Staunton Spectator, And General Advertiser

Trist In Mexico.—This "knight of the rueful" name, deserves an abiding place on the page of history. His career has been as sudden and brilliant as that of a meteor blazing across the darkness of a midnight cloud. A year ago few people knew that there was such a man as the former chief scribe of the War Department. Now, not to know Nicholas P. Trist argues "thyself unknown."

To Mr. Polk belongs the honor, whether himself great or not, of being the cause of greatness in others. It is one of the noblest prerogatives of exalted power to be able to lift humble merit from the dust, and reveal its worth to all mankind.—Thus Polk breathed into the nostrils of the lowly Trist the breath of life. He has transformed him from a clerk to an ambassador. He has made a man of Don Nicholas for the rest of his days. This whole affair of Trist forms one of the most curious and remarkable episodes of the Mexican war. No one could have dreamed that a subordinate in the State Department would have been invested with such functions. The propriety of encumbering the movements of the commanding General with a personage possessing the powers of Mr. Trist, was itself of questionable policy. But when we take into consideration the fact that Mr. Trist was a bitter enemy of Gen. Scott, we hardly know what to think of the motives of his appointment. Whatever they may have been, if personal to Gen. Scott, they have entirely failed of their object. Strange to say, Trist and Scott have become excellent friends, while Trist and the Government have become most excellent foes. The President has repeatedly ordered his Minister to return, but, instead of this, Trist gives him an impudent answer; writes to somebody in the United States that in the multitude of his other avocations he hasn't time to attend to Polk; goes ahead with his treaty just as if his powers had never been revoked; and then sends the documents to the President to sign, with as much coolness as if his Excellency belonged to him. It must be very mortifying to the Executive to be obliged to countenance such a transaction, but it seems like retributive justice, and doubtless he is convinced by this time that a certain old adage will apply to Mr. Trist as well as his namesake,—it is easier to raise the devil than to lay him.

Well, after the tragedy comes the farce, and after this Mexican War, the spirited managers present us with the new, original and entertaining comedy of The Obstinate Ambassador, or OLD Nick In Mexico.—Richmond Republican.