Chap. 7. 



POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



105 



NEW LISTING LAW. 



CONSTITUTION OF VERMONT. 



were probably in favor of the measure, all 

 efforts to carry a bill in that body proved 

 utterly unavailing. They rejected the bill 

 reported by their own coiuniittee,and when 

 the bill came in from the senate, with a 

 proviso, calculated to remove the objec- 

 tions, which had been alleged agrainst the 

 measure in the house, that also was fin- 

 ally lost, by a majority of three votes. 

 Thus it appears that Vermont, though 

 Jirst in the promise of advantages from a 

 geological survey, is likely to be last in 

 the adoption of measures, by which those 

 advantages may be realized; f jr in nearly 

 all the other states of the union, such 

 surveys have already been made, or are 

 now in progress. 



The most important act passed by the 

 legislature, at the session of lt'41, was a 

 new law in relation to the grand list, and 

 by which all former laws upon the sub- 

 ject were repealed. Where the revenue 

 of a country is raised, as in Vermont, by 

 a direct tax upon the real and personal 

 property of the citizens, the first object, 

 undoubtedly, should be to ascertain what 

 each individual really owns, that the 

 share of the public burden, thrown upon 

 each, may be in proportion to his ability 

 to bear it ; but this is found, in practice, 

 to be an object of very difficult attain- 

 ment. By most of our former listing 

 laws, a large share of the taxable proper- 

 ty, has been entered by name, with a 

 fixed valuation. But this produced great 

 inequality, on account of the great differ- 

 ence in the value of property of the same 



kind, depending upon quality, and loca- 

 tion. Another provision of the old list- 

 ing laws required a person, who had 

 purchased property on credit, and given 

 liis note for it, to pay taxes on that pro- 

 perty, while the holder of the note was 

 taxed for it as money at interest, thus 

 taxing the same property twice, and 

 throwing an unjust and heavy burden up- 

 on the man in debt. The listing law, en- 

 acted this year, was designed to correct 

 these evils, by requiring all rateable 

 property to be appraised at its cash value, 

 and by allowing the debts due from a 

 person, over and above the amount due 

 to him, to be deducted from the appraised 

 value of his personal property. 



We have now brourrht down our sketch 

 of the legislative proceedings in Vermont 

 to the close of the year lb4L We are 

 aware that it may be thought to be too 

 brief to be fully satisfactory, and yet it 

 is as full as the prescribed limits of our 

 volume would justify. In our selections 

 from the mass of materials contained in 

 our journals, laws, &c., we are by no 

 means sure that we have, in all cases, 

 taken those things, which are the most 

 valuable, or the most interesting to our 

 readers. A lack of room must be our 

 excuse for brevity, and a lack of judg- 

 ment and time for research, for the in- 

 judicious selection and arrangement of 

 materials. We trust, however, that the 

 deficiencies of our narrative will be, in a 

 good measure, supplied in other portions 

 of the work. 



CHAPTER VIT. 



POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF VERMONT. 



Section I. 



Constitution of Vermont. 



The people of Vermont made a formal 

 declaration of their independence, and of 

 their right to organize and establish a 

 government of their own, on the 15tli day 

 of January, 1777. On the 2d day of July 

 following, a convention of delegates from 

 the several towns assembled at Windsor, 

 and adopted the first constitution of the 

 state. This constitution was revised by 

 the same convention in the following 

 December, and went into effect, without 

 Px. II. 14 



being submitted to the people for their 

 ratification. 



One of the principal advisers to these 

 measures, out of the state, was Dr. Thom- 

 as Young, a distinguished citizen of Phil- 

 adelphia. He had long taken a deep in- 

 terest in the affairs of the New Hampshire 

 grants, and in the following letter, ad- 

 dressed to the inhabitants of Vermont, 

 and which has already been mentioned,* 

 he exhorts them to take a decided sland, 

 to organize a government and adopt a. 

 constitution. 



* Part II. page 51. 



