capital of the bank be invested in federal securities, provided the taxation does not violate the rule prescribed by the act of 1864. It is not intended here to enter again into the argument by which this distinction is maintained, but to give a clear statement of the propositions that we have decided, that we may apply them to the case before us. If, then, the tax for which the State of Kentucky recovered judgment in this case is a tax upon the shares of the stock of the bank, and is not a tax upon the capital of the bank owned by the corporation, the first, second, and third grounds of defence must fail. There are, then, but two questions to be considered in the case before us: 1. Does the law of Kentucky, under which this tax is claimed, impose a tax upon the shares of the bank, or upon the capital of the bank, which is all invested in Government bonds? 2. If it is found to be a tax on the shares, can the bank be compelled to pay the tax thus levied on the shares by the State? The revenue law of Kentucky imposes a tax "on bank stock, or stock in any moneyed corporation of loan and discount, of fifty cents on each share thereof, equal to one hundred dollars of stock therein, owned by individuals, corporations, or societies." We entertain no doubt that this provision was intended to tax the shares of the stockholders, and that if no other provision had been made the amount of the tax would have been primarily collectible of the individual or corporation owning such shares, in the same manner that other taxes are collected from individuals. It is clear that it is the shares owned or held by individuals in the banking corporation which are to be taxed, and the measure of the tax is fifty cents per share of one hundred dollars. These shares may, in the market, be worth a great deal more or a great deal less than their par or nominal value, as its capital may have been increased or diminished by gains or losses, but the tax is the same in each case. This shows that it is the share which is intended to be taxed, and not the cash or other actual capital of the bank. It is said that there may be, or that there really are, banks in Kentucky whose stock is not divided into shares of $100 each, but into shares of $50 or other amounts, and that this shows that the legislature did not intend a tax of fifty cents on the share, but a tax on the capital. But the argument is of little weight. What the legislature intended to say was, that we impose a tax on the shares held by individuals or other corporations in banks in this State. The tax shall be at the rate of fifty cents per share of stock equal to $100. If the shares are only equal to $50, it will be twenty-five cents on each of such shares. If they are equal to $500, it will be $2 50 per share. The rate is regulated so as to be equal to fifty cents on each share of $100. But it is strongly urged that it is to be deemed a tax on the capital of the bank, because the law requires the officers of the bank to pay this tax on the shares of its stockholders. Whether the State has the right to do this we will presently consider; but the fact that it has attempted to do it does not prove that the tax is anything else than a tax on these shares. It has been the practice of many of the States for a long time to require of its corporations thus to pay the tax levied on their shareholders. It is the common, if not the only, mode of doing this in all the New England States, and in several of them the portion of this tax which should properly go as the shareholders' contribution to local or municipal taxation is thus collected by the State of the bank and paid over to the local municipal authorities. In the case of shareholders not residing in the State, it is the only mode in which the State can reach their shares for taxation. We are therefore of opinion that the law of Kentucky is a tax upon the share of the stockholder. If the State cannot require of the bank to pay the tax on the shares of its stock it must be because the Constitution of the United States or some act of Congress forbids it. There is certainly no express provision of the Constitution on the subject. But it is argued that the banks, being instrumentalities of the federal Government, by which some of its important operations are conducted, cannot be subjected to such State legislation. It is certainly true that the bank of the United States and its capital were held to be exempt from State taxation on the ground here stated, and this principle, laid down in the case of McCulloch vs. The State of Maryland, has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the court. But the doctrine has its foundation in the proposition that the right of taxation may be so used in such cases as to destroy the instrumentalities by which the Government proposes to effect its lawful purposes in the States, and it certainly cannot be maintained that banks or other corporations or instrumentalities of the Government are to be wholly withdrawn from the operation of State legislation. The most important agents of the federal Government are its officers, but no one will contend that when a man becomes an officer of the Government he ceases to be subject to the laws of the State. The principle we are discussing has its limitation, a limitation growing out of the necessity on which the principle itself is founded. That limitation is, that the agencies of the federal Government are only exempted from State legislation so far as that legislation may interfere with or impair their efficiency in performing the functions by which they are designed to serve that