Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-12-23
COALrTION.

/ Il
COALITION.
i The Washington Union has transferred its
attacks upon us and upon the Senate from its
editorial columns to its outside pages. II
shrinks from the contest it provoked in mo-
ment Of spleen and disappointed avarice; but
being without the manliness for an open war
in its retreat, it discharges Parthian arrows by
copying the articles of its freesoil associates.
4 Two days ago the Union copied from the
Martinsburg Republican an article whose pa
ternity we are sure we could trace to this city
The Washington Union also published, two
days ago, an article from the Ohio Statesman,
journal stepped to its very lips in freesoilism,
in which this sentence appears the demo
cratic Senator'S who voted with wing and abo.
lition Senators to defeat the Union and bolster
up its antagonist the Sentinel, have struck a
| blow at the administration for which the de-
mocracy Of the country will hold them to a
troublesome accountability"
The Washington Union having published the
foregoing insulting and menacing remarks, we
have no choice but to call the public attention
to its unmanly course. If that journal meant
to say what the Ohio Statesman said, why did
it not come out boldly? Why did it hide its
head like frightened ostrich? Why did it
copy from the Ohio Statesman words which it
dared not use itself2
And yesterday the Washington Union crowds
its outside page with imputations against us,
which it did not have the boldness to place in
its editorial columns 1t contents itself editori-
ally with long stupid article on Cube, which
a few may read, with an execration on their
folly for having read it. But its outside page
is devoted chiefly to the coalition which is
falsely charged against US.
Two days ago we promised to drive that
| word coalition from the vocabulary Of the
Union, and we mean to make that promise
good. We have already given significant in.
dications of the real features Of the compact
and coalition by which the Washington Union
obtained the printing of the last Congress
| Now, we will be more specific. d.
We are somewhat surprised that the Union
| should repeat its accusation of a coalition in
the face of the uncontradicted statements which
we have already made. But perhaps, our edi
torials may have escaped the dull attention Of
the Union; and we, therefore, repeat and re-
capitulate. If the Union is bent on war, we
will not be the first to cry hold enough"
Denying, most emphatically, for ourselves,
and for the democratic senators who sustained
us, the imputations of the Union, we defy, now,
that journal to deny the charge which is made
against it, and which it has never yet contra
dicted. But let us be accurate, so that there
may be no mistake.
1t was well understood here about two years
ago, that the late printer, Mr.. Boyd Hamilton,
hadtaken thecontractfor congressional printing
at ruinous rates, and could not live up to his con-
tract sipulations. The joint printing commit
tee found it necessary to exercise the power
vested in them, to remedy this evil. 1t was
question with them whom they should en-
ploy to do the work that Mr.. Hamilton could
not do. The Union wanted il, very naturally;
and thought it hard that democratic joint
committee - standing four democrats to two
wings not give it to the democratic or
gan. But the Union was at that time a
thorough compromise Journal and there was
an contemporaries man ON the printing CON-
mittee, so that the committee stood, with
horns locked, three to three. Nothing could
be done. Without the votes Of the wing
members, or one of them, the Union could not
stir peg. So the committee compromised the
matter, and agreed to give the Senate printing
to the Republic, and the House printing to
the Union, and those establishments entered
into the necessary contracts, and gave the ne
cessary bonds in the premises.
All these things were perfectly notorious at
the time, and were the subjects Of comment and
debate in the House of Representatives. 1t
was public matter, and it would have been
affectation in the contracting parties to pretend
to conceal it. rn ID
But there was some want of movement in
the machinery, and special committee was
appointed to look after the matter, of which
Mr.. HUMPHREY MARSHALL, wing, was the
chairman. Then a state Of things arose in
which it became necessary to get rid of the
contract Of the Joint Printing Committee with
Gideon 4 Co. Long negotiations ensued, we
are informed, in which it is said that members
OF Congress mediated, and which were finally
concluded through the agency Of distin.
guished democratic lawyer, acting as the mu.
tual friend Of all the parties, and the re.