The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-06-21
THE BALTIMORE EXCHANGE MONTH
% l1LSLN W. SIP p I ENENT

clusively that Mr. SWAMI did not--as he would
now have us beieve-co-operate with the Coun-
cils in the enactment of the City Railroad Ordi-
nance, with any real Difference to future action by
the State Legislature; and that, at all events if
he did he united with that Honorable Body"
Notwithstanding, in illegal attempt to forestall
the contemplated legislation, by granting to
company of partisan favortes under the most
suspicious circumstances, the privilege OF doing
forthwith, what he knew could not lawfully be
done at all, without the authority of the Legsla-
ture previously obtained. Upon him, therefore,
chiefly and principally, we think the responsible
ity of the whole illegal and dsparaging transac-
ton mainly rests He has admitted that he knew
better-the Councils have made no such admis-
sion. His official and personal character and
position elevate him above the suspicion of many
influences and temptations, to which the doors of
the Council-chamber may not, perhaps, be closed.
His professional education-his intelligence, expe
rienCe and portunites-render it impossible that
he could have erred from ignorance, while his
municipal brethren, or some of them, very
possibly might. Even if his judgment
not clear, in regard to the job suggested to him,
his instincts, at least ought to have been. The
thing had an unmstakable odor about it, which,
10 well organized nostrils, ought to have super
seded at once the necessity of any accurate analy-
sis. We see, therefore, no possible escape for Mr..
SWAMI, from all the just odium which attaches to
it. He had his own purposes in lending himself
to it, and he must submit to the consequences
But it is not merely through the humiliating
disclosures which it makes, that the Message at
tracts attention. There are peculiarites about it,
and in it, which challenge comment on their own
account. What, for instance, does the MAYOR mean
by the remark twice made, and italicsed, that
the "He grant depends for its pitaldy on the good
I" acW Of oar citizens" as well as the sanction of
the Legislature? Is it clap-trap, or menace
or both? Does he merely wish to indicate that
extraordinary Difference for the "good will" of
his felowcitizens which has been the charm of his
dministration-especially on election days-or
does he mean TO hold over the heads of the
philadelphia Assgnees," the terrors of the i'll
will of the ruffians, with whom his administra-
ton has so constantly fraternized. If the Ordi-
nance has given any rights to the grantees
or their assigns-doos Mr.. SWAMI dare to
say that those rights-that any rights-are de-
pendant upon the "good will'' of any body? If
the Ordinance has conferred no rights, does he
venture TO suggest the idea that any body's 'good
''wilr' can give vitality to what is null and
void before the law Yet, one of these two things
he must mean, if he means anything-and that he
does mean, intends to mean something, the
significant italiczing to which we have alluded,
unequivocally announces. We confess ourselves
amazed the recklessness of such an insult to the
common INTEGRITY and manhood nf tho town We
are Inundated that even Mr. SWAMI, with his
large experience of what this community will bear,
should trust himself before it, with such an offence
disguised though it may be, as an insnuation.
Again-what means the MAYOR, by not only
assuming that the Legislature will not incorporate
the assigns of the grantees, but by inviting the
Councils to act on that assumption? 1t was bad
enough to clothe them with unlawful powers,
under his assumption that the Legislature
would make those powers lawful-but to ask
the Councils in the next breath to nullify
those very powers-once granted, and as he
says, honestlv,-merely because he assumes that
the Legislature will not do, what he previously
assumed that it woud-does seem to convert as
sumption into presumption of the grossest and
most ntoerable kind. 1t amounts, in plain Ian
guage, to legislating for the State, and then re-
pealing its legislation by his simple ipse dirt. 1t
puts the rights of the community at one moment
upon the mere expression of his willard the
rights of individuals, at the next moment upon
his simple annunciation that he has changed it !
Were such an exhibition not an outrage it would
be unparalleled as a mere curiosity.
But we are unwilling to exhaust our readers by
exhausting the subject. With one enquiry more we
shall close what we have at present to say. If Mr.
SWAMI deemed the subject of the vital Importance
which he indicates-why did he postpone his Mess
age until the day before the summer adjournment of
the Councils-an adjournment formally announced
and whose approach he perfectly we'll knew? The
preparation of the document was matter of town
talk. All the leaks in the MAYORS office had let
the news run out. The assignment to the Phila-
delphia purchasers was recorded on the 18th of
April, and every difficulty which the MAYOR now
relies on, to sustain his present course, existed at
that moment, and has existed ever since. Why
hold back his Indignation until now? Why allow
the assgnees to 60 on-tearing up the public
Streets laying out money, accumulating materials,
provoking riots or interrupted by them-when he
knew, all the while, what he knows now-when
meant to do what he has done now? To these
questions, only those who are in the mystery can
find replies. To our poor comprehension, they are
susceptible of but answer and that is furnished
by the original completely of the MAYOR with the
transaction and the parties to it, and struggle in
his bosom between the desire to keep faith with
his brethren, and the necessity of taking care of
himself.