MEMORIAL ADDRESSES
ON THE
LIFE AND CHARACTER
OF
THADDEUS STEVENS,
DELIVERED IN THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 17, 1868.
WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1869.








ADDRESSES.
Remarks by Mr. Dickey.
Mr. SPEAKER: The painful duty has devolved upon me of
announcing to this House the death of my predecessor, Hon.
THADDEUS STEVENS, of Pennsylvania.
This distinguished statesman was not merely my predecessor in this body, but in my childhood my father taught me to
admire and love him, who was the instructor and guide of my
youth and the friend of my mature years. If an intimacy
with wise and noble men be one of the greatest blessings that
can crown a man, then in no part of my career have I been so
fortunate as in my association with Thaddeus Stevens. It
was in his office, and in connection with him, that I commenced my professional life; and from that moment, through
the turmoil of many legal and political contests, down to the
moment when in his last.will he selected me to perform the
last service one man can ask from his fellow, our friendship
suffered neither diminution nor interruption.
Informed that my duty requires of me a sketch of the history of my friend, I hope to be pardoned by the House for any
prolixity of statement, promising to leave to others abler and
fitter, his associates here who are to follow me, the analysis
of his character as a statesman and the story of his struggles
and triumphs in this arena, where he was recognized as a
great leader and bore the name of "The Old Commoner."
Thaddeus Stevens was born at Danville, Caledonia county,
Vermont, on the 4th day of April, 1792, and died at his
residence in this city at midnight on the 11th day of August, 1868. His parents were poor, in a community where
poverty was the rule and wealth the exception. Of his father




2         REMARKS OF MR. DICKEY ON THE,
I know but little, save that he enlisted in the war of 1812,
and died in service. Upon his mother chiefly fell the burden
of rearing their four sons. She was a woman of great energy,
strong will, and deep piety. Early seeing the ambition and
fully sympathizing with the aspirations of her crippled boy,
she devotedly seconded his efforts for the acquisition of
knowledge, and by her industry, energy, and frugality largely
aided him in procuring a collegiate education. He returned
her affection with the full strength of his strong nature, and
for many years after he had acquired fame and fortune in his
adopted State had the pleasure of making an annual pilgrimage to the home which he had provided for her comfort, and
where she dispensed, with means he furnished, a liberal
charity.
In the last year of his life, in writing his will with his own
hand, while making no provision for the care of his own
grave, he did not forget that of his mother, but set apart an
ample sum for that purpose, directing yearly payments upon
the condition "that the sexton keep the grave in good order,
and plant roses and other cheerful flowers at each of the four
corners of said grave every spring." In the same instrument,
in devising $1,000 in aid of the establishment at his home of
a Baptist church, of which society his mother was an earnest
member, he says:
I do this out of respect to the memory of my mother, to whom I owe whatever little prosperity I have had on earth, which, small as it is, I desire emphatically to acknowledge.
After attending the common schools of the neighborhood
he fitted for college at the Peacham Academy, in his native
county, entered the University of Vermont, and remained
there about two years. The college suspending operations
on account of the war, he proceeded to Dartmouth, and
graduated at that institution in 1814. After reading law at
Peacham, in the office of Judge Mattocks, for some months,




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.       3
he. left his native State and settled in Pennsylvania in 1815,
first in the town of York, where he taught an academy and
pursued his legal studies. The rules of court in that district having required students to read one year in the office
of an attorney, he went to Belair, Harford county, Maryland,
and was there examined and admitted to practice in August,
1816. He at once returned to Pennsylvania and opened a law
office at Gettysburg, in the county of Adams, and entered
upon the practice of his profession in that and adjoining
counties. He was soon in the possession of an extensive and
lucrative business, to which he gave his entire attention for
some sixteen years. I may here be allowed briefly to allude to
a few traits of Mr. Stevens as a lawyer. Although not perhaps
of great national reputation as such, he was recognized by the
profession in a State claiming some eminence for the high
character of her advocates and jurists.as one of her greatest
lawyers, and was so pronounced by three of her ablest chief
justices, Gibson, Black, and Lewis, who tried him by the sure
test of uniform power.
I need scarcely say that Mr. Stevens shone at the bar with
the same clearness of statement, force, and eloquence of expression, power of argumentation, wit, sarcasm, and invective, which he employed in legislative halls, and that there,
as here, he was master of all the weapons of debate. As an
advocate he was always jealous of the rights of his profession, and resisted their innovation. He was always courteous
to the court, and uniformly brief, never speaking beyond an
hour upon any question. He never took or used notes of the
evidence, the speeches of opponents, or the rulings of the
court, trusting wholly to a memory that never failed him. In
the preparation of his law he was industrious and careful;
here, too, relying upon his memory, his brief seldom contained more than the name of the case and page of the book.




4          REMARKS OF MR. DICKEY ON THE
In argument he cited but few authorities, and those directly
to his purpose. Grasping one or two points which he conceived vital to the cause, he directed all his energies and
concentrated all his powers upon them, giving little attention
to subordinate questions. No matter with whom associated,
he never tried a cause save upon his own theory of the case.
At nisi prius he uniformly insisted on personally seeing
and examining, before they were called, the important witnesses on his own side. Generally relying upon the strength
and presentation of his own case, he Seldom indulged in
extended cross-examination of witnesses, though possessing rare ability in that direction. - He never consented to be
concerned or to act as counsel in the prosecution of a capital
case, not from opposition to the punishment, but because it
was repugnant to his feelings and that service was the duty
of public officers. He was as remarkable for his consideration,
forbearance, and kindness when opposed by the young, weak,
or diffident, as he was for the grim jest, haughty sneer,
pointed sarcasm, or fierce invective launched at one who
entered the lists and challenged battle with such weapons.
He was always willing to give advice and assistance to the
young and inexperienced members of the profession, and his
large library was ever open for their use. He had many
young men read law with him, though he did not care to
have students. There were, however, two recommendations
which never failed to procure an entrance into his office: ambition to learn, and inability to pay for the privilege.
Mr. Stevens first engaged actively in politics with the rise
of the anti-Masonic party in 1828-'29, which he joined in their
opposition to secret societies. He was elected to the popular
branch of the legislature of his State, in 1833, as a representative from the county of Adams, and continued to serve in
that body almost without interruption until 1840, during




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.       5
which entire period he was the leader of his party in the
legislature, if not the State. During this service he championed many measures of improvement, among others the
common-school system of Pennsylvania, which at a critical
moment he saved from overthrow by a speech which he always
asserted to have been, in his opinion, the most effective he
ever made. By that single effort he established the principle,
never since seriously questioned in Pennsylvania, that it is the
duty of the State to provide the facilities for education to all
the children of the Commonwealth. In behalf of this measure
he joined hands with his bitterest personal and political enemies. He highly eulogized for his course upon this question
the chief of the opposing political party, Governor George
Wolf, and denounced with all his power of invective the timeservers of his own party. Himself the child of poverty he
plead the cause of the poor, and by the force of his will, intellect, and eloquence, broke down the barriers enacted by
wealth, caste, and ignorance, and earned a name that will
endure as long as a child of Pennsylvania gratefully remembers the blessings conferred by light and knowledge.
In 1837-'38, Mr. Stevens was a member of the convention
called to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania, an assemblage which numbered as members many of the strongest men
of the State, among whom Mr. Stevens stood in the front
rank. This convention, notwithstanding the able and strenuous opposition of a strong minority, led by Mr. Stevens,
inserted the word " white"' as a qualification of suffrage, thus
disfranchising a race. On this account he refused to append
his name to the completed instrument, and stood alone in such
refusal. For the same cause he opposed, but unsuccessfully,
the ratification by the people.
In 1842 Mr. Stevens, finding himself deeply in debt by reason of losses in the iron business, and liabilities incurred for




6         REMARKS OF MR. DICKEY ON THE
numerous endorsements made for friends, removed to Lancaster county, one of the largest, richest, and most populous
counties of the State, and resumed the practice of his profession. His reputation as a lawyer had preceded him, and his
income almost at once became the largest at the bar. In a few
years he paid his debts, and saved the bulk of his estate. In
1848 and 1850 he was elected to Congress from Lancaster
county, when, declining to be a candidate, he returned to his
profession until 1858, when he was again elected, and continued to hold the seat without interruption till his death.
His course upon this floor has passed into and forms no
unimportant part in the history of a mighty people in a
great crisis of their existence. But I have promised to leave
to others to say what may be proper in illustration of his
great achievements in his latter days.
To those here who judged of the personal appearance of the p
deceased only as they looked on him bearing the burden of
years and stricken with disease, though he still stood with eye
undimmed and will undaunted, I may say that in his prime
he was a man physically well proportioned, muscular and
strong, of clear and ruddy complexion, with face and feature
of great mobility and under perfect command and control. In
his youth and early manhood, notwithstanding his lameness,
he entered with zest into almost all of the athletic games and
sports of the times. He was an expert swimmer and an
excellent horseman. When residing at Gettysburg he followed the chase, and kept his hunters and hounds.
On a recent visit to his iron-works I found the old mountain men garrulous with stories of the risks and dangers of
the bold rider, as with horse and hound he followed the deer
along the slopes and through the gaps of the South mountain.
In private life, among his friends, Mr. Stevens was ever
genial, kind, and considerate. To them he was linked with




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF TIIADDEUS STEVENS.       7
hooks of steel. For them he would labor and sacrifice without
stint, complaint, or regret. In his hours of relaxation there
could be no more genial companion. His rare conversational
powers, fund of anecdote, brilliant sallies of wit, and wise sayings upon the topic of the hour, made his company much,
sought, and many of these are the current coin of the circle
in which he moved.
Mr. Stevens was an honest and truthful man in public and
in private life. His word was sacred in letter and spirit, and
was never paltered in a double sense. In money matters he
was liberal to a fault, and out of his immense professional
income he left but a meager estate. In his private charity he
was lavish. He was incapable of saying no in the presence of
want or misery. His charity, like his political convictions,
regarded neither creed, race, nor color. He was a good classical scholar, and was well read in ancient and modern literature, especially on subjects of philosophy and law. In his old
age he read but few books. Shakspeare, Dante, Homer, Milton, and the Bible could, however, generally be found upon
the table in his sleeping room, where he was accustomed to
read in bed. He was simple and temperate in his habits.
He disliked the use of tobacco, and for forty years never
used or admitted to his house intoxicating drinks except by
direction of his physician.
Mr. Stevens was deeply loved and fully trusted by his constituents. He was often in advance of their views; sometimes
he ran counter to their prejudices or passions; yet such was
his popularity with them, so strong their faith in his wisdom,
in the integrity of his action and the purity of his purpose that
they never failed to sustain him. Popular with men of all
parties, with his own supporters his name was a household
word. To them, and among themselves, " Old Thad"' was a
phrase of endearment; while even his foes spoke of him with




8         REMARKS OF MR. DICKEY ON THE
pride as the " Great Commoner." No man ever died more
deeply mourned by a constituency than Thaddeus Stevens.
Having briefly selected some of the incidents that marked
the history of my friend, I will in conclusion say a few words
of him on a subject in connection with which he is probably
more widely known than any other-slavery. Mr. Stevens was
always an anti-slavery man. From the time he left his native
mountains to the moment of his death he was not only antislavery in the common acceptation of the term, but a bold,
fearless, determined and uncompromising foe to oppression in
any and every form. He was an abolitionist before there was
such a party name.
His opposition to American slavery, no matter what his
party connection, was never based upon mere questions of
political economy. He always viewed it as a great wrong, at
war with the fundamental principles of this and all good government, as a sin in the sight of God and a crime against man.
For many years, long before it became popular to do so, he
denounced this institution as the great crime of the nation, on
the stump, at the forum, in party conventions and deliberative
assemblies. On this question he was always in advance of his
party, his State, and his constituents. Always resident in a
border county, he defended the fugitive on all occasions,
asserted the right of free speech, and stood between the abolitionist and the mob, often with peril to himself. This was one
great cause of his having been so long in a minority, and of
his entrance late in life into the councils of the nation; but for
this he was fully compensated by living to see the destruction
of an institution which he loathed, and by receiving for his
reward, and as the crowning glory of his life, the blessings of
millions he had so largely aided to make free.
The remains of Mr. Stevens lie in Lancaster, in a private
cemetery established by an old friend, in a lot selected by him



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.                 9
self, for reasons stated in the touching and beautiful epitaph
prepared by himself for inscription upon his tomb:
I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference
for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited by charter rules as to race, I
have chosen it that I might be enabled to illustrate in my death the principles
which I have advocated through a long life-equality of man before his Creator.
Let us trust and believe that if the earnest and sincere
prayers of millions of the poor, downtrodden, and oppressed
may smooth the pathway of the traveller on his journey from
this world to the bourne of all, his has been a happy exit.
I offer the following resolutions:
Resolved, That this House has heard with deep regret the death of Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, a member of this House from the State of Pennsylvania.
Resolved, That as a testimony of respect to the memory of this distinguished
statesman the officers and members of this House will wear the usual badge of
mourning for the space of thirty days.
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the family of the
deceased by the Clerk.
Resolved, That this House, as a further mark of respect to the memory of the
deceased, do now adjourn.
Remarks by Mr. Poland.
Mr. SPEAKER: I rise to second the resolutions offered by the
gentleman from Pennsylvania.      The town of Danville, where
Mr. Stevens was born, and the town of Peacham, in which he
lived until he had completed his education and attained his
majority, are both adjacent to the town where I reside, and
form a part of the district I have the honor to represent. It
seems appropriate that a representative of Mr. Stevens's native
State and the representative of his native town and county
should perform this duty, but I regret that it has fallen upon
one who had so little personal knowledge of him. Mr. Stevens
removed from Vermont to Pennsylvania before my birth, and
I became a resident of his native county but a few years since,
and after his youthful associates were nearly all gone. I met




10        REMARKS OF MR. POLAND ON THE
him once or twice in Vermont when he came to visit his aged
mother, but except this I never saw him until I came to the
Senate at the beginning of the thirty-ninth Congress. Since
I became a member of this House his advanced age and broken
health prevented his active participation in much of its business, and for a great part of the time his attendance during
its sessions. I can, therefore, do little more than express the
general estimation of his public character and service entertained by myself in common with the people of his native
State. I have learned that the parents of Mr. Stevens were
poor, and that his education was mainly secured by his own
energy and efforts. When he removed to the State of Pennsylvania to begin his career of active manhood he went
among strangers, dependent for friends, for success in business, for professional or other advancement, for the means
of living even, upon what he might, by force of his own
unaided efforts and ability, be able to win. How hardly he
struggled, how bravely he fought, how successfully he won
friends, professional distinction, political advancement, name
and fame, we have been told by his long-time friend and
neighbor and successor in this House. His career and his
success is another instance of what is so commlon in this
country, but so uncommon in all others: the attainment of
the highest professional and political distinction from the
humblest condition by the mere force of personal effort and
ability.
Mr. Stevens was another tribute to our system of free institutions, founded upon the equality of all men-institutions
which he loved so well, and exerted himself so faithfully to
extend and perpetuate. That Mr. Stevens was a man of
marked ability has ever been conceded, as well by his political opponents as by his political and personal friends. He
had indomitable courage, energy of character, and tenacious




