^-<^HL^2^-<^^^^
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Copyright, 1878, 1883, by J. B. LlPPINCOTT & Co.
<; WASHINGTON, D. C., 27th May, 1878.
" MESSRS. RICHARD M. JOHNSTON AND WM. HAND BROWNE,
" Baltimore, Maryland.
" DEAR SIRS, — The manuscript of the biography prepared by you, and
submitted for my perusal, with the request that I should correct any errors
that I might see in it, has been carefully read to me from beginning to end ;
and I have only to say that I think all the essential facts in regard to me
and my acts are substantially correct.
" Of course, I have not had time to compare the copies of the letters, or
of the speeches, with the originals. The speeches, however, have all, I
think, been published some time ago, in some form or other; most of them
in the ' Congressional Globe' and ' Record.' If any error in them shall
have crept into your copies, it can easily be discerned. As to the letters,
in one instance I have suggested the addition of a few words, to make
^lore clear the true meaning of what was intended at the time of a hasty
writing; in another, I have suggested the change of two words; and in
still mother, the change of one word. These changes have been made
with tiifj same view. In no instance have these suggested changes marred
or modified the original meaning in the slightest degree. I also suggested
some foot-notes which may throw light upon the text.
"For your very great labor, gentlemen, in selecting and arranging, out
of the vast materi:;! before you, what you have thus presented, and which
was so gratuitously undertaken, you have my sincere thanks.
"As I said to you personally, I now repeat, that I yield my consent to
the publication of the work in my lifetime only upon the ground of the
many misrepresentations of my motives, objects, and acts on several
occasions in my not uneventful public course.
This letter, gentlemen, you are at liberty to use as you please.
" With kindest regards and best wishes,
" I remain yours truly,
"ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS."
PEEFACE.
IN submitting to the public this biography of Alexander PI.
Stephens, we deem it proper to make some explanation regarding
the facilities we have enjoyed for the performance of our task.
The greater part of the knowledge which we have of Mr.
Stephens's private life, and especially of his childhood and
youth, has been obtained by Mr. Johnston during a close intimacy
of more than twenty-five years, partly in conversations, and partly
in letters containing copious answers to direct inquiries. He
has also been in the habit of noting down from memory the
substance of such of their conversations as turned upon these
topics, having for years proposed, at some convenient season, to
prepare the present memoir. The letters will be found to refer
chiefly to the period of Mr. Stephens's youth, and the conversa
tions to those events of the time in which he had an interest or
was an actor. In addition to these there has been placed in our
hands a vast body of letters written by himself to his brother
Linton during thirty-five years, in which he has recorded not
merely every event of the hour, with his views, intentions, opin
ions, but the inmost thoughts and feelings of his heart. So that
even while withholding the large part of this material which
discretion or delicacy toward the writer restrains us from making
public, we cannot but feel that it is not often the lot of a
biographer to be so thoroughly provided with the means for
illustrating the character, life, and actions of his subject.
One of the principal motives which have prompted us to
undertake this work has been a desire to show the world more
than it has yet known of Mr. Stephens's inner nature, and to
present an example of continued, faithful, and cheerful discharge
of duty during a life rarely exempt from severe suffering both
5
$ • PREFACE.
of body and mind. No one who has known him has ever
known a man more faithful to all noble instincts and all manly
obligations ; and yet none has known one to whom such fidelity
was more difficult.
In the year 1858 Mr. Johnston was visiting at his house, and
during his stay Mr. Stephens conversed frequently upon the sub
ject of his early life and career. His childhood had seen many
troubles. The early loss of his mother, his weakness of consti
tution, and work hard in itself, and doubly hard for his frail
body, were heavier burdens to him than even his family knew.
His extreme mental and physical sensibility suffered acutely; but
he suffered in silence. They rode together to "the homestead,"
as he calls his native place. Having dismounted, they were
walking from the present house to the place where the old one
had stood, when he stopped and said, " It was just here that I
was working, hoeing corn, when some one from the house came
to tell me that Linton was born. It was on the morning of the
1st of July, 1823."
On reaching the site of the house, he pointed it out, and
where the kitchen and garden had been. " This old stump,"
he said, " is that of a peach-tree that stood behind the kitchen-
chimney. Here was the asparagus-bed, — do you see?' — and
though thirty-five years had elapsed there were several shoots
of that plant still lifting their slender heads.
The grave-yard — inclosed by a thick stone wall erected by
Mr. Stephens but a few years before — was a few paces distant.
"Here lie," he said, "many who were dear to me in life, and
here I wish to be buried when I die."
They went next to the spring. Neglect had diminished its
waters, and the rains of years had laid waste its pleasing sur
roundings. They sat upon the hill-side. " How many, many
events," he said, "are associated in my heart with that spring!
How many times I have been here when a child, often coming
for no other purpose than to muse here undisturbed ! Do you
see my name carved upon that stone ? That was done when I
was a boy. Here I have often lain upon my back and looked
up through the tops of the trees toward the sky and watched
the flying clouds. My mother I had only heard of from others,
PREFACE. 7
and when very young I used to come here and think where she
then was, and fancied that she might be in one of those passing
clouds, and might know how my heart longed for her. But no
human being knew that I had such thoughts."
When we retired for the night, he invited his guest, if not
too fatigued, to come into his room. " You have been asking
me many questions/7 he said, "about my early life. I think I
will show you something which no one but myself has ever seen
before.77 He took a chair, placed it by a chest of drawers sur
mounted by rows of pigeon-holes, on the top of which lay a
confused mass of books and papers. From the former he selected
one which was carefully tied up : it was old and dusty. He
looked at it musingly for some time, and then untied the string.
" This,77 he said, " is a kind of journal, and contains some things
that I wrote many years ago, when I first came to the bar. I
have not looked into it for years. 'Noli me tangere,' I see I have
written on the back, and I have many times thought I would
destroy it.77
" I am glad you have not done so, and I wish you would let
me have it.77
" No,77 he answered ; " there are some things in it that I am
not willing for any one to see.77
He afterwards read aloud several pages from it, and after some
reflection, said his guest might read the whole. A year or two
after this the book was received, and such parts extracted as
would aid in the proposed work. This journal gives no incidents
of his life previous to the death of his father. Many of these
were told in that visit and on subsequent occasions. But not
having then begun the habit of taking notes of these conversa
tions, Mr. Johnston found that much that he wished to remember
escaped his memory ; so he determined to get as many written
statements from hinras he could be induced to give.
In the latter part of the year 1862 Mr. J. wrote a bit of dog
gerel poetry, and inclosed it in a jocular and burlesque letter
signed with the name " Jeems Giles.77 The personage represented
himself as a humble but hopeful aspirant for poetical fame, whose
soul yearned for sympathy and encouragement. Mr. Stephens
recognized the handwriting; and in a day or two Mr. Giles
8 PREFACE.
received an amusing answer in the same style. The correspond
ence thus begun was continued for some time, the letters chiefly
consisting of humorous criticisms upon each other's productions;
and in it Mr. Stephens took the name of " Peter Finkle," and
wrote in the character of one holding some subordinate position
under him, but admitted to a considerable degree of his patron's
confidence.
Early in 1863, Mr. Stephens being then at home, Mr. Giles,
having exhausted what amusement was to be had from the sub
jects hitherto discussed, asked Mr. Finkle to write him some
thing about his patron himself, his childhood and early manhood,
and to get from him occasionally his opinions about the war and
other public matters. Mr. Finkle promised compliance, and
from time to time thereafter reported many conversations he
had had with " Boss," as he denominated his patron.
It was in this way were obtained from Mr. Stephens many inci
dents of his life that could hardly have been procured otherwise.
When he assumed the style of a third party, writing to an ima
ginary person, he wrote with an interest and a freedom which
he could never have had in writing under his own name.
From these sources, then, — the Finkle correspondence, the
Journal, notes of conversations, and an immense mass of most
intimate letters to his brother Linton and his friend, as well as
from his speeches, letters, and other records of his public life, —
the materials for this biography have been drawn. The respec
tive sources will be indicated in the course of the narrative, in
which, wherever possible, we give the words of Mr. Stephens
himself.
R. M. J.
W. H. B.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE 6
CHAPTER I.
The Stephens Family — The Fugitive Jacobite — An Idyll on the Juniata — Re
moval to Georgia — Andrew B. Stephens — Purchase of the Homestead — The
Grier Family — Marriage of Andrew B. Stephens — Birth of Alexander —
Second Marriage of Andrew B. Stephens— Birth of Linton Stephens — Mar
riages • 17
CHAPTER II.
The "Giles and Finkle" Correspondence — Early Recollections — Schoolmaster
Day— Georgia "Old-Field Schools"— A Mutiny— Barring out— The Inquis
itive Owl — Schoolmaster Duffie and his Advice .22
CHAPTER III.
Home-work — Youthful Trials — Recollections of his Father — A Painful Lesson
— "Learning Manners" — Exhibitions — Almost a Tragedy — Death of Andrew
B. Stephens— A Great Sorrow 30
CHAPTER IY.
Death of Mrs. Stephens, and Dispersion of the Family — Sunday-School — Rapid
Progress — Removal to his Uncle's — O'Cavanaugh — Becomes a Hero in a Small
Way — Leaves School — A Turning-point in his Life — Mr. Mills — A Generous
Offer — Goes to the Academy at Washington, Georgia — An Imperfect Under
standing — Mr. A. H. Webster — Adopts the Name of Hamilton — Mr. A. L.
Alexander ............. 41
CHAPTER V.
Goes to the University — Expects to enter the Ministry — Happy Days — A Piece
of rare Good Luck — Diligence in Study — Social Enjoyments — One Shadow —
A Silent Struggle and a Final Resolution — A Debt discharged . . .53
CHAPTER VI.
More College Reminiscences — The Pig in Class — Standing at Graduation — Dr.
Church and his Family — Journal — Goes to Madison and teaches School —
Unhappiness — Leaves Madison — A Secret Sorrow . . . . .60
9
10 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
• PAOK
A Private Class— Mr. Le Conte— A Liberal Offer declined— Goes to Crawford-
ville and begins to study for the Bar — Hard Work — A Damper — Journal —
An Anniversary — Begins to study Politics — President Jackson and the Bank
— Despondency — First Fee offered and declined — Height, Weight, and Per
sonal Appearance »'•-...'. . .70
CHAPTER VIII.
Journal — Youthful Judgments — Forebodings — ./Esthetic Criticisms — Opinion of
Railroads — Solitude — First Plea — Self-Censure — Ambition — A Critical Period
— Out of the Depths — Dr. Foster and his Prescription — Moves to Uncle Bird's
— A Shock to Modesty — A Narrow Escape — A Fourth of July Speech — Ad
hesion to the Doctrine of State Right? — Right of Secession — Admission to
the Bar '" ~ -T*""' 78
CHAPTER IX.
First Case — "Riding the Circuit "—First Fee taken— Hezekiah Ellington-»-A
Desperate Strait and a Convincing Argument — A "Revival" and the Scenes
there — Increase of Business — Buys a Horse — An Exciting Case — A Great
Speech and its Effects 90
CHAPTER X.
A Hard Winter — A Friendly Rival and an Accurate Prediction — An Offer — A
Trip "Out West" — An Indian Host and his Family — Interview with Presi
dent Jackson — Uncle James Stephens — -A Toast — Dr. Foster again — Friendly
Counsels — Georgia Railroads .......... 98
CHAPTER XL
Political Review— The Two Great Questions— The National and Federal Plans—
The Two Parties — Powers of the Federal Government and of the States —
Great and Small States — Meaning of the Two Houses of Congress — Different
Interests of the Northern and Southern States — Apportionment of Represen
tation — The " Three-fifths Clause" — The Tariff — The North wishes to cede
to Spain the Navigation of the Mississippi — Ingenious Strategy — The "Alien
and Sedition Acts"— Resolutions of 1798 and 1799— War of 1812— Acqui
sition of Louisiana — Mr. Quincy, of Massachusetts — The " Missouri Compro
mise*' made and broken — Mr. Clay's Compromise — "Internal Improvements"
— "Protective" Tariffs — "Nullification" Movement in South Carolina — A
Threatened Collision — Northern and Southern Democrats .... 109
CHAPTER XII.
Mr. Stephens Elected to the State Legislature — Speech on the Railroad Bill —
Letter of' Hon. I. L. Harris — Severe Illness — Controversy with Dr. Mercer —
Re-election — Voyage to Boston — Letters to Linton Stephens — Visits to New
York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland — Tries the White Sulphur Springs with
Advantage — Friendship for Mr. Toombs ....... 125
CONTENTS. ] 1
CHAPTER XIII.
PAGE
Improved Health — Delegate to Southern Commercial Convention — Answer to
Mr. Preston — "My Son" — Linton at the University — Fourth of July Cele
brations in Auld Lang Syne — Grand Doings at Crawfordville — A Speech —
" Caesar and Poinpey" — Independence of Party — The Whigs — Uncertainty of
the State-Rights Party— Re-election to the Legislature . . . ., . .132
CHAPTER XIV.
Transition of the State-Rights Party — Error of the Georgians — Law Business
— Letters to Linton — Views on Scholarship, Aristocracy, and the Devil —
Literary Criticism — Religious Beliefs — Visit to the Gold Region — Political
Parties 140
CHAPTER XV.
Declines Re-nomination to the Legislature — Letters to Linton — Philosophy of
Living — Death of President Harrison — Advice to Linton — Serious Illness —
Election to State Senate— Reports of Committees— The Tariff of 1842— Breach
of the Compromise of 1833 — Debate on Federal Relations — The Minority
Report — Principles of the Georgia Whigs — Resolutions. . . . . 148
CHAPTER XVI.
Journey to Florida — A House of Mourning — The Rays — Nomination to Con
gress — Discussion with Judge Colquitt — The Tables turned — Election of Mr.
Stephens — Death of Aaron Grier Stephens 169
CHAPTER XVII.
Debate in Congress — Humors of Mr. Cobb — Correspondence — Presidential Can
vass — Anecdotes ............ 176
CHAPTER XVIII.
Judge Story — Mr. Clay — A Great Crowd — Annexation of Texas — Speech on
Brown's Resolutions — Oregon — Anecdote of General Clinch .... 183
CHAPTER XIX.
Domestic Arrangements — Trip to Florida — Home News and Surgical Practice
— Deaths of Friends — A "Real Soaker"— -Election of Governor Crawford . 194
CHAPTER XX.
Connection with the Whigs — Opinion of President Polk — Dispute with Mexico
—War breaks out — Correspondence — The Oregon Question — Opinion of Mr.
Calhoun — State of Things in Congress — Speech on the Mexican War — Letter
of Judge McLean — Misunderstanding with the Hon. Herschel V. Johnson —
A Challenge sent and refused . . . . . . . . . . 200
12 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXL
PAGE
Position of the Whigs — Resolutions on the Mexican War — Their Effect — Danger
ahead — The Wilmot Proviso — The "Missouri Compromise" repudiated —
Speech on the Mexican Appropriation Bill — A Queer Genius — Speech of Mr.
Toombs — Election of a Speaker — Cure for Melancholy 210
CHAPTER XXII.
Presidential Nominations — Opinion of Mr. Calhoun — Mr. Clay — Anecdotes —
A Conversation and a Prophecy — Death of Mr. Adams — Nomination of
General Taylor— The "Allison" Letters— Slavery in the Territories— The
Clayton Compromise — Speech of August 7th — Returns to Georgia — Difficulty
with Judge Cone — Mr. Stephens's Life attempted — Public Indignation . 224
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Abolitionists in 1848— Rise of the Free-Soil Party— State of Feeling at
Washington— Attitude of Southern Whigs— The Vote for Speaker— Duty of
the South— A Bad State of Things— Signs of a Coming Catastrophe . . 236
CHAPTER XXIV.
Calhoun, Clay, and Webster in the Senate — Signs of the Times — President Tay
lor's Policy — lAjGrlance into the Future — Dismemberment of the Union inevi
table — What the South should do — Mr. Clay's Compromise Resolutions —
Mr. Clay's Speech — A Sketch of the Scene and the Audience — Sorrow for a
Humble Friend— A Wedding in Low Life— Death of Calhoun— The Galphin
Claim— Seward's Plot— The Secretary of State and Sir Henry Bulwer— " A
most Wonderful Characteristic of our People" — Sits for his Portrait — Hot
Debates in both Houses — Principle of Non-interference established — Death
of President Taylor— Passage of Mr. Clay's Bill and Renewed Pledges of the
Northern States — Georgia Resolutions — Jenny Lind ..... 243
CHAPTER XXV.
Rio the Dog — The Secret of Mr. Stephens's Life — The Campaign of 1851 — Re
election to the House — Disappointed Curiosity — An Anecdote . . . 261
CHAPTER XXVI.
Louis Kossuth — Speech in Baltimore — Marriage of Linton — Demoralization of
the Whig Party — A Card — A Vote for a Dead Candidate — Address at Emory
College — Reminiscences of Childhood — A Sad Year — The Galphin Claim — •
Mr. Stephens's Speech on the Bill to prevent Frauds — Severe Accident to Mr.
Stephens— Sickness— Two Humble Friends 266
CHAPTER XXVII.
New Tactics of the Agitators — The Personal Liberty Bills — The Pledges of
1850 to be broken — Speech of February 17th — The Nebraska Bill — The
Kansas War — Death of Mrs. Ray — A Georgia Corn-Shucking — A Visit from
"Uncle Ben" — Speech of December 14th — Christpias-E ve — The Kno w-Nothing
Party . . ' 275
CONTENTS. 13
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PAGE
A Complimentary Dinner — Reply to Mr. Campbell — Letter on Know-Nothingism
— Becomes a Candidate for Re-election — Speech at Augusta — Linton's Nomi
nation — The Campaign — Mr. Stephens elected — Dead-Lock in the House —
Advice to the President . . ».,... .287
CHAPTER XXIX.
Debate with Mr. Zollicoffer — Election of Mr. Banks — A Plausible Scamp and
a Domestic Tragedy — The Minority Report on the Kansas Election — Anecdote
of Mr. Hale — Speech on the Kansas Election — News from Kansas — Speech
on the Admission of Kansas — Death of John Stephens — Correspondence with
Mr. Johnston — Negligence of Southern Representatives — Challenges Mr. B.
H. Hill 302
CHAPTER XXX.
Adroit Strategy of the Republicans— Their Rapid Growth— The Dred Scott
Case — Speech on the President's Message — Death of Mrs. Linton Stephens —
Sad and Solemn Thoughts — Remarks upon Pickpockets — Mr. Douglas . . 317
CHAPTER XXXI.
Kansas again — Walker the Filibuster — Interview with the President — "A
Battle-Royal" — Defection of Southern Know-Nothings — A Hard Struggle —
Intense Anxiety — Kansas Bill passes both Houses — Speech on the Admission
of Minnesota — A Bird_of_J[ll-omjen — British War-Steamer Styx — A Reception
at Athens — The Orator in a Panic — A Summer Tour— No Desire for the
Presidential Nomination — Visit to President Buchanan .... 328
CHAPTER XXXII.
A Mysterious Confidence — Overwork — A Young Protegee — Ophthalmic Sur
gery — The Blind Dog's Guide — Busts of Mr. Stephens — The Mariner in
Port — Linton on the Bench — Home Troubles — Farewell Dinner offered him
by Congress — Public Dinner at Augusta — A Farewell Speech — Warning to
President Buchanan — A True Prophecy — Canine Psychology — Address at
the University of Georgia — Law Business — A Rule adopted — Plans for the
Future 340
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The Family at Liberty Hall — A Cautious Passenger — Favors the Nomination
of Mr. Douglas — Charleston Convention — Baltimore Convention, and the Split
in the Democratic Party — Four Candidates in the Field — Mr. Stephens's
Views and Apprehensions — Letter of Advice — The Plan of Safety — Duty of
the Party — Sickness — Signs of Approaching Rabies — " He is Insane !" — Elec
tion of Mr. Lincoln and the Feeling at the South — Speech at Milledgeville —
Impression produced — Anecdote — Letters from Northern Men — Correspond
ence with Mr. Lincoln ........... 351
14 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PAQ«
Feeling at the South — Secession of South Carolina — Conventions called by the
other States — Views of Mr. Stephens — Real Causes of Complaint — Secession
Rightful, but not Expedient — Will abide by his State — Thoughts and Mem
ories — A Storm and a Speech — Break-up of the Cabinet — Fort Pulaski secured
— Convention at Milledgeville — Speech — Ordinance of Secession passed — A
Forged Speech — Sent to Montgomery — Formation of the Provisional Govern
ment — Elected Vice-President — Inaugurated — The Constitution — Toombsand
Cobb — Relations with Mr. Davis — Anticipations . . . . . . 374
CHAPTER XXXV.
Peace Congress — Commissioners appointed to the United States Government —
How Mr. Davis was; nominated — Character of the Confederate Congress — The
South and the West — Hopes and Fears — Action of the Federal Government —
Secretary Seward's " Faith" — A Declaration of War — Speech at Savannah —
Capture of Fort Srmter — Call for Seventy-five Thousand Men — Secession of
Virginia — Sent as Commissioner to Richmond — The 19th of April in Balti
more — Excitement throughout the South — Convention between Virginia and
the Confederate States — Financial Policy of Mr. Stephens — Death of Mr.
Douglas — Linton joins the Army — Mr. Stephens in Richmond . . .388
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Discouragements — Policy of Conscription — Richmond Hospitals — Military Op
erations — Conversations — How Mr. Davis was nominated — Prospects — Pros
pects of European Recognition — Resistance to Martial Law — State of Things
North and South — Letter to James M. Calhoun — Speech at Crawfordville —
Financial Policy — Education of Young Men — Relations with Mr. Davis —
Views on Men and Matters .......... 408
CHAPTER XXXVII.
The Conscript Law — Sir Bingo Binks — Lord Lyons and Seward — Canine No
menclature — Linton's Resolutions — Generals Lee and Johnston — Death of
Rio — A Tribute to an Old Friend — Religion — Confederate Bonds — Military
Operations — Exchange of Prisoners — Proposed Mission to Washington —
Speeches— Home News 429
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Sudden Illness — Hospitality of Liberty Hall — An Emergency — Speech before
the Legislature — "Habeas Corpus" and " Peace" Resolutions — Weather Notes
— Reminiscences of Governor Troup — A Night Adventure and an Escape —
A Cynic Philosopher — Notes of Travel — Wounded Soldiers — Sherman ap
proaching — The Chicago Convention — Letter to Georgia Gentlemen — General
Sherman's Device and its Failure — Plans of Adjustment — Thinks of Resign
ing — Judge Taney's Decision 452
CONTEXTS. 15
CHAPTER XXXIX.
PAGE
Difficulty with the Senate — Address before them — Change of Policy recom
mended — Sympathy for Prisoners — Resolutions — The Hampton Roads Con
ference — Exchange of Prisoners — Declines to speak at Richmond — Returns
to Crawfordville — Letter about the Conference — Sherman's Advance — Lee's
Surrender — Arrest of Mr. Stephens — Imprisonment in Fort Warren — Linton
joins him — Prison Journal — Release — Life at Liberty Hall — Declines to bo a
Candidate for the United States Seuatorship — Urgency of his Friends — His
Election — Not allowed to take his Seat — Address to Georgia Legislature —
Summoned before "Reconstruction Committee" — Philadelphia Convention —
His Opinions of Seward, Stanton, and Grant — Undertakes a History of the
War — Sufferings from Renal Calculus 477
CHAPTER XL.
Publication of First Volume of his History of the War — An Accident — Attacks
upon him — The Southern Review — Replies — Elected Professor in University
of Georgia — Declines — Opinion of the Linton Correspondence — Attacked
with Inflammatory Rheumatism — Proposes final Retirement from Public Life
— A Severe Trial — History finished — Another begun — Law Students — Con
nection with the Western Atlantic Railway — Judge Stephens arrested but
no Bill found — Letter to his Students — Opinion of President Grant — The
Atlanta Sun 49-1
CHAPTER XL I.
Situation of Affairs in the South — The " New Departure" — Mr. Greeley — Pluck,
the Dog — Life at Liberty Hall — Death of Judge Linton Stephens — A Crush
ing Sorrow — Contest for Election to the Senate 508
CHAPTER XLII.
Candidate for Congress — Civil Rights Bill — Speech of January 5th — Serious
Illness— The Salary Act — Re-elected — Controversy with the Hon. B. H. Hill
— Withdraws from the Atlanta Sun with heavy loss — Action on the Louisiana
Report — Fourth of July at Atlanta — Liberty Hall again — Sunday-School
Celebration at Crawfordville — Re-election — Appearance in the House — At
tack of Pneumonia — Report of his Death — Views on the Electoral Commis
sion — Mr. Stephens in Congress — Speech at the uncovering of Carpenter's
Picture 519
CHAPTER XLIII.
Congressional Duties — Re-elected to Congress — General R. Taylor's charges — Facts of
his Release from Fort Warren — Interviewers — A Georgia Dinner — Writes a Book
— James P. Espy — His Seventieth Birthday — An Accident — Elected Governor —
Pardons — The Sesqui-Centennial — Illness— Death — Concluding Remarks . 539
APPENDICES . 559-629
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
CHAPTER I.
The Stephens Family — The Fugitive Jacobite— An Idyll on the Juniata—
Removal to Georgia — Andrew B. Stephens — Purchase of the Homestead —
The Grier Family — Marriage of Andrew B. Stephens— Birth of Alexan
der — Second Marriage of Andrew B. Stephens — Birth of Linton Stephens
— Marriages
AMONG the Jacobites who quitted England, some from appre
hension and some from disgust, upon the disastrous ending of
the ill-advised attempt known as "the Forty-five," was one
Alexander Stephens, the grandfather of him whose biography
we have in hand. With some small means, and with aims as
definite as are usually held by adventurous exiles who leave
their native country to seek homes and fortunes in other lands,
he reached Pennsylvania, and at first sought shelter with the
Shawnee Indians, at a spot not far from where the town of
Chambersburgh now stands.
A young man of spirit and energy, just grown to manhood,
who had been in one war and crossed an ocean to better his for
tunes, was not likely to remain long with a savage tribe, how
ever friendly their treatment, and whatever peril might attend
his departure. His movements have not been precisely chroni
cled; but we know thnt when the French and Indian War broke
out, he enlisted under Washington, and was present at Braddock's
defeat. What befell him immediately after this is not known ;
but his subsequent wanderings brought him to the ferry at the
junction of the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers. The Juniata
is somewhat of a classic and poetic stream, or at least used to be,
2 17
18 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
forty years ago, when a ballad commemorative of the charms of
"The Blue Juniata" was much affected by sentimental songsters.
Alexander Stephens was hot accounted a poet in his day, so far
as we have heard, yet he bore an important part in a small poem
whose scene was laid on the banks of this river. The owner of
the ferry was a wealthy gentleman by the name of Baskins, and
among other children he had a daughter, with whom the young
Jacobite made acquaintance. Whether her personal attractions
borrowed or needed any aid from the romantic scenery amid
which she dwelt, or the goodly estate which she had the prospect
of inheriting, and whether his own were enhanced by the dangers
he had seen and escaped, we cannot now say. But these two
young persons, in the course of time, found each other's society
so agreeable, that they resolved to enjoy it for life. Mr. Bas
kins, having made other arrangements for his daughter better
suited to his taste, refused his consent to their union, and threat
ened to disinherit. But the young lady was not to be moved by
such considerations ; so against her father's will she married her
young adventurer and united her fortunes with his. Her father's
house was now no longer a home for her; and although the couple
sued for pardon, Mr. Baskins was inexorable. In the course
of time the War of Independence broke out, and Alexander,
who had not seen enough of such things, took a part in this.
He served through the war, and at its close retired, with the rank
of captain, to the house he had made for himself on the Juniata.
Finding it still impossible to conciliate his obdurate father-in-
law, and the latter dying some time after, leaving a will in which
his threats of disinheriting were carried out, Mr. Stephens deter
mined to remove.
By this time he had quite a family of children : three sons —
James, Nehemiah, and Andrew B. — and five daughters, — Cath
erine, Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah, and Jane. He first went to Elbert
County, in the State of Georgia; but did not long remain there,
soon removing again to the adjoining county of Wilkes, where
he took up his abode on rented land, on the banks of Kettle
Creek.
James, the eldest son, on reaching his majority, went back to
the old neighborhood in Pennsylvania, where his descendants
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 19
still live. Nehemiah went to Tennessee. Andrew B., alone of
the sons, stayed with his parents, as did Jane, the other daugh
ters marrying in time — Mary, a Jones ; Catherine, a Coulter ;
Sarah, a Hudgins ; and Elizabeth, a Kellogg.
Captain Alexander Stephens, it seemed, had been too much
among wars to be well fitted for the arts of peace. He continued
to live on rented land ; and now that James and Nehemiah were
gone, his only reliance for help from his children was on his
youngest son. Andrew B., in mere boyhood, had shown much
taste and aptitude for farming ; and he worked on the farm at
Kettle Creek, and went to school in the neighborhood at times
when his services could be spared. He made such progress in
his studies that his father strained a point and sent him to the
school in Washington (then the county seat) kept by the Rev.
Hope Hull, afterwards one of the leading ministers of the Meth
odist Church. This was a famous school at that day. Andrew
B. Stephens stood high in the master's estimation, as we may
judge from the following incident. When he was fourteen years
old, a committee of gentlemen residing in a remote part of the
county, on the south side of Little River, being desirous of
having a school on a better foundation than such as they were
accustomed to, waited upon Mr. Hull, and desired him to name
one of his pupils who was fit for their pu^rpose. Mr. Hull at
once named Andrew B. Stephens, who, though surprised at the
decision, as were the other pupils and the committee, accepted
the call, opened his school, and began teaching to the entire
satisfaction of his patrons.
The young schoolmaster made good use of his first earnings.
At the end of the first year he bought a hundred acres of land,
paying part, of the purchase-money in cash, and giving his bond'
for the rest. To this place his father and sister Jane removed,
and the former spent the remainder of his days there. His
mother had died on the farm on Kettle Creek. This hundred-j
acre tract was the nucleus of that homestead which, except for a
few years after the death of Andrew B., has ever since been in '
the possession of the family. Andrew B., however, did not yet
reside with his father and sister. He continued to teach school
until he was of age and married, except for two years, when he
20 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
was employed as a clerk in a country store. When he married,
he went to live on this farm.
His wife's maiden name was Margaret Grier. The Griers had
emigrated from the north of Ireland, and they too had settled in
Pennsylvania. We can trace the Griers no farther back than
two brothers, Robert and Thomas. From one of these the late
Justice Grier, of the Supreme Court of the United States, was
descended. From the other sprang a branch of the family which
removed to Georgia about 1769. Aaron Grier was one of these,
and it was his daughter Margaret whom Andrew B. Stephens
married. After his marriage, his father lived with him at the
homestead until his death in the year 1813. His daughter Jane
had died before ; so that Andrew B. and his family were left
the only occupants of the farm. Jane did not die on the place,
but was buried there in the old family burying-ground, where
her father was laid by her side.
To Andrew B. and Margaret, his wife, were born three chil
dren : Mary, Aaron Grier, and Alexander. Their mother was
of a frail constitution, though her fresh and rosy complexion
seemed the sign of robust health. Mild, industrious, charitable,
intelligent, she was, in the true, old-fashioned sense of the word,
a "helpmeet" for her husband. Mary, the eldest daughter,
married very young, and died soon after. Aaron Grier lived
to manhood, and married Sarah A. Slayton, of Wilkes County.
He was a man of very retiring disposition, great good sense, and
exemplary character. He died in 1843, leaving his widow with
one child, a son, who did not long survive. The widow yet lives,
and has never married again. Reference will again be made to
this excellent man when we shall have reached the period in
this biography contemporary with his death.
ALEXANDER, the youngest child, and the subject of this biog-
'raphy, was born on February llth, 1812. His mother survived
him but a short time, dying on the 12th of the following May,
and her grave was the first made in what was then the new
burying-ground at the homestead.
After the death of his wife Margaret, Andrew B. Stephens
was again married, to Matilda Lindsay, the daughter of Colonel
John Lindsay, distinguished in the Revolutionary War. From
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II, STEPHENS. 21
this marriage sprang four sons — John L., Andrew Baskins, Ben
jamin F., and Lin ton — and a daughter, — Catherine B. ; of whom
only John L., Catherine, and Linton lived to majority. \ John
L. married Elizabeth Booker, of Wilkes. He died in 1856,
leaving a widow, two daughters, and four sons. Catherine, the
daughter, married Thomas Greer, of Talbot County, and died
in 1857.
Linton Stephens married, in 1852, Emmeline Bell, widow of
George Bell, of Hancock County, and only daughter of the late
Hon. James Thomas, former judge of the northern circuit. This
lady died in 1857, leaving three daughters ; and ten years after
wards, in 1867, Linton Stephens married again, his wife being
Miss Mary \V. Salter, of Boston. He died July 14th, 1872,
leaving one son and two daughters by his second marriage.
CHAPTER II.
The " Giles and Finkle" Correspondence — Early Eecollections — School
master Day — Georgia "Old-Field Schools" — A Mutiny — Barring out —
The Inquisitive Owl — Schoolmaster Duffie and his Advice.
ALLUSION has already been made in the Preface to the Giles
and Finkle correspondence, and how "Mr. Giles/7 perceiving
with how much greater freedom Mr. Stephens expressed himself
with regard to his personal affairs when writing in the character
of a third person, requested " Mr. Finkle" to give him some of
the incidents of the boyhood of " Boss," as that personage chose
to designate his friend and patron. On the 5th of April, 1863,
the following reply was received :
"APRIL 4th, 1863.
"DEAR JEEMS, — Boss and I were at the Homestead when your letter
came yesterday. Boss has been down there all this week. He stays there
now the most of his time when at home. Just before Tim [a colored boy
then belonging to Mr. Stephens, since dead] brought the letter, we were
out in the field before the house, where the hands were planting corn, and
Boss was showing how to cover it.
li While he was thus engaged, a Mr. Thomas Akins, from Greene County,
came to see him on some business connected with a son he had in the army.
So Boss stopped, and after talking about the business until they got through,
Mr. Akins said, 'I was never in this part of the country before. These
hills are all new to me.'
" Boss replied, ' They are not new to me. My earliest recollections
and associations are connected with these scenes, though they are wonder
fully changed since then. I recollect when this field was cleared. It was
a square ten-acre field, just forty rods square. The first crop was grown
on it in 1818, the dry year. The land was rich then. It was always
called ' the new ground,' as long as I lived here. Right over yonder, on
that hill, I was born, and right along here I was ploughing when I was
sent for to go to the house. Father was worse. It was the day before he
died ; Saturday, May the sixth, 1826. Just up there I took out my horse,
little dreaming it was for the last time. The land looked very different
then from what it does now.'
22
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 23
" MR. A. — ' It must be interesting to you to visit these fields, crowded as
they are with so many recollections.'
" Boss. — 'Oh, yes. I take more interest in reclaiming these old worn-
out fields than in anything else. It is almost a hopeless undertaking $ but
it affords me a strange pleasure. I spend all my spare time here. I can
every day bring to memory some old forgotten incident which awakens
whole trains of thought that filled my mind in childhood. These I like to
dwell upon : they seem to give strength and durability to the continuity
of my existence. In the midst of them I see less change in myself than
in nature around me. That very rock yonder, the other day, brought back
to my mind vividly one of the earliest experiences I ever had on the sub
ject of religion. You see that big gray rock there : it is split from top to
bottom. Well, when this land was cleared, that split or crack in the rock
attracted my attention. I could not conceive what had caused it. I asked
my father what did it. lie said he did not know, but it was supposed by
learned men that it was done when Christ was crucified: that the Scrip
tures said the rocks were rent-, and he said that large rocks of this kind
all over the country were cracked as this one was. This led on to a full
account by him of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, and the na
ture of Redemption, — the first, I think, that I ever had, as I can recollect
none earlier. Strange to say, I had entirely forgotten this, until a few
days ago, while I was having these ditches made, being tired I sat down to
rest upon that rock, and looking upon the split in it, this early incident of
my life came to my mind, with all its train of impressions, thoughts, and
reflections. So with almost everything about here, every day I am here I
find something recalling memories, — some of them back to within three
years after my birth. Nearer than that to the beginning of my existence
I have not yet been able to start a trace. Some things, it is true, float
through my mind as shadows or dreams, to which I can fix no date.
Among others, I remember my Aunt Betsey Grier coming to see us,
her crying, and taking us children into the garden to the grave of our
mother.' "
When this letter came, " Mr. Giles" felt great satisfaction that
he had thus succeeded in getting Mr. Stephens to do what he
had been asking him for five or six years to do, — to put down in
writing some recollections of his boyhood. He had never posi
tively refused in so many words; but he always seemed disposed
to avoid conversation on that subject, though he would fully and
freely answer any questions upon anything relating to himself.
After the Giles and Finkle correspondence began, and at a time
when his counsels were of no avail for the country, it became a
relief to him to turn away from the contemplation of our pub
lic distress to the remembrances of his early years. When he
24 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
had once fallen into the habit of writing upon this theme, and
especially as he was now writing under an imaginary name to
an imaginary correspondent, he manifested a great interest in
recording these remembrances, and, as will be seen hereafter,
occasionally wrote with much feeling.
Near the rock alluded to in this letter is another. It is out
side the field, over the road, in the edge of the wood. On one
occasion while the present writer was on a visit to Mr. Stephens,
and we had ridden to the homestead, we were walking in this
wood and came to the rock. It is a high, irregular boulder.
We ascended it, and the following dialogue occurred :
J. — " Do you remember anything connected with this rock ?"
S. — " That I do. This wood was once an exceedingly dense
one. It seems now a short distance across the field yonder to the
place where we lived. But to us children, when all the inter
vening space was covered with wood, this was considered a long
way from home. We used to come here sometimes to gather
honeysuckles and jessamine, which then grew in great abun
dance around this rock. Often and often have I clambered to
its top. But in early childhood this was about the limit of my
wanderings, unless I was accompanied by some older person."
The letter of " Mr. Finkle," above quoted from, gives an
account of a further conversation between Boss and Mr. Akin :
" MR. A. — ' Did your father live at this place when he taught school at
the Cross Roads near where Mr. Lindsay used to live? I went to school
to him in 1821.'
" Boss. — ' I did not know you ever went to school to him.'
" MR. A. — ' I went to him for about six months at the Cross Roads.
How far is that from here?'
"Boss. — 'About two miles and a half. That is the place where I first
went to school. I went to Mr. Day — Nathaniel Day — for three months,
in the same year this field was cleared, 1818. There was a young man
named Benjamin Bryant whose way to school led just along there, and
who used to come past our house for us children. He was a large, strong
young man, and he used to carry me on his shoulders. Some years ago,
as I got on the cars at Crawfordville, on my way to Congress at Washing,
ton, I saw a tall, fine-looking man standing on the platform, and, as I
heard, making inquiries about people long since dead or moved away. I
was struck with his appearance. He wore a long black beard, not then
common with our people. At Augusta he took the Charleston train, and
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 25
when we got there he took the Wilmington boat. At Wilmington he took
the Weldon train. I had noticed him all the way. We were seated by
each other that day, and I began conversation with him. He inquired
where I was from. I told him, and said I had heard him inquiring at our
depot about the Littles and other people, and asked him if he knew them.
lie answered that he did : that he was reared near that place. He then
asked my name, and was surprised to hear that Stephens, member of Con
gress from Georgia, was the identical little automaton that he used to carry
on his shoulders to school. He was the same Ben Bryant, then living in
Texas; had grown rich, and was now going to North Carolina on a visit.
He actually cried when he found out who I was. He left the train ac
Weidon, and we parted with much emotion on both sides. I have never
seen nor heard of him since.'
" MR. A. — ' You did not go to your father's school at the same time that
I did ?'
" Boss. — ' No ; I went to him there a little then in the winter, but not
in the summer. I went in the fall and winter for about three months, and
about the same time the year before, over on yonder hill, about a mile off.
that was called the Woodruff Hill. It was all woods then. The school-
house stood first on that knoll yonder that looks so bare.' "
About a week after the receipt of this letter another came,
from which we make some extracts :
u DEAR GILES, — I have not received any answer to my last letter to you ;
but in a correspondence like ours answers and replies cannot be necessary,
and need not be expected as punctually as is usual among men of business.
Ours is a sort of written conversation upon things in general as they may
arise ; each one talking or writing as the spirit moves him, or when he
has anything to say, if it be only to relieve 4 his laborin' brest,' as you
have frequently so well expressed that idea. For this reason, or with
these feelings, I write to you now. Not that I have anything particularly
interesting to say to you, or to talk about; but just because I feel like
talking to somebody on any subject that may arise, simply for the comfort
of the mind. Most conversations, I have noticed, are of this character.
They generally begin with how d'ye do, or good-day, or some salutation of
the sort, and then just drift along as the current of incidents or associa
tions may direct. This, after all, is the most interesting kind of conversa
tion to me. Your staid and studied talk, measured and weighed, was
always stiff and disagreeable to me. It is like going to see a friend, and
being seated in a fine parlor on a fine mahogany chair with a round-
cushioned bottom higher in the middle than anywhere else, which keeps
you sitting bolt upright, with no chance to lean back or turn round, except
like a fellow on the fool's stool in school. Now I would about as soon be
in purgatory as on one of these fine fashionable chairs. They were made
for show and not comfort. Sometimes I have thought they were made for
26 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
discomfort, to put people in an uneasy and unnatural posture in order to
make them leave quick. Give me an old split-bottom chair for all the
world ; and not too low at that, but high enough for the legs to have fair
play, to be stretched out or drawn up or crossed at pleasure, and in which
a man may sit upright or lean back or rest on his side, just as he may
please. That is the sort of chair for me. And that is the kind of talk,
whether spoken or written, that I like, which flows along in a natural way
without any premeditation or stuffing."
At this point the letter branches off into a discussion of the
comparative value of spoken and written sermons, and then
comes back to the subject of talk which drifts in any way as
accident may determine.
" Such is and certainly will be the character of this letter from begin
ning to end, for my mind to-day is perfectly afloat, without object or
aim."
After some account of his state of health, " Mr. Finkle" goes
on to relate an anecdote of old Mr. Day, to whom Mr. Stephens
first went as a scholar, and which we preserve as serving to
illustrate some of the ancient doings in the " old-field schools"
in Georgia.
" This Mr. Day lived very near the house of Boss's father at that time,
and down to the death of the latter. Soon after that he moved up to
Walton County, where he lived until a few years ago, when he died at a
very great age. He was what was called a good English teacher in his
day and section of country, and though very well to do in the world as
to property, yet he occasionally followed the calling of teacher until he
became too old. His greatest failing was his fondness for a dram. He
was not by any means a drunkard, but the temptation to indulge to excess
now and then was very great to him. He often got ' disguised,' as it was
then termed; and one of the sayings anciently common in this neighbor
hood was, when any of the rustics was asked to take anything at dinner
or on any similar occasion, 'I thank you 5 I will. For as old Nat Day
used always to say, when asked to take a drink, "I never refuse. I am
particularly fond of it." '
" Well, the boys wanted holiday at Whitsuntide, and as Mr. Day had
told them that he would not give it, they entered into a regular conspiracy
to go through the form, of barring him out. All the big boys were to meet
on Monday morning and bar up the school-house door, and refuse to let
the teacher in until he had made terms. But a little incident interfered
with this arrangement, and brought affairs to an earlier dtnoument than
was expected. Henry Perkins, one of the biggest and stoutest boys in
LIFE OF ALEXANDER IL STEPHENS. 27
school and the ringleader of the plot, on Friday before did something that
brought him a scolding from Mr. Day, to which he replied with some
insolence of manner. Day, switch in hand, called him up, apparently
with the intention of administering punishment there and then. The
expectation of Perkins getting a whipping produced no small sensation.
For he was fully grown, and had never been whipped since the school
began. He had great liberties — he was & cipherer! and all cipherers in
those days had, among other privileges, that of going out and staying out
when they pleased. The idea of a cipherer being whipped had never
before dawned as a possibility upon these young minds. So you may
imagine that expectation was on tiptoe when Perkins walked up sulkily.
But what was the amazement, the consternation, when, instead of stand
ing out to receive his whipping, he was seen to walk up to the man with
the rod, whose authority had never been questioned before, and seize the
switch with one hand and the collar of Mr. Day with the other ! A short
struggle ensued. Day was thrown upon the floor. All the other boys
who were in the conspiracy joined on a signal from Perkins, and held the
master down until he should give up. The little children screamed and
cried, thinking the master was going to be killed or otherwise dreadfully
maltreated.
" Boss says he looked on with interest, but without fear or apprehension
of any sort. He had no idea that the boys were going to hurt the master ;
though he knew nothing of the plan or object of the revolt. He heard
them proposing terms : and it was finally agreed that they would let him
up if he would dismiss his school until the next Wednesday, and send one
of them to a little store where the town [Crawford ville] is now situated
for a gallon of spirits to treat with. The treaty was agreed to, and the
master was allowed to rise. A boy was despatched for the liquor. Ben
Bryant, who did not care to stay for the frolic, took charge of his little
crowd, and left for home before the return of the messenger. It was about
eleven o'clock in the forenoon. Boss and his company ate their dinners
out of their baskets on their way home, and when they went back on
Wednesday, they found how the whole matter had ended. Most of the
big boys stayed until the spirits came, and enjoyed the old man's treat
heartily with him. Finally, they broke up in great good humor. The
master, they said, did get a little disguised, and took home with him the
jug and what was left in it after the carousal."
Doings such as these were not only common, but almost uni
versal in Georgia at the time of which we are speaking, and in
deed for years after. Barring out the schoolmaster was regarded
in the light of an established usage that could not be dispensed
with. Not only the boys, but parents and even teachers were
wont to recognize its ancient authority, without expressing, and
28 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
apparently without feeling, any dissatisfaction. This liberty was
about the only solace which the children of those days had in
passing through that fiery ordeal of education, whose most potent
and unfailing instrument was the hickory rod. In the hours of
study, this dread implement was plied from Monday morning
early until Friday evening late, with merciless persistency on
the backs and legs of boys and girls, and no amount of tears or
entreaties at school or at home could mitigate its horrors. Yet
scarce any despotism is so cruel that it does not relax sometimes ;
so at Whitsuntide, or Easter, or upon other occasions not too
frequent, the down-trodden ones were by general consent and
universal custom allowed, if they could, to turn out their tyrant
or duck him in the branch. At such times he would have been
considered a mean fellow who did not send off for a jug of
whiskey and divide fairly all round. When this feast of the
Saturnalia was over, tyrant and serfs went back to their former
estates as easily and naturally as if no temporary enfranchisement
had occurred.
Many an amusing incident has been handed down by tradition
from those old times. The present writer can just remember this
old Mr. Day, but it was long after he had retired from the pro
fession. When he was " disguised" by liquor there was a most
absurd mixture of fun and dignity in his carriage and behavior.
He had a cook whose name was Sukey. It was related of him
that on a day when he was returning home in that complex state
of feelings and thoughts, that preposterous resultant of buffoonery
and solemnity, which usually followed an occasion of indulgence,
and was passing through the woods, he heard the hooting of a
large owl. Now the rustics of that day used to maintain that
the hoot of this owl contained a statement of fact and a question,
the latter of which was propounded to every one who might be
in hearing. It ran thus : " I cook — for myself: who cooks —
for YOU ALL ?" So when Mr. Day heard this question sharply
put to him in a magisterial tone, he stopped, raised his hat, and
promptly answered, uSuke, sir."
While on the subject of old Georgia schoolmasters, our
readers will perhaps forgive us if we mention another, though
he has no immediate connection with our narrative. His name
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 29
was Duffie, and he swayed the rod in an adjoining county. He
was a preacher as well as teacher ; and in the latter character he
wielded the hickory and took his dram, in all respects like the
rest of his brethren. He was a great politician, and took a
lively interest in all the local affairs of the county. One Friday
afternoon, when there was to be, next day, a horse-race at the
county-town, one of the competitors in which was one of his
political leaders, he admonished his boys in the following
fashion :
" Boys, I suppose you know that there's going to be a horse
race in town to-morrow. Now, boys, don't you go to it.
" But, boys, if you do go, don't you bet. Whatever you do,
don't you bet.
" But, boys, if you do bet, mind what I tell you : if you do
bet, be sure to bet on Abercrombie's mare !"
CHAPTER III.
Home-work — Youthful Trials — Kecollections of his Father — A Painful
Lesson — " Learning Manners" — Exhibitions — Almost a Tragedy — Death
of Andrew B. Stephens — A Great Sorrow.
FROM his sixth to his fifteenth year Alexander Stephens spent
far more time at toil of some sort than in either study or play ;
and after the time previously referred to, he was not at school
at all until the year 1820, and in the succeeding years only when
his services could be spared from the house or the field. From
the letter last quoted it will be seen that his schooling in all this
' time amounted to about two years, and that his work was about
as various as any boy's could be. But from his earliest youth,
whatever were his allotted duties, he labored at them with a per
tinacity and effectiveness that might have won praise from a
strong man, at a time when, to a stranger, the idea of one so frail
accomplishing anything in the way of work must have seemed
unreasonable.
We quote again from " Mr. Finkle" :
"I have often heard Boss say that he did not go to school from that
time [in 1818, to Nathaniel Day] until the fall or late summer of 1820.
He went for about three months in that year, to his father, who then
taught school on the Woodruff Hill. In 1821 he went again for a short
time to his father, at the same Cross Roads of which Mr. Akins spoke.
The next year, 1822, he went for about three months more to his father,
who then taught near Powder Creek meeting-house, and at a spring then
known as the Booker Spring. In the following year also he went to his
father for about the same time and at the same place. None 'of these
periods was exact except the first at Mr. Day's school, where he was en
tered for three months and went for the full time. -His father kept a diary
in which the daily attendance of each scholar was entered, and at the end
of the year he (Boss) was told how many months all his school-days
amounted to. He generally went in the fall and winter. In the summer,
and at all times when he was at home, he had a multitude of services to
perform, such as taking care of the other children smaller than himself,
there being no nurse in his father's household, picking up chips, bringing
30
LIFE OF ALEXANDER IL STEPHENS. 31
water, digging in the garden, hauling manure, keeping the calves off during
morning and evening milking, driving the cattle to and from pasture, etc.,
etc. When there was hauling doing on the place, it was always his duty
to ' mind gaps.' "
He was the general errand-goer and messenger. For all the
cloth that was put on the loom he had to hand the threads. He
was a skilful corn-dropper from a very early age, and after he
was eight years old he dropped nearly all the corn that was
planted on the place. At ten he could keep up dropping as fast
as any ploughman could " lay-off." For several years after the
death of his father he frequently dropped ten acres of corn a
day, in hills spaced four feet by four. At about eleven years
of age he commenced ploughing, and in 1824 he was one of the
regular ploughers during the whole crop. He was also the mill-
boy and shop-boy, — in fact, from the age of six until he was four
teen, when the family broke up, no one's services were more in
demand than his. All the infinitude of little jobs about a house
and plantation, which, in later days, usually fell to the lot of the
younger negroes, were assigned to him, and he could not well
be spared at any time. For this reason his opportunities of
schooling were so few.
The extent of his learning at this time was very small. He
could read well, and could spell almost every word in Webster's
Spelling-Book. Indeed, he was usually head of the spelling-class ;
and in his father's school particular care was taken with the spell
ing. " He says," reports " Mr. Finkle," " that he was a better
speller then than he is now. He could wrrite, and had ciphered
as far as the Single Rule of Three in the old Federal Calculator"
There are two courses open to the heart that has passed through
a childhood of sickness and menial toil. One is, to harden itself
against suffering and sympathy ; to contemn, if not to despise,
those whom it afterward watches passing through the same or
deal, because they are the reminders of what it is ashamed and
angry to be reminded of; and to be as thankless for kindness
and friendship as it is reluctant to bestow them. The other
course is, to bear in mind that there are blessings annexed to
every estate, even to poverty and toil ; and that one of the
greatest of these blessings is that by poverty and toil we learn
32 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
what suffering is, so that when we have emerged from them, we
may know how to pity and how to relieve. Perhaps the former
course is the more natural. It requires a certain amount — per
haps an exceptional amount — of magnanimity to enable a man
to look back upon a time when he endured great privation with
out any feeling of bitterness or shame arising in his heart. But
when one possesses this better nature ; when he can remember
that he has borne them all without undue complaint or repining,
and has stood patiently in his lot until the time of deliverance
came, and then brings to his higher and happier career the de
sire to help all who may need help, — such a man may, and will,
thank God for the sweet uses of adversity.
//Mr. Stephens, as we have seen, did not acquire much learning
in his youth from the schools of books, such as they were ; but
in the school of experience and practical knowledge, in the duties
of the kitchen, the garden, and the field, in the heat and cold,
on the bed of sickness, by the side of his mother's grave, at the
pillow of his dying father, in his second orphanage, and in the
break ing-up and scattering of the family, — in these, and things
like these, he learned wisdom higher than any found in books,
and by it he grew strong in endurance, strong in purpose, and
strong in high resolves to do the right, resist the wrong, and
help, wherever he might find them, the suffering and the weal?\
And so now he loves to dwell on those early days, knowing
that they were of priceless worth to him. As a boy it may have
seemed to him hard that, with his delicate frame and eager thirst
for learning, he was denied opportunities of study which were
granted to so many to whom it was a hateful drudgery ; but he
now sees that the experiences and trials of those early days were
the best sources of his education. He can now think of all the
hardships of those days without pain, and of some even with
gratitude ; and his affections still cling about the place where
they were endured, which is still his home, and where he intends
shall be his grave.
" Mr. Giles" had frequently asked " Mr. Finkle" to take some
opportunity to draw his patron into conversation on the subject
of his father; but this was not done until near the end of the
year 1863. On the llth of November of that year he received
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 33
a letter touching on the topic in question. Part of it recited a
dialogue between " Boss" and one of his nephews, from which
we make some extracts :
. — 'Have you any recollection of grandfather, sir? What
sort of man was he ?'
" MR. S. — ' I remember him very distinctly. He was of about the middle
height and size, weighing, when in good health, about a hundred and sixty
pounds, and of a well-proportioned figure. His hair was black, but be
came slightly streaked with gray before he died. His eyes were dark gray,
his complexion ruddy. He was not what would be called a handsome man,
but of a decided comeliness of appearance. His carriage and manners
were dignified, and his action graceful. lie was always courteous and
agreeable, but not much given to mirth. He was industrious, systematic,
and frugal ; not greedy of gain, but proud of his independence. He looked
upon labor as honorable, and impressed this idea upon his children.
" ' His greatest happiness seemed to consist in agriculture and husbandry.
He was fond of orchards, gave close attention to fruit-trees, and procured
all the varieties he could find. In grafting he was very skilful and suc
cessful, and some of the trees in his old orchard, grafted by his hand, are
still standing. He had a good, sound, strong, native intellect, though his
education had been limited, and he had not had much schooling. But he
was a good English scholar. His penmanship was remarkable ; indeed, I
have never met with a handwriting which excelled his. He was also a good
draughtsman. He was fond of reading, and spent much of his leisure-time
in reading or writing. He did most of the writing for the neighborhood,
and whoever had a deed or contract to draw up usually came to him.
'"In some respects he was peculiar, considering the customs of his day.
He abhorred ardent spirits, never tasted it, and never frequented places
where it was drunk. He detested indecent jesting, and no one dared to
indulge in it in his presence. He never made nor received visits on Sun
day. When he did not go to church on that day he stayed at home, and
made his children stay at home and read the Bible. If any of his neigh
bors called to see him on Sunday, he had a way of his own for disposing
of them. He would soon give the conversation such a turn as would make
a reference to books opportune, by way of illustration or confirmation of
his views. He would then take down a volume of sermons, and read from
them some passages bearing on the point. This usually resulted in the
departure of the unseasonable visitor. It was a common remark of his
that the best way to treat idle visitors, whose visits were without object or
profit, was to take a book and read something to them. If they became
interested, then the visit was no longer wearisome, but mutually profitable
and pleasant: and if not, then becoming the bored, and not the borers,
they would take themselves off.
" ' Though not a member of any church, he was exceedingly exemplary,
34 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
moral, and upright in his life, had a high regard for truth, justice, and
honor, and was a firm believer in the doctrines of Christianity. His family
belonged to that branch of the Presbyterian Church known as the Seceders.
" ' He commenced life as a school-teacher when he was a little more than
fourteen years old, and taught several years before he was married, but
never, as I have often heard him say, liked that occupation. He taught,
as I remember, more in compliance with the urgent entreaties of his
neighbors than in obedience to his own inclination. He loved his home
and to be at work; here he ploughed, hoed, reaped, superintended the
building of all his houses, laying with his own hands the chimneys of
stone or brick. He tanned his own leather, made his own lasts, and all
the shoes for the family. He bought little or nothing, and came as near
living within himself as any man I ever knew.
44 1 He had a natural genius for almost any kind of handicraft. The
trowel he used as well as the best of masons ; the saw, the chisel, the adze,
and the plane as dexterously as the most expert carpenter. His leather
was as good as any I ever saw ; and his shoes and boots were equal to any
made at this day by our best workmen. Whatever he turned his hand to
he did. and did well. This was a maxim with him. which he used to
enforce by quoting the lines from Pope :
"Honor and shame from no condition rise:
Act well your part, there all the honor lies."
Pope, by the wray, was one of his favorite authors. The Essay on Man
he used to make his higher classes read in school.' "
When Mr. Stephens had at last been induced to speak of his
father, he took a deep interest in the subject. On the 17th of
the same month, November, " Mr. Giles" received another and
much longer letter from " Mr. Finkle." It will be seen from the
extracts given how fondly he was then dwelling upon the mem
ories of his father, and how deep the feelings those memories
awakened in his heart. About this time public affairs were in
a condition which caused him great depression, and the greater
from the fact that he felt that his counsels were of no avail in
arresting the progress of events, or the line of policy pursued
by the administration at Richmond. Next to a never-failing
trust in Providence to make all things, even those that looked
most calamitous, contribute to the best ends, he found his chief
consolation in reverting to the happier years of his own life and
the life of the country. He almost seemed to wish that he
could so live in the memory of those times as to delude him
self into the fancy that they had never departed or had returned.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 35
"DEAR JEEMS, — Ever since the conversation Boss had with his nephew
about his father, he seems to be more taken up with that subject thai; with
anything else. It seems to have opened to him a new vein of thought,
and he has talked a great deal about it to me when we were together alone.
Some things that he said I shall try to relate as accurately as I can.
" The other day, as we were walking together in the field where the old
house used to stand, ' Peter,' said he, ' my father was a wise man. The more
I think of him the more deeply I am impressed with the fact, not only in
reference to his knowledge of the world and of men, but in all the rela
tions and business of life. And this brings the whole subject we were •
talking of the other day back to my mind. One of his traits, Peter, was
rarely to lose his temper. He very seldom suffered himself to get angry,
and when he did, he suppressed all outward show of it. He never quar
relled with his neighbors, nor scolded his servants, children, or scholars.
He took great care to give no cause of offence to others.
" ' A common remark of his own was, " Haste makes waste." His rule
was to keep constantly going, moderately but regularly, and never to lose
any time. lie never allowed his oxen or horses to be pushed ; rarely
himself rode faster than a walk, and he would have punished a child or
servant for trotting a horse from the plough, or galloping to or from the
mill, even without a load. His rules were rigid, and his discipline strict.
Punishment invariably followed their infraction, through ^negligence or
inattention, — punishment sure, but never severe.
" 'There was nothing about the farm that more provoked him than bad
ploughing, whether in breaking up the land or in the cultivation of the
crop. He took great pains with his ploughs, seeing that they were prop
erly proportioned, and that the share and coulter were rightly pitched to
run easily, both for horse and man. He made his plough-stocks himself,
and saw that every part was rightly adjusted. He allowed no loitering or
stopping after a start was made for the field. Two hours were allowed
for rest and feeding at noon in the summer, less in the other seasons.
" ' My duty, from childhood, was to attend to the sheep. I had to see
that they were up every night, summer and winter. I shall never forget a
punishment that I got about the sheep soon after the duty was assigned me.
One evening, after a snowy day, I went to call them up, fold them and
feed them as usual. I found them all but one. It was almost dark, and
the snow was several inches deep on the ground. I called for some time,
but the sheep did not come, and I returned, and did not report that one
was missing. The next evening the sheep was still missing, and still I
made no report. The following morning my father went with me himself
to look at the sheep, as was his custom from time to time to go around
and see how every one was attending to his duty. He missed the sheep,
which was a ewe, and immediately asked how long she had been mi.ssing.
