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a whole county were levied by poll. That, undoubtedly,
was a great grievance and injustice. The origin of this,
as shown by Bosnian's History of Maryland, was an act
passed by the Colonial Assembly, in the time of the Lord
Protector, declaring that all the expenses of the colony
must be paid by a tax levied by poll, &c.
The people of Maryland had been in the habit of bor-
rowing many ideas from Virginia, both good and bad, and
this was one of the bad. A poll tax proper was not griev-
ous, and he was in favor of it; not of levying a poll tax
on the woman or infant, but on the man, and the power
to assess this tax should be confined to the Legislature.
There was no danger of this power being abused; the
members would be too much dependent on the good-will
of their constituents to make it oppressive; it would be
in the shape of a light income tax. He had an oppor-
tunity of knowing who paid the taxes in the city of Bal-
timore, and the burden of them fell heaviest upon the
poor householders. This large class, who now paid no
taxes, lived well, educated their children at the public
expense and were protected on all sides by the law, yet
they contributed nothing to the support of the govern-
ment. He believed that a small poll tax levied on all the
able-bodied men of the State would be cheerfully borne.
As the case stood, under the system of United States
taxation, nothing was left for the State but real property,
and the whole expenses of the State government were
borne by the taxation upon real estate. The committee in
the Convention of 1851 had reported in favor of striking
out the clause, -and faithfully endeavored to secure their
object. The Convention, however, with a mistaken fear
of the voters at home, retained it. The same discussion
over it occurred in 1864, and mistaken appeals were made
in behalf of the poor man. He hoped that this Conven-
tion would not be influenced by such considerations.
Mr. Vansant was in favor of the article as it stood. If
the provision in relation to taxation on real and personal
property was left out, we are all at sea as regards taxa-
tion. It will do a serious injury to the poor man. He
was opposed to specific indirect taxation in all its forms,
taxes by licenses, &c.; it had always paralyzed human
industry. He was in favor of every man paying accord-
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