The "Mr. Jeffrey Hudson Brings History To Life - Part I" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading part 1 of two articles written by Mr. Jeffrey L. Hudson that appeared in the Sunday Newspaper on April 24, 2022.  Mr. Hudson is a retired school teacher, just as I am.  Biggest difference is that Mr. Hudson used to teach History while I taught Graphic Arts/Photography.  My job was much easier, since most students prefer to learn with their hands instead of solely with their brain.  While in high school, I was one who preferred learning with my hands.  But, the more I read the story in the Sunday News, the more I wish that I would have had Mr. Hudson as my history teacher when I was in high school.  He writes that the best way to present history to students is with an attitude of discovery.  History shouldn't be a mere recitation of names and dates; neither should it be a selection of events picked and tortured into shape to fit some preconceived narrative.  He approaches history as the study of people which only makes sense.  He says we should place ourselves in the same time span we are studying and become part of the history we are studying.  So, when studying Lancaster's Thaddeus Stevens, we should study him as if we were living at the same time as Mr. Stevens.  And, by doing so, we will feel more like being a part of history rather than just learning about something that happened before we were born.  So...are you ready to be transferred back in time?  Seems that Mr. Stevens was a state representative from Adams County who was trying to stay ahead of the mob that had descended on the state Capitol in Harrisburg on December 4, 1838.  The mob was there to contest the election for governor and the Legislature that had just taken place.  Boy...does that sound familiar!  Seems there was no doubt who had won the governorship, Democratic David Porter; but there were irregularities in the legislature results from a section of Philadelphia where an election judge had lost the vote tallies from one of the wards.  So, the Whigs also claimed a win just as did the Democrats.  The day the new members were to be seated, a Democratic mob, some armed with Bowie knives and double-barreled pistols, stormed into the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to prevent the seating of an Anti-Masonic/Whig majority.  Thaddeus Stevens was an Anti-Mason who had played a key role in the election.  When the armed crowd surrounded him he headed to the Senate where the situation got worse.  When the Whig candidates from Philadelphia were seated by the speaker, the mob rushed from the lobby onto the floor of the Senate, some calling for Stevens' blood.  Stevens and the speaker escaped by jumping out a window about 6 feet above the street.  That's a long way down for a man who was born with a club foot as was Thaddeus Stevens.  Wow...I seem to remember something similar happening just a few months ago, don't you?  This incident in 1838 was known as the "Buckshot War" because the state militia had to quell the mobs with buckshot cartridges.  Later on Mr. Stevens would find himself in the middle of a political controversy and it certainly would not be the last.  Mr. Stevens would eventually come to stand at the center of America's greatest conflict and there earn his reputation as a champion of human rights and racial justice.  I'll tell you, Mr. Hudson had me engrossed in what I was reading more so than at any time in my life when history was the topic.  Mr. Hudson went on to tell about Mr. Stevens being born in Danville, Vermont on April 4, 1792 and eventually teaching at York County Academy where he became famous as a public speaker.  Dartmouth College, his alma mater, picked him to deliver its commencement address in 1814.  He eventually was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar and before long he had set up practice in Gettysburg, PA.  Many of his cases were said to have been won by sarcasm.  He once responded to a huge crowd who had accused him of contempt of is court by saying, "Sir, I doing my best t conceal it."  Before long he was the county's most successful attorney.  He won 9 of his first 10 cases argued before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.  

In 1833 Adams County elected him to the state Legislature where he advocated for free public education.  He actually worked with his rival to get something done.  Seems that Gov. George Wolf was a Mason as well as a Democrat, two things Mr. Stevens despised.  But, by working with Gov. Wolf, a bill creating a free public educational system passed.  His work for free public education earned him the name of "the father of public education in Pennsylvania."  Then in 1842 he moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he eventually became the highest paid attorney in town.  He lived on South Queen Street where he also had his law office.  A bachelor, Mr. Stevens hired Lydia Hamilton Smith, a black women of both African and Irish descent, to be his housekeeper and business manager.  She remained with him until his death.  

Mr. Stevens' home on South Queen Street in Lancaster, PA

Soon after his move to the city of Lancaster, he began his fight for abolition and human rights for all, regardless of race.  I'll tell you...if I was a student of Mr. Jeffrey Hudson when I was a high school student, I might never have followed the same track that took me to where I am today.  Tomorrow I will tell you the second half of Mr. Hudson's story that he recently had published in Lancaster's Sunday newspaper.  It was another extraordinary day in life of an ordinary guy.