The life of Thaddeus Stevens; a study in American political history, especially in the period of the civil war and reconstruction

Preface

The period of the Civil War and the Reconstruction of the Union has been the subject of more historical inquiry and production within recent years than has any other in American history. The books, essays, magazine articles, monographs and reminiscences that have been devoted to this period indicate the prevalent interest which the epoch holds for many men of many minds. As the period recedes in time and other events of moment come and go, there may be a recession in this interest, but it is not likely permanently to decline. As the history of modern Europe still centers about the French Revolution, so will the tremendous upheaval of the Civil War continue to occupy the center of the stage in the history of the nineteenth century in America. That struggle has been called from the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States "the greatest civil war known in the history of the human race." it is but natural, indeed inevitable, that generations of Americans should be interested in a struggle that has so vitally affected the history and destiny of their nation.

Thaddeus Stevens was the dominant figure in the American Congress during this notable period. Itmay reasonably be claimed that no more masterful leader ever directed the politics and legislation of the House of Representatives. The House under Stevens was not ruled by a system that created a one-man official power. A man then led the House according to bis strength and the strength of his cause. Stevens

as given no set of rules that arbitrarily suppressed

PREFACE

opposition. The House following was free to act; it was free to accord or to withhold support, and Stevens, while the recognized leader, often found himself defeated and frustrated in the ends that he wished to accomplish. But there is no doubt of the preeminence of Stevens' personality in the House in the War decade, and it may be said that for a part of this decade he led both the House and the nation by the sheer force and energy of his mind and will. He was the strong man in the arena, and it seems fitting that these consecutive studies in Civil War and Reconstruction should be gathered around the life and career of this Congressional leader.

During the War, under the leadership of Lincoln, the presidency was the dominant department of the government. In Reconstruction the presidency was subordinate, if not impotent, and the Congressional arm of the government was all-powerful. In that period the leadership of Stevens, especially of his party majority in the House, was unquestioned. His career there and his speeches throughout the bitter period of war and the more bitter strife that followed the war offer a subject for study that no historian can neglect. It can hardly be claimed that this biography makes a full or adequate presentation of any part of Stevens' career; nor, in view of the great amount of matter that has been published on this era, that it throws a great deal of new light upon the period in which he figured so largely. But it may be claimed, however, that it does enable Stevens to speak more fully for himself than he has been allowed to do by others who have treated in a more limited way his principles and policies. The biography also brings into greater prominence, and presents, as I have ventured to believe, a more equitable review of Stevens' opinions and agenc>

PREFACE

in the important financial controversies of his times in which he took such a vigorous part.

Stevens' views on money and finance have usually been referred to as errors and vagaries by orthodox writers on finance as well as by most of the historians of the time. But these views may hardly be said to have been fully and impartially presented by many of those who have been most severe in their criticisms. It is due to Stevens that in any treatise on his life and times, the "other side" of the financial issue for which he so stoutly and constantly stood should be more adequately presented. Wherein this biography appears to condone his "errors" or show too much sympathy for his "heterodoxy" it will, of course, be subject to the same condemnation and rebuke with which Stevens' financial utterances were always visited in his day. But it is believed that his cause is better understood than it was in his generation and that if it is not approved by academic economists it will at any rate find more support, sympathy and appreciation than in former days among thoughtful and intelligent students of finance.

I am indebted to Honorable Samuel W. McCall's excellent brief Life of Stevens; to Mr. W. U. Hensel, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for his study of Stevens as a Lawyer, and to Mr. Hensel and other citizens in Lancaster for help in other ways; to my colleague, Professor William A. Rawles, for helpful suggestions in certain parts of the volume ; to Mr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian or Congress, for liberal privileges in the use of the Stevens letters and manuscripts in the Mac- Pherson papers that are yet unpublished. The scope of the volume has permitted the use of these papers to but a limited extent. It is to be hoped that some student of the period will soon edit and bring to the light these letters and papers which the late Edward Mac-

PREFACE

Pherson had intended before his death to make the basis of a full and adequate presentation of the life, letters and speeches of Thaddeus Stevens. This biography is offered not as such a work, but rather as merely a further contribution to the study of an important period and character in our history.

