As the nation edged toward Civil War, Stevens, now living in Pennsylvania, was elected to Congress in 1849 as an antislavery Republican. Popular interest in punishing or governing the South, as well as in ensuring justice for freedmen, waned, however, as Northerners prioritized a return to prosperity. I know there is between those who are influenced by this cry of negro equality and the opinion that there is still danger that the negro will be the smartest, for I never saw even a contraband slave that had not more sense than such men. Omissions? Twenty years ago I denounced it as a despotism. Call Us Today! [Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens was a Congressman from Pennsylvania and one of the primary champions of Congressional measures like the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Such is the law of God and such ought to be the law of man. . As a politician in Pennsylvania, he supported free public education and suffrage for African Americans. The war was acknowledged by other nations as a public war between independent belligerents. Congress denies him all power in the matter, except those of advice, and has determined to maintain such denial. To allow it would be yielding the whole question and admitting the unimpaired rights of the seceded States. Thaddeus Stevens, "Reconstruction" Speech, September 6, 1865. Are such men fit to sit in the places of statesmen? This doctrine does not mean that a negro shall sit on the same seat or eat at the same table with a white man. He served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction and chaired the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! We may not aspire to fame. While slavery sat upon her defiant throne, and insulted and intimidated the trembling North, the South frequently divided on questions of policy between Whigs and Democrats, and gave victory alternately to the sections. In Territories Congress fixes the qualifications of electors; and I know of no better place nor better occasion for the conquered rebels and the conqueror to practice justice to all men, and accustom themselves to make and obey equal laws. In the midst of the political Babel which has been produced by the intermingling of secessionists, rebels, pardoned traitors, hissing Copperheads, and apostate Republicans, such a confusion of tongues is heard that it is difficult to understand either the questions that are asked or the answers that are given. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). I desire that as early as possible, without curtailing debate, this House shall come to some conclusion as to what shall be done with the rebel States. Whatever law punishes a white man for a crime shall punish the black man precisely in the same way and to the same degree. Thaddeus Stevens, "Reconstruction" Speech, September 6, 1865. The first two years of Congressional Reconstruction saw Southern states rewrite their Constitutions and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. My only objection to it is that it is too lenient. In 1868, he led the charge to impeach Johnson, who was narrowly acquitted in the Senate. Link couldn't be copied to clipboard! But finding other cemeteries limited as to race by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, equality of man before his creator.". They are all asserted, in some form or other, in our DECLARATION or organic law. Alert to the return to power of traditional white Southern leadership, he argued that the seceded states were in the condition of conquered provinces to which restraints of the Constitution did not apply. The leader of the Radical Republicans in the House, Stevens was a lawyer, politician, and staunch abolitionist. Now, sir, it is for these reasons that I insist on the passage of some such measure as this. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. [Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens was a Congressman from Pennsylvania who long opposed slavery and advocated for black suffrage. The 19th Amendment: How Women Won the Vote. For I believe, on my conscience, that on the continued ascendancy of that party depends the safety of this great nation. What are the great questions which now divide the nation? Congress insists on changing the basis of representation so as to put white voters on an equality in both sections, and that such change shall precede the admission of any State. Thaddeus Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont, on April 4, 1792. . Ask, what is the policy of Congress? and the answer is not always at hand. As a politician in Pennsylvania, he supported free public education and suffrage for African Americans. <> The Federal arms triumphed. No one then pretended that the eleven States had any rights under the Constitution of the United States, or any right to interfere in the legislation of the country. They were satisfied that the United States should maintain its old Constitution and laws. Stevens had a long history of opposition to slavery and was outraged over the secession of the South. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. . . Is their judgment misled by their kindness; or are they unconsciously drifting into the haven of power at the other end of the avenue? Thaddeus Stevens was one of the most influential people in shaping public policy during the Reconstruction era, but not all of his ideas were implemented. . But if full justice could not be obtained at once I would not refuse to do what is possible. When Congress met in December 1865, Stevens took the lead in excluding the traditional senators and representatives from the South. 