Year: 1859

The Great Outrage in Baltimore.


We regret to sec disposition among some of the
opposition prints in this State to apologize for the
conduct of the Americans or Plug Uglies of Balti-
more, at the recent elections in that City. Men !
should forget party when law, order, and the char
acter of the country at stake. For part, if
the Democrats of Baltimore had acted as the Know
Nothings there have acted for three or four years
past, and especially as they acted few days since,
We would have been among the first to denounce.
them.


The truth is, representative government has failed
in Baltimore. Elections not free. Armed men,
countenanced and protected by the authorities have
subverted the law and substituted their will for the
will Of the people. The opponents of these armed
men attempt only to vote at the peril of their
lives; and, general rule, the votes which have
been polled against this reign of lawessness and
terrorism have been deposited in the balot-box by
accident or by stealth If the national Democratic
party has been (as most sincerely believe il has)
up to this time the main stay and hope of the coun
try, it cannot be denied by the most prejudiced Of
the opposition that thedesructon of the Wing party
in 1854 has been productive of injury. That party,
with all its hereses and Objectionable doctrines
nevertheless national party, and, under the lead
of such men as Clay and Webster, it was devoted
to law and order. But what have we now in its
place? First, we had Know Nothngism; then we
had union in all the non saveholdng States to
greater or less degree, of Know Nothingism and
black Republicanism; and then we had the fruits,
which seem to be increasing. of riot and bloodshed
in New Orleans, Louisville, and Baltimore, and
party headed by Banks and Others who were Know
Nohngs which is utterly sectional in its character
so much so that it would not dare to hold of its
Conventions in slaveholding State. The only
breakwater which now remains to protect the Con-
stitution from the floods of sectionaliSl is the
tona Democratic party. Let that fall and one
common ruin will he the fate of all. The Union will
not survive the defeat in 1860, or the disbandment
and defeat thereafter of that party.


But there are some opposition papers, even in the
midst of the Plug Uglies in Maryland that have the
and the regard for truth to speak out The
Baltimore American, Know Nothing paper, thus
refers to the recent outrages in that City:


1.-THE election yesterday can he Justly termed
nothing but outrage against dcccncy, against law,
and against all rights public and private The city
was given up to the control of lawless ruffianSIn
supported and encouraged hy the police, and ap-
proved of and urged on by the recognised leaders
of the American party. Armed hands of lawesS
characters held possession of nearly all the polling
places the efforts which the friends of fair and
legal election made to preserve order were treated
as acts of riot and the only arrests mae by the po
lice were of respectable and well known citizens
whose whole lives the guarantee of their obe;li
to the laws. Every species of fraud, every de-
gree of ruiansm and every violation of sworn duty,
used to defeat tie expression of the will of the
people Bands of men, whose looks bespoke their
character rode in omnbuseS and carriages from one
poll to the other voting without check at EACH
The accumulated disgrace and shame of the scene
was painful to contemplate, and we can scarcely
control our own feelings to write of it with any de-
gree Of camncSs.


The RefrrmerS made manly and determined
stand for their rights, but it was against such odds
of organized ruffiansm and fraud, as rendered tie
contest hopeless. TAINTED, insulted and abused,
the slightest demonstration they made towards self
protection treated breach of the peace, and
! they ignominiously dragged to the police sta
tions whilst their asSaants left to their
outragcS. They might have continued the struggle
to the end but the result could only have been the
sacrifice of valuable lives, without accomplishing
any ultimate good. With a number of the wards in
the uncontrolled possession of their opponents, and


fraudulent voting progressing at all but the Eighth
| ana the Eleventh. the success OF the ucket was an
impOsSibility. Prudence, as well as necessity die
! tated retirement from contest which hopeless,
unless they descended to the vile practices of their
/ opponents.


! What course of action it may hereafter be advs-
able to adopt is perhaps scarcely possible now to
say, but we cannot believe that such great wrongs
as were accomplished yesterday will be quietly sub


mitted to. The Courts should be appealed to, to
prevent the cons,mmation of the illegal election Of
some of its own officers, anG the Legislature urged
to reject from its body members whose certificates
stained with blood and are the product of unpar
alleled fraud and violence. Whatever may be the
political complexion of that body. cannot believe
it will sanction such means for obtaining power as
characterized the contest of yesterday. But what
ever may be the fate of such appeal there is a
manifest duty requiring it to be made"


THE NEwRERN FAJR-We loarn from the Pr01ress