Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1858-11-10
CONTEMPT OF THE LAWS.


CONTEMPT OF THE LAWS.
The condition of the city of Baltimore at
the present time, furnishes practical illus
tration of the effect of Know Nothing prin-
ciples and Know Nothing rule. That city
las for several years been controlled by
K now Nothing Mayor, Know Nothing police
and Know Nothing Alderman. And what
has been the result? The city is now under
the absolute control of band of rowdies,
called plug uglies who treat the laws with
contempt and render both the lives and prop
erty of peaceable citizens extremely insecure.
The laws enacted for the protection of So
ciety remain unexecuted, and the worst class
unpunished 1t will be seen by the following
account of recent outrage which We clip
from an exchange, that the very attempt to
bring the guilty to answer at the bar of JUS
Henry Gambrill, a member of prowling
gang of notorious rowdies-killed police
officer, Mr. Bentoh-because forsooth, the
latter was chief witness against Gambrilrs s
brother in a trial for incendiarism. On
Friday last, Gambrill was found guilty, and
on the same evening police officer Rigdon
was shot dead before his wife and children,
by miscreant who was an intimate associate
of the incendiary, and of course had joined
| that bond of iniquity-an urban band of
rufiians! The accused is in custody, having
| been previously threatened with Lynch law.
And who can wonder at the maddening out
burst of honest men, when they see their
city degraded, the majesty of the law derided,
and the sanctity of life invaded by fellows
who are only fit to grace a gallows? And
yet--how shocking would have been the ad-
ditional crime of mob-judgment, instead @!
handing over the criminal to court of JUS
tice! Such, however, is a natural conse-
quence of a weak executive or an absolute
evasion of law. So that in double sense,
when our criminal powers of jurisprudence
are entrusted to feeble hands, instead o.
being enforced by an arm of vigor, gres
evils are produced-the wicked practice their
sins with impunity-deeds of horror are
multiplied-the community becomes so ac
customed to the records of high crimes tha
| they are almost disregarded-un the fel
food of iniquity bursts through all the usua
| barriers of civiliZation-and at length, as
crowning peril, Vigilance Committees arr
created, and sentences executed which b,
some are considered as righteous, while b,
others they are denounced as a suprem
illegality of popular murder. And al
this, because the laws of the land ar
not obeyed, and their DEGREES fulfilled
To pardon such villaius as have lately beel
tried in Baltimore would be an unmitigate
wrong against society. Think for momcn
of. the peril If such atrocities are measu
rably permitted, our very republican institu
tions must be endangered-i proof of whic
it will be remembered that not long ago,
large force of rowdies from our sister city re
paired TO Washington, for the purpose Of owe
awing an election, and they succeeded in Ell
joying to their hearts content, their favorit
amusements of outrage and homicide. "
hope that the Monument City" will cleans
its otherwise fair escutcheon from the fol
stains inferred in the charges of lawless in
punity-and that the hateful, vulgar, an
sanguinary sobriquet of "Plug Uglies'' wi
be foreve er consigned to oblivion, even in tt
lowest haunts of the profgate and the vile