Quaker Charles H. Fox Refuses to Pay His Income Tax
Here’s a note about an English Quaker war tax resister from :
The conscientious protest of one English Friend is producing a far-reaching
impression. Says the London Friend, “We have not
often read more hearty words than those appearing in a leading article of the
Shields Daily Gazette of
, commenting on the
action of Charles H. Fox, of Gloucester, in refusing to pay his income tax
. The
Gazette said:”
Some of the greatest events of the world have been brought about by the
firmness of one man in resisting what he believed to be oppression or
national wrong. Some of our greatest modern conflicts have been marked by
the refusal of members of the Society of Friends to be identified either
actually or ethically with them. Mr. Bright’s protests against the Crimean
war stand out as the most memorable, and the earliest stand made against
popular passion within the period of extended franchises. No doubt a
gradually growing humanity has been infusing itself into the minds of people
all over the world. The passion of war is less intense and more short-lived
than it was. There is a larger element of opposition to war among the more
advanced peoples of the world than ever has been before. For this progress
the world is largely indebted to men of the type of Mr. Fox and to acts such
as his. They concentrate attention on great problems. There is no teacher so
eloquent as the man who teaches at some risk, and makes protests that cost
him dear.…
The strength of the “one man power” [reminds me of Ammon Hennacy’s “one man
revolution” — ♇] for the truth, is not the strength of the man, but the
strength of his cause; and his influence is not his, but that of the Spirit
of Truth opening its way for the principle of which one stands as herald and
sacrifice.…
I haven’t found the original Gazette article, or the
source where the Gazette learned of Fox’s actions.
The only other information on this that I’ve located is a back-and-forth in
the letters column of The British Friend the
following year:
The War and the Income Tax
Dear Friend,
I have read with interest the article written by Charles Fox on the Income
Tax [which I have been unable to locate — ♇], which he seems to have felt it
his duty not to pay. I have been Assessor and Collector of Taxes for three
parishes for over twelve years, and have never had anyone refuse to pay them.
The Income Tax is not, strictly speaking, a war tax, but that it, along with
many other duties, has risen through war expenses, I do not deny. The
highest authority I have for the payment of taxes is our Saviour Himself, who
asked for a penny to be shown Him, and then uttered the memorable words,
“Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that
are God’s.”
May I ask if Charles Fox denies himself the enjoyment or use of many things
which indirectly help to pay war expenses? I cannot see why the collector and
auctioneer should have felt any shame in doing their duty.
I am, yours truly,
John Dixon.
Southbrook, Great Ayton, R.S.O.,
.
Dear Friend,
It is to be hoped that Charles Fox’s letter will help us to a clearer
apprehension of the payment of War Taxes. His action in so vigorously
opposing the impost is much to be admired; but many of us cannot draw the
line at the “Income Tax.” The demand-note includes Schedules A, B, D and E,
and House Duty and Land Tax. Are all these specifically War Taxes, or are we
to single out Schedule D? The Sugar Tax is a War Tax; can we refuse to pay
Income Tax and consistently continue to use sugar?
I am, sincerely,
R.B.
.
And then finally we get to hear from Fox himself:
The War and the Income Tax.
Dear Friend,
Two correspondents referred to my
action in refusing to pay income tax, and before finally leaving the matter
to the consciences of individual Friends permit me another brief reply.
There must be some point at which every thoughtful man would refuse tribute
to Cæsar. We have only to imagine such an extreme case as Nero imposing a tax
to cover the cost of burning Christians, or the public supply of lions for
the arena. Can John Dixon imagine a follower of Christ under those
circumstances paying such a tax voluntarily, or picture himself acting as
henchman to Cæsar in collecting the impost? Might he not at least, like our
local officials, be ashamed to continue such a duty? My point of resistance
arises when the modern Cæsar asks for a contribution, admittedly required and
used for the killing and wounding of my fellow-men. That a part of the tax is
due for past enterprises of the same nature, or that it is judiciously
associated with civil charges, does not relieve us of responsibility for a
share in evil doing.
