David Davis

“ It would be a hard rule to apply to the legislation of a State to hold that the circumstance of making in the amendment to a charter of a railroad corporation special provision for ascertaining the tax due the State (nothing being said about the manner of ascertaining other taxes) , works an exemption of the property of the corporation from all taxation not levied for State purposes. ”

“ At the time of the passage of this act, as before and since, there existed in Missouri, under its public statutes, a general scheme of taxation of all property in the State; this scheme embracing all property of corporations over and above their capital stock, as well as the property of citizens in the counties where it was situated.
In this state of things, the exemption given by the act of 1851 not having yet expired, the legislature of Missouri, on the 25th of December, 1852, passed another act amendatory of the charter. ”

“ The State might well claim and reserve to itself the right to tax the road after its completion, after it was able to pay dividends on its stock, and at the same time grant an immunity from municipal taxation.
IV. Finally. If the act in question is not a contract, and is subject to repeal, it has in fact not been repealed. This is adjudged in the case of The Pacific Railroad Company v. Cass County, [9] by the tribunal most to be respected in a decision on the meaning of the statute. The assessment, therefore, as to State taxes, at least, is made in a wrong way. ”

“ The State is at liberty to tax the property in question at the same rate, and, consequently, to as great an extent as it does other property. The exemption contended for is from county and other local taxation. The State may appropriate all the tax it is at liberty to impose to its own uses. ”

“ There are no negative words used. Were it not for the language which restores it, the total exemption would still continue. The limitation of the time of the total exemption and of the amount of the subsequent taxation are obviously one sentence, and must be taken together. The clause should not be divided into separate and distinct subjects, so that it may be argued that the exemption granted is to cease when a dividend is declared, and by the process of division and argument, a new subject of the remainder of the sentence made, which shall provide what shall take place afterwards. ”

“ The inquiry is whether this contract goes further and exempts the road, after it has been completed for two years, from all other than State taxation, and whether the State is precluded from providing another mode of valuation for State taxes.
It is manifest that legislation, which it is claimed relieves any species of property from its due proportion of the general burdens of government, should be so clear that there can be neither reasonable doubt nor controversy about its terms. ”