least four public places in his collection district, that the tax has become due, and state the times and places at which he will attend to receive the same, which shall be within twenty days after such notification; and with respect to persons who shall not attend, according to such notifications, it shall be the duty of the collector to proceed as follows.

1. With respect to property owned by persons residing in the same collection district. Within 60 days after the receipt of the collection lists, it shall be the duty of each collector, in person or by deputy, to apply once at their respective dwellings within such district, and there demand the taxes; and if they shall not be then paid, or within twenty days thereafter, it shall be lawful for such collector and his deputies to proceed to collect them by distress and sale of the goods, chattels, or effects of the persons delinquent, with a commission of eight per cent. for the use of such collector. But it shall not be lawful to make distress of the tools or implements of a trade or profession, beasts of the plough, necessary for the cultivation of improved lands, arms or household furniture, or apparel necessary for a family. When effects sufficient to satisfy the tax cannot be found, the collector, having first advertised the same for 30 days in a newspaper printed within the collection district, if such there be, and having posted up in at least ten public places within the same a notification of the intended sale, thirty days previous thereto,

shall proceed to sell at public sale, so much of the property as may be necessary to satisfy the taxes due, with an addition of twenty per cent. for defraying charges; and if the property

cannot be sold for the amount of the tax due with the said additional per centum, the collector shall purchase it in behalf of the United States for such amount. The proprietors shall be allowed to redeem their property, however, before the sale, by payment of the tax with an addition of ten per cent., and within two years after the sale, by payment to the collector, for the use of the purchaser, the amount paid by such purchaser, with interest at the rate of twenty per cent. per annum; deeds consequently cannot be given in pursuance of such sales, until after the expiration of two years.

2. With respect to property owned by persons residing in a different collection district. A collector is to be designated in each state by the secretary of the treasury, to whom lists are to be transmitted by all the other collectors within the state, of all the property coming uuder this description, for which the taxes have not been paid within ninety days after the receipt of the collection lists from the different assessors. The state collector shall then publish for sixty days, in at least one newspaper within the state, a notification of all the lists and taxes thus transmitted to him, and, after the expiration of a year from the day on which the district collector first notified the taxes to have become due, shall proceed to sell so much of the property as may be necessary to satisfy the taxes, with an addition of 20 per cent. for defraying charges. After the sale, the state collector is to deposit with the clerks of the respective district courts within whose district the property lies, correct lists of the property sold, together with the names of the owners or presumed owners, of the purchasers at the public sales, and of the amount paid by them. The property may be redeemed in the same manner as the first-mentioned species, by application to the collector if before the sale, and to the clerk of the district court if within two years after the sale, at the expiration of which period, deeds shall be given to the purchasers by the clerks, on the payment of $2 for each.

In all cases where lands may be sold for the payment of direct taxes belonging to infants, persons of insane minds, married women, or persons beyond sea, such persons shall have the term of two years after their respective disabilities shall have been removed, or their return to the United States, to redeem lands thus sold, on their paying into the clerk's office the amount paid by the purchaser, together with ten per cent. per annum thereon; and on their paying to the purchaser of the land a

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compensation for all improvements he may have made on the premises subsequent to his purchase, the value of which improvements to be ascertained by three or more neighboring freeholders to be appointed by the clerk, who on actual view of the premises shall assess the value of such improvements on their oaths, and make a return of such valuation to the clerk immediately.

The direct taxes are a lien on all estates on which they are assessed for two years after becoming due.

Collectors are bound to give receipts when required for all sums collected by them, and in case of their being guilty of extortion or oppression, in the execution of their duties, or of demanding more than is authorized by law, a sum not exceeding $300 may be recovered from them by the party injured, in any court having competent jurisdiction.

The following sums are to be allowed to the assessors for their services to each principal assessor, two dollars for every day employed in hearing appeals and making out lists, and four dollars for every hundred taxable persons contained in the tax list as delivered by him to the collector: to each assistant assessor one dollar and fifty cents for every day actually employed in collecting lists and making calculations, the number of days necessary for that purpose being certified by the principal assessor, and approved by the comptroller of the treasury, and three dollars for every hundred taxable persons contained in the tax list as completed and delivered by him to the principal assessor: the assessors are likewise to be allowed reasonable charges for books and stationary used in the execution of their duties.

In cases where no person can be found in any collection district or assessment district, to serve either as collector, principal assessor, or assistant assessor, the president is authorized to appoint one of the deputy post-masters in such districts to serve as collectors or assessors, as the case may be : and it shall be the duty of such deputy postmaster to perform accordingly the duties of such officer.

