Thaddeus Stevens
Thaddeus Stevens | |
---|---|
Justin Smith Morrill | |
Chair of the House Appropriations Committee | |
In office December 11, 1865 – August 11, 1868 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Elihu B. Washburne |
Personal details | |
Born | Danville, Vermont, U.S. | April 4, 1792
Died | August 11, 1868 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 76)
Resting place | Shreiner-Concord Cemetery |
Political party | Republican (from 1855) |
Other political affiliations | Federalist (before 1828) Anti-Masonic (1828–1838) Whig (1838–1853) Know Nothing (1853–1855) |
Domestic partner | Lydia Hamilton Smith (1848–1868) |
Education | University of Vermont Dartmouth College (BA) |
Signature | |
Nickname(s) | The Old Commoner The Great Commoner |
Thaddeus Stevens (April 4, 1792 – August 11, 1868) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a member of the
Stevens was born in rural Vermont, in poverty, and with a
Stevens argued that slavery should not survive the war; he was frustrated by the slowness of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to support his position. He guided the government's financial legislation through the House as Ways and Means chairman. As the war progressed towards a Northern victory, Stevens came to believe that not only should slavery be abolished, but that black Americans should be given a stake in the South's future through the confiscation of land from planters to be distributed to the freedmen. His plans went too far for the Moderate Republicans and were not enacted.
After the
Early life and education
Stevens was born in
Sarah Stevens struggled to make a living from the farm even with the increasing aid of her sons.[3] She was determined that her sons improve themselves, and in 1807 moved the family to the neighboring town of Peacham, Vermont, where she enrolled young Thaddeus in the Caledonia Grammar School (often called the Peacham Academy). He suffered much from the taunts of his classmates for his disability. Later accounts describe him as "wilful, headstrong" with "an overwhelming burning desire to secure an education."[4]
After graduation, he enrolled at the University of Vermont, but suspended his studies due to the federal government's appropriation of campus buildings during the War of 1812.[5] Stevens then enrolled in the sophomore class at Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth, despite a stellar academic career, he was not elected to Phi Beta Kappa; this was reportedly a scarring experience for him.[6][7]
Stevens graduated from Dartmouth in 1814 and spoke at the
Pennsylvania attorney and politician
Gettysburg lawyer
In Pennsylvania, Stevens taught school at the
Stevens knew no one in Gettysburg and initially had little success as a lawyer. His breakthrough, in mid-1817, was a case in which a farmer who had been jailed for debt later killed one of the constables who had arrested him. His defense, although unsuccessful, impressed the local people, and he never lacked for business thereafter.[11] In his legal career, he demonstrated the propensity for sarcasm that would later mark him as a politician, once telling a judge who accused him of manifesting contempt of court, "Sir, I am doing my best to conceal it."[12]
Many who memorialized Stevens after his death in 1868 agreed on his talent as a lawyer. He was involved in the first ten cases to reach the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from Adams County after he began his practice and won nine. One case he later wished he had not won was Butler v. Delaplaine, in which he successfully reclaimed a slave on behalf of her owner.[13]
In Gettysburg, Stevens also began his involvement in politics, serving six one-year terms on the
Anti-Masonry
Stevens's first political cause was Anti-Masonry, which became widespread in 1826 after the disappearance and death of William Morgan, a Mason in upstate New York; fellow Masons were presumed to be the killers of Morgan because they disapproved of his publishing a book revealing the order's secret rites. Since the leading candidate in opposition to President John Quincy Adams was General Andrew Jackson, a Mason who mocked opponents of the order, Anti-Masonry became closely associated with opposition to Jackson and his Jacksonian democracy policies once he was elected president in 1828.[17]
Jackson's adherents were from the old
By 1829, Anti-Masonry had evolved into a political party, the
In September 1833, Stevens was elected to a one-year term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as an Anti-Mason. Once in the capital
Crusader for education
Beginning with his early years in Gettysburg, Stevens advanced the cause of universal education. At the time, no state outside
In April 1834, Stevens, working with Governor Wolf, guided an act through the legislature to allow districts across the state to vote on whether to have public schools and the taxes to pay for them. Gettysburg's district voted in favor and also elected Stevens as a school director, where he served until 1839. Tens of thousands of voters signed petitions urging a reversal. The result was a repeal bill that easily passed the
Political change; move to Lancaster
In 1838, Stevens ran again for the legislature. He hoped that if the remaining Anti-Masons and the emerging Whig Party gained a majority, he could be elected to the United States Senate, whose members until 1913 were chosen by state legislatures. A campaign, dirty even by the standards of the times, followed. The result was a Democrat elected as governor, Whig control of the state Senate, and the state House in dispute, with several seats from Philadelphia in question. Stevens won his seat in Adams County, and sought to have those Philadelphia Democrats excluded, which would create a Whig majority that could elect a Speaker and himself as a senator. Amid rioting in Harrisburg – later known as the "Buckshot War" – Stevens's ploy backfired, with the Democrats taking control of the House. Stevens remained in the legislature for most years through 1842 but the episode cost him much of his political influence. The Whigs blamed him for the debacle and were increasingly unwilling to give leadership to someone who had not yet joined their party. Nevertheless, he supported the pro-business and pro-development Whig stances.[31] He campaigned for the Whig candidate in the 1840 presidential election, former general William Henry Harrison. Though Stevens later alleged that Harrison had promised him a Cabinet position if elected, he received none, and any influence ended when Harrison died after a month in office, to be succeeded by John Tyler, a southerner hostile to Stevens's stances on slavery.[31][32]
Although Stevens was the most successful lawyer in Gettysburg, he had accrued debt due to his business interests. Refusing to take advantage of the bankruptcy laws, he felt he needed to move to a larger municipality to gain the money to pay his obligations. In 1842, Stevens moved his home and practice to Lancaster. He knew Lancaster County was an Anti-Mason and Whig stronghold, which ensured that he retained a political base. Within a short period, he was earning more than any other Lancaster attorney; by 1848, he had reduced his debts to $30,000 (~$855,035 in 2023) and paid them off soon after. It was in Lancaster that he engaged the services of Lydia Hamilton Smith, a housekeeper, whose racial makeup was described as mulatto, and who remained with him the rest of his life.[33]
Abolitionist and prewar congressman
Evolution of views
In the 1830s, few sought the immediate eradication of slavery. The
At the 1837 Pennsylvania constitutional convention, Stevens, who was a delegate, fought against the
Until the outbreak of the American Civil War, Stevens took the public position that he supported slavery's end and opposed its expansion. Nevertheless, he would not seek to disturb it in the states where it existed, because the Constitution protected their internal affairs from federal interference.[34] He also supported slave-owning Whig candidates for president: Henry Clay in 1844[42] and Zachary Taylor in 1848.[43]
First tenure in Congress
In 1848, Stevens ran for election to Congress from Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district. There was opposition to him at the Whig convention. Some delegates felt that because Stevens had been late to join the party, he should not receive the nomination; others disliked his stance on slavery. He narrowly won the nomination. In a strong year for Whigs nationally, Taylor was chosen as president and Stevens was elected to Congress.[44]
It is my purpose nowhere in these remarks to make personal reproaches; I entertain no ill-will toward any human being, nor any brute, that I know of, not even the [Democratic] skunk across the way to which I referred. Least of all would I reproach the South. I honor her courage and fidelity. Even in a bad, a wicked cause, she shows a united front. All her sons are faithful to the cause of human bondage, because it is their cause. But the North – the poor, timid, mercenary, driveling North – has no such united defenders of her cause, although it is the cause of human liberty ... She is offered up a sacrifice to propitiate southern tyranny – to conciliate southern treason.