The answer the biographer of Christ reports concerning tribute, must be read
with its context, viz.: the
penniless condition of the Master, and his absolute aloofness from affairs
involving the use of worldly power and wealth. It may be that our standard
ought to exclude the position of an income-tax payer; but meanwhile I do not
hold that my money is Cæsar’s, but held in trust for God. To Him must I
render account, and both reason and conscience forbid an entry for military
purposes as an item in the reckoning.
It has been a satisfaction lately to abstain from tea, coffee, and cocoa, and
to reduce the use of sugar to a minimum, besides omitting alcohol and tobacco
from my bill of fare. The physical advantage has been ample repayment, and
the little experience in eliminating these personal luxuries from my personal
use has shown how easily many things may be dropped and the enjoyment of life
be enhanced. I do grudge every penny given to the Government, seeing that
three-fourths of our national expenditure is for past, present or future war.
Yours sincerely,
Charles Fox.
Upton St. Leonards, Gloucester,
Around , white residents of Louisiana, angered by the continuing rule of the black/carpetbagger state government that had been suppressing white supremacist rule since the end of the American Civil War, met to organize a tax strike.
These documents, though they seem to have been collected from multiple sources, come from Louisiana Affairs, the report of a House of Representatives select committee on “the condition of The South.”
The Mass-Meeting for Resistance to Tax-Collections, 1872.
The meeting, called by a large number of citizens, to resist the collection
of local taxes, filled Odd-Fellow’s Hall last night to its utmost capacity,
and the reporter is assured by those who were near the entrance that
thousands were unable to obtain admission. The meeting contained
representatives from every respectable class — industrial, commercial, and
professional — but was composed chiefly of those who, being the owners of
property, are the immediate tax-payers.
It was nearly eight o’clock when the meeting proceeded to business, and it
was full eleven when it adjourned. The assemblage was called to order by Mr.
Benjamin F. Florence, who briefly stated the object of the demonstration, and
the following officers were chosen:
The officers listed included
Dr. Daniel Warren Brickell,
president, Edward Booth, secretary, and dozens of “vice-presidents.”
Dr. Brickell, upon taking the chair, after some prefatory remarks, in the
course of which he observed that he had been twenty-four years in New Orleans,
working for a livelihood, as he presumed most of his hearers had, and paying
his dues to the government, as no doubt all his audience had done, and now he
was selected for the chairmanship of the association, because he was opposed
to the payment of any taxes whatever. [Applause.] In taking this responsible
position, he wished it to be clearly known that he did it with the
understanding that those he was addressing would stand by him in refusing to
pay taxes, and would refuse to the bitter end. [Applause.]
They were told by the veteran office-holder who fills the post of
administrator of finance for the city, that the man who refused to pay taxes
was not a good citizen. The Times said they were dogs if they paid taxes, and
they were fools if they didn’t. While they saw public officers growing rich
in a very short time, and the people becoming poor as the officers grew rich,
was it not time to put a stop to such a system of government? They had a
newspaper that was everything to-day, another thing to-morrow — another thing
to-day and everything to-morrow — a newspaper, the man who owns which,
whatever his hired writers may be, “is not one of us, has no sympathies with
us, is against us, for the burdens that afflict us do not bear upon him.”
This newspaper told the people that it was a costly experiment to resist
tax-paying — that an effort of the kind which failed had cost $67,000.
Dr. Brickell, for his part,
would pay his share of a million of dollars to get rid of the carpet-baggers
and villains who were consuming the substance of the people, and he would
consider it very cheap if the thing would be thoroughly done at that price.
The Times said wait until the fall, honest men would be elected to the
legislature, and then all would be right.
Dr. Brickell commenting upon
this, said he would prefer to keep his money until honest men were elected
rather than put it in that fiscal agency on Camp street. [Great applause.]
Mr. Booth, chairman of the committee on resolutions, consisting of, besides
himself, Messrs. Benj.
