The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-08-16

ent Administration that It's proclamations and
pledges are TO be interpreted by contraries. Mr..
LINCOLN announces, with an exquisite show OF
humility, that he is the servant OF the people, and
proceeds forthwith to act Rs If he were their mas
ter He processes TO venerate the Constitution
and as an evidence of his sincerity, deliberately
sets to work to violate that instrument in every
conceivable way. he feels it 10 be his
duty to enforce the laws, and immediately
thereafter we find him breaking them, upon the
shallowest of preteX's or without any pretext at
all. He declares that the war now prosecuted
on the part of the Federal Government srs a war
FLOR the Union" and he wages it in the interest
of a sectional party, organized upon a section
al basis, and aspiring to sectional domi-
nation. He denies, or his mouth.pieces do
for him, that any design is entertained of inter
terng with the institution Of slavery in the South,
and sraightway not only sanctions law passed
by Congress con6scating the servants of those
whom he is pleased to style 'disoyal masters" but
going beyond this stringent law itself, authorizes
the harboring and final manumission of such
slaves as escape from masters known to be loyal;
and to add insult to injury bids them look to an
abotionzed Congress, at some future day, for
compensate for their losses. But then, says Secre-
tary CAMERON, in his letter on this subiect-ssit is
''the desire of the President that all existing
''rights in all the States shall be fully respected
land maintained" How admirably that desire
is to be carried ont, and with what strict fidelity
the existing rights of 'loyaI masters are to be
observed, is clearly shown in the letter of nstruc-
lions which regulates the manner in which their
property is to be dealt with There is distnc-
ton made, it is true, between tie two classes of
fugityes-those belonging to :'disloyar' and those
| Of "loyaP' masters-but it is distinction with
out difference; for 1t amounts 10 the same thing
in the end. Both are forfeited-the one without
recourse, the other with an implied promise of in
demnity, which will be kept to the car but broken
to the hope. But with respect to fugitivcs from
service within the States and Territories in which
1.-The authority of the Union is fully acknowl-
edged, no question:" says the Secretary, 'can
''arise, for there "the ordinary forms Of judicial
proceeding will suffice for the enforcement of
illegal claims" This, certainly, ought to be some
consolation, especially as we are assured that in
such States and Territories ''the ordinary forms
of Judicial proceeding must be respected 6v the
'n'attary authorities" Now, as Maryland is one
OF the States in which the Federal officers have
performed their respective functions without let or
hindrance, 1t IS natural 20 suppose that here, at
least, the power of the Judiciary can be invoked
to protect the people from any acts of des-
potc character that may be perpt trated by q
lawless soldtery. Is such really the case? Have
we been bndly cropping for remedy which Sec
rotary CAMERON tells us we can command at any
| IL, Il.
respecH Or is it possible that we have been labor
ing under singular deluaion; that we have sue
tered no grievances which call for redress that the
writ OF ha5eds corpus has not been SUSPENDED;
that unreasonable searches and seizures have not
taken place; that the right of the people to keen
and bear arms has not been nfringed and that
| our citizens have not been taken from their
beds without lawful warrant, imprisoned in a
! fortress, and even carried out Of the State TO
be held elsewhere in durance, at the will of the
Executive and in open contempt Of those sforms
"of judicial proceeding to which Mr.. CAMERON
so complacently refers ? If we dare believe the
testimony of our own eyes, these outrages have
not only been committed in our midst, but still
continue TO be perpetrated so that Mr., LINCOLN
| pretended respect for existing rights is sheer
hypocrisy-or worse. But we may be told that
Mr.. CAMERoN's letter refers solely TO fugitive
9'a-o7- ~ 49, 81 ohiaot ~ mont. : - ,,o;-4 ~,
the way whereby, in Maryland at least, such
fugltives may be reclaimed. If one right be enti-
| tied to respect, so all other rights IF the
Judiciary can he appealed 10 in the matter of fugi-
tives from service, surely its authority covers,
also, The liberty Of the citizen illegally imprisoned
and subjected TO restrictions and indignities for
| which we lind o parallel outside the empire OF
Austria and the dungeons of Spielberg Taking
1t, however, in It's most limited sense, and reme,n-
bering, moreover, that officers are enioned not to
permit the troops under their command ssto inter-
lere with the servants of peaceful citizens
what is the result? Simply this, that the law is
eVaded, and servants are entced away from their
masters and carried out of the State continually,
by the troops that are homeward bound. HIM.
dreds have been taken off in this yav al
ready, and our paternal Government winks at
the attraction CT its own rules. Those rules are
made especially applicable to States wholly or
partially under insurrectionary control. Maryland
IS not anlenabe either to the one charge or the
other; and for this reason, we presume it is
that Northern emissares, In military uniforms.
are permitted 10 operate with impunity within
her borders. There is the law, and there
are the regulations. If the former cannot
be executed as against regiment of armed men,
and the latter are not binding upon voIun-
teer soldery whose term of service has expired
nobody IS to blame, Of course; and so the skirts
OF the Administration cleared, and the kid
nappers escape unwhipped of Justice Were we
not right, then, in saying that the procamations
and pledges Of the authorities at Washington, to
be properly understood, are to be Interpreted bv
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