The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1859-10-19
Announcement---State Printer.

Col. W. D. Roy, of the yicksburg Sun and
Southron, and the Editor of this paper, are
candidates for State Printer, at the approach
ing session of this Legislature.
As regards our politics, we have invariably
inculcated the tenets of the State Rights De-
niocracy We stand on the platform adopted
at the late State Convention, not abating lone
jot or title" in advocacy of the principles
therein promulgated.
With the Democratic party of Mississippi.
rotation in office is an established policy. BY
virtue of precedent, State officers are nomina-
ted for the second term. The incumbent who
holds at the instance of the Democratic Party,
cannot exact the nomination for the third
term. His claims upon the party have been
honored, and he is expected to return without
reluctance the trust confided him Will not this
policy apply to the Office OF State Printer p
Why necessarily reward one individual with
the emoluments of the office, when other ed
itors possibly present claims equally pressing.
We do not design trumpeting our own merits;
but leave the Legislature to determine wheth-
er or not our labors for the party deserve the
reward of its friends. Many of our cotempo-
raries could, with like propriety, approach the
Legislature in the capacity of candidate for
the office.
We have naught to advance against the in
cumbent. As State Printer, he has fulfilled
his contracts with promptness and dispatch.
After an incumbency of six or eight years,
we presume he is willing to retire, and leave
to less fortunate brothers of the quill' an I'M
disputed field-Smny South.
In evidence Of our appreciation OF the good
taste and honorable spirit displayed in this
announcement we have transferred it to our
columns. We have copied it also to attest
our entire approval of the doctrine that every
office within the bestewment of the people
at the ballot-box, or the Legislature, is open
to competition. We hold that not only ''na0ny
of our contemporaries" but all have the I'M
doubted right to, and can with propriety,'
come before the Legislature as candidates for
State Printer if they desire
In welcoming to the list of competitors our
respected cotemporaries above announced, we
have no complaints therefore to make; nor
have we any claims" to set forth We will
leave as an open question the merits of the
doctrine of rotation introduced above and
upon which our opponents seem mainly to
rest their candidacy. But we will be pardon
ed for correcting in this connection material
error into which the writer has fallen in his
statement of the facts from which he draws
his opinion of what is the Established policy
Of the Democratic party in Mississippi
BY virtue of precedents,n he says, "the
State offices are nominated for the second term.
The incumbent who holds office at the instance
OF the Democratic party, cannot expect the
nomination for the third term. His claims
upon the party have been honored, and he is
expected to return without reluctance the
trust confided to him." AS the Constitution
restricts the terms of service in the Gubeina-
to the offices of Secretary of State, Auditor
of Public Accounts, Treasurer, and Attorney
General Now, it so happens that the present
incumbents, with one exception, were nomi-
mated not only for the second term but the
third, which latter they are now filling. And
more, their predecessors on the Democratic
ticket were also three times nominated for the
offices which they respectively filed. If they
declined competing for nominations again it
was not in obedience to the policy" of the
party, for it has always refused to establish
any. So far as relates to other offices the
facts are still more contradictory of the as
sumption of the writer.
Members of Congress- Representatives and
Senators have been continued in office for in
definite periods, and with reference, we sup
pose, to more important considerations than
to the number of days, months or years OF
their incumbency. 1t is well known that the
same remark applies to judicial and ministe
rial offices generally, great and small.
But whatever may have been the policy
of the Democratic party in other matters, it
has not ceased to bestow its confidence upon
the Mississippian during the whole of its
stormy and eventful career Of nearly thirty
years, under its various conductors, some OF
whom held the office Of State Printer thrice
as long as it has been occupied (not quite six
years. by the present incumbent 1t is fol
the Democratic party to say whether an ex-
ception to It's invariable rule shall be made in
this instance.
Be all this, however, as it may, our cotem-
poraries having directed their appeal special.
~ to the Democratic members of the Legis.
lature to decide the contest initiated in theil
announcement, it is scarcely necessary that
we who have always urged strict adherence
to the caucus system and to every other es-
sential usage of the party, should declare oul
more than willingness to abide The verdict o
the tribunal thus invoked.