New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-06-06

coming more excited, at about s O'clock small
force of policemen, armed with pistols, entered
the room where the liquors were. The mob had
now begun to break the windows, and though
repeatedly warned to desist and dispense by the
Marshal, the Sheriff and the Mayor, who told them
that persistence in the attack on the building
would endanger their lives, and though the riot
act was read, they continued their hostile de-
monstrations, rushing at the door with view to
break it down and get at the liquors. After the
first rush upon the door, which proved too strong
to be shivered by the assault, the police fired
their pistols over the heads Of the assaiants.
The reply to this discharge was of course
q second onslaught upon the door, which
was met with genuine bullets from the Police.
But this did not suffice to dispense or repel the
Infatuated rioters, and at about II O'clock or af
ter, when the riot had been in full progress for
three hours, and further delay would have been
culpable, company Of riflemen were brought
up, the Mayor at their head. They fired in
squads Of four, and not more than three or
four such volleys were required to scatter
the mob and suppress all attempts to break
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fair was over. One man only appears to have
been killed and seven or eight wounded.
Such are the simple facts Of this affair as we
have them on the authority Of eye-witnesses,
and from the calm and unimpassioned report of
The Portland hdreriser, which we transfer to
our columns. 1t does not appear that the Mayor
was in any respect guilty of hasty, injudicous
or cruel action during any part of the proceed
ings Indeed, if the authorities erred at all, it
was in the lack OF decisive severity at the out
set. The firing Of pistols over the heads OF the
mob seems to have been al illjudged measure,
and to have stimulated rather than checked the
attempt to storm the City Hall. When riot
has got to such pass that the disposable police
force are not sufficient to arrest and imprison
the ringleaders and to dispense the mass, it is
not well either to fire blank cartridges or to
shoot over the heads Of the rioters 1t then
time to assert the supremacy of law by the
sternest and promptest means. The necessity
is no doubt the most painful one magistrate
has to encounter, but at such crises nothing ex-
cept Geld lead is mercful II does not appear that
this last resort was employed at Portland mo-
Mtnt 100 SUIT, OF tndt bhoi VIM uiSCnoiS Sc" "c-
yond what was absolutely necessary. The au-
thorities did their duty, no more and no less
They suppressed the mob, they saved the City
Hall from being broken open and the property
of the city destroyed and they taught the riotous
elements Of Portland wholesome lesson, whose
good effects we trust will not soon disappear.
This riot is falsely represented in many quar-
ters, including Of course all the newspapers in
the interest of rumsellng, as having taken place
in an attempt to enforce the Maine Law; and this
aspect is most industriously put upon the affair
by the journal Of our Lieutenant Governor.
That paper of yesterday has an elaborate leader,
in which while affecting sort of doublefaced
reserve as to the guilt of Mr. BOWS " rash act
and "fearfnl responsibility" the public is
distinctly told that on this occasion :" the author
:" of the first Maine Law has been the cause of
"the first blood being shed in its enforcement
and also that this law 81 not one of those
"measures which will be rendered more palata-
able by violence and bloodshed and so on
through half column in which iesuiticll affect
alton of impartalty is mingled with willful
misrepresentation of the facts. We say wllful
misrepresentation, for all the telegraphic dis
patches respecting the affair, and all the ac-
counts of the journals, no matter how partial
and preiudiced, united in describing the riot as
having grown out of the attempt of the mob to get
possession of certain liquors then in the custody
of the Court. The Maine Law was not in
question at all, except most indirectly in the
fact that Nj. Dow was the author of the Origi-
nal law; and the action of the authorities and
of the military, instead of being intended for its
enforcement, had no other purpose than to pre-
vent the City Hall from being broken into, and
the property that it contained from being de-
stroyed by mob.
Now this sort of Misrepresentation really
seems gratuitous, coupled as it is with shrewd
and ipsinuating suggestions that such riots may
be looked for here when the Law comes to be
enforced. One would suppose that the Lieu
tenant-Governor had already sufficiently demon
strated the sincerity of his present hatred for a
Law which before the election and when be
wanted votes he loved and caressed, and that
be might have allowed the truth with regard to
an occurrence of this nature to reach his read
ers uDperyerted. But it seems not, and accord
ingly we have a lecture on the propriety of
"mOre temperate and concilstory treatment
of a mob that had been raging for hours in the
attempt to break down the doors of public
building and to destroy the public property
within; coupled with the anticipation that the
event twill inspire feeling of bitterness and
"revenge elsewhere rhieh niil lead 10 other disas
"fers." On this head we have only to say that
wherever mob undertakes to destroy property
or to injure persons we trust it will be dealt