Thaddeus Stevens. An incident occurring during this period of his legislative service illustrates the quick ness of his parliamentary methods, his sting ing irony, and the brevity of his epigrammatic style. A bill to convert the United States National Bank into a Pennsylvania institu tion was pending in the House, when a representative from Schuylkill County spread reports concerning certain members, ques tioning their integrity in the matter. The House feeling that its dignity had been in sulted appointed a committee of investiga tion. Stevens, as chairman of the committee, well knew that however guilty the represen tative from Schuylkill might be, expulsion meant certain re-election. In a powerful and vindictive report Stevens recommended that the member be publicly reprimanded by the Speaker. He ended with this striking epigram : " In either event, Mr. Chairmant he has won for himself an immortality of infamy." The member, however, objected to the report, and requested permission to be heard by counsel. He employed Ovid F. Johnson, afterward Attorney-General, for his defence. Stevens was to reply in behalf of the report, and the house was filled with his admirers, anxious to hear him annihilate the attorney for the defence. Johnson spoke some two and a half hours, when Stevens rose and said, " Mr. Speaker, I hope the vote will be taken. I do not think that anything the gentleman has said will change the char acter of the vote." The vote was taken, the report confirmed, and the representative from Schuylkill County duly reprimanded. The year of 1842 found his finances at a low ebb. He had suffered heavy losses by unfortunate and premature operations in iron and coal, and from liabilities incurred upon in dorsements for the accommodation of friends. His extensive practice had also been sacri ficed to the demands made upon him as leader of the State Legislature. With char acteristic promptness and determination he forsook the more alluring field of politics and returned to the practice of his profession. When he cast his eyes about him to find a
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suitable location for the prosecution of his legal occupation, no blind chance or happy accident prompted him to go to Lancaster, but a clear conception and ready apprecia tion of the advantages offered at the countyseat of a populous and wealthy community. The Lancaster Bar was then known to the profession as one of the most learned and brilliant in the State. Stevens's reputation as an advocate was already well and favorably known, and he soon proved the superiority of his intellect, the solidity of his legal training and knowledge. He was enabled by the returns of a large and wealthy client age to establish his credit, meet his obliga tions in full, and amass a considerable fortune. In 1848 and 1850 Stevens was elected to Congress from Lancaster County. He de clined further nomination until 1858, when he was again returned to Congress, and was re-elected by large majorities at each suc ceeding term until death put an end to his activity. He became the acknowledged head of the Antislavery branch of the Whig or Republican party in the House, and his un tiring efforts there for the abolition of slavery may be compared with those of Charles Sumner in the Senate. As Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, his leadership was able and efficient, notably in the measures which he introduced for the establishment of a sound and permanent national currency, to which he rightly attached the greatest importance as a factor of the nation's pros perity. His support of the Lincoln adminis tration in its periods of unforeseen difficulties and gravest peril was unwavering and fear less. In his report as Chairman of the Reconstruction Committee he favored a more severe and unrelenting policy than the sentiment of his party, perhaps, demanded; but he was honest and true to his convic tions. In a characteristic speech in defence of these resolutions, he says : " There is a morbid sensibility sometimes called mercy, which affects a few of all classes from the priest to the clown, which has more sympa
