Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 36

 How Thaddeus Stevens and Edward McPherson saved the country on Dec. 4, 1865

December 2023

By Ross Hetrick

On December 4, 1865 Thaddeus Stevens and Edward McPherson executed a parliamentary maneuver that banned ex-Confederates from Congress and changed the course of American history.

The action was necessary because Andrew Johnson, who replaced Lincoln, refused to work with Congress on how to handle Reconstruction and if he had succeeded in his plans, the results would have been devastating.

With Congress not scheduled to reconvene for another eight months, Johnson started issuing pardons wholesale to ex-Confederates. Then he allowed the southern states to hold Congressional elections without any restrictions. 

Southern white men, the only ones allowed to vote, did what was expected. They elected 64 former Confederates, four generals, four colonels and six members of the Confederate cabinet. Even Alexander Stephens, the former vice president of the rebel nation, was elected to the U.S. Senate. They planned to join with their northern allies in Congress and take over the legislative branch of the government.

They let it be known that they intended to reject the massive federal war debt and embrace the Confederate debt. In other words, the U.S. government would have paid for the war to destroy the country. But even more sinister was their plan to not interfere with the re-enslavement of black Americans by southern states. Despite the passage of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, southern states passed so-called Black Codes that allowed law enforcement to put blacks back on plantation as convict labor. If these things had happened, the north would have essentially lost the Civil War after the war.

But Thaddeus Stevens, who was the master of the House of Representatives, was not going to allow this to happen. With the help of Edward McPherson, the clerk of the House of Representatives and long time friend, Stevens came up with a plan.

When Congress convened on December 4, 1865, McPherson began calling the roll of the members of the House of Representatives. When he got to the new southern members, he skipped them using the authority given him by a previous Congress. Southerners and their allies tried to object but Stevens, a master of parliamentary procedure, shut them down with calls to order and points of order. This prevented the takeover of Congress by the ex-Confederates and gave the Republicans a working majority to combat the policies of President Johnson.

Congress was able to pass the first civil rights bill, fund the Freedman Bureau to aid the newly freed slaves and impose military control over southern states to protect the black population. But more importantly Congress was able to pass the 14th Amendment that would ensure that equality before the law would be the law of the land, even though it was neutered by the Supreme Court for many decades.

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 35

 The wig of Thaddeus Stevens

November 2023

By Ross Hetrick

Thaddeus Stevens had many distinctive traits, such as his cutting wit, his brilliant intellect and his dour countenance. But the thing that hit people first was his ill-fitting, chestnut colored wig.

Stevens started wearing a wig in the late 1820s after an attack of "brain fever," which was probably Typhoid, that rendered him hairless. The wig was said to have been cut to look alike from all sides so Stevens did not have to brother which way he put it on.

Steven never said exactly why he wore a wig rather than just showing his bald head like other men. It may have something to do with the particular era that he grew up in. Wigs were still popular among the elites, particularly U.S. Presidents, up until the late 1820s. But as the decades passed, wigs fell out of favor and beards and mustaches became fashionable. Stevens stuck with his wig and could not grow facial hair. 

His ill-fitting wig opened Stevens to derision by his political opponents.  One such occasion was the "Buckshot War" of 1838 when a mob brought from Philadelphia by the Democrats took over the legislature in Harrisburg by force. A political cartoon in a Democratic publication made light of Stevens losing his wig after having to jump out a window to escape the mob. But despite the ridicule, |Stevens continued to wear his wig and he may have had more than one. 

W. Frank Gorrecht recounts how while visiting Stevens with his father in the late 1860s, he told Stevens he was scheduled to make a recitation at a local church. Stevens asked for a preview and after hearing it, he handed him a wig and asked him to repeat it wearing the hair piece. "Whether or not there was virtue in the wig the second recitation induced him to tell me to take it with me, use it at the entertainment and return it to him when through with it," Gorrecht wrote in a 1933 article. Stevens became bedridden shortly thereafter and the wig was not returned. It is now part of the collection at Lancaster History.

In September 2013, Lancaster History launched an effort to raise $1,500 to restore the wig. One thousand dollars was raised  and the last $500 was donated by the Thaddeus Stevens Society.

Stevens's wig became a star in its own right in the 2012 Lincoln movie where Tommy Lee Jones, who played Stevens, wore a wig more outrageously ill-fitting than Stevens ever wore. In one scene,  Jones doffs the wig as he gets ready for bed and we see a cue ball Stevens, something that was never photographed while Stevens lived.

The most famous incident to involve Stevens's wig involved a female admirer who did not know of his baldness and asked for a lock of his hair. Not wanting to disappoint her, Stevens handed the entire wig to the astonished lady.