James A. Woodburn.

Indiana University, Bloomington.

January 8, 1913.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I Early Days 1

II The Early Anti-Mason 13

Chapter I

THADDEUS STEVENS was born in Danville, Vermont, April 4, 1792, the year following the admission of Vermont to the Union. His parents had come from Massachusetts a few years before, in a family migration with the Harrises, Morrills and others. The mother of Stevens was a Morrill, who, judging from all accounts that have come down, was a woman of the finest and highest type. The father was not thrifty nor enterprising and did not succeed in providing very well for his famify. He was a shoemaker ; and the son, Thaddeus, learned enough of the father's trade to enable him to make shoes for the family. Through all his long life Thaddeus Stevens was seldom heard to refer to his father, and perhaps he knew little about him. He spoke of his father's great reputation as an athlete, and Thaddeus remembered that his father had been known as the champion wrestler in all the country round. The later years of the elder Stevens' life appear to be wrapped in mystery. Some say that he left his family soon after settling in Vermont, and was never heard of again. Another tradi-

I tion is to the effect that he was killed in the War of 1812; while still others assert that he died at home when his children were very young. 1 Certain it is that the mother, with four little children, all boys, was left in dire poverty. Thaddeus, the youngest, and the mother's favorite, came up through adversity and the trials of penury. He never ceased to recall with affection and gratitude his mother's love and sacrifices for him in these trying years.

Stevens grew up in a democratic society. The Revolutionary War was a recent event at the time of his birth, but ten short years having elapsed since its close. Its heroes and its issues were fresh in mind and that great struggle was generally thought of as a conflict for human equality and the rights of man. The early settlers in Vermont who had borne their fair share in the Revolutionary struggle, were an honest, rugged, independent God-fearing people. The great mass of them were engaged in making a plain living by industrious toil, and an aristocracy of wealth and rank was practically unknown. Men were not measured by the property they had, but were recognized for what they were, for what they could do, for what service they were able and willing to render to the community. Men and women alike were hardy toilers, and there was a neighborliness among them that led them

1 Stories are told to the effect that the paternity of Thaddeus Stevens is wrapped in mystery, and a former resident of Lancaster asserted that circumstantial and documentary evidence once existed to show that he was the illegitimate son of Count Talleyrand, who, in the year of Stevens' birth, was a visitor in America. This may be only irresponsible gossip about the family of Stevens, but it will serve to show the kind of stories that have gathered in undue volume around Stevens' name.

to share one another's burdens and to respect one another's virtues. There were no rich to be oppressors ; luxury was unknown and the poor were not despised. In such a social surrounding Stevens grew up, all his early impressions being calculated to implant in his mind hatred of privilege and of all inequalities that may be promoted by artificial restraints and favors of government.

Stevens, besides being lame from birth, was a sickly youth. He seemed too frail and tender to earn his living by manual toil. This fact may have been, in part, the reason why his mother determined to send him to college ; but it must also have been true that she detected within him a talent and disposition that education and a college training were likely to develop. The mother must have perceived the great intellectual possibilities of the son, and she wished, above all, to provide for him opportunity for growth and a career. She must have been led many times to ponder in her heart the sayings and inquiries of a bright boy. Stevens was sensitive to her suffering, to her spirit of sacrifice and self-denial. One of the lasting memories and impressions of his childhood was of his mother's service during a plague of the spotted fever in Danville and the surrounding country. At a time when so many were stricken that medical attendance and nursing could not be secured, Mrs. Stevens was untiring in her devotion and attention to her stricken neighbors, to those in worse circumstances than herself. She ministered to their wants, going from house to house and relieving their suffering in every possible way. Young Thaddeus was frequently taken with his mother upon these errands of mercy, and the impressions that he received from the suffering that he witnessed, combined with his own experience in lameness and illness, led him to a keen and lifelong sympathy with suffering which was one of the notable traits of his character. 1

