The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-04-11

Few travellers who have published their expe-
nences in America have succeeded in conveying
to the public abroad an accurate idea of our peo-
pie or Institutions. They may he intelligent and
ohServant, and we may often look in vain through
their pages for any isolated statement which we
can pronounce to be absolutely untrue, but never
less The impression produced upon their readers is
highly un!avorabe 10 us, and we feel that the es-
innate they are led to folm of our country is
grossly unjust. We know that men do travel
from Maine to Texas without being compelled to
draw their reyoIvers or bowie-kniyes throughout
tNe Journey-that they do not all spit tobacco juice
deliberately over ladies' dresses-and that slang
ana ha@Phcmy do not constitute the staple of
ther conversation. Weknow that ruiiians do not
t}rannIze over the rest of the community in all
our cites, and compel the municipal governments
10 DO their bidding, and that there are representa-
yves IN Congress who are n3ther backguards nor
bu!lies. Bat, somehow or other, notions TO the
contrary have been disseminated, and when we
undertake to reute them we are embarrassed by
the multitude of stubborn and indisputable facts
which are brought forward 10 support them. If
any European tourist has, during the past year,
been preparing new ''Notes on America - for the
press, we may expect repetition the descriptions
which DICKENS and Mrs. TRoLLopE have heretofore
given 10 the world In illustration CT our con-
tempt for law numerous cases will be cited in
each of which some individual has avenged his
wrongs by the OsentatiOus murder of his enemy.
We may insist that crimes are committed all the
world over, and that their prevention is impossi-
bic. But We can say nothing, if together with
the leading circumstances of every case, the APP
proving verdict of the jury, and. the
eommendatory comments of the press are also
quoted. Election riots will be referred to- TO prove
that what We call government is simple anarchy,
and the narrator may describe at length some
such scene as we ourselves have witnessed. He
may tell how he stood in the very centre of city
whose population was numbered by hundreds of
thousands, and saw desperate band of thieves
and cut-'hroats stand by the polls with rifles in
Their hands, and make the popular will conform
to their dlctation. We may family aver that
mobs occur sometimes in other places: but when
1t is further related that neither the authorities
nor people opposed these proceedings, and ey
tracts from contemporary papers are repubshed
10 snow ihat such atrocities have been customary
blush and. be silent Our manners and habits
too, VIII he supposed TO be in the main like Those
of the individuals who represent us in WASHING
ton, and IT IS not improbable that many incidents
will be collected from the proceedings of Con.
gress, and much billingsga'e culled from the
debates, as examples of our vulgarity. In
the earlier part of the session epithets were ban.
died between members, from which writer.
who desires specimens of low language, may
make choice selection. The history of one
day would furnish astonished stranger sufi-
Gent matter for reflection and comment. The
frantic blasphemies of Mr.. LovEJoY, and the fierce
replies OF his opponents, for instance, seldom find
tne'r counterparts in the other deliberative
bes OF the civilized world. The report travel
Ter wouia give of them would be anything but
gratifying TO us. He would be comnelled to relate
how the excited orator pronounced the ndoctrine
of the democrats to be ''the doctrine of devils
las well" and exclaimed 81 LII 1T