—Stevens in the House debate over the
Fugitive Slave Act, June 10, 1850[45]
When the 31st United States Congress convened in December 1849, Stevens took his seat, joining other newly elected slavery opponents such as Salmon P. Chase. Stevens spoke out against the Compromise of 1850, crafted by Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, that gave victories to both North and South, but would allow for some of the territories of the United States recently gained from Mexico to become slave states.[46] As the debates continued, in June he said, "This word 'compromise' when applied to human rights and constitutional rights I abhor."[47] Nevertheless, the pieces of legislation that made up the Compromise passed, including the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which Stevens found particularly offensive.[48] Although many Americans hoped that the Compromise would bring sectional peace, Stevens warned that it would be "the fruitful mother of future rebellion, disunion, and civil war."[49]
Stevens was easily renominated and reelected in 1850, even though his stance caused him problems among pro-Compromise Whigs.
Despite this trend, Stevens suffered political problems. He left the Whig caucus in December 1851, when his colleagues would not join him in seeking the repeal of the offensive elements of the Compromise. Nevertheless, he supported its unsuccessful 1852 candidate for president, General Winfield Scott. His political opposition, and local dislike of his stance on slavery and participation in the treason trial, made him unlikely to win renomination, and he sought only to pick his successor. His choice was defeated for the Whig nomination.[52]
Know-Nothing and Republican
Out of office, Stevens concentrated on the practice of law in Lancaster, remaining one of the leading attorneys in the state. He stayed active in politics, and in 1854, to gain more votes for the anti-slavery movement, he joined the nativist
Stevens was a delegate to the
1860 election; secession crisis
Stevens took his seat in the
With the Democrats unable to agree on a single presidential candidate, the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago became crucial, as the nominee would be in a favorable position to become president. Prominent figures in the party, such as Seward and Lincoln, sought the nomination. Stevens continued to support the 75-year-old Justice McLean. Beginning on the second ballot, most Pennsylvania delegates supported Lincoln, helping to win him the nomination. As the Democrats put up no candidate in his district, Stevens was assured of reelection to the House and campaigned for Lincoln in Pennsylvania. Lincoln won a majority in the Electoral College. The President-elect's known opposition to the expansion of slavery caused immediate talk of secession in the southern states, a threat that Stevens had downplayed during the campaign.[57][58]
Congress convened in December 1860, with several of the southern states already pledging to secede. Stevens was unyielding in opposing efforts to appease the southerners, such as the Crittenden Compromise, which would have enshrined slavery as beyond constitutional amendment.[59] He stated, in a remark widely quoted both North and South, that rather than offer concessions because of Lincoln's election, he would see "this Government crumble into a thousand atoms," and that the forces of the United States would crush any rebellion.[60] Despite Stevens's protests, the lame-duck Buchanan administration did little in response to the secession votes, allowing most federal resources in the South to fall into rebel hands. Even in the abolition movement, many were content to let it be so and let the South go its own way. Stevens disagreed, and the congressman was "undoubtedly pleased" by Lincoln's statement in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861, that he would "hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the Government."[61][62]
American Civil War
Slavery
When the war began in April 1861, Stevens argued that the Confederates were revolutionaries to be crushed by force. He also believed that the Confederacy had placed itself beyond the protection of the U.S. Constitution by making war, and that in a reconstituted United States, slavery should have no place. Speaker
Abolition – Yes! abolish everything on the face of the earth, but this Union; free every slave – slay every traitor – burn every rebel mansion if these things are necessary to preserve this temple of freedom to the world and to our posterity.
—Stevens accepting renomination
for his congressional seat,
September 1, 1862[64]
In July 1861, Stevens secured the passage of
Stevens and other radicals were frustrated at how slow Lincoln was to adopt their policies for emancipation; according to Brodie, "Lincoln seldom succeeded in matching Stevens's pace, though both were marching towards the same bright horizon."[66] In April 1862, Stevens wrote to a friend, "As for future hopes, they are poor as Lincoln is nobody."[67] The radicals aggressively pushed the issue, provoking Lincoln to comment: "Stevens, Sumner and [Massachusetts Senator Henry] Wilson simply haunt me with their importunities for a Proclamation of Emancipation. Wherever I go and whatever way I turn, they are on my tail, and still in my heart, I have the deep conviction that the hour [to issue one] has not yet come."[68] The President stated that if it came to a showdown between the radicals and their enemies, he would have to side with Stevens and his fellows, and deemed them "the unhandiest devils in the world to deal with" but "with their faces ... set Zionwards."[69] Although Lincoln composed his proclamation in June and July 1862, the secret was held within his Cabinet, and the President turned aside radical pleadings to issue one until after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in September. Stevens quickly adopted the Emancipation Proclamation for use in his successful re-election campaign.[70] When Congress returned in December, Stevens maintained his criticism of Lincoln's policies, calling them "flagrant usurpations, deserving the condemnation of the community."[71] Stevens generally opposed Lincoln's plans to colonize freed slaves abroad, though sometimes he supported emigration proposals for political reasons.[72] Stevens wrote to a nephew in June 1863 saying, "The slaves ought to be incited to insurrection and give the rebels a taste of real civil war."[73]
... the adoption of the measures I advocated at the outset of the war, the arming of the negroes, the slaves of the rebels, is the only way left on earth in which these rebels can be exterminated. They will find that they must treat those States now outside of the Union as conquered provinces and settle them with new men, and drive the present rebels as exiles from this country. ... They have such determination, energy, and endurance, that nothing but actual extermination or exile or starvation will ever induce them to surrender to this Government.
