The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-07-01


ble-have united with one voice in condemnation
of the outrages that have been recently committed
in our midst. That such outrages have really
occurred and that the details of them have not
even been exaggerated in the telling, seems to be
conceded with a degree Of candor and unan
unity that is equally surprising and refreshing.
Even The american no longer ascribes the pub
LEGATION Of such facts to personal malice" or to
"a desire to injure the City Government" To
say that on such day was murdered in
cold blood, upon his own threshold-that on the
same day man was beaten within an inch of his
life, by band of rowdies headed by a Deputy
Warden in the State Penitentiary-and that on
another day, n number of peaceful laborers were
driven from their work by crew of armed
rufians-to say all this, and to say it in print,
is no longer it seems, to be ''partisan," even
''potcal." Our virtuous contemporary has said
almost as much At least, it has conceded that
"recent occurrences in our city demand considera-
"tion," and has apparently considered" them
sufficiently, TO enable it 10 arrive at the opinion
that, at all events, "Mayor SWAMI and bis police
are in no wise responsible for their commission
"In all the recent acts of violence" says The
''were promptly arrested" What more can any
reasonable man ask ? 1t is ''the magistrates who
"appear 10 have no comprehension of their duties.
cor want the honesty to discharge themu who
"neutralize the promptness' of the police, and
divide with the Criminal Court the responsibility
that attaches to the present state of affairs. At
least such is the obvious scope of our contempor-
ary's article, and it is upon the apology thus
offered for 'Mayor SWAMI and his police that
we now propose TO comment
1t will hardly be denied, we presume, that the
administration of criminal law has for its object
the prevention as well as punishment of crime
and that the means requisite for the efectual ac-
complishment of this two-fold purpose, are first
an efficient and vigilant police, and secondly an
honest and Independent judiciary. Upon the
former we depend for the prevention of crime and
the arrest Of criminals and upon the latter, for
their punishment. The mere act of arresting Of
Tenders, and handing them over to the magis-
trates and others, charged with the investigation
of their guilt, and the infiction of the penalties
prescribed by law, is, therefore, part-and part
ouly-of the duty confdcd to the police Yet it is
precisely this merely auxiliary function-auxiary
TO the duties of the Courts and magistrates-which
THE american assumes to be, if not the only at least
the principal duty of the police and from its
prompt and fearless discharge on the occasions in
question, proceeds to argue the entire absolu-
ton of 'NlayOr SWAMI and his police" from all
responsibility for the outrages recently committed.
This is ignoring altogether the other or preven-
tive duty of the poce-the more important of the
two by half. Apart from the familiar maxim that
IAN ounce of prevention is worth pound OF cure"
If the arrest of the criminal after the crime has
been committed were the only object of a police
organization, there certainly would be no occasion
for taxing this community with the support of an
armed force of between three and four hundred
men. Onetenth of that number would be amply
sufficient for the purpose, or the duty might be
left as at Common Law to the Sheriff and consta,
bles. Neither is the ''promptness'' with which
arrests are made, after crimes have been committed
any evidence Of perfect system of police. Other
wise, if there were five murders day, and the
murderers in each instance should be promptly
ARRESTED, - the commission of eighteen hundred
murders in year, would be no evidence that
"Mayor SWAMI and his police" had not ''done
''isn'' crime. ~.
The truth is, that in every other community
under the sun, where laws exist and any effort is
made to ensure their enforcement the constant and
unceasing surveillance exercised by the police
over the entire community, and more particularly
over its more dangerous and abandoned members.
is regarded as the most efectua means that can
be employed for that end. 1t was to enable him
to perfect that surveillance, if for any other pur-
pose, than the mere increase of his official patronage
that we suppose and that Mr.. SWAMI asked, and the
Councils granted, an increase of the force II was
with the same view, we had imagined, that the
city divided into districts and the force itself
into day and night force, and that to every man
was assigned particular beat, which, during his
term of duty, he was required constantly to pat
rol. Yet, how does it happen, unless through
the imperfection of our police that in spite of all
these provisions crimes confessedly on the in
crease, and the spirit of violence grows day by dav
We do not desire to be unreasonable-we do not
think it necessary that Mr. SWAMI should station
as suggested by him in his speech at Temperance
Temple, policeman in every bar-room, or that he
himself should watch in every domestic chamber
to prevent men from beating their wives; but we
do submit, and that without hesitation, that some
times least the presence of the police ought to be
found as efectual for the prevention of crime, as
their subsequent efforts are confessedly useful in
leading to the detection and arrest of the criminal
1t is notorious fact that in this community, the
most high-handed and atrocious outrages are plan
ned with perfect deiberaton and committed with
no less ostentation, and, apparently, without the
possibility of the interference of the police ever
entering into the calculations of those engaged in
their preparation. To cite case the facts of
which are familiar to ALL is it not perfectly patent
10 every man who ever attentively weighed those
facts, that it was as clearly within the power
of the authorities to prevent the murder of off
Ger RIGDoN, on the night of GAMBR1LL's convic-
ton, as it was obviously their duty to do
so? They had every warning of what might
be expected at the hands of the Infatuated mob
who, but few hours before, had been baffied in
their attempt to rescue GAMBRILL from the hands Of
the Sheriff. The threats, which, for days pre-
vlous, had been freely uttered by the very me1 who
afterwards put them into execution, andthe common
presentiment of all, shared even by the victim him
self ought equally to have put the authorities on
Inc alert RIGDoN had been relieved from duty and
sent nome that night by his superiors, on account
VI tne very apprehensions which were felt for his
SAFETY ana SO little pains did his assassins take to
conce'i their design, that the very children in the
street OWNED their purpose as they passed and
paused IN their play 10 "Reminiscences faI,ows
must be after RIGDoN.'' How happened if then
that there was no watch set over those men or
over R1GDoN's life, that night, and that his nnr-
derers were suffered TO proceed unobseryed and nm
molested to the commission of their crime, to the de-
gree even, that their guilt clear as that was had
to be determined by crcumstantial evidence alone,
One officer there was, who, with better aporecia
ton, apparently, of the duties of policeman than
is possessed, either by his superlors or their apollo
gist, did testify that so long as CROP and CoRRIE
were within his beat, which was in the neighbor-
hood of the Lexington market, he deemed it his
duty to watch their every footstep, strongly did
he suspect mischief from their looks. To go no
further however than the recent outrages referred
to by The American-how happened it that on Sun
day afternoon, the day of all others chiefly conse-
Grated to acts of violence in this communicated
crew of ruffians as GREGORY BARRETT, JOSH 1
dULLEY, KITTY CHAMBERS, SONNY WHITE, and the