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 34

 Gettysburg needs a Thaddeus Stevens museum

October 2023

By Ross Hetrick

The Thaddeus Stevens Society is launching a fundraising effort to create a Gettysburg museum for one of its most important historic personalities.

To raise this money, the Society is participating in the Giving Spree, held by the Adams County Community Foundation, that will occur on November 9 at Gettysburg Middle School from 3 to 7 p.m. We are trying to raise $14,000 to rent a location. We will also begin an endowment fund to provide money for the long term. More information about the Giving Spree is at this link:  Giving Spree

Gettysburg needs a Thaddeus Stevens museum because of his incredible importance to  Adams County and to the country as a whole. The museum would also add an extra dimension to the tourism experience, going beyond the military aspects of the Civil War and detailing how the war changed the foundations of America. 

Thaddeus Stevens came to Gettysburg in 1816 at the age of 24 and within 20 years, he became one of its leading citizens. He was a prominent attorney involved in local and state politics. He helped establish Gettysburg College, started iron mills and worked to start a water works, a library and a bank. He moved to Lancaster, PA in 1842 and became the most powerful congressman during and after the Civil War. But despite the move, Stevens maintained his ties with Gettysburg, coming back regularly to oversee his iron mill at what is now Caledonia state park and attending the college's board of trustee meetings.

During the last 24 years, the Thaddeus Stevens Society has collected a treasure trove of Stevens artifacts. These include letters from Stevens, period newspapers, books about Stevens, postcards and pictures related to Stevens and even two stoves made at his two iron works. These artifacts are now stored in a residential apartment in Gettysburg and are available for viewing by contacting the Society at info@thaddeusstevenssociety.com or 717-347-8159.

Gettysburg is the perfect place for a Stevens museum because Gettysburg is the capital of the Civil War. Tourists can learn about the battle that changed the course of the war and then learn about how Stevens and other politicians changed the course of American politics.

A location for the office and museum has not been determined. But a good location would be the McPherson house at the corner of Carlisle and Stevens Street. This house was the home of Edward McPherson, a Stevens associate who was the clerk of the House of Representatives and he played a key role in keeping ex-Confederates out of Congress after the Civil War. The house has been maintained in pristine 19th century condition by the McPherson family. Gettysburg College, which now owns the house, is not using the house and has not announced any future plans.

Another possible location is the first block of Chambersburg Street where Stevens's home was before it was torn down in the 1920s.  Various storefronts on this block come up for rent at various times. 

But first the money must be raised for the project and you are urged to make those contributions through the Giving Spree.  Besides your donation, the Society will also receive a matching donation that will be determined by the total amount that the Giving Spree collects for all charities.  If you plan to participate in the Giving Spree, please let us know by email info@thaddeusstevenssociety.com or call 717-347-8159.

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

The Great Commoner, Fall 2023, No. 47, www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com

 Thaddeus Stevens Society to meet November 5 at Adams County Historical Society Museum in Gettysburg

The Thaddeus Stevens Society will meet Sunday, November 5, at 1 p.m. at the Adams County Historical Society Museum at 625 Biglerville Road (Route 34), Gettysburg, PA. After a light lunch and business meeting, there will be a tour of the new museum, which includes a new Thaddeus Stevens exhibit. Individuals will be charged $12 each by the museum. If you plan to attend, please email info@thaddeusstevenssociety.com or call 717-347-8159.

Gettysburg Mayor sets up Thad display

Ross Hetrick portraying Thaddeus Stevens and Gettysburg Mayor Rita Frealing in front of new Stevens display outside her office.

Gettysburg Mayor Rita Frealing recently set up a Thaddeus Stevens display outside her office with items donated by the Society. The borough has also installed "Stevens Run" signs on Constitution Avenue.

"Thaddeus Stevens was a major figure in Gettysburg history and deserves this recognition," the mayor said. "I hope these tributes will spark interest in Stevens among local residents."

The display consists of a bust of Stevens on a small oak table with flyers about Stevens's life. On the walls behind the bust are a painting of Stevens and a plaque listing his accomplishments. All the items were donated by the Society over the last few decades.

The new Stevens Run signs are on both sides of a small bridge that is just east of a Gettysburg College parking lot. The 2.2 mile stream is a tributary of Rock Creek and is part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Its name dates back to the early 1800s when it ran through land owned by Stevens, who sold six acres of the property to the college for its initial campus.

                                Stevens Run sign on Constitution Avenue in Gettysburg.

Fundraiser to be launched for Society office and exhibit area

The Thaddeus Stevens Society will launch a fundraising effort on November 9 to raise money for a Society office and exhibit area for its collection of Stevens artifacts. 