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      11
will; so that when he had once settled upon a course of action
he pursued it to the end with an apparent, almost reckless,
disregard of the opinions and judgments of other men. His
leading and characteristic ambition seemed to be to elevate
the masses of his fellow-men. He seemed ever to desire and
to labor that all men should have an equal start and a fair
chance in the race of life. His early and successful efforts in
his adopted State in the cause of popular and general education were an apt and enduring illustration of this great trait
of his character. He loved freedom and liberty for himself,
and for all men as well. He hated every form of tyranny and
oppression which clogged and opposed the advancement of
men to better conditions; and especially did he abhor and
detest that vast oppression which once prevailed in this
country and which seemed likely to prevail forever-human
slavery. Accordingly, when that institution came to be one
of the subjects of political controversy in the country, he was
found among its most determined and advanced opponents.
It is not saying more than I believe to be just to him that to
his efforts as much as to those of any one man is the country
indebted for its final overthrow. When the country had
become involved in a civil war of appalling magnitude upon
this question of slavery, and the great question of the time
was whether the Union or slavery should go down, Mr.
Stevens seemed to rise at once to the magnitude and majesty
of the occasion.
His leadership of the Union men and opponents of slavery
and its abettors during the period of the war, in the great
American Commons, was perhaps as brilliant and successful
as the world has ever seen. Though I have no reason to doubt
he loved his country, its free institutions, and its government
as well as others, I have thought his great efforts in their




12        REMARKS OF MR. POLAND ON THE
behalf during that period were actuated as much by his
hatred of slavery as by his love of country.
I will not further allude to Mr. Stevens's congressional career,
though his public life is mainly included in it, but leave
that to others whose opportunities to know it are so much
better than my own. Mr. Stevens had very warm sympathies
and great kindness of heart. No case of suffering or distress
ever appealed to him in vain; his heart and his hand were
always open to sympathize with and relieve the needy and the
downtrodden of the earth.
I am aware that since the close of the war, in dealing with
the subject of the restoration of the revolted States and their
people, Mr. Stevens has been charged with entertaining
malignant and uncharitable feelings, and being influenced by
them in his public action. So far as this charge applies to
the masses of the people of those States, who might well be
regarded as the deluded victims of unwise leaders, I have
never seen any evidence of its truth. He did regard the promoters and leaders of the rebellion as great criminals, who
ought to be punished as such; he felt a kind of righteous and
holy indignation against them, and as if the nation itself was
endangered unless justice and judgment were meted out
against them. Mr. Stevens always retained a strong feeling
of attachment to his native State, and a very high regard for
her people. It was a sufficient passport to his favor that the
applicant caine from Vermont. So long as his mother lived
he made almost annual pilgrimages to the old home upon the
Green mountains to see to her comfort and to visit the scenes
of his boyhood. I do not think I ever met him since I have
been in Washington but he inquired about something or
somebody in Vermont, and almost always had some amusing
anecdote to relate connected with his early life. His strong




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF TIIADDEUS STEVENS.     13
filial affection is beautifully shown by the provision in his will
for the annual planting of roses and other cheerful flowers at
the corners of the graves of his mother and brother; and his
attachment to the scenes and memories of his youthful days
is equally well exhibited by his bequest to the Juvenile
Library Association of the old Peacham Academy, where he
received his preparatory education. The people of Vermont
felt a just and laudable pride in Mr. Stevens and in his distinguished public career. They watched his success, as they
have many others of her sons who have gone out from her
and attained position and fame in other States. In the case
of Mr. Stevens, his public course was generally such as commended itself to their own judgment. Sometimes he announced doctrines and advocated measures more extreme
than they were prepared to accept; but they ever felt that
for him something was to be pardoned to the spirit of liberty.
The people of Vermont always loved to believe that the
strong love of freedom and independence for all men exhibited by him-his hatred of all forms of oppression, and his
efforts to elevate and benefit the masses, were, to some extent,
due to his being born in Vermont. The early history of Vermont was that of a continual struggle against what they
deemed to be unlawful and unjust attempts of other States to
obtain jurisdiction and exercise governmental power over
them. These struggles had ceased, to be sure, prior to the
birth of Mr. Stevens; but the heroes and statesmen who were
her leaders in those trying days were still alive and gave tone
and temper to public sentiment and opinion for many years
after. We have loved to believe in Vermont that the free
and independent opinions inhaled by him in his youth with
the free air of our grand mountains in some degree contributed to make him what he was so emphatically, the friend
of the oppressed and the foe of the oppressor. Like other




14         REMARKS OF MR. MOORHEAD ON THE
men, he had his faults; but he has done so much for the great
cause of humanity that this and all future generations in this
land have ample cause to bless and revere his memory. To
show the estimate in which Mr. Stevens was held by the people of Vermont, I ask to have the Clerk read the following
resolutions, which were unanimously adopted by the Vermont
legislature at their recent session.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Varnum, of Peacham, offered the following joint resolution:
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That so great a loss to
the nation as the death of Hon. THADDEUS STEVENS deserves, and should
receive, of the representatives of the people of his native State in general assembly convened, a befitting and appropriate recognition.
Resolved, That we mourn and deeply sympathize with those of his adopted
State, whom he so faithfully represented in the councils of our nation, and by
whom he was so nobly sustained, in this their great bereavement and irreparable
loss, of one so firm, so devoted to the interests, the welfare, and the honor of
the people.
Resolved, That his patriotism, his devotion to the principles of liberty, justice,
and equality, his unswerving fidelity to the trusts of his State and the trusts
of the Union, have left an honorable and ineffaceable impression on the pages
of history and on the records of a great Republic.
Resolved, That we will remember him as a son of Vermont, and will cherish
his memory, and point with pride to his life as an example of patriotism for
ourselves and our posterity.
Resolved, That the governor be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to the governor of Pennsylvania.
Remarks by Mr. Moorhead.
Mr. SPEAKER: My acquaintance with Thaddeus Stevens
began during the administration of Governor Ritner, of Pennsylvania, about the year 1836. He was then a bold and daring
leader of his party.   Always in advance of public opinion, he
constantly antagonized it with a valor and boldness unequalled.   Usually political leaders ascertain the current and
drift of public sentiment and accommodate themselves to it.




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      15
Not so with him. He formed his own opinions and acted on
his own convictions. Opposition, so far from weakening his
resolves, only nerved him for whatever effort was necessary
to the accomplishment of his purpose. [He created public
opinion and moulded public sentiment. (,In this, above all other
traits, lay the greatness of Thaddeus Stevens. He was always
ready to defend his views, never shrinking from any service
required by his fidelity to duty. The victims overthrown by
his power and logic, and impaled by his wit, irony, and sarcasm, are legion. Many of them, like himself, have gone to
their reward; others remain, retaining a lively recollection of
the " Old Commoner."
While he was at times terribly severe, and more rarely discourteous, and sometimes in the intensity of political excitement wounded the feelings of his friends, yet at heart he was
eminently kind, generous, and forgiving.
The history of his public life is before the world; his name
and fame are a part of the possession of the people. While
free government endures Thaddeus Stevens will be remembered with honor, and his services in its maintenance will be
recalled with gratitude. But his greatest achievements were
undoubtedly his agency in the establishment of the common
school system of Pennsylvania, and in the emancipation of
four million slaves. Both these great measures would undoubtedly have been adopted in time without him, but both
were hastened by his strong and able support.
When, a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, in 1833,
he commenced his public advocacy of free schools, many of
our industrious, frugal, agricultural population believed that
every man should take care of his own family and educate his
children or not, as seemed to him best.
The idea of taxing one man to pay for schooling the children
of another was looked upon by them as an innovation and an




16       REMARKS OF MR. MOORHEAD ON THE
injustice. His constituency held a meeting and instructed
him to oppose the proposition. He boldly refused, denounced
them for their selfishness, carried his measure, and also a
majority of his constituents with him. The abolition of slavery
is too recent, and his action too well known, not only to the
people of the United States but of the world, to require any
comment of mine. I cannot refrain, however, from saying
that in 1850, being a visitor in this city, I obtained through
the courtesy of a friend admittance to the floor of the House.
Mr. Stevens was upon the floor at the time, speaking on the
evils of slavery. The leading members from the slaveholding
States were gathered in front of his desk. As he portrayed
the degradation and crime of slavery in such a manner as he
only could portray them,, scowls settled upon their brows, contempt curled their lips, and oaths could be distinctly heard
hissing through their teeth. This was in the days when southern gentlemen enforced their arguments with an appeal to the
duel, and southern ruffians resorted to the bowie-knife and
bludgeon. I felt alarmed for him, but he proceeded unembarrassed by interruptions and apparently unconscious of the
mutterings of the storm. As, reaching his climax, he spoke
of Virginia, the proud mother of Presidents, become a breeder
of slaves for the southern market, the anger of her representatives could scarcely be restrained; yet he was as cool as if
addressing a jury in his county court-house.
This conveniently illustrates the last remark I wish to make,
namely, that Thaddeus Stevens was pre-eminently a brave
man, who would do and dare everything in the vindication of
what he believed to be the truth. But, Mr. Speaker, he is
gone; peace be to his ashes. Vermont has the honor of his
birth, Pennsylvania the more enduring honor of having
adopted him as her son; for were not her valleys his home,
her temples of justice his shrine, her legislative halls his first




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     17
political prize, her people his constituents, her interests his
study, her progress his delight, her honor his glory, and is not
her soil his grave? Let us imitate his virtues and cherish his
memory.
Remarks by Mr. Maynard.
In the awful presence of death every voice is silent except
the voice of sorrow and eulogy. The infirmities of mortality
are forgotten, the good alone is remembered; criticism is disarmed; censure loses its power; men instinctively concede,
as they expect, this sad immunity to the grave. It is, let us
believe, an unconscious prefiguration of the better life to come.
While offering my tribute to the memory of our venerable
and deceased associate, the late Thaddeus Stevens, it is proper
that I confine myself to that portion of his life spent in the
national Capitol. Others knew him, it may be, as a student,
a teacher, a lawyer, a neighbor-knew him in the amenities
and benefactions of home. My acquaintance with him was
formed here, and here, I may say in this building, was our
intercourse. I met him the first time at the assembling of the
thirty-sixth Congress, in the winter of 1859. It was a period
of great political excitement. The struggle had already begun
which within less than two years developed into civil war. It
was a time to call forth the best efforts of the best men. Members then of different political parties, we naturally, necessarily perhaps, pursued what was felt to be a common purpose
by different methods and distinct organizations. The scenes
of that Congress are not easily forgotten. The almost daily
contests between Lovejoy and Corwin and Stevens on the one
side, and Hindman and Barksdale and Branch on the other,
speaking alone of the dead, but settled the issues for the com2




18       REMARKS OF MR. MAYNARD ON THE
ing years of bloodshed and carnage. Some of us, foreseeing
the calamitous time, interposed to stay the strife, praying that
if it were possible this cup of sorrow might pass. Visions of
desolated homes, of screaming women, famishing children,
and old men, the victims of torture; fields laid waste, and all
that makes existence lovely perverted-visions frightfully
realized-were ever present before us whose people occupied
what we knew must be the battle-ground in case of armed
conflict. To avert this terrible visitation I need not say we
labored with all the earnestness of agonizing natures. The
records remain to tell of our labors. I refer to them at this
time and in this connection atest the feeling of confidence
we entertained toward nrfyteyphens  Armed though he was
in completest panoply, and ready for every encounter, we all
felt that if war should ensue it would not be his generous
nature which would strike the first blow. This is not the occasion to dwell upon the remembered incidents of his intercourse
with my associates-still speaking alone of the dead-with
Gilmer, of North Carolina; Bouligny, of Louisiana; Bristow
and Anderson, of Kentucky; and Brabson and Hatton, of my
own State. It was not the intercourse of men who expected
soon to become enemies. So we separated at the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln full of anxiety, yet not without hope.
When, the next winter, we met again as members of a new
Congress, all was changed. A million of men were in arms,
and the life of the nation hung upon the issue of battles. We
were both upon the Committee of Ways and Means, charged,
as the House was at that time organized, with the examination of all financial questions, both of revenue and expenditure,
and with the preparation of all revenue bills, which, under the
Constitution, must originate in this House. The expenditures
of the government, never less than two millions a day, and
sometimes reaching three millions, made a demand upon the




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      19
public resources wholly without precedent and greatly beyond
what many regarded our ability to meet. Besides, intervention by at least two of the great European powers for months
seemed imminent, and a struggle between the republic and
the united civilized world. And, what was still more disheartening to one in the position of Mr. Stevens, he lacked confidence in the ability and skill both of our civil and military
leaders, and in some important instances he had little faith in
their devotion to the cause so dear to the general heart. The
early decisions of the field were not always assuring, and even
here there were not a few, timid and unbelieving, ready to flee
at the first sign of irresolution on the part of our leader. Yet
neither on the floor nor in the committee room did his courage
once weaken or his purpose grow infirm. On the contrary, we
saw his energies increase with every new emergency, and his
spirit rise buoyant as those around him became more desponding. Among the elements of our final success his unfaltering
leadership at this cardinal period was not the least. While
events were shaping themselves and the public judgment was
baffled by the novelty of the situation, weakness, doubt, instability in that quarter would have been disastrous, might have
been fatal. The unabated hostility towards him by the partizans of the rebellion is explained only by their consciousness
of his unyielding and overmastering power.
The internal revenue system, the currency system, the
national bank system, the form of the national debt originated
at this juncture and under his direction. In no instance, I
believe, did his individual views entirely prevail, and there
were points upon which he was diametrically opposed by the
action of the two houses. Having known his opinions at that
time, I could easily appreciate his feeling of injustice at the
construction afterward given to certain scattered expressions,




20       REMARKS OF MR. MAYNARD ON THE
used, possibly, in reference to the predominant sentiments of
others rather than to his own.
His subsequent career is too recent and too familiar to be
dwelt upon. His theory of the rebellion and of the legal consequences of its overthrow, his views upon reconstruction, and
the part he took in the late contest for precedence between
the legislature and the executive are well understood. During the last year we all felt that his sands had nearly run;
day by day we saw him borne into the hall upon the arms of
young men, weak as a child, but eager and attentive, whether
the discussion turned upon foreign or home affairs. No subject
was above his grasp, none beneath his notice. Treaty stipulations with a great power and the salary of the humblest clerk
alike found in him an advocate. Toward the close of the summer session nature made a final rally. For a few days the
old vivacity returned-the brilliant repartee and unexpected
sallies that all enjoyed so much. He himself felt the renewal
of strength and a revival of hope and the future. It was the
last glimmer of the expiring flame. We had scarcely dispersed to our distant homes before the telegraph announced
that he was no more. And so he passed away in the mellow
autumn of his age, having lived to enjoy the ripened fruits of
the spring-time planting and summer culture.
A maxim of one of the sages would have us wait until the
end of life before pronouncing it happy. A historian, closing
the biography of one of the illustrious men of his time, exclaims, in the spirit of this maxim, " Tu vero felix, non vitc
tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis." If a brilliant
career be a happy one, and if that career be brilliant, which,
unaided by wealth, family or powerful friends, attains the
front rank among the great leaders of a great epoch and
makes a name for ban or blessing in every household of the
land, then, indeed, is this champion of the oppressed to be




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     21
accounted happy; but thrice happy in the opportune article
of his death. Though the strength of manhood was gone, the
babble and drivel of dotage had not supervened. He had
seen his country emerge, after a long and painful strife, from
the clouds and turmoil of civil war, and resume her place
among the nations, freer, richer, stronger, happier, and more
honored than before; entering upon a new era of prosperity
and growth, excelling them all in the splendor of her renown,
even as one star excelleth another star in glory. The principles for which he had contended through a lengthened life had
been recognized and adopted. His life-work was done, and
who shall say it had not been done well  The Son of David
has said there is a time to die; a time when to die is better
than to live; and fortunate are they who are summoned at
this auspicious moment, permitted to attain the full measure
of their fame, but not to survive their reputation or their usefulness to mankind.
The character of Mr. Stevens I shall not attempt. To his
life-long friends its delineation will be a work of pathetic pride;
I leave it to them, remarking upon two traits which seemed
very prominent. The first was manliness as opposed to effeminacy. Not his
"The Dorian mood
Of flutes and soft recorders."
He evinced little respect for mere taste and refinement and
delicacy and luxury and sentiment and the whole chapter of
exquisitism, but delighted rather in the sturdier qualities of
the heart and mind. The other trait was his exceeding liberality, extending alike to all, to the unthankful and the evil
as well as to the grateful and the deserving. Where could be
found a more unselfish friend? And never, surely, was there
a more generous foe. Oppression and distress never appealed
to him in vain. The humblest obscurity did not escape his




