View source for Alexander H. Stephens

{{short description|Vice President of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865}}
{{for|people with a similar name|Alexander Stevens (disambiguation)}}
{{use American English|date=March 2017}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Alexander H. Stephens
| image               = Alexander Hamilton Stephens.jpg
| caption             = Portrait {{circa|1865}}
| office              = [[Vice President of the Confederate States of America|Vice President of the Confederate States]]
| president           = [[Jefferson Davis]]
| term_start          = February 22, 1862
| term_end            = May 5, 1865<br><small>Provisional: February 11, 1861 – February 22, 1862</small>
| predecessor         = ''Office established''
| successor           = ''Office abolished''
| office1             = 50th [[List of governors of Georgia|Governor of Georgia]]
| term_start1         = November 4, 1882
| term_end1           = March 4, 1883
| predecessor1        = [[Alfred H. Colquitt]]
| successor1          = [[James S. Boynton]]
| state2              = [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]
| term_start2         = December 1, 1873
| term_end2           = November 4, 1882
| predecessor2        = [[John James Jones]]
| successor2          = [[Seaborn Reese]]
| district2           = {{ushr|GA|8|8th}}
| term_start3         = October 2, 1843
| term_end3           = March 3, 1859
| predecessor3        = [[Mark A. Cooper]]
| successor3          = John James Jones
| constituency3       = {{ushr|GA|AL|E}} (1843–1845)<br>{{ushr|GA|7|C}} (1845–1853)<br>{{ushr|GA|8|C}} (1853–1859)
| office4             = Member of the {{nowrap|[[Provisional Confederate States Congress|Confederate States Provisional Congress]]}}<br>from [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]
| term_start4         = February 4, 1861
| term_end4           = February 17, 1862
| predecessor4        = ''Constituency established''
| successor4          = ''Constituency abolished''
| state_senate5       = Georgia
| district5           = [[Taliaferro County]]
| term_start5         = November 7, 1842
| term_end5           = December 27, 1842
| predecessor5        = Singleton Harris
| successor5          = Abner Darden
| state_house6        = Georgia
| district6           = [[Taliaferro County]]
| term_start6         = November 7, 1836
| term_end6           = December 9, 1841
| predecessor6        = 
| successor6          = 
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1812|2|11}}
| birth_place         = [[Crawfordville, Georgia|Crawfordville]], Georgia, U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1883|3|4|1812|2|11}}
| death_place         = [[Atlanta]], Georgia, U.S.
| restingplace        = [[A. H. Stephens State Park]], Crawfordville
| party               = [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] (1836–50)<br>[[Union Party (United States, 1850)|Union]] (1850–54)<br>[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] (1854–61, 1865–83)
| education           = [[University of Georgia]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
| signature           = Alexander Stephens Signature.svg
}}
'''Alexander Hamilton Stephens'''{{Efn|Stephens' original middle name was the sole initial 'H'. It was filled to stand for 'Hamilton' in honor of Alexander Hamilton Webster, a childhood mentor.<ref name="Georgia 1895 p. 238">Memoirs of Georgia (Atlanta: Southern Historical Association, 1895), Vol. I, p. 238.</ref>}} (<!-- See alpa_a note to the left. No birth name here.  -->February 11, 1812 – March 4, 1883) was an American politician who served as the first and only [[Vice President of the Confederate States of America|vice president of the Confederate States]] from 1861 to 1865, and later as the [[List of Governors of Georgia|50th governor of Georgia]] from 1882 until his death in 1883. A member of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], he represented the state of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] in the [[United States House of Representatives]] before and after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].

Stephens attended Franklin College and established a legal practice in his hometown of Crawfordville, Georgia. After serving in both houses of the [[Georgia General Assembly]], he was elected to the [[United States Congress|Congress]], taking his seat in 1843. He became a leading Southern [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] and strongly opposed the [[Mexican–American War]]. After the war, Stephens was a prominent supporter of the [[Compromise of 1850]] and helped draft the [[Georgia Platform]], which opposed [[secession in the United States|secession]]. A proponent of the expansion of slavery into the [[United States territories|territories]], Stephens also helped pass the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]]. As the Whig Party collapsed in the 1850s, Stephens eventually joined the Democratic Party and worked with President [[James Buchanan]] to admit Kansas as a state under the pro-slavery [[Lecompton Constitution]] (which was overwhelmingly rejected by Kansas voters in a referendum).

Stephens declined to seek re-election in 1858 but continued to publicly advocate against secession. After Georgia and other Southern states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, Stephens was elected as the Confederate Vice President. Stephens's [[Cornerstone Speech]] of March 1861 defended [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]]; enumerated contrasts between the American and Confederate foundings, ideologies, and [[constitution]]s; and laid out the Confederacy's rationale for [[Secession in the United States|seceding]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Reid |first=Randy L. |date=2022 |title=Cornerstone of the Confederacy: Alexander Stephens and the Speech That Defined the Lost Cause by Keith S. Hébert (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/285/article/854885 |journal=Journal of Southern History |volume=88 |issue=2 |pages=392–393 |doi=10.1353/soh.2022.0080 |s2cid=248825382 |issn=2325-6893|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In the course of the war, he became increasingly critical of President [[Jefferson Davis]]'s policies, especially [[Confederate Conscription Acts 1862–1864|Confederate conscription]] and the suspension of [[habeas corpus]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Future of Stone Mountain |date=July 22, 2015 |last=Simpson |first=Brooks D. |url=https://cwcrossroads.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/the-future-of-stone-mountain/ |author-link=Brooks D. Simpson |work=Crossroads |publisher=WordPress |quote=Stephens, was not a big fan of his superior. |access-date=March 5, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305061737/https://cwcrossroads.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/the-future-of-stone-mountain/ |archive-date=March 5, 2016 }}</ref> In February 1865, he was one of the commissioners who met with [[Abraham Lincoln]] at the abortive [[Hampton Roads Conference]] to discuss peace terms.

After the war, Stephens was imprisoned until October 1865. The following year, the Georgia legislature elected Stephens to the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]], but the Senate declined to seat him due to his role in the Civil War. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1873 and served until 1882, when he resigned from Congress to become governor of Georgia. Stephens served as governor until his death in March 1883.