The Society is partnering with the Adams County Community Foundation for its Giving Spree, which will be held on November 9  from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Gettysburg Middle School, 37 Lefever Street. The Society's table at the event will feature Ross Hetrick portraying Stevens who will walk around the area telling potential donors why he needs a new office in Gettysburg. 

Donations will be given to the Foundation, which turns them over to the Society along with an "incentive match." More information about the event can be found at this link: GivingSpree.

The Society's goal is to raise $14,000, which would be combined with $13,000 the Society already has. This should be sufficient to set up the office and exhibit site and pay rent for about two years. We are also asking for donations to an endowment fund set up with the Foundation that could help fund the office in the future.

Various sites for the office and exhibit area are under considerations. We hope to find a place in downtown Gettysburg that would be close to where Stevens's house was on Chambersburg Street. 

Our extensive collection of Stevens artifacts is now housed in a residential apartment on Stevens Street in Gettysburg. The exhibit can be seen by appointment by emailing info@thaddeusstevenssociety.com or calling 717-347-8159.

With the new location and regular office hours, we hope it will be a great draw for tourists and significant increase the public visibility of Thaddeus Stevens.

Society to lend Caledonia Stove to Lancaster History for proposed museum

"Ten-Plate" stove made at Stevens's Caledonia Iron works more than 150 years ago.

The Thaddeus Stevens Society will indefinitely lend a stove made at Stevens's Caledonia iron works to be part of the Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy. 

Lancaster History, which is developing the $22 million museum, is scheduled to take the stove in early 2024 for refurbishing. It will be available for public viewing in April 2025 when the museum is slated to be opened. The stove is now at the Seminary Ridge Museum in Gettysburg. The stove was donated to the Society by Leslie Robinson and Lynn Jensen in 2013.

The Society owns another Caledonia stove as well as a stove made at Stevens's earlier Maria iron mill in Fairfield, PA, which will be part of the future Thaddeus Stevens exhibit in Gettysburg.

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 33

 Thaddeus Stevens and the Christiana Resistance 

September 2023

By Ross Hetrick

On September 11, 1851 an organized group near the small town of Christiana, PA successfully fended off an effort by a Maryland slave owner to capture freedom seekers, killing the slaver in the process. The event, known as the Christiana Resistance or Riot, sparked a political firestorm that drew in Thaddeus Stevens.

The event had its origins a year earlier when Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, one of the worst laws ever enacted in the United States. The law made it so easy to capture fugitive slaves that it spurred a reverse Underground Railroad and Black people lived in fear of being kidnapped. This caused the formation of self-protection groups like the one in Christiana, PA created by William Parker. 

Thaddeus Stevens, who was in Congress in 1850, was fiercely opposed to the law, particularly the part requiring bystanders to assist slave owners. "This is asking more than my constituents will ever grant," Stevens said. "The slaveholder may pursue his slave among them with his own foreign myrmidons [minions], unmolested, except by their frowning scorn. But no law that tyranny can pass will ever induce them to join the hue and cry after the trembling wretch who has escaped from unjust bondage."

Stevens's appeal did not prevent the law from being passed, but many northern congressmen were so embarrassed by the bill that they were absent during the final vote. This prompted  Stevens to quip that the speaker of the House should "send a page to notify northern members the Fugitive Slave bill has been disposed of and they may now come back into the hall."

His comments about his constituents' reaction to the law proved to be prophetic. The four freedom seekers arrived at the Parker house in Christiana with the slaveholder Edward Gorsuch and his posse in hot pursuit.  After the invaders were repulsed in the early morning hours, Parker's wife blew a horn and dozens of neighbors came running to their aid, including three Quakers. 

Gorsuch tried to recruit the white Quakers who refused to help him. Even though the situation was looking dire, Gorsuch would not retreat.  "My property I will have, or I'll breakfast in hell," he said and he got his wish. Gorsuch was shot and killed and his son was wounded. Parker and others fled to Canada.

The federal government 's reaction was swift and severe. Thirty-eight Blacks were arrested along with the three Quakers and charged with treason. Ironically, the trial was held in Independence Hall in Philadelphia in November 1851.

Stevens was one of the lawyers defending the accused and from the start, he mocked the case against them. "Three harmless, non-resistance Quakers and eight-and-thirty wretched, miserable, penniless negroes, armed with corn-cutters, clubs and a few muskets, and headed by a miller in a felt hat, without a coat, without arms, and mounted on a sorrel nag, levied war against the United States," Stevens said. "Blessed be God that our union has survived the shock."

All the defendants were acquitted because, as Stevens said, they were not engaged in treason, that is making war against the United States. While it was a great victory for Stevens, it seemingly doomed his political career with the local Whig party refusing to nominate him for a third term as congressman. 

