The Mugwump’s Ledger: How Seattle’s Territorial Secretary Gamed the Law Printing Contract

Readers of the four-year-old paper will remember that some time ago a number of us were relating to the publication of the laws passed by the last legislature. The legislature adjourned February 8 last. A complaint about the delay in the publication of the laws was published in the Post-Intelligencer April 6, or sixty-five days after the legislature had adjourned. The laws were not ready for distribution until the latter part of the first week in May, certainly not earlier than May 2, or ninety days after the adjournment of the legislature.

The delay resulted in great inconvenience and expense to the people, and the complaint was general and persistent. A term of the district court in the several judicial districts in the territory was held within the time consumed by the printer of the laws, and the result was that certified copies of the laws were ordered of the secretary from all parts of the territory, not only by county officials, but also and chiefly by lawyers.

In order to promptly comply with this demand, Secretary Owings kept in steady employment a force of transcribing clerks. An illustration of certified copies: it may be that one Secretary Chas. J. Jones, of the supreme court, as judge of the district court in Seattle, ordered certified copies of certain laws, and Secretary Owings sent the copies by express, with instructions to come by delivery.

When sixty-five days had elapsed from the adjournment of the legislature, the complaints became notorious. To publish these complaints to the world was doing the people some justice. In publishing the complaint, the following section from the revised statutes of the United States was quoted:

Section 1844—The secretary of the Territory shall record and preserve all the laws and proceedings of the legislative assembly, and all the acts and proceedings of the governor in the executive department; he shall transmit one copy of the laws and journals of the legislative assembly within thirty days after the end of each session thereof to the president, and two copies of the laws, within like time, to the president of the senate and to the speaker of the house of representatives, for the use of congress. He shall transmit one copy of the executive proceedings and official correspondence semi-annually, on the first day of January and July in each year, to the president. He shall prepare the acts passed by the legislative assemblyly for publication and furnish a copy thereof to the public printer of the Territory.

The position taken by the people, at the time, was that this section requires Secretary Owings, among other things, to transmit the laws to various public officials within thirty days after the legislature adjourns. So no one will pretend for a moment that the people referred to do not mean printed copies, and that the printed copies mean copies printed by the public printer. Therefore it was the duty of Secretary Owings to transmit the copies referred to, and if they were not printed it was certainly his duty to find out why they were not printed.

It is a fair presumption that he owed more respect to the president of the United States than to political printer Cavanaugh. This resulted in Secretary Owings and his friends asserting not only that the department rules of the interior department were of superior binding force upon Secretary Owings than the statute, but also that the section above quoted had been repealed.

T.H. Cavanagh, editor of the Olympia Partisan, weekly paper published in Olympia, who has a number of times, consecutively, been appointed public printer of the Territory by Secretary Owings, and who became, it is alleged, the lowest bidder for the publication of the laws, published in his paper, in defense of Secretary Owings, the following:

The secretary of this territory hasn't got to do with who shall publish the laws, or the time when they shall be delivered to him by the lowest bidder. The comptroller of the United States treasury directs that the printing of the laws and journals be awarded to the lowest bidder.

Sealed bids are received after advertising in two newspapers for six insertions. The advertisement is approved by the comptroller. It is required by the contract that the laws shall be delivered to the secretary in ninety days after the session adjourns.

No one on behalf of Secretary Owings ever produced the law which they said repealed the section, and in order to secure a definite understanding of what the law and the rules of the Interior Department were in this matter, S. E. Kraemer, then one of the reporters of the Post-Intelligencer, sent on April 18 the following letter to the Honorable Win. F. Vilas, Secretary of the Interior:

[Letter text omitted for brevity]

The following replies have been received:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, WASHINGTON, May 26th, 1890.

Mr. S. E. Kraemer, Seattle, Washington Territory.

Sir: Referring to your letter of the 18th ultimo relative to delay in the printing of laws passed at the last session of the Territorial Assembly of Washington Territory and inquiring as to the law bearing on the subject, I am directed by the Secretary of the Interior to transmit herewith a copy of a letter from the Secretary of the Territory, to whom your letter was referred, containing the information you desire.

Very respectfully, [Signature] Chief Clerk.

The following is the enclosure referred to:

SECRETARY OF TERRITORY, SEATTLE, WASH., May 16th, 1890.

Hon. Win. F. Vilas, Secretary of the Interior, D.C.

Sir: In reply to your communication under date of May 12th upon the subject herein stated, I have to say that the law of Washington Territory by which the publication is supervised by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Hon. John Sherman, has been immediately charged with this work. The printing and binding is let to the lowest bidder after an advertisement required by the comptroller has been inserted in four times in two public papers published in this city. The contract was to the lowest bidder, who did the work and delivered it within the time prescribed in the contract.

If further explanation or information is required to satisfy your statement, I respectfully refer you to the first paragraph of the Attorney General's opinion.

I know but little of Mr. Freeman, that he is a very bad man... [insults omitted] ... On account of his character I do not think it wise to let him have to the honor of getting this offer for the publication of the former and then the latter.

I think the spirit of your letter to you, 18th inst. full that I refuse to join in a conspiracy to defeat the ends of justice in prosecuting the wicked partisan in ensnare who has for his work the office of publishing and the power... [text garbled] ... Very respectfully, [Signature]

There are facts which contradict the statements of the whig which are worth mentioning. The successful bidder for the last distribution was H. Caranagh, appointee of Secretary Owings. In advertising for bids, it is understood that no pen shall be selected in both Seattle and Olympia, and confined to suggestions to two weekly papers not of local circulation. The result was that his own Republican appointee was the lowest bidder.

The laws as published by Mr. Caranagh include, without warrant for doing so, forty pages devoted to republication of the platform of the Territory. Probably Secretary Owings has certified that Mr. Caranagh should be paid for this. This is equal to one-seventh of the number of pages occupied by the laws proper. The laws occupy two hundred and eighty-seven pages. The index occupies thirty-three pages, but the Territory pays for this out of its own treasury. The total number of pages in the book is three hundred and sixty-four.

The number of days occupied by Printer Caranagh in publishing the laws was exactly ninety, or one day for printing; every four pages of the laws, they being set in leaded small pica type with most liberal display titles. Any reasonably competent compositor would consider the setting up of four pages a very easy day's work.

The truth is that this Mugwump secretary has now polled the public treasury and exhausted all the milk. He has helped fatten a few republican hangers-on, whom he designates as his 'creatures.' He has been and is working with all his power in the interests of a Republican candidate for the nomination for president of the United States. He now expects to go... [text garbled] ... possible Democratic successor can have the bones of the official perquisites; he has consumed all the flesh.

With all the duplicity which goes to make up a cringing Mugwump he has deceived the very men who retain him in office. The patronage has always been thrown to Mugwump Republicans. It is only a few months ago that he admitted in his own office that he had an arrangement with the Northern Pacific railroad company by which he was allowed to select a square mile of timber land near the line of the Kalama branch of the company's road. He said he allowed to pay for it whenever he pleased. This was said after he had employed a timber expert to select the timber. He was at liberty to make his own selection. This is the man who aspires to be the Republican boss of Washington Territory.