Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1847-06-02
Astounding Tn,elli.c,,ce.

l.
Icitizens had any conception Of tie impor
Itancs Of the mission upon which he wa
bound, as appears from the Hawkeye 0
last,week. Guild it have been believed tina
that functionary was vested with the pow
er to make or unmake officers at will, O
that he would assume any such stretch o
power? The Secretary has generally pas
sed here for rather modest and unassum
ing sort Of young man, and the announc
ment through that sheet, that, by his mere
beck, he was creating scores Of public Of
ficers who before had no legal existence
from township school inspectors up to Su
perintendent of Public Instruction, had
the effect of an electric shock upon this
community.
To be more explicit, we must favor ou'
readers with the announcement in the
Hawkeye's own words; it is as follows:
"LYMAs Cook, Esq. the Fund Commits.
sioner, for Des MONIES county, has re.
ceived the school laws in pamphlet form.
ifs Mr.. Cook is now recognized By the Sec
retary as a Legitimate F,nd Commissioner
sce presume there IS no longer any doubt as
to the eligibility Of any Of the officers elected
IN AprH, 1ScLuDING Mr.. HARLANCOi'
Spoken like a true oracle, "most sage
and reverend OWL" Verify, the present
is day of political mysteries and mira
Giles. First, the Secretary is vehemently
denounced by the rabid organs of federal
whiggery, for preventing the school laws
from going into effect prior to the April
election; or rather, for not forcing them in
to effect, in spite of their own provisions
and the constitution to the contrary; while
those same federal organs, in the same
breath, stoutly contend that those laws
pere then in effect, in spite of the dead
weight Of their own inertia, the express
letter Of the constitution, and the alledged
misfeasance or mal-feasauce of the Secre-
tary, to boot.
AS consequence Of the first position,
the Secretary was most numerically be-
labored for "vitiating" and mixing void
tie election of the school officers chosen
in April, and double dose Of pert
I'D double distilled federal thunder was
discharged upon our own devoted head,
as the abe,tor or chief ins:igator Of the
"daring oaarage;;' and then, in the next
breath, it is announced by the most rabid
and antic of those federal wise. acres, the
Hawkeye, that the same Secretary who
had been making such sad havoc with the
school laws and the officers elected under
them has at once spoken ali these officers
into existence, and by his slightest act
by merely delivering to come officer in
Desmoines county, where Mr.. Cook, the
Fund Commissioner elect, might get them
il he chose, the copies of the school laws
to which that county is enti,led-has cloth
ed them all with legal authority, made the
law retrospective in its operation, legiti-
matized the election of those officers, and
virtually declared them duly installed. Err
go, says old Hawk-we mean old Owl, the
sage and reverned oracle-"there is no lon-
ger any doubt" about the matter! ...
But the cream of the joke is, that Mr..
Cutler, by handing school law to Mr..
Cook, if he even did this, has legalized
and legitimatized the election Of Mr.. Har-
Ian as State Superintendent!
What unbounded powers, for good or
evil, does this new Secretary of ours pos
sess, and what infinite importance attaches
to his most trivial act! He can make and
destroy at will-csn establish system of
laws and enforce their Observance, in d.
rect contrav enion of the Constitution and
in opposition to the clearly expressed in
ten,ion Of the law makers themselves!
(See Joint Resolution No. Il, relative to
the taking effect of laws;) He can abro-
gate laws actually in force! wide the
Hawkeye, Dubuque Tribune, Standard and
Bloomington Herald:)-can "vitiate" and
annul the legal election of officers, and de-
pose them when duly installed into Office;
wide same authority and finally, (see
Han keyc alone. he can re install the Of
ticers whom he had deposed, and put in
regular and harmonious motion the wheels
otgovernment which he had totally disar-
ranged ~! ......-.
Hurrah for Cutler! He must either be
clothed with superhuman powers, or must
| carry about in his poe ct some such arti-
Gle as the far famed Aladdin's lamp. Ii
he has ever such an article about him, we
advise him just to hold it up to the
Hawkeye, or rather 10 The eye of the old
owl, and see how "the crilter" will wink
and blink a: the respondent visions oi
power and glory,or perchance shrink aghas,
from the appalling spectacle of official ter.
ror and oppression which it will present
The old Owl saws cifthis IL the case''