—Thaddeus Stevens, U.S. House of Representatives,
January 8, 1863[74]
During the Confederate incursion into the North in mid-1863 that culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederates twice sent parties to Stevens's Caledonia Forge. Stevens, who had been there supervising operations, was hastened away by his workers against his will. General Jubal Early looted and vandalized the Forge, causing a loss to Stevens of about $80,000. Early said that the North had done the same to southern figures and that Stevens was well known for his vindictiveness towards the South.[75] Asked if he would have taken the congressman to Libby Prison in Richmond, Early replied that he would have hanged Stevens and divided his bones among the Confederate states.[76]
Stevens pushed Congress to pass a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation was a wartime measure, did not apply to all slaves, and might be reversed by peacetime courts; an amendment would be slavery's end.
The amendment passed narrowly after heavy pressure exerted by Lincoln himself, along with offers of political appointments from the "Seward lobby". Democrats made allegations of bribery;[81][82] Stevens stated: "the greatest measure of the nineteenth century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in America."[83] The amendment was declared ratified on December 18, 1865. Stevens continued to push for a broad interpretation of it that included economic justice in addition to the formal end of slavery.[84][85]
After passing the Thirteenth Amendment, Congress debated the economic rights of the freedmen. Urged on by Stevens,
Financing the war
Stevens worked closely with Lincoln administration officials on legislation to finance the war. Within a day of his appointment as Ways and Means chairman, he had reported a bill for a war loan. Legislation to pay the soldiers Lincoln had already called into service and to allow the administration to borrow to prosecute the war quickly followed. These acts and more were pushed through the House by Stevens. To defeat the delaying tactics of Copperhead opponents, he had the House set debate limits as short as half a minute.[87]
Stevens played a major part in the passage of the
Although the Legal Tender legislation allowed for the payment of government obligations in paper money, Stevens was unable to get the Senate to agree that interest on the national debt should be paid with
Like most Pennsylvania politicians of both parties, Stevens was a major proponent of tariffs, which increased from 19% to 48% from fiscal 1861 to fiscal 1865.[93][94] According to activist Ida Tarbell in "The Tariff in Our Times:" [Import] duties were never too high for [Stevens], particularly for iron, for he was a manufacturer and it was often said in Pennsylvania that the duties he advocated in no way represented the large iron interests of the state, but were hoisted to cover the needs of his own ... badly managed works."[95]
Reconstruction
Problem of reconstructing the South
As Congress debated how the U.S. would be organized after the war, the status of freed slaves and former Confederates remained undetermined.[96][97] Stevens stated that what was needed was a "radical reorganization of southern institutions, habits, and manners."[98] Stevens, Sumner, and other radicals argued that the southern states should be treated like conquered provinces without constitutional rights. Lincoln, on the contrary, said that only individuals, not states, had rebelled.[99] In July 1864, Stevens pushed Lincoln to sign the Wade–Davis Bill, which required at least half of prewar voters to sign an oath of loyalty for a state to gain readmission. Lincoln, who advocated his more lenient ten percent plan, pocket vetoed it.[100]
Stevens reluctantly voted for Lincoln at the convention of the
Presidential Reconstruction
Before leaving town after Congress adjourned in March 1865, Stevens privately urged Lincoln to press the South hard militarily, though the war was ending. Lincoln replied, "Stevens, this is a pretty big hog we are trying to catch and to hold when we catch him. We must take care that he does not slip away from us."[104] Never to see Lincoln again, Stevens left with "a homely metaphor but no real certainty of having left as much as a thumbprint on Lincoln's policy."[105] On the evening of April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Stevens did not attend the ceremonies when Lincoln's funeral train stopped in Lancaster; he was said to be ill. Trefousse speculated that he had avoided the rites for other reasons. According to Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg, Stevens stood at a railroad bridge and lifted his hat.[106]
In May 1865, Andrew Johnson began what came to be known as "Presidential Reconstruction": recognizing a provisional government of Virginia led by Francis Harrison Pierpont, calling for other former rebel states to organize constitutional conventions, declaring amnesty for many southerners, and issuing individual pardons to even more. Johnson did not push the states to protect the rights of freed slaves, and immediately began to counteract the land reform policies of the Freedmen's Bureau. These actions outraged Stevens and others who took his view. The radicals saw that freedmen in the South risked losing the economic and political liberty necessary to sustain emancipation from slavery. They began to call for universal male suffrage and continued their demands for land reform.[107][108]
Stevens wrote to Johnson that his policies were gravely damaging the country and that he should call a special session of Congress, which was not scheduled to meet until December. When his communications were ignored, Stevens began to discuss with other radicals how to prevail over Johnson when the two houses convened. Congress has the constitutional power to judge whether those seeking to be its members are properly elected; Stevens urged that no senators or representatives from the South be seated.[109] He argued that the states should not be readmitted as thereafter Congress would lack the power to force race reform.[110]
In September, Stevens gave a widely reprinted speech in Lancaster in which he set forth what he wanted for the South. He proposed that the government confiscate the estates of the largest 70,000 landholders there, those who owned more than 200 acres (81 ha). Much of this property he wanted
Through late 1865, the southern states held white-only balloting and, in congressional elections, chose many former rebels, most prominently Confederate Vice President
Congressional Reconstruction
By this time, Stevens was past age seventy and in poor health; he was carried everywhere in a special chair. When Congress convened in early December 1865, Stevens made arrangements with the
As the responsibilities of the Ways and Means chairman had been divided, Stevens took the post of Chairman of the
The Committee of Fifteen began to consider what would become the
When Illinois Senator