But by the mid-1850s Stevens was back in the political fray helping to organize the new Republican party in Pennsylvania.  He was then returned to Congress in 1859 and went on to be the most powerful congressman during and after the Civil War, helping to destroy slavery and becoming the father of the 14th Amendment, the single most important amendment to the Constitution requiring equal treatment under the law and extending civil liberties to the state level.

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 32

 Thaddeus Stevens and Gettysburg College

August 2023

By Ross Hetrick

Thaddeus Stevens was one of the most important persons in Gettysburg College history, securing funding for the college's first major building, providing land for its campus and keeping it in Gettysburg when others wanted to move it in 1854.

Gettysburg College, then called Pennsylvania College, was founded in 1832 by Samuel Simon Schmucker in the Gettysburg Academy building at the corner of Washington and High Streets, where it still stands and is used as a private residence. The next year the college asked the Pennsylvania legislature for $18,000 to construct a building of its own and was promptly turned down.

Then in 1834, Thaddeus Stevens, an outspoken supporter of education, entered the state House of Representative, pledging to support the appropriation for the college, which opened a political firestorm. Much of Adams County opposed the expenditure saying taxpayer money should not go to colleges, which benefited a few people, but rather go to building one-room schoolhouses for the masses. Others said the money should not be spent at all and taxes lowered.

Stevens countered by saying Adams County was entitled to a fair share of the large amounts of money being spent by the state and that the appropriation would be a good investment. "If this legislature should deem it worthy of their countenance, it is not difficult to forsee its complete success," he said.

He also confronted the fact that much of his constituents were against the expenditure. "Let demagogues note it for future use, and send it on the wings of the wind to the ears of every one of my constituents, in matters of this kind, I would rather hear the approving voice of one judicious, intelligent, and enlightened mind, than to be greeted by the loud huzzas of the whole host of ignorance," he said. This would become his political creed for the rest of his life -- he was going to do what he thought was right regardless of what was popular.

Even after the state legislature approved the $18,000 appropriation, the college had difficulty finding someone willing to sell it land for the campus. Once again, the college turned to Stevens who was one of the largest property owners in Gettysburg. Stevens, who had been elected to the college's board, sold six acres of land to the college at $88 an acre, a price that was determined by the other college trustees. The building that was erected with the money was Pennsylvania Hall, which is now the college's administrative center and its iconic cupola is the symbol of the institution.

Stevens moved to Lancaster PA in 1842, but continued to serve on the college's board until his death in 1868. This membership proved to be crucial in 1854 when the board was considering moving the college to another city because of stagnant enrollment and an anemic endowment. 

On hearing about this, Stevens wrote: "If the scheme you refer to be real (which I can hardly believe) it is an attempt to violate an executed contract with the people of Adams County and is atrocious."

He then made a special trip from Lancaster to Gettysburg to browbeat the trustees into approving a resolution that assured the college would remain in Gettysburg. The vote was a lopsided 10 to 4 with college founder Schmucker voting with the minority.

In appreciation for his long service, the college in 1868-- the last year of Stevens's life-- built Stevens Hall, which still stands on Carlisle Street. By that time Stevens had become famous as the nation's most powerful congressman, playing a key role in the destruction of slavery and the effort after the Civil War to change the Constitution to bring about a more equal society.

So when first-year students walk from the campus to the national cemetery at the end of August to hear about Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, they should also be told how Thaddeus Stevens had a Gettysburg address for 26 years and is primarily responsible for them attending a college in Gettysburg.

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 31

 Thaddeus Stevens versus James Buchanan

July 2023

By Ross Hetrick

One of the great ironies of American history is that President James Buchanan, a defender of slavery, lived in the same city of Lancaster, PA, as Thaddeus Stevens, a relentless foe of the infernal institution.

This stark contrast was highlighted in a new book called American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal by Neil King, a former Wall Street Journal reporter. The book recounts King's 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C. to New York City, which includes passing through Lancaster. He writes about the difference between the two men.

"Without Buchanan, the country would be little different," King wrote. "He coddled the South and forestalled war for his four years in the White House. Then he retired to his high brick Federalist house on the edge of town to receive guests and work on his memoirs -- the first ever presidential account of a president's time in office -- as the nation imploded."

On the other hand, King says, "Without Stevens, we would be a far different nation. Throughout the war he led Lincoln to places -- emancipation, Blacks serving in the military -- where Lincoln was reluctant or slow to go. After the war he led the charge to revamp the Constitution and to move aggressively on Reconstruction. He was one of the founders of the country's second founding." he also noted that when Stevens died, "it was if a sitting president had perished."

Stevens moved from Gettysburg to Lancaster in 1842 and was elected to Congress from 1849 to 1853 and then again from 1859 to 1868 when he was the most powerful congressman and led a vetoproof Congress against President Andrew Johnson.

