He defended the system of segregation developed in the South after Reconstruction (including lynching); segregation was not challenged until the 1950s and 1960s.
But this is not all that we ought to do before inveterate rebels are invited to participate in our legislation. . We know Thaddeus Stevens as an ardent abolitionist who championed the rights of blacks for decadesup to, during, and after the Civil War. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Since, then, the President cannot enact, alter, or modify a single law; cannot even create a petty office within his own sphere of duties; if, in short, he is the mere servant of the people, who issue their commands to him through Congress, whence does he derive the constitutional power to create new States; to remodel old ones; to dictate organic laws; to fix the qualification of voters; to declare that States are republican and entitled to command Congress to admit their Representatives? . governments for them. The following speech lays out what he felt Congressional Reconstruction should encompass. Thaddeus Stevens, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, fought to abolish slavery and helped draft the 14th Amendment during Reconstruction. Whatever law punishes a white man for a crime shall punish the black man precisely in the same way and to the same degree. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). I hope I have a heart as capable of feeling for human woe as others. . He desires that the traitors (having sternly executed that most important leader, Rickety Weirze,7 as a high example) should be exempt from further fine, imprisonment, forfeiture, exile, or capital punishment, and be declared entitled to all the rights of loyal citizens. The papers of lawyer and United States representative from Pennsylvania Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) consist of 4,750 items (7,769 images) in eight containers and one oversize folder. President Johnson's opposition to these measures created a schism between him and Stevens, and eventually led to the president's impeachment. The Meaning of Emancipation in the Reconstruction Era K. A. Cuordileone New York City College of Technology, CUNY Overview The end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery raised complicated issues and dilemmas for Americans during the Reconstruction era (1865-1877).