The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-10-11
BALTIMORE.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER IL, 1850

In the mid flush of excitement and rejoicing, it
is difficult 10 express TO our readers, with becom-
ing soberness the heartfelt congratulations which
the victory of yesterday awakens and deserves =
We are almost tempted to let the returns of the
election tell their story, in its fulness and re.
ssuls. leaving every true man who reads them to
measure our OVERLOOKING exultaiion 10y his own
But The triumph has been SO glorious and so COM
plete-so wholly free Of every circumstance that
could weaken its force illustration of
the lecuperaive virtue and elastic energy of
republican institutons-that we cannot let
it pass without the warmest expression Of
our gratitude and joy. Only men who have been
bearing, for years past, the yoke of intolerabe
and degrading despotsm, such as that which was
crushed out among us yesterday, can realize the
depth and earnestness Of the feeling with which
we look upon its ruins, knowing that it has fallen
beneath the peaceful and manly blows f an eman-
cpated people, welding only the weapons of the
right and the law. The boldes and most I'M
scrupulous advocate of the enormities which the
vote of yesterday has brought to such an ignomin-
ious close cannot dare, in the face of this commu
nifty and in the light of the glaring truth, TO as
sert that in solitary one of the eighty precincts
which have almost unanimously upheld the cause
and the candidates of Reform, there was single
wrong done; a single voter deprived of his rights,
or inundated in their exercise; a single citizen,
whether foreiM or native-born, made the victim,
in any degree, of rullian violence on the one side
or official awlessness on the other. Throughout
the fngth and breadth of the city, the peace of a
Sabbath reigned; every officer of the law at the
post Of duty, and unobtrusively ready TO obey its
call; every private citizen as conscious of security
and freedom as if guarded by an army with ban
ners. Everywhere was felt and seen the omnipo-
tent yet silent. presence of the law, armed only
to shelter and defend. From the moment when
VIC first gave 10 the cause of Reform our
humble, but faithful support-through all the
dscomftures and Disappointment which that
cause and its followers have undergone-we
have never ceased to believe and reiterate that the
people of Baltimore, if once allowed such an op.
portunity OF expressing their free will at the
ballot-box, would cast out, utterly and forever,
the devils of which they were possessed. Through
good report and through evil report-sometimes
reproached by friends for over-zeal, and always
denounced by enemies, hidden and covert, as
animated by personal hostility and private hatred
we have chung, without fatering to our convic
ton, that the true and manliuess and virtue
of our people, were on our side and with our
ca1se, and would so proclaim themselves
with their first free vote. That moment
has come at last, and Reform Mayor,
and City Council wholly of Reformers,
have been lifted into power by maiorities so en-
ormous and amid the shouts of triumph so
overwhelming, as TO beggar the most enthusiastic
expectations. Every hope and desire of the great
conservative movement with which we have
acted, has been realized, and our community
stands once more where it was before the depart
ing dynasty dragged it down and degraded it-a
self governing people, knowing its rights and
peacefully main tanning them. OF all those who
have contributed most conspicuously to this tri-
umphant restoration of our city's good name, it
is impossible, at the late moment at which we
write, duly to speak-but it would i'll become us
TO let the occasion pass, without the reiteraton of
our gratitude to our fellow citizens of the coun-
ties of Maryland az represented in the last
Legislature, to whom we are indebted for
the opportunity and power to set our
selves free. To the admirable laws which
they gave us, and the able and most faithful and
efficient Board, to which they committed the deli
cate and extensive police power of our city, our
obligations can scarcely be overpaid. Nor can we
refrain from Offering that need of praise which is
SO justly due and so universally rendered. to the
Marshal of Police, his Deputy and men, for the
honest, thorough, and at the same time moderate
and perfectly impartial spirit, in which they per-
formed their difficult task. They have nailed, for
ever, to the counter, the official asperson so often
levelled Of late against people and their gov
ernment that it not in the power of the Off
GERS Of the law 10 secure peaceful election in Bal
timo!e. A word is perhaps due, in conclusion,
to the enemies over whom the good cause has tri-
mnnphed-- thel udians who openly conspired against
law and right, and the demagogues and knaves,
in Office and out of Office who spurred them on
in secret, and profted by their infamy With the
Former the courts of justice may now we think,
be left TO deal. To the latter, the election re-
turns ofyesterday are perhaps punishment enough
for the present, though we hardly promise them
that the future will be more pleasant Finally, let
us say, once and for ALL that in the great triumph
IN which so many have won an honorable share
no man can Justly claim, and no fair man man or
true Reformer will pretend TO claim, party vico-
ry or party advantage. The great success is the
work of the good men and true of all parties, and
he would be traitor 10 the cause who should seek
or wish ito prove it otherwise