New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-02-15
Relief for Richie.

from Thomas Richie, we, who have reau
his lucubrations, off and on for a quar-
ter of a century, can very we'll comPre-
bend; that he should seek relief from the
body polite is not beyond the conceivable
limits of human assurance. But what
riehtful claim can he have to an extra haul
on the Treasury! He had the Printing OF
the XXIXth Congress at generous rates.
and must have made not far from 100000
by it. He has had seven and half dollars
per column for years past for reporting and
printing the Proceedings of the Senate, and
has included therein long public documents
not properly belonging to such Proceedings
and has been paid therefor; he has had
liberal amounts of Executive Printing and
Advertising; his paper has been the recog-
nized and patronized organ of his party
very much more to his advantage than to
the party's; and why, on the back of all
this, should a bill be passed to give him
$1,000 from the U. S. Treasury! Espe-
cially when it is considered that the hole
bored in the Treasury to let out his
100000 must inevitably let out many
thousands more before it can be stopped,
how can Congress vote that gratuity to
Ritchie
90 he has lost money by doing the
Printing ofthe present Congress too cheap
Indeed has he but who asked him to
do it so cheap! What right had he to
take it too cheap, and then come back on
Congress for extra pay! In so doing he
wrested the contract from the hands OF
competitors who bid for it in good faith, and
would have gladly done it for the prices
they proposed. What right had he to Sc
cure the job by Undertaking and then come
upon Congress for extra pay! 1t is abun-
dainty in evidence that the instruments
employed by him to obtain the job boast
ed that they would make Congress sick
of the Contract System 1t is clear that
their bids were not made in good faith, but
with an intent to throw up the job in due
season, and have it Tor a good part of it)
secured to Richie at much higher prices.
1t is notorious that the work has been exc
cuted with inexcusable and most injurious
hardness, and badly done at that. 1t is
proved that large share of the paper
used has been very inferior to that stipu-
lated for in the Contract. 1t is not denied
that he obtained the contract in the names
of men of straw (his journeymen,) with
himself as their surety, thereby evading
the reouisition that the contractor shall
give security. 1t is very certain that he
and they knew exactly what it would cost
to do the work las they had executed that
of one Congress already and that they
cannot have taken the job too low without
certainly intending to do and positively
knowing that they did so. By what right
then, on what principle, can Members of
Congress vote to pay him one cent beyond
the prices stipulated in his Contract
And yet the House has instructed a
Committee to inquire whether he has made
or lost money by this Contract, with view
of paying him more in case he has lost I!
1t is a vote of unmixed and scandalous
proAigacy. Congress has no moral right
to pay him one dollar on any such ground
and to vote it is to rob the Exchequer.'
If it is done, every Contractor who ever
lost money by Government job will have
clear precedent for demanding that his
loss be made up to him. And here is the
Government giving out new Jobs amounting
to Millions-great Floating Docks, Steam
ship Mails, materials for Custom-Houses,
&c. &c. by which it is presumed that the
contractors usually make money, but it is
not presumed that all do so. If the Con-
tracts are fairly advertised and awarded,
some must doubtless lose; and, if Richie
is compensated, every one of these vii!
have a good claim to be. And what a
farce contracting will be under this sys-
tenn Here are a new set of contractors,
who have just taken the Printing of the
next Congress, STIMULATING to do it at GER
tain low rates, and thereby undertaking
other applicants. And when it is DONE
how readily, how naturally, will these
contractors turn round upon Congress with
Sorry to say it, gentlemen but we
have lost 100000 by our contract
please to fork over and how can Con-
press resist the demand after paying
Ritchie's! No: if this claim be paid, the