Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1869-01-06
THADDEUS STEVENS.
On Impartial Review Of this Distinguish
ed Man by Senator Buckalew.

MR.. BUCKALEW. Mr.. President, New
England has given TO Pennsylvania two
men of great distinction, though uot OF
equal merit,
In provincial times Franklin came from
Boston to Philadelphia, a fugitive youth,
and entered upon that career which has
been given to the history of the world. AS
author and publisher, as representative in
the Colonial Assembly of Pennsylvania, as
member and president of the State consti-
tutional convention of 1776 and chief exec
utive officer in the government established
by that convention, as colonial agent in
Great Britain, as delegate in the Continen-
tai Congress and signer of the Declaration
of Independence, as organizer of the pos
tai service in the country under the Con-
federation, as q scientist and member of
learned bodies at home and abroad, and fl
nally, as our illustrious and successful min
lister at the French court in the dark hours
of the Revolution, he is known of all men
and his name will 60 down to future ages.
1t is the pride of our people to contem-
plate the colossal reputation which he
achieved and left behind him, and they
dwell with pleasure upon the miuutest par
ticulars concerning him from that hour
when, obscure and friendless, he appeared
in the city of his adoption to the time when
''full of years and full of honor" he passed
away to his appointed repose.
Thaddeus Stevens came from Vermont to
Pennsylvania at the age of twenty-one. He
came unherald and unattended, to carve
his way to fortune among strangers.
Adams county, Pennsylvania, lies upon
the Maryland boarder, and Gettysburg is
the county town-the seat of justice for
the county. At that place Mr.. Stevens
settled after short residence at York, and
commenced the practice of law 1t was
not place to make great gains at the bar.
the town was not large, the county was
not populous the people were not wealthy.
It was rural section of the State rail
roads were unknown, manufactures, ex-
cept in a small way, bad not been estab-
lished farmers and shopmen mainly were
the clients of men ''learned in the laws. ="
But there were souud elements of popula-
ton in the town anf county-the German
and Scotch Irish being prominent-distin-
guished for industry, frugality, fidelity,
and sound sense. And it was pleasant
region, broken but fertile, farm and wood
land alternating in the landscape, with hill
and mountain in the distance, forest-cloth-
ed from base to summit. There were few
scattered villages for the convenience of
merchants, blacksmiths, carpenters, and
other traders and workmen, and mills
sounded along the streams Cemetery
Hill then, as now, overlooked the town of
Gettysburg but no war-had ever echoed
upon its heights, nor had its aol received,
as a harvest of battle, the bodies of our pa
triot dead.
Mr. Stevens long residence in rural
| district, such as have described it, inhu-
enced in a great degree his subsequent
character and conduct. 4nd it gave him a
| wider knowledge of men affairs than he
could have acquired if he had been at all
| times the resident of city. He knew the
| men of the country as city men cannot
know them, and with him always "knowl-
| edge was power" and he gave it practical
application to the management of men.
Mr.. Stevens entered public life at the
ripe age of forty as q Representative in
the Pennsylvania Legislature from Adams
county. shall not detail with exactness
or at length the facts Of his public career
nor shall / pronounce an eulogium upon
him or express emotions of personal grief
at his removal by death from field Of ac-
ton and service in which he was conspicu-
Gus. His labors will be detailed more fully
by others, and his character is one not SO
much for eulogium as for analysis and for
reflection. And as to manifestations OF
sensibility at this time, have to say that
1 think it will be proper to regard some.
what his example upon like occasions, and
his general views concerning funeral so.
lemnities. He did not respect insincere OF
i VI blit dul lc LC
fused to wear Grape in honor of theil
memory.
But some notice of his life and character
by the two houses of Congress is most be
coming in view of his eminence and of the
influence which he exerted upon Legislation
and upon popular thought. And such no.
tice may be made instructive to men of the
present and to men of future times.
The first knowledge recollect to have
acquired of Mr.. Stevens was in 1888. II
was from q speech which had been delivered
by him in the Legislature of Pennsylvania
upon the subject of education. After the
lapse of thirty years 1 can remember that
he spoke of the time when "the atoms OF
creation shall bubble in the crucible of the
Almighty" meaning the time of the fnal
destruction of the earth. When / read
that, 1 thought, with the taste of q boy,
that it was a most eloquent and admirable
passage. l do not think so now.
Mr.. Stevens for many years (both with.