The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-01-19
BALTIMORE.
THURSDAY, JANUARY l9. 1860

in any quarter about the propriety of passing a
Registry Law. We have not now for the first
time 10 express our conviction of the necessity Of
such a measure, nor has any thing occurred which
has modified or changed our opinion. In no part
of the State has the tone of the public mind, with
reference TO the exercise Of the right of suffrage
ever risen to the pitch contemplated by the Con-
stitution which entrusts every citizen with the
privilege of voting-but here in Baltimore it has
sunk so low as to require restoration and strength
eninc by every means which can reasonably be |
boped TO have a favorable influence We must |
if possble elevate this franchise in the mind of
its possessor and TO effect this we know of nothing
which promises better than to compel him to adj
vance his claim, establish its validity and place it
on record prior to attempting TO exercise his
right. We believe there is no sound constitu-
tional objection to a Registry Law and we regard
with profound disgust the pretences of inconve-
nence and expense which offered against it.
We do not hesitate to say that people fit for
universal suffrage who are not prepared to en-
counter any difficulty to render that suffrage as
pure as it is general. Complaints have never been
heard about the trouble and cost of registering
our evidences of property Men pay cheerfully
for recording wills, deeds, bills of sale-nay the
charge for procuring patents of naturalization as
preliminary to voting has never been considered
onerous; nor has the time spent in visiting public
Offices, comparatively few and far between for
these purposes, been deemed i'll spent But when
it is asked that shall, in any halfh ont of
ten DAYS, walk few squares to establish his right
to perform that great act of citizenship, upon
which not only his property, but his life, pursuit
of happiness and the common liberty and secu-
rity of the whole country depend, we are to be
told, it is troublesome and expensive forsooth-
Had we the power, the Registry law should pay
its own way, by eXacting n fee-perhaps the price
of an omnibus ticket, or glass of lager beer.
from every individual applying for registration.
1t is certainly refreshing, and calculated to in
crease our respect for human consistency and good
sense to hear men talk of voters being excluded
by the trouble and expense of registering, who
themselves have not ventured to vote for years,
and who have spent more money IN purchasing
arms-whch they have never had the courage to
Use in defence of their right to vote
than would register themselves, and all their
descendants in the next hundred years. 1t
is doubly cool to hear of frauds, for want of
residence or Identification of the voter, as being
possible under Registry law, from those who are
aware that men have voted here rs many as
sixty-two times at single election, without other
residence than imprisonment in coop, and
without other precaution against discovery than
the borrowing of u name, or the change OF
'swrap-rascal' To assume that the multiplica-
ton of polling places will prevent frauds, in our
I hos pt fp1InI
in any of the elections here that the smaller wards
are exempt in the proportion of their numbers
On the contrary it was just in these that the most
claring frauds were effected, On the occasion of
the last election of Mayor SWAMI, the fourth
ward with eleven or twelve hundred actual votes,
returned nearly twenty-siX hundred. Had we had
seventy, instead of twenty, ballot boxes, at the
November election, we might have had sixty-nine
filed with the votes of the coops and cribs and
brothes instead of nineteen. This could not
happen, of course to snch an extent, and possibly
to no hurtful extent with honest judges aud well
organized and handled police. Yet, had the last
Legislature of this State passed just such police
and election laws as we are asking for, it
will scarcely be pretended that the ends we now
hope to compass, would have been secured. 4
pri9ri, our existing municipal system in all its
Details must have been regarded as best, because,
with all the choice we now have, that system was
adopted in preference to any other. Tt is only
experience which has developed lis evils. and he
would have been unanimously denounced as
sanderer, if not chained as iunatic, who should
have predicted, at the commencement Of Mr.
SWANS administration, the scenes which have
marked its progress, or suggested in advance Of
the fact the possibility of that internal league
between authority and crime which has over
thrown our dearest rights and trodden them in
the mire. We hope, and believe, in common will
all those who, with u.s. give their ardent an(
Election Laws-that vast good will be effected by
them. Take these measures as they are pre-
sented - in the spirit in which they have beer
conceived-wih the men selected to carry them
out, and guarantee us such a spirit and such men
in all the future, and possibly we might be salts
fed that enough had been done With a good
police, election crimes would be diminished, with
all other crimes; and with honest election judges
frauds would be extremely difficult. But, because
we have sonnd reason to hope that the present
Legislature, alarmed at the impending peril o.
social dissolution in this great metropolis viii
waive considerations which have usually beer
found too potent with other Legislatures anG
give us, not partisans, but honest and brave
men to enforce these laws in that just anG
equal spirit which alone render then
a benefit instead of q curse-we know of no portion
of human experience which authorizes us to expect
when the machinery has worn smooth, anG
the onerouS and responsible duties of the outse
shall have assumed proportions apparently dimin
ished in comparison with the emouments and th,
patronage, that such will continue 10 be the case
Nor does this argument prove too much by striking
as it may seem to do, at the root of all legsla
ton which will not execute itself Ou
object is to create further distrust of the meas
ures now proposed-of all, in fact which may b
proposed-than is necessary 10 prevent them, on
and ALL from being regarded in the light of
specific. Without proper care, the new Police an(
Election measures may be turned into engines O
tremendous oppression. Without proper care,
Registry Law may be made the mother of frauds
worse, because more secure, than any that hav
hitherto been perpetrated. But arguments from
abuse really worth little consideration. If W
pause to ponder all the consequences which an in
genons imagination may suggest, we shall accom-
plish nothing. The good faith of the Legislature
is responsible for its intentions its wisdom for tn
manner in which its will may be expressed in tn
laws. Beyond this, it is useless to look. In al
human affairs, we reach point where reason fails
and where We must be content in some respects
to take the chances. Abating therefore, not on
iot Of our zeal in behalf of the Police and Electo,
laws, we must urge the passage of Registry Law
as one not yielding in Importance to any other
Such is our sentiment-such the sentiment of
very large majority of the people of Baltimore
and such especially the sentiment of the Resormers
as evinced in The last meeting of the City Conven
ton. Looking upon the registration as a matte
OF sound principle, rather than mere expediency
as privilege, rather than a restriction; as a RICH
TO be demanded rather than an inconvenience t.
he grumblingy submitted to- we would fain, a
we have heretofore said its blessings and benefit
extended over the whole State. If that be to-
much to hope for, ask it as a local measure
for this city only--eTperjmentum IN corpore ell
you villa cantery to be applied where the canoe
exists. Upon the principles which have hther
governed Maryland Legislation, local measure
demanded by a county or city are not often denied
We pledge ourselves that seldom has any been s,
unanimously desired or one which Vould he :,