New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-05-28

fault In this, but fault there Is, and that a
heavy one.
Were the lesson needed, this affair might
impress it on every mind that in the case Of
a riotous and furious mob the most vigorous
and decided action is both wisdom and mer-
cy. Prompt suppression Is far more neces-
sary than future punishment, and will be
found ten times as efficient in preventing
recurrence of the evil. This is 4 truth
that might well be appreciated and borne in
mind in other places than Hoboken. The
usual forms and penalties of the law are
known TO the professors and heroes of such
melees only to be evaded or despised, but
for ball cartridges they have an unfeigned
respect. The bullets fred at Astor-Place
and the lives lost there caused a profound
and painful shock to the people of our city,
but who can estimate the service they rem
dered in securing its peace, or the evil now
engendered, not for the Jersey shore only,
but for New York as well, by the fact that
the present riot was suffered to have free
course and renew itself again and again,
in spite of, or in the absence OF the civil
and military power!
It's undeniable that there ferments in
the bosom of our American society, mass
of wanton and obstreperous brutality which
either does not exist elsewhere or is not al
lowed to attain such lusty fullness of mani
festation. In no country where the princi-
pie of authority has yet a foothold, would
such gangs as our Killers and Short
Bows be suffered to exist for day out
of prison. Here they defy the Police
and, except in case of some glaring crime
laugh at the terror of the law. lftheiT ranks
are thinned by calamity, or their semi-sayage
organizations dissolved, they find new
recruits and straightway reappear in new
forms Their very existence IS thought by
some to be an omen of awful calamity to the
country where they are 50 luxuriantly pro-
duced, and many excellent persons behold
them almost with despair. For our part
while we admit the full extent of the evil,
we cannot regard it as other than Incidental
to a purely transitional social condition. In
America, the great problem which thinkers
elsewhere speculate upon, the concilia-
ton of Freedom and Order, IS receiving
gradually and progressively practical solu-
ton, and that on the ground that the two
may not merely be harmCnized, but are es-
sentaIly identical. Preparatory to it, as
by the hand of Providence, the restraints,
such as respect for mere authority, super
stitious obedience to tradition, regard to
classes and persons, which do so much, and
indeed often do all to keep the socialmachine
in equilibrium in older countries have here
been removed Our democratic experiment
has, of necessity, dispensed with them, and
as we advance in our career their absence
is felt in this irregular and violent action of
elements in our population for which the
requisite culture and sphere of useful activ-
ity have not yet been provided. 1t IS GER
tainly conceivable that these wild energies,
which now so often rage with brutality COM
mensurate with their native force, should in
another and better state Of things be abb
sorbed and employed for their own and the
universal good. It's noreasonto suspectSo-
ciety on the democratic basis of being fall
ure, because it produces these odiOus pheno-
mena, which, indeed, only despotism is alto
gether free from. And while we wisely use
the means at our hand to suppress and pre-
vent such outrages as have led to these re-
marks, and while we frown upon and dis
courage the influences that favor and main
tain the spirit Of blackguardism, it should
not be forgotten that the most efficient, and
in truth, the sole real and permanent pre-
vention lies in the elevation of Society with
all its classes; and that the nearer we ap-
proach the ideal contemplated by our Ameri-
can Institutions, the more entirely will these
hateful accidents disappear, and give place
to social characteristics which no man and no
community will have reason to regard with
either shame or anxiety.
%
Eg' Hon. SIMEON BALDWIN, a venerable
and eminent citizen of Connecticut, died at his resi-
E.r.- al.