b}' men, some of whom, perhaps, had been of the "Boston Tea 

 Party,'' or had stood shoulder to shoulder at Bunker Hill. 

 Naturalh^ these men at such a time, under such circumstances, 

 created a Constitution and ordained a State to be forever known 

 as they said, as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in which 

 the right of the government to impose taxes was distinctly defined, 

 and that which could be taxed and how it should be taxed was 

 accurately pointed out. The substance of the provisions of this 

 the fundamental law of State upon the subject of taxation, is : 

 ' ' No tax ought to be established without the consent of the 

 people, or their representatives." "Taxes upon all the inhabi- 

 tants, * * * persons * * * and estates * * * lying 

 within the Commonwealth are to be proportional and reason- 

 able." "Public charges * * * shall be assessed on polls 

 and estates * * * with equality." All taxes shall be equal, 

 proportional, and only assessed b^' authority of the duly elected 

 representatives of the people. By equal taxation is plainly 

 meant that a thousand dollars' worth of property in the hands of 

 A shall be taxed the same as an equal amount of property in the 

 hands of B ; and by proportional taxation is as plainly meant 

 that if A have ten times as much property as B, his tax shall be 

 ten times as great. There is no provision in this grand old Con- 

 stitution of the Commonwealth for tax exemption ; all property 

 ever^'where within the State, protected by the State, is to con- 

 tribute towards the support of the government of the State. 

 Neither was there provided in the Constitution an}* snug little 

 haven for the tax dodger. Everywhere within the wide confines 

 of the Commonwealth the tax laws were to reach, omnipresent 

 as the sunlight. We search too, in vain, every provision of this 

 our Magna Charta for one word giving support to the doctrine 

 that real estate rather than personal estate is to bear any more 

 than its proportionate share of the burdens of government. 



Turn now from the Constitution to the Statute. From the 

 foundation of our taxi iws to the superstructure under which 

 taxes are actually imposed. You will note with surprise, per- 

 haps, that much more space is taken in the Statute in pointing 

 out the property that shall not be taxed at all than is taken to 

 designate the property that shall be taxed. You will further ob- 

 serve that the tax on the farm and on all real estate is made a 

 first charge or lien that must be paid in spite of mortgage or 

 other incumbrance and from which not even the homestead is 

 exempt, while the tax on personal estate is given no lien at all. 



