The "The Evil Genius Of The Republican Party" Story

Monument/headstone of Thaddeus Stevens

It was an ordinary day.  Making another visit to a little cemetery at the corner of North Mulberry and West Chestnut Streets in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  The cemetery is rather non-descript, but there is someone very special buried in the south-east corner of the half-block cemetery.  

State sign in honor of Thaddeus Stevens

That person is U.S. Congress- man Thaddeus Stevens who was a radical aboli- tionist, Under- ground Railroad activist, industrialist and newspaper publisher.  He was the "father" of the primary civil rights amendments to the United Stated Constitution.  The "Old Commoner" chose to be buried at this site because rules established by Martin Shreiner, for whom the cemetery is named, were not restrictive based on race.  Seems most other cemeteries in this historical city, one of the first inland cities in the U.S., wouldn't allow minorities to be buried in them.  That fact went against everything that Mr. Stevens stood and fought for in his life.  His headstone, or should I say monument, is inscribed on the south side with this 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.

Thaddeus Stevens was at one time the most powerful man in Congress.  

Engraved with the verse written above.  Click to enlarge.

His nickname of "The Old Commoner" was well-earned.  During his time in our nation's capital, he was loved by many, but also loathed by many more.  For many of you reading this, you may have never heard of him.  Why is this?  Well, Thaddeus was a nasty man who used his uncommon wit as a weapon.  

The other side of the headstone.

One time, during one of his House speeches, an opponent interrupted him, as he spoke.  Stevens broke in with, "I yield to the gentleman for a few feeble remarks."  He also had a remark for a proslavery congressman when he broke in with, "There are some reptiles so flat that the common foot of man cannot crush them."  It is well known that Stevens fought harder to win freedom and equality for black Americans than any other politician in our history.  

Thaddeus Stevens

Many of his hard fought civil rights battles came after Lincoln was assassinated.  Stevens may have felt the way he did since he was born in Vermont with one leg crippled by a clubfoot which caused him abuse as a child.  The fact that his father was a drunk and deserted his family also played into his character.  But, his mother managed to send her son to Dartmouth where he began to exhibit a lifelong scorn for those lucky souls born healthy and wealthy.  After college he moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and opened a law office where he frequently appeared before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.  His roll as an abolitionist began when he was hired by a Maryland slaveowner to get his runaway slave and her two children back, which he did, but realized later that he had caused three human being to lose their freedom and was so upset with himself that he became a dedicated abolitionist.  

His home at 45 South Queen Street in
downtown Lancaster, PA.

He was elected to the PA state legislature in 1833 and helped pass the state's first law to fund free public schools for all.  The affluent people in PA were upset and another congressman  introduced a bill to repeal the education law.  Stevens was so upset that he rose in congress and told how his education had lifted him from poverty and begged other legislators to give future generations the same chance he had.  His final words when he spoke were, "Build not your monuments of brass and marble, make them of everlasting mind!"  As he limped back to his seat the legislature applauded him and voted to keep school free to all.  He called that his greatest triumph.  It was in 1842 that he moved to my town of Lancaster where he was an attorney and owner of an iron furnace.  It was at this time that he hired Lydia Smith, a 33-year-old mulatto widow as his housekeeper while living on South Queen Street in downtown Lancaster.  He was accused of living in open adultery with a mulatto woman.  

Thaddeus Stevens lying in the state Capitol Rotunda.
The Honor Guard are all African Americans.

She was at his bedside when he died.  Stevens left her $5,000 in his will which she used to buy the house that they had shared in Lancaster.  16 years ago, when preserva- tionists were working on his house on S. Queen St. they found evidence that Stevens and Smith used the house as a station on the Underground Railroad by concealing runaway slaves in a hidden cistern connected to the house by a secret tunnel.  In 1848 Stevens was elected to the U.S. House and became a leader of congressional abolitionists and fought agains the Fugitive Slave Law and the spread of slavery to western territories.  It was during one heated debate on slavery that a Mississippi congressman pulled our a Bowie knife and lunged at Stevens, but was subdued before he could cause any damage.  Stevens was known in congress as the abolitionist who was bold and couldn't be frightened.  In 1861 Lincoln insisted the Civil War was a war to restore the Union and not a war to end slavery.  Stevens strongly disagreed and told Lincoln to "Free every slave, slay every traitor, burn every rebel mansion if these things be necessary to preserve this temple of freedom."  November of 1861 saw Stevens introduce a bill to outlaw slavery in America.  It didn't pass, but he kept chipping away with a bill to free slaves in the District of Columbia, a bill to free slaves owned by Confederate soldiers, a bill to enlist 150,000 black soldiers in the Union Army.  Only the first bill passed, but Lincoln, along with senators Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson kept pressuring Lincoln on the issue.  Lincoln hated slavery also, but wasn't quite sure how to end it.  That moment came after the Union's victory at Antietam in 1862.  Stevens promised the President his full support and since he was the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and Lincoln needed huge sums to finance the war, Stevens provided it.  By the end of the war in 1864, the President turned his attention to slavery and with the help of Stevens got Congress to pass the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery forever.  That wasn't the end of it thought, since after Lincoln was assassinated, new president Andrew Johnson took over and happened to be a Southern slave owner.  Stevens eventually tried to get Johnson impeached.  He was frail and sick when aides carried him in an armchair to the door of the Senate where he shuffled in, leaning on his cane and asked that they impeach Johnson.  The battle went on and on until April 27 of 1868 when Stevens, barely able to stand, rose and delivered his speech demanding that Johnson be tortured on the gibbet of everlasting obloquy.  He couldn't finish.  On May 16, 1868 the Senate voted.  Stevens lost!  He was carried from the chamber in his chair and told the crowd outside that, "The country is going to the Devil!"  He declared that his life had been a failure!  He died on August 11, but before he died he made sure he would be buried in a cemetery that wasn't just for whites.  It was at this point that he wrote the decree that is found on his headstone/monument that I had just taken a photograph of in the little cemetery in the center of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Stop some time to see it if you want to pay respect to this abolitionist who fought for the rights of all.  He most certainly was the "Old Commoner".  My wife and I thought enough of him that we gave our third child the middle name of Thadeus, in honor of Thaddeus Stevens!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.