|
| Affiliation | Republican |
|
| Name | Thaddeus Stevens |
| Address |
Lancaster, Pennsylvania , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
April 04, 1792
|
| Died | August 11, 1868
(76 years)
|
| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Aug 23, 2015 05:04am |
| Tags |
|
| Info | Thaddeus Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont, on 4th April, 1792. After graduating in 1814 he was admitted to the bar and practised in Pennsylvania. A strong opponent of slavery, he defended a large number of fugitives without a fee.
Delegate to the Anti-Masonic National Convention of 1831, the first national nominating convention; Stevens served as a teller to count the delegate votes.
A member of the Whig Party, he was elected to the State Legislature (1833-41) and the House of Representatives (1849-53) where he played a leading role in the campaign against the Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850.
After the demise of the Whig Party, Stevens joined the Republican Party and was elected to Congress in 1859. He fully supported Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War but after his death in 1865 he increasingly came into conflict with the new president, Andrew Johnson.
Stevens helped draft the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Reconstruction Act in 1867. He argued in Congress that Southern plantations should be taken from their owners and divided among the former slaves. As leader of the Radical Republicans in Congress, Stevens proposed the resolution in 1868 for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
Stevens health declined during his dispute with Andrew Johnson and he began making preparations for his funeral. This included the request that he should be buried among African Americans in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Thaddeus Stevens died on 11th August, 1868. Inscribed on his tombstone were the words: "I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude; but finding other cemeteries limited as to race, by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, equality of man before the Creator".
STEVENS, Thaddeus, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Danville, Caledonia County, Vt. April 4, 1792; attended Peacham Academy and the University of Vermont at Burlington; was graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., in 1814; moved to Pennsylvania in 1814; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1816 and commenced practice in Gettysburg; member of the State house of representatives 1833-1835, 1837, and 1841; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1838; appointed as a canal commissioner in 1838; moved to Lancaster, Pa., in 1842; elected as a Whig to the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses (March 4, 1849-March 3, 1853); elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth and to the four succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1859, until his death; chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses), Committee on Appropriations (Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses); chairman of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1868 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Andrew Johnson, President of the United States; died in Washington, D.C., on August 11, 1868; interment in Shreiner’s Cemetery, Lancaster, Pa.
[Link]
[Link] |
 | BOOKS |
 |
|
| Title |
Purchase |
Contributor |
|
| Start Date |
End Date |
Type |
Title |
Contributor |
|
| Date |
Category |
Headline |
Article |
Contributor |
|
| INFORMATION LINKS |
|
|
|