Florence, E. Conery, L. Schneider, Hugh McCloskey, Archibald Mitchell, John
G. Fleming, W.C. Black, A. Carriere, and W. Freret, submitted the following
resolutions, which were unanimously adopted and enthusiastically applauded
from time to time as they were being read. The meeting was addressed
successively by Messrs. Booth and
Wm. M. Randolph, Judge J.B.
Cotton, and Julien Michel, and J.Q.A. Fellows. The meeting adjourned at so
late an hour that the abstracts of the speeches of these gentlemen, which we
had prepared, cannot be printed before the paper goes to press, and are,
therefore, laid over.
Besides the resolutions appended one was adopted requesting the people of the
rural parishes to join in the movement against tax-paying.
Preamble and Resolutions.
Whereas, as citizens of a free country, assembled in our primary capacity,
irrespective of party, and exercising our inalienable right of remonstrance
against the oppression of excessive taxation, and the imposition upon us of
grievous and unnecessary burdens, destroying our peace of mind, sapping the
foundations of our prosperity, and depriving us of the advantages necessary
to sustain the active competition of our sister cities and States; and
further, staunchly disavowing for ourselves, and those who think with us, all
those charges or suggestions which would attribute to us a desire to avoid,
hinder, or delay the just, reasonable, or necessary operations of a
representative government, by refusing or resisting the prompt payment of
lawful taxes; and further, claiming to be acting the part of good citizens by
resisting to the last the payment of such taxes as are equally unnecessary
and unlawful, imposed without authority from us by persons whom we refuse to
recognize as having the right to levy taxes, in that said parties were never
elected by the people as representatives, and therefore by their affecting to
levy taxes they violate the first principles of American liberty, baptized in
blood in , and hallowed by the memories of
ages, which teach us that taxation, to be legal, must be accompanied by
representation, without which it is robbery, and should be resisted by good
citizens under the motto of “millions for defense, but not a cent for
tribute;” and further, noticing with no longer concealed indignation that the
taxes paid in are not disbursed in the general interests, with economy, or a
view to their diminution, but seem to be considered as a species of plunder
to be managed in the interests of the distributors, as against the
contributors; this being especially the case in the instances of the large
sum annually wasted upon the military body known as the metropolitan police
force, as well as the immense amounts thrown away upon persons, pretending to
hold offices as park commissioners, police commissioners, levee
commissioners, drainage commissioners, assessors, tax-collectors, inspectors,
registrars, or permanent committee men, with numerous sinecurists,
pluralists, and “handy men” generally — expensive, useless and dangerous
vampires, corrupted and corrupting;
And whereas, further, we feel that we can no longer sustain the taxation which
has taken the form of a speedy confiscation of our property, for the support
of officials, contractors, and partisans; who under the alleged forms of law
turn the results of public industry to their private emolument, and grow rich,
insolent, and threatening, while the hard-working citizen grows poor and is
admonished to be humble and good;
And further, that not only a pretended legislature, very many of whose members
were the creatures of the most corrupt practices of ballot-box stuffing,
quadrupled registration and voting by “repeaters,” and false counting of
votes, have imposed upon us their conception of taxes, but they have passed
the tax-levies and appropriation-bills through their body by notorious
bribery, thus vitiating, as we believe, all powers they might have ever had to
pass the tax-bills or make money-requisitions upon, or bargains binding the
people, and earning for themselves the infamous notoriety of being, according
to the language of the governor, who ought to know them, the most disgraceful
legislature ever assembled in Louisiana;
And further, seeing that such a pretended legislature, on its own motion, and
affecting to empower an appointed non-representative body calling itself the
city administration, have together, through assessors who have an unlawful
private interest in exaggerating and multiplying assessments, and who have
done so beyond all reasonable or former bounds, sought to extort from an
impoverished people an annual taxation upon these stimulated assessments of
nearly five per cent., the exact figures being 2⅔ per cent., for the city and
21-⅟20 per cent. [sic] for the
State;
And further, existing impositions, large as they are, do not form our only
anxiety. They have for the past few years increased with such unexampled
rapidity as to startle the most stolid and apathetic mind, and to rouse to
positive resistance the most worthy and law abiding citizens, for it is well
known that still greater burdens are being prepared for us. “Bad goes before,
but worse remains behind.”
