The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-04-02
GRAND RATIFICATION MEETING.


Hard fusne0 fOr cause Oh company.
From the Advertiser of yesterday morning
we cut the following:
THE NEW CrTY CHARrER-we shall publish
the new City Charter tomorrow morning. But
for the characteristic petty meanness of the
Press we should have laid it before our readers
this morning.
Why a man need to state thing SO falsely
when the truth would answer much better, we
leave for casuists to decide; we only say that
the above conveys totally false impression,
Mr.. Stetson had The means Of knO,cing il ,cas
false ,rhen he Urote 1t.
The only copy of the City Charter placed
in the hands of the printer, was the official
copy from the office of the Secretary of State,
which was to be neither cut, soiled nor mutiat-
ed In the slightest degree, as 1t was to be pre-
served for file in the city archives. The
sheets were so put together with metallic rv-
cts that they could not be separated without
mutilation. This fact was communicated to
Mr.. Stetson by the business proprietor OF the
Paess. This official copy was placed in our
hands with strict orders not to let it go out Of
the Office. Mr.. Stetson was assured that all
we could do should be done to accommodate
him with an early copy. Monday evening the
City Council passed an order, the report OF
which we find In the columns of the Advert
ser of Tuesday morning, as follows:
An order passed that the City Clerk cause the
proposed new city charter, passed by the
Legislature, to be published in all the daily pa
pers of the city, until the day of municipal
election.
Early Tuesday morning the Argus sent
man to our Office TO see what could be done
about copy and an arrangement was made which
Uas perfectly satisfactory to that paper, and
which enabled it to publish the charter as ear
ly as we did. We struck off revised proofs of
he charter, as fast as the compositor could
put it in type, one copy for the Argus, and
Gno ther for the Advertiser. The Argus sent
to our Office for its copy, but the Advertiser
saw fit not to call for the slips which were
taken for IL. Such was "the characteristic
meanness Of the Press of which that paper
complains. 1t had every facility OF the Argus
except the disposition-to give an early in
sertion to the charter, and it was no fault of
ours that il did not do so.
One TACT more: As our copy was In manu-
script, and the sheets could not be separated,
the whole OF the composition had to be done
by single hand, and he was steadily at work
upon it from the time we received it until late
into the evening of Tuesday, whereas the copy
furnished for the Advertiser was such that it
could be divided into as many parts as there
were sections, and distributed among halls
dozen compositors If desirable. Our readers,
we hope, will pardon this notice so small
matter; but when efforts made specially to ac-
commodate neighbor are distorted into "pet-
ty meannesses," we feel disposed to vindicate
ourselves b. stating the facts.
Since the above was written we have learned
that the Advertiser did not propose to put the
charter In type at all; that an arrangement
was made to use the Argus type, one paper to
insert IL upon the outside and the other upon
the inside. 1t was so late at night however,
before it could be all put in type, that the out
side of those papers had to be put to press
before 1t could be ready for insertion. Why
could not Mr.. Stetson have stated the truth
- bis apology for delay, though it had shown
lack of enterprise on his part, instead of ut
tering an unmanly falsehood, with no purpose
TO subserve except to malign those who had
done their utmost TO accommodate him?