Stevens was also a staunch opponent of President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies.] They each raised more than half a million armed men. 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. Congress refuses to treat the States created by him as of any validity, and denies that the old rebel States have any existence which gives them any rights under the Constitution. Congressional Globe, December 18, 1865, p. 72. Whatever law protects the white man shall afford equal protection to the black man. Start your constitutional learning journey. 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. Dead States cannot restore their existence "as it was." wrapinknot - wrapinknot by ragtag online; ! As the nation edged toward Civil War, Stevens, now living in Pennsylvania, was elected to Congress in 1849 as an antislavery Republican. The infernal laws of slavery have prevented them from Such a course would soon surrender the Government into the hands of rebels. As there are no symptoms that the people of these 2 0 obj The [members of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction] are not ignorant of the fact that there has been some impatience at the delay in making this report . What madness! Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. depict the ruin that would follow. acquiring an education, understanding the common laws 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. I do. The white Union men are in a great minority in each of those States. 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. "Reconstruction," Hon. After the Confederacy was defeated, the southern states were devastated Congress must create States and declare when they are entitled to be represented. 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. The first of those amendments is to change the basis of representation among the States from Federal numbers to actual voters. 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. <> 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. Beverly Wilson Palmer and Holly Byers Ochoa, eds., The Selected Papers In the States they form the great mass of the loyal men. That decision has taken away every protection in everyone of these rebel States from every loyal man, black or white, who resides there. . . During the last century Russia has been blessed with most remarkable emperors, who have generally decreed wise and just laws, but Russia is not free. Congress is the only power that can act in the matter. However, his plan proved too radical for many war-weary Northerners. A gentleman from Richmond, who had personal knowledge of the facts, told me the circumstances of the murder. The same law which condemns or acquits an African should condemn or acquit a white man. It were better to shelter the household and trust to the advancing progress of a higher morality and a purer and more intelligent principle to underpin the defective corner. As a leader in Congress, Stevens fought to end slavery and promote civil rights and racial equality. As there are no symptoms that the people of these provinces will be prepared to participate in constitutional government for some years, I know of no arrangement so proper for them as territorial governments. 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. Speech on Reconstruction | Teaching American History They are all asserted, in some form or other, in our DECLARATION or organic law. Within the broad limits of those eleven States the confederate States had as perfect and absolute control as the United States had over the other twenty-five. 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. We have even given them that highest and most agreeable evidence of liberty as defined by the great plebeian the right to work. But in what have we enlarged their liberty of thought? Rather than making the South go through the process of territorial government, in 1867 and 1868, Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, which divided the South into five military districts under the command of a general and provided clear criteria for readmission to the Union, including redrafting their state constitutions to include loyalty to the Union, ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and guaranteeing former slaves the right to vote. A colored man, driving the family of his employer, drove his wagon against a wagon containing Watson and his family. Stevens was also a staunch opponent of President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies.]. Thaddeus Stevens was one of the main leaders of the Radical Republican faction in Congress during Reconstruction. The Black Codes passed in those states to keep the freed slaves from exercising their new freedoms further angered the Radical Republicansand even most moderate Republicans. .I need not depict the ruin that would follow. A few moments may be profitably spent in seeking the meaning of each of these terms. President Johnson's opposition to these measures created a schism between him and Stevens, and eventually led to the president's impeachment. Courtesy Library of Congress (LC-BH83-613), (1849) Charles Sumner, Equality Before the Law: Unconstitutionality of Separate Colored Schools in Massachusetts, (1963) Malcolm X, Message to the Grassroots, African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. Thaddeus Stevens in Reconstruction Remarkable Radical: Thaddeus Stevens | The National Endowment for the Thaddeus Stevens - NNDB Inaugurated on a cold March day 1853. "Reconstruction," lithograph by J. L. Giles, ca. 1867 Thaddeus Stevens was a leading Radical Republican who championed such Reconstruction measures as harsh punishment for Confederate leaders and a strong federal role in reconstructing the governments of the former Confederate states and in ensuring equal rights for all in the south. Have not loyal blacks quite as good a right to choose rulers and make laws as rebel whites? But the. . About this Collection | Thaddeus Stevens Papers | Digital Collections I can hardly believe that any person can be found who will not admit that every one of these provisions is just. Now, sir, it is for these reasons that I insist on the passage of some such measure as this. Eleven States, possessing a very large extent of territory, and ten or twelve million people, aimed to sever their connection with the Union, and to form an independent empire, founded on the avowed principle of human slavery and excluding every free State from this confederacy. If they do not enfranchise the freedmen, it will give to the rebel States but thirty-seven Representatives. 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. Such is the law of God and such ought to be the law of man. A majority of Congress desires that treason shall be made odious, not by bloody executions, but by other adequate punishments. For while some in Congress may have believed that enough was done to assist them already simply by being freed, the only thing essentially done was what was morally right (the bare minimum) by freeing them of the confinements of dependence they had been succumbed to, and then leaving them . Even that is not left to the Commander-in-Chief. In 1848, a third party called the Free Soil Party formed to highlight opposition to extending slavery into western territories that had not yet organized as states. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone. No Government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and execution of her laws. . I do not suspect it, but others will. Without it all are sure to be ruled by traitors; and loyal men, black and white, will be oppressed, exiled, or murdered. 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 Not all of the ideas Stevens voiced in his speech were implemented. of Thaddeus Stevens, Vol. 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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