Southern Historical Association

The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens. Volume 1: January 1814-March 1865 by Thaddeus
Stevens; Beverly Wilson Palmer; Holly Byers Ochoa; The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens.
Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868 by Thaddeus Stevens; Beverly Wilson Palmer; Holly Byers
Ochoa
Review by: Harold M. Hyman
The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Feb., 1999), pp. 162-164
Published by: Southern Historical Association
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162 THE JOURNALOF SOUTHERNHISTORY

attorney.A friendof ThurgoodMarshall,Tureaudwas instrumental in the

development of theNAACP's legal strategy thateventually led to the Su-
premeCourt'sBrownv. BoardofEducationdecision,andhisnameappeared
on virtuallyeverylawsuitfiledby theNAACP in Louisiana.Also meriting
inclusionin thisregardare Louisiana'sfederaljudges,in particular Herbert
W. Christenberry, Edwin F. HunterJr.,J. SkellyWright,and JohnMinor
Wisdom,whoassumedresponsibility forimplementing theBrowndecisionin
Louisiana.To be sure,theseindividualsoperatedwithinthe realmof the
federalcourts,buttheirinfluenceas Louisianajuristsis undeniable.
These quibblesaside,thisvolumeis an indispensable aid to thestudyof
Louisiana,southern, and Americanlegal history,as well as to historians'
understanding ofhowthelaw andlegalinstitutions bothshapeandareshaped
by thelargerhistoricalcontext.
Louisiana State University JOHNC. RODRIGUE

TheSelectedPapers of ThaddeusStevens.Volume 1: January1814-March

1865. Volume 2: April 1865-August1868. Edited by BeverlyWilson
Palmerand HollyByersOchoa. (Pittsburgh, Pa.: University
of Pittsburgh
Press,c. 1997,1998.Pp. xxxiv,549; xiv,488. $37.50,ISBN 0-8229-3972-
X; $37.50,ISBN 0-8229-4052-3.)
In early1998 Daniel R. Ernstnotedapprovingly thathistorians have re-
centlybeen"studying in thecontextofpoliticalbehaviorand
legalinstitutions
politicalstructures" ("Law and AmericanPoliticalDevelopment,1877-
1938," Reviews in AmericanHistory,30 [March, 1998], 205). Selected
Papers eases theusefultaskof creatingcontext-sensitive studiesofthelegal
culturesof prominent lawyer-politiciansof Stevens'sprewar-through-early-
Reconstruction generation.Like SalmonPortland ChaseandReverdyJohnson
who,amongothergiftedattorneys of Lincoln'stime,weremajorshapersof
ourhistory, Stevens'shandwriting was almostindecipherable (Lincoln's,by
contrast,was crystalclear).Wearyresearchers laboringin scattered archives
to conquerhis scrawlswillthanktheeditorsof theStevensPapersprojectat
PomonaCollege,whotransformed significant
itemsof Stevens'sdiversecor-
respondence and law officeworkintoblessedlegibility.
SelectedPapersreproduces a well-chosen mixofStevens'sspeechesin the
Pennsylvania legislature,
in thenationalHouse of Representatives, and on
hustingsin manyelections.They illuminatehis evolvingviews on other
andpolicies-ca. 1830through
politicians 1868-in theirimmediate contexts.
Fortunately,journalistsforobscurenewspapers, someusingthen-novel short-
hand,recordedmanyofhiselectioneering speeches.His supportershadthem
reprintedlocally,else manymighthave disappeared.(The practiceofjour-
nalistsor Stevens'sbackersusinglocal printers generateda minordiscrep-
ancy. Selected Papers, II, pp. 12ff.,dates Stevens's famous oration,
"Reconstruction," as deliveredin Lancaster,Pennsylvania, on September 6,
1865. My pamphletcopyis datedthe7th.As a dedicatedStevens-tracker, I
ask,wherewas he everyeventful day?)
SelectedPaperswillaid especiallyinquirers who,in effect,ask:whycould
Stevensachieveso substantially on everylevel of theunsystematic federal

