ity
as the best form of nomination to the office, a large number of
the friends of Mr. Blair changed their votes before the result was
authoritatively declared, and Mr. Grow was announced as receiving
90 votes,--a majority of all the members. Two members appeared
from Virginia. The other Confederate States were without
representation. Emerson Etheridge of Tennessee was chosen Clerk,
in compliment to his fidelity and courage as a Union man.

The House was filled with able men, many of whom had parliamentary
experience. The natural leader, who assumed his place by common
consent, was Thaddeus Stevens, a man of strong peculiarities of
character, able, trained, and fearless. Born in Vermont and educated
at Dartmouth, he had passed all his adult years in Pennsylvania,
and was thoroughly identified with the State which he had served
with distinction both in her own Legislature and in Congress. He
had the reputation of being somewhat unscrupulous as to political
methods, somewhat careless in personal conduct, somewhat lax in
personal morals; but to the one great object of his life, the
destruction of slavery and the elevation of the slave, he was
supremely devoted. From the pursuit of that object nothing could
deflect him. Upon no phase of it would he listen to compromise.
Any man who was truly anti-slavery was his friend. Whoever espoused
the cause and proved faithless in never so small a degree, became
his enemy, inevitably and irreconcilably. Towards his own race he
seemed often to be misanthropic. He was learned in the law, and
for a third of a century had held high rank at the bar of a State
distinguished for great lawyers. He was disposed to be taciturn.
A brilliant talker, he did not relish idle and aimless conversation.
He was much given to reading, study, and reflection, and to the
retirement which enabled him to gratify his tastes. As was said
of Mr. Emerson, Mr. Stevens loved solitude and understood its use.

Upon all political questions Mr. Stevens was an authority. He
spoke with ease and readiness, using a style somewhat resembling
the crisp, clear sententiousness of Dean Swift. Seldom, even in
the most careless moment, did a sentence escape his lips, that
would not bear the test of grammatical and rhetorical criticism.
He possessed the keenest wit, and was unmerciful in its use toward
those whom he did not like. He illustrated in concrete form the
difference between wit and humor. He did not i