Thaddeus Stevens and the 14th Amendment

It is, of course, no surprise that a radical Republican such as Thaddeus Stevens would have taken a major interest in post-war reconstruction. I came upon a speech given by Stevens on the House floor (1866) in regards to the final draft of the Fourteenth Amendment. In the speech, he stressed the importance of the amendment for making a large leap towards equality. Yet, he also addressed his reservations about the amendment concerning the reentrance of the southern states’ legislation back into congress.

“I can hardly believe that any person can be found who will not admit that every one of these provisions is just.” Stevens used this line after he laid out the first section of the amendment. Of course, the first section guarantees equal protection of all people, regardless of color, under the law. (Hardly a new idea if one is at all familiar with the Declaration. I suppose that idea went by the wayside for African Americans, but I digress.) Stevens continued on in the speech to familiarize the congress on what exactly equal protection will guarantee and also his prediction for what would have happened if this amendment was not passed: years of severe oppression that would have caused “the death of the hated freedmen.”

One quote from this speech I found particularly interesting is, “…true it will take two, three, possibly five years before they [white people] conquer their prejudices sufficiently to allow their late slaves to become their equals at the polls…” This struck me as both ironic and sad because while, yes, the Fifteenth Amendment was passed in 1870, four years later, it was over a hundred years before African Americans were actually “equal” at voting polls. One could speculate that knowing that fact would have gravely disappointed Stevens and others like him.

Another reaction I have to this speech is that I find myself thinking about what could have been had Stevens gotten his way and the southern states had not been allowed back into the congress yet. Though now free in the eyes of the law, African Americans were still gravely oppressed for years. Black codes were “keeping them in their place” in several southern cities and eventually Jim Crow Laws and others like them had grave misrepresentations of “equality” in the United States. I feel as though these vile acts of legislation could have been prevented and other measures implemented to help sooner pull the freed slaves to a level of social, educational, and economic equality.

Much like many other political leaders of the time, Stevens brings up religion multiple times throughout the speech. He talks about a “just God” not accepting such intolerance in the south and other times he evokes the name of God to shame the congress into passing this bill. I always found it interesting that both sides were so sure they had God on their side. For years the white south would use religion to justify slavery while northern abolitionists used religion to argue the injustice of slavery. Of course, these religious conversations carried on into reconstruction.

Stevens was clearly looking for a total bolstering of equal opportunity. His entire speech was centered around his lack of prejudice and eagerness for a society ready to accept these new measures and more like them. Stevens was clearly a very impassioned man when it came to matters of equality. He was inarguably a very influential man throughout the war and after, and he can surely be credited as a great force for racial equality and progressivism.

 

Stevens, T. (1866). Congressional Speech. In H. Hyman, The Radical Republicans and Reconstrction (1967) (pp. 318-325). Indianapolis: University of Illinois.