The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-09-14

The scenes of violence and brutality which dis
graced this city on Thursday night last are hut
one more blot upon the escutcheon of ffeedom.-
The details of the proceedings which closed tie
night of the 10Th of September, a national ami
versary of the people of Baltimore, will he fonnd
IN another column. The parades and military
display. during the day, were but a bitter mock
cry, and the march Of Northern soldiery through
our strcals-who were hired not to join in a cele-
braon, but Tor the purposes of control and subil-
CATION, and of exercising the despotsm of force
over an unarmed and defenccless people-but
added to the bitterness which taints the cup from
which every lover Of liberty is now forced to
drink. The doingS OF the night; the arrest of hon
orable citizens; the domicliary visits; the insults
TO unprotected women, and the breaking open of
private apartments, were but fitting close to the
hollow demonstrations of the day
Accustomed, as We have lately been, to every
kind of tyranncal and INSCRIPTIONS action on
the part OF the Administration we are free to con-
less that we were almost totally unprepared for
the occurrences of Thursday night, the partcu-
lars Of which will be found elsewhere. That a
wholesale arrest Of prominent, high-minded and
trustworthy citizens, most Of whom are well
known rs men incapable of harborng n treason
able thought or doing an unconstitutional act
should be perpetrated without the sliphtest admo-
milton, was something which surpassed even all
the previous ourages with which our community
has iatteriy become so familiar. We cannot re-
IRAN from calling attention to the fact, that most
OF the gentlemen Of our city who were arrested
were members of the House of Delegates, and
have been conspicuous during our national diff
cultics, for their determined opposition to all I'M
constitutional proceedings. On the second day OF
May last, when bill for the establishment of a
Committee fPublic Safety was introduced into the
Senate, and passed to second reading by vote
of IA to 8, it was chiefly due to the efforts of some
OF these gentlemen that the bill was afterwards
recommtted, and, in fact, defeated; and we
10 not hesitate to say that it has been mainly
owing to them that, amidst all the intense ey.
element and revolutionary feeling of the NAG,
six months, the citizens of this State have
been restrained from assuming hostile attitude
toward the general government and have been
prevailed upon not TO overlook the fact that until
Maryland throws off her allegiance to the Union.
they are not authorized to commit any overt act
OF hostility TO that Union 1t was principally by
them that the outside pressure of public opinion,
which was at one time clamorous for the immedi-
ate passage OF an act of secession by the Legisla
ture, was resisted; and we have the declaration of
a most important committee, the chairman of
which is one of those now under arrest-ap-
proved and endorsed with remarkable unanimity
by the Legislature, that they felt it s'their duty
'to leave the future of Maryland to the people of
Maryland, to whom exclusively that prerogative
"beongs.n
That such men should have been arrested after
the public profession of such sentiments, is almost
beyond human comprehension 1t betokens. on
the part OF the Government, a petty malignity
or craven fear, which degradcs even them
The reasons which actuate such Government,
it is of course, impossible for any honest minded
Or upright man to fahom. Whatever they may
be, is, however, of little Importance. The crime
has been perpetrated and few more noble hearts
are now forced to suffer for the noble cause they
have so nobly supported. Beyond this, we feel
assured, little will be accomplished Even while
we write, news comes TO us from other parts OF
the State of outrages and arrests similar TO those
already alluded to. But not even the arrest oil
citizens enough to crowd all the forts under the
LINCOLN Administration can crush ont the love of
liberty that animates the hearts of the people of
Maryland, or compel them to forget their rights as
American freemen. The Constitution which guar
antied these rights, is not yet myth; and the
blood with which the Old Maryland Line sancti-
fed the liberties they fought for and won, still
courses in the veins of their sons