22        REMARKS BY MR. MAYNARD ON THE
notice. Opposition to slavery was a moral necessity of his
nature. As a legislator he was liberal to such a degree that
his political associates deemed it necessary to provide a counterpoise in natures less impulsive and sympathetic. His last
effort in the House, if I mistake not, was an appeal for an
appropriation to the public charities of the District of Columbia. Those who knew him in the private walks of life bear
testimony to his own continual and abounding charity, and
" charity shall cover the multitude of sins." We cannot wonder, therefore, that pious hands were there to close his dying
eyes, making intercession with Heaven in his behalf, or that
in the supreme hour devoted women should administer the
holy chrism, efficacious, let us hope, beyond the teaching of
our creeds.
To most men there comes, sooner or later, a period of inaction, inability for further progress; when the world seems
to them incapable of becoming any better, and every change
is dreaded as likely to be for the worse. This is the period of
conservatism, and usually comes with gray hairs and failing
eye-sight. It converses with the past and distrusts the future.
Its look is backward and not forward. This period Mr. Stevens never reached. No good was ever attained without an
attainable better. All his life he held the outposts of thought.
Even in his closing hours, we are told, he found time for discourse of hopeful temper upon public affairs and to augur the
success of an administration he could hardly have expected to
see.
As he was, so he will long be remembered. He has left his
impress upon the form and body of the times. Monuments
will be reared to perpetuate his name on the earth. Art
will be busy with her chisel and her pencil to preserve his
features and the image of his mortal frame. All will be done
that brass and marble and painted canvas admit of being




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     23
done. The records of his official acts will remain in your
archives; our chosen words of commemoration will fall into
the channels of literature. But the influence of a gifted mind
in moulding thought and giving direction to events is not
to be measured by words of commemoration or by official
records. It is as measureless as the soul and enduring as
time. Long after the brass and marble and painted canvas
have disappeared it will still remain, transmitted from age
to age and through successive generations. " Quidquid ex eo
amavimus, quidquid mirati sumus, manet, mansurumque est in
animis hominum, in ceternitate temporum, fama rerum. Posteritati, narratus et traditus, superstes erit.
Remarks by Mr. Kelley.
Mr. SPEAKER: Thaddeus Stevens was one of the most practical of men, though his whole life was colored and influenced
by a vision. Timid men, and those who were without faith,
called him dogmatic and impracticable, and others spoke of
him as a theorist, who, to gratify a malignant or vindictive
spirit, urged extreme measures regardless of the rights, interests, or sentiments of those they were to affect. They knew
but little of the man they judged. How thoroughly practical
he was is attested by the fact that he earned by teaching the
rudimentary branches the means to procure his collegiate
training; that having settled in a community in which hereditary wealth was deemed a prerequisite to a respectable position at the bar, he made no concealment of his poverty, and
taught school while preparing for the practice of the legal profession and the acknowledged leadership of the bar of a large
section of his adopted State; that he commanded the confidence of every judge before whom he appeared in his extended




24        REMARKS BY MR. KELLEY ON THE
range of practice, and secured the affectionate regard of all
his young professional brethren; by the frequency with which
the people among whom he settled, whether of the York, the
Adams, or the Lancaster district, required him, at whatever
sacrifice of prejudice on their part or of pecuniary interest on
his, to represent them in the legislatures of the State and
nation, and conventions summoned for the consideration of
the gravest topics; and, above all, by the commanding influence he exercised in every deliberative assembly of which he
was a member.
I heard a prominent member of the 38th Congress say of
Mr. Stevens: " Let him go in what direction he may, it is
always to the extreme;" implying waywardness and inconsistency, and, in so far, misjudging him. He never labored in
adverse directions. He sometimes accepted and supported
propositions which were in general accord with his views, but
to which he could not yield unqualified assent. He did this,
as he once said, " because Congress is composed of men, and
not of angels." He was incapable of acting inconsistently
upon measures involving general principles. Against this
reproach he was almost divinely panoplied. He had in his
boyhood dreamed of a republic broader, grander, and more
beneficent than the republic of Plato or the Utopia of Sir
Thomas More-a republic in which every citizen might know
the chastening influence of the family relations and the joys
of home and pursue the secrets of science and the pleasures
of literature; and believing, as he continued to do, in the progress of our race and the perfectibility of our institutions,
his public life was devoted to the realization of this, his boyhood's beautiful dream. When he dedicated himself to this
work, in which he never faltered, the southern boundary of
our country was near the 31st degree of latitude, and the
course of the Mississippi defined its western limits; but he




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     25
believed that the inspiring truths expressed in the Declaration
of Independence, and embodied in our State and federal constitutions, would regenerate all the governments on the
continent.
At the time of his birth the mouth of the Mississippi and
the shores of the Gulf of Mexico were under the dominion of
foreign potentates. He was, however, old enough to understand and remember the discussion that attended our first
acquisition of territory-the Louisiana purchase-which extended from the Gulf along the west bank of the Mississippi
to the Lake of the Woods; and though sometimes disapproving
of the means by which they were gained, he welcomed each of
the several acquisitions of territory by which our country has
come to stretch from ocean to ocean, to have a longer
and more valuable coast line on the Pacific than any other
nation, and to encircle the Gulf from Cape Sable to the Rio
Grande. Every successive acquisition confirmed his faith and
nerved his purpose.
The theory of Mr. Stevens's ideal republic awarded home
and culture to each industrious citizen. With this generous
theory slavery was incompatible, and he was, consequently,
the sworn and unrelenting foe of that accursed institution. He
did not wage war upon slavery because he envied the wealth
and power of the master. He was wont to thank God for
having blessed his youth with poverty, and was ever ready to
confront the haughty master because his great heart sympathized with the outraged and helpless slave.
The severance of the Union would have dispelled Mr.
Stevens's faith in the ultimate redemption of the laboring
people of the world from the ignorance and ill-paid toil to
which they have ever been subjected. The breaking out of the
slaveholders' rebellion seemed to rejuvenate him and inspire
him with superhuman strength. He was always in his seat;




26        REMARKS BY MR. KELLEY ON THE
and when sessions were so far protracted, as they sometimes
were during the 37th, 38th, and 39th Congresses, that daylight
came and dimmed the artificial light in this hall, the old man's
pungent witticisms would rouse many of the younger members
from drowsiness and prostration. To maintain the Union he
would have exhausted the country's resources in men and
materials of war; and when the rebellion had been crushed he
proposed measures that, had they been adopted, would have
eradicated its cause and rendered its recurrence impossible.
He did not propose confiscation as a punishment to those
whose great crime merited it. He was incapable of a vindictive act. He regarded the system of land monopoly, which
had prevailed in the south, as the essential support of slavery,
and he would obliterate it. He knew that the rebel leaders
were conquered but not subdued, and appreciating the power
they derived from the ownership of the land on which the
body of the people were to labor and live, he would deprive
them of that power. He knew that the labor of the slave had
given the land of the south its value, and he would reward the
freedman by giving him a homestead as a slight return for the
unrequited work he had done while a slave. He knew that
the loyal soldier had saved the south to the Union and
freedom, and he would invite him to dwell under his own vine
in its midst, and by his counsels assist in its future government.
He knew that a landed aristocracy and a landless class are
alike dangerous in a republic, and by a single act of justice
he would abolish both. Such were the humane considerations
which prompted him to propose and support measures which
the weak and time-serving denounced as harsh and vindictive.
The system of labor for wages, as it is exemplified in Great
Britain and on the Continent, is as inconsistent with his ideal
republic as slavery. Contemplating the ever-increasing volume of pauperism in the British islands, and the unnatural




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     27
and excessive toil demanded from women in the coal mines
of England and Belgium, and from tender children of agricultural laborers in the fen-gangs of England, his emotions
might have been expressed in the indignant exclamation of
the Abbe de la Mennais, " But for labor at wages there is no
name out of hell." That is not the freedom of which he had
dreamed, which deprives childhood of its buoyancy, home of
its charms, and supplants intelligent and sturdy youth by
ignorance and premature decrepitude or binds the families of
laborious artisans to a given locality by their interest in the
parish poor rates, or such inadequate wages as preclude the
possibility of saving a sum sufficient for their own transportation to better markets for their labor.
Mr. Stevens always believed that fidelity to republican
principles required government to protect those whose toil is
the source of all prosperity against the wrongs and woes
endured by the laboring people of countries in which social
distinctions are recognized by law, and ancient evils are
regarded as vested rights; and with what steadiness and
power he endeavored to protect the wages of the American
workman, by the imposition of adequate duties on the productions of the under-paid laborers of Europe, every gentleman on this floor knows. But he was no foe to commerce.
In the republic his youthful imagination pictured nature lent
all her aids to the people. The fields gave forth rich harvests; the mines yielded their precious or useful stores; and
each mountain stream, as it sped its way to the sea, lightened
the burden of man by moving machinery which he guided
without exhausting labor. The consumer and the producer
were neighbors, the most perfect means of transportation
facilitated exchanges of commodities, and the taxes imposed
by middle men and the many agents required by trade with
distant nations were saved to the producer.




28        REMARKS BY MR. KELLEY ON THE
Whether in the legislature of Pennsylvania or the Congress
of the United States, no project for the development of latent
resources or improved transportation that came within his
conception of constitutional limits ever failed for the want of
his support. In view of our almost limitless range of climate
and soil, and boundless and diversified agricultural and mineral resources, he regarded our country as sufficient not only
for its present population, but for hundreds of millions of people in the enjoyment of every material comfort and the refinements of a better than Augustan age. Regarding our country
as the refuge of all who could flee from the inequalities of
other lands, and the intelligence of the people as essential to
the perpetuity of our institutions, he held it to be the primary
duty of the State to insure the proficiency of every child in
"orthography, reading, writing, grammar, and arithmetic,
which, by the experience of the world, are pronounced to
be the rudimental branches of all knowledge." He would
not consent to withhold the privileges of an elector from a
man because he was illiterate, and thus punish him because
the State had not done its duty by him in childhood; but he
proposed that the government should provide school-houses,
teachers, and other appliances for the education of all children, and then further enact " that no father or guardian shall
be permitted to vote at any election for any public officer
who shall not have caused at least one-half of the number
of his children or wards, between the ages of five and fifteen
years, or if he have but one, that one, to attend school during
at least eight months within each of the years they are entitled to attend school."
To those who believe that the thing that has been is the
the thing that shall be forever, and that that youthful giant,
the American Republic, shall never escape from the leadingstrings in which he has consented to be held by those bed-rid



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     29
den hags, the monarchies of Europe, these theories of Mr.
Stevens, doubtless, sound like the ravings of one bereft of reason. But those who know the attractive influence of power,
and that the theatre of our action is a virgin continent, with
lakes, rivers, and coast lines capable of accommodating in our
internal or domestic commerce a commercial marine far
greater than that which now carries the commerce of the
world, will regard them as the sure prophesy of the future
that is before us. Mr. Stevens believed in the possibility of
the commercial independence of the United States. He also
knew that when that should be achieved the people could
bring their domestic relations into harmony with the fundamental ideas of their republican government. Wise men will
not think of him as a visionary because he anticipated coming
events and proposed beneficent changes before the public
mind was ripe for their reception. A great truth bravely
uttered is never inopportune. Nor do time and age blunt the
aptness of such utterances; and the advanced propositions
and fervid words with which Thaddeus Stevens so often
stirred our blood and swayed our judgment will shape the
future of the country. When the age is riper other lips will
echo them with persuasive and conclusive force. Then the
American people, instead of asking the little nationalities of
Europe what they may do, will dictate the internal policy
those nations must adopt on pain of seeing their most valuable
citizens, allured by our happier condition, come to swell the
power and grandeur of the great republic. Then will his
dream be fulfilled, and then will the world behold the fitting
monument of Pennsylvania's greatest statesman, Thaddeus
Stevens.




30         REMARKS BY MR. WOOD ON THE
Remarks by Mr. Wood.
Mr. SPEAKER, I feel no embarrassment in rising to unite
my voice with those who thus appropriately pay this last
public tribute of respect to the memory of our late distinguished associate. The wide divergence in opinion between
us on the leading questions of the times cannot deter me from
the expression of a just homage to his character as a man,
whether considered as a citizen or as a statesman.
As when living we recognized him as one of the foremost
intellects in this House, so now, that being dead, let us forget
the controversies which divided us and remember only the
higher qualities and personal attributes which have at all
times commanded our attention.
The great poet has said:
" The evil that men do lives after them:
The good is oft interred with their bones."
Would that the reverse of this was true, so that the ill
which men do should be buried with their bones, that the
good, and the good only, will live after them.
Mr. Speaker, this is, indeed, an interesting occasion, not
only in the performance of these rites and the personal
remembrances it recalls, but in the contemplations and reflections it involuntarily forces upon the mind. It has been said
that the disappointments in life are many and the successes
tragically few. While this may apply to men in the aggregate, history and observation teach that the special man may
make conquests from   time, surmounting difficulties, and
attain the objects of his ambition. The sorrows, the trials,
and tribulations of the general man result from the confidence reposed in and the deferred hopes of the eternal to-morrow; while the triumphs of the special man may infallibly be
traced to his earnest action in the ever-living present-in the
realities of to-day! Time is always capricious and often




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     31
deceitful! To the youthful it is full of hope and golden
promise. In the aged it fosters those fond anticipations, but
prolongs their realization; and while human expectation is
most sanguine, it coquets with our hopes, and, it may be, flits
from our grasp.
The force and reason of these remarks are happily illustrated
by the life and example of that exalted citizen whose memory
we now celebrate, to whose intellect and personal worth we
now pay homage. With him there was no to-morrow in life.
He was truthful to his instincts, to his nature, and his public
career displayed the increasing activity of an ever-present
to-day.
Mr. Stevens was a man of rare natural mental power, which,
together with much self-reliance and entire independence of
character, rendered him at once the formidable and successful
leader. He relied upon these qualities more than upon the
common resources of inferior men who yield to the errors and
prejudices of the times rather than suffer defeat. Himself a
man of conviction, but not of policy, he despised those who
sacrificed the former to the latter.
A bold thinker, and yet bolder actor, he had no patience
with those who have no higher idea of the noble profession of
politics than to obtain success by any means and at every
hazard. Of a self-reliant temperament, he would not conform
to the prevailing conventionalism of the day. He was a candid
man. Whatever mistakes of judgment the world may attribute
to him, they were not assumed for a purpose. Caring little
for popular favor or prejudice, he pursued the even tenor of
his way, enforcing the doctrines he advocated with an earnestness and power which no man could have done who did not
himself earnestly and honestly believe them to be right. He
utterly contemned deception and hypocrisy. Those of us who
served with him on committees, and who were brought into