I told him. " Why had I said nothing of it before?" he sternly asked. I
could say nothing, for the true reason of my silence was the fear that I
36 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
should be sent out to look for the lost ewe in the dark and snow ; and as
I did not tell of it the first night, I held my peace the next day. I had
no idea that anything serious had happened to the ewe, but supposed she
would come up in a day or two, and that no one but myself would know
that she had ever been missing.
" ' The affair, however, turned out very differently from my expectations.
I got a sound chastisement for my carelessness and disobedience ; but the
evident anger of my father at my misconduct caused me much severer pain
than did the stripes he inflicted. He and I set out to search for the ewe ;
and at last we found her dead, with a lamb she had borne lying dead
beside her. The whole affair made a deep and lasting impression on my
mind, and I do not think I was ever again guilty of a similar piece of
negligence. It was not from the fear of the punishment : indeed, looking
back, I do not remember that I ever had a whipping in my life that did
me any good ; and I certainly was never deterred from doing anything
by the fear of one. Perhaps I never deserved one more than I did this ;
and I did not feel that I had been wronged by it, which is more than I
can say of many that I did get. But such was my reverence and love for
my father, and such my trust in his justice and goodness, that I did not
think he would act in any matter of this sort from any motive but the
sense of duty. But I thought then, and still think, that if he had not
whipped me, but had explained the reason of his injunction to me to
report any missing sheep at the time, and had gone with me as he did.
and we had found the sheep dead in consequence of my neglect, this
would have had all the effect upon me that the punishment was intended
to produce. For it was a matter of deep and painful thought to me for a
long time afterwards, that old "Mottle-face," as we used to call the ewe,
had suffered and died through my neglect. No darkness, cold, or snow
could have kept me from hunting her up if I had thought of her being
in such a condition.
" ' My father's habits as a teacher, and his manner of teaching, I well
recollect. He never scolded ; never reprimanded a scholar in a loud
voice ; never thumped the head, pulled the ears, or used a ferula, as I
have often seen other teachers do. He took great pleasure in the act of
teaching, and was unwearied in explaining everything to his scholars, the
youngest as well as the oldest. He had no classes, except in spelling and
reading, in which exercises he insisted on a clear, full enunciation. He
was himself one of the best readers I have ever heard, and he was very
particular in making his scholars attend to the pauses, and deliver the
passages with the proper emphasis and intonation ; and to instruct them
in this he would take the book and show the school how it ought to be
read. In this way even the dullest scholar understood what was required
of him, and what good reading was. His "cipherers,'' as those used to be
called who studied arithmetic, and such as were in higher branches, such
as surveying, etc., were allowed to study outside the school-house.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 37
u l His scholars generally were much attached to him. He was on easy
and familiar terms with them without losing their respect; and the small
est boys would approach him with confidence, but never with familiarity.
He had one custom I never saw or heard of in any other school. About
once a month, on a Friday evening, after the spelling classes had got
through their tasks, he had an exercise on ceremony, which the scholars
called ''learning manners/' though what he called it — if I ever heard him
call it anything — I cannot remember. The exercise consisted in going
through the usual form of salutation on meeting an acquaintance, and
introducing persons to each other, with other variations occasionally in
troduced. These forms were taught during the Aveek, and the pupils'
proficiency was tested on the occasions I am speaking of. At the appointed
hour on the Friday evening, at a given signal, books were laid aside and
a recess of a few minutes given. Then all would reassemble and take
seats in rows on opposite benches, the boys on one side and the girls — for
he taught both sexes — on the other. The boy at the head of the row
would rise and walk toward the centre of the room, and the girl at the
head of her row would rise and proceed toward the same spot. As they
approached, the boy would bow and the girl drop a curtsey, — the estab
lished female salutation of those days, — and they would then pass on. At
other times they were taught to stop and exchange verbal salutations,
and the usual formulas of polite inquiry, after which they retired, and
were followed by the next pair. His leading object was to teach ease and
becoming confidence of manner, and gracefulness of movement and ges
ture. He was very particular about a bow ; and when a boy was awkward
in it, he would go through the motion himself, and show how it ought
to be done. These exercises were varied by meetings in an imaginary
parlor, — the entrance, introduction, and reception of visitors, with practice
in "commonplace chat," to use his own phrase, suited to the supposed
occasion. Then came the ceremony of introductions. The parties in this
case would walk from opposite sides of the room fh pairs, and upon
meeting, after the salutations of the two agreed upon, would commence
making known to each other the friends accompanying them : the boy
saying, "Allow me, Miss Mary, to present to you my friend Mr. Smith.
Mr, Smith, Miss Jones." Whereupon, after Miss Mary had spoken to
Mr. Smith, she would in turn introduce her friends.
" ' These exercises, trivial as the description may seem, were of great use
to raw country boys and girls, removing their awkwardness and conse
quent shyness, and the painful sense of being at a disadvantage, or the
dread of appearing ridiculous ; and I have no doubt many or all of them,
in after-life, had frequent occasion to be grateful for my father's lessons in
"manners." They were delighted in by the scholars, especially the large
boys and girls, and in the old-field schools some of these were nearly or
quite grown. Frequently, when the weather was fine, parents and neigh
bors would come to the school-house on these Friday evenings to witness
38 LIFE OF ALEXANDER U. STEPHENS.
the ceremonies. When such visits were expected, the girls would dress a
little smarter than usual, and the boys would fix themselves up at the
spring, washing, combing, and giving an ornamental adjustment, popularly
called a " roach," to their hair ; and the conversation, of surpassing polite
ness and elegance, was extremely amusing.
" ' My father was very fond of dramatic exercises in school, and while,
as I said before, he was never much given to mirth, meaning by that ex
cessive laughter or joke-telling, yet he was very fond of the humorous in
dramatic form. He seldom had public examinations, but almost always
had what he called an " exhibition5' some time during the year. At these
exhibitions speeches were delivered by the boys, pieces of poetry or prose
recited', and dialogues or dramatic scenes acted. The speeches of the
small boys he wrote himself. They were short, and usually took a humor
ous turn. The larger boys recited pieces of his selection, among which
there was sure to be Pope's " Universal Prayer," which was a great favor
ite with him. My brother Aaron had this assigned to him on one occasion,
when a short piece of poetry called " The Cuckoo" — I forget the author
— fell to my lot. I also recited a piece on Charity, by Blair, and took
parts in several plays.
" 'These exhibitions were numerously attended, — surprisingly so, under
the circumstances. At one I think there were at least three thousand per
sons, and the crowd was like that of a camp-meeting, the spectators hav
ing assembled from a circuit of many miles: indeed, the exhibition was a
great gala-day, not only for the school, but for all the surrounding coun
try. A stage was constructed at the end of the school-house, and dressing-
rooms, as I may call them, partitioned off by curtains. The green-room
was in the school-room, and was entered through a window behind the
curtain. The scenes for action were selected with a good deal of taste.
None were chosen from tragedy proper, or from farce, but chosen with an
eye to improve manners and morals. Some of the dialogues of this kind
he wrote himself. He devoted great care to the rehearsals, showing each
performer how his part should be recited and acted. His versatility of
talent in this line was surprising, and the scholars used to enjoy the
rehearsals quite as heartily as the spectators did the performance. In this
as in everything else, he carried out his principle that whatever was to be
done ought to be well done. Half-way modes of doing things, make-shifts
and failures, were an abomination in his sight.
" ' His scholars had a strong attachment for him, and those who had once
been his pupils seemed to feel as deep regard and respect for him as for
their own parents. This feeling, I have found, adhered to them through
life. Whenever in my travels I have fallen in with any of my father's
old scholars, their hearts seemed to warm into a glow towards me. He
talked to them, counselled them, instilled into them principles of sobriety,
morality, industry, energy, and honor. Cheating, lying, and everything
mean or dishonest he held up to scorn and abhorrence. He was, so far as
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 39
I know, the only old-field teacher of those days on whom the boys never
played the prank of " turning out." They had probably too much respect
and regard for him.
" ' In early life he was very healthy and robust, and unusually strong for
one of his size, as I have often heard him say. lie never met one of his
own weight whom- he could not out-jump. Wrestling had been a favorite
amusement with him in his youth -, but in after-life he never allowed his
children, scholars, or servants to engage in it. His reason for this prohi
bition grew out of an incident of his life which he sometimes related with
much feeling. When he first grew up, Sherod Young, a friend of his of
about the same age, and his equal in strength, to whom he was much
attached, and with whom he had had many a wrestling-bout without any
very decided advantage on either side, proposed to him that they should go
out alone, and by one final trial determine which was the better of the
two. For a long time neither had much the advantage, until at last
Young by some movement lost his footing, and my father threw him a
heavy fall, and fell himself upon him. For some time he lay insensible,
and apparently dead. No one was present to help. My father used
every effort to revive him, but in vain, until finally he gave up in
despair, believing him dead. Life, however, at last returned ; but it was
long before he entirely recovered from the effects of the fall. From that
day my father never again wrestled with any one, nor would he allow it
to take place wherever he could prevent it.
" 'But in later years, and as far back as my earliest recollection of him,
he suffered from some affection of the spine, and could not lift anything
of much weight, nor stoop without pain. He suffered also much from
ear-ache, of a rheumatic or neuralgic character, and I have known him
tormented for many sleepless nights in succession with this painful mal
ady. He often expressed the opinion that he would not live to old age.
In speaking of death he used to express a strong desire to retain his con
sciousness to the last. " I should like to meet him" [Death], he would say,
" in my right mind." This, however, was not the case with him. He died
of pneumonia, or, as it was then called, influenza. He was confined to
his bed nine or ten days, but was not thought to be dangerously ill until
the day before he died. About twenty-four hours before he died he became
delirious, then fell into,a stupor, after which he recognized nothing. The
evening on which he was first taken, he told all the family that he thought
he should die, though he was not suffering much pain. He had all the
children and servants called into his bedroom, where my step-mother was
lying ill herself, and told them what he thought would be the issue of the
disease. Several days passed, and no bad symptom had made its appear
ance. The Thursday before he died — which happened on Sunday — he
sent for my first teacher, Nathaniel Day, to draw up his will. This was
done, and he seemed cheerful enough. On that night, or the next, I now
forget which, I was in the room alone with him for a while, and he told
40 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
me he was going to die, and gave me a long talk and much advice, speak
ing with a. great deal of feeling. I then had no idea that he was really
going to die. I was deeply impressed by what he said, but the fact or
even the probability of his dying I could not realize. When I saw him
breathe his last it came near killing me. It seemed as if I could not live.
Never was human anguish greater than that which I felt upon the death
of my father. He was the object of my love, my admiration, my rev
erence. It seemed to me impossible that I could live without him ; and
the whole world for me was filled with the blackness of despair. His
whole life, from the time of my earliest recollection, was engraven upon
my memory ; his actions, his conversations; his admonitions, his counsels,
were before ine by day and by night for many a month afterwards.
Whenever I was about to do something that I had never done before, the
first thought that occurred to me was, What would my father think of
this? Sometimes I indulged the fancy that perhaps his spirit was watch
ing over me, and that he saw what I was doing and even knew my thoughts ;
and this fancy was soothing and pleasing to me. I sometimes dreamed
of him, and always awoke from such dreams weeping, for in them I could
never have such intercourse with him as I longed for. There was nothing
in them life-like, nothing real ; all was shadowy, and he was dead ! The
inanis imago was all that I could see.
" 'But the principles and precepts he taught me have been my guiding-
star through life. Nothing could have induced me to do anything which
I thought he would have disapproved if he had been alive. My strongest
desire was to do in all things what I thought would have pleased him. Even
now the thought often occurs to me : I wonder Avhat my father thinks of
this? But the thought brings sad memories to life and awakens anew the
old sorrow !; "
From this letter it can be seen how his heart was wrung at
that first great darkening of his young life, and how deep was
that affection for a father, which, after a lapse of fifty eventful
years, can still cause the tears of sad remembrance to flow from
the eyes of the man who has endured so many other sorrows
and borne so many burdens of other cares. In the journal, to
which allusion has before been made, he thus speaks of himself,
on the occasion of his father's death :
" I was young, without experience, knew nothing of men or their deal
ings, and when I stood by his bedside and saw him breathe his last, and
with that last breath my last hope expired, such a flood of grief rushed
into my heart as almost burst it. No language can tell the deep anguish
that filled a heart so young ; the earth, grass, trees, sky, everything looked
dreary ; life seemed not worth living, and I longed to take my peaceful
sleep by my father's side."
CHAPTER IV.
Death of Mrs. Stephens, and Dispersion of the Family — Sunday-School —
Rapid Progress — Removal to his Uncle's — O'Cavanaugh — Becomes a
Hero in a Small Way — Leaves School — A Turning-point in his Life —
Mr. Mills — A Generous Offer — Goes to the Academy at Washington,
Georgia — An Imperfect Understanding— Mr. A. H. Webster — Adopts
the Name of Hamilton — Mr. A. L. Alexander.
ONE week after the death of the father, the same disease
carried off the mother. The little family had then to be scat
tered. The surviving children of the first marriage, Aaron and
Alexander, were taken to the house of their uncle, the late Gen
eral, then Colonel, Aaron W. Grier, of Warren County, who
became their guardian. The surviving children of the second
marriage, John L., Catherine B., and Linton, found homes with
their mother's relations.
At this point it becomes necessary for the biographer to revert
to an earlier period of Alexander Stephens's life, and state a cir
cumstance which had an important influence upon his fortunes.
It has been mentioned that his last schooling was in 1823. In
1824, however, and while he was one of the regular working
hands on the farm, he became a member of a Sunday-school
class at the Powder Creek meeting-house. And here we must
again call to our aid the correspondence of Messrs. Giles and
Finkle. In May, 1863, the former propounded certain ques
tions to the latter touching this part of his patron's life, to which
a reply was soon received. After some rather extended prelim
inary remarks, the point of inquiry is led up to by the follow
ing reflections :
u In thinking of the events of my past life, I am often impressed with
one fact, and that is the perfect unconsciousness, at the time, of the im
portant bearing upon after-life that little incidents have, which, at the
time of their occurrence, were almost unnoticed. In the lives of all persons
there are turning-points, changes of studies, business, pursuits, habits,
41
42 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
ideas, — indeed, changes of all kinds. These changes or turning-points, as
I call them, form epochs in every one's life. To illustrate: One of the
first epochs in my life that I remember was my dropping the ' slips/ as we
called them then, — a sort of frock such as girls wear, — and putting on
breeches. This was a momentous event with me. changing my ideas,
giving me entirely new notions of myself, hitherto undreamed of. Starting
to school was another great epoch with me. New fields of perception and
reflection were opened before me, and new scenes presented. It was in
truth my first entrance — first step upon the stage of life. But I no more
thought of this the morning my father gave me the beautiful new spelling-
book, with its rich blue cover, and told me to go to school and be a good
boy, than I thought, several years afterwards, that I was turning another
point in my life when, one Sunday morning, he started me with a Bible
to Sunday-school at Powder Creek meeting-house. These things, when
they occurred, seemed just like any other ordinary daily events; yet, in
looking back upon them, I see that they and many similar ones which I
have in my mind were far otherwise.
u That start to the Sunday-school was an epoch in my life. It was then
that I first took a taste for reading. It was in the summer of 1824 : I was
a, little over twelve years of age. All my reading had been limited to the
spelling-book and New Testament. At this Sunday-school we had the
Sunday-school Union question-book, which was a new thing in the country
at that time. The school was organized by Garland "Wingfield, a class-
leader in the Methodist Society at Powder Creek. He was the superin
tendent. There were perhaps thirty scholars, divided into four or five
classes. I was put into a class beginning with Genesis, a part of the
Bible that I had never read before, and I soon became deeply interested
in the narrative. It was no task for me to get the lesson, though I had
no other time to do it but on Sunday mornings and evenings, or at night,
by the light of a pine-knot fire.
" When I reached the history of Joseph, I did not stop with the lesson,
but went on for chapter after chapter. I was permitted to recite all I had
learned, arid this carried me out of my class. I soon went through Exo
dus and the other Mosaic books, often sitting up till midnight, reading with
intensest interest by the light of the blazing pine-knots, the only light in
our house for readers in those days. My step-mother had a candle in her
room, by which she sewed, patched, darned, and performed other similar
domestic tasks. But by the fire I read often long after the whole house
hold were asleep, and that after a hard day's work. I never missed a
question ; and my rapid progress was surprising to the teachers and the
whole school. I improved also in my reading, of which at first I made but
a halting, stammering, spelling-out business. I soon went through the
Old Testament, — in fact, long before the class with which I had started got
through Genesis. In the early fall I was taken sick with chills, and had
to stay from school, and in the winter the school closed.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 43
"My entrance into this school had a considerable effect upon my for
tunes. It gave me a taste for reading, for history, for chronology. In a
religious point of view, I do not know that any decided impression wa8
made upon my mind. Perhaps my moral principles were confirmed, —
nothing more. But it gave me reputation. My rapid progress was noted
and much talked about; but I assure you this talk did not elevate me in
my own estimation at all. I believe, however, it may have given me
some confidence in myself. Before this I was very timid and self-dis
trustful, bashful, and afraid to say what I knew, lest I should make some
mistake.
" After the death of my father, which was by for the most important
epoch in my life to the present day, for upon it turned the whole current
of niy existence, I went to live with my uncle, Aaron "W. Grier, near Ray-
•town. My father died on the 7th of May, 1826, and my step-mother on
the 14th, after which the family was separated. In the fall of the same
year, a Presbyterian minister, Williams by name, a missionary under the
Georgia Board, came to Ray town to preach, and, among other things, pro
posed to establish a Sunday-school for the children of the neighborhood
upon the Union plan. My aunt, my uncle Grier's sister, who lived with
him (he was then unmarried), was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
She was a woman of unusually strong mind, and was what in those days
might have been called well read. She had a good library, and had made
good use of it. My grandfather Grier had several hundred volumes, the
largest library in all that part of the country, and, according to my recol
lection, it contained many very rare and choice works. These books were left
to my uncle Aaron and his sister. My aunt was, as I said, a Presbyterian,
and Mr. Williams, of course, called to see her, and I became acquainted
with him. He spoke of his plans about the Sunday-school. I was famil
iar with everything connected with that subject, and was delighted with
the idea of seeing one started in the neighborhood. It was to be at South
Liberty meeting-house, near Raytown. This meeting-house belonged to
no denomination, but was built by the people for the use of all Christian
sects, without distinction. I took Mr. Williams round to see the neigh
bors about sending their children to school, and our acquaintance, thus
formed, afterwards grew into an intimacy, or at least a relation approach
ing as nearly to an intimacy as could be expected between a man of his
age and a boy under fifteen. The school was started, with Mr. Charles C.
Mills, a Presbyterian elder, as superintendent. I entered as a scholar, but
was soon made a teacher. My proficiency in Bible studies, as well as my
general deportment, impressed both Mr. Williams and Mr. Mills favorably,
from which circumstance results followed which gave another turn to the
current of my life."
Then follows an account of the manner in which this acquaint
ance with Mr. Mills had an influence upon the career of Mr.
44 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Stephens, which we postpone, as it would anticipate the account
of his school-life while living with his uncle Grier.
In the summer of this year, 1826, Alexander and his brother
were entered at a school established by. the Roman Catholics at
a place known as Locust Grove. Their attendance was but for
a single quarter, and very irregular at that, as they were often
required to stay at home and help in the work of the farm.
Their teacher here was one O'Cavanaugh, an Irishman.
"I came near," Mr. Stephens says, in the Finkle correspondence,
11 having a row with O'Cavanaugh the first week I went to him. It was
one Friday evening. It was his custom to exercise the scholars in spelling
'by heart' every evening. The lesson for that evening was in the old
AYebster spelling-book, and in that part where the names of countries are
given. The word that came to me was ' Arabia.' He pronounced it with
his peculiar brogue in a way that I had never heard, and I had not the
slightest conception of what he said. He placed the accent on the first
syllable, instead of the second, and gave the A the sound of Ah, instead
of that in ' fate,' as I had always been taught. Not knowing what he
meant, I simply said, 'I can't spell it, sir.' He replied, 'You confounded
little rascal! You tell me you can't spell the word? Spell it, sir! Ah'-
rabiaV I was standing by the door, looking down at the time, with shame
at the idea of missing a word, — a thing most unusual with me in spelling, —
and as my eyes rose to his, they glanced at some stones lying close to the
door-sill. His words drove all shame out of me, and aroused within me a
spirit of bold defiance. I had made up my mind, after my father's death,
never to let any man lay violent hands on me with impunity. As my eyes
met his, I said, 'Mr. O'Cavanaugh, I did not understand you, and I don't
understand you now. I can spell every word in the lesson if it is pro
nounced as I pronounce it. But I thought it better to tell you that I could
not spell the word as you gave it out than to say I did not understand
you. It was bad enough for me to miss the word as I did ; but, sir, you
shall not speak to me in that way.'
" In an instant the whole school was still, all gazing at O'Cavanaugh
and me, while we stood looking steadily at each other. He seemed to be
struck with as much amazement as his scholars. At one moment I thought
he was going to bring his switch, which he was holding in his hand, down
upon me ; and my determination was, if he did, to let him have one of the
stones lying at the door-sill. But I saw a change pass like a shadow over
his countenance, and his eye turned from me as he said, ' The next.' No
other word came to me. The class was dismissed, and with it the school.
" This was another epoch in my life. It was the first time I had ever
faced a man as his equal. From that time my character was set. It was
also established in the estimation of that school. Up to that time I was
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 45
looked upon as a sort of poor, pitiful orphan boy, whom most treated with
passing Idndness from mere feelings of sympathy. It was known that my
father and step-mother had just died, and my whole bearing was that of
one in deep grief. But on that evening the big boys, Bob Wheeler, Rus
sell Flewellen, and others, who boarded at William Luckett's, right on my
road home, walked with my brother and myself, a thing they had never
done before, and talked of nothing else but my adventure. They said
that they had expected to see O'Cavanaugh flay me alive, and evinced
great astonishment at the spirit I had shown. From that day they looked
upon me in an altogether different light from what they had done before.
" Now it so happened that on the next Monday my brother and I were
kept at home to help in harvesting the wheat, and we were engaged at.it
all the week. On the following Saturday, O'Cavanaugh came to Uncle
Grier s, as we learned when we went to dinner, to see about our absence.
He thought we had quitted school on account of what had occurred be
tween him and me, to which he made some reference, never doubting that
we had told our own story. All this was new to Uncle Grier, for neither
my brother nor I had said a word about it at home. Uncle told him we
had stayed at home to help to harvest the wheat, but would be at school
again on the following Monday, an announcement at which he seemed
much gratified. So on Monday we went back, and never a cross word
passed between O'Cavanaugh and myself from that time during the whole
three months that I went to him. Indeed, he seemed rather to take a
fancy to me. I was, if anything, too studious, and learned too fast. He
always addressed me in the mildest and most friendly manner. He, too,
boarded at Luckett's, and sometimes he would walk and talk with us on
the way. I really got to like him very much."
In the following year, 1827, his uncle, Aaron "VV. Grier, mar
ried. He had made an arrangement at the close of the preced
ing year with Aaron, Alexander's brother, by which he, instead
of going to school, should stay upon his uncle's farm and re
ceive compensation for his services. The same offer was made
to Alexander, but he begged to be allowed to continue at school.
" My object was," he explains in the correspondence, " to get
sufficient education to become a merchant's clerk, as I did not
believe I should ever be physically able to make a living by
farm-work, and after saving some money, to pursue my studies
further, if I could."
His request was granted, and he returned to the Locust Grove
Academy early in 1827. But the administration had changed:
O'Cavanaugh had retired and been succeeded by a Mr. Welch,
his assistant in the previous year, and Alexander soon grew to
46 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
like the new master even better than he had grown to like the
old.
" He was always kind to me, and indeed was never a tyrant to any one.
His discipline was altogether different from that of O'Cavanaugh. With
him I studied arithmetic. I also read, and exercised daily in writing ; but
arithmetic was the main study. During the three months of the previous
year I had taken up this study where I had left it off in my former school
ing, that is, at the Single Rule of Three, and had had exercises in reading,
writing, and spelling. But in 1827 I commenced at the beginning of the
old Federal Calculator, reviewed all the first rules, and went regularly
through the book, writing out a careful transcript of every problem or sum.
At the end of the term in June I was through, and was master of the
book."
At the close of this term, Alexander concluded to quit school
and seek a clerk's place, if such a situation could be found. But
it was a sad day to him when he left the school.
"I well remember," he says, u my feelings the last evening I was at that
school. I remember how I gathered up all my things, — books, papers,
slate-pencils, and ink, — put some in my basket and some under my arm,
and then bade all good-bye. I reflected, as I walked along the path home
ward, that this was the last time I should ever tread its beaten track, and
the last day I should ever go to school. Life, I thought, was just then
beginning to open before me. The next week I was to go to Crawford-
ville, to seek employment in a store."
Allusion is made to this afternoon in his private journal,
before referred to, which was begun in 1836. The loss of a
father so much loved and honored, and the sudden breaking-
up of the family, which followed, had induced habits of unusual
seriousness and even melancholy in both these brothers. Speak
ing of their school-days, in 1826, he says in his journal :
" We were reserved, mixed but little with the other scholars, and applied
ourselves closely to our studies."
Again :
" In 1827 my mind had not yet lost its serious cast, which, at this time,
was becoming somewhat religious. I never had been vicious or openly
wicked ; but at this time I began to reflect seriously upon the subject of
my moral condition and the principles of Christianity, and my very long
lonely walks to and from school were not unfavorable to such meditations."
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 47
Further on, when speaking of the close of the summer term
of 1827, he says:
" I then thought it would be an improvident waste of money to continue
at school longer unless I had means to commence a regular course of study
preparatory to some profession ; but this being out of the question, I
quitted school with the thought that I had now finished my education.
. . .. My intention then was to get into some business as a clerk, to
make money if I could, and if fortune favored me, afterwards to resume
my studies ; for I had already caught a thirst for knowledge which nothing
but the want of a little money prevented me from satisfying. I spent a
few days at home, unemployed, and it was during that short period that
the scale of my fortunes turned, whether for the better or worse I cannot
tell. But what to me afterward has appeared passing strange is that I
then knew it not. Those days came and passed like others, nor did their
events seem to involve unusual consequences ; yet unimportant as they
seemed, their results gave a stamp to my character and a new direction
to my life."
This turn of the scale is told at length in " Mr. Pinkie's"
letter last referred to. He says :
" But now it happened that on the Sunday following I went to the South
Liberty Sunday-school, which I still occasionally attended, though not
regularly. When I went I usually took charge of a class. On that day
Mr. Mills, the superintendent, inquired how I was coming on in my studies
at the academy. I told him that I had finished ; my term was out, and I
was not going any more. lie asked further what I was going to do, and
I told him fully my views and intentions. He undertook to dissuade me
from them, and asked how I would like to go to Washington and study
Latin, to which I answered that I would like it very well if I had the
means, but I had not. He then proposed, if I was willing, to send me
there. A Mr. Webster, a Presbyterian minister, whom I knew well by
reputation, was teaching in the academy at Washington, and to him he
proposed to send me, if I was willing to go.
" Here was a posing question for me. I said that I co.uld not answer
him then, but would consult my uncle and aunt and let him know my
decision. The consultation was held. My uncle had but little to say one
way or the other, leaving me to do as I pleased. My aunt was warmly in
favor of my accepting Mr. Mills's proposition, arguing that the more
thorough the education I received the better would I be able to repay him,
etc. His offer was a kind and generous one, and highly complimentary to
me, and I ought by all means to accept it frankly and freely. This was
the general tenor of her advice. Mr. Mills, I should have stated, was a
gentleman of large means for that day and section of country.
48 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
u The conclusion of the matter was that I accepted the offer. My
clothes were got ready, and some new ones made by my aunt, whose
whole soul seemed to be intent upon getting me off.
" So, on the 28th of July, not much more than a month from the time
I had left school, as I thought forever, I started off for Washington to
enter upon a new career of study, — a five years' course.
" So that day I went to the Sunday-school after I had left the Locust
Grove Academy was, though I little dreamed it at the time, another turn
ing-point in my life. And this, as well as the subsequent events to which,
it gave rise, was intimately connected with my first Sunday-school at Pow
der Creek. But for that I should probably never have been connected
with the South Liberty school, should not have been brought under the
notice of Mr. Williams and Mr. Mills as I was, and nothing of all this
would have happened. So intricately are woven the web-threads of our
lives.
" I went to Washington, as I have said, on the 28th of July, 1827. Mr.
Mills carried me in his buggy. lie had arranged for my boarding with
Mr. Webster, an arrangement that I liked, and when we arrived I found
this gentleman and his family — he had quite a number of boarders —
expecting me. He remarked, ' This is the little boy I have heard Mr.
Williams speak about so much,' and was verj agreeable and kind in his
reception, as was also his wife.
"On my entrance I was immediately put in the Latin Grammar (Ad
ams's), and on the 18th of August I commenced reading Latin in His-
toricG Sacrce, being put into a class that had been studying Latin all the
year. Here my Bible-studies stood me in good stead ; I was familiar with
the whole history, had soon no difficulty in reading, and before long was
at the head of the class. When the quarter closed with September I had
finished Histories Sacrce, and I began on Ccesar with the new quarter."
Alexander had not at first understood all the reasons which
had actuated Mr. Mills in making him this generous offer.
From motives of prudence, and doubtless of delicacy, one of
these reasons was withheld. So he attributed the conduct of
his benefactor solely to disinterested kindness toward himself in
his orphaned condition. Doubtless this feeling had much to
do in influencing the action of this excellent gentleman ; but
there was another motive which became apparent afterwards,
and probably soon enough, though the recipient of the kind
ness then regretted that it had not been disclosed earlier. But
the regret arose chiefly from finding that not having known
fully all the circumstances, he had not really been so free to act
and to decide as he had supposed. This regret could not, in a
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 49
boy of fifteen, take a sufficiently definite shape to allow him to
decide satisfactorily to his conscience, his reason, and his feel
ings, whether he ought then to draw back or to continue ; but
even then he was not so young as not to feel much embarrass
ment when the revelation was made. This, however, had been
anticipated, and was met by assurances which induced him to
persevere in the pursuit of education.
The additional motive of Mr. Mills in making Alexander
this offer was this: The boy had greatly impressed both him
and Mr. Williams, the founder of the Sunday-school. His ex
tremely frail physical organization, his delicate health, the loss
of his parents, and his poverty, had produced a frame of mind
of habitual melancholy, which, associated with his constant
Bible-reading, had induced these gentlemen to see in him the
subject of religious conviction. Such a mistake was most natural
under the circumsfances, and was strengthened by the youth's
irreproachable morality, and the interest which he took in Sun
day-school education. Nor was it altogether a mistake, for his
mind, as we have seen and shall see further hereafter, had been
led by his many griefs to turn to religious meditation, as was
natural in a youth of fifteen, in his deep sense of bereavement
and loneliness, and with the early teachings he had received.
From early childhood he had been deeply impressed with the
principles of Christianity, and his mind now rendered doubly
receptive of such impressions by his mental and bodily suffer
ings, his habits of solitude, the influence of the religious char
acter of his aunt, his own yearnings over the past, while looking
forward to a dreary future, — these causes and such as these might
well be mistaken by himself and others as promise of another
vocation and career than that which he afterwards chose. And
when this career was proposed for him, it is not surprising that
he was not capable of deciding for himself what was his real
duty, and that he yielded to the counsels of the only friends
whom he had to advise with. "And thus," he wrote years
afterwards in his journal, — "and thus my destinies rolled."
Words which well characterize actions which, in the years of
his manhood, seemed on looking back to have been done with
out any volition on his part, as if he had been passive in the
50 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
hands of a destiny whose aims he could as little understand as
he could control.
So misled, or partially misled, by these appearances and the
interpretation he had put upon them, Mr. Mills and friends with
whom he had spoken of the matter had come to the conclusion
that they saw in Alexander Stephens one especially marked out
by character, intellect, and deep religious feeling for the calling
of a minister of the gospel, and they had therefore determined
to place within his reach the means of obtaining the necessary
preparation.
In the journal, as well as in the letter last quoted from, he
refers to the time and occasion when this disclosure of his friends'
views was made to him.
"When Mr. Mills," says the letter, "made the offer to me to go to the
academy, I thought it was entirely of his own accord. But when I had
been with Mr. Webster for some weeks, and he had apparently become
well pleased with me, — for he had talked with me a great deal, particu
larly about religion, and had even expressed an opinion of my piety, — he
told me that Mr. Mills had made the offer at his instance. He had heard
the former speak a great deal about me, and he had induced him to get
me, if he could, to join his school in order that he might grow better ac
quainted with me, and if he should then be satisfied that the representa
tions made to him about me were correct, he wished to have me educated
for the ministry. He added that I had fully come up to all that he had
heard of me, and he urged upon me the importance of fitting myself for
the ministry, explaining that there was a society, the Georgia Educational
Society, formed for the purpose of educating young men for the ministry
of the Presbyterian Church.
" This explanation of Mr. Webster presented a new view to me. and, one
by which I was painfully embarrassed. From very early in life I was
strongly impressed with religious feeling ; and after the death of my father
this subject took deep hold of me. During the summer of 1827 I made
profession of faith, though I had not connected myself with any church
until I went to Washington ; but whether I should be fit to preach, or
should feel it my duty to do so, when I grew up, I could not know. I
could give him no answer until I should have consulted my aunt, who was
my Mentor.
" So the subject was left open between us until the end of the quarter
at the close of September, when Mr. Webster accompanied me home to
my uncle's to see my aunt for himself. The result of the consultation
was that I should continue my studies and go to college under the auspices
of the Georgia Educational Society, and if, after graduation, I should not
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 51
feel it my duty to preach the gospel, there would be no violation of good
faith on my part. As for the money expended on my education, I should
in that event refund it, whenever, or if ever, I was able to do so. With
this understanding I returned."
For this excellent man, Mr. Webster, Alexander Stephens
conceived a strong attachment. How much of his yielding to
his suggestions was attributable to the kindness and the confi
dence that had been bestowed upon him, the first that he had
received from any source beyond the circle of his relations, he
did not then know, nor could he say now. But they awoke in
him admiration, gratitude, and love, which in themselves were
blessings to him. He had noticed upon the Latin grammar his
teacher had given him, and which was one the latter had him
self used, the owner's name written in full, Alexander Hamilton
Webster. It gave him a feeling of joy that his benefactor's
name was in part the same as his own, and his affection prompted
him to increase the similarity. From this time he has always
written his full name, Alexander Hamilton Stephens.
Before another month was over this kind friend was no more.
In October he was attacked by a fever which proved fatal. And
now, in addition to the grief which he felt at the loss of one who
had shown him so much kindness, Alexander was saddened by
the prospect that his own career would probably undergo another
change. But there were others who knew of Mr. Webster's
plans, and after his death, while the youth was meditating over
this new affliction, and the changes it was likely to bring to him,
Mr. Adam L. Alexander, a citizen of Washington, a leading
member of the Presbyterian Church, and an intimate personal
friend of Mr. Webster, came to him saying that he knew all
about his late friend's interest in his behalf, and his wishes, and
that he desired them to be carried out. He invited Alexander
to come to his house while continuing his studies at the school.
The Hon. Duncan G. Campbell (father of Justice John A. Camp
bell, late of the United States Supreme Court), Mr. Andrew G.
Semmes, Sr., Dr. Gilbert Hay, and William Dearing, all elders
in the Church, urged the same. The academy was to be con
tinued under the charge of Mr. Magruder, who had been Mr.
Webster's assistant.
52 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Thus kindly urged, young Stephens yielded to their solicita
tions. He became at once an inmate of Mr. Alexander's house
hold, where he continued until April of the following year.
From that time until the end of the term he boarded partly
with Dr. Gilbert Hay and partly with Mr. William Dearing.
He learned Latin, Greek, and the other preparatory studies with
such rapidity that he was soon pronounced by his teacher to be
ready for the Freshman class in the State University.
Returning to his uncle's at the close of the term, he was fitted
out, and in the latter part of July went back to Washington to
be sent to Athens. It had been arranged that he should be
taken to the university by Mr. Campbell, but this gentleman
was seized with fever and died within a week. The youth, thus
Deprived of another friend, was sent to Athens in company with
a son of Mr. Semmes. They arrived the Saturday before com
mencement, the applicant was admitted without difficulty, and
thus entered upon a new era in his career.
CHAPTER V.
Goes to the University — Expects to enter the Ministry — Happy Days — A
Piece of rare Good Luck — Diligence in Study — Social Enjo}*ments — One
Shadow — A Silent Struggle and a Final Kesolution — A Debt discharged.
THE president of the university at that time was the Rev.
Moses Waddell, D.D., and the Rev. Alonzo Church — afterwards
Dr. Church, and successor to President Waddell — was one of the
professors. Notwithstanding the embarrassment which might
arise from the mention of the terms on which Mr. Stephens had
gone there, he resolved to explain them, in order that his posi
tion might be as fully understood by the faculty as it had been
by Mr. Webster. Here again he found that the acquaintance
with his condition .had preceded him. In the letter referring to
this time occurs the following passage :
" I had a letter to Dr. Waddell. He knew all about the circumstances
of my going, and gave me a long talk. I was as frank with him as I had
been with Mr. Webster. At that time it was my inclination and expecta
tion to enter the ministry ; but my views might change. All that, he said,
was well understood. The object of the society was to afford means of
education to those who were thought to be pious, and who would be suited
to the ministry ; but that it was entirely optional with those thus aided to
pursue the study of divinity or not when the proper time should come."
Dr. Church had known Mr. "Webster, — had, indeed, been a
warm personal friend of his. He proposed to young Stephens
to board in his family; a proposition which was accepted, and
here he remained until his graduation.
It was always a pleasure to Mr. Stephens in after-life to recur
to his college-days as the happiest time he had ever known.
But to get as full an account of this period as possible, " Mr.
Giles'' procured a re-opening of the Finkle correspondence,
which had been suspended during the summer on account of
Mr. Stephens's residence in Richmond, and the occupation of
53
54 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
his time with public matters. In the beginning of September
" Mr. Giles" addressed a note to his correspondent, asking him,
if possible, to lead his patron into a conversation about his
college-days, and send him a report of it. This letter remained
unanswered for about six weeks, though the writer, growing
impatient, sent many oral messages to his friend, complaining of
his tardiness. At last, on October 13th (1863), the long-delayed
answer arrived, bearing date the previous day. It began (of
course in the character of Finkle) in rather a jocular tone, as
will be seen by the extracts. After some prefatory remarks on
the difficulty the writer has had in bringing " Boss" to the
subject of inquiry, it continues :
u Last night, however, he and I were together in his room. It was late,
and all were asleep but ourselves. Tim and Anthony were snoring ; Binks*
was asleep on his rug, and Troupf was barking in the yard. Boss had
laid down his pen after answering the last letter on the table, and looking
at me, said, ' Peter, it is bedtime, isn't it?' I thought, from all the indi
cations, that it was the most favorable time that had offered yet to mention
the subject of your letter ; for, though it was late, I saw that he was not
sleepy, and he had been talking very freely with the ' Squire J and the
Parson^ before they went to bed, and he had been joking the 'Squire a
little, and so forth. So I said, ' Boss, here is a letter I had from Giles
some time ago : suppose you look at it before you go to bed.' Upon this,
he took the letter and read it."
Here follow some remarks on Mr. Giles's spelling, and on
spelling in general, which we omit; after which "Boss" comes
to the request contained in the letter.
" ' I cannot give either you or any one a full or exact idea of my college-
days. They were by far the happiest days of my life. In memory they
seem more like a dream than a remembered reality. The sudden change
of my feelings after I left college and went out into the world was like
the change wrought in tender and luxuriant vegetation by a severe and
sudden frost. The very soul of my life seemed nipped and killed. All
my days at college were pleasant. Not a word of censure, or even of
* " Sir Bingo Binks," a pet dog. f The yard-dog.
J This was the usual appellation given by the country people to the Hon.
George F. Bristow, of that village, a distinguished lawyer and intimate
friend of Mr. Stephens.
I Mr. O'Neal.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER If. STEPHENS. 55
reproof, was ever addressed to me by professor or tutor. I was on good
terms with them all, and indeed seemed to be a favorite with all, from the
president down. Dr. Waddell, the president, seemed to be favorably im
pressed toward me from the day of my admission. He examined me on
that occasion.
" ' And, by the by, on that occasion I happened to meet with a rare piece
of good luck, — the rarest, I have often thought, of my life. Some persons
are distinguished for good luck, or what is called luck: I never was. The
instance I refer to was the most important, or at least the most memorable,
of my life. When I went up to college, I went alone, and arrived the night
before commencement. Next day, the candidates for admission were to
be examined in the chapel at ten o'clock. So ran the programme. I knew
of no other way of proceeding but to go to the place stated at the hour
specified. Perhaps if I had asked Professor Church or Dr. AVaddell (to
both of whom I had letters), either would have advised me not to go there,
but to be examined privately. But being green, I asked no questions, but
went, taking my Virgil and Greek Testament, the books my teacher in
Washington had told me I should be examined in. At school I had read
Csesar, Virgil, and Cicero's orations against Catiline. These, I had been
told, were all that would be required, but that I should be examined on
Virgil. I had reviewed nothing — not a line — while I was at school; but
while at home I had reviewed Virgil thoroughly, or at least so much as I
had read at school. I had not looked into my Cicero.
" ' When I went into the chapel, I found a large class seated for ex
amination. They were nearly all from what was then known as the
grammar-school connected with the college, under the direction of Mr.
Moses Dobbins. I took my seat at the foot of the class, feeling foolish
enough, and looking, I suspect, just as foolish <is I felt. I counted the
squad ; there were twenty-six of us in all. The faculty were all present.
Professor Church, I thought, showed some surprise at seeing me enter
and take my seat with the candidates, but he said nothing. Dr. Waddell
presently began the examination, and to my horror he set off with Cicero, —
the first oration in the book, and one I had never read a line in. What
was I to do? Despair seized me. I thought I was ruined. I should be
rejected ! I was in agony. I borrowed a Cicero from one of the boys,
and looked over the oration to see if I could read any part of it ; but the
attempt was very far from satisfactory. I had a thought of getting up and
leaving the room, but I reflected that that would never do ; so I concluded
to stand my ground, and when they should come to me to tell them frankly
I had read but the four orations against Catiline, and had not reviewed
any of them, as I had expected to be examined in Virgil.
"'While I was in this state of anxiety the examination progressed.
Soon I found them in the second oration ; soon after in the third. Then
hope began to spring up. I thought may-be they will reach the orations
against Catiline before my turn comes. Sure enough, the first oration
56 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
against Catiline was reached, and several were still before me. My hopes
began to brighten. I thought that by a little reflection I could make out
to read my portion of these quite as well as I saw the other boys getting
on with theirs. But the first oration was passed ; then the second ; then
the third; and the fourth was reached before my turn came. Just at this
moment my luck or my guardian angel came to my relief.
" l Next !' said Dr. Waddell, in his deep guttural tone. I rose, trem
bling from head to foot. "On the next page, beginning with the words,
Video duas adhuc" said he. I turned to the paragraph, and in it recognized
the only part of either of the orations I had read at school that I remem
bered perfectly. I had been very much struck and impressed with it
when I had read it. It is where Cicero refers to the two opinions as to
what should be done with the conspirators : that of Cato, who thought
they should be executed ; and that of Caesar, who opposed this sentence,
contending that the gods alone should take life. I was deeply interested
with these views on reading them, as it was the first time I had ever
heard the right of capital punishment called in question ; and I perfectly
understood every word of the paragraph.
" ' I was reassured and collected in a moment, and read clearly, and
without stop or hesitation, down to " appetivernnt." All eyes were upon
me in an instant. The old doctor pushed up his spectacles to see who it
was. "Parse vita" says he. This I did without a moment's hesitation ;
putting it in the ablative, governing it by "frui" and giving the rule:
" utor, abutor,fruor,fungor, potior, and vescor govern the ablative." " Parse
punctum" said he. This I did, putting it in the accusative, and giving
the rule : " time how long is put in the accusative." I learned afterwards
that these two rules were pets with the old doctor, and that a boy who
showed acquaintance with them always made a good impression upon him.
He put no further question to me that I recollect. He said that I had
read very well, or something of that import, which he had not said to any
of the others, and I felt relieved. In the afternoon I was again fortunate in
getting a verse in the Greek Testament that I knew perfectly. But getting
that paragraph in Cicero I have always considered the greatest piece of
luck of my life. Had it been any other part but just that, I should not
have come off so well. The impression made on Dr. Waddell lasted as
long as I remained there.
"'When I went home to dinner with Dr. Church, he asked me with a
smile if I had been scared. I said yes ; and told him just how the matter
stood with me, and that I had not expected to be examined in Cicero.
But, to the best of my remembrance, Peter, I did not tell him that I hap
pened to get the only passage in the book that I could read in that style.
" * During the four years that I spent at college, I was never absent
from roll-call without a good excuse ; was never fined ; and, to the best
of my belief, never had a demerit mark against me in college or in the
society — the Phi Kappa — to which I belonged. No one in my class, at
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 57
any examination, ever got a better circular than I did. AVhilc I was on
good terms with the faculty, I was on quite as good with the boys. I did
not have a quarrel while I was there ; and if there was one who disliked
me, I did not know it. My room, from first to last, was the resort for a
large number, more so than that of any other boy in my class. I enjoyed
company very much. In my rooms we talked, laughed, told stories, and
indulged in fun and good humor more than in any room in college. But
there was never any dissipation in it : neither liquor nor cards were ever
introduced ; nor were indecent stories or jests ever allowed. My intimates
and associates were a strange compound. Boys met there who never met
nor recognized each other elsewhere ; the most dissipated young men in
college would come to my room, and there meet tne most ascetically pious.
" ' I was always liberal in my boyish entertainments. I " treated'' as much
in the way of fruit, melons, and other nicknacks in season as any other boy
in college ; and yet my average annual expenses were only two hundred and
five dollars. My entertainments were of an inexpensive kind, but they were
relished by all. Tobacco was not on my list. What I saved in hats, shoes,
and clothes I spent in this way. It was noj to gain popularity : I never
thought of that ; but only to give pleasure and entertainment to those
about me ; and I endeavored to do this as much by promoting agreeable
conversation and cheerful social intercourse as by the little refreshments
which were always to be found in my room in the proper season.
" ' Laughter, even though uproarious, in my room would never bring
any of the faculty to look after it ; nor were such bursts ever to be heard
there at improper hours. Had such peals of merriment as were often
heard there proceeded from other rooms, they would have excited sus
picion that there was liquor about, and the matter would have been looked
into ; but I think no such suspicions were ever provoked by any mirthful
demonstrations in mine, though there were many such during the four
years, which seemed long years to me then, but short — how short! now.' "
This feeling tribute to his boyhood from a man of so many
experiences, is perhaps one of the most interesting allusions
made by Mr. Stephens regarding any portion of his life. In
those days of which we shall again hear him speak, his contem
plation of his own peculiar case, his being supplied by others
with the pecuniary means for the gratification of his highest
aims, without which those aims must have been abandoned, his
deep gratitude for that assistance, and his religious feelings and
expectations, all contributed to make his life as blameless and as
happy as was ever led by a student in college; and in reverting
to it now, he does not refrain from expressing to his friend the
value he places upon it. He is a man to be envied who, in
58 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
looking back to that period of youth which is exposed to so
many and such strong temptations, can think and speak of it as
it is spoken of here. But let us look a little closer into the
heart of this pale and slender boy, and see the one small shadow
amid all the cheerful sunshine.
" ' My days at college were halcyon days, — unclouded, prosperous, and
happy. Not an incident occurred to cause regret; nor have I one un
pleasant remembrance connected with those four years. And yet my
happiness was not without alloy. It is said that every house has its skele
ton : perhaps this is even more true of every heart. My skeleton was the
circumstances attending my going to college, and the manner of my going.
I had not been there long before I had doubts whether I should ever fulfil
the expectations of my friends and my own early inclinations as to entering
the ministry. I was tormented by the idea that if I should not, I should
appear ungrateful and mean. It was a source of mortification to me to
think that I had ever accepted the terms proposed to me by Mr. Mills ;
and I looked upon the acceptance as the error of an unthinking boy. I
was poor, but proud ; proud, not of money, personal appearance, position,
or talent, but proud of character and integrity ; and the thought that my
conduct might be misinterpreted, and my motives misunderstood, distressed
me. This was especially the case in the latter part of my course, when
I had nearly concluded to abandon all idea of becoming a student of
divinity.
" ' Still, I did not permit these thoughts to render me unhappy. Sus
tained by an inward consciousness of rectitude, I drove them from my
mind. But this was my skeleton. Apart from this, no college-days were
ever happier than mine. I stood well with the faculty, with my fellow-
students, and with the town's-people, and had not, to my knowledge, an
enemy in the world.' "
Mr. Stephens had been in college about two years when his
mind became decided — not until after much and anxious, even
painful, reflection — on the subject of his entering the ministry.
The silent struggle that went on in the secret recesses of his heart,
as he strove to see where his true duty lay, was known to none
but himself. He was a Christian, and felt a Christian's respon
sibility for faithful service ; but decided at last that not in the
fields of the ministry was that service to be performed. So soon
as he had decided, his first act was to go to work for the dis
charge of the debt which he had incurred. How this was done
we find in the Finkle correspondence, under the date of May
26th, 1863.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 59
" l After I had been in college about two years, while my religions feel
ings continued as strong as ever (though they were never zealous or
enthusiastic, but rather serious, quiet, and calm), I felt much less inclina
tion to preach. Indeed, I did not think myself adapted for the pulpit.
I felt deeply embarrassed by my situation. I communicated my feelings
to my uncle, who was my guardian, and had my little patrimony in his
hands. Although I was under age, he allowed me to control it. With
this I paid my own way, and by borrowing from my brother raised enough
to relieve myself from all obligation to the Education Society, refunding,
with interest, all that they had advanced for me.
11 i I felt much more independent when I was paying my own way ; but
not the less grateful to those who had shown so much kindness toward me,
and had taken so much interest in my behalf. All seemed to do justice
to my motives ; and I never heard an unkind expression or intimation from
any one when, as I drew near the end of my collegiate course, it was known
that I did not expect to enter the ministry. Dr. Church, with whom I
frequently conversed on the subject, never evinced the slightest disappro
bation ; but I have always regretted that Mr. Mills, when he first made
the proposal to me, did not explain it more fully, with his objects and
intentions. If he had done so, I think I should not have acceded to his
terms, and my path in life might then have been very different. That
great turning-point, passed so unconsciously on the Sunday I went to
South Liberty Church after quitting Welch's school, might have sent me
adrift in a very different way. How little we know of our destiny, or
upon what a slender thread it often hangs !' "
CHAPTER VI.
More College Keminiscences — The Pig in Class — Standing at Graduation —
Dr. Church and his Family — Journal — Goes to Madison and teaches
School — Unhappiness — Leaves Madison — A Secret Sorrow.
IN the beginning of the year 1858, Mr. Johnston went to
Athens to reside as a professor in the State University. The
recitation-room assigned to him was that which had long been
occupied by the Professor of Ancient Languages. Shortly
after taking his place, he wrote from that room a letter to Mr.
Stephens, who was then at Washington, filling the last term of
his service in Congress. The change of place and of fortunes,
and the allusion to that especial room, brought to his mind many
recollections of his own times, and gave rise to a letter, portions
of which are hereto appended. And if we dwell somewhat at
length on this particular portion of his life, it must be remem
bered how great an influence it had in shaping his mind and
character.
After mentioning that he had heard thrpngh friends of his
correspondent's removal to the university, he thus proceeds :
"Yet all that I had thus learned of your whereabouts came far short
of the satisfaction which your letter afforded. The picture you gave of
that old recitation-room was a treat in itself. It vividly brought to my
mind some ludicrous scenes of many years ago. There old man Hopkins
used to sit and have recitations in Blair's Lectures. There Lehman used
to drill us in Greek, and make us laugh at his attempts to speak English.
There Shannon used to warm into enthusiasm while he unfolded to us the
beauties of Cicero's De Oratore. And there, too, the boys used to play
tricks on the aforesaid professors.
" One day, while Hopkins had us in charge, a little mangy pig was
slipped in at the door. Professor Hopkins was a venerable old man, who
wore a long queue of silvery whiteness; and the pig's tail was arranged
so as to present as close a resemblance as possible to this queue, lie bore
the joke with the philosophy of Socrates, while the young rascals roared
with laughter. The pig walked about the room, grunting at frequent
60
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 61
intervals, and at each grunt shaking its queue, a performance which at
each repetition brought a new burst of merriment. Some laughed till they
cried. Poor old man! I don't know what has become of him. I won
der if you will have such a set of fellows as he had. If so, may you bear
with them as he did.
" Shannon was fiery and passionate. He was fond of fiddling, but could
not bear to hear any one whistle ; it almost threw him into tits. One day
some fellow sauntered along the passage, whistling. Shannon shut the
book and bounded to the door. The fellow heard him coming and bolted
down the steps, Shannon after him ; but the culprit escaped into some
one of the rooms. The .professor returned, baffled, but with such a look
as silenced at once the laugh his exit had excited. Soon after this inci
dent, a student — perhaps the same — came up to the door and bleated like
a goat. Shannon sprang again to the door, but the key being on the out
side, the offender gave it a turn, and raised a loud ha! ha! of derision.
" These are some of the incidents your account of your locus in quo
brings to my mind. Who knows what trains of thought a word may
sometimes start! My comrades and associates of that day, where are
they ? Many of them are dead. Peace to their ashes, and honor to their
memories. Those of us who yet remain must follow soon. The last time
I left that room, and the rest, I did it with a sad heart, and took a formal
farewell. The memories of the pleasant hours I had passed in each
crowded upon me. The deep gloom of an uncertain and impenetrable
future was settling closely, heavily, and darkly around me. Almost with
tears I bade farewell to those old familiar halls. Even then I had had
some foreshadowing of the bitter pangs I should suffer in the severance
of the ties that bound me there. But how little did I know or even con
jecture of that real agony of spirit which life's conflicts so soon inflicted !
Few mortals have ever suffered what I did for some years after I left col
lege. Indeed, I believe but few mortals are capable of enduring what I
endured.
"But why does my mind still run on in this train? It is that recita
tion-room with its associations."
Here the letter branches off into a criticism upon a story the
writer had been recently reading. It concludes thus :
" And now I must bid you good-night. It is late. I have been writing
until I can hardly make letters that you can decipher. I do trust that you
will succeed well in your new situation, be useful to yourself and to others,
and above all, so far as you are individually concerned, be happy. How
much that means!"
Some time after this he referred in a letter to a subject his
correspondent had made inquiry about : his comparative stand-
62 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
ing in his class, and whether he had not received the highest
honors. His answer was that, at the commencement at which
he was graduated, there was no distribution of honors. His
recollection, however, was that his average standing, in the cir
culars sent home at the close of every term, was equal to the
best, and that in one he had a special mark of distinction higher
than all. He requested that, if the old record-book could be
found, it should be examined for the purpose of ascertaining the
facts of the case. After some search, the book was found, and a
transcript of the record of the graduating class of 1832 was
sent to him. By this it appeared that his comparative standing
was better than he had supposed. If honors had been then dis
tributed according to the present rule in Southern universities,
he would have received the first honor.
The Rev. Alonzo Church, in whose family Mr. Stephens
boarded, was then Professor of Mathematics, and after the re
tirement of Dr. Waddell, became the president of the univer
sity, in which position he remained until his resignation in 1859.
A friendship arose between him and young Stephens, with whose
character, both in boyhood and manhood, he was much im
pressed ; and this friendship lasted unbroken until the death of
Dr. Church. In this excellent man's house were practised all
the social virtues and amenities which add the crowning grace
to home. A poor boy could not have entered any family in
which there were better opportunities for learning those small
moralities which it is so important for a young man to acquire.
It was painful for young Stephens to separate from this family,
of which he had been a member for so long. Perhaps more
painful yet to bid farewell to the college companions with whom
for the first time he had enjoyed congeniality and intimacy.
Although, like most youths on leaving college, he fancied the
world he was about to enter to be better than it really is, yet he
was not without a foreshadowing of trials in store. And when
on that first Monday of August, 1832, his companions were full
of hope and confidence, he, the best scholar, the first debater, in
his plain dress, with his frail form and dark brilliant eyes glow
ing from a pale face that had never known and never would
know the hue of health, went upon the rostrum, performed his
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 63
part simply, but well, and no one knew how his spirit shrank
from the battle which was to begin on the morrow.
In his journal are recorded some of his reflections upon this
epoch in his life. As this journal was begun not very long after
his graduation, it may be as well to give in this connection the
introduction with which he opened it. It begins thus:
"THIS BOOK
was bought this day, April 19th, 1834 (it being Saturday), of the house
of Janes & Co., in the town of Crawfordville, Georgia, for the purpose of
registering herein some of the changing scenes and varying events of each
passing day. To this use I devote it, hoping that I may never be induced
to consider the purchase-money ill-spent. Should this hope, however, as
is unfortunately too often the case in human anticipations, prove illusory,
I shall have a twofold consolation wherefrom to draw comfort. In the
first place (if the recollection of former pain can be any mitigation to
present), the knowledge of its not being the first time of my having suf
fered from similar disappointments. Then a lively remembrance of having
often spent much larger sums in much less worthy causes.
" I have long since determined in my mind the importance of preserving,
by a committal to paper, a daily memorandum of the most interesting in
cidents and occurrences and subjects of observation, accompanied with
such reflections as might be suggested to the mind under the action of
their immediate influence.
" A plan of this kind I once adopted, but was so unfortunate as to lose
the whole fruit of rny labors in this line, together with many other articles
of value, in a trunk which was either misplaced or stolen from an inn in
"NVarrenton ; and as I do not feel entirely dispirited by this discouragement,
I have resolved to commence a similar one, profiting as much as possible
in its general management by former experience, as I think such a course
will be attended by advantages, some of which it may be proper here to
enumerate, such as the improvement of style which this habitual dictation
on familiar and commonplace subjects will necessarily effect. The recol
lection of facts, scenes, and events it will more indelibly impress upon the
memory ; and as no inconsiderable portion of pleasures which constitute
human happiness is derived from leisurely reviewing the past, this may
be a depository ever at hand to which the mind, when unengaged, may
revert, and draw stores of pure delights and unfeigned enjoyments. As
the eye may hereafter be glancing over these pages, tracing the history of
days forgotten, often may it light upon some little remark or circumstance
penned with the views, feelings, and prejudices of its own date, and awaken
long trains of slumbering thought, while a thousand concurrent recollec
tions of the same period spring instantly into being, when the whole sub
ject-matter with all its attendants almost quickens into lively existence.
64 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Thus I expect to fill up much of the great vacuum of idle moments, when
time hangs heavily, and ennui and restlessness feed upon the soul, by an
occasional retrospection of these pages. From them too I hope to derive
not only the pleasures of calling to mind and living over the scenes of
other days, but also to draw, should a kind Providence spare me, many
lessons for the future, by comparing the present of all my days to come
with similar appearances of the past."
There is a singular proneness in melancholy minds to keep
a daily record of their actions, feelings, and reflections. Un
healthy as the practice is, they seem drawn to it by some neces
sity, or some craving of their nature. In some it leads to morbid
introspection and self-anatomy ; in others it feeds an equally
morbid egotism, and in all it is prejudicial to a natural healthful
play and balance of the faculties. In the outset of his career
as a lawyer, we thus find Mr. Stephens following the usual bent
of such minds, turning inwards and feeding his inner life upon
itself, and, like Bellerophon, eating his own heart. Without
friends, without money, without health, in the neighborhood in
which he had been born and reared, and where for him the
chance was least of being honored for what gifts he might pos
sess, looking sadly back upon the four bright years he had passed,
and travelling on in the darkness which thickened before him,
the young man must needs get for himself a book, by means of
which, for lack of companions, he could commune with his past
self. While we cannot say that this journal had the mischiev
ous results that often follow the practice, there can be no doubt
that it deepened for a while the sadness of a nature prone to
melancholy, and made slower of healing the wounds received in
the struggle he had to pass through. Fortunately for him, it
was not continued long. His fortitude, courage, and assiduity
after a while brought him friends, and with more active employ
ment and brightening prospects, his mind sought other and
healthier occupation.
