Year: 1871




16c.


THE PUBLIC PRINTING.


,'ss Certainly no greater fraud was ever per-
petrated upon the people of Tennessee
than IS attempted to be perpetrated by Mr..
Gibson III his recent report on the Public
Printing. That with him it is wiIlful and
deliberate, and intended solely fo- partizan
- purposes, is evident from the fact that he
heard all of the testimony, was leading
person in the examination of the witnesses,
and he alone had all of the testimony in his
possession from the writing of it out until
the conclusion of the investigation. There
fore where he misrepresents, directly, by
argument or nnuendo, he does so willfully.
That he was eager tc convict was manifest
from the beginning His anxiety to have
his friend Baxter represented ON the COM
mittee by himself (AIr. Gibson) was shown
10y bis haste in moving the appointment
of the committee for which the Printers
had asked. His determination to make
an unfaYorable report was conelusively
shown from the first day, on which he de-
clared to the committee he would net
"show his hand" until the last witness
was examined. Then finding the charges
wholly unsustained by the proof, he admit
ted that his friend Baxter had been deceived
by incorrect calculations. The basis for
the report was agreed upon by the commit
tee and he concurred in it; but when the
committee manifested their lack
of confidence in and respect for
him by appointing another to draw
up the report, then all his simulated sweet
ness became the bitterness of gall. True,
he does not charge fraud in his report and
did not in his speech. Yet he endeavOrs TO
convey that impression by his misrepresent-
alton of the facts. He endeavors to throw
blame on the General Assembly for refus-
ing to adopt the resolution to extend the
powers of the committee. The reason of
that refusal was, as Mr.. Gibson knows, be-
cause the committee had in Mr.. Gibson's
hands all of the accounts of the StatePrint-
ers, and felt that they had full power
to investigate those accounts. If the COM
mittee had felt that they did not have such
powers ii would have authorized the ask
ing for further powers, but when the ques-
ton was brought before them they formally
resolved that they had all the power which
the. proposed resolution could confer.
Mr.. Gibson goes out of his way
in his report to defend his friend Baxter
for prematurely publishing garbled extracts
of the testimony, after the committee had
solemnly censured him by declaring that
these extracts were "garbled" and did in
justice TO the printers. He says in defence
of his friend: ''the session of the Commit
tee being open and strangers present part
of the time and no rule of Secresy enforced
or communicated to Col. Baxter" A rule
Of secresy was adopted by the Committee.
No strangers were present, unless he calls
the parties and witnesses strangers, except
on two occasions a Senator, and once for a
short time a Justice of the Peace.
The Public Printers might easily afford |
to stand upon the report of the committee
which fully exculpates and justifies them, /
for each member who signed that report /
stands before the public in comparison with |
Mr.. Gibson as Hyperion to a Satyr. But /
as soon as We can get the evidence in the |
cause we shall refer more in detail to Mr..
GibSon's publication.
Suffice it TO say for the present that the
committee found on examination that
the work done by the present Public Prin-
ters was of superior character in typOgra-
ply, binding and paper to that done by any
former Public Printer; that their measure
ment was exactly in accordance with the
rules Of other printers, beth before and
since the adoption of the Code; that these
rules We're founed by long experience to be
based on reason and good sense, and as such
have been recognized and acted upon by
former State officials Of every political
party. They found that the present Public
Printers charged less for paper than any
other Public Printers since the war and but
little in excess of the prices previous to the
war, and that all the charges of the Public
Printers were reasonable and just.