The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-11-21
SUGGESTIONS FOE THE CRISIS

To the Editors Of the Daily Exchange:
GENTLEMEN: You have invited discussion, as to
the action, proper to be taken by the recently
elected Legislature of the State of Mary land, in
reference 10 the present anomalous condition
of the city of Baltimore. There being, as vet
no response to this courteous invitation from any
citizen OF Baltimore, you will doubtless receive and
publish suggestions made in good faith and without
personal in terest, from by nativity Baltimo-
rean and by lifelong action Marylander.
The disease under which Baltimore now Iabors
may be briefly described an insurection of brute
force and base ambition against intellect and morality.
To cure this disease it is necessary to repress this
brute force, as to vanquish the grovelling aspi
rants who rest upon tand give full play to the real
sentiments of the wise and the good. An opportu-
nifty to effect this holy purpose is offered bv the
composition of the Legislature elect. How shall it
be done? Recurring, men are wont to do, to
the records OF the past the loud cry is for Regis
try Law To this there is, in my opinion, no valid
objection, unless it be at variance with plain pro-
vision of the Constitution of the State Let iuriss
and 1t need be, the judiciary, decide this question
1t has no Importance in my mind Fraudulent
TeglStrles and fraudulent voting, under Registry
Laws, can be achieved and have been achieved as
well as where no registry is required, with but a
little more expense and little extra perjury
STILL if public opinion tends that way, there is no
sound objection to Registry Law, except these
1t is in apparent If not real conflict with the Com
stitution and it is and fallacious.
The true remedies for the mob tyranny in BaIti-
more are three-to!d.
list. Segregation of the voters into small pre-
cints, comprising each, not above five hundred
voters.
End. Provisions by which the judges of election
must be fair, firm and accurate; and
Sd. Protection to legal voters, and positive pre-
vention to illegal voters, in the shape of a police
force, not only free from temptations to exhibit
pariZan prOcivties, but also interested in the ell
Gent discharge of its duty.
How can these three essential objects be accom-
piished? The first is very simple, and needs no
elaboration. A commission, created by the Legis-
lature, charged with the duty of dividing the
different wards of the city into election precuts
Cor districts) and fixing the places for holding
the polls in each, would unavoidably accomplish
this purpose.
The second essential is more difficult of attain
ment. 1t is altogether undesirable that the Judges
to be in power hereafter should entertain binding
hostility to the faction rampant in your city,
Y Gu want, to restore peace and confidence, men of
answering honesty and judicial impartiilitv. How
are You to procure such men? BY what mode of
appointment or election? | answer by none, but
only by the sanctions YOU ax to their office; visit
by legislation the heaviest penalties dong imprison-
ment dslranchisement and heavy finest upon any
Judge of election who shall either receive knowing
" an illegal vote or refuse to receive legal vote
Offer, also, ample reward to the inf0rnter And
with the small election precints the point is Sc
cured, no matter what be the mode Of appointment
or election.
We come now to the third and most serious essen
tial for the peaceful revolution which Won wish to
effect, through the instrumentalitv Of the newly
elected Legislature, Legislature owing its present
composition, in a great degree, il not chiefly, to
the present anarchcal condition of Baltimore
What kind of police does MARYLAND require?
1t is State GHard, a corps OF moral upright disci-
pinned citizens to protect, not only the CITY of Bal
timore, but the whole State, against the progress
sive and ever-spreading rufianism which, having
struck its roots into the dens and sewers of the citv
is now spreading its Upas branches over the rural
districts, and ven the sat-waters, for miles and
miles around. We the real bona de citizens of the
State, call for a State Guard, in the view of this
emergency. We want no halfway measures We
demand that the charter of the city of Baltimore be
so amended by the Legislature to deprive ruiiian-
ism of its power to control, by violence, our State
elections, and to render our commercial metropolis
a Kissing disgrace and source of humiliation to
every true Maryan The foravs of this banditti
are not confined to the immediate vicnage of the
city. BY railway cars, by steamboats, and less ex-
Pedltlous conveyances, they permeate the whole
borders OF the State, everywhere spreading terror
and everywhere leaving the impress of their power
and impunity. Besides, the State has other dan
gers to encounter The immediate site of the uar.
per's Ferry treason happened to be beyond the limit
OF Mary land. But from the insane spirit manifest
ed by the Northern fanatics, have reason to APP
prehend that during the repetition of such attempts
to be appreHended the border State of MARYLAND
will not always be exempt from attention.
Let us, then, have State Guard, organized on
military principles, and let it supplaut all local po-
lice organization. OF course, such Guard en-
listed Tor term of years, and subject to courts
martial, would be free from partizan influences
If military law should not be deemed sufficient
further checks could be imposed, by rendering the
officers and privates liable to indictment and pun
lShment in courts of criminal judicature for misbe
havior, negligence Incompetence. The obiec-
ton OF expense, to the counties so much less con-
cerned than the city, might be obvated by reouir-
ing the chiefs 10y whatever name desgnated1 to
station the Guard where its services should be re-
qulred, and to return the relative expense for the
tax eves to the city and counties according to such
subdivision and stationing Of the force.
have not time you will say not space) to develop
iuliy this plan of a State Guard. 1t appears to me
infinitely preferable to a servile imitation of the
New ork Metropolitan polce-odious because par
ual-inefhclent, because partizan. The whole pres
ent superiority of the New York election and police
arrangements over ours, appears to me to rest upon
the two facts that, LIST, New York has small election
precincts; and I'd, the heads of the police happen
just now to be opposed to the prevailing political
sentiment in that city.
Writing in haste, but with the sincerity and deep
feeling which cannot but inspire native Baltimo-
rean, in view of the scenes which have transpired
IN that devoted city, to which | am attached not
only By the ties of birth and friendship, but also By
the controlling interest which every true Mary
lander must take in the grand intellectual and
material centre of the Commonwealth, | beg leave
to ask you to commend these crude suggestions to
the serious consideration of all those who have re-
gard to the honor and welfare of Baltimore of our
state, and OF our common country. HARTFORD