The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-11-02

With to-day has come the most momentous issue
that has for many years been presented to our
citizens, and this evenings close will wit
ness result of incaculable Importance to
the interests and honor of our city About
the necessity for a thorough reformation
in The administration of our affairs, which has
been admitted by patriots and partisans alike, il
is not now the time to speak. Neither will we
dwell upon the corruption and inefciency of the
authorities who have failed to protect the persons
or liberties Of the people; nor upon the nature
and extent of the rulian organizations which
have, with such impunity, defed the laws We
assume that every man among us desires the re-
storaton of peace and order and the suppression
of the outlawry which is arrayed in permanent
instruction against them. What hope have we
of accomplishing these results, save through the
triumph of the Reform candidates? Will the
American party help US? We have only to look
to the characters of some of its nominees, to the
circumstances under which they were brought
forward, to its refusal to give US access to the
polls, 10 lis neglect to protect the ballotboxes, to
its apologies for awlessness and its liberation of
those who perperate it, and we find an answer to
this inquiry. We have only to recall the Incl
dents which have marked Mr.. WHITNEY's course,
and to remember that his party has endorsed it,
and we are precluded from expecting it to redress
our wrongs. Can the Democratic party aid us
1t does not exist a united body, and its disioint-
ed fragments have neither vitality nor vigor, and
even fit was as powerful now as it was ten years
ago, lifts strength was not paralyzed by shame at
the recollection Of the corruption and dishonor it
heretofore installed in high places, it would find
the people still i'll prepared to trust it. The house
must be swept clean, and garnished and placed in
descent keeping. The removal of the unfiithul
servants who have abused their trusts, and the
substitution in their stead of officers who will firm
ly and fairly discharge their duties, is all we can
do to-day TO forward the work of reformation The
candidates presented by the Reformers are above
reproach No one can impeach the integrity OF
their characters the purity of their lives nor can
any one commitan error in giving them his vote As
he believes their cause TO be worthy of his support
ne is bound to render this available by all fair and
honest means. The Reformers have asked nothing
but what they are indisputably entitled to de-
mand. They want free access to the ballot-box,
and they have a right to look TO the City Govern
ment to it. They desire that all shall exer-
else their legal privileges without molestation and
they are justified in insisting that the laws shall ac
cord them this protection. They value more than
all other rights the elective franchise, and
they may strive TO maintain it as their fathers
struggled to win it. IF the authorities permit il
to be torn from them, they may rescue
ii at every hazard. We trust no man will be
weak enough to be msled by the camor of the
partisan press, or timid enough to be overawed by
the desperadoes whose brutal passions it has sedu-
iously sought TO fan into fame. For weeks past
it has asserted or insinuated false and odious
charges against those connected with the reform
movement The meanest falsehoods have been in
vented concerning them and circulated with the
qualifying caption that they were ';rumored'' to
be true; their motives have been impurned where
not the faintest ground for suspicion was made
known and their purposes have been baselv mis-
represented when solitary fact could be altered
to support the libes. II has endeavored to bring
the advocates of this movement into disrepute and
even into danger by asserting that they have ar
rayed the rich against the poor and that they
abetted the shooting of the Acting MAYOR. We
mention these miserable ISLANDERS and low appeals
SAN'N
to public scorn. The people know that this davis
work IS TO determine something more than party
issues. It is an effort to re-estabsh the right of
suffrage that we may again be free and to yindi.
cate the broken laws that we NAV once more dwell
in safety. It seeks to restore among us that GOOD
government without which the strong live in in
security, and the weak under tyrannical oppres-
sion. 1t is "war of classes" but not in the
sense in which the demagogues have used this
phrase. 1t is struggle of the law-abiding and
decent class against the DULLES who have usurped
its rights an instruction of the disfranchised and
outraged class against the lawlessness that hourly
assails it. The people of Baltimore can be appeal
ed TO in behalf of no nobler cause than that which
the Reformers invite them 10 sustain to-day and it
becomes every citizen whose sympathies or con-
victions are enlisted in it to support it manfuly
and secure its final triumph