The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-01-25

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and may produce it as a fiat bar to any further
proceedings therein. 1t is great triumph of
party diplomacy.
Never, we believe, was any measure of Legisla-
tive Reform called for with greater unanimity, or
based upon stronger grounds of justice and neces-
sity, than the New Police Bill, now pending in the
General Assembly at Annapolis. We are quite
sure that we speak within bounds, when we say
that nine-tenths of the people of Baltimore are in
favor of the Bill. There were nearly ten thousand
signatures appended to the Memorial of the Re-
formers, and these for the most part the names of
men Of substance and position, representing
large majority Of the wealth and intelligence of
the city. In fact, with the exception of the out
laws who are dependent upon the present police
for protection and the office-holders whoowe their
promotion to the unholy alliance between author
ty and crime, days Of Election, and who look for
present emolument and prospective advantage TO
continuance of the same combination Of
violence and fraud, we hear of no opposition to
the Police Bill in any quarter As to
resistance to the Bill, we do not apprehend it in
the least. The intimat:on to that effect contained
in the preamble and resolutions introduced into
the First Branch of the City Council, on Monday
evening, by Mr.. SrEDDEN, piece of bravado,
equally senseless and impairment, and one which
the Legislature will know how to treat with be-
coming contempt We should as soon think of
needing the insane clamors of the partisan journals
which, every morning and evening, call upon the
MAYOR and the Clubs to resist the bill by force of
arms, and threaten to inaugurate in Baltimore
ew War Of independence! Ruffianism has only
triumphed hitherto through the completely of the
authorities. Stripped of the protection which the
police have heretofore accorded TO criminals, ii
will become powerless to harm. We do not anti
cipate therefore, the slightest disturbance upon the
passage of the Bill Its only the consciousness of
impending defeat and punishment which causes
the rowdies, and the politicians who are leacued
with them, to rave, as they do, against the Bill.
If, however, we attach little consequence to the
menaces by which the opponents of the Bill in
this city are seeking to deter the Legislature from
passing 1t, we attach even less to the arguments
by which it is attempted to establish its uncon-
stitutionatv. The assumption that the peo-
pie of Baltimore have any inaienable
rights other than those which they possess in
common with the people of the counties, or any
peculiar privileges which they do not owe exclu-
sivey to the bounty of the Legislature, is simply
preposterous. The municipal franchises which we
enjoy, the Legislature gave and the Legislature
can take away. Municipal authority derives its
only title to obedience and respect from the Acts
Of Legislature creating, limiting, defining, and
enlarpino it publir in +l,o -,
stance dictated the delegation of certain powers
OF local administration TO authorities of local
creation. As it was optional with the Legislature
to make the grant, it is discretionary with the
same body, at any time to modify, alter, or repeal
It, Nor is the interest of the Legislature in the
premises less clear than its authority The city
OF Baltimore is none the less part of the State Of
Maryland, bound to the same aleniance and
entitled TO the same protection, with the rest
Of the State. If crimes are committed in this
city, it is against the peace and dignity of the
State of Maryland that they are committed-ir
violation OF State laws-in contempt of the State
authority, and against the persons and property O
citizens of the State, of strangers entitled tc
lis protection. If it is, in any measure, the faul
of the local police that these crimes are committed
and their perpetrators suffered to escape punish
ment, and even the formality of arrest it is not
only the right but the duty of the State to inter.
fere for the correction of the evil. We who
live in Baltimore have a right to demand
that we shall be as we'll cared for as ou]
iellow-citizens of Anne Arundel of Frede
rick, or of Somerset. FLY reason of the charac
ter or extent of orr population we are exposed tc
extraordinary dangers, such as the dwellers in re-
mote rsral districts or by peaceful bay-shores are
happily exempt from-we are entitled to extraor
binary provision for our safety. The traveller
passing through our borders the stranger soourn
ing ut our hotels, has right TO expect the same
protection in every portion of the State ANY
other view of the duty of the State and the right
of the citizen, is inconsste Mt with the perfect SOW
eregny Of the former, and the allegiance due from
the latter.
In respect to the Election Law, against which
objections equally puere with those urged agans
the Police Bill have been sometimes paraded in tn
columns of the partisan press, the argument i
equally plain. 1t is no answer to the facts which
establish the necessity for such law, to say tina
the Bill proposes one law for Baltimore and an
other for the rest of the State and is therefore un
constitutional and unjust. Apart from the fact tina
the Bill imposes no new restriction upon tn
exercise Of the right of suffrage, but simply
introduces such safeguards against illegal vo
ting and for the personal protection O
voters, as recent experience has demonstrated t,
be necessary, and the GOVERNOR and the MAYol
are agreed that additional legislation is re
quired to suppy-if it be proven that the purit,
of the ballot-box in Baltimore is in greater DANCE
than in any other portion of the State-greate
care should be taken to avert that danger. Tn
people of the whole State have an interest in tn
ballOt-box in Baltimore. 1t is their ballot-box a
well as ours. They are affected by the results i
records as directly and equally with ourselves
The Senator and Delegates who represent Bal ii
more in the Legislature, make laws for the peopl
of the whole State and the people of the who'll
State have right to see that they are legal,
and properly chosen. A fraudulent majority O
10000 or 20, 600 votes in the city of Baltimore
may, and probably would, elect a Governor O
Comptroller for the State, or determine the vot
of the State in Presidential Election. 1t is foil
to assert that if man is murdered or ballot-bo,
stuffed, in Baltimore. it is private matter inter
esting only to ourselves-a domestic grievance fo
the redress of which others have no right to inter
fere. The authority of the Legislature to bass tb
Police and Election Bills is too plain to admi, q
controversy. The obligation to pass them ia tb
only question to be considered. This we think
the history OF the last four years, and the ecor,
of the last Election Day, abundantly establish =
As no LAWYER in his senses, or having the slightes
regard for his professional reputation, would Civ
it as his opinion that the proposed Laws are un
constitutional so no honest man will affirm tina
they are not necessary. As I'VE have said-that is
point upon which nine-tenths of the community