Stevens, Thaddeus (1792–1868)

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STEVENS, THADDEUS (1792–1868)

A Pennsylvania lawyer, state legislator (1833–1841), and congressman (1849–1853, 1859–1868), Thaddeus Stevens was the most powerful Republican congressman throughout the civil war and beginning of reconstruction. Stevens was the earliest and most consistent congressional supporter of black rights and opponent of slavery. Stevens initiated, sponsored, or helped pass all key Reconstruction acts from 1865 to 1868. More than any other individual, Stevens was responsible for making the ex-slaves citizens.

After reading law, Stevens began practicing in 1816. In 1817 his unsuccessful defense of an accused murderer with the then novel plea of insanity brought Stevens fame and clients. After an initial case in which he represented a master in regaining fugitive slaves, Stevens never again defended slavery. Throughout the rest of his career Stevens took numerous cases on behalf of fugitive slaves, free blacks, and abolitionists. As one congressman said after his death, Stevens "was an abolitionist before there was such a party name." By 1831 he was one of Pennsylvania's most successful lawyers and a national leader of the Anti-Masonic movement. In 1835 Stevens single-handedly convinced the legislature to create a system of free public education for Pennsylvania. His passionate defense of public education stemmed from his own poverty-stricken background.

In 1848 Stevens was elected to Congress as a Whig, campaigning against slavery in lands ceded by Mexico. In Congress he was an acerbic, sarcastic, unrelenting opponent of slavery. Opposing the compromise of 1850, he predicted it would be "the fruitful mother of future rebellion, disunion, and civil war." One of the first bloody fruits of the Compromise was the Christiana Riot, in Stevens's own county; a slaveowner was killed attempting to seize his fugitive slaves. Stevens helped organize the successful defense of Caster Hanway who was indicted for treason for refusing to help the master. A backlash against the riot and abolition cost Stevens his congressional seat the following year. After a short time in the Know-Nothing Party, he became a Republican in early 1855. In 1858 he was again elected to Congress, as a staunch opponent of his fellow Pennsylvanian, President james buchanan.

At the beginning of the Civil War Stevens became a leader of congressional Republicans. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee he influenced all legislation requiring appropriation of funds. Stevens was largely responsible for the Internal Revenue Act of 1862 and the Legal Tender Acts which were necessary to finance the war. As a member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War Stevens helped insure that civilian, and not military, authority would be pre-eminent during the war. Stevens used this position, as well as his Ways and Means chairmanship, to press abraham lincoln's administration to stop the military from returning fugitive slaves and to allow blacks to enlist.

In 1861 Stevens was one of the few men in Washington who publicly recognized that slavery was the root cause of secession and that the war required its destruction. In July 1861 he was one of two House members to oppose the Crittenden resolution, which declared that the North had no interest in interfering with slavery. In December 1861 Stevens helped defeat a reaffirmation of that resolution. From the outbreak of hostilities Stevens argued that the seceding states should be dealt with according to the "laws of war." He asserted that constitutional obligations and protections—such as those involving fugitive slaves, the protection of private property, or the writ of habeas corpus—should not be "binding on one party while they are repudiated by the other." Thus, he supported the creation of the new state of West Virginia on the theory that Virginia had ceased to exist as a state when it left the Union, so that it was unnecessary for Virginia to agree to the division of the state. Stevens's theory of state suicide was never fully adopted by the Congress or the courts, but it was influential in persuading many congressmen to support his legislation during both the war and Reconstruction.

As early as August 1861 Stevens urged the abolition of slavery as a war measure. In 1862 he tried to secure legislation that would lead to the confiscation of plantations in the rebel states. He believed that such land could be constitutionally seized, not because it was owned by men who could be convicted of treason, but because it was the fruit of war. He subsequently introduced legislation to end slavery in the district of columbia, prevent the Army from returning fugitive slaves, and provide equal pay for black soldiers. He was a leader in securing other legislation that protected blacks and allowed them to serve in the military, even if they were owned by loyal masters.

During Reconstruction Stevens was the House Republican whip, a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, and probably the most powerful politician in Washington. In early 1866 Stevens introduced legislation for the continuation of the freedmen ' sbureau, the adoption of the fourteenth amendment to protect the freedmen, and the enfranchisement of blacks in Washington, D.C. President andrew johnson's unexpected veto of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, his subsequent attempts to prevent ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and his vehement opposition to voting by blacks led to congressional Reconstruction. Stevens sponsored legislation that prevented the former Confederate states from sending representatives to Congress without congressional approval. The legislation was specifically aimed at Johnson's home state of Tennessee, but applied to all the Confederate states.

During the election of 1866 Stevens openly argued for complete racial equality while campaigning for Republicans and against Andrew Johnson's administration. Johnson, meanwhile, publicly accused Stevens, charles sumner, and the abolitionist Wendell Phillips of treason and suggested they ought to be hanged. The election gave the Republicans more than a two-thirds majority in both houses. Although ill through much of the Fortieth Congress, Stevens nevertheless sponsored the tenure of office act, which set the stage for Johnson's impeachment, and the military reconstruction act of 1867, which placed all former Confederate states, except Tennessee, under military rule. Stevens successfully backed many civil rights measures introduced by others. He was the prime mover in requiring the former Confederate states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and enfranchise blacks. He supported legislation authorizing the army to protect the freedmen from white vigilantes. Virtually all this legislation was enacted over Johnson's veto, with Stevens, as majority whip, guiding it through Congress. Stevens failed, however, to persuade Congress to confiscate Southern plantations and provide land for the freedmen.

In 1866 and 1867 Stevens unsuccessfully supported Congressman James Ashley's motions for impeachment. In early 1868 Stevens himself sought Johnson's impeachment, but could not get committee support for it. However, after Johnson fired Secretary of War edwin m. stanton, in violation of the Tenure of Office Act, an impeachment committee was quickly formed. Stevens, as a member of that committee, helped draft the articles of impeachment and later was a manager of the prosecution. However, he was quite ill by then and took little part in the trial. Ten weeks after the trial Stevens died.

Paul Finkelman
(1986)