Thaddeus Stevens in the Limelight–Public Life in Pennsylvania

April 4, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles

By Paul Chouinard

A portrait of a much younger Thaddeus when he was becoming well known in Pennsylvania.
A por­trait of a much younger Thad­deus when he was becom­ing well known in Pennsylvania.

Thad­deus Stevens’ friend­ship with Samuel Mer­rill, who shared his expe­ri­ence of being from Peacham, attend­ing Cale­do­nia Coun­ty Acad­e­my and grad­u­at­ing from Dart­mouth Col­lege, led him to move from Peacham to York, Penn­syl­va­nia, in Feb­ru­ary of 1815. Mer­rill, who was pre­cep­tor at Dr. Perkins’ Acad­e­my in York, rec­om­mend­ed his friend for employ­ment, and Thad­deus spent a year teach­ing while con­tin­u­ing his study of law at the office of David Cos­sett. His salary as a teacher was about $100 for the year.

By the begin­ning of the sum­mer of 1816, Thad­deus felt he was pre­pared to take the bar exam. The mem­bers of the York Coun­ty Bar Asso­ci­a­tion had adopt­ed a rule that no one could be admit­ted to the bar who had not devot­ed at least one year exclu­sive­ly to the study of law. For that rea­son, Thad­deus made a deci­sion to take the exam in Bel Air, Mary­land, the shire town of Hart­ford Coun­ty. Toward the end of August, 1816, Thad­deus made his way to Bel Air to take the exam. The exam­in­ing com­mit­tee con­sist­ed of Chief Jus­tice Hop­per Nichol­son, Theoder­ic Bland, Zebu­lon Hollingsworh and Gen­er­al William H. Winder of the Sixth Judi­cial Dis­trict. They met in the din­ing room of a local inn. The Judge informed Stevens that before ques­tion­ing could com­mence, “there must be two bot­tles of Madeira on the table, and the appli­cant must order it in.” Stevens com­plied, the wine was poured, and the ques­tion­ing began. What law books had he read? He replied that he had read Black­stone, Coke upon Lit­tle­ton, a work on plead­ing, and Gilbert on evi­dence. Three more ques­tions were asked.

Thaddeus Stevens in the Limelight–The School Years

April 3, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles

By Paul Chouinard

An artist's rendition of the old school. The site of the building is marked in Peacham at the top of the hill near the cemetery.
An artist’s ren­di­tion of the old school. The site of the build­ing is marked in Peacham at the top of the hill near the cemetery.

Com­mon schools were orga­nized in Danville in 1790 with the cre­ation of five school dis­tricts, which includ­ed Danville Cen­ter. They attend­ed school in Danville before mov­ing to Peacham. Around the year of 1807, Sarah moved her fam­i­ly to Peacham, so her boys could have the ben­e­fit of attend­ing Cale­do­nia Coun­ty Acad­e­my, lat­er known as Cale­do­nia Coun­ty Gram­mar School and most recent­ly, Peacham Academy.

Sally Morrill moved her family to Peacham and stayed at what is now known as the Graham place. It is located below the village and the walk up the hill, especially in winter, would have been arduous for Thaddeus and his older brother.
Sal­ly Mor­rill moved her fam­i­ly to Peacham and stayed at what is now known as the Gra­ham place. It is locat­ed below the vil­lage and the walk up the hill, espe­cial­ly in win­ter, would have been ardu­ous for Thad­deus and his old­er broth­er. PHOTO BY PAUL CHOUINARD

Accord­ing to Ernest Bog­a­rt, author of Peacham’s his­to­ry The Sto­ry of a Ver­mont Hill Town, the pri­ma­ry require­ment for admis­sion was: “No per­son shall be admit­ted to study read­ing, spelling or gram­mar or any high­er branch who shall not already have acquired as much knowl­edge of the Eng­lish lan­guage as to read in any com­mon Eng­lish book as cor­rect­ly as to be able to study Eng­lish gram­mar to advan­tage.” Thad­deus’ moth­er had pre­pared him well to meet this chal­lenge by the time he was admit­ted at age 15.

The Acad­e­my was open to all stu­dents from Cale­do­nia Coun­ty. A month­ly tuition fee of 12 1/2 cents per month was charged in 1808. The Stevens fam­i­ly lived in what was known as the Gra­ham place, now owned by Ray­mond Welch, about one and one-half miles from Peacham Cor­ner. For the priv­i­lege of liv­ing there with her fam­i­ly, it is believed that Sal­ly pro­vid­ed house­keep­ing ser­vices for the own­ers of the home. In 1808 Sarah received the sup­port of her father, Abn­er, when he returned from Stanstead, Que­bec to live with her fam­i­ly fol­low­ing the death of her moth­er. Thad­deus walked to school, which giv­en his phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ty, was no small accom­plish­ment. The dis­tance to the Acad­e­my was about one and one-half miles uphill. The walk was long and ardu­ous in the win­ter since the roads were rolled rather than plowed. Dur­ing a thaw one would sink into the deeply packed snow.