$21. The internal duties are to continue in force until a year after the conclusion of a peace with Great Britain, and during their continuance the secretary of the treasury is directed to lay before congress annually in the month of December, separate accounts of all monies received on account of them, and on account of the direct tax (whenever laid), showing upon what articles or subjects of taxation those duties accrued; also, the amount of monies paid to collectors, assessors, assistant assessors or other officers employed in the collection; distinguishing the amount of monies received from each state, and from

what tax or species of duties received; and distinguishing also the amount of monies paid to the officers in each state.

§ 22. In the passage of these revenue laws, there was but little debate on either side of the house. The principal opposition was directed against the bill laying the direct taxes, and it was contended that it would be better to raise the revenue expected from this source, by an increase of the duty on distilled liquors. Direct taxes, it was urged, are paid by constraint, indirect by choice. Should the crops of the farmer be cut short, his cattle die, or should he be unfortunate any other way, he can relieve himself from the burthen of indirect taxes, by reducing in his family the consumption of the article taxed. With direct taxes there is no such alternative. It is said that the owner of land can always pay the demands of government: but land taxes sometimes fall upon the poor tenant, and the owner himself is not always able to pay, his land being often mortgaged to the last cent. A vast number of new settlers, who have purchased land on credit, and who have undergone every privation, and have with the utmost difficulty paid the state taxes, and the interest and perhaps instalment of their purchase, would be utterly ruined by the burthen of a new land tax.

The great importance, in a government like ours, of preserv ing the affections of its citizens was likewise urged. But by a direct tax much discontent would be created; for while men will suffer much while left to choice, they will endure but little without murmuring, when constrained by the hand of power.

The wisest object of government is to tax the luxuries, and not the necessaries of life, and it is of importance that the laws should curb vice and cherish morality. Both these objects are effected by the tax on spirituous liquors.

It is but justice, it was added, that the burthens as well as the benefits of the union should be equally borne. Those who live on the seaboard pay a heavy tax on their imported liquors, and it is but reasonable that those in the more remote parts of the union should be taxed in their domestic spirits.

On the other hand it was urged, that there was a certain length to which taxation might be carried, and no farther. By an increase of the duty, the amount of the revenue was actually lessened.

That if every one insisted on the system of taxation which he thought best, there never could be any system adopted, and therefore it was necessary for every one to give way a little.

The natural and inherent difficulties of finance, it was stated, are aggravated in America by the diversity of the states, their sovereignty, and dissimilar resources for revenue, and conse

quently the almost impossibility of establishing a system which will press equally on all. A countervailing arrangement of taxes was therefore contemplated by the constitution. There is no objection to a whiskey tax, but there is a serious objection to raising all the revenue from whiskey, a beverage of the poor and of the agricultural states and districts; more especially when it is avowed that this unfair burthen is to be substituted for a land tax, which will fall equally on all real property, and every section of the country.

Taxation, it was urged, is the last experiment of republicanism. If we can tax, it endures; if not, it is high time to be done with it. Without the power of waging war, government is useless; and war cannot be waged without finances. If the country will not be taxed, it is high time we should know it.

On the passage of the bill for the assessment and collection of the direct tax, an amendment was offered, providing that a supervisor should be appointed in each state for the apportionment of the quotas among the counties. In support of this amendment, it was stated, that the apportionment of the quota of taxes among the counties was in many, if not all of the states, unequal, and consequently unjust; and that, with regard to the power left with the state governments of altering the apportionments, it was very uncertain whether the legislatures would interfere; and besides, the correctness of doing injustice, and trusting to others to correct it, was very much doubted.

This amendment was negatived, and the bill passed in its original form.

Mr. Clopton objected to the duty on carriages, on the ground of its being a direct tax, which congress had no power to impose, except in the mode pointed out by the constitution. Carriages he considered to be a very proper subject of taxation; but this consideration could never induce him to mould the constitution into a form to suit the tax, or to endeavour to reconcile them by a forced construction. He was aware that the supreme court had sanctioned, by a solemn decision, the constitutionality of this species of tax. He entertained the utmost respect for the characters, talents, and stations of the public functionaries, and this respect would always induce him to examine with the utmost minuteness every subject on which he had to act, in which his conviction was contrary to their decision. But he should consider that he violated his duty, both to his country and his conscience, if he acted as a legislator upon the opinions of any man, however luminous his understanding or exalted his station, until he became convinced of their propriety. After a minute examination it appeared to him clear and unquestionable, that the

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