thy for the murderer on the gallows than for his victim. I hope I have a heart as capable for the feeling of human woe as others. I have long since wished that capi tal punishment were abolished. But I never dreamed that all punishment could be dis pensed with in human society. Anarchy, treason, and violence would reign trium phant. The punishment now prescribed is the mildest ever inflicted upon traitors." His dying efforts were spent in conduct ing with admirable legal ability the impeach ment and trial of Andrew Johnson, but without the vigor and zeal which character ized his earlier strictures upon Lincoln's successor. He was opposed to the trial from its inception, not because he thought it unmerited, but his keen foresight con vinced him that it would be a " vain and futile thing." These services won for him the well-deserved appellation of the " Great Commoner," and enter into and form no un important part of American history at a time when the existence of the Union was imperilled, and when as never before or since in her history there was a necessity and a call for men of unquestioned courage, invincible, and fearless in their convictions. Thaddeus Stevens will therefore take his place in American biography as a great statesman. But he was no less brilliant and able as a lawyer. In Congress his speeches evidence a profound and scientific knowledge of the fundamental principles of jurispru dence as well as a ready acquaintance with parliamentary laws. Had he not when at Washington exerted his persuasive eloquence and powerful logic wholly in the representa tion of his constituents, and in the defence and furtherance of those truths and rights which he believed in and held to be of fun damental importance, he would beyond ques tion have attained the same pre-eminence and reputation in the Federal Courts which he enjoyed in the Supreme and County Courts of his own State; and notwithstanding the fact that he did so devote the best energies of his life in adherence to party and princi
ple, he stood in the foremost ranks among his contemporaries at the Pennsylvania Bar, the peer of any in intellectual strength and forensic ability. Says Judge Jeremiah S. Black, a man of profound legal lore and no less a judge of human character than of law : "When he died, as a lawyer he had no equal in this country." And it is recorded of him by Secretary Blaine, in his admirable exposi tion of the workings of Congress during that period when Stevens was most prominent, that " he was learned in the law, and for half a century held a high rank at the bar of a State distinguished for great lawyers. He spoke with ease and readiness, using a style somewhat resembling the crisp sententiousness of Dean Swift. Seldom, even in a careless moment, did a sentence escape his lips that would not bear the test of grammatical and rhetorical criticism. He had characteristics which seemed contra dictory, but which combined to make. one of the memorable figures in the parliamen tary history of the United States, — a man who had the courage to meet any opponent, and who was never overmatched in an in tellectual conflict." Stevens's reputation as an advocate spread far and wide throughout the State. He was concerned in almost all of the leading cases in Lancaster and adjoining counties, many of which were taken up to the Supreme Court, where he attained a marked success. His practice was not confined to any one branch of the law, but was alike extensive in the Common Law and Equity departments of the Court of Common Pleas and in Quarter Sessions. The minute detail of an Orphans' Court practice, however, was not in accord with his more active temperament, and was distasteful to him. He also tried many causes in the Federal District Courts, nota bly those in which the rights of fugitive slaves or freedmen and their owners were contested; in which cases he always ap peared in behalf of the former, often without compensation. He was equally effective in argument be-
