PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 437 



skj; or as that water will run down an incline, if we (in Tennessee) 

 do offer greater attractions than other localities we will attract it 

 toward us, and the quantity and the rapidity with which it will 

 come, can and will be measured by the amount of thrift that is 

 offered. It is about as important to induce a man, with a given 

 amount of capital, to come to us, as to retain one we already have in 

 our midst, with the same amount." We can not expect to develop 

 a State or build up large cities rapidly from their present population 

 in their natural increase, but must invite others, with their capital, 

 to come and settle among us. 



" As I have said, any tax levied upon movable property lessens 

 its thrift, and tends to drive and keep it away; consequently, it is 

 incorrect in principle, while a heavy and oppressive tax is absolutely 

 prohibitive and suicidal. Embraced in the rule I have presented in 

 the beginning, never to tax anything that would be of value to your 

 State, that could and would run away, or that could and would come 

 to you, are two or three kinds of movable property which I regard 

 as most important, and which I will mention — to wit, money, mer- 

 chandise, and capital to be used in manufacturing. These pertain to 

 cities mostly. There are many other kinds of property which, per- 

 haps, would come under the rule, but for the present I will speak 

 of these three, because through them great wealth generally enters 

 the State. 



" And here I desire to call your attention to the fact that the great 

 bulk of the movable property generally enters a State or nation 

 through its cities and towns — money and merchandise or trade 

 always, and capital for manufacturing purposes most frequently ; and 

 from the cities and towns its beneficial effect is radiated throughout 

 the State far and near, greater the nearer the city, but beneficial, to 

 some extent, even to the utmost bounds of the State, particularly 

 when we owe a common debt, as most of the States of the American 

 Union do, and as our State of Tennessee certainly does, to the extent 

 of over twenty million dollars. And here I wish to note the fact that 

 there exists in Tennessee, in the minds of some of our farmers, or 

 people living in the country, a prejudice against the cities. They 

 imagine that the interest or prosperity of the cities is entirely sepa- 

 rate from theirs, if not antagonistic; and again, the people of one 

 part of our State imagine their interest to be separate from other 

 parts of the State, which is incorrect in ioio. This idea or feeling 

 has, to a great extent, been manufactured by demagogues or igno- 

 rant politicians, and by newspapers actuated by incorrect motives 

 or ignorance of the correct relations between cities and country, and 

 the different parts of the State. This is all wrong, and the sooner 

 the people turn a deaf ear to all such, the better it will be for all 