==Early life==
[[File:Alexander H Stephens.svg|thumb|left|upright|Stephens as a young man]]
Alexander Stephens was born on February 11, 1812.<ref name="Georgia 1895 p. 238">Memoirs of Georgia (Atlanta: Southern Historical Association, 1895), Vol. I, p. 238.</ref> His parents were Andrew Baskins Stephens and Margaret Grier.<ref>James D. Waddell, ''Biographical Sketch of Linton Stephens'' (Atlanta: Dodson & Scott, 1877), p. 3.</ref> The Stephenses lived on a farm in Taliaferro County, near Crawfordville. At the time of Alexander Stephens's birth, the farm was part of Wilkes County. Taliaferro County was created in 1825 from land in Greene, Hancock, Oglethorpe, Warren, and Wilkes counties.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2394 |title=Taliaferro County &#124; New Georgia Encyclopedia |publisher=Georgiaencyclopedia.org |date=August 30, 2006 |access-date=November 10, 2013 |archive-date=February 1, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201015145/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2394 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His father, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Georgia at 12 years of age in 1795. According to the ''Biographical Sketch of Linton Stephens'' ([[Linton Stephens]] being Alexander Stephens's half-brother), Andrew B. Stephens was "endowed with uncommon intellectual faculties; he had sound practical judgment; he was a safe counselor, sagacious, self-reliant, candid and courageous."<ref>Biographical Sketch of Linton Stephens, p. 3.</ref>

His mother, a Georgia native and sister of ''Grier's Almanac'' founder Robert Grier,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3137 |title=Grier's Almanac &#124; New Georgia Encyclopedia |publisher=Georgiaencyclopedia.org |date=August 13, 2013 |access-date=November 10, 2013 |archive-date=October 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008031508/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3137 |url-status=dead }}</ref> died in 1812 at the age of 26; Alexander Stephens was only three months old. In the introduction to ''Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens'', there is this about his mother and her family: "Margaret came of folk who had a liking for books, and a turn for law, war, and meteorology."<ref>Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens: His Diary Kept When a Prisoner... (New York: Doubleday, 1910), p. 3.</ref> The introduction continues: "In her son's character was a marked blending of parental traits. He [Alexander Stephens] was thrifty, generous, progressive; one of the best lawyers in the land; a reader and collector of books; a close observer of the weather, and father of the [[United States Weather Bureau|Weather Bureau of the United States]]."<ref>Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens, pp. 3–4.</ref> In 1814, Andrew B. Stephens married Matilda Lindsay, daughter of [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] Colonel John Lindsay.<ref>Biographical Sketch of Linton Stephens, pp. 3–4.</ref>

In May 1826, when Alexander Stephens was age 14, his father, Andrew, and stepmother, Matilda, died of pneumonia only days apart.<ref name=Blue>{{cite web |author=Georgia's Historic High Country Travel Association |url=http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Alexander_Stephens |title=Alexander Stephens |date=January 25, 2009 |publisher=Georgia's Blue and Gray Trail |access-date=March 10, 2018 |archive-date=May 9, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509061041/http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Alexander_Stephens |url-status=dead }}</ref> Their deaths caused him and several siblings to be scattered among relatives. He grew up poor and in difficult circumstances. Not long after the deaths of his father and his stepmother, Alexander Stephens was sent to live with his mother's other brother, General Aaron W. Grier, near Raytown (Taliaferro County), Georgia. General Grier had inherited his own father's library, said to be "the largest library in all that part of the country."<ref>Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens, p.3.</ref> Alexander Stephens, who read voraciously even as a youth, mentions the library in his "Recollections."

Frail but precocious, the young Stephens acquired his continued education through the generosity of several benefactors. One of them was the Presbyterian minister Alexander Hamilton Webster, who presided over a school in Washington, Georgia. Out of respect for his mentor, Stephens adopted Webster's middle name, Hamilton, as his own. Stephens attended Franklin College (later the University of Georgia) in Athens, Georgia, where he was a roommate of [[Crawford W. Long]] and a member of the [[Phi Kappa Literary Society]]. He raised funds for Phi Kappa Hall, located on the university campus.<ref>{{cite web|title=Phi Kappa Hall (University of Georgia)|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/larc/id:jlc0631|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=June 1, 2016}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Stephens graduated at the top of his class in 1832.

==Early career==
After several unhappy years teaching in school, Stephens began legal studies, was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1834, and began a successful career as a lawyer in Crawfordville. During his 32 years of practice, he gained a reputation as a capable defender of the wrongfully accused. None of his clients charged with [[capital punishment|capital crimes]] were executed. As his wealth increased, Stephens began acquiring land and [[Slavery in the United States|slaves]]. By the time of the Civil War, Stephens owned 34 slaves and several thousand acres. He entered politics in 1836 and was elected to the [[Georgia House of Representatives]], serving there until 1841. In 1842, he was elected to the [[Georgia State Senate|Georgia Senate]].

Stephens served in the U.S. House of Representatives from October 2, 1843, to March 3, 1859, during the 28th through the 35th Congresses. In 1843, he was elected to the House as a [[United States Whig Party|Whig]], in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of [[Mark A. Cooper]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Memorandum, Alexander H. Stephens elected to House of Representatives, Milledgeville, Georgia, 1843|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/mcdm/mcd/do:mcd0018|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=June 1, 2016}}</ref> This seat was at-large, as Georgia did not have U.S. House Districts until the following year. Stephens was re-elected from the 7th District as a Whig in 1844, 1846, and 1848, as a [[Union Party (United States, 1850)|Unionist]] in 1850, and again as a Whig (from the 8th District) in 1852. In 1854 and 1856, his re-elections came as a [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]].{{Clarify|date=May 2023|reason=different party affiliations listed in infobox}} As a national lawmaker during the crucial decades before the Civil War, Stephens was involved in all of the major sectional battles. He began as a moderate defender of slavery but later accepted the prevailing Southern rationale utilized to defend the institution.

Stephens quickly rose to prominence as one of the leading Southern Whigs in the House. He supported the annexation of Texas in 1845. Along with his fellow Whigs, he vehemently opposed the [[Mexican–American War]], and later became an equally vigorous opponent of the [[Wilmot Proviso]], which would have barred the extension of slavery into territories that were acquired after the war. He also controversially tabled the [[Clayton Compromise]], which would have excluded slavery from the [[Oregon Territory]] and left the issue of slavery in New Mexico and California to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]]. This would later nearly kill Stephens when he argued with Georgia Supreme Court Justice [[Francis H. Cone]], who stabbed him repeatedly in a fit of anger.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/ogh/Alexander_Stephens |title=Alexander Stephens |publisher=Ourgeorgiahistory.com |date=August 18, 1905 |access-date=November 10, 2013 |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110155917/http://www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/ogh/Alexander_Stephens |url-status=dead }}</ref> Stephens was physically outmatched by his larger assailant, but he remained defiant during the attack, refusing to recant his positions even at the cost of his life. Only the intervention of others saved him. Stephens's wounds were serious, and he returned home to Crawfordville to recover. He and Cone reconciled before Cone's death in 1859.

