The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1867-12-18
"on Thad. Stevens" or the Hon Thaadeus
STEVENS.

"Old Thad. Stevens" that is what every
body calls the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens-we
use the term in no disrespectful scnse-tbere
is no other such man here or elsewhere. He
has trodden over It long path. and his foot
prints are visible through its entire lenoth
He has marked his way, and since the death of
Henry Clay, there is not foot of it which
does not indicate what he has done. He is
man OF great intellect, of wonderful eneryies
OF body and mind, Of iron-clad will These
are elements of positive power when unncum-
bered by acute sensIbties and of greater
power still when left perfectly free from the
trammes and brakes of generous sympathes
and high moral principles, as in the case of
Ihaddsus Stevens. The like of him is no.
where to be found in history. He has not
many friends he could have but few without
more political charity and generosity, and
higher Christian virtues. He is old, but there
is no infancy in his age. Time has not moli-
fed the bitter asperites of his wiIlful, perverse
ever was child at all. He was once Young,
but he was Old Thad. Stevens even then, as
all his earl y associates and ncighbors will tes-
tify. He is the incarnation of punishment.
lie revels in the power to convict and to Stay.
His heaven is where systems are broken into
fragments, and high principles made the sport
9" e. his j., GIANT followers His mission is
destroy the works Of antedecent time, and to
delight in the disorders, gricfs, and sufcrings
of his fellow men. His notions Of crime are
all centered upon those acts which contravcne
the wisdom OF his line of conduct or the Justice
Of his policy. Without pride or sensibility of
character, he is a ruler to play with his asso-
ciatcs, while he leads them on to certain ruin
and destruction. Too old to be batled or de-
feated easily, he cares not fig for the fate Of
those whom he draws into the meshrs of his
hateful works of disintegration and death. lie
loathes the South but he does not love the
North What he wants is punishment and
he inficts it with mcrccss severity upon those
who are accessible to the instruments of his
curnny wrath He has moulded the passions of
the North into a great political guilotne
which has cut off the heads of eight millions of
his countrymen and he has followed this act
Of sublime political wisdom by erecting ten ne
gro governments within the dccapitatcd States
This is all the work of @ Old Thad. Stevens"
Without the command of his will, the genius
Of his intellect and the energy of his stricken
body, we should never have heard Of that
construction. We all call it reconstruction,
though before us we see nothing of the i'm pie
ments of its work, but wedges and beetIes
hooks and ladders, and torches, and fag5ots.
The past is torn down with the hand of dcmol-
tion itself, while nothing rises but dust and
smoke, anarchy, theft and conhagraton. How
glorious are the deeds Of Old Thad. Stevens.
Let public plunderers rejoice in the generation
that gave them such benefactor Under
this reg ime, the question is, who loses least
not who saves all. When people are forced
to give up their Constitution, it is not to be ex
pected that they can save their estates. The
power that is able to destroy great Govern
ment will not aid the citizen to protect his
family or his property. There are many spe
cies or ways of coniscation. The people of
this country, last year, paid in taxes one tbous
and millions of dollars. The robber comes b.
stealth, and at midnight; the collector comes
with warrant from Old Thad. Stevens, in
open day. Both demand money, and both
get it by the same principIe which is force.
1t cost an immense sum in the back -stabbing
internal work to prevent Mcclellan from tax
ing Richmond, So that Old Thad., and all the
other Thads., might have an opportunity to
work up their scheme Of Government "Outsdc
the Constitution" The South has lost by that
scheme, in the real value of property, no less
than one thousand million, of dollars The ten
negro governments made by it are utterly un-
able to pay taxes of any kind, and If the work
goes on three years more there will be an ad-
ditona depreciation of one thousand million
of dollars. A farm mortgage is worth as
much as when free of ncumbrance but it is
not worth as much to the mortgager Old
Thad. Stevens has put mortgage upon the
country, and the tax collector makes US all
contribute to pay the interest on it. That is
what we have gotten out of old and young
Thad. Stevens operations "outside of the Con-
stitutiOn'
We have found it an expensive business to
run outside the Constitution. 1t has drpre
ciated our property and added to our incum
brances But we have negro governments 81 in
the South-that is our compensation. Old
Thad. Stevens is satisfied with it. He is on
the brink OF time. 1t is his last work. We
will certainly remember him He is photo
graphcd on the pedestal of our system-espe-
cialy on the south front. There is old Thad.
Stevens, large and comely as life surrounded by
great numbers of little people, crngng, pros
lrate and pleating looking up to their old masters
for his last order, ready to obey, so ready, like
Senator ConkIing, that they declare their
fidelity to the negro in the South, though the
people OF the North should set their faces
against him.
But there is nothing strange in all this. 1t
is the philosophy of Radical government as
embodied in Old Thad Stevens himself He
has never yet been able to see where his
will leaves off and the Government of the Con-
stituton commences. When the "fourteenth
amendment was considerd by Old 4Thad.
in the House, he held "that the States
had the right, and always had had it, to fix
the elective franchise within their own limits,
and be added with the emphasis of power
And hold this does not take it from them.'
He never changes his mind; but, like all great
men, he does change the policy Of his govern
mcnt. Old Thad. now sees the fourteenth
amendment differently: lit does take from
the States the right to fix the elective fran
chIse, and gives it to Congress-
Adverse fortune in California, Ohio, New
York PENNSYLVANIA Now Jarcpy everywhere |