proposed legislation of at least doubtful
constitutionality, and based upon no legal right, the equities which
recommend it should always be definite and clear.

The money appropriated by this bill is to be paid to the governors of
the respective States and Territories in which it was collected, whether
the same was derived through said States and Territories, or directly
"from any of the citizens or inhabitants thereof or other persons;" and
it is further provided that such sums as were collected in payment of
this Federal tax through the instrumentality of the State or Territorial
officials, and accounted for to the General Government by such States
and Territories, are to be paid unconditionally to their governors,
while the same collected in payment of said tax by the United States,
or, in other words, by the Federal machinery created for that purpose,
are to be held in trust by said States or Territories for the benefit of
those paying the same.

I am unable to understand how this discrimination in favor of those who
have made payment of this tax directly to the officers of the Federal
Government, and against those who made such payments through State
or Territorial agencies, can be defended upon fair and equitable
principles. It was the General Government in every case which exacted
this tax from its citizens and people in the different States and
Territories, and to provide for reimbursement to a part of its citizens
by the creation of a trust for their benefit, while the money exacted in
payment of this tax from a far greater number is paid unconditionally
into the State and Territorial treasuries, is an unjust and unfair
proceeding, in which the Government should not be implicated.

It will hardly do to say that the States and Territories who are the
recipients of these large gifts may be trusted to do justice to its
citizens who originally paid the money. This can not be relied upon; nor
should the Government lose sight of the equality of which it boasts,
and, having entered upon the plan of reimbursement, abandon to other
agencies the duty of just distribution, and thus incur the risk of
becoming accessory to actual inequality and injustice.

If in defense of the plan proposed it is claimed that exact equality can
not be reached in the premises, this may be readily conceded. The money
raised by this direct tax was collected and expended twenty-seven years
ago. Nearly a generation has passed away since that