Year: 1868

/


who desist from horse-trading as well a.


preaching -


The crispness of his thought, or, in othel


words, his facility of painting the character


of another in a single expression, which is


in fact, but an epithet, was well illustrated


in the speech in which he called Andrew


johnson. whose usurpations he declared were


not worthy to be compared with the tyranny


of Charles l., and in any other country


would have cost king his head, s. the mar


at the other end of the Avenue" Columns


OF denunciatiin could not contain SO fearful


a rebuke. Even his most elaborate efforts


at sarcasm could not be more severe than


these single arm-sweeps of contempt, re-


proacb, rebuke. In that remarkable piece OF


irony, his speech in the Honse, in which he


pretended to defend the President against


aspersion to his loyalty, and to proclaim the


famous 4th of March speech - hoax,


there is something so ludicrous and yet APP


parently sincere that many people be-


lieved it an honest expression of his convic-


tions, uncertain as everybody was about the


course of public men. Yet, even in this


elaborate effort, his satire received it's strength


from his epigrammatic wit, and every word


that seemed to commend the President, the


rebuke of the World which had called him a
drunkard the description of the cunning


that had made him a victim by plot SO cir
cumstantial; every phase of the speech was
a flashing dagger of reproof. But the closing


words were so eminently characteristic they
cannot be omitted here. He said he had de-


livered the speech on the same principle as


the late President had sent in IA veto mes
sage to a bill which he had already signed -


because he had written the veto and thought
it we'll done.


1t was these characteristics of his mind,
giving vent to his thoughts i'll the way we


have indicated, that secured him much of
the power he enjoyed in the latter years of
his life. \ Democratic paper, fierce in his
hostility toward him, declared a few months
before his death that he never was young
always old Thad Stevens. On the other
hand, he never was old, but always manly
daring, intrepid, true. His cid neighbors
of Adams County were quick to recognize
these qualities, and early made him their
standard-bearer in the fight for freedom At
the very spot where he first raised his voice
against Slavery, was the rock against which
the Shareholders Rebellion dashed itself to
pieces The battle of Gettysburg sheds a
lustre round the name of Thad Stevens that
is not outshone by the glory which perched
on the banners of the Republic on that field
of death


Mr. Stevens entered public life in 1888.
In that year he elected to the Penpsyl-
vania Assembly, ard he was reelected the
two following years. He was a member of
the Constitutional Convention of 1887, and
he was again elected to the Legislature the
same year, and the last time in lS4l. He
was appointed Canal Commissioner in 1898,
but held the position for only short time


When Thaddeus Stevens entered the Penn
sylyania Assembly he had been twenty years
a citizen of the Commonwealth. He was
still Young, but he entered upon the champ
ionship of the Right with an ardor that
never deserted him. In spite of the defects
Of nature, his presence was remarkably i'm
pressive. But any description of his per-
5onal appearance that we might give would
be inadequate to describe the man. He was
such an one as Shakespeare had in his mind
when he put that noble portraiture of the
king in the mouth of Hamlet
His was indeed an eye to threaten and COM
mand but the cold chiselings of intellectual
excellence were relieved by the nobler lines
that gave the world assurance Of more than
intellectual worth OF the medium hight,
he walked with difficulty, and did not appear
)f his actual proportions, but when he stood
up in his place in the House, his stature
seemed to approach something of his in
growth. He maintained this erect
ness almost to the last, and in the end his
infirmities had to break him-he would not
bend. His forehead was of the broad ex-
oansive kind that is usually believed in this
to betoken intellectual force, and
his oyerhanging brows gave peculiar dig
nity to his face. When in repose, nothing
could be nobler than the well-cut regularity
Of his features when relaxed in smiles, the
bees of AnacreOn might have drawn nectar
from his lips. But when assuming the mock
heroic of which he was so fond, IL was diff
icult to tell whether gravity or humor was
in his countenance. In these
asst moods he was always amusing, often
udicrous and sometimes severe Mr. A.
him johnson doubtless carries with men
al portrait of - Old Thad Stevens from
,his standpoint, photographed upon the Presi-
lential mind by the light of these words


. W hile | can have no hostility to the Presi-
dent, may and do have very grave Objec-
tons to the course he is pursuing [ should
have forgotten the obloquy which | had
,almly borne for 80 years in the war for
liberty, if could turn craven now"


From 1872 when hc removed to Lancaster,
10 1913, when he was first elected to Con-
sress, and during the ten years intervening
between the first and second periods Of his
successive service, Mr. Stevens practiced
MS profession with great success, and never
abandoned it even amid the impor
-ant duties of his active career IN the House.
MANY anecdotes are told of his tact a law
yer, and some Of them reflect as much credit
On his humanity as on his judgment and skill.
w hile still very young man, he heard in
,identally of a free woman who was held in
,he Jail at Frederick, Maryland, slave.
He instantly volunteered to becoWe her coun-
sell and saved her from the decree that only
wanted an excuse, or the color of an excuse,
TO condemn her to servitude. Some years
sfterward, while on the way from Gettysburg,


u was ap.,oolod to by tho svonon to
save from being sold South her husband, who
was slave, about to be disposed of by his
owner and his own father, and Mr.. Stevens
was compelled to pay the full value of the
chattels to the unnatural parent. In one of
his earliest causes, he showed in a striking
manner the acutencss which dIstin-
guished him from that day down to the i'm
parchment trial of Mr.. Andrew johnson.
He was defending a client accused of sim
pie assault and battery, and the case was
made out by an intelligent but unscrupulous
witness. When the testimony in chief was
finished, the counsel for the prosecution
handed the witness over to Mr.. Stevens with
the remark: - He is in your hands, -. And
we turn him out of Court the
temptous reJolnder; and this was followed
by speech of such earnest invective that he
gained the cause by the force of his contempt,
and the power of his Oratory In these
early days he relieved his professional labors
by much outdoor exercise, and rode in many
a fox hunt while that old-time sport was
popular recreation. This gave him that bar
diness of constitution, which, together with
the power of his will, enabled him to endure
labor and fatigue, in spite of disease and
years, to the last weeks Of his life.


In Congress Mr.. Stevens wrought out for