We are informed by James Graham, auditor, that the legislative appropriations
for will demand an increase of eight mills
on the dollar in addition to the enormous amount now wrung from the tax-payers
of the State, being 2.05 per cent. net on an assessment of $250,000,000,
reaching the incredible sum of nearly $6,000,000, gone for nothing, which
additional percentage on a pretended assessment, which it is endeavored to
raise to $300,000,000, will make next year’s confiscations amount on State
account alone to over $7,000,000;
And whereas, further, our duty seems plain, whatever may be the final result
of our movement, and if we decline, neglect, or refuse to do our duty,
without fear or favor, as free citizens of a free country; if apathy,
irresolution, a want of public spirit, or a selfish indifference to the
misfortunes of others, should induce us to be laggards in this struggle for
our homes and properties, then we shall have only ourselves to blame; but if,
taking counsel from honor and courage, we nerve ourselves to the encounter,
we unite our resistance under such forms and delays as laws yet afford us,
until we can from an honest legislature and a representative municipality
obtain some relief, then we shall have the proud satisfaction of knowing that
“we, who would be free ourselves, have struck the blow:” Therefore, be it
Resolved, That we who are here assembled, and as many others who
shall hereafter associate themselves with us, form ourselves into an
association whose object shall be to resist by legal means the present
exorbitant, illegal, and unconstitutional taxes now attempted to be
extorted from us as citizens of the State and city.
Resolved, That the style of the association shall be “The People’s
Association to Resist Unconstitutional Taxation.”
Resolved, That the president of this mass meeting is requested to
act as president of this association, and at his prudent convenience to
summon to his aid counsel from the general membership, a vice-president
from each district of the city, and a board of directors, consisting of
one from each ward of the city, who together shall constitute the first
board of directors, who shall be charged with the organization of the
association in its necessary details, and the board may report progress
through the press, or otherwise, as they may deem best for the interest
of the members of the association.
Resolved, That we pledge ourselves to give a cordial and prompt
support to the association, to patronize its assemblies, and procure and
encourage as many of our fellow-citizens as possible to join its
membership.
Resolved, That while we recognize cheerfully the right of every
citizen to resist on his own account any illegal tax, we cannot see the
force of the argument which would forbid us to combine together for the
accomplishment of the same end.
Resolved, That we cordially and earnestly invite the co-operation
of every citizen, inasmuch as none are too high and none too low to feel
the pressure of this practical confiscation. Every mechanic, merchant,
drayman, banker, storekeeper, butcher, shoemaker, produce-dealer,
commission-merchant, press-owner, insurance-agent, shipping-agent,
property-owner, clerk, laborer, founderyman, carpenter, or whatever else,
are all deeply interested in this movement for the legal resistance to
unconstitutional taxation, and therefore will be warmly welcomed to the
roll of the association whether they have already paid the whole or part
of their taxes or not.
Resolved, That in the mean time we will pay no more taxes to State
or city, being supported in this view by the opinion of able counsel
learned in law; but will, through our association, invoke the protection
of the courts of the State and of the United States to test our right of
resistance to exorbitant and confiscating taxation imposed by a pretended
legislature, self-nominated, corruptly bought and sold by written
contract, and sitting in defiance and contravention of the constitution
of , which declares that a
representative basis shall be established, and the representation
distributed in accordance therewith, as well as our right to resist
exorbitant taxation imposed by an appointed non-representative body of
persons styling themselves the mayor and administrators of the city of
New Orleans.
Resolved, That when this meeting adjourns, it will be so to meet
again at the call of the president of the association.
Non-Payment of Taxes
Rooms Democratic Parish Executive Committee of Orleans,
.
