I am unable to understand how this discrimination in favor of those who
have made payment of this tax directly to the officers of the Federal
Government, and against those who made such payments through State
or Territorial agencies, can be defended upon fair and equitable
principles. It was the General Government in every case which exacted
this tax from its citizens and people in the different States and
Territories, and to provide for reimbursement to a part of its citizens
by the creation of a trust for their benefit, while the money exacted in
payment of this tax from a far greater number is paid unconditionally
into the State and Territorial treasuries, is an unjust and unfair
proceeding, in which the Government should not be implicated.
It will hardly do to say that the States and Territories who are the
recipients of these large gifts may be trusted to do justice to its
citizens who originally paid the money. This can not be relied upon; nor
should the Government lose sight of the equality of which it boasts,
and, having entered upon the plan of reimbursement, abandon to other
agencies the duty of just distribution, and thus incur the risk of
becoming accessory to actual inequality and injustice.
If in defense of the plan proposed it is claimed that exact equality can
not be reached in the premises, this may be readily conceded. The money
raised by this direct tax was collected and expended twenty-seven years
ago.
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