Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1852-01-27
aTHE PUBLIC PRINTER"

TUESDAY MORNING, JANUARY 81 le"4.
"rHE PUBLIC PRINTER"
We dislike TO annoy the public with our o"" h o,r >,
we had hoped that the excitement conne. 80. 49,
election to the Office of Public Printer ~ -,
,,l h yyh;o ranks had passed away entirely, oelhs
I-,.; hear, wave of oblivion with the notable plan o.
economv" started BY the Wings in the House. WHICH,
nal with all Wing schemes, ended in the waste Oh tue ~
,,a,s money BY the unnecessary consumption Oh "ho
dsv An article in Saturdays Wing, however, makes ne
cessary that we should briefly recur to the SUBJECT Ina
paper while avowing mo purpose Whatever 10 complain q
the incumbent" and while declaring that 1t "knows no
mo, c.rae of censure as 10 the performance Of duty or
hs nart mos, disingenuousy introduces assertions ano
in,inuahon. like the following:
"If we are correctly informed the price paid oy Inc
State 10 him. for far the largest portion OF the woik ne
has TO do far beyond that for which as sood primers
ready do such work-and actually 90 sa' 40 No,
.very day-somc where, about twice as hign we 40 no
any reason, why printer should mol once n.ons
have touch of good luck, as well as other people
rather striking feature however this case is that ne mas
been ucsv so long We say how many years lhs
fat favor has been bestowed upon him. but ne seems 10 o
a somewhat Democratic exception TO Inc DeHlocfauc pm
cipe of rotation IN Office.
II ia sufficient for us TO etor that while Democrat
have held the office only three years, Wing held the
of Public Printer for the long period of IL or IA years. under
Democratic Legislatures receiving the same prices a' we
nov do-and not word Of complaint on the suoect Oh
ECONOMY" was heard from the Wing party or its organs
the present guardians of the public treasury
On the contrary find that proposition to change the
mode Of executing the Public Printing, by letting 1t OUT ~
the lowest bidder voted down in lS4 the journal snow"
ing no voice its The following facts we take from
the record On 10Th January ls47 in the House OF DEL
egates Mr. Mcpherson offered resolution, which was aaop
,sd ta, the committee of Finance enquire into the exp
iiency of bringing in bill providing for letting the fuoc
Printing 10 the lowest bidder The committee reported on
MI tho
10 their report as follows:
Resolved as the opinion of this committee, That It Is
expedient to make any change in the manner OF having
The public printing DONE
The Legislature was Democratic then, as 1t Is now-but
.here was strong body Of Wings including Messrs Scott
OF Fauquer Patrick of Kanawha, VERIFY Of Northampton
and Burde Of Taylor members of the present House. These
pentemep now such ardent champions Of ECONOMY when
Democrat holds office OF Public Printer were, In l84I
when Wing held the Office silent and cheeuly acquesced
according the Journal in the resolution that was "lneS
pedient to make any change in the OF having the
public printing done"
The Whig Intima,es that il was the Democrats who
introduced "paty" into the election of Public Printer
las: week. any green enough believe that the eco
rny movement originated by the Wings and aimed
a, ourselves az Democras-for why did not Mr. Scott and
company who have much influence in their party sus-
tain the 'owest bidder system, when introduced in lS4I,
when Wing held the office of Public Prnterl The Wings,
40, with the Offices which their friends have mono
uzed in this Democratic State for long extent OF years.
s-izei upon the specous preex OF economy 10 GUST
Democrat from office the proper discharge OF whose du
ties has been admitted by tho Wings themselves and on no
occasion more emphatcaly than in their unanimous (save
ne) vote for his reelection The humbug of the contract
lowest bidder" system garingly shown in the ac
ton of The Convention upon this very subecand Of this
fact none could better informed than Mr. Scott Of
Fauouier who took prominent part in the ECONOMY
movement last week and caught III so severely for his In
conssencies on this subject WIN believes that Wing
ned the office of Public Printer word OF ECONOMY
would be heard from the Wings?
The Wing utterly mistaken 10 the prices paid TO u.s.
They are the same which paid the late Wing Public
Printer and always certified by practical printers as fair
and reasonable When Mr.. Samuel Shepherd, Wing, held
the Office we never heard the Wing party anything of
the prices being high. Circumstances alter cases The
Public Printer Democrat and Of COURSE the prices
are enormous! If he whig the office would scarcely
yield support MI Shepherd often declared that the ofcc
would not worth having if unconneced with other WORK
and in addition the work that the present incumbent
has ever received Mr. Shepherd had the printing OF Graf
tans Reports (now withheld from us) ana LOT long uHe
the records Of the Court of Appeals
But tho imputaon against the Public Printer comes with
peculiarly bad grace from the Whg brief history OF the
printing of the Convention under the proposed economy
tlan of "lowes bidder" will fully show. Mr. Gully under
took TO printing Of the Convention Tor little more
Than half the regular price. He was bound In the sum OF
IS 900 to do good STYLE and good paper as the
public printing DONE Mr. c. gave as his security, one
Of the present editors the Whg who did the most OF tho
printing at the price Mr. Gully contracted u but he showed
his sagacity in becoming the security OF Mr. Gully on con-
d.ion that have his portion Of the work 10 do
and In doing portion he made the selection of the copy
and took that profitable part which the printers call ta and
left the lean the For that portion OF the journal
and documents which the Editor of the Wing printed there
seems to be little doubt that for inferior work. las be
proven BY comparison Of that work and the public printing
now the office of the Secretary Of the Commonwealth ne
received high price has always been paid for The pub
lie printing At the close OF the Convention MIR. Gully
found that he had suffered tremendous pe'loned
the Convention 10 allow him the price that the Public
Printer received The petition granted-and the present
ECONOMY" Editor being contentcd with selecting oil
the fat matter for which he well PAID called on hr.
Gully for hs portion OF this extra allowance dr. Cuy
however promptly refused 10 pay him more
For the Editor of the Wing referred to- We have always
felt personal kindness and respect and we regret that we
are compelled BY the attack ia the Wing, in seitdeence TO
sude 10 the above facts which have been reported TO US on
the best authority lii only in Standardization and not IN
the way complaint assault that we feel called upon oy
the whg's article to bring up the matter.
-sS%>----
MISSISSIPPI.
Gen. Foote has been Governor OF Mssis-
spp being the fourth Governor Mississippi has had within
few months seems be the general opinion that Gen.
Fooo candidate tho six yeats U. 5. Senatorial
term commencing in 1883 when his late will expire II
will his of office of Governor.