thaddeus stevens reconstruction speech summary
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. Now, sir, if that decision be the law, then it becomes the more necessary that we should proceed to take care that such a construction as that shall not open the door to greater injuries than have already been sustained. 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. Thaddeus Stevens, (born April 4, 1792, Danville, Vermont, U.S.died August 11, 1868, Washington, D.C.), U.S. As a politician in Pennsylvania, he supported free public education and suffrage for African Americans. Summary of president Thaddeus Stevens term 1853-1857: The Four party system. outside or defunct States, and providing proper civil white, will be oppressed, exiled, or murdered. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Congress must create States and declare when they are entitled to be represented. 2 0 obj Such is the law of God and such ought to be the law of man. Congressional Globe, 39th Congress, 2nd session, Jan. 3 1867. 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. Home; Service. There they can 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. and whether the election and returns are according to Ooops. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. 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. 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. 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. Congress is to pass a law declaring the condition of these 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. Viewing Pres. 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.? Is their judgment misled by their kindness; or are they unconsciously drifting into the haven of power at the other end of the avenue? 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. As a member of the joint Committee on Reconstruction, he played an important part in the preparation of the Fourteenth (due process) Amendment to the Constitution and the military reconstruction acts of 1867. How, then, can such a State adopt the amendment? When Stevens rose to speak in the House of Representatives on December 18, 1865, his opposition to Johnson's Reconstruction plan was already well known. The convention of southern loyalists, lately held in Philadelphia, almost unanimously agreed to such a bill as an absolute necessity. [Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens was a Congressman from Pennsylvania and one of the primary champions of Congressional measures like the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Reconstruction Act of 1867. . 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. Inaugurated on a cold March day 1853. 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. . Born to Joshua and Sarah (Morrill) Stevens, he was the second of four sons. After the Confederacy was defeated, the southern states were devastated But every other government is a despotism. 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. Image 3 of Speech of Hon. These are great advantages over their present codes. . The confederate States claimed no rights unless they could conquer them by the contest of arms. The Reconstruction Act also divided the South into five military districts under commanders empowered to employ the army to protect black property and citizens. Do you avow the party purpose? But this step forward is an assault upon ignorance and prejudice, and timid men shrink from it. 3 which possibly now, on looking at it, I might deem intemperate, but which I then deemed necessary to rouse the public attention and cast odium upon the worst institution upon earth:. 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.". Beyond this I do not agree that the policy of the parties are defined. And yet certain of our distinguished friends propose to admit State after State before this becomes a part of the Constitution. 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. In 1867 Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner led the campaign for full voting rights for African Americans across the nation. Combining patriotic and religious imagery, it depicted Americans rebuilding a pavilion representing the United States. ( Thaddeus Stevens, speech to Congress, March 19 1867). They ought never to be recognized as capable of They have determined that while in their keeping the Constitution shall not be violated with impunity. He defended the system of segregation developed in the South after Reconstruction (including lynching); segregation was not challenged until the 1950s and 1960s. describe a time when you were treated unfairly. He served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction and chaired the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Since the conquest they have been But the Constitution limits only the action of Congress, and is not a limitation on the States. What are the great questions which now divide the nation? take care of themselves. . Radical Republican congressional leader during Reconstruction (1865-77) who battled for freedmen's rights and insisted on stern requirements for readmission of Southern states into the Union after the Civil War (1861-65). The President could not even create bureaus or Departments to facilitate his executive operations. . The conclusion of the Civil War may have halted the direct warfare between the Union and Confederate armies, but disagreements among Northerners over what to do with the South were just beginning. He dominated the House during Reconstruction and proposed the impeachment of President .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Andrew Johnson. 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. The wagon of Watson was broken. 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. Contributor: Stevens Thaddeus Corrections? 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. of Thaddeus Stevens, Vol. 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. 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. 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. [Washington, D. . Stevens became a natural leader in Congress and served as a member of the House until his death in 1868. This I take to be the great question between the President and Congress. It is claimed for him by some as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy. . history and of all future ages. In failing health, Stevens had requested to be buried in Shreiner-Concord Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because the state accepted all races. 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. UJxCA**]=#TSWr];227~|}&Y&QHV +JG{4ef1R+2#{2yTy$H. They are all asserted, in some form or other, in our DECLARATION or organic law. 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? He desires that the States created by him shall be acknowledged as valid States, while at the same time he inconsistently declares that the old rebel States are in full existence, and always have been, and have equal rights with the loyal States. To be sure many subordinate items of the policy of each may be easily sketched. They had all been melted and consumed in the fierce fires of the terrible war. They, with their kindred Copperheads of the North, would always elect the President and control Congress. . Let us now refer to the provisions of the proposed amendment. . if we leave them to the legislation of their late masters, To reconstruct the nation, to admit new States, to guaranty republican governments to old States are all legislative acts. 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. Thaddeus Stevens was a Radical Republican leader and one of the most powerful members in the U.S. House of Representatives. There are several good reasons for the passage of this bill. This is a bill designed to enable loyal men, so far as I could discriminate them in these States, to form governments which shall be in loyal hands, that they may protect themselves from such outrages as I have mentioned. The future condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conqueror. Such shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.Constitution United States, art.I, sec. . What power would the President have over anyone subject of government until Congress had legislated on that subject? . In the immediate aftermath of the war, however, Congress was not in session, and Johnson did his best to implement Lincoln's plan in Congress's absence. Dead States cannot restore their existence "as it was." Congress and in the Electoral college. There are degrees of tyranny. 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. Congressional Globe, December 18, 1865, p. 72. 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. . By 1866, the Radical Republicans had taken significant control of Congress, due in no small part to Stevens's leadership. . Now, sir, it is for these reasons that I insist on the passage of some such measure as this. 