thaddeus stevens reconstruction speech summary

Ask, what is the Presidents policy? and it is difficult to define it. What are the great questions which now divide the nation? In the meantime, the freedmen would become more enlightened, and more fit to discharge the high duties of their new condition. % endobj . 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. One of the most atrocious murderers that has ever been let loose upon any community has lately been liberated under this very decision, because the Government extended it, perhaps according to the proper construction, to the conquered States as well as to the loyal States. Then Persia, with her kings and satraps, was free; then Turkey is free! He claims the right to reconstruct by his own power. Their work largely set the course for Reconstruction in the South. 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 ought never to be recognized as capable of 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. Thaddeus Stevens was a Radical Republican leader and one of the most powerful members 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. Have not loyal blacks quite as good a right to choose rulers and make laws as rebel whites? What power would the President have over anyone subject of government until Congress had legislated on that subject? 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. Stevens attended Peacham Academy, where he excelled in his academics, and then enrolled at Dartmouth College. The leader of the Radical Republicans in the House, Stevens was a lawyer, politician, and staunch abolitionist. <> He and his minions shall learn that this is not a Government of kings and satraps, but a Government of the people, and that Congress is the people. Andrew Johnson as soft toward the South, he introduced the resolution for his impeachment (1868) and served as chairman of the committee appointed to draft impeachment articles. 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. The United States, according to the usage of nations, appointed military provisional governors to regulate their municipal institutions until the law-making power of the conqueror should fix their condition and the law by which they should be permanently governed. .I need not depict the ruin that would follow. The second section I consider the most important in the article. . During the dictatorship of Pericles his laws were just, but Greece was not free. - wrapinknot True, some of those governors were illegally appointed, being civilians. The Civil Rights Act became the first major piece of legislation to be passed despite a president's veto. As a leader in Congress, Stevens fought to end slavery and promote civil rights and racial equality. law. The same law which condemns or acquits an African should condemn or acquit a white man. our republican Government firm and stable forever. 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. Even that is not left to the Commander-in-Chief. No sane man believed that they had any organic or municipal laws which the United States were bound to respect. As an important member of the new Republicans, Stevens became actively involved in the Underground Railroad, helping runaway slaves escape to Canada. 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. . 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. In monarchical Governments, where the sovereign power rests in the Crown, the king would have fixed the condition of the conquered provinces. Their government became perfectly organized, both in its civil and military departments. Finally, Stevens turned his attention to the plight of the former slaves who, though free, were without a hut to shelter them or a cent in their pockets. Rather than looking for Congress to help the Confederates, Stevens thought it more proper for Congress to shepherd the freedmen, providing them with the basic tools they needed in terms of education, legal protections, and security to establish themselves in their newfound freedom. We have allowed them the unwonted privilege of attending church, if they can do so without offending the sight of their former masters. "Reconstruction," Hon. 251-252. The parties acknowledged each other as such, and claimed to be governed by the law of nations and the laws of war in their treatment of each other. No State could order the election of members until Congress had ordered a census and made an apportionment. In States that have never been restored since the rebellion from a state of conquest, and which are this day held in captivity under the laws of war, the military authorities, under this decision and its extension into disloyal States, dare not order the commanders of departments to enforce the laws of the country. . 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. and whether the election and returns are according to They have determined that while in their keeping the Constitution shall not be violated with impunity. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States. 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. This Congress is bound to provide for them until they can University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998). All Rights Reserved. Then, twenty million white men enchained four million black men. practice justice to all men, and accustom themselves to make . Such a course would be senseless, inconsistent, and illogical. They were satisfied that the United States should maintain its old Constitution and laws. 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). But if full justice could not be obtained at once I would not refuse to do what is possible. There are those who admit the justice and ultimate utility of granting impartial suffrage to all men, but they think it is impolitic. 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. 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. ( Thaddeus Stevens, speech to Congress, March 19 1867). <> The 19th Amendment: How Women Won the Vote. %PDF-1.5 . 