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Early Life

Thaddeus Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont, on April 4, He was the second of four sons of Joshua Stevens and Sally (Morrill) Stevens. Born with a club foot that hindered him throughout his life, Stevens&#; youth was rife with hardship.

Charles sumner The House of Representatives brings the charges and acts as prosecutor. Stevens was named chairman of the House side of the committee. He devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what he considered the Slave Power, that is the conspiracy he saw of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and block the progress of liberty. Stevens's plan for Reconstruction Stevens was determined that Congress, not the president, would direct Reconstruction.

His father, an unsuccessful shoemaker, was also an alcoholic. According to different accounts, the elder Stevens either abandoned his family, died at an early age, or was killed during the War of Whatever the case, the father’s absence left the family in dire financial straits.

In , Stevens&#; mother moved her family to Peacham, Vermont, where she earned enough money as a menial laborer to enroll Stevens at the Peacham Academy, also known as Caledonia Grammar School.

Upon completing his grammar school studies, Stevens enrolled at Dartmouth College. After spending part of one year at the University of Vermont, Steven graduated from Dartmouth in

From Educator to Lawyer

Upon his graduation from Dartmouth, Stevens returned to teach at Peacham Academy, while he also studied law at the office of Judge John Mattocks.

History of thaddeus stevens By , the Radical Republicans had taken significant control of Congress, due in no small part to Stevens's leadership. House of Representatives. Some reports suggested he fought and died in the War of — Further Reading Richard N.

In , Stevens accepted a teaching position at the York County Academy in southern Pennsylvania. While working there, he studied law with York&#;s leading attorney, David Casset. Circumventing Pennsylvania&#;s stricter licensing requirements, Stevens crossed into Maryland in to gain admittance to the bar. The young lawyer then moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to open his practice.

Land Speculator

Although Stevens found business slow at first, his practice thrived in the s.

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  • During that decade, Stevens also became a prosperous land speculator, often purchasing properties at sheriff&#;s sales. By , he had become one of the wealthiest residents of Adams County, Pennsylvania.

    Budding Politician

    While living in Gettysburg, Stevens became active in politics as a member of the Anti-Mason Party.

    In , voters elected him to his first of seven terms in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. After serving one term from to , Stevens returned to the legislature in , where he served intermittently until While in the legislature, Stevens was a strong proponent of public education. In , Stevens was a delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, but he refused to sign the final document drafted by that body because it limited the right to vote to whites.

    During the s, Stevens suffered a severe financial reversal when two ironworks in which he invested performed poorly, saddling him with debts of over $, In , officials appointed Stevens to the state canal commission.

    He came under public scrutiny when political opponents accused him of using his public office to promote the construction of the Gettysburg (or “Tapeworm”) Railroad to bolster his failing iron businesses and to build political patronage.

    U.S.

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  • Congressman

    In , Stevens retired from public life and moved his law practice to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where his financial standing rebounded. Six years later, he returned to the political arena, when voters in the Lancaster district elected him to represent them in the United States Congress as a member of the Whig Party in He served in the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses from March 4, until March 3,

    While in Congress, Stevens vociferously opposed the Compromise of and the Fugitive Slave Act 0f He also began gaining notoriety as a proponent of equal rights for politically disadvantaged groups, including Native Americans, Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, Jews, Chinese, and women.

    An ardent abolitionist, Stevens reportedly harbored fugitive slaves in the basement of his Lancaster law office.

    In , Stevens returned to his law practice after choosing not to run for reelection in Although not in public office during the next few years, he played a prominent role in organizing the Republican Party in Pennsylvania.

    In , Stevens resumed his political career, when voters from Pennsylvania&#;s Ninth District returned him to Congress. Stevens served in the Thirty-seventh to Fortieth Congresses.

    Lincoln Critic

    During the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses (March 4, –March 4, ), Stevens chaired the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which drafted legislation that financed the American Civil War.

    Although he officially supported President Abraham Lincoln&#;s leadership during the war, he often criticized the president for not embracing emancipation and the abolition of slavery more aggressively.

    Joint Committee on Reconstruction

    Following President Lincoln&#;s assassination, Stevens grew increasingly critical of the Reconstruction policies of the new president, Andrew Johnson.

