The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-04-02

Colonel John Forsyth, editor of the Mobile Re-
gister. gives his opinions of "the situation'' in
the following letter from Washington to his
paper;
The readers of the Register know how | have
been haunted for some time back with the sppre-
hension that the spirit of the North was not equal
to the duty Of defending its liberties against the
daring party that is openly assaulting them
Since have been here have eagerly watched
the temper of the public mind and the public
men, and have seen nothing to lay the ghosts Of
my apprehensions. l have not met the first
man who viii admit that the people will
resist Except at the baot-box) az any ex-
tremist point Of usurpation. The general
feeling is that the people have had enough
Of war. and will prefer peace In chains to the
turbulence and risks to property and life in an
open Struggle to defend the free institutions of
their fathers. In other words. that the people
are great, big cowsrdly giant, who will pillow,
and plant and pursue his private ends, while the
government 10 crumbliDg into ruins and its de-
stroyers are quietly putting handouts on his
wrists. Is it not passing strange that the same
nation that rushed to arms and fought so per.
sistently against secession upon the feigned issue
of defending the Union. and who find that, three
years after their struggles and sacrifices. the Union
is still unattained and that they were in reality
only fighting the battle Of an Abolition party-is
II not strange that this nation is so exhausted
by this swndling war, and so weary Of its sscri-
fees, that II has not courage left to command the
usurpers to spare their own liberties? Truth is
stranger than felton, and it would be in keeping
with human experience and with the ways BY
which mysterious Providence works out its ends,
If it should eventuate that rhe intense spirit OF
nationality !" that filed the ranks of Grants and
Shermans armies. was, while seemingly turned
against the South, really exerted to destroy
Itself in brief, that the manhood of the North
and West was welded by cunning hands to
overtnrn its own free Constitution and bind
the people to the dominion of a party, most
ignobe in its sentiments and reckless Of
The public good. And thither are events
marching. The public apathy In the presence Of
revolution that is hurrying to its inevitable con-
summation is something wonderful. The tragedy
which is being pushed to close with hot fury and
indecent haste in the Senate chamber, attracts as
little attention as case Of assault and battery in
village court house. And yet. that tragedy
means to tumble down one of the three main pill.
lars that support the government. The regicides
of Charles pretended that their only purpose was
to remove tyrant out of the path of reform and
public amelioration. Yet, II turned out that it
was not the king. but the kingly Office of the
British Constitution that they were after. So,
while the radical impeachers personally hate Mr..
johnson. their real aim is to absorb the powers
and destroy the majesty of the chief executive
Office.
While this appears to be the temper of the
people, and these the designs of the Congress-
the Supreme Court has got the Chinese weight
fairly hitched TO its tail. This august body dares
not bray for the Constitution it ordained to
defend, and pauses in its adjudication of Q clear
right, vested by existing laws in q citizen, until
Congress shall have time to annul its jurisdiction
by retrospective act. No principle Of law Is
better established than that the very essence
of new law ia rule for future casss.n and that
a civil right once vested, and before the courts
can no more be affected by new law than N an
can be punished, criminally, under an er post
fdcfo penal statute. But the supreme judges, six
to two, have determined to wait for the orders of
the rump.