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. Before the end of the war, President Abraham Lincoln had issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, in which he outlined a generous plan that called for the readmission of any former Confederate states in which ten percent of the voters swore allegiance to the restored Union and amnesty for all but the highest-ranking Confederate military and political leaders. As a politician in Pennsylvania, he supported free public education and suffrage for African Americans. He publicly condemned the Confederacy and even initiated the exclusion of traditional Southern senators and representatives from a congressional meeting in 1865. Would it not be better to flank the works and march round and round and besiege, and thus secure the surrender of the enemy, though it might cost time? They ought never to be recognized as capable of acting in the Union, or of being counted as valid States, until the Constitution shall have been so amended as to make it what its framers intended; and so as to secure perpetual ascendancy to the party of the Union; and so as to render our republican Government firm and stable forever. Not all of the ideas Stevens voiced in his speech were implemented. . . I do. rebellion. He focused much of his political attention on civil rights, eventually helping to draft the 14th Amendment. . The confederate States claimed no rights unless they could conquer them by the contest of arms. That time ought to be present now. 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). Call you this liberty? Image Details The Joint Committee on Reconstruction proposed a constitutional amendment to address issues in Southern states. With other Radical Republicans, he agitated for emancipation, black fighting units, and black suffrage. This I take to be the great question between the President and Congress. Impartial suffrage, both in electing the delegates and ratifying their proceedings, is now the fixed rule. Sarah Stevens took care of the farm and raised four Stevens brothers. 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. 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. . Your donation is fully tax-deductible. (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.) That is a matter of taste which every man must decide for himself. Congress and in the Electoral college. There they can 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. 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.. 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 people have once more nobly done their duty. He must ask leave of Congress. Thaddeus Stevens, (born April 4, 1792, Danville, Vermont, U.S.died August 11, 1868, Washington, D.C.), U.S. . 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. with those to whom Congress shall extend the right of 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. 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. 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. . The war was acknowledged by other nations as a public war between independent belligerents. Thaddeus Stevens | 1866 Summary On May 8, 1866, Thaddeus Stevens delivered this speech introducing the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. Unless the rebel States, before admission, should be made republican in spirit, and placed under the guardianship of loyal men, all. Thaddeus Stevens on the Great Topic of the Hour. Stevens had a difficult childhood; in addition to growing up fatherless, he was poor and had a club foot. . 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. To be sure many subordinate items of the policy of each may be easily sketched. actual voters. 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. If impartial suffrage is excluded in the rebel States then everyone of them is sure to send a solid rebel representative delegation to Congress, and cast a solid rebel electoral vote. 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. 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. On the result of the war depended the fate and ulterior condition of the contending parties. 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. stream There is more reason why colored voters should be admitted in the rebel States than in the Territories. <> . 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. A colored man, driving the family of his employer, drove his wagon against a wagon containing Watson and his family. Whatever law punishes a white man for a crime shall punish the black man precisely in the same way and to the same degree. In opposition to these things, a portion of Congress seems to desire that the conquered belligerent shall, according to the law of nations, pay at least a part of the expenses and damages of the war; and that especially the loyal people who were plundered and impoverished by rebel raiders shall be fully indemnified. They were subject to the controlling power of the conquerors. Thaddeus studied at Caledonian Secondary School in Vermont, entered the University of Vermont, but was suspended in the second year and entered Dartmouth College to study law-related studies and delivered the commencement speech as a commencement speaker at the 1814 . ern members, with the Democrats that will in the best times Congressional Globe, 39th Cong., 2nd sess., Jan. 3, 1867, pp. Thaddeus Stevens on the Great Topic of the Hour. . 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. If we fail in this great duty now, when we have the power, we shall deserve and receive the execration of history and of all future ages. We While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. I am now confining my arguments to negro suffrage in the rebel States. 