Upon the introduction above quoted, follows a short account
of his previous life down to the time of his graduation. Then
come his reflections upon leaving college, some extracts from
which we subjoin :
" All students, upon leaving the place to which they become attached
while acquiring their education, and bidding a last farewell to many dear
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 65
companions to whom they feel bound by the tenderest ties of friendship,
increased by years of innocent youthful intercourse, can but feel bitter
pangs at this severance of affections. . . . Feeling was always my charac
teristic quality, and it was called peculiarly into exercise at the dissolution
of my college acquaintanceships, not only on account of the purest love
and the warmest affection with which my heart glowed toward many whom
I loved as brothers, and who have yet, and ever will have, an enduring
existence upon the tablet of my memory, but on account of intimacies and
connections which had been formed and strengthened between myself and
others, which I felt were ill suited to our different conditions in life. In
college were students of all conditions; the wealthy, however, forming the
greater number. Wi.th many of these I had become quite intimate, and
though I knew that I was poor, yet of my poverty I then seldom thought.
With economy I had enough to pay my annual expenses and appear in
uniform with the rest. There were there no distinctions but of merit.
By a man's talents was he measured. This to me then seemed as it should
be ; nor do I now dispute the principle in the abstract, but it was injurious
to me in the result. For from the stand which I took in my class I had
acquired a considerable reputation in the opinion of all ; I had extensive
influence, and enjoyed the pleasure of having my judgment consulted on
all occasions of importance, and thus of course lost sight of social distinc
tion. I did not sufficiently consider that college-life would not always last;
that I was then only preparing for future scenes in the drama of life, and
that when the period should arrive for me to take my stand among the
citizens of the land, I should be compelled to leave the libraries, the gar
dens, the societies, the museum, and all the other delightful haunts of
learning, and become dependent on my own exertions for success in a sel
fish world, while those whom I had considered by far my inferiors would
be revelling in their fortunes and indulging to the full in the pleasures of
life.
" My whole thirst was for books, for science, and for learning. Money
I had no further care or thought for than just to meet my little necessary
contingencies. Upon its nature, value, and importance among men I had
bestowed no consideration, nor did I think that my little annuity of two
hundred and five dollars would soon fail, or how its place afterwards
would be supplied. Such speculations troubled me not, bent as I was
upon intellectual research. And thus I lived, breathing the true spirit of
cheerfulness, until the day of separation came, when the charm was dis
solved, the spell broken, when I saw those over whom I had long had a
nominal, if not a real ascendency, stepping forth into the luxuries of large
patrimonies, . . . with no care upon the mind but to search for the
newest pleasures, while I was, by necessity, driven from my studies, com
pelled to reverse my position from a pupil to a teacher, and not only be
withdrawn from a circle of cheerful and warm-hearted friends and placed
among strangers, but be doomed to the dungeon-like confinement of a
5
66 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
school-room, -where I saw nothing and heard nothing from day to day but
the same round of intolerable monotony. My feelings sank, my hopes
expired, my soul withered. Then, indeed, I learned the use and importance
of money. I then saw that it was money that regulates human society and
appoints each his place ; and often, when worn down by the labors of the
day, I lay awake thinking of my situation in college and equality there with
my wealthy associates, I have with tears sent forth this heart-felt ejaculation :
10 si sit mihi pecunia, quid non effecero !'
and have had no other consolation than the Stoic's motto, ' Cedendnm est
fato:
" My first residence after graduation was Madison, Morgan County, and
my situation was that of usher in the academy of that place. Here I
stayed four months, and a more miserable four months I never spent,
principally owing to the causes I have just stated."
But a fuller and more entertaining account of these four
months in Madison has been furnished in the Finkle corre
spondence.
On November 4th, 1863, " Mr. Giles" addressed a long letter
to his friend. Mr. Stephens had been on a visit to Atlanta, in
consequence of a despatch from the President of the Confederate
States requesting hini to meet him there. Mr. Davis had come
down from Richmond shortly after the battle of Chickamauga
in order to visit the army then under General Bragg. " Mr.
Finkle" reports a long conversation which occurred on the cars,
from which we extract a portion.
"We got to Madison about ten o'clock. Here the cars again stopped
for some time. Boss went to the door of the postal car (in which we were
travelling), looked out, and said to me, 'Come here, Peter.' I went. 'I
want to show you the place where I spent four of the most miserable
months of my life. I reached here on the 2d day of August, 1832, having
left Athens the day after I graduated, and came here to teach school as
assistant to Mr. Leander A. Lewis, who had charge of the academy ; an
arrangement I had made before the close of my collegiate term. That is
the old academy building ; you can see it still standing, that dark, rusty,
black, unpainted building upon the hill. Look up the street yonder, — that
street that runs directly across here from where the cars stop to the public
square. Do you see that house there to the left of the street with a little
office-looking house just this side of it? Well, in that house Lewis and I
boarded, and that little office was our bedroom. We boarded with Mr.
Lucius L. Wittich, who had formerly practised law, and the room we occu-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 67
pied had been his office. He was an intelligent and agreeable man, and
had an amiable wife. Both have been dead for many years.
" ' Well, in that little office I spent some most miserable days ; and I
seldom pass here without thinking of them.'
" ' Was it teaching,' I asked, * that made you so unhappy?'
" ' I don't know that it was,' said Boss : * I don't know what it was, any
more than the newly-born babe knows what makes it cry. Perhaps it is
the roughness of the softest elements of the sphere of its new existence
fretting the nervous net-work of its tender skin. I, like a new-born babe,
was translated to a new sphere of action, if not of existence, and the
external nervous texture may have been too delicate ; at any rate, the
whole world and everything I came into contact with gave me pain. I
was miserable, like the child. I uttered my sufferings in cries of the soul,
if not of the body, and sometimes the last also. I used to walk this road
by break of day, leading out of town here, — the Athens road. Mr. Lewis
was a late sleeper, and I would walk a mile, — sometimes two miles, — and
in these walks I poured forth my griefs to myself, and often wept.'
" ' I was not particularly dissatisfied with teaching school. But the
place was new; the people all strangers; I had just left such pleasant
scenes. The spirit, like a city cut off from its supply of water, was dying
of thirst. The soul seemed to wither and die within me.' "
Further on the letter continues :
" ' Moreover, this did not seem to be my mission. Something had all
the time pointed to other duties and another destiny. I was where I was,
and what I was, simply for the want of money. . . . The power of
money I felt much more in its want, I doubt not, than any one ever did
in its possession, even when it shields crime, browbeats innocence, op
presses the weak, covers ignorance, and cloaks a multitude of iniquities.
We seldom think of the power of the atmosphere over us, of its essential
vital qualities. But let it be removed or attenuated ; let the supply be
cut off or diminished, and how quick its all-powerful energies for our
behalf will be brought to the mind! I was, as it were, in an exhausted
receiver, and felt the essential need of money to vitalize my energies and
aspirations. What a change did I think would be wrought in my prospects,
had I but one thousand dollars, or even five hundred ! And this amount
I knew to be wasted in a pleasure-party on a tour to the Springs, and
that, too, by one of my old classmates, one who was always kind and
friendly to me, and who called to see me on his return, and mentioned what
his jaunt had cost him. Little did he know my feelings at the relation.
They were those of a destitute child, almost starving, yet too proud to beg
or steal, seeing the remainder of a sumptuous dinner thrown to swine.
'"This is only part of what made me wretched. I cannot tell all the
reasons why I was so, because I do not know them myself. Our happi
ness, I have since learned, depends much more upon ourselves than upon
68 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
the external world. A man may make of himself, and in himself, a
heaven or hell.' "...
" ' Teaching, as I have said, was not in itself distasteful to me, except
the monotony of the repetition. On the contrary, I grew deeply interested
in it, and buried myself and all my troubles in the school-room. On my
return from my customary early walk, I breakfasted with Lewis, and
then we walked together to the academy, generally taking a rather round
about way. The weather wras warm, the days long ; we opened school
early and dismissed late, allowing two hours' intermission at noon. The
hour at which attendance was required was 8 A.M.. and at 5.30 P.M. any
might go who wished ; but we usually began much earlier, and remained
until near sunset. Some young men from the country, who seemed
intent on study, would stay late, and we devoted ourselves to them. The
school, when I went there, had more than fifty scholars of both sexes,
which were divided between us about equally, and without reference to
age or advancement. Some of my scholars were grown-up, and some
quite small. Some were in Latin and Greek, preparing for the Sophomore
class, half advanced in college, and some just learning the alphabet ; and
it was the same way in Lewis's department. Each of us had his own
department, under his exclusive control.
" ' Lewis was a good scholar, and had been teaching for several years.
I had known him a year or two from his visits to Athens, where he had
graduated in 1826. He was a North Carolinian by birth, a kind-hearted
man, well liked, but had no discipline in his school. There were at that
time in the town a number of rude, bad boys, sons of men of wealth, who
had been spoiled by indulgence at home and at school. I discovered the
state of things at a glance, and on the day that I commenced — Monday — I
announced to those at my end of the building the rules that were to be
observed there. They were concise and systematic, and I stated that they
would be rigidly enforced. There was to be no talking, whispering, or
moving about during study-hours. The little fellows might go out when
they pleased, but must make no noise. Those in arithmetic might study
out-of-doors, if they wished ; but none of the rest were to go out without
permission. There were only four of the little fellows — four-year-olds —
that were allowed to come and go as they pleased.' "
The letter then proceeds to give an account of the insubordi
nation of one or two of the larger pupils, who had determined
to test the nerve and determination of the new, boyish-looking
teacher. They were fully grown, muscular young men ; but
without a moment's hesitation the rod was applied with severity
until they yielded. The affair created considerable stir. One
of these youths was the nephew of a leading citizen, and Lewis
expressed apprehension lest the school should be injured.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 69
This, however, was not the case, as Mr. Stephens assured him.
The popularity of the school was increased ; and " only once
after that time," Mr. Stephens writes, "did I have to use the
rod at all, and then not severely. Seldom after that was there
even necessity for reproof."
" 'In after-life I have often met my old scholars. David A. Vason,* of
Dougherty County, I prepared for college ; also his brother, the doctor,
in Alabama.
"' I left Madison with a good impression of the people toward me, who
knew not how miserable I was while I was there. My health was not
good; before I left college I had become dyspeptic, and was subject to
severe nervous headaches, which increased greatly in severity while I was
at Madison. My long walks, I am now convinced, were injurious to me.
Before the expiration of the term I had, through my old classmate and
room-mate, William Le Conte, made arrangements to teach a private school
for his father the next year. The trustees at Madison wished to retain
me, but I told them of my engagement, and we parted in friendship and
with good feelings on both sides. I shal^ never forget the day I left the
town, — that house, that office, and Lewis. Nor shall I forget the night
after this parting. My brother, Aaron Grier, came for me in a buggy,
and we drove all the way to Crawfordville. I had a terrible headache, —
a most horrible headache!' "
And thus ends the account of these unhappy four months,
during which both his head and heart ached, not only from the
causes he mentioned, but from others, far deeper, which he does
not care to set down. One little episode, not noted here, nor
even told by him until near forty years after its occurrence, we
may briefly advert to. One of the pupils at this school was a
young girl, lovely both in person and character, from whom the
young teacher learned more than is to be found in books, and
whom he grew to love with a depth of affection all the greater that
it was condemned to hopelessness and silence. The poor student,
with no prospect of worldly advancement, the invalid who looked
forward to an early death, must not think of marrying, — must not
speak of love. And he never spoke of it to her nor to any, —
never until a generation had passed, and then but to one friend.
So he leaves the place, and travels all night, with such thoughts
as we can imagine, and " a most horrible headache !"
* Hon. David A. Yason, afterwards Judge of S. "W. Circuit.
CHAPTEE VII.
A Private Class — Mr. Le Conte — A Liberal Offer declined — Goes to Craw-
fordville and begins to study for the Bar — Hard Work — A Damper —
Journal — An Anniversary — Begins to study Politics — President Jackson
and tbe Bank — Despondency — First Fee offered and declined — Height,
Weight, and Personal Appearance.
FROM Madison Mr. Stephens went to Liberty County, to
fulfil the engagement made through his former room-mate,
William Le Conte. The agreement was, to teach the children
of Dr. Le Conte and those of Mr. Varnadoe, one of the neigh
bors, thirteen pupils in all, for a salary of five hundred dollars.
Other children from the neighborhood, whose parents were too
poor to pay, were taken into the school, and taught without
payment on their part, or any increase of remuneration to the
teacher. His time here was far more pleasant than that spent
in Madison. As the sole master of a small school, the pupils
of which were the children of parents who, whatever their for
tunes, were well-bred and used to all the courtesies and kind
nesses of social life, — a characteristic of the people of that
county, — himself a welcome guest and soon an intimate in
their families, he was free from the annoyances and vexations
unavoidable with a large school involving such various and
unpleasant elements as did that at Madison. The society of
Dr. Le Conte, especially, was not only congenial, but helpful to
him; and he felt that his intellectual growth was taking a new
start. This gentleman was a man of far more than common
ability and culture. Mr. Stephens, in after-life, used to refer
to him with the warmest remembrance, and frequently spoke of
him as the most learned and intellectual man whom he had ever
met. He was the father of those distinguished men, Professors
John and Joseph Le Conte.*
* Now of the University of California.
70
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 71
At this school the most agreeable relations existed between
teacher, pupils, and patrons. So satisfactory were his services
found, that an offer of fifteen hundred dollars7 salary was made
to induce Mr. Stephens to remain for another year ; but he de
clined. His reasons for so doing are thus referred to in one of
his letters :
" My health had failed. A sedentary life did not suit me. Moreover, I
had saved a little money, — enough to start with. Oh, what a relief it would
have been to me, what pains and agonies of spirit it would have saved me,
if I could but have had in hand when I left college the amount I had at
this end of toil ! ' A little aid at the right time is worth thousands when
it is not needed.' "
" Mr. Giles" was very anxious to obtain, through the agency
of " Mr. Finkle," some further details on the subject of these
school -keeping days. But about the time of his writing, Mr.
Stephens was preparing to attend the meeting of Congress at
Richmond, and in addition to this, the increasing difficulties of
public affairs absorbed all his attention. His health grew worse
than usual, so as finally to prevent his journey to Richmond.
Only one more of the Finkle letters was received, which was
written on January 21st, 1864, and as it refers entirely to cur
rent events, it will be reserved for introduction in its proper
place.
At the opening of the year 1834, being then twenty-two
years old, Mr. Stephens resolved to give up teaching altogether,
and returned to the up-country to begin his studies for the bar.
Mr. Gray A. Chandler, a brother of the Hon. Daniel Chandler,
was at that time in successful practice in the adjoining county of
Warren, and proposed to Mr. Stephens to read law in his office
and under his guidance, without charge. But trusting to find
in travel some improvement of his health, he took a journey on
horseback in the western part of the State, and after spending
three months in exercise and recreation of this kind, he con
cluded to return to his own neighborhood, purchase the neces
sary text-books, and pursue his studies alone.
The new county of Taliaferro had but a few years before been
laid off from parts of the adjoining counties of Wilkes, Warren,
Hancock, Greene, and Oglethorpe. The county seat was located
72 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
within two miles of his birthplace, and named Crawfordville in
honor of the distinguished statesman, William H. Crawford. To
this little town, destined never to advance much in growth after
the first four or five years, this restless spirit repaired, with the
desire to make it his permanent home. The Rev. Williamson
Bird, a Methodist minister, and brother-in-law of Mr. Stephens's
step-mother, was then the owner and occupant of the house now
Mr. Stephens's residence. With this gentleman he resided, ob
tained one of the upper rooms of the court-house for his office,
and entered upon his new work. He remembered the singularly'
short time which he had required for his preparation for college,
and seeing the pressing necessity that he should find some remu
nerative employment as soon as possible, he determined to make
an effort to obtain admission to practice at the next succeeding
term of the court, which would be in July. Three months would
seem but a short period for a sickly young man, without a teacher,
to prepare himself for the practice of the law ; but he had nei
ther time nor money to spare, so he resolved to see what could
be done.
So here he began his studies ; spending the day in his room
at the court-house, the night at Mr. Bird's, and recreating
himself now and then by an evening walk to a neighbor's,
or going home with the children of his cousin, Mrs. Sabrina
Ray, as they returned from school, spending the night at her
house, and walking back the next day. He had no familiar
friend with whom he could hold converse in the hours of re
laxation, when the overburdened heart and brain felt such sore
need of one to whom their hopes, fears, and griefs might be
confided, and who could breathe a word of sympathy, if not of
encouragement. For such a friend he longed, but as he had
none such, he makes his journal his confidant, — the journal of
which we spoke in a previous chapter, and the introduction of
which we gave.
About a dozen pages of this volume are devoted to a concise
account of his previous history, coming down to the 1st of May.
The next entry is as follows :
" May 2d. — The morning of this day I employed profitably on the 10th,
llth, 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters of the 4th vol. of Blackstone. In the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 73
evening I did nothing, on account of having company, but read newspapers
(for which, by the way, I have a passionate fondness), and conversed on
various topics. My feelings and hopes seein ever to be vibrating and va
cillating between assurance and despondency. My soul is bent upon suc
cess in my profession, and when indulging in brightest anticipations, the
most trivial circumstance is frequently sufficient to damp my whole ardor
and drive me to despair. This remark is founded on experience. The
other day, as I was coining from my boarding-house in a cheerful, brisk
walk, in high spirits, I was instantly laid low in the dust by hearing the
superintendent of a shoe-shop ask one of his workmen, ' Who is that little
fellow that walks so fast by here every day ?' with the reply, in a sarcastic
tone, ' Why, that's a lawyer /' "
We may laugh at this now, and so can he, but it was a bitter
jest to him then. His youthful appearance at this time was
surprising. Mr. Johnston, who was then a child, saw him for
the first time in the previous year, and supposing him to be a boy
of fourteen or fifteen, was astonished to learn that he wras an
adult man. His form was the most slight and slender he has
ever seen ; his thin chestnut hair was brushed awray from a white
brow and bloodless cheeks. He was leaning upon an umbrella.
The child who looked at him felt sorry for another child, as he
supposed, who had suffered from long and painful illness, for he
bore in his face and form the looks and \veary wear of prolonged
suffering. The shoemaker's man had been taking his observa
tions in another spirit. Himself, probably, without ambition,
or any aspirations beyond his bench and last, he did not approve
of people aiming to rise above their fellows or their fortunes ;
and when this " little fellow," without sign or prospect of beard,
on days when those like him were at school or dropping corn
after the plough, came by his window, walking cheerfully and
briskly to his office, he puts what sarcasm he can into words,
and sneers, "Why, that's a lawyer!" It reaches the "little fel
low's'7 ears (though probably not meant to do so), and wounds as
rudeness, coarseness, and scorn always wound the young and the
sensitive who have not learned to allow for character and motive.
He has no strength to parry this awkward thrust of the shoe
maker's man. Indeed, the man may judge him rightly, and
may be a prophet in the evidently low opinion he has of the
young lawyer's chances of success. His voice may be the im-
74 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
partial verdict of society, which politeness hitherto has kept
from reaching his ears. It is not merely the disapprobation of
a journeyman shoemaker that " lays him low in the dust."
We take the next entry in the journal :
li May 3d, Saturday. — This day brother came to see me. In the evening
we walked down to Mr. Brown's school-house, two miles distant, to attend
the meeting of a debating society. Question for discussion : ' Which en
joys the more happiness, a farmer or a merchant?' I took some part in
the debate. Spent the night with Major Guise. During the night there
was a great fall of rain. However, we set out from his house after break
fast for Crawfordville, but finding the creek full, we had to wind and trapse
about through the wet leaves and muddy ground before finding any log
upon which we could cross. At this time my feelings were at a low ebb.
It being Sunday, cloudy and rainy, and I wandering about on foot, with
an old umbrella, trying to cross a creek! How ashamed I should have
felt had I met one of my Athenian friends ! What conscious remorse I
felt at my lowered situation ! But my motto is, Cedendum est fato. He
that exalteth himself shall be abased. The world must be taken as it
comes and made the best of, as all other bad bargains. May be it . . . "
The following page, with the conclusion of this sentence, and
the next page after, were torn out by the author before handing
over the journal to the present writer. The next entry is this :
11 May 7th. — This is the eighth anniversary of my father's death. The
day never returns in each revolving year without bringing to my mind
many sad reflections. I easily read the scenes, the griefs, the woes of
which I keep it in commemoration. But alas ! the course of time is
onward. And though at each return of the 7th of May I may seem as
if moving in a circular motion, to be nearer the point and period of that
memorable event than at other seasons of the year, yet this is only a
delusion providentially afforded to soothe the soul with the pleasing hope
of paying an annual visit to the shades of affliction and the place of be
reavement. This day I finished the review of Blackstone's Commentaries.
Spent part of the evening with Dr. Mercer, who called on me. We ex
amined some minerals he has. I was upon the whole well pleased with
him. I shall cultivate his acquaintance."
This acquaintance was marred not long afterwards by a mis
understanding, which produced at last a serious quarrel with Dr.
Mercer and his friends. It originated from a subject mentioned
in the next entry.
" May 8th. — . . . Have to-day read Jackson's Protest to the United States
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 75
Senate.* Am pleased with it in general, but think he was not particular
enough in the selection of words and the use of terms. I do not think,
from reading all the parts together, that he meant what some detached
sentences would legitimately import. His supplementary message I dis
approve, because, in the first place, it was unnecessary • secondly, as an
explanation it comes, in my estimation, far short of effecting anything.
It is more like a recantation than an explanation ; and by superficial ob
servers and by partisan editors it will, I have no doubt, be thus pronounced.
While all that was necessary to satisfy the most wavering was an explana
tion of the particular sense in which he had used the words custody, law,
executive department, etc., together with some other words and sentences.
For niy own part, I feel interested for General Jackson now. I see the most
formidable, unprecedented, and vile attempts made to oppose his measures,
entangle his administration, and, if possible, to fix upon him infamy and
disgrace. The principles of his Proclamation of December, 1832, I de
cidedly condemn. But it is human to err; and for one error a man who
has always stood high and done much good for his country should not be
abandoned. For where we shall find a President who will commit only
one wrong, we shall find few who will not commit more. Concerning the
deposits question, I think the President acted precipitately. He should
have awaited the session of Congress ; but as he chose a different course,
he should nevertheless be sustained, since I am convinced the course he
did take was constitutional. The bank is a dangerous institution : Jackson
has it now by the neck, and if he is let alone he will soon choke the rep
tile to death. I care not how soon it is done, for if it ever escapes nothing
valuable and nothing sacred will be out of the reach of its venom."
" May llth. — This day I spent in writing letters, until noon, and after
wards in reading. Drew for the first time an attachment bond. More
business seems to be brewing than for some time past. Several inquiries
concerning law-points have been made to-day ; and I very much wish I
was in the practice, able to give advice, and that there was room for as
much as I could give."
The entry of the next day shows his fit of despondency
returning.
* The removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the United States
and their transfer to certain State banks by President Jackson was a
measure which, on account of both its financial and political bearings,
created great excitement throughout the country, and placed the President
in direct opposition to the Senate, in which body the great statesmen, Cal-
houn, Clay, and Webster, for the first time were united in their antagonism
to the administration. The Senate passed a resolution of censure on the
President, and the latter replied by the Protest referred to in the text. The
resolution of censure was finally expunged from the journal of the Senate
by order of that body.
76 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
li May 12th. — Have been reading to-day, but slowly. Crawfordville is
a dry place. I do not feel satisfied. I have a restlessness of spirit and
ambition of soul which are urging me on, and I feel that I am not in a
situation to favor this inward flame. My desires do not stop short of the
highest places of distinction. And yet how can I effect my purpose? . . .
Poor and without friends, — no prospect of increasing my means, — time
passing with rapid flight, and 1 effecting nothing ! Day is succeeding day,
and I do nothing but ponder over a few pages of my law, and mix with
kind-hearted but uninformed people, who know very little themselves and
can impart little or nothing to others ! Oh, that I were able ! I would seek
society congenial to my feelings ; I would converse with those who could
entertain and instruct.. Such once was my situation, but that day is gone,
and its remembrance chokes my utterance !"
Our young student on this 12th day of May is evidently out
of sorts, both in mind and body. He even makes a disparag
ing allusion to Crawfordville, as harmless a little village as may
be found. He wants money to get away from it, and thinks
that if he had but money he would soon be on his way to more
congenial society. We shall see in good time what modifications
these opinions of his underwent.
" May 13th. — Read all the law I could find relative to the case of J.
Brooker, who has absconded and left many debts unsettled. I find great
difficulty and am now greatly bewildered with perplexity. I wish I had
somebody always at my elbow to solve all my doubts and difficulties, and
answer my questions. I should then have some hopes of .final success. I
was consulted the other day on a legal point, for the first time, and, most
miserable to remember, counselled erroneously 1"
The entry following is less tragic :
" May 14th. — Nothing particular. A belled buzzard passed through the
neighborhood, quite to the astonishment of the natives."
" May 15th. — Read Chitty, Ma.ddox, Blackstone, etc. In the afternoon
assisted in copying some attachments vs. John Brooker for some persons
from Washington, but the whole proceedings seemed to me an inexplicable
maze. I was for the first time offered pay for my legal services, but very
gentlemanly refused !"
Much as he wants money he will not take it until he is legally
entitled to charge for his services. Yet he cannot refrain from
a little touch of sarcasm at himself for not yet having won the
right to charge a fee.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 77
" May 17th. — Brother is still with me. Have done nothing for the last
two days. Had an introduction to a man to-day who addressed me famil
iarly as 'my son.' Such has often happened to me. Last fall, when I
was in Savannah, I was asked by a youngster-candidate for the Freshman
class if I were going to college, and I was more amused at the joke than
surprised at the question, considering that my appearance is much more
youthful than that of most young men of twenty-one. My weight is
ninety-four pounds, my height sixty-seven inches, my waist twenty inches
in circumference, and my whole appearance that of a youth of seventeen
or eighteen. When I left college, two years ago, my net weight was
seventy pounds. If I continue in a proportionate increase I shall reach
one hundred in about two years more."
" May 18th. — This is Sunday. Last night I and brother spent at Thomas
Ray's. This morning was beautiful. The air was calm, clear, and serene ;
the sun shone warm and joyously. Brother and myself and Thomas ram
bled over the scenes of my early days, visited Father's grave, saw all the
haunts of my boyhood, the fields in which I have labored, the trees I have
planted, the rocks I have piled, the hedges in which I have reclined.
Thought much of the past, of which I can here give no utterance."
Thus we find him working round to a healthier frame of
mind. The two days' visit from his brother, their joint visit to
their cousin Sabrina Ray, the walk in that sweet morning to the
grave, the memories brought back by all those familiar scenes,
have brought feelings at once sad and consoling, and thoughts,
not altogether painful, but to which he will not give utterance.
And so we find him passing through the ordeal through which
so many young men of noble feelings and high aspirations have
to pass at their first contact with the stern realities of life.
This it is which tries their natures, as in a furnace, and proves
the metal of which they are made. Few have suffered more in
this trial than he ; still fewer have come through it with purity
undefiled, honor untarnished, and principles unshaken.
CHAPTEE VIII.
Journal — Youthful Judgments — Forebodings — ^Esthetic Criticisms — Opin
ion of Railroads— Solitude — First Plea — Self-censure — Ambition— A Crit
ical Period — Out of the Depths — Dr. Foster and his Prescription — Moves
to Uncle Bird's — A Shock to Modesty — A Narrow Escape — A Fourth of
July Speech — Adhesion to the Doctrine of State Eights — Eight of Seces
sion — Admission to the Bar.
WE still continue from the journal, as at this period the
record of his thoughts and feelings which he confides to its
pages has more interest for us than external incident.
11 May 19th. — Brother left me this morning. I am quite unwell. In
ferior Court sat ; no business. One case only, and it dismissed. Starvation
to the whole race of lawyers ! Read a little in Chitty, and did nothing as
usual."
Rather discouraging to the young student, this. Though not
affecting him directly, his prophetic vision descries in it the har
binger of coming woe, — of a time when man shall cease to plead
or be irnpleaded ; when crimes and torts and breaches of contract
shall be things of the past; when the craft of the lawyer shall
be no longer in demand, and he himself shall perish of inani
tion. Let him take courage ; the millennium is not so near.
On May 22d he goes with Dr. Mercer looking for minerals,
and returns home fatigued and worried, with self-reproach for
wasted time. The day's entry closes thus :
"... I propose reading to-night to make up some of my lost time. I
am sometimes almost fretted with myself when the day begins to close in
upon me and I find I have done nothing. Such are my feelings now.
Time is precious : I know it ; and yet it seems impossible for me to
improve it."
The next day we find his mental irritation and disgust venting
itself on external things. He has not yet learned how much the
world without us takes its coloring from our own eye ; and how,
78
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 79
when our life is bitter to us, we discover hatefulness in almost
everything :
" May 23d. — I do detest vulgarity. Sometimes I almost have a contempt
for the whole human race, — the whole appearing like a degenerate herd,
beneath the notice of a rational, intellectual being. Sensuality is the
moving principle of mankind, and the most brutish are the most hon
ored. I long for a less polluted atmosphere. Of all things to me, an
obscene fool is the most intolerable ; yet such I am compelled to mix
with daily. Will I never find one whose company will please me? No ;
of this I despair. I have once been so fortunate, but never expect to be
again. My notion of merit is what is intellectual in its nature. I honor
and long to be associated with the mind that soars above the infirmities
and corruptions of human nature ; that is far out of the region of passion
and prejudice ; that lives and moves and has its being in the pure element
of Truth. But how revolting, how sickening to my feelings, how dis
gusting, how killing to my soul, to see beings bearing the majestic form
of Man, possessing speech, reason, and all the faculties of an immortal
mind, hopping and skipping all night to an old screaking fiddle like
drunken apes, or lounging about a grog-shop from morn to eve, or wallow
ing, swine-like, in the mud and mire! '0 judgment, thou art fled to
brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason !' But my feelings are
taking me too far. The error is in nature ; it must be pitied, not blamed.
Perhaps I may appear as objectionable and as odious to others as others
to me. But I do wonder if this poor world is thus always to remain!
If low, degraded, selfish, lascivious, foolish, besottedly foolish men are
always to figure most conspicuously here in it, or if there is any ground
on which to rest the consolation of a hope for better things to come ? Sed
satis ml melior."
Perhaps after this good long scold he feels some relief. He
has been slow in discovering the amount of vulgarity, sensuality,
and folly there is in the world, and the discovery shocks him
all the more, coming, as it does, when his principles are formed
but his judgment still immature, and before he has learned that
wise optimism that tries to find the soul of goodness even in
things evil. To him, sitting at his window up in the court
house, and looking down upon the public square, the faults and
follies of these poor Crawford villians are obvious enough ; what
good may be in them he does not see. Shrinking, like a woman,
from all grossness, his offended nature protests indignantly, yet
he checks himself, remembering that others may be passing
rash judgments on him.
80 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
"May %6t~h. — Did nothing to-day. Played chess in the morning. Got
some notes to collect for the first time ; find it a miserable business col
lecting money. Have a headache ; but withal have this evening been
pleased looking at the constant lightning in the east. I like, of a summer
eve, when darkness prevails, to get to my window, and look upon the
broad bosom of a cloud lighted up with successive coruscations of elec
tricity. As I sit and behold one blaze begin and run from one extremity
of the horizon to the other, and then disappear, leaving all in darkness, to
be instantly followed by another on the same arena, my thoughts turn to
the life of man and the history of nations. A burning genius bursts forth
in the darkness of surrounding ignorance, and shines afar, but soon ex
pires and sinks to nought, leaving darkness in his train. One nation, for
the moment of a few short years, as our little republic is doing now, may
prosper and flourish ; but it is like the flash of the lightning, sublime in
its passage, yet hastening to its end."
How much of this gloomy vaticination is a mere externalizing
jof his personal discontent, and how much is a deduction from
his studies of the political history of the country, we cannot now
see. No man has shown more clearly than Mr. Stephens in
liis later writings has done that the seeds of dissension lay in
the Union from its very formation, and that with the increase
of population, the strengthening of parties, the enhancement of
the prizes at stake, and the irritation of reiterated and aggra
vated grievances, a catastrophe was sooner or later inevitable,
unless it had pleased Providence to give the people more wisdom
and the statesmen more patriotism than commonly fall to the
lot of republics.
In the next entry we are surprised to find our cloistered and
brooding student passing a judgment upon female beauty and
female costume.
" Nay 30th. — . . . Have read little or nothing, spending the day very
unprofitably in chit-chat on various subjects. Examined some drawings
representing the ancient statues, the Apollo Belvidere, Venus de'Medici,
the Gladiator, Antinous, etc. With the Gladiator and Yenus I am de
lighted 5 the muscular energy of the one, and the luxurious grace of the
other, stand unrivalled in any specimens I have yet seen in nature or
art. I think it a pity, but some of our fashionable belles should take a
lesson from this elegant form of true grace. If they could, I am persuaded
that they would change their present disgusting waspish taste, and adapt
their conformation to the lines and curves of natural beauty."
"June %d. — It appears impossible for me to study. I supposed when I
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 81
got this room that I should be by myself, retired from all noise and
all company, and have an undisturbed time for reading, writing, musing,
or doing anything else my inclination might lead to ; but to my great
disappointment and mortification, I am sometimes interrupted from morn
till night, and do nothing the livelong day but jabber with each transient
interloper who may be disposed to give me a call. I seem to be consti
tutionally unfortunate in this respect. When in college I was always
pestered more with company and interruptions by incomers than any one
-student of my acquaintance. Frequently my chums have left the room
to me and my company, as they would tell me in private, and sought
retreat in some adjoining cloister to prepare their recitations, while I, as
Horace on his walk to the gardens of Cassar, could have breathed a fervent
prayer to Apollo or any other divinity for aid in obtaining a similar release."
The next clay's entry reads strangely enough now, when the
subject therein touched upon as* something new and strange has
become familiar to every one, and connected with the interests
of every one. It is interesting to see with what caution Mr.
Stephens speaks of a project which he soon afterwards fully in
vestigated, and of which he was to be an eloquent champion.
This was the project of building a railway from Augusta to
some point in the interior of the State. An intelligent advocate
of the scheme was Dr. Thomas Foster, who then resided in
Crawford ville, which village, by the way, has the distinction of
being the place where, owing to the influence of Dr. Foster, Hon.
Mark A. Cooper, and others, it was first resolved to call a con
vention upon the subject. This, however, was some time after
the period now under consideration.
" June 3d. — The railroad is the topic of the day. Some think it will be
a profitable investment of capital ; others fear to run the risks with their
own pockets ; while all seem very anxious that it may be effected by some
means or other. For my own part, I must confess that my opportunities
of gaining information on the subject have been so limited, and my judg
ment on such matters is so immature, that I cannot say I have any decided
opinion on the great question of interest. If, however, my premises are
correct, I think the legitimate conclusion must inevitably follow in favor
of the project. Railroads, it is true, are novel things in the history of
man : and as yet so little experience has been had on their practicability
as leaves the whole subject somewhat a matter of hazard. In my estima
tion, the greatest obstacle is the greatness of the enterprise. The stupen
dous thought of seeing steam-engines moving over our hills with the safe
and rapid flight of fifteen miles an hour, produces a greater effect in the
6
82 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
dissuasion of the undertaking than any discovered defect in the chain of
arguments in its favor. Speed to the work. Ripe apples to-day for the
first."
The whole subject is so vast and so novel that he scarcely
knows what to think. The idea of driving engines by steam
over hills, at the dizzy speed of fifteen miles an hour, is some
thing with which the mind finds it hard to grapple. It is a
relief to turn from these strange devices of impatient man to
the quiet operations of nature, that never hastes and never rests,
but brings forth leaf, flower, and fruit in due season, and enables
him to note on this 3d of June, " Ripe apples to-day for the
first. "
"June 6th. — I do wish I had an associate, — a bosom confidant, — an equal
in every degree, neither above nor below, whose tastes and views were
similar to my own, and whose business and pursuits were the same as
mine. With such an one I could live and learn and be happy. But as it
is, I sit in my room from morn till night, nor see nor converse with any
body of like tastes with myself. I try to read and advance in information,
but having no person to converse with, to create interest, or elicit new
thought upon the subject-matter of my studies, I find that I am not only
failing to gather up new stores, but even permitting former ones to es
cape. ... I have this day read in the Southern Recorder (the only paper
I take, and devoted to State-rights) a chapter on cats, with which I was
pleased, and which I hope long to remember."
His lonely brooding and want of companionship make him
fancy his gloom deeper than it really is. Having exhausted the
political articles in his paper, and perhaps confirmed his opinion
of the impending ruin of the country, a bit of harmless pleas
antly, even about cats, cheers him up. He is grateful for the
relief, and hopes long to remember it. But the next day he
complains again.
" June 7th. — I have done nothing to-day but saunter about, loll on the
bed, and chat foolishness. When will my days of folly pass and I be
what I wish to be ? This day I for the first time drew a plea in answer to
a process, etc. It was for a Mr. James Brooker, sued in the Justice' Court.
I was under considerable embarrassment ; however, finally succeeded ; but
at this time have a most contemptuous opinion of myself. I believe I shall
never be worth anything, and the thought is death to my soul. I am too
boyish, childish, unmanful, trifling, simple in my manners and address.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II . STEPHENS. 33
I must commence anew. Lethargy is my fatal fault. I am like the kite :
I soar only in the rage of the gale. In the calm I sink into inactivity. I
am like the flint which emits no spark unless brought into contact with
something almost as hard as itself. I was made to figure in a storm, ex
cited by continual collisions. Discussion and argument are my delight ;
and a place of life and business therefore is my proper element. Craw-
fordville is too dull. I long to be where I shall have an argument daily."
" June 8th, Sunday. — In my room all day.11
Want of suitable companionship, and this continual brooding
over his isolation and his helplessness, are enervating him. He
doubts himself. Xot long ago he was writing, " Quid non cffe-
cero f — now he " believes he shall never be worth anything,"
and the languor is creeping over body as well as mind. A spell
like that of Vivien's is weaving around him, and while to others
he seems free, he feels himself shut
"Within the four walls of a hollow tower
From which is no escape for evermore."
Better had he gone once more to the old place to-day, and re
visited the scenes, re-awakened the memories, of his childhood.
" June 9th, Monday. — I to-day feel the ragings of ambition like the sud
den burst of the long smothered flames of a volcano. My soul is disquieted
within me, and there is an aching, aspiring thirst which is as indescribable
as insatiable. I must be the most restless, miserable, ambitious soul that
ever lived. I can liken myself to nothing more appropriately than to a
being thrown into vacant space, gasping for air, finding nothing but emp
tiness, but denied to die. These are my intolerable feelings."
" June 10th. — The weather continues very warm ; and whether it be the
effect of external circumstances, or but one among other constitutional de
fects, I cannot tell, but I do have too contemptuous an opinion of this
world to be entitled to the privilege of a resident. And were there any
safe known passage to another, I should soon be making preparation for
an exit, trusting to the probability of its being a better."
It was a fierce ordeal through which our young student was
passing in those bright summer days. Close confinement in his
chamber, isolation, friendlessness, poverty ; the knowledge that
he was risking all — not merely his hopes of future prosperity,
but even his daily bread — upon the hazard of professional suc
cess : all these sicken both mind and body. The overstrained
nerves demand rest, and he then bitterly reproaches himself with
84 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
having wasted a precious, irrecoverable day; the dulled brain
refuses to follow the intricate thread of legal argument, and he
calls it lethargy, and despairs of himself. To the pages of his
journal he confides the cravings of his ambition, and his anguish
at its utter hopelessness. Once he felt that, had he but a chance,
he could achieve distinction ; now, with death in his soul, he
declares that hope a delusion, — nay, he despises himself for
having cherished it. Few men, with unburdened consciences,
have sounded lower depths of wretchedness than this. He
breaks forth in anger against a world that seems to him all out
of joint ; and then, with bitter self-denunciation, admits that
the fault, the incongruity, the incompatibility, may lie at his
door alone. He has not yet learned to read, even most imper
fectly, the two great riddles, — the world and his own heart. Suf
ferings of body accompany the sufferings of mind ; and to nerves
thus tortured into over-sensitiveness everything gives pain.
Headaches, the black fiend dyspepsia, torment him by night and
by day ; the hearing of ribaldry and blasphemy, the sight of
drunkenness and profligacy, assail a spirit cast in the most deli
cate mould ; and these assaults he can neither repel nor escape.
He can do nothing to reform men that look upon him half-
contemptuously as a crotchety boy; he can do nothing to
strengthen a body that has been frail and sickly from the very
birth. He was in greater peril in these days than even he
knew. Men of natures akin to his have been brought by trials
of this kind to madness, or been relieved by merciful death, or
sought a desperate refuge in self-destruction. Let no one say that
the position of a poor, friendless student is no such uncommon
one ; that his straits were not so extreme : he was not starving, he
was not in rags, he was not an outcast from men's good opinions,
nor from society. The tragedy is not in the circumstances, but
in the actor; and we must judge of his sufferings by looking
at his position as he saw it ; not as it looks to us from with
out. It was in a frame of mind somewhat like his that Chat-
terton, weary and with a breaking heart, wandered about Lon
don, when the few who could and would have helped him were
away. The boy-poet of Bristol had one torment that was spared
our friend, — the torment of a conscience, not at rest ; but he
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H, STEPHENS. §5
was also supported by a belief in his own genius, while young
Stephens, as we have seen, had lost confidence in himself. For
tunate was it for the latter that the solitude of the little village,
that he found so small and dull, was not like the solitude of the
vast city.
This has been a sad and gloomy chapter of his life; but to
the student of the human heart it is one of the most interesting,
containing as it does that faithful record, meant for no eye but
his own, of the inmost thoughts of his soul. From depth to
depth he has descended, until he has reached the nadir. One
step more downward would have been the end of all ; but that
step was not taken. AVe shall see him again in grief and in
gloom of spirit ; but never again shall we find him choosing death
rather than life, and meditating whether there may not be some
safe passage from this world to another.
" June 12th. — Attended Florence's examination. Was highly amused."
Florence was a schoolmaster, and an acquaintance, with whom
he occasionally has had an "argument on grammar," and who
has, once at least, lent him an " old blind horse" for a ride.
Who knows but the amusement he felt at the examination of
these children may not have given the little touch that saved
him? For he was in a perilous state. No one but he who has
had the experience can know how the thought of a voluntary
escape from the wretchedness of life, at first awful, if tampered
with, grows subtly, almost irresistibly seductive. One touch of
a finger, and all the burden is thrown off, all pain eased, all
perils escaped, all forebodings frustrated, all enemies baffled.
Death lays aside his terrors, and changes from a grisly spectre
to an angelic form, bearing the balm of forgetfulness and the
keys of release.
"June 15th, Sunday. — Quarterly meeting. Pretty good sermon by Mr.
Arnold. Some objectionable points, however. What these were I cannot
now mention. Perhaps I may on some future day give place in these
pages to something like an exposition of my faith ; but it must be when I
have more time than now."
That exposition never found a place in " these pages," nor in
any others. The views which a youth of his inexperience would
8(5 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
take were doubtless too undefined and too wide in range for him
to find time to express, — at least until he could give more time
to the task. But whatever those views may be, it seems that
they have not yet pointed out any safe road to another world for
a man who has grown tired of this. Probably he does not feel
so tired of this now. At all events, we find him devising means
for living more comfortably in it, and, for one thing, trying to
borrow a horse.
"June 17th. — Tried this morning to borrow a horse to go to Uncle
Grier's on business for Thompson, but was so disappointed as to fill me
with mortification and a due sense of my humble dependence. Nothing
hurts me worse than to ask and be refused. Therefore I had rather (and
have often done it) walk than ask for a horse. I finally got 0'Leary;S4.
but could not return, on account of a heavy rain in the evening. I recol
lect that in 1826, on this day, we had a good rain, after a considerable
drought."
u June 20th. — Read Blackstone in revieAv. Had a visit from Dr. Foster,
and promised him to deliver an oration on the Fourth of July."
He has been at last visited by a physician, and a good one.
This good Dr. Foster has never received a diploma nor entered
the' doors of a medical college, but he is renowned for miles
around for curing patients and for making money. He has
been observing our young friend for some time, and seeing the
treatment he needs, volunteers his services. No visit was ever
more opportune, no diagnosis more correct, no plan of treatment
more judicious. He begins by prescribing a Fourth-of-July
speech, — a good prescription.
His patient began on the speech the very next day ; and, what
is more, he moved his lodging from the court-house to Uncle
Bird's, — a good move, possibly a suggestion of the doctor's.
" June 25th. — AVent to a party at Mr. John Rogers' s. Intolerably warm,
but time spent very pleasantly. For the first time witnessed the new
dance," — the waltz, presumably, then of recent introduction, — " which dis
gusted me much. Oh, the follies of man, and how foolish are some of his
ways ! Returned in the evening, with a narrow escape of my life. My
borrowed horse, a large and spirited animal, seldom used, having stood
some time in the rain, and having been left by his companions, Upon my
starting evinced a disposition to run, and I soon found that it would be
impossible for me to manage him or hold him in. Off he went at full
LIFE OF ALEXANDER IL STEPHENS. 37
speed, passed gigs, carriages, and all wheeled vehicles. My umbrella fell,
then my hat. Away we went, Gilpin-like, over logs and Bullies, hills and
valleys, for two miles before I could arrest him, when I was so exhausted
as to be hardly able to dismount. During the whole danger I felt com
posed, and determined to exert myself to the last to keep the saddle,
although I was conscious of my perilous situation, and thought of the in- j
stability of human affairs, and how soon I might be hurried from the \
scenes of mirth in which I had just been into eternity. This was a sol-
emn reflection ; and I have reason to be thankful that a kind Providence
did not permit this danger to become a fatality."
The entries of several succeeding days are very short and
almost illegible, on account of the soreness produced by this un
common exertion. The preparation of his speech was trouble
some. He wrote and then destroyed and wrote again, finishing it
on the 3d, and therefore had to read it. In the entry of the next
day, while speaking of the recurrence of the celebrations, he says :
" This natural enthusiasm should not be suppressed. It is only by a
frequent recurrence to the cost of liberty that it can be truly appreciated.
When the people become remiss, and cease to watch their rights with a
jealous eye, then the days of liberty are numbered, for its price is eternal
vigilance."
The manuscript of this address is still preserved. Its chief
theme is the importance to the liberties of the people that the
rights of the States shall be jealously and firmly maintained; a
doctrine which has always been a cardinal one with him. His
friends desired to have this speech published, but this was not
done until thirty years after. In 1864, in answer to certain
insinuations that his opposition to the Administration's tenden
cies toward centralization was not founded on principle, and that
his advocacy of State-rights was new, he published in pamphlet
form this early declaration of his political faith.
In this, his first political speech, Mr. Stephens distinctly took
the ground from which his convictions never afterwards wavered.
While denying the asserted right of nullification, — that is, tne
right of a State to remain in the Union and yet disobey the Federal
Taws, — he insisted upon the sovereignty of the States, and the right
oT any to withdraw from the Union IF the compact should be vio
lated by others. Though in 1834, as in 1860, he considered this
step a deplorable necessity and only to be taken as a last resort.
8^ LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
After showing the relations of the States under the old Arti
cles of Confederation, he says, referring to the Union :
"The Government has not even changed its name. Its powers were en
larged, but its character is the same ; and the relations between the States
and the Government have been multiplied, but the nature of those rela
tions is unaltered. The new Constitution is a compact between the
sovereign States separately, as the old Confederation was ; and if this be
so, and if the first Article of the Confederation expressly declares that
sovereignty or supremacy is retained to the States, — denying the right or
power of Congress to coerce or compel the States, the parties to it, to obey
its edicts, — where is this right or power derived under the present Consti
tution? I am constrained to think that it is derived nowhere, and that it
has its existence only in the breasts of the parasites of power who wish to
overthrow the liberties of the people.
"... That to some may appear a strange doctrine for the perpetuation
of the Union of the States which allows one part to withdraw when under the
feeling of oppression. But such err in their opinions on the strength of
governments. The strength of all governments, and particularly republics,
is in the affections of the people. A republic is a government of opinion, — it
wavers and vacillates with opinion, — the popular breath alone is sufficient to
extinguish its existence. Such is our Government. It was formed by each
party entering it for interested purposes: for greater safety, protection,
and tranquillity ; and so long as these ends are answered, it will be im
pregnable without and within. Interest and self-preservation are the
ruling motives of human action, and so long as interest shall induce the
States to remain united, the Union will have the support and affection of
the people. A separation need not be feared. ButCw hen ever the General
Government adopts the principle that it is the supreme power of the land,
that the States are subordinate, — mere provinces, — that it can compel and
enforce, and commences to dispense its favors with a partial hand, to tax
and oppress a few States to the interest and aggrandizement of the many,
or otherwise transcend its powers, — then will the days of our republic be
numberedL/For it is false philosophy to suppose that these States can be
kept together by force. Dangerous elements are not the less to be dreaded
by a compression of the sphere of their action ; neither are the energies
of a people by an infringement of their rights. Jit is contrary to all ob
servation on the conduct and motives of men. JBut let it be the estab-
| lished policy of the Government that it has no power over a State with-
1 drawing from the Union when in her deliberate judgment the compact
has been broken, and the others will soon cease, or rather never begin
to oppress ; for the Union should be an advantage to all, but an injury to
none."
Altogether a rather remarkable speech for a Fourth-of-July
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 11. STEPHENS. 39
oration, which is usually a synonyme for windy emptiness,
" spread-eagleism," and sophomorical rhetoric.
The entries for some days now have little of interest. On
July 21st he is " very anxious on account of my examination
to-morrow," and on July 22d he "was this day admitted an
attorney at law, and released from a great burden of anxiety."
In reference to this examination we find the following brief
note in the Finkle correspondence :
" Toomhs was at the court when I was admitted : I was not introduced
to him, however. The next week I went over to Wilkes, and there we
became personally acquainted ; l>ut how I do not recollect. Our acquaint
ance soon grew to intimacy. We were associated in some cases in 1835 ;
in 1836 we were very friendly, and by this time always occupied the same
room when we went on the circuit. In 1838 he proposed to lend me
money to travel for my health. We had been in the Legislature together
in 1837. He attended to nearly all the business that my brother could not
do while I was gone. Our personal relations have never been interrupted
from the first day of our acquaintance."
Thus in three months, despite his sufferings of mind and
body, the interruptions of loungers, and the calls of the clerk
for assistance, he accomplished, untutored, the round of prepara
tory studies, and was admitted a member of the bar of the
Northern circuit. Judge William H. Crawford was then upon
the bench. Colonel Joseph Henry Lurnpkin, afterwards chief
justice of the State, was the leading member of the committee
of examination. After thoroughly testing the proficiency of
the candidate, he remarked that he was not only thoroughly
satisfied, but that he had never witnessed a better examination
since he had been at the bar. Judge Crawford — the least flat
tering, if not the most plain-speaking of men, as much distin
guished for candor and directness as for other noble qualities —
replied that he had himself never known a better, and warmly
expressed his gratification.
And now, his pupilage having passed, and a load of anxiety
having been lifted from his mind; Lumpkin, Chandler, Cone,
Dawson, Andrews, and others, leaders in the profession that he
has adopted, having taken him by the hand and called him
brother, he may at last feel that he is a man among men, and
that the veritable business of life has begun.
CHAPTER IX.
First Case — " Biding the Circuit" — First Fee taken — Hezekiah Ellington —
A Desperate Strait and a Convincing Argument — A " Revival" and the
Scenes there — Increase of Business — Buys a Horse — An Exciting Case —
A Great Speech and its Effects.
THE leading lawyer of the county at this time was Mr.
Swepston C. Jeffries. This gentleman had resolved to remove
to Columbus, and Mr. Stephens had made arrangements to
occupy his office for the rest of the year. The evening after
Mr. Stephens's admission to the bar, Mr. Jeffries proposed to
him to accompany him to Columbus and become his partner.
Among other inducements he urged the prospect of large and
profitable business, which he expected would yield them as
much as five thousand dollars a year, and he was willing to
guarantee to Mr. Stephens at least fifteen hundred as his share
in any event. Stephens asked what Mr. Jeffries thought he
could make in Crawford ville, and the latter pleasantly replied
that he would guarantee him. one hundred dollars. Content with
this outlook, he declined his friend's flattering offer, preferring to
cast his lot among the scenes and friends that were familiar and
dear to him.
On the next day he has the prospect of a case, and wre find
the following entry in the journal :
"July 24th. — Was this day engaged for the first time in my professional
line, with a contingent fee of about one hundred and eighty dollars. May
a superintendent Providence look propitiously upon me ! The little bark of
my fortunes and my all is now launched upon a troubled sea, and a better
helmsman than I am is needed. And now, in the beginning, I do make
a fervent prayer that He who made me and all things, and who rules all
things, and who has heretofore abundantly blessed and favored me, and
to whom I wish to be grateful for all His mercies, may continue them
toward His unworthy servant ; that He may, though unseen, direct me in
the right path in all things, and in all my intercourse with mankind : that
90
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 91
He may make me unassuming and not bold and self-confident; that He
may inspire me with a sound mind and quick apprehension, and that He
may so overrule all my acts and all my thoughts and my whole course
that a useful success may attend all my efforts ; that I may not be a use
less blank in creation and an injury to men ; but that I may be of benefit
yet to my fellow-beings, that His name may be glorified in my existence,
and most of all that, at least, I may ever be filled with a sense of depend
ence upon His arm for assistance in all things."
The next week after his admission the court sat in Wilkes.
The lawyer must at least make a show of riding the circuit.
How shall he manage to do so ? The animal that figured in
his Gil pin -ride suggests too many reflections connected with the
instability of human affairs and the precarious tenure of human
life. He could walk to Washington, but that would not be
"riding the circuit." After due reflection he concludes to walk
to his uncle's, a distance of about ten miles, carrying his saddle
bags on his shoulders, and there borrow a horse. Of this walk
he writes : u Starting about dusk, a long, dreary, lonely, and
dark walk I had, well calculated to fill me with proper feelings
of my humble condition, and depress my already low spirits.
However, I was superior to circumstances, and with more fatigue
than mental depression, I reached my destined place at eleven
o'clock at night." The horse obtained, the rest of the journey
was easy; and it .was only necessary that he should remove the
somewhat too suggestive marks and stains of pedestrian travel
before entering Washington. For this there was a remedy.
He had worn on the journey a suit of coarse strong material
called " everlasting." Just outside the town he sought a seques
tered spot, and exchanging his " everlastings" for habiliments
of clean white cotton, the young barrister was prepared to enter
the town, a cavalier without fear and without reproach on the
score of his personal appearance. But a single day at court was
all that the state of his purse or his wardrobe would allow; so
having gone up on Tuesday, he returns on Wednesday, making
the whole journey home on horseback, calling at his Uncle
Grier's to take " Jack behind him to Crawfordville to carry the
horse back."
Shortly after this he goes in company with several gentlemen
to be present at the Commencement at Athens. He does not
92 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
tell us of the feelings inspired by thus revisiting the place where
he had spent so many happy years. The lapse of time, and
still more, the step that he has now taken into that active life
for which those years were but the preparation, probably have
quenched his old longings for its scholastic quiet and calm re
currence of studious hours. He only speaks of having spent
his time there "very pleasantly, considering the great crowd;"
then returns home, and in a few days passes another epoch in his
life, — he receives his first fee. He thus speaks — with less em
phasis than we should have expected — of this event .
11 On Monday, August llth, got a fee of twenty-five dollars, the first in
hand yet received, and that was only a note from Mr. II. Ellington.
Tuesday, regulated Mr. E.'s papers ; Wednesday, ditto ; Thursday, ditto."
This old Mr. Hezekiah Ellington, the first to pay, or at least
to give a written promise to pay, a fee to the young lawyer, was
rather a character in his neighborhood. He had some property,
and a small store in which he kept cigars, some little groceries,
and liquors. He loved to drive a hard bargain ; yet once in his
life he had been known to offer liberal — indeed munificent — pay
ment for a very small service. As the circumstances were related
by Mr. Stephens, we think it may not be out of place to relate
them here.
The old gentleman, several years before, on his plantation,
was brought very low with malarious fever, and his physician
and family had made up their minds that, notwithstanding his
extreme reluctance to depart from this life, — a reluctance height
ened no doubt by his want of preparation for a better, — he
would be compelled to go. The system of therapeutics in
vogue at that time and in that section included immense quan
tities of calomel, and rigorously excluded cold water. Mr.
Ellington lingered and lingered, and went without water so
long and to such an extent that it seemed to him he might as
well die of the disease as of the intolerable thirst that tormented
him. Those who had him in charge took a different view, and
seemed to think that if he must die it would be some consola
tion to the afflicted survivors that the disease had been first
overcome. So, despite his supplications, water was persistently
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 93
refused for days and days. And still he lingered, despite the
disease and the doctors, and seemed to take an unconscionable
amount of killing. At last one night, when his physicians,
deeming his case hopeless, had taken their departure, informing
his family that he could hardly live till morning, and the latter,
worn down by watching, were compelled to take a little rest, he
was left to the care of his constant and faithful servant, Shad-
rach, with strict and solemn charge to notify them if any change
took place in his master's condition, and, above all, under no
circumstances to give him cold water.
When the rest were all asleep, Mr. Ellington, always astute
and adroit in gaining his ends, and whose faculties at present
were highly stimulated by his extreme necessity, called out to
his attendant in a feeble voice, which he strove to make as
natural and unsuggestive as possible, —
"Shadrach, go to the spring and fetch me a pitcher of water
from the bottom."
Shadrach expostulated, pleading the orders of the doctor and
his mistress.
" You Shadrach, you had better do what I tell you, sir."
Shadrach still held by his orders.
"Shadrach, if you don't bring me the water, when I get well
I'll give you the .worst whipping you ever had in your life !"
Shadrach either thought that if his master got well he would
cherish no rancor toward the faithful servant, whose constancy
had saved him, or, more likely, that the prospect of recovery
was far too remote to justify any serious apprehension for his
present disobedience; at all events, he held firm. The sick man
finding this mode of attack ineffectual, paused awhile, and then
said, in the most persuasive accents he could employ, —
" Shadrach, my boy, you are a good nigger, Shadrach. If
you'll go now and fetch old master a pitcher of nice cool water,
I'll set you free and give you Five Hund-red Dollars!" And
he dragged the syllables slowly and heavily from his dry jaws,
as if to make the sum appear immeasurably vast.
But Shadrach was proof against even this temptation. He
only admitted its force by arguing the case, urging that how
could he stand it, and what good would his freedom and five
94 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
hundred dollars do him if he should do a thing that would kill
his old master ?
The old gentleman groaned and moaned. At last he be
thought him of one final stratagem. He raised his head as well
as he could, turned his haggard face full upon Shadrach, and
glaring at him from his hollow bloodshot eyes, said, —
" Shadrach, I am going to die, and it's because I can't get any
water. If you don't go and bring me a pitcher of water, after
I'm dead I'll come back and HAUNT you ! I'll HAUXT you as
long as you live !"
" Oh Lordy ! Master ! You shall hab de water !" cried Shad-
rach ; and he rushed out to the spring and brought it. The
old man drank and drank, — the pitcherful and more. The
next morning he was decidedly better, and to the astonishment
of all soon got well.
Tli is was the old gentleman who was our young lawyer's
first client, at least the first whose business occupied him, and
the first to give him a promise to pay for services rendered.
His accounts were evidently in a bad way, as his attorney spends
three days in preliminary regulating, and how much more in
collecting we cannot tell. However, he will get twenty-five
dollars for it all, and that will support him for four months.
The entries in the journal now grow more irregular. The
Ellington papers have given him a good deal of trouble, and
take up much time. We find a note of his attendance at a
religious meeting at the Baptist church, where, from the circum
stances, there would seem to have been what is sometimes termed
a "revival."
" During the night services I witnessed a scene, which for villainy of
heart and deep depravity of human nature displayed, stands equal to any,
if not unparalleled, in my personal experience. And I have either been so
unfortunate in my acquaintance, or so uncharitable in my deductions, as
long since to come to the conclusion that there dwells but little good in
the human heart. The house was crowded, and there was considerable
excitement among the people ; sbme exhorting, some praying, not a few
crying aloud for mercy, with a few spectators looking on with due solemn
ity. Among these last I must rank myself."
To be less circumstantial than our diarist: Amono: the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 95
"mourners/' as they were called, at the altar was a man who
had a handsome young wife. While he was engaged in re
ligious exercises, his wife was sitting on one of the rear seats,
and a wild young man was making violent love to her. " I
need not tell," he says, in conclusion, "how the furies seemed to
urge him on, or how female weakness showed itself. Alas the
world !"