In later years Stevens gave frequent tributes to his mother's virtues. In one of these expressions, recalling her early hardships and poverty, he said :

" I really think the greatest pleasure of my life resulted from my ability to give my mother a farm of two hundred and fifty acres and a dairy of fourteen cows, and an occasional bright gold piece which she loved to deposit in the contributors' box of the Baptist church, which she attended. This always gave her much pleasure and me much satisfaction. My mother was a very extraordinary woman. I have met very few women like her. She worked day and night to educate me. I tried to repay her afterwards, but the debt of a child to his mother, you know, is one of the debts we can never pay."

The county court with its court-house was settled at Danville, but a county academy was established in Peacham, an adjoining town, and Mrs. Stevens moved from Danville to Peacham to educate her boys. To her mind the schoolroom was better than the court room. The Peacham Academy, established in 1795. has had a long career of usefulness, and in its early days it attained an enviable reputation as a good fitting school for college.

Stevens' academy days there were without unusual event. The one event that has survived the humdrum

1 McCall, p. 8.

of his school life was his rebellion, with twelve other students, against a rule forbidding " tragedies, comedies and other theatrical performances." The rebellious students were censured by the board of control for proceeding to exhibit a " tragedy " on the evening of September 4, 181 1. This was denounced by the authorities as " contrary to the known rules and orders of the school and the express prohibition of the preceptor, a gross violation of the rules and by-laws of the institution, tending to subvert all order and subordination in said school, and to disturb the peace of the Society." The students were required to sign articles of submission asserting that upon reflection they were convinced that they had done wrong, and promising that as long as they continued students of the academy they would observe the rules laid down by the board. It is said that Stevens signed this paper with reluctance and chagrin, and that he soon thereafter completed his preparation for college.

Stevens entered Dartmouth as a sophomore in the fall of 181 1 in his twentieth year. He spent one or two terms of his college life in the University of Vermont (1812-13), but he returned to Dartmouth and graduated there in 1814. 1 Then, as now, Dartmouth

1 A story is told of Stevens' rife while at the University of Vermont, which illustrates his character. An obstinate farmer insisted upon letting his cow run loose for pasturage on the college campus. This was irritating, especially at commencement time, and some of the students made way with the cow. Stevens and another student had killed the animal, perhaps while carrying a practical joke farther than they intended. The irate farmer demanded payment and a certain student who was altogether innocent of the deed, but whom circumstantial evidence seemed to convict, was about to be expelled from college. Stevens and his guilty comrade could not see the innocent suffer for their wrong-doing while they escaped by silence. They deterwas one of the leading colleges of New England. It then numbered, approximately, as many graduates in a decade as Harvard, Princeton, or Yale, and its president and faculty were as well-known in the world of learning. Doctor John Wheelock, the son of the distinguished Eleazar Wheelock who had founded Dartmouth nearly half a century before, was President when Stevens came. George Ticknor had graduated there in 1807 and Daniel Webster in 1801.

It was a restricted classical course that was laid out for Stevens in his college days, consisting chiefly of the Latin and Greek classics and the higher mathematics, with the addition of mental and moral philosophy, and perhaps a study of the Greek Testament.

Stevens studied well, appreciating his time and opportunity and keeping in mind, no doubt, the sacrifices of his mother for his education. His training in the classics gave accuracy and precision to his style of speech, and while in his subsequent public speeches he professed to despise form and rhetorical rules, the clearness of his thought and the directness and force of his speeches gave to his sentences a grammatical quality that would always stand the test of criticism. His classical studies and logical mathematical processes always stood him in good place.