Government. Any other rule would convert a principle founded alone in the necessity of securing to the Government of the United States the means of exercising its legitimate powers into an unauthorized and unjustifiable invasion of the rights of the States. The salary of a federal officer may not be taxed; he may be exempted from any personal service which interferes with the discharge of his official duties, because those exemptions are essential to enable him to perform those duties. But he is subject to all the laws of the State which affect his family or social relations or his property, and he is liable to punishment for crime, though that punishment be imprisonment or death. So of the banks. They are subject to the laws of the State, and are governed in their daily course of business far more by the laws of the State than of the nation. All their contracts are governed and construed by State laws. Their acquisition and transfer of property, their right to collect their debts, and their liability to be sued for debts, are all based on State law. It is only when the State law incapacitates the banks from discharging their duties to the Government that it becomes unconstitutional. We do not see the remotest probability of this in their being required to pay the tax which their stockholders owe to the State for the shares of their capital stock, when the law of the federal Government authorizes the tax. If the State of Kentucky had a claim against a stockholder of the bank who was a non-resident of the State it could undoubtedly collect the claim by legal proceeding, in which the bank could be attached or garnished, and made to pay the debt out of the means of its shareholder under its control. This is, in effect, what the law of Kentucky does in regard to the tax of the State on the bank shares. It is no greater interference with the functions of the bank than any other legal proceeding to which its business operations may subject it, and it in no manner hinders it from performing all the duties of financial agent of the Government. A very nice criticism of the proviso to the forty-first section of the national-bank act, which permits the States to tax the shares of such banks, is made to us, to show that the tax must be collected of the shareholder directly, and that the mode we have been considering is by implication forbidden. But we are of opinion that while Congress intended to limit State taxation to the shares of the bank as distinguished from its capital, and to provide against a dis crimination in taxing such bank shares unfavorable to them, as compared with the shares of other corporations and with other moneyed capital, it did not intend to prescribe to the States the mode in which the tax should be collected. The mode under consideration is the one which Congress itself has adopted in collecting its tax on dividends and on the income arising from bonds of corporations. It is the only mode which, certainly and without loss, secures the payment of the tax on all the shares, resident or non-resident, and, as we have already stated, it is the mode which experience has justified in the New England States as the most convenient and proper in regard to the numerous wealthy corporations of those States. It is not to be readily inferred, therefore, that Congress intended to prohibit this mode of collecting a tax which they expressly permitted the States to levy. It is said here in argument that the tax is void, because it is greater than the tax laid by the State of Kentucky on other moneyed capital in that State. This proposition is not raised among the very distinct and separate grounds of defence set up by the bank in the pleading. Nor is there any reason to suppose that it was ever called to the attention of the court of appeals, whose judgment we are reviewing. We have so often of late decided that when a case is brought before us by writ of error to a State court that we can only consider such alleged errors as are involved in the record and actually received the consideration of the State court, that it is only necessary to state the proposition now. As the question thus sought to be raised here was not raised in the court of appeals of Kentucky, we cannot consider it. The judgment of that court is affirmed. LII. PRESIDENT GRANT'S FIRST ANNUAL AND SPECIAL MESSAGES AND PROCLAMATION. President Grant's First Annual Message, DECEMBER 6, 1869. whole, they have been more successful than could have been reasonably anticipated. Seven States which passed ordinances of secesTo the Senate and House of Representatives: sion have been fully restored to their places in In coming before you for the first time as Chief the Union. The eighth, Georgia, held an elecMagistrate of this great nation, it is with grati- tion at which she ratified her constitution, repubtude to the Giver of all good for the many bene-lican in form, elected a governor, members of fits we enjoy we are blessed with peace at home, Congress, a State legislature, and all other officers and are without entangling alliances abroad to required. The governor was duly installed and forebode trouble; with a territory unsurpassed the legislature met and performed all the acts in fertility, of an area equal to the abundant sup- then required of them by the reconstruction acts port of five hundred millions of people, and of Congress. Subsequently, however, in violaabounding in every variety of useful mineral in tion of the constitution which they had just ratiquantity sufficient to supply the world for gene-fied, (as since decided by the supreme court of rations; with exuberant