Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/593

Attitude of Stevens toward Conduct of Civil War 583 spoken of as a man of hate and vindictive vengeance. But there is testimony to show, from party friend and foe alike, that he was a man of deep and tender humanitarian feeHngs. He desired fair play and a square deal for all mankind. The punitive measures which he favored did not spring from personal feelings. It was the cause that he hated or loved. He loved justice; he entertained a deep hatred of slavery and secession, and he believed that a just punishment, as well as mercy, should be visited upon those whom he considered as the guilty authors of his country's woes. In this he was but human, a natural man begotten of passionate times, and he probably represented to a large degree the feelings of a majority of his fellow-countrymen. He deplored the compromising errors of the fathers, and his great purpose was to write the law of justice and human equality into the Constitution of his country; and he would feign no fraternal, sentimental regard for those who, as he thought, sought to violate, obstruct, or pervert these great principles of gov- ernment. James Albert Woodburn.