The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-04-09

vi tne oOuthern Gem 0craCy. they mus Keep
step or TIVE in advan e. as = soutbe party, TO
hold their footing in the South, and Mr.. Douglas
will have leave to s,irrenl .r or to fight it out
He will not surrender-and, what then? Let US
wat b aoo wait Tie very air is charged with
,ne 81 n ents Of a general political revolution.
The QrADEurE EXECUTION N BALTIMORE
TIN MURDER CALENDAR.-In the city Of Balti-
more yesterday, four young men suffered the
death pei atty for three murders committed
der circumsta ices eInnently disgracefu to the
iliza'ion OF he age. See report in another
co,umb OF this mornings paper.
Our readers are aware that the Monu-
mental City has an unenviable notoriety on
account of the extreme ferocity of its rowdy
population. They combine the brutality of
the Indian Thug with the cowaraice of the
European ASSASSIN. They are organized in
separate factions, and as such sway elections by
the argument of the knife and the revolver. A
Gambril, was arrested while engaged in riot.
lie sho. and killed the policeman, Benton, who
made the arrest. A brother officer Rigdon, who
saw the murder committed, and was the chief
witness against Gambrill, was threatened with
the fate Of Benton in the event Of his testifyng
in the case. Rigdon did his duty Gambrill was
convicted; whereupon two others of the same
gang, named Marion Crop and Peter Corrie
epcompassed the death of Rigdon They
killed him on his own threshold. The fourth
murderer, CyIhus, was convicted Of the MUIR
der OF a man in house of evil repute This
execution calendar, for one day, reminds one Of
those dark Fridays in the last century, when the
London hangman never had less than one, aud
sometimes three or four wretches trussed for the
halter.
Nor are Baltimore rowdies alone re-
sponsible for the plethoric condition of
| the murder calendar. In our own State we
| have three or four persons under sentence of
deatb-James Stephens, for poisoning his wife {;
| Mary Hartung, convicted putting her husband
| to death in the same manner, and O'Brien for
the murder of his wife. Besides these, there are
no less than twelve persons now in the Tombs
charged with the crime of murder. The telegraph
yesterday gave US the information that two Cana
dians had been convicted of killing their wives,
and one had already heen sentenced to death.
| In Virginia, man named johnson has been con-
victed of poisoning his wife, and in the same
State woman is awaiting trial for q similar Of
| fence against her husband.
At the same time we have the decision of Co
vernon Morgan In the case of Mrs. Hartmg, and
it seems singularly appropriate. He, in view of
the rapid increase of crimes of the same nature as
that which she has committed, refuses to interfere
with the due course flaw and Mrs. Hartung will
be hanged. 1t is time that there was some such
example made. Between the stupidity of the
law officers and the tender heartedness of Go
vernors, it has come almost to be an axiom that
there is to be no punishment for any crime, if the
criminal has money and friends. Thus no one is
safe from the pistol or knife Of the street rufian
or the secret poison OF a treacherous servant or
relation. During the last twenty years the
| philanthropists have so far humanized the
| criminal code that in their over anxiety for
murderers they have forgotten the protection
| that the law is expected to give to society.
Mercy should temper justice; but mercy is not
that maudlin sympathy that deifes the murderer
| and makes martyr of him.
The men who were hanged yesterday at Balti-
more had led short but lawless, wicked and dis
solute lives. They were strangled like so many
dogs, and it is to be hoped that all like them
and there are some within the sound of our City
Hall bell-will, if they so offend, meet with
similar fate Something must be done to dimi-
nsh the catalogue Of great CT mes, and if the law
is made imperative by the small politicians who
people will De likely to take matters into their
own hands
/ THE New CRY RAILROADS.&C. a late hour