Very deplorable, undoubtedly; but perhaps not altogether
" unparalleled" to those who have studied nervous pathology.
In the same entry he thus refers to his first cash fee :
"On Monday, the 1st inst., made my first address to a court. It was
the Court of Ordinary of this county. I spoke, for James Farmer, and
received two dollars in silver." " These four half-dollars," he afterwards
said, "I kept a long time. I ought to have charged more for this and
for the job of the Ellington papers ; but I did not know the value of my
services."
On September 8th he notes that a young gentleman, a Mr.
Burch, has begun the study of law with him. "How the thing
will ultimate I cannot tell, but hope for the best."
The thing "ultimated" very satisfactorily. Robert S. Burch,
then and always one of the most upright of men, became one
of the soundest lawyers at the Georgia bar, and afterwards Mr.
Stephens's partner.
And now the time has come when Mr. Stephens thinks he
must have a horse of his own. Besides the Ellington papers,
he has another set to adjust, and these require more locomotion
than he can perform on foot. With caution and mauy mis
givings he sets about this momentous purchase.
u September 10th. — This day I was employed by Mr. Ililsman with the
conditional fee of twenty dollars. But of all my business, the most im
portant was the purchase of a horse. What will be the result of my first
trade I can not tell."
He made a mistake in setting down the purchase of the horse
as the most important business of that day. The visit of James
Hilsman was much more important, as it. proved. The matter
at issue was this :
Uriah Battle, a son of Isaac Battle, who lived near Powelton,
but upon the Taliaferro side of the creek, had married Amanda
96 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Askew, of Hancock. To this marriage a daughter was born, and
shortly afterwards the husband died, leaving a young widow and
infant child. The elder Battle afterwards took out letters of
guardianship of the person and property of the child. Some
time after this the widow married James Hilsman, a man of
intemperate habits, and highly objectionable to Mr. Battle, who
claimed possession of the child by virtue of the letters of guar
dianship. The widow would not give it up ; so the grandfather
employed a man to get possession of the child by stratagem.
The man called at the house, talked with the child and petted it,
and at last, taking it in his arms, hurried off at full speed, pur
sued by the shrieking mother, and delivered it to the custody of
the grandfather. It wa* then determined to appeal to the law,
and the business referred to above was the employment of Mr.
Stephens to take a course to secure to the mother the restoration
and custody of her child. He therefore commenced proceedings
in the Court of Ordinary, by taking a rule nisi, requiring Mr.
Battle to show cause at the next term of court why his letters of*
guardianship as to the person of the child should not be revoked,
on grounds set forth in the rule.
This case excited an astonishing amount of interest in both
Taliaferro and Hancock Counties. The Battles were numerous
and influential, and the greater part of the community, who knew
the facts and circumstances, sympathized with them. On the clay
of trial, at the next term of court, men, women, and children
assembled, some even from Greene, Warren, and Wilkes Coun
ties. The young lawyer had thoroughly prepared himself upon
all the nice and intricate legal questions on which he knew the
case would turn. To familiarize himself with the evidence, and
to try the various modes of presentation, he argued the case over
and over, in divers forms of argumentation, and in free and
passionate declamation in the solitude of a lonely hill-side.
The day and hour came. Court-house and court-yard were
filled with hearers. Nine-tenths of them, though they knew
Jeffries, the counsel for the Battles, well, had never seen Ste
phens. When he arose, trembling and pale, there was a deep
silence. After a brief exordium, he warmed with his subject,
and addressing himself to the feelings of the court (consisting
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 97
of five judges), burst into a strain of passionate eloquence that
none of those present, save perhaps Jeffries and the Battles,
could withstand. The picture he drew of the bereft mother was"^
one which made every one forget that she had married Mr. /
James Hilsman, and was not now a poor widow robbed by death
of the husband of her youth, and of the only pledge of their
love by an enemy yet more cruel. In pleading for her child his
eyes glittered and his voice quivered with the passion of a score
of mothers. He planted himself upon the great law of nature
that overrides all human statutes, or upon which all human
statutes must rest. In vain had abundant testimony been ad
vanced from the old burghers of Powelton that the child would
be better cared for by the grandfather than by the mother in
her new relation. All this was consumed in the fire of that
eloquence, pleading for the sacred right of maternity. Men,
women, and children wept ; many sobbed aloud. The five
judges tried to preserve the balance of their official dignity, but
they could not resist the contagious emotion, and tears were seen
rolling down their cheeks, and when the argument was finished,
their spokesman, with faltering voice, pronounced judgment in
favor of the mother.
The Battles gave it up ; and the next day, at Powelton, Dr.
Cullen Battle, a cousin of the grandfather, said, laughingly,
" When that little fellow began to argue that even among the
beasts of the forest the mother was, by the great law of nature,
the keeper of her offspring, and would fight even to the death for
their custody, and all the judges fell to crying, I knew that
Isaac would have to give up Martha Ann !" No speech of any
young lawyer ever added more to his reputation than did this
of Mr. Stephens. Indeed, it created his reputation. He had
hitherto been regarded by the multitude with indifference, and
by a few, who had been the friends of his father, with compas
sion. But to-day, in the presence of all this multitude he had
shown himself not only more than the peer of any lawyer in the
county, but as destined to take rank with the first orators in the
State.
7
CHAPTER X.
A Hard "Winter — A Friendly Rival and an Accurate Prediction — An Offer
— A Trip " Out West" — An Indian Host and his Family — Interview
with President Jackson — Uncle James Stephens — A Toast — Dr. Foster
again — Friendly Counsels — Georgia Railroads.
THOUGH the odds, always apparently against him, have lately
seemed heavier than ever, Alexander Stephens begins another
year. This year, 1835, was memorable for storms and cold
weather of all sorts. During the first three months the cold
was more intense than had ever been known before, or has been
felt since, in that region. The thermometer was often below
zero of Fahrenheit, and once, on the terrible 8th of February,
fell to —10°.
All the entries in the journal down to February 22d, refer to
nothing but the weather. He was always a great hand for mak
ing notes of the weather and meteorologic phenomena generally,
of Avhich perhaps our readers may have noticed an instance or
two. So it has been in most of his letters. His delicate health,
doubtless, made him more sensitive to these changes ; and
through January, and almost through February, he has appa
rently done nothing but sit by the fire and talk about the cold
outside.
In the mean time there has been no new business of impor
tance. The cold seems to have rendered men somewhat torpid,
and less disposed to carry their grievances to court. He can
live on six or eight dollars a month ; but to live on it he must
first make it. On this 22d day of February he talks awhile on
what he has been doing, and on what he hopes to do.
" February 22d. — . . . Have been for some time in serious thought upon
the subject of my future prospects; and feel compelled to leave a place to
which I feel so much attached. . . . We have in this village a society for
debate in which I take much interest, and in which I feel that I have a
formidable competitor in A. R. W., one of my old classmates."
93
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 99
This allusion in the journal brings to mind a conversation
had with Mr. Stephens in 1866, in which this A. R. W. was
mentioned. Mr. Johnston was then on a visit at Liberty Hall,
and on one afternoon took a long walk with his host down the
small stream to the north of the house.
" Along this branch," he said, " when I first came to the bar,
I used to walk once or twice in every week to Thomas Ray's,
whose wife was my cousin. I would go home with the children
from school, and spend the night. The next morning, as I re
turned, I used to declaim in the woods that were here then, upon
imaginary topics."
" It was at Cousin Sabrina Ray's that I first became acquainted with
Dr. Foster, who afterwards became one of my best friends, the Mentor of
my young manhood. lie used frequently to go out there when worn down
by his practice, in order to get rid of the multitude. When he went, he
would lie on a bed and rest all day. He had a high esteem for Cousin
Sabry, and called her cousin, as I did. I heard of his saying something
about me in one of these visits which did me great good. At that time
there was a debating society in Crawfordville. A. 11. Wright,* who was
then residing there and practising law, and I, were usually on opposite
sides of questions. Cousin Sabry, Mrs. Battle, and some other ladies were
speaking of Wright and myself, when they appealed to Dr. Foster, who
said, l The difference between Wright and Stephens is about this : they
will both get into Congress ; but Stephens will get there in ten years, and
Wright in twenty.' The report of this compliment gave me great encour
agement. It was curious how near the prediction was to literal fulfilment.
I was elected to Congress in nine years, and Wright in exactly twenty."
In the same entry he records a visit that he paid to his old
friend and benefactor, Mr. A. L. Alexander, who, it will be
remembered, had befriended him so kindly when he thought of
preparing himself for the ministry. He made the call, which
he felt to be one of duty, with many misgivings, for he did not
know how his change of purpose was regarded, nor whether he
might not be looked upon as ungrateful for not carrying out his
benefactor's wishes. His reception, he says, was not unfriendly,
but cool ; and no allusion was made to his course or prospects.
" I endeavored to be familiar, and by some means to show that honesty
of purpose of which I was conscious. But a most soul-killing feeling it
* Afterwards member of Congress and Judge of the Superior Court.
100 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
is to know one's self suspected, and to feel conscious that every attempt
to exculpate or explain is viewed as only another evidence of guilt. This
was my case ; and feeling myself overwhelmed by fate, I took my leave as
early as convenient, with a heart full of meditation, sore with reflection,
torn with grief, and yet feeling that so long as life should last the re
membrance of my first acquaintance with Adam L. Alexander, and its
incidents, will be like the music of Caryl, pleasant, but mournful to the
soul."
It was about this time that Mr. Jeffries removed from Craw
fordville, and . proposed to Mr. Stephens to go with him to Co
lumbus and become his partner, as before mentioned. He relates
the incident and the grounds of his refusal in a letter dated June
3d, 1856.
" I assure you that that part of my life which is by far the most inter
esting is that which was spent on the ' old homestead,' under the paternal
roof, and in the family circle. That was the ' day-dawn' period with me.
It was short, nor was it always happy, — far from it ; but the remembrance
of it has always been sweet though mournful. My strong attachment to
the place, the hills, the springs, the brooks, the rocks, and even the gullies
with which I was familiar from my earliest recollection, determined my
whole course of life. By that alone my destiny has been controlled. It
was this alone that caused me to settle in Crawfordville, close by, where I
could visit them at pleasure. When I was admitted to the bar in 1834,
the prospect of a young lawyer there without means was little short of
starvation just ahead. The most liberal inducements were offered me to
go to Columbus and become one of a firm, with a proffered guarantee of
fifteen hundred dollars for the first year. This I declined for no other
reason but a fixed determination I had formed never to quit, if I could
avoid it, those places nearest my heart, where I played as well as toiled in
my youth, about which I had so often dreamed in my orphan wanderings,
and which I was determined to own in my own name if I should ever be
able to make the purchase. This is what kept me at Crawfordville. And
often during the first year after my settlement there did I walk dowji (for
horse I had none to ride) to see those old familiar scenes, and earnestly
look forward to the day when by aid of propitious fortune I might call
them my own, and feel that whatever else might betide me, I had the place
which of all others I wished to live at, and to be buried at when I die.
This local attachment, I tell you, warped, shaped, and controlled my des
tiny. . . . The great object of my youthful days, to buy it back again, I
was unable to accomplish until 1838. The owner, wishing to remove to
Alabama, came to terms upon which we agreed, and I own it still. I have
added considerably to it since ; but it is all esteemed by me as the ' old
homestead,' about which cluster the brightest images in the memory of
my whole existence."
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. JQ1
The entries from this time until March 19th relate entirely
to the weather, which he chronicles with the conscientiousness
of a meteorologist. The low range of the thermometer is noted
with dismay. It has been the coldest winter in the recollection
of living men. Here we have the first indications of its mod
erating :
" March 19th. — Cleared off in the night, with high wind from the N.W. :
not very cold. To-morrow night, by appointment, I am to take part in
our debating society in the discussion of nullification. Have bestowed
some thought upon the question, but find the whole involved in much
obscurity. I have found what I consider to be a correct definition of Sov
ereignty. It is a moral attribute, vested with full moral power, natural or
adventitious, to do whatever is consistent with right and duty. In its
nature it is inalienable : it cannot be transferred. It can be delegated as
a trust, but can never be conveyed in fee. It is an estate tail general in
the male line, secured thrdugh Adam to all his posterity, and of which no
father can deprive his offspring, nor any government its subjects."*
Having nothing to do this month, and but little promise for
the next, Mr. Stephens determined to take a trip " out West"
with a small party of friends. A remarkably succinct account
of this jaunt, which was not very satisfactory, is given in the
journal. "Robin Adair," the horse he bought, falls lame from
a smith's clumsiness in shoeing him, which leads his owner to
conclude that " it requires great skill even to shoe a horse."
However, Robin manages to keep up with the party, and they
push on across the Oconee, the Ockmulgee, the Flint, the Chat-
tahoochee, and even the Tallapoosa, Alabama. They find the
lands good ; and our traveller thinks that there were good pros
pects " for all kinds of enterprises in which a man could so
abandon himself to circumstances as to rush into the contest
regardless of his character or that of his companions."
" There is no uniformity of character," he observes, " among the people
of Alabama, the population being composed of immigrants from all parts
of the world, and of all varieties of morals, dispositions, tempers, and
conditions of life. The whole presents a heterogeneous mass of irregular
and confused material, much needing the hand of time and education to
shape and to form into symmetrical order."
* This embryo definition of sovereignty was afterwards considerably
enlarged and accurately formulated in his War between the States.
102 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
To reach the objective-point of their travels they had to pass
through the Creek nation, and lodged one night with an Indian.
The circumstance is thus described :
" We found that our host was a man of authority among his own people,
the chief of his town. His name was Witholo-mico^ He lives on the
banks of the Tallapoosa, near his own ferry, about twelve miles above
Autossee battle-ground. It was night when we arrived, and found for our
accommodation that there were two cabins upon the premises, about twelve,
feet square and eight feet high each, and having puncheon floors. One
had a small piazza in front, and both had the crevices between the poles
of which they were built neatly stopped or daubed with red clay. Into
one of these we, nine in number, were conducted, saddles, blankets, bridles,
and all except horses, which were turned into a neighboring lot, where the
chief gave them corn and fodder. We found but four Indians about, — the
chief, his wife, and two others, one a boy. The wife soon arrayed her
self in a new clean dress, seeming to think tha dirty smock in which we
found her not becoming the lady of a chieftain in the presence of wThite
men. She then busied herself in preparing us some supper, which, when
it came (in about an hour), consisted of fried bacon, eggs, corn-bread, and
coffee, — very good fare for travellers. At table we had all the accommo
dations of civilized life, such as plates, knives and forks, cups and saucers,
etc. But in the sleeping line we were not so fortunate. Two bedsteads
were standing in two corners of the house, having, instead of cords, boards
laid across their sides, over which were thrown some blankets. All our
company were soon extended on one or the other of these hard couches, —
all but myself. For my part I felt little like sleeping. The hour, the
place, and circumstances allowed no repose to my mind. The lofty look
and dignified mien of Witholo-mico (who had retired to the other house),
his keen, deep-sunken eye, his strange guttural sounds, which flowed while
speaking to his wife in such commanding eloquent tone, were all before
me. Then the whole Indian history, the origin of that powerful race
which once occupied undisturbed this vast extent of country, their habits
as observed by the first settlers and before their contamination by the
white man, their virtues, their patriotism, — all these, compared with their
present sunk and degrade^ condition, crowded themselves upon my mind
in such a tide of reflection, that I was absorbed in thought until almost
the breaking of day^
" In the morning, I was delighted to see the chief arrayed in his national
costume, which I supposed he had donned in compliance with a wish I had
made to that effect the evening before in his presence, not thinking that
he could understand what I was saying. His dress was buckskin leggings,
reaching up to the hip, beaded with materials of different colors, but mostly
red, on the outer seams; a coat or gown reaching half-way down the
thigh, also beaded in various parts : a shirt extending in peaked form in
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 1Q3
front nearly to the knee ; a red band about the waist, which was elegantly
beaded ; in front a kind of case or sheath for the reception of a large
butcher-knife or dirk. This belt hung nearly to the ground, much like
the sash of one of our field-officers. And to conclude, his head was bound
about with a kind of loose bandage of red color, very full, passing directly
around and across the forehead, leaving the top of the head perfectly bare.
" The chief had nothing to say to the whites, which I at first attributed
to his want of acquaintance with our language ; but afterwards was dis
posed to think it owing to some other cause, either a sense of his superior
dignity, or the fear of appearing to his own people to show too great
familiarity towards foreigners, particularly their worst enemies. He kept
himself close in his own apartment during the night, and though he was
up early in the morning, and appeared very active and diligent in serving
us and making us as comfortable as possible, yet all was done in the most
dignified, reserved, and unrelaxing taciturnity."
The account of this trip, which our traveller characterizes as
" much the longest journey I have ever accomplished," closes
with an admission of his being on the whole well pleased ; but
with an avowal of having no notion of settling in the region
which he had traversed.
In May he took a trip to the North, in connection with which
he relates two anecdotes which may not be out of place here.
One is his first and only interview with General Jackson.
Mr. Stephens had left home on or about May 20th, travelling
by mail-coach on the old Piedmont line. On taking the stage
at Washington, Georgia, several parties announced the startling
intelligence of the outbreak of hostilities in the Creek nation,
and the massacre of the passengers on several of the United
States coaches coming through. The passengers who got out at
Washington were in the only coach on the train that escaped.
Early in the morning after his arrival at the capital, Mr.
Stephens called on the President to pay his respects. The Gen
eral cordially shook hands, and insisted on his taking a seat.
He was sitting alone by a fire, the morning being raw and cold,
in his dressing-gown and slippers, his silver pipe lying by him
on the floor. His first inquiry after his guest was seated was,
" What is the news in Georgia?" Mr. Stephens said there was
nothing of public interest, except an outbreak of Creeks, who
had massacred the passengers of seven or eight coaches in the
Creek nation, between Columbus and Montgomery; an outrage
104 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
which had created great excitement at Columbus. " Yes/7 said
Jackson, " I have just got a letter by mail — the lower route —
telling me the alarming state of things in Columbus. In the name
of God, where's Howard ?" (Major John H. Howard, whom the
Legislature had put at the head of a battalion to repel any out
break of the Indians on the western border.) Mr. Stephens
replied, " He was down about Florence or Koanoke by last ad
vices." " Why don't he move his forces at once across the
river?77 " I don't know : there may be some question of juris
diction, his being Georgia forces, under control of Georgia
authorities." "Jurisdiction, by the Eternal! when the United
States mail is robbed and citizens murdered !" And springing
to his feet, " In the name of God, how big a place is Colum
bus?" " About three thousand inhabitants." "Why don't
they turn out in force and drive back the Indians ? Here I
have letters calling on me for aid, and telling me the whole
population is flying to the interior !" The General then grew
calmer, inquired the distance of Florence from Columbus and
the point of massacre, and asked about the Indian country.
Mr. Stephens informed him, and spoke of his own journey
through that country, and his lodging with Witholo-mico. The
General knew that chieftain well, and was glad to hear that he
was in no way connected with the outbreak. He kept Mr.
Stephens for more than an hour; and the latter was greatly
struck with his weakness and emaciation and the feebleness of
his voice, and the power and energy he displayed when aroused.
The other anecdote is this : On his journey to New York,
he turned aside to visit his old uncle, James Stephens, who lived
in Perry County, Pennsylvania, near the mouth of the Juniata.
The family, who had heard nothing of his coming, were at once
surprised and gratified at seeing him. The uncle and some of
the boys were out at work on the farm, but soon came in, and
then an older brother's family were sent for. The aunt and the
girls at once set about getting up a good country dinner in honor
of the occasion. When all were seated at the table, the old
uncle at one end and the aunt at the other, Uncle James asked,
" Well, Alexander, what business are you pursuing ?" He re
plied, " I am a lawyer." Instantly the whole table was silent.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 105
The old gentleman threw down his knife and fork and looked
at his nephew with a sort of horrified amazement, as if he had
said he was a highwayman or a pirate. "What's the matter,
Uncle James ?" " Did you say you were a lawyer?" "Yes."
" A laim/er?" " What of that?" With an expression of com
plete despair he asked, " Alexander, don't you have to tell lies $"
His nephew, greatly amused, replied, " No, sir ; the business of
a lawyer is neither to tell lies nor to defend lies, but to protect
and maintain right, truth, and justice; to defend the weak
against the strong; to expose fraud, perjuries, lies, and wrongs
of all sorts. The business of a lawyer is the highest and noblest
of any on earth connected with the duties of life." This seemed
to calm the old gentleman's fears.
A few entries more in the journal bring us down to the Fourth
of July, and its inevitable oration. This time, however, A. R..
W. has the first place, being the orator of the day; while to
Mr. Stephens is assigned the reading of the Declaration of Inde
pendence. The ceremony closed with a dinner and the usual
toasts.
" My sentiment," says he, "was this : ' Nominative Conventions. Dan
gerous inroads upon Republican simplicity, and utterly inconsistent with
the exercise of that free choice in the selection of their officers which
constitutes the dearest right of freemen. May the intelligent people of
this country never become the misguided dupes of a Jacobinical Directory 1'
Opposition was made, and the sentiment drunk by few. So, .thought I,
pass on the unthinking multitude, never considering their rights until too
much endangered to be secured ; never considering that they should think
for thein.selves ; but readily sanctioning whatever is endorsed for them by
higher authority, thus becoming the fit instruments in skilful hands for
the execution of any purpose. Strange, passing strange, that men, intel
ligent men, who ought to appreciate the cost and price of their franchises,
will thus — but it is unnecessary to censure. The fact exists, and men are
rather to be pitied than upbraided."
The dry season ended on the 13th of July with a glorious
rain. This put everybody in good spirits ; and our friend had
that night much to write about the weather. He gives the
whole chronicle of it for months, beginning with that trip to
Alabama. Never was there a man, outside of those whose
business it is to record these phenomena, who had so much to
106 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
say about the weather, — a habit which was to last as long as
he lived. But the rain improves business as well as the crops,
we find.
" July 16th. — Business was quite lively to-day. William Jones, a mer
chant in this place, absconded, and left many creditors to suffer. I have
since last night written twelve attachments, and I suppose that as many
have been issued elsewhere. It seems to me that the laws providing for
the satisfaction of the claims of absconding debtors are, like many others
of our system, very defective. For they can be called nothing but a snatch-
and-take. The individuals who are nearest the scene of action and can use
their fingers the quickest, or have money to secure this end, can always
be safe ; while those at a distance, or such as are lying under some other
disadvantage, are totally losers. Not only so, but our present system of
attaching might be used as an instrument of the grossest fraud. For
should a man of extensive securities and debts become too much involved
to meet the demands upon him, and then communicate this fact to a few
of his creditors whom he feels disposed to favor, it is evident that arrange
ments may be all made ready for the favored creditors to attach and
secure themselves instantly upon the departure of the debtor, while others
quite as justly entitled to relief are excluded by this snatch law."
A just criticism upon the law of Georgia, as it then stood,
which provided that those attachments which were first levied
should be first satisfied ; a state of things which always created
a rush and scramble among home creditors, while foreign cred
itors never heard of it until the debtor was beyond pursuit
and his effects divided. This defect in the law has since been
remedied.
The entries now contain but little of interest for a long time.
In November he has a bit of business :
" November 27th. — Went to Warrenton for the purpose of aiding McGuire
in obtaining his enlargement. He was confined in jail for assault with
intent to murder. Rain in the evening. I got three of the court together
between nine and ten o'clock P.M. One drunk. Court could not agree
upon the amount of the bond, and adjourned until eight o'clock next
morning. Succeeded the next day in getting bail for McGuire ; felt grati
fied at the relief afforded the prisoner."
This release of the prisoner closes up the business of the year,
as far as lawver Stephens is concerned. It has not brought him
much profit; but as he can come nearer than most men to living
on nothing, while others of his professional brethren are moving
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 1Q7
away in search of less sterile pastures, he still clings to the old
place. The little money that he can save he spends on books ; the
much time at his disposal he employs in reading them. An
extract from the Finkle correspondence will throw some light
on this period.
" No one can imagine how I worked, how I delved, ho\v I labored
over books. Often I spent the whole night over a law-book, and went to
bed as the dawn of day was streaking the east. My business increased,
and I studied hard to keep up with it and keep the mastery over it. My
brother, A. G.. who in 1834 taught school in the Asbury settlement,
visited me often, and we spent many pleasant evenings together, when
there was no preaching in town, in walking over to the old homestead,
and running over the hills and up and down the branches. These excur
sions constituted most of my recreation during these two years, except
when I went up to see him, or went on a visit to Uncle Aaron G. Grier
and old Aunt Betsey. My time was occupied almost constantly on week
days in reading, studying, and office business. I never lounged about
with village crowds."
Dr. Foster and Mr. Stephens became quite intimate in the
course of time. He found the doctor to be, as he often ex
pressed it, "a most wonderful man.77 His knowledge was sur
prising ; not in his profession only, but in history, science, and
art. From him he obtained a fund of information which he
could not then have known how to find elsewhere. This
Mentor of his youth, as he used afterwards to call him, often
withdrew him from his studies when he seemed to be too deeply
immersed in them, and forced him to relax a little. On some
mornings the good doctor would present himself on horseback
at his friend's office, saying that he was going on a professional
visit of ten or fifteen miles, and had come to take Mr. Stephens
with him. No remonstrances or pleas would avail; he must
get a horse and be ready by the time the doctor returned from
a visit in the village. So the horse was got, and forth the two
would sally, to be gone sometimes until the next day. In these
excursions he not only improved his health by the exercise and
relaxation, but he learned much from Foster's well-stored mind
and large experience, and gathered from his friend wisdom of a
kind that is not to be found in books. The worthy doctor
knew the world, its good and its evil, and would advise as one
108 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
who knew. He had himself struggled up through poverty and
other adverse fortune, and had learned that integrity and in
dustry, even without extraneous aid, will surely in the end
bring success. His example bore out his precepts; and when
ever his young friend felt like despairing, the sight of this
excellent and brave man, who, after long toils and the buffetings
of adversity, had patiently worked his way alone to prosperity
and reputation, gave him courage to press on and patience to
endure.
In the year 1836 litigation was destined to increase. Money
was becoming more plentiful, and, the usual result, the tide of
speculation was setting in. All things were preparing the great
financial crisis which was at hand. Stephens was now estab
lished in reputation, and his business was extending into other
counties besides Taliaferro. The problem of living, at all events,
was settled for him ; and Foster felt that he could now afford
to unbend a little, and open his mind to other than professional
topics. The subject of railroads was then, as wre have seen, at
tracting much attention. This subject Dr. Foster had studied
until he was as thoroughly acquainted with it as any other man
in the State ; and indeed was the prime mover in the enterprise
of building the Georgia State Koad. Mr. Stephens did not
know, while listening as Dr. Foster descanted upon the magnifi
cent results sure to follow the adoption of this system, that he
was then being trained to act as its champion before the General
Assembly of the State. But the doctor knew.
CHAPTER XL
Political Review — The Two Great Questions — The National and Federal
Plans — The Two Parties — Powers of the Federal Government and of the
States — Great and Small States — Meaning of the Two Houses of Congress
— Different Interests of the Northern and Southern States — Apportion
ment of Representation— The "Three-fifths Clause"— The Tariff1— The
North wishes to cede to Spain the Navigation of the Mississippi — Ingeni
ous Strategy — The "Alien and Sedition Acts" — Resolutions of 1798 and
1799 — War of 1812 — Acquisition of Louisiana — Mr. Quincy, of Massachu
setts — The " Missouri Compromise" made and broken — Mr. Clay's Com
promise — " Internal Improvements" — " Protective" Tariffs — " Nullifica
tion" Movement in South Carolina — A Threatened Collision — Northern
and Southern Democrats.
IN order rightly to understand the political career of any
American statesman, and to comprehend the significance and
tendency of the events in which he has borne a part, we must
not limit our view to the events themselves, but must look be
yond them into the causes of which they are but the visible
effects. And such a course is especially necessary in the case
of a man like Mr. Stephens, whose actions have been guided
throughout by fundamental principles, and not by temporary
motives of convenience or expediency.
At the root of all the great and very many of the small
political questions that have divided the councils or agitated the
citizens of the Federal Republic from the adoption of the Con
stitution and even before it, to the present day, will be found
two fundamental causes of dissension, — two, which afterwards
became merged into one. These gave birth to the great parties
that, under various names, have divided the American people :
in every important measure we may trace their operation, and
in every considerable debate we find their champions. From
these all later divisions have sprung : their irreconcilable antag
onism brought on the war between the States: they are still
operative in shaping the destinies of the country; and if we
109
HO LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
thoroughly comprehend them we shall hold a clew that will
lead us through the intricate labyrinth of American politics.
The remodellers of the Articles of Confederation found them
selves brought face to face with perhaps the most difficult task
ever undertaken by man, and with no previous experience to
guide them. They met, not as the delegates of a people, but as
the representatives of twelve distinct and independent sovereign
ties which they proposed to combine, by solemn compact, in a
Federal Republic, so framed that while this republic should op
pose the strength of a great State against foreign aggression, it
might also offer the security which a small State affords its citi
zens against domestic tyranny. They had to present to States
still glorying in their newly-won liberty the concessions which
such an organization required, in a form that would least alarm
their jealous independence ; to reconcile, as best they could, an
tagonistic interests; to balance conflicting powers, and to adjust
the various departments of the new-modelled organization so
that neither should attain a dangerous preponderance, nor any
collision occur in their working for the common interest. And
all these adjustments had to be made, not for a territory defi
nitely limited by natural boundaries, but for a country capable
of indefinite expansion in almost every direction. In scarcely
one of these points did they quite succeed ; but it is matter of
amazement that they accomplished what they did.
The first and greatest difficulty that they had to cope with,
and which very nearly proved fatal, was the adjustment of the
relations between the Federal Government and the States. In
the Convention of 1787 there was a considerable party who either
naturally leaned towards a monarchy in substance if not in name,
or thought the danger of foreign aggression far greater than that
of the tyranny of a majority, or else trusted that of such a ma
jority their own States would form a component part. These
were for increasing the strength of the Federal power at the
expense of the States ; and they urged the advantages and even
the necessity of a "strong government/' and the danger of the
States flying off at the first clash of colliding interests, and the
whole fabric crumbling to its elements. This party, at the
outset, presented to the Convention what was known as the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. \\\
"Virginia plan" of union, under which the States would have
been merged into a consolidated national Republic.
On the other hand, it was forcibly urged that the States pro
posed to form this union for the security of their recently- won
liberties, and not to place upon their necks a heavier yoke than
that which they had cast off; that to give power to the Federal
Qovernment was simply to give power to the majority, always
disposed to trample the interests of the minority under its feet.
So great was this apprehension of the tyrannous instincts of
majorities, that it is probable that their efforts would have
accomplished nothing but for the fact that the States then in
the minority expected soon to find themselves in the majority.
This question, after infinite difficulty, and after the Conven
tion had been several times at the brink of dissolution, was at
length settled. The Virginia plan of a National government
was rejected, and the Federal form continued. To the Federal
Government was conceded just so much additional power and
no more, with the necessary new machinery for its execution, as
was thought to be requisite for the performance of the functions
entrusted to it. It was permitted as before to declare war and
conclude peace with foreign powers, to make treaties, to estab
lish a uniform coinage and system of weights and measures, to
act as umpire between the States, and so forth. As the States
delegated these powers to the Federal Government of course
they waived their own right to exercise them, and declared the
laws of the United States to be, in these points, the supreme
law of the land, so far as its acts were in conformity with the
compact of unity, — that is, that they were paramount over the
laws or constitutions of the States in those matters which the
States had placed under Federal control. In all other matters
the States explicitly reserved their own sovereign rights, as was
expressly asserted in the Constitution itself (X. Amendment)
and in the acts of ratification.
With this strict and carefully-guarded limitation of its
powers the Federal Government was formed. But the two
antagonistic principles still remained, and gave birth to two
great parties. Under the varying names of Nationals, and
divers others, have been grouped the original Consolidation ists
112 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
of 1787 and their successors, whose constant policy has been to
bring the Government as nearly as possible to the form of the
Virginia plan. They have steadily aimed at an increase of the
Federal power at the expense of the States (since, all powers
being divided between them, whatever the one wins the others
must lose), favored those measures that from time to time arose
involving such increase, and inculcated the idea of a " National
government," an idea and a term proposed to, and unanimously
rejected by, the Convention of 1787. The tendency of this
party, when carried to an extreme, leads to consolidation of the
States into a nation ; in other words, the transformation of a
union of Republics into an Empire.
By the opposite party, known at various times under the
names of Republicans, Democrats, and later, State-rights men,
it was persistently insisted upon that the liberties of the people
were sufficiently secured by the Articles of Confederation under
which they were achieved ; but that those Articles were chiefly
defective in this, that the acts of Congress within the sphere of
their limited powers under these Articles could not act directly
upon the people, but depended for their execution upon the
sanction of the States respectively. This side insisted that the
only proper and required changes in the Articles they were then
called upon to remodel was to so change the organization and
machinery under it that the Federal Government should have
as supreme authority to execute all the delegated powers as the
States had in all the reserved powers. The Federal Government
was to be as perfect a conventional State, within the sphere of
its delegated powers, as each State in that of its reserved
powers. They were utterly opposed to a consolidated republic,
and in favor of preserving the federative feature. Since that
time this party has been jealous of the sovereignty and reserved
rights of the States, and dreaded every step toward consolidation.
Both these parties originally took the broad ground of con
sulting the good, not of any section, but of the whole country,
and they were therefore great and legitimate parties. It was
left for a later day to produce sectional parties avowedly con
sulting the welfare of their own sections only. When that point
had been reached a rupture was inevitable.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Out of this great primary question grew a secondary one, the
adjustment of relations between the great and the small States.
In the Convention, where the voting was by States only, each
State had an equal vote; but it was manifestly unfair that in
the government there should be no proportionate representation
of the greater population and vaster interests of the large States
over those of the small ones. Without some such representa
tion the large States would have refused to sanction the plan ;
the great State of New York, for instance, would never have
allowed her vote and influence to be cancelled by the little State
of Delaware, if ever their interests happened to clash.
On the other hand the small States entered the Convention as
equal sovereign powers, and they were resolutely determined
not to abdicate that position. Delaware was not disposed to
allow her vote to be swallowed up by that of Pennsylvania, as
if she were merely a county of that great State. The jealousies
and apprehensions of the small States on this point were very
great ; and Rhode Island kept entirely aloof from the Conven
tion, was not represented in it, and deferred acceding to the
Union until 1789.
This difficulty was at last overcome by the mode of consti
tuting the two branches of the Federal Legislature ; the lower
House being constituted to represent the people of the several
States (not the people of the United States, who cannot act in
their collective capacity, and have no existence as a political
entity) proportioned in numbers to the population of each State,
and elected by popular vote ; the Senate representing the States
themselves (not the Legislatures of the States) as separate and
equal sovereignties, and in it the States, whether large or small,
have an equal representation, chosen by the State Legislatures.
Thus the Senate, it was thought, in which the smallest State has
an equal voice with the largest, would check the aggressiveness
of numerical majorities. Of course the case might occur, when
the States grew more numerous, that a common interest might
band together a majority of States including the largest, which
would then control both the Senate and the House ; but against
this contingency it was impossible to provide. Much stress, too,
was laid, in the discussion of these questions, on the conserva-
114 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
tive nature of patriotism, which, it was assumed, would induce
majorities to forego some advantages for the sake of the welfare
of the whole, — a cheerful optimism hardly warranted by history,
and not confirmed by the results.
It should be noted that in the plan finally adopted by the
Convention the Government still remains a government of
States, and for States, because no law can pass if a majority
of States (in the Senate) be against it.
Another problem, springing out of this great question, arose
in the distribution of the powers of the Federal Government.
The President was empowered to withhold his consent and
signature from any bill of which he did not approve, which
could only then become a law upon receiving the votes of two-
thirds of both Houses of Congress. Thus, if the President
believed a bill to be unconstitutional, he could, by his veto,
interpose the shield of the Constitution to protect the minority.
And even if an unconstitutional law received the President's
approval, or were passed by the requisite majority over his veto,
cases occurring under it could be carried to the Supreme Court
of the United States, and the validity of the law tested there ;
and from this tribunal there was no appeal in the matter of
rights between the parties as thus adjudicated in the case made.
This was a strong barrier in the way of the Consolidationists,
who have since endeavored to make both the President and the
Supreme Court subservient to Congress.
The second fundamental and permanent cause of dissension
arose from the diverging interests of the Northern and Southern
States. The States of New England had a sterile soil and a
rigorous climate, unfavorable to agriculture ; but they enjoyed
great advantages of water-power for manufacturing, and of bays
and harbors favorable for shipping. Hence they devoted their
chief attention to manufactures, commerce, and fishing. The
South, with a fertile soil and genial climate, devoted herself to
agriculture. The system of African slave-labor, formerly in
use in all the States, had worked to great advantage in the
South, while in the North it had proved unprofitable ; and
though Massachusetts alone had formally abolished it, the other
New England States looked to its extinction in their territory.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. H5
From this difference several questions arose. Maryland and
Virginia desired a stop put to the importation of slaves from
Africa; South Carolina and Georgia desired its continuance.
This traffic was carried on in New England vessels ; and con
sequently the New England States, without exception, argued
and voted for its continuance. This question was settled by its
continuance until 1808, and no longer. The provision for the
return of fugitive slaves was adopted unanimously.
Another question arose upon the apportionment of represen
tation among the States. As, at the North, the entire popu
lation, including women, children, paupers, and idiots, were
included in the estimate, the South demanded that the slaves
should be so estimated. But as such an estimate, however just,
would have given the Southern States a majority of represen
tatives, the North vehemently opposed it, on the ground that
slaves, being articles of merchandise, could not be included in
the population. The South replied that they were persons,
and a producing class, and fully as well entitled to rank as
population as were the non-producing children, idiots, and
paupers of the North, or as the free negroes. It was finally
compromised by estimating five slaves as equal in the production
of wealth to three free persons, — an estimate already fixed upon
in apportioning direct taxation. This left the South slightly
in the minority in the House of Representatives.
Closely connected with this was the question of the regula
tion of commerce, including the power of imposing tariffs.
The Eastern commercial and manufacturing States earnestly
desired to get this great power into their hands ; and if these
acts could be passed by a mere majority of votes, they would
have this power, as the North already outnumbered the South
in both Houses, — Delaware being then considered a Northern
State. The South, therefore, insisted that acts to regulate com
merce should require a two-thirds majority. However, they
finally yielded this point, and entrusted the control of commerce
and navigation to a bare majority, — that is, to the Northern
States.
In truth, at this time the Southern States expected soon to
find themselves the majority, as it was admitted that their
11(3 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H< STEPHENS.
growth was then more rapid than that of the Northern States.
But the North was determined so to use her tenure of power as, if
possible, to make it perpetual. Two points may be mentioned :
Before the formation of the new Constitution, Virginia had
ceded to the United States collectively her vast territory north
west of the Ohio, and agreed that it might be, in process of
time, organized into non-slaveholding (and therefore Northern)
States. But to this immense gift she attached two conditions,
both of which were accepted, but only one of which was kept.
She stipulated that not more than five States should be made out
of this territory. She also stipulated that these States should
bind themselves to return fugitive slaves; this they, at a later
date, refused to do.
While thus endeavoring to increase their own power, the
Northern States also strove to check the growth of the South.
Immigration was setting strongly toward the Southwest, and
the South calculated on the accession of new States in that
region. To check this the North hit upon the device of ceding
to Spain the exclusive right to the navigation of the Missis
sippi, — a policy which would have effectually stifled the growth
of the Southwest. Fortunately, the attempt was made a little
too soon, — before the adoption of the new Constitution — as under
the Articles of Confederation a two-thirds majority of the States
was requisite for concluding a treaty. This majority they could
not obtain ; and they therefore had recourse to a very ingenious
expedient. Their device was this : to pass, by the two-thirds
majority, a series of instructions to the Secretary of State,
authorizing him to conclude a treaty with Spain, but forbidding
the concession to that country of the claim of the States to the
control of the Mississippi. This passed, they proposed to repeal,
by a bare majority, this prohibitory clause, leaving the Secre
tary free to conclude a treaty in accordance with their wishes.
This stratagem, however, when revealed, excited so much in
dignation that it was abandoned.
Thus, as we have seen, and shall more fully see hereafter,
these two great antagonisms — the antagonism between those
who favored a National and those who favored a Federal
government, and the antagonism between the North and the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. H7
South — underlay all important political questions, and drew
nearly all minor questions into their vortices. Every measure
that tended to strengthen the central government or to weaken
the States was favored by one party and resisted by the other.
As the Northern States were usually in the majority, and the
Constitution, which so jealously guarded the liberties of the
States, was the shield of the minority, the North is usually
found advocating a " liberal construction" of the Constitution,
and the South a "strict construction." But when an occasion
arises in which a part of the Northern States find their interests
at variance with the wishes of the majority, we see them at once
appealing to the Constitution, and urging the reserved rights
of the States. *X
During the administration of Washington several attempts
were made to invade the true meaning and spirit of the Con
stitution, and these originated with the former National, at this
time called " Federal," party. They endeavored to induce Con
gress to adopt measures looking to the abolition of slavery.
This was an invasion of the rights of the States, and Congress
declared that it had no authority to interfere in the matter.
Other measures also came up, relating to representation, finance,
and the establishment of a Bank of the United States, in which
attempts were made to bring the States nearer to consolidation,
or to increase the powers of the central government.
President Adams was an adherent of the National party, and
under his administration attempts were made to confer new
powers on the President and Congress. The " Alien and Sedi
tion Acts" empowered the President to banish foreigners with
out trial, and laid heavy penalties on persons who, by speech or
writing, should defame either the President or Congress. Against
these measures, as gross violations of the rights of the States
and the liberties of the citizen, the Legislatures of Virginia and
Kentucky protested in their celebrated Resolutions of 1798 and
1799, but without immediate effect, though the agitation which
they produced contributed largely to the political revolution
which placed Jefferson in the Presidency.
This election was a triumph of the Strict-Constructionist,
States-Rights or Democratic party, and during the administra-
118 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
tion of Jefferson it preserved its ascendancy. Madison, who
succeeded him, had at one time been a leader of the Nationalists,
but had since become an upholder of the views of Jefferson, and
had supported them in his able Report to the Virginia Legisla
ture in 1799.
During Madison's administration, which lasted for eight years,
events occurred which changed the position of the great parties.
The hostile acts of France led to the Embargo Act of 1807, and
the conduct of England brought on the war of 1812. Now, as
we have seen, the Eastern States were largely interested in com
merce, which suffered greatly by the war, and by the preliminary
state of non-intercourse. But the war was popular with the
Southern and Western States ; and New England found herself
in the position of a minority. Instantly there was a complete
reversal of her views, and she began to shelter herself behind
the shield of the Constitution. Instead of a " liberal/7 she now
demanded a " strict construction" of that instrument ; and in
the Hartford Convention vehemently appealed to the sovereignty
and reserved rights of the States, and even looked to a secession
from the Union as a last resort, — a measure which was rendered
unnecessary by the conclusion of peace with Great Britain. The
alliance of the Western States with the South, to which they
were naturally inclined by community of interest, filled her with
apprehensions ; and from this time it has been the steady policy
of New England to keep the Western States under her influ
ence and tutelage, and to estrange them from the South ; to
foster the growth of the Northwest territory, out of which non-
slaveholding States could be formed ; and, as far as possible, to
hinder the natural growth of the Southwest, the accession of new
States from which would have tended to restore the balance of
power.
Thus, the proposed acquisition of Louisiana met with violent
opposition from some of the Eastern members in Congress. As
usual in such cases, they took high ground of strict construction
and State-rights. Their ablest orator, Mr. Quincy, of Massa
chusetts, declared that the measure would result in changing the
relative proportions of power between the existing States, — a
thing unconstitutional and not to be borne; that it was a "usur-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. H9
pation dissolving the obligations of our national compact;" and
that, aif this Bill passes, the bonds of the Union are virtually
dissolved ; that the States which compose it are free from their
moral obligations ; and, as it will be the right of all, so it will be
the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, — amicably
if they can, forcibly if they must." These remarks having been
pronounced out of order by the Speaker, the majority of the
House reversed the decision and declared them in order. Mr.
Quincy thanked God that he and his constituents " held their
lives, liberty, and property by a better tenure than any this
National Government could give, — by the laws, customs, and
principles of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.77
These incidents show how broad principles of general policy
were being ever more and more subordinated to sectional inter
ests. So long as New England found herself in the majority,
she favored the increase of the powers of the Federal Govern
ment, which that majority would control. Whenever, from a
coalition of part of the Northern States with the South, she
found herself in a minority, she at once became strict construc-
tionist, and fell back on the reserved rights of the States, even
to the point of openly threatening secession.
These crises were causes of real and well-grounded alarm to
New England. As the tariff, — which from a simple source of
revenue had become a system of protection intended to enrich
the manufacturing interest at the expense of the agricultural, —
the control of commerce, navigation, etc., were of vital impor
tance to this section, it regarded the prospect of falling into a per
manent minority as little less than ruin. And this state of things
would inevitably occur whenever the agricultural States of the
Northwest should be drawn by community of interests into a
community of policy with the South. Hence the necessity of
attaching them to herself by some common point in which the
West agreed with the New England States and differed from
the South. In truth, the slave-system of the South was not an
injury, but a source of great benefits to the North, for to it was
due the wealth of which so large a part flowed into Northern
coffers under the operation of the tariff; and hence the doctrines
of those who proposed its entire abolition met for many years
120 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
with but little favor. The Southern States then existing were
not feared, and the North would have been glad to see them
prospering in any way that did not involve an increase of polit
ical power; nor were theirs conscientious scruples regarding the
rightfulness of slavery. Both these points were illustrated in the
desire of the Eastern States, in the Convention of 1787, to con
tinue indefinitely the African slave-trade. But their aim was to
hinder, as far as possible, increase of the number of Southern
States, and to establish a line of demarcation, both geographically
and politically, between the North and the South. This mode of
procedure had several advantages : it was an attempt to curtail
the rights of the States, which the North, so long as she was in
the majority, was ever disposed to invade; and it was a senti
mental question, on which feeling and fanaticism could be
aroused, — far more effective instruments of agitation than the
cool reasonings of political economy.
In 1819—20 this policy was brought into action. In the
former year Missouri applied for admission as a State. The
lower House refused to admit her without the addition of a
clause to her Constitution abolishing slavery. From this the
Senate, where the Strict-Construction ists had a majority, dis
agreed, on the ground that such a restriction was unconstitutional,
and in violation of the terms of the treaty by which the great
territory of which Missouri formed a part had been purchased
from France, in which treaty it was stipulated that the existing
and future occupants of that territory should retain, under the
United States, all the rights that they enjoyed under the govern
ment of France. So the bill was lost for want of agreement
between the two Houses. In the next session the application
was renewed ; and this time Maine also was applying for admis
sion. The Senate proposed to include both in one bill, with no
restrictive clause on either, but this the House would not agree
to. At last, as a compromise, it was proposed to disconnect the
two bills : to pass the Maine Bill as first offered, and to attach
to the Missouri Bill an amendment providing that in the future
slavery should be forever prohibited in all the rest of the terri
tory acquired from France by the Louisiana treaty lying north
of 36° 30' N. latitude. This compromise, although considered
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 121
by some unconstitutional, and in direct violation of the treaty
with France, finally passed both Houses ; and under it Maine
was at once admitted, the line of 36° 30' being at the same time
established.
This was in March, 1820. In the following December, at
the opening of the session, the Representatives from Missouri
presented themselves, and were refused admission unless that
State would abolish slavery, even Maine voting against keeping
the compact under which she had herself been admitted. But
the feature of that arrangement by which the North gained, the
prohibition of slavery north of 36° 30', she refused to abandon,
even when appealed to ; thus retaining the purchase-money and
at the same time withholding the article purchased. It is this
establishment of the line of 36° 30' that is usually meant by
the "Missouri Compromise" ; a double misnomer. It was not
a compromise, but only one-half of a compromise, the equivalent
half being withheld ; and under it not Missouri, but Maine, was
admitted.
These proceedings naturally created much excitement through
out the country. The Democratic party at the North saw that
the antagonism between the sections had been made the pretext for
a violation of the Constitution ; that an invasion of the rights of
the States had already been accomplished ; and it took the alarm.
A pressure was brought to bear upon some members of the
House which rendered them desirous to change their action at
the next session, if any means of doing so creditably were offered
them. At this juncture Mr. Clay came to the rescue. There
was in the Constitution of Missouri a clause prohibiting the
immigration of free blacks, which was objected to as unconstitu
tional. Mr. Clay offered a resolution that the State should be
admitted if she would rescind the obnoxious clause. The meas
ure was superfluous, inasmuch as the clause, if contrary to the
Constitution, was of itself a nullity ; but it afforded precisely
the loop-hole wanted. Members could now justify their votes
on the ground of devotion to the Constitution, and appear con
sistent while they yielded to the wishes of their constituents.
Mr. Clay's resolution was adopted, and Missouri, upon amending
her Constitution as required, was admitted as a State in 1821.
122 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
This settlement quieted matters for the time ; but it was a decided
advantage gained by the Consolidationists, as it yielded to the
Federal Government power to legislate in advance for future
States in matters over which they alone rightfully had control,
thus overstepping its constitutional limitations.
Two other questions soon arose to agitate the country. One
was as to the policy of authorizing the Federal Government
to apply a part of the surplus revenue to the making of roads,
improving the navigation of rivers, etc., or what were called
"Internal Improvements" in the several States. The main
objections to this policy were, that it was another step toward
enlarging the powers of the Federal Government, and an inter
ference with the rights of the States ; that it dangerously in
creased Federal patronage and influence, and that it put it intc
the power of Congress to favor some States at the expense of
others, — apprehensions which were all conspicuously justified by
events.
The other question was that of the Tariff. The necessary
revenue of the Federal Government was raised by duties upon
imports, a system more convenient of management and -less
objectionable to the people than the juster but universally dis
liked plan of direct taxation ; and so far as it was employed
simply for revenue purposes, this plan worked sufficiently well.
But the public debt created by the war of 1812 made a large
increase of revenue necessary, which was provided for by in
creasing the duties. These increased duties on foreign goods,
enabling American manufacturers to raise their prices to the
extent of the duty, largely increased the wealth of the manu
facturing interest, now very important in the Eastern States.
To this system they gave the propitiatory name of " Protection" ;
and having once tasted the sweets of it, they increased their
demands, placing them on the patriotic grounds that it was
for the advantage of the country that American manufactures
should be cherished, even though the result proved, as was con
tended, that the expense was chiefly borne by one section, and
the profit all accrued to the other. So the Fishing Bounties,
another device for taxing the whole country for the benefit of
New England, were defended on the ground that the fisheries
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 123
were "a nursery of American seamen." In the tariff of 1824
these protective duties were increased ; but it was accepted by
the South, trusting that when the public debt was extinguished
the policy would be abandoned. In 1828 the protective duties
were again largely increased, and much agitation arose in the
Southern States, as it was evident that the appetite of the manu
facturing interests increased in proportion as it was fed.
- In 1831, President Jackson announced to Congress that the
public debt was nearly paid, and recommended the reduction of
the tariff to a revenue-point. Congress replied by taking off
duties on articles not affecting the manufacturing interest, but
retaining the rest ; thus showing a determination to fasten the
protective policy on the country. Great excitement followed,
and the Legislature of South Carolina called^ a convention of
the people of that State in November, 1832, to consider what
was to be done. At this convention an ordinance was passed
declaring that these Tariff Acts were unconstitutional and void ;
forbidding any attempt to carry them out in the State, and
threatening withdrawal from the Union if the Federal Govern-
metit undertook to enforce them. A collision between the Fed
eral and State authorities seemed imminent. President Jackson
issued a proclamation declaring that he would do his duty in
enforcing the laws; but admitting that injustice had been done
the State, and appealing to them to seek redress in the ways
constitutionally provided. The Legislature of Virginia requested
the authorities of South Carolina to suspend their action until
the close of the existing session of Congress, and appealed to
Congress to modify the obnoxious acts. Mr. Clay immediately
introduced in Congress a bill providing for a gradual reduction
of duties, and the abandonment of the protective system, which
passed on March 2d, 1833, and on the 15th of the same month
South Carolina rescinded her Ordinance of Nullification.
The peculiarity of this doctrine of nullification lay in the
position that the State courts were competent judges of the con
stitutionality of a law of the United States, which might there
fore be abrogated in one State while held valid in all the rest.
It was this position that General Jackson resisted, declaring that
no State could remain in the Union and refuse to obey the
124 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Federal laws. The right of secession from the Union was not
brought into question.
We have thus cursorily sketched the great fundamental ques
tions which have been the sources of political division in this
country, and the most important crises to which they gave rise,
down to the time of Mr. Stephens's appearance in the arena of
politics. Had the two questions at any time coalesced into one
— had the North been all National, or for Federal aggrandize
ment, and the South all Democrat, or for Federal restriction —
the union of the States would soon have come to an end. But
the fact that there were two questions instead of one — that there
was a large and important body of Democrats at the North, and
one of Whigs at the South — made the division general and not
sectional; and by the lapping-over, so to speak, of parties, kept
the States together.
It is true that between Northern and Southern Democrats, and
between Northern and Southern Whigs, there was not absolute
identity ; but there was a sufficient agreement on main princi
ples to enable them to act in harmony. Thus the Democrats of
both North and South, agreeing on fundamentals, were enabled
for many years to maintain a majority in the Federal Legisla
ture. This perfectly legitimate action was what came to be
called in after-years, when the Abolition party had gained im
portance and conspicuousness disproportioned to its numbers,
and when the element of abuse had come to be a prominent
feature in political discussion, " the domination of the slavo-
cracy," and " the North crouching beneath the crack of the
slave-driver's whip." In point of fact, the South was always
in the minority and would have been overridden by the North,
but for the fact that a large Northern party believed that the
chief political doctrines held by the majority at the South were
those most conducive to the liberty and prosperity of the whole
country.
These preliminary remarks will give an idea of the general
drift of politics and the position of parties up to the time when
Mr. Stephens embarked in public life.
CHAPTER XII.
Mr. Stephens elected to the State Legislature — Speech on the Kailroad Bill —
Letter of Hon. I. L. Harris — Severe Illness — Controversy with Dr. Mer
cer — Ee-election — Voyage to Boston — Letters to Linton Stephens — Visits
to New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland — Tries the White Sulphur
Springs with Advantage — Friendship for Mr. Toombs.
IN the autumn of 1836 Mr. Stephens became a candidate for
the State Legislature. The citizens of Taliaferro County, though
nearly unanimous in the matter of State or general politics, were
divided into two local parties by the rival claims of two influen
tial families. With both of these Mr. Stephens was on friendly
terms ; but his avowed preference for one of the candidates for
the State Senate excited the hostility of the friends of the other ;
and. he thus, against his will, became identified with what was
called the " Brown," in opposition to the " Janes" party, which
had hitherto been in the ascendant. From the latter party he
met with strong opposition, and the contest which ensued was
sharp. On several points his views were not in entire agreement
with the prevailing sentiment of the people. He had taken
ground against the doctrine of nullification, holding that while
a State had a perfect right to withdraw from the Federal com
pact if she believed it violated, she could not remain in the
Union and refuse to obey the Federal laws.
Another ground of opposition to him was found in the strong
position he took against the formation of a Vigilance Committee
to punish persons found circulating what were termed " incen
diary" documents among the slaves, or instigating them to flight
or deeds of violence. The occasion for such committees was
brought about by the practices of the Abolitionists, who had
been for years attempting by means of secret emissaries to excite
discontent, insubordination, and revolt among the slaves; and
the citizens of the South, growing indignant, had in many cases
125
126 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
resolved to visit these instigators of crime with summary pun
ishment at the hands of Vigilance Committees. To this unlaw
ful course Mr. Stephens was opposed, desiring to see no remedies
resorted to that were not provided by the regular means of jus
tice. This brought upon him the charge of being an opponent
of African slavery. He, however, defended his course, and ex
plained his position on the subject so satisfactorily as to gain
the election by a vote more than double that of his highest
competitor.
These were times when the best and ablest men were not, as
of late years, averse to entering the General Assembly ; and it
is not often that a larger number of such men have been assem
bled in any State Legislature than were now in this. Mr. Ste
phens, however, was an invalid during almost the entire session,
having been prostrated by severe fever from August 22d to a
few days previous to the election in October, and he was long
in recovering from the effects of this attack. While in the
House he took but little part in the transaction of business, but
devoted himself to studying the men and things around him.
He had seen upon how shallow and fleeting a foundation mere
verbal eloquence rests when not built upon sound judgment and
clear knowledge of the subjects at issue; and he refrained from
speaking until an occasion should offer when he could speak
from knowledge and conviction.
This occasion presented itself in the debate on the bill for the
construction of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Such was
the ignorance on this subject at the time, that the friends of the
measure had little hope of its success. But there were, both in
the Legislature and out of it, men who were able to see the vast
importance of the work ; and of all these perhaps the man most
thoroughly informed was Dr. Foster, who had already crammed
his young friend Stephens with all the information that could
be obtained. With the view to bring as much outside pressure
as possible upon the Legislature, the friends of the enterprise
held a convention in Macon, just before the session, to which
Dr. Foster was a delegate. There was much enthusiasm in the
deliberations ; resolutions were passed in favor of the road, and
a committee of the ablest men in the State appointed to memo-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 127
rialize the Legislature on the subject. Dr. Foster returned by
way of Milledgeville, and spent some time with Mr. Stephens,
urging him to support the measure, and furnishing him with
new facts and arguments.
The debate began. Speeches had been made on both sides,
and the friends of the measure looked upon their case as hope
less, when Mr. Stephens, whom few of the members knew, arose
and made his first speech. It was a triumph. He was the first
to point out wrhat all had overlooked, — the enhancement in value
which would result to the property on both sides the road.
This opened entirely new views of prosperity to those who had
thought only of the traffic and travel. Men were amazed to see
how great an amount of information on the subject so young a
man had acquired, and how enlarged were the views he took
of the ultimate results of the measure. This speech not only
carried the bill, but placed him at once in the foremost rank
of orators and debaters in the State.'
Mr. Stephens has lived to see the road and the system which
he advocated become the grand source of prosperity to his native
State ; and he has seen the day, in the times which followed the
war, when these roads were almost her only salvation from
financial ruin.
An extract from a letter written twenty years later by the
Hon. Iverson L. Harris (afterwards Judge of the Supreme Court
of Georgia) to Professor Williams Rutherford, of the Georgia
University, gives some interesting reminiscences of this speech.
Mr. Harris says :
" The debate lingered for days, and when every one was worn down and
tired of the name of ' Main Trunk,' from under the gallery a clear shrill
voice, unlike that of any man of my acquaintance, was heard saying,
' Mr. Speaker r
" Every eye was turned to the thin, attenuated form of a mere boy, with
a black gleaming eye and cadaverous face. The attention became breath
less, the House was enchained for half an hour by a new speaker, and one
with new views of the question, such as had not been discussed or hinted
at by others.
" When he sat down there was a burst of applause from a full gallery,
and many of us on the floor joined in the chorus. That speech was elec
trical ! It gave life to a dull debate, it aided immensely in the passage of
128 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
' the bill for the survey of the road, and the appropriation for it. It was
the first and maiden speech in the Legislature of that gentleman. From
that hour he has been a man of mark, and now he is recognized in the
House of Representatives at Washington as its foremost man.
" Need I say that man was Alexander II. Stephens."
By this time Mr. Stephens had acquired a good practice, and
was taking rank with the foremost men of the circuit. The
problem of success was already solved, so far as it depended
upon his intellectual and moral capacities. But the enemy
which came with him into the world and had never left him, now
beset him more fiercely than ever. As he began riding the cir
cuit in the spring of 1837, he was stricken down with illness
and confined to his bed for months. Weak at the best, when
prostrated by sickness he was a piteous spectacle of utter help
lessness and suffering; and for weeks there seemed not a shadow
of hope of his recovery. Even when convalescence began, many
more weeks elapsed before he could walk alone ; and he used to
be lifted from his bed and placed upon the floor that he might
crawl about a little, though he could not stand. In July he was
sufficiently recovered to venture on a journey of easy stages ;
and by the advice of his physician his brother, Aaron Grier,
took him to the mountains. They went first in a buggy to
Clarksville, then to the Naucochee valley, then to Gainesville
and the adjacent springs, and thence to the Indian Springs,
returning home in September.
