A fortnight after the close of the trial, Forrest began a new engagement at the Broadway Theatre.
One of the leading journals of the day said, “The return of Mr. Forrest to the stage, from which he has been so long self-exiled, will form the most interesting feature in the dramatic season. There have been many, though we have not been of the number, who have thought he would never reappear on the boards after the unwarrantable treatment he received at the hands of the maliciously and ignorantly prejudiced. Mr. Forrest, however, has justly relied upon the spirit of fair play which characterizes the American people. Let all men be fairly judged before they are condemned, and especially those who, like him, have long and manfully withstood such a ‘downright violence and storm of fortune’ as would have overwhelmed most men, and whose careers have added to the lustre of their country’s history. We believe that he will never have cause to say, like Wolsey,—
‘I shall fall
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more!’
but that he who has so long
‘Trod the ways of glory,
And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor,
Will find a way, out of his wreck, to rise in.’
“All men have their faults, and envy makes those of the great as prominent as possible.