XiOiiassBiiaisaissssiSiXiSiSii LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. | Shelf- ^li-^.. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/speechofhontstev01stev .J SPEECH OF HON. T. STEVENS, of Pennsylmi^ia, DELIVEEED In the House of Representatives, March 19, 1867, ON THE BILL (H. R. NO. 20) RELATIVE TO DAMAGES TO LOYAL MEN, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. Mr. STEVENS said- Mr. Speaker : I am about to discuss the ques- tion of the punishment of belligerent traitors by- enforcing the confiscation of their property to a certain extent, both as a punishment for their crimes and to pay the loyal men who have been robbed by the rebels, and to increase the 'pen- sions of our wounded soldiers. The punishment of traitors has been wholly ignored by a treach- erous Executive and by a sluggish Congress. I wish to make an issue before the American peo- ple, and see whether they will sanction the per- fect impunity of a murderous belligerent, and consent that the loyal men of this nation, who have been despoiled of their property, shall remain without remuneration, either by the rebel property or the property of the nation. To this issue I desire to devote the small remnant of mj life. I desire to make the issue before the people of my own State, and should be glad if the issue were to extend to other States. I desire the verdict of the people upon this great question. This bill is important to several classes of people. It is important to our wounded and maimed soldiers, who are unable to work for their living, and whose present pensions are wholly inade- quate to their support. It is important to those bereaved wives and parents whose habiliments of woe are to be seen in every house, and pro- claim the cruel losses which have been inflicted on them by the murderous hands of traitors. It is important to the loyal men. North and South, who have been plundered and impover- ished by rebel raiders and rebel Legislatures. It is important to four millions of injured, oppressed, and helpless men, whose ancestors for two centuries have been held in bondage and • compelled to earn the very property, a small portion of which we propose to restore to them, and who are now destitute, helpless, and ex- posed to want and starvation, under the delib- erate cruelty of their former masters. It is also important to the delinquents whose property it takes as a fine — a punishment for the great crime of making war to destroy the Republic, and for prosecuting the war in viola- tion of all the rules of civilized warfare. It is certainly too small a punishment for so deep a crime, and too slight a warning to future ages. No committee or party is responsible for this bill. It is chargeable to the President and my- self. Whatever merit it possesses is due to Andrew Johnson. In the summer of 1864 he said in a public speech : " Let me say now is tlie time to secure these fundamental principles, wliile the land is rent with anarchy and up- heaves with tlio throes of a mighty revolution. While so- ciety is in this disordered state and we are seekinf; security, let 113 fix the foundations of the Government on tlie priuci- pies of eternal justice, whicli will endure for all time. "Shall he wlio brought this misery upon tlie State be permitted to control its destinies? If this be so, then all this precious blood of our brave soldiers and ofBcers, so freely poured out, will have been wantonly spilled. All the glorious victories won by our noble armies will go for naught, and all the battle-fields which have been sown with dead heroes during the rebellion will have been made mem- orable in vain. "Why all this carnage and devastation? It was that treason might be put down and traitors punished. I say the traitor has ceased to be a citizen, and iu joining the rebellion has become a public enemy. " Treason must be made odious and traitors must \>e pun- ished and irnpoveriAed; tlieir great plantations must be seized and divided into small portions, and sold to honest, industrious men. The day for protecting the lands and no- groes of these authors of rebellion is past. It is hii;h time it was. I have been most deeply pained at some things which have come under my observation. Wo get men in command, who, under the influence of flattery, fawning, and caressing, grant protection to the traitor, while the poor Union man stands out in the cold." This is all the eloquen.t language of Andrew Johnson as " he was." This was the text which I took up and elaborated in a speech to my constituents at Lancaster, in September, 1865, and which has been much criticized by humane sympathizers with rebels. Andrew Johnson was the apostle whose preachings I followed. His doctrine pervades and animates this whole bill. Whatever of justice is in it is due to him, I call upon his friends to stand by him in this, his favorite policy. If you now desert him, who can yoa expect to defend the "much-en- during man" at the other end of the avenue? Having thus rendered unto Csesar the things that are Cassar's, I will proceed to defend the course recommended by him, who above all others knows what is due to traitors. This bill, it seems to me, can be condemned only by the criminals and their immediate friends, and by that unmanly kind of men whose intellectual and moral vigor has melted into a fluid vv^eakness which they mistake for mercy, and which is untempered with a single grain of justice, and to those