The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1857-06-20
The Washington RiOt-The Blood or
the Hands of the Democrats.

The Washington RiOt-The Blood on
the Hands OF the Democrats.
On the first day of June, in the year of our
Lord Of Peace, 1857, for the first time in the
history OF the United States, the regular
troops, under the ORDER OF President Buch-
anan and OF his Secretary of the Navy, on the
day Of Election, at the public polls, shot down
forty peaceful, quiet, unoilending citizens of
the United States.
That is the naked fuci.
Thetc are various dctenccs put FORTH there
are various excuses urged; there are various
pretcXts invoked, but the fact above stated is
not controversial. We mean it is not contro-
verified by amybody-Whig, or Democrat, or
American. Every body admits that about
forty persons are knoun to have been shot
down on the day OF Election, in Washington
City, by the United States troops under the
order of President Buchanan. There were
eight or ten shot dead-.the residue severely
wounded.
The star, newspaper o! the ficrccst stamp
Of the democrats, gives Il list of the killed and
Of the wounded without suggestion that
either of the sufferers was engaged in any riot.
The Star enumcrates two negroes among the
killed. and Davis of the Land Office, u. Hal
ston, "a consiobie,) German lad Ii years old,
Dalrymplc--a dcmocrat-.and one other per-
son among the killed; yet it is certain that
neither the clerk Of the Land Office, nor the
constable Of the democratic City Administra-
ton, nor the German lad, nor the other per-
son. nor either of the two poor negroes WAS
rio'ing. They were al! pcaccaIlc and quiet
persons--hy common consent.
On only two of them have coroner's inquests
: been held. and the vcrdicts have been that
which WAS unnecessary, umprorokcd and u,j"s'i-
foJe; 50 the oticial testimony accords with
what the papers state.
SO with reference to the wounded some
were gentlemen talking to ladies, or standing
in their stores; one was another officer in the
Land Onicc--a Mr.. Wilson. These were not
engaged in any riot.
With reference to the others, enumerated
us wounded, by The Star, they were all of the
Democratic supporters Of the President
Buchanan who ordered the Marines out--cx--
ccpting tpo who were of the american party
one an old and one a young man, but neither
engaged in any riot. OF all those wounded
not one has been arrested, or held to ball. or
to answer for riotous breach of the peace
not even the two members of the American
party; yet ercry officer connected with the
administration of Justice in Washington is a
friend and servant OF the President who order
cd the marines out.
These things all accord with what is now
the indispuiobie Jact: that not one man shot
was in any manner engaged in any riot; and
these circumstances are inconsistent with any
other supposition.
% Ii these things be so, why were those limo.
cent men shoii If they were mixed with inno-
cent men, why was there not, at least, some
adnXture Of guilty men shot with the inno-
cent If the guilty got behind the innocent,
why was no warning given-no pains taken to
separate them! No calculation of chances
could possibly produce such a result. If there
was riot requiring the sharp remedy of mill
tary execution there must have been rioters
enough to make it; and if they could be dis
covered sufficiently to know that Il riot was
gong on they could have been equally well
discovered when the firing was ordered; and it
Is absolutely impossible that a platoon firing
into rotOus crowd could hit only the peacca-
bic.
These things demonstrate-what is no,c
known to be Il fact - that at the time the Ma
rincs fired there was and had been for several
hours no riot, but the election was proceeding
quietly at the polls, of the Tst precinct of the
4th Ward, to which the Marines were ordered
to repair.
But, if so, how came the Marines there at
all?
Why, Mayor Magruder asked for them on
the representation that d Lcnd of lapless per-
sous, most of them not residents of Hnshmeton
had attacked the polls, driren off The Commits
Honcrs Of election u,h the electors. So his
letter says, expressly.
But when the Marines reached the spot the
Commissioners were at the polls in their
places according to oil accounts, and Mayor
Magruder made speech to them. SO that
pfeicnSe tuIs.
Then, as to his statement that land of
lawlcss persons. most Of them mol residents of
Washington, were committing the outrages-
the results belle it. For when we look over
the list ofklled and wounded onB tro ap.
pear to he non residents Of the District one
Of them Mr.. Wills of Anne Arundle county,
not even pretended to have been riotcr and
Archibald Dalrymple, democrat from galtl.
more, whom The Star apologe tically states to
have been brakeman on the railroad. and
o..have gotten to the city by the Ii A. NJ.
train. Both these Neil were killed--the lat.
Ter democrat and neither riotcr.
So that if there were lawlcss crowd Of
nonr3SmentS, it was not into that crowd that
the Marines fired.
Why, then, were these men killed IT.
they had been men of tho American party we
could understand it-no m liter how beacea.
bie-tor no amount of proof couhl have suf-
heed to convince the President that his native
fellow citizens were pcaceable men. Having
died the death Of the rioter would have been
conclusive proof before the Chief Magistrate
OF the Union that they were property shot.
But how to deal with the mss;a ere If demo