Congress overrode a Johnson veto to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (also introduced by Trumbull), granting African-Americans citizenship and equality before the law and forbidding any action by a state to the contrary. Johnson made the gap between him and Congress wider when he accused Stevens, Sumner, and Wendell Phillips of trying to destroy the government.[127]
After Congress adjourned in July, the campaigning for the fall elections began. Johnson embarked on a trip by rail, dubbed the "
Radical Reconstruction
In January 1867, Stevens introduced legislation to divide the South into five districts, each commanded by an army general empowered to override civil authorities. These military officers were to supervise elections with all males of whatever race, entitled to vote, except for those who could not take an oath of past loyalty – most white Southerners could not. The states were to write new constitutions (subject to approval by Congress) and hold elections for state officials. Only if a state ratified the Fourteenth Amendment would its delegation be seated in Congress.[129] The system gave power to a Republican coalition of freedmen (mobilized by the Union League), carpetbaggers, and co-operative Southerners (the last dubbed scalawags by indignant ex-rebels) in most southern states.[130] These states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, which became part of the Constitution in mid-1868.[131]
Stevens introduced a Tenure of Office Act, restricting Johnson from firing officials who had received Senate confirmation without getting that body's consent. The Tenure of Office Act was ambiguous since it could be read to protect officeholders only during the tenure of the president who appointed them, and most of the officials the radicals sought to protect had been named by Lincoln. Chief among these was Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a radical himself.[132]
Stevens steered a bill to enfranchise African-Americans in the District of Columbia through the House. The Senate passed it in 1867, and it was enacted over Johnson's veto. Congress was downsizing the Army for peacetime; Stevens offered an amendment, which became part of the bill as enacted, to have two regiments of African-American cavalry. His solicitude for African-Americans extended to the Native American; Stevens was successful in defeating a bill to place reservations under state law, noting that the native people had often been abused by the states.[133] An expansionist, he supported the railroads.[134] He added a stipulation into the [Transcontinental] Pacific Railroad Act requiring the applicable railroads to buy iron "of American manufacture" of the top price qualities.[135] Although he sought to protect manufacturers with high tariffs, he also sought unsuccessfully to get a bill passed to protect labor with an eight-hour day in the District of Columbia. Stevens advocated a bill to give government workers raises; it did not pass.[136]
Impeaching President Johnson
With Stevens' agreement,
TheMost of Johnson's Cabinet supported him, but Secretary of War Stanton did not, and with the General of the Army, war hero Ulysses S. Grant, worked to undermine Johnson's Reconstruction policies. Johnson obeyed the laws that Congress had passed, sometimes over his veto, but often interpreted them in ways contrary to their intent. After Stanton refused Johnson's request that he resign in August 1867, Johnson suspended Stanton, as permitted by the Tenure of Office Act, and made General Grant interim Secretary of War.[145] Republicans campaigned in that year's election on the issue of African-American suffrage, but were met with a voter surge towards the Democrats, who opposed it. Although no seats at Congress were directly at stake, voters in Ohio both defeated a referendum on black suffrage and elected the Democrats to the majority in the legislature, meaning that Wade, whose term was due to expire in 1869, would not be reelected.[146]
When Congress met again,
Stevens was chairman of the
The prospects of impeachment took new life on February 21, 1868. The Senate had previously, on January 13, 1868, overturned Johnson's suspension of Stanton. Grant then resigned as Secretary of War, and Stanton reclaimed his place.[156] However, on February 21, the president ousted Stanton from his position, appointing General Lorenzo Thomas in his place – though Stanton barricaded himself in his office.[157][158] These actions caused great excitement in Washington, and in the House of Representatives, Stevens went from group to group on the floor, repeating, "Didn't I tell you so? What good did your moderation do you? If you don't kill the beast, it will kill you."[159] On February 22, Stevens reported from the Select Committee on Reconstruction a resolution and a report opining that Johnson should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.[150][160][161][162] Stevens concluded the debate on the impeachment resolution on February 24, though due to his poor health, he could not complete his speech and gave it to the Clerk to read aloud. In the speech, he accused Johnson of usurping the powers of other branches of government and ignoring the people's will. He did not deny impeachment was a political matter, but "this is not to be the temporary triumph of a political party, but is to endure in its consequence until the whole continent shall be filled with a free and untrammeled people or shall be a nest of shrinking, cowardly slaves."[163][164] The House voted 126–47 to impeach the president.[165]
Stevens led the delegation of House members sent the following day to inform the Senate of the impeachment, though he had to be carried to its doors by his bearers. Elected to the committee charged with drafting articles of impeachment, his illness limited his involvement. Nevertheless, dissatisfied with the committee's proposed articles, Stevens suggested another that would become Article XI. This grounded the various accusations in statements Johnson had made denying the legitimacy of Congress due to the exclusion of the southern states and stated that Johnson had tried to disobey the Reconstruction Acts.[166] Stevens also urged Benjamin Butler to, independent of the committee, write his own impeachment article, which would ultimately be adopted as Article X.[167]
Stevens was one of the
Increasingly ill, Stevens took little part in the impeachment trial, at which the leading House manager was Massachusetts Representative
Most radicals were confident that Johnson would be convicted and removed from office. Stevens, though, was never certain of the result as Chief Justice Chase (the former Treasury Secretary) made rulings that favored the defense, and he had no great confidence Republicans would stick together. On May 11, the Senate met in secret session, and senators gave speeches explaining how they intended to vote. All Democrats were opposed, but an unexpectedly large number of Republicans also favored acquittal on some or all of the articles. Counting votes, managers realized their best chance of gaining the required two-thirds for conviction was on the Stevens-inspired Article XI, and when the Senate assembled to give its verdict, they scheduled it to be voted upon first. The suspense was broken when Kansas Senator
