Danville, VT -- Danville Town Hall will be the site of a ceremony at noon on Saturday, April 18 dedicating the Danville Post Office to Thaddeus Stevens, a Vermont native, ardent abolitionist, lawyer, member of Congress during the Civil War and entrepreneur.
The Danville Post Office, located at 35 Park Street, will be known as the Thaddeus Stevens Post Office Building following passage of a 2014 bill proposed by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who will be the featured speaker at the event.
Also speaking Saturday will be Congressman Peter Welch, Danville Historical Society President Patty Houghton Conly, and Acting District Manager Randy Michaud, from the Postal Service’s Northern New England District. Postal Operations Manager Jerome Reen, Jr., a Danville native, will serve as master of ceremonies.
Ross Hetrick, President of Pennsylvania’s Thaddeus Stevens Society, will provide a keynote address.
“It is fitting that we honor Thaddeus Stevens by dedicating this Post Office in his name,” said Reen. “We hope that many join us in celebrating the life of a man who personified a commitment to equal justice and opportunity during a trying period of American history. Thaddeus Stevens left a legacy of courage, and his message still resonates today.”
The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at Danville Town Hall, located at 36 Route 2 West, Danville. Public parking is limited but is plentiful at the Danville School, located at 148 Peacham Road, a short walk away.
The ceremony coincides with the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
THADDEUS STEVENS BACKGROUND:
Thaddeus Stevens was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the American Civil War. A fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against African-Americans, Stevens sought to secure their rights during Reconstruction.
Stevens was born in rural Vermont, in poverty. He moved to Pennsylvania as a young man, and quickly became a successful lawyer in Gettysburg. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where he became a strong advocate of free public education.
He was elected to Congress in 1848. His activities as a lawyer and politician in opposition to slavery cost him votes and he did not seek reelection in 1852. Stevens joined the newly formed Republican Party, and was elected to Congress again in 1858. There, he opposed the expansion of slavery and concessions to the South as war came.
After Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Stevens came into conflict with the new president, Johnson, who sought rapid restoration of the seceded states without guarantees for freedmen. The difference in views caused an ongoing battle between Johnson and Congress, with Stevens leading those known as the Radical Republicans.
Stevens is held in great esteem as an historical figure today in both Vermont and his adopted Pennsylvania.
STAMPS BACKGROUND:
The ceremony coincides with the final stamp issued in the Postal Service Civil War Sesquicentennial Forever Stamp series, memorializing the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865 and the surrender by Lee at the Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
Other stamps in the Sesquicentennial Civil War Series include:
- 2011: Ft. Sumter and the Battle of First Manassas
- 2012: Battle of New Orleans and Antietam
- 2013: Gettysburg and the Siege at Vicksburg
- 2014: Mobile Bay and Petersburg
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