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| My 4th Greatest American -- Thaddeous Stevens |
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 Thaddeus Stevens was born in 1792 in Vermont to a poor family and was abandoned by his father at an early age. He was handicapped from birth because of a club foot. When he was a child all of his hair fell out and from then on he wore a wig.
Thaddeus Stevens moved to Pennsylvania at age twenty-two and became a prominent lawyer at Gettysburg and then at Lancaster. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1848 and in 1850 and then again in 1858 when he served until his death in 1868.
So why is he the 4th greatest American of all time? During Stevens' lifetime, extreme racial prejudice was rampant in America. Only a couple of Northern States allowed blacks to vote. In spite of the beautiful phrase in the Declaration that says: "all men are created equal" -- strict segregation and harsh discrimination were practiced throughout the North and lifetime-forced-labor and human-bondage in the South. Those who dared speak up for human rights for blacks were persecuted in the North and driven out or killed in the South.
Yet Stevens from his early adulthood went against the tide of public opinion and stood firmly and boldly against both slavery and discrimination. He said: "This is not a white man's government! To say so is political blasphemy, for it violates the fundamental principles of our gospel of liberty." In spite of his stand, Stevens became very powerful in Congress.
When the first Congress met after the Civil War had ended, the Southern states sent representatives and senators to Washington expecting them to be seated in congress. The men they sent were mostly former Confederate office holders. President Andrew Johnson and much of Congress thought they should be accepted back and seated. But not Thaddeus Stevens.
Stevens was greatly concerned about leaving three million freed slaves under the political control of their former masters. He knew that if the Congress seated the former Confederates, the freed blacks in the South would never get equal rights. So Stevens and the man who called the role in Congress left out the names of the Southern representatives when the role was called and refused to seat them.
Also, as the former Confederate states began to write new Constitutions they included "black codes" which strongly discriminated against and persecuted the freed slaves. President Johnson agreed with the "black codes". But not Stevens.
Thaddeus Stevens almost single handedly influenced Congress to pass several laws and constitutional amendments providing citizenship and equal rights and voting rights to blacks. He led Congress to require that Southern states agree with these laws before they be readmitted to the Union. This opened the way for blacks to be involved in politics in the South. Several blacks even became US Senators and Congressmen.
White Southerners violently opposed black freedom and eventually stopped blacks from voting, ignored the Constitutional Amendments, and set up Jim Crow laws. But in the 1950's blacks once again asserted their freedom through the Civil Rights movement. The laws and amendments that Stevens led through Congress were the legal backbone for the modern Civil Rights movement. Thus, this brave man, helped give freedom to many millions of Americans.
Thaddeus Stevens even stood for equal rights in his death. His tombstone says: "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 HIS CREATOR." |
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| SO STEVE YOU KNOW YOUR HISTORY |
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| I really enjoy history, MaKelly. I think we are supposed to look at the wrongs of the past and make them better in our day. |
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Ed |
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March 14, 2008 at 1:15pm |
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| I agree, Steve, we are doing better, but some of us have not learned from the past. In another blog I commented on this morning, I mentioned that the church should should play a more prominent role in presenting man's equally. But, alas, it took 140 years after the Civil War for Southern Baptists to officially apologize for their part in slavery and segregation. Can we do better? You bet. For some, it will take a closer walk with Christ. |
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| Ed: For there to be unity in the church some of us Christians will have to leave our home church and go be a minority in a church of another skin complexion. |
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Steve! What??? Are you an undercover history professor or something????:-)
Good Stuff! Keep em coming!
Have a terrific week-end Preachergirl
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| preachergirl: I just enjoy reading about courageous people who stood up to injustice in this world and made a real difference. |
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Oh yeah and I worglee that I can keep all of this imfo:-)
Peace- preachergirl |
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That's great preachergirl. Let's also worglee that we will courageously stand up for righteousness and make a tremendous difference for God. |
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Jerry |
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March 14, 2008 at 3:27pm |
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| Great stuff Steve and I love history also. |
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| Thanks for reading my post, Jerry. Glad you enjoyed it. |
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A-men
Bro . Steve
"If we Don't Stand for something, We will fall for nothing...
Preachergirl |
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Gene |
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March 14, 2008 at 8:32pm |
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Steve, I read what you noted about his headstone and went looking for some information about where that might be. I found this to be quite interesting:
Thaddeus Stevens died at midnight on August 11, 1868, in Washington, D.C. The public expression of grief in Washington was second only to that following the death of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Stevens' coffin lay in state inside the Capitol Rotunda, flanked by a Black Union Honor Guard from Massachusetts. Twenty thousand people, one-half of whom were free black men, attended his funeral in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He chose to be buried in the Shreiner-Concord Cemetery because it was the only cemetery that would accept people without regard to race. |
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| That's great information, Gene. Isn't it amazing that such a great man, whose funeral was second only to Lincoln's, has been all but forgotten in our day? |
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