Year: 1868




sketch from the Cincinnati Gazette j


A great figure in American Politics
has been removed. Thaddeus Stevens
is dead. AS he once predicted would
be his lot, he was taken up in a noun
tain and shown the beauty of the land,
but was not permitted to enter it. He
lived long enough to see tie closing
conflict of the struggle, and to know
that the end was sure but his ewes
were not suffered to see the full bright
ness of the final triumph. that even now
approaches. Yet he fell as he had
wished, with his armor on to the last
he fought the good fight and kept the
faith.


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


There have been wiser statesman
among US than Mr.. Stevens. There have
been men of purer lives. There have
been more graceful writers, more elo-
quent speakers. But in the grace of a
pure purpose, IN the eloquence OF
whole-hearted devotion, in the wisdom
of a craftsmanship that might err as to
means, but never as to nobility of aims,
he has been without superiors +; in lofty
courage, an antique Roman fidelity and
iron purpose, he has been without an
equal.


What a 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 cannot now
hope to outline. How. through the war,
he was one of the brzest and most
hopeful of those who never despaIred,
and in the darkest hours had the high
est 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 Government;
how clearly he saw from the beginning
the vital points of she struggle; with
what sublime trust he declared that the
war could end only in the freedom of the
slaves, and with what relentless pur-
pose he drove reluctant party to
emancipation as the only means of Sc
curing success what fervor of religious
zeal he brought into the contest, and how
solemDly he believed that he was doing
Gods work in pushing the war against
the rebellion to the uttermost; all this
is written in the imperishable records
the Government, in the hearts of the
race he helped to Iiberate, and in the
grateful memory of the People he help
ed to save.


Not less clear are the thronging recol-
lections of his later and still higher ser
vices. His was the piercing vision that
penetrated the dangers of Johnson's re-
construction; his the inexorable viii
that forced the Republican party into
the refusal to admit at once to power in
Congress theFebels just conquered in the
field, his warning voice that, amid the
cOnfusiOns and cOWardice of the hour.
proclaimed that there was no safety for
she white Union men in the South save
in doing Justice to the black Union men
- ~ IL \ Il.
ton until it learned to rule in righte-
business


Others did their full share. It was
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 basis of justice TO all, Thaddeus
Stevens was the pioneer. When faith
less President, at the last, seemed like
ly 10 plunge the country in civil war
rather than permit the completion of
the beneficent work, the old mar, ,totter-
ing 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 press
ing 1t on the Senate, and with mans
ner worthy Of his last great perform
ance, delivered the ablest argument
made for the conviction of the Execu-
tive


Of his earlier achievements we can>
not speak. He was native of Caledon-
ia county, Ven mont, where he was born
in April, 1892. Al twenty-five he was a
graduate of Dartmouth, and an emf
grant 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 cynical
lawyer of thHt part of Pennsylvania
He was already past the prime of man
hood, when, in 1868, he entered the Leg
islature of Pennsylvania. There he re-
manned, with intervals of two or three
terms, until 1S41-having meantime
served also in the State Constitutional
Convention, and having already won
conspicuous and, for the time, unenYi-
able attention by his devotion to the
equal rights of all. He entered the
thirty-first Congress, was reelected to
the tLirty-second, then, remained at
home for three terms; then, as the anti
slavery movement began to take tangi-
BILE form, returned to the thirty-sixth,
and thenceforward remained soldier
enlisted for the war, till, at midnight
last night tAug., 11th.)-after p career
as wonderful and a fame as noble as
any won on our battle fields-he receiv-
ed his discharge. Peace to his ashes
to his faults charity; to his memory inn
mortal honor.