Of course, since Buchanan was president, even a terrible president, his Wheatland mansion has been lovingly preserved and his memory maintained at local historical institutions. But Stevens was woefully neglected in Lancaster during the 20th century. 

His modest house on Queen Street was not preserved and repeatedly remodeled to the point it was unrecognizable from it original appearance.  Fortunately, what was left was saved from the wrecker's ball in the early 2000s and the exterior was restored to it's 1860s appearance. But the interior has remained a shell for more than 20 years. But now a new $20 million museum called the Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy is slated to open in early 2025. 

Despite a century of neglect of Stevens, one monument to the Great Commoner remained -- his grave at the Shreiner-Concord Cemetery, the city's only integrated graveyard at the time of Stevens's death. King included a sketch of himself in front of the eight-foot granite memorial in his book. He also added it's inspirational inscription:

"I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited as to race by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life: Equality of Man Before his Creator."

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 30

 The financial genius of the Union cause

June 2023

By Ross Hetrick

When the Civil War started in 1861, the United States was in horrible financial shape. The country was $100 million in debt, it's main source of income -- duties on imported goods -- was significantly reduced with the departure of southern states, it's banking system differed from state to state and the paper currency was a mishmash of private "banknotes" with wildly varying values.

But within the first few years of the war, Thaddeus Stevens and the Lincoln administration were able to right the financial ship helping to achieve Union victory. Meanwhile, Confederate officials ran their economy into the ground.

As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, Stevens lead the effort to adopt federal paper currency. The first obstacle was the Constitution, which only specifies the coining of money. And while this worked for the young republic, it was unworkable during the Civil War when the Union needed billions of dollars.

Stevens argued that even though the Constitution did not include the power to print money it did imply the ability. "If nothing could be done by Congress except what is enumerated in the Constitution, the government could not live a week," Stevens said during the debate about paper money.

Of course the great danger of paper money is runaway inflation. This was partially solved by making the money "legal tender." This is not just some slogan that we now take for granted on our money. It was an innovative legal requirement that everybody had to accept this paper money for payment. In the era of private bank notes, people could pick and choose what they accepted.

The Confederacy was also forced to print money, but it did not make them legal tender and hyper inflation soon set in.

Stevens also spearheaded another important change by pushing through the National Banking Act that created federal charters for banks, which continue to this day. This turned private banks into depositories and receivers for federal funds, which helped to hold down inflation.

Perhaps the most controversial of Stevens's financial changes was the creation of the first income tax. By today's standards, the income tax was rather quaint. It required a 3 percent tax on incomes from $600 to $10,000, 5 percent for over $10,000 and 7.5 percent for those few who made more than $50,000. 

The income tax was eventually declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1895, but it was revived in 1913 with the ratification of the sixteenth amendment to the Constitution. 

All these financial innovations that Stevens helped to push through were absolutely necessary to pay for the soldiers, the food and the weapons that crushed the slave power.

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 29

 Thaddeus Stevens strikes again through the 14th Amendment

May 2023

By Ross Hetrick

Thaddeus Stevens's greatest achievement, the 14th Amendment, is once again in the news.

As the president and Congress grapple over the debt limit, many commentators are saying  one solution is to simply have the President pay the nation's debts as the 14th Amendment requires. The fourth section of the amendment says: "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."

It would seem the provision is custom made for this situation since the debts have already been authorized by Congress and now they are in need of payment. Refusing to increase the debt limit is like running up a credit card bill and then not paying because you don't feel like it. The 14th Amendment says the county can not do that.

But even though this solution is getting more traction than it has in the past, many politicians are   saying the constitutional provision only applies to the situation after the Civil War when the arrogance of ex-Confederates threatened to tank the finances of the United States.

Right after the Civil War, southern politicians let it be known that if they got back into power, they were going to reject the federal debt, which had been run up to an astronomical level to put down the rebellion. They also intended to honor the debt to Confederate bond owners. In essence, they wanted the United States to pay for the war against itself..

President Andrew Johnson helped the ex-Confederate in this insidious plan by allowing the white southerners to hold congressional elections and elect ex-Confederate officers and politicians. But fortunately, Stevens and fellow Republicans were able to bar the ex-Confederate from taking their seat with the use of a brilliant parliamentary maneuver on December 4, 1865. And then just to make sure the ex-Confederate and their allies didn't try later to reject the federal debt, Congress included the debt provision in the 14h Amendment. 