1 0 obj The conclusion of the Civil War may have halted the direct warfare between the Union and Confederate armies, but disagreements among Northerners over what to do with the South were just beginning. The people have once more nobly done their duty. Two years after moving to Pennsylvania, Stevens was admitted to the bar and began practicing in Gettysburg. Born in Danville, Vermont, in 1792, Stevens grew up poor, yet he graduated from Dartmouth College and became an attorney before entering politics in 1833. and whether the election and returns are according to I am now confining my arguments to negro suffrage in the rebel States. exclaims some horror-stricken demagogue. Their subjects had liberty of motion and of labor, but the laws were made without and against their will; but I must declare that, in my judgment, they were as really free governments as ours is to-day. Combining patriotic and religious imagery, it depicted Americans rebuilding a pavilion representing the United States. That time ought to be present now. Thaddeus Stevens on the Great Topic of the Hour. Analytical Services; Analytical Method Development and Validation Rather than debate the presidential plan, Stevens took a different tack, questioning the very propriety of having the executive branch direct Reconstruction policy. After Stevens's death in 1868, the Freedmen's Bureau was chronically underfunded, and although many African Americans held political office in the reconstructed states, the power of the former Confederates rose again through terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. No sane man believed that they had any organic or municipal laws which the United States were bound to respect. Importantly, the speech placed Congress itself in charge of Reconstruction policya fact that galled President Andrew Johnson, who promoted a relatively simple reinstatement process for Southern states. There are several good reasons for the passage of this bill. But every other government is a despotism. Johnson's policies allowed many former Confederates to regain political power. In either case, it is very plain that it requires the action of Congress to enable I them to form a State government and send representatives to Congress. Military rule is necessarily despotic, what its framers intended; and so as to secure perpetual Thaddeus Stevens speech of December 18 1865 The President assumes, what no one doubts, that the late rebel States have lost their constitutional relations to the Union, and are incapable of representation in Congress, except by permission of the Government. I waive now the question of punishment which, if we are wise, will still be inflicted by moderate confiscations, both as a reproof and example. Thaddeus Stevens was one of the main leaders of the Radical Republican faction in Congress during Reconstruction. . Now different degrees of punishment are inflicted, not on account of the magnitude of the crime, but according to the color of their skin. Not in the Commander-in-Chief of the armies, for .he can only hold them under military rule until the sovereign legislative power of the conqueror shall give them law. In monarchical Governments, where the sovereign power rests in the Crown, the king would have fixed the condition of the conquered provinces. governments for them. The leader of the Radical Republicans in the House, Stevens was a lawyer, politician, and staunch abolitionist. Image Details The Joint Committee on Reconstruction, comprising members from the House and Senate, gathered testimony on conditions in the South from 144 witnesses. Since the conquest they have been Thaddeus Stevens was a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who became the face of the opposition to Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson's lenient approach to the South after the Civil War. The veto of the President and their votes on the bill are conclusive evidence of that. first of those amendments is to change the basis of That decision, although in terms perhaps not as infamous as the Dred Scott decision, is yet far more dangerous in its operation upon the lives and liberties of the loyal men of this country. They have determined that while in their keeping the Constitution shall not be violated with impunity. endobj During the dictatorship of Pericles his laws were just, but Greece was not free. . The day before the Pennsylvania Senate had voted to repeal this act, but Stevens' speech moved the state House to vote against repeal and the Senate to take another vote in support of free public schools. Throughout this period Stevens urged that Southern plantations be taken from their owners and that part of the land be divided among freedmen, with proceeds of the balance to be used toward paying off the national war debt; this confiscation plan failed, however, to gain congressional support. Stevens successfully prevented the first few new state governments implemented under Lincoln and Johnson's Reconstruction plan from being recognized, refusing to seat the senators and representatives elected by those states. SUMMARY On May 8, 1866, Thaddeus Stevens delivered this speech introducing the 14thAmendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. What can be plainer? [Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens was a Congressman from Pennsylvania and one of the primary champions of Congressional measures like the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Some answer, Your civil rights bill [the Civil Rights Act of 1866] secures the same things. That is partly true, but a law is repealable by a majority. Southern pride would not long brook a hopeless minority. Heaven forbid that the southern states, or any one of them, should be represented by this floor until such monuments of freedom are built high and firm. To be sure many subordinate items of the policy of each may be easily sketched. When Stevens rose to speak in the House of Representatives on December 18, 1865, his opposition to Johnson's Reconstruction plan was already well known. By 1866, the Radical Republicans had taken significant control of Congress, due in no small part to Stevens's leadership. That is a matter of taste which every man must decide for himself. In this country the whole sovereignty rests with the people, and is exercised through their Representatives in Congress assembled. Now, you must divide them between loyalists, without regard to color, and disloyalists, or you will be the perpetual vassals of the free trade, irritated, revengeful South. 4 0 obj If, perchance, the accumulated quicksands render it impossible to reach in every part so firm a basis, then it becomes our duty to drive deep and solid the substituted piles on which to build. All Rights Reserved. He claims the right to reconstruct by his own power. Speech on Reconstruction Domestic Policy Education Federal Government Race and Equality Religion in America Rights and Liberties State Government by Thaddeus Stevens January 03, 1867 Edited and introduced by Scott Yenor Cite Part of these Core Document Collections Reconstruction View Study Questions Together with Charles Sumner in the Senate, the Pennsylvania native opposed President Lincoln's Reconstruction plan as too lenient. Such a course would soon surrender the Government into the hands of rebels. No State could order the election of members until Congress had ordered a census and made an apportionment. . Thaddeus Stevens speech of December 18 1865; Address of a convention of Negroes held in Alexandria Virginia August 1865; Alexander Stephens on Reconstruction April 11 1866; Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction June 20 1866; Charles Sumner Opinion on the trial of Andrew Johnson 1868 In the second place, it is a necessity in order to protect the loyal white men in the seceded States. law. Whatever law allows the white man to testify in court shall allow the man of color to do the same. No civil authority would prosecute him; and, when taken into custody by the military authority, he is discharged by order of the President under this most injurious and iniquitous decision. He defended the system of segregation developed in the South after Reconstruction (including lynching); segregation was not challenged until the 1950s and 1960s. presenting themselves from a recognized State possess the 2 0 obj Since the surrender of the armies of the confederate States of America a little has been done toward establishing this Government upon the true principles of liberty and justice; and but a little if we stop here. He opposes the amendment to the Constitution, which changes the base of representation, and desires the old slave States to have the benefit of their increase of freemen without increasing the number of votes; in short, he desires to make the vote of one rebel in South Carolina equal to the vote of three freemen in Pennsylvania or New York. Call you this a free Republic where four millions are subjects but not citizens? Nobody, I believe, pretends that with their old constitutions and frames of government they can be permitted to claim their old rights under the Constitution. If any State shall exclude any of her adult male citizens from the elective franchise, or abridge that right, she shall forfeit her right to representation in the same proportion. . Though Commander- in-Chief by the Constitution, he would have nothing to command, either by land or water, until Congress raised both Army and Navy. In the States they form the great mass of the loyal men. How do you answer the principle inscribed in Our political scripture, That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed? 13 Without such consent government is a tyranny, and you exercising it are tyrants. outside or defunct States, and providing proper civil >IQ As both a Southerner (who had remained loyal to the Union) and a Democrat, Johnson was hard-pressed to implement Lincoln's plan, especially in the face of a public discourse dominated by Thaddeus Stevens and the Radical Republicans. Congress also prescribes the rules and regulations to govern the Army. He supported banks, internal improvements and public schools, and spoke out against slavery; Jacksonian Democrats; and Freemasons, believing that they were contriving plans to unfairly gain government positions. Stevens was also a staunch opponent of President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies.] The President is for exonerating the conquered rebels from all the expense and damages of the war, and for compelling the loyal citizens to pay the whole debt caused by the rebellion. %PDF-1.5 It is obvious from all this that the first duty of Congress is to pass a law declaring the condition of these outside or defunct States, and providing proper civil governments for them. He focused much of his political attention on civil rights, eventually. . 3 0 obj Title Thaddeus Stevens Papers: Speeches and Writing File, 1835-1868; 1865; Names Stevens, Thaddeus, 1792-1868 No said he , I claim the right to chastise the scoundrel. He followed the colored man, took out his revolver, and deliberately shot him dead in the presence of that community. Stevens was an opponent of slavery before the war and after the war sought to secure the rights of the newly freed population in the former Confederacy. Beyond this I do not agree that the policy of the parties are defined. The next day Watson went to the employer of the colored man and complained. Then Persia, with her kings and satraps, was free; then Turkey is free! The states of the entire southern half of the nation had seceded, but they were again under federal jurisdiction after the Union victory. To my mind it is either the most ignorant and shallow mistake of his duties, or the most brazen and impudent usurpation of power. Corrections? Congressional Globe, 39th Congress, 2nd session, Jan. 3 1867. The following speech lays out what he felt Congressional Reconstruction should encompass. On the result of the war depended the fate and ulterior condition of the contending parties. Thaddeus Stevens was a Radical Republican leader and one of the most powerful members in the U.S. House of Representatives. proper for them as territorial governments. . In failing health, Stevens had requested to be buried in Shreiner-Concord Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because the state accepted all races. Not in the judicial branch of Government, for it only adjudicates and does not prescribe laws. suffrage. The President assumes, what no one doubts, that the late rebel States have lost their constitutional relations to the Union, and are incapable of representation in Congress, except by permission of the Government. (The Free Soil Party had dissipated by the mid-1850s, and was largely absorbed by the new Republican Party, of which Stevens was a member.) And yet certain of our distinguished friends propose to admit State after State before this becomes a part of the Constitution. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thaddeus-Stevens, HistoryNet - Biography of Thaddeus Stevens, National Endowment for the Humanities - Biography of Thaddeus Stevens, Spartacus Educational - Biography of Thaddeus Stevens, Thaddeus Stevens - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Excerpts from Henry Carey The Harmony of Interests Agricultural, Manufacturing & Commercial 1851, Excerpts from Henrey Carey The Slave Trade Domestic and Foreign 1853, Excerpt from Frederick Law Olmsted A journey in the Seaboard Slave States 1856, The Constitution of the Confederate States of America 1861, McClellan Letter to Lincoln on His Evacuation from the Penninsula Campaign 1862, Thaddeus Stevens speech of December 18 1865, Address of a convention of Negroes held in Alexandria Virginia August 1865, Alexander Stephens on Reconstruction April 11 1866, Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction June 20 1866, Charles Sumner Opinion on the trial of Andrew Johnson 1868, Exerpt from James W. Grimes Opinion on the Trial of Andrew Johnson 1868, Resolutions of a meeting of the Illinois State Farmers' Association April 1873. practice justice to all men, and accustom themselves to make electors; and I know of no better place nor better Born to Joshua and Sarah (Morrill) Stevens, he was the second of four sons. ( Thaddeus Stevens, speech to Congress, March 19 1867). Thaddeus Stevens was a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who became the face of the opposition to Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson's lenient approach to the South after the Civil War. Early in his career, he developed a hatred for bondage and, subsequently, defended many fugitives without charging them legal fees. How absurd that a mere executive officer should claim creative powers! By 1861, as the civil war began, Stevens was responsible for its financing as chairman of the committee on ways and means. Astrological Sign: Aries, Death Year: 1868, Death date: August 11, 1868. On April 11, 1835, Thaddeus Stevens gave a speech in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in defense of the Free Schools Act of 1834. ; Hon. . Let us now refer to the provisions of the proposed amendment. There is more reason why colored voters should be admitted in the rebel States than in the Territories. The infernal laws of slavery have prevented them from Since, then, the President cannot enact, alter, or modify a single law; cannot even create a petty office within his own sphere of duties; if, in short, he is the mere servant of the people, who issue their commands to him through Congress, whence does he derive the constitutional power to create new States; to remodel old ones; to dictate organic laws; to fix the qualification of voters; to declare that States are republican and entitled to command Congress to admit their Representatives? The President could not even create bureaus or Departments to facilitate his executive operations. The freedom of a Government does not depend upon the quality of its laws, but upon the power that has the right to enact them. Summary of president Thaddeus Stevens term 1853-1857: The Four party system. Petition to US Congress for Womens Suffrage, President Andrew Jacksons Message to Congress On Indian Removal, Canada Bans Commercial Fishing in Lakes St. Clair and Erie, Great Britain Withdraws from the Concert of Europe. In . He desires that the traitors (having sternly executed that most important leader, Rickety Weirze,7 as a high example) should be exempt from further