mind and eloquent pen spake with no uncertain sound as they heralded to a world the evils of slavery. The miseries and the horrors of the system revealed in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," went like a whirlwind through the North and aroused the public mind and helped create the sentiment that said: "This thing must not be." Honor to her. The memory of this noble woman's life and deeds will always be held dear by the people in whose behalf she labored so faithfully: and history will record for her a name as one who helped to establish in America equal rights for all men.

THADDEUS STEVENS, an eminent American Legislator, distinguished as an opponent to slavery, was born in Caledonia county, Vermont, on the 4th of April, 1793. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1814, removed to Pennsylvania, and studied law. He was elected to the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1833, and re-elected four times between that date and 1841. In April, 1835, he made a powerful speech for common schools, and secured the triumph of a system to which the majority of the Legislature had been hostile. In 1836, he was a member of the Convention which revised the Constitution of the State. He settled at Lancaster about 1842, and was elected a member of Congress by the voters of the Ninth District in 1848.

He acted with the Whig party while that party survived. and was re-elected to Congress in 1850. About 1855, he joined the Republican party, which was at first called in Pennsylvania the People's party. He represented the Ninth District, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in Congress from 1858 to 1868. He was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means in the Thirty-seventh Congress, 1861-63, and in several subsequent terms. In December, 1861, he offered a resolution that all slaves who shall leave their Masters or aid in suppress ing the Rebellion, shall be declared free.

After the end of the Civil War, he became the most prominent and influential member of the House of Representatives. and a strenuous opponent of President Johnson's policy. He advocated the extension of the right of suffrage to the freed

Mr.

men, and other measures of the Republican party. Stevens and Senator Sherman were the authors of the bill for the reconstruction of the seceded States which was passed by Congress in the session of 1866-67, and became a law notwithstanding the veto of the President. By this act, ten of the Southern States were divided into five military districts, and each district was subjected to the authority of a military commander until the people of these districts should adopt a new Constitution conceding impartial suffrage. Mr. Stevens, who was chairman of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, reported in February, 1867, the original bill, which Senator Sherman modified by an important amendment. He advocated the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in a speech on the 24th of February, 1868, and was a member of the committee of seven, then appointed, to prepare and report articles of impeachment. He was also one of the seven members elected March 2, 1868, as managers to conduct the impeachment of President Johnson. He was never married. Died at Wash

ington August, 1868.

He was one of the few who were not afraid to grasp first principles and lay hold of great truths, or to push them to their remotest logical result.

A

CHAPTER XXVI.

RECONSTRUCTION OF SOUTHERN STATES.

"One shining way for all to take,

One oath, one hope, one purpose grand,
One flag for all in all the land,

Upheld by all for Fredom's sake."

FTER the fall of the Southern Confederacy a grave proposition confronted the Country.

Hostilities between

the North and South were at an end and the all important question arising was then, the rebuilding of the governments of the Southern States. For four years these States had been in active resistance to the National Government and the laws of the United States had been set at naught and entirely disregarded. During this period many new laws had been enacted by Congress, proclamations issued by the Executive department, and several amendments to the Constitution adopted, all of which had been entirely disregarded by the eleven seceding States. Hence upon the admission of these States participating in the National affairs it became important that they should accede to these laws and the several amendments to the Constitution and be guided and governed by them.

The means to be adopted to accomplish these ends, was termed reconstruction. Many methods were proposed. After the surrender of the forts on the lower Mississippi in 1862. President Lincoln took the first steps in the direction of reconstruction. Benjamin F. Flanders, and Michael Hahn, residents of Louisiana, were elected as representatives in Congress and were admitted to their seats in that body on February 9, 1863, but no definite plan of reconstruction was then adopted. Mr. Lincoln's object was to restore harmony bet ween the National government and the loyal people in the seceded States. But nothing further in that direction was done until after the defeat of General Lee at Gettysburg in 1863.

In December of that year President Lincoln sent a definite plan to Congress and declared by proclamation a full pardon to all persons who had taken part in the secession movement and were willing to take oath to henceforth faithfully support and defend the Constitution and the Union of the States thereunder and to abide by all laws and proclamations made during the existing rebellion, having reference to slaves so long and so far as not modified and declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. Excepting however civil and diplomatic officers of the Confederate Government, those persons who left Judicial stations in the United States Government to aid in the Rebellion, military officers of the Confederacy above the rank of Colonel, and naval officers above the rank of Lieutenant, all who left seats in Congress to aid in the Rebellion, all who left the national Army or Navy to aid therein and all who had treated colored persons found in the military or naval service of the United States, otherwise than as prisoners of war.

In the plan proposed to Congress the President was willing to trust the authority of establishing a State Government to those persons who would submit to the oath, provided they were sufficient in number to cast a vote one tenth as large as the vote cast by the State at the Presidential Election in the year 1860, and any Government so established the President declared, should be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State should receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision which declares that the United States shall guarantee to each State a republican form of government. In pursuance of this plan pursuance of this plan on the 8th January 1864, a large Free-State Convention assembled in New Orleans, and in accordance to the plan of the Administration General Banks who was in command of the military district, issued a proclamation, at the request of the Convention, calling for an election of State officers to take place on February 22, and the officers chosen, to be installed on the first of March next. At this election Michael Hahn was chosen as Governor of Louisiana and was duly installed on the 4th March ensuing.

Early in April a Convention was called for the purpose of

forming & Constater for the State. The first important step taken by the Corean was to adopt a clause by a vote of eventy sneen mening the Constitution, declaring davery forever abolished the State. The Constitution as thus amended was silmined to the people of the State on the 5th day of September flowing, and it was ratified by a popular vote of 2986 for. to 1566 against. This being a Tide over ten per cent of the vote of 1500 for President, the new State Government was complete.

Simdar proceedings were adopted in Arkansas. Isaac Marghy was elected Governor in the spring of 1564, and Mesers, Fishback and Baxter were chosen to represent the State in Congress, but on the presentation of their credentials Congress was unwilling to admit them, and it was found that Congress was not in harmony with Mr. Lincoln's policy of reconstruction, an 1 in leed, a conflict between the President and Congress on the subject seemed imminent. And, on June 27, 15/4, the Senate, by a vote of twenty-seven to six, declared that the rebellion was not so far suppressed in Arkansas as to entitle that State to representation in Congress, and Fishback and Baxter were n taimitted as Senators. Similar resolutions were adopted by the House as to the Representatives from that State.

Following this, July 4, 1564, a bill was passed through Congress in which it was declared that the President should appoint a Provisional Governor for each of the States in Rebellion; that such Governor should as soon as military resistanc to the United States ceased, make an enrollment of the white male citizens, submitting to each an oath to support the Constitution, and if a majority of the citizens should take such oath, the Governor was to order an election of delegates to Constitutional Convention. The first duty of the Convention was to declare on behalf of the people their submission to the Constitution of the United States, and to incorporate into their Constitutions these provisions:

That no one who had held any office under the Confederats Government, except civil officers, merely ministerial or military