The possibility of using the 14th Amendment was bandied about in 2011 during the last debt limit crisis. But now it is getting more serious considerations as shown by 11 Democratic Senators recently sending a letter to President Biden urging him to use the amendment. One of the strongest proponents of using the provision is Professor Garrett Epps, a noted Constitutional scholar. His argument can be found on this video: EPPS

The 14th Amendment is the longest amendment in the Constitution and covers much more than just the national debt. It repeatedly comes up when the country deals with issues as diverse as citizenship, equality, freedom of speech, the press and religion and even abortion. Perhaps if Stevens was mentioned more often about his role in creating this crucial part of the Constitution he would be better known.

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

 

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 28

The funniest congressman part 2

 April 2023

By Ross Hetrick

In last month's column, I gave a sampling of Thaddeus Stevens's cutting and effective wit. Here is some more.

Stumping into the House of Representatives just as a vote was about to be taken on a contested seat, Stevens inquired what was under consideration. "Oh, we are just about to vote on the question of two damn rascals fighting for a seat," said a fellow congressman. "Well," said Stevens reaching for a ballot, "which is our damn rascal."

In an effort to create better relations between Stevens and President Andrew Johnson, friends of Johnson went to Stevens and tried to convince him that he was not such a bad fellow. They particularly pointed out that, like Stevens himself, Johnson was a self-made man. "I never thought of it that way,"  Stevens said, "but it does relieve God almighty of a  heavy responsibility."

A letter writer to Stevens said he had been told that Stevens was an unbeliever, to which Stevens replied: "I have always been a firm believer in the Bible. He is a fool who disbelieves the existence of God as you say is charged on me. I also believe in the existence of hell for the special benefit of this slanderer."

When walking in Lancaster one day, Stevens turned down a narrow sidewalk and encountered his old enemy, Alexander Harris. "I never get out of the way of a skunk," said Harris." Stepping off the curb, Stevens replied, "But I always do."

During a trial a Dr. Smith, a leading doctor in Chambersburg, PA, was a witness against a Stevens's client. Dr. Oliver, a quack doctor, was also a witness. In his summation, Stevens purposely mixed up the names of the two doctors in order to undercut Dr. Smith's testimony. 

Dr. Smith, who was in his office at the time, was told about this as it was happening. Enraged Dr. Smith grabbed a cane and proclaimed he was going to beat Stevens for his treacherous behavior. Marching down the street towards the courthouse, a crowd gathered behind him to see the beating. Dr. Smith met Stevens coming out of the courthouse. "Mr. Stevens," Dr. Smith proclaimed, "I understand that in commenting on my testimony you called me Dr. Oliver." With a shocked look on his face, Stevens replied, "Did I? I am very sorry for it and when I meet Dr. Oliver, I will apologize." The crowd erupted with laughter with Dr. Smith joining them.

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 27

 The funniest congressman in U.S. history

March 2023

By Ross Hetrick

Thaddeus Stevens was perhaps the funniest congressman in American history, and he used his acerbic wit to devastate his oratorical opponents and destroy their arguments. 

While some of this humor has been passed down, much of it was lost because the transcribers of congressional sessions could not hear them, though regularly noting the laughter around Stevens.

"Never has wit of all varieties exhibited in more bewildering profusion," said Vermont Rep. Justin S. Morrill. "He daily wasted in this private and semi-grotesque distribution of mirth, sense and satire, often indiscriminately among friends and foes, a capital sufficient, could it have been preserved, to rival almost any of the acknowledged masters among the colloquial wits of this or any age," he said.

One of his most famous jokes was directed at his fellow Pennsylvania politician, Simon Cameron, Lincoln's first Secretary of War. Stevens complained to Lincoln about some of the overly priced war contracts, which might have included kickbacks to Cameron. "Why, Mr. Stevens, you don't think the Secretary would steal, do you?" Lincoln said. Stevens replied, "Well, Mr. President, I don't think he would steal a red-hot stove." 

Lincoln liked the joke and told Cameron, who did not like it and demanded Stevens retract it. Stevens obediently went to Lincoln and said: "I said I did not think Mr. Cameron would steal a red-hot stove. I am now forced to withdraw that statement."

Later, Lincoln discovered how corrupt Cameron was and appointed him ambassador to Russia to get him out of his cabinet. Stevens wisecracked, "Send word to the Czar to bring in his things at night."

Also Stevens delivered one of the greatest put downs of the evil institution of slavery, which southern politicians regularly praised.

"Gentlemen on this floor [House of Representatives] and in the Senate, had repeatedly, during this discussion, asserted that slavery was a moral, political, and personal blessing, that the slave was free from care, contented, happy, fat and sleek. Comparisons have been instituted between slaves and laboring freemen, much to the advantage of the condition of slavery. Instances were cited where the slave, after having tried freedom, had voluntarily returned to resume his yoke," Stevens said.

