Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1859-10-15

,heuld vose for a reduction. whether the Office DO
held by personal or political friend. He stood |
mere to-day ready to vote sganst the contract sys-
TEN. When the Federal Government tried II, It re- |
.uitled disasrousy and never yet has promoted the
ieea of resEenchmsnt and reform The late MI.
Richie obtained the public printing Of Congress I'M
der the contract system, and after he went down IN
posertJ the grave, his representatives, appealed 10
the beraliiy Of the nation for COMP ensa'lon for
leases sustained in doing the Federal work Ii We
let out our printing to the lowest bidder and the COL
tractors represent that they ruined in the ser
vice Of the publie, do you think Tennesseans would
not grant additional Ssompensatioa? ItDever has
vet failed 10 be DONE and il will be done again.
He was pledged to economy, held that each mem-
Der OF the Democratic party was pledged to 1t, and
the way to economist in this case is to refer this
bill to a committee.
Mr.. Butt Err, as the introducer Of this bill, be
desired to refute the charge that it was introduced
for buncombe In the canvass last summer, he ex-
posed TO the honest voters in the mountains Of this
State the injustice thst was pracsieed in the print
ing Of the code, and then promised to introduce
bill and urge its passage, giving the public printing
to the lowest bidder; and. faithful to promise and
pledge. he had done So We are told by the gen.
tlsmsn who last addressed the House, that the
printing for the federal government under the con-
tract system cost more than it does nox; to-day,
when printer is elected ty Congress, ne can get
sos, 600 for his contract without stepping out OF
the Hall: Mr.. Rtcble spent DIS USdHs iOr MS par
~ The simple question is, Is It right or wrong TO
give the public printing to the lowest bidder?
Mr. EWING believed With the gentleman from
Dasiason Mr. Whiie) who spoke on yesterday, that
the public printing is down to ae low figure as
any man can desire He believed the object Of this
bill was to settle the responsibility on the Demo-
cratic side of the House. of voting down the PTopo-
etion to give 10 the lowest bidder the public print
ing and for that ressen he should vote against the
whole matter He did not believe the Representa-
tive Of Williamson county should Pander 10 ouch
spirit He should oppose il, for it was more for
buncombe than anythng else. His county had
never voted for the Democratic party, aud he was
proud of it; but he Intended to Ue an independent
Representative Of old Williamson.
ELECTION OF PUBLIc OFFICERS.
IA message from the Senate here announced the
concurrence of that body in the resolution calling
a Joint convention of the two Houses on Tuesday,
tbs 18th inst, at 10 o'clock, 10 electa Treasurer,
Comptroller and Secretary of State. Also, in a
resolution changing the time for the election OF
public printer to the 18th inst
Mr.. KENNEDY, should vote for the reference,
and against the proposition to let the public print
ing TO The lowest bidder. Such undertaking had
never failed, in his observation, to result dsas-
trously TO the contractor.
Mr. BEATTY objected to the reference fcl the rea-
son that it seemed to be an effort on the Democratic
side to avoid responsibility. He would prefer Vot-
ing down the reference and then voting down the
original bill He was satisfied from what the gen.
tleman from Cater (AIr. Butler) had said that it
was popularity trap. After voting this down, he
was in favor of an investigation to see whether
are paying too much for the public printing, As
soon as the D mocraic party have majority in the
Legislature the Opposition all at once are sezed
with a terrible desire to retrench and reform.
Mr.. DAVIDSON rssd part of the law on the sub
ject of he election Of public printer and showed
! N he noinfad and nlain He maintained that the
prices laid down therein were not too large, and
indeed questioned whether the fee bill was sufficient,
although it is the sams one adopted many years
ago.
Mr.. MARTIN said some gentlemen seemed to
attach some peculiar kind Of consequence to the
fact that the act gas included in the code Gentle
men we'll know thet in the construction Of the stat
ute law where one statute comes in conflict with
another, the last one takes precedence. Gentlemen
TO think that this thing of letting out contracts
was beneath the dignity of the Tennessee Legisla
ture We have different notions of these things.
