Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 03.pdf/292

 263 well subdue a rebellious people." He was strong and enjoyed his strength, and despite his lameness was in his younger days inter ested and active in athletic sports. He was a good horseman, and fond of the chase. He was simple and temperate in his habits, seldom using stimulants except upon prescription from his medical adviser. His wonderful energy and activity endured through a long career of seventy-six years. It is much to be regretted that Mr. Edward MacPherson, Clerk of the House of Repre sentatives, has not published his long-prom ised biography of Thaddeus Stevens. He was a warm personal friend of Stevens, and one of the executors of his will, and it is eminently fitting that such a work should come from his pen. However much a his tory may acquire from having been written in the more critical and impartial light of succeeding ages, a biography, unless it fol lows close upon the life of its subject, ne cessarily loses many interesting personal reminiscences, which give a warmth and color to the lives of all great men; and the men who were in touch and sympathy with

this great lawyer and statesman will soon, like him, have found a more quiet abode. Thaddeus Stevens died at Lancaster on the nth day of August, 1868 That city, within whose limits repose the remains of President James Buchanan, Generals Ed ward Hand and John F. Reynolds, and oth ers of like eminence, never beheld a more distinguished body of men than those who followed the body of Stevens to its burial in a private cemetery selected by himself. In this selection he wished to evidence his supreme devotion to the great object of his life's work, — the destruction of slavery and the elevation of the slave, as is set forth by the inscription on his tomb, which was pre pared by his own hand and needs no further comment, — "I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for soli tude; but finding other cemeteries limited by charter rules as to race, I have chosen it, that I might be enabled to illustrate by my death the principle I have advocated through a long life, — equality of man be fore his Creator."