Final months and death
During the recess of the impeachment court, the Republicans met in convention in Chicago and nominated Grant for president. Stevens did not attend and was dismayed by the exclusion of African-American suffrage from the party platform as radical influence began to fade in the Republican Party. When the Senate returned to session, it voted down Articles II and III by the same 35–19 margin as before, and Chase declared the President acquitted. Stevens did not give up on the idea of removing Johnson; in July, he proffered several more impeachment articles (the House refused to adopt them).[172] He offered a bill to divide Texas into several parts to gain additional Republican senators to vote out Johnson. It was defeated; the Herald stated, "It is lamentable to see this old man, with one foot in the grave, pursuing the President with such vindictiveness."[173] Nevertheless, Stevens planned to revisit the question of impeachment when Congress met again in late 1868.[174]
Brodie suggested that Stevens's hatred of Johnson was the only thing keeping him from despair, aware as he was of the continued violence in the South, some of which was committed by the Ku Klux Klan. Several of the southern states had been re-admitted by this time. The murders and intimidation were aiding the Democrats there in restoring white rule. With the Republicans unwilling to embrace black suffrage in their platform and the Democrats opposed to it, Stevens feared Democratic victory in the 1868 elections might even bring back slavery. He told his fellow Pennsylvania politician, Alexander McClure, "My life has been a failure. With all this great struggle of years in Washington and the fearful sacrifice of life and treasure, I see little hope for the Republic." Stevens took pride in his role in establishing free public education in Pennsylvania.[175] When interviewed by a reporter seeking to gain his life story, Stevens replied, "I have no history. My life-long regret is that I have lived so long and so uselessly."[176] Nevertheless, in his last formal speech to the House, Stevens stated that "man still is vile. But such large steps have lately been taken in the true direction, that the patriot has a right to take courage."[177]
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
—The inscription on Stevens's grave[178]
When Congress adjourned in late July, Stevens remained in Washington, too ill to return to Pennsylvania. Stevens was in pain from his stomach ailments, from swollen feet, and from
President Johnson issued no statement upon the death of his enemy.[180] Newspaper reaction was generally along partisan lines, though sometimes mixed. The Detroit Post stated that "if to die crowned with noble laurels, and ... secure of [recte in] the respect of the world ... is an end worthy the ambition of a well spent life, then the veteran Radical may lie down with the noblest of the fathers to a well contented sleep."[181] The New York Times stated that Stevens had "discerned the expediency of emancipation, and urged it long before Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation" but that after the war, "on the subject of Reconstruction, then, Mr. Stevens must be deemed the Evil Genius of the Republican Party.[182] The [Franklin, Louisiana] Planter's Banner exulted, "The prayers of the righteous have at last removed the Congressional curse! May ... the fires of his new furnace never go out!"[183]
Stevens's body was conveyed from his house to the Capitol by white and black pallbearers together. Thousands of mourners, of both races, filed past his casket as he
Personal life
Stevens never married, though there were rumors about his twenty-year relationship (1848–1868) with his widowed housekeeper, Lydia Hamilton Smith (1813–1884).[186][187] She was a light-skinned African-American; her husband Jacob and at least one of her sons were much darker than she was.[188]
It is uncertain if the Stevens-Smith relationship was romantic. The Democratic press, especially in the South, assumed so, and when he brought Mrs. Smith to Washington in 1859, she managed his household, which did nothing to stop their insinuations.[189] In the one brief surviving letter from Stevens to her, Stevens addresses her as Mrs. Lydia Smith.[190] Stevens insisted that his nieces and nephews refer to her as Mrs. Smith, deference towards an African-American servant almost unheard of at that time. They do so in surviving letters, warmly, asking Stevens to see that she comes with him next time he visits.[191]
As evidence that their relationship was sexual, Brodie pointed to an 1868 letter in which Stevens compares himself to
When Stevens died, Smith was at his bedside, along with his friend Simon Stevens, nephew Thaddeus Stevens Jr., two black nuns, and several other individuals. Under Stevens's will, Smith was allowed to choose between a lump sum of $5,000 or a $500 annual allowance; she could also take any furniture in his house.[193] With the inheritance, she purchased Stevens's house, where she had lived for many years. A Roman Catholic, she chose to be buried in a Catholic cemetery, not near Stevens, although she left money for the upkeep of his grave.[194]
Stevens had taken custody of his two young nephews, Thaddeus (often called "Thaddeus Jr.") and Alanson Joshua Stevens, after their parents died in Vermont. Alanson was sent to work at Stevens's business, Caledonia Forge; Thaddeus Jr. was expelled from Dartmouth College, though he subsequently graduated and was taken into his uncle's law practice.[195] Alanson during the Civil War rose to be commanding captain of a Pennsylvania Volunteers field artillery unit and was killed in action at Chickamauga.[196] After Alanson's death, his uncle used his influence to have Thaddeus Jr. made provost marshal of Lancaster.[197]
Buildings associated with Stevens and with Smith in Lancaster are being renovated by the local historical society, LancasterHistory.org.[198] In his will, Stevens made several bequests, with much of his estate to his nephew Thaddeus Jr., on condition that he refrain from alcohol. If he did not, that bequest would establish an orphanage in Lancaster open to all races and nationalities without discrimination. A legal fight over his estate ensued, and it was not until 1894 that the courts settled the matter, awarding $50,000 (~$1.58 million in 2023) to found the orphanage.[193] The school today is the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, in Lancaster.[199]
Schools named after Stevens include Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School in Washington, D.C., founded in 1868 as the first school built for African-American children there. It was segregated for the first 86 years of its existence. In 1977, Amy Carter, daughter of President Jimmy Carter, a Georgian, was enrolled there, the first child of a sitting president to attend public school in almost 70 years.[200]
Historical and popular view
As Stevens' biographer Richard N. Current put it, "to find out what really made the man go, the historian would need the combined aid of two experts from outside the profession – a psychoanalyst and a spiritualist."