"Well, if this be so, let us give all a chance to enjoy this blessing. Let the slaves, who choose, go free, and the free, who choose, become slaves. If these gentlemen believe there is a word of truth in what they preach, the slaveholder need be under no apprehension that he will ever lack bondsmen. Their slaves would remain, and many freemen would seek admission into this happy condition. Let them be active in propagating their principles. We will not complain if they establish societies in the south for that purpose -- abolition societies to abolish freedom. Nor will we rob the mails to search for incendiary publications in favor of slavery, even if they contain seductive pictures and cuts of those implements of happiness -- handcuffs, iron yokes and cat-o'-nine-tails."

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

The Great Commoner, Spring 2023, No. 46, www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com

 Thaddeus Stevens Society to meet on April 7 in Lancaster, PA

The Thaddeus Stevens Society will meet on Friday, April 7, in Lancaster, during the dinner after the annual graveside ceremony. The graveside ceremony will be at 4:30 p.m. at Stevens grave in the Shreiner-Concord Cemetery at Chestnut and Mulberry Streets in Lancaster, PA. Then at 6 p.m. the Stevens Day Dinner will be held at the Stevens College at 750 E. King Street. If you plan to attend, please email info@thaddeusstevenssociety.com or call 717-347-8159.

The dinner is free due to the generosity of John Lovell, a member in California who is paying for the dinner.

Thaddeus Stevens is star at new Adams County museum

The Adams County Historical Society museum in Gettysburg is opening on April 15 and Thaddeus Stevens is a big star.

The Thaddeus Stevens Society made a $3,000 donation in January to support the facility. The multi-million dollar facility at 625 Biglerville Road in Gettysburg has galleries with exhibits stretching from prehistoric times to the present days.  There is even a Disney type room that provides a visceral experience of what it would be like when the Confederates invaded Gettysburg, complete with the rumble and flashes of artillery explosions.

Thaddeus Stevens has his own glass case which tells about his time in Gettysburg from 1816 to 1842 before moving to Lancaster, PA. Included in the case is a chair from his house, books, an oil lamp and the gavel that he used as a local school director. In another case there is a stove made at the Maria iron furnace in Fairfield, which he owned with other investors from 1826 to 1837. In the museum’s gift shop there are Stevens biographies along with postcards and refrigerator magnets with Stevens's image. 

You can attend the opening festivities by clicking this link:  Adams County Museum

           Ross Hetrick, portraying Stevens, presents Adams County Museum Historian Tim               Smith with $3,000 for new museum.

Banner outside the museum with Stevens peeking out.

Entrance to the new Adams County museum.

The Thaddeus Stevens exhibit at the museum

Stove made at Stevens's Maria Furnace near Fairfield, PA

Both Stevens refrigerator magnets and postcards are sold at the museum

Burning of Caledonia reenactment 

planned for late June.

June 26, 2023 will mark the 160th anniversary of the burning by Confederates  of Thaddeus Stevens’s Caledonia iron furnace near Chambersburg, PA and the Stevens Society along with Caledonia State Park and the Franklin County Visitors Bureau are planning a reenactment of the event. If you would like to help stage this event, please contact the Society at info@thaddeusstevenssociety.com or call 717-347-8159. A date for the reenactment is yet to be determined.

The destruction of the iron mill by Confederate General Jubal Early was the largest civilian financial loss of the Gettysburg campaign, costing Stevens $75,000 in the currency of the day. But despite this devastating loss, Stevens was able to continue to pay the 250 workers at the facility as he rebuilt the iron mill. 

We hope to recapture all the drama and tragedy connected to this important event in the Civil War.

Stevens/Smith project slated for completion in         late 2024 or early 2025

The Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy is slated to be completed in late 2024 or early 2025, according to LancasterHistory, the group managing the project. So far $12 million has been raised by the historic group of a needed $20 million. 

Stevens’s house in Lancaster was saved from destruction in 2000 by the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County, which was able to restore the exterior of the house to its 1860 appearance. But because of financial problems, the project was turned over to LancasterHistory in 2010, which has delayed completion due to other projects.

The Thaddeus Stevens Society has urged LancasterHistory to devote more than half of the facility to Stevens’s legislative achievements, which include the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 26

 Uncovering an historic treasure in Brownsville, PA

February 2023

By Ross Hetrick

On January 7, a group of volunteers cut through a thicket of prickly bushes and vines in Brownsville, PA near Chambersburg to reveal a great historic treasure. A treasure that links Thaddeus Stevens to the Underground Railroad and the service of Black soldiers in the struggle against slavery.

The treasure was a long neglected graveyard that contained several  tombstones of members of the United States Colored Troops who fought in the Civil War. One of the most prominent of these markers was for Alexander Raimer, who died in 1898 at age 82 and served in Company C 25th U.S. Colored Troops. The headstone is very handsome with a floral engraving at the top. Delving more into his background,  it was discovered that the place of his burial is the Raimer Family Cemetery.

