Paschal said of taxation in this state during the Civil War and the Reconstruction that it was "another of those subjects upon which legislation has been feverish, restless, changeable, and almost irreconcilable." This description is particularly applicable to the legislation relating to the delinquent taxes and un-rendered property. Such matters have been the occasion for more kaleidoscopic, voluminous, intricate, and unavailing legislation than any other subject of taxation; and this was especially true of the period 1874-1880. During the periods of the Civil War and the Reconstruction there was a vast amount of property which escaped taxation through non-rendition and there was very much delinquency in the payment of taxes assessed.2

Direct taxation was comparatively unimportant during the periods of the republic and of statehood down to the Civil War, and there was a virtual breakdown of it during the war. It was stringently administered under the military governments, but from 1869 to 1874 the disfavor in which the state government was held strongly disinclined taxpayers to the payment of taxes. There was a tendency after 1875 to overestimate the revenue that would accrue from the collection of the delinquent and un-rendered property taxes which had accumulated.3 But the uncertainty of the records, the doubtful legality of the taxes levied during the Civil War, and the disfavor in which the military government was held, influenced the legislature to take a very liberal, if not coaxing, course with respect to these arrears. Both delinquent taxes and taxes on unrendered property prior to the year 1870 were relinquished, and those before January 1, 1873, were waived if those accruing since the date were paid before proceedings for forced payment were begun.1 The huge task of compiling the lists of property, delinquent and unrendered, devolved upon the comptroller's office. The work was so slow and the difficulties so many that new legislation was called for in 1879.2

1 Laws of 1879, p. 41. In 1876 about 39,000,000 acres were rendered in the counties where situated and about 23,000,000 in counties other than where situated.

2 The comptroller in 1874 estimated that more than 35,000,000 acres of land escaped assessment in 1873, and the official estimate of the average annual loss of taxes assessed was 25 per cent. Messages of Governor Coke, February 10, 1874, and January 12, 1875.

3 On the basis of 25,000,000 acres of land escaping taxation annually between 1870 and 1876, and valued at $1 per acre, the back taxes were estimated at $750,000. It was estimated also that about one-tenth of the taxes assessed were delinquent; Comptroller's Report, 1876.

Strangely there was no legislation until 1879 carrying into effect the provisions of the new constitution in regard to the taxation of property in the unorganized counties and territory not laid off into counties, and this was a serious omission. Until 1879 the provisions of pre-existing laws were applied, but as payment by non-residents of such counties and territory could not be enforced, a vast amount of land escaped taxation.3

The provisions adopted in 1876 in regard to enforcement of payment of current taxes were an improvement over those enacted under the Constitution of 1869, but they were not a solu-tion of the vexing problem. The new legislation differed from the old especially in that it did not postpone for so long a period the sale of land for delinquent taxes. Under the old laws the comptroller every five years returned to the counties the lists of delinquents, after which suit in the nature of an action for debt had to be brought in the district court, and if the judgment was in favor of the state, the sheriff proceeded to sell the land or offered it for sale once in each six months.4 The new legislation provided for the annual seizure and sale by the collector of property sufficient to pay the taxes, and if there was no individual purchaser, it was bid off to the state.5 By article 16, section 50 of the constitution the homestead was protected from seizure and forced sale for any taxes except those due on it.1 In order to ascertain better the unrendered land it was provided in 1879 that the general land office should furnish each assessor with a correct abstract of all the existing surveys of lands in his county and with all new surveys each year.2

1 Acts of August 19, 1876; Laws of 1876, pp. 214, 255.

2 Laws of 1879, p. 161. Ibid., Special Sess., p. 12. By 1882 only about forty counties had been furnished delinquent lists, and even this small result of six years' labor was defective, owing to the inaccuracy of the records from which the lists were compiled. See Act of May 16, 1882; Laws of 1882, p. 39.

3 Comptrollers' reports, 1876, 1877-8. It was estimated that not one-fourteenth of the taxes due by non-residents were paid.

4 Laws of 1871, First Sess., p. 51. Laws of 1873, p. 187.

5 Laws of 1876, p. 259. Laws of 1879, p. 46. Ibid., pp. 46, 132, and 141. Ibid., Spec. Sess., p. 36.

The policy of bidding off lands to the state when there were no individual purchasers which had been followed since 1846, except during the period of the Reconstruction, came in for criticism, and the policy of offering continuously such lands for sale until they were sold was advocated.3

There was a change made during this period in the dates for the assessment and collection of taxes for the greater convenience of taxpayers and officers. In 1874 the final date for the rendition of property was changed from April 1 to May 1, but December 1 remained the date of final settlement between the comptroller and the tax collectors.4 In 1876 it was enacted that assessment should take place between January 1 and June 1, that collections should begin on October 1 and that taxes should be paid by October 1 or be delinquent.5