Daily national Democrat., 1859-03-03
The People Taxed to Feed LecOmpton
Sheet,


Reporter, at sl4 per day. This is to sustain
Leeompton paper at the expense Of the peo
pie, instead of having it sustained by the Le-
compton party only, as it should be- This
is all very well for the STANDARD" and no
doubt the Standard likes it and will approve
of it, and may even denounce as a Black Re
publican every body who objects to it, but it
is nevertheless clear to us that it is an un-
necessary and uncalled for expense We give
a portion Of the remarks made upon the dis
cussion of the resolution in the Assembly, as
we find them in the Union;
Mr.. EAGoN-I ask for the suspension of the
rules in order to introduce a resolution.
By Mr. Eagon-
Resolvcd, That Mr.. NJ. G. Upton be and is
hereby appointed Official Reporter for this
Assembly from Friday, Feb. 25th, and whose
compensation shall be fourteen dollars per
day. to be paid out of the Contingent Fund of
the Assembly.
Mr.. DeLong-I move to amend that reso-
luton, Mr. Speaker move to amend that
resolution by allowing an extra Reporter for
the Anii-Lecompton Caucus, so that Re
porter may be fully paid for reporting all ex
ira proceedings.
The Speaker-The gentleman's motion is
not in order.
Mr.. DeLong-Whatl Not to move to Il
mend2
The Speaker-Not to amend in that man
ner
Mr.. DeLong-L move to amend the resolu
ton by allowing two Reporters instead of
one, whose duty it shall be to report more
fully and correctly the proceedings of Demo
cratic Caucuses.
The Speaker--The motion of the gentle
tleman from Yuba is not in order.
Mr.. DeLong-Well, then, | will speak to
the resolution before the House as it is. be-
lieve that it is unprecedented and unheard
of. | believe that the Assembly of Califor-
MIA never yet had an Official Reporter. be-
lieve that the proceedings of the Assembly
now published in two papers-the Dcmocra-
tic Standard and Sacramento Union-are full
ly and fairly reported, and think this pro-
position to pay an extra Reporter for the
House is proposition for a tax upon the
Treasury which the people would repudiate,
and from which no good can accrue to any
person except to the editor of the paper in
which it is expected that those reports will
person. We can give no reason for this, in
that our proceedings are not fully and fairly
reported. | do state here and assert, as my
belief, that our proceedings, as reported in
the Sacramento Union, are as fully and fairly
reported, and have been SO reported during
this session of the Legislature, as ever the
proceedings of any legislative body were re.
ported by any paper in any of the States-
asly fnr fion Ct
they have no pay from us; they do not ask
the State to allow them any Official Report
ers The Union stands fairly upon its own
merits, as every paper ought to. But this
resolution proposes to pay Reporter four
teen dollars per day for what? For report.
ing information or proceedings which, in nine
cases out of ten, are worthless, of no value to
anybody, or next to valueless, and which are
now reported, through other channels. with
out any cost to the State whatever. We have
depleted Treasury we had State debt
which almost overwhelmed lis, which bro't
us to the very verge of pudiation-from
which we escaped almost by a miracle; and
now it is proposed to add this draft upon the
Treasury. When we were addressing our
constituency in the State during the last can.
vass, the great war cries were Economy. ."
"Retrenchment," and Reform" We promi.
sed to endeavor so to demean ourselves as to
secure short session, and, by curtailing all
expenses, to relieve our State, eventually,
from this great burthen of debt and taxation.
| have seen, heretofore, no symptoms of ere
form" on the part of the majority here Oh
the contrary, | now see a provision in that
resolution in that resolution to appoint the
individual there referred to as Official Re-
M Z L i IN, H.
report the proceedings in some paper with
which he is connected, and which advocates
the political sentiments entertained by a ma
jority in this House. A proposition of this
kind was made last year. but majority OF
the Assembly was found to be wise and pru-
dent enough to refuse to accede to any such
proposal; and it was accordingly, voted
down. hope, for the sake of our own credit,
for the sake of fairness, and in the considera
tion of the condition of the Treasury and the
interests of the people of this State that we
will not appoint an Official Reporter. to be
paid Sl4 per day. but that we will give our
votes and expend the money OF the State for
a more com@endable object For one, pro.
test against the passage of the resolution.
My belief is that paper has been started
in this city to support the cause of a certain
political clique or faction. l believe that the
affairs of that paper are a little weak in the
knees, as far as pecuniary circun.,.nces are
concerned and that it is necessary to feed it
in some way ; and rather than do that by n
direct tax upon the pockets of individual
members, it is proposed by main strength and
a majority vote in the Legislature to tax the
people Of the State. And this is done by
certain parties, in order to sustain Il paper
proclaming his peculiar views. This is my
belief. If am wrong. that is nothing more
than every other individual is liable to be-
But this is the light in which | view this, and
circumstances, which are stronger proof than
direct and positive evidence, support me in
my belief | believe that this move is for the
benefit of paper which recently purported
to report the proceedings of certain little
caucus of Democratic members of this House
Therefore, when this resolution was intro
duced, l proposed to amend by providing
that an extra Reporter should be hired to
give correct reports of such proceedings. |
believe that this resolution is to provide for
the paying of an Official Reporter for the so
called Democratic Standard. Now, believe
upon every papers standing or falling on its
own merits. If the gentleman is simply de-
sirous of disseminating information, in regard
to our action, throughout the State, let him
provide that the reports shall not be gi, en- to
any particular journal, to the exclusion of any
other. But presume that this resolution
has been caucussed upon, and it is sure to
pass the Assembly whether or no : and, there
70 re, that it is but a waste of time to talk
against it.