The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-05-22

evidence, in case they should dare TO return" The
police were prompt to interfere but under the
circumstances, the wrong done TO these poor work
men is probably irreparable They constitute,
moreover, so humble class, that they have small
assurance of protection from a brutality ever on
the watch to assail them, unless the right feeling
and manllness of the community shall manifest
itself whenever they are wantonly aggreved.-
But 1t is not altogether towards the wrongful
violence thus perpetrated that we propose, at pres
emf, to direct our remarks. Had this been only
sudden outbreak, whereby the law was for the
moment violated, it might have been left to the
punishment which that law would award it, and
without special comment from us. But the DELHI
Grafton which planned and attended the attack,
and the effrontery with which it seems to have
been defended by some give us an insight, if such
were needed into the feeling by which the partci
pants therein were actuated, and which unfortu-
nately has heretofore found vent in this city, well
rs elsewhere 1t is said that
-the object of this organized band in thus acting
obtain the situations held by the coored men, who they
claim have right to compete against white labor
In reading such an incident, and finding it so
accounted for, we cannot but call to mind many
vague declamations of demagogues concerning
what they term tho 'rights of labor" and the def
mite Atrocities that have oftenmes been the result of
them. Within the recollection of living men rail-
ways have been forcibly INSTRUCTED by canal and
stage-coach owners; machinery has been destroyed
by those whose slower and more uncertain labors
it was destined to supersede; and the lighting of
London by gas was vigorously resisted, on the
ground that the ten thousand seamen and the
ten thousand rope-makers, to whom the whale
fisheries afforded occupation would thus be reduced
to want. Every man among has some per-
sonal knowledge of the arbitrary and cruel in
justice that, in 'strikc," is inflicted on weak
and patient men, who dare to withhold their CO.
operation. 1t is but little over twevemonth
since taunts, blows, and bullets were levelled at
honest mechanics who were content to earn bread
for their dependent families, from a corporation
which had offended Others of its employees by lock-
ing up certain property, for the safety of which it
responsible. Such are the aggresSions that both
the artiZan and the capitalist are often compelled to
suffer, and for which apoogists can readily be found
The spirit which has been aroused against these
unfortunate brickmakers, and in which the right
precisely the same as that which has ALWAYS been
invoked in instances such as we have alluded to-
Not content with standing on the defensive it
coerces alike the employer and the employed 1t
may again, at any moment, UNANIMOUSLY inter-
NEEDLE with any mans affairs, and therefore it is,
that we question it. Restless and dogmatc, but
energetic, it assails to-day successful labor in the
enjoyment of its accumulated capital, and to-mor-
row it overawes the willing industry that is quietly
working out its ends Arrogant in the assertion of
Its own prerogatives, it too seldom hesitates to
trample upon the privileges of Others. That labor
has its ''rghts," no will gainsay, and that it
should sometimes ntoerantly vindicate them.
where repressive and unfair legislation insists upon
wholly regulating them in every minute particular.
is not perhaps to be wondered at But where
equal laws and field open to general competition,
give to every man his opportunity, he is entitled to
ask no more. There is no kind of labor, nor is
there any class of laborers, that can claim special
protection or peculiar franchises The wild theories
that teach otherwise have never led but to ruin
and confusion,-and wherever they appear, they
should be discussed and discountenanccd, and we
shall at some future day give to them a further
consideration.