Stephens and fellow Georgia Representative [[Robert Toombs]] campaigned for the election of [[Zachary Taylor]] as president in 1848. Both were chagrined and angered when Taylor proved less than pliable on aspects of the [[Compromise of 1850]]. After Taylor supported the ratification of [[New Mexico Territory|New Mexico]]'s anti-slavery [[State constitution (United States)|state constitution]] and threatened to send troops to defend it against Texas's territorial claims, Stephens published an open letter in the ''[[National Intelligencer]]'' calling for Taylor's [[Federal impeachment in the United States|impeachment]], and he warned that if the United States were to fire the first shots against Texas it would lead to the Southern states to secede from the Union.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cohen|first=Jared|title=Accidental presidents : eight men who changed America|date=2019|isbn=978-1-5011-0982-9|edition=1st Simon & Schuster hardcover|location=New York|oclc=1039375326}}</ref> Stephens and Toombs both supported said compromise between [[slave and free states]], though they opposed the exclusion of slavery from the territories on the theory that such lands belonged to all of the people. The pair returned from the District of Columbia to Georgia to secure support for the measures at home. Both men were instrumental in drafting and approving the [[Georgia Platform]], which rallied Unionists throughout the [[Deep South]].

[[File:Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Ga - NARA - 528511.tif|thumb|left|Photograph by [[Mathew Brady]]]]
Stephens and Toombs were not only political allies but also lifelong friends. Stephens was described as "a highly sensitive young man of serious and joyless habits of consuming ambition, of poverty-fed pride, and of morbid preoccupation within self," a contrast to the "robust, wealthy, and convivial Toombs. But this strange camaraderie endured with singular accord throughout their lives."<ref>William Y. Thompson, ''Robert Toombs of Georgia'', Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1966, p. 13</ref>

By this time, Stephens had departed the ranks of the Whig party, whose Northern wing generally was not amenable to some Southern interests. Back in Georgia, Stephens, Toombs, and Democratic U.S. Representative [[Howell Cobb]] formed the [[Union Party (United States, 1850)|Constitutional Union Party]]. The party overwhelmingly carried the state in the ensuing election, and, for the first time, Stephens returned to Congress no longer a Whig. Stephens spent the next few years as a Constitutional Unionist. He vigorously opposed the dissolution of the Constitutional Union Party as it began to crumble in 1851. Political realities soon forced the Union Democrats in the party to affiliate once more with the national party, and, by mid-1852, the combination of both Democrats and Whigs, which had formed a party behind the Compromise, had ended.

The sectional issue surged to the forefront again in 1854, when [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Stephen A. Douglas]] from Illinois moved to organize the Nebraska Territory, all of which lay north of the [[Missouri Compromise]] line, in the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]]. This legislation aroused fury in the North because it applied the [[popular sovereignty]] principle to the Territory, in violation of the Missouri Compromise. Had it not been for Stephens, the bill probably never would have passed in the House. He employed an obscure House rule to bring the bill to a vote. He later called this "the greatest glory of my life."

From this point on, Stephens voted with the Democrats. Until after 1855, Stephens could not properly be called a Democrat, and even then, he never officially declared it. In this move, Stephens broke irrevocably with many of his former Whig colleagues. When the Whig Party disintegrated after the election of 1852, some Whigs flocked to the short-lived [[Know-Nothing Party]], but Stephens fiercely opposed the Know Nothings both for their secrecy and their anti-immigrant and [[anti-Catholic]] position.

[[File:John White Alexander - Alexander Stephens portrait.jpg|thumb|right|Alexander H. Stephens. Oil painting by [[John White Alexander]]. Published as cover of ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', 27:145 (March 10, 1883).]]

Despite his late arrival in the Democratic Party, Stephens quickly rose through the ranks. He even served as [[James Buchanan|President James Buchanan]]'s floor manager in the House during the fruitless battle for the slave state [[Lecompton Constitution]] for [[Kansas Territory]] in 1857. He was instrumental in framing the failed [[English Bill (1858)|English Bill]] after it became clear that Lecompton would not pass, in order to secure its approval.

Stephens did not seek re-election to Congress in 1858. As sectional peace eroded during the next two years, Stephens became increasingly critical of Southern extremists. Although virtually the entire South had spurned Douglas as a traitor to Southern rights because he had opposed the Lecompton Constitution and broken with Buchanan, Stephens remained on good terms with Douglas and even served as one of his [[Electoral College (United States)|presidential electors]] in the [[1860 United States presidential election|election of 1860]].

On November 14, 1860, Stephens delivered a speech titled "The Assertions of a Secessionist." He said:

{{blockquote|When I look around and see our prosperity in every thing, agriculture, commerce, art, science, and every department of education, physical and mental, as well as moral advancement, and our colleges, I think, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can, without the loss of power, or any essential right or interest, remain in the Union, it is our duty to ourselves and to posterity to—let us not too readily yield to this temptation—do so. Our first parents, the great progenitors of the human race, were not without a like temptation when in the garden of Eden. They were led to believe that their condition would be bettered—that their eyes would be opened—and that they would become as gods. They, in an evil hour, yielded—instead of becoming gods, they only saw their own nakedness. I look upon this country, with our institutions, as the Eden of the world, the paradise of the universe.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stephens|first1=Alexander|title=The Assertions of a Secessionist|date=1860|publisher=Loyal Publication Society|location=New York|page=6|url=http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/b6rtb/PDF|access-date=1 June 2016}}</ref>}}

On the eve of the outbreak of the American Civil War, Stephens counseled delaying a military move against U.S.-held [[Fort Sumter]] and [[Fort Pickens]] so that the Confederacy could build up its forces and stockpile resources.<ref>Allan Nevins, ''The Improvised War, 1861–1862'' (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1959), p. 73.</ref>

