The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-07-11
BALTIMORE.
THURSDAY, JULY II, 1851.

The proclamation of Gen. BANKs, announcing
that he has "appointed' Mr.. GEORGE X. Dodge
Marshal Of Police, was laid before our readers
yesterday. As we anticipated must, of course be
the case, it adds only another outrage to the al
ready Overburdened catalogue without adding
even the sembiance of decent excuse or pretext.
MIR. DODGE is appointed, "rice Col. JOHN R. KEN
LY," who never was Police Marshal at all, or even
set up as such, but was merely Provost Marshal a
military and not a civil officer. He is appointed
"by virtue Of authority vested in" Gen. BANKss!as
commanding officer of this Experimentation
authority which can no more lawfully extend to the
appointment Of civil officers, under the laws of Ma
ryland, than to the ordination of clergymen or the
issuing Of medical diplomas. If Gen. BANKS. in
virtue of his military command, can appoint
Marshal of Police he can appoint Judges, sheriffs
ana jurors; he can designate city councilman, and
nominate Mayor, a Governor, members of the
General Assembly, members of Congress and SEN
ators. Once concede the principle, that he has
anything more 10 do with the appointment of
State officers, in Maryland, in any single partcu-
lar, than the Queen Of Great Britain or the Sultan
of Turkey, and there is no restriction upon his au-
thoriy except his pleasure and his discretion as to
the extent OF its exercise. His assumption
OF the appointing power in a single case
involves an assertion of the right to appoint in
any and all cases. and the result is, That neither
the people of Maryland nor the authorities con-
stituei by their votes Or their laws are any
longer the governing power Of the State. Self
government, in word, is at an eud among us;
the laws and the Constitution are a dead letter
and Maryland is a suhjugaed province, ruled by
Massachusetts proconsul. These are PRINCIPLES
and facts about which there be no honest differ
ence of opinion-any more than about the rising
OF the sun or the laws of gravita,ion. No man
can deny them, who is not prepared to deny any
thing.
By way Of giving some color of sanction to an
act so palpably arbitrary and so odious, General
BANKs Evors us with the information that he has
"made this appointment ut the suggestion and
"advice of very many influential aud honorable
'citizens of Baltimore, representing its different
"seeons, parties and interests In the name
of this community and of the rights of every free
man in it, we demand the names of the F'honorn
'ble citizens Of Baltimore" who have made
themselves parties to this usnrpaton The people
of Baltimore IRE entitled to know who are the
men, in their own midst, who have counsellea
military officer of the United States to suppress
the laws, subveft the authorities, tread down the
Constitution, and trample upon the liberties Ct
Maryland. Under the laws of this State, they sre
consprators against its 'peace, government and
"dgniy.' As unauthorized individuals, they
have nsurped the right to override not only
the legislative Will, but the will Of the over
whelming majority of our citizens; for never
was popular appreciation more enthusiastically
testified in favor of any system, or its adminisra-
ZION, Than that OF our people in favor of the
police law and the Board Of Police, by the cleo.
ton OF Mayor Brown, who hal had a LEADING
part in the preparation OF the law and the se,ec-
ton OF the Commissioners named in il. When
ever General BANKS, or any other authorized ner-
son, will give to onr citizens the names of the
influential and honorable persons with whom
he has taken counsel, and by whose ''sugreston
"and advice he processes to have been guided,
we will pledge ourselves to proye-nay, we ven
ture to assert their very names will show without
need of proof-that they do not represent, and no
impartial citizen Of Baltimore will say that they
''terests'' Of the CITY, as General BANKS declares
We will undertake to make it clear, beyond dis
pute, that they are men OF but one party. and
are everywhere known so to be; that thew are
Thoroughbred, active, and, for the most part
malignant and INSCRIPTIONS partisaus; that in
stead of being the friends and advocates OF law and
order and public justice they were the supporters
and advocates, directly or indirectly, down 10 the
last moment of the dynasty OF lawessncss, violence
and fraud, which became paraly Zed when the Board
ofPoice assumed the discharge Gifts functions and
died with the SWAMI administration. We will
undertake to prove that they are not the friends
of the police system, in any shape or sense, and
never have been; that they are seeking to get rid
of it now, as they have sought to get rid of it be-
fore-not because the Board has discharged its
duties i'll, but because it has discharged them too
well; not because OF any doubts as to the 'Ioy-
'alty' OF its members or officers but because
the honest administration of the police law
by the Board, put an end to the party with
which they were affiliated, by putting an end to
the laWessness without which it could not live.
They have done, by the aid of Gen BANKS and the
United States army, what they tried 10, but could not
do by clubs and bues. They have restored tho
reign of violence and bad men, in order that their
party-relgn may be restored along with it,
against the will of our people, and in suhversion
OF their dearest rights aud most sacred institu-
tions
In regard to Mr.. DODGE it is necessary to saw
out little The fact of his having lent himself to
such transaction speaks for itself and for him.
He Is well known in our community as an aetive
Acknowledging partisan, and he was at the mo-
ment OF his appointment, foreman of Judge BoyD's
Grand Jury. That he has been appoin,ea for o,,,-
but partisan purposes, has accented for o,,
good purpose, an appointment in open violation
of the laws of the State--whict, as Grand Juror.
it was his sworn and immediate obligation TO vim
dicate-it we're puerile to ask any sensible man to
believe. His first STEP as an assumed officer of
the law, is criminal under the law, as he knows.
He knows that Marshal KANE is the Marshal Of
Police; that the Board of Police are the only police
authorities of Baltimore, and that he is q wrong
doer in invading their lawful sphere. He knows
that General BANKS can give him no lawful an
thority to act as Marshal, and that he acts as
such, mt every moment, on his own responsibility
and under the penalties and ban of the law. He
can hardly have been misled so far, even by his
own opinion of himself to suppose that be is AS
mt Tor the place as its brave aud lawful incumbent
or that anybody could possibly repose in his nelli
gence or fidelity, the confidence which all good cit-
zens have yielded to the responsible and respectable
gentlemen composing the Police Board. We pre-
sumo that he supposes to-day will last forever.
He must have forgotten that law and justice have
always tomorrow.