Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-12-30
ctrines he politically seemed to obey al

doctrines he politically seemed to obey as
divine.
We have had but one Franklin. but one
John Randolph, and We are not likely to have
more than one THADDEus STEVENS but the
latter adorned with no title save that OF a
common Representative of the people, and
chiefly after the autumnal age of sixty-fve,
when men are usually expected to shun both
physical and intellectual toll, has won his
niche of fame in the Capitol of his country
as assurcdlY as either Of the former well-de-
fined but widely different national celebrities.
The practical benevolence of Mr.. STEVENS
to those in want within his own neighborhood
was of that kind which is '' not pnffed up
and vaunteth not ITSELF nor did it spend it's
force in theoretical universally to the prac-
tical exclusion of everybody in particular
but the fires which he supplied to many
hearthstones of the poor, shielding them froul
the hard exposures of rigorous climate, will
forever warm the hearts of the recipients, and
some tears will bedew the grave of one who
de e-larcd, (January l3. 1869 in brief
speech which finely exhibited his robust man
ner, that he would be satisfied if his epitapl,
should be written thus:
Here lies one who never rose to any eminence.
and who only courted the low ambition to have it said
poor, the lowly, the downtrodden OF every race
and language and color"
The memory of Mr.. Stevens will not per-
ish, because be never permitted his humanity
to grow od, and because, in spite Of any
other deductions, he wasted no time in self
seeking displays, but devoted his highest
faculties to measures alive with liberty, 10y
atty, and love of his country.
And yet Mr.. President and Senators, there
is no fame more feeting than that acquired
even by veterans in political service. The
whole BODY of congressional debates for nny
fifty years, after u brief flight of time, will be
CON pressed into volume not larger than that
now required for single sc, sion, and the vo,-
Cme So abridged may. perhaps, Z" fit readers
find though few y Those of us who are in
this process to be dropped out, like the bad
poems in revised edition, may reckon it
some advantage that we to be little known
OF all the wan and weary candidates eager
for the fame of the political forum few can
hope to leave the world 81 much better than
they found it to secure the perpetual and
grateful remembrance of after ages 1t is
obvious, then, that to become the early prey
of oblivion is the doom of nearly all who are
led, by the " infirmity of noble minds,'' to
seek reputation through ephemeral services
in the field of politics: no registry here on
the rul S of fame secures to any name place
in the book OF Ii e; and, after all, the high
est reward that can await the true patriot
the wisest, and the best-the elevation really
To be covet,d-is the approval of that Being
to whom We are indebted for present life and
the hope of such an immortality as will not
be dependent upon the frail memory of COM
ing generations, destined to be too busy with
their own times to look curiously back upon
the p rsonal history OF those who have be-
come almost invisible in the long recediny
procession of the past