The Sin of Speaking.

From The Life of Thaddeus Stevens, by James Albert Woodburn, p. 103:

The sum total of anti-slavery sinning was in the failure to keep silence.

Woodburn wrote that comparing the anti-slavery speeches given by Thad Stevens and Horace Mann in the House in February 1850.

Mann was gentle, eloquent, "refined and scholarly," whereas Stevens spared no feelings, minced no words, deferred to none. Stevens returned the rhetoric of the Southern fire-eaters bit by bit, and the Southern response was to claim woundedness, hurt feelings. In the words of the 11 March 1850 speech of Stanly, a representative from North Carolina:

I hope his next speech will be fit to read in the families of Pennsylvania farmers,. . . [and that] the gentleman will find some other Morgan to frighten the grandmothers and children of Pennsylvania with. I ask him to let us alone.

Emphasis added.

The point is that when the Southerners were challenged, whether in gentler terms by Mann or in more forceful and equal terms by Stevens, they threw up their hands and retreated to a position of, "Leave us alone!" Of course, the Southern representatives were vigorous in their opposition to admitting new territories as free states, vigorous in their dire warnings of impending disunion if Northerners dared to disrespect Southern slavery. The "leave us alone" trope obviously connects with the plea of states' rights.

Thus the power of speaking in the face of silence. A lesson we still have yet to fully learn.

To Live as Thaddeus Stevens Lived

I'm reading right now Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Thaddeus Stevens, Delivered in the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., December 17, 1868.

These words by one Mr. Godlove S. Orth (what a great name), of Indiana, struck me:

His love of truth made him an earnest man, acting upon the principle that whatever was worth doing at all was worth doing well. He never espoused a cause until he was satisfied of its merits and justice, and then brought to its advocacy all the strength and vigor of a richly cultivated intellect.

It's hard not to be impressed by Stevens. By all accounts, he was passionately dedicated to the cause of liberty and equality for all human beings. It's a shame that the Second Founders, the architects of the 14th Amendment, those who were dedicated to equality and to the perfecting of the Union, are so easily forgotten today. Not just forgotten, but never known. Perhaps it's one of the enduring legacies of Reconstruction's failures. With the Tilden-Hayes Compromise, and the ascendancy of the "Redeemers" in the South, everything that Stevens and his allies believed in, and fought for, was delayed for another 100 years. Were they, after all, failures?

No, surely not. We do have the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Even if we continue to struggle with their meaning and continuing relevance, even if we continue to fall short of the aspirations and promise of Stevens' vision for America, we have his words, his works, and his life to contemplate.

My conclusion: it would be a good life to believe as Stevens believed, to fight as Stevens fought, and to live as Stevens lived.



UPDATE 1: As is my wont, I have come across another passage worth putting up (and emulating for that matter), after I've already made the main post; so I add:

[Stevens] was a zealous advocate of free speech, concurring fully in the sentiment of Jefferson, that "error of opinion can safely be tolerated so long as reason is left free to combat it."

To him the idea was most preposterous that there should be any subject so sacred as to forbid examination or debate. Whatever seeks to avoid scrutiny or shrinks from investigation is justly subject to suspicion, and that which cannot bear the test of thorough discussion is in its nature inimical to republican institutions.

Emphasis added. Reminder frequently needed in contemporary America.



UPDATE 2: James Albert Woodburn, in his The Life of Thaddeus Stevens, quotes from a speech Stevens gave in 1835 at an Anti-Masonic meeting in Hagerstown, Maryland. First, on the maintenance of liberty:

Two things are indispensable to the continuance of national liberty,--the independence of the public press and the impartial administration of justice.

That's at page 19 of Woodburn. If true, one despairs for the continuance of national liberty. Second, an interesting comment in light of those in the Republican party today who say that they would rather have a smaller number of True Believers than a larger number of mixed beliefs.

Some are afraid of being in the minority,--tame souls who delight to dwell on neutral ground, who tremble lest they should mistake the strong side, who hover around the confines of the battle-field ready to throw up their caps and shout hosannas to the victors. Such men we would advise to remain where they are, in dull and useless slothfulness. Those who are not with us in moral feeling we are better without. We want no hireling forces. Those who address themselves to this warfare must do it from love of country. Who would not rather be vanquished with honorable associates than triumph with a horde of mercenary traitors? If you must fall you will have the consolation to know that you have lived while there was anything worth living for. . . .

At 20-21 of Woodburn. Of course, Stevens was there talking about fighting for equality of and before the law, not about ideological purification so much.