The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-11-03
BALTIMORE.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3. 1858.

Tor come time past-indeed, ever since the 18th
orOc,ober when three-fourths of the citizens of
baltimore were forcbly driven away from the
mills or voluntarily abstained from the exercise
of tho RIGHT ofsuffrage, from fear of violence, or
from unwillingness TO countenance by their pre-
sencc, and sanction by their votes, the monstrous
frauds that were perpetrated on that day. the city
has been agitated by rumors of Vigilance Com
nitee. said to be in process of organization in our
midst, and in which numbers of respectable citi-
zcns it was whispered: had already enrolled them
selves 1t has been, in fact, the common talk upon
The streets and has been alluded to by the public
press Nor is it at all surprising that such should
have been the case. 1t was not to be expected
that from fifteen to twenty thousand men, enti-
tied to the privileges of citizenship and the rights
of freemen, would tamely and quietly submit to
the deprivation of both. They had been in
suited, beaten, kicked culfed and DISTINGUISHED.
The ballot-boxes had been stuffed, until
the grossness of the fraud which filled
them had made even partsanship cry
-shamel municipal government forced
into power by such means, and without the
pretence of legitimate title TO authority, had never
theess taken possession of the public Offices and
had assumed the right to tax and rule a commune
ty whose most sacred privileges it had thus trod-
den down. The judges of election, under whose
ewes such shameless outrages had been perpetrated,
had gone scot-free. The police who had stood by
inactive or worse, while the citizens who pay
them were thus brought to humiliation still wore
the uniform of their office and enjoyed the favor
and confidence of the official Chief, to whose
triumph their dereliction of duty had mainly con-
trihuted Of the hundreds of outlaws, who, in
their presence and with their connvance, had vio-
lated the hottest sanctuary of citizenship, scarce
man was arrested, and none were brought to
Justice. Nay, more, they were publicly congratula
ted on their victory, by their candidate, and told
that it was all well done. What wonder would it
have been, it, in such n state of things, the evil
counsels of despair had been listened to- and free
men had stryen 10 break by violence the bonds
which the law and its officers were too weak or
too bad TO unloosc. We should have Deprecated
earnestly deprecated-such course. We should
have opposed and resisted it in every way, and at
every sacrifice, but we would not have been
prised ut it. There is a point, beyond which en-
durance is almost an impossibility-let rebellion be
ever so much crime We rejoice, therefore, that
public rumor i'll this, in many things, has inven-
ted its own bugbears, and that the responsibility
of outragng the laws even for sclfprotection, is
not to be laid to the charge of those good citizens,
who, if they have sinned hitherto, have sinned
only by too much patience.
The CRY REFORM ASSOCIATION, whose address
we publish in another column, is probably the
body to whose doingS and organization so many
absurd and exaggerated purposes have been at
tributed-and those of our citizens whose minds
have been so husily sought to be prejudced, by
false rumors, against it, will no doubt be gratified
to find how simple, praiseworthy and direct are its
objects, and how customary, legitimate and fair are
the means by which it is proposed to attain them.
Among the names of its members are those of many
of our best citizens of all classes and avocations,
and of all varieties of political opinion. Their
recital of the grievances which have created the
necessity for such an organization, though open
and plan-spoken as becomes the citizens of free
country, when commenting upon public affairs, is
nevertheless temperate and decorous, and within
the strictest limits Of moderation. That it may
offend those whom it arraigns, is rendered GER
tain by It's undeniabe truth, but that it is what
to be done, and that it will command the respect
and enlist the sympathy and support of the
great of good men in this community,
do not, for moment doubt. We believe that
the call of the Association will be responded to- by
the people, in the same good faith in which it is
made. For ourselves, we shall not hesitate to give
to the movement our humble but earnest support.
In spite of the degradation which has been brought
upon the ballot-box among us, we have the abiding
faith that If it can be restored to its purity, and
the way to it can be opened anew, it will be the
a-suffcicnt remedy for the evils which burden us.
To this hoporable and patrio: 49, ''"',. "'''
to the exclusion OF party politics and their corrup-
tons, from our municipal affairs and the seats of
public justice, the CRY REFORM ASSOCIATION has
chiefly dedicated itself. 1t is a cause to which no
good citizen can conscentiously deny his support.