Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/577

THE ATTITUDE OF THADDEUS STE'ENS TOWARD THE CONDUCT OF THE CIVIL WAR From July, 1861, to his death in 1869 Thaddeus Stevens was the leader of the Republican majority of the House of Representatives. He was chairman of the Ways and Cleans Committee of the House throughout the war, and his attention was therefore largely devoted to questions of taxation and finance, of revenues and appropriations. These subjects in time of war offer a large field of study in connec- tion with Stevens. But the purpose of this paper is not to consider Stevens's contributions and services on these lines, but rather to bring into review his career and opinions in relation particularly to the more distinctly constitutional, political, and party issues which the war presented. There are three salient aspects about which the political move- ments and controversies of the Civil War may best be organized and studied : first, the relation of the war to slavery ; second, the relation of the war to the Constitution : third, the effect of the war upon the political status of the seceded states and their relation to the Federal Union. These, together with the increased war powers of the President, present the essential issues and phases of the struggle in which the student of war politics will be most concerned. I shall attempt to summarize or bring into brief review Stevens's record upon these salient features of the war. Stevens recognized as clearly as any man then in public life the seriousness of the great conflict in which the country was engaged, and in the councils of the nation he constantly insisted upon prompt- ness, energy, and determination of purpose. To him it was perfectly clear that the slaveholders were trying to destroy the Union to save slavery ; he would, therefore, destroy slavery to save the Union. The Southern states had violated the Constitution to gain their inde- pendence ; Stevens would give them none of the benefits of the Con- stitution in the war that it was found necessary to wage upon them. These states had of their own free w-ill repudiated the Constitution and withdrawn from the Union. He would no longer recognize them as sister states under the aegis of law, but having subdued them as a belligerent enemy he would hold and govern them as con- quered provinces. These principles of action he laid down in the (567)