The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-02-02

Again.
The speech Of Mr.. Thad Stevens, of Pennsyi-
vania, who closed tho debate on the new con-
sdtutional amendment on Wednesday, was en-
trely characteristic Of the man and of his party.
The House had just oontemptuously sent back
to the Reconstruction Committee the resolution
which Stevens had offered; but with the impu-
denos peculiar to his nature he Immediately
reported the same resolution again, having
modified 1t by striking out q couple of words
which did not ut all affect the suffrage issue,
and thereupon demanded the previous ques-
ton. The republican members, quaking In
their shoes ct the ire of the Pennsylvania Me-
phistopheles, did not dare to object to allow
him to report, and his imperious demand for
the previous question was seconded by vote
Of seventy-three to forty-nine. This gave
Stevens the opportunity to make speech
to which nobody had the right to reply, and
he instantly availed himself Of his advantage.
Almost ignoring the subject under considers
ton by the House, he commenced long rig
marole of abuse of President Johnson, denun-
citation of the Southern citizens of the United
States and sneers and gibes at such CONSERVE
tive republicans as Mr.. Raymond, of New York.
To the President he insultingly referred as
"that man at the other end Of the avenue"
and to Mr. Raymond as "his little friend from
New York;" but the Speaker RETAINED from
calling him to order, and the other members, too
cowardly to insist that he should confne him
self to parliamentary language, tried to conceal
their chagrin by silly laughter at this insolence,
impoliteness and brutality. Forgetting that,
under British king, . few years ago, he would
have been hung as q traitor, he threatened the
President with assassination for having ex-
pressed an opinion upon the expediency OF
constitutional amendments, declaring that
"such conduct on the part Of British king,
few years ago, would have cost that king his
head" The emasculated reports of the Asso-
ciated Press do scant justice to the vehement,
bitter, revolutionary, reasonable, disconnected,
unparliamentary and insane harangue of this
radical conspirator; but even the brief notes
which have reached US show that it was the
most disgraceful speech ever delivered in an
American Congress.
The madness of Thad Stevens, however, is
not without its method. He well knows the
foolish men with whom he has to deal, and
who tremble at his words The covering
conservatives did not interrupt bis torrent
of billingsgate, nor did q SINGLE one Of the
meek majority venture to suggest that Stevens
was violating parliamentary decorum, as well
as all the rules of common decency. With
peculiar shrewdness he had measured his
men, and the more he bullied and clustered
the more they quivered and yielded. The pres
Ont terrors Of the voice, the eye, the finger and
the invective of the Pennsylvania Mephisto-
pheles were more potent than their sense Of
justice, Of consistency, OF the respect due to the
| President Of the United States and Of the ex-
pressed wishes Of their constituents Utterly
awed and dashed into silence, they were pre-
pared, by the time he had finished his speech,
10 do anything and everything that hs re-
EQpired. II he had ordered them TO impeach
and remove the President they would have
eagerly. rushed to obey him, so far
a. was in their power, as whipped
hounds do the bidding Of their angry
master. There was not spirit enough among
them to resist this petty tyrant, whose talent
for blackguardism Is his only strength, and
when the vote was taken they passed his
amendment by vote Of one hundred and
twenty to forty-six, instead Of expelling him
through the window, as was done ct Harris-
burg several years ago, when Stevens INDUCED
In somewhat similar tiradA Baldwin and
Eliot Of Massachusetts, Jenckos, Of Rhode
Island, and Hale and Raymond, Of New York,
were the only republicans, except those from
| the Border States, who had the courage to vote
with the democrats against Thad Stevens
commands. The rest Of the republicans DELHI
crately endorsed his speech by their votes, and
must share with him the odium and notoricty
which will always be attached to this disrepu-
table philippe. Yet many Of these members
had opposed the same amendment for which
| they now voted, and had assisted to send 1t
back to the Committee on Reconstruction. All
ofthem had been elected upon repeated pledges
to support the administration, and had cast
their ballots for Andrew johnson at the polls.
But when the Pennsylvania Mephistopheles
cracked his whip these very members placed
themselves upon the record a. slanderers
of the President and backed Stevens in
his insults and his threats of assassination.
We leave them TO. the tender mercies
Of the constituents whom they have
deceived and misrepresented. They have en-
rolled themselves as the new rebels; and, from
Thad Stevens down to the mcanest Of those
other members who preferred assassination to
reconstruction, they require the full pardon OF
the President whom they have abused before
they can be again admitted to association with
true Unionists.
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