Stevens, Thaddeus

(1792-1868), a Republican politician of influence, was graduated at Dart mouth, and settled to the practice of law in Pennsylvania. He was a Whig member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and as Congre man in 1849-1853 he opposed the Compromise of 1850. He was again in Congre from 1859 to 1868 as a Republican, of the radical type, and advocated drastic measures. He urged emancipation and the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as acts of confiscation; he was chairman of the important Committees of Ways and Means and of Reconstruction, proposed the impeachment of President Johnson, and was chairman of the board of managers of the impeachment proceedings.