religionists who mistake meanness for Christianity, and who forget that the essence of religion is to " do unto others what others have a right to expect from you." It is offensive to certain pretentious doc- tors of divinity, who are mawkishly prating about the "fatted calf, the prodigal son, and the forgiving father." They forget that there is no analogy between the cases. The thoughtless youth having received a part of his father's es- tate, and probably taking a load of corn to mar- ket, fell into bad company and contracted the loathsome vice of drunkenness, and spent the money in rioting and debauchery, and, like all drunkards, make his bed with the swine and fed on husks ; but, like one case only in a thou- sand, he reformed, joined the total abstinence so- . pressed race the rights which Heaven decreed them, and the remunera- tion which they have earned through long years, of hopeless oppression, how can we ho])e to es- cape still further punishment if God is just and, omnipotent? It may come in the shape of plagues or of intestine wars — race against race,, the ojjpressed against the op[)ressor. But come it will. Seek not to divert our attention from justice by a puerile cry of fatted calves! 5 The fifth section provides that $500,000,000 shall be raised out of the confiscated property for two purposes : the increase of the pensions of our soldiers and the payment to loyal de- spoiled citizens. Is there any injustice in this ? We have seen that by the law of nations they were liable to pay all the expenses and damages of the war. Those expenses cannot be less than five billion dollars, including our debt and what was paid with taxes ; the damages were proba- bly lialf a billion more. To exact but one tenth part is mercy unexampled in national magnanimity. In the great munity in India, in which so many millions of the original own- ers of the soil were engaged, and who held pro- prietary rights under well-defined titles, the Government declared that their engagements had been canceled by the rebellion, and that the proprietary right in the soil was confiscated to the Government, which would dispose of that " right as to it might seem fitting." No one ever complained that this exceeded the power of the victors. Why so tender when a small punishment is to be inflicted on our enemy ? Three hundred million dollars put at interest at six per cent, would just about double present pensions. Eight dollars a month to men un- able to work is wholly inadequate to their ne- cessities. That rate was fixed when the pay of soldiers was but eight dollars per month ; it is now sixteen dollars. The increased price of all the necessaries of life renders that necessary. The pension should be increased in the same proportion. Their present allowance is a mere mockery ; it must be doubled out of some fund. Shall it be at the cost of loyal men, or of those who mangled and slew our noble soldiers ? You talk of pity. Pity for whom ? Your tears flow for pompous traitors : ours, for maimed, halting, crippjed patriots. 1 know there is aery for the perfect impunity of the enemy. It is a dangerous and unwhole- some doctrine. Inflict salutary puuishmente to prevent future civil wars and to punish the criminals ; " their brothers' blood cries to us from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive their brothers' blood from their hands;". all this blood cannot sink into the ground un- avenged ; the ghosts of these murdered martyrs will not down, but will haunt their murderers to"the bar of eternal judgment. Is there anytliing in the practice of nations to condemn this confiscation? Nothing; but everything to justify it. Wiien a city of people in alliance with Rome conspired to levy war against her, on bein» <;onqueredshe was not un- frequently deprived of half her population and their lands taken and given to Roman colonists. Where all is justly forfeited, including their lives, to leave them a part is great mercy. I need not cite the extRnples of Greece and Mace- donia. They were severer than Rome. Now, I would not exact much personal punishment. I have never believed in bloody penalties. I have long since adopted the milder views of Boccaria and Montesquieu. But when I say that, it does not mean impunity to criminals. Heavy pecu- niary punishments should take the place of per- sonal inflictions. Rome at one time decreed that no blood should be shed except in hostile conflict. But for making war on the republic and lesser crimes she interdicted to the " male- factor fire and water," which was the form of her sentence of banishment. Such banishment in- volved the forfeiture of all their estate, real as well as personal. While they allov/ed the male- factor to depart with life, they reduced him to poverty. Such was the fate of Ciceio when he- went into exile. It was from the study of this Roman law, no doubt, that our learned Presi- dent took the idea contained in his speech, " traitors must be impoverished." He will, I hope, pardon us for not being hard-hearted enough fully to carry out his wishes. Certain gentlemen seem hard to learn, either from the writings of learned publicists, or from the passing and visible events of the present age. The German empire liad many feat.ures similar to our own. It was composed of thirty- eight States, each independent in its own muni- cipal government and laws, but each subject to the general government of the empire in whatever came within its