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. . It means, as understood by honest Republicans, just this much, and no more: every man, no matter what his race or color; every earthly being who has an immortal soul, has an equal right to justice, honesty, and fair play with every other man; and the law should secure him these rights. Call Us Today! To allow it would be yielding the whole question and admitting the unimpaired rights of the seceded States. As a politician in Pennsylvania, he supported free public education and suffrage for African Americans. requisite qualifications of age, residence, and citizenship; They must suffer constant persecution or be exiled. Our fathers had been compelled to postpone the principles of their great Declaration, and wait for the full establishment till a more propitious time. Executive summary: Republican Reconstruction leader American political leader, born in Danville, Vermont, on the 4th of April 1792. our blood and treasure will have been spent in vain. Possibly with their aid loyal governments may be established in most of those States. governed by martial law. Having witnessed the oppressive slave system at close range, he early developed a fierce hatred of bondage and defended numbers of fugitives without fee. In failing health, Stevens had requested to be buried in Shreiner-Concord Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because the state accepted all races. Whatever law allows the white man to testify in court shall allow the man of color to do the same. 2 April 1865-August 1868 (Pittsburgh: It is claimed for him by some as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy. 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. 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. The convention of southern loyalists, lately held in Philadelphia, almost unanimously agreed to such a bill as an absolute necessity. Melancthon and others were ripe scholars and sincere reformers, but none of them had his courage. No other branch of the Government, no other Department, no other officer of the Government, possesses one single particle of the sovereignty of the nation. The two powers mutually prepared to settle the question by arms. It is to be regretted that inconsiderate and incautious Republicans should ever have supposed that the slight amendments already proposed to the Constitution, even when incorporated into that instrument, would satisfy the reforms necessary for the security of the Government. What can be plainer? 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. There are periods in the history of nations when statesmen can make themselves names for posterity; but such occasions are never improved by cowards. Ask, what is the policy of Congress? and the answer is not always at hand. have turned, or are about to turn, loose four million slaves And yet I am amazed and alarmed at the impatience of certain well-meaning Republicans at the exclusion of the rebel States until the Constitution shall be so amended as to restrain their despotic desires. 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. . without a hut to shelter them or a cent in their pockets. Thaddeus Stevens, Speech on reconstruction, December 18, 1865. Death State: Washington, D.C. Death Country: United States, Article Title: Thaddeus Stevens Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/political-figures/thaddeus-stevens, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: May 25, 2021, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014. and obey equal laws. He was an early and ardent supporter of abolition of slavery. There are several good reasons for the passage of this bill [Military Reconstruction Act]. Congress must create 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. Since the conquest they have been A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Image 3 of Speech of Hon. 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. . 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. 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. Beyond this I do not agree that the policy of the parties are defined. . . 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 To reconstruct the nation, to admit new States, to guaranty republican governments to old States are all legislative acts. Are such men fit to sit in the places of statesmen? <>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S>> Thaddeus Stevens, "Reconstruction" Speech, September 6, 1865. Thaddeus Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont, on April 4, 1792. No Government official, from the President and Chief Justice down, can do anyone act which is not prescribed and directed by the legislative power. Is their judgment misled by their kindness; or are they unconsciously drifting into the haven of power at the other end of the avenue? 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? In 1868, he led the charge to impeach Johnson, who was narrowly acquitted in the Senate. [Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens was a Congressman from Pennsylvania who long opposed slavery and advocated for black suffrage. acquiring an education, understanding the common laws No former laws, no former compacts or treaties existed to bind the belligerents. They are all asserted, in some form or other, in our DECLARATION or organic law. The law has nothing to do with it. 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. .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. Mr. Speaker, I am very anxious that this bill should be proceeded with until finally acted upon. But great events fix the eye of history on small objects and magnify their meanness. 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. Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) was the most famous Radical Republican in the House of Representatives (1849-1853, 1859-1868). There they can learn the principles of freedom and eat the fruit of foul rebellion. . But it will be said, as it has been said, This is negro equality! What is negro equality, about which so much is said by knaves, and some of which is believed by men who are not fools? 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. Together with Charles Sumner in the Senate, the Pennsylvania native opposed President Lincoln's Reconstruction plan as too lenient. Holding them like clay in the hands of the potter, we must see that no vessel is made for destruction. Military rule is necessarily despotic, and ought not to exist longer than is absolutely necessary.
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