With the election and inauguration of Adelbert Ames as Governor in 1874, the spirit of plunder and revenge which animated the aliens and negroes burst forth with a fresh fury. The tax on land was increased to 14 mills, a rate which virtually amounted to confiscation. Cotton was taxed $10 per bale and the proceeds were invested in the Freedman's Savings Bank, a gigantic swindling agency at Washington. The poll was increased from $2 to $6 a head, and the responsibility for the payment of the negroes poll was saddled on his white employer. This farce fiscal comedy reached its climax in the imposition of a 1 per cent. tax on all amounts expended by the citizens of the State in travel.[80] The people simply could not pay these taxes, and over 6,400,000 acres of land were forfeited for nonpayment. On January 4, 1875, the taxpayers driven to desperation by this confiscation of their property met in convention and submitted to the Legislature a most respectful appeal for relief. The Legislature treated the petition with contempt, an action which resulted in the organization of taxpayers' leagues over the State and the speedy overthrow of carpet-bag government. This struggle between taxpayers and tax-layers in Mississippi is but another illustration of the truth of Edmund Burke's saying that "from the earliest times the great battles for human freedom have been fought out on the question of taxation." But the price of the victory was dear and the penalty paid for experience was great. In addition to a payable and interest-bearing debt of $984,200, the carpet-baggers left outstanding, unpaid on January 1, 1876, non-interest bearing Auditor's warrants amounting to $414,958.31. During the last six years of their regime, as is shown by the Auditor's and Treasurer's books for these years, they spent $8,501,337.86, strictly on account of the expenses of State government, an average of $1,484,699.55 per annum. They collected nearly a million dollars of what is known as the Common School fund, and spent it all in riotous governmental living, save the pittance of $57,000 in U. S. bonds left in the treasury to the credit of that fund. This money was not spent on the common schools, the purpose for which it was collected, but was misappropriated and unaccounted for, and a debt against the State on account of that fund, was left January 1, 1876, amounting to $830,378.18. This, too, in spite of the fact that the average rates of State and county taxation during the six years in question were 8.87-1/2 mills and 12.49-2/3. mills respectively, making a combined average of $21.37-1/2 on the thousand.