Collecting officers of the Confederate tax.
--As a matter of interest to the people and to the revenue officers of the different counties, it may be well for us to state the determination of the
Secretary of the Treasury in regard to the agents who will be appointed for making the assessments and collecting the taxes of the Confederate Government.
It is known that under provision of the
Confederate law levying a direct tax, any State which shall pay its quota of the same into the
Confederate Treasury by the first day of April next, will be entitled to a discount of ten per cent on the amount assessed against it. This discount is probably rather more than the expense which will attend the collection of the tax from the people, and therefore any State paying in its quota by the date specified, may save a small percentage of the amount to its people.
As this saving, however, cannot be great enough to afford much temptation to the States to undertake the collection of the
Confederate tax, the
Government will doubtless have to appoint assessors and collectors of its own in many of the States for the purpose.--Looking to this probability, we understand that the
Secretary of the Treasury is maturing instructions to the
Confederate Marshals on this subject.
We understand that an important feature of these instructions will be a requirement upon the Marshals
to appoint for the assessment and collection of the Confederate tax the same officers in all the counties which perform similar duties for the State Governments. We understand that these instructions will be
mandatory, and that the Marshals will be left no option in the matter.
We throw out this piece of information, in order to relieve the Department here, and the Marshals in all the Districts of the
South, from the swarm of applications for appointments in the Excise with which they would otherwise be overwhelmed.
The measure resolved on by
Mr. Memminger takes away from this prolific source of patronage every feature of partisanship; and, considering the immense patronage thus voluntarily relinquished by the Confederate Government, reflects great credit upon the
President and
Secretary of Treasury.
While the policy thus resolved upon avoids the invocation of a countless swarm of office- seekers throughout the land, it removes in great measure the most odious feature of direct taxation, in relieving the people from the annoyance of two sets of tax-gatherers dinning their demands into each ear at the same time.
In the great majority of cases the officers who will assess and collect the
Confederate tax, will be men of the people's own selection: and, whenever not of their own choosing, they will be the appointees of their own county courts.
We look upon this determination of the
President and
Secretary of the Treasury as one of the most important and happy that has attended the administration of our new Government.
In regard to
Virginia, we suppose that the late period at which our Legislature meets will preclude any effort on the part of the
State to collect this tax itself; and that instructions will have gone out from the Confederate Government, and the work of collection entered upon, before the Legislature will meet.
