The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-09-08

On Thursday evening, when the friends of Judge
DOUGLAS. who h,d been listening to his speech in
front of the Gilmor House, were about leaving the
Square, a man mounted "the abutment' of the
Battle Monument and proposed three cheers for
BELL and EVERETT. The police arrested the en-
thusiastc individual and bore him off to the Sta
ton House, whereupon, says our reporter "much
dissatisfaction was expressed, and the action of
the police appears to have been regarded by por-
ton of the crowd as grave infringement of the
privileges of the citizen III "a free country" Some
of the noisiest and most ardent sympathiZers with
this victim of oppression, insisting upon the right
of every man t'to hurrah for whom he pleased,
were intensely disguised at what seemed to their
unthinking minds despotic exercise of authority.
We refer to the incident again, not because it is in
itself matter of the slightest Importance, but
simply because it illustrates the absurd notions
that prevail among not inconsiderable class of
people. Here was a man who had thrust himself
into an excited crowd composed mainly of per-
SONS whose political feelings were widely different
from his, and although they had met for the pur-
pose of giving expression 10 their own sentiments,
he insisted on making his known, and that in a
way both impertinent and offensive. Having the
right as he assumed to ''hurrah for whom he
''pcased he apparently thought it hard that he
Gould not shout for his favorite candidate at
meeting of his political opponents to which he was
not invited, and he would have thought it still
harder if he had not been protected by the officers
against the consequences of n collision which he
was so papably endeavoring to provoke. That
such proceeding was well calculated to lead to
breach of the peace every one knows perfectly
well, and the conduct of the police cannot be too
highly commended. That they did their duty i'm
partially we do not for an instant doubt, for we
have seen enough on similar occasions TO warrant
this belief When the Democratic Convention was
in session in this city we more than once witnessed
the interference of the police to prevent any dis
turbance at the BRECKENRIDGE and DOUGLAS meet
ings, which were held simultaneously in the Square.
1t is n fact within our own knowledge that the
adherents of one wing of the Convention were not
suffered to interrupt the orators who were Speaking
in behalf of the other The course now pursued by
the police is the one they then, and have ever
since followed and it is so just and so proper that
it is surprising any be found supremacy
foolish enough to object to it. He must, indeed,
nave strange luet vi Tue purposes LOT WHICH laws
are made and of the duties devolving upon those
charged with their enforcement, who imagnes that
because this is a "lree country" he ought to be
allowed the utmost latitude of speech without re-
gard to the time or place when or where his
caprice might lead him to exercise it. The coun-
try would be too "free' for decent people to live
in if the authorities were unable to compel those
who confound liberty and license, to treat the
opinions and feelings of the rest of the community
with at least the semblance of respect.