I will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written thus: 'Here lies one who never rose to any eminence, who only courted the low ambition to have it …

- Thaddeus Stevens

I wished that I were the owner of every southern slave, that I might cast off the shackles from their limbs, and witness the rapture which would exci…

- Thaddeus Stevens

The greatest measure of the nineteenth century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in America.

- Thaddeus Stevens

Every humane and patriotic heart must grieve to see a bloody and causeless rebellion, costing thousands of human lives and millions of treasure. But …

- Thaddeus Stevens

I don’t hold with equality in all things only with equality before the law and nothing more.

- Thaddeus Stevens

I wish the Indians had newspapers of their own. If they had, you would have horrible pictures of the cold-blooded murders of inoffensive Indians.

- Thaddeus Stevens

No government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and execution of her laws.

- Thaddeus Stevens

The freedom of a government does not depend on the quality of its laws, but upon the power that has the right to create them.

- Thaddeus Stevens

The whole fabric of southern society must be changed, and never can it be done if this opportunity is lost. Without this, this government can never b…

- Thaddeus Stevens