The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-12-01
BALTIMORE.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER / , 1858.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER , 1858.
We took occasion yesterday to speak few
words of gentle reproof to our misguided neighbor
Of The american. We did so tenderly, for we
are disciples of that amiable philosopher Tom
HooD, and are persuaded-none the less, because
the contrary practice is so often applied to
selyes--that
"Mild light, and by degrees, should be the plan
To the dark and erring mind;
For who would rush at benighted man,
And give him two black eyes, for being blind ?"
We had a right, too, to be forgving, because
the sin of uncharitableness which we were reprov-
ing was one of which, as a portion of the much
prosecuted partisan press we had ourselves
been the innocent victims. But the evil to which
we are about to advert at present, admits of no
such mercful compromise with justice. 1t is a
thing in which the public is interested-in which
the taste and decorum of the community are at
stake--in which the virtues whereof The american
has been heretofore model to the press of the
nation, are painfully and perilously involved.
Tie American-we must say it's becoming
"scurrous In such crisis, we can make no
terms with the rigid truth. We cannot conscien-
tiously listen to the dictates of feelings. We
must cry aloud and spare not. We must do JUS
tice though the Heavens fall
1t cannot have escaped the attention of the
readers of Tie american that our neighbor, for
some time past, has been gradually falling into
evil courses. 1t has not only been guilty, from
time to time, of the great indecorum of bringing
the laws into contempt, by speaking with freedom
of the shortcomings of those who administer them
A.
raj occasions, of calling public officers by name,
outright in its columns. 1t has, for instance,
outraged the respect which is due to the Getty
Government" by inserting in its editorial
articles, in a connection by means audatory,
the name of that estimable and exemplary Judge
of Elections Mr.. JOHN HNEsLY, Notwithstanding
the well-known and long-contnued relations of
mutual and well-deserved confidence and respect
existing between that worthy citizen and officer
and 'our worthy MAYOR" 1t is true,-The
american has dealt only with Judge
SrUMps Mr. HNEsLY, and not the Judge
HNEsLY of Mr.. SwANN--but still it has
printed his respectable name-HINEsLY-in con-
spicuous letters, and has stricken a blow through
that name at the nviolability of the CONSTITUTED
'authorites" But this is mere trife. Our
uelInDOr HAS gone ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I1rllcr. IL
has dragged his Honor Judge STUMP himself, into
the editorial arena. 1t has printed his name, in
full over and over again-every letter of it-with
''p," like the THOMPSON of Mr.. TooDLEs. There
has been installing it-any one who ran might
read it. This was bad enough, but the enormity
did not stop there. No longer ago than day before
yesterday, The american, as if to show how ut
tery reckless it had become of all its former pre-
cepts and practices-put the cap sheaf upon the
RIGHTEOUSNESS of its editorial speech, by blending
in one article the names of Judge STUMP and
Judge HNEsLY. And how? Of its treatment of
Judge HINEsLY we care not to speak-but for its
conduct to Judge STUMP there can be no apology.
1t actually likened him-would the reader believe
TITO mere animal-to Il brute beast-to "a
'cow." Let no say that we invent or that
we slander-here the words :-'like the COW
''that sometimes gives good pail of milk he is
''sure to put his foot in the bucket"
Now we submit that this is not to be endured.
We have ourselves occasionally been compelled 10
speak of Judge STUMP in terms not altogether COM
plimenary. Even yesterday we felt it our duty to
make known our sentiments touching some of his
official sayings and doings. But we call our
readers to witness that then, as ever we dealt
with him wholly in his human capacity, and re-
garded him altogether in a human point of view
The idea of supposing.or ofsaying, that in his judi
cial administration he could-to any rational mind
or well-regulated ilncy-take the shape of mich
''cow," would have shocked us utterly. We pro-
test against it. We have Judge STUMP's own
authority-in a parallel case--for doing so. Not
more than week ago, when some counsel in the
Criminal Contemplating, some how other,
that such plea might have weight with the tribu
nal-suggested the defence, that his client was
'aS drunk beast,'' when the affair occurred
HisHCnor reproyed him severely. ~ never saw
"beaSt drank, in my life !" was his Just and indig
nant comment. That, after this, His Honor him.
scf-at the hands of model of editorial elegance
and proprety and moderation like The american
should have become the first victim to a quad
rupedal comparison---s ntolerable If there had
been any disguise about the phrase, it might have
been less offensive. fit had been 'coyert," like
The American's charity-or remote like its allu-
sions-or concealed like its humor-or unintelli-
gibe like its philosophy-there might have been
some pallation. If like Sir PIERCIE SHAFroN, the
EuPhuist in the "Monastery," it had called the
useful animal in question, zone of the milky
'notherS of the herd''the grace of the expression
might have reconced even the Judge himself
TO its severity. But stcowr IA plain
downright ''cow, that sometimes gives good pail
''of milk" and then 'puts her foot in the buck
''et' We want words to express our sense of the
outrage. We can only avail ourselves of the ap-
propriate language of Tie american, in the days
before its downfall "We are of opinion that to
''ridicue and jeer public men is not the way to
strengthen the hands of those in power, and that
''scurrility, however much it may increase the no.
'toriety Of journal, does but little for its char
''acter'
One word more. Suppose-some dark December
morning-that our neighbor were awakened by
the bell of the early mknan, to the tremendous
knowledge that THE EXCHANGE had likened the
efficient and model Mayor of Baltimore to even
the "dun COW" Of GUY of WARWICK that most
heroic of kline! Suppose THE EXCHANGE to have
lnsinuated that he (NIr, SwAyN-not GUY, had
given good pail of milk" and had 'put his foot
Sin the bucket'-or indeed 'put his FOOT in
any thing. What would become of us in that
day of wrath? We leave to the startled magma
ton of the reader TO divine the appeals TO the
mercantile community and the 'Ebusiness inter-
''ests and welfare of the city-which would ring
about the ears of 'the partisan press" We i'm
agne to ourselves the virtuous indignation and the
sorrowful morality-the groans, the grefs, and the
denunciaton. And yet, decorous neighbor if
City Governments" may not be weighed ''on the
hoot howl is it that Judges may?
-.-~---~-~-------
At the extreme South we regret to find that there
Is stirring up of the old disunion embers Mr.
4ANoEY, OF Alabama, tried for a long time to set