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POLICE COMMISSIONERS RELEASED FROM JAIL. 685
fairly entitled to exercise the elective franchise been permitted to vote, the
conservative ticket would have been elected by about thirty thousand
majority. Had all the registered voters been allowed to deposit their ballots,
the majority for the conservatives would bave been at least fifteen thousand.
In the city a total vote of sixteen thousand and six was polled for State comptroller, of which the conservatives cast eight thousand five hundred and
thirteen, and the radicals seven thousand four hundred and ninety-three,
showing a majority of one thousand and twenty for the conservatives. They
also carried the entire State by a very large majority, electing Governor
Bowie and a two-thirds majority in both branches of the Legislature.
Messrs. Valiant and Young, the new police commissioners, were brought
before Judge Bartol on the writ of habeas corpus on November 8th, two
days after the election, and on the 13th, the judge delivered his decision in
which he declared:
" There cannot be any question of the governor's power under the law to remove
incumbents, if, in his judgment, the complaint of official misconduct has been proved.
The law makes his judgment final and conclusive, not subject to appeal or review any
more than a similar judgment passed by the General Assembly. A removal by the
Governor during the recess, has the same force and effect as a removal by the General
Assembly; their powers under the law are identical, and their decision alike final, conclusive and binding, and entitled to the same obedience. For parties thus removed to
hold on with a strong hand, and continue to exercise official power, is to resist the rightful
authority of the governor, and to put the law at a defiance."
The judge further went on to say: " The sheriff was bound to decide, at his
peril, as to the rightful power and authority of Young and Valiant to issue the
order to him, and in my judgment he acted in the discharge of his duty in
obeying it." Immediately after they were discharged, the commissioners took
possession of the office, and entered upon the discharge of their duties. The
marshal of police, during the day, surrendered the force under his charge to
their orders, and on the 15th, Messrs. Iiindes and Wood surrendered their
books, and turned over the station-houses and other property to the new
commissioners, thus settling one of the most exciting difficulties that ever
occurred in Baltimore. The unscrupulous faction had received a mortal blow.
The Baltimore Sun of Thursday, November 8th, 1866, in speaking of
"the Maryland election" as "a triumph of popular forbearance," gives so
admirable a summing up of the whole situation, that no apology is needed
for its reproduction here. It says:
" Since these United States proclaimed their independence there has been presented
no parallel to the situation in which the people of Baltimore have been placed for the last
two years. By the cunning device of the men who had been elected as the agents of the
whole people, a clause was inserted into the Constitution which they framed disqualifying
three-fourths of the constituency from passing upon the work of their agents. Taking
advantage of the war, which at that time was in progress, they raised an artful clamor
for the purpose of confounding with traitors all the citizens of the State whom they knew
or suspected to be inimical to their dominion, and by their devices succeeded in excluding
| Title | History of Maryland - 3 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000720 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | POLICE COMMISSIONERS RELEASED FROM JAIL. 685 fairly entitled to exercise the elective franchise been permitted to vote, the conservative ticket would have been elected by about thirty thousand majority. Had all the registered voters been allowed to deposit their ballots, the majority for the conservatives would bave been at least fifteen thousand. In the city a total vote of sixteen thousand and six was polled for State comptroller, of which the conservatives cast eight thousand five hundred and thirteen, and the radicals seven thousand four hundred and ninety-three, showing a majority of one thousand and twenty for the conservatives. They also carried the entire State by a very large majority, electing Governor Bowie and a two-thirds majority in both branches of the Legislature. Messrs. Valiant and Young, the new police commissioners, were brought before Judge Bartol on the writ of habeas corpus on November 8th, two days after the election, and on the 13th, the judge delivered his decision in which he declared: " There cannot be any question of the governor's power under the law to remove incumbents, if, in his judgment, the complaint of official misconduct has been proved. The law makes his judgment final and conclusive, not subject to appeal or review any more than a similar judgment passed by the General Assembly. A removal by the Governor during the recess, has the same force and effect as a removal by the General Assembly; their powers under the law are identical, and their decision alike final, conclusive and binding, and entitled to the same obedience. For parties thus removed to hold on with a strong hand, and continue to exercise official power, is to resist the rightful authority of the governor, and to put the law at a defiance." The judge further went on to say: " The sheriff was bound to decide, at his peril, as to the rightful power and authority of Young and Valiant to issue the order to him, and in my judgment he acted in the discharge of his duty in obeying it." Immediately after they were discharged, the commissioners took possession of the office, and entered upon the discharge of their duties. The marshal of police, during the day, surrendered the force under his charge to their orders, and on the 15th, Messrs. Iiindes and Wood surrendered their books, and turned over the station-houses and other property to the new commissioners, thus settling one of the most exciting difficulties that ever occurred in Baltimore. The unscrupulous faction had received a mortal blow. The Baltimore Sun of Thursday, November 8th, 1866, in speaking of "the Maryland election" as "a triumph of popular forbearance," gives so admirable a summing up of the whole situation, that no apology is needed for its reproduction here. It says: " Since these United States proclaimed their independence there has been presented no parallel to the situation in which the people of Baltimore have been placed for the last two years. By the cunning device of the men who had been elected as the agents of the whole people, a clause was inserted into the Constitution which they framed disqualifying three-fourths of the constituency from passing upon the work of their agents. Taking advantage of the war, which at that time was in progress, they raised an artful clamor for the purpose of confounding with traitors all the citizens of the State whom they knew or suspected to be inimical to their dominion, and by their devices succeeded in excluding |
