thaddeus stevens reconstruction speech summary
The policy of Congress forbids him to exercise any power therein. 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? 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. The two powers mutually prepared to settle the question by arms. No said he , I claim the right to chastise the scoundrel. He followed the colored man, took out his revolver, and deliberately shot him dead in the presence of that community. ascendency to the party of the Union; and so as to render The effect of this provision will be either to compel the States to grant universal suffrage or so to shear them of their power as to keep them forever in a hopeless minority in the national Government, both legislative and executive. As a congressman, he advocated for tariff increases, opposed the fugitive slave provision of the Compromise of 1850, and later joined the newly formed Republican Party. <> 2 April 1865-August 1868 (Pittsburgh: In failing health, Stevens had requested to be buried in Shreiner-Concord Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because the state accepted all races. 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. 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. Or will it be deterred by the clamor of ignorance, bigotry, and despotism from perfecting a revolution begun without their consent, but which ought not to be ended without their full participation and concurrence? I can hardly believe that any person can be found who will not admit that every one of these provisions is just. UJxCA**]=#TSWr];227~|}&Y&QHV +JG{4ef1R+2#{2yTy$H. Delivered only seven months after the war ended and on the same day that the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, went into effect, Stevens's speech represented the view of a group in Congress known as the Radical Republicans. Early in his career, he developed a hatred for bondage and, subsequently, defended many fugitives without charging them legal fees. However, he also urged colleagues to remember the crimes of the Confederacy. Now, you must divide them between loyalists, without regard to color, and disloyalists, or you will be the perpetual vassals of the free trade, irritated, revengeful South. learn the principles of freedom and eat the fruit of foul This becomes more and more necessary every day; and the late decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has rendered immediate action by Congress upon the question of the establishment of governments in the rebel States absolutely indispensable. Of course, this does not admit malefactors to power, or there would soon be no penal laws and society would become an anarchy. . Call you this liberty? The Civil Rights Act became the first major piece of legislation to be passed despite a president's veto. 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 .