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/
