Alexander Hamilton Stephens

• General Notes
  • Vice président de la confédération avec Jefferson Davis comme président.
    
    Alexander Hamilton Stephens was named after his grandfather, Alexander Stephens. The middle name, Hamilton, he himself afterwards inserted in honor of his preceptor, Alexander Hamilton Webster, A Presbyterian minister, under whom he studied when a school boy at the academy in the nearby town of Washington. The mother of Alexander Hamilton Stephens was a sister of Robert Grier, the astronomer, and maker of the almanac which bore his name, and which in the earlier part of the last century was second to the Bible at the rural firesides of Georgia. His father, Andrew Baskins Stephens, was a farmer and a school teacher. Alexander Hamilton Stephens was left an orphan at an early age, and was reared by some of his mother's kin people living nearby. Through the instrumentality of kind benefactors he afterwards graduated from the college at Athens, which is now the University of Georgia. He studied law, and, on July 22, 1834, at the age of 22 years, was admitted to the bar at Crawfordville. His license to practice law was signed by William H. Crawford, that great Georgian who had been Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, candidate for president, and minister to France during the time of Napoleon. After the usual discouraging experiences of all young lawyers, Alexander H. Stephens achieved success and eminence in his profession. He was, however, soon allured from the law, and was drawn into politics. It was as a public man and a statesman, rather than as a lawyer, that he made his impress upon the public and was known to history. As stated by Alexander H. Stephens; "My rule in criminal cases has been never to appear in capital cases for the prosecution of any one whom I did not fully believe guilty as charged, and not always then...In defense of persons charged with homicide, I have seldom declined to appear; I have never failed to appear when there was the least doubt as to the fact, the motive, or the criminal intent; or the proper conclusion from the facts, the intent and the law." "As far as my observation goes, preachers have less character and magnanimity than any other class of men. These are qualities for which, as a class they are not distinguished. There are many exceptions, such as Henry Ward Beecher and others of much less note. Still, what I have said is true of the average in all sects. So much I have been impressed with this that I would seldom permit a preacher to sit on a jury for the trial of any person accused of a crime, when I was counsel for the defense, if I could prevent it. It has been my usual course promptly to challenge for cause and for no other cause than that the juror presented was a preacher. In some instances, when I knew the preacher personally and knew him to be imbued with the spirit of his Master, and a liberal, unprejudiced mind, capable of arguing facts and of acting justly, I announced, 'Content.'" Alexander H. Stephens high conception of the proper conduct of a lawyer with reference to representing clients in matters pending before legislative bodies is shown in a letter to John A. Stephens, soon after the latter had located in Atlanta for the practice of law. It is stated in this letter, which is dated 1870: - "Lobbying before a corrupt legislature is on of the lowest and meanest businesses anybody can engage in. A legal opinion, professionally given, has no sort of impropriety in it. I have given such in more cases than one. In such I represent a client's interest before the legislature as I would before a court. But this is a very different thing from becoming interested in procuring legislation not as a matter of legal right and duty but of policy, and that, too, without any consideration of the public interests." Alexander H. Stephens was suggested for the Presidency of the Confederacy. As he opposed secession and was in the minority he discouraged the idea. Jefferson Davis, as is well known, was made President of the Confederacy, and Alexander H. Stephens was made Vice-President. Alexander took the oath of office on Feb. 11, 1861, his 49th birthday. After the Confederate Government had been established, Alexander, on March 21, 1861, delivered at Savannah, what is known at the "corner stone speech," in which he declared that the recognition by the new government of the inferiority of the negro race to the white race and the legal subordination of the inferior race to the superior race constituted the "corner stone" of the Confederacy. This speech has been much criticized and characterized as harmful to the cause of the South in that it proclaimed to the world that the Southern Confederacy was founded upon slavery. It was a extemporaneous deliverance and was never correctly reported. From the best report of it he is quoted as saying that the foundations of the new government "are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not the equal of the white man - that slavery - the subordination to the superior race - is his natural and normal condition." Alexander's views of slavery, so called, or the legal "subordination" of the "inferior race" to the "superior" were made on many occasions throughout his political life. Alexander had a love and fondness for his own slaves and regarded