Thaddeus Stevens

Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens was one of the leaders of the Radical Republicans, a powerful congressional faction that opposed presidential reconstruction. In 1866 Radical Republicans argued that a constitutional amendment was the only way to guarantee citizenship and equality for former slaves. The Joint Committee on Reconstruction—a fifteen- member committee established by Congress in December 1865 to study conditions in the South and make recommendations for reconstruction bills—responded to these concerns by drafting the Fourteenth Amendment.

In the following viewpoint, excerpted from a speech before the House of Representatives, Stevens argues in favor of the amendment. He contends that the amendment will correct unjust state laws and ensure that blacks will not receive harsher punishments than their white counterparts when they commit the same crimes. Stevens also maintains that the amendment will compel the southern states...