Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1828-1831, 1830-12-03
rFrom Me Yorkvihe Piomeer.1
TO THE GOOD PEOPLE or SOUTH CARO-

Esii.s Citisens- Some gentlemen of.reat rospcc-
tsb.ty haze recently said to me, that remarks were
on the Gale. & Scaton Resolution for 70 publish
Lig the public documents; aud ask for Cor
rect sta emcut Of the facts; which I have no roo
TO withhold.
Dot must be allowed to soy. that the whole OF
that business was egregiously magn,fcd. The Sen
Utors, in the first place, who opposed the adoption
CT tho resolution, attached infinitely more impor-
lance 10 the subject than such potty affair would
Justify. For it but q petty business, to say
tic most Of it. However. it ia not my purpose 10
CJh,rover; the opinions and romarks Of Senators
Lore; but merely to remove the unfounded impress
sions which were made on the public mind by Gen.
Duff Green, the public printer tu both Houses ci
Congress. in The United States Telegraph; paper
Il extensive circulation, which belongs to himself
aul of which he is the editor.
had no hand ia the business uutl found il be-
fore The Senate. II was a favoritc proposition of
Mr. Liv'ngStons, and first submitted by that Cen
t.cnan to the Senate, will DO perceived nv the
following quotations from the Telegraph Of the god
January. 1850.
MIR. Livingston said, that before any disposition
vas made of the resolution, he wished to state the
reasons which induced hun submit it 10 the con-
side. ION of the Senate. When it came to he
c1ns,Jerel that many documents, not only OF a
temporary nature. but of paramount interest, bear
ing, they importantly did, the Legislative
history of the country, were lost or DESTROYED il
codll not but strike the mind Of every gentleman
that it matter of the utmost Importance To
preserve those yct IN our power Thirty years ago
he had offered resolution in the other house which
not carried. similar to tho one now under CON
sideraton, and yet within these thirty years how ma,
ny important State papers had been printed, dis.
tnbu>ed, and lost. Impressed with the idea Of tho
necessity Of preserving our public records and see
ing the proposals of Messrs Gales L. Seaton in tho
public newspapers, for publishing, in a permanent
firm, those which scarce and in danger of beino
lost to the country. he had submit ed he resolution
Mr. Livingston was Member of Conpress m
1876, and one Of those inh-xble republicans who
with Macon G es Nicholas, and Galatn, ofthat Jav,
breasted the storm and brought Jefferson into now
During the last war, he was the intimate friend
Of Gen. Jackson, and his aide camp in the South
ern campaigns, and fought hand in hand with Gen.
Jackson the NJ IN 'rabe 9Th OF January a pen.
tlcnan of pure classical education, and amnnp tho
most distinguished jursts of The age. And HAVING
been actor In the early political scenes of our
Government. knew more the necessity of PRESERVING |
the history Of its early legislation than anv otbc1
ia Congress. And this was the gentleman
who offered the resolution. Ills opinion itself would
have weighed greatly with me- But had an opin.
ion Of my own. knew that in the documents now
Upon the point of being lost ever were contained
not only the secret springs of those acts of your
Government that shook II to centre thirty wears
ago bat also the history of your country with f,reion
nations and OF your foreign ministers, well as of
your foreign aud domestic creditors, paid and unpaid
and OF all your agents. both civil and military fr,n,
the foundation of he Govcrnm nt.--And let those
documents become extinct, and your treasury will he
pundered OF millions, by setting up foreign claims
aud forged accounts, resting aidavi's, TO supply
the place OF documents Your war office was him
Cd about thirty years ago. and all the war ,ocnments
in IT. and IN consequence at the loss OF those docu,
nents, the General Government has paid nj l,.asf
$40 00o, 900 which it was never bound to paw or
which It had paid before; and the vouchers where
Of were destroyed by fire And those claims are
til coming up To this day. Let the documents of
he last thirty years 60 out of print, and another
20 600 900 will be paid, that the government was
lever bouRd 10 pay, or had already paid. This i,
consequence hat cannot be doubted.
There a diversity of opinion an,onp the n,en
'crs as TO cost OF republishing these documents
SOM, who were opposed to the re PUBLISHING sum-
POSED the work would Cost The Government 300 OO0
,thsrs, that 1t would cost $500 900. proposed IN
unit 1T To 5000 or less if thought necessary In
consequences of my proposition, to limit the SUN Mr.
livingston moved, That the number of volumes 7
mould not exceed thirty. and that the documents he
clected by the Secretary Of the Senate" and this
rs osition was decided the affirmative by vens
md nays, as follows.
Yr.s-Messrs. Barton, Bell Benton Brown. Bur-
let, Chambers, Chase, CLAYTON, Dickcrsou )u,lloy
Ills. Foot, Forsyth, Frelnghuysen Grundy. Hnvne
Icndrcks, Holiness Iredell, Johnson Kane. Knight
living ton, L"an, Marks Naudain, Noble ROB-
hrs, Rowan: Ruggles, Sanford, Seymour, Sisbec,
Smith. Of Maryland, Smnh, OF South Carolina
Sprague, Webster. White, Wiley and Woodburv-4O
NAYs-Mr KING.
General Green was prcsen, in the Senate, and 9
'eard all this; and published it as have stated IL !
II the Telegraph of the 22d of January. He was I
present and knew the price expressly stimulated
or. at s5,25 per vol to be printed, bound, ettered
and indcxed, all in the neatest manner He knew
In
cd, was expressly given to the Secretary of the
Senate. And knew the Secretary was as compe
tent to discharge that duty any other man. and
that he would dot with the most ,nfcxibe INF eg,,n
lie knew the number Of volumes were expressly
limited not TO exceed thirty; but might be reduced
to any ess number, if tho Secretary should find il
unnecessary to print so many thirty. And he knew
that these s;ipuatoQs, limitations and arrangements
formed the substance OF the Resolution itself and
mot particle OF power in the hands of Gales &.
Scaton or any other person, either to increase the
quantity or the price of the work to be done. He
knew Vt the Secretary should extend The printing to
the thirty volumes, the utmost limits of his power
that then the price of the whole work which thew
could possibly find authority to do, would amount
TO no more han S37 ooo so calculated by the Secre
tary of the Senate. And he knew that "the Com
mtcc on the Library for the House of Reoresen-
taiivcs, selected for their learning and capacity TO
make such an inquiry. joined with the chief officers
OF that House, also quite competent had during the
last session of Congress. thoroughly investigated tho
same subject, and reported these iacts:
Through there were n number of scattered and