Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1857-11-19
,,..,, N N. fork Freemen's (Catholic) Journal.
-EMAGOGUES AND FREEMEN.

,Ver OF tree American government serious pause |
and thought. One Of the most ancient charter
ed cities of the Union-polite, refined opulent, |
proud Baltimore-has been threatened to be
formally deprived of substance and semblanoe
of a free city. The Governor of Maryland has
proclaimed his purpose ofoccupying that borough
on the day of election, Wednesday of the present
week, by the military of the Commonwealth of
Maryland.
It is grave act In times that we are ac
customed to look on as less free than our own,
such an act at such time, towards a chartered
city, might easily have cost the monarch that
attempted it his crown The first announcement
of Governor Lgon's act shocked us. The more
we consider what he has proposed to do, and the
method he has pursued in announcing his pur
pose, the more do we find to regret. The Gov
ernors intentions have, we are content to grant,
been good, but his Judgment and his apprecia-
ton of the principles of free government are
sadly deficient We have drifted far from the
landmarks our fathers set up when it has been
possible for Democratic Republican Governor
of one of the 'sOld Thirteen" to take such astep
towards an old and chartered municipality
Better were it, that all the citizens Of Baltimore
should for time be refused their voice in the
administration public affairs, and be thus pun
ished for having paid so little attention to their
local elf-government in years past than that the
eminent should be infringed, and thus the way
opened, and an ominous precedent established,
for substituting the military dictatorship of mod
ern Europe for the lawful and ancient civil free
dom that holds in the United States its last re-
fuge upon earth. .a.<- t
The outrages committed at recent elections in
Baltimore are such as ought not to be borne and
such as freemen who understand and properly
value their rights wall never submit to have per-
petuated. The rights of citizens have been vio-
lated But no right can be infringed without
finding in our system of laws its proper remedy.
Ubi Jus, ibs s'emediuas It is true, moreover,
that the Commonwealth has power to protect
her citizens in their general rights against any
infringement Of them under color of chartered
municipal power. The charter of city confers
on its citizens certain exclusive and peculiar
powers for their local self-government: but it
was long ago decided that the charter of city
could exert no authority to abridge the rights of
citizen, or citizens, in voting for officers of the
State The reason that justified such decision
seems to have impelled Governor Lyon to his
act, but the Governor, however honorable in his
impulses, if not himself learned in the law, Was
under obligation to have consulted learned coun-
sci before attempting just end by means SC
unprecedented and dangerous. The Federal
and the State Legislatures have authority to pass
on the validity of the election of their members
respectively. There are courts Of law for the
pursuing of rights abridged at the polls.
there be wrongs that these cannot reach-if spe.
cial exigencies occur-it is not for the Executive
to enact new remedies, but for the Legislature
upon appeal of parties Wronged.
In Governor Ligons Proclamation we find nj
such data and motives alleged as would hav.
aathorized The commencement Of a. action q
tensions" and threats" That is not enough
The Legislature, with it's ampler power, could
only properly have acted on the direct and au-
thentlc application and complaint of citizens that
a conspiracy was formed to defraud them, the
appellants of their rights, and that the munich
pal authorities were in collision with the con-
spirators. Who are the citizens of the borough
of Baltimore who have made formal complaint?
There is no manner of doubt that multitudes of
citizens of Baltimore have thus been wronged.
but what legal steps have they taken to obtain
justice? The summary action of the Governor
IN declaring Baltimore under martial law is not
legal. The legal measures at the service of the
citizens are defined by the charter of the city of
Baltimore, by the Constitution and laws of the
Commonwealth Of Maryland, and undertaking
all these-as the fact of which these are but de-
claratory-by the inCefeasible rights that all
freemen of America have inherited through the
common law. In these, and not directly in the
Governor of Maryland, lay the remedy for the
wronged citizens of Baltimore. Ours is land
where we obey laws rather than rulers Those
who do not seek the remedies of the laws have
themselves to blame. It is maxim as appli-
cable to social compacts as to other things that
the law helps those who exercise vigilance. not
those who sleep over their rights, nor those who
lazlly growl over their abrid@anent TiNlas,E-
6us, non d0Tnliehtt6us, 11t1u subceniunt - -
1t is probable that Gov. Ligon will, at the adj
vice OF friends, recall his Proclamation but the
fact that functionary in so distinguished po-
slt1on, and with, no doubt, such honorable in
tentlons, has proposed so summary an exercise
of dictatorial power, and that the assumption
has been met with so slow and indistinct a de-
NAL OF his right, is sufficient cause for sohcitude
and alarm. The freemen,, true and good, of the
country must awaken The system of self-goy-
eminent confded to us by the patriots who
achieved our national independence, requires of
us the use OF the arduous but simple means for
It's preservation and transmission We must
discharge our political duties These are not
satisfied by our going to the polls on the day of
election, and becoming the tools of demagogues,
by taking from their hands and depositing in
the ballot-box the printed tickets prepared by
them, with names of men who are to make laws
the people do not instruct them to make, and to
administer offices of trust, as if they-our dele
gates-Were our masters. Our remedy can come
from no change of office holders, nor from any
new party organization. Those who propose
such things, as panaceas, are merely demagogues.
Our remedy is in meeting and associating, for
political security, as neighbors with our neigh
bors, first, in our immediate neighborhoods, after
that IN our smallest political districts, taking a
reasonable amount of time and thought to in
form ourselves ON what concerns our Immediate
public affairs and then bringing to.the test, first,
candidates for office, that they may avew what
they will DO, and what they will abstain from
doing, and, next incumbents Of office r. coo tbo+