Stevens was twenty-two when he graduated from Dartmouth. He had determined to study law, and

mined to make a clean breast of the matter and confessed fully to the owner of the cow. He generously refused to take pay for his lost property and shielded the culprits while exonerating the student under suspicion. The interesting sequel of the story is that years afterward Stevens, who was ever mindful of 1a friendly act, sent the farmer a gold watch and chain with a draft for more than the value of the cow. (McCall, p. 18.)

in order to support himself while pursuing his studies, he taught for a year in Peacham. The following year, moved partly by the spirit of youthful venture and from a desire to find a wider opportunity for the future practise of his chosen profession, he went to York, Pennsylvania, where through the influence of Samuel Merrill, a friend and former teacher of Stevens, he had secured a position as instructor in the academy of York. This important step in Stevens' life was promoted primarily by the influence of Merrill. Samuel Merrill was a Peacham boy and, like Stevens, was a graduate of Dartmouth. He and Stevens seem to have been very close friends. In a letter written by Stevens to Merrill in 1814, a gossipy account is given of marriages and other personal matters in Peacham and of college affairs at Dartmouth. He spoke of an uncommon epidemic at Peacham,

" which it is sincerely hoped will thin the ranks of our old maids and send their withered ghosts to the dominion of that old tyrant Hymen." He told of the literary societies at Hanover ; that " Old Josh Holt is President of the fraternity ; " that " Joseph Tracy, Gent, has been loaded with Phi Betian honors, Kent likewise;" that " Fisk is the Social's orator. Sam Wells hopes to be the Frater's, but is loosing [ ?] popularity. Charles Leverett has entered into the service of the aristocracy, in the capacity of scullion ; and it is expected, as a reward for his services, he will be knighted, i. e., elected Phi Betian." ..." Those fawning parasites who are grasping at unmerited honors, seem for once to have blundered into the truth, — that they must flatter the nobility, or remain in obscurity; that they must degrade themselves by sycophancy, or others will not exalt them. The democracy rule in the fraternity. The aristocracy make threatening grimaces, but it is only sport for us poor plebeians." ..." Friend Sam, I assure you, you can hardly conceive the anxiety your friends feel for you in that distant country. Considering you exposed to the invincible charms of those fair Dutch wenches, with their dozen pair of petticoats, they are really afraid that you will lose your heart or get lost with Goodie Twiller's ladle, in one corner of their pockets ; that filthy lucre will induce you to become the son-in-law to some Ten-Breeches, and then we shall despair of seeing you again."

Stevens in his letter then spoke of his anticipated graduation from Dartmouth the following August, — "unless honored with degradation" — and then he would confront the necessity of entering into a school. " If you think," he wrote, " that I could be sure of employment in Pennsylvania, I should like very well to come into those parts. If you know of any vacancies and could assist me, without trouble to yourself, you would do me a favor." He closes with his compliments to Merrill's brother and to Mr. Blanchard.

This letter explains Stevens' coming to Pennsylvania. 1 It shows a feeling that was a part of his

1 The Samuel Merrill to whom Stevens wrote, was a man of unusual parts, who became one of the pioneer commonwealthbuilders of Indiana. He removed to Indiana in 1816, the year in which the state was admitted to the Union. He was a member of the Legislature which selected Indianapolis as the capital of the state, and he assisted in giving the name to the capital city. He was elected Treasurer of State in 1820, a position which he held for twelve years. In 1820 he helped to remove the state archives and property from Corydon, the old capital, to Indianapolis. After retiring from the state treasurership, he helped to organize the State Bank of Indianapolis and was its President for many years. This was one of the few state banks of the time to win financial success and honor. Merrill afterward became President of the Indianapolis and Madison Railroad, the first railroad in Indiana. He died in 1855, an honored citizen of the state. His descendants have won distinction in the civic and educational life of Indiana, in the professions and in business, and many of them have rendered notable service to the commonwealth.

whole life, of sympathy and fellowship for the " poor plebeian " against the " aristocracy." ' His remarks about the " Pennsylvanian Dutch " were merely idle cajolery and should not be taken to indicate a lack of sympathy or appreciation of that worthy stock with many of whose representatives Stevens afterward entered into many and enduring ties of friendship.

