[1] Stevens' father was a prominent banker who introduced his son to future U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and others from New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

While attending college, he accompanied his class to hear U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster speak at the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The Lincoln Administration workers offered to appoint Stevens to various government jobs including those of consul general to Paris, commissioner of Internal Revenue and registrar of the Treasury.

[4][5][6] Among his books, Stevens authored a biography about U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin in 1883 which was published by Houghton, Mifflin and Co. as part of its American Statesmen Series.

He intended to include members by recognizing any descendant of a revolutionary ancestor, and held a preliminary meeting on December 18, 1875, at New-York Historical Society at New York.

[11][12] The fledgling group languished for several years until December 4, 1883, when an elaborate "turtle feast" dinner was held in the Long Room of Fraunces Tavern at lower Manhattan in New York to commemorate the centennial of the dinner and speech of Washington where he bade farewell to his officers of the Continental Army in the room by saying "[w]ith a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you.

At the end of the 1883 dinner, the SR constitution was signed by more than 40 new members, and the group was reorganized as the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York Inc. with Stevens as its president.

A second service was held on June 21 at St. Paul's Chapel in New York, and a procession through the city was conducted by Sons of the Revolution, Chamber of Commerce and Historical Society leaders.