The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-09-23

arrest MN captain Woods told him to go away. did
not know any one was slr until time afterwards
captain woods sworn.l vas at the station house when
heard the rattle ran down to the house and Har
ding and Edwards there; Edwals said he could not be
arrested told him to take his away. went back
ana found Lemon on Sharp street very drunk TOOK MN
to the station house and intended to rcnot him. and have
him discharged in the morning.
This omission is the more significant because our
contemporary is careful to insert EDWARDS own
statement CHAT he had taken no part in the mat
ter. - and that of officer THOMAS, who says that
EDWARDS was Crying to get the crowd to leave
the place" Could the american have been in
fiuenced in this second omission by the fact which
was published in another column, that this same
EDWARDS was a member of the respectable body
which re-nominated its patron, Mr.. SWAMI, for
the Mayoralty, and for whose ''sympathy' and
encouragement that gentleman protested his
unbounded gratitude. Ii is, to say the least. a
suggestive circumstance, and in perfect keeping
with the usual course of our candid and ingenu-
Gus contemporary.
1t is not, however, upon trfes such as these,
that we propose to dwell. In the presence of
crime like that committed on Monday night, they
sink into utter insignifcance, and pass out of
view, in the contemplation of its overwhelming
occurrence of a murder on Federal Hill may seem
too little removed from the ordinary course Of
events, to justify or require any comments from the
press. There are circumstances, however of such
peculiar fendishness attending the preparation of
this last deed of blood as serve to distinguish it.
in our opinion from most of the murders which it
is our frequent and melancholy duty to record,
and entite 1t to something more than passing
notice at our hands, and not at our hands only,
but at those of every man in this community
Death is at all times, and under any circumstances,
a solemn and fearful thing but when it comes
in the shape ola sudden and bloody death, over
taking its victim in the full possession of health
and strength, and in the enjoyment of all his
faculties, surrounded by his family and friends.
and seated in his own house, with the door
Shut as he fondly thought, against all intrud-
ers,-it is terrible thing. Such crime is
theme for preachers to take with them into the
pulpit, and for every citizen to take into his most
serious thought 1t serves not only to admonish
US of the frail tenure of human life, a solemn fact
of which every tombstone is witness, but to con-
vince US of the utter worthlessness Of the laws,
and the entire absence of all legal and moral re-
Straints in community, where such deed could
be openly and ostentatiously committed. An
humble, inoffensive man is spending an evening
quietly at his brothers house. small company
of friends and acquaintance is gathered there by
invitation. They are harmng nobody-disturb-
ing nobody. AT q late hour in the evening en-
trance is rudely sought by a gang of licensed
bullies and cut-throats, headed by member Of
tha j
demanding admission in the name of the law. In
order to prevent the door from being actually
forced, it is finally opened and there is an instant
Eruption of rufiiansm and violence into that scene
of humble enjoyment. Men are knocked down
and beaten-women hrutally insulted and in the
midst Of the tumult and confusion the host of the
evening" while endeayoring to shield his brothers
wife from outrage, is deliberately shot down-and
lies a dead man before morning.
Such are some Of the details of this most in
human murder. To enlarge upon them would be
an insult to the intelligence and humanity Of the
public. We will say no morc-to multiply words
in speaking Of such an occurrence would be
wholly out of place. Words cannot exaggerate
its enormity. Words fail to do justice to its
atrocity. We leave it, therefore, without further
comment from ourselves, to the calm consideration
of our readers. We only ask them to reflect where
else in Christendom such crimes are committed
with the same circumstances of pubicity-and
with the same easy confidence of impunity-or
how much value is to be set upon the institutions
which fail to guard against their preparation, or
how much honor ascribed to the officials through
whose fault those institutions are brought into
perhaps, unmerited disgrace.