Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
STEVENS IN HISTORY.
Ex-Clerk Lloyd Doubts if We Shall
Ever See His Like Again.
HE WAS NOT A MAGNETIC MAN.
Went to the Head of Congress as if by
Force of Gravitation.
SPARKS OF HIS INTELLECTUAL FORGE
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH
Letter No. 2.

| our legislative history; as absolutely so Il
his particular sphere as were Lincoln ant
Grant respectively in theirs. They were
wonderful triumvirate and afford anothe
proof of how, when the exigency of tn
times demands the men, the men are forth
coming; each in his appropriate place, th'
square peg in the square hole, and the rount
peg in the round hole, instead of vice versa
as might happen if such things were left tc
the guidance of blind chance. Said Mr.
Bancroft in the first sentence of his funeral
oration on Abraham Lincoln, "That God
rules in the affairs of men is as certain
as any truth of physical science,
and he found the proof of his statement in
Linco1n's elevation to the Presidency at
that particular juncture.
There was nothing in Stevens previous
history or experience to particularly point
him out as the man who was to shape all the
important legislation needed in the great
crisis of our history. He was lawyer, de-
voted to his profession, and not known as a
man of affairs, and yet, on his entrance to
Congress, he went at once to the head as by
a sort of mental gravitation, and no man
questioned his right to the supremacy.
Thad Stevens Rarely Smiled.
With all his sensitiveness to human
suffering he yet seemed in the House like a
man of iron. His face rarely lit up with a
smile, and always wore, as Cox once said
in debate, ''the gravity of Pluto's
iron countenance. His utterances
were made without the least excitement,
and his wit and sarcasm seemed to be spon-
taneous I remember an instance of this
that occurred in an encounter with a mem
Der from California, who said that speech
which Stevens had just delivered, exhibited
to find in Representative of the coal and
iron interests of Pennsylvania. Said
Mr.. Stevens in reply: "Mr. Speaker, 1
didn't think the gentleman from California
had so much wit, but he has just so much. "
His tactics were peculiar, notably so in
the exceeding paucity and brevity of his
own remarks. lie left the speech-making
mainly to others. I do not think that,
in his II years of Congressional service, he
made more than dozen of what are called
set speeches. He confined his attention
mainly to a few of the more important
matters of legislation, which were perfected
in committee, and not often seriously altered
or amended in the House, though he was
not intolerant of amendments, but only of
long speeches on them, and he generally
disposed of them by a single remark.
Some Characteristic Utterances.
I give few illustrations that occur to me
out of great number. On an amendment
offered to an appropriation bill he said,
"Mr. Chairman, am opposed to the amend
ment. 1 don't know what the amendment is,
but am opposed to it." On another simi-
lar occasion he said, 'Debate is exhausted
on the amendment, and everybody here is
exhausted with the debate; let's have
vote" In reply to Brooks of New York,
whom he came as near hating as he could
hate anybody, he said, 81 do not think it
worth while to reply at large to the remarks
of the gentleman from New York, because,
according to his own statement, he
has the sympathy of no party;
stands by himself; speaks -nobody's
opinions but his own; and expects nobody
to believe him." And on another occasion,
in reply to the same member, he said, 'tMr
Chairman, 1 do not very we'll understand
how a gentleman, on this floor, can Justify
himself in occupying the time of the House,
and wasting the money of the country
when he tells us, on rising and on sitting
lown, that he knows he is doing a vain
hing, and that he is expending time for
nothing. FL thought that. sir, I would
hold my tongue" And again, ''The pro-
portion of the gentleman's s remarks which
we're pertinent to the subject, compared
With the balance, were about like the guam
ity of bread to the quantity of sack in
Eallstatf's bill"
Samples of Stevens Humor.
In advocating an appropriation for the
completion of the Capitol building, he spoke
= ha nfni had
ollows: ''We all know that these beauti- |
ul columns are being defaced by every man
Who chooses to incribe his name upon them.
'hey are really becoming ridiculous, and |
he worst of it is the names of half the men, |
ers of Congress are omitted" Mallory, of |
kentucky, had referred to him in a speech |
S his venerable friend from Pennsylvania. |
stevens rose to a point of order. ''The |
entleman from Pennsylvania rises to a
oint of order, and will state it. Ny point
order is that it is not in order for an old,
ray, bald-headed man to call young man
enerable."
"The chair sustains the point of order,"'
nd no appeal was taken from the decision.
His consciousness of power was aptly
hown in his reply to Blair, of Michigan,
ania takes very good care of his bantling."
''AIr. Speaker, don't take care of any,
ody, and don't much care for anybody"
He said of Henry j. Raymond, who was
to make speech on one side of
question and then vote on the other, that
e had an undue advantage over other men,
ers in the matter of pairing off; that he
ould always pair off with himself
Outspoken on Negro Suffrage.
In a speech in which he severely de-
ounced the amended Constitution of Ten
essee, because it excluded negro suffrage,
reply to Maynard, who attempted to JUS
fy it by the statement that the Constitu
on of Pennsylvania did the same thing, he
i'd: THE gentleman's statement is cor
,ct, Pennsylvania ought to blush for the
famous exclusion to which the gentleman
,fers, but will our bushes whiten the
of TENNESSEE"
He never thought it worth while to dis
ute the indisputable, and 80, in answer to
who was charging that there was
'oss corruption in the executive depart
ents under Lincoln's administration, he q
id: "Oh, yes, Mr.. Speaker, know there
e frauds under all administrations; 1
low that corrupt men get in Office under
administrations. I have no doubt that l.
ere are some corrupt men in Office under
e present administration that were be-
eathed to it by the preceding Democratic
ministration.
His adroltness in statement was shown on t
e occasion when he and Washburne. of
inois, had got into an unseemly wrangle, s
d kept it up until a member from Michigan !
lde point of order on them and insisted
ON it, because, as he said, they were both
them
Old Enough to Know Better.
Stevens arose and said with mock humil-
:: "Mr. Speaker, 1 think the gentleman
,m Michigan is right, and feel that {