Thaddeus Stevens in the Limelight–Early Life in Danville

April 3, 2013Posted inDanville Green, Historical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles, South Danville

By Paul Chouinard

Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens in Spielberg's Lincoln
Tom­my Lee Jones as Thad­deus Stevens in Spiel­berg’s Lincoln

thaddeus 1Thad­deus Stevens has recent­ly been fea­tured in Steven Spielberg’s, Lin­coln, released nation­wide on Novem­ber 16, 2012, and was nom­i­nat­ed for twelve Oscar nom­i­na­tions. In Spielberg’s film, based on Amer­i­can his­to­ri­an Doris Kearns Goodwin’s, Team of Rivals: The Polit­i­cal Genius of Abra­ham Lin­coln, Thad­deus Stevens is por­trayed by Tom­my Lee Jones. It is the first time since his death in 1868 that he has been por­trayed in an objec­tive, his­tor­i­cal­ly accu­rate manner.

For years Stevens’ rep­u­ta­tion has suf­fered as a result of his por­tray­al of the thin­ly dis­guised char­ac­ter, Austin Stone­man, a fanat­i­cal vil­lain in D.W. Griffith’s land­mark silent film Birth of a Nation. Dur­ing the 1940s, Stevens was por­trayed as a vil­lain in Ten­nessee John­son, a bio­graph­i­cal film about Pres­i­dent Andrew John­son. As the antag­o­nist in both films, Stevens is por­trayed as an unrea­son­able, hos­tile, adver­sar­i­al indi­vid­ual who would let noth­ing stand in his way to meet his goal of pun­ish­ing the South and insur­ing the rights of the freed­men through his vision of Reconstruction.

Spielberg’s Lin­coln focus­es on divi­sions with­in Lincoln’s cab­i­net and the acri­mo­nious debate with­in Con­gress, dur­ing the last year of the war, over the pas­sage of the 13th Amend­ment to the Con­sti­tu­tion free­ing the slaves. The fear that the legal­i­ty of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion might be chal­lenged by the south­ern states, once they were read­mit­ted to the Union, made the pas­sage of the 13th Amend­ment essen­tial. While the Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion had freed the slaves, the 13th Amend­ment made slav­ery ille­gal forever.

Man on a Ladder

April 3, 2013Posted inHistorical people, NSM articles

Gordon W. Bess–Danville’s oldest man at 92 and climbing

By Sharon Lakey

For pho­to album, gath­ered and shared by Lin­da Bess, Gor­don and Ger­ry’s daugh­ter,  click here: Gor­don Bess

Danville - Gordon scrapping paint
Gor­don learned paint­ing and wall­pa­per­ing from his father and for many years was seen work­ing on his very tall house on Brain­erd Street in Danville.

Gor­don Bess is an orga­nized man. He cred­its this to his twen­ty-year mil­i­tary career. He was born and raised in Meri­den, Con­necti­cut, known as the Sil­ver City. His younger broth­er, Ronald, was also a mil­i­tary man, join­ing the Marine Corps and serv­ing dur­ing the Kore­an War. Ronald is still liv­ing in Meri­den. Gordon’s younger sis­ter, Lois, died in Jan­u­ary 2004 at the age of 81.

April, 1863–The North Star Takes a Shot at Thurlow Weed and Laments the Firing of Gen. George McClellan

April 2, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Des­per­a­tion over the war effort con­tin­ued to be one of main themes in the North Star’s report­ing and opin­ion columns. The paper’s com­men­tary also brings its polit­i­cal stripes into clear­er focus.

April 4, 1863 North Star, Government Expenses

The New­bury­port Her­ald says our nation­al expens­es since this war com­menced have been greater than from the ori­gin of the Gov­ern­ment down to 1861, a peri­od of sev­en­ty-two years. Our whole nation expens­es to the time of the rebel­lion, includ­ing the war with Eng­land, the Mex­i­can war, and our many Indi­an wars, were $1,353,785,000: and were the war to cease now no one imag­ines that our debt would be less than $2,009,000,000 cre­at­ed in less than two years…

Every day since the war began our expens­es have increased. Mil­lions are vot­ed by Con­gress for eman­ci­pa­tion pur­pos­es, Pacif­ic Rail­roads, and any­thing, and every­thing, and where the lim­it might be reached, or what will be the end, Heav­en only knows.

