Thaddeus Stevens (Volume 31)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 Excerpt: ...the Constitution. There was a great deal of hot declamation to the effect that the bill would completely destroy the liberty and happiness of the people. Mr. Vallandigham distinguished himself by the violence of his denunciation of the bill, and by a bitter attack upon the President. Stevens was not at all disinclined to take part in a partisan debate, and the contribution which he made to the discussion affords a very good example of his style of partisan speaking in the House. We should, he said, have had sufficient volunteers had the Democrats not done all in their power to persuade men not to enlist. They desired to keep Democrats at home in order that they might carry tho elections. Their policy had succeeded, he said, in some districts, as the returns of the last election showed. He admitted that many loyal Democrats had volunteered, but many also had been dissuaded. To prove this statement, he said that he would read from a speech of Mr. Vallandigham, in which the latter said: The day has gone by when a war for the restoration of the Union can by any possibility be successful, and added that, if the war continued and no relenting spirit was shown, the rebels ought to be induced to invade the North. He had also asked in the same speech: Will you send your sons again to the battlefield? Shall they be conscripted to carry on this war for two years more and for the negro? Vallandigham interrupted Stevens at this point to make a correction in the report of his speech. Stevens replied, I will strike that out. The other is at least first cousin to it. The whole of it, if spoken anywhere else than under this government, would come very near to ' treasonable practices, ' and therefore I intend to strike out that expression, for th...