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. Theodore Cuyler a fellow defense lawyer, exposed the weakness of the government's case in his opening remarks.  "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," Cuyler said. "Blessed be God that our union has survived the shock."

All the defendants were acquitted because, as the defense team 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/