Is Pa. Congressman Thaddeus Stevens finally getting his due?

New museum dedicated to Stevens; Another on the way

• Scott LaMar
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  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

Aired; April 11th, 2024.

Thaddeus Stevens was one of the most consequential members of Congress in the nation’s history. Stevens represented Lancaster County in Washington during and after the Civil War. He was instrumental in the passage of the 13^th Amendment to The Constitution that abolished slavery and led the fight for the 14^th Amendment that requires equal protection under the law.

But before moving to Lancaster in 1842, Stevens was a trial lawyer, iron maker, public education advocate and champion of the Underground Railroad and freedom for enslaved people in Adams County.

A December 2023 article in Smithsonian Magazine was titled Why America Is Just Now Learning to Love Thaddeus Stevens, the ‘Best-Hated Man’ in U.S. History. It raises the point that Stevens should be recognized as one of the greats in Americans history.

Ross Hetrick is Founder and President of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, was with us Thursday on The Spark where he addressed the lack of attention Stevens has gotten in history books,”The way that history is taught in our schools is primarily about the presidents. And even though Thaddeus Stevens exercised power equivalent to presidents, he was a member of the House of Representatives. So for that reason, they kind of glossed over, those people in the House of Representatives and even in the Senate. Another big reason is that he was a target of what’s known as the Lost Cause mythology, where Southerners after the Civil War basically rewrote the history of the Civil War, saying that it wasn’t about slavery, was about states rights and that those people who led the Confederacy were heroes. And one of the things they also did was attack people like Thaddeus Stevens. Stevens has been in three movies. In two of them he was the villain.”

The statue of Thaddeus Stevens in Gettysburg.

Hetrick said the many historians Stevens pushed President Abraham Lincoln toward several of his most significant accomplishments,”The Union was blessed with two political geniuses. One was Abraham Lincoln and the other one was Stevens. And much of Abraham Lincoln’s genius was that he listened to Thaddeus Stevens. At the beginning of the war, Lincoln was against ending slavery in the South. He was against the expansion of slavery. But he told anybody that would listen that he did not intend to end slavery in some states. And he also, let it be known that he was not going to use Black soldiers. Those are two positions that Stevens had from the beginning. And he basically kept pestering Lincoln until he adopted those positions. So you could actually say, in fact, contemporaries likened it to Thaddeus Stevens going through the field, removing the trees and the boulders, with Lincoln following behind him, sowing the seeds of freedom.”

Before being elected to Congress, Stevens was a Pennsylvania state legislator where his legacy may be that he saved public education,”Pennsylvania was a pioneer in public education, and they actually passed the Public Education Act in 1834. But with public education comes higher taxes, which caused a taxpayer revolt in Pennsylvania. And most of the legislators, who returned (to Harrisburg) in 1835, were pledged to repeal public education. And, in fact, the state Senate, met first and voted to repeal public education. Then all came over the House where Thaddeus Stevens, was a powerhouse. And he made a stirring speech where he urged his fellow legislators to build, “not monuments of brass or marble, but of every living mind” that they passed a stronger public education bill, which then was approved by the Senate, which had just previously repealed it. So yeah, he is he is known as the savior of public education. And late in his life he considered that to be, perhaps the best thing he ever accomplished. And he said he would be amply rewarded if a student of the public education system shed a tear on his grave.”

The first stand alone museum dedicated to Stevens — The Thaddeus Steven Society Museum — opened last week at 46 Chambersburg Street in downtown Gettysburg. It is free to the public.

Another museum — The Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy — will open in Lancaster next year.