jurisdiction By its constitution all the States were pledged to per- petual union. This pledge had come down to them through ages. It had a congress of mem- bers from each of the States, which was sitting permanently, whose acts were to bind each member of the confederacy. War broke out between two of the principal Powers. The minor States ranged themselves under the ban- ner of the one or the other. Prussia triumphed. Did the constituent party say, "We lay down our arms ; peace ensues ; and we claim our old rights as they were under the constitution of the German empire? We could not go out of that empire, for our constitution declared that it should be perpetual." No. None of the van- quished Powers were so idiotic as to set up such pretences. No one was fooHsh enough to sug- gest it to the conqueror. Prussia took up these siibmissive States and dealt with them according to the universally acknowledged laws of war. She first imposed the expenses of the war upon the conquered belligerents according to what she deemed equitable. Austria bore forty-five millions. Saxony ten millions, Bavaria three millions, and so on. She refused to let the States participate in the Government, but incor- porated several of them into tlie kingdom of Prussia. Why do not these injured parties in- voke the indignation of the civilized world? Because they know that the verdict would be agaiust them. They knew that the war destroyed the constitiftion of the Germhn empire and an- nulled the treaties of 1815; that all must be subject to the will of the conqueror. Where is our statesmanship, tliat we suffer the enemy to escape from tlie payment of the cost and dam- ages of the war? Where is our patience, that we suffer them to clamor about rights under the Constitution ? Wliere is our courage, that we suf- fer the President to head this new rebellion ? The remaining part of the sum levied, to wit, $200,000,000, is to remunerate loyal men in both sections, who, in consequence of their loyalty, have been plundered and had their property destroyed by the invading armies and raiders of the enemy, or by the unjust seizure and confiscation of the property of loyal men 6 in the rebel States. Who objects to this? Who- ever does, let him put his name on record, that the country may fairly judge on which side his sympathies lie. By the usages of nations the property of the citizens of the belligerent Power taken or destroyed as a military necessity is paid by the Government. But property taken ■ or destroyed by the enemy is not paid by the Government. Strictly speaking, the property of citizens of the hostile Government, though friendly to the conqueror, cannot be charged to the victor. But in civil wars it seems to me that a distinction should be made, and those who had suffered for their adherence to the parent Government should be taken care of in adjusting the conditions of peace. We know there are loyal men in the South who are large eufferers. There are a still larger number in the North who are made larger sufferers, neither of whom have any chance of being remunerated except through this congre.ssion'al legislation. Neitlaer of them can ever receive a dollar out of the Treasury of the United States. I know not whether $200,000,000 will pay them. Certainly • t would be a great relief. I need not enumerate the sort of damages to which I refer. Southern loyalists who have suffered are everywhere to be seen. The valley of Virginia and the -course of Sheridan'a operations are full of them. The smoking ruins of Lawrence and Chambers- burg, almost every county of Missouri and Maryland, and the frontier portions of Ohio, are samples of the latter. If the war had been between two regular governments, both of which survived the war, the victors, in the treaty of peace, would require the vanquished to pay all such damages, as well as all the expenses of the war. If neither had conquered the other, they would probably be silent, and each bear his own loss. Congress is dictating the terms of peace. If she does not provide for these meritorious claimants, she will be bound in honor to pay them out of the Na- tional Treasury. If she does not, individuals will be wronged and the nation dishonored. This bill is very merciful toward a cruel, out- lawed belligerent, who, when their armies were dispersed, would gladly have compromised if their lives were saved. Those who will be af- fected by this bill will not exceed seventy thou- sand, out of a population of six million whites, for this is a people of aristocrats and subjects — of a proud nobility and a cringing, poor peas- antry. Those seventy thousand persons own about three hundred and ninety milHon acres of land out of the five hundred million in the confed- erate States. This, together with the town prop- erty, cannot be worth less than $10,000,000,000. This estimate includes no man's property who was worth less than $10,000 ; nor does it include any personal property, which may, perhaps, swell it to $12,000,000,000. The fine proposed would be but one-twentieth of their estates. Were ever such great malefactors so gently dealt with ? It wero well if all their large estates could be subdivided and sold in small tracts. No people will ever be republican in spirit and practice where a few own immense manors and the masses are landless. Small independent landholders are the support and guardians of republican liberty. But it is said that very many of these men