Thaddeus Stevens was many things: super lawyer, ground breaking politician, ironmaster, real estate speculator and railroad developer. But his role as newspaper publisher is often overlooked, though it was one of his most public roles.
Stevens first newspaper venture was the Anti-Masonic Star, which published its first edition on April 17, 1830. The paper was launched to support the Anti-Masonic party in Adams county, of which Stevens was a prominent member. It was common in those days for newspapers to be organs for specific political parties.
The Anti-Masonic party was the first successful third party in American history and was born out of an incident in upstate New York in 1826 where William Morgan was allegedly killed by the Masons for threatening to reveal their secrets. Coupled with the widespread impression that the Masons had an undue influence in politics, the party spread quickly in the northeast including Pennsylvania. It was particularly popular in Adams county and Stevens was a member when he was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1834. By that year the newspaper had changed its name to The Gettysburg Star & Republican Banner.
While Stevens was faithful to most of the positions of the party, Stevens did not hesitate to break with them on an issue dear to his heart — education. Immediately after taking his seat in the legislature, Stevens was successful in getting an $18,000 grant for Gettysburg College, then called Pennsylvania College, to build its first building — Pennsylvania Hall, which still stands at the heart of the college campus,
But Stevens’s success in gaining the appropriation was greeted with outrage by fellow members of the Anti-Masonic party. Stevens answered his critics in the January 21, 1834 edition of his newspaper, which is on display at the Thaddeus Stevens museum in Gettysburg. The newspaper was donated to the museum by Bradley R. Hoch, author of Thaddeus Stevens in Gettysburg: The Making of an Abolitionist.
“I would sooner lose every friend on earth, than violate the clearest dictates of my own conscience — the clearest commands of my Official Oath,” Stevens said in the letter to his critics. He went on to say that he was prepared to leave the Anti-Masonic party over this issue. “I have already resolved that the weight of my name shall never again burthen your ticket,” he wrote, though he remained in the party as long as he was in Gettysburg. He ended the letter with a touch of humor: “Gentlemen, with great respect, I subscribe myself your Faithful, if not Obedient Servant, Thaddeus Stevens.”
Stevens’s next newspaper venture was in 1851 after he had moved to Lancaster and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. By then, the Anti-Masonic party had gone out of business and Stevens was a Whig. Appropriately enough, he and other investors started the Independent Whig, another party organ.Almost immediately after starting the paper, Stevens sent a letter to his longtime protege Edward McPherson in Gettysburg offering him the job of editor.
McPherson would work at the paper for three years and then go on to be a congressman from Gettysburg from 1859 to 1863. Yet, it was as clerk of the House of Representatives, another position that Stevens got for him, that he would play his most important role in American history. Working with Stevens on December 4, 1865. McPherson prevented ex-Confederates from taking over Congress, thus preventing the country from returning to pre-war conditions, complete with a new form of slavery.
Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which operates the Thaddeus Stevens Museum at 46 Chambersburg St. in Gettysburg, PA. The Society also participates in the Adams County Giving Spree, which will be held on November 6. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society’s website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/
Ross Hetrick is president and founder of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. Hetrick was a business reporter for 18 years in Baltimore and owned Ross's Coffeehouse & Eatery in Gettysburg from 1996 to 2004.