At York in Pennsylvania, a county seat of importance, Stevens pursued the study of the law. As a teacher and as a student of law, he was diligent in his studies and retiring in his habits. He had begun his legal studies in Vermont under Judge Mattocks; he now continued them diligently in York under David Casset, a leader of the local bar.

The familiar account of his admission to the bar was afterward related by Stevens. For some unexplained reason he did not apply for admission in York. Some rule of bench or bar may have made his admission difficult if not impossible, probably the rule that forbade a man's admission to the bar while he was pursuing some other occupation. At any rate he rode on horseback to Bel Air, the county seat of Harford County, Maryland, the adjoining county to York, and presented himself, an entire stranger, for membership at the bar. Theodore Bland, Zebulon Hollingsworth, and Joseph H. Nicholson were the judges presiding. Their committee on the examination of the applicant learned that young Stevens had read Blackstone, Coke upon Littleton, Gilbert on Evidence and a work on Pleading, and that he knew some of the elementary legal definitions. Before this strenuous examination began, the aspiring candidate was informed that a io THE LIFE OF THADDEUS STEVENS

couple of bottles of good Madeira were requisite, and as the examination drew to a close two more bottles were required. As the quality of Stevens' wine passed the sampling process of the dignified judges, his certificate was signed and he was duly admitted to the bar. The " subsequent proceedings " consisted of a game of " fiploo " before a crowd of spectators, a game that was new to Stevens and in which he lost a considerable part of the fifty dollars that he had brought with him to court. The minutes of the court recording his admission are as follows :

" Upon the application of Stevenson Archer, Esq., for the admission of Thaddeus Stevens, Esq., as an attorney of this court, the said Thaddeus Stevens is admitted as an attorney of this court and thereupon takes and signs the several oaths prescribed by law, and repeats and signs a declaration of his belief in the Christian religion."

A son of this Stevenson Archer, bearing the same name, entered Congress in March, 1867. After he was sworn in, Stevens came over and shook hands with him and inquired whether he was the son of the Judge Archer, of Maryland, on whose motion Stevens had been admitted to practise law. On learning that such was the case, Stevens indulged in the reminiscences from which this account is substantially drawn. 1

The day after his admission to the bar, Stevens rode back to Pennsylvania. He narrowly escaped drowning while crossing the Susquehanna at McCall's Ferry. He revisited York, but decided not to settle there. He

1 Hensel, W. U., Thaddeus Stevens as a Country Lawyer, p. 4»

EARLY DAYS n

went to Lancaster and inspected that flourishing and interesting town, but for some reason unknown he turned aside from its opportunities and went to Gettysburg, the county seat of Adams County, the town that has given its name to the most famous battle in American history. There he settled to begin practise, starting " upon his career as a lawyer, without friends, fame, family, or fortune." 1

For a number of years in Gettysburg he experienced the life of the struggling young lawyer. On a meager budget of income and expenses and while waiting for clients, he spent his leisure hours in intelligent and diligent reading, thus adding to his store of literary and historical knowledge that he was afterward able to draw upon with such effect, j His success at the law seemed at first doubtful even to himself. But it was not long until a case came to him by which he was able to attain to success and reputation. He was called upon to defend a murderer, a defense that no other lawyer seemed willing to assume. Stevens undertook the case and managed it with such ability, adroitness and skill that, while he was not able to secure an acquittal for his client, who was notoriously guilty and was hanged for his crime, he attracted attention and favorable comment from the bar and from the community. Stevens put up a plea of insanity for his client, which was not a very usual plea in those days. Stevens himself believed in the plea, since many years later, after he had been the attorney for the defense in more than fifty other murder cases, in all of which he

1 Hensel, W. U.

was successful, he asserted that every one of the defendants deserved conviction but this one, who, as Stevens averred, was insane.

It is asserted that Stevens received a fee of fifteen hundred dollars in this case. This has been doubted, as it is thought unlikely that such a fee in those days would be paid to an unknown local lawyer by a murderer who was unable to have his case appealed, and who was hanged for his crime. But it is certain that Stevens ever looked upon this case as the beginning of his professional success.

