The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-07-28

fered resolution directing an inquiry ny me
Judiciary Committee into the expediency Of
reporting bill for the repeal of the Fugitive
Slave law, and gave notice that he would ask
! to be heard on it to-day. After sume nnim-
portant business, the Indian appropriation bill
was taken up.
| In the House of Representatives, the River
and Harbor bill was considered in Committee
of the Whole on the state of the Union.
! We desire to call the attention of the coun-
try to certain extraordinary proceedings in the
House of Representatives Monday last.
1t appears that resolution was offered in
that body by Mr.. OLDs which provides. sub
stantially. that Messrs. BLAIR & RIvEs shall
enjoy for the future the extraordinary ex-
elusive privilege of circulating their publlca-
tons through the mails free Of postage. 1t is
not enough that these gentlemen receive an
enormous sum annually for reporting the Con-
gressional debates in the Daily Globe; that
they are then paid over again for the publica-
ton of the same matter in the Congressional
Globe and .4ppendir; and are thus enabled to
under print all the Offices in the city in issuing
the pamphlet edition of particular speeches:
all this is not sufficient to satisfy these highly
favored individuals, or an ever-indulgent House
of Representatives. While this same House
treats other printers SO oppresslvely and IN
Justly as to interfere to break up contracts
made by their own committee by authority OF
law-while it manifests a sort of rabid appre-
hension that by some possibility it may indi-
rectly contribute to the prosperity of other
journals-Messrs. BLAIR s. RIvEs are permit
ted to publish the Congressional proceedings at
their own price, and are fortified with the ad-
ditional privilege of being the only printers in
the United States who can circulate their pub
locations without contributing their share to the
post office revenues! We think this simply
the most impudent monopoly ever attempted
in this country.
We are aware that Messrs. BLAIR & RIvEs
have rendered important services to the Demo
cratic party, by publishing for several years
political journal that blended in harmonious
com position the qualities of the hyena and the
reptile. The Globe in its palmy days was all
venom and growl; but we do not desire to ex-
pose ourselves to its bark or lis fangs, and will
omit, therefore, any comment on its old course
and character. No WIG can remember or
speak of it without adherence; but it estab
lished strong claims upon its party friends, by
the very course which excited the adherence
of the WHIGs. The friends of the old Globe
have never forgotten these claims, and lose no
opportunity to show that they remember them.
1t is an amiabe weakness-that Of remember
ing your friends-and we cannot find it in our
heart to censure the Democracy too severely
for indulging it. But they should conine
their gratitude within reasonable bounds
We do not complain that they have made
two or three fortunes for BLAIR & RIvEs,
by giving them work to do which it was neces
sary to have done, and by paying them what it
was worth. We have never observed that star
walton or pauperism was peculiarly favorable to
a high state of morals or culture and we per-
haps can hardly cite BLAIR & RIvEs in proof
of the converse of that proposition. But while
we do not object to their being employed by
Congress on liberal terms, we think that there
is signal improperly in making them the bene-
ficiares of SO singular a privilege as is con-
ferred upon them by the resolution of DR..
OLDs.
The resolution to which we have referred
above is in the following words:
Joint resolution providing for the distribution Of
| the laws of Con gress and the debates thereon.
Nth vit,o to the cheap circulation Of the la,ps Of
Congress and the debates contributing TO the true in
terpretation thereof, and to make free the commu
nication between the representative md constitute mt
bodies:
Resoiued 6y the Senate and House of Representa-
tiues Of the Unitrd States Of America in Congress
asse,nled That from and after the prerent session
of Congress the Congregational Globe and Appsndir,
which contain the la and the debates thereon,
shall pass free through the mails SO long as the
same shall be published by order Of Congress:
Provided, That nothing herein shall be construed
to authorize the circulation of the Daily Globe free
of postage.
Just look at the reasons assigned in ME pre-
amble! "Debates' contributing TO the true
Interpretation of the law" Does not DR..
OLDs know that no such debates take place in
the House2 There is not one column in fifty
of the reported proceedings of the House that
has any-the Observation-Disclosures to the claws"
The speeches Of this last session, for instance,
have been, nine out of ten, political speeches,
and nothing else. We venture to say that
there is not one line in the immense mass of
matter that crowds the Globe and .appendir Of
the present session that ever can be of the
slightest aid or interest to any human being in
the Interpretation" of the laws. II we sus-
pected DR.. OLps of being wit, we should
think he was seeking to make the House ridic-
ulous by pretending that there are 'debates'
in that body which relate to the laws, and that
! it is the publication of such debates" that
justifcs the exclusive privilege conferred in
this extraordinary manner on Messrs. BLAIR
Il RIvEs.
But let us hear DR.. OLps: -.
"Mr. OLps. Members of Congress have re-
ceived communications from all portions Of the
country with regard to the unfairness with which
{ the proceedings of this House are known or re-
; presented in the country. The people know no
thing Of ,chat 10 going here. and the only ,oas
they k,op Is by the circulation qf the Congrss
s,o,aI (,IoIe Mr. Riyes doea not proDose To raj al