The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-11-07
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER I, 1855

having passed, to great extent away it is the
duty of good citizens to look the lessons it has
taught us and the duties it imposes, directly and
fairly in the face. OF the remedies which appro-
pirate legislation may hereafter afford for the in
tolerable evils under which the people of Baltimore
are groaning, it is not our present purpose to
speak. There is time enough for the consideration
of The important questions which will force them
selves upon the Legislature of Maryland, and that
body may be safely trusted, we are sure, TO an
proach them in the spirit of that wise and resolute
patriotism to which no need of our political
history has ever more earnestly appealed. Here
however, IN the community where the great wrong
OF the election day was done and suffered there is
a solemn duty to be performed which brooks no
evasion and should know no hesitation or per-
adventure. 1t is the duty of manfully protesting,
at all events, though we be powerless to resist,
OF asserting, maintaining, and defending the
fearless truth, in our respective walks of life help
less though we be for its immediate and thorough
public vindication. Beyond all dispute, even on
the part Of the most false and reckless the election
- qElast Wednesday in Baltimore, was mingled
tragedy and farce, unparalleled, in mockery and
!, outrage, by any enormty, that ever, anywhere
E. AfOre, brought shame upon the institutions of the
pubc. A whole community lies PROSTATE in
=, bic and individual humiliation; its franchises
eli bted out in Blood its Offices of trust and honor
I'M usurped by violence and mere corruption the
nues of public justice barred; the laws pasied and
manacled. No man among US, who has not alb
iured his manhood, can shut out from his own
heart the obtrudng senseof that personal disgrace
in which such a state of things involves him-for
such state of things could possibly exist if the
virtuous masses of our people had dared to stand
up like against the wrong which has over
whelmed US. But nevertheless, the wrong has
been triumphant. 1t is upon US and over us-its
foot on our nccks. We may not redeem ourselves
from it now-are we therefore altogether without
redress?
In regard to the outlaws by whose visible
hands the enormities of Wednesday were wrought,
it is needless to say anything. Upon the track of
every one Of them follows, distantly or more near,
the retrbutiOn which is ever at the heels of crime
like theirs. They may lie left to time and the sure
vengeance of Gods justice. With them, public
opinion has no need to vex ITSELF because they are
beneath its appeals, and, for the present beyond
its power. Nor with the authorities, by whose in
lannon's connivance and encouragement they have
been enabled to tread down right and law need
public censure vex itself. They are, for the most
part, insensble to shame-corrupt, beyond the
scope Of conscience or reproach-far down below
the reach of decent mems disgust and reproba-
ton. They may be left also until their time shall
come. But there is Il class to whom public indig-
nation still has access We mean the men who
occupy positions in life Ostensibly respectable-too
intelligent to be excused by the ignorance, and too
well taught to be sheltered behind the unconscious
depravity, which may palliate the sins of more
vulgar malefac:ors-the men who have bought
with their money, or encouraged by their counte-
nance, or stimulated by their demagogical appeals
the wickedness in whose tfiumphs they have tri-
umphed also. We mean the men who wear
"broad cloth" with pride, and yet scruple not to
point the violence of ruffanism against the better
men, who wear it, by their sides. We mean not
only those who have urged on or consented to
the crimes of Wednesday last but those who are
willing to accept the dishonored laurels of such
victory. We mean the candidates, one and all,
who, with the knowledge of what occurred upon
thatday of shame, are content, Notwithstanding,
TO be set up as the choice of this people, then for
for the places to which they aspire. There is not
one Of these gentlemen who does not know, of his
personal knowledge that there was no election
upon that day. There is not one of them all who
does not know as well that the rights of thousands
of his fellow-ctiZens were wrestcd from them on
that day by violence, or stolen from them by
fraud. Knowing all this, there is not one of them
who can fail to know, that he has no more right
to the office which has thus been bestowed on him,
than he has to become the recipient of the fruits of
any other robbery or peculation. If with such
knowledge, he is still willing to take the wages of
other mems SIM he must bear its responsibility and
its disgrace also. He cannot take what he knows
does not belong to him. and expect to preserve at
the same time the respect and countenance of
honest men. He must make his choice between
the right and the wrong. If he takes the wrong,
he must take its consequences. If he thrusts
himsefinto the place which riot and murder have
won for him, he must carry their red stain upon
his name and brow, and lie down in the bed which
they have made for him. From this there should
be no refuge left to him. The issue should be
made so that he cannot escape it. Every man in
the community, whose good opinion is worth hay
ing, should set himself to work to make that issue
up. tits not question of political prescription,
or of persecution for opinions sake. 1t is Ques-
ton Of right and wrong-of truth and falsehood-
OF honor and dlShonor. On the part of society it
Is question of the merest sefpreservat.on for if
men can war on society and yet enjoy its blessings
and honors-if they can strike traitorously at its
dearest interests and most sacred rights and feel
ings, without moving its resentment or suffer
ing its punishment and scorn, there is an end of
social ties, of social good faith and all social COM
munion that is worth the having. Demagogues
may call such effort of society to protect ITSELF
war of class upon class, or an onslaught of the
rich upon the poor-but it is no such thing. Tt
is an honest uprising of society itself against those
who would overthrow ia marshallinr of up-
right men on the one side against knaves and
rutfans upon the other Let it then be understood
on all hands, that shall not be unprincipled
on election day during an election canvass and
be regarded as a of principle during the rest
of the year. Let it be made known that every
man shall be dealt with rs what he is-and that
II he is the associate patron or beneficiary of
rogues and outlaws, he shall be judged according
10 his company. Let the line be drawn-broad-
dlstnct-unequivocal-in all the relations of So
cIal ite-in all the concerns of business-in all
the intercourse Of the communitv-between those
who wage war on society and the society on which
the war Is waged. Let every good citizen feel it
his duty-his fixed and bounden obgation-reso-
lntely to draw that line and walk by it. Let the
reproach which belongs to moral and social trea-
son stick to the traitor while he lives, like the
shirt of NEssUs. Our lives on it. the cure will
then be at hand, for the evils which now seem to
so many to be incurable. Within the scope of its
every day resources society will find the sufficient
remedy for what the law, and the strong hand of
public and private right are now all powerless to
quell.
THE LATE MURDER IN THE FIFTEENTH |
WARD-.STA TEHENT OF MR. GEORGE III
KYLE.