The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-27

The attention with which the people of other
cities regard the progress Of the Reform movement
in Baltimore and the interest they manifest for its
success, show that they consider something more
than temporary and local issues to be involved in
it. The most influential journals throughout the
country have earnestly discussed our affairs.
They have commented on the evils of which we
complain and canvassed. the remedies proposed
for their abatement aud have made common cause
with those who are struggling to raise our NUM-
pal government from the condition of weakness
and Generalization into which it has gradually
fallen. If the questions now before the people
submitted to them nothing but choice between GER
tain independent and certain party men for office,
this decision could not possibly concern those who
live beyond the borders of our State nor would the
press be likely to allude to them except in short
and casual notices. There must be then some
thing in our condition analogous to that of neigh
boring cities that causes them to watch us so mar
rowly, and they must hope or fear similar des-
tiny to ours else they would not look upon our
course so anXiously. That this is so the remarks
of our contemporaries as they come to us from
every quarter, leave us in little doubt They tell
us of the growing distrust in our institutions
which men feel and avow, who have witnessed
their operation for many years past in those dis
tricts where rapidly increasing population daily
puts their efficacy to severer tests They assert
that our State and municipal governments are be-
coming more inefficient and corrupt wherever they
come in contact with the vices, political and So
cial, that are engendered by civilization itself in
the over-crowded communities which it creates:
and that just when authority should be most
strong its impotency has become most manifest.
And there is no lack of examples to be cited in il
lustration of these views. The slightest familiar
ity with the proceedings of political conventions
and even of the Legislatures of some of the larger
States, and with the scenes which have occurred
from time to time in the Councils of the cities of
New York and Philadelphia, is enough to show that
these statements are not destitute of foundation.
Unfortunately, we need not look beyond our own
corporate limits for facts which 90 to substanate
their truth Whatever may be the real political
condition Of people elsewhere there is no pretence
now put forward that ours is otherwise than ode
'plorable." Whether the responsibility for it
rests with the MAYOR, the Magistrates or the
Courts has been the subject of dispute but the
broad fact has been admitted by all that
intolerable grievances exist, and none have
latterly denied the necessity for a refor-
nation. Whatever may be said of our ma
terial prosperity, we cannot escape the conviction
that our political progress has tended downward
So slowly have moved at times that it is scarce
possible to mark the successive stages of degeneracy
through which we have lapsed; butt looking back
wards through the long vista of the past, we can
measure the heights on which we stood in former
times from the lower level which we occupy to-
day. We can estimate the present value of our in
situations by comparing the men to whose keeping
they are entrusted now, with those who first estab
lished and honorably upheld them We have
grown so familiar with abuses and so accustomed
to wrongs, that we have ceased to remember that
good government was once our portion, and have
almost forgotten that it was ever claimed as our
chief inalienable right But suppose that those
who asserted and undertook to demonstrate our
capacity for sef-government could see the
practical results 10 which their simple
theories have been reduced. With what
emotions would they, who bestowed upon us the
right of suffrage, look upon the armed ruffians
who surround the ballot-boxes and the passive
freemen who surrender their prerogatves? Would
1t be with indignation or contempt that those who
provided for the administration of Justice among
us, would take account of the venal Magistrates
and disreputable Court that we have so long toer-
ated, and are content to con6de in as the arbiters
of our liberties and lives? Could they note the
rufianism which controls US, the weakness which
affects to protect us, the ignorance which deter
mines all rights, and the perfidy which en-
courages and defends thousand wrongs, and
still have an abiding faith in the wisdom of the
work they wrought for us? Such reflections
as these have occupied the minds of many good
citizens, who passing by the frivolous excuses put
forth in eXtenuation of the evils that surround
us, judge of our condition by the steady light ofex-
perience alone. They survey as we hold our
onward course the rocks and quicksands that en-
compass us on every side, and they forsee the
dangers that are thckening before u.s. And it is
because similar forebodings Cypress men in other
cities that they turn their eyes on us. They feel
the symptoms of the disease and recognize in the
plague spot which has appeared here the fatal char
acer of the malady they may haveto struggle with
themselves. The misrule which we are called on TO
remedy is but the effect of causes which are active
everywhere. Our fall has only been somewhat
accelerated, and we have been first to reach the
point where we must choose between reform and
ruin.
The question, therefore, to be determined is,
whether we are capable of working ont our
regeneration through the constitutional means
provided or whether must abandon as effete
and valueless the institutions we have failed TO
maintain in purity and power. If corruption and
ruffianism have usurped dominion over us, there
are hundred lawful ways through which they
may be reached and thrust aside for ever. Rut
if we will not thus secure the safety which is
within our grasp with what grace can we make
it our boast in future that we are competent to
direct Alright the public concerns of our State or
city In the success or defeat or of the Reform
movement, such inquiries as these await an
answer.
Since the commencement of the present Reform
movement we have carefully avoided distractinp
tto counsels of those who have narticinatad i; -