He represents as independent a constituency any
gentleman upon this floor; il occurred 30 him that
it right to egisate for the peoples interest,
and to bring down this job to as low price as we
could. He could not see anything wrong in the
contract system
Mr. EWING thought the very reason that induced
him to vote against the bill should induce every
man 81 the Democratic side to record his vote in
whether there has been too much paid for printing
and if so let there be reduction. Some gentle
men have seemed to regard the printer Office
holder and that we had as we'll let out the State
Ofcss as the printers place. He did not think the
place should be digni6sd in this way; we might just
as well say paper-fOldsr was State eiicer as
the public printer-they are bOth employees of the
State.
Mr.. FORD demanded the previous question,
there was 80 much division on both sides Of the
House.
A division of the House being called for before
the Speaker announced the result of the UiVa Uoes
vote, on secondirg the demand
Mr. FORD withdrew his call for the previous
question.
Mr.. EWING renewed it.
TIE demand was not sustained by yeas SO,
nays 34
Mr., EAST moved to amend the instructions by
adding land also inquire whether the public print,
ing done within the last two years especially the
publishing aRd printing of the Code of Tennessee
was done at reasonable price"
Mr.. MAYFlELD said he should vote against the
amendment because it was foreign to the subject
before the House.
Mr.. BAYLESS called for the mover to explain the
reasons for Offering this amendment
Mr.. EAST: had just arisen, Mr. Speaker, when
asked to do 50 by the gentleman from Washington,
(Mr, Bayless,) to explain my reasons for intrOduc-
ing the amendment to the motion made by the gen.
tlsmsn from Bradley. The charge has been made,
both today and yesterday that the Code printed
at an enormous sacrifice TO the States believe the
sum stated, as sacrificed, was seven thousand dol
lars, even upon the single item of the Code. In
justice to all parties desire to have the matter in
vestigated fully, by appropriate committee, and
know of no other plan than the selected as the
committee TO investigate the merits Of the bill will
have the proper persons before them to speak rela
tive to the other matter.
Mr. KENNETH althOaoh advocatinu a rafarproa
voted to sustain the call for the previous question
because Of his willingness to have direct vote
upon the bill Now grant, for arguments sake,
that 5000, or $4,000, or $50 600 too much was
paid by the last Legislature for printing the code
what have We to do with it? Why will we burden
the Committee to send for WITNESSES and take tesii-
mony on such a case? He wanted to do what was
right and proper, but could not what object the
mover of this amendment expects to attain. He
desired to say no party controlled him, nor ever
should do it; whenever he yielded himself to that
be would yield great principle
Mr.. WILLIAMS, of Hickman, accepted of the
proposed amendment to his instructions, and dared
the other side Ct the House to come up and vote
for it.
Mr.. BAYLESS recolleoted that when proposition |
under bidding for the printing of the Code came to
the House, it well the close of the session
of 1S67-'6S, and was evidently attempt to bride
the Representatives of Tenn to falsify ard vio
late the contract made by the Legislature with the
printer-Or what was it made for?
Mr., BUTLER. The gentleman from Washington |
Mr. Baylessl seems to be thankful he did not save |
S., 900 of the peoples money almost as much as
he whole State tax for the First Senatorial Dis
trict of TIE State He desired that the gentlemal's
people may see how that ST 600 went, and there
fore he should vote for this reference
Mr.. BlCKEELL, since the question Of Che Code
has come up, perfectly willing to the reference
He had no doubt there was higher price charged,
for only 800 pages was estims ed as being the size
Of the book, but when it came out there were $50
three hundred and fifty pages more than when
The contract was made.
Mr.. HARRIS stated that the work was different
in other ways than the one just stated Experience
has shown that the contract system does not work
IS well as the principle inaugurated by the Oppo-
;ition party in 1886
The motion to defer with instructions was then
agreed to without division of the House.
COMMANDER MAURY.
Mr.. EWING offered resolution of thanks 10
Lieutenant MAURY for his able address dt-
ivered in the Hall of the Honse on the evening Of
be 18th inst, and rendering him the use of the
Hall for course of scientific lectures to be deliv-
red before the citizens of Nashville at such time as
nay suit his convenience.
Under a suspension of the rules the resolution
vas adopted.
NASHVILLE AND CHATTANOOGA RAILROAD.