Here is their peculiar doctrine of equality as expressed in the system of granting land within the towns by common

ers:

"And, whereas Lotts are Now Laid out for the most part Equally to Rich and Poore, Partly to Keepe the towne from scattering to farr, and Partly charitie and Respect to men of meaner Estate, Yet that Equallitie (which is the rule of God) May be observed, we Covenant and Agree that in a second Divition and so through all other Divitions of Land the mater shall be drawne as neere to equallitie according to men's estates as wee are able to doe, That he which hath now more then his estate Deserveth in home lotts and entervale Lotts shall haue so much Less; and he that hath less then his estate Deserveth shall haue so much more.'

A petition from Wells, June 30th, 1689, will help to understand the military situation of the early frontier.

I. "That yo Hon will please to send us speedily twenty Eight good brisk men that may be serviceable as a guard to us whilest we get in our Harvest of Hay & Corn, (we being unable to Defend ouselves & to Do our work), & also Persue and Destroy the Enemy as occasion may require.

2. That these men may be compleatly furnished with Arms, Amunition & Provision, and that upon the Country's account, it being a Generall War."

Dunstable, "still weak and unable to both keep our Garrisons and to send men to get hay for Cattle; without doeing which wee cannot subsist," petitioned July 23rd, 1689, for twenty footmen for a month "to scourt about the towne while wee get our hay." Otherwise, they say, they must be forced to leave. Still more indicative of this temper is the petition of Lancaster, March 11, 1675-6, to the Governor and Council: "As God has made you father over us so you will have a father's pity to us." They asked a guard of men and aid, without which they must leave. Deerfield plead in 1678 to the General Court, "unlest you will be pleased to take us (out of your fatherlike pity) and Cherish us in yo Bosomes we are like Suddainly to breathe out our Last Breath."

After permanent settlements had been established the

frontiersmen began to meet the eastern proprietor on the forum and in the courts. Many lively forensic fights ensued. Every encounter resulted in the settling of things toward that goal we are so proud to call Americanism. The frontiersman began to mold policies, and a gradual readjustment in the distribution of lands resulted. In the sixteenth century provisions for reserving lands within the granted township for the support of an approved minister and for schools appear and it became a common feature of grants in the seventeenth century.

For lack of time let us pass from the early struggles of the frontiersman and view him, stripped of his anxiety and constant fear of the Red Man, three or four generations later when he has had time to breathe the free air of the domain which he has all but conquered. He no longer struggles for mere existence but his struggle to exist as a free and independent man has just begun. We now see him in an attempt to prevent his land from falling into the hands of the eastern proprietors and we witness Bacon's Rebellion. We see Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, chafing under the galling indignity of the "democracy made up of small land owners, new immigrants and indenture servants." We see this frontiersman making new and unheard of demands through Jefferson in the "War of Regulation" which preceded the War of Revolution. He wants estates tail abolished; religious freedom established; the laws of primogeniture materially altered; a brand new rule of descent and distribution; and he wants slavery abolished. Now we see him in the several councils or legislatures of the colonies and at last in general council at Philadelphia where he grasps the old Liberty Bell and announces to the world "The Old Order Changeth" and when he returns from his eight years of faithful service in the Continental Armies the change has been wrought.

In this paper we cannot follow him in detail as he subdues a wilderness and reclaims an empire in the Mississippi Valley and its thirty-six thousand miles of tributary streams; the basin of the Great Lakes and the black prairies of the

cotton belt but let us hear Seward declare the result in an address delivered in Madison, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1860:

"The empire established at Washington is of less than a hundred years' formation. It was the Empire of Thirteen Atlantic States. Still, practically, the mission of that Empire is fulfilled. The power that directs it is ready to pass away from those thirteen states, and although held and exercised under the same constitution and national form of government, yet is now in the very act of being transferred from the thirteen states east of the Allegheny mountains and on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, to twenty states that lie west of the Alleghenies, and stretch away from their base to the base of the Rocky Mountains on the West. when the next census shall reveal your power" said he to the people of the west, "you will be found to be the masters of the United States of America and through them the dominating political power of the world."

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TAXATION.

PAPER BY

BENJ. E. PIERCE,

OF AUGUSTA.

My subject, that of public revenue, or taxation as we know it, is as broad as the universe and as old as civilization. However, I hope you will not be alarmed, for I do not propose to read a treatise upon the various laws, which have been passed touching the same, for if I did, it might (?) weary you, neither am I going to attempt to tell you all that I know (?) about the subject, for that would be to read a book-how thick, I shall not say. Neither shall I enter upon a lengthy philosophical discussion of economics but I shall only attempt a general resume of the origin and growth of taxation.

It is difficult to fully realize that taxation as we know it today is of comparatively recent growth, and marks a late stage in the development of public revenues. Nevertheless, the problem of providing revenue for the maintenance and support of government, has been one which has claimed the attention of mankind, in one form or another, since the earliest dawn of civilization. Each age has its own system of public revenues. It has been said that taxation "is only an historical category." When man lived unto himself alone, if we accept the theory of some, there was no need of taxation, as there was no such thing as organized society or established government. However, when man realized that he was a social being, it was then for the first time that he felt a craving for the companionship of others of his kind-it was then that he began to dwell in closer contact

with his fellow-man. Thus was builded the first community.

At this stage of man's development, the demand for a leader or head became imperative, and someone of each community, stronger than his brothers, asserted his authority and became the leader or chief of the tribe. Then arose for the first time a necessity for providing some manner of maintenance and support for such leader and his household. As civilization advanced, Government became more permanently established; the demands thereof became greater, and step by step, the system of taxation developed. It may be said to be a barometer of civilization, for nothing has marked the progress of civilization more clearly than the revenue laws of past ages. As the times changed, taxation has changed; as government became more complex, taxation became more complex.

One of the most singular commentaries upon the progress of civilization as marked by taxation is said to be that the first tax ever levied upon industry was upon an industry of depravity-by Caligula in A. D. 37-41, and that the first tax ever levied on capital was on capital employed in the operation of a rather degraded business-by Vespasian in 69-79 A. D.

Someone has said that its growth might well be illustrated by etymology; that if we look at the many and varied terms applied to what we call tax, we will find every shade of its development reflected in the words and terms used in former centuries, as well as those employed today. This growth has been divided into seven different stages as follows: (1) The first stage was when the subject made a gift to the government, which is indicated in the mediaeval term donum, said to have been the custom for many centuries. (2) The second stage was reached when the government humbly implored or prayed the people for support-indicated in the phrase precarium. (3) The third stage of its growth was when the subject first felt he was doing the State a favor by contributing something to its support as expressed in the Latin term adjutorium, in the French aide and in the Eng