to 1859. He had been
trained in the Whig school, and had early espoused the strong Federal
principles which recognized the doctrine of secession as a heresy, and
disunion as a crime. In joining the Rebellion he renounced a creed of
Nationality in which the Democratic promoters of the Confederacy
had never believed. He incurred thereby a heavier responsibility
than those who, trained in the strict construction school, found
sovereignty in the State and recognized no superior allegiance to the
National Government; who in fact denied that there was any such power
existing as a _National_ Government. If Mr. Stephens had maintained
his original devotion to the _National_ idea, a noble course lay before
him; but when he drifted from his moorings of loyalty to the Union he
surrendered the position that could have given him fame. He was
rewarded with the second office in the Confederacy--which may be taken
as the measure of his importance to the Secession cause, according to
the estimate of the original conspirators against the Union.

Mr. Stephens was physically a shattered man when he resumed his seat in
Congress, but the activity of his mind was unabated. With all their
disposition to look upon as an illustrious statesman, it must be
frankly confessed that he made little impression upon the new
generation of public men. Instead of the admiration which his speeches
were once said to have elicited in the House, the wonder now grew that
he ever could have been considered an oracle or a leader. He had been
dominated in the crises of his career by the superior will and greater
ability of Robert Toombs; and he now appeared merely as a relic of the
past in a representative assembly in which his voice was said to have
been once potential.

At the close of the Forty-first Congress in the month of February,
1871, an Act was passed providing a government for the District of
Columbia. It repealed the charters of the cities of Washington and
Georgetown, destroyed the old Levy court which existed under the
statutes of Maryland before the District was ceded, and placed over the
entire territory a form of government totally differing from any which
had theretofore existed. It consisted of a Governor, and a Legislative
Assembly composed of a Council and a House of Delegates. The Governor
and the Council were to be appointed by the President and confirmed by
the Senate, and the House of Delegates was to be elected by the people;