The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-09-07
BALTIMORE.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER T, 1851.

We referred yesterday 10 tne employment ny Tue
Government Of @ swarm of spies through whose
agency it hopes not merely to obtain evidenee
against traitors, but also to find some plausible
pretext for furnishing those who dare even to en-
terrain Southern sympathes.' We also gave at
the same time an account OF the proceedings OF the
Federal police who had on the previous day or
dered the suppression of all pictures and emoem5
that could serve to remind the people Of the eZ-
istence of the Southern Confederacy. In the book
and music stores, in the newspaper depots and the
cigar shops every article of the above description
was put under ban by Mr.. LINCOLN Generalj and
citizens we're forced to take from their necls in the
public streets, cravats bearing the obnoxious col
ors. Are we living in Maryland-in Republican
America-and in the nineteenth century while we
record these petty acts of tyranny? Is this the
land of free thought and free speech? Are still
nndeT the protection of that enlightened and be-
nefcent Government, which alone Of all the poli-
cal systems yet devised by man, rests for its foun-
da,ion on the willing consent Of the people? We
used TO hear Of Sovereign citizens and offpublic
"servants" a little while AEGEAN it be that the
former have been all at once ensaved and that the
latter are their masters? Surely it is time for us
''~'A
the path along which the nation is now hurried
is leading it, Anarchy Or despotsm lies straight
before us, and we are madly plunging forward to-
wards the inevitable abyss. lncredulous men
NAV doubt if, and passionate men may be willing
to take the risk, but just as surely as we are thus
supine or reckless just certainly will destruc-
ton overtale us. Let those who hesitate to be-
lieve this reflect bpt for moment upon the pass
to which we have already come. We venture to
say there is not a man to be found from Maine to
Minnesota who imagined six months ago that an
American President would ever dare, in any
emergency, to usurp and exercise absolute
power, or who thought the American peo-
pie would under any state of circum-
stances tolerate dictatorship for one hour.
Twelve months since what howl Of eyecration
would have gone forth from the North if the acts
of the Administration had been perpetrated abroad
aud by a Bourbon. When the journals Of that
section have within year or two past, chron-
cled the expressions and outrages to which
the "benighted" people of Europe have been
subjected, We all remember the expressions Of pity
and Indignation with which cur conntrymen
heard the story. But when the police of the
because she wore the national colors of Italy,
and seized upon the spectators who threw bou-
quets of red, white and green flowers upon the
stage, that ruler was only preventing his subjects
from giving laid and comfort to his enemies
When the stjrrj Of the Austrian Emperor impris
oued men for wearing peculiar hats and singing
forbidden songs, he was only suppressing Gum
fElOval sentiments ,, NEhan orrz NJ
gems arue2 have silenced n newspaper, he was
only endeavorng ''to maintain the government
When the soldiers Of the Gar have shot down
"discontonted' Poles in Warsaw, he was only
putting down ian insurrection." Bat the free
people OF America were loud and bitter in their
denuncatons of the despots who derdcd Consti-
tutions, and in tn ir expressions Of contempt for
the nations who submitted to the yoke SO patient
w And turninr from W. - 49,
,wn happy condition, we nave
template o. 90 = sac spirit with which we
would resist oppression, and complacently thanked
COP that we were ''not as other men," What
now is our situation? We.leave our readers to
answer each for himself Let the people recall,
one by one, the arbitrary, Illegal and tyrannous
acts Of which the Administration has been guilty
in Maryland, and then ask themselves wherein
they differ from the subjects of any absolute mon
arch on earth.
But they imagine that their liberties are still
within theirOwn keeping, and that they can bind
as well as loose the demon whom they have en-
ployed 10 do their work Let them beware, lest
they mscalcuate either their power or their
spirit; for people which has consented to
the usurpati0ns of Mr.. LINCOLN, may possibly be
overmastered by some stronger and ADLER cheftain,
for whom the way is being paved by the present
Administration. For yourselves, we are convinced
that, If the maintenance of the Constitution and
the Union by Mr.. LINCOLN was ever a possible
thing, az we think it was, the task could only
have been accomplished by rigid adherence, on
his part, to the forms and principles of the Consi-
tuition. We do not believe that either the Repub.
lie can be saved, or that constitutional freedom
can be preserved in the North, by the system of
terrorism now in operation. If men are only to
be made loyal by imprisonment; if they can only
be rendered faithful to their allegiance by the sup
preston oree discussion; If is necessary to pro-
hibit them the sight of certain photographs.
and the use of certain colors. in order to prevent
them from being rebels, then the theory on which
our institutions rests is at an end; and this Gov
eminent cannot longer stand. Nor ought it so to
stand ii it is only to be upheld by the means 10
which Mr.. LINCOLN has resorted Better far that
1t should perish utterly, at once and forever