Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-05-16
TIE DISTINGUISHES DEAD.

THE DySxlNdUISuE EsO DD"~s
A couparisou Of sseyeus and Buchanan.
One OF the features Of the first issue OF
the Pittsburgh Dispatch in its now and
handsome typographical suit, was letter
by It's staff correspondent st. Geo
{ Mr.. Geo. Welsbons) who spent Saturday
and Sunday in this city. His theme was
the familiar story Of Stevens and Buchanan
and he gives an account Of their homes
and their tOmbs, as they are seen daily
and we'll known to our citizens. This ii
how the correspondent was impressed
with an examination and comparison Of
their Wills
The wills Of tho two men are recorded
in the same book Within sixty pages Of
each other. have never gone the length
of taking handwriting IS an infallible and
sufficient index to character, but certainly
many of the traits characteristic OF the
writer's may be read in and between the
lines of these old documents. Buchanan
was a methodist with little m, a stickler
for forms, q reverent wOrshipper Of pre-
cedents so cautious in action that while
his friends lauded him rs conservative,
his enemies den,unced him as a coward.
He was above all things gentleman and
Il punctilious moralist. He would hesitate
to commit AN unusual wrong, scarcely SO
much because it was wrong, as because it
was unusual.
Stevens had no regard for the minor
mOralities of life when he was bent ON
accomplishing great purpose. Jealous,
ardent, impetuOus aud unscrupulOus. he
debauched the politics Gf his country and
bought his way into IL Q halls of legisla-
tion, there to take tho bravest and grand
est stand upon the greatest measures. He
sought always the end, regardless of the
means. If he could establish a common
school system in Pennsylvania, strike the
shackels from the black man and recon-
struct the governmental system of the
Southern states without transgressiDg the
decalogue of the constitution, SO good. II
not, so much the worse for the decalOgue
and the constitution. In the slang Of
modern politics, he would be classed as q
" git thar statesman. While Buchanan
hesiuated at the gates of Paradise to ad-
| iust his stock, Stevens would have set
about recOnstructing Satan's government
without waiting to take off his OvercOat.
| Buchanan, retiring to the lovely seclu-
sion of Wheatland too late for his fame,
set about preparing for stately dignity.
"Iu the name of God, amen," his will
begins, 81, James Buchanan, late presi.
dent of the United States, being of sound
mind, sc >" and goes ON to distl ibute his
property, taking pnnctiliOus care to guar
antee that each bequest should reach the
object for which it was intended. The
writing is cOurtier's hand, fine and deli
cate as q wOman's. Each letter seems tC
have been written with deliberatiOn anG
with a copy before him. Every alternate
line is left blank as though to add i'm
portance to tho document. There is not :
blot nor an erasure ON the paper from thu
opening sentence to the signature.
| Contents OF stovens' VIII.
Stevens at ,hs tims when he had to bt
carried from his bed to his seat in the Hal
of Representatives, seems to have dasheG
off his will while some new mamber wa
making statistical speech. He start
out hurriedly:
"Last will and testament of Thaddeu
Stevens, of Lancaster"
lie writes with tho heavy hand he uset
in shaping public events. The dOcumen
carries tho marks Of haste in every line
There is Nd supertluUus legal verbiag
about it. Here word or two is Omitte'
from sentence. There the expression ha
not suited him. He dashes the pei
through it and goes on. He is in hurr
! to get the thing done, without regard
, how. He gives the proceeds OF $500 to tn
sexton of the graveyard in Peacham, Vel
, mont, where his mother and brother Ii
3 buried, " on condition that ho keep tn
, graves in good order and plant roses an
| other cheerful flowers in each OF the lou
corners of said graves every spring."
t Further Oh he remembers his mOthe
again in a bequest to q Baptist church, o
, which faith she was, with the explanatiO
9 81 do this in memory of my mother, {
: whom owe whatever Of prosperity nav
\ had in this world, and which, small as
9 il, l desire emphatically to acknowledge.
r Directing the sale Of some property, b
;. drops this hint "As 5000 has bee
ii offered for it, it should not go for less. !"
Then again, as though it had suddenl
8 occurred to him, he says: II bought Il
property of Jacob Effiinger at sheriff
r, sale at much below it's real value. l On
10 want my Own," and goes on to direct tn;
}. it shall be sold aud the proceeds in exec
Q of what it cost him returned to the Elm
n ger heirs.
le A Characteristic LeGter.
IS A letter which came to my hands Il
e other day is worth printing to show Ste
10 ems methods in politics. During the b
70 campaign for governor in 1868. VIII,
Woodward was beaten by Curtin, j.
Allen was superintendent of the cover
le ment repair shops at Washington. He hi
st about eleven hundred PenDsylvaniaDs
a his employ. Under the auspices of VIZ
N II. Kemble, of Philadelphia, they We
,r furlOughed to 60 home to vote, beil
ID first separately sworn to support Il
Republican ticket. Stevens also wei
7r home to vote, and. although then at Il
is pinnacle of his power in Congress thoug
,e proper to see that the wOrkmen from &
IN government shops vote right. October
10 was election pay. Under date Lanca
Is ter, October IA, 1861" he writes /:
Or MIR. ALLEN-I think it right to infOr
ne inform you Jos. Dittis was here and b
ly haved with great prOpriety in all thing
But you should know that Henry Shee
behaved vilely. He is disloysl man a
should be driven out of your emplOymel
TuADDEUs STEVENS.
'"' Dittis, "with great prOpriety" b
~ voted for Curtin. Sheetz had "vilel
NJ voted for Woodward.