The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-11-04

That the Reform Ticket had an immense ma
jorty of legal voters in this city in its favor, we
see ms little occasion 10 doubt to-day as on the dav
before the election. That if the people had been
allowed TO deposit their ballots, and the Judges
had done their duty in excluding illegal voters.
the result would have been the election of that
ticket by an average majority of not less than Ten
Thousand voters, we think is perfectly certain
Fraud and violence alone prevented that r. suit.
Fraud and violence had been persistently, system
atically and openly invoked for the purpose for
weeks previous TO the election, and their certain
triumph had been confidently proclaimed at n
Mass-Meeting in the Square during the preceding
week. Relying upon such agencies for its success,
the majority obtained by the American party af-
fords little evidence of the voting capacity of its
members as it does of the real sentiments of the
people. 1t might have been Fifty Thousand or an
Hundred Thousand as easily as Ten 1t was only
limited by the capacity of the ballot boxes for
stuf'ng, and the desire Of the party leaders and
Judges not to cmblazon too publicly their shame
by making the frauds which were committed de-
monstrable upon the face of the returns. Emil
ncntly disgraceu such a state of things must be
conceded TO be TO the whole communicated to the
authorities, through whose open completely with the
wrong-doers this grievous wrong was suffered to
be done-the chief and damnng disgrace of
Wednesdays election must inevitably fall and for
ever and indefby rest, upon those who when the
day was over, had the indecency and effrontery to
claim the result as an endorsement and sstri-
''umph." While, however, the burden of this
shame belongs TO the American party which has
thus again succeeded in electing its ticket,
by the use Of the vilest means we should be
guilty of suppression of the truth, if we dis
guised the fact, that the Reformers themselves
have not escaped their share of the general dis
grace We do not refer to the blood that was
shed, aud for which it has been impudenty and
falsely said that the Reform Party is responsible
The stain Of that is upon the hands and souls of the
American Party, its Orators and Press, and upon
the corrupt and inefficient public authorities. We
mean the disgrace Of their own defeat, which the
Rctormers did not do all that was in their power
TO prevent. So far We could observe the lust
and reasonable suggestion of the Central Reform
Committee, that citizens should close their shops
and places of business and consecrate the day to
the public service, met with but little response
Although five thousand men shouted their assent.
when the suggestion was made on Monday after
noon, in Monument Square, only in few isolated
instances was the promise kept. We ALWAYS
asserted, and We still believe, that the presence
OF large body of conservative and law-abdino
men at the polls, would have gone far toward
preserving the public peace, overawing violence
and checking fraud. AT not one of the polls. at
any hour Of the day, was the attendance of voters
anything like what ii ought to have been. When
rufians took forcible possession of the polls with
muskets and swivels, are not surprised that de-
cent men withdrew from a contest for which they
were lily prepared, and mperfectly organized, and
in which the whole power of the law and the pub-
he authorities was exerted against them. But was
not the very facility with which the polls were
thus seized and held, in part attributable to their
own absence from them during the earlier hours
of the day? Young men, without name or repu-
tation, and with little or nothing at stake save
personal honor and the pride of manhood and of
citizenship We're found noby riskng their lives in
the vain attempt to stem the tide of violence which
has engulled all our rights But men of wealth
and responsibility, who believe in making
money, and keeping quiet and avoiding all
risk aud responsibilities a general rule. tim
idly kept away from the polls and hardly ven
tured out of doors. Some honorable exceptions
to this exhibition of lukewarmness and pusilla-
nimity on the part of the conservative classes there
undoubtedly were In almost every ward there
was handful of brave men, who put life and
everything at stake for the sake of the common
good; but, in every instance their numbers were
small IN comparison with the voting population of
the ward, and the exigencies of the case. In the
Eleventh ward, the t'broadcloth gentry against
whom IL mas been the effort of the American press
ana orators TO excite the preudices and infiame
the passions OF their deluded followers, turned out
IN respectable numbers, and in the true shirt of
men and freemen Althouoh freouen,Iv aoadod
almost beyond endurance, by the jeers and insults
Oh '''e humans who were permitted to occupy one
sue Oh tne gangway, and to obstruet the
"00'S' VOTERS and subjected, in addi-
ton, 10 the pettiest and most ignoble nersecn,;o,
on the part OF the police who dragged thep, 70 Tho
Staton-house upon the slightest provocation OIL
generally, upon no provocation at all tha rosoo,
able citizens of this ward maintained their &C.,
with equal moderation and firmness nm 70 a.
hour when, in accordance with the racon,r,ouI.
ton of the Central Committee, and the exon,,,1o -
the Reforrners elsewhere, they withdrew from tho
contest. More than once during the dav wore
the bullies and rowdies Taught that the white |
hands of gentlemen, whom they had been told 70 !
laugh at and despse, can deal blows as honest and
as weighty as are ever given in the prze-rinp or
on the anvil. In the Twelfth Ward also, the Re- I
formers stood their ground like men, and to such
good purpose, that the close of the poll showed