32       REMARKS OF MR. BROOMALL ON THE
requent personal intercourse with him, will bear testimony to
the frankness and manliness of his bearing. Though tenacious
in adhering to his own view, he granted thelargest indulgence
to the views of others in the discussions in this House.
Well, indeed, may it be said of him that he was a special man,
an embodiment of original personal individuality. Whether
his influence was exercised for the good of his country this is
not the occasion to discuss, nor can it be supposed that the
present moment can well decide. Identified with the present
revolutionary era, in which he was one of the chief revolutionists and most prominent leaders, time, and time only, can
determine whether the talents and characteristics to which I
have referred were of injury or benefit to his country. In my
judgment, this generation will not survive their unfortunate
influence. Be that as it may, he is gone-and gone forever.
He has passed to
"The undiscover'd country, from whose bourne
No traveller returns."
That he has left his impress upon the present page of history
none can dispute; that he possessed manymanly qualities none
can deny; that he was a thoroughly honest, as well as a truly
great man, all will admit. Let us pass him to the grave as we
hope others will pass ourselves-forgettingthe frailtiesincident
to our natures, and which appear to be inseparably connected
with our being.
Remarks by Mr. Broomall.
Mr. SPEAKER: Few statesmen of any country have maintained throughout a long public life the steadfast adherence
to principles laid down in early manhood which characterized
Thaddeus Stevens. Universal education, equality of human
rights, the elevation of the weak, the poor, and the oppressed
were not more ardent aims and objects to him when he first




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     33
espoused the cause of human progress than when three-quarters of a century had rendered his infirm body an ill match
for his still young and vigorous mind.
Too frequently in men of all stations the generous impulses
and noble sentiments of youth give place, with advancing
years and prosperity, to that fossil petrefaction of humanity
called conservatism, which is nothing more than the want of
ability to see the line of progress marked out by the hand of
Omnipotence and the want of energy to follow it. But this
dry rot of the soul never tainted Thaddeus Stevens. One of
the last acts of his old age was the preparation of a plan for
thorough and universal education in the District of Columbia,
and among the first of his early manhood was the patronage,
almost the parentage, of the common school system of Pennsylvania. Those who have heard him within a year, and
when he required support to stand, denounce, as we know
how he could denounce, the bare suggestion of reconstructing
the south without providing for universal suffrage, are irresistibly carried back to the period long years before when he
stood up, almost alone, in the constitutional convention of his
adopted State, the advocate of the cause of self-government
against those who found it prudent silently to outvote the
man they did not dare to answer. In contrasting the two
pictures the mind is led to believe and to wonder that in the
lapse of thirty years the man had grown no older.
His conduct in that convention is a lesson to the young
statesmen of his country. The cause of universal suffrage
which he espoused was then an unpopular one, and there
seemed little prospect of its ever being otherwise. The slaveholders of the south had long seen that if the voice of the
black man could be heard in the north their hold upon their
human chattels would in time become insecure. With their
usual sagacity they had induced northern politicians by flattery
3




34       REMARKS OF MR. BROOMALL ON THE
and patronage to enter their services as voluntary bondsmen.
These bondsmen had created a public sentiment in the north
which assigned to the black man a condition something
between man and brute, or rather a condition sometimes the
one and sometimes the other, as best suited their southern
masters: man as an element of political power in his owner,
man for the purposes of accountability and punishment, brute
for all other purposes.
When the Pennsylvania convention of 1838 sat, this public
sentiment was at its height, and that body was made up, to a
large extent, of these voluntary bondsmen. True to their
vassalage they hastened to record their servility to the slave
power by silencing, as they believed forever, the voice and the
vote of the black man in the councils of the State. They
thought it safe to do this. The victims were the few, the poor,
and the powerless. It was in vain that Stevens and those
who felt with him protested against the shame and the wrong.
The deed was done. Thousands of American citizens were
disfranchised; and that, too, upon the spot where Penn, a
century and a half before, had founded the purest system of
self-government the world up to that time had ever witnessed;
upon the spot where the fathers of the revolution sixty years
before had declared that all men are born free and equal, and
had bound themselves by the most solemn obligation to write
that holy sentence upon American annals with their blood.
But when the work of the convention was complete, and the
organic law came to be signed by the members, he who had
done so much to make it in other respects what it is, refused
to give it the sanction of his name, and to this day the constitution of 1838 remains in the archives of Pennsylvania with
one vacant seal.
Yet the man whose name should be there lived to aid in
abolishing the institution in whose interests Pennsylvania had




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     35
sacrificed her honor, and to see universal suffrage made the
cardinal principle of American institutions. That missing
name will be remembered with gratitude when the names and
principles of those who so degraded their State have long been
consigned to merited oblivion. Let the future statesmen of
America learn that it is never safe to do wrong. Retributive
justice is sometimes slow, but it is always sure.
The memory of Thaddeus Stevens needs no monument. The
imprint of his mind is upon the history of his country, and is
more ineffaceable there than would be the image of his body
upon marble. He was among the first to see that the contest
into which we were forced in 1861 was war, not mere insurrection to be suppressed in sixty days, and that it must end
in victory upon one side or the other with all its rights and
disabilities. \When that contest was at last over he was among
the first to see that all civil relations pre-existing between the
victors and the vanquished had ceased to be, leaving the latter
wholly without civil government. Brushing away the ingenious sophistries with which a faithless administration sought
to bewilder the public mind in the interests of a fallen institution, he set about the work of reconstructing the conquered
country in the interests of loyalty, progress, and the rights of
man. To him more than to any other single individual is
attributable the fact that eight States of the Union have been
organized upon the basis of universal suffrage and three more
are about to be. As long as self-goverement shall remain a
principle dear to the American heart, Thaddeus Stevens will
be remembered as its great champion. He needs no monument, yet Pennsylvania owes a tribute to her departed statesman. The time will come, anVl that speedily, when she will
purge her organic law of all traces of the unhallowed institution, all evidences of her former vassalage. From a human
stand-point it would seem that Thaddeus Stevens should have




36          REMARKS OF MR. ASHLEY ON THE
witnessed that event; but it suited the purposes of an Inscrutable Power to decree otherwise. Let his beloved State do for him
what he did not live to do for himself. When that day comes
let the Governor of Pennsylvania, by virtue of a solemn act of
her legislature, on some day sacred to the cause of humanity,
in the presence of all that is great and good within her borders,
take from her archives the constitution of 1838, and reverently,
with humiliation for the past and hope for the future, blot out
forever the discrimination between man and man which God
never made, and opposite the vacant seal write the name of
Thaddeus Stevens. Then will be accomplished what he lived
for. Then will Pennsylvania be worthy to account him among
the sons she has loved, honored, and mourned.
I cannot conclude the few remarks I arose to offer better than
by quoting the language of my deceased colleague himself, in
this hall, upon the announcement of the death of Mr. Noell,
of Missouri, whom he knew and with whom he sympathized:
Other men more eloquent than he may have been called to the bar ofjudgment,
but no man ever appeared before that dread tribunal with more numerous and
ardent advocates. His advocates were the oppressed of every nation, the
crushed of the satanic institution of slavery.
Who would not rather take his chance in the great day of accounts, before
that Judge who is the acknowledged Father of all men, than the chance of
ordained hypocrites, miserable wretches who, professing to hold a commission
from on high, impiously proclaim slavery a divine institution?
Remarks by Mr. Ashley.
Mr. SPEAKER: In the death of Thaddeus Stevens this House
has lost one of its recognized leaders, and the nation one of
her most distinguished sons. In his departure we shall miss
another of the uncompromising heroes of our anti-slavery revolution. Elijah and Owen Lovejoy are entombed; the one at
Alton, and the other at Princeton, Illinois. Adams and Pierpont sleep beneath the soil of their native Massachusetts;




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     37
Theodore Parker at Florence, in Italy; William Leggett at
New Rochelle, New York; Nathaniel P. Rogers by his native
Merrimac; Gamaliel Bailey within the shadow of the national
Capitol; Giddings and Morris and Lewis in Ohio; James G.
Birney in New Jersey; David Wilmot and James Mott in
Pennsylvania; John Brown at North Elba, New York; and
there are others whose lives were as heroic and beautiful and
unselfish, whose names I do not now recall. To these must
be added more than 300,000, the fallen heroes and martyrs of
our liberating army, who sleep on every national battle-field
from theheights of Gettysburg to the banks of the Rio Grande.
Pre-eminent among all this invincible army of heroes, prophets,
and martyrs is Abraham Lincoln,
The generous, merciful, and just.
With this grand army of unselfish patriots, his contemporaries and colaborers, we have laid down to rest all that is mortal
of our friend in the bosom of his beloved Pennsylvania.
The benediction of millions followed him to his tomb, and
to-day in the free home of every black man, and of all men
who love liberty, there is sincere sorrow and mourning.
Never again in these council halls will he deliberate with
the people's representatives, nor awaken the nation from its
lethargy by his genius and wonderful power.
The honorable gentleman whom   his constituents have
elected to succeed him on this floor, and those who have preceded me, have spoken so fully of his early life, his heroic
struggles, and his personal history, that I need not add a single
word.
Through some of the most eventful years in our history I
have been intimately associated with him on this floor. During
all that time, which included the darkest hours in the nation's
life-hours which tested the constancy and courage of menhe bore himself with such unquestioned fidelity to the cause




38           REMARKS OF MR. ASHLEY           ON  THE
of human freedom as to command even the respect of political
opponents and the cordial endorsement of all liberty-loving men.
As we engage in the memorial services of this hour, and
bear him again in our hearts from this Capitol and the scenes
of his struggles and wonderful triumphs, let the nation stand
with uncovered head and its bells peal forth the solemn sound
of an anthem more appropriate than any words of mine:
Toll! Toll! Toll!
All mortal life must end.
Toll! Toll! Toll!
Weep for the nation's friend.
Oh! the land he loved will miss him,
Miss him in its hour of need;
Mourns the nation for the nation,
Till its tear-drops inward bleed.
Let bands of mourning drape the homestead,
And the sacred house of prayer;
Let mourning folds lay black and heavy
On true bosoms everywhere!
Toll! Toll! Toll!
Never again-no moreComes back to earth the life that goes
Hence to the Eden shore!
Let him rest! it is not often
That his soul hath known repose.
Let him rest!-they rest but seldom
Whose successes challenge foes.
He was weary, worn with watching,
His life-crown of power hath pressed
Oft on temples sadly achingHe was weary: let him rest!
Toll, bells at the Capitol,
Bells of the land, toll!
Sob out your grief with brazen lungs,
Toll! Toll! Toll!
Mr. Speaker, though death come never so often, he casts at
the portals of the tomb shadows ever new and mysterious, and
ever and always hath for the living his admonitions and his
lessons.
By the side of the grave we all realize that there are voices
whispering to us out of the shadowy silence beyond the river.




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      39
In such an hour we see with the natural eye " as through a
glass, darkly," but we have the promise that if faithful we
shall see " face to face." As there is no race of men without
the idea of a God and a future life, so in the presence of death
it is natural for all to pause and think of the life beyond.
What is to be the destiny of our friend in " that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns," it is
wisely not given us to know. Let us hope that he has gone
up into the presence of the God of nations and of men bearing
in his hands some of the broken fetters which have fallen from
the limbs of our 4,000,000 emancipated bondsmen.  These
shall testify of his fidelity to justice and to his love of the
human race.
In that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be
revealed, I trust it may be said to him by the Father of all,
" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me." And that it will be
said I may without presumption hope, for whatever may be
the theories of men, whatever our hope for ourselves or for
others in the life which never dies, let us trust that better than
all our faiths, and more comprehensive than our grandest conceptions, an all-wise Creator has ordained a plan as broad as
the universe, and as just as it is infinite, which will compensate
in the future life every soul which has struggled and suffered
for mankind in this.
Mr. Speaker, there are moments in the experiences of all
when we cannot convey to other hearts the emotions of our
own. To me such a moment is the present. So many reminiscences are crowding upon me, and so many wonderful
scenes in which our departed friend was an actor are passing
as a panorama before me, that I feel how short I should come
of doing them or him justice were I to dwell upon them. No
man who loves his country and passed through those scenes




40        REMARKS OF MR. ASHLEY ON THE
in these halls can ever forget them. When I first entered
this House, ten years ago, Mr. Stevens was one of the first to
take me by the hand and welcome me. From that day until
the day of his death he was my friend, and often my
adviser and counsellor. However often I may have differed
with him-as I often did-there was one question about
which we never differed: the question of the necessity of the
immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery. Of the
practicability and justice of destroying slavery he never
doubted. I am thankful that he was spared to witness the
end of that indescribable villainy. I rejoice to know that as
the gates of the Eternal World opened up before him he was
permitted to look back upon the land he loved and nowhere
behold the footprints of a single slave. Because of his unwavering fidelity to the poor bondsmen, who, in the presence of
a nation of oppressors, were manacled and powerless and
dumb, I came to venerate him; and because I venerated him
I come to-day to cast a garland upon his tomb. In this self
ish world there is nothing which so strongly enlists my sympathies and so much commands my admiration as a heroic
and unselfish life spent in the interests of mankind. To me
it is the most touching and beautiful of all human struggles.
In espousing the cause of the slave, more than forty years
ago, Mr. Stevens voluntarily accepted social and political
ostracism, and patiently endured the persecutions of ignorant
and maddened men, for whose highest good he was laboring.
He did this without fee or hope of political reward, simply
because he believed it to be right; and because he was right
we shall some day see the children of the men who stoned
him gladly join hands with the liberated slave in bearing
back the stones, in the shape of blocks of whitest marble,
with which to build his monument.
I do not assume to write his epitaph. In a speech deliv



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.               41
ered in this House January 13, 1865, he said, (I read from
volume 54 of the Globe, page 266:)
I will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written thus: " Here lies one
who never rose to any eminence, and who only courted the low ambition
to have it said that he had striven to ameliorate the condition of the poor,
the lowly, the downtrodden of every race and language and color."
The grand blows which he struck in his great battle for
liberty and justice will long survive him and leave their
impress upon all lands, strengthening the purpose of the toiling and struggling millions of earth. His successful lifebattle should teach us the value and self-sustaining power of
a life consecrated to the best interests of his country and his
fellow-men.
In this impressive hour, while reviewing firs heroic andT
unselfish acts, let us renew our vows of fidelity to the great
principles which he so long, so ably, and so faithfully maintained. Let us here, and now, pledge our lives anew to the
cause of human liberty and human progress, resolving that
no obstacle nor selfish interest shall cause us to falter, so that
when we descend to the tomb the benedictions of mankind
shall bless us, as they now bless him for whom we mourn,
and it shall be said of us as it is now said of him:
He hath not lived in vain.
After a long and stormy battle, with a record which the
friends of freedom will ever cherish, full of years and crowned
with honors, he" Has gone from this strange world of ours,
No more to gather its thorns with its flowers;
No more to linger where sunbeams must fade;
Where, on all beauty, death's fingers are laid.
Weary with mingling life's bitter and sweet;
Weary with parting and never to meet.
Weary with sowing and never to reap;
Weary with labor and welcoming sleep.
In Christ may he rest," from sorrow and sin
Happy, where earth's conflicts enter not in.