crops; with a variety of climate adapted to the production of every species of earth's riches, and suited to the habits, tastes, and requirements of every living thing; with a population of forty millions of free people, all speaking one language; with facilities for every mortal to acquire an education; with institutions closing to none the avenues to fame or any blessing of fortune that may be coveted; with freedom of the pulpit, the press, and the school; with a revenue flowing into the national treasury beyond the requirements of the Government. Happily, harmony is being rapidly restored within our own borders. Manufactures hitherto unknown in our country are springing up in all sections, producing a degree of national independ-ing, ence unequaled by that of any other power. These blessings and countless others are intrusted to your care and mine for safe-keeping, for the brief period of our tenure of office. In a short time we must, each of us, return to the ranks of the people who have conferred upon us our honors, and account to them for our stewardship. I earnestly desire that neither you nor I may be condemned by a free and enlightened constituency, nor by our own consciences. the State,) they unseated the colored members of the legislature and admitted to seats some members who are disqualified by the third clause of the XIVth amendment to the Constitution, an article which they themselves had contributed to ratify. Under these circumstances, I would submit to you whether it would not be wise, without delay, to enact a law authorizing the governor of Georgia to convene the members originally elected to the legislature, requiring each member to take the oath prescribed by the reconstruction acts, and none to be admitted who are ineligible under the third clause of the XIVth amendment. The freedmen, under the protection which they have received, are making rapid progress in learn and no complaints are heard of lack of industry on their part where they receive fair remuneration for their labor. The means provided for paying the interest on the public debt, with all other expenses of government, are more than ample. The loss of our commerce is the only result of the late rebellion which has not received sufficient attention from you. To this subject I call your earnest attention. I will not now suggest plans by which this object may be effected, but will, if necessary, make it the subject of a special message during the session of Congress. Emerging from a rebellion of gigantic magnitude, aided as it was by the sympathies and as- At the March term, Congress by joint resolu sistance of nations with which we were at peace, tion authorized the Executive to order elections eleven States of the Union were four years ago in the States of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, left without legal State governments. A national to submit to them the constitutions which each debt had been contracted; American commerce had previously, in convention, framed, and subwas almost driven from the seas; the industry of mit the constitutions, either entire or in separate one-half of the country had been taken from the parts, to be voted upon at the discretion of the control of the capitalist and placed where all Executive. Under this authority elections were labor rightfully belongs in the keeping of the called. In Virginia the election took place on laborer. The work of restoring State govern- the 6th of July, 1869. The governor and lieuments loyal to the Union, of protecting and fos- tenant governor elected have been installed. tering free labor, and providing means for paying The legislature met and did all required by this the interest on the public debt, has received am- resolution and by all the reconstruction acts of ple attention from Congress. Although your Congress, and abstained from all doubtful authorefforts have not met with the success in all partic-ity. I recommend that her senators and reprelars that might have been desired, yet, on the sentatives be promptly admitted to their seats, and that the State be fully restored to its place | accomplish this it may be necessary to authorize in the family of States. Elections were called the interest to be paid at either of three or four in Mississippi and Texas, to commence on the of the money-centers of Europe, or by any assist30th of November, 1869, and to last two days in ant treasurer of the United States, at the option Mississippi and four days in Texas. The elections of the holder of the bond. I suggest this subject have taken place, but the result is not known. for the.consideration of Congress, and also, simulIt is to be hoped that the acts of the legislatures taneously with this, the propriety of redeeming of these States when they meet will be such as our currency, as before suggested, at its market to receive your approval and thus close the work value at the time the law goes into effect, increasing the rate at which currency shall be bought and sold from day to day or week to week, at the same rate of interest as Government pays upon its bonds. of reconstruction. Among the evils growing out of the rebellion, and not yet referred to, is that of an irredeemable currency. It is an evil which I hope will receive your most earnest attention. It is a duty, and one of the highest duties, of government to secure to the citizen a medium of exchange of fixed, unvarying value. This implies a return to a specie basis, and no substitute for it can be devised. It should be commenced now and reached at the earliest practicable moment consistent with a fair regard to the