Stevens, Thaddeus

Stevens, Thaddeus (1792–1868), radical Republican and leader of the House of Representatives.Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont, graduated from Dartmouth, and established himself as a lawyer in Gettysburg and later in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was an excellent parliamentarian who served (with few interruptions) in 1833–42 as an Anti‐Mason in the Pennsylvania legislature, where he was instrumental in saving the bill for compulsory free education. Elected to Congress in 1848 as a Whig, he took a determined antislavery stand and retired in 1853, only to be reelected in 1858 as a Republican.

As a strong opponent of the secessionists, in 1861, Stevens became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, a position that enabled him to frame and implement important legislation during the Civil War. Stevens constantly pressured President Abraham Lincoln to institute an antislavery policy. He believed that only the laws of war, not the Constitution, applied to the seceded states, which he considered conquered provinces and in which he advocated confiscation of rebel property. His adept congressional leadership enabled him to raise the necessary funds for the Union forces, particularly by the introduction of paper currency “greenbacks,” which he favored throughout his career.

After the war, Stevens was the main proponent in the House of Radical Reconstruction. Largely responsible for denying seats to Southern members and for the establishment of the Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction, he became the principal author of the Fourteenth Amendment; the Reconstruction Acts, which initially remanded the Southern states to military rule; and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Often called vindictive and a dictator of Congress, Stevens was in fact opposed to the death sentence and did not succeed with many of his measures that fell short of his desires. Nevertheless, his advocacy for equal rights for the freedmen was an important inducement for Republican Reconstruction measures. He died in 1868, disappointed at his failure to procure the conviction and removal of President Johnson.
[See also Civil War: Domestic Course.]

Bibliography

Fawn M. Brodie , Thaddeus Stevens, Scourge of the South, 1959.
Hans L. Trefousse , Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth Century Egalitarian, 1997.

Hans L. Trefousse