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→Opposition towards Sunday law
===Opposition towards Sunday law===
===Opposition towards Sunday law===
Stevens believed in the constitutional (as well as biblical) principle of [[separation of church and state]], and opposed religiously motivated discrimination. In ''Specht v. Commonwealth'', he defended a cooper who was fined for hauling manure on a Sunday in violation of Pennsylvania's blue law,<ref>[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Thaddeus_Stevens/OKq8EaomNzkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=thaddeus+stevens+sunday+law+separation+of+church+and+state&pg=PA258&printsec=frontcover Trefousse], p. 258.</ref> arguing that it infringed upon "the rights of conscience."<ref>Volk, Kyle G. (2014). [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Moral_Minorities_and_the_Making_of_Ameri/NTGTAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=thaddeus+stevens+sunday+law&pg=PA60&printsec=frontcover Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy], pp. 60–63. ''Google Books''. Retrieved January 22, 2023.</ref> Stevens went as far to imply that a nation whose judiciary failed to protect religious minorities from Sunday laws would be shaped by the very attitudes of the mob which crucified Jesus.
Stevens believed in the constitutional (as well as biblical) principle of [[separation of church and state]], and opposed religiously motivated discrimination. In ''Specht v. Commonwealth'', he defended a cooper who was fined for hauling manure on a Sunday in violation of Pennsylvania's blue law,<ref>[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Thaddeus_Stevens/OKq8EaomNzkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=thaddeus+stevens+sunday+law+separation+of+church+and+state&pg=PA258&printsec=frontcover Trefousse], p. 258.</ref> arguing that it infringed upon "the rights of conscience."<ref name=volk>Volk, Kyle G. (2014). [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Moral_Minorities_and_the_Making_of_Ameri/NTGTAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=thaddeus+stevens+sunday+law&pg=PA60&printsec=frontcover Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy], pp. 60–63. ''Google Books''. Retrieved January 22, 2023.</ref> Stevens went as far to imply that a nation whose judiciary failed to protect religious minorities from Sunday laws would be shaped by the very attitudes of the mob which crucified Jesus.
Despite Stevens's powerful speech, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously upheld the "constitutionality" of the state's Sunday law, siding with his Democratic opponent James Nill's "majority rule" argument that dismissed violations of freedom on the basis of alleged collective benefits reaped from enforced Sunday observance.<ref name=volk/>
===Radical Republicanism===
===Radical Republicanism===