Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1830-04-22
From The .Naiiorsl Joxnsl.
PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

The, Candies Is. Co. Journal, a Jackson
paper, has published letter dated March H.,
to gentleman in that place sum DIX. Smith.
a jackson Senator from South Carolina, on
the proceedings in that body in relation TO
tho Pubic Documents, for the publication Of
which Messrs. Gales & Seatoa have issued
proposals. The character Of Mr.. Smith viii
cause his account of.the business to be re-
sceived, as it certainly is, as the authentic
history of it. We subjoin, without comment
q few extracts fronit. After remarking on
the Importance of the documents, and the
competesGy of the Publishers, Mr.. Saith thus
proceeds;
| Mr.. Livingston, cf Louisiana, a devoted
Jackson nian, who was his AID de camp at the
battle ofthe 9Th CT January, 1915, at New
Orleans, ard now extremely devoted to every
measure that General Jackson proposes. lie
was a,republican Of 90, has never deserted
the Jefferson or jackson standard. He is,
moreover, very literary gentleman, and is
ROW distinguished member of the United
| States Senate irom the State of Louisiana.
/ This gentleman it was, with all those high
cla,ms to attention, who offered the resoIu-
ton for printing the documents, and for them
to be printed by Gales & Seaton. He offer,
ed this resolution, aud supported it. The
NEST intelligent printers In Philadelphia and
! New York were consulted, and decided that
the price was avery reasonable one. The.
calculation was made by Mr. Lowrie, the
Secretary to the Senate. He made the Mt
Most calculation, taking all the documents.
whether necessary or unnecessary, and with
| them al it would amount only to one humid
red and eight thousand dollars, very incon
siderable sum when compared to the impor-
tanceof rescuing these documents from the
obi Won to which they were doomed shortly
| to 20, unless reprinted But it is well known
that, instead OF thirty volumes, not more than
twelve or fifteen volumes ct most would com.
prlse all that was necessary Tor future use.
ibis would have reduced it to $4,000. Now.
| this was the utmost expense. Whilst this
resolution was in progress, by which Gales S.
Seaton were 10 do this work at So rs, man
who called himself Greer. offered to do this
printing for 80, But nobody knew Mr. Greer,
and nobody believed that he knew any thing
about printing. When bis proposal ws1 not
attended to, Duff Green, who no doubt had
used this man to get job for himself, came
out sid made bis owa proposal to do this JOE
for one half of what Gales 4, Sexton had pro-
posed. This was evidently not with a view
| &c benefit the public, but to procure job for
which he expected to be paid at least as much
az Gales s. Seaton had proposed, If not more.
This explain in this way: He was to set
out at 81 62t per volume, and when done.
he had nothing further to do than to have it
certified that be lost 90 ga per volume, and
/ it would have been given him at once. This
would have brought it up at least to the price
itcg Gales i Seaton. This was consequence
that Duff Green knew would most a.suredly
! follow, not as a favor 60 him in particular,
tbut what Congress does every day for other
public undertakers. He was to undertake it
as The public printer to Congress, and he was
just as certain of obtaining this relief. rs be
ives sure-he should do the work.
This was made party business by those
who wished to, procure the contract for Duff
Green.
n
] assure you, upon my honor, 50 far from
doing what / did to favor Gales x Seaton,
that Ihad not been in either Of their houses
for seven years We are not on friendly
terms. But knew they would do the work
far better, and as cheap If not cheaper in the
end. i have other reasons which weighed
On this occasion. Duff Green is the printer
to Congress, and gets on SO slowly that we
can get no documents to send to our censtit-
suents until they are published abroad in eve
ny newspaper.
Besides all this, Lintendea. before the .bu-
siness was begun, TO reduce the number of
volumes al least one, half, by -interposing a
lsTesolution TO stop or curtan the books OF this
sort which shall hereafter be given to the
members of Congress.
But, my dear Sir, the great offence ofwhch
u have been guilty, is, have remained too
long in The Senate. There airs two or three
other gentlemen whowantmy place, and who
cannot wait until serve out anoti,erterm--
This business 10 Of a piece with tina attacks
made on mein 1922. j have offended about
tothe same degree, in this case. lhave been
IN the Senate eleven years. and by opposing
the various projects for drawing public mo
neys, / have saved more than 10000 900.
and efforts during the present session will
show how far l. have been instrumental in sa-
wing from sacrifice at least SOC ,O00,0 of
acres Of your public lands. For these reasons
Lhave been offensive here to the Western
members, as well as to others. Hit is the
/ wish ofthe citizens Of South Carolina that ]
should not be elected, IL shall go out without
reluctance, conscious tBat have done some
good: if IN nothing else, at least in conjunc-
! tion with others oil the people in our Legisla-
ture in 1895 in, opening the eyes of the citi-