Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 3.djvu/206



such assessor shall be appointed, and every principal or assistant assessor acting in the said office, without having taken the said oath or affirmation, shall forfeit and pay one hundred dollars, one moiety to the use of the United States, and the other to him who shall first sue for the same; to be recovered, with costs of suit, in any court having competent jurisdiction.

. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall establish regulations suitable and necessary for carrying this act into effect; which regulations shall be binding on each principal assessor and his assistants in the performance of the duties enjoined by or under this act, and shall also frame instructions for the said principal assessors and their assistants, pursuant to which instructions the said princiapl assessors shall, on the first day of February next, direct and cause the several assistant assessors in the district, to inquire after and concerning all lands, lots of ground, with their improvements, dwelling houses, and slaves, made liable to taxation under this act, by reference as well to any lists of assessment or collection taken under the laws of the respective states, as to any other records or documents, and by all other lawful ways and means, and to value and enumerate the said objects of taxation in the manner prescribed by this act, and conformity with the regulations and instructions above mentioned. And it shall be further lawful for the Secretary of the Treasury to direct all errors committed in the assessment, valuation, and tax lists, or in collection thereof, heretofore or hereafter made in the valuation, assessment, and tax lists of the direct tax, laid by virtue of the said act of Congress entitled “,” and also, all such errors as may from time to time be committed in the assessment, valuation, and tax lists, or in the collection thereof, as may hereafter be made in the assessment of the direct tax by this act laid, to be corrected in such form, and upon such evidence, as the said secretary shall prescribe and approve.

. And be it further enacted, That the said direct tax laid by this act shall be assessed and laid on the value of all lands and lots of ground with their improvements, dwelling houses, and slaves, which several articles subject to taxation, shall be enumerated and valued by the respective assessors at the rate each of them is worth in money: Provided however, That all property, of whatever kind, coming within any of the foregoing descriptions, and belonging to the United States, or any state, or permanently or specially exempted from taxation by the laws of the state wherein the same may be situated, existing at the time of the passage of this act, shall be exempted from the aforesaid enumeration and valuation and the payment of the direct tax aforesaid; And provided also, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt from enumeration and valuation and payment of the direct tax, any public lands which heretofore have been, or hereafter may be sold in the States of Ohio and Louisiana, under any law of the United States, the compact between the United States and the said states to the contrary notwithstanding.

. And be it further enacted, That the respective assistant assessors shall, immediately after being required as aforesaid by the principal assessors, proceed through every part of their respective districts, and shall require all persons owning, possessing, or having the care or management of any lands, lots of ground, dwelling houses, or slaves, lying and being within the collection district where they reside, and liable to a direct tax as aforesaid, to deliver written lists of the same, which lists shall be made in such manner as may be directed by the principal assessor, and, as far as practicable, conformably to those which may be required for the same purpose under the authority of the respective rates; Provided, always, nevertheless, and it is hereby further enacted and declared, That the valuations, and assessments heretofore made and completed, or