It was during this journey that a warm controversy arose be
tween him and Dr. Leonidas B. Mercer, the leading man of the
Janes party, which had opposed Mr. Stephens so strongly. These
two men became very friendly in later times, and no trace re
mained of any feeling engendered by the acrimony of their old
contest. The affair, as has already been mentioned, grew out
of a misunderstanding of some expressions which Mr. Stephens
had used in reference to the Proclamation and Force Bill of
President Jackson. Dr. Mercer had confounded the Protest
with the Proclamation aimed at the action of South Carolina in
1832, the former of which Mr. Stephens justified, but did not
approve the latter. In the discussion Mr. Stephens showed
clearly that he had been misunderstood ; and the people of his
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II, STEPHENS.
county adhered the more closely and firmly to him. Notwith
standing his weakness, he conducted this controversy with sur
prising vigor and spirit. No one, reading his pamphlets, could
imagine that they were written by an invalid, almost prostrated
by physical debility, and at a time when death seemed almost at
the door. The result was that he was returned without opposi
tion in 1837.
In the year 1838, his general health not having improved, he
was advised to try a sea-voyage. He first went to Boston. On
the 25th day of May he passed in view of Fort Warren. What
would he have felt if he could have foreseen that on the same
day, twenty-seven years later, for his firm adherence to 'the great
principles on which our liberty depends, and his fearless exer
cise of what was once vaunted as the birthright of every American
citizen, — liberty of political speech and action, — he would be sent
there as a prisoner to be immured in a cell ! The phenomenon
of a Seward with his "little bell" had never at that time entered
men's minds as a conceivable possibility in their wildest imagin
ings. But great as would have been his astonishment at such a
vision of the future, it could not have been greater than that
caused by the knowledge that his life would be prolonged to
that extent.
Before taking this voyage he went to Washington. We have
a letter written from that city to his younger brother Linton,
then not quite fourteen years old (whose guardianship he had
assumed a few months before leaving home), from which we
make the following extracts :
" Be true to yourself now, in the days of your youth. Improve your
mind; apply yourself to your books: and when I am silent in the grave
you may then be treading the floors now presented to my eye, honored
with office of the highest rank. Always look up ; think of nothing but
objects of the highest ambition which can be compassed by energy, virtue,
and strict morality, with a reliance upon a holy, pure, and all-ruling
Providence. But never forget your dependence and mortality. Let them
be your morning and evening musings ; and in all things do nothing on
which you could not invoke the divine blessing."
On June 4th, he writes from Keene, New Hampshire :
" I have a great deal of anxiety of mind about you. No day passes but
you are in my mind ; and you do not escape from my dreams by night.
9
130 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Sometimes I fear I did not counsel you enough before leaving home. Only
one thing I neglected : that was to advise you what to do in case you and
Mr. [his teacher] do not agree. In such case, I want you to quit
instanter and await my return. I do not intend that you shall be abused
or trodden upon by any mortal. ... In all your dealings give offence to
no one, and be you the subject of no man's offence. . . . But if a crisis
comes, show that you are a man, and have a spirit that never cowers ; and
if any wretch pulls your nose or ears, asking ' who are youT tell him that
you are a freeman's son, and be sure you do honor to his blood. But
never condescend to notice small offences. Be above them."
In his letter of June 30th, from Saratoga Springs, he is afraid
he spoke too unadvisedly about Mr. , and adds a word of
caution. ' He then falls into some remarks about human life :
" Our sojourn here is uncertain, and every day should be spent as if our
last. Readiness for that event is our great business here. ... In all our
letters and conversations with each other, it should be a main object to be
imparting such information as would afterwards be desirable and useful in
case of a sudden departure."
It is his own departure that he has in view; but he phrases it
in this general wTay to be less painful to his brother, while at the
same time it is a kind of apology for filling his letters with so
much advice. Not knowing how soon he may be called away,
he is anxious, while life is yet spared him, to give all the counsel
he may to the boy-brother to whom he fills a father's place, and
to leave him, if he can, a man in thoughts and feelings, though
a boy in years.
His health, instead of improving, grew worse. He visited
Saratoga Springs, Carlisle Sulphur Springs in Pennsylvania,
and finally reached Baltimore. Despairing of recovery, he
was about to return home in the full expectation of speedy
death, when he happened to meet Mr. John Crowell, of Ala
bama, who urged him to try the Greenbrier White Sulphur
Springs, of Virginia, to which he was himself going, most
kindly proposing that they should travel in company, and he
would take care of him on the way. He complied with this
friendly proposition. He remained at the Springs three weeks,
contrary to his expectation, found great benefit from the waters,
and returning home, continued to improve all the next fall and
winter. He was agaii returned to the Legislature, without
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
opposition, and was one of the most prominent members of the
House.
During his absence his business was attended to by his devoted
friend, Mr. Toombs, and his brother Grier; the former carrying
the cases through the courts, and the latter entering the judg
ments and doing the collections. Grier had left Augusta finally
when he came to his brother while sick with his first attack in
1837, and remained with him ever afterwards, attending to the
out-door business of his office, for which he was well qualified.
Mr. Toombs proposed to Mr. Stephens to leave, during his ab
sence, all business in his hands, and generously offered to bear
his expenses ; which latter offer was, however, declined, as with
economy it was not necessary. The offer of service was accepted,
and the work punctually and efficiently done. This friendship
was a beautiful union between this weak and this strong man,
equals in intellect and in culture, but the one as exuberant in
health and vigor as the other was frail and infirm. On the sole
occasion when they were divided, it was a pleasing and interest
ing sight to mark how they avoided open antagonism of their
powers, and to note the consideration which each exhibited for
the friendship of long years. They were soon reunited, and were
companions in the struggle for the success of the Southern cause
when that crisis came, and in the sufferings that followed its
overthrow.
CHAPTEE XIII.
Improved Health — Delegate to Southern Commercial Convention — Answer
to Mr. Preston — " My Son" — Linton at the University — Fourth of July
Celebrations in Auld Lang Syne — Grand Doings at Crawfordville — A
Speech — " Caesar and Pompey" — Independence of Party — The Whigs —
Uncertainty of the State-Eights Party — Re-election to the Legislature.
IN the year 1839, Mr. Stephens was able to give much more
attention to his profession. His health, though still feeble, had
been so far restored by the efficacy of the Virginia Springs,
that he was in far better condition than during the two pre
ceding years.
In April he was a delegate to the Southern Commercial Con
vention that was to meet in Charleston. Though well and widely
known in his native State, his reputation had not yet extended
beyond it. In the time we are speaking of, conventions of this
kind were usually composed of, and attended by, the men of
highest talent and character in their respective districts. In this
one especially, the men of chief intellectual and social rank that
South Carolina could boast were present to do honor to the
representatives of the other Southern States.
On the question as to what was the best point for establishing
direct trade between Europe and the South, the States of Geor
gia and South Carolina — as was unfortunately the case on many
important issues — were at variance. In the debates, the Caro
linians, among whom were more able speakers than in the dele
gation from any other State, seemed to have the decision of this
question entirely within their control. The eloquent Hayne had
spoken, and Hamilton, and finally Preston, the most brilliant
orator of the State, had seemed to close the door to all further
discussion. It was then that Mr. Stephens, to the surprise of
his colleagues, and the amazement of all who then observed him
for the first time, rose and answered Mr. Preston.
132
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 133
It was amusing to watch the incredulous astonishment, as of
men who could not believe their own eyes, with which the
spectators gazed at the extraordinary spectacle of one who
seemed a puny youth, not yet grown to man's estate, entering
the lists with the foremost orators and debaters of the South,
and matching them in the contest. This speech was generally
considered a triumphant vindication of Georgia's side of the
question ; and long before it closed the speaker was recognized
as one destined to take his place among the foremost intellects
of the country.
A short time before this speech was delivered, and before the
form and appearance of Mr. Stephens were generally known,
an incident occurred which shows how extremely youthful he
then looked. He was reclining on a lounge at the hotel, en
gaged in conversation with a group of gentlemen who had
gathered round, when the proprietor, seeing a whole lounge
taken up by what seemed a mere stripling, while men were
standing round, approached him with the mild rebuke, "My
son, don't take up the whole lounge ; let these gentlemen be
seated." Mr. Stephens arose at once, but a general guffaw fol
lowed, and an explanation and apology from the surprised and
abashed proprietor. One of the guests was Thomas Chaffin,
the leading merchant and wag of Crawfordville, who took
especial delight, on his return, in enacting the scene, with all
his dramatic powers, to his fellow-townsmen.
In the summer of this year his younger brother, Linton,
entered the State University ; and it is interesting to mark in
the correspondence the absorbing attention with which his career
was watched by the elder. No fondest father ever showed
more tenderness, more though tfiilhess, more loving solicitude.
The large sheets of paper are crowded on all sides with counsel,
with warning, with words of affection, with the inmost thoughts
of the writer's heart. In the first letter of this period, bearing
date August 8th, 1839, the four pages are so covered with close
handwriting that barely space is left for the address, envelopes
having not then been introduced.' In this letter the writer says
that he scarcely slept the night after his brother's departure,
and inquires about everything; how he liked the country; who
134 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
preached the Commencement sermon, — how he liked that ; how
many boys were in his class ; what professor examined him, —
in what book, at what passage ; how many questions he missed,
was he much scared; how he liked the college buildings, the
botanical gardens, etc. Then follows advice, suggestions about
getting rooms, considerations whether he and John Bird (Lin-
ton's but not Alexander's cousin, who goes under Alexander's
patronage) had better room together or separately. He urges
him not to be idle, even though he should find that without
occupying all his time he can head his class ; and exhorts him
to read on a plan which he suggests, and to keep a note-book,
and to write to him his opinions about persons and events. And
so he fills every side of the sheet; then crowds an after-thought
into a corner : " Do not get into the habit of saying ' Church/
1 Ward,' etc., but say <Dr. Church,' 'Dr. Ward,' etc. Attend to
this." The sheet is now crammed, and not a word about the
weather; so he crosses it with, aThe heaviest rain for twelve
months. The cloud was a small one, and came from the west
on this (Thursday) evening."
On the Fourth of July of this year there was a great cele
bration at Crawfordville. It is remarkable what a change the
third part of a century — which has brought so many changes —
has wrought in the ardor with which this anniversary used to
be celebrated, when men felt conscious and proud of their
freedom. It is an inspiring thing yet to remember the
droves of hogs and sheep, the countless multitudes of turkeys,
chickens, geese, and squirrels, the mountains of good cheer and
the rivers of good drink that were brought together to the
festival. Everybody, white and black, celebrated " Independ
ence Day." Crawfordville was already famous for her achieve
ments in this line, and on the particular occasion in hand did
herself full justice.
Mr. S. Fouche" made an oration, and Mr. Stephens read the
Declaration. At the dinner toasts were drunk, of course, the
regular list being prepared by a committee; and on this occasion
the preparation fell chiefly upon Mr. Stephens. We quote a
few, and append a portion of Mr. Stephens's speech as reported
in a Milledgeville paper, principally to illustrate his political
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. ] 35
sentiments at the time, and to show that he was not then iden
tified with any party, and that when he sided with the Whigs
in 1840, it was only a choice between what he considered two
evils.
Toast No. 3 was : " The President of the United States* 'An
inheritance is easily gotten in the beginning, but the end thereof
shall not be established."5 This quotation from Scripture was
received with three cheers.
Toast No. 4 was: "George M. Troup, Georgia's favorite son,
and her candidate for the next Presidency ;" greeted with nine
cheers.
Toast No. 8 might seem now to have been prophetic. The
President was suspected of a disposition to increase the army ;
but few men there that day — perhaps none but the framer of
the toast — felt any apprehension on that score. It ran : " The
Army and Navy of the United States. While on land and sea
they guard our rights from foreign tyranny and domestic ag
gression, may they ever continue amenable to the civil power
of the laws ! thus preserving the lustre of their laurels and the
confidence of their fellow-citizens."
Toast No. 9 was : " The Constitution of the United States. The
charter of the rights of the American people, emanating from a
spirit of wisdom and conciliation. With a strict construction
we hold and will defend it, the legacy of our heroic ancestors."
This shows how decisively Mr. Stephens had at this time
espoused the doctrine of strict construction.
After the voluntary toasts had begun, Chesley Bristow, the
old and respected clerk of the court, who was always fond of
" little Aleck," as he called him, read — or, as the dinner was
now somewhat advanced, probably had read for him — the
following :
" The Reader of the Declaration of Independence: Alexander
H. Stephens, Taliaferro's native son. By the fearless discharge
of his public duties he has done much, during our late legis
lative conflicts, to obtain honors for himself and have the
confidence and esteem of his constituents."
* Martin Van Bnren.
136 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
"After the cheering had subsided," says the Recorder, "Mr. Stephens
arose in response. . . . He dwelt at length upon the history, character, posi
tion, principles, and objects of the Whig and the Administration parties,
sparing neither, nothing extenuating, nor setting down aught in malice.
While he held up the Whigs as embodying the reviving spirit of the old
Nationals, he showed the leaders of the Administration party to be the
wolves in sheep's clothing who have crept into the ranks of the Republicans,
by which that party is now literally scattered abroad, without any concert
of action or any common head, as sheep indeed without a shepherd. That
they were the Judas-like traitors by whom, for the spoils of office, the Repub
licans had been deceived and betrayed. They had been confided in by the
people upon their professions of opposition to the Tariff, and when proved in
person, were the first to attempt its enforcement at the point of the bayonet.
They were among the loudest in their cry for retrenchment and reform,
and promised the people, if entrusted with the power, to carry out these
great measures, while they have increased the expenses of the Government
from a little over eleven to nearly forty millions of dollars per annum!
They were loud against a subsidized press and Executive interference with
elections, while, since their promotion, they have taken the lead, far beyond
all precedence, in those abuses, and openly defend and justify their course.
They made common cause with .the State banks in demolishing the United
States Bank, and then turned against them with the cry of divorce!*
when their whole object was to divorce the public money from the banks,
it is true, but to their own pockets. He was in favor of divorces some
times, but not from one to another adulterous bed. That these leaders
profess to be the only true Republicans and standards of Democracy, while
many of their members are known to have been ultra-Federalists, and even
Hartford Conventionists. They profess to be the only guardians of the
people's rights, when they give the most important fiduciary trusts to
notorious bankrupts in fame and in fortune, and for years ask not even a
bond for the faithful discharge of their duty ; thus permitting their sub-
treasurers to pocket for themselves, or spend for the benefit of the party,
hundreds of thousands of the public funds, and then, after taking a gen
tlemanly leave of the country, to spend the remainder of their days in
splendor in foreign climes. They profess now to be the friends of the
South, and only hope for the protection of our institutions, while many of
them are the warm advocates of free negro suffrage, and their Magnus
Apollo himself is a Missouri Restrictionist. That such a party, so marked
with every badge of corruption, falsehood, and treachery, should be utterly
spurned by a free people. He deprecated the day when we should be
driven to the necessity — the forced choice — of appealing to such men foi
the protection and salvation of our liberties. . . . That two parties are
* "The divorce of Bank and State" was one of the catch-words of the
Van Buren party.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 137
now courting an alliance with our State ; and never was fair maiden more
artfully allured by the wiles of seduction than was the integrity of the
State now assailed by these political suitors. . . . The one is a known
enemy, the other a traitor to our cause. It is no question upon which we
should take sides or make any capitulations ; nor should we suffer ourselves
as Georgians to be forced into a choice as between such evils. Either is
death to our principles ; and we should uncompromisingly wage war
again st~botB. Though we be in the minority, let us be the Spartan band.
Self-defence is the first law of our nature, — and the nearest enemy always
first. After the extermination of the present occupant of the field, if
another make his appearance, we can again rally to the onset. The price
of liberty is not only 'eternal vigilance,' but continual warfare; and if
we are to have an executioner, for our own and for our country's sake, let
us at least leave it for others to provide him ! The speaker concluded with
this sentiment: i Henry Clay and Martin Van Bur en: candidates for the
next Presidency. When the strife is between Caesar and Pompey, the
patriot should rally to the standard of neither.'' (Much cheering.)"
'7
We have given this extract a>'considerable length, not only
for its eloquence and scmnd policy^ but as clearly illustrating
Mr. Stephens's position at the time. He has often been charged
with abandoning u his party/' but the truth is that he has always
been independent of party. We here see that he was at once
hostile to the administration of Van Buren and opposed to the
election of Clay. George M. Troup, the great Governor who
had so effectually resisted the encroachments of Mr. Adams's
administration and stood squarely upon the platform of State-
rights, was his favorite ; and he was extremely anxious that this
gentleman should receive the nomination. But Mr. Van Buren
was the existing occupant of the chair; and if he could not get
his favorite leader, Mr. Stephens had already made up his mind
to follow any other who showed the ability to vanquish the
administration.
It was much the same state of things as in his pamphlet
controversy of 1837. Not being a partisan, he approved such
measures of President Jackson as he thought just, and con
demned the others. In his eyes the President's dealing with
the Un.ited States Bank was right, and deserved to have the
approbation of the country. As for his Proclamation, Mr.
Stephens saw much to condemn in it, and he utterly and with
out reservation condemned the Force Bill. While he rejected
138 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
as fallacious and inconsistent the doctrine of nullification, he
firmly believed in the right of secession. But these distinctions
close party-men could not see, or if they saw, did not approve;
and thus Mr. Stephens has met the fate which attends every
public man who pursues an independent course in politics, and
judges every measure simply on its own merits, — the fate of
being charged with unfaithfulness to his party. So far from
regretting this, however, it has always been a matter of pride
to him, as demonstrating his consistent integrity of purpose.
The sentiments expressed at the meeting, so far as that may
be considered an exponent of the views of the South, showed
that the South was not yet ready, even after the experience of
Van Buren's administration, to give a hearty support to Clay.
The opposition was in a transition state, it is true, but it had
not yet reached the point where it could accept, or even close its
eyes to, the centralizing proclivities of the distinguished Ken-
tuckian ; so the different sections of the party united upon Gen
eral Harrison, unfortunate as was the necessity of fighting the
administration under a leader of uncertain politics. This resolve
taken, though the nominee of the South was far from being the
leader whom Mr. Stephens would have preferred, he at once
made his choice between the two, and brought into the campaign
all the energy and talent of which he was master.
In the fall of this year he was again a candidate for the Legis
lature, and was soon drawn into animated controversy on the
questions of the day. The State-Rights party was then divided
on various points of general policy, but especially on the Na
tional Bank and Tariff questions. Those who, whatever their
objections to these measures, thought that the advantages derived
from the Union more than counterbalanced them, and were
willing to continue the existing state of things, took the name
of Whigs.
The Whig party, at the outset of the coming campaign,
looked to Mr. Clay as their leader, and it was generally thought
he would receive the nomination, but his views leaned rather
more toward centralization than was acceptable to the South.
Mr. Van Buren, the candidate of the Northern Democrats, had
been unpopular at the South after his supposed intrigue in
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 139
breaking up Jackson's cabinet in the first term of that Presi
dent ; yet many of the leaders, even of the State-Rights party,
began seriously to consider whether on the whole he was not a
better candidate than Mr. Clay. Taliaferro County was almost
unanimously of the Jeffersonian State-Rights party, and the
candidates for the Legislature presented by this party there were
two very intelligent gentlemen, Mr. Simpson Fouche and Dr.
Lawrence, the former being an adherent of the nullification
doctrine, who was now starting the discussion in advance, with
the view of getting the State committed to Van Buren. The
opposing candidates were Mr. Stephens and Mr. John Chapman.
A spirited contest ensued, during which Mr. Fouche exerted
all his energies to defeat Mr. Stephens and break down his
rapidly-growing influence. This contest was rendered more
animated by the fact that the State-Rights party was gradually
shifting its ground ; and the voters were desirous to know the
position which the candidates proposed to take in the succeeding
Presidential election, and to learn their precise views on all the
important questions of the day. A question of considerable
prominence at the time was the Liquor License Law, one of the
many attempts which from time to time are made, and always
fruitlessly, to suppress social vice by legislation.
The citizens of Fair Play, a village in the eastern section of
the county, called upon the candidates to express their views on
these various points openly, either by letter or public address;
and to this end a public dinner was given at this place on the
15th of August, at which the candidates and other public men
were present, and there was some lively speaking, in the course
of which Mr. Fouche let fall some sarcastic expressions which
seemed to Mr. Stephens to have a personal bearing upon him
self. A correspondence followed, which, for a while, seemed to
threaten serious results, but finally the matter was amicably
adjusted. At the election-day, notwithstanding a strong and
active opposition, Messrs. Stephens and Chapman were elected
by large majorities. Early in the next year Mr. Fouche took
the field in person against Mr. Harris for the Senate, but was
overwhelmingly defeated.
CHAPTER XIV.
Transition of the State-Eights Party — Error of the Georgians — Law Busi
ness — Letters to Linton — Views on Scholarship, Aristocracy, and the
Devil — Literary Criticism — Keligious Beliefs — Visit to the Gold Kegion
— Political Parties.
THE transition of the State-Rights party, leading to its co
alition with the Northern Democrats, went on with increasing
rapidity in the early part of 1840. An extract from a letter of
Mr. Stephens, of a much later date, will show his views on the
subject.
" I was opposed to the administration of Mr. Van Buren, but was also
opposed to the support of Harrison. I wanted the State-Rights party of
Georgia to stand by the nomination of George M. Troup, which I had con
siderably contributed in getting the men of that party in the Legislature
of 1839 to make. But in the summer of 1840 a convention of the party
was held at Milledgeville, assembling the first Monday in June ; and this
convention withdrew the nomination of Troup and declared for Harrison.
I was not in the convention. I acquiesced, though I thought it bad pol
icy. There were but two candidates in the field, Harrison and Van Buren :
I preferred Harrison as the choice of evils. Indeed, the greatest objection
I had to Harrison's nomination was the political alliances it would bring
about. Him I considered sound enough on all political and constitutional
questions ; but his supporters generally at the North were the old Central
ists and Consolidationists, known in 1800 as Federalists. Still, as all the
vital questions were ignored, or nearly so, in the canvass, and as upon the
financial questions of the day I agreed, in the main, with him and his sup
porters, I acquiesced and supported him. It was, however, in my present
opinion [1868], a great error. It was a political blunder on the part of the
leaders and other men of the party. I was too young to be charged with
even an error of judgment in going with them under the circumstances.
Had I had more experience, I never should have done it."
"We have not spoken much of Mr. Stephens's law business.
He had for some time now been in full practice, and was counted
one of the ablest lawyers of the State. The reputation he had
acquired for not only personal but professional integrity, served
140
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H, STEPHENS. 141
to give him an influence upon juries which was probably greater
than that ever possessed by any lawyer in the State. Whenever
he solemnly asserted his belief in any fact or principle, all men
were assured of his sincerity, and therefore he always had the full
benefit of his opinions. In Taliaferro County especially, none of
his professional brethren ever approached him in this respect, ex
cept perhaps Mr. Toombs, whose career was as high and manly
throughout as that of any lawyer who ever lived. These two
friends seemed always to desire to be associated whenever pos
sible, and were seldom found engaged on opposing sides. Their
friendship was of the sort which shunned even the possibility
of a wound which might happen in the excitement of forensic
antagonism.
Perhaps their great dissimilarity was one link between them.
One was prudent, patient, and persuasive ; the other ardent, im
petuous, even apparently imperious. The one exposed his case
in all its minutest bearings, and then persuaded the jury to find
for the right. The other, seldom delaying on minor points,
seized upon the most important, showed them the truth in a
vivid light, and defied them to disregard it. Juries found for
the one because he led them kindly but irresistibly to his con
clusions; they found for the other because they could not endure
his indignation. And when these men were both on one side,
their client was as well defended as it was possible to be in any
court of justice in the country.
The letters which Mr. Stephens wrote to Linton while the
latter was at college, give a pleasing view of his inner life. They
are usually very long. He felt for his brother an affection more
like that of a tender father for a beloved son than that which
usually subsists between brothers. Few men have ever written
to a single correspondent in the period of a long life as much as
he wrote to this one brother during thirty years. This corre
spondence would fill many volumes. We shall extract from them
so much as we need to fill up the narrative of events or illus
trate the character of the man.
Linton's vacation being now over, he had returned to college.
His brother's first letter was of January 26th, 1 840. A fter speak
ing of family matters, which he usually gives in detail, even men-
142 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
tioning the servants, their ailments or mishaps, he adverts to a
young kinsman of theirs who was thinking of quitting school
rather prematurely, and remarks :
" Perhaps it is as well. The poet says :
'A little learning is a dangerous thing:
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.'
There is as much truth as satire in the couplet. To be a smatterer, to
learn enough only to imbibe the errors of the world and to become puffed
up and inflated with the conceit of self-importance, is no less ruinous to
the unfortunate" subject than disgusting to. the whole circle of his equally
unfortunate acquaintance. To be a scholar, to place oneself above the
common level, to ascend the steep of science and climb the rugged cliff of
fame, require energy, resolution, time, self-denial, patience, and ambition.
These are not the qualities of a fickle brain, but the attributes of genius.
He that possesses them, by disciplining them, and by subjecting them to
mild obedience to his own master-spirit (and this is knowledge, the very
perfection of education), can control not only his own destiny, but that of
others."
He closes thus :
" Good-by, and let me hear of your doing well. Fortune is a web, and
every man weaves for himself."
The next letter is of February 2d, in answer to one just
received. He praises the spirit of candor which he thinks he
discovers in his ward :
" There is no virtue in the human character nobler than candor, — plain,
real, unsophisticated candor. It is the legitimate offspring of truth, and
always begets independence."
Presently he adds a caution against excessive ambition. He
has been encouraging his ward so persistently to aim high, to
look forward to a career not only of virtue and usefulness, but
of distinction, that he thinks perhaps a little counterpoise may
be advisable. He quotes from Shakspeare, cites Byron's lines
on Kirke White, and then illustrates from Bulwer the effects of
inordinate ambition. This leads into a little talk about aris
tocracy :
"There is one kind of aristocracy that I despise equally with yourself;
but another kind I greatly admire. The first is the aristocracy of wealth
and fashion. That is contemptible. The other is the aristocracy (the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
ariston kratos] of lionor, principle, good breeding, and education, that
awards distinction, not to birth or fortune, but to merit and principles.
This is the aristocracy of nature, and is cast by no hereditary descent, but
is the impress given by fortune to her favorite children."
Ill the next letter (February 28th) he has much to say about
the doctrine of the Universal ists. AYe give an extract :
u In regard to the doctrine of the Universalists you allude to in your
letter, and particularly that part wherein you request my opinion, I will
only say, without entering fully into the subject, that I do not agree with
the belief that ' there is no personal devil or fallen spirit, and that what is
commonly called the Devil is no more than the inclination of man to do
evil.' What I mean by a personal devil is an evil spirit or a spiritual
intelligence apostate and fallen. There are doubtless many spiritual in-
telligcncies besides the Deity. Some are pure and holy : others are of
opposite nature, being evil, rebellious, and disobedient."
And the letter continues with a further exposition of his views
on dsemonology, — dim regions into which we will not follow him.
He comes back to firm ground after awhile, and concludes with
an urgent recommendation of regular and sufficient bodily exer
cise ; probably — though he does not say as much — a more effi
cient exorcism against cacodsemons than is commonly supposed.
On April 5th he tells his brother that the court is over, and
though almost broken down by continual work, he is preparing
to go to Warren Court. The wife of a neighbor has died the
day before, and he moralizes on the balance of good and evil,
happiness and misery, in the world, though acknowledging in
all the arrangement and economy of a wise and merciful Provi
dence. Then we have some literary criticism : Linton has
mentioned that he has been reading The Last Days of Pompeii :
" It is a work of great merit, though it hardly does justice to the early
Christians. In that particular its greatest defect consists. I think Bulwer
in one sense greatly Scott's superior in novel-writing. His mind is of a
higher order : he is more profound and metaphysical, — in a word, more
Platonic, while Scott is easier, more descriptive, and can deal successfully
with a much greater variety of characters. Scott's best characters — that
is, the best drawn — are his lowest ; Bulwer s are his highest"
The letter concludes by recommending as the next book of
the kind to be read, Old Mortality, and this for the sake of
getting acquainted with " Cuddie."
144 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
On May 5th we find him approaching, very delicately, the sub
ject of religion, elicited by an inquiry on the part of his brother.
He speaks of the cultivation and chastisement of the affections
and subjugation .of the natural propensities, bringing the entire
nature into mild subjection to the benign and exalted principles
of pure Christianity.
" This is true religion : a change of heart from evil to good, a renewal
of the soul from low and grovelling desires to an expanded and enlarged
love for the universe and an unbounded reverence for its Author. To
worship is the natural prompting after regeneration, that process by which,
in a mysterious way, the depraved nature of fallen man is exchanged and
purified by the exercise of a saving faith in Christ the Redeemer and
Mediator."
He presently concludes this topic, which he will not press too
far just now, with the words :
" The subject of religion I have seldom alluded to in my communications
with you, either by word or letter. The principle on which I acted re
quired me, I believe, to pursue such a course. Perhaps hereafter I may
dwell more at large upon the subject."
In his letter of June 2d he reverts to the subject, thus:
11 1 never like to be a lecturer^ or to give advice, because I am so sensible
of my own errors and imperfections 5 and this is why I have said so little
to you on subjects of religion, morality, and piety. But I trust you will
not think the less of them yourself, or be more remiss in your action. If
I have said nothing, it is not because I feel nothing. I do hope, therefore,
that you will not even trust yourself to your own judgment or caution,
but ask assistance from one who is able to direct you, daily. I believe in
a special Providence. Of all Christian virtues, cultivate humility, meek
ness, and a spirit of dependence upon the great Ruler of the universe for
'every good and perfect gift.'" . . , "The world is transitory at best,
and there is little in it worth living for but the bright prospect it affords
of a blessed immortality. Its hopes are delusive, its honors are vain, its
pleasures are empty."
Mr. Stephens then had scarcely an acquaintance who would
not have been surprised to know that he thus spoke of spiritual
and earthly things to his younger brother. While his whole
conduct and deportment had always been consistent with the
principles of a high and pure morality, few, even of his intimate
friends, supposed that his inward thoughts were much occupied
with the subject of religion. But when let behind the veil of
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 145
his habitual reticence, through the medium of these most confi
dential revealings of his hidden nature, we can see how much
and how earnestly he has thought upon these solemn questions,
how strong are his religious convictions, how deep is his rever
ence for the Deity, and how absolute his belief of the importance
of His constant interposition in man's behalf.
There is now some intermission in these letters. The writer
went on a tour with Mr. T. Chaffin to visit the gold mines of
Cherokee, where the latter gentleman owned a number of -lots.
The travellers examined the region, and came to the conclusion
that it was very rich in minerals. They called upon an old
friend, too, — Dr. Foster, who had removed to this part of the
country, and whom they found just recovering from a broken
leg. A short note dropped in Athens on the return gives a flat
tering account of Harrison's prospects in the Cherokee country.
The Presidential contest was now narrowed down to the two
candidates, Van Buren and Harrison. All the State-Rights
delegation from Georgia in Congress, except Cooper, Colquitt,
and Black, sided with the latter, and the whole party followed.
Mr. Stephens, as we have seen, while not approving the nomi
nation of Harrison, preferred him to his competitor, and having
given him his support, went actively into the canvass.
In his letter to Linton of August 2d, he treats the subject of
politics at some length in reply to an inquiry. We extract :
" In the beginning of the Government under the new organization, in
1787 and 1788, all who were in favor of ratification of the Constitution,
or were friendly to the compact or Foedus as it was called, assumed the name
of Federalists. Those who opposed took the various names of Anti-Fed
eralists. Democrats, Republicans, etc. At that time Madison and Jefferson
were known as Federalists, or friends to the Constitution. Patrick Henry
and many other noble sons of Virginia were opposed to it. After the
Constitution, however, was ratified, and the Government went into opera
tion, many measures were proposed which some of the friends of the
Constitution thought were not authorized by that instrument, and which,
if carried out, would centralize all power in the General Government to
the subversion of the States. That class of course fell into the ranks of
the Republicans. Among these were Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and
many others, while Patrick Henry and others fell into the ranks of the
Federals, saying that these powers of which the others were complaining
were granted in the Constitution, and it was then too late to raise the
10
146 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
complaint ; that they had warned them of the danger, and foretold these
consequences. It was now too late : the Constitution was established, and
the country had to abide by it. Many of the measures of the Federalists
of that time — say from 1790 to 1800 — were no doubt good ones, while
others were truly obnoxious, particularly the one against Aliens, and one
upon the subject of Sedition. It was those measures which showed a
disposition on the part of the Federal party to the grasping of power that
caused the overthrow of that party in 1800 by the election of Mr. Jefferson.
. . . Considering the merits of even the most obnoxious measures of
those days, apart from all party and personal bearing, just as you would
look at the laws of ancient nations, I believe that there is not a great deal
more to censure in them than in many of the laws we have had passed in
much later times. The patriotism, however, of those men who were called
Federalists, even at the election of Mr. Jefferson, no man can doubt. They
were among the earliest and most devoted friends and movers of the Revo
lution, and were the master-spirits that struggled for our independence.
They were all no doubt friends to good government ; but differed, as men
always will, as to the best methods and medium of administering it. It
is true that Mr. Jefferson in his Ana (some notes in the end of his works)
intimates that a large party then existed in the country favorable to a
monarchy. But for my own part I do not believe one word of it. His
aim was at Hamilton ; but he was, in point of intellect, integrity, and
patriotism, high above all such suspicions. Jefferson even intimates
openly, in one of his letters, that Washington was aspiring to a throne.
With Hamilton's notions of government I do not agree; but that he was
in favor of changing it to a kingly government, none, I think, would
pretend to believe who knows anything of his opinions of the formation
of the Constitution. He was truly a great man, but his theories did not
suit the genius of our institutions."
From this he passes to comment on something Linton has
told him about some trouble Mr. Baker, with whom they are
boarding, has had with his landlord, Apropos of which he quotes
Burns — a favorite poet of his, by the way. Then winds up
with a dream :
" I dreamed last night you were dead ; and, though no believer in
dreams, have nevertheless all day been more or less under the influence
of this strange phantom."
Letters follow in which he criticises his brother's style in
writing, gives him advice about his college duties, discusses the
merits of Scott and Bulwer, and treats of other matters. He
has been a candidate for the Legislature, having Dr. Lawrence
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 147
again for an opponent, and on the 5th of October he gives the
result of the election, in which he received 362 votes and the
rival candidate 68. " I have never received so large a vote in
the county before."
It was in the fall of this year that Mr. Johnston first heard
him speak in public. The Hon. Eugenius Nisbet being on a
visit to Powelton, at the request of the citizens, addressed them
on political topics. Mr. Stephens was one of his auditors, and
when Mr. NisbeLhad concluded, he requested the latter to make
some remarks. M\Ir. Stephens spoke for some time, with that
persuasive earnestness, simple dignity, and charm of manner
which have earned him such deserved celebrity as an oratorj
His appearance differed in nothing from what it was in 1832.
His physical development seemed to progress more tardily than
other men's ; he had still the youthful looks of a mere stripling,
and it was only about this time, though he had reached his
thirtieth year, that he attained his full stature.
CHAPTER XY.
Declines Ke-nomination to the Legislature— Letters to Linton — Philosophy
of Living — Death of President Harrison — Advice to Linton — Serious Ill
ness — Election' to State Senate — Reports of Committees — The Tariff of
1842 — Breach of the Compromise of 1833 — Debate on Federal Relations
—The Minority Report — Principles of the Georgia Whigs — Resolutions.
IN the year 1841 Mr. Stephens was less occupied with polit
ical matters, having declined to run for the Legislature. His
health improved to some degree, but his old enemy, dyspepsia,
and .the excruciating headaches it occasioned, still tormented
him. His time was entirely engaged in his legal business, of
which he had all that he could possibly attend to. The biog
raphy of this year, therefore, must be entirely drawn from his
letters to his brother, who was still at college.
On February 14th we find him moralizing on the uncertainty
of human affairs and the vicissitudes of life ; a train of thought
brought on by the death of his old friend, William Le Conte,
a fact of which Linton had informed him. He says :
" Remember me to Louis and Joseph Le Conte. I much sympathize
with them in their late bereavement. Their brother was one of my most
beloved and esteemed friends, \jllis departure is another evidence of the
/fleeting and transient nature of all things connected with this life's hopes
/ and expectations. J Little did I think last fall in Milledgeville, when I
shook the hand that I had often shaken both in parting and greeting,
that it was for the last time, and that our farewell was to be for ever !
What a mystery is death — and life !"
On March 25th he gives some lessons to his brother on the
proper and profitable way of reading newspapers, then alludes
to the will of an old gentleman who had recently died, leaving
a large property to an only son, on which he thus philosophizes:
" There is a philosophy in life and in the proper way of living that
few seem to understand. Hence many who really are rich live worse
148
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 149
than some who are seemingly poor. These remarks I think peculiarly
applicable to and his family. The whole aim of his life has been to
accumulate and save without any regard to proper enjoyment. To accu
mulate and save are both admirable actions-, but they should not be the
ruling motives: they should be subservient to the great objects of life, —
usefulness, contentment, and happiness. Had he spent more in the edu
cation of his only son, the enlightenment of his understanding and the
refinement of his manners, and then left him much less of the properly,
he would have acted a much better part by him. The great difficulty
with mankind is in spending, — in knowing how and when to spend their
money."
And then follows an earnest condemnation of the opposite
vices of extreme parsimony and extravagance.
From time to time Liu ton has applied to his brother for the
explanation of various terms used in political parlance, which
Alexander answers with extreme punctuality and minuteness.
In this letter he remembers that his exposition of one phrase
has not been, perhaps, so full as it should have been, anil am
plifies on the subject :
" In my remarks the other day about ' pre-emption,"1 I forgot to say that
as a system it is opposed to what is termed the ' distribution plan,1 which
is .to have all the public lands sold at what they will bring, and the pro
ceeds distributed among all the States. That is my plan : I go for distri
bution. The land belongs to all the States, and every one should have its
portion of the proceeds."
Before the next letter (April llth) was written, a melancholy
event had happened in the political world, in the death of Presi
dent Harrison on the 4th of April, just one month after his
inauguration. Mr. Stephens thus comments upon it:
" There is no doubt that General Harrison is dead. What effect it will
have upon the country time alone can disclose. I look upon it, however,
as at this time one of the greatest calamities that could have befallen the
nation. Harrison had the' confidence of the people of all sections of the
Union. /There was nothing sectional, partisan, or offensive to any portion
of the pebple in his inaugural] The whole country was calm in quiet ex
pectation of the measures to be proposed by him at the opening of the
called session of Congress." [Extra session called for the last day of May.]
" No other man living could have wielded such influence over public opinion
as he could, because he had the confidence of the people. They believed
him to be, as he was indeed, a patriot. I fear his death will give rise to
dissensions and divisions."
150 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H, STEPHENS.
For more than half of the following year we have to draw
entirely upon the correspondence with Linton. The earlier part
is filled with home-news, explanations of the law-business he
was engaged in, news from the farm, etc. One of the horses is
rather wild, and he is taming him, and hopes soon to have him
aas gentle as Frank Dougherty got his oxen." This Frank
Dougherty, he explains, was an old neighbor of his father's,
who once had a yoke of young and ungovernable oxen, which
he was very anxious to sell to a neighbor, whose only objection
was that they were not gentle enough. So Frank undertook to
" gentle" them by keeping them in the yoke, and letting them
run in the pasture. One day he brought the expected purchaser
over to look at them, assuring him that they were now " perfectly
gentle." They went down to the pasture and found the oxen
" gentle" indeed : in their caperings they had turned the yoke,
and lay there with their necks broken. So " as gentle as Frank
Dougherty's oxen" became a joke in the neighborhood.
In March we find him encouraging Linton in the study of
rhetoric, which the latter finds difficult.
"Rhetoric, properly taught, is one of the easiest and most improving
and useful studies of a college course, and to me it was the most interest
ing. But it requires some training to get in the right way of learning it.
It is to be effected by system, method, and generalization. The usefulness
of the study depends mostly upon its effect upon the mind in subjecting
it to system and method, and the exercises it imposes upon the memory.
It should never be taught or learned by questions and answers. You might
as well attempt to teach the beauties of a painting to a mind unacquainted
with the art of catching the perspective, by a similar system of interroga
tories. In the study of rhetoric usefully, the mind must first be taught to
put forth its strongest faculties, and survey the entire subject — that is, the
lecture for any given recitation. The author's object being thoroughly
understood, his manner of treating it. and his various subdivisions, soon
occur easily to the mind, which naturally again suggest his ideas, and
then the task is performed, and the whole lecture is indelibly impressed
upon the mind like a map or chart spread out before you. In mastering
a lecture in rhetoric, the author's words should never be studied ; if they
occur readity to the mind in reciting, they should be used ; but in study
ing, the memory should not be taxed to retain them ; the ideas, and the
order in which they come in the lecture, should be the task of the student.
The ideas he should convey in his own words. For when he understands
his author, and knows what his ideas are, the student can always have
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 15]
words at command to make known what they are. But it is a remarkable
fact, that with a little practice with this kind of study, so quick does the
mernoiy become, and so retentive of an impression, that the student will
be enabled to repeat almost the identical words of his author from begin
ning to end. This strengthens the memory, and imparts vigor to the mind,
and enables the faculties to encompass a whole subject at once, and under
stand the whole and every part at the same time. This is exceedingly neces
sary for writers and public speakers. When a student, therefore, goes to
recite a lesson in rhetoric, or moral philosophy, or any such studies, he
should know everything in his recitation, and be able forthwith and without
hesitation to repeat, if called upon, every idea in it, just as he would toll, if
called upon, what he heard a man say on any particular subject on a given
occasion. As, for instance : suppose the lesson is in Blair, and the subject
is his lecture on ' Style.1 At the first glance the mind will scan his man
ner of treating it, commencing with general remarks about the diversity
of style in authors, then the various kinds of style, and then the rules for
forming a correct style. Under the first head, many smaller and subordi
nate ideas, where the general plan is fixed in the mind, naturally suggest
themselves with little or no effort ; such as, that all authors have a pecu
liarity of style distinctive in each ; difference between Livy and Tacitus,
etc.. and other ideas that fill up that view 5 and the different kinds of style,
such as concise and diffuse; then contrasted, the advantages and disadvan:
tages of each, and the instances of authors distinguished for each, etc., —
which is all easily recollected and repeated, — that is, the idea, but not the
words. — and the same of the weak and nervous, dry, plain, neat, elegant,
and flowery, and then go on to the simple, affected, and vehement; these
made all distinct in their order in the mind, the filling-up, or the remarks
made upon each, come to the mind almost naturally ; and then comes the
winding-up of the subject^ the directions for forming a correct style, to
wit: a thorough understanding of the subject, frequent composition, ac
quaintance witli good styles, or the styles of distinguished authors, — not,
however, running into imitation. — oradaptation of the style to the subject
and occasion, — not to be poetical when you should reason ; and, lastly, not
to permit the mind to be too much engrossed with style to the exclusion
of matter ; in other words, that however important style may be, it should
always be held subordinate to ideas, and that more attention should be
given to thoughts and sentiments than mere style; and with this the task
is performed. And what is more easy ? When once you get in the way
of it, you will find it the easiest study learned. The mind will take it
readily, and you will be astonished at the amount of learning you can
acquire. To me, at first, it appeared very hard, because I had nobody to
teach me ; but when Dr. Olin became professor and gave us a few lectures,
the whole subject assumed a new appearance, and the study became de
lightful ; and when I graduated, there was no subject in Blair, Paley, Say,
Evidences of Christianity, Brown's Moral Philosophy, or Hedge's Logic,
152 LIFE OF ALEXANDER //. STEPHENS.
that I could not have told everything about instantly, or as fast as I could
have spoken ; and I could have commenced at the beginning of the cata
logue above named, and have given substantially everything contained,
from the beginning to the end, without interruption or suggestion. The
same principles of system, method, and analysis I brought to the study
of law ; and when I was admitted, I could have rehearsed Blackstone in
the same way. The whole I attributed to Olin's method of teaching; and
I would not have given the advantages derived from that for all my col
lege course besides. It has been of more use to me. It called forth all
the powers of the mind, and taught it to exercise its every faculty. My
previous instructions were like keeping a child forever sliding and crawl
ing : Olin made us stand up and walk. A little assistance was at first
necessary, while the knees were weak, and before strength and confidence
were acquired; but soon we (I mean the whole class, for there was no
student in the class that did not understand the studies) began to walk
without assistance, and then to run and bound, and become the perfect
masters of all our faculties. I wish you to adopt the right method in these
studies, and to become perfectly master of them. When a subject is men
tioned, be able to give an outline of the whole, and show that you have
studied your author, by being able, without assistance, to go on and tell
what he says."
He then answers the question, what would be a suitable sub
ject for a Junior speech, by suggesting a comparison between the
ancients and the moderns, giving himself a decided preference to
the former. Among other things he says :
"In many things that make man truly great, that show the power
of his mind, the boldness of his conceptions, and the lofty sentiments of
his soul, I think the ancients were greatly our superiors. Look at their
works, their temples and other public buildings, which, after withstanding
the ravages of centuries, are yet unequalled by anything that man in
subsequent times ever erected. Why, even the public roads leading from
the city of Rome, constructed before the Julian day, are now better and
more substantial than any in the United States, and perhaps in England
and France. Part of a bridge is yet standing on the Danube which was
built soon after the time of the Caesars. What a people they must have
been to leave such vestiges behind them ! If this country should be over
run by savages, what have we that would remain one thousand years to
tell that such a race as ours ever existed?"
And after Rome, Greece, Persia, Egypt, and Assyria are all
glanced at in support of the writer's thesis.
On June 2d he answers a letter of Linton's, in which the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 153
Jatter intimates thoughts of getting excused from speaking at
Commencement.
u I can simply say that you must not hesitate between speaking and
getting excused. You must speak, and you ought to set at once in good
earnest to writing. There is nothing a student is more apt to do than to
postpone the duty of composition. . . . The mind should never suffer
itself to grow slothful and indolent. It is much easier in one's business
to keep ahead of time than to keep up with its rapid march when once
thrown ever so little in the rear. You will lose nothing by having your
speech well committed, even a month before Commencement. It should
be a rule of your life, established now in this your first appearance before
the public, never to appear unless you can appear well, and also to
appear whenever you can with propriety. 'The kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence/ saith the Scripture, 'and the violent take it by force.'
So it is with the world. The most resolute and inflexible bear off the
palms and 'crowns in both. A man's character, reputation, and distinc
tion are the works of his own hands. In contests for honorable distinction
ever be found among the first of the foremost. Nihil arduum est ipsis
volentibus, sed nihil potest fieri illis invilis."
Linton has been thinking, if he speaks, of taking "The Gov
ernment of God" as a subject. His brother suggests that he
rather style it "The Philosophy of Nature/7 and adds, "if you
could steer clear of theological abstractions and metaphysical
refinements, I have no doubt that an address might be made
embodying views no less interesting than new, and the materials
would also allow of some flights of fancy and embellishments
suited to the highest style of oratory." He hints that Time
might be a better subject, but fears that it is rather of the "all-
eloquent order." Many hints and thoughtful suggestions are
given ; and it is really touching to see how he endeavors to
forestall all possible difficulties, to leave nothing u nth ought of,
nothing unsaid that may be in any way helpful to this beloved
brother.
On June 8th another long letter follows, still about the
oration, in which he tells his brother something about his own.
" The subject of my Junior oration was not the Evidences of Christianity,
but the expediency of rebuilding the penitentiary of the State that had
been burned down. I discussed the subject with my class-room mate,
John R. Heed. He took the affirmative and I the negative. The question
involved, of course, the propriety of abandoning that system of punishment
154 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
in the State. With that speech I was never very well pleased, though by
some it was pronounced the best delivered on the occasion. My reasons
for disliking it were that it was prepared for the purpose of making a
speech, and did not convey my real sentiments. It was written to defend
a side, and not to express or enforce my own views. Besides, I had not
committed it well. I was only about two weeks in preparing it. In the
delivery I do not think I spoke one-half of it as it was written. Having
gotten into the current, however, I went on with the tide, and having
very soon lost my prompter, I ran at large like a loose horse in a public
ground. Being intimate with the subject, many of the expressions and
some of the illustrations were perfectly extempore.
. . . " My speech prepared for the exhibition at the full term was
written upon the subject of our Cherokee country, and the manner in
which it was about to be acquired, the expulsion of the Indians, and the
forced occupation of the lands. The speech was decidedly against the
policy of the State ; so much so that the faculty wo'uld not let me deliver
it, and with that course I was well pleased, for I had no particular anxiety
to figure before the public, — not half so much as I ought to have had.
The only penalty inflicted for the contempt in writing a speech not
suffered to be delivered was the requirement by the faculty that I should
write a composition during the vacation. This I did, and thus purged the
contempt. My English salutatory was written upon the Imperfection of
Science. The subject I thought very suitable to the occasion, and par
ticularly to myself. I had then travelled through all the fields of learn
ing, so far as means were afforded at that place, and had become familiar
with most of the theories of philosophers who have undertaken to instruct
mankind ; and feeling deeply impressed with the consciousness of how
little I knew myself, and believed others to know, I thought the time
opportune to descant a little upon the ignorance of even the learned.
That and the Latin address delivered at the same time are the only pieces
of my college composition I now have, and their preservation was alto
gether accidental. . . . All my other papers, speeches, compositions,
and scraps I collected and burned the morning before taking final leave
of my room. This I have often since regretted; for even now I should
like to look over those early effusions, and observe the gradual develop
ment of style and the change of thought as well as the manner of ex
pression. I have no doubt I should see much to make me blush, and
probably induce me forthwith to destroy them, for I was among the
rudest of rude and raw beginners."
He has much to say in reference to a rather disgraceful riot
that took place at the college. Linton, it is almost needless to
say, was in no way connected with it; but still it gives , his
brother a theme for a long and earnest lecture, full of good
monitions to a young man. Disgraceful and dishonorable con-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 155
duct or principles are to be looked upon with loathing as a
moral leprosy. Those infected with them are to be shunned,
but with pity, as we should shun a wretched leper. Shunned,
that is, except when an opportunity offers of doing them good.
But the rule of our own life is to be "stern and inflexible
honor/7
On August 14th he writes that his health is very bad again.
He ventured incautiously upon a journey after being sick, and
was made much worse. Suffers much with his side and a severe
cough, and is trying vesication with tartrate of antimony. He
adds:
" I have very little hope of ever getting well. This I mention, not from
any peculiar feelings of despondency I entertain, but as the deliberate ex
pression of my apprehension. It is true that with great care, prudence,
and caution I may recover my former health, nor am I at all disposed to
abandon the means. But still, from my constant watchfulness over my
state and condition of health for some years, my apprehensions are as
above expressed."
On the 16th he writes more about his health and the treat
ment he is pursuing, — reiterated blisterings and cupping.
" I did not write at all to excite your alarm so as to render you in the
least uneasy. That I am in a delicate and precarious condition I feel con
fident ; but then I am not at all apprehensive of any immediate or speedy
turn in my disease in any direction. ... I will keep you advised of my
situation : and I want you by all means not to permit yourself to grow
uneasy. I do not feel so myself, and do not wish anybody to feel so on my
account. ^Life and death, as well as everything else, should be considered
philosophically.'' j
And he proceeds so to consider them. We can see that he
really has no expectation of recovery, and wishes, without alarm
ing his brother, to get him into a frame of mind that will be
prepared for the worst. He concludes :
" In reference to my own particular friends, I hardly know whether it
would be more agreeable to me to take my turn in advance or to go after.
Be not therefore disturbed, because, first, there is no immediate cause, and,
secondly, because to be thus disturbed is wrong in principle."
The letters now cease for two months. Mr. Stephens rapidly
grew worse, and was prostrated with what all believed to be
consumption. For weeks his sufferings were terrible and un-
156 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
remitting. He looked constantly for the end, but without fear
and without complaint. Few men have spoken of or looked
forward to death more calmly. Doubtless his habit, from child
hood, of contemplating that event as not far off at furthest, and
likely to occur at any time, as well as the almost constant suffer
ing that made life less desirable to him than to most, have had
much to do in accustoming him to regard it with equanimity. He
neither shunned nor sought any reference to his own sufferings ;
but his lively sympathy was always for the afflictions of others.
After a time it became evident that the lungs were not, as was
at first thought, the seat of the disease. It proved to be in the
liver, where a large abscess formed, which at length opened into
the lungs, and was discharged in that way. Relief followed ;
then rapid improvement of his health, which grew better than
it had been since 1836.
In October he was elected to the State Senate, where he ac
tively exerted himself in advocating various important measures,
and in opposition to the Central Bank, an institution for the
purpose of carrying on banking by the State, to the winding
up of which he greatly contributed. One of the important
questions which came up during this session of the Legislature
was that of the adoption by the State of the law of Congress
of June 25th, 1842, requiring that the Representatives to that
body should be elected by districts, instead of what was then
known as the "general ticket" system, by which each party pre
pared an entire ticket, which was voted on throughout the State.
Mr. Stephens urged the Legislature to comply with this requisi
tion, which it, however, refused to do.
Mr. Stephens, being in the minority, did not obtain any promi
nent position on committees, but reports on all matters of im
portance considered in committee were from his pen, among the
rest a Report on the Financial Condition of the State ; on the
Railway, and the disposition of the State to abandon it; and on
Education. Most important of these, however, was the Report
of the Committee on Federal Relations, of which extended notice
must be taken.
It was in this year, though previously to his election, that an
attempt was made to force upon the country a renewal of the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 157
protective tariff. By Mr. Clay's Compromise of 1833, one-
tenth of one-half of all duties over a revenue standard was to
be taken off every year for ten years, at the end of which time
the other half was to be removed, and thereafter all duties were
to be levied for revenue only. But in 1842 the Protectionists
persistently refused to allow the compromise to go into effect,
though it had been agreed to by all parties, North and South,
and its acceptance had quieted the discontent of the nullification
party in South Carolina. As in the case of Missouri and Maine,
one party was willing to reap the immediate benefit of a com
promise, and then did not hesitate at refusing to fulfil their part
of the contract. So Congress this year passed a tariff bill of a
strongly protective character, in open and flagrant violation of
the Compromise of 1833. President Tyler promptly vetoed
the bill. Another generally similar bill met the same fate.
Finally the Tariff Bill known as the Whig Tariff of 1842 was
passed and received the Executive signature. Though it was
less objectionable than the others, still the Compromise of 1833
was abandoned, and in principle the Protectionists carried the
day. A section of the Whig party that had supported the
President in his veto of the bill creating " The Fiscal Bank of
the United States," and were known by the name of " Tylei
Whigs/7 acted with the Democrats in resisting the encroach
ments of the Protectionists. The debates in Congress were very
animated, the country was excited, and party feeling ran high.
The Southern States began uneasily to consider their position
and prospects in the Republic, which position they looked upon
as seriously endangered by the non-fulfilment of the Compro
mise of 1833.
In Georgia, the Whigs were slightly in the minority in the
Legislature. During the session of the Senate an important
debate occurred on the Federal Relations of the State, growing
out of the majority and minority reports of the Committee on the
state of the Republic. The matter under immediate considera
tion by the Committee was a part of the Governor's message.
The previous Legislature (Democratic) had passed a series of
resolutions, and transmitted them through the Governor to the
Georgia Senators in Congress, disapproving of the political con-
158 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
duct of the Hon. J. M. Berrien, one of these Senators. To this
Mr. Berrien did not reply directly, but published an address,
justificatory of his conduct, to the people of Georgia. The
Governor looked upon this action as a slight to both himself and
the Legislature ; and so it was considered by the majority of the
Committee, who in their report recommended that Mr. Berrien
should resign his seat. " The Legislature/7 they said, " has no
power to compel a Senator to resign ; but the theory of a Repre
sentative government, and the delicate connection between the
Constituent and the Representative, imperiously demand that
whenever he ceases to subserve the object of his appointment, he
should at once surrender the delegated trust ; and tested by this
plain and obvious rule, Mr. Berrien will utterly defeat the end
and design of a Representative government should he continue
to retain the office of Senator in Congress."
From this theory, that the members of the State Legislatures
were the constituents of the Senators in Congress, the minority
dissented in a report prepared by Mr. Stephens, though he was
not a member of the Committee. .With regard to the proper
constituency of the United States Senators this report says :
^^u The undersigned cannot agree with his Excellency, or the majority of
\ the Committee, in the idea that the members of the Legislature are the
\ proper ' Constituents1 of the Senators in Congress. It is true that under
^ Constitution of the United States they elect them, but in doing this
they act themselves in a representative capacity. Constituent and Repre
sentative we hold to be correlative terms. The Constituent is one whose
rights and interests, to some extent, are confided or entrusted to another ;
that other to whom such rights and interests are so confided or entrusted
is the Representative. The members of the Legislature, in electing a
United States Senator, are but exercising a delegated trust. That trust is
limited in its extent, specific in its nature, and ceases with its execution.
The appointment is only made through them by their own constituents ;
and the Senators, when so chosen, represent them or their interests no
more than any other equal number of the citizens of the State. Nor are
they any more responsible or amenable to them than any other like por
tion of the mass of the people. The fact that the members of the Legis
latures of the respective States, under the Constitution of the United States,
are made the electors of Senators to Congress, in the opinion of the under
signed, no more makes them the ' Constituents' cf the Senators, than that
the election of President and Vice-President of the United States being
made by Electors chosen in the respective States, according to the pro-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 159
visions of the same Constitution, makes such Electors the constituents of
these highest and most important officers of the Government. The cases,
for illustration, are sufficiently analogous, and the principles applicable to
one must be applicable to the other. If the Legislatures of the several
States are the ' Constituents' of the Senators, then the Colleges of Elec
tors in the same States are the only ' Constituents' of the President and
Vice-President of the United States ; and the same doctrine of instruction,
of course, would apply ; for if applicable in one case, why not in the other?
