uniformity shall be in taxation, and how it shall be applied, there is a wide field of legislative discretion.”
The constitution of Arkansas by article 7, § 2, tit. “Revenue” provides that “all property subject to taxation shall be taxed according to its value.” This is quite similar to § 6 of the organic act of Dakota territory, and was construed in the case of State v. Crittenden Co., 19 Ark. 360. In this case, by act of congress of September 28, 1850, swamp and overflowed lands were granted to the state of Arkansas for certain specified purposes. Thereafter the legislature passed an act to provide for the reclamation of these lands. The fourteenth section of this act provided that “to encourage by all just means the progress and completion of the reclamation, by offering inducements to purchasers and contractors to take up said lands, the swamp and overflowed lands shall be declared exempt from taxation for the term of ten years, or until said lands shall be reclaimed.” Subsequent to the passage of this statute, an additional act was passed, repealing it. Prior to the repeal, the lands had been sold to private purchasere, and after the repeal of the statute exempting them from taxation for ten years the assessor of Crittenden county assessed the lands for taxes. The purchasers refused to pay the tax, upon the grounds that the act creating the exemption constituted a contract between the state and the purchasers, and that this contract could not, under the federal constitution, be abrogated or impaired by subsequent legislation. On the part of the state it was contended that the act granting the exemption was unconstitutional and therefore created no contract between the state and the subsequent purchasers, because it was incompetent for the legislature to exempt swamp and overflowed lands from taxation so long as it taxed other lands. The contention of the purchasers of the lands was sustained, the court saying: “ We declare the true rule of construction to be that the legislature has the power, under the constitution, to select the objects of taxation, and upon the exercise of this power there is no constitutional restriction. When the legislature has selected the objects, these restrictions attach as to the imposition of taxes upon them, and the end intended to be accomplished is equality and uniformity in the taxation of