interests of the debtor class. Immediate resumption, if practicable, would not be desirable. It would compel the debtor class to pay, beyond their contracts, the premium on gold at the date of their purchase, and would bring bankruptcy and ruin to thousands. Fluctuation, however, in the paper value of the measure of all values (gold) is detrimental to the interests of trade. It makes the man of business an involuntary gambler, for, in all sales where future payment is to be made, both parties speculate as to what will be the value of the currency to be paid and received. I earnestly recommend to you, then, such legislation as will insure a gradual return to specie payments and put an immediate stop to fluctuations in the value of currency. The subjects of tariff and internal taxation will necessarily receive your attention. The revenues of the country are greater than the requirements, and may with safety be reduced. But, as the funding of the debt in a four or a four-and a-half per cent. Ioan would reduce annual current expenses largely, thus, after funding, justifying a greater reduction of taxation than would be now expedient, I suggest postponement of this question until the next meeting of Congress. It may be advisable to modify taxation and tariff in instances where unjust or burdensome discriminations are made by the present laws; but a general revision of the laws regulating this subject I recommend the postponement of for the present. I also suggest the renewal of the tax on incomes, but at a reduced rate, say of three per cent., and this tax to expire in three years. With the funding of the national debt, as here suggested, I feel safe in saying that taxes and the revenue from imports may be reduced safely from sixty to eighty millions per annum at once, and may be still further reduced from year to year, as the resources of the country are devel The methods to secure the former of these re-oped. sults are as numerous as are the speculators on political economy. To secure the latter I see but one way, and that is, to authorize the treasury to redeem its own paper, at a fixed price, whenever presented, and to withhold from circulation all currency so redeemed until sold again for gold. The vast resources of the nation, both developed and undeveloped, ought to make our credit the best on earth. With a less burden of taxation than the citizen has endured for six years past, the entire public debt could be paid in ten years. But it is not desirable that the people should be taxed to pay it in that time. Year by year the ability to pay increases in a rapid ratio. But the burden of interest ought to be reduced as rapidly as can be done without the violation of contract. The public debt is represented in great part by bonds, having from five to twenty and from ten to forty years to run, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent. and five per cent., respectively. It is optional with the Government to pay these bonds at any period after the expiration of the least time mentioned upon their face. The time has already expired when a great part of them may be taken up, and is rapidly approaching when all may be. It is believed that all which are now due may be replaced by bonds bearing a rate of interest not exceeding four-and-a-half per cent., and as rapidly as the remainder become due that they may be replaced in the same way. To The report of the Secretary of the Treasury shows the receipts of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869, to be $370,943,747, and the expenditures, including interest, bounties, &c., to be $321,490,597. The estimates for the ensuing year are more favorable to the Government, and will no doubt show a much larger decrease of the public debt. The receipts in the Treasury, beyond expenditures, have exceeded the amount necessary to place to the credit of the sinking fund as provided by law. To lock up the surplus in the Treasury and withhold it from circulation would lead to such a contraction of the currency as to cripple trade and seriously affect the prosperity of the country. Under these circumstances the Secretary of the Treasury and myself heartily concurred in the propriety of using all the surplus currency in the Treasury in the purchase of government bonds, thus reducing the interestbearing indebtedness of the country, and of submitting to Congress the question of the disposition to be made of the bonds so purchased. The bonds now held by the Treasury amount to about seventy-five millions, including those belonging to the sinking fund. I recommend that the whole be placed to the credit of the sinking fund. Your attention is respectfully invited to the recommendations of the Secretary of the Treasury for the creation of the office of commissioner of customs revenue, for the increase of salaries to certain classes of officials, the substitution of increased national bank circulation to replace | believed could be received by Cuba, was with to outstanding three per cent. certificates, and most especially to his recommendation for the repeal of laws allowing shares of fines, penalties, forfeitures, &c., to officers of the Government or to informers. The office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue is one of the most arduous and responsible under the Government. It falls but little, if any, short of a cabinet position in its importance and responsibilities. I would ask for it, therefore, such legislation as in your judgment will place the office upon a footing of dignity commensurate with its importance, and with the character and qualifications of the class of