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ment made with each other, to adjust their balances by the use of the
Confederate Treasury notes, have secured a free circulation for their own
issues, out-of--as well as in the State.
I am persuaded that, with all the data before them, and after a calm,
dispassionate view of the whole matter, the advocates of such plans of
State-financiering and Banking will abandon them, and cheerfully
submit to those unusual burdens and privations which have been unfortunately,
imposed upon us, by a cruel + unrelenting, and which can be alleviated +
removed only by a glorious triumph of our arms.
In conclusion, I have to say that the General Assembly of Alabama never
did a wiser thing than to refuse to post-pone the collection of our State taxes.
The twenty-five percent levied on the State assessment amounting to
about $200.000, for the laudable purpose of providing support +
maintenance for needy families of the soldiers can be realized in no other way
than by a present collection of the taxes. And can there be one man
found within the broad limits of Alabama, who is not ready to
respond to such a claim upon his pense? God pity the miserly [1 word illegible]
if such there be!
Yes Sir. The State necessities require that all the taxes shall be
collected - and speedily collected. The money is needed for the education
of our children, as well as for the support of the indigent families of our
gallant volunteers, who, far away from home and loved-ones
are baring their brave hearts to the guns of the Enemy; it
is needed to keep the wheels of our State-Government in
motion and to sustain its various departments in their
appointed orbits, the more effectually to protect the life-liberty-
+ property of the Citizen; and it is needed, beyond all other
considerations, at this perilous hour, to maintain the plighted honor of
this great State, and to enable her to bend all her mighty power
and will for the achievement of the independence of the Confederate
States of America. The Cotton-States were the first to throw-off the
yoke of Northern-despotism. Their proud necks could not
endure the hateful burden; and now, where the storm of the battle rages, where
the Enemy are gathering around our own hearth-stones, shall we
coolly sir down, and count the cost and sacrifice needed, even, to meet
the ordinary taxed of our State administration? They are but a trifle
more than in former years, and cotton + other produce is still commanding
prices, even beyond those we have, often, been pleased to accept in the past.
Is is not the pressure of taxation that brings disquietude and arouses this
outcry for Legislative interposition. It is the unnatural + barbarous war that the
Lincoln usurpation has imposed upon us. But though disasters may befall
us, and though treasure + blood must flow in the mighty struggle, we shall, with the blessing of God, live to be free. The sunlight is
gleaming over the distant hills, and, in due time, we shall enjoy its radiant
splendor.
The gross assessment for the County of Choctaw is $12.806.23.
and by the last census, it appears that the small sum of
nonety-three cents per capita of the total population in the County, will
pay the whole amount. There is not an able-bodied man in the State, who
cannot pay the average tax on $1.000 worth of property, by five days'
work at fifty cents per day or by the sale of six bushels of corn, or even one
dozen chickens! A large number of our people move-on, as though we
were not even engaged in war. Its beer dues are scarcely felt, or complained
of it felt. The silver mounting on the bridle has not yet been dimmed.
Much of the assessment has already been collected, in many of the
Counties; in others, the public officers are proceeding, with commendable
zeal in the discharge of their duties; while, in all, it is to be hoped, for
the honor of the State, that a patriotic people will promptly respond to
this call of their Country. Respectfully, [3 words illegible]
(Signed) John Yill Shorter