Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 46

 Thaddeus Stevens before Gettysburg

October 2024

By Ross Hetrick

Thaddeus Stevens was born in the small Vermont town of Danville in 1792, the last year of the first term of George Washington. He had a lot going against him. His family was poor, he was born with a clubfoot -- a handicap that was seen as a mark of the devil -- and his father was an alcoholic and abandoned his family when Stevens was 12. But he was blessed with a brilliant mind and a devoted mother who believed in education so much that she moved with her four boys to nearby Peacham, Vermont to be closer to the local academy.

His clubfoot, which gave him a life long limp, made him the object of taunts by fellow students. But they sharpened his wit as evidenced by an incident where he was lolling around Peacham one day and a local judge leaned out a window and yelled, "Well, my boy, do you think you're in paradise?" Stevens quickly shot back: "I did until I saw the devil looking out of the window."

He went on to Dartmouth College, but spent his third year at the University of Vermont, where he got into some mischief when he and a fellow student killed a cow that was leaving droppings on the lawn area, using an ax taken from a fellow student's room. The bloody ax was found and the innocent student was threatened with being expelled, but Stevens threw himself on the mercy of the cow's owner and offered to pay for the animal. Impressed by his honesty, the farmer told the school's administration that passing soldiers had done the deed. Stevens later paid the farmer who in turn sent him a barrel of cider.

After graduating from Dartmouth, Stevens moved to York, PA, on the recommendation of a friend and was a school teacher there for a few years while he studied law with a local attorney. While he was studying law, the local attorneys changed the rules to prohibit part-time students from taking the bar examination. So Stevens went down to Bel Air, MD to take the bar exam which was held in a tavern. The examiners first required Stevens to buy two bottles of Madeira wine and then asked him some questions. After satisfying themselves that he knew his stuff, they told Stevens to buy two more bottles of Madeira and to play cards with them. Stevens had come down to Bel Air with $45 and left with $3.50 and his bar certificate.

He then moved to Gettysburg in 1816 where he would live for 26 years and become famous statewide as a brilliant lawyer, powerful state legislator, industrialist and an outspoken foe of slavery.

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/.