==Vice President of the Confederate States==
[[File:Confederate Cabinet.jpg|thumb|left|President [[Jefferson Davis|Davis]]' first cabinet (1861)]]
[[File:Richmond, Va. Residence of Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President, C.S.A. LOC cwpb.00441.jpg|thumb|left|Stephens's house in Richmond]]
In 1861, Stephens was elected as a delegate to the [[Georgia General Assembly#Georgia Secession Convention|Georgia Secession Convention]] to decide Georgia's response to the election of [[Abraham Lincoln]]. During the convention, as well as during the 1860 presidential campaign, Stephens, who came to be known as {{anchor|sage of Liberty Hall}}''the sage of Liberty Hall'',<ref>Candler, Allen Daniel (1909). [https://books.google.com/books?id=D3QOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA757 ''The Confederate records of the State of Georgia, Volume 1'']. Atlanta, GA: C. P. Byrd publishing. {{ISBN|978-1147068887}}. p. 16. Retrieved July 22, 2013.</ref> called for the South to remain loyal to the Union, likening it to a leaking but fixable boat. During the convention, he reminded his fellow delegates that [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] were a minority in Congress (especially in the Senate) and, even with a Republican president, they would be forced to compromise just as the two sections had for decades. Because the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] had voted 7–2 in the [[Dred Scott v. Sandford|Dred Scott]] case, it would take decades of Senate-approved appointments to reverse it. He voted against secession in the convention<ref>{{cite web|title=Ordinance of Secession of the State of Georgia|url=http://dlgcsm.galib.uga.edu/StyleServer/calcrgn?browser=ns&cat=hmap&wid=700&hei=700&style=hmap/hmap.xsl&item=ord.sid|website=Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library|publisher=University of Georgia Libraries|access-date=June 1, 2016|archive-date=December 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215143121/http://dlgcsm.galib.uga.edu/StyleServer/calcrgn?browser=ns&cat=hmap&wid=700&hei=700&style=hmap/hmap.xsl&item=ord.sid|url-status=dead}}</ref> but asserted the right to secede if the federal government continued allowing Northern states to nullify the [[Fugitive Slave Law]] with "personal liberty laws." He was elected to the [[Confederate Congress]] and was chosen by the Congress as vice president of the provisional government.<ref>{{cite web|title=Election ballot from Confederate Presidential election, 1861|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/harg/turningpoint/id:harg3596-001-001|website=America's Turning Point: Documenting the Civil War Experience in Georgia, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=June 1, 2016}}</ref> He took the provisional oath of office on February 11, 1861, then the 'full term' oath of office on February 22, 1862 (after being [[Confederate States presidential election, 1861|elected in November 1861]]) and served until his arrest on May 11, 1865. Stephens officially served in office eight days longer than President [[Jefferson Davis]]; he took his oath seven days before Davis's inauguration and was captured the day after Davis.

[[File:CSA-T21-$20-1862.jpg|thumb|250px|Stephens depicted on an 1862 [[Confederate States dollar|Confederate States $20 banknote]]]]
In 1862, Stephens publicly expressed his opposition to the Davis administration for the first time.<ref>{{cite book |title=Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia |last=Schott |first=Thomas E. |year=1988 |url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=42690&site=eds-live&scope=site&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_357|pages=357 ff }}</ref> Throughout the war he denounced many of the president's policies, including conscription, suspension of the writ of [[habeas corpus]], [[impressment]], various financial and taxation policies, and Davis's military strategy.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Eicher|first1=David J.|title=How the Confederacy Fought Itself|journal=Civil War Times|date=January 2008|volume=46|issue=10|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fth&AN=27544484&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=June 19, 2016}}</ref> His objections were almost always on [[states'  rights]] grounds. At some point, he stopped going to Richmond because he felt that his views were being entirely ignored.  Away from the capital, he continued to criticize Davis, referring to him as a despot.<ref>[[Emory M. Thomas|Thomas, Emory M.]] (1971) ''The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience''. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. pp.74-74. {{isbn|978-0-87249-780-1}}</ref>

In mid-1863, Davis dispatched Stephens on a fruitless mission to Washington, D.C., to discuss prisoner exchanges, but the Union victory of [[Battle of Gettysburg|Gettysburg]] made the [[Abraham Lincoln#Presidency and the Civil War|Lincoln administration]] refuse to receive him. As the war continued and the fortunes of the Confederacy sank lower, Stephens became more outspoken in his opposition to the administration. On March 16, 1864, Stephens delivered a speech<ref>{{cite web|last1=Stephens|first1=Alexander Hamilton|title=The Great Speech of Hon. A.H. Stephens, Delivered Before the Georgia Legislature, on Wednesday Night, March 16th, 1864|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/stephens/stephens.html|website=Documenting the American South|publisher=University of North Carolina|access-date=June 1, 2016}}</ref> to the Georgia Legislature that was widely reported in both the North and the South. In it, he excoriated the Davis Administration for its support of conscription and the suspension of ''habeas corpus'', and he supported a bloc of resolutions aimed at securing peace. From then until the end of the war, as he continued to press for actions aimed at bringing about peace, his relations with Davis, never warm to begin with, turned completely sour.

On February 3, 1865, Stephens was one of three Confederate commissioners who met with Lincoln on the steamer ''[[River Queen (steamboat)|River Queen]]'' at the [[Hampton Roads Conference]], a fruitless effort to discuss measures to bring an end to the fighting. Stephens and Lincoln had been close friends and Whig political allies in the 1840s.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chris DeRose|title=Congressman Lincoln|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VyqB2ga-IUkC&pg=PT116|year=2013|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=116|isbn=978-1451695151}}</ref> Although peace terms were not reached, Lincoln did agree to look into the whereabouts of Stephens's nephew, Confederate Lieutenant John A. Stephens. When Lincoln returned to Washington, he ordered the release of Lieutenant Stephens.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lincoln|first1=Abraham|title=Abraham Lincoln Letter to Alexander Stephens|url=http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/selections/confed/letter.html|website=American Civil War, Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library|publisher=University of Georgia Libraries|access-date=June 19, 2016|archive-date=June 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160614151922/http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/selections/confed/letter.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Stephens was arrested for treason against the United States at his home in Crawfordville on May 11, 1865. He was imprisoned at [[Fort Warren (Massachusetts)|Fort Warren]] in Boston Harbor for five months, until October 1865.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stephens|first1=Alexander H.|title=Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens; his diary kept when a prisoner at Fort Warren, Boston Harbour, 1865|date=1971|publisher=Da Capo|location=New York|hdl=2027/mdp.39015014730165|isbn=978-0807122686}}</ref>

== Cornerstone Speech ==
{{main|Cornerstone Speech}}

{{quote box
|quote= ... We have settled, and, I trust, settled forever, the great question which was the prime cause of our separation from the United States: I mean the question of African Slavery.