This committee, composed of representatives of the democratic party of the
city and parish of Orleans, although partisan in its character, is not
insensible to the fact that parties exist but for the public good, and are
only intended to promote the public welfare to which all partisanship should
be subordinate. Influenced by these considerations, a committee was appointed
from this body to take into consideration the subject of taxes, now become so
excessive as to be really confiscation, as they exceed the revenue of
property. This subcommittee reports to us in the following language, which we
adopt as our own, and address to the public at large, so that all persona and
parties may profit by our labors:
To pay taxes legally imposed by a legislature elected by the people is a
duty which every good citizen owes, even though the taxes are somewhat
onerous and excessive; but when the taxes are so cruelly excessive as to
leave the citizen in the position of a mere tenant of the lands and
buildings which may belong to him, and when the taxes are illegally imposed
by so-called representatives of the people, who had been fraudulently
foisted upon them for the avowed purpose of enriching an unprincipled
executive and a corrupt ring of legislators and other public plunderers, the
people should rise in their might and refuse to place money in the hands of
the spoiler to complete their ruin and degradation.
Believing that this government is revolutionary, and as such has no legal
claim upon the people for support; that the sham legislature was not elected
by the people, but virtually appointed by the executive, and that no
taxation can be lawful unless imposed by the legally-chosen representative
of the tax-payer, we consulted eminent counsel upon this subject, the
majority of whom confirmed our views,
viz., that all taxes imposed by
and under the revolutionary government are clearly illegal, and can be
contested as such.
The members of the bar, so far as we have consulted them, were unanimous in
opinion that the following city taxes were manifestly illegal: The
school-tax, the park-tax, and the metropolitan-police tax. A number of
gentlemen, whose names are subjoined [but omitted here], signed the
following engagement. Such is the public spirit of the legal profession and
the conviction of the illegality of the above taxes, that it is our opinion
that almost every member of the bar would have attached his signature had he
been approached by us for that purpose.
We spread these facts before the people, and earnestly counsel and advise
them to unite and take every lawful means to resist the payment of all taxes.
I[saac] W. Patton, Chairman. W. Woelper, Secretary.
Patton would become mayor of New Orleans after the United States dropped its
support for the reconstruction government.
The statement, signed by several attorneys, read that they “engage themselves,
without compensation, and as a matter of public service, to defend
professionally all citizens, residents, or property-holders in this city, who
shall desire their assistance in resisting the collection by municipal
authorities of the taxes known as the ‘school-tax,’ the ‘park-tax,’ and the
‘metropolitan-police tax,’ and other taxes the collection of which may be
lawfully resisted.”
Determined Meeting of Citizens — All Further Payments of State and City Taxes to be Resisted — Armed Organizations in Progress Throughout the City — The Voice of the People — Indignation and Enthusiasm
Pursuant to the call of two hundred and fifty citizens of the Second ward,
for the meeting in favor of armed organization and to resist the further
collection of taxes, a large body of determined men filled the hall of the
Iron House, on Tchoupitoulas street, last evening, and there gave emphatic
evidence that no longer would the people submit to the remorseless and
unprincipled rule of a few adventurers, who by their acts thus compelled
peaceful citizens to rise in their might, to protest, refuse, and, if need
be, resist by force of arms, all further encroachments upon their rights.
The meeting was called to order at half past 7 o’clock, by Col. S.J.N. Smith, who moved that Mr. Archibald Mitchell be elected chairman pro tempore.
On taking the chair, Mr. Mitchell addressed those present in the following
words:
Gentlemen: Before stating the purpose of this meeting, I will premise that
we are not assembled here in the interest of any political party. Whatever
may be our predilections as individuals, we are as an organized body neither
democrats, reformers, nor republicans, but merely citizens endeavoring to
secure our inherent and constitutional rights, and to preserve the remnant
of property left to us by the tax-collector. We are not opposed to the
present State government because it is nominally republican, but because it
is organized and administered for no purpose whatever.
