Year: 1868

be his lot, he was taken up into noun
tain and shown the beauty of the land,
but was not permitted to enter in. He
lived long enough to see the closing
conflict of the struggle, aud to know
that the end was sure; but his eyes
were not suffered to see the full bright
ness of the final triumph that even now
approaches. Yet he fell az he had wish
ed, with his armor on: to the last he
fought the good fight and kept the
faith.


Since John RandOlph's, there has not
been such death. Since Henry Clay
breathed out his life at Ashland, so
much actual power over the politics of
the country has not vanished with the
breath of a single weak old man.


There have been wiser statesmen a.
mong us than Thaddeus Stevens
There have been men of purer lives.
There have been more graceful writer's,
more eloquent speakers. But in the
grace of a pure purpose, in the elO-
quence Of Whole-hearted devotion, in
the wisdom of craftsmanship that
might err as to means, but never as to
nobility of aims, he has been without
supsriors; in lofty courage, an antique
Roman fidelity, and iron purpose he
has been without an equal.


What space this old man who, at
midnight last night, quietly and peace
fully sank to rest on Capitol Hill, with
in sight of the scene Of his services and
his triumphs, has filed in the crowded
history of the country, we can not now
hope to outline. How, through the
war, he was one of the bravest and
most hopeful of those who never de-
SPARED, and in the darkest hours had
the highest hopes of the Republic; how
he held up the hands of those who were
ready to faint, and infused his own
courage and his own faith into the Gov
eminent; how clearly be saw from the
beginning the vital points of the Strug-
gle; with what sublime trust he declar-
ed that the war could end only in the
freedom of the slaves, and with what
relentless purpose he drove a reluctant
party to emancipation as the only means
of securing success; what tervOr Of re-
ligious zeal he brought into the con-
test, and how solemnly he believed that
he was doing Gods work in pushing
the war against the rebellion to the ut
termost; all this is written in the i'm
perishable records Of the Government,
in the hearts of the race he helped to
liberate, and in the grateful memory Of
the People he helped to save.


Not less clear are the thronging re-
collections of his later and still higher
services. His was the piercing vision
that penetrated the dangers of John
sons reconstruction his the inexOrable
will that forced the Republican party
into the refusal to admit at once to pow
er in Congress the rebels just conquer
ed in the field, his the warning voice
that, amid the confusions and coward
ice of the hour, proclaimed that there
was no safety for the white Union men
of the South save in doing justice to
the black Union men of the South, and
no security for the nation till it learned
to rule in righteousness.


Others did their full share. 1t was
a noble struggle, and every soldier in
that war deserves the highest praise,
but it is injustice to none, not even to
Charles Sumner, to say That through
the whole contest for Reconstruction
on the basis OF justice to all, Thaddeus
Stevens was the pioneer. When .
faithless President, at the last, seemed
likely to plunge the country in civil war
rather than permit the completion Of
the benefOent work, the old man, tot
tering now on the brink Of the open
grave that yawned before him, was still
the clearest sighted, highest hearted,
most fearless and most resOlute. He
led in the demand for impeachment,
led in driving it through the House and
pressing it on the Senate, and with a
manner worthy of his last great per-
formance, delivered the ablest argu-
ment made for the conviction of the
Executive. u .aa..,e. I


Of his earlier achievments we can
not speak. He was a native of Gale
donia county, Vermont, where he was
born in April, 1892. At twenty-five
he was graduate of Dartmouth, and
an emigrant to Pennsylvania. He
taught an academy, and while thus
supporting himself, studied law. There
he built up great practice, and came
to be known as the most successful and
cynical lawyer of that part of Pennsyl-
vania. He was already past the prime
of manhood, when, in 1888, he enter
ed the Legislature of Pennsylvania.
There he remained, with intervals Of
two or three terms, until 1S4l-having
meantime served also in the State Con-
stitutional Convention, and having al-o
ready won conspicuous and, for the
time, unenviable attention by his deyo-
ton to the equal rights of all. He en-
tered the thirty-6rst Congress, was re-
elected to the thirty-Second, then re-
NAMED at home for three terms; then,
as the snti-slavery movement began to-
take tangible form, returned to the
thirty-sixth, and thenOeforward remain
ed . soldier enlisted for the war, till, at
midnight last night-after career aS
wonderful and fame as noble a. any
won on our battle-felds-he received
his discharge. Peace to his ashes to
his faults charity; to his memory i'm