The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-21

In declining to make any s'pledges or promises
s'for the future MIR. SWAMI has done well. By
a rigid adhesion to this rule hereafter, he may
possibly escape the odium and the shame he has
so often and deservedly incurred heretofore-of
gper-adding breach of personal faith to a VIOLA
ton of official duty. When the question of a
Town Meeting was first mooted in our midst we
expressed freely, as we were bound to do, our
want of confidence in the integrity of the MAYOR,
and our dstrust of any measure of Reform which
should depend for its and vitality upon his
cooperation. In justification of our doubts we
pointed to the invariable experience of the past.
We showed how often and how solemnly Mr..
SWAMI had promised, what he was at all times
bound to afford-protection to voters and the ex-
ertion of all the powers at his command for the
purpose of ensuring peaceable and quiet election
We showed how signally and how shamefuly he
had failed in performance. We referred 10 the
whole dsgraceful history of his three years. rule,
in confirmation of the truth of what we said
when we affirmed that there was no dependence to
be placed in his word-no reasonable assurance
to be grounded upon any pledges he might give.
In the extraordinary Address which he has seen
proper to issue to the people of Baltimore, we have
the unexpected addition of his own testimony, in
confederation of views. 'My past inten-
''tions,' he says care the only guaranty can
''offer." Now, what the intentions of the MAYOR
may have been, we can only infer from his actions.
So far as they may have been good, we can but
say that they have taken the road which such in
tentions are said to pave. Ifhe intended, at the
last election, to enforce the comprehensive Or
"ders' which he then issued Ito ensure full and ad
"equate protection" to every voter-his failure to
punish or so much as reprove even by word Of
mouth, their utter and contemptuous disregard by
the entire police force of the city, and his re-appoint
ment of many of the selfsame judges who, on that
occasion, betrayed their trust and covered with
the sanction of their Office violence and fraud
afford but unsatisfactory evidence of the fact
And if he intend now-as he says he does-stto
fuse the whole power of his office in giving the
amplest protection to every citizen in the exercise
''of his rghts"-his refusal to take the only step
that could justify public confidence in his sin
certify, and to entertain the offer of service made
to him by the Reform Committee, is strangely at
variance with such intention. For ourselves we
repeat that we have no faith in Mr. SWAMI or his
'intentions present or future-nor has
has rightly interpreted the action of the Town
Meeting, when he construes it into an expression
of distrust. Nor will the wordy and windy de-
fence, which he has put forth, of his official acts
nor the wearisome catalogue, repeated and con-
tinued, usque ad nauseam of his incredible services
in the Railroad, and his multitudinous labors in
the Mayoralty, avail to remove the impression
which is now indebly fixed in the minds of this
people-that he has not done his duty in the past,
and does not mean to do it in the future. If he
had said that he only awaited "the withdrawal of
confidence on the part of the great body of the
"people''-to resign the office which he abuses,
he might have assurance now that he need wait
no longer. But inasmuch as he has said that he
waits to be ''convinced'' of the fact-and is not
yet convinced-we despair of any escape from
the consequences of his weakness and his folly
until the close of his official term shall consign
him to that obscurity which will one day prove
his only refuge and protection.