With the advent of the
Historians who penned biographies of Stevens in the late 1930s sought to move away from this perspective, seeking to rehabilitate him and his political career. Thomas F. Woodley, writing in 1937, shows admiration of Stevens, but he attributed Stevens's driving force to bitterness over his clubfoot. In his 1939 biography, Alphonse Miller found that the former congressman was motivated by a desire for justice. Both men were convinced that recent books had not treated him fairly. Richard Current's 1942 work reflected current
With Ralph Korngold's 1955 biography of Stevens, the neoabolitionist school of historians began to consider the former congressman. These professors rejected the earlier view that those who had gone South to aid the African-Americans after the war were "rapscallion carpetbaggers" defeated by "saintly redeemers." Instead, they applauded those who had sought to end slavery and forward civil rights and castigated Johnson for obstructionism. They believed that the African-American was central to Reconstruction, and the only things wrong with the congressional program were that it did not go far enough and that it stopped too soon. Brodie's 1959 biography of Stevens was of this school. Controversial in its conclusions for being a psychobiography, it found that Stevens was a "consummate underdog who identified with the oppressed" and whose intelligence won him success, while his consciousness of his clubfoot stunted his social development.[214][215] According to Brodie, this also made him unwilling to marry a woman of his social standing.[216]
Scholars who followed Brodie continued to chip away at the idea of Stevens as a vindictive dictator who dominated Congress to get his way. In 1960, Eric McKitrick deemed Stevens "a picturesque and adroit politician, but a very limited one," whose career was "a long comic sequence of devilish schemes which, one after another, kept blowing up in his face."[217] From the mid-1970s onward, Foner argued that Stevens's role was in staking out a radical position, though events, not Stevens, caused the Republicans to support him. Michael Les Benedict in 1974 suggested that Stevens's reputation as a dictator was based more on his personality than on his influence. In 1989, Allan Bogue found that as chairman of Ways and Means, Stevens was "less than complete master" of his committee.[218]
Historian
Stevens was celebrated for his wit and sarcasm. When Lincoln appointed rival Pennsylvania Republican leader
Steven Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln, in which Stevens was portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones, brought new public interest in Stevens. Jones's character is portrayed as the central figure among the radicals, responsible in large part for the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Historian Matthew Pinsker notes that Stevens is referred to only four times in Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 book Team of Rivals, on which screenwriter Tony Kushner based the film's screenplay; other radicals were folded into the character. Stevens is depicted as unable to moderate his views for the sake of gaining passage of the amendment until after he is urged to do so by the ever-compromising Lincoln.[225] According to Aaron Bady in his article about the film and how it portrays the radicals, "he's the uncle everyone is embarrassed of, even if they love him too much to say so. He's not a leader, he's a liability, one whose shining heroic moment will be when he keeps silent about what he really believes."[226] The film depicts a Stevens-Smith sexual relationship; Pinsker comments that "it may well have been true that they were lovers, but by injecting this issue into the movie, the filmmakers risk leaving the impression for some viewers that the 'secret' reason for Stevens's egalitarianism was his desire to legitimize his romance across racial lines."[225]
On April 2, 2022, in front of the Adams County Courthouse in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a statue of Stevens was unveiled as part of a celebration of Stevens' 230th birthday. The statue was commissioned by the Thaddeus Stevens Society and was sculpted by multidisciplinary artist Alex Paul Loza.[227]
See also
General bibliography
- Berlin, Jean V. (April 1993). "Thaddeus Stevens and His Biographers". Pennsylvania History. 60 (2). University Park: Penn State University Press: 153–62. JSTOR 27773615.
- Bond, Horace Mann. "Social and Economic Forces in Alabama Reconstruction." Journal of Negro History 23(3), July 1938. Accessed via JSTOR, 7 July 2013.
- ISBN 0393003310. online
- Bryant-Jones, Mildred (1941). "The Political Program of Thaddeus Stevens, 1865". Phylon. 2 (2, 2nd Qtr. 1941). Atlanta: Clark Atlanta University: 147–54. JSTOR 271784.
- Castel, Albert E. (1979). The Presidency of Andrew Johnson. American Presidency. Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas. ISBN 0700601902.
- Cox, LaWanda and John H. Cox. Politics, Principle, and Prejudice 1865–1866: Dilemma of Reconstruction America. London: Collier-Macmillan, 1963.
- ISBN 0684808463.
- Du Bois, W. E. B. Black Reconstruction: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880. New York: Russell & Russell, 1935.
- ISBN 080507130X.
- ISBN 978-0199727087
- Foner, Eric (2014) [1988]. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0062354518.
- Gans, David H. (November 16, 2011). "Perfecting the Declaration: The Text and History of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment". Constitutional Accountability Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 31, 2015. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
- Glatfelter, Charles H. (April 1993). "Thaddeus Stevens in the Cause of Education: The Gettysburg Years". Pennsylvania History. 60 (2). University Park: Penn State University Press: 163–75.
- Hamilton, Howard Devon. The Legislative and Judicial History of the Thirteenth Amendment. Political Science dissertation at the University of Illinois; accepted May 15, 1950. Accessed via ProQuest, 4 July 2013.
- ISBN 0275963314.
- Soifer, Aviam. "Federal Protection, Paternalism, and the Virtually Forgotten Prohibition of Voluntary Peonage". Columbia Law Review 112(7), November 2012; pp. 1607–40.
- ISBN 978-1416547495.
- Andreasen, Bryon C. (Summer 2000). Review of Trefousse, Hans L., Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian, in Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, vol. 21, no. 2 (Summer 2000), pp. 75–81.
- ISBN 0814782760
- Vorenberg, Michael. Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-1139428002.
