It were better for the black man if he were governed by one king than by twenty million. ?)(qUC However, his plan proved too radical for many war-weary Northerners. I know they had fewer rulers and more subjects, but those rulers were no more despotic than ours, and their subjects had just as large privileges in governing the country as ours have. The veto of the President and their votes on the bill are conclusive evidence of that. In this country the whole sovereignty rests with the people, and is exercised through their Representatives in Congress assembled. The future condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conqueror. Inaugurated on a cold March day 1853. acting in the Union, or of being counted as valid States, until Call you this liberty? Mr. Speaker, that charge, as I have stated, is. Even that is not left to the Commander-in-Chief. Early in his career, he developed a hatred for bondage and, subsequently, defended many fugitives without charging them legal fees. 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. They have determined that while in their keeping the Constitution shall not be violated with impunity. Thaddeus Stevens | 1866 Summary On May 8, 1866, Thaddeus Stevens delivered this speech introducing the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. Analytical Services; Analytical Method Development and Validation +(91)-9821210096 | how to say nevermind professionally in an email. Such shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.Constitution United States, art.I, sec. 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. This Congress is bound to provide for them until they can Radical Republican congressional leader during Reconstruction (186577) who battled for freedmens rights and insisted on stern requirements for readmission of Southern states into the Union after the Civil War (186165). 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. of Thaddeus Stevens, Vol. 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). Stevens had a difficult childhood; in addition to growing up fatherless, he was poor and had a club foot. 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. I hope I have a heart as capable of feeling for human woe as others. Since the conquest they have been 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. Twenty years ago I denounced it as a despotism. The Economy also feel with the panic of 1854. 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. Thaddeus Stevens on the Great Topic of the Hour. But the. endobj Ensuring the rights of former slaves, now called freedmen, was, to Johnson, a matter for state governmentsanother important issue on which he and Stevens's Radical Republicans disagreed. 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. As a leader in Congress, Stevens fought to end slavery and promote civil rights and racial equality. 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. 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. The entire speech appears below. our republican Government firm and stable forever. 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. rebellion. Lincoln had called for reconciliation in his second inaugural and Gettysburg addresses, but Stevens disagreed vehemently, pushing for the punishment of the Southincluding the disenfranchisement of all Confederatesand full citizenship rights for the freed slaves. ?]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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. have turned, or are about to turn, loose four million slaves 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. The Reconstruction Act also divided the South into five military districts under commanders empowered to employ the army to protect black property and citizens. 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. The first of those amendments is to change the basis of representation among the States from Federal numbers to actual voters. . . 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. Congress and in the Electoral college. The Meaning of Emancipation in the Reconstruction Era K. A. Cuordileone New York City College of Technology, CUNY Overview The end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery raised complicated issues and dilemmas for Americans during the Reconstruction era (1865-1877). . Since the conquest they have been governed by martial law. 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. Congress alone can do it. 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. 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.". 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. 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. 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. 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. No Government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and execution of her laws. That decision has taken away every protection in everyone of these rebel States from every loyal man, black or white, who resides there. The Southern territories could have non-voting representation, and it would be Congress, which would ensure that they could not exercise any power until Congress was convinced they would pose no further threat to the Union. It is obvious from all this that the first duty of The veto power is no exception; it is merely a power to compel a reconsideration. what its framers intended; and so as to secure perpetual Possibly the people would not have inaugurated this revolution to correct the palpable incongruities and despotic provisions of the Constitution; but having it forced upon them, will they be so unwise as to suffer it to subside without erecting this nation into a perfect Republic? 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. Let us now refer to the provisions of the proposed amendment. 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. x\YF~W$cGGH-Ky41}@P v>~{"_-(LlQUQXkga_QU power, we shall deserve and receive the execration of SUMMARY On May 8, 1866, Thaddeus Stevens delivered this speech introducing the 14thAmendment in the U.S. House of 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. 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. Thaddeus Stevens, Speech in favor of black suffrage, House of Representatives, January 3, 1867. 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. Do you find this information helpful? .