The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-02

WHICH We MAKE absolute justice Jn6 new nSau
OF the corner of our reconstructed temple of
liberty. This is the struggle in which we are
now engaged, and through which we must
labor to the browning victory. When we
learn that it is in righteousness and justice
only that a nation can be established and so
live as a nation, we shall enter on great
career of prosperity and ltrue glory beyond
the warmest dreams of Imagination. 1t is
this that consecrates politics, and makes it a
religious duty to take part in them until our
laws become one with the divine laws of
liberty, justice, and righteousness.
Thaddeus Stevens on the Nature OF Our
GOvernment-The Suffrage Question.
From The ~. Y Times.
An aged statesman in retirement sometimes
wields even more influence than when actively
engaged in the contents of public life. The
weioht and authority due to his ability and
patriotic services are enhanced by the pre-
sumption which age affords, that his opinions
are no longer affected by his passions, and
that selfshness and ambition have ceased to
be among the motives which control his iudg-
ment. When Jefferson at Monticello, and
Madison at Montpelier, and John Adams at
Quincy, were called on, after they had with
drawn from political life, to give their views
as to the true Interpretation of the Consttu-
ton, and the real intent of its trainers on the
question of State rights, or the tariff or the
limitations of Executive power, their replies
carried great authority to fair-miuded men of
all parties, because they themselves had been
foremost among the founders of the Govern
ment and the authors of the Constitution by
which its powers and purposes were defined.
Thaddeus Stevens at Lancaster, is trying to
follow in their footsteps. Though still involved
in the sharpest political struggles of the day.
his waning life and failing health incite him
to new modes of making his influence felt on
the current of events; and lest he may not be
able to impress his opinions upon the nation
from his seat in Congress at its coming session,
he has sent them forth in the form of a letter
to German neighbor and prOfessedly in reply
to his request. We doubt whether it will make
as profound an impression on the public mind
as its author anticipates. 1t lacks nearly all
the qualities which gave to kindred papers
issued by the early statesmen to whom we
have referred, their great authority. Inco-
herent in its style, loose and inconclusive in
us argument and unsustained by ANYTHING in
the Constitution or history of the country il
has nothingto command for it any overshadow-
ing influence on public opinion. Even those
who have been accustomed to regard Mr.
Stevens as a great authority in affairs of gov
ernment, will scarcely find in this paper any-
thing to augment thier admiration. The very
object it is intended to serve is not calculated
DT6L6lLlOuS
document should command. The German
admirer, who applies to Mr.. Stevens for his
'opinion of the present prospects of our couu-
try, does not ask whether we are coming
back more or less slowly, but surely to the
sure foundations of our old freedom and pros
perity-whetherw we are restoring the Constitu-
tlon to its old supremacy and the Union to its
old integrity, and are again rearing the struc-
ture OF our Government on the principles and
purposes of the fathers of the Republic: what
he wants to know is "whether we ao,o are
likely to approach any nearer to the true princi-
pies OF H6erfy than our fathers did, under their
old and constrained Constitution. Without
regard just now to the opinion of Mr.. Stevens
on this point, ne do not think we are We
shall consider the country very fortunate if it
ever again approaches so near to the ''true
principles of ofliberty'' as did those who achieved
our national independence and gave us tue
Wisest, best, and most perfect constitution of
government the world has ever seen
Mr. stevens has no hesitation in giving his
correspondent and the country to understand,
that he thinks we can do much better than
our fathers did. He thinks we can now es-
tablish government which will embody and
protect the ''true principles of liberty" much
more perfectly than did that one which ex-
lsted, and which still exists, under the COnsti-
tuition of 1883. And the one thing to be done
for the attainment of that end-the one act |
by which this more perfect form of liberty can !
be secured-is held by Mr.. Stevens to be- the |
assertion and exercise by Congress of absolute
and complete authority over the whole ques-
ton of suffrage in all the States-so that no
State shall have, hereafter, any right or power
TO say who shall, and who shall not vote for
any officer legislative or executive in the
State or nation. That great, fundamental
right-that power which lies at the basis
of all government and Of all authority-is
to be denied to the States, and to be alb.
sorbed-hed absolutely and exclusively
by the central authority of the nation.
And then and thus we shall "approach much
nearer to the true principles OF liberty"
than we ever could do under the sold aud
constrained Constitution of our fathers
Mr.. Stevens does not pretend that the old
Constitution ever permitted any such ooncen-
tration of political power. He cannot deny,
and In effect he admits that 1t prohibited IT'S
exercise by the Federal authority. But he
maintains that the fathers of the Republic
intended to establish just such government