The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-01-12
SATURDAY, JANUARY u, 1873.
Governor CAROLS Message.

AncS@A1c - AUay WEktASuS &u0 presents I'll III
telligible resume Of the affairs Of the State.
There are several Of its suggestions and
recommendations, however, which are
open to grave objections. The most un-
welcome portion Of it is the exhausted
condition of the Treasury which it reveals.
Both the message and the Comptroller's
report inform US that at the end of the
current fiscal year the balance in the treas
ury will not exceed 1852 ,098.07, q sum
altogether inadequate to meet the payments
due October 1st, 1878. But Gov. Carroll
is an economist. His economy, however,
partakes Of the nature Of that which saves
at the spigot while it wastes at the buug.
lie would replenish the exhausted treas
ury by looping of the expense of publish
ing the laws an expense which viii fall
short Of the amount recommended by him
for the annual support of the militia, $780,
900. lie would give the people bayonets,
but would deny to them knowledge Of
the laws. It is law maxim that ignor-
ance of the law is no excuse for its infrac-
ton. But how shall the citizen acquaint
himself with the Law unless it be published,
in the cheapest and most popular of all
forms Of publication, the newspaper
The laws are printed also in book form,
but these are reserved for the State Off
cials, clerks, magistrates, and members of
the Legislature, very few persons, com
pared to the great mass of our citizens
The rest may obtain knowledge of the
Law only BY applying to an attorney and
paying him his accustomed fee for an
opinion. Unless he does that, if the laws
be not published in the newspapers. he
must remain in ignorance Of what the law
i. He is, nevertheless, required to obey
the law; 1t matters not whether he is ia
miIiar with its provisions or not. The
people are entitled to know what laws are
passed for their government. To deny
them this knowledge is to deprive them of
one Of their highest privileges. The Gov
ernor can recommend an annual appropri-
alton Of $4,000 for the support of the
militia, but would deprive the people of a
knowledge Of their laws By refusing to have
them published. He can spend $50, 900
on thirty days campaign against strik-
ers and rioters, but is too much of an
economist to publish the enactments of the
legislature for the information Of the peo-
pie. As member Of the board of public
works he can spend 100000 over and
above the appropriation for repairs of the
State House, but would withhold the laws
from the people.
twenty-five thousand dollars had been
annually expended, up to two years past,
for the support of the militia, yet, when
their services we're needed last July, to
quell riot and disorder and to protect life
and property, they were found utterly in
efficient, and the Governor had to humili-
ate the State by calling on the President
for United States troops The Governor,
however, proposes to increase their num-
Dor and expend more money in their sup
port. We give the Governor due credit
FOR the best intentions in what he did du-
riag the riots, but we must arraign his
Judgment in the measures to which
he rcsorted. We feel very sure that he
took counsel of the fears, if not of himself,
of others. The whole matter, from the
sounding Of the military alarm from the
city hall tower to the issuing Of his proc
lamation summoning the posse comitatus
and his call for troops for thirty days
campaign, was grand Jdan pas. That
fatal signal served but to exasperate the
aopulace and is believed to have led to
hloodshed. The troops were not actually
necessary The police, to whom the Gov
ernor pays high tribute for efficiency,
might have been reinforced by deputies
sufficient to queIl the disorder, only aggra-
waited by the presence and inefficiency Of
the militia. There was a great ado and
excitement from the opening to the
close Of the thirty days campaign. There
was hurrying and a scurrying to and fro
of aids and adjutants; high-sOundiDg mil
itary orders, and messengers and dispatches
on every hand. To all this there could
have been but little objection, if the Gov
ernor and his aids chose to amuse them
selves in that way, had not the sport cost
the people the large sum Of s85, 900. The
Governor feIicitates himself upon having
paid off all claims for expenses incurred
IN suppressing these riots, and avows that
it was his purpose that there should be no
claims before the legislature on that ac-
count He may have paid off the military,
but what has he done by way of settle
ment with the sheriff S posse in each of
the counties embraced in his ill-considered
We know not what he has
done in other counties, but 10 Carroll not
a dollar has been paid TO the men, who, in
obedience to the summons OF the sheriff,
acting in pursuance of the Governors
repaired to the line Of the
Baltimore aad Ohio Railroad TO do active
duty, furnishing their own arms, ammuni-
ton and subsistence. We apprehend that
the sheriffs and their posses in their re-
spective counties, will be rapping at the
door Of the Legislature and asking to be
paid for their services; and these demands
will have to be met. The Governor win
therefore find that his $3.50 win be
swelled to much larger proportions. before
this wretched business is all paid for.
We have not touched, so far, upon the
political bearings of these hasty and III
considered acts of the Governor. Nor
dc me propose to blend party considera-
fions With the discussion Of these topics,