Stevens deserves more recognition for the Emancipation Proclamation than he receives. While Abraham Lincoln's stand on slavery evolved slowly over time, Stevens wanted immediate emancipation, advocating for emancipation long before Lincoln considered it.
Stevens was the first representative to sponsor a resolution for emancipation.
It failed, but other attempts followed. |
"Now is the appropriate time to solve the greatest problem ever submitted to civilized man." (Thaddeus Stevens 1862)
Stevens convinced the public that emancipation could save the Union. Northern patriots joined abolitionists calling for emancipation.
Lincoln and Stevens were "always in conflict while fighting for the same cause. Stevens was ever clearing the underbrush and preparing the soil, while Lincoln followed to sow the seeds that were to ripen in a regenerated Union." (Alexander McClure, Representative 1892) Stevens constantly pressured Lincoln.
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"Stevens, Sumner, and Wilson simply haunt me with their importunities for a Proclamation of Emancipation. Wherever I go and whatever way I turn, they are on my tail." (Abraham Lincoln 1862)
Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, receiving credit for freeing the slaves. Stevens was the driving force.
"Had Stevens not declared for the abolition of slavery as soon as the war began, and pressed it in and out of season, Lincoln could not have issued his Emancipation Proclamation as early as September 1862." (Alexander McClure 1892) Stevens was not satisfied since only Confederate slaves were freed. "... I never supposed that the proclamation did any good one way or the other, except that it clarified public opinion. I have always been for going into the rebel States and taking the slaves away ..." (Thaddeus Stevens 1864) |
Stevens advocated enlistment of freedmen into the Union Army. "… we propose to give them an equal chance to meet death on the battlefield …The only place where they can find equality is in the grave.” (Thaddeus Stevens 1863)
Lincoln included this in the Proclamation: ” … such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.”
Stevens introduced a bill calling for acceptance of black soldiers. Nearly 200,000 blacks fought in Union Army. "Mr. Stevens' Negro Regiment bill ... provides for the enlistment of any number of negroes, not over 300,000, to be paid $10 a month, to be armed and equipped as other soldiers, and officered by white men. " (New York Times 1863) |