Thaddeus
Stevens was
born in Danville, Vermont, on 4th April, 1792. After graduating in
1814 he was admitted to the bar and practised in Pennsylvania. A strong
opponent of slavery, he defended a large
number
of fugitives without a fee.
A member of the Whig Party, he was elected
to the State Legislature (1833-41) and the House of Representatives
(1849-53) where he played a leading role in the campaign against the
Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850.
After the demise of the Whig Party, Stevens
joined the Republican Party and was
elected to Congress in 1859. He fully supported Abraham
Lincoln during the Civil War but
after his death in 1865 he increasingly came into conflict with the
new president, Andrew Johnson.
Stevens helped draft the Fourteenth Amendment
to the Constitution and the Reconstruction
Act in 1867. He argued in Congress that Southern plantations should
be taken from their owners and divided among the former slaves. As
leader of the Radical Republicans in
Congress, Stevens proposed the resolution in 1868 for the impeachment
of Andrew Johnson.
Stevens health declined during his dispute with Andrew
Johnson and he began making preparations
for his funeral. This included the request that he should be buried
among African Americans in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Thaddeus Stevens
died on 11th August, 1868. Inscribed on his tombstone were the words:
"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 the Creator".
(1) Thaddeus Stevens, New
York Herald (13th December, 1865)
Reformation must be effected;
the foundation of their institutions - political, municipal, and social
- must be broken up and relaid, or all our blood and treasure have
been spent in vain. This can only be done by treating and holding
them as a conquered people. Then all things which we can desire to
do follow with logical and legitimate authority.
(2)
Thaddeus Stevens, speech in Congress (3rd January, 1867)
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. We have
broken the material shackles of four million slaves. We have unchained
them from the stake so as to allow them locomotion, provided they
do not walk in paths which are trod by white men. We have allowed
them the privilege of attending church, if they can do so without
offending the sight of their former masters. We have imposed on 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?
What is negro equality, about which so much is said by knaves and
some of which is believed by men who are not fools? It means, as understood
by honest Republicans, just this much, and no more: every man, no
matter what his race or colour; every earthly being who has an immortal
soul, has an equal right to justice, honesty, and fair play with every
other man; and the law should secure him those rights. The same law
which condemns or acquits an African should condemn or acquit a white
man.
(3)
Thaddeus Stevens, wrote his own epitaph that appeared on a tombstone
in an African American cemetery.
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 the Creator.
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