The old [[Constitution of the United States|[American] Constitution]] set out with a wrong idea on this subject; it was based [[all men are created equal|upon an erroneous principle]]; it was founded upon the idea that African Slavery is wrong, and it looked forward to the ultimate extinction of that institution.  But time has proved the error, and we have corrected it in the new Constitution.

We have based ours upon principle of the [[white supremacy|inequality of races]], and the principle is spreading -- it is becoming appreciated and better understood; and though there are many, even in the South, who are still in the shell upon this subject, yet the day is not far distant when it will be generally understood and appreciated...
|source= —'''Alexander H. Stephens''', speech to [[The Savannah Theatre]]. Weeks before the ''Cornerstone Speech'' (March 1861)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Staff |date=1861-03-25 |title=The Starvation Humbug Again. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1861/03/25/archives/the-starvation-humbug-again.html |access-date=2023-04-23 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Connolly |first=Michael J. |date=2019-08-13 |title=The Forgotten Corners of Alexander Stephens' Cornerstone Speech |url=https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/08/forgotten-corners-alexander-stephens-cornerstone-speech-michael-connolly.html |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=[[The Imaginative Conservative]] |language=en-US}}</ref> 
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Stephens's [[Cornerstone Speech]] on March 21, 1861, to ''[[The Savannah Theatre]]'' is frequently cited in historical analysis of Confederate ideology. The speech defended [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]]; enumerated contrasts between the American and Confederate foundings, ideologies, and constitutions; and laid out the Confederacy's rationale for [[Secession in the United States|seceding]]. Historian Keith S. Hébert describes it as "the most significant speech" ever delivered by Stephens.<ref name=":72">{{Cite journal |last=Reid |first=Randy L. |date=2022 |title=Cornerstone of the Confederacy: Alexander Stephens and the Speech That Defined the Lost Cause by Keith S. Hébert (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/285/article/854885 |journal=Journal of Southern History |volume=88 |issue=2 |pages=392–393 |doi=10.1353/soh.2022.0080 |s2cid=248825382 |issn=2325-6893 |quote=On March 21, 1861, recently elected Confederate vice president Alexander H. Stephens delivered an extemporaneous speech to a capacity audience in Savannah, Georgia. A recent convert to the necessity of secession, Stephens now predicted a glorious future for the new Southern Confederacy. The South, he avowed, had cast aside the Founders' intellectual fallacy of human equality and erected a new government on a foundation of white supremacy.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It declared that disagreements over the enslavement of Africans were the "immediate cause" of secession and that the Confederate constitution had resolved such issues.<ref name=":7" />  {{blockquote|
The new [Confederate] Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions—African slavery as it exists among us—the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]], in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. }}
Stephens contended that advances and progress in the sciences proved that the [[United States Declaration of Independence]]'s view that "[[all men are created equal]]" was erroneous.<ref name=":7" /> His speech criticized "most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution" for their views on slavery, stating that:<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=McPherson |first=James M. |author-link=James M. McPherson |title=Southern Comfort: The Myth of the Lost Cause |language=en |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/04/12/southern-comfort/ |access-date=2023-03-05 |issn=0028-7504 |quote=The Confederate vice-president, Alexander H. Stephens, had said in a speech at Savannah on March 21, 1861, that slavery was "the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution" of Southern independence. The United States, said Stephens, had been founded in 1776 on the false idea that all men are created equal. The Confederacy, by contrast...}}</ref> {{blockquote|The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution [Founding Fathers] were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races.

This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a Government built upon it - "[[Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders|when the storm came and the wind blew, it fell]]."}}Stephens proceeded to state that in contrast to the United States:<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":0" />{{blockquote|Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.

This, our new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based on this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.<ref name=":0" />}}Criticizing the position of Northern [[Evangelicalism|evangelicals]] who were opposed to slavery,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Byrd |first=James |title=A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood: The Bible and the American Civil War |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=9780190902797 |chapter=The Stone Which the Builders Rejected}}</ref> Stephens quoted the [[Psalm 118|Psalm 118:22]] and [[Curse of Ham]] to biblically justify the institution, and stated that:<ref name=":72" />{{blockquote|With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so...}}

Concluding:<ref name=":7" />

{{blockquote|This stone which was "[[Psalm 118|rejected by the first builders]]" [Founding Fathers] " — [[Psalm 118|is become the chief of the corner]]" — the real "corner-stone" in our new edifice.}}After the Confederacy's defeat, Stephens attempted to retroactively deny and retract the opinions he had stated in the speech. Denying his earlier statements that slavery was the Confederacy's cause for leaving the Union, he contended to the contrary that he thought that the war was rooted in constitutional differences;<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{cite web |date=June 2005 |title=Behind the Jeffersonian Veneer |url=http://reason.com/archives/2005/06/01/behind-the-jeffersonian-veneer |access-date=November 10, 2013 |publisher=Reason.com}}</ref> this explanation by Stephens is widely rejected by historians.<ref name=":7" /> Hébert states that "the speech haunted Stephens to the grave and beyond as he and other postbellum southern Democrats struggled to conceal the clear meaning of his words under the camouflage of a [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy|Lost Cause]] mythology."<ref name=":7" />

==Later life==
[[File:Stephens Monument.JPG|thumb|left|Alexander H. Stephens Monument in front of his house, [[Liberty Hall (Crawfordville, Georgia)|Liberty Hall]].]]
In 1866, Stephens was elected to the United States Senate by the first legislature convened under the new Georgia State Constitution, but was not allowed to take his seat because of restrictions on former Confederates. He published a U.S. history in 1868–1870, laying out the [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy]] in his view: that secession was legal, and that Northern States were the aggressors in this conflict. The thrust of his legal argument was rejected by the Supreme Court in the 1869 case ''[[Texas v. White]]'', which ruled that secession was unconstitutional.

