The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-10-31
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Thad Stsvenss considering Il posslbic sna'
his strength might not be equal to fighting M
whole OF The present Congress ct it, coming
session, has put out manifesto in advance,
which We give In another column. 1t Is
altogether . queer document contradictory,
narrow, and indicating distinctly the failure
Of Intellectual power In it, author. Thad's
strength was in his incorporating spite
his honest di0blerie-iu . sort Of Internal
franknsss In which hs declared his contempt
and hate toward everything that stood in his
way, and boldly svowed his purpose to be the
worst that was conceivable in the circum-
stances. There Il none Of this favor in the
utterances before vs. This may be because
they have dribbled into print through the
brain Of Stevens friend, some moss-grown old
worthy, formerly OF the German universities"
This persons name is Pfeiner, and he dis
coursed with the member from Pennsylvania
with the familiarity Of ancient times" meaning
~ Abraham talked with the angels or Socrates
with Tom, Dick and Harry in the Agora. The
subject, as stated by PfsifFsr, is the present
prospect Of our country, and whether We now
are likely to approach any nearer to the true
principles of liberty than our fathers did under
their old and constrained constitution" More
over, they discussed in desultory way" the
means of getting rid, "without further delay or
convulsion," Of some heinous blot or crime In
the constitution; said blot or crime being
neither described nor named.
Stevens breaks into this lofty subject In .
vein that for q moment seems characteristic
He notes that tho construction now given to
the constitution will be accepted as its real
meaning IN the future, and that this should
stimulate men Of his particular views to
give 1t as strong q twist as possible In
their direction at the present time. With
this flourish OF his hands he drops tamely into
the sea ofniggerism. His argument is chat the
appropriate legislation" provided for In the
last amendment to the constitution must be
used to force the niger down the national
throat whether the people like it or not He
admits that he did not always believe that
Congress had the right to legislate over the
States on such matters as making voters, but
holds that 1t has this power now. The constitu--
ton, a. to general matters, is only perverted"
for the Southern States, and is still binding on
the others but as to this precious nigger it is
perverted" in all alike. The "great COM
moner" can In this respect see no difference in
position under the constitution between con-
qered country, for which the eonqueror
prescribes~ law, and country that has
never been conquered ct all. He main
tains that there is no principle Of repub-
lican Justice If man who Is voter in one
State Is not In another, and cannot vote wher-
ever he may chance to be..- All election laws,
therefore, arc pieces Of tyranuy, and any
restriction onvotinR is unjust Let every one
vote-when. where, and a. often as he chooses.
This is the inevitable result Of the argument.
At this stsgsH is not surprising that Stevens
should run into the usual hifalutin on texts
from the Declaration of Independence. Life,
liberty and the pursuit Of happiness, we hear
once more, arc the inslienable rights It
guarantees; and to secure them each man
must have Q vote therefore, they are not
secured unless he has q vote; therefore, II
the nigger has not o vote he cannot
secure what the Declaration says he shall
have. Suppose our German citizens relied
on the Declaration, and appealsd to Congress
against the Excise law that interferes with
their pursuit Of happiness, every radical jack
daw would have his answer ready The Ger
mans right to pursue happiness is limited by
the right Of society to good order; but the
nigger's right to the. same pursuit is not sup
posed to have any such limit It is not ad-
mitted that order, or even the very existence
of society, in the Southern SRtes Is of any
moment by comparison with the great neces-
sity to the radicals that the Niger should vote.
Poor old Stevensl How feeble he must
have become, when he can descend to drivel
through all this. trashy argument Of constitu-
tional metaphysics, - If he were only another
Sumner / How much more worthy of respect
was his position when he boldly declared that
all this matter was outside the constitution and
must stand On . broader basis than that instru-
ment, or ooald not standat all! He ooald only
have gone one step further In arrant nonsense
than his constitutional argument and this he
does In launching into . rhapsody over the
gloriss Of great niger republic OF future.
ages hat il to grow up in tho West Indies.
Alas for this poor, contemplate white race
What will become OF II then!
Sheridan 81 Foot.
When Sheridan was on horseback be. rode
more swiftly than ever hero rode before up the
heights Of fame. The, black steed which bore
him through the Shenandoah Valley 70 Win
chester stopped 70 draw breath only beneath