He soon came to the front of the Adams County bar, with a general and lucrative practise. From 1821 to 1830 he appeared in almost every important case at the local bar, and in the various appeals to the Supreme Court in which Stevens appeared he won in nine out of ten, securing six reversals from the decision of the lower court. He was now the recipient of lucrative fees, he had won local fame as a lawyer and had attained honorable standing and reputation throughout his adopted county. He was ready, well equipped, and the time had come for his entrance into public life.

Chapter II

QTEVENS' first appearance in public life was in ^ 1833, when he became a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, from Adams County. 1 He had formerly been in sympathy with the Federalist party, and after the disappearance of that party he took no active part in politics until the appearance of the Anti-Masonic party in 1829. The disappearance and probable murder of Morgan in New York State had caused much agitation against the Free Masons, and a political party arose pledged to oppose the power and influence of this oath-bound secret order whose members, it was asserted, were banded together to control the government and to direct or prevent the administration of the courts and the laws in their own interests. Stevens became one of the adherents and leaders of this new party in Pennsylvania. He re-

1 This, Doctor McCarthy, the historian of the Anti-Masonic party, calls the most significant fact in the history of Anti-Masonry in Pennsylvania. At this time Stevens was described by one of his political opponents as " a lawyer of much cunning and adroitness and of considerable celebrity. He was originally an Eastern man, and has been all his life a uniform and undeviating Federalist, a warm friend of John Quincy Adams and a violent opponent of General Jackson. He is now the great luminary of Anti-Masonry in Adams County, within whose orbit all the lesser planets of the new system revolve and reflect the light he dispenses." Pennsylvania Reporter, March 23, 1830, cited in McCarthy's " Anti-Masonic Party," American Historical Association Reports, 1903, p. 456.

J 3 garded Masonry as an imperium in imperio and he did not hesitate to denounce the lodge as " a secret, oath-bound, murderous institution that endangered the continuance of Republican Government."

In 1829 the Anti-Masonic party in Pennsylvania, with Stevens as one of its leaders, made a campaign for the governorship, running Joseph Ritner as its candidate for Governor. In 1831 this party held a National Convention and nominated William Wirt as its candidate for President. Stevens was one of the prominent figures of this convention, the first in the history of American politics after the pattern of the modern presidential nominating convention. Among other prominent supporters of this strange new party were J. Q. Adams, William H. Seward, John Marshall, Richard Rush, Amasa Walker,. Myron Holly, and William Slade.

As a member of this first historic nominating convention Stevens made a notable speech arraigning the unrepublican spirit of Free Masonry. He complained of the unfair and discriminating silence of the press. The papers had made no mention of the convention and the people scarcely knew of it. " Not one-fourth part of the people of Philadelphia know that you are in session," and this he regarded as evidence enough that there was " an influence operating higher than human curiosity and higher than the laws of the land." You are here in the presence of grave charges brought against public men and facing important disclosures of vital interest to the public, " yet the papers which surround you are as silent as the grave," while on the other hand, the opposition press " brand the efforts of Anti-Masonry with infamy."

Stevens proceeded to defend the morality of the men who had disclosed the oaths and secrets of Free Masonry. He denounced the lodge as an improper banding together of men under oath of mutual support, to secure immunity in improper conduct and to promote one another to improper place and power, — to secure power for other than public ends in every place where power is of importance. " Look around : Though but one hundred thousand of the people of the United States are Free Masons, yet almost all the offices of high profit and high honor are filled with gentlemen of that institution. Out of the number of law judges in the State of Pennsylvania, eighteentwentieths are Masons ; and twenty-two out of twenty-four states of the Union are now governed by Masonic chief magistrates. Although not a twentieth part of the voters of this commonwealth, and of the United States are Masons, yet they have contrived, by concert, to put themselves into eighteen out of twenty of the offices of profit and power. I defy contradiction to this statement."