In 1873, Stephens was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from the 8th District to fill the vacancy caused by the death of [[Ambrose R. Wright]]. He was re-elected to the 8th District as an [[Independent Democrat]] in 1874, 1876, and 1878, and as a Democrat again in 1880.<ref>{{cite book | first=Kenneth C. |last=Martis | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q0hyQgAACAAJ&q=The+Historical+Atlas+of+Political+Parties+in+the+United+States+Congress1789-1989 | title=The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789–1989 | publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company | date= 1989 | pages=126–135 |isbn=978-0029201701}}</ref> He described himself, on the title page of the 1876 edition of his ''Compendium'', as "Professor Elect of History and Political Science at the University of Georgia." He served in the 43rd through 47th Congresses, from December 1, 1873, until his resignation on November 4, 1882. On that date, he was elected and took office as governor of Georgia.<ref>{{cite web|title=Governor Alexander Stephens inauguration parade, 1889|url=http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/lane/id/6748|website=Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection, 1920–1976. Photographic Collection, Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=June 1, 2016}}</ref> His tenure as governor proved brief; Stephens died on March 4, 1883, four months after taking office.<ref>{{cite web|title=[Photograph of Governor Alex H. Stephens's funeral, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, 1885 Mar. 8]|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/vang/id:ful0009|website=Georgia Archives|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=June 1, 2016}}</ref>

Stephens was sickly throughout his life, most painfully from "crippling [[rheumatoid arthritis]] and a [[pinched nerve]] in his back."<ref name=Blue/> Although his adult height was {{convert|5|ft|7|in}}, he often weighed less than {{convert|100|lb}}.<ref>[[James M. McPherson]], ''[[Battle Cry of Freedom (book)|Battle Cry of Freedom]]'' (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), p. 74, gives his weight as 90 pounds.</ref> Almost all of his former slaves continued to work for him, often for little or no money;<ref>{{cite web|last1=Brady|first1=Matthew|title=[Photograph of Alexander H. Stephens, Washington D.C., 1879 May 7]|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/vang/id:tlf008|website=Vanishing Georgia|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=June 1, 2016}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=September 2018}} whether this decision was voluntary or the result of few other options existing for former slaves in the Deep South is difficult to determine.<ref>American Experience: Reconstruction https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/reconstruction-sharecropping-and-changes-southern-economy/ access-date=December 2, 2015</ref> These servants were with him upon his death. Although old and infirm, Stephens continued to work on his house and plantation. According to a former slave, a gate fell on Stephens while he and another black servant were repairing it, "and he was crippled and lamed up from that time on till he died." The veracity of this rumor is difficult to determine as the cited ex-slave was not present when this happened.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hornsby |first=Sadie B. |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/mesn.041/?sp=55&st=image |title=Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936–1938 |date=August 4, 1938 |publisher=Library of Congress |others=Interview with Georgia Baker |work=The Library of Congress |page=51 |access-date=February 15, 2011}}</ref>

While returning from a trip to Savannah in February, his already poor health further deteriorated from exposure to the elements. His last official act as governor was executed on 28 February. He died shortly before 3:30 am on 4 March, surrounded by physicians and friends. That afternoon, commemorative speeches were made by "prominent citizens" in the Georgia Senate chamber. On 6 March, Stephens' body lay in state in the chamber. On 8 March, a grand funeral was held, and all citizens of the state were requested to observe the occasion.

In 1928, Judge Alex Stephens, a nephew, introduced Cyrus Stephens, the last surviving person who had been enslaved by Alexander Stephens, to Georgia governor [[Lamartine Griffin Hardman|L. G. Hardman]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1928-02-14 |title=Aged Crawfordsville Negro Visits Hardman |pages=2 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-aged-crawfordsv/129753163/ |access-date=2023-08-10}}</ref>

==Personal life==
A lifelong bachelor, Stephens never married and never acknowledged direct descendants.<ref>Durden, Robert F. Review of ''Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia: A Biography''. ''Civil War History'', vol. 34 no. 4, 1988, p. 348–349. ''Project MUSE'', doi:10.1353/cwh.1988.0035.</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Galloway |first=Jim |title=The Black family that claims Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, as an ancestor |language=English |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |url=https://www.ajc.com/politics/the-black-family-that-claims-alexander-stephens-vice-president-of-the-confederacy-as-an-ancestor/DJAONGAN25CQBFMPY7IA6I4HUQ/ |access-date=2023-08-13 |issn=1539-7459}}</ref> An African American family claims to be the descendants of Stephens and a slave he owned, named Eliza,<ref name=":1" /> though their claims were not verified by [[Genealogical DNA test|genetic testing]].<ref>{{cite news | last=Galloway | first=Jim | title=Confederacy leader's Black, white heirs unbury past at Georgia estate | newspaper=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | date=2023-06-23 | url=https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/confederacy-leaders-black-white-heirs-unbury-past-at-georgia-estate/UAORQBLNNJEMJDGRLSANIMDVS4/ | access-date=2024-05-20 | quote="That DNA testing has found no positive link between the two branches is less important than the indisputable fact that these two branches, descendants of enslavers and the enslaved, sprang from the same patch of clay...."}}</ref>

==Works==

===Speeches===
* {{cite book|title=Speech of Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, on the subject of the Mexican War, delivered in the House of Representatives of the U.S., June 16, 1846.|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=J. & G.S. Gideon, printer|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hx2w7k|year=1846}}
* {{cite book|title=Speech of Hon. Alex. H. Stephens, of Georgia, on the Kansas Election, delivered in the House of Representatives, February 19, 1856|year=1856|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_QkuAAAAYAAJ|last1=Stephens|first1=Alexander Hamilton}}
* {{cite book|title=Speech of Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, on the admission of Minnesota and alien suffrage; delivered in the House of Representatives, May 11, 1858.|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Printed at the [[Congressional Globe]] Office|year=1858|url=https://archive.org/details/speechofhonalexa01step/page/n3}}
* {{cite book|title=Impeachment of Judge Watrous: Speech of Hon. Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia in the House of Representatives, December 15, 1858.|series=Impeachment of Watrous |publisher=Printed at the Congressional Globe Office|year=1858|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hx4pze}}
* {{cite book|title=Extract from a speech by Alexander H. Stephens, vice-president of the Confederate States,: delivered in the secession convention of Georgia, January 1861|date=1861|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/abt5971.0001.001?view=toc}}
* [[Cornerstone Speech]], March 21, 1861.
* {{cite book|title=The assertions of a secessionist : from the speech of A.H. Stephens, of Georgia, November 14, 1860.|location=New York|publisher=Loyal Publication Society|year=1864}}
* {{cite book|title=Carpenter's picture, Lincoln and emancipation : speech of the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, in the House of Representatives, 12th of February, 1878.|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Darby & Duvall|year=1878}}

