The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-22
THGDDEuS STEVEESAT FULL LENGrE
The Crisis and the Men.
Esc,, Etc. Etc. Etc., Etc., Etc.. ETC.

lar and unusual concentration of people. In
the galleries. il is true, the spectators are equally
diffused but on the floor they have crowded to
q single quarter, which is on the LETT hand of
the Speaker midway between his desk and the
outer arc of seats, leaving all the chairs to his
right and the superior half Of the House vacant
of either Republicans or Opposition. Amid this
dense and listening assembly an old man, with a
keen pale face, is reading something he has
written in a quaint and solemn voice. 1t is
Thaddeus Stevens, passing the last words OF
debate upon the Amendment to the Constitution,
which is to make treason odious and freedom
national.
THADDEUs STEVENS ON THE FLOOR.
As he is the central, so he is the most indi-
vidual portrait of the great group. His face has
Olympian lines in it, as Mr.. Carlyle would say.
His hands are thin and white, though they show
no quvering; and while his eyes are so deeply set
under their square, severe brows, and so belted
beneath with almost funereal shadows that they
look like blind mans, he reads without glasses
the writing which he holds two feet away
steadily at "a years OF age. Standing like
statue-his black lustreless wig making still
more palid his ample forehead-this man of
strong and combative physiognomy looks like
manned and aged veteran, used to fighting for
lOrn hopes. There is a SPLENDID convexity to
his lips, when they are shut as if full of disdain
fulness Tor all wrong and conventionalty; and
prompt and splenetic toss of the head, ndi-
eating an easy and yet intractable indignation
at whatever is trucking or dishonest.
Of broad and bending back, plain and dark in
his garb, he seems the incarnation of an indomi-
table lifetime, content to be in less than a mi
20 ha nil 10 ho.
and an almost religious impressiveness of decla.
nation, disappointing to those who expect only
a redundant bitterness. HIS voice is the ex-
piring breath of eloquence almost lost at times,
but never shrill, and never broken, yet full of
oadences, and as he gestures with a fierce and
difficult angularity, you see that his Joints are
stiff, and that be has only an old mans volition
over his bodily inertia. 1t is feared by some
that he will never again take the floor, the
threescore-and-ten years of mans life having
brought to him the ailings of our species, and
the occasion is ominous from this personal cir
cumstance as well as from the significance of
the days legislation. Senators are here, there.
fore, and strange Ambassadors, and many peo-
pie of repute in many walks, so that this mo-
ment is an historic one, and suggestive of a
more extended delineation.
THE FIRST CONGRESS AFTER THE WAR.
The present Congress is only less remark able
than that which Immediately preceded the war.
In the interval between them, the business oi
the country was almost entirely administrative.
Fragmentary sketches exist Of the portentous
dramatic scenes which signaized the withdrawal
of the Secession members. That was passive
Congress, so far as those who remained were
concerned; but IN this, the First Session of the
Thirty-ninth Congress, the great question of Re
construction has arisen, and the present Senate
and House of Representatives will take place il
history. beside the primary Congress which
debated and established the Federal Constitu
tion. As to the speeches OF that celebrated body
we look for the Intention and the spiritual mean
Ing OF the various clauses of the Federal com
pact-to this Congress and its debates we mus
turn in the future to see how desperately slavery
died, how subtly treason attempted to escape
odium and punishment, and how, after the ions
conflict of Keen wits and trained intelhgences
four new and remarkable amendments to tn,
cation. He must be commonplace indeed, wht
cannot rise to some intensity of interest in notin
the personages who are made remarkable by thI
bold and benevolent legislation.
THE "RUMP" CONGRESS VERSUS THE KNOT"
The rancor of that partisan organization
which, through the patriotism OF the people, i
represented in Congress by a disappointed
minority, has stigmatlzed the body at large a
the "Rump" Congress. This nickname is no
very creditable to its contrivers by either it
ludllIy VI ltS dppliCdUDllJs lue huulp Hdf
lament was the last patriotic body OF Englisl
delegates which attempted to prevent the resto
ration OF the Stuarts and tyranny Contempt
rary with this "Rumpn was minority in th
interests of the eXpatriated house. however
which answered very well to the present bal
tered remnant of the tory Democracy. Tn
regal interest was represented at that time b
what was called ''Ihe KNOTT at the head {
which was one Sir Richard Wylis, trIckste
with both King and Parliament. Sngula
enough, there was person named Booth ac
ing with the Knots and he struck the hrs
successful and bloody blow against the "Rump.
The trends of the Contederacy are welcome
the rival designation of the Knot and tn
Booth section of it may be properly called 18th
Halter.n
MORAL CODE OF THB PRESENT CONGRESS.
The friend OF republican Governments VIII
has often had cause to be wounded with tn
personal demeanor of American CongressmeI
may find hope in the courtesy and parliamel
tary obedience OF the gentlemen now maxim
law. The pestiterous places called 'Holes
the WALL" ''Whistle Wetters," :" and what not al
entirely broken up. The practice of proyidu
liquors to every committee, and charging il q
account of "contingent expenses y or ''st
tlonery,n is altogether dispensed with. A Chr
tian code of honor leaves to the prudence an
respectfulness Of members, discrimination in d
bate, and to public opinion, rather than the dn
and the attray, the settlement OF each member
capacity and honesty. When the South we
away to make its appeal to force,
took its bludgeons and cowhides with
The only attempt at personal intmd
tuckian acting with the Executive wing OF I