The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-01-24


having, in defiance of public opinion and the ex-
pcit provisions of an ordinance, accomplished all
their purposes in this city, seeking to obtain
from the Legislature a recognition of the rights
they claim. As they managed TO overcome all
the opposition which was arrayed against them
here, it is not impossible they may find means
to defeat any combination of their opponents in
Annapolis. When they have procured their char
ter, they may entrench themselves behind its pro-
visions aud to about the validity or in
validity Of the ordinance from which their present
privileges are derived, for the statute which incor
porates them will be operative as an act of grace,
which pardons previous offences and absolves from
punishment all who committed them. After it
is passed, no further inquiries will ever be made
concerning the previous proceedings of the Com
pany, and the means adopted by it to secure its
ends, will be, in manner, legalized.
We should certainly regard anything that
interfered, even temporarily, with the working
of the road as public misfortune The
passenger railway is an improvement which we
have long desired to see introduced here, not only
on account of the manifold conveniences it affords
our citizens but because we believe it is calculated
to enhance the value of property throughout
the city. But there are some questions
connected with this matter that rise far
above those involving selfish or merely
pecuniary considerations 1t has been openly
charged, ard it is generally believed, that
Illegal and corrupt influences were resorted to,
to secure their objects, by the parties to whom
the City Council granted this monopoly. Before,
therefore, the Legislature furnishes this corpora
ton with what may be called a clean bill of
health, and places it in a position to resist any
further effort to call it to account for its past
equivocal proceedings, it becomes that body to
make some investigation into the circumstances
under which the ordinance referred to was adop-
ted. A committee, empowered to examine wit
nesses under OATH and to send for books and
papers, could readily elicit information that the
Committee of the City Council vainly sought to
obtain. 1t could not compel the guilty parties,
if any there lie, TO criminate themselves and
might, therefore, fail to force them to q full dis
closure of their affairs but it could readily get at
facts enough to satisfy itself as to the
truth or ftsehood of the charges which have been
made. There persons, we are aware
who are willing to compromise these questions
and to pass whatever of fraud or irregularity
may surround the transaction, in consideration of
the advantages accruing to the city from the COM
petion of the work. though initiated under such
auspices. How far the code of private morals
will justify such sacrifice of right to expediency,
it is for individuals TO determine, but It is clearly
incumbent upon the State TO set a loftier example.
1t cannot, without gross neglect of duty, palliate
tolerate or ignore iniquity; and yet it does this
whenever it has reason to believe a wrong has
been pcrpetrated and declines to seize the oppor-
tnnity to probe it to the bottom. Not only
does public justice demand that exposure should
always follow fraud, and reparation as far as pos
sible be insisted on, but, for the prevention of
similar enormities in the future, the Legislature
ought to examine strictly case such as the
history of the Passenger Railway presents If
department of the municipal government, or any
Of its agents have, as is currently alleged, been
tempered with and corrupted, those who have been
connected with so nefarious business should
be prevented from realizing any profit from
it. Unless such people are taught that retli-
button will sooner or later overtake them, they
will the more unblushingly pursue hereafter the
practices they have found to be both safe and lu-
crative, and legislative bodies and public offices
will inevitably and speedily become as venal as
many suppose them to be now. 1t is seldom that
the Courts have opportunities of exposing such
abuses IS we allude TO, for those who are impli-
Gated are usually too shrewd to suffer themselves
to appear as parties to the record and outside of
this the Courts cannotgo to reach them. 1t is only
when the Legislature undertakes to examine into
such matters that they likely to be thoroughly
cleared up; and it is to be hoped that the CITY
Passenger Railway Company will not be allowed
to press any claim in Annapolis to a successful
issue, without being first challenged to refute the
statements that have been bruited about to its
disparagement for the last six months The cir
camstances under which it obtained its grant here
were so suspicous-its violation of the ordinance
was so hagrant-and the charge of fraud has been
so boldly and repeatedly preferred against it, that
it is due to public opinion here, as well as to its
own dignity, that the Legislature should institute
the slricest inquiry into the conduct of its mana
gers That body should know before it takes any
action whether the Company which socits its
favor stands fairly and honestly before il, or is
only seeking to cOnsummate an atrocious wrong