Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1869-02-12

The Morals of Thaddeus stevens.
begin this article on Mr.. Stevens 1.-THE
last l may ever write of him) with pre-
cisely that point in his life on which two
or three legions papers have assailed his
memory, and in which his Southern en-
emies most resembled and, at the same
time, most n.aligned him. ] mean his
domestic relations. The colored Biship
Payne, a shrewd and pious man, who
had the means of knowing, said to me :
He lived with colored woman as his
wife; that was all there was about that"
And l suppose il was true. And l once
in Cincinnati, married man Of promi-
nent family in Alabama to lis brunette
slave, while three bright children stood
up by their mother, the bride. His whole
mind and soul, heart and life, seemed
absorbed and concentrated in the one
thought of saving that mother and chill
dren from the block of the auctioneer,
and the living hell beyond it, after he
should be dead. For this he had run
the gauntlet of his relatives, who had
OWNED his purpose, and come up from
Alabama to Ohio. Mr.. Stevens, last
winter, reminded me of that Albanian,
by his determined zeal that his bones
should not be in death in burial ground
from which caste spurned the colored
race. l will not profane the memory of
Mr.. Stevens by apologizing for his fideli-
ty to the woman whom law and custom,
stronger than law, forbade him to mar
ry; not by reminding the reader that he
differed from Henry Clay and the mass
of Southrons only in the fact of that fl
deity. 1 will do much holder thing.
| will remind those technically religious
editors that God himself once command
ed an inspired prophet, saying Go
take thee wife of whoredoms, and chill
dren of whoredoms. (Hosea l, p L
remind them that he did this for the
very purpose of reaching and retaining
the land whose general debauchery had
degraded the woman whom his prophet
married as his inauguration to his pro-
phetic office And if we suppose that
God, who works by precept or by provi-
dence, as he pleases, providentially con-
nected Mr.. Stevens with The mysterious
race, as he connected Hosea, by precept,
with a degraded caste in his day, and for
a like purpose, viz. to repeal and reverse
the degradation By wiping out the crime
that caused it, we shall only be suppo-
sing what has happened in fact. And
this supposition will give US the key to
the contradictions of Mr.. Stevens char
acter. Early poverty, pride, and club
foot may have prevented his marriage
with the beautiful creature he was so
formed to relish and enjoy. Hotel life
and human passions may have chosen
for his companion the bright.eyed bru-
nette whom | saw last winter; agreea.
bic in spite of old age, at once his house
keeper and presidiag genius, and whose
talents made her at the same time the
mistress of his business and his earthly
destiny. Shut off by circumstances such
as these from that honorable domestic
life which has saved all that was saved Of
such men as Prentiss, of Mississippi;
Benton, of Missouri; and host of their
peers; despising that religion which
could wink at slave holding cohabitation,
while Mortified with fidelity in concubi-
mage; retaining enough of his mothers
religion TO make him despise himself,
as strong as the tabled giants; yet in re-
ligion blind as Polyphemus, their chief;
bold, fearing nothing but God, and real
ly fearing him; loving justice, loving
truth, and Christ, because, as he said,
He was the TRUTH" in these elements
you have the great and wonderful man
who has just left the stage; modern
Sampson Agonstes; abhorring slavery ;
abhorring vice, yet laying his head on
her lap till the locks of his strength were
shorn.-President Blanchard Of Whea-
ton College.