The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-20

1t is known to this community that the Mayor i
clothed with the power to arrest and commit-th
Criminal Court alone has the power to punish
In my annual message to the City Council, il
January, 1858, took occasion to say:
! There are now at large in the city of Baltimore
men who are well known to the police who ar,
frequent prisoners in the station houses who if thu
power existed under the law to hold them to a pro
per accountability, would by removal effectually
terminate recurrence of scenes which are the con
slant source of embarrassment to its officers.
so far as my own efforts could be made efectual
| have done my best to give vigor to this arm Of
the service. l believe that it compares favorably
with similar organizations in sister cities.
have invited scrutiny into the conduct of the men
and have directed the most summary punishment
! in all cases of misconduct. | have insisted upon
the strictest impartality in the discharge of their
duties and have instituted the daily custom of sub
hitting duplicate reports to the Mayor in person. in
order that uniform discipline may be applied to all.
| ltmay be necessary at proper time to enquire
whether some action may not be had to strengthen
this arm of the service.
by the Inauguration of a Mayors Court as
soon as the constitutional authority be obtain
ed with summary power to interfere in all cases
where the wilful disturbance of the peace by noto
rlous and hardened Offenders and the safety of per-
son and property demands such interference
by the application of proper punishment in
all cases of arrest.
BY the prohibition, under heavy penaty.
OF the CARRYING and use of concealed weapons"
During the last session of our legislature fore
seeing how utterly poweress the Mayor of this city
must always be without some change in our organic
law, repaired to Annapolis, and with prominent
gentlemen of the party with whom acted used
my best endeavors to anticipate the call of a con-
ventlon OF the people, to rectify the glarng evils
and omissions of the existing constitution. These
efforts were not without success far as the Legs-
ature was concerned A bill was reported and re-
ceIved the final sanction of that body submitting
the question of convention to vote of the people
at the ensuing spring election. The fate of that
wellntended measure is known to the people of this
city; and we were left to struggle as best we
might, under system which, with the growth of
our population, is becoming every day more and
more intolerable
My proposition for the establishment of Mayors
Court with power to commit for six or twelve
months without ball. in cases of notorious offenders
would, by its terror, have tranquzed this city in
fOrty-eight hours. The notorious rowdies, who now
disturb your streets and create all the trouble on
days of election, would have vacated your city, or
passed into the custody of the law. Punishment
would have followed promptly the arrests made by
your police, and its certainty, while it would have
been warning to the hardened law-breaker, would
have been attended with reduction of one-half of
the expense to which the city is subject
ed, in the support of her criminal system.
Surely, telIOw-citizens. the Executive could do
no more to bring about the reform which we all so
much desire. My last expedient, although a most
onerous and disagreeabe one to me, deter
mination to exercise my power as justice of the
peace, conferred by the charter of the city. The
press has assailed me even for this wel-intended
effort to supply the garing defects of your system.
For months after its estabshment-sitting, as
have done, daily, the Sabbath not excepted had
reason to hope that remedy had at last been
found; but the events of the past six weeks satisfy
me that without the po'oer to punish, the Mayors
Court must relapse into a useless mockery.
To most of you, feow-citizens, unacquainted as
you must be with the embarrassments attending
the administration of the affairs of this office, am
quite ready to admit that blame would seem to at
tach to the Executive of this city. With an ex-
cited partisan press, always ready to distort and
magnify every occurrence of disorder, the Mayor
and police have been kept steadily in view, as the
sole cause Of all the eUis Of your system. What can
do, when an arrest is made, but turn over the of
fender to the hands of the Only tribunal empogered to
administer punishment When murder was COM
mitted, during my absence, it the fault of the
Mayor and police that the offender was at large
upon the community, and that five indictments
pending against him at the time, owing to the
crowded condition of the docket of the Court had
not been enforced? When the records of the Crimi-
nal Court will show that indictments are pending
against others, who are now at large, is the Mayor
to be held responsible, when they continue to out
rage the community, by repetition upon repetition
of their acts of lawlessneSs?
L assert felow-ctizens, and | appeal to the re-
cord to show how far | am sustained, that of the
outbreaks which have disgraced your streets during
the last twelve months those who have been charged
as participating in them, have, with very few ex-
ceptions, if any, passed through the hands of the
police.
Look at the condition of the Criminal Court of
this city at the present moment | mean no rehec-
ton upon the officers of that court. To dispose of
the awaiting trial at the coming term will re-
quire more than eight months of steady work.
Delay is sometimes almost as parayzing to the arm
of the Executives as would be total exemption from
punishment What guaranty have we for the sue
cesSful maintenance of law and order when the
facilities in procuring bail, and the delay attending
the execution of the law, will often exhibit from
one to half dozen indictments against the same
individual. Every duplication of an offence is
responsibility referable to the Courts, and not to
the Mayor Of the city.
point to you in this connection, as triumphant
illustration of all that have said, the following
extract from a communication lately published
by the States Attorney, under his own signature.
''Let US here deal in facts, and as an illustration
l will call your attention to the business of the
present (September) term.
have before me