CALIFORNIA. 



79 



taxes are invalid and void on two grounds : 

 First, because the assessment, according to 

 which they were levied, was made in pursu- 

 ance of the discriminating provisions of the 

 State Constitution, in the enforcement of 

 which the company was not allowed any de- 

 duction from the valuation of its property for 

 the mortgage thereon, and was thus subjected 

 to an unjust proportion of the public burdens, 

 and denied the equal protection of the laws 

 guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment of 

 the Federal Constitution ; and, second, because 

 the assessment was made in pursuance of pro- 

 visions of the State Constitution, which gave 

 no notice to the company, nor afforded it any 

 opportunity to be heard respecting the value 

 of the property, or for the correction of any 

 errors of the board, thus depriving it of its 

 property without due process of law guaran- 

 teed by that amendment. 



The plaintiff, on the other hand, contended : 



1. That the power of taxation possessed by 

 the State is unlimited except by the Consti- 

 tution of the United States, and that its ex- 

 ercise can not be assailed in a Federal court, 

 either for the hardship or injustice of the tax 

 levied. 



2. That the classification of property for tax- 

 ation, and the apportionment of the taxes ac- 

 cording to such classification, are not forbid- 

 den by the Constitution of the United States ; 

 and that within such classification the property 

 of the railroad company and the apportionment 

 of taxes to it are to be placed. 



3. That the fourteenth amendment of the 

 Constitution of the United States was adopted 

 to protect the newly-made citizens of the Afri- 

 can race in their freedom, and should not bo 

 extended beyond that purpose. 



4. That corporations are not persons within 

 the meaning of that amendment. 



5. That the statute fixing the sessions of the 

 State Board of Equalization and requiring a 

 statement in writing from the defendant of 

 the amount and value of its property, afforded 

 all the notice and hearing essential to the va- 

 lidity of the assessment made ; and 



6. That the provisions of Article XIII of the 

 Constitution, as to the taxation of railroad 

 property, are to be treated as conditions upon 

 the continued existence of railroad corpora- 

 tions. 



The court decided in favor of the railroad 

 company that the provisions of the California 

 Constitution relating to the assessment and 

 taxation of railroads were repugnant to the 

 terms of the fourteenth amendment to the Fed- 

 eral Constitution, and that the taxes sued for 

 could not be recovered. The case now goes 

 to the Supreme Court of the United States. 

 It is claimed that the logic of this decision ren- 

 ders invalid many provisions of the State Con- 

 stitution relating to the railroad commission 

 created by it. 



POLITICAL CONVENTIONS. The political cam- 

 paign, while not an excited one, aroused deep 



interest. The chief local questions were the 

 " slickens " or debris question, the Sunday law, 

 the management of railroads, and the restric- 

 tion of Chinese immigration. No new Sunday 

 law had been enacted, but the attempted clos- 

 ing of drinking-saloons by the temperance peo- 

 ple under the old law called forth the opposi- 

 tion of the saloon keepers and frequenters. 

 The act of Congress relating to Chinese immi- 

 gration, while not giving the people of the* 

 Pacific coast all that they had demanded, yet 

 sets that question at rest for the present. 



The Democratic State Convention met in 

 San Jos6 on the 20th of June, and remained in 

 session five days. The following platform was 

 adopted : 



The Democracy of the State of California, as repre- 

 sented in convention, hereby declare that, with un- 

 shaken faith in the soundness of the constitutional 

 principles and traditions of the Democratic party, as 

 illustrated by the teachings and example of a long line 

 of Democratic statesmen and patriots, and expressed 

 inthe platform of the last Presidential Convention of 

 the party, we pledge ourselves to maintain these prin- 

 ciples and to labor to make them paramount in the 

 administration of the State and General Government. 



Resolved, That the Democratic party of California 

 tenders its thanks to the Democracy of the Union 

 for a long, earnest, and partially successful struggla, 

 through the Democratic Congressmen } with a hostile 

 ^Republican Administration against Chinese immigra- 

 tion and in behalf of the highest interests of the peo- 

 ple of this coast. Such action again illustrates the 

 fidelity of the party to its pledges, given to the people 

 in the platforms of successive Presidential Conven- 

 tions. It again recognizes that the people of each lo- 

 cality are the best judges of their own wants and ne- 

 cessities, and again declares the great doctrine that it 

 is the duty of the General Government to heed their 

 complaints, and to extend its strong arm for their pro- 

 tection. 



Resolved, That the Democratic party of California 

 recognizes with the highest appreciation the prompt 

 and determined movement in their behalf made by 

 the working-men of the Eastern States, and notably 

 of Pennsylvania, in presenting the menace of a free 

 people as an irresistible power against the combined 

 efforts of vast moneyed corporations and the monopo- 

 lists of the Chinese trade, who, in the name of the 

 brotherhood of man, and under the cloak of universal 

 charity, were endeavoring to thwart every effort made 

 in behalf of the permanent existence of the white man 

 of California ; we recognize the interests of white labor 

 everywhere as in full alignment with the advancing 

 movement of the Democracy of the Union in its pur- 

 pose to preserve the heritage we have a right to enjoy 

 from the merciless ravages of the Asiatic hosts who 

 have already captured many of our best industries, 

 impoverished thousands of our people, drawn large 

 numbers into debauchery and crime, and almost ex- 

 cluded Eastern and European immigration. 



Resolved, That the Chinese now in California are an 

 unmixed curse to this people, their presence an ever- 

 increasing evil, threatening to block every avenue of 

 labor and every branch of trade, and, so long as they 

 remain, will continue to be an insurmountable barrier 

 in the pathway of California toward the high destiny 

 for which Nature has so amply equipped her ; that, in 

 view of this condition, we confidently appeal to the 

 Democracy of the Union for our 'deliverance, and 

 claim as one of the first duties of the party that the 

 next Presidential Convention of the Democracy shall 

 declare the doctrine of self-preservation the highest 

 law of nature and of nations upon this subject, as upon 

 all others, and the Government of the United States, 

 then placed under Democratic administration, will in- 



