The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1868-04-15
The Situation.

The Situation.
Colonel John Forsyth, cditer of the
Mobile Register. 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 apprehension that the spirit Of
tho North was not equal to tho duty of
defending It's 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 l have seen
nothing to lay tho ghosts of my apprc-
tensions. 81 have not met the first man
who will admit that the people will resist
Except at the ballot-box) at any extrem-
st 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 u great, big,
cowardly giant, who will plow, and plant.
and pursue his private ends, while. the
government is crumbling into ruins and
its dcstroycrs are quietly putting hand
cuffs on his wrists. Is it not passing
strange that the same "nation that
rushed to arms and fought so pcrsistently
against secession upon the tcgned issue
OF defending the Union. and who find
that. three years after theirstrugs les and
sacrifices, the Union is still unaltaincd,
and that they were in reality Only fight
ing the battle of an Abolition party-is
it not strange that this "nation" is so
exhausted by this swindIing war, and 50
weary Of its sacrifices, that it has not
courage left To command the usurpers to
soaro their own liberties? Truth is
stranger than fiction" and it would be
in Keeping with human existence and with
the ways by which !. mysterious Prov-
dence works out its ends, if it should
evcntuate that the intense spirit of ma
lionalty" that filed the ranks OF Grants
and Sherman's armies, was, while seem
ingly turned against the South really cX-
erted to destroy itsclt-in brief, that the
manhood of the North and West was
welded by. cunning hands to overturn it's
own free Constitution and bind the people
TO the dominion of party, most ignohie
in It's sentiments and reckless OF The pub
lie good And thither are events march
INC. The public apathy in the presence
Of Il revolution that is hurrying to its
inevitable consummation, is something
wonderful The tragedy which is being
pushed to a close with hot fury and lnde-
cent haste in the Senate chamber, attracts
as little attention as a case OF assault and
battery in village court house. Ard
yet, that tragedy means to tumble down
one of tic three main pillars that support
the government The re@icides ". Gti;ti'les
/ pretended that thcir Only purHosc was
TO removea a tylant out OF the path OF re-
form and public ameioration. Yet. it
turned out that it was not the king. hul
the kingly Office of tie British Constlu-
ton that they were after. SO, while the
radical in,pcachcrs personally hate Mr.
johnson, their real aiin is to absorb the
powers and destroy the majesty Of Tie
Chief executive office.
While ibis appears 70 bc the temper ot
the people. and these tie G@s;gas Of the
Corg, css the Supreme Cnnrt has cot
the Chinese weight fairly hiiched 10 rs
tail This august body dare NOT bray for
the Constitution it was ordained TO dc
4cnd, and pauscS in It's adjudication of =
clear right vested by exialii::, laws IL a
citizen, until Congress shall h:iyr time to
annul its jurisdiction by a retrospective
act No principle Of law is better cst;l''-
ishcd than that the very essence Of Il
now law is IL rule for future cases, and
that civil right once vested, and before
the courts, can no more he affected by a
new law than Il man can be punished.
crminally. under an ca@2ost taeto penal
statute. But the supreme Judges five to
two, have determined TO wait for the Or
ders Of the rump: