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. 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. This becomes more and more necessary every day; and the late decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has rendered immediate action by Congress upon the question of the establishment of governments in the rebel States absolutely indispensable. The same law which gives a verdict in a White mans favor should give a verdict in a black mans favor on the same state of facts. No State could order the election of members until Congress had ordered a census and made an apportionment. 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. . 2 April 1865-August 1868 (Pittsburgh: . Thaddeus Stevens April 4, 1792 - August 11, 1868. Analytical Services; Analytical Method Development and Validation There are those who admit the justice and ultimate utility of granting impartial suffrage to all men, but they think it is impolitic. The employer offered to pay Watson every dollar that he might assess for the damage that had been done. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'wikisummaries_org-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_1',121,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-wikisummaries_org-large-mobile-banner-1-0');By the time Congress arrived to begin its session in December 1865, a confrontation between the two opposing systems of Reconstruction, as well as Johnson and Stevens, was imminent. 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. Congress seemed fully in control. 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 deny that there is any understanding, expressed or implied, that upon the adoption of the amendment by any State, that such State may be admitted, (before the amendment becomes part of the Constitution.? 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. . our republican Government firm and stable forever. We know Thaddeus Stevens as an ardent abolitionist who championed the rights of blacks for decadesup to, during, and after the Civil War. [Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens was a Congressman from Pennsylvania who long opposed slavery and advocated for black suffrage. No former laws, no former compacts or treaties existed to bind the belligerents. No one then supposed that those States had any governments, except such as they had formed under their rebel organization. ( Thaddeus Stevens, speech to Congress, March 19 1867). He was an early and ardent supporter of abolition of slavery. What are the great questions which now divide the nation? - wrapinknot and whether the election and returns are according to They are all asserted, in some form or other, in our DECLARATION or organic law. Stevens entered the political sphere in 1833, serving for four years in the state legislature as a member of the Anti-Masonic Party. In the middle of the decade he joined the newly formed Republican Party, which opposed extension of slavery into the western territories; again he was elected to Congress (185968), where he became, in the words of a fellow member, the natural leader, who assumed his place by common consent. He exerted this leadership by means of his sarcastic eloquence, his parliamentary skills, and his privileges as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and later of the Appropriations Committee. . Whatever law punishes a white man for a crime shall punish the black man precisely in the same way and to the same degree. of contract, or of managing the ordinary business of life. . But I never dreamed that all punishment could be dispensed with in human society. Congress and in the Electoral college. Thaddeus Stevens, "Reconstruction" Speech, September 6, 1865. Do you avow the party purpose? Inaugurated on a cold March day 1853. presenting themselves from a recognized State possess the . Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. When Congress met in December 1865, Stevens took the lead in excluding the traditional senators and representatives from the South. 4 0 obj be elected from the North, will always give a majority in The 1857 Dred Scott decision in the. [Washington, D. . the Constitution shall have been so amended as to make it No Government official, from the President and Chief Justice down, can do anyone act which is not prescribed and directed by the legislative power. If there be any who are afraid of the rivalry of the black man in office or in business, I have only to advise them to try and beat their competitor in knowledge and business capacity, and there is no danger that his white neighbors will prefer his African rival to himself. Johnson's policies allowed many former Confederates to regain political power. 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. They must come in as new states or remain as conquered provinces. This Congress is bound to provide for them until they can take care of themselves. 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. In failing health, Stevens requested that he be buried among Negroes resting in a cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And I need hardly say that the first time that the South with their copperhead allies obtain the command of Congress it will be repealed. The third section may encounter more difference of opinion here. if we leave them to the legislation of their late masters, I need not enumerate these partial and oppressive laws. In Territories Congress fixes the qualifications of Since the conquest they have been There are several good reasons for the passage of this bill [Military Reconstruction Act]. On his tombstone were carved the words he had composed, explaining that he had chosen this place so that he might illustrate in death the principle he had advocated throughout a long life; namely, Equality of man before his Creator., United States politician and military officer. This amendment once adopted cannot be annulled without two thirds of Congress. Whoever had then asserted that those States had remained unfractured, and entitled to all the rights and privileges which they enjoyed before the rebellion, and were on a level with their loyal conquerors, would have been deemed a fool, and would have been found insane by any inquisition de lunatico inquirendo.. To reconstruct the nation, to admit new States, to guaranty republican governments to old States are all legislative acts. Congress must create Contributor: Stevens Thaddeus . Stevens became a natural leader in Congress and served as a member of the House until his death in 1868. Such a course would soon surrender the Government into the hands of rebels. I know that there is a morbid sensibility, sometimes called mercy, which affects a few of all classes, from the priest to the clown, which has more sympathy for the murderer on the gallows than for his victim. Congressional Globe, 39th Congress, 2nd session, Jan. 3 1867. They formed an entirely new constitution; a new and distinct government, called the confederate States of America. They passed their own laws, without regard to any former national connection. . The next day Watson went to the employer of the colored man and complained. My policy asserts full power in the Executive. 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. The Candidates in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Race, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Thaddeus Stevens, Birth Year: 1792, Birth date: April 4, 1792, Birth State: Vermont, Birth City: Danville, Birth Country: United States. Now, Mr. Speaker, unless Congress proceeds at once to do something to protect these people from the barbarians who are now daily murdering them; who are murdering the loyal whites daily and daily putting into secret graves not only hundreds but thousands of the colored people of that country; unless Congress proceeds at once to adopt some means for their protection, I ask you and every man who loves liberty whether we will not be liable to the just censure of the world for our negligence or our cowardice or our want of ability to do so? proper for them as territorial governments. They did not claim to raise an insurrection to reform the Government of the country -a rebellion against the laws-but they asserted their entire independence of that Government and of all obligations to its laws. Updates? Whatever means of redress is afforded to one shall be afforded to all. . Though the President is Commander-in-Chief, Congress is his commander; and, God willing, he shall obey. 251-252. Twenty years ago I denounced it as a despotism. Congress must create States and declare when they are entitled to be represented. 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. . BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. 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. As the nation edged toward Civil War, Stevens, now living in Pennsylvania, was elected to Congress in 1849 as an antislavery Republican. white, will be oppressed, exiled, or murdered. 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. To Stevens, the procedure by which a territory becomes a state was the logical blueprint for this process. With the basis unchanged the 83 South The two powers mutually prepared to settle the question by arms. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1814, removed to York, Pennsylvania, was admitted to the bar (in Maryland), and for fifteen years practiced at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. An ancient philosopher, whose antagonist admitted that what he required was just but deemed it impolitic, asked him: Do you believe in Hades? I would say to those above referred to, who admit the justice of human equality before the law but doubt its policy: Do you believe in heIl?. We practice justice to all men, and accustom themselves to make . How difficult in a day to unlearn it. and obey equal laws. 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. Stevens died in Washington, D.C. on August 11, 1868. The white Union men are in a great minority in each of those States. That time ought to be present now. We have unchained them from the stake so as to allow them locomotion, provided they do not walk in paths which are trod by white men. Stevens was also a staunch opponent of President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies.] Congress is the only power that can act in the matter. The Economy also feel with the panic of 1854. These extreme measures allowed Stevens to push through the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau, created to help former slaves, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which defined citizenship as including anyone born in the United States without regard to race (a provision enshrined a few years later in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution). In this, Stevens was zealous, but well outside of the mainstream of Northern opinion, a fact that would shape the mixed record of accomplishment and frustration that followed. The They were satisfied that the United States should maintain its old Constitution and laws. Stevens had a difficult childhood; in addition to growing up fatherless, he was poor and had a club foot. On the result of the war depended the fate and ulterior condition of the contending parties. Image Details A popular print from 1867 was an allegory of Reconstruction. The 14th Amendmentprohibiting local and state governments from depriving citizens of "life, liberty or property," among other important protections for citizenslater served as a basis for civil rights legislation. With the basis unchanged the 83 Southern members, with the Democrats that will in the best times be elected from the North, will always give a majority in Congress and in the Electoral college. The future condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conqueror. The Reconstruction Act also divided the South into five military districts under commanders empowered to employ the army to protect black property and citizens. In this speech, Stevens called on his colleagues to support the proposed Fourteenth Amendmentarguing that it would help to bring about legal equality for African Americans. Thaddeus Stevens, (born April 4, 1792, Danville, Vermont, U.S.died August 11, 1868, Washington, D.C.), U.S. The first section, prohibits the States from abridging the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, or unlawfully depriving them of life, liberty, or property, or of denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The papers of lawyer and United States representative from Pennsylvania Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) consist of 4,750 items (7,769 images) in eight containers and one oversize folder. Such a course would be senseless, inconsistent, and illogical. 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. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. But I beg gentlemen to consider the magnitude of the task which was imposed upon the committee. There are periods in the history of nations when statesmen can make themselves names for posterity; but such occasions are never improved by cowards. Among the people I believe it will be the most popular of all the provisions; it prohibits rebels from voting for members of Congress and electors of President until 1870. <>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S>> acting in the Union, or of being counted as valid States, until The President claims the right to exercise them. Instead of seeking the quick reconciliation that Lincoln and Johnson promoted, Stevens was comfortable both with the process of Southern reintegration taking years and with Congress being the final arbiter of when each Southern state could rejoin the nation.