St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1860-02-02
St. Charles City, Iowa, Feb. 2, 1860,
Personal.

A man who glories in signing himself on all
occasions, "a b. +. Hildreth," editor of the |
81. Charles City InteNigencer, published in Floyd
county-has signalized his return home from
a scat in the Educational Board, by as mean
and dastardly an attack upon us as was ever
made by any locofoco in the State. The essen
tial meanncss of the attack consists in the fact
that personal hostility-hostility without a
shadow of justification-is covered up under a
pretence Of regard for public interest. The
quality of our work as State Printer, is dccried
in tones 20 virulent as to betray in every line
the dnimus of the assault THIS ii is our pur.
pose to show and there we shall leave the
matter, allowing the reader to draw his own
conclusions. Register.
The above paragraph is taken from
somewhat lengthy article of similar
character in the Dcs Moines Register;
and had the State Printer confined
himself to the sho,oing mentioned, and
there left the matter" he would have
provoked no reply from us. Indeed,
as scurrilous and dirty as his whole
article is, VIC were at first disposed to
give it the go-by. We dcprecate as
much as any one disscnsions of this
kind, but when attacked--when our
character, both as public and private
citizen, is as coarsely and savagely |
assaulted as in this case-it appears to
be due TO the public as we'll as ourself
that some explanation, by way Of re-
ioindcr, should be made.
The secret of the whole cause of
Mr.. Tccsdalc's attack lies in the fact
that the editor of this paper was chair
man of the committee on printing, for
the Board of Education, at their late
session, and that John Tccsdale did
not obtain the contract for furnishing
the Board with daily printed reports
Of their proceedings.
'The head and front of our offending
Hath this extent-no more"
Propositions for reporting and print
ing. and samples of work, were refer
red to the Printing Committee from
four different sources. The sample
from Mr.. Teesda!e's Office was so insig.
nificant and worthless that, taken in
connection with his faithlessncss to
the Board at their previous session,
the committee were unanimous in re.
jecting his proposition. They recon-
mended the School Journal, and the
recommendation was adopted by the
Board with scarcelya dissenting vote.
From this time the Board in general,
and A. B. +. Hildreth in particular,
were doomed to suffer such calumnies
as Mr.. Tecsdalc, (aidcd by that intol
cradle bore and half idiotic old coot
yclepcd Rev. Samuel Storrs Howe, }
chose to cast upon them. This Rcver-
end Howe and Orthodox brother would
, write the libcls and Teesdalc would
: print them. ...
: All this the Board could afford, if
Tecsdalc could. 1t was soon found,
however, that these libcls, like fowls,
,couid come home to roost. In other
words, the State Printer was in dan
ger of losing his Office. Under this
state of affairs we do not wonder that
he should feel uncomfortable and show
a disposition to bite some one, even
as insignificant parsonage as our
humble SELF The loavcs and fishes
were about to depart from him. Print
ing paper, bought and paid for out of
the State treasury, could not be used
ad HJitnm in his private business con-
structive reckoning on tokens" of
prcss-work, whereby double, thribble,
and quadruplc prices could be filched
from Mr.. Jones's strong box, could not
be practiscd nor could a Wholesale
system of rafting be carried on at the
expense of the State, whereby the
Journals of the two branches of the
General Assembly, and other docu-
mcnts, could be made "fat," and "com-
position by apprentices and "two-
thirdcrs" be charged at full price per
thousand ems nor could such price
be obtained for type-setting when no
typc-sctting was done and only white
or blank pages existed. vide the SIX
teen page pamphlet report of the Trus-
tees of the State University We
say it is no wonder that the prospect
of losing all these golden privileges
should cause the State Printer to feel
uncomfortable.
Mr.. Tecsdale undertakes to make an
exposition of our private affairs which
is all new to people in this vicinity.
We were not before aware of there
having ever been such strong force
in the proprietorship of our office as
two locofocos and one A. b. +. H.
nor that the Republicans would sub
NIT to such state of affairs no long.
er." We were under the impression
that the Republicans have always
been liberal and friendly towards our
press, and for it we have on more than
one occasion expressed our gratitude
But what has this to do with the State
Printing =? ..
Mr.. Teesdale complains of our Re-
publicanism, and says that we cob
tanned place on the State Central
Committee through ignorance of the
facts" We can only say that we had
no hand in this appointment. 1t was
probably the work of the Republicans
OF the 10th District, who were simple
enough to suppose that they had some
rights as well as other people. Per-