The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1866-06-15
THE DAILY EMPIRE.
a. II, ROBINSON,
PUBLISHER, AND PROPRIETOR.
FF9% the Age IPhilPJ

as much as an allusion TO tile past. We had
supposed that he would find IL as painful
to be reminiscent as he finds IL easy to be
vituperative. His retrospective glances
carry him over days uglier than any that
darken the lives Of most men. No man In
the world has greater occasion than he TO
solicit the charity of silence for the deeds of
his youth aud manhood But while the
|. employments of his old age are not of such
a kind as to invoke respect for his present
or tenderness for his past life we hardly
expected that he would venture, himself to
rend the vail which hides departed davs
and provoke a scrutiny which he ought to
feel must be disastrous tp him. Hence it
was with no small surprise that we read in
his recent speech on Reconstruction this
paragraph, which was uttered by way of
rejoinder to a gentleman who was not
quite prepared to commit the people of the
rebel States to shell surrounded with
6aayonets'H as had been suggested by Mr..
l Stevens t
"Now, sir, if the gentleman had remem-
bered the scenes twenty years ago, when
no man dared to speak without risking his
Ilife-when but o few men did do it-for
there ioere coWards IN those days as there are
IN Mese--you would not have found him
asking to bring these rebels here and |
wonder that my friend from, Ohio mir.
Bingham) should desire to bring them
here"
Doubtless this declaration was received
by many of the submissive adherents of
Mr.. Stevens with implicit credulity, and
by all of them with outward manifestations
of reverence for the vast courage of the
hero who thus reverted with modest pride
to the dangers he passed in defense Of the
truth. But even among that slayish band
there were some (Judge Kelley was onc)
who must have laughed heartily behind
their hats, or their handkerchief, at the
funnI ii las.asa la..a. r. n.
nom such speaker. NOta Pennsylvania
on that floor had forgot the Buckshot war.
nor the part which Thaddeus Stevens
played in 1t. Twenty-seven years have
rolled away since that memorable era in the
history Of our State. Stevens was then
bent on ruling this commonwealth by n
Rump Legislature, as he Is now bent on
ruling the nation with a Rump Congress
He had tools about him at Harrisburg as
plant as those which now lie ready TO his
hand at Washington. His bearing was as
bold, his bluster as loud, his yituperation
as indecent, then as now. If his followers
in those days sometimes ventured to
mutiny like Raymond and Bingham in
these, like Raymond and Bingham their
courage failed to Withstand his awful
frown aud savage rebuke. If his decree
went forth that sconscience should be
thrown To the dogs to the dogs conscience
went without moments delay. The fact
Is, stevens was preparing himself for his
present work on a smaller stage and with
"a company of inferior actors, Just as great
tragedian gains confidence and practice on
the boards of n country theater before VEN
turing to try Drury Lane.
| For IA time things went on smoothly for
him as they have hitherto gone In the pres
ent Congress. He was omnipotent. The
glance of his eye was feared more than any
other mans fist He was stipposed TO be
as insensible TO fear ts he was known to be
to shame. But suddenly the storm that his
lawless acts had invoked, and which, in his
| blind arrogance, he needed them as little
as he heeds now the gathering wrath of the
whole American people, broke upon his
head. Harrisburg BECAME scene of tu-
mutt and of threatened war. The indig--
| nant masses poured thither from Philadel-
phia and elsewhere, not with bloody intent,
but with calm, indomitable resolution to
| interpose their strong right arms between
| the law and the men who, under the lead
| OF stevens, were setting at naught and de
Tying the will of the people as expressed at
the polls. But how did the man who had
reused the storm meet it.? Did he present
to the outraged multitude the awful front
which struck terror into his followers and
inspired them with the notion Of his super
human courage Did he bare his breast
in tragic fashion and demand that they
should "strike, but hear hiRT Did he, find-
ing that force was threatened, put himself
at the head of force. IN meet II we can
fancy a nervous Radical in Congress who
trembles at his nod. rantrrously crying ont
"yest yes r' But unhappiIy for ail snch
confiding creatures. Truth saws ..not no i"
When there was really no odanoer-when
a speech was being made to a listeninV and
respectful audience in the chamber Of the
Senate, Stevens, whose guilty conscience
discerned In tbe broad. honest faces thai
lined the hall. the features of a hand of
assassins. jumped ont of the back window
of the bnildina and betook himselfto fioht
He ran through the darkness 10 n remote
corner Of the ground and hid In a match of
bushes Presently, hearing the tootstens
of two of his friends who had songbt
safety in the same way and fancvin0 thar
the mob was indeed Coming he cried ont
"Donr rim nle-for God's safe don,t I'm met
To which one OF the ref,,gees. more innet,
uous than polite. fearing that the noise
would insure their eantnre. resnondedW
"Huski you id fool--irs onh yasi, This
Is no ictionLit is NOT even the truth ann-
bellished-it is simple iact. within the nnr-
sonaI knowledge Of thousands of citilens
of this commonweaIfh. Many of them
have heard the particuIars. ne I'VE have de-
tailed them. from stevens own iins