The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1872-04-26
To Correspondents,
Tweedism i'm the Legislature.

The public have for a long time labored
under the delusion that the men they send to
the State Legislature go there not to represent
their own interests, but to enact laws for the
general good of their constituents. To pre-
vent these public servants from giving more
attention to the advancement of their own
personal or selfish ends than to the welfare of
the public, it is wisely ordained by the Con-
stltution of the State, in the oath subscribed
to by each member of the Legislature, that
he shall not be interested in the profits of
any other office, during the term for which
he was elected.
AT the beginning of the late session of the
Legislature, resolution of inquiry was intro
duced, to ascertain whether any member of
the House was concerned in the contract for
printing the proceedings of the session. In
other words, the Legislature wanted to know
fanny member had taken advantage of his
position rs such to put money i'll his own
pocket or not. The exact fate Of this resolu-
ton we will not now mention, further than
10 say that it was conceded and agreed on all
hands that if the member of the body was in
fact interested in the printing job giving out,
it was in violation of his oath of office. We
simply allude to this matter here to call atten-
ton to similar case, which did not come UNI
der the observation of the Legislature, and
in which member from this county was Il
party.
The facts are these:
The law provides that all the general laws of
the State which so into effect before tile first Of
June shall be published in each county, in the
paper having the largest circulation The
President of the Senate and the Speaker of
the House, according to law, designate the
paper which is thus to receive the official pa
tronage of the State, being guided generally,
in their selection, by the delegation from
each county.
In 1870 the publication of the general laws
was given to the Hartford Democrat upon .he
recommendation fthe Hartford delegation, on
the ground that The Agis had published them
the preceding session, although the bona
fide circulation of Tile 1Egis was then, as it is
now, the largest in the county. AT the session
just closed the publication was again awarded
to the Hartford Democrat, but upon what fair
grounds we are at loss to conceive
Mr., j M. STREET., a delegate from Hartford
county, is one of the propretors and publish
ers of the HoJ0rd Democrat, and is directly
interested in the profits arising from the pub
lication of these laws, and thereby, we think,
does violence to his oath of office, by recev-
ing them.
1t is related Of certain member of the
Wisconsin legislature, that at the close of
session, after paying his board bill he had
only fourteen cents left. Mr.. STREET., how
ever, has done much better for himself
He surely can have no cause to say, "Repub-
lies are proverbialy ungrateful," for he has
in the most delicate manner manipulated
matters so that he comes out far ahead on the.
winning side. 1t is fin the power of Mr..
Street, to provide that every bill introduced
by him, as member of the Legislature, shall
take effect upon its passage, so that if it be-
comes a law he will derive the profits of its
publication from the State treasury.
This is nothing more nor less than the
"7toeedism" corruption complained ofin New
York; or, in other words, being party in
terested in the profits of jobs prepared by
himself beforehand; and ifpersisted in will
meet with the same rebuke.
As public officers are fairly open to criti
csm for the manner in which they perform
their duties, we need not apologize to our
readers for the space occupied by this article,
to the exclusion gilmore interesting matter.