In high school long ago, I learned that Thaddeus Stevens was one of America's worst political villains, a "Radical Republican," which meant, I think, that he was supposedly a vindictive winner of the Civil War, a man who wanted revenge against the white secessionists instead of a peaceful binding up of the unfortunate wounds. Translation: Stevens argued that black men should have the same rights as white men. So he was hated.
He told Congress, "If you and your compeers can fling away ambition and realize that every human being, no matter how lowly born or degraded by fortune, is your equal, that every inalienable right which belongs to you belongs also to him, truth and righteousness will spread over the land."
He would have understood Bernie Sanders.
Stevens died shortly after that speech in the house he shared with a free black woman. Many visitors tried to visit him on his death bed, but he admitted only two, both black preachers, and he thanked them for coming.
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