FLOKIDA. 



311 



claimed by some that the law of 1869 had 

 been repealed by the "Equalization Act," and 

 that that statute itself was unconstitutional. 

 There was, however, no official or judicial de- 

 cision on the subject. 



All these questionings and discussions pro- 

 ceeded from a dissatisfied feeling that the bur- 

 den of taxation was unnecessarily heavy, and 

 that something should be done to relieve the 

 citizens from its weight. This sentiment found 

 vent in a convention held at Lake City on the 

 6th of September, made up of delegates from 

 nearly all the counties of the State. There 

 was a good deal of discussion on the finances 

 and taxation of the State, and a Central Finan- 

 cial Committee was appointed, and a series 

 of resolutions and an address to the people 

 adopted. It was made the duty of the Central 

 Financial Committee to "examine and from 

 time to time report upon the financial con- 

 dition of the State," and they were also di- 

 rected to urge upon the Governor the "neces- 

 sity of Executive interference to save the people 

 from impending ruin." The counties were 

 also called upon to choose financial committees 

 who should report to the Central Committee 

 on the financial condition of their several 

 counties. The resolutions adopted by the con- 

 vention were as follows : 



"When, in the judgment of citizens of free-constitu- 

 tional government, it becomes necessary to adopt 

 measures to preserve existing constitutional rights, 

 and representative republican government, or to 

 effect legislative or other reforms, a proper respect 

 both for themselves and for their fellow-citizens re- 

 quires an explicit declaration of the principles which 

 impel to action, and a definite statement of the par- 

 ticular object they propose to accomplish. We hold, 

 therefore, that all men are equal before the law, and 

 entitled to the protection of life, liberty, and prop- 

 erty, and the pursuit of happiness ; the right of the 

 people to publicly assemble and confer upon any 

 question in which they are interested, freedom of 

 speech and freedom of the press, public and free 

 schools, the right of every man to worship God ac- 

 cording to the dictates of his own conscience, impar- 

 tial trial by juries, the writ of habeas corpus, the civil 

 power above the military, free, fair, and untrammelled 

 elections, the elective precincts to be established 

 convenient to the people, so that their ballots may 

 be cast without annoyance and hinderance from their 

 business for an unreasonable length of time, and every 

 precaution made to preserve the integrity of the 

 ballot-box and the honest and impartial counting the 

 result of every election, are the cardinal principles to 

 preserve American civil liberty, and the fundamental 

 principles of our government. And, whereas, The- 

 deplorable condition of the State, as well as county 

 finances and affairs, is a consequence of the loose 

 and reckless legislation of men forming into govern- 

 ment cliques, "rings and caucuses," banded to sus- 

 tain such organizations, independent and destructive 

 of the cardinal principles or American free govern- 

 ment, it is our judgment, from past experience, that 

 there can be no hope for relief from excessive taxa- 

 tion and amelioration of the condition of the masses 

 of the people only in the determination of the whole 

 people, representing the interests of the laborer, 

 agriculturist, mechanic, manufacturer, merchant, and 

 capitalist, all having mutual interests growing out 

 of and depending one upon the other, to sustain no 

 man for office or promotion whom we do not know 

 to be honest, capable, and industrious to perform his 

 duties as a public employe, free from personal bias, 



when the great interests of the people are concerned ; 

 for their recovery : therefore 



Resolved, That the increased and increasing expen- 

 ditures of the State and county governments require 

 an expression of those interested in the economical 

 administration of their officers. 



Resolved, That the present exorbitant rate of taxa- 

 tion is not only detrimental to the prosperity of the 

 State, but an injustice to a large mass of the citizens 

 who are compelled to bear the burdens of its pay- 

 ment, and which must from necessity militate against 

 the poor as well as the rich, and especially upon the 

 laboring and producing classes of our citizens. 



Resolved, That we believe the consummation of so 

 desirable an object requires the most scrutinizing 

 discretion in the appointment of officers, both State 

 and county, and that we pledge ourselves to use all 

 honorable means, for State officers hereafter to be 

 elected, that they shall be men who will not be ruled 

 by a "ring" or caucus independent of their own 

 judgment of what is right and just for the interest 

 of the whole people. 



Resolved, That the Governor of the State, having 

 large discretionary and appointing power, we hereby 

 respectfully recommend and demand that, in making 

 appointments, a careful scrutiny should be observed, 

 that none but honest, capable, and industrious men 

 be hereafter appointed to office. 



Resolved, That we, the people of the counties by 

 their delegates here assembled in convention, re- 

 spectfully say to His Excellency the Governor, that we 

 are indifferent to what past political party the officers 

 hereby appointed shall belong we only requiring 

 the test of honesty, and capability, and industry, to 

 serve the people, not as rulers, but as public em- 

 ploye's, fulfilling all the requirements of the law. 



In the address to the people the following 

 statements are made : 



To instance particulars in evidence of these general 

 statements, the convention submits to the people of 

 the State that the bonded and floating debt, including 

 interest and excluding the four millions already issued 

 to a railroad corporation, as near as they can ascer- 

 tain, is about $1,550,000, having increased over one 

 million dollars since July, 1868. They find that the 

 taxable property of the people has been arbitrarily as- 

 sumed, for purposes of revenue only, to be $34,439,- 

 053, and that upon this arbitrary valuation there has 

 been assessed a sum amounting in the aggregate to 

 $471,811.51, exceeding $2.50 per capita of our entire 

 population : that the greater portion of the above 

 stated nominal valuation of property represents real 

 estate, which is not convertible into money ; leaving 

 the entire amount of the tax of one million dollars 

 annually to be paid out of the personal property, 

 which amounts to the sum of $11,721,521, being 

 nearly one-eleventh part of all the personal property 

 in the State. Included in these large amounts, to be 

 collected from the people, are appropriations by the 

 Legislature which the exigencies of the public ser- 

 vice do not require to be collected. * * * If to 

 the enormous amount required by the State there 

 be added the county and municipal taxes, it is mani- 

 fest that, without relief in some way, wide-spread 

 distress will be inevitable. The county and muni- 

 cipal taxes will equal, if they do not exceed, those 

 imposed by the State, and thus there will bo wrung 

 from the people, during the present year, a sum 

 nearly or quite one million dollars. Such a sum, 

 collected in a year like the present, when the pro- 

 ductions of the soil present no prospect of remunera- 

 tion for the labor bestowed, will fall with crushing 

 weight upon all classes of industry. From their 

 knowledge of the condition of the producing inter- 

 ests, the delegates here assembled give it as their 

 deliberate opinion that, after deducting the actual 

 cost of production, there will not remain in the hands 

 of producers a sufficient amount to pay the taxes 

 upon their property, thus leaving them without the 