have been pardoned by the President, and their forfeited estates restored to them. I must take the liberty to deny that any par- don, or any other power vested in the Prcs"ident, can withdraw these forfeited estates from the confiscation decreed by Congress. Nothing less than an act of Congress can divest them from tlie United States and bestow them on tlie par- doned belligerents. No one denies that the President possesses the pardoning power. This power is conferred on the Chief Executive for wise purposes — te correct the errors and mis- takes of courts, and imperfections of human laws. Bacon says : •'The power of pardoning offences i.s inseparably incident to the crown, and this high prerogative the kingisiutrnsted with upon a special confidence that ho will spare those only whose case, could it be foreseen, the law itself may be pre- sumed willing to have excepted out of the general rules which the wisdom of man cannot po,«sibly make so perfect as to suit every particular case." (6 Bac. Abr., 138.) How well the President has adhered to the object of this high prerogative others must judge. The special pardons granted cannot in- deed be over four thousand of the subjects of confiscation. The pardons are granted for the crime of trea- son. I shall not question that such pardons may be pleaded in bar of any prosecution for trea- son, and save the traitor's property from the forfeiture which results from the conviction of that crime. But the act of July 17, 1862, under which these forfeitures arise, has no reference to trea- son, (except the first four sections, under which we do not ask the action of the Executive.) It declares the property of certain belligerents, enemies of the United States, subject to seizure, and orders it to be appropriated, as enemies' property, to the service of the United States Cxovei-nment. In perfecting the forfeiture, it does not pretend to prosecute the owners for erime, but treats their property as that of any enemy who was captured as lawful prize. How can the President by a pardon restore the prop- erty thus vested in the United States? Suppose the delinquent were an alien enemy, and as such his property or land was ordered to be seized by act of Congress? Could the President dispense with that law by his sovereign power and ar- rest the forfeiture in its transit to the Treasury? The belligerent has been guilty of no crime as belligerent of which the Executive could ab- solve him. Neither the war-making power nor the power to make peace is in the President. The power to declare war is vested in Congress alone. The power to make peace rests with the President and the Senate. The power to dis- pose of the property of a conquered people is vested in the sovereign law-making power of the nation, which in this Republic is Congress. A king of England once claimed and exercised the right to dispense with an actof Parliament; but the Parliament vindicated its rights, and by an act (1 Ws., Ill) declared all such pardons and charters void, and that no " dispensation by non obstante of or to any statute or any part thereof bo allowed." Have we the courage and the virtue of our British ancestors ? But at the most the pardons extend to but fourteen thousand out of seventy thousand wealthy belligerents. While there is not the least pretense in law that the President, by par- don or otherwise, can wrest this property from the Government, yet it is melancholy that the Executive should confederate with traitors, and by his own act and on his own individual re- sponsibility attempt to take billions out of the Treasury of the United States to enrich bloody traitors ; to impose burdens on the loyal men who risked life and property to save the nation that fawning rebels might live in affluence and glorify him. But even if all those now par- doned were beyond our reach, there are still sev- eral tliousands who are not shielded by these potential charters. That will suffice for tae small sum which this bill requires. While all must mourn over the melancholy spectacle of the attempted robbery of loyal men and the suffering relations of the martyrs of liberty bj^ one who should be their guardian, let us deal fairly and place the responsibility where it justly belongs. Andrew Johnson, be- fore he was President, held, as we have seen, the following language. In a speech already referred to, made in the summer of 1864, he said : "Why all this carnage and devastation? It was that treason might be put down and traitors punished ; there- fore I say tliat traitors should lake a hack seat in the work of reconstruction. [No "restoration" then.] I say the traitor has ceased to be a citizen, and in joining the rebel- lion ^las become a public enemy. lie foifeitod his right to vote with loyal men wlien he renounced his citizenship and sought to destroj' our (Jovernment. [Then there was no be- ing in the Union and entitled to " equal rights.''] Treason must be made odious, and traitors must bo punished and impoverished. Their great plantations must be seized and divided into small farms, and sold to honest, industrious men. The day for protecting the lands and negroes of these authors of rebellion is past. It is liish time it was. I have been most deeply pained at some things which have come under m y observation. We get men into command who, under the influenceof flattery, fawning, and caressing, grant protection to tlio traitor, while the poor tiniou man stands out in