Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-08-19

OF the Baltimore Convention IN IIO4, anC
voted with the Pennsylvania delegation fo
Mr.. johnson for Vice President. How
thoroughly and ably he endeavored to undo
the work of that day, the impeachment Of
Andrew johnson will attest.
The first measure of Mr.. Stevens tending
to give him the high position he afterward
held as leader of the House the bill in
troduced by him on the Sth of December
1862, to indemnify the President and other
persons for suspending the privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus. The Democracy made
gallant fight over that measure, but were
defeated in the Senate, in the House, and in
the courts. To that act we may possibly
owe the successful issue of the war, and the
whole country will yet speak in terms of the
most sincere gratitude toward Thaddeus
Stevens for his foresight and craftsmanship
in thus assisting and defending the great and
good man. Abraham Lincoln.
1t is the crowning honor of Mr.. Lincoln s
| life, sealed with his own death at the hand
of the assassin, that he was author of the
proclamation of emancipation. That proc
lamdtion, long promised and too long with
held, was issued on the lst of January. 1861
Mr.. Stevens had long sought the consumma-
tion of this measure, but even with this
he could not be content. He was anxious
that the perpctuty of that act should be Sc
cured by constitutional guarantees and. ac-
cordingly, on the 2Sth of March following,
he offered in the House joint resolution
proposing an article to the Constitution abol-
ishing slavery \ joint resolution of similar
import had been previously offered in the
Senate by Mr.. Trumbull, and agreed to by
that body, but it was rejected in the House
After consideration, the resolution of Mr..
Stevens was laid over, and the joint resolution
of Mr.. Trumbull was again taken up on a
! anH fipallxy adnptal
January, 81, 1865.
! Mr. Stevens deserves particular tribute
for his straightforward course respecting the
African race.
The country was slow in accepting the
negro soldier as it is now in receiving
him as a citizen But the colored troops
fought as bravey in the field as they will
boldly vote on election mornings in the new
| future. To vote now is their right-to fight
then was their privilege, and slowly the
privilege was accorded them it is especially
honorable to Mr.. Stevens, who had been the
lifelong friend of the negro, that he was the
first to ask it for them in the House the
question of employing colored soldiers had
been moOted in the Senate as early as July,
1862, and bill was passed by both branches
of Congress granting to persons OF African
descent fhe poor privilege of constructing
fortifications, and performing camp services.
This did not harmonizo with the free and
manly spirit of Mr.. Stevens, and on the 9th
of January, 1868, he offered bill in the
House for the enlistment of the negro as
soldier The bill was passed by the House,
but it was reported upon adversely by the
Military Committee of the Senate, and on
the third of March following, that body
could only agree to his enlistment a cook.
But, without any express law, the negro
was already doing good service as solddr
of the Republic, and in considering the En-
ginecr bill, in which his enlistment as
cook was permitted, the Senate did well to
reject Mr. Garret Davis amendment that he
should not be enrolled in the service of the
United States. Six months after Mr.. Ste
vens had sought to have Congress recognize
the negro as soldier the President issued
an order for his protection, declaring it to
be the :. duty of every Government to z i've
protection to its citizens Of whatever class,
color, or condition, and especially to those
who are duly organized soldiers in the
public service But it took Congress six
months longer to get up to the standard of
Mr. Stevens of the previous year, and even
then there was severe struggle to obtain
for the negro the same pay given to white
soldiers.
Long before, Mr.. Stevens had sounded the
key-note which has since sounded over the
land. When our demoralized, disorganized.
and disgraced army was covering behind
the Notifications at Washington, fresh from
disaster al Bull Run, and the whole country
was bowed down under the stroke, he said
- If this war is continued long, and is bloody,
| do not believe that the free people of the
North will stand by and see their sons, and
brothers and ncighbors slaughtered by thou
sands and tens OF thousands. by rebels with
arms in their hands, and forbear to call up
L. e., A.
help us in subduing them. |
warn Southern gentlemen that if this war is
to continue, there will be time when my
friend from New York (Mr. Diven) will see
it declared by this free nation that every
bondman in the South-belonging to a rebel,
recollect | confne it to them-shall be called
upon to aid us in a against their mas
tiers, and to restore this Union.' Yet this,
the work of necessity and of duty,
long DELAYED that it first took practical shape
in this bill.
In the measures of secondary interest, but
not of secondary Importance, confscation
taxation and the national finances, Mr..
Stevens held extreme and, we fear, errone-
Gus views. He was opposed to showing le-
niency toward rebels and traitors conquered
in war but proposed holding their states in
the condition of territories and confiscating
their lands to provide for the loyal popula-
ton and assist in paying the national debt.
lie would have taxed Government bonds and
desired their payment in s. greenbacks IN
stead of gold. Impracticable his views
NAV seem to us they were the sincere con-
victions of Il mind accustomed to severe and
logical thought The opinion of none of
our statesmen on questions of national poll
tv have been SO repeatedly sought during the
past two years as his, and if the doctrines
he enunciated sometimes led farther than
prudent men cared to follow, the true path
,~oo generally found In the direction from
which he beckoned to the laggurds.
Finally. at the close of long life, Mr.. S
completed his record with his course on the
reconstruction and impeachment measures.
The two were intimately associated in his
mind from the day when he turned upon MIR.
johnson as recreant to his party, to prin-
ciple, and to his country. Like a sckly
plant scorched by tropical sun, he withered
the President with the scornful words, . The
man at the other end of the Avenue "
And Mr. Johnson could only retort by call
ing him a traitor in his famous speech of the
22d of February, 1866, and by asking, in his
Cleveland speech and his speech at st. Louis,
:. Why not hanga Thad. Stevens :" Why
not hang Thad Stevens?' was recchoed by
the rebel and semi-rebel everywhere, and
that old man bowed down with years, shaken
by disease, and treading on the verge of the
grave. but still upheld by his singular sin
cerity of purpose and faith in the right, was
pursued in his last hours by the concentrated
obloquy and hate which had been his portion
for thirty years. 1t was singular spectacle,
but he withstood the mad dog cry that
bounded him to the very death, and sounded
in his cars on his dying bed with the calm
composure of an old hero of romance who
had come into the world with the birthright