Thaddeus Stevens
US History/Napp Name: ______
Biography:
At a Glance –
Thaddeus Stevens led the Radical Republicans during the Civil War and the early years of Reconstruction. Committed to racial equality Thaddeus Stevens fought for legislation during and after the Civil War to assure full citizenship to the nation’s African Americans.
~ Glencoe American Biographies
When the guns blazed at Fort Sumter in 1861, President Lincoln made it clear that the North was fighting to restore the Union, not to free the enslaved people in the South. But some members of the President’s political party, called Radical Republicans, saw the war as a chance to abolish slavery and achieve some degree of racial equality. The leader of these Radical Republicans in the House of Representatives was Thaddeus Stevens.
As a successful lawyer in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Steven’s experiences had turned his dislike of slavery to hatred. He had not been far from the slave state of Maryland, and had often seen enslaved people trying to escape. He had helped many captured fugitives avoid return to the South by serving as their lawyer without a fee.
Stevens turned to politics in 1833, and his unflagging hatred of slavery directed the course of his political career. As a member of the Pennsylvania state legislature in 1837, he refused to sign the state’s new constitution because it did not give African Americans the right to vote. As a member of the House of Representatives from 1848 to 1853, he was known as a “free soiler,” committed to keeping the western territories free, rather than slave, states. He refused to run again in 1853, disgusted with the Whig party’s refusal to take a strong stand against the expansion of slavery.
The Republican party, formed to oppose new slave territories, brought Stevens back into politics. Elected to Congress again in 1858, he began where he had left off – blasting slaveholders. A congressional member for the next decade, he opposed any compromise with the South. Once war broke out, he backed emancipation as a Union war aim.
As a northern victory became certain, Stevens insisted that the defeated Confederate states had lost all rights under the Constitution and should be ruled by Congress as “conquered provinces” rather than by their own state governments. Stevens’s ideas conflicted directly with the Reconstruction policies of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. Stevens and Johnson exchanged bitter attacks. When Johnson vetoed bills that Stevens backed, Stevens fought to have Congress override the vetoes. His greatest achievement was to assure the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed equal treatment of all Americans under the law.
When the Radicals won support for their program in the elections of 1866, Stevens led the move to impose military reconstruction on the South. He later was the driving force behind the impeachment of President Johnson. The Senate failed to convict Johnson, and Stevens died within a few weeks of the trial, deeply disappointed.
Questions:
1- What was the North’s primary goal during the Civil War? ______
2- What was the goal of the Radical Republicans during the Civil War? ______
3- Who was the leader of the Radical Republicans? ______
4- What experiences did Thaddeus Stevens have that increased his dislike of slavery? ______
5- Why did Thaddeus Stevens refuse to sign Pennsylvania’s new constitution in 1837? ______
6- Who were the “free soilers”? ______
7- Why was Thaddeus Stevens upset with the Whig party? ______
8- Why did the Republican Party form? ______
9- What did Thaddeus Stevens oppose as a member of the Congress? ______
10- What did Thaddeus Stevens believe was the Union war aim? ______
11- What did Thaddeus Stevens insist the defeated Confederate States had lost? ______
12- What did Thaddeus Stevens believe should be the treatment of the defeated Confederate States? ______
13- Who disagreed with Stevens’ views regarding the defeated Confederate States? ______
14- What was Thaddeus Stevens’ greatest achievement? ______
15- What does the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee? ______
16- What did Thaddeus Stevens want after the elections of 1866? ______
17- Define impeachment. ______
18- Who did Thaddeus Stevens want to impeach? ______
19- How did the impeachment trial end? ______
Primary Source:
Speech to Congress – Thaddeus Stevens Speech
Source: This speech was delivered to the United States Congress on March 19, 1867.
Freed slaves should have the right to vote. The Southern states should be ruled by the Army until they learn how to accept blacks as their equals.
The cause of the war was slavery. We have freed the slaves. It is our responsibility to protect them, and help them until they are able to provide for themselves.
I propose that each freed slave who is a male adult, or the head of a family, will receive forty acres of land, (with $100 to build a house).
Four million people have just been freed from slavery. They have no education, have never worked for money, and don’t know about their rights. Unless they become independent, they will have to once again become the servants of their old masters.
We must make the freed slaves independent so that their old masters can’t force them to work unfairly. This can only be done by giving them a small plot of land to farm.
Questions:
1- What did Thaddeus Stevens want freed slaves to have? ______
2- How did Thaddeus Stevens believe the Southern states should be ruled? ______
3- Why did Thaddeus Stevens believe this about the rule of the Southern states? ______
4- What did Thaddeus Stevens want each freed slave who was a male adult to receive? ______
5- Why did he want each freed slave who was a male adult to receive this? ______
6- According to Thaddeus Stevens, what problems did newly freed slaves face? ______
7- According to Thaddeus Stevens, what would happen to newly freed slaves if they were not helped? ______
8- Do you agree or disagree with Thaddeus Stevens? Explain your answer. ______
Political Cartoon from Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson:
Why were the Radical Republicans disappointed with President Andrew Johnson? ______