Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-08-13
The Death of Thaddeus Stevens.

The Death of Thaddeus Stevens.
This great leader, or, more properly
speaking, this master of the Republican
party, is dead. He died at midnight, Tues
day, at his residence In Washington City
THADDEUs STEVENS was born in Gale
donia, Vermont, on the 4th of April, 1888
and was, consequently, seventy-five years
four months and eight days old at the time
of his death. His parents were poor. He
worked his way through college. grada-
ating at Dartmouth College in 1Sl4.-
Thence he went Immediately to Gettys-
burg, Pennsylvania; he studied law and
| was admitted to practice in 1916, mean
while supporting himselfby teaching in an
academy. At the age of forty, in
1888, he was elected by the people
of Adams county to- the Pennsyl.
vania Legislature, and was reelected four
iyears consecutively. He was a member Of
the Pennsylvania Constitutional Conven.
tion of 1886. In 1912 he removed to the
city of Lancaster, which has ever since
been his home. In 1S4S, for the first time
then being fifty.five years of age-he
was elected to Congress-. He was elected
from the Lancaster District. He was re-
elected in 1850. After the expiration of the
term for which he was reelected he was
allowed to retire, and remained in retiracy
until in 1858 when he was again elected to
Congress. OF which body he has continued
member ever since.
In politics he was Whig, Native Amer
lean and Republican,. He was always a
| strong partisan.
More than any one man in the country
was he instrumental in bringing about the
condition of affairs that now prevails in the
South. At his instance, in caucus, in De-
cember, 1866, on the eve of the assembling
of Congress, President JoHNsoN's Ressora-
tion policy, which had been indorsed in all
the Republican State Conventions of that
year, was repudiated, and ever since there
has been wrangle between Congress and
the President. Mr.. STEVENS was not salts
fed with any Restoration or Reconstruc-
tion that did not invest the negro
with political power Because the
President would mot bend to his
will in this matter, as other men had
done, be strove to effect his removal
through impeachment, and when the COM
mittee of the House appointed to get up
articles of Impeachment agains. the Presi-
dent failed in the first instance, he express
ed the opinion that the defeat and over
throw OF the Republican party would re-
suit. He was extremely opposed to the
position taken by the Republican leaders,
that the outstanding $50 Bonds should be
paid in Gold. This, he contended, was
contrary to law and scheme to swindle
the people. -f0-cF'i
But he is gone to his final home. It is
for the people to right whatever is wrong
in his Reconstruction policy, for which the
Republican party is now to be held to &C.
countability. they having fully accepted it
as their party creed.
Will not Consent 10 the Conver.
sion of the South into a Jamaica a
, or Hayti.
The man who supposes that the Northern
people will allow the South to be converted
into Jamaica and Hayti is nightly mis-
taken0 These West India Islands. when
under the rule exclusively of White men
were among the most fruitful places in the
world. Now, under the rule of the Negro
where he has had every means given him
for intellectual and social development,
where he has had all the facilities for edu-
cation-the Islands are absolutely profit
less, being uncultivated, ard the Negroes
have degenerated into a,state of semi-bar-
barism, with revolution and counter revo-
luton, m aking it even worse place to live
in than in i'll -fated Mexico.
The Republican Reconstruction policy,
so far as iteseeks the subordination of the
Southern Whites to the Negroes, is the
same sort of a policy that has given over
Jamaica and Hayti to revolution, anarchy
and unfruitfulness. If persisted in, it will
produce in the South just such condition
IS prevails in Jamaica and Hayti. To this
the Northern people will not consent. They
viii not consent that that portion of the
o Union, hitherto the most fruitful, shall be
made a permanent tax upon the industry
and enterprise of the North. 1t must be
made tributary to the general prosperity,
md thereby help lift from the shoulders of
oppressed labor and profitless business, the
heavy weight of taxation. To this end
The White man must be the governing
power therein.