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litigation to postpone or to defeat its collection. This is unjust to the citizen who meets his obligations with promptness, and the complaint is well founded that it brings unequal and unreasonable burdens. Perfect equality in taxation is impossible, but the General Assembly can provide for uniformity in the assessment of property liable to taxation, and for certainty in collections and in payments.

Error in assessment is one of the reasons assigned for this large delinquent list. This can be equalized by the County Court acting as a Board of Supervisors, and making their action the subject of review by a State Board of Equalization, composed of the Governor and other executive officers. Another explanation of this delinquent list is the failure and defalcation of the collectors of the revenue. In addition to the fees paid to collectors, there is now an annual loss to the State of about one-tenth of the revenue paid out in costs and fees and by defaults. I cannot understand why the revenues of the State should be exhausted or lost by the laches of collectors. No levy of taxes should be made except the precise sum necessary to meet the particular obligations, but this sum should be reliable and available. This seems impossible under our system. Certainty can be secured by making the several counties liable for the quota of the State tax assessed within it, and charge the counties with the defaults, evasions and errors committed by their own chosen officials.

ASSESSMENT.

The total value of the property of the State assessed for taxation for the year 1878 amounts to $223,212,153.00, showing a decrease since 1877 of $13,696,695.00. The personal property assessed for the year 1878 amounts to $20,871,338.00. In 1875, the year of the greatest

prostration in business, the personal property of the State was assessed at $37,231,908.00. It is very clear that the shrinkage in the value of personalty is out of all proportion to that in realty, and that in fact not more than one-half of it is assessed. Real estate pays the largest part of the revenue; it can be reached at all times -no evasions can conceal it. Justice to the land owner demands. that the holder of personal property should be made to bear his part of the public burden.

THE PUBLIC DEBT.

The State has issued 49,393 Bonds, amounting to $49,173,316.66; the number cancelled is 28,385, amounting to $28,163,016.66; the number now outstanding as a liability against the State is 20,219, amounting to $20,221,300.00. In ten years the State has paid three installments of interest, seven are past due, amounting, after deducting $149,050.00, paid to educational and charitable institutions to $4.052,717.00 making a debt of principal and interest of $24,274,000.17.

The settlement of this debt is paramount to all questions of legislation that can engage the attention of the General Assembly; it involves the honor and good name of the State, the credit and honor of every one of its citizens; it is a liability that was voluntarily contracted, and whether it was wisely created or not,'can not now be a question. I hold, and have always believed, that in the light of moral and legal duty, as a question of commercial honor and of State pride, the best settlement of the debt for Tennessee would be to pay the entire debt according to the terms of the contract; this would be a heavy burden, but when it became oppressive a temporary suspension of the interest payment could be made, and with a return of prosperity, with a moderate increase of population and a reasonable development of our resources, now in full fruition, the

whole debt could be paid without serious embarrassment to any one. Bit the creditors themselves have relieved the State of the necessity of providing for the entire debt by offering such an abatement of the principal as to bring its payment within the ability of the State, without making it burdensome. In December, 1877, certain creditors of the State proposed to adjust that part of the debt held by themselves, upon a basis of fifty cents for principal and past due interest, and offered assurances that the great body of the creditors would accept the same terms; this proposition was submitted to an extra session of the Fortieth General Assembly, and its acceptance earnestly recommended. I am satisfied that the creditors making this proposition would still make the adjustment; settled at fifty cents, the debt would amount to $12,137,000.00 the annual interest upon this sum, at six per cent., would amount to $728,220.00. I do not hesitate to again urge the acceptance of this proposition.

I cannot be mistaken in the opinion that the people of the State are anxious to be delivered from a farther discussion of this question and from a longer postponement of its settlement. If this recommendation is adopted, the Comptroller should be invested with authority, after a day to be fixed by law, to make publication, with notice to financial agents of the several counties, announcing the number of old bonds returned and cancelled, with the number of new bonds issued, and the amount of revenue to be provided to meet the interest, with the amount assigned to each county; upon this publication and notice, the County Courts should be required to make the necessary levy to meet the interest without further legislation.

CRIMINAL EXPENSES.

The following recommendation was made to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth General Assembly, and I again urge its adoption.

I renew the recommendation made two years ago to the Thirty ninth General Assembly, for the passage of an Act requiring the several Counties to pay their own criminal expenses. The State has paid for this purpose, during the two past years, the sum of $389,585.63, and during the continuance of our present system there can be no material reduction. Tennessee is one of five, out of thirtyeight States of the Union, where criminal prosecutions are made a charge upon the State Treasury; in thirty-three of them the counties where crimes are committed pay all costs, and the result in these thirty-three States is that the local officers are more active and vigilant in preventing extravagant charges, and I am satisfied that where local responsibility is provided, bills of cost will be subjected to a scrutiny they cannot now receive; the Comptroller of the Treasury, in auditing these bills of cost, is only required by law to see that the several items are taxed in accordance with the Statute; if they were referred to the County Judge or Chairman of the County Court, the necessity for their creation would be discussed, and, it is believed, the criminal law will be administered with more economy, and by bringing the subject directly before the people, they would stimulate greater vigilance on the part of officials and require the punishment of criminals to be made with promptness. For criminal expenses for the years 1877-1878, the State has paid $391,385.56.

ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION OF RAILROADS.

Under the provisions of the Act approved March 20, 1877, the Board of Assessors was organized by the appointment of Samuel Ivins, of the county of McMinn, Thos. R. Shearon, of the county of Obion, and Z. M. Ewing, of the county of Giles, and upon the resignation of Col. Ivins, by the appointment of Frank A. Moses,

of the county of Knox; all the roads in the State were duly assessed, and the Western and Atlantic, Tennessee Coal and Iron, Mississippi Central, Mississippi and Tennessee, Roane Iron Company, Nickajack, Duck River Valley, Ripley and Middleton Railroads, have paid their assessment; the other companies are contesting, in the Courts, the power of the State to levy and collect taxes from them.

SPECIFIC APPROPRIATIONS.

The Appropriation Bill, passed by the Fortieth General Assembly, was the first compliance with the Constitutional provision that no money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; I earnestly recommend a strict adherence to this precedent, not alone as a Constitutional duty of maintaining legislative authority and responsibility, but as the only method of securing certainty and economy in administration.

COST OF LITIGATION.

I repeat the following recommendation made to the Fortieth General Assembly.

Citizens of the State complain that the cost of litigation is so considerable, that they are in many cases deterred from asserting their rights in the Courts of the State; the complaint is a wellfounded one, and I know of no more acceptable service to the public than the correction of this evil; costs paid by litigants in the Courts of Tennessee are largely in excess of the costs paid by citizens of several of the adjoining States for the same service, and are unreasonable and excessive and ought to be reduced.

ARBITRATION COMMISSION.

Messrs. E. L. Gardenhire, John W. Burton and James J. Turner

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