them as members of his domestic household. He regarded them as human beings and treated them as such. He did not believe in slavery, interpreting that word in the odious setting it has received. He always referred to that institution as it existed in the South as "slavery, so-called," or as he termed it the "legal subordination of the inferior race." To whatever extent Alexander H. Stephens defended the institution as it existed in the South; it was from the necessity of the case. He realized that the South had the wolf by the ears and could not in safety turn him loose. The exigencies of the times and practical statesmanship determined his course. Alexander, as Vice-President of the Confederacy, took no part in the military activities. He went to Richmond and acted as presiding officer of the Senate, but possessed no executive power in the government. He had no voice in the conduct of the war. He disagreed with many of the policies of the administration at Richmond and retired from its councils. He last service to the Confederacy was as one of the Commissioners to the Hampton Roads Peace Conference, where he, on February 2, 1865, together with R.M.T. Hunter of Virginia and Judge John A. Campbell of Alabama, met with Lincoln and Seward representing the government of the United States. This conference, as is well known, was futile and unproductive of results. Mr. Lincoln insisted that the seceding states should disband their armies and "submit to national authority" and resume their functions as states within the Union. This the Confederate Commissioners could not accept, as they had been instructed to agree to no peace proposals that did not recognize the independence of the Confederate States. On May 11, 1865, after the collapse of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens was arrested by the Federal authorities and imprisoned in Ft. Warren in Boston harbor. The details of his prison life there can be found in his prison diary published in a book entitled "Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens," by M.L. Avary. After termination of the war, when the South lay prostrate under the heel of the conqueror, Alexander set cause before mankind. His book, prepared at that time, entitled "The War between the States," is the best defense of the South ever written. It is one of the clearest and most reliable historical commentaries upon the Constitution of the United States and the American system of government and the principles upon which the American government is founded. In 1866 he was elected by the legislature of Georgia to the Senate of the United States, but, along with others elected to Congress from the late seceding states, he was not allowed to take his seat. Later he was elected to his old seat in the House of Representatives. He remained in Congress until he retired in 1882 to become Governor of Georgia - his last political office. On March 4, 1883, after having served about four months of his term as Governor of Georgia, he died in the executive mansion in Atlanta, mourned, not only by his own people, but by the entire nation and the world. Alexander H. Stephens never married. He was a bachelor. He had several brothers and a sister who lived to maturity and became progenitors of families. He had kinspeople in other states whe were descendants of his relatives who remained in Pennsylvania. His brother, Aaron Grier Stephens, died without issue surviving. A brother, John Lindsay Stephens, wa a lawyer. Another brother, Linton Stephens, was also a lawyer, and was a judge of the supreme court of Georgia. The brothers died in early life. He had a sister, Catherine, who married a Greer. The last three named have descendants living in Georgia. Excepting Aaron Grier Stephens, the brothers and sisters were of the half-blood. Alexander was of medium stature and frail in health. During the last ten years of his life he was a cripple and walked on crutches and moved about in a roller chair. This affliction was due to an accident.
    
    
    According to family lore, Stephens and Lincoln were very good friends.  They served together as Whigs in the House before the war.  (Little known fact is that Stephens vehemently opposed secession, even though he was convinced it was a state's right to secede.)   Of course we cannot grasp the fact that in 1860 citizens felt a much stronger loyalty to their state that to the Union.   (Lee chose Virginia over Lincoln's offer of supreme command over the northern troops.)  Stephens and Jeff Davis hated each other and Stephens was made VP by those who feared that Davis was too radical.
     
    Stephens and Lincoln met secretly on February 3, 1865 at the Hampton Roads Conference to discuss terms of a possible peace settlement (unfortunately Davis had tied Stephens hands - requiring nothing less than full secession of all Confederate States) and no agreement could be reached.  However, Stephens did ask Lincoln to intercede and provide information about his nephew, Lt John A. Stephens, a POW at Johnson's Island.  (Little acknowledged fact is that conditions there was just as cruel and dire as at Andersonville - but of course the victors write the history books.)  Lincoln had Lt Stephens report to him at the White House; gave him a day pass to see DC and then a pass through the lines to return to his Uncle.