Ask, what is the Presidents policy? and it is difficult to define it. first of those amendments is to change the basis of 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. 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 . In 1849, Stevens was elected, as a Whig, to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. If we do not furnish them with Early in his career, he developed a hatred for bondage and, subsequently, defended many fugitives without charging them legal fees. 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. The following speech lays out what he felt Congressional Reconstruction should encompass. Without it all are sure to be ruled by traitors; and loyal men, black and white, will be oppressed, exiled, or murdered. Thus much I have said at the outset of my remarks, which shall not be very long. I have long since wished that capital punishment were abolished. endobj 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 leader of the Radical Republicans in the House, Stevens was a lawyer, politician, and staunch abolitionist. 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:. . Southern pride would not long brook a hopeless minority. and obey equal laws. 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. All Rights Reserved. Home; Service. provinces will be prepared to participate in constitutional Military rule is necessarily despotic, and ought not to exist longer than is absolutely necessary. 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. 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. Viewing Pres. A majority of Congress desires that treason shall be made odious, not by bloody executions, but by other adequate punishments. 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. But I never dreamed that all punishment could be dispensed with in human society. I know of no Republican who does not ridicule what Mr. Seward thought a cunning movement, in counting Virginia and other outlawed States among those which had adopted the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. True, some of those governors were illegally appointed, being civilians. He spent a term studying at the University of Vermont but ultimately graduated from Dartmouth. . Have not loyal blacks quite as good a right to choose rulers and make laws as rebel whites? Thaddeus Stevens on black suffrage, 1867 From speech of Thaddeus Stevens (R-Pa) in the House of Representatives, January 3, 1867. 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.. 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. There is more reason why colored voters should be admitted in the rebel States than in the Territories. In the States they form the great mass of the loyal men. Updates? Title Thaddeus Stevens Papers: Speeches and Writing File, 1835-1868; 1865; Names Stevens, Thaddeus, 1792-1868 Congress denies him all power in the matter, except those of advice, and has determined to maintain such denial. In 1867 Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner led the campaign for full voting rights for African Americans across the nation. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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? But if full justice could not be obtained at once I would not refuse to do what is possible. . University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998). electors; and I know of no better place nor better The law of nations then fixed their condition. 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. Stevens had a long history of opposition to slavery and was outraged over the secession of the South. . requisite qualifications of age, residence, and citizenship; What are the great questions which now divide the nation? An ancient philosopher, whose antagonist admitted that what he required was just but deemed it impolitic, asked him: Do you believe in Hades? I would say to those above referred to, who admit the justice of human equality before the law but doubt its policy: Do you believe in heIl?. 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. 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. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. I am now confining my arguments to negro suffrage in the rebel States. Do you find this information helpful? Are such men fit to sit in the places of statesmen? 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. ascendency to the party of the Union; and so as to render I do. Reconstruction "There was a dramatic need for another amendment" after the slavery-abolishing 13th Amendment was ratified at the end of 1865, Hetrick says. Then, twenty million white men enchained four million black men. Twenty years ago I denounced it as a despotism. . 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? War out west has begun and it seems as the US may be drawn into conflict with its southern neighbors. 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. 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 monarchical Governments, where the sovereign power rests in the Crown, the king would have fixed the condition of the conquered provinces. . In the second place, it is a necessity in order to protect the loyal white men in the seceded States. I can hardly believe that any person can be found who will not admit that every one of these provisions is just. To be sure many subordinate items of the policy of each may be easily sketched. To my mind it is either the most ignorant and shallow mistake of his duties, or the most brazen and impudent usurpation of power. 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. . How, then, can such a State adopt the amendment? The future condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conqueror. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. governments for them. In whom does the Constitution place the power? proper for them as territorial governments. 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. The Economy also feel with the panic of 1854. In what have we taught them the science and granted them the privilege of self-government? They must come in as new states or remain as conquered provinces. governed by martial law. We may not aspire to fame. For while some in Congress may have believed that enough was done to assist them already simply by being freed, the only thing essentially done was what was morally right (the bare minimum) by freeing them of the confinements of dependence they had been succumbed to, and then leaving them . The infernal laws of slavery have prevented them from 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 first section, prohibits the States from abridging the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, or unlawfully depriving them of life, liberty, or property, or of denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. He must ask leave of Congress. Thaddeus Stevens | 1866 Summary On May 8, 1866, Thaddeus Stevens delivered this speech introducing the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. . Congress and in the Electoral college. .I need not depict the ruin that would follow. 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. Congress alone can do it. 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. 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. Dead States cannot restore their existence "as it was." 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. Astrological Sign: Aries, Death Year: 1868, Death date: August 11, 1868. . 4 0 obj Military rule is necessarily despotic, The veto of the President and their votes on the bill are conclusive evidence of that. After the Confederacy was defeated, the southern states were devastated They had all been melted and consumed in the fierce fires of the terrible war. He served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction and chaired the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. of Thaddeus Stevens, Vol. Whatever law allows the white man to testify in court shall allow the man of color to do the same. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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 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. In . 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. The third section may encounter more difference of opinion here. Thaddeus Stevens on the Great Topic of the Hour. How difficult in a day to unlearn it. Ooops. Whatever law punishes a white man for a crime shall punish the black man precisely in the same way and to the same degree. "Reconstruction," Hon.
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