Samuel Freeman Miller

“ It is sufficient to say that we are quite satisfied that any system of assessment of taxes which exacts from the owner of the shares of a national bank a larger sum in proportion to their actual value than it does from the owner of other moneyed capital valued in like manner, does tax them at a greater rate within the meaning of the act of Congress.
It is not asserted that any different percentage on the valuation established was applied to these two classes of capital. The bill very clearly shows that the source of the evil was in the unequal valuation. ”

“ This act of 1877, however, provided another board of equalization, composed of the auditor of state, treasurer of state, and attorney-general, to whom all the assessments of bank shares made by the county and city boards were to be referred, and to whom no other property was referred, for an equalization, which included the whole State. This board could do no more than increase or diminish the valuation of such shares for each county and city, so as to make them conform to some standard of equality among themselves which that board might adopt. ”