The above code answers the same purpose to social life in Washington that the Constitution does to the whole country. So long as those engaged in the controversy stick to it they are safe. The moment they leave it they are adrift. At present a severe war is waging between the Senators and Supreme Judges. We beg the pardon of these sensible men; we mean their families have armed themselves cap-a-pie, and a great smoke is ascending from the battlefield. The wives of the Senators claim that the Senate created the Supreme Judges, and, to use the words of one of the brightest leading Senators, “Should the creature outrank its creator?” The Supreme Judge is made by the Senator, and if he is guilty of misdemeanor, he is tried by the Senate, and if found guilty, is deposed from his high office by the same. But once let a man get to be a Supreme Judge, and he stands as firm on the pinnacle to which he has been raised as the rock of ages on the bed of eternity. Then it is claimed that all those who stand in the direct line of succession to the President outrank all the others. Our wise forefathers meant that our Government should never fall to pieces for the want of a “head.” So, if our military chieftain should go off like one of his own cannons, we should still have our precious Schuyler. If Vice-President Colfax should be snatched away from the evil to come, we should have to comfort ourselves with Speaker Blaine. Alas! alas! if he should fall like the smart rap of his own gavel, Chief Justice Chase would be left on our hands, and death could get no farther. The “Code” says--and, by the way, it is just as good as the Constitution--that the Cabinet shall make first calls on the Vice-President, Supreme Judges, Senators, and Speaker of the House, but General Grant has taken these favored darlings to his bosom and allows them to do just as they please. He says: “The Cabinet is a part of my family; I want them looked upon as such.” So when the Supreme Judges, with Chief Justice Chase at their head, went to pay their respects to the President, on last New Year’s day, they found the President surrounded by his Cabinet, and these haughty men were obliged to bow the knee. Now, there is nothing in nature so free from the elastic qualities as the spine of a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. As soon as time would allow, Chief Justice Chase addressed a letter to the Chief Magistrate, protesting against such unheard of and altogether unusual proceedings; but Ulysses smoked his cigar whilst he dictated one of those masterly papers of diplomacy, and the military secretary saw that it was safely delivered, and nothing more has been heard of it from that day to this.