    Thaddeus stevens reconstruction Thai Americans. Thaddeus Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont, on April 4, He pardoned officially forgave many Confederate leaders and set lenient conditions for the Southern states to return to the Union. Stevens was a leading opponent of the Compromise of , which allowed several prospective new states to decide for themselves whether or not to permit slavery.

    When the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress convened on December 4, , Stevens introduced a proposal for Congress to form a joint committee of members from the House and Senate to &#;inquire into the condition of the States which formed the so-called Confederate States of America, and report whether they or any of them are entitled to be represented in either House of Congress.&#; Both houses of Congress approved Stevens&#; proposal, and the Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction (more commonly known as the Joint Committee on Reconstruction) met for the first time on January 6,

    Reconstruction

    During a committee meeting on January 10, , Stevens proposed a constitutional amendment to nullify the Three-fifths Compromise regarding apportionment (Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution).

    Three days later, he proposed another constitutional amendment affirming that &#;All laws, State and national, shall operate impartially and equally on all persons regardless of race or color.&#; During the next few months, the Joint Committee’s members considered many Reconstruction measures. On April 21, , Stevens proposed combining several of the recommendations into what would become the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

    A little over one week later, Stevens introduced the Joint Committee&#;s proposed constitutional amendment to the full House on April Stevens also reported a recommendation that Congress enact legislation requiring Southern states to ratify the proposed Fourteenth Amendment as a condition for being readmitted to the Union.

    When most of the Southern states balked at the ratification requirement, Stevens was instrumental in the enactment of the Reconstruction Act of , which imposed military rule in the South and disbanded Southern state governments until they accepted Congressional conditions.

    Led by Stevens and dominated by the radical wing of the Republican Party, the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses enacted several Reconstruction bills over presidential vetoes.

    Thaddeus stevens quotations: In , failing to get a post in President William Henry Harrison 's Cabinet, he retired from the legislature and moved to Lancaster. It also prevented individual states from taking away the civil rights of citizens or denying them equal protection under the law. Stevens was born with a clubfoot and could not help on the farm, but even as a child, he was able to help his mother with her work as a nurse. Stevens joined the Whig Party in the mids; the Whigs and the Democratic Party were the two major political organizations from the early s to the early s.

    Congressional Reconstruction policies imposed substantially harsher terms on former Confederate states than those proposed by the president. Stevens had personal reasons for favoring the draconian treatment of the former Rebels. During the Gettysburg Campaign, Confederate General Jubal Early ordered his soldiers to burn Stevens&#; ironworks at Caledonia, Pennsylvania to the ground.

    Impeachment of President Johnson

    Congressional Reconstruction policies championed by Stevens also forcefully addressed the related issues of protecting former slaves in the South and establishing their rights as freedmen.

    The tension between the two branches of government reached a crescendo on February 24, , when, on the House floor, Stevens introduced a recommendation of the House Select Committee on Reconstruction that &#;Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors in office.&#; One week later, the House embraced the committee&#;s recommendation and enacted eleven articles of impeachment against the president.

    House members selected Stevens as chairman of the committee appointed to manage the prosecution of the president, but because of his failing health, Stevens played an insignificant role in Johnson&#;s trial before the Senate.

    Death

    After Johnson&#;s acquittal on May 26, Stevens continued his duties in the House, but his health declined even further during the summer.

    Lydia hamilton smith Stevens became even more powerful in the U. He became a member of the Anti-Masonic Party, which championed the rights of common people. The president or Congress? One of the woman's slaves carefully counted the days she spent in Pennsylvania until they added up to six months, then refused to return to Maryland and sued for her freedom.

    In early August, he developed a case of acute diarrhea, from which he never recovered. Stevens died at his apartment in Washington, D.C., near midnight on August 11,

    Burial

    After embalming, officials moved Stevens&#; body to the Capitol Building, where it lay in state under the watch of a Black Honor Guard (the Butler Zouaves from the District of Columbia).

    On August 14, officials moved Stevens&#; body to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for funeral services that roughly 20, mourners attended. Among them was his African-American housekeeper, Lydia Hamilton Smith, with whom Stevens reportedly had a twenty-three-year romantic relationship. Often referred to as &#;The Great Commoner,&#; Stevens chose to be buried at the Shreiner&#;s Cemetery, in Lancaster, because the graveyard was integrated.

    Stevens composed his own epitaph for his tombstone, which read,

    I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited by charter rules as to race, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, equality of man before his Creator.