42         REMARKS OF MR. MILLER ON THE
Remarks by Mr. Miller.
Mr. SPEAKER: During the recess of Congress my venerable
colleague, Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, of the ninth district, passed
from the turmoils of life to the peace and quiet of the tomb.
He was participating with us in legislation when we adjourned
on the 27th of July last, and although he was enfeebled in
bodily health, I joined with many others in an earnest hope
that he would be spared to meet with us when we again
assembled here for the transaction of business. The realization of that hope has not been vouchsafed to us. On the 12th
of August last, at one o'clock a. m., at his temporary residence
within a short distance from the Capitol, he died.
Thaddeus Stevens was born on the 4th of April, 1792, in the
town of Danville, Caledonia county, Vermont. The pecuniary
circumstances of his parents being limited, they were unable
to furnish means for his education. Animated with a purpose
to succeed, through his own perseverance and energy he was
successful in acquiring a liberal education. Upon the completion of his collegiate course he bid adieu to his native State
and home, and in the year 1814, at the age of 22, reached the
borough of York, Pennsylvania. Teaching school for a livelihood, and studying law in the spare hours that intervened,
he gradually prepared himself for the stern intellectual conflicts of his after life. He was admitted to the bar in Adams
county, and soon rose to the head of his profession.
His oratorical powers, general information, and keenness
of wit gained for him a State-wide celebrity. As an advocate
h-e was quick and powerful. Layinghold -of the strong points
in a gaehe presented them in a succinct and comprehensive
manner. A large and lucrative professional practice flowed in
upon him, and almost at the outset he displayed that charity
and generosity of his nature which distinguished his entire




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     43
life. He was always an ardent friend of public improvement
and universal education, a bitter opponent to human slavery
and oppression. In 1833 he became a candidate for the State
legislature, and was elected and re-elected almost without
opposition up to 1836, when he was chosen a member of the
convention to revise the constitution of the State. During
his services in the legislature and constitutional convention
the attention of the country was attracted to his peculiar opinions, capacities, and character. With a cultured mind, formidable in debate and fearless in expression, he immediately
became a leader and foremost in every movement that contemplated the improvement of the people and of his adopted
State. In the convention for the amendment of the State
constitution he was a violent opponent to the insertion of the
word " white" as a qualification of voters, and opened upon its
advocates all the invective of his ardent nature. But the
crowning glory of his life is the noble disinterestedness, the
manly courage, and the indomitable will displayed and exercised in the advocacy of the common-school system of Pennsylvania. To his tireless efforts are the people of his adopted
State indebted for the incalculable blessing of free schools.
Seconded in his efforts by the generous assistance of Governor
George Wolf, he succeeded in having the school law passed,
and when ignorance and prejudice sought and urged its repeal
he again stood up in its defence. In a speech which abashed
his opponents, and which the young of to-day still read with
enthusiasm, he portrayed in a glowing light the grandeur of
the system, and the importance of mental culture in order to
sustain a republican form of government. To-day its benefits
are seen and acknowledged. To-day the ostentatious rich and
the humble poor drink at its fountain. To-day, standing by
the tomb of its originator, thousands pay tribute to his memory
and worth.




44         REMARKS OF MR. MILLER ON THE
Mr. Stevens was prominent in the administration of Governor Ritner, and by him appointed canal commissioner. He
subsequently realized that his undivided attention to politics
had caused him to neglect his private affairs, and especially
his large furnace in Adams county. He found himself involved
in debts, said to exceed $200,000, caused mainly by his partner
in the iron business. His ardent desire was to liquidate that
indebtedness. The practice of the law at the Gettysburg bar
offered little prospect for paying so large a sum, consequently
he concluded to remove to a more extensive field, and finally
selected Lancaster as his future abode. His extensive legal
acquirements and superior abilities secured for him'a large
and lucrative practice at his new home, which in a few years
enabled him to liquidate his entire indebtedness. Standing
at the head of his profession, his many generous traits, political tact, and superiority won the confidence and respect of
his fellow-citizens. In 1848 he was nominated and elected to
the 31st Congress, and in 1850 was re-elected to the 32d Congress. At the expiration of his second term he again devoted
his attention to the pursuits of his profession. He was afterward elected to the 37th, 38th, 39th, and 40th Congresses.
Being a member of Congress during the most critical period
of the nation's life, he displayed superior statesmanship and
unflinching patriotism. Through all this stormy period his
voice rang clear and loud, amid the paeans of victory and the
glooms of national disaster, for the triumph of liberty and the
permanency of the republic.
Believing in the justness of our cause, fully impressed with
the importance of our success, he advanced with a majestic
tread toward the realization of his hopes. He lived to see
the federal authority vindicated, rebellion crushed, and the
constitutional eradication of that barbaric institution against
which for more than half a century he waged his grand but




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.       45
merciless crusade. Then, the nation's power vindicated, its
life rescued, its people freed, and its honor maintained, standing in the midst of his intellectual and political triumphs,
with his fame national, and his name immortal, death intervened and drew the curtain over the drama of his long and
eminently useful life. We shall never forget the meteoric
displays of his ponderous logic, his burning rhetoric, his withering sarcasm. They are a part of the history and glory of
the American Congress., Sleeping in his honored grave in
his adopted State, resting from earthly care and toils, the melody of his grand life still is sounding and rolling like the
" heavings of the sea."  His name, interwoven and commingled with the philosophy of our most momentous history,
will flow without interruption down the lapse of ages, the
accompaniment of the great drama of human progress. His
example, so potent and talismanic in the furtherance of philanthropy, will grow brighter and brighter as time advances
and bravery is honored. He passed away with the calm
composure of an old hero of romance "who had come into the
world with the birthright of liberty for the peoples." He
died nobly, as he had nobly lived, leaving his example as a
guiding-star to the world.
"Fleet foot on the correi,
Sage counsel in cumber,
Red hand in the foray,
How sound is thy slumber!
Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubble on the fountain,
Thou art gone, and forever!"




46         REMARKS OF MR. ORTH ON THE
Remarks by Mr. Orth.
Mr. SPEAKER: The grave has closed over the earthly remains of one of freedom's most ardent and eloquent advocates.
The voice once so familiar in these halls is hushed in death;
its sound no longer greets our ears, but its bold and fervid
enunciations will never be forgotten.
That heroic devotion to truth and justice, to equality and
fraternity, we so often admired, and which is exemplified by
countless acts and incidents extending through years and
years of an active existence, is a most worthy example for all
good men.
The principles which he professed and the work which he
performed, professions and practice being in perfect harmony,
will in all future time and in all nations render the name of
Stevens a synonym for human liberty.
Living in an age when opportunities for the accomplishment of great deeds abounded, he seized upon and improved
these opportunities. His mind grasped the true philosophy
of events, and his practical common sense molded them into
forms of enduring usefulness. Living not unto himself, his
life has not been in vain, and the impress of his genius upon
the age in which he lived will be as permanent as his fame.
The early history of Thaddeus Stevens is similar to that of
many of our ablest and most prominent public men. His parents were in indigent circumstances, and hence in his youth
he was thrown upon his own resources, and taught those
lessons of self-reliance which proved so valuable to him
and to his country. He was born in the State of Vermont in
1792, and spent the days of his youth and early manhood
among her people, whose thrift, energy, and frugality, long
since proverbial, made a lasting impression upon his nature.
He entered the academy of Peacham, and, by teaching during




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      47
the vacations of school, he procured the means by which he
was enabled to prepare himself to enter upon a collegiate
course of studies at Dartmouth College, where, in due time, he
graduated with distinction.
He often referred, with evident gratification, to his academic days at Peacham, and evinced his attachment for the old
academy by frequent donations of books to its library, as also
by a valuable bequest in his last will and testament./ Leaving
his New England home, he selected Pennsylvania as his
future place of residence, locating temporarily in the town of
York, where he engaged in teaching school while prosecuting
his legal studies. He was admitted to the bar in 1817, and immediately located in Gettysburg, where he continued to practice his profession with assiduity and marked success for the
ensuing twenty-five years. His studious habits, his classic
education, his attention to business, and his eloquence and
ability soon placed him and kept him at the head of his profession, at a time, too, when he was brought into frequent contact with some of the best legal talent of the State. His bearing in the presence of the court and bar was always dignified
and courteous; his cases were thoroughly digested and understood, and while he guarded carefully their weak points he
readily perceived and took advantage of those of his adversary.
In the examination of witnesses he was most successful, his
pleasing and insinuating address gaining the confidence of
the witness and eliciting a truthful recital of the facts, while
his intimate knowledge of human nature enabled him at a
glance to detect prevarication or dissimulation; and when
detected he made the witness writhe under his unmerciful
cross-examination.
He was invincible in the presentation of his facts, the application of the law to the testimony, and in the influence of his
eloquence over the hearts and minds of the jurors.




48          REMARKS OF MR. ORTH ON THE
Milton, one of his favorite authors, says:
True eloquence I find to be none but serious and hearty love of truth.
This love of truth was one of the strongest elements in
the character of Mr. Stevens, and enabled him so successfully
to carry conviction to his hearers. He never practiced the
arts of dissimulation, not merely because he was ignorant of
their uses, but for the reason that his very nature, whose impulses he followed, led him to deal with perfect frankness and
candor on every occasion.
He was equally candid with friend and foe, and nothing
could induce him to betray the one or clandestinely injure the
other. This virtue he practiced in the privacy of social life.
at the bar, in his struggles on the political rostrum, and in the
discharge of his severer and more exalted duties in the halls
of legislation, and this, more than anything else, formed and
increased the attachment of his friends and challenged the
respect of his enemies. Did I say his enemies  Justice to
his memory requires that I should rather use the words "political adversaries," for it is conceded by all who knew him that
no man ever passed through such fierce and embittered contests, running through an active period of half a century, with
so few personal enemies during his stay on earth, and no animosities extending beyond the grave. His love of truth made
him an earnest man, acting upon the principle that whatever
was worth doing at all was worth doing well. He never
espoused a cause until he was satisfied of its merits and justice,
and then brought to its advocacy all the strength and vigor
of a richly cultivated intellect.
The cause of education always received his hearty support.
To elevate mankind, to improve their moral, intellectual, and
physical condition; in a word, to leave the world better than
he found it, was with him a duty which he never neglected.
At the time of his first election to the legislature of Penn



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.           49
sylvania, that State had taken no steps toward the organization of a system of general education. The education of her
children had been left to private or individual enterprise, or to
the voluntary effort of the people in each particular neighborhood. The utter inefficiency of these spasmodic and limited
efforts to educate the youth of the State, or to diffuse intelligence among the people, was apparent to all reflecting persons,
but it belonged to Stevens not only to make the inefficiency
glaringly manifest, but to propose and carry into effect a
proper remedy for the evil. He believed with Aristotle:
That the education of youth ought to form the principal part of the legislators' attention cannot be a doubt, since education first molds and afterwards
sustains the various modes of government. The better and more perfect the
systems of education the better and more perfect the plan of government it is
intended to introduce and uphold. In this important object fellow-citizens-are
all equally and deeply concerned; and as they ale all united in one common
work for one common purpose, their education ought to be regulated by the.
general consent, and not abandoned to the blind decision of chance or to idle
caprice.
The innovator upon immemorial usage is never a welcome
visitor. He meets with obstacles at the threslold of his operations, and difficulties and impediments beset him at every step
in his progress.
That education should be universal; that the indigent orphan
should have the same opportunity for the acquisition of knowledge with the son of his wealthy neighbor; that the man of
affluence should be taxed to educate the child of penury, were
ideas at that time not only novel, but repugnant to the views
of a large majority of the people of Pennsylvania, and hence
the attempt to embody them in the form of legislative enactment met with stern and general opposition.
Mr. Stevens was not the man to be swerved from his purposes by adverse opinions; he met argument with argument,
conquered prejudice by the presentation of truth, and crushed
the demagogue with his withering and irresistible sarcasm.
4




50          REMARKS OF MR. ORTH ON THE
Amid difficulties which might have appalled more timid men,
he entered upon the advocacy of the principle that all children
are the wards of the commonwealth, and that it is alike the
interest and the duty of the commonwealth to provide for their
education.
The habits and opinions of a century do not readily yield to
the demands of advancing ideas, and for years this question
of universal education was the subject of animated and frequently of acrimonious discussion. It entered into the political contests of the day, and to such an extent was the oppo.
sition manifested that the motto "No free schools" was emblazoned on many banners, and became the shibboleth of partisan warfare. The contest was of long duration; but in all
contests with error truth will eventually triumph, and his
adopted State now justly exults in having, through his instrumentality, one of the best systems of popular education in
the Union.
Many of his hest friends at the time feared the effect of his
bold advocacy of so unpopular a measure on his future political prospects; but this was a consideration which never entered
his mind, and his course on this question, like all the great
acts of his life, exhibited the unselfishness of his nature.
In addressing his constituents at Gettysburg, while this
question was agitating the people, he said:
I shall feel myself abundantly rewarded for all my efforts in behalf of universal education if a single child educated by the commonwealth shall drop a
tear of gratitude on my grave,
During his residence at Gettysburg an academy or gymnasium was organized by a few of the prominent citizens, and
Stevens soon conceived the idea of building on this modest
foundation an institution of more enlarged pretension and of
much wider usefulness. Through his influence as a member
of the legislature a charter was obtained changing the gym



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     51
nasium to "The Pennsylvania College;" and what was then
remarkable, he also secured a donation from the State of an
amount of money sufficient to erect for the college its principal and most costly edifice. The consideration for this
munificent grant was the gratuitous education by the college of a specified number of indigent young men who might
from time to time avail themselves of this privilege, and
fhe further condition that the German language should constantly be taught in the institution, which conditions have
at all times been most faithfully performed. He was prominently and actively connected with the material and educational interests of the college, as a member of the board of
trustees, from its organization to the time of his death.
The trustees have recently erected an additional edifice to
be used in connection with the college, which, in honor of his
friendship for the institution and the interest he manifested
in its success, has most appropriately been named "Stevens's
Hall."
He was a zealous advocate of free speech, concurring fully
in the sentiment of Jefferson, that " error of opinion can safely
be tolerated so long as reason is left free to combat it."
To him the idea was most preposterous that there should be
any subject so sacred as to forbid examination or debate.
Whatever seeks to avoid scrutiny or shrinks from investigation is justly subject to suspicion, and that which cannot bear
the test of thorough discussion is in its nature inimical to republican institutions.
I remember an incident, which occurred during my schoolboy days at Gettysburg, at once illustrating his devotion to
the cause of free speech and his influence over the minds of
those with whom he was brought in contact.
In 1837 the anti-slavery question began to be agitated in
various parts of the country, and Professor Blanchard, of




52         REMARKS OF MR. ORTH ON THE
Cincinnati, one of the earliest advocates of emancipation,
visited Gettysburg for the purpose of delivering a series of
anti-slavery lectures. The very announcement of his purpose
created an intense excitement in the community, for Gettysburg is situated within a few miles of the old Mason and
Dixon's line, and an abolition lecturer would have been just
as welcome in Maryland as in the border counties of Pennsylvania.
The professor called his meeting and challenged discussion.
The challenge was accepted by two of the most prominent
citizens of the borough; but at the close of the debate resolutions were passed deprecating any further agitation on the
subject, and plainly intimating to the professor that his presence was no longer desirable in that community-a hint which
in those days was very generally understood.
Mr. Stevens had been absent on professional business; but
on his return, learning what had been done, another meeting
was called, and the court-house was soon filled with an angry
and excited audience. He requested some friend to move a
reconsideration of the resolutions, and then proceeded to address the meeting. Those who heard his effort on that occasion will never forget it. His manner was calm, deliberate,
impressive, and the excited crowd listened with earnest attention. To listen was to be convinced. Warming gradually
with his subject, he enforced the right of free discussion on
all subjects with a power and an eloquence which his audience had never heard. The sacred rights of American citizenship, secured by constitutional guarantees, were defended
by a master hand. In turn he used persuasion, entreaty, argument, wit, and sarcasm, until finally, turning to his old
neighbors and friends, he appealed to their sense of honor and
justice, to their individual reputation and the reputation of
their community, as deeply involved in their contemplated