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. But the public mind has been educated in error for a century. We have imposed upon them the privilege of fighting our battles, of dying in defense of freedom, and of bearing their equal portion of taxes; but where have we given them the privilege of ever participating in the formation of the laws for the government of their native land? In the first place, it is just. 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. 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. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'wikisummaries_org-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_1',121,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-wikisummaries_org-large-mobile-banner-1-0');By the time Congress arrived to begin its session in December 1865, a confrontation between the two opposing systems of Reconstruction, as well as Johnson and Stevens, was imminent. Not in the Executive, for he only executes and cannot make laws. To allow it would be yielding the whole question and admitting the unimpaired rights of the seceded States. There is not one word in the Constitution that gives one particle of anything but judicial and executive power to any other department of Government but Congress. Congress seemed fully in control. States and declare when they are entitled to be represented. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! Many Southern states quickly passed what became known as the Black Codesrepressive laws that governed where and when freedmen could go, the conditions under which they would work, and the limits on their gathering together. But I never dreamed that all punishment could be dispensed with in human society. 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. Thaddeus Stevens on the Great Topic of the Hour. 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. . Stevens had a long history of opposition to slavery and was outraged over the secession of the South. We may not aspire to fame. We ascendency to the party of the Union; and so as to render Have not loyal blacks quite as good a right to choose rulers and make laws as rebel whites? Mr. Speaker, I am very anxious that this bill should be proceeded with until finally acted upon. He also offered his home as a stop on the Underground Railroad. (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.) During the dictatorship of Pericles his laws were just, but Greece was not free. 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. Ask, what is the Presidents policy? and it is difficult to define it. Stevens was also a staunch opponent of President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies.]. May I ask, without offense, will Congress have the courage to do its duty? All Rights Reserved. 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. They would merely misrepresent their constituents. How far their liabilities remained there was more difference of opinion. rebellion. Unless the rebel States, before admission, should be made republican in spirit, and placed under the guardianship of loyal men, all. Impartial suffrage, both in electing the delegates and ratifying their proceedings, is now the fixed rule. 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. first of those amendments is to change the basis of be elected from the North, will always give a majority in BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. I am now confining my arguments to negro suffrage in the rebel States. The policy of Congress forbids him to exercise any power therein. Whatever law protects the white man shall afford equal protection to the black man. . No sane man believed that they had any organic or municipal laws which the United States were bound to respect. 251-252. . 3 0 obj Later that year, on August 11, Stevens died in Washington and was buried near his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. No former laws, no former compacts or treaties existed to bind the belligerents. depict the ruin that would follow. SUMMARY On May 8, 1866, Thaddeus Stevens delivered this speech introducing the 14thAmendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. 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. He focused much of his political attention on civil rights, eventually helping to draft the 14th Amendment. 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. That time ought to be present now. endobj Congress is the only power that can act in the matter. presenting themselves from a recognized State possess the President Lincoln, Vice President Johnson, and both branches of Congress repeatedly declared that the belligerent States could never again intermeddle with the affairs of the Union, or claim any right as members of the United States Government until the legislative power of the Government should declare them entitled thereto. However, his plan proved too radical for many war-weary Northerners. 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. 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. Admitted to the Maryland bar, he moved to Pennsylvania to practice law in 1816. Having now no governments, they must have enabling acts. x\YF~W$cGGH-Ky41}@P v>~{"_-(LlQUQXkga_QU % I advocated through a long life, equality of man before his creator. . Their government became perfectly organized, both in its civil and military departments. 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). Rather than debate the presidential plan, Stevens took a different tack, questioning the very propriety of having the executive branch direct Reconstruction policy. It has always been observed that the larger the number of the rulers the more cruel the treatment of the subject races. In the States they form the great mass of the loyal men. Start your constitutional learning journey. endobj While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. With other Radical Republicans, he agitated for emancipation, black fighting units, and black suffrage. The veto power is no exception; it is merely a power to compel a reconsideration. Thaddeus Stevens was a Radical Republican leader and one of the most powerful members in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the second place, it is a necessity in order to protect the loyal white men in the seceded States. On the result of the war depended the fate and ulterior condition of the contending parties. 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. No Government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and execution of her laws. Since the surrender of the armies of the confederate States of America a little has been done toward establishing this Government upon the true principles of liberty and justice; and but a little if we stop here. and obey equal laws. Another good reason is, it would insure the ascendancy of the Union party. 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. Thaddeus Stevens, "Reconstruction" Speech, September 6, 1865. - wrapinknot 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. We have broken the material shackles of four million slaves. 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. Think not I would slander my native land; I would reform it. practice justice to all men, and accustom themselves to make law. 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. 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. our blood and treasure will have been spent in vain. 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. 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. Thaddeus Stevens, "Reconstruction" Speech, September 6, 1865. 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. Thaddeus Stevens, Speech on reconstruction, December 18, 1865. Thaddeus Stevens on the Great Topic of the Hour. My only objection to it is that it is too lenient. President Johnson's opposition to these measures created a schism between him and Stevens, and eventually led to the president's impeachment. Since the conquest they have been governed by martial law. 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. 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. 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. By what civil weapon have we enabled them to defend themselves against oppression and injustice? Thus much I have said at the outset of my remarks, which shall not be very long. They must come in as new states or remain as conquered provinces. 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. >IQ 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. If we fail in this great duty now, when we have the 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.
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