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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Thaddeus Stevens Biography STEVENS, Thaddeus (1792–1868). An American statesman and congressional leader, born at Danville, Vt., April 4, 1792. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1814; taught school in York, Pa., and studied law; began to practice in Gettysburg, and removed to Lancaster. Pa., in 1842. In 1833 he served in the State Legislature, and was an early advocate of negro suffrage. Stevens affiliated with the Anti-Masonic party (see Anti-Masons), and was active at its Baltimore convention in 1831; but from the time of his election to the Legislature he acted with the Whigs. His career in the Legislature was varied, but indicative of his energy and ability; he conquered the "machine" in his own party, and in December, 1849, took his seat in Congress. During two terms there he opposed not only the Fugitive Slave Law, but also every form of concession to the South. He took a leading part in the formation of the Republican party in Pennsylvania. After an interval of six years devoted to the practice of law he returned to Congress in 1859, and from then until his death was the recognized leader of the House of Representatives, being chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means throughout the war, and later chairman of what was then the equally important Committee on Reconstruction. He was regarded as the most radical antislavery advocate in Congress, and was the most powerful opponent of the presidential plan of reconstruction. Stevens was one of the authors of the so called Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill of 1865 and reported the Reconstruction Act of 1867 from the committee of which he was chairman. (See Reconstruction.) He was chairman of the House committee in charge of the impeachment of President Johnson (q.v.). He died at Washington, Aug. 11, 1868. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 521. |