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 BOOK REVIEWS 163

system,yet,tragically forhis timeand ours,ultimately failto imbedlegally

enforceable decencyin race relations?Approachesto usefulanswersare in
textsthatSelectedPapersgenerously supplies,and,extending Ernst'sinsight,
in threelinked contexts-law, politics, and crises-that gave formto
Stevens'slifeand inspiredhis speechesand writings.
First,law.Forall lawyersincluding Stevens,a Blackstonian commandment
requiredrespectforall state-defined privateproperty rights.Personsof legal
standing in a jurisdiction-slavesrarelyqualifiedexceptas Nat Turner-scale
felons-possessedcivilrights toacquireanddefendproperty andotherprivate
relationships, through contracts, testimony, and lawsuits.Slaverywas both
lawfulin thestatesand federalterritories enshrining it and federally consti-
tutionalized since1787; a situation which,as Stevensdeploredin 1850 (I, pp.
133-34), corrodedjustice proceedings.His concernwas commonamong
antislavery attorneys. They,tied to theirprofession'sproperty-worshiping,
state-focused doctrines,concludedgloomilythatslaverywas vulnerable only
whenitintruded intofederalperipheries, as in recaptures ofrunaways to free
states,slavesojourners in thenation'sterritories, andtheexceptional Amistad
admiralty situation. But theSupremeCourt'sVan ZandtandDred Scottde-
cisionsimmured hopesthatlawsuitscould containslavery.Could politics?
Thoughas state-based as thelaw,politics,to Stevens,openedavenuesthat
thelaw constrained. He joined antislavery networks whoselawyer-members,
despitediscouragement, remaineddevotedto thatreform andto manyothers.
Deferring to theolder,thenmoreprominent Stevens,Lincolnwrotehimin
1848: "I desirethe undisguisedopinionof some experiencedpersonand
sagaciousPennsylvania politician.... In castingaboutforsucha man,I have
settleduponyou" (I, p. 102).
Good choice.A self-appointed scourge,Stevensrelentlessly illuminated
manydarkcornersof contemporary life in Pennsylvania as well as in the
slaveholding states,whiletenaciouslynudgingconstituents towardbrighter
alternatives. Fromhis 1835plea tofellowKeystoneStatelegislators on public
education'sessentialrolein a democracyto his 1868 neardeathbedjustifi-
cationforimpeaching AndrewJohnson, he advocatedan eclecticcatalogof
concernsforhis stateandnationthatresonatefromhis timeto ours.Stevens
was indeedproudly"radical"aboutachievinga morestable,moredecent
society,one betterstabilizedthrough publiceducation,separatedchurchand
state,debtorrelief, homesteads, andfreelabor(read,an endto slavery).In that
society,everyperson,notwithstanding race(genderequalitywas notan issue
to him),would enjoy equal legal standingto defendproperty and person
through lawsuitsand voting.
Last, crises.SelectedPapers confirms a relativelyrecentscholarlyview
thatStevenssensedearlierthanmanycontemporaries the Civil War's al-
chemicalpotentialities. CongressionalGlobe-trotters will findin Selected
Papers familiar butwelcometextsof thaumaturgist Stevens'swartimeargu-
mentsforeradicating slaveryand retaining civiliancontrolover the huge
UnionArmy,arguments thatin varyingpace and priority Lincolnand other
majorRepublicanlawyer-politicos cameto share.Homesteads, publichigher
education,and, above all, antislavery, so long chimerical, becamenational
policy.Stevensimpatiently proddedemancipation, fromcase-by-case property

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164 THE JOURNALOF SOUTHERNHISTORY

confiscations in federalcourts,to piecemealmilitary emancipation, to the

Thirteenth Amendment's nationwide constitutionalizedfreedom.
FromSumterto Appomattox, Stevensinsistedthatwar,especiallycivil
war,was notpeace andthattheConstitution was no blueprintforcrisis.But
despitehis luridconqueredprovincerhetoric he remainedcommitted to the
postwaraim of a reunitedfederalunionof states.Diverse documentsin
SelectedPapers affirm thatStevensneverbrokefreeof familiardoctrines
aboutstate-based federalism and thesanctity of privateproperty thatdomi-
natedthelegalandpoliticalcultures ofhistime.To be sure,afterAppomattox
he respondedto unanticipated race injusticesby demandinga federalcivil
rightslaw,theworld'sfirst, thatoffered a federaljusticealternativetobigotry
in statecourts.In 1867-68he supported military reconstruction,especiallyits
enlargements of southernelectoratesand the factthat,race exclusionsex-
cepted,eachstatestilldefinedcivilandcriminal behaviorlargelyas itwished.
Considering anothercontext-punishments thatlosersin civil wars abroad
suffered in thenineteenth andtwentieth centuries-these consequencesofour
Civil War seemremarkably unvindictive.
Selected Papers can serve both specialized researchersand those of
broaderpurposes.Its primary sourcescould launchcollegeand highschool
classroomdiscussionsand interpretive paperson, amongmanycore topics,
antislavery, raceequality,partypolitics,presidential impeachments, and fed-
eralism.Everylibraryshouldacquireit. Sources reproducedhelpfullyin
SelectedPapersreaffirm thevalidityofthemoresympathetic recentscholarly
judgmentson Stevens.A truebelieveraboutrace equality,a bitingdebater,
and a lifetimepoliticalpartyirregular, his career'sapparentcontradictions
seembetter explicablewhenreviewedin lightofwhatDanielBoorstincalled
an "uncanny Americanreverence forlaw" (quotedin David Ray Papke,"The
AmericanLegal Faith:Traditions, Contradictions Indiana
and Possibilities,"
Law Review,30 [1997],646).
Rice University HAROLD M. HYMAN

TheAfrican AmericanChurchinBirmingham, Alabama,1815-1963:A Shel-

terin theStorm.By WilsonFallinJr.Studiesin AfricanAmericanHistory
and Culture.(New Yorkand London:GarlandPublishing, Inc., 1997.Pp.
xiv,220. $40.00,ISBN 0-8153-2883-4.)
WilsonFallinJr.attempts toprovidean analysisoftheroleandplaceofthe
AfricanAmericanchurchin Birmingham fromthearrivalin 1815 ofthefirst
AfricanAmericanslavesin theJonesValleyto 1963,theyearthatthecivil
rightsmovement reachedits peak in thecity.Althoughmostslaves in the
regionworshipped in whitechurches,theydevelopeda uniqueChristianity
thatwas a blend of Africanand evangelicalelements.Birmingham was
foundedin 1871,and successivewaves of blackmigrants to thecitydevel-
opeda uniquespiritual lifeandestablishedchurches thosein the
thatmirrored
AlabamablackbeltandruralSouth.A sourceofcomfort, hope,andsecurity,
andthemostimportant intheblackcommunity,
institution theAfricanAmeri-
can churchassistednewmigrants, dispensedcharity,urgedmoraldiscipline,
servedas a social center,and promoted economicand educationaldevelop-

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