The "Namesake: Part II" Story

Stevens' home and office on South Queen Street.

It was an ordinary day.  Picking up where I left off with yesterday's story about my youngest son's namesake and Lancaster's Bi-Centennial hero, Thaddeus Stevens.  I could write an extremely lengthy story about Stevens' national accomplishments, but will list some of the highlights and then concentrate on his ties to Lancaster, PA and our community.  Stevens was elected to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1848, six years after moving his law practice to Lancaster.  Thaddeus Stevens was one of the chief framers of the 14th Amendment, the single most important change to the Constitution.  Ratified in 1868, the amendment requires equal treatment for all American citizens and prohibits states from violating basic rights, such as freedom of speech and religion.  He was one of the chief architects of Reconstruction that sought to bring about an equal society in the South.  This included granting the right to vote to African-American men and the military occupation of the South to protect newly freed slaves.  He also spearheaded the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, who was undermining Reconstruction efforts.  The House voted to impeach Johnson, but the Senate failed to convict him by one vote.  It did leave Johnson virtually powerless for the remainder of his term.  He also was known for his harboring of freedom seekers within his properties in Lancaster and organizing spies to thwart slave catchers.  On the home front, Stevens opened a law office in the first block of South Queen Street in the summer of 1842.  In 1948 he met Lydia Smith who served as his housekeeper from '48 until his death 20 years later.  She was a smart and personable woman who allegedly was not only his housekeeper, but also his mistress.  The two shared an interest in the abolition of slavery and the advancement of racial equality.  After a Southern slavemaster was killed trying to claim his slaves at Christiana in 1851, Stevens successfully defended the "rioters" who had been charged with treason for violating the Fugitive Slave Act.  Smith supported him in his trial.  Upon Stevens' death, Smith purchased his house at 45-47 S. Queen Street with money he had left her.  Eight years earlier Stevens had deeded property behind his house to Smith for $500.  Stevens had already built a brick house on that property, facing East Vine Street, for Smith and her sons.  Well-known Philadelphia artist Charles King painted Lydia's portraiture at Stevens' request, showing a lovely light-skinned mulatto woman.  Stevens was in Lancaster when Lincoln was assassinated in the spring of 1865.  Eight days later, the President's funeral train passed through Lancaster County.  Thousands of Lancastrians lined the tracks and assembled at the train station to view Lincoln's funeral car and to hear local dignitaries eulogize the martyred President.  Stevens was not one of them.  Seems that Stevens and Lincoln, though both Republicans, were always in conflict while fighting for the same causes.  Stevens thought that Lincoln was always one step behind in important issues.  Stevens died in Washington, D.C. on August 11, 1968.  His body lied in state in the Capitol Rotunda at the exact same spot where Lincoln had laid.  Black soldiers stood guard while thousands of mourners passed his coffin.  In Lancaster, thousands more held a funeral for their congressional representative.  He was buried in Martin Shreiner's cemetery at West Chestnut and North Mulberry Streets.  This was the only cemetery in the city that was not segregated.  Within the year after his death Congress passed the 15th Amendment, prohibiting the states from withholding voting privileges for reason of race, thus completing Thaddeus Stevens' civil rights legacy.  At the burial of Stevens, the rector of my church, St. James Episcopal, the Rev. Isidor Mombert, said, "Thaddeus Stevens loved liberty.  The narrow barriers of party lines, of religious creed, of exclusive legislation, of a fettered press, of oligarchies aspiring to overthrow the liberties of the people by making the will of the many yield to the designs of a few, armed with official power and the resources and appliances of wealth - all these he hated with bitter hatred and opposed with all his powers. ...This inborn love of liberty and abhorrence of all exclusiveness, made him actually select this retired spot for his burying place, for he refused even to allow his ashes to lie in a cemetery, which, unlike God's earth and air, forbids that those who are created with His image carved in ebony instead of ivory, should sleep their last sleep."  His epitaph reads: "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 principals which I advocated in my life: Equality of man before his creator."  His will left a bequest for the establishment of a non-discriminatory institution to provide a free educational experience for indigent orphans.  Since 1905, Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology has exemplified the words of its namesake.  Twice Stevens College has been named the best two-year college in Pennsylvania.  "They shall be carefully educated in the various branches of English education and all industrial pursuits.  No preference shall be shown on account of race or color in their admission or treatment.  They shall be fed at the same table."  A quote from Thaddeus Stevens.  He was a great American and human being.  That is why our son shares his name!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Photos with short descriptions follow.

Lydia Smith, Stevens' housekeeper.

Stevens' home and law office at 45-47 South Queen St., Lancaster, PA

Lincoln's Special at the Harrisburg Train Station on Saturday, April 22, 1865

Final Rites are given to Thaddeus Stevens in Martin Shreiner's cemetery

Photo which I took of Stevens tomb

Inscription on the side of the tomb.  Click on image to enlarge.

Historical marker at the corner of Mulberry and Chestnut Streets in Lancaster.

Road sign marking the entrance to Thaddeus Stevens' College of Technology

Old Main on the campus of Stevens College

Bronze statue that sits on the campus of Stevens' College.   It features Thaddeus Stevens and an adolescent boy.  This statue was erected on the campus in 2008.  The boy represents thousands of financially disadvantaged young people who have been educated at the school for free.

Stevens, in his 73rd year, suggested what his own epitaph might say:  "And I will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written thus: '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.'"