63

Mr. Stockbridge, for the respondents; Mr. Horwitz would
next argue the case of Sheriff Thomson, and incidentally the
cases of the commissioners; Messrs. Rogers and Alexander
would then further ague the case of the respondents, and Mr.
Schley would conclude for the petitioners.

The decision of Governor Swann," said Mr. Latrobe,
"gave to the commissioners of his appointment the instant
and immediate possession of the franchise, the property and
muniments of the office being reserved, perhaps, for after con-
sideration. Messrs. Young and Valiant were committed on
two charges. They were held to bail upon these charges in
twenty-five thousand dollars. Upon these commitments, our
clients being sent to prison, they petition for a writ of habeas
corpus. Your Honor decided yesterday that it was for the
other side to maintain the return by showing probable cause
for the imprisonment of our clients. Testimony was en-
deavored to be produced to support that return. We were
then on the eve of a most exciting and important election.
We were under the domination of some 5,000 men. Under
their rule, but opposed to them in political sentiment, were
some 35,000 persons. They are a high-spirited people, enter-
prising in their patriotism from the time they defended their
city against a foreign foe. They were great in all the arts
and sciences, and elevated in all their ideas of social and
business life. It would not have been wonderful under the
circumstances of the appointment by Governor Swann of
Messrs. Young and Valiant to the office of police commis-
sioners, that they should have resisted the unjust rule of so
small a minority.

It would not have been surprising if the people had taken
the new commissioners upon their shoulders, an4 carried them
triumphantly into the office of the old ones. But honorable
to the people of Baltimore, they abstained from violence, and
it will form a bright page in the history of Baltimore that
they were entirely obedient to law and order. There was
never exhibited similar obedience to the law. Every order
given by the new commissioners was accompanied with in-
structions to obey the law. That is sufficient to show that
there was no probable cause of riot. We have the evidence
of our brethren of the bar on the other side, and that of police
officers, although perhaps slightly biased in their opinions,
and there is nothing in their testimony to show probability
of riot. The most they have testified to is that there was a
crowd collected near the court-house to see what was going on.
But the same result would be produced any day by a drum
and fife. There were no blows struck—no pistols fired. The
most that was testified to was that some of the posse comita-
tus said to some of the old police, "You are all played out."
The police were the men who created the disturbance. There
were men sufficient to have overcome them with a single