- Woodley, Thomas F. Great Leveler: The Life of Thaddeus Stevens (1937) online
Notes
- ^ James Ashley introduced the amendment in December 1863. In March 1864, Stevens proposed a version that added "forever" to the conditional prohibition and explicitly annulled the Fugitive Slave Clause in Article 4, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The version which ultimately passed had already been crafted by the Senate Judiciary Committee.[77]
References
- ^ Levine 2021, p. 16
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 1–2
- ^ Meltzer 1967, pp. 3–4
- ^ Brodie, pp. 26–27
- ^ a b Franklin Ellis; Samuel Evans; Everts & Peck. (1993). History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men: Chapter XXI. Salem, Ma.: The Bench and Bar of Lancaster County,
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 4–5
- ^ Brodie, pp. 27–29
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 5–7
- ^ a b Trefousse 1997, p. 11
- ^ Meltzer 1967, p. 14
- ^ a b Brodie, p. 32
- ^ Meltzer 1967, p. 17
- ^ a b Trefousse 1997, pp. 13–16
- ^ Glatfelter, p. 163
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 21–22
- ^ Brodie, pp. 42–45
- ^ Brodie, pp. 38–39
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 17, 19
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 25–26
- ^ Meltzer 1967, pp. 27–29
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 26–31
- ^ Brodie, pp. 57–59
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 33–37, 42–43
- ^ Meltzer 1967, pp. 31–32
- ^ Brodie, p. 59
- ^ Glatfelter, pp. 164–66
- ^ "College History". Gettysburg College. Archived from the original on July 18, 2013. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
- ^ Brodie, pp. 60–61
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 39–40
- ^ Trefousse 1997, p. 40
- ^ a b Brodie, pp. 75–84
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 57–67
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 68–69
- ^ a b Brodie, pp. 105–06
- ^ Berlin, pp. 155–58
- ^ Trefousse 1997, p. 46
- ^ Meltzer 1967, pp. 52–53
- ^ Foner, p. 143
- ^ Trefousse 1997, p. 73
- ^ a b c Carlson, Peter (February 19, 2013). "Thaddeus Stevens". Weder History Group. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
- ^ Delle, James A.; Levine, Mary Ann. "Excavations at the Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Site, Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Archaeological Evidence for the Underground Railroad". Northeast Historical Archaeology. 33 (1). Buffalo: State University of New York College at Buffalo. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
- ^ Brodie, p. 103
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- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 79–80
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- ^ Thaddeus Stevens, Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), 397
- ^ The Congressional Globe, Volume 54, Part 1, p. 243
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- ^ a b Soifer, p. 1616
- ^ Soifer, p. 1613
- ^ Gans 2011, p. 10.
- ^ Halbrook 1998, pp. 6–8
- ^ Halbrook 1998, p. 34
- ^ Stewart, pp. 55–57
- ^ Du Bois, pp. 300–07.
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 178–79
- ^ Bond, p. 300
- ^ a b Foner (1980), pp. 139–40
- ^ Foner, pp. 242–47
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 180–81
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 181–86
- ^ Brodie, pp. 277–89
- ^ Foner, pp. 273–77
- ^ Foner, pp. 282–83, 296–99, 332–33
- ^ "Amendment XIV". US Government Printing Office. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
- ^ Brodie, pp. 296–303
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- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 194
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- ^ Trefousse 1997, p. 195
- ^ Stewart, pp. 85–87
- ^ "Building the Case for Impeachment, December 1866 to June 1867 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. United States House of Representatives. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 210–12
- ^ "The impeachment of Andrew Johnson". The Week. October 19, 2019. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
- ^ Foner, p. 309
- ^ Stewart, p. 39
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- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 213–14
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- ^ a b "TO PASS THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT RESOLUTION. -- House Vote #119 -- Dec 7, 1867". GovTrack.us.
- ^ Stewart, pp. 103–11
- ^ a b Perros, George P. (1960). "PRELIMINARY INVENTORY OF THE R1OC:ORDS OF THE HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON RECONSTRUCTIO~ 40TH AND 41ST CONGRESSES (1867-1871)". history.house.gov. The National Archives National Archives and Records Service General Services Administration. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
- ^ a b Hinds, Asher C. (March 4, 1907). "HINDS' PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES INCLUDING REFERENCES TO PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION, THE LAWS, AND DECISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE" (PDF). United States Congress. pp. 845–847. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ^ "Journal of the United States House of Representatives (40th Congress, second session) pages 259–262". voteview.com. United States House of Representatives. 1868. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ^ "The Capital". Philadelphia Inquirer. February 10, 1868. Retrieved July 22, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Stewart, pp. 136–137
- ^ "Staunton Spectator Tuesday, February 18, 1868". Staunton Spectator. February 18, 1868. Retrieved July 22, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
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- ^ "Impeachment". Newspapers.com. Harrisburg Telegraph. February 22, 1868. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
- ^ This article incorporates public domain material from Stephen W. Stathis and David C. Huckabee. Congressional Resolutions on Presidential Impeachment: A Historical Overview (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
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- ^ Trefousse 1997, p. 225
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- ^ Meltzer 1967, p. 201
- ^ a b Trefousse 1997, pp. 226–29
- ^ "The House Impeaches Andrew Johnson". Washington, D.C.: Office of the Historian and the Clerk of the House's Office of Art and Archives. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 231–33
- ^ Stewart, pp. 233–34
- ^ Stewart, pp. 275–79
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- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 234–35
- ^ Brodie, pp. 356–57
- ^ Trefousse 1997, p. 235
- ^ Brodie, pp. 361–63
- ^ Brodie, p. 363
- ^ Brodie, p. 364
- ^ Brodie, p. 366
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 240–41
- ^ a b Meltzer, p. 218
- ^ Trefousse 1997, p. 242
- ^ "Thaddeus Stevens. The New York Times, August 13, 1868. Retrieved on June 14, 2013.
- ^ Brodie, p. 369
- ^ "Lying in State or in Honor". US Architect of the Capitol (AOC). Retrieved September 1, 2018.
- ^ Trefousse 1997, pp. 242–43
- ^ "Who was Lydia Hamilton Smith?". Stevensandsmith.org. February 6, 2010. Archived from the original on February 6, 2010. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
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- ^ Brodie, pp. 86–87
- ^ Brodie, p. 87
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- ^ Brodie, p. 88
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- ^ Chadwick, Albert G. (1883). Soldiers' record of the town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont in the War of the Rebellion, 1861–5. St. Johnsbury, Vt.: C.M. Stone & Co. p. 177. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
- ^ Trefousse 1997, p. 136
- ^ LancasterHistory.org. LancasterHistory.org. Retrieved on June 15, 2013.
- ^ "Legacy of Thaddeus Stevens". Thaddeus Stevens College. Retrieved on November 12, 2022.