Our intention is to inaugurate a movement, which we hope will become
general, having for its object the non-payment of all taxes until we have a
government which legally represents the people and is administered to
promote their material welfare. Our principal and primary object is to take
measures to secure to all citizens, of all colors and conditions, the right
of the elective franchise, by which all abuses may be corrected.
We justify our right to refuse to pay taxes on the following grounds:
They are greatly in excess of the legitimate expense of the government. They
are in excess of the natural increase of property, and as such should be
resisted, being actual confiscation. These taxes were not levied by the
legally-elected representatives of the people, and they are not applied to
promote the public interests. Besides, the whole State government is
anti-republican and revolutionary, and as such has no legal claim on the
citizens for support. In these views the ablest legal minds in this State
concur.
The past history of this State leaves us in no doubt as to the course he
will pursue in the coming election. Governor Warmoth has never failed in any
instance to use force and fraud to accomplish his ends.
Therefore, having a positive moral assurance we will only be permitted to
have the forms of an election, unless we forcibly maintain our rights, we
propose to form ourselves into a military organization for that purpose, but
we do not contemplate the employment of force, even in defense of our
well-recognized rights, until all other means shall have failed.
Our object in meeting to-night is to discuss the expediency of the foregoing
measures and the best mode of carrying them into effect.
Col. Eugene Waggaman, having
been called upon to address the meeting, depicted in eloquent terms the
present and the past history of this State. The alarming condition of
political degradation under which the people are now and have been suffering
for the past four years was described in all its corrupting and evil effects.
There was a necessity — a life and death necessity — of organizing a military
association to meet force with force and protect what yet remained to the
people of this degraded State. “Warmoth and his minions must be put down in
their schemes of robbery and plunder. The means were in the hands of the
people; stop the supplies; refuse to pay the taxes. There were other ways of
defeating an army than by a conquering in battle. A general that cuts off the
enemy’s supplies, and forces a surrender, is more to be honored than one who
slaughters thousands.”
After the conclusion of Colonel Waggaman’s remarks, the following document
was read and adopted, as expressing the views of those present:
To pay taxes legally imposed by a legislature elected by the people is a
duty which every good citizen owes, even though the taxes are somewhat
onerous and excessive: but when the taxes are so cruelly excessive as to
leave the citizen in the position of a mere tenant of the lands and
buildings which may belong to him, and when the taxes are illegally imposed
by so-called representatives of the people, who have been fraudulently
foisted upon them for the avowed purpose of enriching an unprincipled
executive and a corrupt ring of legislators and other public plunderers, the
people should rise in their might and refuse to place money in the hands of
the spoiler, to complete their ruin and degradation.
In our present situation, with taxes so enormous, the payment of which will
in a very, very few years bankrupt the citizens and force them either to
revolution or exile, with an executive who openly boasts that his official
patronage exceeds that of the President of the United States.
The document then inquired whether the people are willing to continue to pay
taxes for the purpose of continuing the present corrupt rulers in power,
“which has so long disgraced Louisiana and impoverished her people.”
It then goes on to state that the best legal talent of the State has been
consulted relative to the constitutionality or the unconstitutionally of the
present outrageous and obnoxious tax-laws, and “the almost unanimous opinion
was that a great portion if not all of these laws are unconstitutional.”
The people were therefore advised no longer to pay the taxes to the State or
city authorities until the question of the legality of the imposition is
settled by the courts of the State and of the United States.
The members of the bar were then appealed to for the purpose of trying the
cases where such taxes were brought in the conns free of charge.
The bar nobly responded to the appeal by from forty to fifty signatures of
the leading lawyers of this city and State, and gave as their opinion (which
was unanimous) that the school, metropolitan, and park taxes were
unconstitutional, and could be successfully resisted before the courts. The
majority also agreed in the opinion that many other taxes other than those
mentioned above were also unconstitutional.
On motion, the sentiments and expressions embodied in the above were adopted
as the objects of the meeting, and the thanks of those present tendered the
legal gentlemen who had so generously offered their services to the people
free of charge, to represent them in the courts as the protectors of their
just rights.
