The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-26
BALTIMORE.
FRIDAY, MARCH &c, 1858.

land. Everywhere throughout the country, courts
and juries, and the restraints of law appear wholly
inadequate either for the prevention or punishment
of crime Apart from the cases of embezzlement |
and corruption the frauds and cheats, the robberies
and swindles which daily occur, indicating with
FEARFUL distnctness the gradual decay of rvate and
public morality in the land the deeds of blood and
violence which fill the columns of the daily press,
are unhappily not confined to any one State or
city. Crimes against the person are, if possible
even more common than crimes against property.
License and liberation have been given to the right
and practice of private vengeance unparalleled
perhaps in the history of the world. In certain
cases of aggravated wrong, for which, perhaps,
the law may have failed to provide an adequate
remedy, public opinion and the verdicts of juries
have confirmed the right and enforced the duty of
assassination. To chronicle the progress of crime
throughout the United States is not however, our
present purpose. Our business is with crime in
Baltimore. To dwell upon the packing of juries in
Philadelphia or the manifest corruptions that have
crept into the administration of the law in New
York New Orleans, would not reach the end
which we have in view Our object is to inquire
into the condition of things at home in our own
public view the sins of omission and commission
of our own officials. To say that things are no
better or even worse, elsewhere does not disprove
the fact that they are bad enough here If States
Attorneys and Magistrates and Judges fail to do
their duty in other cities that is no excuse for the
men who hold those responsible positions in Balti-
more. To them, and to an exposure of their de-
linquences and shortcomings, we mean to adj
dress ourselves in spirit of justice of fairness and
of impartiality, but with a strict determination to
ferret out and bring to light every act of guilty
connlvance at crime or yet more guilty completely
with criminals on the part of those ministers of the
law who are charged by virtue of their office, and
of the popular trust conided in them, with the
solemn and august responsibility of conservators Of
the public peace and guardians of the lives and
persons of their fellow-citizens In abiding to the
case of Imhof on Wednesday, we were not influenced
by any considerations peculiar to that case. 1t
was of recent occurrence, and is but one example
out Of many. We simply wished to contrast the
public interest manifested in regard to an attempt
upon the life of a foreign despot three thousand
miles away, and the public apathy. in regard to
similar attempt upon the life of an American Citi-
zen in the streets of Baltimore. The exalted posi-
ton of LOUIS NAPOLEON upon the throne of France
and the humble position of GEORGE NJ. IMHoFF as a
citizen OF Baltimore, is no why the Journals
OF this city that dwelt so largely upon the crime of
ORsINI and his confederates, should have preserved
such an ominous silence in respect to the guilty
imitators of those assassins in Baltimore The
practical question which we have in view, and in
the satisfactory solution of which every citizen has
1aan int ;, Il
renee of such crimes be prevented? The gene
raj answer is-that is the business of the po-
lice; and a vast deal of abuse and oblo-
guy has been heaped upon the police because
OF the constant recurrence of such crimes. Now,
we do not propose to take up the cudgels
in behalf of the police or to become their
apologists defenders At the same time,
we do not believe them to be any more culpable
than any other partisan police is likely TO be.
mere change of men, without change of the svs-
tenn, would probably provide us with no better
substitutes. Many unfit men-notoriously So
have undoubtedly been appointed policemen and
are still retained in place by Mayor SWAMI and
for this the Mayor is greatly and justly censurable:
but the constant removals and suspensions made
every week, by Marshal HERRING is evidence of
'"o oSShe; "e iN''o, " P"SC thc lOltt uliutf HIS
command of its unworthy members and to make
the best of the material which the Mayor has
placed at his disposal and for this and for a very
commendable degree of zeal and activity in the
discharge of his duties we desire to accord to
Marshal HERRING all due praise. But after ALL
the system is bad one--radically and incuraby
bad. Never-untl policemen are appointed, not
as a reward for partzan services, but on account
of their personal qualifications and retained in
the service, not during the brief administration of
the civic functionary by whom they appoint
ed, but during good behavior--can we hope for
any better police corps. But the evil of which we
now complain is not attributable solely or even
chiefly to the inefficiency of the police They are
but part of the machinery of justice conrved for the
prevention and punishment of crime. Their duty
ordinarily begins and ends with the detection and
arrest of offenders against the laws, and the num-
Der of arrests which are daily made for all sorts
of Offences and the personal risk and danger which
the police not unfrequently encounter, in the dis
charge of their duties, extending sometimes even
to loss of life limb, is evidence of some degree
of fidelity on their part, in the performance Of
their official functions. Take for example, the
very case of the man Imhoff, the particulars of
which we published on Wednesday, After each
successive attempt upon his life, we are assured
upon the highest official authority, all the parties
charged WITH or suspected of completely in those
attempts were arrested. Since the last attempt
two policemen have been specially detailed to pro-
tect Imhoff from further molestaton, and to guard
him. not from the secret enmity of some unknown
foe-against such, princes set their guards and
spies-but from the threatened attack of known
and notorious scoundrels who were constantly
and openly waiting for an opportunity to elude
the vigilance of the police, and renew their inf,-
nous attempt at assassination, and whom yet the
police were instructed by the legal functionary by
whose advice they are guided in the performance
of their duties that they were powerless to arrest
These facts are sufficient commentary in them
selves upon the present state of affairs in our CITY
Only think of two policemen being required to |
guard the house of Citizen within a few stems |
of the Mayors Office, the City Hall, and the Police
Station, and right over against the High School,
where through the bounty and under the auspices |
OF the Corporation, the youth of the city are |
trained up in the principles of good government |
and in the love and veneration of republican in
situations Should any curious reader ask who |
is this 1MHoFF, who is the occasion of all this
solicltude we answer, that we do not know, and |
do not care. 1t is enough for us that he is Man |
and Citizen, and described by the San, from
whose columns we obtained some of the facts
which we published Wednesday, as "a quiet, or
derby citizen" If the foregoing facts be true. and
the assassins were actually arrested by the police
how happens it that the attempt was renewed. and
twice repeated? brief recapitulation of the
facts will perhaps throw some light upon this mys
terry, and may partially aid in its calculation.
Imhof, we stated Wednesday, on the