- ^ Lelyveld, Joseph. "Well-wishers besiege Amy Carter's school". The New York Times, November 30, 1976, p. 41. Retrieved on June 17, 2013. (subscription required)
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- ^ Foner, Eric. "If you wondered about Thaddeus Stevens ...". The New York Times, December 31, 1976, p. 14. Retrieved on June 16, 2013. (subscription required)
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- ^ Stangor, Charles (April 2, 2022). "Thaddeus Stevens statue unveiled in Gettysburg". Gettysburg Connection. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
Bibliography
- Levine, Bruce C. (2021). Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice. New York: ISBN 978-1476793375.
- ISBN 978-0690809732. online
- ISBN 0807856665. online
Further reading
- OCLC 491147473
- Belz, Herman. Reconstructing the Union: Theory and Practice During the Civil War (1979 [1969]), Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press, OCLC 4494724
- OCLC 879050178
- Birkner, Michael J., et al. eds. The Worlds of James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens: Place, Personality, and Politics in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press, 2019)
- Bordewich, Fergus M. How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America (2020), pro=Stevens
- Bowers, Claude G. The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln (1929), Cambridge, Ma.: Houghton Mifflin, an intense attack on Stevens from Dunning School perspective.
- Current, Richard N. "Love, Hate, and Thaddeus Stevens." Pennsylvania History 14.4 (1947): 259–272. online
- OCLC 256434391, a scholarly biography that argues Stevens was primarily concerned with enhancing his power, the power of the Republican Party, and the needs of big business, especially iron-making and railroads.
- Delle, James A.; Levine, Mary Ann (2015). "'Equality of man before his creator': Thaddeus Stevens and the struggle against slavery". In Delle, James A. (ed.). The limits of tyranny: archaeological perspectives on the struggle against new world slavery. Knoxville: ISBN 978-1621900870.
- Foner, Eric. "Thaddeus Stevens, Confiscation, and Reconstruction," in Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, eds. The Hofstadter Aegis (1974). [1]
- Foner, Eric. "Thaddeus Stevens and the Imperfect Republic." Pennsylvania History, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 140–52 (April 1993) in JSTOR
- OCLC 42080394
- Goldenberg, Barry M. The Unknown Architects of Civil Rights: Thaddeus Stevens, Ulysses S. Grant, and Charles Sumner. Los Angeles, CA: Critical Minds Press. (2011).
- Graber, Mark A. "Subtraction by Addition?: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments". Columbia Law Review 112(7), November 2012; pp. 1501–49.
- Hoelscher, Robert J. Thaddeus Stevens as a Lancaster Politician, 1842-1868 (Lancaster County Historical Society, 1974) online.
- Korngold, Ralph. Thaddeus Stevens: A Being Darkly Wise and Rudely Great (1955) online
- Lawson, Elizabeth. Thaddeus Stevens. New York: International Publishers. 1942. (1962 reprint)
- Lee, James F. (June 10, 2021). "On the trail of Thaddeus Stevens, Pennsylvania's equal rights champion". Washington Post.
- McCall, Samuel Walker. Thaddeus Stevens (1899) 369 pages; outdated biography online
- Parra, Fernando. "Thaddeus Stevens: Early Civil Rights Leader." Footnotes: A Journal of History 1 (2017): 184–203. online
- Pitts, Joe (April 24, 2002). Thaddeus Stevens, A Man Before His Time. United States House of Representatives. Archived from the original on January 16, 2003. Retrieved January 16, 2003.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help)CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - Shepard, Christopher, "Making No Distinctions between Rich and Poor: Thaddeus Stevens and Class Equality", Pennsylvania History, 80 (Winter 2013), 37–50. online
- JSTOR 27773617.
- Stryker, Lloyd Paul. Andrew Johnson: A Study in Courage (1929), New York: Macmilliam, OCLC 1184750151, hostile to Stevens.
- Woodburn, James Albert. The Life of Thaddeus Stevens: A Study in American Political History, Especially in the Period of the Civil War and Reconstruction. (1913) online version
- Woodburn, James Albert. "The Attitude of Thaddeus Stevens Toward the Conduct of the Civil War", American Historical Review, Vol. 12, no. 3 (April 1907), pp. 567–83 in JSTOR
- ISBN 978-0198606697, Unique Identifier: 4825694186
Historiography
- Berlin, Jean V. "Thaddeus Stevens and His Biographers," Pennsylvania History 60.2 (1993): 153–162. online
- Foner, Eric. "Thaddeus Stevens and the Imperfect Republic," Pennsylvania History 60.2 (1993): 140–152. online
- Jolly, James A. "The Historical Reputation of Thaddeus Stevens," Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society (1970) 74:33–71, online
- Pickens, Donald K. "The Republican Synthesis and Thaddeus Stevens," Civil War History (1985) 31:57–73, ISSN 0009-8078, Unique Identifier: 5183399288; argues that Stevens was committed to Republicanismand capitalism in terms of self-improvement, the advance of society, equal distribution of land, and economic liberty for all; to achieve that he had to destroy slavery and the aristocracy.
Primary sources
- Kendrick, Benjamin B. The Journal of the Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction. New York: Columbia University, 1914.
- Palmer, Beverly Wilson and Holly Byers Ochoa, eds. The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens. Two vol. (1998), 900 pages; his speeches plus letters to and from Stevens. OCLC 806290019 excerpt vol 1
- Stevens, Thaddeus, et al. Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, at the First Session ... by United States Congress. Joint Committee on Reconstruction, (1866) 791 pages; online edition
- Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Thaddeus Stevens: Delivered ... by United States 40th Cong., 3d sess., 1868–1869. (1869) 84 pages; online edition
External links
- Media related to Thaddeus Stevens at Wikimedia Commons
- Lydia Hamilton Smith, Abolitionist And African American Businesswoman
- Stevens and Smith Historic Site
- Thaddeus Stevens Society
- United States Congress. "Thaddeus Stevens (id: S000887)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Includes Guide to Research Collections where his papers are located.
- Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Thaddeus Stevens Archived December 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- Mr. Lincoln's White House: Thaddeus Stevens Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine