646
THE GREEN BAG
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 dis cernment of the strong points of his case, and he spoke to them directly, concisely, and with good effect. His humor was irre pressible 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' 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." It certainly requires no apology —- and scarcely an explanation — for any man's removal from anywhere to Lancaster, even seventy years ago. As a part of the "his tory of the case," it may, however, be fitly stated that Mr. Stevens, born to poverty, had, in early youth, learned to know the value and to keenly appreciate the power of money, and he never forgot his lesson. It is much less discreditable than many other things said about him, that he had, in a large degree, the spirit of the gambler; and it is surely to his credit that though he may have played high and, at times, even recklessly, he always "played fair," and never indulged in what has come to be called "a tight game." Personally, he was open-handed and generous, and paid his legal and moral debts to the last farthing. Furnaces and farms, even in Adams County, are fine things for a lawyer to own, when he does not have to practice law to keep the fires burning or the plow moving in the furrow; but there are — or, at least, there used to be — times of agricultural de pression and industrial stagnation when, like the luckless Jerseyman in Mosquito County, the more one owns, the poorer he is. Between ventures in business and ex penses in politics — before the days when campaign disbursements are rigidly filed in verified public statements — Mr. Stevens' debts approximated the then enormous sum
of nearly a quarter million dollars, and he was "land poor." He came to Lancaster mainly to better his personal fortunes and to extend his practice, but not without re gard to enlarged political possibilities. He found himself at a Bar of able, brilliant, and successful lawyers. There was no particu lar warmth of greeting toward him, neither did he ever get — nor apparently seek — generous social welcome; the dominant ele ments in his own political party were alto gether too conservative to invite him to its leadership; and there, as in the county of his first "home-at-law," he bided his time to grasp political control. Though he was not personally well known to the general public in Lancaster County, his political fame had preceded him, and business natu rally came without special contrivance. Like many a less famous lawyer, he did not hesitate to first break a lance in the Quarter Sessions, and his volunteer defense of a negro ruffian was so spirited as to widely advertise the newcomer. Within six months he was recognized as a leader, and his place in the foremost rank remained undisputed as long as he was in active practice. Until his death he retained property interests in Adams and Franklin counties, and had a large clientage there as long as he practiced. The reports from 1842 (3 W. & S.) to 1858 (30 Penna. State) teem with his appearances in the Appellate Court; but the wealth of his professional labors lay in the varied miscel laneous practice of a populous and rich agri cultural county, inhabited by people who not only "know their rights," but who — may the Lord long bless them — are willing to pay lawyers to assert and defend them. Among his more distinguished contem poraries at the Lancaster Bar were Attor neys General Ellmaker, Champneys, and Franklin; Judge Ellis Lewis, later of the Supreme Court, who became judge of the local court soon after Stevens came to Lan caster; W. B. Fordney and Reah Frazer. local "sons of thunder;" Samuel Parke. whose ingenious special pleading was Stev
