Information AboutThaddeus Stevens |
|
Thaddeus Stevens ( April 4 , 1792 - August 11 , 1868 ), also known as "The Great Commoner," was a member of the United States House Of Representatives from Pennsylvania . He was a Radical Republican , and one of the dominant figures in Congress, 1861-1868. EARLY LIFE Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont . He suffered from many hardships during his childhood, including a Club Foot . His father was an alcoholic who was unable to hold a steady job and who abandoned the family before dying in the War Of 1812 . Stevens attended Dartmouth College , graduating in 1814; he moved to York, Pennsylvania , where he taught school and studied law. After admission to the bar, he established a successful law practice, first in Gettysburg then in Lancaster in 1815. POLITICAL LIFE At first, Stevens belonged to the Federalist Party , but switched to the Anti-Masonic Party , then to the Whig Party , and finally to the Republican Party . He devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what he considered the Slave Power , that is the conspiracy he saw of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and block the progress of liberty. In 1848, while still a Whig party member, Stevens was elected to serve in the House Of Representatives . He defended and supported Indians, Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, Jews, Chinese, and women. However, the defense of runaway or fugitive Slaves gradually began to consume the greatest amount of his time, until the abolition of Slavery became his primary political and personal focus. He was actively involved in the Underground Railroad , assisting runaway slaves in getting to Canada, sometimes as many as 16 a week. During the American Civil War Stevens was one of the three or four most powerful men in Congress, using his slashing oratorical powers, his chairmanship of the Ways And Means Committee , and above all his single-minded devotion to victory. His power grew during Reconstruction as he dominated the House and helped to draft both the Fourteenth Amendment and the Reconstruction Act in 1867. Radical Republicanism Stevens was one of two Congressmen in July 1861 opposing the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution stating the limited war aim of restoring the Union while preserving slavery; he helped repeal it in December. In August, 1861, he supported the first law attacking slavery, the Confiscation Act that said owners would forfeit any slaves they allowed to help the Confederate war effort. By December he was the first Congressional leader pushing for emancipation as a tool to weaken the rebellion. He called for total war on January 22 , 1862 :
Stevens was so outspoken in his condemnation of the Confederacy that The Army Of Northern Virginia made a point of burning his iron business to the ground during the Gettysburg Campaign . Stevens was the leader of the Radical Republican s who had full control of Congress after the 1866 elections. He largely set the course of Reconstruction . He wanted to begin to rebuild the South, using military power to force the South to recognize the equality of Freedmen. When President Johnson resisted Stevens proposed and passed the resolution for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in 1868. TRIVIA Stevens was known for his humor and wit. On one occasion while in the Senate, a woman requested a lock of his hair (collecting locks of hair was common in this time period), he being bald and wearing a toupee, ripped it off and offered all of his hair to her. DEATH Thaddeus Stevens died at midnight on August 11 , 1868 in Washington, D.C. , less than three months after the acquittal of Johnson by the Senate . The public expression of grief in Washington was second only to that following the death of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Stevens' coffin lay in state inside the Capitol Rotunda , flanked by a Black Union Honor Guard from Massachusetts . Twenty thousand people, one-half of whom were free black men, attended his funeral in Lancaster, Pennsylvania . He chose to be buried in the Schreiner-Concord Cemetery because it was the only cemetery that would accept people without regard to race. Stevens wrote the inscription on his head stone that reads: "I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude, 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." LEGACY Stevens dreamed of a socially just world, where unearned privilege did not exist. He believed from his personal experience that being different or having a different perspective can enrich society. He believed that differences among people should not be feared or oppressed but celebrated. In his will he left $50,000 to establish Stevens, a school for the relief and refuge of homeless, indigent Orphan s. His will stated: "They shall be carefully educated in the various branches of English education and all industrial trades and pursuits. No preference shall be shown on account of race or color in their admission or treatment. Neither poor Germans, Irish or Mahometan, nor any others on account their race or religion of their parents, shall be excluded. They shall be fed at the same table." This original bequest has now evolved into Thaddeus Stevens College Of Technology . The College continually strives to provide underprivileged individuals with opportunities and to create an environment in which individual differences are valued and nurtured. REFERENCES
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
| ||||||
|
||||||
|
|