NEw-YoRK, SATURDAY MORNING, JANUARY 2s. ls4s

The Case of Mackenzie.
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! me case Oh .ikackeEXiS.


To the Editor Of The Tribune:


May l ask the privilege OF a subscriber to ex-
press my opinion of some of the sentiments re.
Gently presented in your columns? If the two
articles from Washington, the one bearing the
initial S., and the other the three A. L. F., were
with Propriety served up to your readers in all
their unnitigated virulence, think you cannot, in
common humanity, deny the exhibition OF a. least
a partial antidete to so much poison. Perhaps it
is mistaken kindness to the intended victim OF
those envenomed papers to anticipate in any way
their utter counteraction BY legal verdict but il
is not in the warmth OF honest blood TO witness
such barbarity against good man struggling with
the storms of fate without glow OF sympathy
impatient of delay. No one could read the article
signed S. without the shuddering conviction that
it breathes the spirit of fend-the cold, delibe-
rate rnalignity of heart determined on the immo-
latisn of its victim. Indeed lis steelsd and ruth
less spirit must have wrought in many minds its
own reaction; and now that its false assumptions
refuted by the facts before the public and its
chain OF soPhistry resolved into rope of sand,
need net hesitate to leave the heart that coined
it to the cravings of its vulture, and the
piercing tortures of its kindred rock. The sugges-
tions of A. L. r. very little less demoniac, but
there is show of Difference TO justice in its logic
so specious as in some degree to veil the dagger
by the ermine. The commonplace which he
bandies about Necessity the tyrant's plea may
do very well for tyros in the law but it would foil
the argumentative vigor of Bacon to effect the
refutation of plea so strong. Tyrant's plea or
not Necessity, where it exists, is irresistible in Ill


government, divine as well as human. 1t could
not dispense with the bloody sacrifice of the Son
of God without the alternative of death to the
whole family of Man. Pardon me for reference to
a theme go sacred in paper so ePhemeral as this
The origin of the necessity in the tyIants code is
the sole ground of its inefcacy his vindcation;
when the result OF circumstances he could not con-
troll, it is triumphant even for him. In Captain
Mackenzies case, the guilty authors of the neces-
sity themselves laid the train that hurled them to
destruction. As it respected them, it was not in
his power to avert il; but he is, forsooth, to be
branded as a coward because he had not the stupid
apathy to wait for the explosion, and abide its in
discriminate havoc, in the idle hope that enough
true men might possibly survive to prevent the
wreck from being total. The recreant who shrinks


in battle from his duty is Immediately sacrificed to
save the lives his imbecilisy would peril how much
more imperative the necessity for execution when
the intestine foe is not merely inert for good, but


in the very attitude of full-armed treason. To
pause ct such moment were to look on unmoved
and see the arm that bears the match apply it un-
molested to the magazine prepared for ones de-
struction. 1t is not for the pacific landsmen, much
less the petit maitre of the city toilet, estimate
the stern necessities Of life upon the sea. War
is q cruel element, but if you will identify human
ity with its terrific action, You must arm your here
with its every crisis. The mawksh sentimental
ist,who fances the battle-ship proper theatre Tor
The Iounging of the woolsack, or the temporizing
of the sowned civilian, not in his hallucina-
ton that the har-hung sword can be sustained un-
he,hed by the breath h-hushing rigor of an uncom-
promising discipline. Frederick the Great was as
warmly loved by the subjects whom his decision
saved and crowned with victory, as he was hated
by few malignants whom his stern justice either
crushed or awed into submission. 1t argues bad
heart to have no sympathy but with crime; a still
blacker heart TO fling yeig ZION as brand OF intamy
into the face of Christian soldier for obeyng the
bland dictates of Faith, that saves the many by
the reluctant execution of the few. Whatever
some such sympathizers with the mutineers as s.
and A. L. F. may think or utter, Captain Mac
kenzie cannot be deprived of the proud assurance
that his countrymen en- mGsse are with him heart
and hand in the soutrying ordeal through which
he now is passing, and they have not doubt that
he will come out from it like the three holy child
rem from the furnace without even the smell OF
FIRE upon his raiment. FLAT JusrIrA RuAT CGLuM.


This article should have appeared earlier but was mis-
laid Ed.