COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. XXI

which has been tolerated for years, and which now amounts to, per-
haps, one-seventh of the whole property of the State. A considera-
tion which renders this inequality and injustice more strikingly
glaring, is, that the debt with which the people of the State are
now burdened, and to pay the interest on which they are now taxed
was incurred for the express purpose of aiding the corporations whose
stockholders are now claiming exemption, and the money was ex-
pended in giving value to that identical stock which they now
claim shall be free from the operation of this clause of the Decla-
ration of Rights. This, also, is true in the face of the fact that
the Act of 1835, chapter 395, originally passed for the purpose of
creating this debt, was coupled with an express provision ani
stipulation, that "in case it shall become necessary at any time
hereafter, to levy a direct tax for the support of Government, or to
sustain the public credit, the same shall be laid according to the
13th Article of the Declaration of Rights, including all goods, wares
and merchandise belonging to citizens of this State, ships or vessels
in or out of port, monies at interest on mortgage b»nd, or any chose
in action, stock and public securities of every description and all
income derived from shares of every incorporated institution, or
otherwise, as well as every other description of property, real, personal
or mixed, which escapes taxation under existing laws, and the faith of
the State is hereby pledged to lay the same accordingly in conside-
ration hereof, and to provide for the payment of interest, and the
reimbursement of principal of debts to bs created in virtue of this
Act, or of debts which may be created at any subsequent legisla-
ture, and all Acts, or parts of Acts in contravention of the Constitu-
tional and Equitable principles herein contained, shall thence forward
be repealed, abrogated and annulled." This Act and this stipulation
were formally accepted, and the terms of it agreed to by the Com-
panies intended to be the beneficiaries thereof, and yet the strange
spectacle is exhibited, that when the necessity for such taxation has
arisen, the stockholders of these very corporations, and the corpo-
rations themselves who were the beneficiaries of the same legisla-
tion have presistently resisted the power of the Legislature to im-
pose any tax or burden on the stock or property owned by them,
on account of this same public indebtedness contracted for their
benefit, but have maintained and insisted that the same should be
borne entirely by the rest of the people of the State. I cannot
think that this exemption can continue to be sustained by the