The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-08-01

the contemplated building to have cost more than
Sl20 600, and there no discretion given to the
Commissioner to depart from the specifca-
tlons, except such as is conferred by the language
we have just quoted. Can any sane man find in
this permission TO ''enlarge the cells, >" &C., of the
DIXON plan, ut probable expense of SlS, 600, any
authority given the Commissioner to substitute the
BRYANT plan and pledge the city for $3.50, 600.
which was the least sum for which Jail, upon that
plan, could be built? Yet this is identically the
thing which the contractors and the Commissioner
proceeded to DO They commenced in utter violation
OF law and of integrity to erect Jail on BRYANT S
drawings and specifications, trusting to their ability
to persuade or coerce the City Council to endorse
their proceedings. They have made no excuse from
that day to the present except that they wereputtng
up better jail than the city had ordered, and that
Mr.. SWAMI knew the fact and made no objection
| And Mr. SWAMI did know the fact During the
whole spring and summer of 1857 the contractors
were assiduously endeavoring to induce the City
Council to approve of the change they had
thought proper to make. Before the month o.
June Committee Of the First Branch had twice
reported upon the matter, admitting that the BRY-
ANT plan had been substituted by the Commits
sioner, and proposing that the city should accede
to what had been DONE Early in that month a
resolution was offered in the same Branch de-
nouncing the whole affair as fraud upon the city,
precisely on the ground of the unauthorized
change in the plan, set forth in these reports 1t
was not until the Second Branch rejected every pro-
position, looking to acquiescence in the unwar-
rantable acts of the builders and the Commissioner
that Mr.. SWAMI acknowledges, having become
aware of the true state of affairs. He was ignorant
until August, he would nov have us believe, of
that which was known to every member of the
Council in April, and printed twice over
in its journals in May. Does any one doubt if
both branches of the Councils had approved the
doings of the Commissioner, and favored the
erection of the superb structure then under way.
what would be the nature of Mr.. SwANN's recollec-
| tons to-day? Would he not have inaugurated
the edifice in solemn state, and told the people
with heavy emphasis how he had watched it from
its earliest foundations--how his eve had been
gladdened as it progressively rose heavenward-
how he had reJoiced in encouraging his Commits
soner to run the risk of substituting so noble a
y
cil-and how he had struggled and labored for the
completion of the work? Would he not compla-
Gently and majestically have accepted the praise
which hailed him as the builder of that jail lust as
he received his meried thanks for having first suo
gested and then built the railroad over the Allie
ghanies? But the great job failed, and the MAYOR
never knew until too late that it had ever been in
progress Hardihood is greatvirtue, truly, except
in the matter of assertion, where it is sometimes
unfortunate to him whoventures to manifest it, and
sad to those who contemplate its results
We have thus again given faint outline of the
real facts of this case. We do so because
we desire it to be remembered that there are inter-
ests involved paramount altogether to those of the
builders of the Jail, the MAYOR, or his fithless
Commissioner. The community has been juggled
and defrauded, its finances squandered, and its
solemn ordinances recklessly disregarded 1t is
not the less entitled to complain because it has for
two years been as patient under the wrong as
has been under others yet greater and heavier.