Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-03-29
A nIournfuI Exhibition.

The House of Representatives witnessed
yesterday pitiable spectacle. An old
man, trembling on the verge of the grave,
claiming to be too feeble to deliver his
own speech, full of malice and bitterness.
solcits the ear of the House to pour forth
his venom against an entire people. We
shall take another occasion to speak of the
character of Mr.. Stevens speech but we
simply now recur to the circumstances un-
der which it was delivered. No one. not
even Mr.. Stevens himself, contemplates
the likelihood OF his bill becoming law
1t was introduced and referred several days
ago to the Committee of the Whole, and
Mr.. Stevens yesterday obtained an oppor-
tunity to make q speech upon it, which it
were better for his fame he had never
made. It may be welcomed by few mar
row-minded malignant ultraists, but it will
be despised by the noble, mourned over
by the charitable, and regretted by the
patriotic, who will feel that such an exhi-
bition in the halls of Congress, two years
after the close of the war, is national dis
honor. There are men who believe, some
of them honestly, that Mr.. Stevens has
done his country good service, and that in
walring upon the Constitu ion and enforc-
ing military government of the South, he
has entitled himself to the national graft
tudc. But even these will not defend the
tent resentment, and especially when il is
marked by the stage trickery of an adroit
politician and an accomplished demagogue.
Mr.. Stevens was sick or was heralded as
sick some some days ago. But il was given
out that he proposed to make speech adj
vocating confscation and assailing the
President. Prior to this he introduced his
bill and had it referred to the committee OF
the Whole. After the dispatches announ-
cling his purpose were scattered abroad, the
bill itself was sent, and put in the hands of
the politicians of the country the day be-
fore the speech was delivered. Mr.. Ste
vens comes into the House, and after intro
ducing two or three other bills, showing
his usual vigor, appeals to the House to let
him be heard, probably for the last time,
on his bill, to which end he moves recon
sideration of the me Jon referring his bill.
He begins his speech, reading from the
printed slips, but, apparently exhausted
after few paragraphs, it is handed over to
Mr.. Mcpherson, who finished reading it
from the Clerks desk in his clear, highly
finished style, and we suppose it is to be
telegraphed to the country as the final eff
fort of ''the grand old man." who has ex-
hausted himself in his devotion to his coun-
try.
We remember that a similar scene was
enacted some months ago. Mr. Stevens was
represented as exhausted from disease. A
great flourish of trumpets vas made about
his final speech, and public expectation was
awakened and q dramatic interest created
for the final words Of the veteran leader
words OF bitterness and of malice also
But the old man eloquent lived to go to
Harrisburg, i'll order to show that there
was more vitality in him tdan in many o
Younger man." and survived even his mer-
ciless slaughter there; and it has not been
many dayssinceth CtTOniclecomn1ented on
his enduring the protracted night sessions of
the House with all the Freshness and vigor
of youth.
Ii these are indeed Mr.. Stevens final
words, we shall not regret his retirement
from public life. But il it is part of the
stage trickcry to give them consequence
TO which they are not entitled, we wish the
public TO understand ii. We make sport
of no mans physical infrnities and we
trust we arc not lacking in respect to age.
But we despise the arts Of % demagogue
and the IaanUuyres Of veteran and accom-
pli8hcd trickster. On the Thirty-ninth Con
greSs the influence of Mr. Stevens was inor-
dinate Had it been welded to secure an adj
iustment OF our national disturbances we
might have long ago been united people.
But In nstead Of fpromoting union, he preach
ed discord; instead of harmonizing, he in
tensified sectional antagonjsm. He sue
cecded in changing or coercing the opin-
ions of a majority OF lis associates, so that
men who honestly sought pacifcation at
the outset gave their votes TO the infamous
military BILL That is not enough for his
insatiate hate. He would let loose the hor-
rors of contiscation and of agrarianism up
ON an unhappy and impoverished people;
but we are confident that in this respect his
power will not be equal to his malice.
MAJ LtteHigencer. 2OM.
One John Z. !. Rencer is said to have dis