the cold, often unable to get a receipt or a voucher for his b'Sses." How well he describes men when they get in command, " who, under the influence of flattery, fawning, and caressing, grant protection to trai- tors, while loyal Union men stand out in the cold." For some time after he " got in command " he held the same honest language: but, unfortu- nately, he had inherited the prime minister, the chief bane of his predecessor, who, oilj and adroit, gradually gained his confidence and mis- led his judgment. He boasts that the plan of the Administration is his plan, invented by him, and carried on by him Thia is doubtless true. It cannot be the President's plan, for it contra- dicts all his well-considered declarations ; but in process of time he was beguiled. While he was " clothed and in his right mind " he uttered the thoughts and sentiments of a statesman ; but Seward entered into him, and ever since they have both been running down &teep places into the sea. Nor do I expect he will be cast out without " sore rending." Without impeaching the motives of the Presi- dent, it is the duty of Congress, in vindication of its proper rights and prerogatives, fo declare that he has arrogated to himself powers and attempted to do and enforce acts for which he can find no warrant in the Constitution and laws of the nation. Invested as he is with the command of the Army and Navy, with all the executive powers of the different departments, if he should be permitted to usurp still further powers,- and take control of the States, and the organization of Congress, is there not danger that some future Executive, some ambitious Cassar, will cross th^ Rubicon and march his legions upon the capital ? While protecting the President in the exercise of all his legitimate duties, and in times of national peril making large allowance for patriotic acts of doubtful legality, great care should be taken that he does not draw to himself all the powers of Govern- ment, and thus enable him to become a despot. This is one of the sacred duties of Congress, which if they fail to discharge they deserve the severest censure, for they betray a nation ; nay more, they betray the cause of universal liberty. To maintain this position is difficult, and re- quires great fortitude and moral courage. How apt is poor human nature to yield to the smiles or the frowns of power. How difficult to de- termine to cast from you all chance of influence and patronage? How difiicult to resist the temptations of oflSce and emolument ? And yet all this must be done, or this great people, in- stead of being free, will become the heritage of tyrants. Ten States of this Union have cast off their allegiance, and by the common acknowledgment of all have forfeited all their rights under the Constitution. To become again legimate States in the Union, so as to entitle them to equal rights with the other States, the Constitution requires the sanction of Congress. It matters not whether such power is attributed to the pro- vision to admit new States, or to the clause guarantying republican forms of government ; in either case Congress is the only power au- thorized to act ; so has the Supreme Court of the United States decided in Luther vs. Borden, and elsewhere. The law-making power providing for the case, the President's whole functions are to execute the laws. If the "Confederate States of America" are a conquered Power, the President, as Commander-in-Chief, may hold them in military rule until the sovereign power of the nation declares by what 'aws they shall be governed. Sovereignty rests with the people, ani is exercised through their representatives in Congress. But the President has assumed not only the military control of those con- quered States, but he has attempted to give the force of laws to his proclamations and decrees, whereby he has determined what acts shall entitle them to all the rights of States in the Union. He has imposed upon them forms of government without their consent, and without the consent of Congress. He has allowed a small minority of their votes to register his constitutions, and, without submitting them to the ratification of the people, he has declared thera legitimate, organic laws, and the States "reconstructed.'' He has imperiouslj' required of Congress to treat them as equal in all their rights to the loyal States, without inquiry whether they are entitled to representation, and dogmatically informed thera that their only 8 power is " each House for itself to inquire into the qualification and election of memciers who E resent themselves and claim their seats." If is order is not obeyed, he obstructs legislation and " forbids" Congress to pass laws in the absence of such members. What more could a king do but place the crown upon his liead? The king of England, for one huudred and tlfty years, has not ventured to oppose his single will to the will of the nation and veto a bill which had passed the rarliament of the realm. Eng- land has had her servile and timid Commons ready to register the edicts of the Crown ; but for the last hundred years such a body would have been hurled from power and doomed to infamy by the English people and by history. We are now undergoing the test of courage and the integrity of a Republican Congress. How many may be craven none can tell. For who can judge of his own strengtii? History will record their names. Men now obscure may thus obtain the advantage of