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      53
proceedings; and when he took his seat the resolutions, which
had been previously adopted without a dissenting voice, found
no one bold enough to advocate their passage. On the contrary, a new set of resolutions were introduced and passed
with singular unanimity, affirming the right of free discus
sion, and inviting this early anti-slavery missionary to continue his labors.
The triumph was complete, not only for Mr. Stevens, but,
what was infinitely more gratifying to him, it was a triumph
of reason over prejudice; and, I need hardly add, it was the
last attempt to apply the " slaveholder's gag" in that portion
of our country.
He was the firm friend of the oppressed and the implacable
enemy of the oppressor. Like the great Wesley before him,
he regarded the institution of American slavery as "the sum
of all villanies," and suffered no occasion to pass unimproved
when in his power to expose its monstrosity or destroy its
vitality.
He was ever ready "to proclaim liberty throughout the land
and unto all the inhabitants thereof;" and when the institution began to crumble and fall, amid the crackling flames of
that rebellion which it had instigated, he felt like exclaiming,
with one of old:
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for
mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
While practicing his profession at Gettysburg, the cases of
fugitive slaves were quite numerous, and where arrests were
made which came to his knowledge, he invariably volunteered
his services to defend the alleged fugitive; and it is among
the reminiscences of the neighborhood that he seldom if ever
failed to secure the freedom of his clients.
On one occasion, while journeying to Baltimore for the purpose of replenishing his law library, he stopped for the night




54         REMARKS OF MR. ORTH ON THE
at a hotel in Maryland, kept by a man with whom he was well
acquainted. Soon after his arrival he discovered quite a commotion among the servants at the hotel, and a woman in tears
approached him and implored his assistance to prevent the
contemplated sale of her husband, who was a slave. On inquiring who and where her husband was, she replied, " Why,
Massa Stevens, he is the boy who took your horse to the stable." Stevens knew the " boy," and at once went to his owner
and expostulated with him in reference to his sale, and at
length offered to pay him $150, half the price, if he would
restore him to liberty. The landlord was inexorable, and Stevens, knowing the relations between the slave and his master,
replied, " Mr. -, are you not ashamed to sell your own flesh
and blood?" This stinging appeal only brought forth the
response, " I must have money, and John is cheap at $300."
Prompted by his generous nature Stevens purchased and
manumitted "John," and then retraced his steps to Gettysburg, without completing his journey to Baltimore. At that
time $300 was a large sum of money for one who had been
but a few years at the bar, and he postponed the replenishing of his law library to a more convenient season.
The word charity in its broadest sense fails to express the
boundless benevolence of his heart. He was never so happy
as on those occasions when he could assist the suffering,
relieve the distressed, and comfort the needy.
No one ever applied to him for assistance and was refused.
While struggling with poverty himself he gave the widow's
mite, and when afterward success attended him his bounties
were increased in corresponding ratios. He was not only " a
cheerful giver," but in these matters he was not willing that
the right hand should know what the left hand had done. He
preferred that his charities should descend quietly as the




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     55
dews of heaven, and, like the summer breeze, be felt but not
seen.
Like Cornelius, he "gave much alms to the people;" in
fact, he was the almoner of Gettysburg during his long residence there, with this wide difference, that he made distribution only of his own means, and never limited his benefactions to the tenth of his income.
When lurking treason, which had been nursed for years in
our country by men high in favor with the people and high in
official station, culminated in civil war, Stevens was a most
prominent and influential member of this House. His whole
life had witnessed his devotion to the country, to those fundamental principles proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, and his faith in their ultimate incorporation into the
national Constitution.
The first hostile gun of the rebellion convinced him that
the accursed institution of slavery would be overthrown, that
the Union would survive the shock of battles, and that the
conflict would evolve a purer republicanism and an advanced
spirit of humanity.
His efforts in and out of Congress were devoted to a vigorous prosecution of the war, to devising ways and means for
such prosecution, and to keep the public mind firmly fixed
upon the true nature of the assault upon the Union, and its
defence, and thus to have it prepared to accept those truths
which he foresaw would, inevitably result from a victory for
the Union.
The patient, self-sacrificing endurance of our people and
the valor of our soldiers at length crushed the rebellion, and
re-established, so far as military power could re-establish, the
authority of the national government. With the cessation of
hostilities came questions of civil polity, as important as.they
were novel, requiring solution and permanent adjustment.




56         REMARKS OF MR. ORTH ON THE
The public mind was unsettled; conflicting opinions most
naturally forced themselves to the surface, while political
theories, formed on the narrow basis of old passions and prejudices, claimed public attention. Here was a field for the
statesman, and Stevens entered it with that self-reliance
with which a consciousness of his own power and the strength
of his political convictions invested him. Others doubted
and hesitated, but to him the future was as unclouded and as
certain as the past. He was no revolutionist, but, penetrating through the gloom of battles and the uncertainties which
troubled most minds, he perceived the end from the beginning, and when the end came he was prepared to meet its
demands and its responsibilities.
The apparently popular heresy that the States in rebellion
had not by that act changed their "proper practical relations" to the Union, and hence were at once restored to their
former position, was soon dissipated by the sturdy blows it
received under his leadership.
With the abandonment of this theory the true policy to be
pursued toward the States and people lately in rebellion was
easily ascertained, and the emphatic endorsement of that
policy by the voice of the nation, together with the gradual
accomplishment of its purposes, have demonstrated alike its
wisdom and its justice.
He is gone. He has finished his course on earth, but the
great work to which he devoted so many hours of patient
thought and honest toil is not yet finished. The high aim of
his life, that to which he brought all the energies of his nature,
which enlisted the warm sympathies of his noble soul and engaged the powers of his vigorous intellect, was to have his
country free and all her people equal, to have a land
"Where manhood reigns alone,
And every citizen is king."




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     57
Freedom has been obtained, but freedom has not yet been
secured, and will not be secured until all our people shall have
the full enjoyment of perfect equality by the law and before
the law. Freedom without secured equality of rights is a de
lusion and a snare; and although his countrymen have in his
memory and in his deeds a rich legacy which they will always
cherish with pride and with honor, yet with this legacy is
coupled a responsibility, and that is to proceed with the work
in which he was so zealously engaged, to complete the structure in the spirit of its master workman. So complete it that
from foundation-stone to turret, in all its parts and designs,
there shall be no fault and no blemish; that the eye of the
critic can discover no defects, and the heart of the patriot
desire no change. So complete it that when finished it will
meet with the approbation of all good men and the approval
of a just God.
He is gone. That frail tenement of clay so lately moving
among us is mingling with its kindred dust, but the name and
fame of Thaddeus Stevens will never die.
In all the coming years of time, so long as patriotism has a
votary and freedom an advocate, his name will be lisped and
his fame will be cherished by the countless millions of the
future, and while his countrymen linger around his consecrated
grave their aspirations will ascend to Heaven that a kind
Providence who rules over the destinies of nations may grant
to our beloved country many more such men.
Remarks by Mr. Koontz.
Mr. SPEAKER: The ordinary business of the dayis suspended,
that the House of Representatives may pay its tribute of
respect to the memory of its departed leader. Since the last
session of this Congress Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, representa



58        REMARKS OF MR. KOONTZ ON THE
tive from the ninth congressional district of Pennsylvania,
ripe in years and in wisdom, and honored with the confidence
and love of his fellow-countrymen, has passed from time into
eternity. No word in commendation of his distinguished services to the country or in praise of his great talents is needed
in this presence, where he was so well known; nor are the eulogies that are pronounced here on this occasion necessary to
convey to the nation a correct idea of the characteristics of
the deceased. A prominent actor in the mighty events which
have transpired within the last eight years, he stands out in
marked distinctness before a people who have watched with
intense pleasure his devotion to country, with unbounded admiration the exhibition of his commanding talents, and who
have on frequent occasions been swayed by his resistless, burning eloquence.
But if the tear of sorrow is shed for and the word of tribute
spoken of the less distinguished of earth who have passed
from the stage of life, with how much more sorrow should we
mourn those who are numbered among the nation's dead!
When they who have achieved distinction in war, statesmanship, oratory, poetry, science, or philosophy have " shuffled off
this mortal coil," the rivalries that were begotten in the busy
arena of life are remembered no longer, the peculiarities of
character that excited hostility in the breasts of others are
forgotten, and a generous people remember only the ability
and virtue of the deceased and treasure them as evidence of
the nation's advancement in civilization, and as the enduring
monuments of her own greatness and glory. The many years
of distinguished public service of the deceased, his skill as a
parliamentarian, his recognized ability as a leader, and the
powerful influence he wielded in the councils of the nation
gave him such prominence in the eyes of the American people
that since his death they remember him not only as the leader




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS. 59
of a great party, but as a great American statesman, whose
name will be inscribed on the historic page along with those
whom the nation delights to honor.
Of the prominent men of this generation perhaps none have
greater claims to public gratitude than Mr. Stevens. In Pennsylvania his name will ever be associated with the beneficent
system of common schools, the establishment of which was
owing to his ability, perseverance, and energy. The humblest
lad in the rudest cabin within the limits of the State will live
to bless the memory of Thaddeus Stevens, for having placed
within his reach the means of an education. If, according to
the distinguished historian, Macaulay, the gift of Athens to
mankind of intellectual knowledge constitutes her chief glory,
and will perpetuate her memory, even in the decay of her language and the degeneracy of her people, to the remotest posterity, amid the rise and fall of kingdoms and empires, may it
not truthfully be said that the people of Pennsylvania owe a
debt of gratitude to Mr. Stevens for this great gift to her sons,
which will exist as long as her mountains stand, and that his
memory will be preserved by them while their language
remains to speak his praises?
But, passing beyond the confines of his adopted State, we
find that his name is widely known throughout the country,
and that by his public course he has earned a nation's gratitude. A gigantic civil war threatened the life of the nation
and its public men were put to the severest test. Mr. Stevens
at once rose into marked prominence by his determined and
powerful hostility to the rebellion, its aiders and abettors; and
his opposition, after its overthrow, to all measures looking to
the political ascendency in the government of those lately in
arms to destroy it, made him the idol of the loyal millions of
the country. Other men might be misled either by a mistaken
notion of what was due to traitors, or a false philanthropy, or




60        REMARKS OF MR. KOONTZ ON THE
wicked ambition, or desire for party predominance, but there
was an abiding faith in the loyal people of the country that in
Thaddeus Stevens there was "no variableness or shadow of
turning," and that in all the mutations of time and tergiversations of men, he would be true to the cause for which their
sons and brothers had fallen. His career to its close vindicated fully the popular confidence in his fidelity to principle.
In foreign governments the noble men who are inaugurating
movements looking to the disenthralment of the masses from
kingly and aristocratic rule, lament his death, and in this hour
of sadness and sorrow we have their deepest sympathy. There
is always a strong tie between men of enlarged minds and corn
prehensive intellects, although there may be wide differences
of opinion between them as to the best mode of advancing the
interests of society and the promotion of the welfare and happiness of mankind; but how much stronger the tie that binds
the men who are moving together in the great cause of humanity! The champions of liberal principles in every clime
realize that one of their noble band is no more, and not only a
State and nation, but oppressed humanity everywhere, deplore
the death of the great advocate of human rights.
But his memory will be fondly cherished by that large body
of people so recently liberated from human slavery. An early
opponent of that institution, he battled against it with all the
power of his gigantic intellect, until the last shackle of the last
slave was broken, and this day he is revered by them next
only to the immortal Lincoln. His name is a household word
in the humble cabins of four million people whom he has helped
up from the degrading condition of bondage into the blessed
light of freedom, and will be inseparably linked with that great
act of national justice by which the emancipation of a race
from servitude was achieved.
As a private citizen he was kind and generous, and always




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      61
ready to lend a helping hand to the needy and distressed. In
public life he was remarkably candid and unreserved in expression of opinion. There was as little danger of mistaking
his views on any subject of public interest as that his antagonists would not feel the strength of his powerful intellect in
enforcing them. He has been aptly styled the great Commoner
of the United States. In many respects he was like the great
Commoner of England. Like him he was bold and fearless
in the advocacy of the measures he espoused. Like the elder
Pitt he was not sordid. His worst enemy could not say of
him that he enriched himself at the expense of the public.
Like him he carried his measures often by his terrible earnestness, often by his withering sarcasm and fiery invective.
Like him he rose into great and commanding influence in the
nation, and successfully carried out the measure he had so
dauntlessly advocated.
But, sir, time does not permit me to extend these remarks.
A great man has fallen. This hall will no longer resound with
his eloquence or the nation be thrilled with his patriotic utterances, but in the ages to come the heart of the patriot and
lover of humanity will swell with joy and gratitude at the
mention of the name of Thaddeus Stevens.
Remarks by Mr. Donnelly.
MR. SPEAKER: As a representative of one of the new
Commonwealths of the great West, I would add a few words
to the tributes which have already been paid to the memory
of Mr. Stevens. The West owed him much. Although born
among the mountains of Vermont, and representing here an
inland district of Pennsylvania, his heart was as broad and
liberal as his brain, and embraced in its great scope every
portion of the continent. His sympathies were especially




62       REMARKS OF MR. DONNELLY ON THE
active in behalf of those new communities whose destiny
has been to subdue the wilderness and spread in constantly
widening circles the domain of society and civilization. It
is especially fitting, therefore, that the West should add to
the wreaths which already adorn his bier.
In every aspect in which we consider him Mr. Stevens
was a great man.
No one who ever knew him could doubt the prodigious force
and vigor of his intellect. It seemed to embrace all the diversified subjects of legislation incident to a great country and
a high degree of civilization. While there might be here and
there a member who, upon some special topic, surpassed him,
there was no man in Congress who was so thoroughly conversant with such a multitude of subjects. A singularly retentive
memory held ever ready for use the experience and the learning acquired during a long and industrious life. The movements of his mind were as original and peculiar as they were
rapid and accurate. His y ow9r-in debate was unequalled.
Hisplieeswere such as could not be anticipated. He flashed
back upon his opponent from some new standpoint, or with
some quaint conceit that astonished while it confused him.
His irony was terrible; it was witheringj it denuded sophistry
to the bones. It left no room for reply. The adroitnessae=
quired during long practice at the bar was everywhere mani
fested in his conduct of debate. He knew when to strike and
when to loosen his hold, and when to yield the non-essentials
to save the essentials, but he never forsook his purpose.
An intellect of this nature, accompanied by a degree of
physical vigor which carried the vivacity of youth and the
endurance of manhood far into the domain of old age, would
have made Mr. Stevens a marked man in any position in
life and in any age of the world. But behind this intellect
there was a character still more remarkable. Behind this




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     63
brain-power there lay a will-power which has rarely been
equalled among the sons of men; an intensity of purpose which
no obstacle could arrest, no defeat daunt, and a determination
of character which brightened with every encounter and rose
freshened from every overthrow. Nothing could stand in the
path of his purpose. That grim face never turned aside to
catch the fickle murmurs of popular applause. Public opinion
had no terrors for him. It should be written over his tomb
that "he never played the demagogue." He never stepped
down upon the lower plane of popular error, but at all times
and on all occasions he dared to do right, looking Heaven in
the face and fearing no man. He never flattered the people;
he never attempted to deceive them; he never "paltered with
them in a double sense;" he never courted and encouraged their
errors. On the contrary, on all occasions he attacked their
sins, he assailed their prejudices, he outraged all their bigotries; and when they turned upon him and attacked him he
marched straight forward, like Gulliver wading through the
fleets of the Lilliputians, dragging his enemies after him into
the great harbor of truth.
But all his intellect and character were secondary to the
principles which underlaid them. These were, indeed, great
and noble.
Nature had given Mr. Stevens a generous heart. He was
emphatically the friend of man. He seemed to feel that every
wrong inflicted upon the human race was a blow struck at
himself. He could not understand that a wrong could have
any rights. He denied the power of time to sanctify injustice.
The dust of antiquity could not screen from his indignant
glance the horrible proportions of cruelty. He seemed to feel
that there should be no peace in this world until every wrong
was righted, and he believed that the true end of government
was to right all the wrongs men suffer. He was the embodied




