Virginia Free Press

Groans of the Ring-Master.

Thad. Stevens is still grieved at the recollection of the Rebel raid which destroyed the damageable putting of his furnace near Gettysburg. His voice is still for confiscation. He takes Senator Wilson to task for intimating in his Southern speeches that "there would be no impediment to Southern representation in Congress if they elected Union men."

This gracious promise Stevens repudiates. He says "no man should make promises for the party. By what authority does any one say that by the election of loyal delegates they will be admitted? By what authority say that Virginia will elect two loyal Senators, while in truth there is no Virginia?" And he says further: "Who authorized any orator to say there would be no confiscation?"

In response to this it might be asked: "Who authorized the vindictive old sinner to threaten confiscation?" He suggests "a mild confiscation to pay those who have been robbed by disloyal men." These are his "wishes."

Doubtless he wishes to get a Southern plantation in payment for his Furnace. That is the gist of his utterances. All we have to say is this: If the Devil has had in preparation a red-hot furnace for this mischievous agitator, then there is no use for a hell—an unquenchable fire to torment ordinary sinners.

The cool impudence with which Stevens utters his dictum to give away other people's lands is only equalled by that of Old Satan when he took the Savior to a high mountain and offered him boundless acres which did not belong to him.