The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-02-20
0heGntelt1qet
VINO Paid for Printing MOrton.s
Speech?
From The Register Of yesterday.
A CARD
Editor OF the RegIster:

speech
From The RegfSteT Of yesterday.
A CARD.
Editor ofthe Register:
Your issue of this morning asks for
and then proceeds to state Some Dsrl
ticulars concerning the circulation in
this state of Morton's last speecE az %
Radical campaign. document" :" accom- |"
panied by some insinuations that are
scarcely warranted by the facts snS
OF course would not have been 1naja
edge. N' n t4"F'A-
AS the copies of the speech referred IN
wei WSEe procured and distributed by nv
sell, you Will not object to nv furnish. b.
ing you and your readers with The de-.
sired particulars"
l. rs 1t true that the State printer
printed the doCument?" II ia trna III :
the state printer, who does printing for
a good many others than the State
earning that we were about to send to
SIhclnnatl SItl ior a number of copies of
morton's speech, offered to and did
print the speech at exactly the same
price we were to have paid in Cincin-
natl. That price was paid him, not as
state printer, but as a private i0b
printer, on receipt of the speeches.
2. ''On what principle do Radicals
justify the expenditure OF public mon
~ SASAA parry 'Ihp
money for those speeches was, in every
Instance, paid out of the pockets Of
those who obtained them, and not one
cent OF 1t was in any sense public
money.
3. SIT is also claimed that the pages
paid by the State to wait upon the Leg
lslature, prepared the document for
distribution" 1t is extremely proba-
bic that the pages in "waiting upon the
Legislature, prepare for dlstributionn
whatever the members want prepared
and hitherto 1t has not been supposed
to be anybody's business what a page
may do for member. 1 know that
the pages daily "prepare for distribu-
tion" copies of the Wheeling DdiLy Req
iSter.
4 "WhO paid the postage for the dis.
tribution of that precious production? {?
The Radical members of the Legisla-
ture sent 1t to their constituents in
quantities. Just prior to its publica-
tion they voted themselves ten dollars
each to buy postage stamps" Not
merely the Radical members but the
whole House, Democrats included.
voted, not ten dollars each for them
selves to buy postage stamps as you say,
but voted that the Sergeant-at-A Arms
furnish each of the members with post
age stamps to that amount. What par
icular stamps were placed on what
particular documents, neither you, l
nor anybody but the members who
used them can tell.
The Segeant-Rt-ArmS Informs me.
and his books show, that every Demo
cratic member of the House promptly
drew his full quota of stamps, while at
least, some of the Radicals and those
who subscribed most literally for Nor
toms speech, have not drawn a siugle
cents worth, and consequently must
have paid for the distribution of the
speeches out of their own pockets,
simple as such an act must appear In
Democratic eyes. What use the Demo-
cratic members made of their STAN ps
it has not been considered interesting
to inquire,unt your request for "sOme
particulars" The result of that in
quiry, now made, is that the Democrat
ic stamps have not been invariably ap.
piled to the distribution of the docu.
ments intended by the House, that
some of them have been applied to the
distribution of the Wheeling Daily
Register, and that others have not
been applied at all. In one instance
n Democratic member would probably
have purchased some of Morton's
speeches and applied some of his stamps
to their distribution, had not the mad
vertent laugh of a Radical bystander
warned the contiding Conservative that
all wasn't just right, and he took time
to consider.
5. "What remarkable coincidence
that the Radical majority should vote
the members ten dollars per head, and
that MOrtOn's speech should shortly
thereafter turn up for distribution"
There is still more remarkable co.
incidence about the matter, and that is
that the resolution for the payment OF
postage was passed on January %, 1868,
one day before Senator Morton made
his speech on January oath. This ar
CUES either a Radical spirit OF prophecy
or a still more "sweetly suggestive
combination" than even the imagina.
ton of the Register has been yet able to
picture. Respectfully,
WILLIAM z. HUBBARD.
Clerks Office, House Of Delegates, Feb
Tudry Is. 1868.