Year: 1868

Thaddeus Stevens died Washington the


Ilth, inst ,ihaving filled his place in the House
until within few days of his demise. Hi,
death will not take the people by surprise
as, although of remarkably vigorous con
stitutiOn which had been impaired by no
excesses, the infirnity of years was weigh
ing heavily upon him. His health had been
seriously impaired for the last two wears
but he still kept about his active duties
both in and out of Congress, and only took
off the harness of war when the battle of
life was over 4 few months ago he visited
his iron-works near Chambersburg, and or
his return to his home at Lancaster his life
was despaired of, but he again rallied and
was able TO go to Washington to attend the
November session of Congress. He, how.
ever, continued to be very inirm and it was
often necessary during the present session to
assist him daily from his carriage to his seat
in the House Last night the last scene in
the drama of his life was enacted, and now
that he has passed from the stage of human
cndeavor he will be sincerely mourned bv
his countrymen who respected the vigor OF
his intellect, the intensity of his convictions
and his integrity of purpose, and love OF
liberty.


Although born in Vermont, Mr.. Stevens
was all his life identified with the interests
of Pennsylvania, and the years of his man.
hood were spent in that State. His birth
place in Vermont was in Caledonia County,
where he was born April 4th, 1893 He
graduated at Dartmouth College in 1914,
and the same year removed to Pennsylvania
where he became teacher in an Academy
While employed in teaching he gave his
leisure to the study of law, and was admit
ted TO the Gettysburg Bar in 1916. He pur-
sued the practice of his profession in Adams
County until 1912, when he removed to Lam
caster, where he afterward resided. He was
employed in many of the most important
cases tried in the courts of the Common
wealth during his long and active career, and
was one of the most acute LAWYERS and able
reasoners in the State He sincerely loved
his profession, but was especially pleased to
be retained in causes where some injustice
or oppression was to be unraveled from out
the meshes of iniquty, or the weak to be
protected against the Vaccinations of the
strong. And no epithet was too forcble or
too whitening to be employed in denuncia-
tion of the eyil-doer-no metaphor too bold
to describe the punishment of evil. 1t was
this bluntness of speech and love of the weak,
allied with peculiar and emphatic earnest
ness of purpose, that elicted such outbursts
of denunciation when, after the death Of
the late Chief Justice Taney, he said, in a
speech in the House, that the Dred Scott
UtClsIOu tnc Oulcl 10
everlasting infamy, and, he feared. to ever
lasting flame. But, if his invective was the
rush of the avalanche. crushing everything
beneath it amid the roar of echoing desola-
ton, his sarcasm was the lightning's bolt
dealing death with n single stroke that
seemed like a flash from the sword of an
avenging angel Even his humor was grim
and CHASTITY to those who, welded to injustice
and oppression, had occasion to fear that he
might turn against themselves the barbed
shafts Of his displeasure But his repartees
were never launched against the poor and
unoffending- And he never forgot the sim
plicity of his demeanor, nor his love for the
people down to the day when his battle of
life ended.


The professional career of Mr.. Stevens was
Il success from the beginning ng-small as that
beginning was-and he was soon accorded
the leadership of the bar by his associates as
well as the public The practice of coun-
try lawyer in village like Gettysburg must
be necessarily small, but in Pennsylvania
where the relationship of counsel and client
differs in many essentials from nearly every
other State, especially in what is called the
Orphans Court business or the settlement
of the estates of descendants, a man in the le-
gal profession who enjoys the confidence ofthe
community for probity and Judgment is
brought into peculiar confidential CORES
pondence with the people, beside finding
his avocation more lucrative than where it
is confined to oral pleading and the conduct
of causes in equity. The advice of the law
yer is sought IN questions the most delicate
as well as the most commonplace and trivial
having no reference to the DEGREES of Judges
and the rulings of Courts. In this way
Thaddeus Stevens became not only the legal
adviser but the personal friend of the entire
-.


tants of Adams County only regard him as
the lawyer and the man, and never think of
him the Great CommOner and the dis
tinguished leader of Congress He is not
great to them in his greatness, but in his
unobtrusive charities and unaffected virtues
of benevolence. Pennsylvania College has
reared II noble hall as a monument to his ser
vices in behalf of education but he has
temple in the hearts of the people nObler far
than the one consecrated to him by the acad-
emicians, and many simple anecdote that
is told by the fresides of the poor country
folk of Southern Pennsylvania contains a
tribute more striking and sincere than the
most eloquent eulogy that will be uttered in
Congress. Perhaps, too. the simplest utter
ances of sympathy and encouragement which
fell from his lips in the early days of his ex-
perIence will be more enduring contribu-
tron to his fame, if possible, than the most
measured sentences iii which he has since de-
nounced oppression and treason.


1t is difficult to reproduce in print his
quickness of repartee and the half playful,
half rcproyIng, sometimes wholly denuncia-
tory and whitening qualities of his wit
Quaintness, fancy, and rebuke were strange
ly mingled with his words, and there was a
personality in his thoughts, whether in jest
or earnest, that gave them peculiar force.
Only three men of modern times-Garrick


Foote and Beau Brummell-were SO much
a part of what they said as Thaddeus Stevens.
What in others would have been insutferable
dullness was often rendered by his manner
inimitable in pleasantly scornfui in re-
proof. lie said of colleague in Congress
that he was - man of remarkable capacity
for drink And although there is moth
ing striking. even fresh, in the thought
OF in the words, his manner and emphasis
were such as to produce an ineffaceable pic
ture of the man who merted his scorn. He
met in the streets an old friend who had been
an AbolItionist in the days when Pennsyl-
vania was altogether pro-slavery, but who
went over TO the Democracy at the hour
when Abolitionism was about to triumph
and enrolled himself among the supporters
of Gen. Mcclellan for the Presidency. They
had not met since the beginning of the war,
and this friend, who was really glad to see
him, extended his hand in greeting. But
Mr.. Stevens was oblivious to the courtesy
and stood still in blank surprise. At length,
as if suddenly recollecting himself, he ex-
claimed All is that you? But how
Democracy has changed you" On the same
day he met another old acquaintance of the
Methodist persuasion, who sometimes
preached a little, but had not been prosper
Gus in business, althougs he occasionally in
dulged in horse-trade. In after years he