And with this construction, what would be the result of our entire system
of political organization? It would only be necessary for the Electors in
each of the States to meet, and by their instructions to remove from office
the Chief Magistrate of the country at every ebb and flow of party feel,
ing, or change in popular opinion. But the undersigned do not so under
stand the Constitution ; nor do they believe it was so understood by its
frame rs or first expounders. They hold_that__the People of the States, and
not the Legislatures, are the Constituents' of Senators in Congress, and
that the people of the Unite^JLStates-, and- notH^re Electors, are the Con
stituents of the President and Vice-President of tlie-Umo~Tn This was
certainTy~the opinion of Washington, who, in one of his earliest messages
to the Senate and House of Representatives, spoke of the people of the
country as being his and their common ' Constituents.' Had he held the
doctrine of the Governor or the majority of the Committee, he could not
have looked beyond the Electors, ' the body from whom he derived his office,'
in referring to his constituents. The majority of the Committee say that
'the Legislature has no power to compel a Senator to resign; but the
theory of a Representative government, and the delicate connection between
the Constituent and Representative, imperiously demand that whenever he
ceases to subserve the object of his appointment, he should at once sur
render the delegated trust ; and tested by this plain and obvious rule,
Mr. Berrien will utterly defeat the end and design of a Representative
government should he continue to retain the office of Senator in Con
gress.' Now, what peculiar opinion the majority may entertain of the
theory of a Representative government, by which they arrive at the con
clusion stated, the undersigned are wholly unable to imagine ; and as
those theoretical views are not given, the premises from which the deduc
tions are drawn being unknown, the legitimacy of the conclusion must, as
a matter of course, remain a subject of mere speculation. The undersigned,
however, in arguing such a question, would state that they recognized no
principles or premises from which to start but such as are to be found in
the Constitution of the country. And taking this as their rule and stand
ard, and confining themselves in their inquiries strictly within its plainly-
written and well-defined provisions, they hesitate not to say that the
conclusion of the majority is altogether erroneous. If the majority have
any other theory than that of the Constitution, the undersigned beg leave
to say that they are not its advocates. They know of but one code of
160 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
principles governing the question, and they are to be found in the funda
mental law of the Union, — the great chart of our Representative govern
ment. The minority take it for granted that what is meant in the report
by the expression, 'when a Senator ceases to subserve the object of his
appointment,' is, when he ceases to effect or carry out the wishes of those
whom the majority are pleased to call his 'Constituents'; or, in other
words, to conform to the wishes of a majority of the Legislature. With
this understanding, it seems only necessary to compare the proposition
with the principles assumed as the standard to render its fallacy apparent
toaliy Ours is a government founded upon compact. Its principles and
powers are so well and clearly denned in the instrument of its creation,
as to leave but little latitude for theory in its construction. Nor are the
"Duties, obligations, and responsibilites of those who officiate in its admin
istration less distinctly marked ; and the provisions of all which, as well
as the powers granted, as the mode and manner of their execution, were
wisely adjusted, with proper checks and balances, by its patriot founders,
for the preservation of peace, liberty, and happiness. And according to
the provisions of that instrument, the term of a Senator's office is fixed at
the period of six years, and is not left dependent upon the fluctuations of
party strife, or the sudden changes of factious majorities. It may be true
that the ' theory'' of the majority 'demands' a different term, or one upon
different principles ; but it is sufficient for us that the Constitution does
not. The propriety of this feature in the Government is not now the
question for remark. All that is asked is that it be acknowledged as part
of the Constitution, and that as such, so long as it remains unaltered, it be
maintained inviolate. We believe, however, that there is wisdom in the
clause fixing the term of Senators as long as it is, and that it was not so
arranged or adopted without many salutary views. /^_the framers of the
Constitution had thought, as the majority do, that the holding of the seat,
on the part of any Senator, against the wishes of a majority of the Legis
lature of his State, at any time, would utterly defeat the end and design
of the Government they were forming, would they n£t have made the
tenure of this office dependent upon different principles y If all the good,
and the advantages which it was supposed would belTeVived from the for
mation of this Government, could be so easily defeated, is it not strange
that so important an oversight should have been committed by men so
distinguished for learning, wisdom, and patriotism? Such an argument,
even if we were left to our own unassisted conjectures, would do injustice
to their memories. But when with the light of their own exposition we
are taught that this feature was incorporated for the express purpose of
rendering that branch of the National Legislature free from the influence
and control of sudden changes in popular opinion, how can we or a-ny one
subscribe to the doctrine that the effectuation by a Senator of this very
original design is a subversion of the Government and a defeat of the end
of its creation? And with these views and principles we beg leave re-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 161
^
spectfully to declare our attachment to the Constitution of the country as
it is, in preference to any undefined principles or untried ' theories of a
Representative government,1 entertained by those of a majority of the
Committee. This expression of opinion on the part of the majority we
deem no less indiscreet in another consideration. Twice at least, in the
last four years, a majority of the Legislature of this State differed, on
most of the great questions of national politics, from both their Senators
in Congress. Without stating what the course of those majorities then
was, as a precedent now, it is sufficient for our present purpose to say that
the Senators continued to retain their seats ; or, in the views perhaps of
the majority, 'ceased to subserve the objects of their appointment.' The
same may be said of several other States of the Union ; and what has been
the result? Has the end and design of a Representative government been
thereby utterly defeated? And can the majority seriously entertain the
opinion that if the Honorable John M. Berrien, who deservedly stands
among the first in the Senate of the United States for learning and elo
quence, and who is no less an honor to his State than an ornament to the
nation, shall continue to hold his place, though he may happen to differ at
this time from the majority in the Legislature of his own State on many
questions of public policy, that this will result in an utter defeat of the
end and design of Representative government? We can hardly conceive
that we have to do more than barely state the proposition to cause them,
however strong may be their party zeal, at least to see the error of their
position, if not to modify the entravagance of their assertion."
But the minority did not stop with these refutations of the
position of the majority. They took this occasion clearly to
state their views, and the views of such as agreed with them on
the great public questions then under agitat'on ; and their very
able presentation of these views caused this document to be re
ceived as a declaration of principles of the Whig party in Georgia.
As such, and as a clear enunciation of Mr. Stephens's own politi
cal doctrines, we give the remainder of this report almost entire.
After showing that the assertion of the majority that the people
of Georgia were opposed to a National Bank was not supported
by sufficient evidence, and that the warm support the State had
given President Jackson had other causes than his antagonism
to that institution, the report proceeds :
"Another broad declaration made by the majority, to which the under
signed cannot give their assent, is that ' the people of Georgia are opposed
to the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands.' Now,
how this conclusion is arrived at we must confess that we are equally
unable to determine. In this case, adopting the same standard as that
11
1(52 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
assumed in the previous one, we certainly arrive at very different conclu
sions from those attained by the majority. If, by the phrase ' the dis
tribution of the proceeds of sales of public lands.' it is meant to include
the distribution which was lately expected to take place, certainly the
Committee will not even attempt to maintain their position ; for, if we be
not misinformed, a place was left for the use of those funds in legislative
appropriation even before their reception ; and the present Governor of
this State was among the earliest, if not the first, in the whole Union, to
make application for the portion coming to Georgia. This, in our opinion,
would not justify us in saying that the people were opposed to the dis
tribution. But perhaps the majority mean only to say that the people are
only opposed to the principle of the distribution, though they are willing
and ready to receive their part when it is made. That
'The right they see, and they approve it too,
The wrong condemn, and yet the wrong pursue.'
But this would be giving the State such a position before the civilized and
moral world as we would be slow to acknowledge. And as we are un
willing to see this injustice done to her character by any such unauthorized
statement, we feel bound to vindicate her honor from the unwarrantable
aspersion. We believe that the State has applied for her quota because it
was right and it was just, and that, for the same reasons, she could con
tinue to demand it. But the question now is not the propriety of the
distribution ; it is whether the people of Georgia be opposed to it? and in
determining it as before, we only have recourse to the indications of the past
So far as the application for her portion of the dividend expected to be made
is concerned, that is certainly a strong demonstration in favor of the distri
bution. But this is not all. In 1837, when the large distribution was made
of the surplus revenue of the United States, which accrued mostly from the
sales of the public lands, Georgia showed no formidable opposition to the
measure, but readily received her part, and thereby added over one million
of dollars to the means of the Central Bank, to aid the people in her
munificent loans. From these examples, how can it be said that her people
are opposed to the distribution? But again : in 1833, when the question
as to the proper distribution of the public lands was before Congress,
Georgia gave some expressions of the views of her people upon this sub
ject, at least so far as a legislative resolve could, with propriety, be con
sidered as such expression. The language of the Legislature at this time
was in the following words : i Without specifically inquiring into the means
by which the United States Government became possessed of the public
lands, or the causes which, after the war of the Revolution, induced several
of the States to transfer to that Government all, or a great portion, of their
unoccupied lands, under certain limitations and restrictions, specified in
the several deeds of cession or relinquish ments, your Committee deem it
sufficient to state that those deeds and relinquishments, and all other pur-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
chases of lands by the United States Government, were made for the
common benefit of the several States. That it is a common fund to be
distributed without partiality, and to inure to the benefit of all the States.'
" Here is a most positive declaration of sentiment nine years ago, before
any distribution had been made, that these lands were a common fund,
not for the benefit of the General Government, to be wasted and squandered
in useless extravagance, but for the several States, — that is, each individ
ually ; and that this fund ought to be distributed among them without
partiality. How then, in the face of this declaration, and after the dis
tribution which has been made, and Georgia's reception of, or application
for, her portion, can we join in the assertion that her people are opposed
to the distribution? But, as stated before, we apprehend the object is
rather to form and forestall public opinion, than to express what it really
is. For why should Georgia be opposed to this distribution? Has she no
interest in those lands and no right to a part of their proceeds? We con
ceive that she has ; and that she should neither neglect her interest nor
relinquish her right. The Territory of Georgia once extended to the
waters of the Mississippi, including within its limits the present new and
nourishing States of Alabama and Mississippi. This immense region,
embracing some of the most fertile soil on the continent, was once the
property of our fathers. Had it been kept and retained by them it would
have been worth millions of treasure ; but for purposes more patriotic
than prudent, they ceded this entire domain, forming the two States above
named, to the General Government, under specific limitations and con
ditions. These were, that the lands, after the payment of a certain sum
of money, and making good certain titles, should be held by the General
Government as a common fund, for the benefit of the United States,
Georgia included, and for no other purpose whatever. The language of
this condition is as follows: ' That all the lands ceded by this agreement
to the United States shall, after satisfying the above-mentioned payment
of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the State of
Georgia, and the grants recognized by the preceding conditions, be con
sidered as a common fund for the use and benefit of the United States,
Georgia included, and shall be faithfully disposed of for that purpose, and
for no other use or purpose whatever."1
" Similar deeds of cession were made by the other States which were
the proprietors of those territories which now also embraced parts of the
public lands. The terms of the Virginia cession are very much like those
of Georgia. They expressly stipulated that these lands ' should be faith
fully and bona fide disposed of for the purposes specified in the cession,
and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.' Now, these first objects of
the deeds of cession having been fully accomplished, what do the advo
cates of distribution ask, but that the remainder of these lands shall be
faithfully and bona fide disposed of, according to the terms by which the
Government acquired them? Is it not right that Georgia and other States
164 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
should insist upon the fulfilment of the contract, so far as their interests
are concerned? And if it is right, why should it not be demanded? Is
it sufficient to be met with the answer that it is better for the General
Government to keep these funds to meet its own ordinary expenses rather
than turn them over to the States to whom they rightly belong, for fear,
in case of their withdrawal, that heavier contributions will be laid by way
of taxation ? We think not. It would be an insufficient answer in any
trustee, when called upon to account for funds committed to his charge,
that he had used them in the payment of his own debts. Nor does it
follow that if these funds be distributed according to contract more
taxes will be levied. The people will rather require the expenses and
extravagances of the Government to be curtailed, which would be one of
the most salutary ways of effecting that reformation. But this reply is
only intended for deception and delusion. It is well known that millions
of these lands have already been squandered in gifts, largesses, and dona
tions, and are not brought into the common treasury of the country. For
years past they have been kept as a kind of reserved fund of speculation
for the political gamblers for the Presidency. Millions of acres have been
given as bounties to schools and colleges, and for other purposes, in the
new States ; and every means has been resorted to, by the friends of dif
ferent favorites, to secure the popularity of the men of their choice by
some new method of wasting the public domain. And the contest now is
really not between the claims of the treasury and the friends of distribu
tion, but between those who advocate a partial or entire surrender of the
lands to the new States and those who insist upon a division of their
proceeds, according to the terms of cession. And are the people of
Georgia willing to see these lands, and the immense interest she has in
them, either so squandered, or entirely abandoned, according to the views
of different political aspirants? Has she no use for money that she should
be so lavish and prodigal of her treasure ? If the General Government is
in debt, it has been incurred by its own profligacy ; and should Georgia
and the other States surrender their rights in order to sustain its credit
when their own is permitted to go dishonored? Let the United States
account to us for what is our due, and we will not fail to render to them
every dollar that is legally and properly exacted ; or, in other words, let us
have but our own, and we will be the better able to pay what is theirs. . . .
11 In the third place, another principle to which the people of this State
in the report are said to be opposed, is ' the abolition of the Veto Power.'
Had nothing else been said upon this subject or no attempt been made,
as we conceive, to misrepresent the views of our honorable Senator in
relation to it, we should have 'given this proposition our hearty assent.
No man in this State, perhaps, is in favor of the abolition of the veto
power. Judge Berrien certainly is not, so far as we can judge from his
sentiments declared. No one can express his views upon the subject more
clearly than he did himself in the Senate of the United States. We beg
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 165
leave to refer to his words, that none may misunderstand either him or
that modification of the veto power of which he is in favor. ' I ask,'
said he, ' the Senate now to consider what it is the resolution proposes as
a security against the recurrence of this state of things? Does it seek to
abolish the Executive Veto? No, sir; this is not the proposition. It is
simply to modify the existing limitation. Let us now look to the limita
tion which the resolution recommends. It proposes that when a bill
which has passed both Houses of Congress shall be returned by the Presi
dent, with his veto, all further action shall be suspended upon it until the
next succeeding session ; in the mean time the reasons of the President
will be spread upon the Legislative Journal, — will be read, considered,
submitted to the public, and discussed orally and through the medium of
the press ; and members will return to their constituents, will mingle with
and consult them. At the opening of the next session of Congress the
resolution proposes that the consideration of the bill shall be resumed ;
and then if the majority of the whole number of Senators and Repre
sentatives elected, after the interval thus afforded for deliberation, for
consultation with their constituents, and for the public discussion of the
subject, shall reaffirm the bill, it shall become a law.'
" Such are the sentiments of the Senator, from which it will appear how
great injustice is done him in imputing to him a wish to abolish the veto.
But the majority say, if the proposed modification should be adopted, 'all
our rights, and the Constitution itself, will be the sport of an irresponsible
majority in Congress.' This is bold language, and upon a grave subject,
and therefore deserves particular attention. In noticing it we will suggest
but three inquiries. In the first place, will not the rights of the people
be as amply protected in the hands of a number of Representatives as by
the will of one man ? Would they be less secure with their Representa
tives in Congress than with the President? In the second place, if the
Constitution should be so amended, would Congress have any more power
over it then than they have now? Congress has now no power over the
Constitution. They are bound by its precepts. And as the proposed
amendment confers no new power, Congress, of course, would have no
more over it after the amendment than before. In the third place, how
can the majorities in Congress be said to be irresponsible? Are they not
elected by the people? Do not the members of the House hold their
office for the short term of two years? Are they then not amenable to
the people ? If they do wrong, or misrepresent the wishes of those who
elect them, will they not be displaced and others put in their stead ? Are
they then not amenable to the people? If they do wrong, or misrepre
sent the wishes of those who elect them, will they not be displaced and
others put in their stead? Are they more irresponsible than the Presi
dent?
" But, in the fourth place : Another subject is mentioned in the report,
on which the undersigned were desirous that no disagreement should ex-
1(56 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
1st either in the Committee or in the House. We allude to the principles
involved in the adjustment of the tariff. Nor would we notice the subject
at this time if we did not conceive that there has been an evident attempt
in this particular also to do great injustice to the position of our honorable
Senator in relation to it. The majority, in their first resolution, declare
that 'the opinions of the Honorable John M. Berrien upon the adjustment
of the tariff are in direct opposition to the principles of a large majority
of the people of this State.' And in their preamble they state that a ma
jority of the people believe that a tariff for protection is unequal in its
operations, oppressive, and unjust. From this the inference is clear that
principles are imputed to the honorable Senator favorable to the enact
ment of a ' tariff for protection.' This imputation we deem utterly un
founded and altogether unjust. Judge Berrien has always been opposed
to a ' tariff for protection' ; or, at least, we supposed that this position
would be granted him wherever the author of the ' Georgia Manifesto'
was known. Nor do the undersigned know with what recklessness of
purpose a contrary position is now charged upon him. Perhaps the same
spirit, if unchecked, would lead its authors to make the same unwarrant
able allegations against the whole political party in this State with which
he acts. If so, our object is to repel even the insinuation. The opinions
and principles of that party upon the Tariff question have always been
known. They have undergone no change. And in making a declaration
of them we presume we would be stating in the main those held by our
Senator. We are, and have been, in favor of a tariff for revenue and rev
enue only ; and that for no more revenue than is sufficient to support the
Government in an economical administration thereof. We hold that in
levying such a tariff, in many instances it may be both proper and right
to discriminate. This may be done either for the purpose of retaliating
against the policy of foreign nations who may subject our produce to
heavy taxation, or for the purpose of exempting some articles of foreign
production consumed extensively in this country (and in some instances by
classes less able to bear the burdens of the Government) from so high
duties on others more able to sustain them. And so far as such a tariff
incidentally encourages, fosters, or protects the domestic industry of the
country in any branch thereof, whether mechanical, manufacturing, ship
ping, or agricultural, it may properly do so. A tariff ' for protection,' to
which we are and have been opposed, is, where the tariff is levied not
with a view to revenue, but for the prohibition, totally, or in part, of the
importation of certain articles from abroad, that the producers of such
articles in this country may have our market to themselves, free from
foreign competition ; or that the price of the foreign articles may be so
enhanced by the excessive duties as to enable the home producer to enter
the market without fear of competition. Against this we protest, because
the means used are not legitimate ; and it is highly oppressive to the in
terests of all other classes in society who are the consumers of such
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
articles. As far as the Government, in the proper exercise of its powers,
can give encouragement to the general industry of the country, or aid in
the development of its resources, it should do it. But not one step beyond
that should it go.
" With these views we beg leave to submit the following resolutions :
" Resolved, That the Hon. John M. Berrien, our Senator in Congress,
for the able and distinguished manner in which he has discharged his
public duties, receives our warmest approbation, and is entitled to the
thanks and confidence of the people of Georgia.
" Resolved, That we do not consider the members of the Legislature the
proper constituents of Senators in Congress 5 or that the Senators in Con
gress are any more responsible or amenable to them than to any other
equal number of like citizens of the State.
" Resolved, That in our opinion a majority of the people of this State
are decidedly in favor of the utility and expediency of a National Bank,
compared with any other system of finance proposed to the country : as
well as a distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands
among the States, severally, i equitably,' and ' without partiality.'
" Resolved, That in our opinion the most proper and expedient way of
raising means to meet the ordinary expenses of the General Government
is by duties upon imports; and though in the levying of such duties for
this main object a judicious and proper discrimination be exercised, yet
in no instance should duties be laid for the purpose of protection, but for
revenue only.
11 ROBT. A. T. RIDLEY, ll JOHN TOWNSEND,
" A. B. REID, " JAMES T. BOTHWELL,
" WM. B. TANKERSLEY, " Ez. BUFFINGTON,
" JOHX CAMPBELL."
We have quoted at considerable length from this document,
because, as before remarked, it was accepted as a declaration of
the principles of the Georgia Whigs, and formed their platform
in the ensuing Congressional election. It will be seen they differ
considerably from those of the Northern Whigs.
The doctrine that the Senators in Congress represent the Legis
latures of their respective States is so unreasonable, that one
would think it had only to be plainly stated to be refuted. The
principles on which the two Houses of Congress were constructed
has been explained in a previous chapter. A Constitution could
not have been formed in which no respect was had to the differ
ence of population of the States, nor could one have been formed
in which the States entered otherwise than as equal Sovereign
Powers. Hence the inequality in the lower House, and equality
168 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
in the Senate. The constituents of the Senators are the People
of the State as an organic whole — a Sovereign Power ; the con
stituents of the Representatives are the People of the State as a
multitude of individuals.
The National Bank was a Whig measure everywhere. It was
believed that such an institution could be established which
would be free from the defects that rendered the former one so
pernicious, and to which, as we have seen, Mr. Stephens had been
so emphatically opposed. The distribution of the proceeds of
the public lands, however it might have worked, would have
been far better than having a glutted treasury to invite plunder
and stimulate corruption, or than the scheme which, under the
specious name of "Public Improvements," added a dangerous
power and influence to the General Government, and made it
possible to bribe whole States, even to the detriment of those
whose bounty had furnished the means.
Against the impolitic and iniquitous system of protection (now
defended in no enlightened country except the United States)
it will be seen they take firm ground. In this they were sup
ported by sound political economy, simple justice, and the pro
visions of a solemn agreement. They could not foresee that at
a later day the leading spirits in Congress would be men to whom
these things would be laughing-stocks, and the Constitution
itself the object of scorn and derision.
CHAPTER XVI.
Journey to Florida— A House of Mourning — The Kays — Nomination to
Congress — Discussion with Judge Colquitt — The Tables turned — Election
of Mr. Stephens — Death of Aaron Grier Stephens.
IN the following year, 1843, we find the correspondence with
Linton renewed, as the latter had returned to college. In April
Alexander informs him that he is about starting for Florida. He
travelled in his buggy, taking his servant, Bob, with him on
horseback. Little is said of this journey, which went as far as
Tallahassee ; perhaps the postal facilities were not great. On
his way home he writes a long letter from Hamilton, chiefly in
reference to domestic affliction in the family of his brother John,
who lived there, one of whose children had just died of scarlet
fever, and another was very ill. He stayed a week to help in
nursing the sick and comforting the mourners.
" I do not remember when I approached a family in the midst of so
much gloom, or when my own heart has been so much saddened. I came
expecting enjoyment and hoping to partake of such pleasures as generally
attend the meetings and greetings of kindred and friends after long inter
vals of absence. Instead of this, I came to a house of mourning, and my
office was to comfort the grieved and soothe the afflicted. This is, perhaps,
after all, the best way in which to spend our time. Our life is but a
chequered scene at best, furnishing much more over which to mourn than
to rejoice. Now and then, it is true, it is favored with a ray of sunshine
and beauty to warm and gladden the soul, and cause its young hopes to
bud and blossom. Q|iit no sooner are they fully blown than they are
nipped by untimely frosts or blasted by chilling rains, or dashed to pieces
by reckless storms.^ Man's history is a strange mixture of pleasure and
pain, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, life and death ! A mystery, deep,
dark, and unfathomable ! To live to-day, — to be warm, to move and think :
to-morrow to be silent, cold, and dead, — devoid of mind and sense, fast
mouldering into dust, — fit food for worms. To-day with a spirit that can
scan the universe and make its own impress upon the world that ages
cannot efface, — to-morrow to be nothing but loathsome matter to be hidden
away to rot. This is man."
169
170 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
On May 28th he reports his safe return, and gives a minute
account of his reception, the condition in which lie found things,
and the various events, fortunate or otherwise, that had happened
during his absence. On June 4th he sends complimentary and
gallant messages to Miss Elizabeth Church (daughter of Dr.
Alonzo Church, his old friend, now President of the university)
on the announcement of her engagement with Lieutenant
Craig. This charming and accomplished lady .was married
soon after. Her husband, about the year 1853, was murdered
by a gang of mutineers in the army, on the survey of the
Mexican boundary, and in 1859 the widow married James Robb,
Esq., of New York. During the war she became known to
thousands of our Southern soldiers while prisoners at the North,
whose wants she supplied as far as was in her power. She died
in 1868. The letter closes with a sketch of an evening visit
paid to his cousin Sabrina Ray, which forms a pleasing picture
of life on an old-fashioned Georgia farm.
" They [the Rays] seem peculiarly fitted for taking the world easy and
making the most of it as it goes. Tom [Mr. Ray] is really amusing. I
hardly know what to make of him. He has no desire to make any more
than just enough to live comfortably on, and then to live to enjoy it. They
were all hands at work. Cousin was weaving, while William's wife and
Granny [both servants] were making the wheels fly. They were all glad
to see me. We had a fine supper. Cousin milked her own cows. I went
with her to the pen. She has a fine spring-house, and I saw all her jars
and pans of milk, butter, etc., fresh and as cool as the fountain. At sup
per no one had coffee but myself: milk was the only beverage, some taking
buttermilk and some sweet milk, and every one having his mug. All
seemed contented and cheerful, and full of such happiness as, when weary
and tired with a long day's work, night brings to the industrious when in
health. No sooner was the evening meal over than preparations were
made for bed, and in a few minutes all of this world, its cares and losses,
its trials and ambitions, were forgotten in sleep."
On June 14th he writes in anticipation of a journey to Mil-
ledgeville, where he will be a delegate to the Whig Convention.
He refers with feeling to Linton's final examination, which will
soon take place. It brings back to memory the time when he
sent his brother off to college.
"Well do I remember with what solicitude and intensity of feeling,
known only to myself, I fitted you out for your departure to college. And
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 21. STEPHENS. 171
then, when all things were ready, the hour arrived, the last words were
spoken, and in a few moments more the whirling car rushed recklessly on
in the darkness, and I returned to nay room, how I committed you and
your fortunes into the hands of that mysterious Providence who guides
our destinies. At that time, owing to the great feebleness of my health, I
hardly permitted myself to indulge the hope of living to see the time of
your graduation. But now your course is nearly ended, and that period
has almost arrived. If you shall live a few short weeks longer, you must
take your stand among men. Have you ever seriously considered and fully
realized how near you are to so important a crisis in life? If not, it is
time that the subject, with all its gravity and responsibility, was kept con
stantly in mind. "Would that I had time and space to present it in its
various shapes ! The past has been pleasant ; you have been agreeably
entertained in looking at the world at a distance, and as a stranger or dis
interested spectator, philosophizing perhaps upon its various characters,
its pursuits, its inconsistencies, its passions, its shifts, its struggles, and
its treacheries. But your position is now to be changed, and all these are
to be encountered. Some liken college life to the world in miniature, and
the illustration is not without some aptness. But such a life compared to
that of the outer world is more like sailing upon the unruffled surface of
the broad river, or the still, widening bay, just before it issues from its
restricted channel and the protecting embrace of its banks and capes, into
the wide expanse of waters just ahead, compared to the breasting and
weathering the mighty waves and raging billows that are ever heaving
and rolling and surging on ocean's bosom. Life's passage is over a tem
pestuous sea, and well built, well manned, well piloted must be the barque
that safely makes the voyage. Many spread their sails joyously to the
breeze, but few reach the wished-for haven. Be not, then, inattentive.
It is an important period of your life. You never did and never will
stand in more need of cool thought, sober reflection, and good judgment
than now. Especially let not passion control your feelings. Life is just
before you •, and the part you are to act in it has now soon to be shown,
and the character you wish to sustain is now to be formed."
The last available corner of the paper has now been filled, and
the letter must come to an end.
July 2d. — The final examination is over, and Linton, alone in
his class, has gained the First Honor. Immediately there is a
slight change in the tone of the correspondence. The brother
who has been stimulating him to exertion, arousing his ambition
for honorable distinction, now that he has won this distinction,
begins to speak of it as a thing that is satisfactory and creditable,
to be sure, but no such immense triumph after all. It was a
wise Mentor the young man had.
172 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
" I was indeed gratified to learn that you had received the First Honor
in your class; not that I attach the least importance to the mere show or
6clat of such a distinction, but I was gratified to have the evidence that
you had not misspent your time, and that during the four years of your
absence you had not been unmindful of the first of all duties, — your duty
to yourself in the cultivation of your morals and your mind, and in fitting
yourself for usefulness in those scenes of life into which you are now about
to enter. ... In rendering yourself worthy of this distinction, you have
but done what you ought to have done, and deserve the same commen
dation due to all persons who pursue a similar course of conduct, and
nothing more. From want of a correct way of viewing such things many
young men, who otherwise would have succeeded well in life, have been
utterly ruined by being the favored objects upon whom such distinctions
have been once bestowed. The nature of true honor is misunderstood by
them."
However they may misunderstand it, he does not mean that
his young brother shall make their mistake and interpret a
certificate of having done his duty into an intellectual patent of
nobility. He must not think himself a conqueror because he
has learned to use his weapons fairly well : the battle is all to
begin yet.
In this year a vacancy occurred in the Georgia representation
in Congress by the resignation of the Hon. Mark A. Cooper, who
had been nominated by the Democrats as their candidate for
Governor. To fill this vacancy the Hon. James H. Starke,
of Butts County, was nominated by the Democrats, and Mr.
Stephens by the Whigs. The platform of the Whig party was
substantially the same as that laid down in the Minority Report
previously quoted. Mr. Crawford was the Whig candidate for
Governor.
The nomination, though unsought, was accepted, and he pre
pared himself for an active campaign, having a majority of about
three thousand to overcome. The personal influence that he was
able to exercise was never shown to greater advantage than
during this campaign. His peculiarly youthful appearance, his
slender figure and boyish voice, contrasted so strangely with the
energy of his appeals, the cogency of his arguments, the copi
ousness of his knowledge, and the power and persuasiveness of
his eloquence, as to give to these a double impressiveness, and to
astonish as well as convince his hearers. He had formed the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 173
habit of studying with the most minute and unwearied diligence
the subjects which were to be discussed, and this habit, with his
singularly retentive memory, caused him never to be at fault,
and alone was sufficient to make him a most redoubtable antago
nist.
In this campaign he met with various humorous adventures,
and was more than once mistaken for a mere boy, and treated as
such ; a misconception which he always enjoyed, as there was
generally an amusing scene of discomfiture when the error was
discovered.
It was soon apparent that this boyish speaker possessed to an
extraordinary degree the power of swaying the multitude, and
the Democrats, despite their strong majority, began to feel that
they must exert themselves to the utmost or they would lose the
election. Accounts came down from the mountains into Middle
Georgia that this youthful challenger had vanquished every
opponent who had met him in debate ; so it was thought prudent
to send an old and proved champion to despatch him at once
and get him out of the way. Their choice fell upon Walter T.
Colquitt, then thought the ablest stump-speaker whom Georgia
had produced, and who is still remembered with admiration by
those who heard him in the prime of his powers.
Mr. Stephens had an appointment to speak in the village of
Newnan. Just before the hour arrived, it was found that Judge
Colquitt was present, and the Democrats requested that he be
allowed to take part in the discussion. The Whigs, somewhat
dismayed at the entrance of this doughty paladin into the affray,
were about to refuse, when Mr. Stephens interfered, declared
that it would give him pleasure to meet the judge, and cordially
invited the latter to share in the debate. It is probable that the
judge so far underrated the abilities of his antagonist as to be
less cautious than his custom. Some one, we are told, had fur
nished him with a copy of the Journals of the Legislature
marked at those votes of Mr. Stephens which it was thought
might be used against him. One of these votes was against the
payment, by Georgia, of pensions to her soldiers who had been
disabled in the Creek war, and to the widows and orphans of
those who had fallen ; another was against paying the men en-
174 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
gaged in Nelson's Florida expedition, by resolution of the House.
The judge glanced at them hastily, without sufficient examina
tion of the whole record, and proceeded to introduce them with
immense emphasis in his speech, appealing to the audience to
know if they would give their votes to the man who would
have refused a pension to those who suffered, and to the helpless
widows and children of those who died in defence of the country.
The effect on the audience was powerful. Mr. Stephens in reply
called attention to the fact that these persons were entitled to
pensions from Congress, pensions to be paid out of the common
treasury, to which Georgia as well as the other States contributed.
That while he heartily approved these pensions, he did not see
the justice of Georgia paying special pensions to her soldiers, who
were already provided for by Congress for services done to the
United States, while she was also paying her full quota, not only
to these, but to the pensions of all the soldiers from other States.
As to the payment of Nelson's men, he had voted against it
because it was proposed in an unconstitutional form by a mere
resolution instead of a regular bill ; and he showed that when
the same measure was properly introduced he had voted for it.
But while the judge was speaking, Mr. Stephens had sent for
the Senate Journal, and after making the above explanation,
added, that whether his vote was right or wrong, it was not for
his opponent to censure it, since the Journal in his hand showed
that he, in his place in the Senate, had voted against the resolu
tion, just as Mr. Stephens had done in the lower House. This
entirely turned the tables. The triumph was as complete as
it was unexpected, the judge and his friends were utterly dis
comfited, and the Democratic majority in the county was over
come. This campaign placed Mr. Stephens at once among the
acknowledged leaders of the Whig party throughout the State.
The whole Whig Congressional ticket was elected by the largest
majority given in Georgia for many years ; and thus, at the age
of thirty-one, Mr. Stephens was chosen to represent his native
State in the Federal Congress.
If Mr. Stephens felt any triumph at the attainment of the
position he now occupied, it was rendered joyless to him by
severe domestic affliction, — the loss of his elder brother, Aaron
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 175
Gricr. He had always loved this excellent man with more than
a brother's affection. And this companion during the years of
childhood and orphanage, the yoke-fellow under the burdens of
poverty and care, the constant attendant in all those seasons of
sickness, each of which seemed the harbinger of death, — had
grown to love him better than all the world. By industry and
frugality he had accumulated a moderate fortune, had married
and settled on a plantation in the same county. His death
.occurred a few days after the election.
No human being, except Linton, — still almost too young to
enter into full sympathy with him, — knew the depth of grief
that this bereavement brought to Alexander Stephens. If there
be any time when the loss of an old and beloved friend causes
a keener pang than at any other, it is when that loss comes just
at the opening of brighter fortunes after a period of adversity
which the lost one had shared, and which his exertions had
helped to retrieve. When two have borne together sufferings
and toils, and shared in the hope of better days, and these better
days, when they come, come but to one, — that one feels an
anguish that he could not have felt if his companion had left
him in the depth of their trial, or after long enjoyment of the
reward. What, then, must have been the pain to a man in whom
fraternal affection was the deepest and most absorbing passion
of his nature? Yet at this time the public thought the young
Congressman one of the happiest of men.
Without possessing the unusual vigor of intellect of his
brothers, Grier Stephens was a man of no mean abilities. In
disposition he was the most gentle, the most kindly-natured of
men, and all who knew him loved him. He left a widow and
one child. The latter did not long survive him, but the widow
lives and has never remarried.
CHAPTER XVII.
Debate in Congress — Humors of Mr. Cobb — Correspondence — Presidential
Canvass — Anecdotes.
ON the night of his arrival in Washington Mr. Stephens was
attacked by severe illness, which lasted about, two weeks. His
first speech on the floor of the House was upon a question which
touched him and his col leagues very nearly, — their right to their
seats. It has been mentioned that the Georgia Legislature re
fused to comply with the requirements of Congress that the
State should be divided into Congressional districts, on the
ground that such a requirement infringed that clause in the
Constitution reserving to the State the right to prescribe "the
times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and
Representatives." Mr. Stephens favored the district system ;
but, as it was not adopted, he was elected upon u general ticket."
The question then arose in the House whether members thus
elected were entitled to seats ; and it was referred to a com
mittee, the majority of which reported (1) that the second
section of the Act of June, 1842, for the apportionment of
Representatives among the States according to the sixth census,
"is not a law made in pursuance of the Constitution of the
United States, and valid, operative, and binding upon the
House." And (2) that all the members of the House (excepting
the contested cases from Virginia, on which no opinion was
expressed) " have been duly elected in conformity with the
Constitution and laws, and are entitled to their seats in this
House."
In the debate which followed, Mr. Stephens spoke against the
adoption of the report. He argued that Congress possessed the
power, under the Constitution, of regulating these elections ;
that the law in question was a proper exercise of that power ;
and that it applied to the cases of himself and his colleagues.
176
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. ]-JJ
He very distinctly expressed his unalterable opposition to any
invasion by the Federal Government of the rights of the States,
but lie as distinctly upheld the supremacy of that Government
in its legitimate sphere. The fact that he was arguing against
his own right to a seat had no influence upon him : it was his
duty to maintain what he believed to be right and justice. The
tenor of his argument and nature of his position will appear
from the following extract:
" There is, Mr. Speaker, another particular also in which I do not agree
•with the gentleman from Mississippi. He says that if he believed the
second section of the Apportionment Act to be constitutional, he would not
consent, coming as he does from a State electing by general ticket, to hold
his seat in this House. Now, sir, I come from a State electing in the same
way ; and I believe the section of the act alluded to, and now under con
sideration, to be a constitutional law ; and that it ought to be considered
as operative and valid, touching the elections of members, in the organiza
tion of this House. Entertaining these opinions, I have been asked how
I could consistently retain my seat as a member of this body, sworn as I
am to support the Constitution. My answer is. that I submit the question
to this House, the constitutional tribunal, for its decision. This, sir, is a
constitutional question which individually concerns me but little ; but one
in which the people of the State I have the honor in part to represent, as
well as the people of all the States, have a deep interest; and one in the
settlement of which the same people have a right to be heard. The people
of Georgia, sir, have a right to representation here, either by the general
ticket or district system. A majority of that people, I believe, agree with
me that the district system, under existing laws, is the legal and proper
one. And here I would respectfully dissent from the opinion of one of
my colleagues [Mr. Black], expressed on a former occasion, — that the
people of that State were united upon this subject, and that the prevailing
opinion of both parties was in favor of the general ticket. I think if there
is any one particular in which both parties of that State are more nearly
agreed than upon any other, it is the district system.
" The question involved in the subject now under consideration is one
upon which great difference of opinion seems to prevail ; and it is one
neither for me nor a majority of the people of Georgia, but for this House
to determine. This House, by the Constitution, is made the sole 'judge of
the elections, returns, and qualifications of its members,' and if you say
that the members elected by general ticket are legally and properly re
turned, your decision, by the Constitution, is final and conclusive upon the
subject ; and, in that event, a majority of the people of Georgia say I am
to be one of their representatives ; and if you say the law of Congress is
valid, and ought to be regarded as such, why, the present delegation will
12
178 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
retire, and another will be sent according to the provisions of the existing
law of the State. In either event, the people, if represented at all, ought
certainly to be represented by those of their own choice.
" I have been told by some that my position was like that of a suitor at
court, who claims a hearing, and at the same time denies his right. By
no means, sir. My position is more like that of the representative of a
suitor at court, when there is no doubt as to the right of recovery, but some
difference of opinion as to the right way to be pursued in obtaining it, and
which is not to be settled by the suitor or his representative, but by the
court.
" Is a man to be deprived of his rights because he may differ from the
court as to the proper form of action to be brought? Or, are a people to
be disfranchised because they may differ from this House as to the proper
and legal mode of election ? When a man is sworn to support a consti
tution, sir, which provides for its own amendment, I hold he is as much
bound to support an amendment, when made in pursuance thereof, as he
was to support the original constitution 5 and when he is sworn to support
a constitution which provides a tribunal for the settlement of any class of
cases arising under it, where differences of opinion may prevail, he is as
much bound to acquiesce in the decision of such tribunal when made, and
to the extent made, until reversed, in any case so arising, as he was bound
to be governed by his own opinions in relation to it before. This, sir, is
one of the first principles of all societies, and part of the obligation of
every individual implied when he becomes a citizen of government, or
takes the oath of allegiance. Else, why should there be a tribunal to
decide such questions, if obedience and acquiescence to the decision, when
made, should not be regarded, in every sense of propriety, right and
proper, both politically and morally ?
"Sir, without this rule there could be no order and no government;
but every man would set up his own judgment — or a much less safe guide,
his own conscience — as the rule of his own acts ; and the most lawless
anarchy would be the result."
The alleged inconsistency between his views upon the law
and his accepting a seat in Congress through an election which
set that law at defiance, led to some sharp criticism by his col
league in the House, the Hon. AV. H. Stiles. The attacks of
this gentleman were answered with corresponding spirit, and for
a while serious consequences were apprehended.
For the small details of personal history at this time we must
again recur to the letters. On March 3d he gives an account of
a walk taken that afternoon with Lumpkin and Cobb. Mr.
Cobb had a great love of humor, and an almost boyish fondness
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 170
for a practical joke, which he retained throughout his life, in
adverse as well as prosperous fortunes.
" While we were passing the row of hacks at the depot waiting for the
evening cars, he said to Lumpkin aloud, ' Here, Lumpkin, you can get a
hack here.' In a moment about twenty hackrnen were around Lumpkin,
crying, * Want a hack, sir?' 'Hack, sir?' 'Here's a hack, sir!' Cobb
walked on, as if he had done no mischief, leaving Lumpkin to explain
himself out of the difficulty, for half of them seemed to consider it a clear
engagement."
On March 10th we learn that the affair with Mr. Stiles has
ended, fortunately, without a hostile meeting, and even without
a challenge. Good feeling has not quite returned, however, as
he reports himself on friendly terms with all the members from
Georgia except Mr. Stiles. He wants Linton's opinion upon
his rejoinder to that gentleman. About this time Linton had
removed to Washington, Georgia, and'was reading law with Mr.
Toombs.
On April 22d he writes : " At this time little or nothing is
spoken of here but the Tariff and Texas." [Question of the
admission of Texas.] "I have just seen a letter of Mr. Clay
to the editors of the National Intelligencer, defining his position
on the Texas question. He is against the Treaty, involving as
it does, in his opinion, a war with Mexico. It is very full, clear,
and satisfactory/'
April 23d. — " We had a rare show in the House to-day."
This was a fight between White, of Kentucky, and Kathbone.
Some one had reported that Mr. Clay had said, u We must have
some sort of slaves in order to keep our wives arid daughters out
of the kitchen." White characterized the report as false, and
Rathbone, who had endorsed it, assaulted him.
May Jfli. — He has just returned from the Whig Convention
at Baltimore, to which he was a delegate, and writes approvingly
and hopefully of the ticket, Clay and Frelinglmysen. " But
one feeling, one spirit, and one hope animated and inspired every
heart in the countless thousands. . . . Not much now said about
Texas. The Treaty will get but few votes in the Senate." Then
follows another joke of Cobb's. " You know that the hack-
drivers profess to know every house in town. A day or two ago
180 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Cobb walked up to one of them and asked if he could drive him
to Mr. McFadden's. t Yes, sir/ was the ready answer. Cobb
hopped in, and off rolled the hack. After a while the driver
asked, ' Where was it you wanted to go ?' ' To Mr. McFadden's.'
1 What street does he live on?' 'I don't know. You told me
you could drive me there, and you must/ So he had a long
drive, all over town, the driver inquiring everywhere for Mr.
McFadden."
On the 7th of May Mr. Stephens spoke on the subject of the
Tariff. " I had better attention," he writes, on the next day,
" if possible, than I had when speaking on the district system.
. . . The Treaty remains in the hands of the Committee on
Foreign Relations."
The Tariff question being settled, parties prepare for a great
struggle on the Texas question. Great confusion is expected in
the approaching Democratic Convention, the South being irre
concilable to Van Buren, and the North to Benton.
" May 27th. — This day. eight years ago, I was in this city for the first
time. What changes have taken place in the world without and the world
within since that time ! Who can tell what changes are in store for the
next eight years to come ? (l?the curtain could be raised, what disclosures,
what griefs, what troubles anfi cares and deeds of death would be seen !
What phantoms our hopes and ambitions would seem to
May 28th. — Is scribbling whatever comes into his mind while
waiting for the result of the ballotings at Baltimore. Among
other things he alludes to something Linton has said of a friend
of his being in love, and the effects of that passion upon him.
" He that loves hard cares but little what he eats. His passion
is his sustenance, as most passions are when they take posses
sion of the soul. Osceola, when a prisoner from violated faith,
pining and refusing nourishment, was asked why he did not
take food, replied, —
" ' I feed on hate, nor think my diet spare !'
" I do not know but that he who feeds on hate has quite as
nourishing a diet as he who feeds on love."
Most of the other letters written during this summer are from
the various places in the State at which he has been addressing
the people in the Presidential canvass. He threw his whole
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
energies into it, and worked as zealously for the election of Mr.
Clay as any other man in the party. At the village of Forsyth,
he again met his old opponent, Judge Colquitt, and (in the
opinion of his friends at least) obtained even a more signal
triumph over that gentleman than at his first encounter.
When Mr. Stephens went to Washington, in the winter, to at
tend Congress, Linton went to the Law School of the University
of Virginia. The correspondence was now actively kept up.
On December 5th he expresses a suspicion that arrangements
will be made between Southern and Northern Democrats, by
which the former will consent to the Tariff, and the latter will
agree to let in Texas. "So the monster will be grinned at a
little longer and endured, while we shall have a great addition
to the area of freedom." He advises his brother to keep clear
of politics for the present, and is more than half inclined to
recommend that the abstention shall be perpetual.
December 10th. — " Mr. Adams's final triumph was to-day, when he pre
sented his petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia,
and had them referred to the Committee on the District. You ought to
have seen him on the announcement of the vote. He laughed outright :
not loud, but with a full expression. By the by, Judge McLean tells a
good anecdote of him. Some years ago, in some flirt, Rhett arose and
moved that all the Southern members should leave the House, and started
out himself. Mr. Adams stopped short in his speech, looked at llhett
across the room, as he was followed by some others, and said, with a
peculiar expression, ' What, you won't play with us any longer, eh?' "
December 20th.— li Judge Story says that the Republican party to which
he was attached in 1806 and 1809 is extinct now. To tell the truth, I had
done him injustice ; for I always thought he was a Federalist, but it is not
so. He was opposed to Adams, was a Republican, was a Jeifersonian, and
was appointed judge under Madison or Monroe. He used to be in Con
gress the only Republican from Massachusetts ; and he further says that
most of the old Federalists now are with the Democratic party, — that is,
those of them who are alive. But he says that the Republican party is
extinct; that he has ceased to be surprised at anything: laughs and talks
as gayly as a boy. Says he is like the Irishman who went to see the fire
works, when, after some displays, a cask of powder exploded accidentally,
and blew up everything. He found himself in a garden, and on coming
to himself, said, ' What in the divil will you show next !' "
December 22d. — . . . " Judge Story says that he never told but one
anecdote, and he used to tell that upon all occasions until AVebster stole it
OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
from him, and once had the impudence to tell it in his presence. After
that he foreswore anecdotes. This, of course, was all fudge, for he is
always telling anecdotes. . . . Ewing is a great hand at puns. For in
stance, this morning at the table, in speaking of the abilities of the lawyers
and judges of England, . . . and among them Scarlett, Ewing remarked
that he was certainly the deepest red man of any of them."
During this year, as has been seen, Mr. Stephens did not take
any very prominent part in the business of Congress. He was
studying men and measures, and getting himself ready for his
future work. Almost every night he wrote to Linton, and some
times twice a day. The letters treat of almost every conceivable
subject, politics, the business of the House, the incidents of the
day, the chat of society, the men he meets, books, morals, phi
losophy, and the weather. He never loses an opportunity to
convey, in some guise or other, salutary counsel to his beloved
brother ; and the letters overflow with expressions of tenderest
affection. Notwithstanding the frequent touches of humor, a tinge
of melancholy pervades the whole correspondence ; and the suc
cess he has thus far achieved neither gives a brighter coloring to
life in his eyes nor exalts him in his own estimation. Notwith
standing the close intimacy of these letters, we find in them no
half-congratulations, no pardonable taking of credit, no expres
sion of hopes for the future. Life is passing ; he is doing his
duty in the short space that he thinks allotted to him, for the
night is coming in which no man can work.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Judge Story — Mr. Clay — A Great Crowd — Annexation of Texas— Speech
on Brown's Resolutions — Oregon — Anecdote of General Clinch.
MR. STEPHENS begins the new year, 1845, with a letter of
eight pages to his brother. Among other things, Linton has
asked his opinion of the comparative abilities of Marshall and
Story, and he pronounces in favor of the former, though admit
ting that he has read but little of the writings of the latter.
He gives an anecdote of Marshall, which Story told as having
occurred in a case involving the constitutionality of the United
States Bank. " Chapman Johnson, who was arguing upon the
side to which the Chief Justice's views were supposed to be ad
verse, after a three days' argument, wound up by saying that he
had one last authority which he thought the court would admit
to be conclusive. He then read from the reports of the debates
in the Virginia Convention what Marshall himself had said upon
the subject, when the adoption of the Constitution was discussed.
At this, Story says, ' Marshall drew a long breath with a sort
of sigh. After the court adjourned he rallied the Chief Justice
on his uneasiness, and asked him why he sighed/ to which
Marshall replied, ' Why, to tell you the truth, I was afraid I
had said some foolish thing in the debate ; but it was not half
so bad as I expected/ Story indulges in a great many such
anecdotes."
January 19th. — "Last night Mr. Clay made a show on the Colonization
question, and such a show I never saw before. Men came from Balti
more, Philadelphia, and New York, to say nothing of Alexandria and this
city. The House and galleries were jammed and crammed before five
o'clock. "NVhen I came over at half-past six, I found I could not get in at
the door below, much less get up the steps leading to the House. The
people were wedged in as tight as th^y could be squeezed, from outside
the door all the way up the steps, and the current could neither move up
nor down. There were several thousands still outside. I availed myself
183
134 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
of my knowledge of the meanderings of an intricate, narrow passage
under the rotunda, and round by the Supreme Court room, into the alley
from the Clerk's room, into the House at the side-door by the House post-
office ; and through this Mr. Cobb and I, with Robinson, of Indiana, wound
our way, finding it unobstructed until we got to the door, where the crowd
was as tight as human bodies could be jammed ; but we drove through
the solid mass and got in, and passed on the space by the fire to the left
of the Speaker's chair, where, by looking over the screen, we could see
the chair. When we got to this place, what a sight was before our eyes !
The great new chandelier, lighted up with gas, was brilliant and splendid
indeed ; and then, what a sea of heads and faces ! Every nook and corner
on the floor below, and the galleries above, the aisles, the area, the steps
on the Speaker's rostrum, were running over. The crowd was pushed
over the railing, and men were standing on the outside cornice all around ;
and they were even hanging on the old clock and the figure of Time. Such
a sight you never saw. None in the hall could turn : women fainted and
had to be carried out over the solid mass. At about seven Clay came, but
could hardly be got in. The crowd, however, after a while was opened,
while the dome resounded with uninterrupted hurrahs. . . . After a while
order was restored. . . . Dayton, of New Jersey, offered a resolution and
began speaking ; but one fellow crying ' Clay ! Clay !' the cry became gen
eral, and soon also became general with, ' Put him down !' ' Put him out !'
f Pitch him out of the window !' but Dayton held out and kept speaking
until he was literally drowned with, ' Down ! down !' ' Hush !' ' Clay ! Clay !'
etc., and then the old hero rose. Three more cheers for Henry Clay were
suggested, three more ! three more! THREE MORE ! At length quiet reigned.
Clay began speaking, and all were silent. Of his speech I say nothing.
He was easy, fluent, bold, commanding; but, in my opinion, not eloquent.
At about nine an adjournment was announced* ... I understand that
whole acres of people had to go away without getting in at all. Shepperd,
of North Carolina, whom you know as being more Whiggish than Clayish,
rather snappishly remarked, when we got to our quarters, that Clay could
get more men to run after him to hear him speak, and fewer to vote for
him, than any man in America."
The great question in Congress this session was that of the
admission of Texas, for which several plans had been intro
duced into the House. Of course the subject of slavery entered
prominently into the motives which influenced the judgment of
members ; and though the proposed measure was favored by the
Democrats, there was a considerable number of that party at the
North opposed to it, on account of the extension of slave-hold
ing territory which would follow. On the 13th of January,
Mr. Milton Brown, of Tennessee, introduced a series of joint
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. J85
resolutions for the admission of Texas as a State, with a pro
vision that, at some future time, not more than four new addi
tional States should be formed out of the State of Texas, in
such of which as should lie south of the " Missouri Compro
mise" line, slavery should be optional with the people ; and in
such as should be north of that line, slavery should be pro
hibited. This provision was strictly in conformity with the
terms of the Compromise, — was indeed the very point agreed
to, — yet the party opposed to slavery, in their usual style of
keeping such pledges, violently opposed the resolutions.
In the preparation of these resolutions Mr. Brown had con
sulted with Mr. Stephens, and the resolutions embodied the
joint views of both. To a number of schemes which were pro
posed Mr. Stephens objected, and his votes against them caused
a belief that he was opposed to the admission, until Mr. Brown's
resolutions came up for action, when he explained his views, in
his speech of January 25th, which he delivered without prepa
ration, and, as it were, unexpectedly. He began by explaining
the objections he had to the treaty proposed by Mr. Ingersoll,
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, which were that
it made no definite settlement of the question of slavery in that
State, and that it provided for the assumption by Congress of
the debt of Texas. He considered it of vital importance that
the question of slavery in Texas should be definitely and consti
tutionally settled, leaving no opportunities for future agitation,
nor openings for dispute, which had been so perilous in the Mis
souri question. He then touched upon the language of the
official correspondence, which placed the admission of Texas
upon the ground of its being necessary to strengthen the insti
tution of slavery in the States, as if it were the duty of the
Federal Government to act and legislate to that end.
" My objection is, that the General Government has no power to legislate
for any such purpose. If I understand the nature of this Government,
and the ground always heretofore occupied by the South upon this subject,
it is that slavery is peculiarly a domestic institution. It is a matter, that
concerns the States in which it exists, severally, separately, and exclu
sively ; and with which this Government has no right to interfere or to
legislate, further than to secure the enforcement of rights under existing
guaranties of the Constitution, and to suppress insubordinations and insur-
186 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
rections if they arise. Beyond this there is no power in the General Gov
ernment to act upon the subject, with a view either to strengthen or to
weaken the institution. For, if the power to do one be conceded, how can
that to do the other be denied? I do not profess to belong to that school
of politicians who' claim one construction of the Constitution one day,
when it favors my interests, and oppose the same, or a similar one, the
next day, when it happens to be against me. Truth is fixed, inflexible,
immutable, and eternal ; unbending to time, circumstances, and interests ;
and so should be the rules and principles by which the Constitution is
construed and interpreted. And what has been the position of the South
for years upon this subject? What has been the course of her members
upon this floor in relation to the reception of abolition petitions? Has
it not been that slavery is a question upon which Congress cannot act,
except in the cases I have stated, where it is expressly provided by the
Constitution; that Congress has no jurisdiction, if you please, over the
subject, and that, therefore, it is improper and useless, if not unconstitu
tional, to receive petitions asking what Congress cannot constitutionally
grant? This has been the ground assumed by the South, and upon which
these petitions have been rejected for years by this House, until the rule
was rescinded at the beginning of this session. And however much gen
tlemen from different parts of the Union have differed in opinion upon the
extent of the abstract right of petition, and the propriety and expediency
of receiving all kinds of petitions, whether for constitutional objects or
not, yet I believe they have always been nearly all agreed in this, that
Congress has no right or power to interfere with the institutions of the
States. This, sir, is our safeguard, and in it is our only security ; it is
the outpost and bulwark of our defence. Yield this and you yield every
thing. Grant the power to act or move upon the subject, yield the juris
diction, call upon Congress to legislate with the view presented in that
correspondence, 'and instead of strengthening they might deem it proper
to weaken those institutions ; and where, then, is your remedy ? I ask
Southern gentlemen where, then, is their remedy? We were reminded
the other day by a gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Holmes] that we
were in a minority on this floor. It is true we are in a minority ; and is
it wise in a minority to yield their strong position, their sure and safe
fortress, to the majority, for them to seize and occupy to their destruction ?
No, sir; never. Upon this subject I tell gentlemen from the South, and
the people of the South, to stand upon the Constitution as it is, and that
construction which has been uniformly given to it upon this point, from
the beginning of the Government. CThis is our shield, wrought in the
furnace of the Revolution. (JQs broad, ample, firm, and strong; and we
want no further protection or security than it provides^
The speaker then proceeds to notice the objections to the pro
posed admission. As to any difficulties that foreign powers
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
may make, be considers them as answered by the fact that
Texas is now an independent sovereign power, and in conse
quence entitled to negotiate for herself without foreign inter
ference. He then proceeds to answer the member from New
York, who had said that the measure was "a fraud upon the
Constitution."
" When I cast iny eyes, Mr. Chairman, over the surface of the world,
and survey the nations of the earth, and see that the people of the United
States alone, of all the millions of the human family who live upon the
habitable globe, are really free and fully enjoy the natural rights of man ;
that all other parts are dreary, wild, and waste; and that this is the only
green spot, the only oasis in the universal desert, and then consider that
all this difference is owing to our Constitution ; that all our rights, privi
leges, and interests are secured by it, I am disposed to regard it with no
trifling feelings of unconcern and indifference. It is, indeed, the richest
inheritance ever bequeathed by patriot sires to ungrateful sons. I confess
I view it with reverence ; and, if idolatry could ever be excused, it seems
to me it would be in allowing an American citizen a holy devotion to the
Constitution of his country. Such are my feelings ; and far be it from
me to entertain sentiments in any way kindred to a disregard for its prin
ciples, much less in contempt for its almost sacred provisions."
He next comes to the specific objection that there was no
power given to the United States, in their Federal capacity, to
"acquire territory."
" Suppose I grant his position and his premises entirely, does his con
clusion, in reference to the proposition I advocate, necessarily follow?
Do the resolutions of the gentleman from Tennessee propose to acquire
territory? We are often misled by the use of words. . . . We have had
'annexation' and l reannexation,' and 'acquisition of territory,' until
there is a confusion of ideas between the object desired and the manner
of obtaining it. To acquire conveys the idea of property, possession, and
the right of disposition. And to acquire territory conveys the idea of get
ting the rightful possession of vacant and unoccupied lands. If this be
the sense in which the gentleman uses it, I ask, does the plan of the gen
tleman from Tennessee propose to do any such thing? It is true it pro
poses to enlarge and extend the limits and boundaries of our Republic.
But how? By permitting another State to come into the Union with all
her lands and her territory belonging to herself. The Government will
acquire nothing thereby, except the advantages to be derived from the
union. And if I understand the original substantial design of the Con
stitution, the main object of its creation, it was not to acquire territory, it
is true, but to form a union of States, a species of confederacy 5 conferring
158 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
upon the joint government of the confederation, or union, the exercise of
such sovereign powers as were necessary for all foreign national purposes,
and retaining all others in the States, or the people of the States, respect
ively. This was the design, this was the object of the Constitution itself,
which is but the enumeration of the terms upon which the people of the
several States agreed to join in the union for the purposes therein specified ;
and in this way all the States came into it, Georgia among the rest, with
her rich western domain extending to the Mississippi, out of which two
States have since grown up, and have been likewise admitted. When the
Government was first formed, North Carolina and Rhode Island refused to
come in for some. time. It was not until after it was organized and com
menced operations, by eleven of the States, that these two consented to
become members of the Union. Could the United States, those eleven
which first started this General Government, be said to have acquired ter
ritory when North Carolina was admitted ? or the twelve which composed
the United Stated when Rhode Island came in ? There was in each of
those cases an addition of a State and enlargement of the confederated
Republic, just as there will be if Texas be admitted, as proposed by the
gentleman from Tennessee ; but no acquisition of territory in the common
acceptation of that term."
He then proceeds briefly to show that the United States could
constitutionally acquire territory, though that was not the case
at present, when the proposition was to admit a new State into
the union of States. He then takes up the argument for the
proposition.
" The authority on which I rely is no forced construction, but the plain,
simple language of the Constitution, which declares that —
"New States maybe admitted by Congress into this Union j but no
new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other
State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or
parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States con
cerned as well as of Congress.'
" The terms here used are broad, unqualified, and unrestricted. i New
States may be admitted by Congress into this Union.' But it is said that
it was only meant by these words to give the power to admit States
formed out of the territory of the United States, and within their juris
diction, and not to include a foreign State. To this I might reply that it
is a petitio principii, — a begging of the question. Whether that was the
meaning and intention is the main inquiry ; and from the words used
no such inference can be drawn. But the gentleman from New York
says he believes that was the meaning and intention ; and further,
that he believes if any other opinion had been entertained the Consti
tution would never have been ratified. Well, sir, his belief is not argu-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 189
merit. . . . We are taught that we should not only believe, but be able
to give a ' reason for the faith that is in us.' And here again I listened
for the reasons of the gentleman's faith, but heard nothing better than a
repetition of his belief.
" Let us, then, examine the matter. If there is any difficulty, we must
look to the words, the objects, and contemporaneous history. As to the
words, they are quite unambiguous. The term State is a technical word,
well understood at that time. It means a body politic, — a community
clothed with all the powers and attributes of government. And any
State, even one of those growing up in the bosom of our own territory,
upon admission, may be considered to some extent foreign. For if it be
a State, it must have a government separate from, and to some degree
independent of, the Union. For if it be in the Union, then it could not
be admitted ; that cannot be admitted in which is already in. And if it
is a State, and out of the Union, seeking admission, it must be considered
quoad hoc to be foreign. Now, as to contemporaneous and subsequent
history. What relation did North Carolina hold to the Union under the
new organization of 1787 ? She refused to ratify the Constitution, and
was most clearly out of it. The last article of the Constitution declared, —
" ' The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for
the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying/
" But more than nine ratified : eleven did ; leaving North Carolina and
Rhode Island out, as before stated. The Union was formed, and the
Constitution established for those that had ratified, and the Government
proceeded to organization. North Carolina was then certainly out of the
Union. She had the right and power to remain out. If she had, would
she not have been foreign to it? And, consequently, was she not foreign
whenever the Government went into operation under the new Constitution
without her ratification? The case of Vermont is more in point. She
was a separate and independent community, with a government of her
own. She was not even one of the original revolting thirteen colonies.
She had never been united in the old Confederation, and did not recognize
the jurisdiction of the United States."
[Here Mr. Col lamer, of Vermont, objected that Vermont at
that time did recognize the authority of the United States.]
MR. STEPHENS. — "Yes, sir; but not over her. She recognized the
authority of the United States as we do that of France or England, or any
other foreign power. She was a distinct, independent government within
herself. She had her own constitution, her own legislature, her own
executive, judiciary, and military establishment, and exercised all the facul
ties of a sovereign and independent State. She had her own post-office
department and revenue laws and regulations of trade. The United States
did not attempt to exercise any jurisdiction over her. The gentleman from
Vermont says that New York claimed jurisdiction over her, and finally gave
190 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
her consent for the admission of Vermont as a State. This is true. But
Vermont did not recognize the jurisdiction of New York ; she bade de
fiance to it. And after years had rolled on in this situation, she treated
with New York as one sovereign treats with another, and paid thirty
thousand dollars to New York for a relinquishment of that jurisdiction
which she would not allow to be exercised, and was then admitted into
the Union as one of the States. These are the facts of that case."
The speaker, after refuting some other objections, proceeds to
give the reasons that induce him to advocate the proposition.
