The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-10-04


setting with such tremendous force in favor OF
municipal reform No appeal has been spared
that is likely to stimulate the zeal arouse the
prejudices of their partisans. Among the many
arguments which have been addressed to the sup
porters of Mr. HINDEs, that which contests the
propriety of the new Police Bill has been most
yehemently pressed. 1t is not only asserted that
the interference of the Legislature was wholly
unnecessary, but the measure itself is stigmatized
as an arbitrary and oppressive one, and the con-
duct of the officers appointed under it is contin-
ually denounced. The Courts have affirmed the
legality of this tyrannous act against which all
the rufianism of the town protested, and under
which some of the lawyers who disputed its valid
ity, feared that their 'rights and liberty" were
no longer safe. No one therefore, now counsels
resistance to the law, but the people are urged to
indicate through the ballot box their adherence
of this 'Iegislative despotism," and TO express
through the same channel their disapprobation of
the manner in which it has been carried into exc
cuton We presume that those who participated
in the reform movement a year ago, will be per-
fectly well satisfied to see the issues in the ap-
preaching canvass narrowed down to mere
opponents of the Police Bill If ma
iority of the people of this community
think that measure was indefensbe or injudicious,
or that its results have not been such as should
determine all right-minded men to sustain it., then
the Reform movement may be admitted to have
been ameutable failure, and it is scarcely worth
while for those who desire TO push it still further,
to ask the public TO support it. But upon this
point we have no msgivings. With the record
of last years occurrences before u.s. we cannot for
moment imagine that The people of Baltimore
have so soon forgotten the insults and injuries
which were heaped upon them; or that they will
fail, now that the opportunity is theirs, to rebuke
and punish the authorities who so long and so
contemptuously denied them adequate protection.
1t is impossible to compare the present with
the past without a sense of thankfulness for
the change which, through the instrumental
ity of the Legislature, has been wrought in
the condition of this city. But a little while
ago We were at the mercy of as brutal and
reckless set of desperadoes as ever bearded JUS
tice In any frontier settlement. Murder was fa-
mar thing, for it was committed oftener than
the months came round. In an article which APP
peared in this journal in the summer of 1859,
in which we commented on our then de-
plorable condition, we remarked: t'The names of
''BENToN RIGDoN, ARMSTRONG, CoNNERY, FISCHER,
''KING, PATTERSON, RICHARDSON, o BRIEN, LEYBURN,
''CHRoNIsTER, TAYLOR, DUFFEY, and EsJANIs re-
''mind us of some of the bloody graves that have
"been filled within twevemonth from the date
rat which we write" 1t was in the middle of
August that this article appeared, and to its
CHASTITY list ofmurders nine more were added before
the year was out. The occasions on which men
were beaten stabbed, and shot in the open streets
were so frequent that we should be compelled to
refrain from enumerating them, even if we de-
sired to advert to them specifically. Nor need we
dwell upon the desperate ARRAYS between rnffan
clubs; nor the wanton outrages to which the I'M
offending participants in every picnic and
steamboat excursion were sure to be subjected:
nor the browning atrocities which rendered each
election day hellish carnival. Day after day
during that lawless period, gangs of well known
thieves and outlaws were congregated at various
points in the city, and the police, knowing
that they held the neighborhoods, which they
infested, in terror, seldom dared to modest
them. Night after night, the report of the
revolver broke upon the ear, and few persons
startled by the sound so familiar had it
grown to be. We present, in these remarks, no
overstraned picture of Baltimore as it was. Let
any candid man compare it with Baltimore as it
is. How often now does band of rowdes drive
the laborer from his work and dictate terms to
his employer? How long would a knot of pick
pockets and DULLES be allowed to render one of
off l,o oft
that scarcely any citizen would venture
in it. either by day or by night Who an
ticipates, as q probable thing, that the police
will, at the ensuing election, help hand
full of blackguards to take possession of the
polls and that all the authorities who control them
will afterwards denyo prevarcate about the facts?
If, them the people realize the nature and extent
of the change which has been effected and value
the peace and security it has brought them, they
should do something more than commend it. 1t
is their duty 10 manifest their approval of the new
order of things by doing all they to uphold it.
There are, we know, some persons who are fully
persuaded that the restoration of law and order
here is to be attributed altogether to the reforma-
ton which has taken place in the Criminal Court.
We will not, at this moment, discuss that propo-
stion But we conjure them to pause before they
determine to act upon that theory - before
they vote for man who helped to bolster up Judge
SruMP-before they sustain the partisans who now
hold power only by virtue of the stupendous and
transparent fraud by which Mr.. SWAMI profted,
and to which he knows bis police were accessories
Any man who can conscentiously believe that iftbe
old polcef was re-estabshed and restored to Mr.
SWAMI, the rights of every citizen would be as
honestly respected and as fully protected as they
are now, has some justification for voting for Mr..
HrNDEs. But unless he SO believes, it is his tin-
questionable duty to take part with those who adj
vocated the Police Bill, and who wish to give
to the force it created fair encouragement and an
honest trial. Mr. HNDEs' friends are avowedly
hostile TO the new organization and we have every
reason to presume they will use thepower of the
C;tv Government to thwart or break down the
commissioners. The act of the last Legislature
rescued the people of Baltimore from impending
ruin. 1t remains for them to say whether 'ney
approve and will maintain it,