The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-11-11
BALTIMORE.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER l., 1889

The Official Returns disclose the fact, that at
the recent Electon-whch is admitted on all
hands to have been the most important which has
ever taken place in this city--the recorded vote
was less than Twenty-Four Thousand. When we
make allowance for the number of fraudulent and
illegal votes included in the above cownt-for the
men who voted twice. thrice, and even ten and
twenty tmes-the smallncss of the Vote becomes
still more apparent. In a voting population of at
least Thirty Thousand, it may be safely affirmed
that not more than Ten Thousand legal ballots
were cast on that day. A fact so remarkable re-
quires explanation, and as it would seem, judg-
ing from the tone of the press elsewhere, that the
cause even yet is but imperfectly understood, we
VIII, for the benefit of our friends at distance,
once more endeavor TO explain it. That which
paralyzed the efforts of the Reformers on the
second day of November-which kept away
thousands of voters from the polls, and rendered
the resistance of others to violence and outrage
wholly unavailing-was the open, palpable and un-
disguised completely existing between the authori
ties and the rutfans who held the polls. We have
more than once, had occasion to prefer this charge
of connivance at crime against the authorities
We have generally based and sustained the charge
upon the ground that the authorities had the power
and the opportunity to prevent the wrong and
to punish the wrong-doer, and had failed to do
either. At previous elections, we have found
fault with the judges for falling to exert their
powers as magistrates for the preservation of the
peace, and for not scrufnzing with sufficient care
votes that were iuegal-and with the police for
not obeying the published instructions of the
MAYOR, and arresting and removing from the
neighborhood of the polls persons who interfered
with the election and the rights Of voters. In this
case, however, the sin of the authorities was one
not Of omission, but of commission. The
judges themselves were, in many instances, the
instruments of the fraud which they were sworn
TO prevent, and the police were guilty of that very
violence which it was their bounden duty to re-
press Norris heresponsibility confined to the judges
and police. 1t extends to the MAYOR who appointed
the former and to the authorities who controlled and
directed the action of the latter. Mr. SPICER, when
he commissioned JOHN HINsLEY as Judge of Elec-
ton in the Tenth ward, made himself as morally
accountable for the frauds committed at those
polls, rs if he had himself knowingly received il
legal votes or had stuffed the ballot-box with his
own hand. When he adopted as his own the
police arrangements of his predecessor, Mr..
MCPHAIL he assumed the burden and the guilt of
the violence which those arrangements We're obvi-
ou5ly contrived to facilitate and promote as COM
pltely as if he had himself headed an onslaught on
the polls, or personally abused and maltreated vo-
tiers. VIII it be believed, that at an Election
which was expected to be the most exciting and
turbulent ever held in this city-there were scarce
ly halfa-doZon policemen stationed at any of the
polIs-that at the hour of opening the polls, when
the first struggle for their possession on the part
the rowdies might reasonably have been anticpa-
ted, in some Of the wards not Il policeman was
to he seen-that the men detailed for this
service, as a general rule, were VIGOROUSLY
the most unfit men in the force-that one officer
who had distinguished himself at previous cleo
ton by the courage and fidelity with which he
had performed his duty, was on leave of absence
for the day-and that another who @ontrary to
the wishes and expectations of his superiors exert
ed himself to preserve the peace and protect
voters, recalled from his post at noon and not
suffered TO reurn2 Yet all these are facts though
doubtless unknown or not sufficiently considered
elsewhere. Almost the only persons arrested on
the day Of election were Relormcrs, and these gene
rally upon the most triGng and ridiculous
charges. To be seen standing with his hands in
his pockets was enough to expose any decent man
that day to the danger of being arrested for draw-
cling weapon TO eye policeman closely,
for the purposeof scanning his features or mark
ing his number, was as certainly to incur the
charge Of Interfering with an officer in the dis
''chargc of his duty" The list of arrests which
were made, would Of itself be sufficient evidence,
almost anywhere throughout the country, of the
spirit with which the police participated in the
outrages. IN the Tenth Ward, a club of
ruffans before the polls were opened provided
themselves with missiles, and subsequently.
mounted guard over the ballot-box, with Sharpes
rifles in their hands-several of the gang being al
ready under Indictment for the outrages committed
by them, mt the Municipal election, Just four weeks
prc7ious. 4 poor German who came up to vote
WAS knocked down as he approached the polls, in
humanity beaten by the rowdies, and searched and
robbed by policeman, who took pistol from his
pocket, which he handed 10 one of the gang
The Marshal of Police, Mr.. HERRING, who was
present Mt these polls being appealed to, to seize
the musbets which were known 10 be stored in a
particular house, near by, replied that 'there was
"scarcey a house in the street, which was not full
"of arms, and being again asked whether there
was no law-no authority to prevent such things
said that ''he didn' know,-but would 90 and con-
"sult the MAyoR"-which was the last
that was heard from him on the subject.
Thus much to show the completely of the police
now with respect to the Judges. VIII it be be-
leved that in one ward, (the Fifth one of the
Judges who sat at the window, 20 receive the
suflrages of citizens was actually under indict-
ment for knowingly receiving Illegal votes at the
previous Election-that in some wards there was
no Reform Judge appointed-that in others the
Reform Judge was not allowed Il clerk for the
purpose Of keeping registry Of voters-and that
in the Tenth ward, man who had been nomi-
mated for the Office and rejected by the CITY
Council, the previous evening, on account of his
infamous character-took his place at the polls
and acted as Judge without authoritv-as-
saulted and drove from the window the Reform
Judge, who had been confirmed by the Council
and was qualified to act-and after all this, was
commissioned by the MAYOR, as we are informed
about twelve O clock in the day, after the Election
was virtually over, and the Reformers had been
iiTlFen from iiE pUIIS W Ill 1t be believed
that the Tenth ward, in which all these outraoes
occurred, is the central ward in the CITY, and
that the polls in question were held in full
view of the MAYORS ofice-not one hundred wards
distant from it--and within less than two squares
of the Central Police Station? Arcnot these facts
sufficient TO satisfy any candid man Of the ire
mcndous odds against which the Reformers were
called to contend, and to account for their
withdrawal from the field in all but two wards of
the city-particularly, as they nowhere mustered
in anything like the numbers, or with the organi-
zation, requisite to enable them to wage a success
fdI battle against the armed clubs and the armed
police? There is little doubt that if the Reformers
had anywhere attempted resistance to the violence
which assailed them on every side whatever police
force was held in reserve at the Station-Houses |
would Immediately have been concentrated against |
them, and that rs on previous occasion, when Ser
geant JORDAN was killed in the Eighth Ward,
muskets would have been distributed to the
rowdies from the City Hall-as Mayor SWAMI then
Said-to enable 'our people to give them as good
''as they send Nor had the Reforncrs any en-
couragement to believe that if they were able 70
triumph in such an unequal contest fraud would
not successfully accomplish what violence had fail
ed to achieve Under such circumstances the Re-