These are: the kindred and sympathy of the two peoples; the
advantage of having all the cotton- and sugar-growing interests
of the continent united and subject to the same laws ; the im
portance of having no difficulties or inequalities in the commerce
which found its outlet by the Mississippi ; the desirableness of
opening this vast and fertile territory to our accumulating or
migrating population, which they might people and build up
without forfeiting their American citizenship. He thus con
cludes :
"With this question is also to be decided another and a graver one;
which is, whether the limits of the Republic are ever to be enlarged?
This is an important step in settling the principle of our future extension.
Nor do I concur with gentlemen who seem to apprehend so much danger
from that quarter. We were the other day reminded by the gentleman
from Vermont of the growth of the Roman Empire, which went on increas
ing and enlarging until it became unwieldy and fell of its own weight ;
and of the present extent of England, stretching to all sections of the world,
governing one-sixth of the human family, and which is now hardly able
to keep together its extensive parts. But there is a wide difference
between these cases. Rome extended her dominions by conquests. She
made the rude inhabitants of her provinces subjects and slaves. She
compelled them to bear the yoke: jngum subire was the requisition of her
chieftains. England extends her dominion and power upon a different
principle. Hers is the principle of colonization. Her distant provinces
and dependencies are subject to her laws, but are deprived of the rights
of representation. But with us a new system has commenced, suited to
and characteristic of the age. It is, if you please, the system of a Con
federation of States, or a republic formed by the union of the people of
separate independent States or communities, yielding so much of the
national character or sovereign powers as are necessary for national and
foreign purposes, and retaining all others for local and domestic objects
to themselves separately and severally. And who shall undertake to say
to what extent this system may not go ? . . .
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 191
"We live, sir, not only in a new hemisphere, but, indeed, in a new age;
and we have started a new system of government, as new and as different
from those of the old world as the Baconian system of philosophy was
novel and different from the Aristotelian, and destined, perhaps, to pro
duce quite as great a revolution in the moral and political world as his did
in the scientific. Ours is the true American system ; and though it is still
regarded by some as an experiment, yet, so far, it has succeeded beyond
the expectations of many of its best friends. And who is prepared now
to rise up and say, ' Thus far it shall go, and no farther' ?
" But I am in favor of this measure for another reason. It is, as the
honorable chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs said in his open
ing speech, in one sense and in one view, a sectional question, — a Southern
question. It will not promote our pecuniary interests, but it will give us
political weight and importance ; and to this view I am not insensible.
And though I have a patriotism that embraces, I trust, all parts of the
Union, which causes me to rejoice to see all prosperous and happy ; and
though I believe I am free from the influence of unjust prejudices and
jealousies toward any part or section, yet I must confess that my feelings
of attachment are most ardent towards that with which all my interests
and association are identified. And is it not natural and excusable that
they should be ? The South is my home — my fatherland. There sleep
the ashes of my sires ; there are my hopes and prospects ; with her my
fortunes are cast ; her fate is my fate, and her destiny my destiny. Nor
do I wish to 'hoax' gentlemen from other sections upon this point, as some
have intimated. I am candid and frank in my acknowledgment. This
acquisition will give additional power to the southwestern section in the
national councils ; and for this purpose I want it, — not that I am desirous
to see an extension of the i area of slavery,' as some gentlemen have said
its effects would be. I am no defender of slavery in the abstract. Liberty
always had charms for me, and I would rejoice to see all the sons of Adam's
family, in every land and clime, in the enjoyment of those rights which
are set forth in our Declaration of Independence as ' natural and inalien
able,' if a stern necessity, bearing the marks and impress of the hand of
the Creator himself, did not, in some cases, interpose and prevent. Such
is the case with the States where slavery now exists. But I have no wish
to see it extended to other countries ; and if the annexation of Texas were
for the sole purpose of extending slavery where it does not now and would
not otherwise exist, I should oppose it. This is not its object, nor will it
be its effect. Slavery already exists in Texas, and will continue to exist
there. The same necessity that prevails in the Southern States prevails
there, and will prevail wherever the Anglo-Saxon and African races are
blended in the same proportions. It matters not, so far as this institution
is concerned, in the abstract, whether Texas be in the Union or out of it.
That, therefore, is not my object : but it is the political advantages it will
secure, with the questions settled as proposed, — leaving no door open for
192 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
future agitation, — and thus preserving a proper balance between the dif
ferent sections of the country. This is my object-, and is it not proper
and right?
" If we look around, we see the East, by her economy, her industry, and
enterprise, by her commerce, navigation, and mechanic arts, growing opu
lent, strong, and powerful. The West, which a few years ago was nothing
but an unbroken wilderness, embracing the broad and fertile valley of the
Mississippi, where the voice of civilization was never heard, is now teem
ing with its millions of population. The tide of emigration, still rolling
in that direction, has already reached the base of the Rocky Mountains,
and will soon break over those lofty barriers, and be diffused in the exten
sive plains of Oregon. Already the West vies for the ascendancy on this
floor, and why should not the South also be advancing? Are her limits
never to be enlarged, and her influence and power never to be increased ?
Is she to be left behind in this race for distinction and aggrandizement, if
you please ? As one of her sons, I say, No. Let her, too, enter the glorious
rivalry; not with feelings of strife, jealousy, or envy, — such sentiments
are not characteristic of her people, — but with aspirations prompted by
the spirit of a laudable emulation and an honorable ambition."
The vote was taken on the resolutions the same day, and they
were carried by a vote of 120 to 98, seven Southern Whigs,
among whom was Mr. Stephens, uniting with the Northern
Democrats. These seven were afterwards held up to odium by
the Whig party throughout the country, and denounced with
bitter malignity as traitors to the party. In the Senate, an alter
native proposition was offered by Mr. Benton, subject to the
President's approval. This was agreed to by the House, and
finally the matter was placed in President Tyler's hands, who
approved the House proposition on the 1st of March, and at
once despatched a messenger with it to Texas, thus accomplish
ing a measure which added a new State, with two hundred and
seven thousand five hundred and four square miles of territory
to the Union, just at the close of his term of office.
Mr. Stephens's remarks in this speech, to the effect that he
was l( no defender of slavery in the abstract," gave rise to some
bitter denunciation throughout the South, and were interpreted
by some to mean that he was opposed to the system of African
slavery as it existed in the Southern States. But the context
showed that he there as elsewhere held that where an inferior
rac&like the African co-existed with the white race, the welfare
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 193
of both required that the inferior should be in subordination to
the superior. He boldly and triumphantly defended his position
in every subsequent campaign in his State, maintaining that this
" peculiar institution," as it was termed at the South, — the right
to the service of a certain class of persons, — was not slavery as
denned in public law and the Justinian code, but only the legal
subordination of an inferior to a superior race, with a view to
the best interests of both.
Under date of January 30th we find a long letter, chiefly
about Oregon, which he considers next in importance to the
Texas question. He is, however, somewhat apprehensive of a
war with Great Britain in this case, Oregon being at that time
in the joint occupation of the two powers, under the provisions
of the Treaty of Washington. He remarks, " The North, old
Adams at their head, I think, will be among the foremost to
bring about a collision with England. They now want war.
That is the way, they think, to a dissolution of the Union.77
February 23d. — He has been to a dinner-party where some
good jokes were told; among others, one on General Clinch, of
Georgia, who was present. " Some time ago, upon a call of the
House, the general was not present at first, but came in (having
been sent for) just as he heard his name called by the Clerk ; and
all vexed and mad, and puffing and blowing, answered to his
name at the top of his voice, ' NO !' I said to him, ' General,
say Here ; it is a call of the House -,' to which he replied, l Oh,
d — n it, I don't care. I'm against all they do, anyhow !' "
l« .
CHAPTER XIX.
Domestic Arrangements — Trip to Florida — Home News and Surgical
Practice — Deaths of Friends — A " Keal Soaker" — Election of Governor
Crawford.
SOON after reaching home, he writes Lin ton a long letter,
giving an account of his return, and the welcome he met from
all, down to his dog. A lover of dogs he has been all his life,
and many a passage in his letters shows how strong a hold these
humble but faithful creatures had upon his affections. The tone
of the letter is very sad, and it concludes, " I must stop. I feel
too melancholy to write more. I did not think such feelings
would press upon me at my return. Those I used to look out
for on my coming home are not here. They are dead and gone,
and the thought almost overpowers me."
The allusion here is not only to his brother, Aaron Grier, but
to Mr. and Mrs. Bird, to whom he had been greatly attached,
and who had died this winter. He had been living with them
for several years. In March, the house and land being put
up for sale, Mr. Stephens became the purchaser, and began
housekeeping. In a letter soon after, he gives an account of his
first experience in this line.
March 17th. — " Since I have been keeping Bachelor's Hall, Bob* (who
has been running all about town during my absence in Washington) has
been kept at home more than his wont. He is now the main man upon
the place; attends to the horse and hogs, brings in breakfast, dinner, and
supper, pours out the coffee, and waits upon the table. Old Mat cooks,
and Bob and Pierce do the rest. Who carries the keys I don't know. I
have laid in a supply of sugar, coffee, tea, etc. ; but where it is kept and
who keeps it I don't know. . . . Bob told me the other day he would have
to buy some chickens somewhere before long. I told him to buy them ;
and we continue to have chicken every day, but I can't tell where they
* His servant and factotum.
194
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 195
come from. To-day I missed Bob at dinner, and was told he had gone to
mill. So I conclude that we are out of meal, or that Bob wanted to take
an airing."
March 20th. — He has been on a visit with Cousin Sabrina
Kay to the old homestead, and at the grave-yard gathered " a
pale lily and a purple box-vine flower."
Linton had gone from the University of Virginia to Cam
bridge, to which point his brother addresses him a letter on
April 20tli, written at night.
" The night is lovely beyond description. The moon shines bright, the
air just stirs enough to rustle slightly among the now full-grown leaves.
The whippoorwill is heard at a distance, and ever and anon the mocking
bird sends forth his sweet notes upon the bosom of the breeze. To sit at
my window and look out upon the sleeping earth is like listening to sweet
music."
The letters in June are but few. In the earlier part of the
month he took a trip to Florida with Mr. Toombs and others.
On June 30th he writes from home, giving an account of Bob's
marriage. Bob, it appears, had grown discontented with the
charges of his laundress, so took a wife as a measure of economy,
" to get his washing done for less than ' thrip a piece.' So he
took his clothes over to Rhome's,* and this was the marriage."
On July 22d the topic of interest is Pup, the dog, who has
been seized with some strange affection. Next day another
bulletin is issued :
" Poor Pup is much worse than he was yesterday. He cannot walk or
crawl to-day. I think he has lock-jaw. He looks anxiously at all who go
to see him, and wags his tail when called. I have had him put on the back
piazza, where he can get water without trouble. I am very fearful that
the poor fellow who met me so cordially on my return, when I was so filled
with sadness, will himself be numbered with the dead before another sim
ilar opportunity occurs. I had become very much attached to the dog, for
the reason, I suppose, that he was so much attached to me. When I went
away he was always the first to meet me on my return, and was always so
glad to see me. If he dies I shall miss him, and shall again feel the truth
of the maxim that all things here below are vain and illusory."
On July 27th we have another report :
* Peter G. Khome, a citizen of the town.
196 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
" Pup is a little better. I have been giving him shocks from the gal
vanic battery. He walked ten steps this morning. The shower-bath also
I have tried upon him, and think that did him most good."
Under this treatment, we are happy to record, Pup entirely
recovered, as we learn in a letter of eight pages, seven about
the weather and one about Pup.
Early in August there is an accession to the little family, for
he and John Bird have been living together, and now a young
friend, George F. Bristow, has begun boarding with them.
They have also taken into the house a negro boy, Pierce (men
tioned above), of whom we shall hear more.
On August 24th we have a dolorous account of a disappoint
ment of his. He was anxious to be alone, and six men called
upon him and stayed to dinner.
" Would you know how I entertained them ? I lay in the little shed
room most of the time, the company sitting on the back porch, and while
they talked, I either snored or read Byron. ... I do dislike to be bored
by company when I wish to be alone ; and if I ever was in that humor
it was to-day. I longed to be alone, shut out entirely from the world.
There comes over me sometimes a kind of depression, a sickening at the
heart, and weariness of life. . . . [Yet there is a pleasure in these indul
gences. Indeed, what state of mind is without pleasurejy Even rage,
anger, envy, and hate are pleasant while they are felt. And as for sorrow
and grief, Solomon says it is better to go to the house of mourning than
to the house of mirth. Hence the pleasure of witnessing tragedies, which
is so great that we will even pay to be made to weep. But enough of this.
Since I commenced writing a little cloud has formed overhead and a little
to the northeast."
And he branches off into mere meteorology. Indeed, he has
had more excuse than usual for watching the weather. It has
been a summer of terrible drought, and everything is suffering.
The little cloud to the northeast has brought a slight shower,
but what is wanted, he says, is " a real soaker." This phrase,
he explains, is borrowed from an anecdote told by Foster of
Madison. At some droughty visitation the people had met at a
country church to pray for rain. " Several of the brethren had
held forth and prayed for ' gentle and refreshing showers/ when
an old sinner who felt a great interest in the matter, got up and
left the meeting-house, and cursing the whole concern for doing
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 1L STEPHENS. 197
no better, said he wouldn't give a d — n for any 'gentle and
refreshing showers ;' what he wanted was a real soaker"
On September 17th he adverts to the news he has just heard
of the death of Judge Story, and sadly remembers the pleasant
hours he has spent in his company.
" I do not know when the death of any person has affected me more
than that of Judge Story. Last winter I spent my time at Washington
more agreeably than I thought I ever could spend it at that place : and I
attributed this almost entirely to the agreeable and companionable quali
ties of that singular and excellent man. I formed for him a strong at
tachment, and I promised myself many a hearty laugh with him next
winter. Alas, that hope is blasted, and it does not now seem that I could
visit the place of my last winter-quarters, where everything is so associated
with him, without feelings of the deepest pain. I never saw a man of his
age so full of life and humor; and judging from his appearance, one would
have supposed that he would live many long years to come."
Five days later he again writes from a sorrowful heart. His
old friend Mr. Bristow, clerk of the court, from whom in his
earlier days he had received much kindness, has just died. The
day before Mr. Stephens had paid him a last visit.
" I never saw," he writes, " a family more deeply distressed. The effect
of their sorrow upon me was overwhelming. It brought to mind the
scenes of other days, and the sorrows I have felt. As one and another of
the children would come in and gaze upon their dying father, I could fully
realize the intensity of the pang that caused such intensity of sorrow, for
I too had felt the same. It seemed as fresh in memory as if it had been
but yesterday, when /stood by the bedside of a dying father and anxiously
watched his heaving breast. I felt his failing pulse. And when the last
long breath was drawn with a piteous moan, it seemed as if I too must
die. It seemed yet fresher than the incidents of yesterday when I saw
my poor brother — But, oh, God ! — I cannot write. The slightest thought
connected with him brings right before me, as plainly and distinctly as in
real life, all the scenes of that distressing night, and opens afresh all its
bleeding wounds. Life seems to me to have in it but little good. It is
made up of lying vanities, an empty and cheating train, and hopes which
result in nothing but vexation, disappointment, and remorse. . . . But
enough. It is nearly the time for the funeral service, and I must away to
see the end of one who has done me many favors."
This year Crawford (Whig) was elected Governor over
McAllister (Democrat), and in the Legislature the Whigs were
in a small majority, so small that great caution was necessary in
198 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
availing themselves of it. The party also was not harmonious
in the matter of the United States Senatorship; and Berrien
received so small a vote in caucus that he resigned. Particulars
are given in a letter of November 10th, in which the writer says
that he has been two days in Milledgeville, but abstained from
using any influence, and " left mainly to keep out of the excite
ment." In another letter he suggests that Lin ton join him in
Washington in December, and that he then return home and
begin business in Crawfordville. Sayre will go upon the bench,
Toombs will go to Congress, Lumpkin is about to remove to
Athens, and the prospect for a young lawyer on the circuit is
good. A little bit of domestic news follows. He has settled
with John L. Bird* and bought the two servants he is now
employing, Pierce and old Mat, the cook. For the latter he
pays a rather high price, as she is very old, — a hundred dollars :
but he does not object, because, as he says, John owes him money,
and is Linton's cousin [not Alexander's], and he likes him.
Old Mat turned out not a bad bargain after all.
On November 17th we hear that .Judge Berrien, the late
Senator, — readers will remember the Minority Report, — had been
run by the Whigs to fill the vacancy occasioned by his own
resignation, and triumphantly elected, getting the vote of every
Whig present.
On the 25th he writes from Washington, D. C., where he has
engaged rooms at his old boarding-house, Mrs. Carter's. He
went to Judge Story's room, and indulges in mournful memo
ries of its former occupant, whose cheerful nature and abundant
* This John L. Bird wont to college with his cousin Linton. Mr.
Stephens advancing the money for his education, and they graduated
together. John then read law with Mr. Stephens, and took an office in
Crawfordville, while Linton went to the University of Virginia and to
Cambridge. On his return, in 1846, he and his cousin Bird had an office
together until Linton married and removed to Sparta. John remained
in Crawfordville as an inmate of Mr. Stephens's family. He rose to dis
tinction in his profession, represented his senatorial district in the General
Assembly, and was Senator elect when he died. He was a young man of
brilliant talents and great promise, when prematurely cut off by consump
tion, in 1853. This sale of old Mat was in settlement of the balance due
Mr. Stephens for money advanced for his education.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 199
humor he had enjoyed so much a year before. " The last time
I saw the old judge was in that room. It was on the morning I
left for home last spring, — or rather the night before. I went to
take my leave of him, conversed some time, and he laughed and
joked all the while. He bade me a hearty and friendly farewell.
Little did I then think that I should never see him again/7
December 6th. — Linton expects to leave Cambridge for home
in a day or two. So he gives him minute directions how to
arrange matters, what to do with his trunk, and what precautions
to take in travelling; for instance, on cars and steamboats to keep
as far from the engine as possible. Linton will stop in Wash
ington, so he furnishes special directions how to find Mrs. Car
ter's. He forgets that this loved brother of his is now a man.
He has so long watched over him with a fatherly fondness, that
he feels as if he were still a boy. And yet he might now, when
Linton is prepared to take his place in the world of men, con
sider himself acquitted of his guardianship. He has given his
brother the best education that could be had, — far better than he
had himself enjoyed, — has watched over him and guided him
with the wisdom of a man and the tenderness of a woman. If
we have quoted, and shall still quote, liberally from these letters,
it is because this relation between him and his brother was one
of the leading traits of his life^occupied more of his thoughts
than any other one subject, alnd unless it be comprehended in all
its extent and depth, his character will not be rightly understood.
The younger brother fully repaid the affection thus lavished
upon him, and nothing loosened the bond between them until it
was severed by death.
CHAPTER XX.
Connexion with the Whigs — Opinion of President Polk — Disljfyte with
Mexico — War hreaks out — Correspondence — The Oregon Question —
Opinion of Mr. Calhoun — State of Things in Congress — Spe'ech on the
Mexican War — Letter of Judge McLean — Misunderstanding with the
Hon. Herschel V. Johnson — A Challenge sent and refused.
\MK. STEPHENS'S political action at this time was so generally
in accord with that of the Whigs, that he was universally looked
to as one of the leaders of that party, though he did not con
sider himself as pledged to it any further than for the time that
their measures and policy should have his approbation ;~)nor did
he consider himself in any way precluded from taking an inde
pendent course should his judgment so counsel. His action in
the matter of the admission of Texas had at first excited gen
eral hostility to him in the Whig press of Georgia, with a dis
position to denounce him as a traitor, and read him out of the
party. In less than twelve months that press, as well as the
entire party in the South, gave his course an explicit endorsement.
His strong antagonism to Mr. Folk's Administration brought
him into still closer connexion with the Whigs. In the Presi
dent himself, as a public officer, he had but little confidence.
From the conduct of the latter towards Great Britain in the
matter of the Oregon boundary, Mr. Stephens became convinced
that he would not shrink even from involving the country in
war on insufficient grounds for the purpose of strengthening his
popularity and prolonging his hold of office. These jfews were,
in his opinion, confirmed by the action of the Administration
with reference to Mexico.
This latter country, offended at the proceedings of the United
States in regard to Texas, whose independence she had never
acknowledged, withdrew her resident minister, General Almonte,
and diplomatic intercourse between the two countries ceased.
200
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 201
As soon as Texas had accepted the proposition sent out by Presi
dent Tyler, Mr. Polk sent General Taylor with about five
thousand United States troops to Corpus Christi, near the mouth
of the Nueces River, the actual western boundary of Texas, by
established authority, though the State claimed jurisdiction as
fur as the Rio Grande del Norte. On the 13th of January, 1846,
the general was ordered to advance from Corpus Christi to the
Rio Grande on the disputed territory, which he did, and erected
a fort within cannon-shot of the Mexican city of Matamoros.
This was regarded as an act of hostility by the Mexican com
mander, and the war was begun. Mr. Stephens's course in refer
ence to this matter we shall presently show ; but for the sake of
keeping unbroken the chronological order, we now revert to the
correspondence with Linton. The first letter that we have for
this year bears date January 9th, and is addressed to him at La-
grange, where he has been on a visit to his brother John. After
duly chronicling the weather, he shows a new taste for an old
subject.
"Whenever I get time, I will give you a long letter upon the Ancients,
as I have been closely engaged reading up on that subject lately. Rather,
I should say, I have been for some time closely studying Ancient History,
which I never did before. And though, as you know, I have always had
a high opinion of the men of olden time, you may be surprised when I tell
you that my late reading has greatly increased my admiration."
January 9th. — The writer is so full of his subject that, although
he is not at leisure until eleven o'clock at night, and has already
sent off two letters to Linton to-day, he takes his pen again and
discourses through sixteen pages of long paper on the Ancients.
These Ancients we find to be, not the Greeks or Romans, but the
Chaldseans and the Egyptians, compared with whom the former
may be called modern. He comments at length on the relics of
their civilization, their temples, pyramids, tombs, etc., and thus
concludes :
"You may depend upon it, any people who could do all these things:
build monuments to survive the ravages of ages, firm almost as the ever
lasting mountains ; who excavated for themselves a final resting-place in
the solid rock, covered with paintings relating their history, which time
202 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
and the elements can never obliterate ; who had even the art of embalm
ing their dead, and almost of arresting nature's first law of dissolution,
giving to their mortal clay a kind of immortality, — have no equals on the
earth at this time."
January llth. — Still in his Egyptian researches, but purposes
now, after renewed reference to the Ancients, to say something
about the Moderns.
" I only inclose you two notes of invitation, that you may see how such
things are done nowadays in this great city, and leave you to consider
whether the builders of Thebes and Memphis, or the wise men of Babylon,
with all their learning, ever arrived at such a state of improvement, refine
ment, and civilization as to do such small matters in such taste. . . . Toombs
has the floor for to-morrow on the Oregon question. He will make his
d6but in the House on that subject."
A splendid debut this was, as will be seen hereafter.
February 1st, Sunday. — " I have just come from a long and lonely walk,
thinking and musing over many scenes and events long passed and far
off. These solitary walks I am of late much in the habit of indulging in.
They afford me the solitude which is congenial to my spirits. The present
has but little to engage my thoughts or attention, and
' Oft up the stream of time I turn my soul
To view the fairy haunts of long-lost hours,
Blest with far greener shades, far fresher flowers.'"
He has been to church twice to-day. Much pleased with
a sermon from Dr. S., and not at all with one from Dr. D.,
whom he thought neither orthodox nor eloquent. " His prayer
was the coolest thing of the kind I ever heard. Some fellow
said that he prayed as if in his address to the Deity he did
not intend to compromise his self-respect."
February 8th. — He is unwell and keeping his bed, in conse
quence of a fall. The Oregon question is to come up the next
day.
"I suppose the notice will pass, though the correspondence sent in
yesterday between this Government and Great Britain may cause some to
vote against the notice who were before inclined to vote for it. It seems
from that correspondence that Mr. Polk does not intend to permit England
to question our right to the whole country up to 54° 40'. In other words,
that there is to be no compromise in the matter. This I look upon as a
position involving the direct issue of war ; and if Congress shall back him
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 203
up in that particular, war is inevitable. I think that correspondence will
do more to humble the pride of our country and tarnish our glory than
anything that has occurred since the organization of the Government.
For we shall never sustain it. England has rights in Oregon, and we
shall have to admit them, and the position of our Chief Magistrate will
have to be abandoned. This will lower us in the eyes of foreign nations.
Such was never the case before."
In the latter part of February he left for home, where he
remained until near the middle of April. On the 17th of that
month we find him announcing his return to his old quarters in
Washington.
May 10th. — u The news of a fight between some of our forces in the
Southwest and the Mexicans reached us last night. It seems that we shall
have a Mexican war yet. I suppose we shall have a message on the sub
ject to-morrow. Mr. Polk has been very silent on the subject. I do not
know myself by what authority General Taylor ever crossed the Nueces
River. In the Resolution admitting Texas it was expressly provided that
questions of boundary should be left for adjustment between this country
and Mexico. The country between the Nueces and Rio Grande del Norte
was disputed between Mexico and Texas. Texas never did extend her
jurisdiction over it, and we should have let it remain unoccupied until the
right to it was settled by negotiation."
May 13th. — " I send you the morning papers giving an account of yes
terday's proceedings in the Senflte," — in reference to Mexican affairs.
"Read Calhoun's remarks. I am beginning to think better of him; and
perhaps my admiration increases from the fact that he acted in the Senate
upon the question just as I did in the House, — that is, he refused to vote
upon the question as it was presented; and in his speech also he said just
what I should have said, in substance, if I could have had a chance. The
consequences of the last two days' work here, I apprehend, will be far
more important than the country is aware of. The dogs of war are now
let loose, and I should not be surprised if a general war with England and
France should ensue. The gates of Janus are open, and I fear they will
be as the gates of hell. I hope for the best ; but I must confess the signs
of the times are ominous. The whole catalogue of evils is justly charge
able upon Mr. Polk. In reference to the situation of our army of occu
pation, I do not concur with the prevailing sentiment here. I do not think
that Taylor will be defeated. In rny opinion he will sustain his position ;
and if he meets the enemy in a general engagement, he will give them
a thorough flogging. But that will not end the war. Mexico will be
invaded.''
This letter marks the beginning of his taking a just estimate
of Mr. Calhoun. It will be soon seen how he had been misled
204 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
in his judgment of that great man. He afterwards came to
estimate him as he deserved.
May 29th. — After writing at some length about law business,
and inquiring about his garden and other domestic matters, he
continues :
"I am getting tired of this place, and I am beginning to think that
Congress is the last place that a man of honor and honorable ambition
should aspire to. There is a recklessness of purpose here perfectly disgust
ing and almost alarming. What will become of our country and institu
tions I do not know. The signs of the times to me are ominous of evil.
I have ceased to take much interest in what is done in the House. All is
done by party will and for party effect." He concludes to go with Toombs
on a short visit to New York, " for a little airing and to get rid of a fit of
the blues."
June llth. — " The Oregon question, I think, is about to be settled. It
is said that Mr. Pakenham has sent in to Mr. Polk her Majesty's ultima
tum, which is a settlement of boundary on the basis of 49°, with the
whole of Vancouver's Island, to England ; the free navigation of the
Strait of San Juan de Fuca, and the free navigation of the Columbia for
ten years. It is also said that Mr. Polk will not make a treaty upon
these terms without first taking the advice of the Senate. That is prudent,
if not wise. Pity that he was not always as cautious and conscientious.
If he had been, we might not now be at war with Mexico."
The advance of the United States troops, before referred to,
upon the disputed territory between the Nueces and the Rio
Grande del Norte, without, as Mr. Stephens believed, any suffi
cient reason to justify a movement which could not fail to
involve the country in war, confirmed him in the view he
had taken of the dispositions of the Administration ; and on
the 16th of June he gave utterance to his thoughts in his
well-known speech on the Mexican War. In this speech he
boldly affirmed that " the whole affair, is properly chargeable to
the imprudence, indiscretion, and mismanagement of our own
Executive ; that the war has been literally provoked when there
was no necessity for it, and it could have been easily avoided
without any detriment to our rights, interest, or honor as a
nation. Indeed, sir, I may be permitted to say, that a strange
infatuation seems to have governed this Administration ever
since it came into power in reference to our foreign affairs : a
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 205
war with some country or other seems to have been its leading
object."
He then proceeds to prove his propositions : 1. That the war
was entirely due to the advance of the troops ; the Mexicans, up
to that time, having showed no hostile dispositions. 2. That
nothing had occurred to render a movement of that kind — to
which but one interpretation could be given — necessary ; and
that not being necessitated by circumstances, it was eminently
unwise, unless, indeed, the sole object of the Administration was
to provoke hostilities. These propositions established, he pro
ceeds to inquire what was the object of the war, with what
views it was to be prosecuted, and if it was a war for conquest.
'* If so," he continues, "I protest against that part of it. I would shed
no unnecessary blood, commit no unnecessary violence, allow no outrage
upon the religion of Mexico, have no desecration of temples or ' revelling
in the halls of the Montezumas,' but be ready to meet the first offers of
peace. I regret that General Taylor did not have the authority to accept
the proffered armistice when it was tendered. In a word, I am for a
restoration of peace as soon— yes, at the earliest day it can be honorably
effected. I am no enemy to the extension of our domain, or the enlarge
ment of the boundaries of the Republic. Far from it. I trust the day is
coming, and not far distant, when the whole continent will be ours ; when
our institutions shall be diffused and cherished, and republican government
felt and enjoyed throughout the length and breadth of the lan.\ — from the
far south to the extreme north, and from ocean to ocean. That this is our
ultimate destiny, if wise counsels prevail, I confidently believe. But it is
not to be accomplished by the sword. Mr. Chairman, republics never
spread by arms. We can only properly enlarge by voluntary accessions,
and should only attempt to act upon our neighbors by setting them a good
example. In this way only is the spirit of our institutions to be diffused
as the leaven until ' the whole lump is leavened.' This has been the his
tory of our silent but rapid progress, thus far. In this way Louisiana with
its immense domain was acquired. In this way we got Oregon, con
necting us with the Pacific. In this way Texas, up to the Rio Grande,
might have been added; and in this way the Californias, and Mexico
herself, in due time may be merged in one great republic. There is much
said in this country of the party of progress. I profess to belong to that
party, but am far from advocating that kind of progress which many of
those who seem anxious to appropriate the term exclusively to themselves
are using their utmost exertions to push forward. Theirs, in my opinion,
is a downward progress. It is a progress of party, of excitement, of lust
of power ; a spirit of war, aggression, violence, and licentiousness. It is
206 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
a progress which, if indulged in, would soon sweep over all law, all order,
and the Constitution itself. It is the progress of the French Revolution,
when men's passions,
1 Like an ocean bursting from its bounds,
Long beat in vain, went forth resistlessly,
Bearing the stamp and designation then
Of popular fury, anarchy.'
"It is the progress of that political and moral sirocco that passed over
the republics of olden time, withering and blasting everything within its
pernicious and destructive range. Where liberty once was enjoyed, where
the arts and sciences were cultivated and literature flourished, philosophers
taught and poets sang, and where the most majestic monuments of re
finement, taste, and genius were erected, — ; towers, temples, palaces, and
sepulchres,' but where now
' Ruin itself stands still for lack of work,
And desolation keeps unbroken sabbath.'
Or, to come nearer home for an illustration, it is the progress of Mexico
herself. Why is that heaven-favored country now so weak and impotent
and faithless ? Why so divided and distracted and torn to pieces in her
internal policy? A few years ago she set out in the career of repub
licanism under auspices quite as favorable to success as this country.
Her progress has been most rapid from a wrell-regulated good government,
formed on our own model, to the most odious military despotism. We
should do well to take a lesson from her history, and grow wise by the
calamities of others, without paying ourselves the melancholy price of
wisdom. They lacked that high order of moral and political integrity
without Which no republic can standj And it is to progress in these
essential attributes of national greatness I would look : the improvement
of mind, 'the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men,' the erec
tion of schools, colleges, and temples of learning ; the progress of intellect
over matter ; the triumph of the mind over the animal propensities ; the
advancement of kind feeling and good will among the nations of the
earth ; the cultivation of virtue and the pursuits of industry ; the bringing
into subjection and subservience to the use of man of all the elements of
nature around us ; in a word, the progress of civilization and everything
that elevates, ennobles, and dignifies man. This, Mr. Chairman, is not to
be done by wars, whether foreign or domestic. Fields of blood and car
nage may make men brave and heroic, but seldom tend to make nations
either good, virtuous, or great."
The brilliant exploits of the United States forces, and the
signal triumph with which they were crowned at last, dazzled
the people, as had been expected, and withdrew attention from
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 207
the real justice of the cause. The splendid gains of territory
acquired by the cession of New Mexico and Upper California,
under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, gave immense influence
and popularity to Mr. Folk's Administration. Even before the
victorious close this influence was strong, and this Congress had
a clear Democratic majority of seventy members; while the
Whigs, who had already lost ground during the Administration
of Tyler, could not afford to risk their popularity further by
showing opposition to a war which so liberally fed the public
pride.
June 2 '1st. — In this letter is a detailed account of a misunder
standing between Mr. Stephens and Mr. W. L. Yancey, growing
out of remarks made by both in the discussion of the Mexican
War, which nearly resulted in a duel. The affair, however, was
amicably adjusted through the mediation of Mr. Toombs and
Mr. Burt. He freely and naturally expresses his gratification at
the impression his speech had made upon the House.
"But," he says, "my own opinion is that it is not half such a speech
as my Texas speech. It was not a subject that admitted of so much men
tal power, if you will excuse the idea, and is not so finished a production.
It is not, indeed, as printed, half such a speech as was delivered. I lost
the fire when I came to write it out, and as for the reporter's notes, they
were worth little to me, except the order. He had not preserved my lan
guage, nor the structure of sentences. I had not spoken to any one to
report me, and just had the hasty sketch of Stansbury, who reports fre
quently from memory."
July 20th. — The speech on the Mexican War excited much ap
prehension and anxiety in the Whig party, who were afraid of
the usual result of opposition to a successful war. In the letter
of this date he says, " I am daily in receipt of letters from all
parts of the country, and not a few from Georgia." He then
incloses the following from Judge McLean :
" CINCINNATI, 15th July, 1846.
" MY DEAR SIR, — I thank you for your excellent speech on the Mexican
War. You have exhibited in the clearest light the rights of the country
and the duty of the Executive under the Texas Annexation Resolutions.
The war is the war of the Administration for party purposes, and not for
the honor or interests of the country. A very small sum in comparison
with what we have already expended would have extended our boundary
208 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
to the Rio Grande peaceably and honorably. But, as you justly observe,
the Administration seemed determined to have war either with England
or Mexico, and I fear that the Administration is determined to go beyond
the Rio Grande for a boundary. Will Congress encourage and sanction
the spirit of conquest ? You may be assured that the charm of this Ad
ministration is broken ; and if I am not greatly mistaken, Mr. Polk will
leave the White House with as little glory as his predecessor.
" Sincerely your friend,
"JOHN MCLEAN."
Congress adjourned early in August, and Mr. Stephens re
turned to Crawford ville. His reputation was much heightened
by his action during the session. The bold position which, un
advised, and at first almost alone, he assumed upon the Mexican
War made him the leader'of the Opposition in the House; and
his Resolutions, introduced in the following January, indicated
the line of attack upon the Administration party, which finally
led to its overthrow.
Early in December Mr. Stephens returned to Washington,
and the correspondence was kept up as usual, but the letters
chiefly refer to matters of business. In that of the 26th is a
repetition of directions frequently given in previous letters :
" Don't forget or fail to let the young men Bristow and Jones
have the money ; and if you cannot raise it elsewhere, I can send
you some from here.^v These were two young men whose ex
penses he was paying at school and college ; for he had already
begun that practice of aiding in the education of worthy young
men without means, in which he was, perhaps, unequalled in
beneficence, if we consider his own limited means and the other
claims upon him.
During this year, 1846, occurred the estrangement between
Mr. 'Stephens and the Hon. Herschel Y. Johnson, which was
especially to be regretted on account of their long and intimate
previous friendship. While at college they were warmly at
tached to each other, and remained so for many years. A cool
ness sprang up between them in 1844, in which year Mr. Johnson
was an Elector for Mr. Polk ; and he and Mr. Stephens met sev
eral times in public discussion, and in the heat of debate some
acrimony arose. In 1846 several articles appeared in the Fed
eral Union, in which Mr. Stephens's speech on the Mexican
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 209
War was severely criticised. Not knowing the author, Mr.
Stephens applied to the publishers, and on learning that it was
Mr. Johnson, demanded a retraction from that gentleman, and
afterwards challenged him. Mr. Johnson refused to accept the
challenge, and the affair went no further. But they ceased to
speak to each other until the winter of 1855, at which time
Mr. Johnson was Governor of the State, when an understanding
and reconciliation was brought about by the mediation of com
mon friends. Since that time they have lived upon terms of
renewed friendship. In a letter written in 1869, Mr. Stephens
speaks of Mr. Johnson as " one of our ablest and truest men."
14
CHAPTER XXI.
Position of the Whigs — Kesolutions on the Mexican "War — Their Effect —
Danger ahead — The Wilmot Proviso — The " Missouri Compromise"
repudiated — Speech on the Mexican Appropriation Bill — A Queer Genius
— Speech of Mr. Toombs — Election of a Speaker — Cure for Melancholy.
THIS period, as before shown, marks an epoch in the political
life of Mr. Stephens. We have seen how, by reason of his
agreement with them on many general principles and in oppo
sition to the course of the Administration, Mr. Stephens had
come to be identified in the minds of many with the Whig
party. But he reserved his independence of thought and action,
and the freedom of choosing his own course whenever that of
the party should appear to him unjust or unwise.
The position of the Whigs at this time is well explained by
a letter of Mr. Stephens written in 1869, from which we make
an extract :
" The Mexican War was in full blast, and seemed as if it would carry
everything before it. The Whigs, as a party, while opposed to the policy
of the war, were afraid to do or say anything that would bring upon them
what they thought to be the odium of an anti-war party. The fate of those
who had opposed the war of 1812 stood as a ghost in their path. Now
this was the state of things in 1847, when I introduced my Resolutions
upon the subject of the war. I consulted with all the leading Whigs in
the House, Northern and Southern, upon introducing them. Every one
of them dissuaded me from it. But I resolved upon doing it anyhow. I
knew I was right."
These Kesolutions were so adroitly yet so fairly drawn that
it was embarrassing to attempt to dodge them. They ran as
follows :
" Whereas, It is no less desirable that the interests and honor of our
country should be cordially sustained and defended so long as the present
war with Mexico continues to exist, than that the conflict should not be
unnecessarily prolonged, but should be terminated as soon as an honorable
210
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 211
peace can be obtained ; and whereas, it is believed that a diversity of
opinion prevails to a considerable extent as to the ultimate aims and
objects for which the war should be prosecuted, and it being proper that
this mattej|^^|Pbe settled by the clear expression of the legislative will
solemnly ^PHmined to the world :
u Be it therefore Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the present war
with Mexico ' is not waged with a view to conquest,' or the dismemberment
of that republic by the acquisition of any portion of her territory.
u Be it farther Resolved by the authority aforesaid, That it is the desire
of the United States that hostilities should be terminated upon terms
honorable to both parties ; embracing a liberal settlement on our part of
the questions growing out of the proper and rightful boundary of Texas,
and a full recognition and proper provision on her part to be made for all
the just claims of our citizens against that country ; the whole to be
adjusted by negotiation, to be instituted and effected according to the
constitutional forms of each Government respectively."
The Democrats were so taken by surprise that many of them
voted to suspend the rules and refer the Resolutions to the Com
mittee of the Whole. Mr. Stephens continues in the letter
above referred to :
"After the Whigs saw the effect of the Resolutions on the Democratic
side, several who had dodged the vote at first came up and recorded their
names for it. So that the motion received every Whig vote in the House,
and some Democratic. They saw that the Resolutions were stronger
than their party. From this time out the Resolutions became the Whig
platform on the war, North and South. Although several Democrats-
voted to suspend the rules, the motion was lost by a vote of 76 to 88.
And thus Congress refused to say that the war was 'not waged with a
view to conquest,' or the dismemberment of Mexico by the acquisition of
any of her territory, or that it was * the desire of the United States that
hostilities should be terminated upon terms honorable to both parties.'
This refusal to avow what were the objects of the war and to express the
desire for an honorable peace, gave a blow to the Administration, from the
effects of which it could never recover. Relying too far upon the majority
and the continued successes of the army, Mr. Polk assumed an attitude
which was defiant and almost menacing to the minority. Besides, the Whigs
became more and more satisfied that the war was being conducted alto
gether for the acquisition of territory and the power which such acquisition
would secure. Already had Commodore Stockton announced to the people
of California, and General Kearny to those of New Mexico, that their
States were territories of the United States ; and as late as June of the
preceding year Colonel J. B. Stevenson, of New York, had been authorized
212 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
to raise a regiment, with the understanding that at the end of the war
they should remain ' in Oregon, or in any other territory in that region
of the globe which may then be a part of the United States.' "
In this prospective extension of territory, Mr. Stephens saw not
only gross injustice toward a weak State, but a source of serious
danger to the country. Already the anti-slavery party were de
claring that, compromises or no compromises, slavery should not
be introduced into any newly-acquired territory. Already — on
August 8th, 1846 — on the President's asking an appropriation
of three million dollars to enable him to negotiate a treaty
with Mexico, based upon a cession of territory, Mr. Wilmot, of
Pennsylvania, had introduced his notorious Proviso, excluding
slavery from any such territory to be hereafter acquired, in
direct and flagrant violation of the "Missouri Compromise";
and the Proviso passed the House and only failed in the Senate.
Here was a plain indication how things would turn, and the
way in which faith was to be kept. Again, in the following
year, on the question of organizing a territorial government for
Oregon, the Proviso was once more introduced, and its advo
cates openly repudiated any intention to be bound by the line
of 36° 30r, thus opening again the whole agitating question
which had been considered finally settled by those who vainly
imagined that solemn pledges would be regarded when the
party that gave them saw their interest in breaking them.
It was on the question of this Mexican Appropriation Bill
that Mr. Stephens made his speech of February 12th, 1847,
one of the most eloquent he ever delivered, fearless in its
attacks upon the Administration and the dominant party, and
as fearless in its warnings to the people of the country. In it
he said :
" The country, which one year ago was quiet and prosperous, at peace
with the world, and smiling under the profusion of heaven's bountiful
munificence, by the sole and unauthorized act of the President, has been
plunged into an unnecessary and expensive war, the end and fearful con
sequences of which no man can foresee. And to suppress inquiry and
silence all opposition to conduct so monstrous, an Executive ukase has been
sent forth, strongly intimating, if not clearly threatening, the charge of
treason against all who may dare to call in question the wisdom or pro
priety of his measures. Not only was Congress, which possesses exclu-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 11. STEPHENS. 213
sively the war-making power, never consulted upon the subject until after
hostilities were commenced, but the right is even now denied that body to
make any legislative expression of the national will as to the aims and
objects for which the war should be prosecuted. The new and strange
doctrine is now put forth that Congress has nothing to do with the conduct
of war ; that the President is entitled to its uncontrolled management ;
that we can do nothing but vote men and money, to whatever amount and
extent his folly and caprice may dictate. Neighboring States may be
subjugated, extensive territories annexed, provincial governments erected,
the rights of conscience violated, and the oath of allegiance, at the point
of the bayonet, may be administered to a mixed population, embracing all
varieties of races, languages, and color, and the Representatives of the
people are to say nothing against these extraordinary outrages against the
first principles of their Government, or else render themselves obnoxious to
the imputation of giving ' aid and comfort to the enemy.' This is nothing
less than the assumption of the principle that patriotism consists in pliant
subserviency to Executive will, — that the President is supreme, and ' the
king can do no wrong.'
" Sir, this doctrine might suit the despotisms of Europe, where the sub
jects of a crown know no duty but to obey, and have no rights but to
submit to royal dictation. But it is to be seen whether the free people of
this country have so soon forgotten the principles of their ancestors as to
be so easily awed by the arrogance of power. It is to be seen whether
they have so far lost the spirit of their sires as tamely, quietly, and silently
to permit themselves to be treated as the humble vassals of such a self-
constituted lordling.
"Insolence, when indulged, not unfrequently overdoes itself by its own
extravagance. Like Ambition, it often overleaps its aims. And my confi
dence in the character, integrity, and patriotism of the American people
warrants me in venturing the assertion that this will be the fate of this
most unscrupulous attempt to abridge the free exercise of those rights which
are ' dear to freemen, and formidable to tyrants only.' For a very little
further interference with the freedom of discussion Charles X., of France,
lost his crown ; and for a very little greater stretch of royal prerogative
Charles I., of England, lost his head. By reflecting upon these examples
of the past, our Executive, without entertaining any apprehension of ex
periencing a fate exactly similar to either, may yet learn some profitable
lessons, — lessons that will teach him that there are some things more to be
dreaded than the loss of a throne, or even the loss of a head, — among
which may be named the anathema of a nation's curse, and the infamy
thajuisually follows it.
•^Moralists tell us that nations as well as individuals are sometimes
punislied for their follies and crimesTj It may be that there is in store for
us some terrible retribution for thefraud, deception, and gross iniquity
practised upon the people of this country in the election of this man to
214 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
office. But if, in the inscrutable ways of Providence, he who has been
thus fraudulently elevated to power should be the ill-fated instrument of
our chastisement, the punishment may be just, but he will take no honor
in its execution. (jfL^h-e result of his mischievous councils should, in any
way, prove disastrous to our institutions, — the stability, harmony, and
permanence of the Government, — which there is now abundant cause
seriously to apprehend, (he will certainly have no place in the grateful
remembrance of mankind. Fame he will have; but it will be of the
character of that which perpetuates the name of Erostratus. And the
more deeply blackened than even his, as the stately structure of this temple
of our liberties is grander and more majestic than the far-famed magnifi
cence of the Ephesian dome.
"The crisis, sir, requires not only firmness of principle, but boldness of
speech. As the immortal Tully said, in the days of Catiline, when Rome
was threatened with the most imminent danger, the time has come when
the opinions of men should not be uttered by their voices only, but
4 inscription sit in f route uniuscujusque quid de Repullica sentiatj — it should
even be written on the forehead of each one what he thinks of the Republic.
There should be no concealment. In what I have to say, therefore, I shall
use that character of speech which I think befitting the time and occasion.
" The absorbing topic, both in this House and the country, is the war
with Mexico. This is the subject which, above all others, demands our
consideration. To this the bill upon your table relates.- And upon it I
propose to submit some views as briefly as possible. I do not, at this time,
intend to discuss the causes of the war, or to recount the blunders and
folly of the President, connected with its origin. This I have done upon
a former occasion ; and all the facts, I believe, are now well understood by
the country. The President may repeat as often as he pleases that it was
* unavoidably forced upon us.' But such repetition can never change the
fact. It is a war of his own making, and in violation of the Constitution
of the country. And so history. I dou^)t not, will make up the record, if
truth be fairly and faithfully registered in her chronicles.
" But. sir, the war exists, and hoAvever improperly, unwisely, or wickedly
it was begun, it must be brought to a termination, — a speedy and successful
termination. By the unskilfulness or faithlessness of our pilot, we have
been run upon the breakers ; and the only practical inquiry now is, how
we can be extricated in the shortest time and with the greatest safety.
This is the grave question which now engages public attention, and which,
as patriots and statesmen, we ought to decide. And, in my opinion, this
great question, relating as it does to the interest, the honor, and permanent
welfare of the country, necessarily involves another of no small import
and importance, and that is, for what objects should the war be waged?
Before the ways and means can be devised for bringing it to an honorable
conclusion, there must be some agreement as to the ultimate ends and
purposes for which it should be prosecuted. This should be first settled.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 215
No system should be adopted until there is a distinct understanding upon
this great and essential point. All wars, to be just, must have some dis
tinct and legitimate objects to be accomplished, — some rights to be de
fended and secured, or some wrong to be redressed. And ome of the
strangest and most singular circumstances attending this war is, that
though it has lasted upwards of eight months, at a cost of many mil
lions of dpllars, and the sacrifice of many valuable lives, both in battle
and by the diseases of the camp, no man can tell us for what object it is
prosecuted. And it is to be doubted whether any man, save the President
and his Cabinet, knows the real and secret designs that provoked its ex
istence. Upon the.se points up to this time, as was remarked the other day
by a distinguished Senator in the other end of the Capitol [Mr. Calhoun],
we are left 'only to inference.' This, sir, is a strange spectacle, but it is
nevertheless true. And I submit it to this House and this country
whether it shall be permitted longer to exist. When this people are called
on to spend their treasure and blood, should they not know the reason of
the call, and the ends proposed to be attained?"
The orator then proceeds to show the futility of the alleged
ground of the war : old aggressions of Mexicans upon Amer
ican commerce, afterwards settled by treaty, and the failure of
Mexico, through inability, to pay the instalments due the United
States under the treaty of 1843. He then presses home the ne
cessity of an explicit showing by Congress of a sufficient ground
for hostilities; a clear declaration of the objects aimed at, and a
disavowal of the intention of permanent conquests. The speech
thus concludes :
M
" And besides the reasons already offered, which of themselves would ever
control me, there are others of great importance, growing out of the nature
of the union of these States, which .should be gravely considered before
bringing in this new element of strife. Who can sit here and listen to the
debates daily upon this question and look unmoved upon the prospect be
fore us ? This Wilmot Proviso, and the resolutions from the Legislatures of
the States of New York, and Pennsylvania, and Ohio, all of the same char
acter and import, speak a language that cannot be mistaken, — a language
of warning upon this subject, which the country, if wise, would do well
jto heed in time. \ They show a fixed determination on the part of the
North, which is now in the majority in this House, and ever will be here
after, that, if territory is acquired, the institutions of the South shall be
forever excluded from its linm^; this is to be the condition attached to the
bill upon your table ! What is to be the result of this matter? Will the
South submit to this restriction? Will the North ultimately yield ? Or
shall these two great sections of the Union be arrayed against each other?
216 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
When the elements of discord are fully aroused, who shall direct the storm?
Who does not know how this country was shaken to its very centre by
the Missouri agitation? Should another such scene occur, who shall be
mighty enough to prevent the most disastrous consequences ? The master
spirit of that day is no longer in your councils. Shall another equally
great and patriotic ever be found ? Let not gentlemen quiet their appre
hensions by staving off this question. It has to be met, and better now
than at a future day. It had better be decided now, than after more blood
and treasure have been spent in the pursuit of that which may ultimately
be our ruin. Upon the subject of slavery, about which so much has been
said in this debate, I shall say but little. I do not think it necessary to
enter into a defence of the character of the people of iny section of the
Union against the arguments of those who have been pleased to denounce
that institution as wicked and sinful.v'K is sufficient for me and for
them that the morality of that institution stands upon a basis as firm
as the Bible ; and by that code of morals we are content to abide until a
better be furnished^ Until Christianity be overthrown, and some other
system of ethics "be substituted, the relation of master and slave can never
be regarded as an offence against the Divine laws. The character of our
people speaks for itself. And a more generous, more liberal, more char
itable, more benevolent, more philanthropic, and a more magnanimous
people, I venture to say, are not to be found in any part of this or any
other country. As to their piety, it is true they have ' none to boast of."1
But they are free from that pharisaical sin of self-righteousness which is
so often displayed elsewhere, of forever thanking the Lord that they are
not as bad as other men are.
"As a political institution, I shall never argue the question of slavery
here. I plead to the jurisdiction. MFke subject belongs exclusively to the
StatesT> There the Constitution wisely left it; and there Congress, if it
acts wisely, will let it remain. Whether the South will submit to the
threatened proscription, it is not iny province to say. The language of
defiance should always be the last alternative. But as I value this Union,
and all the blessings which its security and permanency promise, not only
to the present, but coming generations, I invoke gentlemen not to put this
principle to the test. I have great confidence in the strength of the Union,
so long as sectional feelings and prejudices are kept quiet and undisturbed.
— so long as good neighborhood and harmony are preserved among the
States. But I have no disposition to test its strength by running against
that rock upon which Mr. Jefferson predicted we should be finally wrecked.
And the signs of the times, unless I greatly mistake them, are not of a
character to be unheeded. With virtue, intelligence, and patriotism on
the part of the people, and integrity, prudence, wisdom, and a due regard
to all the great interests of the country on the part of our rulers, a bright
and a glorious destiny awaits us. But if bad counsels prevail, — if all the
solemn admonitions of the present and the past are disregarded, — if the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 217
policy of the Administration is to be carried out,— rif Mexico, the ' forbidden
fruit,' is to be seized at every hazard, I very much fear that those who
control public affairs, in their eager pursuit after the unenviable distinc
tion of despoiling a neighboring Republic, will have the still l"ess enviable
glory of looking back upon the shattered and broken fragments of their
own Confederacy."
Wise words of warning, but all unavailing to stay the tide
which was now setting steadily and irresistibly in the direction
which he foresaw, and toward the catastrophe which he pre
dicted.
We now revert to the correspondence with Linton.
"January 1st, 1847. — Yesterday I wrote you a valedictory for 1846, and
to-day it seems right enough that I should present you a salutatory for
1847. For several years, I believe, the first time I have written the new
date was in a letter to you. . . . Yesterday was chill, damp, foggy, and
gloomy in the extreme : to-day it is clear, bright, and mild as a May day.
But I have to be contented with a look from the window and the reflection
of the sun which I cannot see. I am still confined to my room, though I
believe I feel better than I have done for several days."
January 3d. — This is Sunday, and the sounds of the various
church-bells lead him to speak of the day of prayer, and of the
effects of sincere devotion. He then branches off to tell of a
curious personage from Georgia who has given him much trouble
by seeking his help in his efforts to procure patents for what he
calls a " bee-rack," and some contrivance for sharpening gin-
saws. Willing as Mr. Stephens always was to give his help to
all who asked it, nothing could be effected in this case. The
letter of the applicant is so absurd that he incloses it to Linton
for his amusement. The main burden of this epistle is a com
plaint of the treatment the writer has received at the hands of
Mr. Edmund Burke, Commissioner of Patents (whom he seems
to confound with the eloquent accuser of Warren Hastings),
mingled with denunciations of Mr. Folk's Administration gen
erally. At times his indignation lifts him into song, of which
we subjoin a specimen :
"If a display of eloquence and base nattering is the channel through
which Justice can flow,
I cannot expect the Honorable Edmund Burke any of his favors on me
to bestow.
218 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
May cursed be its influence, until all can be with the capacities of Demos
thenes and Cicero born,
And all the weak voices does, as it were, to Thunder turn !"
On January 4th, having despatched one letter, he must needs
write a second to repair an omission. " I have been thinking
to-day, as I often have before, of ' Robin Short/ What has
become of the poor old horse? and why do you make no men
tion of him ?"
January 5tli. — After remarks upon some matters of law, this
letter concludes :
" To give you political news would be impossible. I can only tell you
what we do ; but to say anything about what is ahead, or what is coming,
would be out of my power. The truth is, nobody here, I believe, knows.
The wholQ Government, I think, is about to break down, — at least, the
Administration. There is no concert in any party, and nobody knows
what will pass the House. The Treasury is nearly empty, and soon will
be quite so. The new Tariff is falling far short of the supposed or esti
mated receipts. Walker [R. J. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury] says
he cannot borrow money unless a duty be laid on tea and coffee ; and the
House say they wijl not tax the stomachs of their constituents in order to
flog the backs of Mexicans. In the mean time quite a storm is brewing
about the slavery question. The North is going to stick the Wilmot
amendment to every appropriation, and then all the South will vote against
any measure thus clogged. Finally, a tremendous struggle will take place ;
and perhaps Polk in starting one war may find half a dozen on his hands.
I tell you the prospect ahead is dark, cloudy, thick, and gloomy. I hope
for the best, while I fear the worst."
On January 13th, after long and minute directions about
home-matters, and another inquiry after old Robin, he gives
an account of a speech made by his colleague and friend, Mr.
Toombs.
"It was decidedly one of the best speeches I ever heard Toombs make,
and I have heard him make some fine displays. It was even superior to
his Oregon speech. He had fully prepared himself, was calm and slow,
much more systematic than usual, and in many points was truly eloquent.
The House was full, and the galleries crowded, and all ears were open
and all eyes upon him. He commanded their entire and close attention
from the beginning to the end, and the effort has added full fifteen cubits
to his stature as a statesman and a man of talents in the opinion of the
House and the great men of the nation. I was better pleased with it
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 219
than with any speech I have heard this session. ... He is destined to
take a very high position here."
The last letter of this year, until the meeting of Congress
in December took him back to Washington, complains of the
boredom which he has to submit to. To this infliction he was
always a martyr. His patience and his sympathy were always
so extreme, that they almost robbed him of the power to refuse
or to dismiss visitors who came to see him out of mere curiosity
or idleness. In his later years he found these intrusions less
annoying, though not less frequent. His house, his table, and
his conversation were always free to whoever chose to visit him;
for the pain he would have felt in refusing any would have
been greater than the annoyance of receiving all.
So, when in Washington, much of his time was taken up in
attending to various matters of business for his constituents,
who never seemed to feel any hesitation in making demands
upon his services. In the first letter after his return to that
city, we find him recounting a variety of commissions he has
been attending to at the National Intelligencer office, the Pension
Office, the Land Bounty Office, and the Surgeon-Gen eraPs Office,
— a day's work which, he says, was more laborious than a week
in the House. "I succeeded/7 he remarks, "in nothing I went
for except at the Intelligencer office, where I had nothing to do
but to pay some money for some one who has not paid me, and
I doubt never will."
The first session of the new (Thirtieth) Congress began on
December 6th, and the first important business that came up was
the election of a Speaker.
"On this point," writes Mr. Stephens (in a letter of April, 1869),
" Southern Whigs were as timid as fawns. They were afraid to take a
New England man. In the Congress of 1845-47 we had but few Southern
AVhigs. In the new Congress, Thomas Butler King was the most promi
nent Southern Whig. He wished to have the Naval Committee ; but he
feared to take any prominent part in the election of Speaker, so did not
reach Washington until after the election was over, thus dodging the
question. I looked upon this election as of vast importance, and went on
early, getting Toombs to go with me. We were on the ground when the
new Southern delegations came in.
" Virginia had sent five new Whigs, never in Congress before, who
220 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
naturally looked to Georgia, for a lead in deciding between the candidates
presented by the North. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, and Yinton, of
Ohio, were the contestants for the nomination. Vinton had nearly all the
West, and several of the Middle States, and even some from New England.
The nomination depended upon the course of the Southern "Whigs. I
took ground boldly for Winthrop. It is true that he was cold and unpop
ular in his bearing, and generally deemed aristocratic. But then he was
a scholar and a gentleman. He had, moreover, given a toast in Boston, on
the Fourth of July, 1845, which won for him my esteem and admiration.
It was while great excitement still existed at the North about the admis
sion of Texas, and Was, in substance : ' The United States, our country :
however bounded, to be cherished in all our hearts and defended with all
our arms.' This exposed him to many attacks from opponents at home ;
and I thought the sentiment deserved a grateful remembrance. Hence
my bold stand for him. Toombs went with me, as did every Southern
Whig present, which secured his nomination. He was, of course, elected,
for the AVhigs had the House ; but I never said one word to him, either
before or after the nomination, as to the cause which led to it."
In the letter of December 14th, 1847, Mr. Stephens complains
of a disappointment to which Mr. Winthrop, unintentionally,
he supposes, had subjected him, in appointing him chairman of
the Committee on Public Lands. " Inclosed with this I send
you a list of the Committees which were reported yesterday.
Concerning my own position I have naught to say." Yet he
presently does say something concerning it.
" I should rather have been on the tail end of the Committee on Foreign
Affairs, or Territories, than where I am. I now despair of ever being
seated on a committee or being in a position according to my liking. I
never was, in the Legislature, and never have been, here. And if I was not
well assured that Winthrop thought he was doing a great deal for me, or
putting me just where I would be best pleased, I should never meet the
Committee at all. But this shows how defective men often are in their
judgments upon the feelings, views, and tastes of others. He thought
because I made a speech upon the Public Lands last year, that my incli
nations ran that way. At least this is what I am led to believe fronTwhat
I have heard others say. How the fact is I do not know ; nor have I in
timated to any one here feelings of dissatisfaction or disappointment. . . .
I have not determined whether I shall serve on the Committee or not. I
am half inclined not to serve ; and yet it might be considered evidence of
a bad spirit to refuse."