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}The Candidates in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Race, Sen. John Fetterman Wants to Talk About Depression, 6 Key Players in Donald Trumps Indictment, The Story of President Ulysses S. Grants Arrest, Dianne Feinstein: 10 Issues She Has Worked On, What We Know About Mitch McConnells Fall. What madness! Of course the rebels claimed no such rights; for whether their States were out of the Union as they declared, or were disorganized and out of their proper relations to the Government, as some subtle metaphysicians contend, their rights under the Constitution had all been renounced and abjured under oath, and could not be resumed on their own mere motion. Certainly many people shared his outrage and desire to see the former Confederates punished, but his particular bitterness ran counter to the feelings of many others who wanted to see a quick reconciliation with the South and who cared little about anything more than rudimentary freedom for former slaves. My only objection to it is that it is too lenient. They would merely misrepresent their constituents. Holding them like clay in the hands of the potter, we must see that no vessel is made for destruction. 251-252. depict the ruin that would follow. [Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens was a Congressman from Pennsylvania who long opposed slavery and advocated for black suffrage. Under such governments, while electing members to the territorial Legislatures, they will necessarily mingle with those to whom Congress shall extend the right of suffrage. Congress must create Johnson's policies allowed many former Confederates to regain political power. A majority of Congress desires that treason shall be made odious, not by bloody executions, but by other adequate punishments. 2 April 1865-August 1868 (Pittsburgh: The leader of the Radical Republicans in the House, Stevens was a lawyer, politician, and staunch abolitionist. Stevens had a long history of opposition to slavery and was outraged over the secession of the South. Thaddeus Stevens,of Pennsylvania, on the abolition of slavery. 2023 National Constitution Center. 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. It fixes the basis of representation in Congress. In that time, too, the loyal Congress could mature their laws and so amend the Constitution as to secure the rights of every human being and render disunion impossible. 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. Having witnessed the oppressive slave system at close range, he early developed a fierce hatred of bondage and defended numbers of fugitives without fee. The employer offered to pay Watson every dollar that he might assess for the damage that had been done. But great events fix the eye of history on small objects and magnify their meanness. Stevens entered the political sphere in 1833, serving for four years in the state legislature as a member of the Anti-Masonic Party. 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. True it will take two, three, possibly five years before they conquer their prejudices sufficiently to allow their late slaves to become their equals at the polls. The short time allowed by our resolution will suffice to introduce this debate. 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. 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 Title Thaddeus Stevens Papers: Speeches and Writing File, 1835-1868; 1865; Names Stevens, Thaddeus, 1792-1868 But if full justice could not be obtained at once I would not refuse to do what is possible. As the nation edged toward Civil War, Stevens, now living in Pennsylvania, was elected to Congress in 1849 as an antislavery Republican. Thus short of their power, they would soon become restive. . 3 0 obj Beyond this I do not agree that the policy of the parties are defined. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. without a hut to shelter them or a cent in their pockets. A gentleman from Richmond, who had personal knowledge of the facts, told me the circumstances of the murder. 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. Combining patriotic and religious imagery, it depicted Americans rebuilding a pavilion representing the United States. . He defended the system of segregation developed in the South after Reconstruction (including lynching); segregation was not challenged until the 1950s and 1960s. outside or defunct States, and providing proper civil To allow it would be yielding the whole question and admitting the unimpaired rights of the seceded States. 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. Thaddeus Stevens on the Great Topic of the Hour. We have broken the material shackles of four million slaves. Unless the law of nations is a dead letter, the late war between two acknowledged belligerents severed their original compacts and broke all the ties that bound them together. Thaddeus Stevens was one of the main leaders of the Radical Republican faction in Congress during Reconstruction. He focused much of his political attention on civil rights, eventually helping to draft the 14th Amendment. 1 0 obj Serving as a Whig in the U.S. House of Representatives (184953), he advocated tariff increases and opposed the fugitive slave provision of the Compromise of 1850. In 1867 Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner led the campaign for full voting rights for African Americans across the nation. But the Constitution limits only the action of Congress, and is not a limitation on the States. In the meantime, the freedmen would become more enlightened, and more fit to discharge the high duties of their new condition. In the first place, it is just. . BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. . The effect of this provision will be either to compel the States to grant universal suffrage or so to shear them of their power as to keep them forever in a hopeless minority in the national Government, both legislative and executive. Congress denies that any State lately in rebellion has any government or constitution known to the Constitution of the United States , or which can be recognized as part of the Union. In 1868, he led the charge to impeach Johnson, who was narrowly acquitted in the Senate. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. It matters but little, with this admission, whether you call them States out of the Union, and now conquered territories, or assert that because the Constitution forbids them to do what they did do, that they are therefore only dead as to all national and political action, and will remain so until the Government shall breathe into them the breath of life anew and permit them to occupy their former position.