becoming famous. But it is said that Mr. Johnson is but carrying out the policy of Mr. Lincoln. That, if true, would not justify his errors. But it is not true. In the midst of the war Mr. Lincoln had but little time or little occasion to examine into the question of reconstruction. Until the enemy was conquered everything was made subservient to that great object. Attempts to distract the " confederate " government were made by recog- nizing parts of her territory as loyal. Such was the case with small portions of Louisiana. The President encouraged them to assume the form of a State; but Congress never sanctioned it. The President, by his message and proclamation of December, 1863, suggested a mode of recon- struction ; but in it he distinctly disclaimed all right to control Congress in the matter, and de- clared that his suggestion of a plan did not exclude other plans. He said : " For the same reason it may be proper to say that, whether members Kent to Congress from any State shall be odmitted to seats constitution,\Ily, rests exehisively -with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the Kx- ecutive." He defines more carefully what he meant in this proclamation in a well-prepared speech de- livered three days before his death, (11th of April, 1SG5.) He said : " In this I have done just so much and no more than the public knows. In the annual message of Decemtier, 1S63, and accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of re- construction (as the phrase goes) which I pi'omised, if adopted by any State, should be acceptable to and sustained by the Executive government of the nation. I distinctly Itated that this was not the only plan which might possil)ly be acceptable; and I also distinctly protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when or whether mem- bers should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States." How different from our present Secretary of State ! That good man, who never willingly infringed upon the rights of any other department of the Government, expressly accorded to Congress alone the power to declare "when or whether members should be admitted to their seats in Congress from such States." It is not to be denied that his anxiety for the admission of members from Louisiana — or ratlior from New Orleans and adjoining parishes — gave uneasi- ness to the country. The people had begun to fear that he was misled, and was about to fall iuto error. If he- would have fallen into thai course, it is well for his reputation that he did not live to execute it. From being the most popular, he would have left office the most un- popular man that ever occupied the executivq chair. But that overruling Providence that so well guided him did not permit such a calamity to befall him. He allowed him to acquire a most enviable reputation, and then.bol'oro thero v/as a single spot upon it, " he sailed into the fiery sunset," "And left sweet mnsic in Cathay." Here, if there were anything in common but their station, what a temptation to draw a par- allel. But it would be unprofitable ; especially in this debate. For what we saj- fit the graves of admired friends or statesmen or heroes is not biography. The stern pen of history will strip such eulogies of their meretricious qrnarnents. But there is no danger that the highest praise that the most devoted friends could bestow on him would ever be reversed by posterity. So solid was the material of which his whole char- acter was formed, that the more it is rubbed the brighter it will shine. Mr. Lincoln, also, was of humble origin, (and who is not that is formed of the coarse clay of hrimanity ?) and earned his living by manual labor. But he had too good taste ever to boast of the aceident of liis birth, or to weary the public ear with the tautological recital of his mental employments. He roseto the Chief Magistracy of the great Republic by his sterling patriotism, sober habits, and modest worth. He was not thrown into power by any moral or political convulsion. His elevation was no accident, but the result of the cool judg- ment of a nation of freemen. No man ever assumed such vast responsibilities under such ditficult circumstances, except, perhaps, William the Silent. How similar in their lives ; how alike in deaths. If there was danger, and I admit there was some apprehension that Mr. Lincoln would be beguiled bj- his chief adviser into a course which would have tarnished his well-earned fame, that good Guardian who had guided him so well kindlj' preserved him from tliat calamity. Death is terrible. Death in high places is still more lamentable ; but every day is showing that there are things more terrible than death. It was better that his post humousfame should be un- spotted than that he should endure a few mora years of trouble on earth. All must regret the manner of his death ; yet, looking to futurity and to his own personal position, it may be con- sidered happy. From the height of his glory he beheld the promised land, and was with- drawn from our sight. In the mii^st of the most exquisite enjoyment of his favorite relaxa- tion he was instantaneously taken away with- out suffering one pang of death. Like the prophet of the Lord, who knew not death, ha was wrapt from earth to heaven along a track no less luminous than his who ascended in a chariot of fire with horses of fire. Would to God that some small portion of the mantle of our Elijah had fallen on his Elisha.