64       REMARKS OF MR. DONNELLY ON THE
spirit of revolution. In the great French struggle his oratory
would have outblazed Mirabeau. Hle would have exulted in the
glorious work of tearing to shreds monarchy and aristocracy,
and lifting to their feet the poor, degraded, oppressed peasantry of France.
He would admit no compromise with wrong. It could neither smile nor frown, nor coax nor bully him into submission.
Even the dark shadow of assassination could not turn him a
hair-breadth from his path. He brought the spirit of John
Brown into the work of the statesman. He led the assault
against an embattled host of wrongs and errors, and under
the providence of God they went down before him and left the
field clear almost to the horizon. All honor in the day of peace
to the gallant leader whose ringing voice never faltered amid
all the surging uncertainties of the terrible struggle.
Against slavery as the mighty embodiment of all human
wrongs Mr. Stevens threw the force of his intellect and character from the very first. He felt with Mr. Lincoln that " if
slavery was not wrong nothing was wrong." Its presence
under the American flag he regarded as an outrage; it polluted
the very air; it cried out with a million tongues to heaven;
no fact, no incident connected with it, but was a perpetual
appeal to the human heart. Mr. Stevens was from the first
an uncompromising abolitionist-not yesterday alone, but
thirty, forty, fifty years ago, when slavery was a sacred thing,
and its opponents were ranked among the criminals of the
land.
Such sentiments for a long time excluded him from public
life. At length came the great revolution. The blind wrong
had dragged down upon itself the pillars of the temple. The
curtain rose upon the grandest drama of the world; and the
grim, iron-willed old man stepped forward to do his appointed
work. His was the most striking figure of all the illustrious




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      65
group gathered in that great scene. He had no doubts-no
scruples; he did not weep over his opportunities; he exulted
in them. He seized axe and brand and set himself to work to
burn and hew out the giant wrong of American society, and
the rigid lips never relaxed while he thought a single root or
branch retained vitality. It was his privilege to live until the
work of legislation was completed and the institutions of the
country placed on the broad basis which his heart and judgment approved. His dying ears heard only the growlings of
the turbid and bloody waves of rebellion as they settled and
subsided into peace forever.
Mr. Stevens regarded his labors in behalf of popular education as the crowning glory of his life. He was right. Here
his enlarged philanthropy and his far-reaching statesmanship
had fullest scope. The school-houses of Pennsylvania are his
noblest monument. Innumerable generations yet unborn will,
in that illustrious Commonwealth, preserve his name in perpetual remembrance as their first and greatest benefactor.
A life so complete does not ask our tears. Here is room only
for pride and admiration, and gratitude to God that in the
hour of our deadly need he raised up such a man to lead our
national councils, and to infuse into a wavering nation his own
indomitable spirit and his own magnificent love of right and
horror of injustice. He passes into history, and the love of a
great people gathers around and accompanies and hallows
him. It can be justly said of him " he was the friend of man."
The world holds no prouder eulogy.
Remarks by Mr. Cake.
Mr. SPEAKER: The public man who works for fame rarely
achieves it. If he does, he soon finds it a perishing uncertainty.
After all, posterity is an inexorable judge, and no matter how
5




66         REMARKS OF MR. CAKE ON THE
the paid eulogist or the partial historian exaggerates what is
good or palliates what is bad, time's ultimate verdict is always
discriminating and just.
Thaddeus Stevens was a fine illustration of this theory. No
statesman in any age so often took issue with what is called
public opinion, but what might be better styled public prejudice. Emigrating to Pennsylvania more than a half a century
ago from New England, that normal school of the continent,
and settling down among the retrogressive German population
on the borders of a slave State, and sharing much of the intolerance of slavery, the very first thing he did was to take up
arms for education and freedom. These were the pole stars of
all his politics, and in following them he encountered more
obstacles than ever beset the pathway of a public man. There
is something sublime in his struggle with these obstacles.
Undismayed he pursued the bitter path; undaunted he met
the organized foe. No expediency, no compromise, no party
turned him aside from his grand objective point. His efforts
for universal education were crowned with victory earlier than
his efforts against slavery.
But he was, if possible, more intense in his hostility to
slavery than in his championship of education. Here he was
the foremost teacher of the middle States. With a heroism
that outlived censure and defied majorities, he maintained the
unequal fightthrough more than a generation. Caring nothing
for himself and nothing for party, if he could not mold the latter
according to his principles, he aroused the most violent enmities and dared the most formidable combinations. If freedom
won he was content; to secure that he was always ready to
sacrifice everything else.
And now, Mr. Speaker, as we look back over the past eight
years, is there one Republican who will not admit that if we
had followed his lead from the first, much of the resulting




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      67
treachery, bloodshed, and death would have been avoided?
We have reached the remedy at last; and what is that which
gives us safety, which secures the rights of millions yet unborn,
but that great remedy of Thaddeus Stevens: justice, equality,
and freedom to all men, irrespective of race, color, or nativity?
Our great leader did not work for fame. He did not play
the courtier; he did not deal in the currency of compromise;
he did not flatter the people; he never was a beggar for their
votes. And yet, behold! He is remembered, and honored in
his remembrance, by friend and foe. Look at this house today. Recall the loud acclaim of sorrow that mourned his
death while it conceded his matchless attributes, and tell me,
sir, if this is not genuine fame, that fame resulting from a bold,
manly, rugged, and unselfish career, unsought, untoiled for,
yet freely tendered by a proud and grateful country, without
distinction of party, sect, or creed?
Sir, it is not often that one man can do so much for any
people as Thaddeus Stevens has done. But for him Pennsylvania would have been, perhaps, the last of the old free States
to establish an educational system based upon equal taxation.
But for his example our seminaries of learning would have
been inferior and few. Half a million young men and women
within our borders are this day chiefly indebted to him for
the blessings of a sound education. I freely acknowledge my
own indebtedness. When he delivered his great speech in the
house of representatives of Pennsylvania, in 1835, 1 was seven
years old. The institutions that sprang into existence under
the inspiration of that great effort proved to be my opportunity, and I shall never cease to bear testimony to the value
of his work on that occasion.
Reared in another political party, I never failed to cherish
and honor his name; and when I entered the printing office
in my thirteenth year, found myself equipped for a rapid and




68         REMARKS OF MR. CAKE ON THE
thorough understanding of the mysteries of that art of all
arts. Later in life, when the war dissolved old party prejudices, and when, a democratic journalist, I found that as one
of the advocates of Judge Douglas for President the honest
logic of my convictions placed me in association with the
republican party, it was a natural progress for me to become
one of the followers of Thaddeus Stevens, and to oppose
slavery as I had opposed all the antagonism of the school law.
Coming into this House at the close of the war, in which I
did but my duty as a soldier and citizen, I looked up to him
as my leader and my friend. 1 had never met him till I saw
him on this floor; here, upon every occasion I found him
a kind, intelligent, and generous mentor. Once, for reasons
that I deemed conclusive to my mind, I voted against an
appropriation to one of the colleges in this District. It
was very nearly lost, when Mr. Stevens asked me to change
my vote, saying that he would give me his reasons for the
request after the bill was disposed of. Upon the announcement of the result he turned to me and said: "Young man,
let me implore you in all your after life never to oppose any
measure for the education of the people. Follow this advice
and you will never regret it."
Mr. Speaker, it is never becoming to cover the dead with
unmerited eulogy, and in speaking these honest words of
Thaddeus Stevens I am not trying to make him a perfect
character. Like all strong men, he had his faults, and he
neither denied nor defended them; but in the sterling traits
of manhood he was a conspicuous example. The eloquent
gentlemen who have preceded me have told you how brave he
was in public life, how true to his convictions, how fearless in
his support of all measures intended to elevate the people and
to develop the resources of the country.
Not to-day, but in the time to come, will Thaddeus Stevens




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.       69
be fully appreciated. His whole life was devoted to the
cause of humanity, and he lived to see the fruition of his
hopes in the most complete victory over the enemies of education in Pennsylvania and of freedom throughout our land.
Congratulating himself upon his two great victories, he could
peacefully fold his arms in the sleep that knows no waking
upon earth, secure in the belief that he had accomplished a
great work, and that those who profit by his life will revere
his memory forever. The men and women who have been and
are yet to be educated in the common schools of Pennsylvania,
and the bond who have been made free, to free whom he gave
the labor of his best days, are the beneficiaries of his noble
and self-sacrificing life.
That which will stand to his honor as long as his record as
a statesman are these proofs of his love for his fellow-men.
No great benevolence ever appealed to him in vain. No poor
man struggling with adversity, no young man who sought his
aid in the beginning of his career, no penitent rebel, impoverished by the war, ever asked Thaddeus Stevens in vain for
assistance. What is this but a religious example. How
much better, Mr. Speaker, than the hollow profession which
contents itself with words, and never ripens into glorious
deeds! Leigh Hunt's beautiful allegory has often been applied
to others, but it seems to have been written for Thaddeus
Stevens. Bear with me as I read it to you, and tell me if it
be not a faithful picture of the great mind which, though the
body it animated is dust, still lives to guide and strengthen
the children of men:
Abou Ben Adhem -may his tribe increaseAwoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold.
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,




70       REMARKS OF MR. WOODWARD ON THE
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still, and said, " I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And show'd the names whom love of God had bless'd,
And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
Remarks by Mr. Woodward.
Mr. SPEAKER: My acquaintance with Mr. Stevens began in
1835. He was a man of mark from his first appearance in the
legislature of Pennsylvania, and he advanced at once in that
body to the front rank of debaters, though the best talents of
the State were then in the legislature.
I well remember the passionate appeals by which he lashed
our staid old commonwealth into a frenzy of prejudice against
the Masonic institution for its guilty agency, supposed or
actual, in the abduction anid murder of Morgan, not long
before, in western New York. Mr. Stevens made himself the
great champion of the anti-Masonic party, and the leader of
those who elected Joseph Ritner governor in 1835. Having
accepted the office of canal commissioner from Governor Ritner, and retaining his seat in the legislature as the representative of Adams county, he carried measures with a high
hand for three years. Beyond all question he became the
most influential man in Pennsylvania. The star of his fame
culminated to its zenith.   Doubtless his bold and earnest
nature hurried him into many excesses of opinion; but it is
creditable to his memory that, in that day of his greatest
power, he was the eloquent advocate of a system of common




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      71
schools which, though vehemently opposed in its origin, has
grown into great favor with the people of Pennsylvania.
Governor Ritner, like many of the Germans of our State,
regarded the system with distrust, while Governor Wolf, who
was Ritner's competitor for gubernatorial honors in 1835,
favored its introduction. Mr. Stevens staked his political
fortunes on this measure. Alluding to the contest between
Wolf and Ritner, and to its possible turn upon the school
question, he exclaimed, " If this is to be a struggle between
the powers of light and the powers of darkness, I go for him
whose banner streams in light."  His significant threat
brought the anti-Masonic party into the support of the school
law.
It was during this period that I met Mr. Stevens in a popular convention held in the court-house at Harrisburg, and
which was called the " Integrity of the Union convention."
Alarmed at the tendency of the measures of New England
abolitionists, the people of Pennsylvania sent delegates to
Harrisburg to strengthen the bands of the Union. Mr.
Stevens ridiculed the convention into nothingness. Affecting
excessive solicitude for the " integrity of the Union," he
brought his matchless powers of invective and sarcasm to
bear against every measure that was proposed, and, with the
adoption of some unimportant resolutions, the convention
vanished.
I next met him in the Reform Convention, a body elected
in pursuance of law to propose amendments to the constitution of Pennsylvania. At first he took a very active part in
the organization and debates of this body, but gradually his
interest in its proceedings subsided until he withdrew himself
almost wholly from its deliberations. He declined to sign the
new constitution because the word "white" had been introduced into the suffrage clause before the word freeman, thus




72       REMARKS OF MR. WOODWARD ON THE
limiting suffrage to white freemen. On no subject were his
opinions more firmly fixed than in favor of the social and
political equality of the African with the Caucasian. Of this
his course in Congress, which is known and read of all men,
has afforded abundant illustration.
In the fall of 1838 the great political contest came on
between David R. Porter, the democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, and Governor Ritner, who was up for
re-election on the anti-Masonic ticket. Mr. Stevens did his
utmost for Ritner. He brought into full play not only all his
great resources of eloquence, wit, and sarcasm, but as canal
commissioner, having control of considerable patronage, he
inaugurated a system of colonization for political effect,
which politicians have improved upon and practiced more or
less ever since. Porter beat Ritner in 1838, and then Mr.
Stevens made the capital mistake of his life in determining to
treat the election as if it had not occurred. This brought on
the " buckshot war." That disturbance made no strain upon
our political institutions. Indeed, it is doubtful if it excited
as much attention from the people of the other States as its
importance demanded, but abroad it was looked upon as a
portentous event. The late Mr. Dallas, our then minister at
the court of St. Petersburg, told me he was annoyed by daily
notes from the whole diplomatic circle anxiously inquiring for
the news from Harrisburg, while his correspondents at home
treated the subject as too insignificant to allude to, and therefore he had no information to communicate. But the buckshot war, if it wrought no great political revolution, took Mr.
Stevens out of political life for many years. He removed to
the city of Lancaster and addressed himself with great ability
and success to the practice of his profession. It was my
privilege to know much of him as a lawyer, and it affords me
far more pleasure to contemplate his professional than his
political career.




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      73
As a Pennsylvania lawyer he had learned to appreciate that
greatest luminary of the bench, Hon. John B. Gibson, and at
the May term of the supreme court, in 1853, Mr. Stevens
announced the decease of Judge Gibson in brief and exquisite
terms. His neat speech, together with the more elaborate
eulogy of Chief Justice Black, is printed in the seventh volume of Harris's State Reports, and both productions will well
repay the perusal.
As a lawyer Mr. Stevens was bold, honorable, and candid,
clear in statement, brief in argument, and always deferential
to the bench. He was not copious in his citation of adjudged
cases. I think he relied more upon the reasons, than upon the
authorities of the law. Indeed, his tastes inclined him rather
to the study of polite literature than of the black letter. He
loved Pope's Essay on Man more than Siderfin's Reports.
Yet he betrayed no defect of preparation at the bar. He
always came with a keen discernment of the strong points of
his case, and he spoke to them directly, concisely, and with
good effect. His humor was irrepressible and trenchant;
sometimes it cut like a Damascus blade. He was a lucky
lawyer who would go through an argument with Mr. Stevens
without being laughed at for something. Mr. Stevens's legal
sagacity was exhibited here, in the presence of all of us, when
he suggested the eleventh article of impeachment, which came
nearer costing the President his official life than all the other
articles together.
But, Mr. Speaker, I have said enough to indicate the high
regard in which the deceased was held as a lawyer in Pennsylvania. Differing from him, toto ccelo, in politics and religion, I cannot think that the final influence of his great talents
upon the public mind will be salutary, nor do I think posterity,
to whom the arbitrament belongs, will rank him as a benefactor of his race. But, nevertheless, there was much in him to




74       REMARKS OF MR. ROBINSON ON THE
admire. His honesty and directness of purpose, his courage,
his scorn and contempt for the low arts of political tricksters;
his generosity to the poor, for his hand and his heart were as
open as the day to them; his learning, his eloquence, his temperance, his industry, his firm will, his self-poise-these were
the qualities that constituted his greatness and his excellence;
and if his fame outlasts the age in which he lived, it will be
because it is built on these foundations. " De mortuis nil nisi
bonum." Dr. Johnson thought that for "bonum"7 we should
read " verum." I approve the criticism, and I esteem it high
praise of Mr. Stevens that it can be said of him he so passed
through life that his name can endure the application of the
maxim even in its improved reading.
Remarks by Mr. Robinson.
Mr. SPEAKER: Among the people of Ireland, whose legends
and poetry are frequently fringed with the silver foam of superstition, there is a venerable and ever-to-be-venerated custom,
in the observance of which on meeting a funeral you turn with
it, and for a time, however brief, become a part of the solemn
procession. It matters not who treads the dark pathway to
the grave, whether death's footbeats have knocked at the castle or the cabin, to the rich and the poor, to the lowly and the
lordly, is paid this universal homage, by to-day's living and
to-morrow's dead.
Athwart my weary footsteps over life's rugged highway this
funeral procession to-day occurs. He who in life provoked
such enmities and secured such friendships is now beyond the
reach of both, but as this pageant passes I uncover my head
and mingle my footsteps in its solemnities.
Of his political opinions, his loves and hatreds, his passions
and his prejudices, it is not for me here to speak. With many




