STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H. 



4, 1883. He lost his father when he was a 

 mere boy ; after which he lived with his uncle, 

 till friends sent him to a classical academy ; 

 thence he went to the State University at Ath- 

 ens, known as Franklin College, where he was 

 graduated in 1832. He was admitted to the 

 bar in 1834. In 1836 he was elected to the 

 State Assembly, though known to be opposed 

 to nullification doctrines and vigilance com- 

 mittees. His health broke down the next year, 

 and was never afterward vigorous. He was 

 re-elected to the Legislature in 1837 and the 

 three following years, but declined re-election 

 in 1841 ; yet in the year following he was sent 

 to the State Senate. Here he was active and 

 industrious on the subject of internal improve- 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS. 



ments. He also drew up the minority report 

 on the state of the republic, and gained great- 

 ly in reputation as an orator in the debates. 



Mr. Stephens was nominated for Congress 

 in 1843, on the general ticket (there being no 

 districts in Georgia as yet). He engaged ar- 

 dently in the canvass, and gained his election 

 by a large majority. He thereupon began ser- 

 vice in the House of Representatives which 

 lasted for sixteen years, and was then inter- 

 rupted by his course as to secession for nearly 

 as long a time. In 1844 he supported Henry 

 Clay for President, but he urged the admission 

 of Texas into the Union, thus taking ground 



against the Whigs. In February, 1847, he sub- 

 mitted a series of resolutions in relation to the 

 Mexican War, which war he charged upon 

 President Polk as a violation of the Consti- 

 tution, undertaken for conquest. The House, 

 however, refused a vote on the resolutions. 

 He opposed the Clayton Compromise in 1848, 

 despite opposition and denunciation at home 

 and elsewhere. At this time he was murder- 

 ously attacked by a man from his own State, 

 and was nearly cut to pieces. In 1850 he op- 

 posed the growing secession sentiment in the 

 South, which made headway because of the 

 admission of California into the Union, and 

 after an active canvass in Georgia he carried 

 the day against the secessionists. The Geor- 

 gia platform of 1850 was the work 

 \ of the committee of which Mr. Ste- 

 phens was a member. He opposed 

 Gen. Taylor's policy, and supported 

 the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. 

 The next year he took ground against 

 the " Know - Nothing " movement, 

 and was returned to Congress on 

 this issue alone. Some of his noted 

 speeches of this date may be named 

 here as, the eulogy on Andrew 

 Pickens Butler ; debate with Zolli- 

 coffer, of Tennessee, on slavery in 

 the Territories ; on the neutrality 

 laws ; on impeachment of Judge 

 Watrous ; and his last, on the ad- 

 mission of Oregon into the Union. 



At the close of the Thirty-fifth 

 Congress, Mr. Stephens declined be- 

 ing a candidate for re-election, and 

 in a speech which he made at Au- 

 gusta, July 2, 1859, he announced his 

 retirement from public life. Dur- 

 ing the presidential canvass of 1860, 

 however, he sustained. Mr. Douglas. 

 In November of that year he spoke 

 out boldly against secession, and 

 begged the South not to be the ag- 

 gressor. "If the republic is to go 

 down, 1 ' said he, " let us be found to 

 the last moment standing on the 

 deck, with the Constitution of the 

 United States waving over our 

 heads. Let the fanatics of the North 

 break the Constitution, if such is 

 their fell purpose. Let the respon- 

 sibility be upon them." But he reserved the 

 right to " strike " if Lincoln should violate 

 the Constitution, and professed himself to be 

 perfectly subservient to his State and her will 

 in all matters. He further proposed a con- 

 vention to consider the question of secession, 

 which convention met two months later (Jan. 

 16, 1861), at Milledgeville, and passed an ordi- 

 nance of secession, though Mr. Stephens voted 

 against it. His idea was with others (as he 

 sets forth in his book on the u War between 

 the States ") that by seceding, or threatening 

 to secede, the South could force better terms 

 in the struggle against the free States and 