The following resolutions were then read and adopted:
Some boring organizational ones, and then:
Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to draw up a plan by which
the citizens may co-operate, to employ counsel and mutually assist each other
in their refusal to pay taxes.
“Archibald Mitchell was then elected permanent president, and Hugh McClosky
vicepresident of the association by acclamation. ¶ The latter gentleman
accepted the honor conferred upon him, although he was not a resident of the
ward. Mr. McClosky said that if he had to resist the further payment of taxes
singly and alone, he had determined upon doing so. [Cheers.]”
There is also some testimony given in the same volume about terrorists from
the White League, or perhaps some allied groups, intimidating tax collectors
into resigning their posts, or interfering with tax auctions. In one case:
There was a mob of fifty or sixty armed men came to prevent the deputy
tax-collector effecting a sale, armed with revolvers nearly all. Mr. Fournet
came and threatened the deputy and tax-collector. The deputy and tax-collector
ran into their offices. I came down and called upon the citizens to clear the
court-house, but could not succeed. I then called upon the military, but they
had no orders at that time to give me assistance to carry out the law.
Another person said, of (I think) the same incident:
…Mr. [Valsin A.?] Fournet came with eight or ten. When the deputy
tax-collector attempted to make a sale Mr. Fournet raised his hand and struck
him. The deputy then shoved him down. As soon as this was done forty, fifty,
or sixty men came with their revolvers in hand.
…very few people attended tax-sales [typically], because the white people
were organized to prevent tax-collection, and pledged themselves not to buy
any property at tax-sales, and the property was generally bought by the State.
The government reprisals against tax resisters included the following,
according to one account:
Every delinquent tax-payer, however small the amount, was compelled to pay $2
auditor’s fee, $1.50 advertising fee, $1.50 recorder’s fee, and $5 surveyor’s
fee, for useless paper survey, and 25 cents for notice; all of which went
into the pockets of officials, and in no respect increased the revenue of the
State. In addition to this, the legislature organized under Governor Kellogg
passed a law rendering any delinquent incompetent as a witness in any civil
suit, and preventing him from bringing any suit. No injunction, it is
believed, could be taken against the action of the tax-collector, however
much he might deviate from law.
Some of that was later ruled to be unconstitutional.
Tax resistance was only one part of a campaign that included terrorism, the
establishment of parallel government structures, and a variety of other
techniques. It was eventually successful at ending Union control of the heart
of formerly Confederate territory, and allowing the white supremacists to
return to power, though never as the independent nation they’d aimed at.
The objection of five stokers to pay income tax has prevented the La France,
the largest French Transatlantic liner, leaving Havre. When the men refused
payment the Revenue authorities garnisheed their wages to the extent of 34
francs apiece. The stokers referred the matter to their trade union, and as
the whole engine-room staff made common cause with the stokers the passengers
were disembarked and sent to Paris.
A cable from that was printed
in New
York Times said that the strike was resolved when
the company
said it would pay the stokers’ taxes on their behalf. At first the union had
rejected this idea. The Times report included these
paragraphs:
The strike of the stokers, who were joined in sympathy by the rest of the
crew, raises the question of the manner in which tax collectors can collect
Finance Minister de Lasteyrie’s new income taxes. The stokers refused to pay.
The tax collector thereupon attached their wages, obliging the company under
French law to subtract the arrears of the uncollected tax.
A principle is therefore involved, because if in order to assure normal
communications the Government urges that satisfaction be given the men there
seems no reason, it is pointed out, why other categories of French citizens
should not also begin a fiscal strike when dissatisfied with high taxation.
One point, however, is stressed, namely, that if the men’s wages alone were
reckoned these would not be sufficiently high to bring them within the
taxable category at all. In order to make up the necessary total the tax
collector added certain allowances and the fact that the men are fed at the
company’s cost. It is this to which the men object and it is possible that
the Finance Ministry will finally decide in their favor.