===Books===
[[File:Alexander H. Stephens, in public and private - with letters and speeches, before, during, and since the war (IA alexanderhstephe6114clev).pdf|thumb|page=9|''Alexander H. Stephens, in public and private : with letters and speeches, before, during, and since the war'' (1866)]]
* {{cite book|title=A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States; Its Causes, Character, Conduct and Results, presented as a series of Colloquies at Liberty Hall|volume=1|date=1868|location=Philadelphia|publisher=National Publishing Company|isbn=978-0608399591|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R29XAAAAYAAJ}}
* {{cite book|title=A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States; Its Causes, Character, Conduct and Results, presented as a series of Colloquies at Liberty Hall|volume=2|date=1870|location=Philadelphia|publisher=National Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_H0KAQAAIAAJ}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-2gFAAAAQAAJ |title=The reviewers reviewed; a supplement to the "War between the states," etc., with an appendix in review of "Reconstruction," so called. |title-link= |location=New York |publisher=D. Appleton and Co. |year=1872|isbn=9780608399607 }}
* ''Pictorial History Of The United States - A Comprehensive and Popular History of the United States Embracing A Full Account of Each of the Colonies Their Union as States; The French and Indian Wars; the War of the Revolution; the Mexican War; the Great War between the North and South; and its Results; The Centennial Of Our Independence; The Assassination of President Garfield; And Events Down To The Present Time. By Alexander H. Stephens. Embellished with more than 300 fine Historical Engravings and Portraits.''  Pub. by The National Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa... 1882
* {{cite book|title=A compendium of the history of the United States from the earliest settlements to 1872 : designed to answer the purpose of a text book in schools, colleges as well as to meet the wants of general readers.|location=Columbia, S.C.|publisher=W. J. Duffie|year=1883|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RUV2AAAAMAAJ|quote=1875}}
* {{cite book|title=A compendium of the history of the United States from the earliest settlements to 1883. Designed to answer the purpose of a text-book in schools and colleges as well as to meet the wants of general readers|location=New York|publisher=E.J. Hale & Son|year=1887|quote=1875}}

==Legacy==
[[File:Flickr - USCapitol - Alexander Hamilton Stephens Statue.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Statue of Stephens sculpted in [[Creole marble|Georgia marble]] by [[Gutzon Borglum]], given in 1927 to the [[National Statuary Hall]], [[United States Capitol|U.S. Capitol]]]]
* Stephens is pictured on the [[Confederate States dollar|Confederate States $20.00 banknote]] (3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th issues).
* [[Stephens County, Georgia]], and [[Stephens County, Texas]], bear his name, as does [[A.H. Stephens State Park]], near Crawfordville,<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/a.pdf | title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins | publisher=Winship Press | author=Krakow, Kenneth K. | year=1975 | location=Macon, GA | page=3 | isbn=0915430002}}</ref> containing his home [[Liberty Hall (Crawfordville, Georgia)|Liberty Hall]].
* A collection of Stephens's personal papers has been digitized and is available at the Rubenstein Library, Duke University.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/ahstephens/ |title=Alexander H. Stephens Papers, 1823–1954 | publisher=Rubenstein Library, Duke University}}</ref>
* A [[Alexander Hamilton Stephens (sculpture)|sculpture of Stephens]] appears in the [[National Statuary Hall Collection]], representing one of two figures from Georgia history, the other being [[Crawford W. Long]]. There have been calls to replace Stephens's sculpture in the collection with that of some other Georgian, such as [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/24/article/111062/|title=Dick Yarbrough: It's time to make peace over symbols|date=July 25, 2015|last=Yarbrough|first=Dick|work=The Gainesville Times|access-date=August 3, 2015}} {{Dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
* According to [[Bruce Catton]], Stephens was "given one of the most haunting nicknames ever worn by an American politician: 'The Little Pale Star from Georgia.'"<ref>Catton, Bruce, ''The Coming Fury'', p 46. Pocket Books, New York. 1961</ref>

==See also==
* [[Cornerstone Speech]]
* [[List of signers of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession]]

==References==
Notes<references group="lower-alpha"/>

===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* {{cite book|first=Rudolph R.|last=von Abele|title=Alexander H. Stephens: A Biography|location=Westport, Connecticut|publisher=Negro Universities Press|isbn=0837152011|year=1971}}
* Brumgardt, John R. "The Confederate Career of Alexander H. Stephens: The Case Reopened." ''Civil War History'' 27.1 (1981): 64–81. [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/421399/summary excerpt]
* Brumgardt, John R. "Alexander H. Stephens and the State Convention Movement in Georgia: A Reappraisal." ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 59.1 (1975): 38–49. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40580143 online]
* {{cite book|last=Cleveland|first=Henry|title=Alexander H. Stephens in Public and Private: With Letters and Speeches|publisher=National Publishing Company|year=1866|url=https://archive.org/details/alexanderhstephe00inclev}}
* Coulter, E. Merton. "Alexander H. Stephens Challenges Benjamin H. Hill to a Duel." ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 56.2 (1972): 175–192. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40579770 online]
* {{cite book|first=William C.|last=Davis|title=The Union that Shaped the Confederacy: Robert Toombs & Alexander H. Stephens|year=2002|location=Lawrence, Kansas|publisher=University Press of Kansas|isbn=978-0700610884|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/unionthatshapedc0000davi}}
* Golden, James L. "Alexander H. Stephens speaks for the union." ''Quarterly Journal of Speech'' 47.4 (1961): 355–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335636109382498
* Hall, Mark. "Alexander H. Stephens and Joseph E. Brown and the Georgia Resolutions for Peace." ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 64.1 (1980): 50–63. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40580595 online]
* Rabun, James Z. "Alexander H. Stephens and Jefferson Davis." ''American Historical Review'' 58.2 (1953): 290–321. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1842193 online]
* {{cite book|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|first=Thomas E.|last=Schott|url=https://archive.org/details/alexanderhstephe0000scho|title=Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia: A Biography|year=1988|isbn=0807113735|location=Baton Rouge|url-access=registration}}
* Stephens, Robert Grier. "The Background and Boyhood of Alexander H. Stephens." ''Georgia Review'' 9.4 (1955): 386–397. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41395370 online]
* Wakelyn, Jon L. ''Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy'' (1977). [https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict0000wake online]
* Wilson, Edmund.  '' Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War'' (1962) ch 11, on his book. [https://archive.org/details/patrioticgore00edmu online]

