The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-22


ments whatever approaching the mass of vanity,
arrogance, folly, ineffciency and bad faith, into
which the 'City Executive" has become solidifed
| Mr.. SWAMI, following the fashion set of late by
sundry irritated politicians, has launched broad
and angry anathema at the press. So sweeping
are the terms in which he has couched his con-
demnation that no journal which has ever dis
sented from his views is beyond its scope, and so
monstrous the charges he prefers that none can
suffer them to pass unanswered To such ac-
cusations as these, even the most INSCRIPTIONS
among partisan papers can plead ''not guilty"
and the ''quasi-neutral press as the accuser is
pleased 10 term it, may unreservedly pronounce
them false. The indictment as framed by the
MAYOR, runs thus:
81 do not hesitate say that the press has done more
injury to this city than ten times the catalogue of rowdy
ism which it has professed to detail 1t has excited your
people to riot and bloodshed home has brought
dscredit upon good abroad 1t has been the
prolific source of many of the evils of which you COM
pain-and your trade has suffered it has been through
this agency which in its efforts patronage or
gain party ascendancy has rfed with the best
of your people. If you to other communities similar
ly situated with our own-wh the mixed popula-
tionyou will find that rowdyism is remarkable
IN TINS city than IN some of these But their business
men do not permit their evils be the constant
| tneIe OF eultOrlal comment and eXaggeration.n
That the Mayor does "not hesitate to say'' all
this causes US no special wonder, for remembering
| as we do his antecedents we have ceased to ex-
pect him to "hesitate" at any statement But
for this, we should have been surprised at such a
tissue of unfounded assertions and puerile concu-
sions. Let us examine briefly the principal alega-
| tons contained in this short extract upon which
men are asked TO convict us alike of depravtv
and folly
''The press has done more injury to this city,"
than all the rowdyism in it, and has excited sriot
''and boodshed at home" and drought dis
| credit upon our good name abroad We will
not pause now to weigh the iniquites of the press,
and the enormities of ''rowdyism' against each
other though if the MAYOR still holds these latter
to be as venial as on the day when he hailed their
triumph and accepted the office they procured him,
we might not feel disparaged by the comparison
which places us only little below them in his es-
tmation. Nor will we refute the haucination which
holds the press accountable for "riot and blood
''shed" at home, and for the disgrace which
attaches to US abroad. Suppose these absurd
averments TO have some shadow of foundation.
the still more important question as to how
these disastrous results were brought about, re-
mains TO be investigated Is it to the fabricatons
of lying writers, or TO the simple exposition of
the unyarnished truth, that the excitement so
bitterly denounced is traceable? IF a determined
resistance to wrong, an honest exposure of official
dellnquencies, an unceasing warfare against crime
and It's abettors and an open protestation against
the mal-adminiStration of justice and the laws
have caused the evils complained Of then is the
press above reproach And this we maintain to
be the case. If this city and its authorities have
been "slandered" as they say, let them point out
the instances, and make and meet the issue
Vague generalities and bald asseverations prove
nothing. 1t is an idle waste of words to lament
the distrust which refuses now to confide in the
municipal authorities and to refer to executive
procamations as evidences of good government
| Have peace and order been preserved the people
protected in their rights, and public affairs fairly
and firmly regulated? These are the questions
in dispute. Fact after fact has been adduced TO
| make manifest the utter worthlessness of the svs-
TEN under which for years past we have lived
We, ourselves, have shown the character of the
elections which Mr.. SWAMI has defended as valid:
we have named the dsreputable men whom he
has appointed to various offices, and we have dis
cussed more than one of his indefensble acts and
violated pledges. We have recorded day by day
the murders and ARRAYS, in which blood has been
shed among us, and have appealed to the ineffec-
tual indictments piled within our Court, to prove
that lawessness is almost licensed here We have
chronicled the release of the most notorious felons
on the straw bail, offered by their confederates
and accepted by magistrates throughout the civ.
We have called attention to the facts when the
Clerk OF one Court the Baif of another and
the Warden of the JAIL successfully became
security for familiar criminals. We have com
mented upon the corruption which all men be
lleved to be busy in the Council Chambers We
nave claimed, when the Warden of the Peniten-
tiary, and the police officers furnished on the eve
OF an election, the weapons with which outlaws
might control it, that they should not 90 unpun-
shed. All this we have done, in virtue of our
privilege as citizens and the duty of our call
ing. If we have spoken freely, we have not
done so in generalities, and the shameful deeds
to which our columns testify, have not been and
cannot be denied. Even now the voice of unani-
nous press cries aloud against the abuses to which
we have so patiently submitted, and thousands of
honorable citizens have openly borne witness to
our "deplorabe condition" Let those who
charge us with Misrepresentation refute, if thew
can, the facts we have so often dwelt upon, and
when Mr.. SWAMI next joins in the outcry, let him
find place amid his many paragraphs for one in
vindication of the appointments he has made. and
the election which elevated him to power
1t the press has given publicity to the wrongs
which this community is not bound silently to
bear, 1t is because in common with the free press
in all free countries it scorns the miserable suber-
fuge suggested by the MAYOR We have been
often told of late that the papers of other cities en-
deavor to conceal the crimes committed there, and
the misgovernment they endure, but we know, as
all know, the fasity of such statements and have
therefore, pursued our course We now find it re-
iterated by Mr.. SWAMI 'that their business men do
mot permit their evils to be made the constant
theme of editorial comment and exaggeration,'
and we leave the proposition, as heretofore to be
denied, as it necessarily must be- by whosoever
reads it. We have alluded to it only to lay bare
the paltry shifts resored to in order to avoid the
issues now before the people, who will best
know how to reply TO the advice which bids them
conceal the malady that afIlicts them, lest others
refuse to barter with them, and their profits
be the lighter. But let US come to that other
point in this Indictment which impugns the mo-
tives of the press. Its 'eforts to secure pa
''tronage or gain party ascendancy," have induced
it to tritie with the best interests of our CITY
Among all the papers then, which have comment
ed on our evil state, there is none without guile.
They are not misled, neither they merely care
less chroniclers but they are actuated saws the