March 1863–Amidst Unspeakable Cruelty, the North Star Struggles with Desperation, Racism and Hope

April 2, 2013Posted inHistorical events

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

March 7,1863 North Star, Our Negro Troops

A recruiting poster for soldiers of African descent
A recruit­ing poster for sol­diers of African descent

Our New Orleans cor­re­spon­dent con­firms the rumors which have been cur­rent as to dif­fi­cul­ties between the white and black reg­i­ments at Ship Island and Baton Rouge in the Depart­ment of the Gulf. We see no rea­son why this state of things should be allowed to spring up. White and black troops should not be brigad­ed togeth­er or sta­tioned togeth­er. The Procla­ma­tion spec­i­fied the use to which black troops should be pri­mar­i­ly put, when raised, as “gar­rison­ing forts and posi­tions,” and there are forts enough in our hands in the Gulf Depart­ment to fur­nish duty for ten times the num­ber of black troops we have there…

When the sick­ly weath­er comes on in the Gulf and on the riv­er, our white sol­diers will be glad enough to have this work tak­en off their hands by the accli­mat­ed negroes; and there will be no quar­relling for prece­dence in the duty.…

We need not doubt that Col. Higginson’s black bat­tal­ion exhib­it­ed all the “fiery ener­gy” which can be claimed for them: but the greater part of the men of the South will require a great deal of dis­ci­pline and train­ing before their fiery ener­gy can be relied on in the field of battle.

February 1863–Was the Danville North Star a Copperhead?

April 2, 2013Posted inHistorical events
A Copperhead cartoon
A Cop­per­head cartoon

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

The North Star was not abo­li­tion­ist. Dur­ing the War, polit­i­cal posi­tions arose along a con­tin­u­um. On one end of the spec­trum were Rad­i­cal Abo­li­tion­ists, who saw slav­ery as a moral imper­a­tive that must tri­umph at all costs; on the oth­er were the Peace Democ­rats or Cop­per­heads, who want­ed peace with the Con­fed­er­ates at any price. In between were the War Democ­rats, who reject­ed the Cop­per­heads fac­tion that con­trolled the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. These War Democ­rats joined with the Repub­li­cans to sup­port the war effort against the South. Lincoln’s Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion, which freed slaves in all rebel states, had just tak­en effect in Jan­u­ary. Now in Feb­ru­ary, the North Star became more explic­it about where it stood.

February 21,1863 North Star, What is Radicalism?

The abolitionist, Charles Sumner.
The abo­li­tion­ist, Charles Sumner.

Wen­dell Phillips defined Rad­i­cal­ism in a late speech at Ply­mouth Church, when he said: -“Now, I would accept any­thing on an anti­slav­ery basis. I would accept sep­a­ra­tion. I would accept com­pro­mise. I would accept peace, and pay the whole Con­fed­er­ate debt at par on an anti­slav­ery basis. On that basis, I have touched the hard path of Nation­al exis­tence. I have reached the gran­ite stra­ta, and may begin to build agrar­i­an peace. And until I reach that no chi­canery of par­ties, no inge­nu­ity of com­pro­mise, no man­ner of sep­a­ra­tion can make any dif­fer­ence. We are in for the war.”

January 1863–Congress Looks Into Fredericksburg Amid Low Public Confidence

April 2, 2013Posted inHistorical events

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

The completed pontoon bridge necessary for troop movement into Fredericksburg .
The com­plet­ed pon­toon bridge nec­es­sary for troop move­ment into Fredericksburg .

The events of late fall — ear­ly win­ter had brought the North to a low point. Although the army expe­ri­enced some suc­cess in the West, the war in the Vir­ginia the­atre had seen one North­ern deba­cle after another.

iwadebe001p1
Ohio’s Ben Wade, chair of the Con­gres­sion­al Com­mit­tee look­ing into Fredericksburg.

The Con­gress’ Joint Com­mit­tee on the Con­duct of the War, which was estab­lished in 1861 and chaired by Ohio’s Ben Wade, was now look­ing into the loss at Fred­er­icks­burg. Over time the com­mit­tee had become iden­ti­fied with the Rad­i­cal Repub­li­cans, who were at odds with the admin­is­tra­tion over the lack of an aggres­sive war effort.

January 3, 1863 North Star, The Fredericksburg Disaster

The evi­dence in the report of the com­mit­tee for inves­ti­gat­ing the dis­as­ter of Fred­er­icks­burg fix­es def­i­nite­ly the respon­si­bil­i­ty for the con­se­quences of not cross­ing the Rap­pa­han­nock at once. It besides makes rev­e­la­tions that are painful and can­not fail to sink deep into the pub­lic mind.