Black soldiers had joined the military despite the Confederacy announcing they would not treat them like white soldiers. Instead, if they were captured, they would be enslaved or executed.

The soldiers probably lived in the surrounding area, which was a Black community known as Africa in the mid-nineteenth century and one of the chief occupations was strip mining iron ore for Thaddeus Stevens's Caledonia iron mill a few miles to the east. With their large Black populations, Africa and Caledonia were refuges for freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad.

Besides his participation in the Underground Railroad, Stevens was one of the earliest advocates of freeing the slaves in the South and using them in the military. "I am for sending the Army through the whole slave population of the South, and asking them to come from their masters, to take the weapons which we furnish, and to join us in this war of freedom against traitors and rebels," Stevens said in July 1862. "I view it as a means, and the only means, of putting down this rebellion; and if in doing that we extinguish the cause of the rebellion, I shall not mourn for it -- which is slavery."

Because of Stevens's efforts, congress did pass a law to use Black soldiers and recruitment started later in 1863. But in a cruel twist, the Black soldiers were paid half that of white soldiers even though they faced graver dangers. This was abhorrent to Stevens, who was successful in equalizing Black soldiers' pay in 1864. 

"Why should they [soldiers] not all be paid alike?" Stevens said in April 1864. "Why should they not all be clothed alike? Why should they not be armed alike? Why should they not all charge the rebels alike, and die alike in defense of the Union? . . . Indeed, sir, if any were to have a preference over others in pay and in inducements to join the service, it ought to be that class of men whose perils are greatest when they go into the army. The black man knows when he goes there that his dangers are greater than the white man's. He runs not only the risk of being killed in battle, but the certainty, if taken prisoner, of being slaughtered instead of being treated as a prisoner of war."

Stevens would be so pleased to know that the tombstones of Reamer's and other brave USCT soldiers buried in the small plot are now visible for all to see and admire.

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 25

 Thaddeus Stevens and the drive for the 13th Amendment

January 2023

By Ross Hetrick

One hundred and fifty-eight years ago this month, the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, was barely passed in the House of Representatives, which was surprising considering that all of the ardent supporters of slavery from the south had long left the House to fight for a new country dedicated to slavery.

One of the strongest supporters for that amendment was Thaddeus Stevens, who had worked for more than 40 years to see slavery destroyed.

"What an opportunity is presented to this Republic to vindicate her consistency and become immortal," Stevens said in January 1862, years before the amendment was passed. "The occasion is forced upon us, and the invitation presented to strike the chains from four million of human beings, and create them MEN; to extinguish slavery on this whole continent; to wipe out, so far as we are concerned, the most hateful and infernal blot that has ever disgraced the escutcheon of man, to write a page in the history of the world whose brightness shall eclipse all the records of heroes and sages."

But the amendment was not preordained. In fact, the first attempt at a 13th Amendment was actually a sinister effort to appease the South by further enshrining the horrid institute in the Constitution.

As southern states were leaving the Union in early 1861, the House and the Senate approved a Constitutional amendment that would have barred any amendment that would interfere with slavery. Called the Corwin Amendment after its sponsor, Rep. Thomas Corwin of Ohio, it was signed by outgoing President James Buchanan, even though a presidential signature was not needed.

The measure went on to be approved by the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Rhode Island, Maryland and Illinois. Even Abraham Lincoln said he had no objection to the Corwin Amendment. But to be fair to Lincoln, he and most abolitionists conceded slavery was completely protected by the Constitution and the new amendment would make no difference.

But the proposed amendment did not dissuade the South from leaving. Their main objection was that Lincoln and the Republican party were against the expansion of slavery into new states, a position they would not compromise on.

Stevens and other congressmen submitted amendments to abolish slavery in the spring of 1864, and while the measure passed in the Senate, it failed in the House where it was 13 votes short of the necessary two-thirds vote. Then in December 1864, Lincoln got behind the effort publicly and the amendment squeaked through the House by the end of January with only three votes to spare.

Even with Lincoln support, the effort to approve the amendment was a monumental legislative struggle, as shown in the 2012 movie Lincoln. Democrat George Pendleton of Ohio was the chief defender of slavery and accused Stevens and his allies of causing the Civil War. Stevens responded by saying Pendleton's epitaph should be, "Here rests the ablest and most pertinacious defender of slavery and opponent." In contrast, Stevens said he would be satisfied if his tombstone read:  "Here lies one who never rose to any eminence, and who only courted the low ambition to have it said that he had striven to ameliorate the condition of the poor, the lowly, the downtrodden of every race and language and color."

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/