fine, imprisonment, forfeiture, exile, or capital punishment, and be declared entitled to all the rights of loyal citizens. "Reconstruction," Hon. Nearly six years ago a bloody war arose between different sections of the United States. I hope I have a heart as capable of feeling for human woe as others. If it be just, it should not be denied; if it be necessary, it should be adopted; if it be a punishment to traitors, they deserve it. However, his plan proved too radical for many war-weary Northerners. Stevens, who led the Radical faction in the House, along with Charles Sumner in the Senate, were determined both to ensure that the sacrifices made during the Civil War were not wasted by handing power back to the same Southern politicians who had driven secession forward four years earlier and to see that the freedmen's civil rights, including the right to vote, were guaranteed. As a member of the joint Committee on Reconstruction, he played an important part in the preparation of the Fourteenth (due process) Amendment to the Constitution and the military reconstruction acts of 1867. They each raised more than half a million armed men. Even that is not left to the Commander-in-Chief. we had better have left them in bondage. My policy asserts full power in the Executive. Following the Civil War, Stevens served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction and played an important role in drafting both the 14th Amendment and the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Admitted to the Maryland bar, he moved to Pennsylvania to practice law in 1816. Lincoln may have been the only one who could have made this arrangement work, but he was assassinated in April 1865, leaving his vice president, Johnson, as the executive in charge of Reconstruction. Thaddeus Stevens on the Great Topic of the Hour. Such a course would be senseless, inconsistent, and illogical. The 1857 Dred Scott decision in the. But the Constitution limits only the action of Congress, and is not a limitation on the States. Not in the Executive, for he only executes and cannot make laws. Do you avow the party purpose? I pronounce it no nearer to a true Republic now when twenty-five million of a privileged class exclude five million from all participation in the rights of government. ?]J2Tw7@F VQ"EQ[?-p_' (E*@zEg* UWQ?-]B[zel}%&H&HR[l`l6$zU~_}s:P)}zVYg7/kxQUDkzd|gno@>nN;q{DG 5%Z. homesteads, and hedge them around with protective laws; All Rights Reserved. He desires that the States created by him shall be acknowledged as valid States, while at the same time he inconsistently declares that the old rebel States are in full existence, and always have been, and have equal rights with the loyal States. If the doctrine enunciated in that decision be true, never were the people of any country anywhere, or at any time, in such terrible peril as are our loyal brethren at the South, whether they be black or white, whether they go there from the North or are natives of the rebel States. white, will be oppressed, exiled, or murdered. Thaddeus Stevens | 1866 Summary On May 8, 1866, Thaddeus Stevens delivered this speech introducing the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. We know Thaddeus Stevens as an ardent abolitionist who championed the rights of blacks for decadesup to, during, and after the Civil War. A gentleman from Richmond, who had personal knowledge of the facts, told me the circumstances of the murder. Thus short of their power, they would soon become restive. If we do not furnish them with homesteads, and hedge them around with protective laws; if we leave them to the legislation of their late masters, we had better have left them in bondage. An anti-Masonic member of the state legislature (183341), he proved himself a friend of banks, internal improvements, and public schools and a foe of Freemasons, Jacksonian Democrats, and slaveholders. What power would the President have over anyone subject of government until Congress had legislated on that subject? After the Confederacy was defeated, the southern states were devastated describe a time when you were treated unfairly. In rebuilding, it is necessary to clear away the rotten and defective portions of the old foundations, and to sink deep and found the repaired edifice upon the firm foundation of eternal justice. Dead States cannot restore their existence "as it was." That decision has unsheathed the dagger of the assassin and places the knife of the rebel at the throat of every man who dares proclaim himself to be now, or to have been heretofore, a loyal Union man. Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" (2012) is a two-and-a-half hour film that zeroes in on a defining moment from near the end of the Civil War -January 1865 and the debate over the proposed amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery. But I beg gentlemen to consider the magnitude of the task which was imposed upon the committee. This is a bill designed to enable loyal men, so far as I could discriminate them in these States, to form governments which shall be in loyal hands, that they may protect themselves from such outrages as I have mentioned. He argued that, since the Confederate states had divorced themselves from the Union, there was no arrangement so proper for them as territorial governments. Neither the president nor the judiciary had the power to create states out of unincorporated territories before the Civil War, nor should they have the power to do so now, according to Stevens.
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