The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-08-18
Who shall enumerate

Who shall enumerate
the cases yet more numerous in which the knife,
the pistol, and the slung-shot have manned but not
destroyed the victims of intended assassina-
ton? Let the impartial reader review the list or
shooting and stabbng ARRAYS recorded by the
press, and learn from it how many have been per-
petrated by men who had they but received
the retrbuton due for previous crimes,
would never have found the opportunity for their
repetition. He will find too, that where one has
been held accountable, score have gone unwhipt
of justice. The aborer at his work. and the
peaceful citizen while taking his recreation, have
alike been sufferers. Banded outlaws accustomed
to the largest license have gathered strength and
boldness day by day. In the affairs of business
and ofpleasure men have purchased at their hands
peace. The most abandoned ruffans among US
have not only been thus paid and subsidized but
even delegated oexercSe various functions and pre-
negatives of honor and trust for honest citizens Ar
rested, it maybe for an offence one dav they have
been sent to a convention or nominated for an office
the next. Ifany have CHANGED TO die felons DEATH
pious people have glOrifed them in their last hours
and vrtnous especabiliy has attended in sorrow at
their graves. ALL and more than all this we have
witnessed during our ''briefexistence." Not crowd
ed into one short hour of wild anarchy, these
things have followed each other in an unbroken
series as month has followed month. Appalling
as they are they not the less indisputably true
We have not magnifed the occurrences to which
we have alluded. As we have reported them from
time to time in our columns we have commented
on them as in orr Judgment the occasion required
N ba,-o G.; lo,;
ais and unrestrained vtuperaton. Instead of unit
ing in an expression of honest indignation, we have
seen portion of the press diligen to frame excuses
for these wrongs or solicitous to conceal them
1t has told the people ''not to whine over'' the
usurpation that deprived them of their rights
1t has asked them to trust to the capacity
and integrity of the best of MAYORS, after
two years experience had demonstrated his
want of both. 1t has denounced all expo
sure as injurious to the trade of Baltimore. 1t
has termed it libellous personality TO mention the
names Of notorious wrong-doers, and their official
aiders and abettors. When armed outlaws under
took TO avenge the exposure of one outrage by
the preparation of another which yet remains I'M
punished it boldly intimated that they had provo
cation, and were therefore to be excused To
express continually an adherence of brutal vio-
lence, was to claim to be more virtuous than ones
neighbors. To recognize the fact that there are
persons high in position and influence who COM
mand the respect of no decent man in this commu-
nifty, was to assume a degree of political purity
more exalted than is attainable by ordinary
mortalS But enough of these innuendoes and insin-
uations. 1t was necessary SO far to recapitulate
or1a 10 +I,o
our accusers. We rest our defence against
all such charges upon the recorded state
ments to be gathered from the last years files
of any of our contemporaries. We will mai4tain
it further by appeal to the rights Of free press
in free country. We neither retrac nor apologize
for augh that we have slid or done. Having no in
terest outside of the city in which we live, and no
success to reap save through the support and APP
probation of its people, we would not disparage
the one nor unnecessarily offend the other. Nor
will do this community the injustice to believe,
that knowing, as it does, how vices grow by what
they feed on-how crimes multiply and criminals
are emboldened as men become familiar with and
tolerate their presence-it is willing for small
and selfish ends to hide the cankerous evils that
afllict it, until they eliminate in general corrup
ton. If press and people can accord in laud-
ing such a course, all hope of a better future must
indeed be abandoned. Exposure and punishment
are the only methods by which crime can be
checked eradicated, and we. shall still do
what we best may to apply the former remedy
and to urge those upon whom the laws have de-
volved the power and the duty--to an memorable
application Of the latter.