===Primary sources===
*  Phillips, Ulrich Bonnell, ed. ''The correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb'' (1970 reprint of 1913 original) [https://archive.org/details/correspondenceof0000toom online]
{{div col end}}

==External links==

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* {{cite web|author=Georgia's Historic High Country Travel Association|url=http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Alexander_Stephens|title=Alexander Stephens|date=January 25, 2009|publisher=Georgia's Blue and Gray Trail|access-date=March 10, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509061041/http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Alexander_Stephens|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.shapell.org/manuscript/abraham-lincoln-praises-confederate-vp-alexander-stephens|title=Abraham Lincoln Praises Confederate Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, in 1848|first=Abraham|last=Lincoln|website=[[Shapell Manuscript Foundation]]|access-date=March 10, 2018|quote=I just take up my pen to say, that Mr. Stephens of Georgia, a little slim pale faced consumptive man, with a voice like Logan's, has just concluded the very best speech, of an hour's length, I ever heard. My old, withered, dry eyes are full of tears yet. If he writes it out any thing like he delivered it, our people shall see a good many copies of it.}}
* {{cite web|url=http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cornerstone-speech/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130822142313/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cornerstone-speech/|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 22, 2013|first=Alexander H.|last=Stephens|publisher=TeachingAmericanHistory.org|date=March 21, 1861|quote=Source: Henry Cleveland, ''Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private: With Letters and Speeches, Before, During, and Since the War'' (Philadelphia, 1886), pp. 717–729.|title="Corner Stone" Speech}}
* {{cite book|last=Pendelton|first=Louis Beauregard|title=Alexander H. Stephens|publisher=Philadelphia, G. W. Jacobs & company|year=1908|url=https://archive.org/details/alexanderstephens00pendrich}}
* [https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/ahstephens/ The Papers of Alexander H. Stephens] at Duke University
* [http://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/s/Stephens0627.html The Papers of Alexander H. Stephens] at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
* [http://hmfa.libs.uga.edu/hmfa/view?docId=ead/ms3828-ead.xml The Papers of Alexander H. Stephens] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029174142/http://hmfa.libs.uga.edu/hmfa/view?docId=ead/ms3828-ead.xml |date=October 29, 2020 }} at the University of Georgia
* [https://gastateparks.org/AHStephens The Library of Alexander H. Stevens] at the A.H. Stephens Historic Park
* Link for Stevens Pictorial History of the United States: https://lccn.loc.gov/01010249<nowiki/>{{CongBio|S000854}}
* {{Librivox author|id=8309}}
* {{Internet Archive author|sname=Alexander Hamilton Stephens}}
* [https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8zx7z Alexander Hamilton Stephens collection, 1821–1935]
* [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.STEPHENSAH Guide to the Alexander H. Stephens Collection 1870–1876] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]

{{Navboxes
|title=Offices and distinctions
|list1=
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Mark Anthony Cooper|Mark Cooper]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of the [[List of United States Representatives from Georgia|U.S. House of Representatives]]<br>from [[Georgia's at-large congressional district]]<br>(Seat 1)|years=1843–1845}}
{{s-non|reason=Constituency abolished}}

{{s-new|constituency}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives<br>from [[Georgia's 7th congressional district]]|years=1845–1853}}
{{s-aft|after=[[David Addison Reese|David Reese]]}}

{{s-bef|before=[[Robert Toombs]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives<br>from [[Georgia's 8th congressional district]]|years=1853–1859}}
{{s-aft|after=[[John James Jones|John Jones]]}}

{{s-bef|before=[[John James Jones|John Jones]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives<br>from [[Georgia's 8th congressional district]]|years=1873–1882}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Seaborn Reese]]}}

{{s-bef|before=[[Sherman Otis Houghton]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the [[United States House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures|House Coinage Committee]]|years=1875–1881}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Horatio Gates Fisher]]}}

{{s-par|cs-hs}}
{{s-new|constituency}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of the [[Provisional Confederate States Congress|Confederate States Provisional Congress]]<br>from Georgia|years=1861–1862}}
{{s-non|reason=Constituency abolished}}

{{s-off}}
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Vice President of the Confederate States of America|Vice President of the Confederate States]]<br>{{small|Provisional: 1861–1862}}|years=1861–1865}}
{{s-non|reason=Position abolished}}

{{s-bef|before=[[Alfred H. Colquitt|Alfred Colquitt]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Governors of Georgia|governor of Georgia]]|years=1882–1883}}
{{s-aft|after=[[James S. Boynton|James Boynton]]}}

{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Alfred H. Colquitt]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for governor of Georgia|years=1882}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Henry Dickerson McDaniel]]}}
{{s-end}}
}}

{{Navboxes
|title=Articles related to Alexander H. Stephens
|list1=
{{CSProvisionalConstitutionSig}}
{{Confederate States Constitution signatories}}
{{Governors of Georgia}}
{{CSCabinet}}
{{American Civil War|Leaders}}
}}
{{Subject bar|portal1=American Civil War|portal2=Biography|portal3=Georgia (U.S. state)|portal4=Literature|portal5=Politics|commons=y|commons-search=Category:Alexander H. Stephens|q=y|q-search=Alexander H. Stephens|s=y|s-search=1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stephens, Alexander Hamilton}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Alexander H.}}
[[Category:Alexander H. Stephens|*]]
[[Category:1812 births]]
[[Category:1883 deaths]]
[[Category:Activists from Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:19th-century American planters]]
[[Category:Authors' libraries in the United States]]
[[Category:Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta)]]
[[Category:Executive members of the Cabinet of the Confederate States of America]]
[[Category:Constitutional Union Party United States representatives]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Democratic Party governors of Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Deputies and delegates to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States]]
[[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) Constitutional Unionists]]
[[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) state senators]]
[[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) Whigs]]
[[Category:Governors of Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Heads of state of states with limited recognition]]
[[Category:Members of the Georgia House of Representatives]]
[[Category:People from Crawfordville, Georgia]]
[[Category:People from Taliaferro County, Georgia]]
[[Category:People of Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Signatories of the Constitution of the Confederate States]]
[[Category:Signatories of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession]]
[[Category:Signatories of the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States]]
[[Category:University of Georgia alumni]]
[[Category:University of Georgia faculty]]
[[Category:Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Southern Historical Society members]]
[[Category:United States representatives who owned slaves]]
[[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly]]