|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1876.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 1496
the personal security and liberty of every individual in the
City of Baltimore, and the sanctity and preservation of re-
publican institutions. Under such circumstances, and under
such disadvantages, was testimoney presented against the
Police Commissioners. Let us glance for a moment at some
of the charges to which it is supposed the order of the House
referred, and at the proof now before the House in support
of them
One of the charges most strenuously urged against the
Police Commissioners, was that they appointed a great many
men as Judges and Clerks of Election, who were office hol-
ders under the State and City Government ; men whose
very positions and livelihood depended upon the result of
there elections. It is a very serious charge ; for, if true, the
action of the Board in this particular, was a prostitution of
their high office to one of the basest uses to which it was
capable of being put ; for nothing less can be said, if the
Commissioners willfully and deliberately thus introduced an
element of corruption into the very fountainhead of our in-
stitutions, by appointing as Judges of Election those whom
they knew had large interests at stake on the issue, and who
had every temptation and personal inducement pressing upon
them to act unfairly. Custom, law and decency alike, forbid
a Judge to sit in the trial of a case in which he is personally
interested ; the law prohibits, under pains and penalties,
betting on elections, for fear of its corrupting influence upon
the result; Judges of Election should be of all Judges, men
peculiarly discreet, fair and impartial, and have nothing per-
sonally hazarded upon their own decisions. If its be other-
wise, if they hold other offices dependent upon the issue be-
fore the people, custom, law and decency are alike violated
and defied, and the heaviest stake that a man can well wager
is laid to corrupt the heart and distort the judgment. In the
course of this investigation, it became apparent that the
Police Commissioners in appointing Judges and Clerks of
Election, utterly disregarded these plain principles of law
and common sence, and Mayor Gilmor, in his testimony, as-
serts that in his opinion, such men were as fair and im partial
as any body else. From his testimony, it would seem that
at the next election ho will codsider himself as perfectly
justified in appointing all the Judges of Election from the
office-holding class ; or to go a step further, he would think
himself justified in appointing all the candidates at that
election as Judges of their own Election. He can draw no
distinction between the two classes in this respect, for whether
it is the retention of an office held already, or the attain-
ment of an office coveted according to Mayor Gilmor's
view, the honor prized and the emoluments at stake
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