men required to fill it properly. drawn. It is hoped that the good offices of the United States may yet prove advantageous for the settlement of this unhappy strife. Meanwhile a number of illegal expeditions against Cuba have been broken up. It has been the endeavor of the administration to execute the neutrality laws in good faith, no matter how unpleasant the task, made so by the sufferings we have endured from lack of like good faith toward us by other nations. On the 26th of March last the United States schooner Lizzie Major was arrested on the high seas by a Spanish frigate, and two passengers taken from it and carried as prisoners to Cuba. Representations of these facts were made to the Spanish government as soon as official information of them reached Washington. The two passengers were set at liberty, and the Spanish government assured the United States that the captain of the frigate in making the capture had acted without law, that he had been reprimanded for the irregularity of his conduct, and that the Spanish authorities in Cuba would not sanction any act that could violate the rights or treat with disrespect the sovereignty of this nation. As the United States is the freest of all nations, so, too, its people sympathize with all peoples struggling for liberty and self-government. But, while so sympathizing, it is due to our honor that we should abstain from enforcing our views upon unwilling nations, and from taking an interested part, without invitation, in the quarrels between different nations or between governments and their subjects. Our course should always be in conformity with strict justice and The question of the seizure of the brig Mary law, international and local. Such has been Lowell at one of the Bahama Islands, by Spanthe policy of the administration in dealing with ish authorities, is now the subject of correspondthese questions. For more than a year a valua-ence between this Government and those of Spain ble province of Spain, and a near neighbor of and Great Britain. ours, in whom all our people cannot but feel a The captain general of Cuba, about May last, deep interest, has been struggling for indepen-issued a proclamation authorizing search to be dence and freedom. The people and Government of the United States entertain the same warm feelings and sympathies for the people of Cuba, in their pending struggle, that they manifested throughout the previous struggles between Spain and her former colonies in behalf of the latter. But the contest has at no time assumed the conditions which amount to a war in the sense of international law, or which would show the existence of a de facto political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a recognition of belligerency. The principle is maintained, however, that this nation is its own judge when to accord the rights of belligerency, either to a people struggling to free themselves from a government they believe to be oppressive or to independent nations at war with each other. made of vessels on the high seas. Immediate remonstrance was made against this, whereupon the captain general issued a new proclamation limiting the right of search to vessels of the United States so far as authorized under the treaty of 1795. This proclamation, however, was immediately withdrawn. I have always felt that the most intimate relations should be cultivated between the republic of the United States and all independent nations on this continent. It may be well worth considering whether new treaties between us and them may not be profitably entered into, to secure more intimate relations, friendly, commercial, and otherwise. The subject of an inter-oceanic canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, through the Isthmus of Darien, is one in which commerce is greatly The United States have no disposition to in- interested. Instructions have been given to our terfere with the existing relations of Spain to minister to the republic of the United States of her colonial possessions on this continent. They Colombia to endeavor to obtain authority for a believe that in due time Spain and other survey by this Government, in order to determine European powers will find their interest in ter- the practicability of such an undertaking, and a minating those relations, and establishing their charter for the right of way to build, by private present dependencies as independent powers-enterprise, such a work, if the survey proves it members of the family of nations. These de- to be practicable. pendencies are no longer regarded as subject to transfer from one European power to another. When the present relation of colonies ceases they are to become independent powers, exercising the right of choice and of self-control in the determination of their future condition and relations with other powers. The United States, in order to put a stop to bloodshed in Cuba, and in the interest of a neighboring people, proposed their good offices to bring the existing contest to a termination. The offer, not being accepted by Spain on a basis which we In order to comply with the agreement of the United States as to a mixed commission at Lima for the adjustment of claims, it became necessary to send a commissioner and secretary to Lima in August last. No appropriation having been made by Congress for this purpose, it is now asked that one be made covering the past and future ex penses of the commission. The good offices of the United States to bring about a peace between Spain and the South American republics, with which she is at wai, having been accepted by Spain, Peru, and Chili |