ely
refused to sign the Constitution because the colored people were denied
the elective franchise. Severe as he exhibited himself toward the rebels
during and subsequent to the civil war, Mr. Stevens was not by nature,
as might be supposed, inhuman in his feelings and sympathies toward his
fellow men. To the colored race he seemed always more attached and
tender than to the whites, perhaps because they were enslaved and
oppressed. He was opposed to slavery, to imprisonment for debt, and to
capital punishment. There were strange contradictions in his character.
In his political career he had ardent supporters, though many who voted
with him had not a high regard for his principles. His course and
conduct in the Legislature and government of Pennsylvania did much to
debauch the political morals of that State, and in the celebrated
"buck-shot war" he displayed the bold and reckless disregard of justice
and popular rights that distinguished the latter years of his
Congressional life, when he became the acknowledged leader of the
radical reconstruction party in Congress.

In his political career and management, though strongly sustained by a
local constituency, he had experienced a series of disappointments. The
defeat of John Quincy Adams, whom he greatly admired, in 1828, and the
election of General Jackson, against whom his prejudices were
inveterate, were to him early and grievous vexations.

The attempt of Mr. Adams on his retirement to establish a national
anti-Masonic party was warmly seconded by Stevens, and with greater
success in Pennsylvania than attended his distinguished leader in
Massachusetts. The failure of the attempt was more severely felt by the
disciple than by the master. After the annihilation of the anti-Masonic
organization and the discomfiture of the buck-shot war, Stevens was
less conspicuous, though prominent for a few months in 1840, when he
came forward as an earnest advocate of the nomination of General
Harrison in that singular campaign which resulted in the General's
election. His efficiency and zeal in behalf of both the nomination and
election of the "hero of Tippecanoe" were acknowledged, and he and his
friends anticipated they would be recognized and he rewarded by a seat
in the Cabinet. But he had given offence to the great Whig leader of
that day by his preference of Harrison for President, and had moreover
an unsavory reputation, which, with the declared opposition of Clay and
Webste