. The states of the entire southern half of the nation had seceded, but they were again under federal jurisdiction after the Union victory. By 1866, the Radical Republicans had taken significant control of Congress, due in no small part to Stevens's leadership. The first of those amendments is to change the basis of representation among the States from Federal numbers to actual voters. Call Us Today! In the first place, it is just. In this country the whole sovereignty rests with the people, and is exercised through their Representatives in Congress assembled. exclaims some horror-stricken demagogue. May I ask, without offense, will Congress have the courage to do its duty? . 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. UJxCA**]=#TSWr];227~|}&Y&QHV +JG{4ef1R+2#{2yTy$H. representation among the States from Federal numbers to He focused much of his political attention on civil rights, eventually helping to draft the 14th Amendment. No Government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and execution of her laws. We may not aspire to fame. Congress alone can do it. A gentleman from Richmond, who had personal knowledge of the facts, told me the circumstances of the murder. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998). As the nation edged toward Civil War, Stevens, now living in Pennsylvania, was elected to Congress in 1849 as an antislavery Republican. The next day Watson went to the employer of the colored man and complained. H.R. 127, Joint Resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution Stevens entered the political sphere in 1833, serving for four years in the state legislature as a member of the Anti-Masonic Party. Congress alone can do it. It has always been observed that the larger the number of the rulers the more cruel the treatment of the subject races. Do not tell me that there are loyal representatives waiting for admissionuntil their States are loyal they can have no standing here. It guaranteed all citizensincluding freedmenequal rights and protections under state and federal law and set conditions for readmission of former . Reconstruction "There was a dramatic need for another amendment" after the slavery-abolishing 13th Amendment was ratified at the end of 1865, Hetrick says. Stevens died in Washington, D.C. on August 11, 1868. Stevens's Reconstruction efforts were resisted by President Andrew Johnson, which frustrated the congressman and prompted him to fight back against the president; Stevens introduced the resolution for President Johnson's impeachment and chaired the committee responsible for drafting impeachment articles. . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The film claims that it was "Based in Part on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln . There are degrees of tyranny. Though the President is Commander-in-Chief, Congress is his commander; and, God willing, he shall obey. 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. Thaddeus Stevens - Namuwiki 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. It would not be wise to prevent the raising of the structure because some corner of it might be founded upon materials subject to the inevitable laws of mortal decay. 20072023 Blackpast.org. Our fathers had been compelled to postpone the principles of their great Declaration, and wait for the full establishment till a more propitious time. Omissions? Twenty years ago I denounced it as a despotism. 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. Call you this liberty? Though many Northerners were ambivalent about African American suffrage, the Black Codes turned public opinion against Johnson and his moderate approach to Reconstruction. All Rights Reserved. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States. He insists that those of our people who were plundered and their property burned or destroyed by rebel raiders shall not be indemnified, but shall bear their own loss, while the rebels shall retain their own property, most of which was declared forfeited by the Congress of the United States. In the acquisition of true fame courage is just as necessary in the civilian as in the military hero. As a congressman, he advocated for tariff increases, opposed the fugitive slave provision of the Compromise of 1850, and later joined the newly formed Republican Party. In the second place, it is a necessity in order to protect the loyal white men in the seceded States. Thaddeus Stevens, Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, gave a speech before Congress that articulated his vision for the period following the Civil War, known as Reconstruction. 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. All Rights Reserved. The Economy also feel with the panic of 1854. Thaddeus Stevens, Speech on reconstruction, December 18, 1865. 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.? . He might have extended the laws of his empire over them, allowed them to retain portions of their old institutions, or, by conditions of peace, have fixed upon them new and exceptional laws. He alone was willing to go where duty called though devils were as thick as the tiles on the houses. And Luther is the great luminary of the Reformation, around whom the others revolve as satellites and shine by his light. Address of a convention of Negroes held in Alexandria Virginia August 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Stevens attended Peacham Academy, where he excelled in his academics, and then enrolled at Dartmouth College. If they do not enfranchise the freedmen, it will give to the rebel States but thirty-seven Representatives. Image Details The Joint Committee on Reconstruction proposed a constitutional amendment to address issues in Southern states. Speech Introducing the Fourteenth Amendment (1866) He served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction and chaired the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. On April 11, 1835, Thaddeus Stevens gave a speech in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in defense of the Free Schools Act of 1834. Radical Republican Plan for Reconstruction - In the particular speech Title Thaddeus Stevens Papers: Speeches and Writing File, 1835-1868; 1865; Names Stevens, Thaddeus, 1792-1868 . Simply allowing the Southern states to rejoin the Union upon the acceptance of federal sovereignty by ten percent of voters and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment was not even close to sufficient for Stevens, who, like many in the North, held the Southerners completely responsible for four years of unprecedented bloodshed. 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. [Washington, D. . For I believe, on my conscience, that on the continued ascendancy of that party depends the safety of this great nation. 4 0 obj PDF haddeus tevens: An Address on econstruction (1867) This amendment supplies that defect, and allows Congress to correct the unjust legislation of the States, so far that the law which, operates upon one man shall operate equally upon all. The white Union men are in a great minority in each of those States. Speech on Reconstruction | Teaching American History white, will be oppressed, exiled, or murdered. 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. I hope I have a heart as capable of feeling for human woe as others. Thaddeus Stevens was a Radical Republican leader and one of the most powerful members in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sarah Stevens took care of the farm and raised four Stevens brothers. homesteads, and hedge them around with protective laws; Ask, what is the policy of Congress? and the answer is not always at hand. 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. 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. Any exception to this rule has been a work of grace in Congress by passing healing acts. Beverly Wilson Palmer and Holly Byers Ochoa, eds., The Selected Papers Even that is not left to the Commander-in-Chief. In the speech below which Stevens gave in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 1867 supporting the Reconstruction bill then being debated, he issued a response to those who said his call was radical and incendiary with a now famous quotation: I am for negro suffrage in every rebel State. Such shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.Constitution United States, art.I, sec. 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. 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. All Rights Reserved. I need not enumerate these partial and oppressive laws. the Constitution shall have been so amended as to make it governments for them. 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. Without it all are sure to be ruled by traitors; and loyal men, black and white, will be oppressed, exiled, or murdered. What power would the President have over anyone subject of government until Congress had legislated on that subject? 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. Military rule is necessarily despotic, War out west has begun and it seems as the US may be drawn into conflict with its southern neighbors. They have torn their constitutional States into atoms, and built on their foundations fabrics of a totally different character. April 11, 1835: Thaddeus Stevens Gives Speech in Defense of Free Since the conquest they have been governed by martial law. Since the conquest they have been 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. 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. Thaddeus Stevens, "Reconstruction" Speech, September 6, 1865. The 19th Amendment: How Women Won the Vote. 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. 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. Thaddeus Stevens was a Radical Republican leader and one of the most powerful members in the U.S. House of Representatives. Thus much I have said at the outset of my remarks, which shall not be very long. Whether they should ever have all men of both sections, without exception, agreed would depend on the will of Congress, if the United States were victorious. 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.. . They were expected to suggest a plan for rebuilding a shattered nationa nation which though not dissevered was yet shaken and riven by the gigantic and persistent efforts of six million able and ardent men; of bitter rebels striving through four years of bloody war.
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