The "Amending America: Part II" Story

The display featuring Buchanan and Stevens at LancasterHisrtory.org.

It was an ordinary day.  Visiting several displays in the Lancaster- History.org exhibit titled "Amending America: The Bill of Rights".  My story yesterday told of the traveling exhibit with the name I just mentioned while today's story will tell you about the relationship that two of Lancaster, Pennsylvania's most formidable politicians, President James Buchanan and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens had during the same period of time in our country's history.  

President Buchanan and his Supreme Court Justices.

Their story was also featured directly outside the room at Lancaster- History.org that held the story about "The Bill of Rights."  It had been well known that the two Lancastrians didn't see eye to eye on many things and an alleged sexual comment that Stevens had made about Buchanan certainly didn't help the matter.  At the time it was said that the 15th President of the United States, James Buchanan, a Democrat, favored the Southern States before the Civil War.  

A very early rendering of Buchanan's Wheatland estate.

He was morally opposed to slavery, but believed it was protected by the U.S. Consti- tution.  In 1856 James Buchanan was elected President Of The United States.  He tried at that time to bring peace between the pro-slavery factions in the government and the pro-slavery dissenting groups.  It didn't work well and tensions escalated.  

Buchanan's gravesite in Lancaster.

Southern states drove toward succession which couldn't be stopped by the President, thus many considered Buchanan's presidency a failure which led to his moniker as Worst President in the history of the United States.  But, I wonder if at the time it was widely known that James Buchanan purchased slaves and freed them due to his personal hatred of the institution.  This happened 18 years earlier when he was running for the Senate and it was discussed whether states had the right to allow slavery and if new states being formed had the right to decide if their state would be slave or free.  Pennsylvania had passed the Gradual Abolition Act in 1780, thus they were a free state, but when Mr. Buchanan made a visit to Virginia to see his family, he found his sister and her husband, a minister, owned slaves.  

The home and law office of Thaddeus Stevens in Lancaster, PA.

He knew this fact could ruin his career, so he bought the slaves from his sister.  At the same time he knew he could use servants in his home, but at that time in history, woman managed house servants and James happened to be a bachelor.  So, he hired Ester Parker, the daughter of a local innkeeper who managed the purchased slaves, now turned servants.  He actually had agreements drawn about the length of service his two new servants would have with him.  

Representative Thaddeus Stevens from Lancaster, PA.

At the time in Pennsylvania it was common for free blacks to serve as servants, but it was a sort of "twilight zone between slavery and freedom."  This set the stage for his being known as a "Doughface" which was a derogatory term used to identify a Northern who sympathized with Southerners when it came to slavery.  When he became President he downplayed the issue of slavery and whether it should be legal in expanding U. S. territory.  By the end of his presidency, seven states had left the Union.  Buchanan realized he would never win again, so he chose not to run.  Abraham Lincoln became the next President of the United States.  Now as far as Lancaster's other politician, Thaddeus Stevens.  

Stevens on the floor of the House of Representatives.

He was Lancaster's represen- tative in Congress before, during and after the Civil War who fought all his life for equal rights for black Americans.  As reported in 1870 in Packard's Monthly Magazine, Stevens met Buchanan at a wedding and bowed twice, but Buchanan refused to speak to him and refused to sit with him at the banquet table.  "Foolish fellow!" Stevens said.  "He took offense at some trifling thing I said in a speech."  

State sign telling of Thaddeus Stevens.  His name is
carried on the Thaddeus Stevens' School of Technology.

Stevens had made the remark after President Andrew Jackson appointed Buchanan minister to Russia in 1832.  Stevens allegedly said, "The gentleman has gone to hide his burning blushes amid the frozen snows of Russia."  Now, what he actually meant isn't known, but to them.  It had been reported a few times that Buchanan may have been gay, but I wrote a story a few years ago about his romance with a young girl who eventually was buried in historic St. James Episcopal churchyard in Lancaster.  It has also been said that the gay community has claimed James Buchanan as America's only homosexual president.  So, what did Stevens comment really mean?  I guess they both took it to their graves, but Buchanan never spoke to Stevens again during their lifetime.  Stevens did continue to bow when they met and told everyone they were friends.  After Buchanan's death, Stevens moved that the House of Representatives adjourn as a token of respect, but the Republican-controlled House refused.  So sad that two of the most influential politicians from Lancaster couldn't have gotten along.  My next story in this series deals with another display that was featured during my visit to see "Amending America."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.