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.        75
of them I never could, nor is it likely I ever shall, sympathize.
My prejudices against him were as strong as his against others,
and I must confess that on taking my seat here I should not
have regretted had I been able to provoke a controversy with
him, however much the odds might have been against me; and
upon two or three occasions when he expressed dissent from
my views I did not hesitate to intimate that it would not be
disagreeable to me to receive his attack and break a lance with
him. I had even gone so far as to look into the public records
of his adopted State, over which his words and works are
voluminously written, to see if I could find a crevice in his
armor through which I might more successfully assail him.
Had I provoked a controversy with him my temerity might
have been made manifest to all, and might have betrayed me
into language which to-day and for all time would be a cause of
regret to me and mine. On two or three occasions when I
addressed this House he came over to this side of the hall and
took a seat in front of mine, sometimes interrupting me with
a playful or more serious observation, but seeming to give a
pleasant refusal to my rash challenge, and to wish rather to
encourage than to wound.
Is it unbecoming in me, therefore, now that his ear is forever closed to censure or to flattery, to say that my search
for inconsistency in his public career was in vain; that he
above all men seemed at least consistent in his opinions and
singularly bold in expressing and defending them?
To cowards and despots a hatred undying,
For freedom a passion intense and relying,
A pride in the resolute band;
A hope that could see not a danger to shun
When bonds should be broken and liberty won.
Radically as we differed on measures in defence of which
most of his time recently was occupied, there were many subjects on which we had kindred sympathies. For the oppressed




76       REMARKS OF MR. ROBINSON ON THE
people of Ireland, for the vindication of the rights of American citizens, for the speedier extension of citizenship and
suffrage to our immigrant population, he had strong and pronounced opinions. And to me it is a source of regret that his
voice will not be heard nor will his influence be felt in the
discussion and settlement of these questions; that in the
great contest which I fear is approaching on one of them, his
clarion voice will not be heard as it would have been had he
lived, rallying his followers and partisans to the defence of the
Declaration of Independence, which he contended guaranteed to the governed the right of choosing their governors by
universal manhood suffrage, as well for recent emigrants from
despotisms in Europe as for immediate emigrants from slavery
everywhere.
We have all observed the frail and yet tenacious hold which
he appeared to have on life. Nature had given him many
difficulties to conquer; society had bestowed on him but few
of its smiles. His life seemed to be a life of sorrow sufficiently marked to explain, if not to excuse, his apparent
bitterness. No kindly voice to whisper comfort in his sorrows; no hand to soften the asperities with which this world's
conflicts will harden the downiest pillow; no kindred heart in
whose sympathetic throbbings he could read the alphabet of
love. He seemed like an eagle, perched alone upon a blasted
oak in sullen and defiant majesty, scorning alike the chatter
and the scream of other birds around him; his eye sometimes
seemingly covered with film as of down from the passing wing
of death, but in a moment shooting into pinions on which he
proudly soared to the sun.
That proud and defiant spirit, often fierce, sometimes unforgiving, and always bold and honest, has passed away. Is it
presumption to hope that beneath all his outward apparent
harshness there was an undercurrent of benevolence; that
the thunder-cloud which hung upon his rugged brow, and




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     77
from beneath which flashed the lightning of his sunken eye,
melted into the rainbow of hope and the light of love, and
that the closing scenes of his life, the holy influence, pure
prayers, and sacred rites of the pious sisters, to whom both
here and at Emmittsburg, in Maryland, he had shown many
favors, and who repaid him tenfold in the deep devotion of
their unselfish love, as they wafted his departed spirit to the
gates of heaven on their trembling petition, and closed his
eyes in death; with the blessing of the venerable octogenarian
priest of Lancaster, still living, who loved and honored him
through life, cleansed his soul from sin, and that his spirit
was admitted to the mansions of the blest?
But, Mr. Speaker, I am apparently forgetting that I turned
my footsteps only for a moment with this sad procession, not
to deliver any eulogy or to recall his frailties. I rose simply
to fling upon his passing bier a flower-would that it were
worthier-a daisy or a shamrock, wet with the dew-drop of a
sincere and sympathizing tear; and join in the prayer which
thousands waft to Heaven to-day that his spirit may rest in
eternal peace.
Remarks by Mr. Sypher.
Mr. SPEAKER: The character of Mr. Stevens in his relations
as a fellow-townsman has been most ably and appropriately
commented on by the gentleman from Pennsylvania who succeeds him in this house. His distinguished services in the
State of his adoption, both in the cause of common schools
and the construction of public works, may with just propriety
be cited as among the most honorable achievements of his life.
I pass over the period given to fostering and building up the
institutions of the great commonwealth which he so highly
honored, and come immediately to lay upon the grave of this




78        REMARKS OF MR. SYPHER ON THE
great champion of freedom the grateful thanks of an emancipated race, of a disenthralled people, and of States regenerated. It is not unnatural that the loyal constituency of
myself and colleagues on this floor from the south should
have regarded Mr. Stevens as the foremost as well as the
most earnest and trustworthy defender of their rights. These
people have ever been in the peculiar situation of living
within the lines of the enemy, and, therefore, during all their
days of hope and nights of despair, looking northward for
deliverance, the stalwart form of him who always led the
advance guard, and who never retired behind the picket line,
was ever most prominently in view.
Thaddeus Stevens was born a leader. Men, policies, and
parties were not allowed to stand in his way. His life was
devoted to the cause of humanity, and whatever race or individual wrongfully oppressed strove to rise above the oppressor,
found in him a true and faithful friend and able advocate.
Thirty years' active participation in the anti-slavery movement in this country, and a thorough analysis of the character of the slaveholder, had fully prepared him to enter into an
armed struggle against treason and traitors. He had no
sympathy with peace conferences, compromises, and resolutions of pacification. In the autumn of 1860 he wrote to a
young man then in Memphis, Tennessee, "The only way to
end this rebellion is to conquer the rebels." From the first
hour when secession was proclaimed in South Carolina and
the property of the nation was seized by southern rebels his
voice was for war. In State and in national council, in his
place oi the floor of this house, in private conferences with
the President and the cabinet, he advocated a vigorous prosecution of the war on war principles. His propositions were
so bold that timid men were startled and stood fixed in amazement. Before the sound of the first gun fired in the cause of
treason and rebellion had reached the northern border of the




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.     79
republic, he declared that freedom should be proclaimed to
every slave in the land, and the loyal men of the south, both
white and black, should be invited to enroll themselves in
defence of the Union. He maintained that public safety
demanded nothing less. The brave old man would have called
a million of men into service and would have marched amid
the clash of steel and the roar of artillery from the Potomac
to the Gulf.
Thus he would have swept treason before him, and behind
him, he would have left an unquestionable guarantee of perfect equality of rights before the 7aw. In the spring of 1862
he declared upon this floor in favor of immediate emancipation. President Lincoln plainly and emphatically expressed
his disapprobation of this measure, and avowed that the
administration was not in sympathy with that movement.
Late in the summer, after the nation had been disciplined by
the failure of the peninsular campaign, President Lincoln
turned to the speech in which this great and wise measure
was advocated. He sent for Mr. Stevens, apologized for the
opposition made to him, and declared himself in favor of emancipation. These two great men of the nation were agreed as to
the fact, but differed as to time. Stevens favored immediate
emancipation; Lincoln thought best to give the rebels due
notice that they would lose their slaves if they did not lay
down their arms. Fortunate, thrice fortunate for the nation
and especially for my constituents, the God of nations hardened the hearts of the enemy and they did not cease to make
war, and therefore, at the expiration of one hundred days,
came the proclamation of freedom that Stevens would have
issued three hundred days before.
Following the emancipation came the struggle on the question of arming the colored men of the south, who had just
obtained the right of self-ownership. Stevens again boldly
advanced to the picket line and lashed his tardy compeers up




80        REMARKS OF MR. SYPHER ON THE
to the duty of self-preservation. When the last terrible blow
had crushed armed rebellion the work of the soldier ended
and that of the statesman began; then the doctrine of universal amnesty was promulgated from the highest places in the
nation; it was preached from the pulpit; it was recommended
in cabinet; it was advocated in the most powerful journals in
the land. In the mighty struggle that followed, wherein all
that had been won by force of arms was about to be sacrificed
by the sophistry of diplomacy, Stevens was again the bulwark of the nation, almost the sole defender of the rights of
the loyal millions of the southern States. But for his services
in the work of reconstruction a whole race of people, upon
whom the first rays of the light of freedom had just dawned,
would have been surrendered unconditionally into the hands
of the enemy.
Step by step he fought his way up, dragging the nation
after him, until he attained, by the aid of many able and
brave associates in Congress, the organization and establishment of governments in' the rebellious States upon the basis
of a loyal citizenship and perfect equality of rights. In this
final labor of his life, when victory dawned upon the nation,
the heroic old man died at his post, beckoning the people forward to higher and nobler achievements. Never will the
services of this great man be duly appreciated by those in the
defence of whose rights he so manfully struggled. His name,
with that of Lincoln, will ever be remembered with the warmest emotions of gratitude by this and succeeding generations
of the emancipated people of America, when others now
esteemed great shall have been forgotten. He needs no statue
of bronze, no pillar of marble with carved inscriptions to tell
posterity his fame. The labors and achievements of his life
have rendered him immortal. In the name of the loyal south,
whose fertile fields have been opened to free and skilled




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      81
labor; in the name ot toiling millions seeking homesteads;
in the name of States now no longer cursed by slavery; in the
name of a people struggling from abject slavery up to perfect
freedom; in the name of a race once declared to be possessed
of no rights which white men were bound to respect, but now
clothed with the full rights of citizenship, which the whole
power of the nation is pledged to defend, I thank God that
Thaddeus Stevens lived and labored and triumphed.
Remarks by Mr. Whittemore.
Mr. SPEAKER: I cannot expect, nor do I endeavor, to excel
the words "so fitly spoken" eulogistic of the life, character,
influence, and worth of " the great commoner, whose name
has dwelt so often upon the lips of the whole people, whose
words and works have become a part of the history of our
national greatness, whose good and generous heart beat in
sympathy for all humanity, whose every effort was inspired
for the elevation, improvement, and prosperity of the race;
but I can express somewhat the grief which the people of my
State, in common with our whole country, have felt in the loss
of him who was the friend of all men, who loved his neighbor
as himself, who was an invincible pioneer in all the noble
measures which have become the security of our hopes and
the ark of safety of our national unity. The emancipated,
the enfranchised, the reconstructed, the restored States, the
millions redeemed from the house of bondage, once chattels,
now freemen, with their title deeds of citizenship guaranteed,
who owe so much to his untiring efforts in their behalf, his
uncompromising fidelity to the right, felt in his loss that a
peer of Abraham Lincoln had fallen; and in their memories
will ever live sacred associations clustering around the counsels he has given, the hope and courage he has inspired, the
6




82        REMARKS OF MR. COVODE ON THE
glorious fruition of his life-long wish and labor. In the homes
of the lowly, in the hearts of the emancipated, he has been
enshrined.
When the sad news of the death of Thaddeus Stevens
reached my State the general assembly of South Carolina
passed appropriate resolutions and draped her legislative halls
in the semblances of mourning. Throughout the Commonwealth expressions of sorrow upon countenance and lip were
the true exponents of the solemn bereavement that had been
visited upon the nation. South Carolina, with her sisters, restored to her place in the councils of the republic by his persistent endeavor and patriotic labor, weeps for the mighty
dead, thanking the Giver of all good for the examples of his
life, the sterling honesty of his nature, and unflinching devotion to right, justice, and truth.
I saw him, when he was yet among us at the close of the
session in July, weak in body, yet powerful in mind, true to
the last at his post. Upon informing him of the results which
had been accomplished in South Carolina through the policies
he had so unceasingly advocated and triumphantly secured,
he said to me: " Go on, sir; never fear to do right." I shall
ever remember his, to me, last words. His voice will ever be
heard inspiring me in the future of my life-toil, my private and
public responsibilities.
Let the exhortation of the nations, "Well done, good and
faithful servant," influence us in all the legislation before us
which he may have left unfinished, to be true to our God, our
country, ourselves, and our fellow-men.
Remarks by Mr. Covode.
I cannot hope to add anything to the mournful interest of
this occasion, or to contribute to a true appreciation of the
character, services, and merits of Mr. Stevens; but my inti



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THADDEUS STEVENS.      83
macy with him was so close and long-continued, my admiration for him so sincere and thorough, and my sorrow at his
death so deep, that I feel constrained to offer a humble tribute
to his memory.
The beginning of his public career antedates most of the
men now active in the politics of Pennsylvania, and his career
was stormy, eventful, and remarkable, for it covered more
than 40 years of ceaseless activity. Few men have ever
aroused so intense feeling; his friends were drawn to him by
an irresistible fascination, and were bound to him by the indissoluble tie of admiration and love. His enemies were ever
repelled by the undaunted, almost haughty manner in which
he met their advances. By nature a thorough, logical, and
consistent radical, he cordially spurned every species of compromise, and he utterly contemned that truckling policy which
so generally barters solid principle for temporary advantage.
He despised every form of time-serving, and was absolutely
scornful in his contempt for tricksters. His path was ever
straight to the goal of his ambition over every obstacle and
hindrance. He never deviated in his faith or his purpose,
save when a modification of means might hasten and insure
the accomplishment of his purpose. He was loftily and heroically devoted to the ideas which possessed him, grandly true
to the great thoughts which filled and animated his noble soul.
He was a sincere lover of mankind, a keen sympathizer with
poverty, an honest hater of injustice, a friend of the downtrodden, and faithful fighter for the rights of all men to free.
dom, protection, and security. This was the key-note of his
public career, and the path he trod is illustrated all along with
the proofs of his fidelity to those principles which were early
implanted and which quickly ripened into animating motives.
In his private relations he was eminently large-hearted.
He was a truthful man, an honorable man, a thoroughly




84         REMARKS OF MR. COVODE, ETC.
manly man. His charity was as extensive as his knowledge
of suffering, and was princely in its liberality. He was in his
personal relations kindly, affectionate, tender and winning.
No man excelled him in the brilliancy of his conversation,
none left his presence unimpressed by his ever active sympathies. The devotion to his mother of this lion-hearted man
was at once a proof and an illustration of his capacity for the
deepest and tenderest feeling. Absorbed most of his life in
the keen pursuits of politics, some hardening of the nature
might naturally have been expected, but only those who
knew him in closest intimacy knew how his weary heart
yearned for loving objects to rest upon.
But he has gone. Whatever we may have felt in life, we
all now realize how large a space he filled, how sagacious
and true he was, how nobly and unselfishly devoted to his
country, how sedulously careful he was to guard it from prospective dangers, and how comprehensively he realized what
measures were necessary to give the country security for the
future. Let us go forward in the policy he traced, fortify the
buttresses of the nation, and let the republic, thoroughly
reconstructed upon the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and thereby dedicated to immortal life, be worthily
his ever-enduring monument.
The resolutions were unanimously adopted; and thereupon
(at 4 o'clock p. m.) the House adjourned.
0