Thaddeus Stevens

Stevens, Thaddeus (1792–1868), militant member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1849–53, 1859–68) from Pennsylvania, and an aggressive opponent of slavery. After the Civil War he supported radical measures, such as the confiscation and redistribution of Southern planters' lands, and proposed the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing civil rights. In 1867 he headed the committee to impeach President Andrew Johnson.