The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-08-26
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, AUGUST 90, 1861.

The arrest Of Mayor BERRETT, of WASHINGTON,
and his removal to the Government BastiIe in
New ork harbor, must be set down to the ac-
count OF the Administration, among the thousand
other wrongs and usurpations for which it is yet
to be held to answer The pretexts on which Mr..
BERRETT has been thus arbitrarily deposed from
oihce and dragged to prison, are not merely friv
olous upon their face but are, we have every rea-
son to believe, wholly false. Ifhe has committed
any offence known to the law, the law can accuse
and punish him. and all the machinery of the
Courts OF justice in Washington can be put in mo
ton by whisper from the dictator who reigns at
the National Capital. The fact that the interposi-
ton Of the legal tribunals of the District was not
invoked, is, of ITSELF an admission that the agents
OF the Government can find just ground of
complaint against the man whom they have thus
outraged. But why need we complain of, or
comment on, the injustice done to one more citi-
zen? The people grown familiar now with tyr
amy, and proceeding that would have startled
millions Of Americans into paroxysm ofpatrioic
passion few months ago, is now regarded with
apparent indifference. So rapidly has one des-
potc act succeeded another, that the people have
recoiied, stunned and bewildered, before the ad-
vance OF arbitrary power. But it cannot be that
the spirit of the nation has been wholly misunder-
stood Tor near century. 1t cannot be that the
people Of this land will consent to yield up unre-
sistingy, the privileges for viii oh their fathers
fought, and of which they have been wont to boast
so loudly from generation to generation 1t surely
must be a mistake to suppose that they will long
endure, at the hands of a Republican President,
what their ancestors refused to submit to from an
English King. For ourselves, We still believe
that those who are counting upon the willingness
OF any great portion of the people to tolerate the
usurpations of the Executive, are laboring under
fearful and fatal delusion. Whether we are al
together capable Of selfgovernment, may, in
view Of our late experiences, he a some
what doubtful question; but still men do
think about political matters in this conn
try, and the vast majority of them still
cherish the idea of the sanclity Of the Consti-
tuition, as opposed to the individual will of gov
ernorS or governed. In an evil hour this convic-
ton has been lost sight of and a popular freuzy
has kept pace with the madness which has seized
upon our rulers. But unless all that we have been
told TO believe about countrymen is fitlse-
unless this people can be docile under despot-
Ism as those of our fellow men in other lands
whom we have been wont TO revile rs willing
serfs-then there will inevitably and speedily
come an insurrcctonary protest against the course
OF the Administration. New York is even now
heaving in the throes which precede popular
outbreak, and when the champions of Coustitu-
tonal liberty do lift up their banner in the North
the resounding tread of the counties thousands,
who will hasten to follow it, will be heard from
the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Unless Mr.. LIN
COLIN can govern this country, and any or every
portion Of it, under and according to the letter of
the CONSTITUTIONS he has no right to rule it at all.
II the powers conferred upon him are not sufficient
10 enable him to execute the functions OF his office
he mas no business to assume the prerogatives of
an absolute monarch. If our system is q failure
ne mas no authority TO substitute dictatorship in
ITS place. We are satisfied that nine-tenths of the
people hold steadfastly to these opinions, and we
nave an abiding confidence that they will, ere
long, thunder them in the ears of Mr.. LINCOLN.