The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-07-14


Baltimore, Maryland 4L -a-s... ..--
H-r t.
Our local column of yesterday again presented
a melancholy calendar of crime. In addition to
the cruel murder of the young man. Taylor, by
member of one of the notorious political Clubs in
this city, the further particulars OF which, as de-
veloped in the examination before the MAYOR, we
publish elsewhere, we had mention made of two
instances in which parties of peaceful excursioniss,
the one a Temperance Society, and the other a
Sabbath School, had their pleasure destroyed, and
were subjected to the grossest indignity and out
rage, from which neither age nor sex, not the
heplessness of women and children, could claim
exemption In the one case steamboat bound
ON a peasure-trip down the bay, and filed with
women and children, was made the scene of acts
of brutal violence and cowardly insult, which the
officers of the boat were apparently unable, and
the passengers obviously afraid, to punish as they
deserved Certainly it would have been no more
than proper retribution, if the ruffians, who
invaded the privacy of the women's cabin,
and extinguishing the lamps, amused them
selves with insulting the terrified inmates, had,
every one of them, been seized and flung over
tins. That they received no such summary punish
nent, in a company of persons numbering nearly
seven hundred--their own number not exceeding,
we are told fifteen or twenty-only shows how
completely under COW Of the outlaws who rule US,
this community has become. The details of the other
case are scarce less disgracefu. party Sunday
School children, who had gone out to spend the
day in grove, distant not half mile from the
city limits, were driven from their sports by
band of rowdies who converted their playground
into scene of filthy debauchery. A teacher who
attempted to demonstrate with the intruders, was
beaten and but for the interference of policeman,
would probably have been killed. Incidents like
these occurring in almost any other country of the
globe-in Mexico or Italy for exampe-would be
simply accepted as illustrations of the prevailing
state of anarchy or of the utter neglect inability
of the Government to fulfil one of the most obvious
functions for which governments are established.
Is their significance at all different, or is it less
alarming, when the scene Of their occurrence is
neither the lonely passes of the Abruzz nor the
outlying settlements of Sonora, but Baltimore
~ and the waters of the Chesapeake?
Onemarked difference, there certainly is, between
such acts committed here and in the countries we
have named. Elsewhere, the men who perpetrate
such crimes generally seek refuge in mountain fast
nesses or have their. lurking places in remote and
thnly-peopled districts With us they have their
public and notorious haunts in the centre of
great city. They have their rendezvous in the very
vicinity, and almost under the caves of the MAYORS
office and the City Hall. They harbor within a
stones throw of the Station Houses and commonly
inest the most frequented corners of the most pub
lie streets. Their organization and their titles are
published, and even their stated meetings adver-
tised in the daily papers. They are the very pets
and avories of the authorities and public officials
whose first duty it should be to root them out
from our midst Perhaps, in this respect, how
ever, as in some others, we may be supposed to be
managing the thing better than they do in com.
munities less free and enlightened than our own
In other countries, if a man is murdered, it COM
monty happens that the first intimation the police
and the public have of the TACT is the discovery of
the corpse, lying in the grey of morning, in some
unfrequented street, or flung into some roadside
ditch, If any scene of peaceful industry or rustic
merry-making is visited by ruffans, the approach
OF tine outlaws is generally so sudden and their
flight so rapid, that defense and pursuit are equal
ly impossibe-not less so, frequently, are subse-
quent arrest and punishment. With us, it is
different. We, at least have the satisfaction OF
knowing precisely who the ruffians are who visit
our counting-rooms with demands for black-mail
and threats of violence in case of refusal-who
dictate to us whom shall employ, and upon
what terms-who rob upon the highway and
murder in broad day-ight-and who scruple not
to war upon women and children, and to trample
under foot the most sacred rights of citizenship.
The names Of the men who commit these crimes
among rs are as familiar to our ears as sshouse-
i'hold words'-their f'local habitation'' as well
known as that of His Honor the MAYOR. With
us, there is no mystery attending the commission
OF deeds of violence and blood. The minutest
circumstances connected Herewith are published
IN the mornings papers-and in order that the
facts may not escape our memory, instead of the
wayside cross marking the spot where a man and
brother has fallen-the victim of secret and un-
discovered crime-we have the formal arrest of the
murderer, his official indictment by the Grand
Jury, his public release upon bail, and the regular
continuance of his case from term to term of the
Criminal Court. In all this, the advantage is
manifesty in favor of our system as compared
with the clumsier and more defective administers
ton of justice abroad.
But the subject is too serious for jesting even
with the example of the authorities themselves in
iaEor OF so treating it. The fact is undisputabIe
That the spirit Of lawlessness in this community,
so far from being curbed is if anything, decided
ly on the increase. Whoever may be to blame
for the fact, and wherever the responsibility may
rest the existence of the evil is admitted and un.
deniable. Now, to our thinking, it is perfectly
plain, either that the authorities have the power
toprevent this, or that they have not If not-ther
Is our present system of government defective
ana the sooner we set about the work of recon
structlon the better. If, on the contrary thu
authorities have the power TO protect the life anG
property OF the citizen, and to punish crime ant
fail to use it--then theirs, and theirs exclusively
is the guilt and the shame. In either event. thu
necessity for remedy is equally apparent, ant
unless this community is prepared to submit to ar
indefinite prolongation of the present state o
anarchy and misrule, the application of that rem
edy is bnt a question of time. In such state Q
affairs, it is idle to cavil about the precise appor
tionment of censure between the MAYOR and tn
Criminal Court, the magistrates and the police
Unless the law is to blame, all are equal.
guilty, each in their respective sphere and station
and should be made to give place, as speedily a
possible, to other and better men. That is thu
experiment, at all events, which we are first dis
posed to try, before fully concede that the theory
of popular government is a failure, and that thu
only security for person and property is to b.
found under the strong arm of arbitrary power
and military rule. l7 81 s1a.ssazo !.
IN 'he death of DR.. WooDsIDE, this community
wan nave 10 regret the loss of well-kuown ano
highly respected citizen. He was for many year.
the Superintendent of Transnnrt ,l d. .