18 of population, enjoying an ample supply of fertile land, is seen in a corresponding advance in the material wealth of the people of the United States. For the purpose of State taxation, the values of their real and personal property are yearly assessed by officers appointed by the States. The assessment does not include large amounts of property held by religious, educational, charitable and other associations exempted by law from taxation, nor any public property of any description. In actual practice, the real property is rarely assessed for more than two- thirds of its cash value, while large amounts of personal property, being easily concealed, escape assessment altogether. The assessed value of that portion of property which is thus actually taxed, increased as follows : In 1791 (estimated)............................ $750,000,090 1816 (estimated)............................ 1,800,000,000 1850 official valuation.................... 7,135,780,228 • 1860 do ..................... 16,159,616,068 showing an increase in the last decade alone of $9,023,835,840. A question has been raised, in some quarters, as to the correctness of these valuations of 1850 and 1860, in embracing in the valuation of 1850 $961,000,000, and in the valuation of 1860 $1,936,000,000, as the assessed value of slaves, insisting that black men are persons and not property, and should be regarded, like other men, only as producers and consumers. If this view of the subject should be admitted, the valuation of 1850 would be reduced to................................... $6,174,780,000 and that of 1860 to.................... 14,223,618,068 leaving the increase in the decade.......... . $8,048,825,840 The advance, even if reduced to $8,048,825,840, is sufficiently large to require the most attentive examination. It is an in-
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