The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-12

- We cannot undertake to rejected Communca.
tons.
Letters to be addressed "To TUE DAILY EXCHANGE
Baltimore, Maryland
-.
hepreamble andresolutions, passed at the Town
Meeting on Thursday last, deserve something more
than cursory perusal and hasty consideration.
They are so dignifed in tone, so comprehensive in
their scope and so manly and direct of purpose that
they must have surprised not less than satisfied
those who had been led to believe that vitnpera-
tive language would characterize the proceedings,
and some covert trick be detected in the measures
to be proposed or adopted The rights which thev
claim, and the protection which they demand for
us all, are only such as no man will willingly re-
hnquish for himself, or can honestly deny to his
nelghbor. That they may exercise their elective
rights and franchises uncontrolled and unintimi-
"dated by any parties persons andmay be freely
permitted to take their rightful part in the regula
ton of municipal affairs, so that by the exertion
of their lawful influence and power they may take
care that the public officers of this great city are
'entrusted to none but competent honest and
faithful men," is all that these citizens of Bati-
more have asked, and have asserted their determi-
nation to obtain. 1t would be idle to argue the
proprety or justice of these propositions, for they
are not to be disputed; though it is matter for
serious reflection that the degeneracy of the times
has rendered it necessary for any one to reassert
Them But there are those who possibly may cavil
at the means by which the success of the movement
is sought 10 be secured. These, in the minutest
details, are now before the public, and by its
Judgment they must stand or fall If they meet
with
tanned, they will most assuredly work out a re-
formation which will purify the political atmos
phere that is so foul and noisome. If thew
are condemned, or but coldly acquiesced in, they
will be powerless for any purpose They are en-
titled therefore, to patient and candid examina-
ton from all who feel that the obligations imposed
upon citizens such as mere partsanship cannot
adequately fulfil. Lett beconceded that the ends
aimed at are noble and commendabe, and that
those pursuing them are animated by pure and
honest motives, and we can imagine no measures
more prudent, temperate and unobiectionable than
those presented, which would have been in any
degree effective, or indeed otherwise than childish
We will not now enter upon the causes which have
gradually brought US to our present state
nor point out where, in our Judgment, the |
responsibility for their rapid DEVELOPMENT
must ultimately rest. But no man is |
mt to advise or act in crisis like the |
one at hand, who could refuse TO look into the |
record of the past and be guided by their teach |
ings. fit is an undeniabe fact that for two
years the polls have been closed against any fair
expression of public opinon-that with the same
power at his comand during that period which he |
has to-day, the MAYOR has failed to maintain peace
and order around the ballot-box-and that. not
withstanding his promises and proclamations the
people, abused and dsfranchised, have sought in
vain for the protection of which he had assured
them it would be simple faulty, in preparing for
the future, TO leave out of remembrance this dear
bought experience of the past. Whether these
things are attributable to the dishonesty or nefi-
cheney of the authorities matters not now, for it |
is enough TO know that what has happened often
times already may happen once again The au-
thors and supporters of the resolutions had then
but an alternative. They must either have de-
nounced the municipal government under which
they had so Intellectually sought to obtain security
for their rights and persons, and prepared to main
tain those rights at all hazards or have approach
ed il with an earnest statement of their wrongs. n
S-''' N~i"-AA iOt iSuiNSSJ anu II lIituh uNOWal OF
their determination to rescue privileges which
brutal violence had trampled under foot, and in
sisting to this end upon the cooperation of the
constituted authorities. They have chosen the
latter course, and well and wisely have they dis
charged the duties they have assumed After ex-
posing in terms of rare moderation the nature and
extent of the evils they endure no longer they
have provided for the appointment of q committee
which is directed to present "a respectful address
TO the MAYOR, claiming at his hands the appoint
"ment of judges of election" of 'unmpeachable
''character, unfinching irmness, undoubted cour-
age, and the purest honesty" and also the enroll
ment of "two hundred specia' policemen or as
many, in each ward as in his Judgment and that
of the committee may be necessary. They have
asserted no right, as has been falsely charged TO
make these nominations themselves for, in explicit
language they respectfully tender their co-opera-
''tion and assistance to the MAYOR IN select
"ing' these officers AID judges. Is this overbold
in men who are stripped of the prerogatives
which they valued most in the charter which
was originally won by bloody sacrifices? If they
hesitate to conde in others too implicitly and in
innate disposition to rely somewhat upon them
selves when all else fails them, are they not iusti-
fed-by the magnitude of the interests at stake as
well as by the memory of their recent heplessness
and peril? If they speak TO public servants and
them, in the respectful but firm Ian
guage of free people, smarting under wrongs
which they have determined no longer to bear do
they say any thing but what they have a right to
say, and what those public servants are bound re-
specially to hear? We believe that the people of
sister cities will marvel at the moderation of these
not less than they will admire the
spirit which they breathe. They who feign to
ind concealed in them anything that looks to-
wards partisan triumph defeat, too grossly
listort their obvious meaning and misrepresent the
motives Of those who are supporting them The
party press trumphantly points out the declaration
'sthat, while the political rule rests where it now
docs, " men fear to 'maintain existing relations
'or form new ones with u.s." but it avoids all
MENTION in this its natural connexion of the pre-
imbe, which has previously asserted that the tpo-
1tical rule rests' with IA small minority of our
citizens who have in many instances, in most
disorderly and violent manner, prevented fair
expression of sentiment on the part of the legal
voters" 1t is the rule of clubs and ruffians
llone, which is denounced, and who will stand
orth and defend this? 1t is incumbent upon
very one, we repeat, 10 judge fairly and for him.
elf, of the appeal which his felIow-citzens have
made. 1t is long since as noble one has been
nut forth among any people. 1t proclaims, with
imple frankness, only the indisputabe truth, and
,ffers the opportunity to achieve, under the
orms and by the sanction of the law, revolution
which will more than redeem the good name Of (
our city, and reopen the obstructe flow of its
Can any right-minded citizen, who
las that good name and that prosperity really at
lis heart, refuse them his sympathy and support?
% our minds, the question has but one answer. (
Whatever may be said of the tardiness and
neglect of the States Attorney, Mr.. WHITNEY, in
cases where only the public interests concerned
It has been rendered quite obvious, by his recent
action, that he is prompt enough where he himself
8 personally involved He NAV or may not be | l