The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-10-10

out the country are watching with painful solicit
tude the progress of events in this city, and seek
ing to derive encouragement as well as warning
from our example-we, too, if we are WISE may
learn lesson in time from the experience of a sis
ter community, which, in view of our present
condition and the near approach of the elections
which are to bring us relief or plunge us more
deeply in the slough, it becomes us to heed and to
ponder. In the State of Louisiana-in the parish
of Vermillion and other ad accent parishes-there
exists an organization which, under pretext of
forming abuses and supplying the shortcomings of
the local authorities, is itsef-if we may believe
all the stories that told to its discreditthe au-
thor of outrages almost too numerous to mention
and too horrible for belief The New Orleans pa
pers TEEN with accounts of the lawless dongs of
this association, from which we condense
the following particulars. Seventy citizens,
as we read, have been publicly whipped-some of
them to deatn-in the parishes in which the Vigil
lance Committee holds jurisdiction. Three of the
victims of this brutal and unusual punishment
have died from the effects of the whipping. An
other, at last accounts was at the point of death
in Opelousas; and yet another, to escape the suf-
fering and shame, had blown out his brains. One
man Who had been driven from house and home.
in Vermillion venturing to return, was killed by
the Committees orders at Cote Gellee, in the house
of his mother-in-aw, in which he had taken shell
term the hearing and almost, in the sight of the
terrified women and children who were the sole
occupants of the house. Magistrate had been
taken from his bed, in the dead of night, carried
a quarter of mile into the prairie tied and
beaten with whip-stocks until his ribs were bro
ken and his life despaired of. The District JUDGE
had been notified not to hold his Court in YER
million. poor woman, whose husband had been
shot by order of the Committee could not find a
magistrate to issue a warrant for the arrest of his
murderers-a coroner to hold an inquest over his
body-and scarcely an undertaken to arrange for
its interment. Dead bodies of men, it is said, are
found in the praries, and women and children
are furnishing, whose husbands and fathers have
not been heard of since the Sd of September.
Such, in brief is the picture of affairs presented
by journals published in the immediate neighbour
hood of the scene of these occurrences, and in
letters written from the spot. On the other hand
there are not wanting those who, without denv-
ing the severity of the Committees action, Justify
and defend it-afirmng that it was a sore
disease that needed so sharp remedy, and that
they who have been thus summarily and
cruelty dealt with, were thieves and assassins, and
deserved such punishment and worse The law.
it is said, through the supineness and crimnality
of those entrusted with its administration had
ceased to be restraint to evil-doersthe authorities
were unable or unwilling to do their duty, and
judges had converted their office into shield for
CRIMINALS and cover for crime. Upon grounds
OF self-preservation, therefore, it is argued, the
people were justified in doing what they have done
in taking the law into their own hands, and
executing it without mercy upon those who had
learned to laugh at its terrors Between
these conflicting accounts we do not pretend to
Judge, or-in the present imperfect state of our
information on the subject-assume to apportion
the amount of credit due to the Committee for
It's good intentions, and of blame for its
subsequent excuses. The probabilities are, as
usually happens in such cases. that the truth lies
between the two extremes we have stated-and
that while the more recent proceedings of the
Committee have been wholly without justification,
its original action was not without provocation
From this reasonable explanation of the facts we
have received, we may learn two things;-in the
first place, that no matter how patient and long
suffering a community may be- there is point
where forbearance not only ceases to be commend
able, bat even practicable; and secondly, that
when the limits of the law are once overstepped,
there is no telling to what lengths men may 90,
or into what excuses they may be betrayed
Trite and obvious as these truths may appear, we
makeno apology for calling public attention to them
Of II =
ment that the people of Louisiana have thus vol
UNFAIRLY sought refuge in anarchy. They bore
and forbore, until they could no longer do either;
and weghty, indeed is the responsibility of those
whose neglect to enforce the laws has furnished
the OCCASION if it has not created the necessity for
their wholesale violation. In view of what we
ourselves have suffered in Baltimore, through q
like derection of duty the part of the authori-
ties, and similar license accorded to criminals
1T gives Us pleasure to contrast with the arbitrary
and high-handed proceedings of the Louisiana
Committee the peaceable, orderly and strictly legal
remedy proposed for the same grievances here by
the Reform Committee. They who charge that
body with being Vigilance Committee in dis
guise, and stgmatise its action as an invasion OF
the prerogatives of the MAYOR and an attempted
usurpation of his authority, little understand
the difference between an association of citizens
seeking redress for their wrongs and security for
their rights through the accustomed channels of
the law, and body of armed and outraged men
visiting summary vengeance upon those who had
inflicted the one and despoiled them of the other.
But it is not only foil to the wise and temper
ate action of our Reformers that we direct at
tention to the rash doings of the Louisiana Com
mittee. The facts we have referred to are preg-
nant with warning well-showing 10 what
straits we may yet be driven, unless present evils
are remedied betimes. Because we have chosen
the better part of moderation on this occasion it
does not follow that failing all lawful and peace
full measures of redress, the liberty of choice will
much longer be ours. Let us, then, profit by the
lesson while we yet may, and by providing for
the faithful and efficient enforcement of the law in
future remove, for time at least, the occasion
and the pretext for IFS sudden and violent sub
version. ls
We endeavored to show on Saturday that there
is no legal obstacle in the way of the indictment
and speedy trial of Judge STUMP We referred to