The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-08-20

Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive
Slave law and the Kansas Nebraska
abomination. The Democrats new
gained the ascendancy, and MI. Ste
vens was not again in Congress till
1859, having been elected by his dis
trict to the seth Congress. His con-
stituents have been wise enough to
re-elect HIM ever since, and Ae is
now serving for..his seventh term.
His thorough political and legal
knowledge, his skill in parliamentary
tactics, his powerful and comprehen-
sive intellect, his iron will, and his
intense loyalty and radicalism, have
all combined to make him the lead
er of his party, and his ascendancy
is undisputed. 1t is true that, at
times, his measures fail; less often
in the 41st than in the 39th Con
gress, yet occasionally even in that.
But, while Mr.. Stevens has his faults,
among them, an imperious will and
a stern nature, firm almost to obsti-
macy, he possesses, in higher de-
gree than most men, those qualities
which fit him to be, like Agamem-
non, ga king of men,
During the whole war he was firm
and decided in his conviction, that
one great purpose Of the war, on the
part of Divine Providence, was to
rid us of slavery, and, accordingly
we find him bringing forward and
putting upon their passage measures
and resolutions, looking to the over
throw of slavery. Among these,
were the Indemnity act; the 18th
Amendment to the Constitution
prohibiting slavery throughout the
United States the Enrolment act;
a bill to enlist one hundred and fifty
thousand colored soldiers; and, at
an earlier period, bill offering to
free all slaves who left their masters
and aided in putting down the rebel
lion. AS Chairman Of the Commit
tee Of Ways and Means on the part
of the House, he always advocated a
broad and liberal financial policy,
and seconded the efforts of Secretary
Chase with great earnestness.
Ia the 39th Congress he was chair
man Of the Committee on Appropri-
ations, an off school of the old Com
mittee on Ways and Means, and also
of the Committee Of Fifteen on Re
construction, and gave special at
tention to the passage of the l4th
Amendment Of the Constitution
which, however, he complained, was
emasculated in the Senate-to the
Freedmen's Bureau bills, the Civil
Rights bills, the Bases of Represen-
tation act, and the Reconstruction
measures.
In the 40th Congress he lent the
aid of his clear and judicial intellect
to the perfecting of the measures of
reconstruction, and the legislation
which would most thoroughly favor
these measures. His views on f.
nance are generally regarded as less
sound and satisfactory than on most
other questions, and have not met
with very general approval; but he
has not, of late at least, urged them
with so rnuch zeal as formerly.
Since February %, 1868, he had
been very buisily engaged in the
preparation Of the articles of i'm
parchment against President John
son, and in conducting the impeach
ment trial, of which he was one of
the managers. His argument, in be-
half Of impeachment, is justly re-
garded as one of tie ablest and
most logical ever delivered before
a court. It wss prepared, too,
amid great feebleness and infirmity
of body, his condition being at
times such, that his death was al
most hourly expected; but the style
has lost nothing Of its crispness or
vigor by this constant presence of
pain; every sentence is as incisive
and keen, every epithet as carefully
selected, every argument as concise
and pointed, as if he had never
known a day of illness. The power
of the mind over the body was new
er more finely exemplifed. Mr..
Stevens early became the object of
Mr.. Johnson's hatred for his
straight forw ardness, his integrity,
and his Intense loyalty and radical
ism. So long ago as February %,
1866, Mr.. johnson, in his speech to
the Washington mob, denounced
him by name, and insisted that Ste
vens was desirous of assinating
him. He associated him then, as
he did afterward at St. Louis, with
Charles Sumner, and denounced
both in unmeasured terms.
Mr.. Stevens is, we need hardly
say, an earnest advocate of impair
tial suffrage, both North and South.
He has avowed himself in favor Of
General Grant for the Presidency,
and though Benjamin Wade Of Ohio
was his first choice for Vice Presi-
dent, he will acquiesce with great
cordiality in the nomination of Mr..
Colfax, between whom and himself
the utmost cordiality exists.
Mr.. W. H. Barnes, author of the
History of the 39th Congress- well
says Of him: Ellis age-over sew
enty years-gave him the respect of
members, the majority of whom
were born after he graduated at col
lege; the more especially, as these
advanced years were not attended
with any perceptible abatement of
the intellectual vivacity or fire Of
youth. The evident honesty and
patriotism with which he advanced
over PROSTATE theories and policies
toward the great ends at which he
aimed, secured him multitudes of
friends, while these same qualities
contributed to make him many enc
mics. The timid became bold, and