. We know Thaddeus Stevens as an ardent abolitionist who championed the rights of blacks for decadesup to, during, and after the Civil War. The states of the entire southern half of the nation had seceded, but they were again under federal jurisdiction after the Union victory. 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 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. This Congress is bound to provide for them until they can 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. In failing health, Stevens had requested to be buried in Shreiner-Concord Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because the state accepted all races. 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. 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 Corrections? Of course, this does not admit malefactors to power, or there would soon be no penal laws and society would become an anarchy. . Having these States, as we all agree, entirely within the power of Congress, it is our duty to take care that no injustice shall remain in their organic laws. That time ought to be present now. He claims the right to reconstruct by his own power. 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. They were satisfied that the United States should maintain its old Constitution and laws. homesteads, and hedge them around with protective laws; The two powers mutually prepared to settle the question by arms. The war was acknowledged by other nations as a public war between independent belligerents. 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. They would merely misrepresent their constituents. The confederate States refused to negotiate with the United States, except upon the basis of independence of perfect national equality. Thaddeus Stevens | 1866 Summary On May 8, 1866, Thaddeus Stevens delivered this speech introducing the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. . They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. This amendment once adopted cannot be annulled without two thirds of Congress. Link couldn't be copied to clipboard! Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Now, sir, it is for these reasons that I insist on the passage of some such measure as this. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States. 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. 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. As a leader in Congress, Stevens fought to end slavery and promote civil rights and racial equality. 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. . They were subject to the controlling power of the conquerors. 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. During the dictatorship of Pericles his laws were just, but Greece was not free. Congress alone can do it. 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. Thaddeus Stevens was a Radical Republican leader and one of the most powerful members in the U.S. House of Representatives. I need not [Washington, D. . Let us at least escape that condition. Then Persia, with her kings and satraps, was free; then Turkey is free! Since the conquest they have been governed by martial law. 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. governed by martial law. 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. history and of all future ages. 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. Whatever law punishes a white man for a crime shall punish the black man precisely in the same way and to the same degree. They must suffer constant persecution or be exiled. The infernal laws of slavery have prevented them from acquiring an education, understanding the common laws of contract, or of managing the ordinary business of life. Start your constitutional learning journey. 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. 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. 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. After the Confederacy was defeated, the southern states were devastated When Congress met in December 1865, Stevens took the lead in excluding the traditional senators and representatives from the South. The Federal arms triumphed. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998). 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. 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. power, we shall deserve and receive the execration of To allow it would be yielding the whole question and admitting the unimpaired rights of the seceded States. That decision has unsheathed the dagger of the assassin and places the knife of the rebel at the throat of every man who dares proclaim himself to be now, or to have been heretofore, a loyal Union man. In other words, that they are not out of the Union, but are only dead carcasses lying within the Union. 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. 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. In either case, it is very plain that it requires the action of Congress to enable I them to form a State government and send representatives to Congress. 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. 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. 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. It portrayed a strident vision of the Reconstruction era, wherein the defeated Southern states were not welcomed back with open arms, and their rights would remain curtailed until Congress saw fit to restore them. Contributor: Stevens Thaddeus 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. He publicly condemned the Confederacy and even initiated the exclusion of traditional Southern senators and representatives from a congressional meeting in 1865. President Johnson's opposition to these measures created a schism between him and Stevens, and eventually led to the president's impeachment. Do not tell me that there are loyal representatives waiting for admissionuntil their States are loyal they can have no standing here. and whether the election and returns are according to 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. . . 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 one of the main leaders of the Radical Republican faction in Congress during Reconstruction. 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. Think not I would slander my native land; I would reform it. They have determined that while in their keeping the Constitution shall not be violated with impunity. 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. He served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction and chaired the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. 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. The veto power is no exception; it is merely a power to compel a reconsideration. 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. wrapinknot - wrapinknot by ragtag online; ! 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. 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. But every other government is a despotism. The employer offered to pay Watson every dollar that he might assess for the damage that had been done. ascendency to the party of the Union; and so as to render But I beg gentlemen to consider the magnitude of the task which was imposed upon the committee. 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. 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. But the public mind has been educated in error for a century. >IQ 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. 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. The convention of southern loyalists, lately held in Philadelphia, almost unanimously agreed to such a bill as an absolute necessity. It is obvious from all this that the first duty of Since the conquest they have been endobj It cannot be denied that this terrible struggle sprang from the vicious principles incorporated into the institutions of our country. To Stevens, the procedure by which a territory becomes a state was the logical blueprint for this process. 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.