The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-05

the journal of that Committee have been duly sub
mitted and read, and the pertinacious efforts made
as we mentioned few days ago, to prevent the
printing of the latter, have been successful. We
are therefore not yet in condition to anayze the
evidence itpurports to contain. So far as the alb
strac reported for the press enables us to Judge of
it. we are not prepared admit thatit is conclusive
as to the criminality of the members, or grantees
If some of them have been defnitively adiudged to
be guilty, as we unequivocally believe they have
been by the great mass of the community, it is
themselves who have furnished the chief testimony
on which such verdict has been rendered -
Fhe refusal OF the grantees to appear before the
Committee, or to answer candidly and fairly the
written heterogeneous propounded to them admits
of but one construction. They had challenged an
investigation, and they alone could give full inor-
nation about the means used to procure the pas-
sage of the ordinance, but they have thought
proper to stand aloof and denounce or answer with
vague evasions their accusers The case of the
members is even worse. They lie under heavier
and more disgraceful imputatons. Some of them
are avowedy connected with the building or man
agement of the road. They only can throw light
into the dark corners of the Council chamber, and
prove that devious courses have led to honest
ends 1t is for them to demonstrate that they
were neither bought nor sold. They have appa-
rently feared to face the ordeal. We read in the
examination that they have been surrounded by
official and private persons, who have not SCRUBBED
to talk together about how much it took to insure
the passage of an ordinance They themselves
have listened to conversations about the jobs to be
given out by those applying for grants, and the de-
termination of these to favor their friends. Lists
have been in circulation containing the names Of
parties to be paid for assisting to obtain this fran
chise and on these the names of members have
been noted. The statements that money has been
profusely spent, are direct and positive. Around
the whole transaction there floats an odor of
noisome corruption, dark and dense enough to
faint forever the characters of those who have
moved and breathed in it. But the men who
stand the central figures in the group on which
the searching eyes of the whole people are now d.
rected have only reved and abused those who cues
ton their purity, and they have stifed the inquiry
which sought to test the truth The consequences
of such course none can know better than they,
and they must now accept them. But there are
other questions involved in this matter of more
Importance than the purity or infamy of one or
more individuals. If the people have been unfairly
dealt with, they have a right to know it. If brib-
cry and corruption have invaded the chambers of
legislation, we ought to be afforded every oppor-
tunity to trace them through their secret wind
ings, that we may be enabled to learn whether
few worthless men have betrayed their trust and
sullied their integrity, whether the whole body
is rotten to the core. 1t is proper for us to use
every effort to discover the nature of the solcita-
tons which have been brought to bear and made
effectual to secure the passage of an important
measure. All this the publication of the journal
can help US to do. 1t is our right to demand it.
and we do so-not for the purpose of exposing the
infamy of public men-but to make manifest the
extent Of the decentralization which surrounds
and pervades the body polite, in order that the
people may take into consideration the disease
and the remedy.