Why he wished a position on the Committee on Territories
can be easily understood by recurring to the political history of
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 221
this time. We have noted on an earlier page the attitude of the
Restrict ionists in regard to the organization of a Territorial
government in Oregon, who refused to be bound by the line of
36° 30', previously agreed to, and the bill passed the House
with the Wilmot Proviso incorporated in it. In the Senate,
Mr. Calhoun introduced a series of resolutions, setting forth the
views of the Strict Constructionists in regard to the status of
the Territories, and the rights of their citizens ; but these were
not brought to a vote, and the bill failed to pass the Senate, so
remained as a battle-ground of parties for the next Congress.
In regard to this matter he writes in a letter of April 18th,
1869:
" I did think from my position on the war, from my Resolutions on it,
which brought the party into power, that my proper place in committee
was the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. But I did
not say a word to any one on the subject, though when placed by Mr.
Winthrop on the Committee on Public Lands, I felt deeply mortified and
chagrined/'
For December 18th we find a long letter of twelve pages,
giving an account of his being cured of melancholy by read
ing Burton's Anatomy of that affection. The day is damp and
chilly, and after premising that such weather is apt to bring on
low spirits, he specifies his own case, and relates how Burton
has cured him. Then surmising that Linton may possibly be
similarly affected, he advises him to try Burton ; and not satis
fied with giving the prescription, forwards a handsome dose in
the shape of a liberal extract. He looks upon a course of treat
ment by Burton as " homoeopathic practice," though the remedy
has not been taken, iu his case, in homoeopathic doses. "But
the analogy between Burton and modern homoeopathists holds
in this, that he and they cure by seeming to feed the disease.
He, for instance, furnishes the widest field for this ill-starred
passion to rove in, ministers to its tastes, and even calls in the
imagination to create new objects for its indulgence, until satis
fied and sated, the soul, like the prodigal son, at last comes to
itself, wakes up from its dream, and laughs at its own folly."
Then follows the extract, giving a list of real and imaginary
222 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
evils provocative of melancholy. He continues, " And now (the
real Ego is again speaking), if you can get through that para
graph without laughing, you are more of a [illegible] than I am."
December 22d. — Linton having expressed concern about his
brother's treatment in the matter of the Committees, he reverts
to the subject.
"I think injustice has been done me; but, by a law of my nature, I
think it will be of advantage to me. I am very much like some chronom
eters, I need a weight or something hearing down upon me, to keep me nf~7
motion. I have felt it all my life. Without it, I am disposed to be inert j
and idle ; but the greater the weight, the greater the reaction. I therefore J
report the real state of ray feelings to be gratification."
December 25th. — A long letter on Christmas, in a vein befitting
the season. He has congratulations for all who greet its return,
except old maids and old bachelors, who, he thinks, but poorly
enjoy its blessed influences.
"It is true," he continues, "we have no great display here : no guns,
no crackers, no great exhibition of spirits of any kind, — though our land
lady sent round some nogg a while ago, — no music, no plays, no visiting,
and not even sunshine, for it has been snowing the livelong day, and we
are all housed. But nevertheless it is Christmas, — that same good old day
which awakens in me many reminiscences much more pleasant than even
the Fourth of July. For this is the anniversary of my own individual days
of liberty."
On the 29th a long quotation from Burton leads him into a
dissertation on poverty. After reciting its evils, he says :
" Yet mankind is not so bad after all as we sometimes are disposed to
conclude. It is only the lowly inclined, the mean in spirit, the bad by
nature, who suffer themselves to be the tools and hacks of the rich. Wealth
is good in its proper place, when possessed by those of the right spirit.
But it is by no means essential for the truly noble to enter successfully
all the honorable contests with which life abounds.
December 31st. — " The business of another day is well-nigh closed, and
with it the business of another year. The hour of midnight is near at
hand, and all without is as still and quiet as if no great event were ex
pected. The footman is no longer in the streets, the busy hackman and
his weary team are alike enjoying nature's sweet repose. No sound of
music, dance, or song is heard. In the mansions of the rich, as well as
in the hovels of the poor, the inmates are asleep, while I am keeping the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 1L STEPHENS. 223
vigils of the night, and watching with anxious care the last glimmerings
of the year as they fitfully flicker in the socket of time. A few moments
more, and it will be gone forever. To me it has been, in many particu
lars, a good friend ; and I feel it a sort of duty to sit by it in its last mo
ments. ... I believe that I have never passed the same period of time
in my life with as few incidents to affect me in body or mind. It is there
fore with reluctance I witness the separation."
Throughout this whole correspondence there are continual
references to home matters, inquiries about humble neighbors,
the servants, individually, and even the domestic animals, name
by name, which for brevity's sake we omit. This affectionate
interest in all who had even the slightest claim upon his regard
is highly characteristic of the man.
CHAPTER XXII.
Presidential Nominations — Opinion of Mr. Calhoun — Mr. Clay — Anecdotes
— A Conversation and a Prophecy — Death of Mr. Adams — Nomination of
General Taylor — The " Allison" Letters — Slavery in the Territories — The
Clayton Compromise — Speech of August 7th — Keturns to Georgia — Diffi
culty with Judge Cone — Mr. Stephens's Life attempted — Public Indig
nation.
THE most important political events of the new year (1848)
were the nominations for the Presidency. The Whigs still
looked upon Mr. Clay as their great leader, and his reception
in Washington, in January, was most enthusiastic. But the
mass of the party had begun to share the opinion of the more
far-sighted among them, that Mr. Clay, notwithstanding his
talents, distinguished public services, and great popularity, was
not an available candidate. There was an impression that he
was " unlucky" ; and besides, the recent war had given the
public a sort of military fever, of which it was thought a stroke
of policy to take advantage by running a military candidate
identified with the late victories. Mr. Stephens, as early as
1846, had advised the nomination by the Whigs of Georgia of
General Zachary Taylor, which had accordingly been done in
their State Convention of that year. His opinions, as the can
vass for the nomination progressed, will be seen in the subse
quent correspondence.
On January 10th he gives another intimation of his growing
admiration for Mr. Calhoun, whose character and talents he had
always respected, but whose statesmanship he had heretofore
looked at too much from a Whig point of view to do justice to.
"I send you the Intelligencer with Mr. Calhoun' s speech. Read it. It
is a great one. But for the few concluding paragraphs it would be, in
my opinion, one of the greatest yet made on this Mexican war. . . . Mr.
Clay has just reached the city: a great crowd greeted him at the depot
andonade the welkin ring with their shouts."
224
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 225
The next day he writes :
" The only news is that Mr. Clay has produced a great impression here.
I have not seen him yet, but am told by those who have that he looks re
markably well ; better than he did ten years ago. I expect he will give
the Whigs some trouble. This is my opinion entre nous. I think he will
be flattered into the belief that he can be elected ; and I assure you that
from what I have seen since I have been here, I consider the effort to elect
him would be useless. The opinion is too general that he cannot be suc
cessful: there is no confidence in his luck. He is certainly a most remark
able man. He has more of the warmest and most devoted friends than
any other human being, and more of the most sleepless and bitter enemies.
By the by, I must tell you what I have heard from divers sources, that on
his first interview, when he got to his quarters yesterday with his friends,
among others, Botts, of Virginia, upon being asked by Botts what course
the Whigs should take in relation to the Mexican war, he said, ' Pass the
Resolutions of Stephens of Georgia.' This I considered complimentary.
. . .QWe have a great many politicians in this country, but few statesmen.
No more to-night. Houston, of Alabama, is haranguing the House about
something of no importance in relation to the employment of a clerk.
Pollock, of Pennsylvania, is replying ; and so we spend our time from day
to day."
He mentions several speeches that have been made in the
House, among the rest, one by Gary, of Maine.
" He caused a great deal of merriment at his own expense ; but the hon
orable member did not care for ridicule. He persisted and finished his
speech. Many a man would have been overwhelmed with mortification,
but Gary triumphed, for he put down all laughter, and almost made the
laughers feel mean. I could but exclaim, like Judge Story, Well, now, he
was a good fellow !"
Again, referring to a conversation with Mr. Clay :
" There was one expression of his countenance which I shall never for
get. The conversation was going on about the conquest of Mexico. I put
the hypothetical case of Scott's refusing obedience to the late orders of
Polk suspending him from command, and said, ' Suppose Scott should
resign his commission as our commanding general, declare himself Em
peror of Mexico, and appeal to the soldiery to sustain him,' and indulged
in some other pleasantry of that kind, when Toombs put in, 'That, Mr.
Clay, would be only anticipating our destiny about forty years.' lie had
before been talking of a letter from General Worth, in which he advocates
the conquest and subjugation of the whole country, stating that this ulti
mately will be the result, and that by doing so now we should be but
anticipating by about forty years, — at least this was the construction put
15
226 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
upon Worth's letter in the conversation. Clay had been silent during this
jocular talk, but when Toombs asked him the question, he looked calm,
held his hands folded across his breast, cast his eyes upward as if in the
deepest and sincerest emotion, and said, '/ fear so!1 The expression I
shall never forget."
The letter thus concludes :
"One word more, which I do not wish you to repeat from me, and that
is, that I am now well satisfied that Mr. Clay will not allow his name to
be used in the National Convention. General Taylor will be nominated,
unless I am greatly mistaken."
At that time Mr. Clay expressed confidentially to his friends
his determination not to allow the use of his name in the Con
vention, as we learn from a letter of Mr. Stephens of later date.
On February 21st he alludes to an event which produced a
great impression at the time.
a The House has just adjourned in great confusion. Mr. Adams has had
an attack of apoplexy in his chair. He is now in the Speaker's room. It
is said that he cannot survive long. . . . The Senate is in secret session
on the project for a treaty with Mexico. It is said that Twist has unoffi
cially made a treaty for New Mexico and California, and we are to pay
fifteen million dollars, and keep twelve thousand troops for eighteen months
to defend the court that made it. So much for rumor. I don't know
whether Polk advises it or not."
February 22d. — "The House has just met, and immediately adjourned.
Mr. Adams is still in the Speaker's room, and is said to be sinking fast. It
is thought that he will not last longer than a few hours. I send you to-day
the Intelligencer, giving an account of his attack yesterday. The words he
uttered after reviving a little were very expressive : l This is the end of
earth !' as some say ; or as Mr. Abbott, who heard him, told me, ' This is
all of earth ! I am composed.' He was asked if he wished anything, and
answered 'My wife.' He was insensible, however, when she reached
him. He looked uncommonly well yesterday morning, and walked from
his home to the House."
Early in March of this year Mr. Stephens removed his quar
ters to a building known as the Rush House, which had been
rented by Mr. Toombs. The " mess" consisted of Mr. and Mrs.
Toombs, their two daughters, Mr. and Mrs. Crittenden, and Mr.
Stephens, — a very pleasant and congenial society.
Soon after his removal, he gives his brother his intentions and
views in regard to the approaching Presidential election.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 227
" I am for Taylor out and out, because I think he can be elected, and I
do not think Mr. Clay can be. From all I can learn he would not get as
many States at the next election as he did at the last ; and the great issues
now before the country are of too great importance to hazard them by
running him again. . . . The truth is, Mr. Clay some time ago did come
to a determination to withdraw, and declared to several of his confidential
friends that he would decline in a public way when he got home ; and
under that impression the Whigs of Kentucky forbore to nominate Taylor,
which they would have done but for that assurance. But he has since
changed his mind, and now intends to get the nomination if he can.
Taylor will be the strongest man in the Convention. I have the count.
It is true, I cannot count a majority of the whole Convention for him, but
he is decidedly stronger than Clay, McLean, and Scott, who will all have
friends in the Convention. When I wrote you some time ago that Mr.
Clay would be out of the way, I relied on his assurance to that effect ; and
I never became satisfied that he would disregard that assurance until last
Saturday. Now I am for Taylor anyliow. Mr. Clay has been deceived by
insincere men at the North, who only want to kill off Taylor with him."
There are no more of these letters for the rest of this spring
and the following summer, as Linton came on to Washington
at the end of March and spent several months with his brother.
They travelled in the North, and visited their uncle, James
Stephens (then quite feeble from the infirmities of age), in Penn
sylvania. They never saw him again. They also attended the
Whig Convention at Philadelphia; but we have no detailed
account of these movements. Mr. Stephens was not a delegate
to the Philadelphia Convention, but he materially aided in the
nomination of General Taylor and in his election. In fact, the
policy by which this election was secured, and the Whigs again
came into power, was to a very considerable extent shaped by
him. Those who remember well the campaign of this year
will not have forgotten the two " Allison" letters, especially the
second, which became so celebrated in the canvass. The history
of these letters is as follows:
Mr. Stephens was extremely urgent that General Taylor
should, as early as possible, publicly announce his position in
regard to the great questions of the day, and that this position
should be the right one. At his instance a letter was drawn up
at the Rush House, written, indeed, by Mr. Crittenden, but the
main ideas suggested by Messrs. Stephens and Toombs, and
228 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
framed entirely in accordance with their views. Knowing the
importance of prompt action, Mr. Stephens urged that it should
be carried at once by Major Bliss, of the general's staff, to Gen
eral Taylor at Baton Rouge. This advice was followed, and
Bliss started the next morning. The letter purported to be
addressed to the public ; but on the arrival of Bliss it was found
that General Taylor had already written a letter to Captain
Allison, explaining his position, which had been published.
So the letter prepared at the Rush House was also addressed to
Allison, and so framed as to give it the character of a supple
ment or postscript prepared after more mature reflection. This
letter was the Whig platform. It was a master-piece of its
kind; and in addition to the greater personal popularity of
Taylor over his rival, gave the Whigs a decided advantage when
the letters of the candidates were compared.
The Slavery question had now come to be a subject of perma
nent agitation in Congress, and it was plain that no definite set
tlement was to be arrived at, from the fact — shown in the case
of the Missouri Compromise — that the agitators and their
upholders did not intend to be bound by any agreement; how
ever favorable, nor any compact, however solemn. The ques
tion this year came up in the guise of legislation for the Terri
tories of New Mexico and California, obtained from Mexico
by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which the South con
sidered herself entitled to a share, as having equally contributed
to their acquisition, both in furnishing soldiers for the fighting
and treasure for the purchase, while the North was bent on
excluding her from such participation. Mr. Douglas appealed
to the Senate to maintain the Missouri Compromise line, as an
equitable basis of division of the public domain, but this was
rejected in both Houses. A bill was offered called the " Clay
ton Compromise," which wore an aspect of fairness and reason
ableness, and yet the acceptance of which would have been a
relinquishment by the South of all her rights. The main
features of this bill w,ere covered by the following words :
"And be it further enacted, That the legislative power of said Territory
shall, until Congress shall otherwise provide, be vested in the Governor,
Secretary, and Judges of the Supreme Court, who, or a majority of them,
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 229
shall have power to pass any law for the administration of justice in said
Territory, which shall not be repugnant to this act, or inconsistent with
the laws and Constitution of the United States. But no law shall be
passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil, respecting an
establishment of religion, or respecting the prohibition or establishment
of African slavery : and no tax shall be imposed upon the property of the
United States, nor shall the lands or other property of non-residents be
taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents. All the laws
shall be submitted to the Congress of the United States, and if disapproved,
shall be null and void."
Ill another section, wherein provision had been made for the
organization of Territorial courts, occurs the following clause :
" Writs of error and appeals from the final decisions of said Supreme
Court shall be allowed, and may be taken to the Supreme Court of the
United States, in the same manner and under the same regulations as
from the circuit courts of the United States ; except only that in all cases'
involving title to slaves, the said writs of error or appeals shall be allowed
and decided by the said Supreme Court, without regard to the value of
the matter, property, or title in controversy ; and except, also, that a writ
of error or appeals shall be allowed to the Supreme Court of the United
States from the decision of the Supreme Court created by this act, or any
judges thereof, or of the district courts created by this act, or of any
judges thereof, upon any writ of habeas corpus involving the question of
personal freedom," etc.
This bill Mr. Stephens strongly opposed, and gave his reasons
for opposing it in his speech of August 7th. In this speech he
shows: 1. That according to the law and usage of civilized
nations, all laws in force in a conquered country at the time of
its conquest, unless they be contrary to the terms of the treaty
of peace, or to the fundamental policy and organic law of the
conquering power, remain in full force until altered by the con
queror. 2. That Mexico, as far back as 1829, had abolished
slavery throughout the whole Republic, and confirmed the act by
subsequent legislation. 3. That the Constitution of the United
States, while it recognized slavery in those States in which it
already existed, did not recognize it in those States which had
abolished it ; and consequently there was nothing in its abolition
or non-existence in Mexico contrary to the Constitution of the
United States, and therefore ipso facto annulled by the conquest
in these Territories. 4. That by the bill the Territorial govern-
230 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
ments were forbiddden to legislate in any way on the subject of
African slavery, and it was provided that any questions on that
matter which might arise should be referred to the Supreme
Court of the United States. 5. That the Supreme Court,
under the circumstances, could not decide that slavery was law
ful in these Territories unless it were formally established there
by legal authority. 6. That, therefore, a bill which placed it
at the option of Congress to determine whether a Southerner
should or should not be allowed to immigrate into the newly-
acquired Territories with his negroes was neither more nor less
than a plain invasion of the rights of the South.
After proving these points, he continues thus :
"Then, sir, what are we of the South to gain by this Compromise?
• Nothing but what we would have, even with the Wilmot Proviso, — the
poor privilege of carrying our slaves into a country where the first thing
to be encountered is the certain prospect of an expensive lawsuit which
may cost more than any slave is worth ; and, in my opinion, with the
absolute certainty of ultimate defeat in the end, and with no law in the
mean time to protect our rights and. property in any way whatever!
This, sir, is the substance of the Compromise, even in the most favorable
view in which it can be presented. And this is the security for the South
which I had the temerity to reject! Would that the people of that section
may ever have men upon this floor of such temerity ! I did reject it, and
I shall continue to reject all such favors. If I can get no better com
promise, I shall certainly never take any at all. As long as I have a seat
here, I shall maintain the just and equal rights of my section upon this as
well as upon all other questions. I ask nothing more, and I shall t'ake
nothing less. All I demand is common right and common justice ; these
I will have in clear and express terms, or I will have nothing. I speak to
the North, irrespective of parties. I recognize no party association in
affiliation upon this subject. If the two parties at the North combine and
make a sectional issue, and by their numerical strength vote down the
South, and deny us those equal rights to which I think we are in justice
entitled, it will be for the people of the South then to adopt such a course
aj3__they may deem proper. I do not stand here to make any threats in
their name, nor have I authority to commit even my own constituents to
any course of policy. They must do that for themselves. My commission
here extends only to the maintenance of their rights upon all questions
and measures that may come before me in this House. And this I shall
do at all hazards."
After stating the two possible plans of compromise, one by
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 231
dividing the territory by well-defined lines, and the other by
rejecting the territory altogether, he concludes :
" The late treaty is not the supreme law of the land yet, and will not be
till the laws necessary to give it effect are passed. Mr. Polk has not yet
asked us to appropriate the money, and when he does, it will be our con
stitutional right and duty to deliberate on the expediency of making the
appropriation. And I now state that, if I am here when that appropria
tion is made, I shall exercise this constitutional right, and I shall never
vote one dollar from the common treasure of this Union to pay for these
Territories, if the jnstitiitions. of my section are L. to _be_ wholly excluded
from them. Nor will I vote one dollar to carry this treaty into effect
until I have this matter settled, and what I consider the great rights of
the South secured. And I believe this is the great lever of the South
upon this question. Let the bill organizing Territorial governments be
linked with the appropriation of the money, and let the South present an
unbroken front against paying a dollar, if their institutions are to be
excluded, and I shall have some hopes yet of obtaining justice.
"Now, sir, you know something of the only plans upon which I intend
to compromise this business. But, as I said before, if in all this I should
be defeated, — if the South will not stand with me upon this point, — if the
combined vote of the North carry the Wilmot Proviso, — then, sir, it will
be for the people of the South to take their own course, such as they may
deem their interest and honor demand. It is not for me to indicate that
course. But one thing I will say, that I shall be with them in whatever
course they may take. Their interests are my interests ; their fortunes
are my fortunes ; their hopes are my hopes ; and whatever destiny awaits
them awaits me also.
" As I have buffa few moments left, I will recapitulate my positions,
that no man may mistake or misunderstand them.
" The first is, that, by the bill, the whole-subject of slavery in California
and New Mexico, without any legislation on the part of Congress or the
Territorial governments, one way or the other, is referred to the Judiciary
to determine, whether it can legally exist there or not.
" 2d. That the Constitution of the United States fully recognizes, and
amply protects, the institution of slavery where it exists by the laws of
the State or place ; but it does not establish it anywhere, where by the
laws of the place it is prohibited.
" 3d. That California and New Mexico, being Territories acquired by
conquest, all the laws which were in force there at the time of the con
quest not inconsistent with'the Constitution of. the United States, or the
stipulation of the treaty of peace, or which were purely of a political
character, are, according to well-settled principles, and the adjudications
of our own courts, still in force.
U4th. That as slavery did not exist there at the time of the conquest,
232 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
but had been prohibited by express law, the Supreme Court of the United
States, to whom the matter was to be referred in the last resort, could
not be expected, from the principles of numerous decisions already made,
to decide otherwise than that slavery cannot be protected there until the
existing law abolishing it be altered by competent authority.
*;5th, and lastly. That these positions being uncontrovertible, the bill
offered, as it was, as a compromise and a final settlement of the question,
amounted to nothing but a total abandonment and surrender of the rights
of extending the institutions of the South to those Territories."
The main object of this speech was to defeat the acquisition
of this territory by Congress. He conceived that the measure
tied up the hands of the people. He was utterly opposed to
the treaty that bought this country ; and he and his colleague
Toombs were, we believe, the only two that voted against the
appropriation of money to carry it into effect.
This bill, like all the other measures introduced with a view
to settling the question of slavery in the Territories, was rejected,
and Congress adjourned on the 14th of August. Mr. Stephens
returned to Georgia, in time to render most efficient service in
the campaign, into which he entered with zeal, giving all the
time that could be spared from his professional duties.
Early in this campaign, however, an event occurred which dis
abled him for a while for exertions, and indeed narrowly missed
putting an end to his life. Mr. Stephens had heard that Judge
Cone, a leading politician, had spoken in very acrimonious terms
of his action, and had even gone so far, it was said^as to denounce
him as a traitor to his country. This was reported to Mr.
Stephens, who said that he did not believe that the judge had
so spoken ; but that as soon as he should meet him he would
ask him about the matter, and if he avowed it, would "slap his
face." Their first meeting occurred at a Whig gathering. After
the speaking was over, the company sat down to a dinner in
the grove, an 1 during its progress Mr. Stephens took occasion
to ask Judge Cone about the report, which the latter pronounced
false. Mr. Stephens expressed his gratification, saying that he
had never himself believed the report. He added, " I do not
mean to say anything offensive to you, Judge Cone; but I
think it right to say, as it will certainly be repeated to you by
others, that I said (after expressing my disbelief in the report)
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 233
that if you avowed the expression attributed to you, I would
slap your face." The judge repeated his disavowal, and the
matter seemed to have ended peaceably. But the affair was
talked of all over the State, and the judge grew persuaded that
it was the general opinion that he had shown cowardice. Heated
by this, he wrote Mr. Stephens a letter, demanding a retraction
of his threat, to which Mr. Stephens replied in the same way,
saying that as the threat had been only contingent upon the
avowal of the report, and as the judge had pronounced the re
port false, there was no occasion for any offence or angry feeling.
Before the receipt of this reply of Mr. Stephens, Judge Cone
and the latter accidentally met on the piazza of the Atlanta
Hotel in that city. The judge, in an angry manner, again
demanded a retraction. Mr. Stephens replied that the judge had
made that demand of him in a letter, to which he had already
replied in writing, and that he would give him no further answer.
Upon this the judge called him a traitor, and Mr. Stephens
instantly struck him across the face with a small cane in his
hand. Livid with fury, the judge drew a dirk-knife, and
attempted to stab him to the heart. In his left hand he had a
closed umbrella, which Mr. Stephens caught, and interposed as
a defence, the judge making furious thrusts with his knife, and
wounding Mr. Stephens eighteen times on the body and arms.
At length the judge, who was a large, muscular man, rushed
upon him violently, the umbrella broke, and Mr. Stephens fell
upon his back, his adversary throwing himself upon him.
Forcing Mr. Stephens's head back to the floor with his left
hand, he held the knife above his exposed throat, crying, " Re
tract, or I will cut your throat !" " Never ! Cut !" Mr.
Stephens shouted. As the blade was descending Mr. Stephens
caught it in his right hand, which was terribly mangled as his
antagonist tried to wrench it away. Both men had risen to their
feet again, still struggling, when friends rushed in and separated
them, and Mr. Stephens was carried into the hotel, and his
wounds immediately dressed. One of the stabs had penetrated
to within less than a sixteenth of an inch from the heart ; an
intercostal artery had been cut, from which in a few minutes
more he would have bled to death; and his right hand was
234 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
cut almost to pieces. It was thought at first that he could not
possibly survive.
The news of this rencontre quickly spread, and caused the
greatest excitement throughout the State, but especially in Mr.
Stephens's own county. Hundreds thronged into Crawfordville
to meet the night-train from Atlanta and learn his condition, for
the report had run that he could not survive his injuries. Mr.
Johnston was present, and will never ft rget the intense anxiety
and the deep and terrible feeling of resentment that fillecj all
breasts. Men spoke to each other in low tones, — all were
waiting to hear what the train would bring ; they would control
themselves, and do nothing until they knew the truth. When
the train was heard approaching, their excitement was scarcely
to be repressed. As it glided in, a passenger shouted that his
life was in no danger, and such a shout arose from the multi
tude as was never heard in that village before.
This painful affair was deeply regretted by all, but by none
more than Judge Cone, who had always been an amiable man, and
had never before been involved in any personal encounter. The
taunts of his political opponents, and brooding over an imagined
wrong, had for a time overthrown his judgment, and driven
him to an act which he afterwards bitterly regretted. Mr.
Stephens was very averse to the prosecution of Judge Cone for
this assault, and refused to appear as prosecutor. The judge,
however, was indicted, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of
stabbing, and was released on payment of a fine of one thousand
dollars. The amicable relations between the judge and Mr.
Stephens were restored after some years, and were never again
interrupted.
As soon as Mr. Stephens had sufficiently recovered, he re
sumed his work in the canvass. His right hand had been so
much disabled as to prevent his using it in writing, and we
have but two more letters of his this year, both written with
the left hand.
After the election of Genera] Taylor to the Presidency, and
the assembling of Congress, in December, there was much ex
citement produced by certain violent resolutions offered in that
body by leading Northern Whigs. A meeting of Southern Sen-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 235
ators and members was held, of which Ex-Governor Metcalf,
Whig Senator from Kentucky, was president. A committee of
fifteen — one from each slaveholding State — was appointed to
report upon the state of the country; of which committee Mr.
Stephens was chairman. This meeting, or convention, had several
sessions, and adopted a report (drawn up by Mr. Stephens) to
the effect that there was no cause for immediate action, further
than an expressed determination of a united South, to maintain
their constitutional rights if assailed.
Mr. Calhoun submitted a minority report, which was not
adopted; but was afterwards published and extensively circu
lated.
In the correspondence, we find Mr. Stephens bidding farewell
to the old year, as usual, in a letter, from which we make the
following extract :
" . . . Let us indulge in no forebodings of the future, but rest in hope
that all, under the guidance of a kind Providence, will eventuate well;
and that, whatever the next twelve months shall bring forth, will be the
best for the promotion of the general advancement and happiness of this
poor, degenerate, and sorely-afflicted world. Who will live to see the
close of 1849 is at present beyond human conjecture. Who are to be the
victims of violence, or slow disease, or scorching fevers, or racking pains,
or raging pestilences, no one now can tell. But every one has his time,
known only to the Ruler of the Universe ; and all should act upon the
principle of being always ready. To do the most good we can in relieving
misery, supplying want, allaying strife, establishing peace, promoting hap
piness, advancing morals, and extending intelligence and virtue, and so to
act in all things as to be ready at any time to close our career on earth, —
these are the great objects of life. The close of every year fills me with
sadness. Perhaps this is the last I shall ever see. In view of such a
contingency, keep this letter, and it will always present to your mind a
picture of my thoughts and feelings on this thirty-first of December,
1848. (jtwerrty years from this time it will be a fruitful theme of medi
tation for you."^ -~> ,
-f ^ 5 ^
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Abolitionists in 1848— Rise of the Free-Soil Party — State of Feeling
at Washington — Attitude of Southern Whigs — The Vote for Speaker —
Duty of the South— A Bad State of Things — Signs of a Coming Catas
trophe.
OF course the questions which Congress, as we have seen, left
unsettled in 1848, were sure to come back with increased ur
gency in the next year. In the mean time important political
events had happened. President Taylor had been elected by a
majority of thirty-six electoral votes, which was a triumph for
the Southern Whigs. But a new element had appeared in the
campaign. At the previous Presidential election, the Abolition
ists had for the first time introduced a candidate who received a
popular vote of less than sixty-five thousand. But there were
many who, while not desiring the abolition of African slavery
at the South, which would have resulted in the impoverishment
of the whole country, were still most eager not only to condemn
the South to a perpetual and hopeless minority, but to restrict
her from growth in the future, while opening prospects of in
definite .extension to the North. By this policy it was evident
that the North would in time acquire such a majority in both
Houses of Congress that she could alter the Constitution to her
own liking, and thus have the South, bound hand and foot, at
her mercy.
The Territorial question afforded an admirable fulcrum for
applying the lever. It seemed so reasonable and equitable to
say, " We do not desire to interfere with any of your rights :
what the Constitution protects you in shall not be meddled with.
But we do object to your carrying slavery into new Territories
where it does not now exist; and on this basis we will resist
you." That is : all future Territories, and all future States, no
matter how acquired, shall be ours and not yours.
236
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 237
Upon this basis the Free-Soil party was formed, and grew
with such rapidity that in the election of 1848 it was able to
poll nearly three hundred thousand votes.
The question with regard to the organization of California
had become most pressing, too, for another reason. The dis
coveries of gold had attracted multitudes of people, including
lawless adventurers from all parts of the world, with little
respect for the rights of others or the welfare of society ; and an
organized government was a matter of prime necessity. All
this had been left by the Thirtieth Congress to its successor, which
assembled on the 5th of December.
Mr. Stephens reached Washington about the last of Novem
ber, and found everything betokening a stormy session. He
writes on December 2d :
" To-morrow is the great day for organizing the House ; and the ele
ments without" [a fierce snow-storm was raging] "are not very unlike
the elements of passion which are now beclouding and casting a chilling
darkness over coming events. My most serious apprehensions of the diffi
culties before us will, I fear, be realized ; the indications of most boisterous
times are looming upon the horizon. I never saw greater sectional feeling
exhibited. The North is insolent and unyielding. What is to be the
result I cannot imagine. Winthrop will not get the entire Southern vote.
I shall not vote for him myself. Last night, in caucus, we wanted the
Northern Whigs to agree not to press the [Wilmot] Proviso, and not to
favor or vote for the abolition of slavery in the District. This they would
not do. I believe they are bent on mischief.
" I quitted the meeting, as did Toombs, Cabell, Morton, Hilliard, Owen,
and some others. I told them distinctly and positively that I should hold
no connection with a party that did not disconnect itself from these ag
gressive abolition movements. And I intend to abide by what I have said.
I think the Northern Whigs intend to pass some obnoxious measure in
reference to slavery, to compel President Taylor either to veto it or to sign
it. But enough of this now. I am perhaps under too much excitement.
My Southern blood and feelings are up, and I feel as if I am prepared to
fight at all hazards and to the last extremity in vindication of our honor
and rights . . .
u The Whigs, I understand, after we left, nominated Winthrop, and then
refused to nominate a Clerk, because he would have to be taken from the
South, and that they did not intend to grant. The North, according to
their views, is hereafter to have all the offices. No Southern slaveholder
is to have any. But enough. Good-night."
238 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
On the next day he writes :
" The House met to-day at 12 M., 221 members only present, and bal
loted four times for Speaker, without electing. The vote stood : For Cobb,
103 ; AVinthrop, 96 ; Wilmot, 8 ; Gentry, 6, and several scattering. The
six votes for Gentry were given by Toombs, Cabell, Morton, Owen, Hil-
liard, and myself. I consider his election out of the question, unless the
North makes a point on him. There was no angry talk in the House to
day 5 but the feeling is deep and intense. We are to meet again to-morrow,
and how many days in succession to go through the same operation I can
not say.
" The Administration here is in bad condition. I consider it as almost
in extremis. The truth is, the Cabinet do not understand their business.
The greatest blunders that were ever made by man have been made by
them all over the United States. The cry of disappointment from all
quarters is worse than it is in Georgia. Clayton is greatly censured, and,
I think, justly. He has failed to redeem his most solemn promises. . . .
I have had long talks with Northern Whigs to-day, calm and dispassionate,
and they seemed disposed to yield nothing. They intend to carry abolition
anywhere they can by the Constitution. That is their determination as a
party. I sometimes think their notion is to get rid of General Taylor for
the succession, by forcing him to veto some such measure. With such a
party I cannot act?7/"
December Jfih. — . . . "Few changes in the votes to-day. I am more
and more convinced every day that the Slave question is rapidly approach
ing a crisis. £!£ the South intends really to resist the abolition of slavery
in the District and the forts and arsenals, it is time they were making the
necessary preparations of men and money, arms and munitions, etc., to
meet the emergency?] I speak plainly and frankly. It is no time for hum
bug resolutions ofgasconade. No step should be taken unless we intend to
stick to the constitutional Union at every hazard. For myself, after thinking
of this subject as dispassionately as I could for several days under the excite
ment here, I hesitate not to say that, in my opinion, a maintenance of our
honor, to say nothing of vindication of our rights, requires us to resist the
aggression^ In my course here, while I shall pursue in all things the policy
which I shall believe will most likely avert such a result, yet I shall yield
nothing to the aggressor. ) It is becoming bootless now to quai'rel with
ourselves about who contributed most to the present state of things. I
believe the agitators of the South for several years have done more to
eifect it than all others united. But as Southern men we must look things
in the face as we find them. Our fortunes are united, and our destiny
must be common.
u It is also bootless to count the chances of success in a struggle with
the Federal Government. No people who are not fit for the lowest degra
dation count the cost or hazard of defending their honor or their rights.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 239
It is better to fall in a manly struggle than to live and fatten in inglorious
ease. And I would rather to-day see the whole Southern race buried in
honorable graves than see them insolently trampled over by such canting,
whining, puling hypocrites as are now setting themselves up as their judges
and reformers. I would rather see Georgia share the fate of Hungary
or Poland than see her truckling to the dictation of Northern hordes of
Goths and Vandals who are now threatening her with their power.
" But this is the gloomiest side of the picture. I do not think we should
be so easily subdued. We have spirit and energy, and we should have
friends also. Let us, then, be firm. These views I give you in the worst
aspect of the question. Perhaps all this may be averted. I shall do all
in my power to avert it."
December 5th. — ll Another day passed and nothing done. . . . The feel
ing of the North now seems abating. Perhaps a large portion of them
may yet be brought to terms. If so, a great deal will be gained. . . .
I find the feeling among the Southern members for a dissolution of the
Union — if the anti-slavery [measures] should be pressed to extremity-
is becoming much more general than at first. Men are now beginning
to talk of it seriously, who, twelve months ago, hardly permitted them
selves to think of it. And the North is beginning to count the cost. Not
the Free-Soilers, but the mercantile class. I shall not yet despair of the
Republic ; but while I hope for the best, I am for being prepared for the
worst."
December 12ih. — " As for the state of things here, it ' gets no better
fast.' We had the most .disgraceful scene in the House to-day you ever
witnessed. The Democrats had formed a coalition with the Free-Soilers
for the election of Brown, of Indiana. The bargain was discovered just
before it was finally consummated. Brown had pledged himself to the
Free-Soilers to give them satisfactory Committees on the Territories and
on this District. Upon this Wilmot, Giddings, & Co. voted for him side
by side with Cobb, of Georgia, Burt, of South Carolina, and all the rest
of the same stripe. Somehow or other the secret got out just before the
vote was finally taken or announced, and Seddon, Bocock, and McMullen,
of Virginia, changed their votes and defeated the election by two votes.
Then the disclosure was made, and such a row you never saw. We broke
up pretty much in a row, and where or when the matter will end no one
Can tell."
It is easy now to see that all this could have but one end,
though the final catastrophe was delayed for eleven years. When
the ship, in the Eastern story, is Hearing the lodestone rock, be
fore the crash and break-up come, the pins and bolts fly from
the timbers. Amid all the storms through which the ship of
the Union had hitherto passed, the sections, however strained,
240 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
had been bound together by the continuity of the great parties,
by the existence of a large and powerful body of Democrats at
the North and of Whigs at the South. But now, under the
irresistible attraction of sectionalism, the bolts began to fly. We
see Northern Whigs " determined as a party to carry abolition
anywhere they can." We see Northern Democrats entering into
secret coalition with the Free-Soilers. We see Southern Whigs
and Democrats indignant and alarmed ; and the man who of
all the Congress had perhaps the strongest and most disinterested
attachment to the Union, saying that it is time to be considering
the question of resistance, and preferring for his beloved State
the fate of Hungary or Poland to the degradation of " truck
ling to the dictation of the North." Had the South been wise,
O 7
she would have made ready in time for the storm that was sure
to come. But there were always flattering voices proclaiming
" peace, peace," when nothing but a truce was possible, and
assuring that the next compromise or compact would be certainly
observed, despite the experience of the past. Then, among a
large portion of the people there was a pathetic unreasoning
devotion to "the Union;" not the wise attachment that prized it
only so far as it was the means toward an e.nd, but a sort of blind
fetish- worship that looked upon it as something in itself su
premely sacred and precious, even though it should have failed
to accomplish the objects for which it had been established.
With these a few empty and resonant phrases about " the great
and glorious Union," " the best government the world ever saw,"
etc., produced an effect in the way of blinding them to their
interests and their rights, to the history of the past, and the in
evitably approaching catastrophe, that we can only call magical,
since it confounds all reason. Truly the South in these days
was the antitype of Sterne's father, whom "you might have
cheated ten times a day, if nine had not been sufficient for your
purpose."
December 15th. — " I send you to-day two papers containing the reports
of the speeches of Toombs and myself, with others of the House, day
before yesterday. That was the most exciting day I ever witnessed in that
Hall. . . . How or when we shall get a Speaker I do not see. I am still
of opinion that the Legislature [of Georgia, then in session] ought to take
no stand that they will not in good faith carry out to the bitter end. . . .
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 241
K If they intend to fight in any contingency, let them say so; and if they
\ do not, let them not say so. There is but one step from the sublime to the
\ ridiculous, in politics as well as in poetry."
December 17th. — u We remain in stain quo ante l>ellum. No Speaker
yet. But you know the old adage: 'money makes the mare go': and I
think, from indications within the last forty-eight hours, that landladies'
and landlords' bills will begin to operate in a few days. The members
begin to want money terribly, and there is no getting a dollar except on
credit until the House organizes. But for the root of all evil, I believe
the House would probably never organize as now constituted. Since the
speaking was stopped in the House, the excitement seems to have abated.
1 There is nothing so effectual against quarrels as silence. We have been
voting all day without coming within cannon-shot of an election. I think
we have effectually scotched the movement fur abolition in the District for
this Congress."
December 18th. . . . '' I have no idea when we shall elect a Speaker, but
if the South would follow my lead, and act with my spirit, NEVER, until
the North came to terms with us upon our rights. This is my kind of
resistance, at least for the present."
December 31st. . . . " You will see Cobb's* Committees in the Globe to
morrow. I don't think he has given general satisfaction. I shall not
serve on the Committee he has put me on."
In reference to these events Mr. Stephens writes, in April,
1869:
" The Whigs had carried the House, but the Northern wing was greatly
demoralized on the sectional question. My purpose and Tooinbs's was to
bring them to terms on this question of the Speakership. This, in my
opinion, then and now, could have been done if the Southern Democrats
had taken and adhered to a like position. But they did not seem to me
then to be sincere in the matter. They seemed to use it only for party
purposes. Hence they let go, elected their Speaker, and made all the
capital they could out of the divisions in the Whig party. The great evil
was but postponed and aggravated."
This conduct of the Southern Democrats in the House had
much to do in determining Mr. Stephens in his conclusions in
regard to the wisdom and expediency of secession. In other
letters written in the latter part of this year, we find indications
of a growing belief that the denunciations of Northern aggres
sion, and threats of what the South would do if this course were
*Ho\vell Cobb, of Georgia, a Democrat, was elected Speaker on the 22d,
under a resolution of the House making, on this occasion, a mere plurality
of votes sufficient to elect.
16
242 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
persisted in, were in great part mere blaster of the political
leaders. He was coming to the conclusion that while the North
was growing ever more regardless of the constitutional rights of
the South, the latter was becoming more and more incapable of
offering effectual resistance.
Another old friend dies on this 31st of December. But he is
in no mood for moralizing. Perhaps this has not been so much
of a friend, for he cares not to sit up and watch ; so inclosing in
his letter a charade and a puzzle for his brother's amusement; he
goes to bed.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Calhoun, Clay, and Webster in the Senate — Signs of the Times — President
Taylor's Policy — A Glance into the Future— Dismemberment of the
Union Inevitable — What the South should do — Mr. Clay's Compromise
Resolutions — Mr. Clay's Speech — A Sketch of the Scene and the Audi
ence — Sorrow for a Humble Friend — A Wedding in Low Life — Death
of Calhoun — The Galphin Claim— Seward's Plot — The Secretary of State
and Sir Henry Bulwer — " A most Wonderful Characteristic of our
People" — Sits for his Portrait — Hot Debates in both Houses — Principle
of Non-interference established — Death of President Taylor — Passage
of Mr. Clay's Bill, and Renewed Pledges of the Northern States-
Georgia Resolutions — Jenny Lind.
STORMILY the old year had closed, and stormily the new year
entered. No previous Congress had had within it such fierce
elements of contention. Sectionalism was making rapid strides;
and the voices of those who counselled peace and justice were
lost in the general clamor. Steadily but surely the forces were
gathering into solid phalanx, North against South ; the Norjth
seeing in the future a tempting vision of absolute power, and
the South beginning to feel that withdrawal from the Union or
unconditional submission would, ere long, be the only alterna
tives left her.
Still, there were men whose wisdom, patriotism, and eminent
position did much to avert for a time the inevitable catastrophe.
Mr. Clay had returned to the Senate, where he joined Mr. Web
ster and Mr. Calhoun, so that " the great Trio/7 as they were
called, were again in the arena.
On January 15th, 1850, Mr. Stephens writes to Linton:
u The general signs of the times augur no good, as I read them. Men's
•minds are unsettled. The temper of the country is fretful. The cen
trifugal tendency in our system is now decidedly in the ascendant."
January 21st. — " In the message received to-day you will see that the
policy of General Taylor is that the people inhabiting the new acquisitions
shall come into the Union as States, without the adoption of Territorial
243
244 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
governments. To this policy he is, and considers himself, committed.
And I now believe if any Territorial government [bill] should be passed
with the Wilmot Proviso in it, he would withhold his approval. We shall
therefore most probably have California and New Mexico as States before
long. But the bearing of this policy on the great questions of the day is
a matter still to be considered. Will the Slavery question be settled in
this way ? I think not. My deliberate opinion at this time, or the opinion
I have formed from the best lights before me, is that it will be the begin
ning of an end which will be the severance of the political bonds that
unite the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States of this Union. I give
you this view rather in opposition to the one I ventured to express on the
evening of the 25th of December. I then looked to settlement and adjust
ment and a preservation of the Union ; and as far as I then saw on the
horizon, I think the opinion was correct. There will, perhaps, be a tem
porary settlement and a temporary quiet. But I have lately been taking
a farther and a bi'oader view of the future. When I look at the causes
of the present discontent, j5Tam persuaded there will ,never again be har
mony between the two great sections of the Unionj/ When California and
New Mexico and Oregon and Nebraska are admitted as States, then the
majority in the Senate will be against us. The power will be with them
to harass, annoy, and oppress. And it is a law of power to exert itself,
as universal as it is a law of nature that nothing shall stand still. Cast
your eye. then, a few years into the future, and see what images of strife
are seen figuring on the boards ! In the halls of Congress, nothing but
debates about the crimes and the iniquity of slavery, and the duty of the
General Government to withhold all countenance of the unholy institution
of -human bondage. Can Southern men occupy seats in- the halls of a
Legislature with this constant reproach ? It is not reasonable. It is more
than I expect. It is more than (human nature can expect. The present
crisis may pass ; the present^djustmentrmay be 'made ; but the great
question of the permanence of slavery in the Southern States will be far
from being settled thereby. And, in my opinion, the crisis of that ques
tion is not far ahead. The very palliatives how so soothingly administered
do but more speedily develop the stealthy disease which is fast approach
ing the vitals. . . .MVIy opinion is that a disraembernien^ of this Republic
is not among the improbabilities of a few years to comeT In all my acts
I shall look to that event. I shall do nothing to favor it or hasten, but I
now consider it inevitable.
"Were I in our Legislature, I should certainly vote against any resolu
tions on the admission of California and New Mexico, or any other State,
because of clauses in their Constitutions against slavery. That is not a
point on which to make an issue. The South was injured by the acquisi
tion under the treaty which provided for their admission, not by the fulfil
ment of the obligations of the treaty after it has been ratified in all due
forms known to our Constitution. But I should not say much in praise
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 245
of the Union. C I see nohnjip^jo^thft South from th^ ..Ujoinn. I do not
believe much in resoTutions, any way. I am a good deal like Troup in
this particular. If I were now in the Legislature, I should introduce bills
reorganizing the militia, for the establishment of a military school, the
encouragement of the formation of volunteer companies, the creation of
arsenals, of an armory, and an establishment for making gunpowder. In
these lies our defence. \J_tell you the argument is exhausted ; and if the
South do not intend to be overrun with anti-slavery doctrines, they must,
before no distant day, stand by their arms.? My mind is made up ; I am
for the fight, if the country will back me. And if not, we had better
have no ' Resolutions' and no gasconade. They will but add to our
degradation.
^"" In reference to the Legislature, I should prefer that nothing should be
done in the way of resolutions, but the expression of the fixed and unani
mous determination of our State to support the Union under the Consti-
; tution and its compromises, and to resist to the utmost of our means any
(violation of its letter and spirit by Congress, so far as the institution of
[slavery is concerned. These are my feelings, and this is the language I
sKould hold. Partisans and demagogues might take care of themselves.
To this complexion it will come at last, (it is a great mistake to suppose
that the South can stave off this question^—-^^ have, ultimately, to submit
or fight. .^.
a Tlie Wilinot Proviso will not pass. That is an obsolete idea. Slavery
will not be abolished in the District this Congress, and perhaps not in six
or eight years. But it will be done in the lifetime of those now on the
stage of action ; and the South will be held up by public sentiment in the
North, and in the halls of Congress, to the whole world as polluted with
the crime of human .bondage. My course shall be directed to the future.
I shall regard with little interest the events of the few intervening years.
" I consider the Wilinot Proviso a humbug. In itself it is a dispute
about * goats' wool.' I should regard its passage as a good cause of re
sistance only so far as it might be considered an insult to the South. The
expression to the world of the deliberate opinion of the Federal Government
that institutions tolerated in the South deserve public censure and national
odium, would be no small offence to the people of fifteen States of the
Union. /
" One other though tS^Cpuld the South maintain a separate political
organization? On this I havetkeught a great deal. It has been the most
perplexing question to my mind. The result of my reflections is that she
could, if herpeople be united. She would maintain her position, I think,
better than the North. She has great elements of power. But I cannot
dwell upon this now."
On January 29th, Mr. Clay presented a series of Resolutions
known as his " Compromise/' on the subjects of chief agitation
246 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
at the time, or what he called " the five bleeding wounds."
These were : the admission of California as a State under the
Constitution she had prepared ; the organization of Territorial
governments for Utah and New Mexico ; the settlement of the
boundary between New Mexico and Texas ; slavery in the Dis
trict of Columbia ; the non-rendition of fugitives from service.
On these Resolutions Mr. Clay delivered one of his most cele
brated speeches, of which we shall hear more presently.
Of the nature of these Resolutions Mr. Stephens thus speaks
in his Constitutional View of the War (vol. ii. p. 199) :
" To understand the bearing of his Resolutions and the difference
between them and the final acts of Congress on the subjects embraced by
them, it is proper to state that before the meeting of this session of Con
gress, and without any authority from Congress, the people of California
had, during the summer of 1849, under a proclamation of General Riley,
of the United States army, then in command of that military district,
called a convention which had framed a constitution with an exclusion of
slavery, and asked to be admitted as a State into the Union under it. This
was understood to have been done in pursuance of the policy of General
Taylor's Administration, which was to get rid of the vexed question by
stimulating the people of the Territories to form State constitutions, with
the exclusion of slavery in them, and for them thus to apply for admission
into the Union without any previous authority from Congress. This policy
met the approval of very few of any party. To say nothing of other con
siderations, the people of Utah and New Mexico were in no condition to
become States.
u Mr. Clay^s Compromise proposed to admit California under the con
stitution so formed ; to organize Territorial governments for Utah and
New Mexico, without any restriction as to slavery 5 to settle the question
of boundary between New Mexico and Texas, by negotiation with that
State ; to pass an efficient act for the rendition of fugitive slaves, and
to abolish the slave-trade, as it was called, in the District of Columbia.
These propositions, taken together, like the Administration plan, satisfied
very few members, either of the Senate or the House. The great majority
of the North were utterly unwilling to abandon the restriction of slavery
in the Territories. A formidable minority of the same section was equally
unwilling to comply with that clause of the Constitution requiring the
rendition of fugitive slaves. This latter class, also, were not satisfied with
the bare suppression of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, but
insisted upon a total abolition.
"On the Southern side, an overwhelming majority were opposed to
the admission of California as a State, under the constitution so formed,
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 247
irregularly, and without the authority of law. The class of Southern
Whigs referred to were willing to admit California under her constitution •,
but required that in the organization of the Territorial governments for
Utah and New Mexico, the people from the South, settling and colonizing
those Territories, should be permitted to carry their slaves with them, if
they chose ; and that the whole people, then, should be permitted to frame
such constitutions as they might please in reference to African slavery ;
and upon their application for admission into the Union, they should be
received as States without any Congressional restriction upon that subject."
February 10th. — In answer to some of his brother's strictures
on the conduct of certain members of the Georgia Legislature
he has much to say, of which this is a part :
.
" I would not for the world court the good will of either a knave or
fool by the sacrifice of principle ; but I would not quarrel with them,
nor change my conduct towards them because of their not appreciating
my motives or conduct. I look upon as a most consummate
knave, and yet I suppose he will be sent to the N[ashville] Convention]
and there take a high stand on Southern Rights ! . . . What is to become
of us I cannot tell. But everything I see around me augurs the approach
o£ anarchy. The opinion I gave you some time ago is strengthened by
time. I see no prospect of a continuance of this Union long. The Nash
ville Convention will be held. It will be the nucleus of another sectional
assemblage. A fixed alienation of feeling will be the result. The anti-
slavery feeling and feeling of dismemberment may be abated, but it will
return with increased force. It is the idea of the age, the uionomania of
the century in which we live. Its march is onward, steady and stealthy,
like the approach of some mystejaous epidemic. When, where, or how it
is to end, God only knows. Slf we had virtue and patriotism among our
people and not demagogism, Ishould hope much from a Southern Confed
eracy. But I fear such men as andLc ^ and all of that class, can
not safely control the destinies of any pex>pje. j They may create a revolu
tion, but they cannot build up a good government. Other heads, other
hands, and other hearts will be necessary for such a work. We have the
ability, the/natural position, and the resources for a great and prosperous
people. ^AH the elements of power and progress are still within reach.
I All we want is the good sense, the forecast, the sound judgment, and the
'•proper principles to exert them rightly^n order to give us all that a
nation ought to have for its elevation arrri>,renown. f But I fear we should
soon degenerate into factions headed by bad leaders who would look only)
to their own distinction. We must, however, make the most and the best
[of events?] as they pass. Great ones are ahead of us, of this I feel
certain. I The next quarter of a century will be an important epoch in the
248 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
history of the Western Continent. Those who are now entering into life
will necessarily be conspicuous actors in it."
February llth. — " The California Constitution has at length arrived.
. . . My opinion as to what will be the proper course upon the admission
of California is not yet made up. It will depend upon so many events
and developments, that I have thought it wise not to be hasty in coming to
a conclusion. Everything here is uncertain. We are like a set of fellows
at sea, trying to make port in a fog. There is no seeing a rod before you,
and no one pretends to know where we are drifting. There is a great
deal in luck I have heard you say : my greatest hope at this time for safety
is in some fortunate turn of that sort; or rather, I would say, that my
greatest hope is in the hands of Providence. I hope all will yet turn out
well; but I do not see how or when. The dark hour, it is said, is just
before day : may it be so with regard to our present position of affairs ! I
do not, however, feel half that gloomy spirit that I felt three winters ago
when the war was raging and I saw all these difficulties in the distance.
The storm-cloud was then gathering ; and as in nature the most painful
and terrible moment is when the horizon is blackening with the coming
tempest, s<5 is it with me in this matter. The fury of the gale gives life to
the scene. Nothing is so depressing to the spirits as the hushed calm which
precedes the devastating whirl of the tornado or sweep of the torrent.
When it is upon you, there is some exhilaration in its force and fury, a
feeling somewhat kindred to the excitement of battle. Such is iny con
dition now, and such is the condition of things here, and hence I never
spent a more cheerful and agreeable winter in Washington. The same
remark, I believe, is applicable to all around me. The members are all
friendly in their intercourse ; and to see Northern and Southern men
together you would not suppose there was anything like enmity between
them."
February 20tli. — After a long and rather humorous description
of that humorous personage, Senator Foote, Mr. Stephens com
ments on the fact of there being at the time so remarkable a
conjunction of distinguished orators and statesmen in the Senate.
He singles out Calhoun, Webster, Clay, and Benton as stars of
the first magnitude and " master-spirits of the last quarter of a
century, at least on this continent." A little below them he places
Cass, and a little lower, but still distinguished, Houston, of
Texas. He then refers to Mr. Clay's speech on his Resolutions :
" The excitement in the country, the magnitude and importance of the
subject, as well as the eager desire of thousands to hear him, the great
orator of the age, — these feelings had extended not only throughout this
city and Baltimore, but the news that he was to speak on that day [Feb-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 249
ruary 5th] had gone to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, and from all
these places and many others more distant men and women had come in
great numbers to see and hear him."
Some of the prominent persons are thus sketched :
, . . . "Millard Fillmore, occupying the conspicuous seat erected for
the second officer of the Government. . . . His countenance is open and
bland, his chest full. His eye is bright, blue, and intelligent ; his hair
thick and slightly gray. His personal appearance is striking ; and no one
can look at him without feeling conscious that he is a man far above the
average. On his right, near the aisle leading to the front door, sits Cass
with his hands folded in his lap as if to hold up his protruding and super
incumbent abdomen ; his sleepy-looking eyes occasionally glancing at the
galleries, and then at the crowd pressing in below. Ben ton sits in his
well-known place, leaning back in his chair, and giving all who desire it
a full view of his person. One vacant seat is seen not far off on the same
side of the House. A vacant seat in such a crowd excites the attention of
all. 'Whose seat is that?' goes in whispers around. ' It is Calhoun's, —
not well enough to be out yet.' ' Who is that sitting by Cass?' says one.
' That is Buchanan, — come all the way from home to hear Clay.' 'What
thin-visaged man is that standing over yonder and constantly moving?'
' What, that old skeleton of a man yonder ?' ' Yes.' ' That is Ritchie of
the Union.'' ' Who is that walking down the aisle with that uncouth coat
and all that hair about his chin? Did you ever see such a swaggerer?
He can't be a Senator.' ' That is Sam Houston.' ' But where is Webster?
I don't see him/ ' He is in the Supreme Court, where he has a case to
argue to-day.' See Corwin, and Badger, and Berrien, and Dawson, all
near Clay ; all of them quiet while Clay pursues his writing. On the
opposite side, Butler, and Foote, and Clemens, and Douglas.
" After the carriage of the motion of Mr. Mangum to proceed to the
consideration of the order of the day, Mr. Clay folds his papers and puts
them in his desk, and after the business is announced, rises gracefully and
majestically. Instantaneously there is a general applause, which Mr. Clay
seems not to notice. The noise within is heard without, and the great
crowd raised such a shout that Mr. Clay had to pause until the officers
went out and cleared all the entrances, and then he began. He spoke on
that day two hours and fifteen minutes. The speech was reported in the
Globe word for word as he uttered it. I never saw such a report before.
His voice was good, his enunciation clear and distinct, his action firm,
his strength far surpassing my expectation. He had the riveted gaze of
the multitude the whole time. When he concluded, an immense throng of
friends, both men and women, came up to congratulate and to kiss him."
February 24th. — " Toombs will make a speech this week, and so will I,
if I get well enough. We do not intend to defend the position of Georgia
Democrats in their resolutions in the Legislature touching the admis-
250 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
sion of California. Whether I shall vote finally for it is not certain, and
will depend upon other matters. If it can be connected with such other
schemes of compromise as I am in favor of, I shall certainly vote for it. It
is said here by some who pretend to be informed, that Mr. AVebster intends
shortly to make a speech which will win him golden opinions from the
Potomac to the Rio Grande. How it will turn out I cannot say. I give
it to you only as one of the on dits, and I do that sub rosa.'"1
March 6th. — This is in answer to a letter communicating the
probable death by an accident of a humble kinsman, Andrew
Jones.
" Poor Andy ! How often have I thought of him ! How often have I
sympathized with him ! and how often, when furthest removed from him,
has my compassion gone out to him ! Many of the joyous days of my
boyhood were spent with him. In my tender years, when oppressed with
real and imaginary trouble, when I had no one to condole with me, I often
sought him out and found relief in his innocent and simple diversions.
Whole days and nights I have taken refuge from the buffeting world in the
sunshine of his mild and gentle spirit. In the hours of bitterest affliction
he was always near to administer comfort to the best of his ability. . . .
The day father died, when I went out into the old field and threw myself
upon the ground almost crushed with anguish, Andy was near me. He
lay by my side upon the grass, and lamented as if he too had lost a father.
And can it be true that his body was mangled and life extinguished with
no kind hand to minister to his sufferings? Oh, Andy, Andy! would I
could have been there in your last moments ! . . . Life has many changes.
I have passed through many, and perhaps many more are in store for me,
but I never can forget my early associations with Andy. . . . Poor fellow !
Our lots in life have been cast in different places; but it makes my heart
bleed to think of the past and to think of him. . . . Well, no marble may
mark his grave ; but the sod above him shall not beunbedewed with tears,
should I ever be permitted to pay such a tribute to his memory. . . . Last
Friday night, the night before this accident, I had a dream that filled me
with apprehension that some bad news would reach me. In my dream I
saw brother. I knew him : I talked to him. But oh how changed from
the likeness he used to wear ! He seemed to be a messenger from another
world, but vanished before announcing the object of his mission. I tried
to talk to him of his own last sufferings, but got no reply. . . . Life is full
of mutation. We are all but bubbles on the tide of time. There will soon
be left but few of my former friends ; but as the number grows smaller,
my love for them increases. As the hopes of life die out, my spirit turns
toward the graves of my departed friends. I have stronger inclinations
towards home now than ever. I am utterly sick of this place, of public
men and public affairs. . . . But I am grieved and afflicted, and will close
this disconsolate strain by bidding you good-night."
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 251
March 24th. — A bit of home-news. A neighbor's servant* has
put in a request to have Eliza (his cook) to wife. He has no
objection.
"Tell Eliza to go to Sloman's and get her a wedding-dress, including a
pair of shoes, and to have a decent wedding of it. Let them cook a sup
per, and have such of their friends as they wish. Tell them to get some
' parson man' and be married like Christian folks. Let the wedding come
off some time when you are at home, so that you may keep order among
them. Buy a pig, and let them have a good supper. Let Eliza bake some
pound-cake, and set a good wedding-table."
March 29th. — " Since Tuesday I have been busy investigating the charge
of Preston King against the Speaker. The Committee reported yesterday.
Their report was unanimous, and was also unanimously adopted by the
House. A baser or more malignant, as well as groundless, charge was
never made against any man than that against Cobb. It was without the
color of a pretext."
March 31st. — " The Angel of Death has just passed by, and his shadow
is seen lingering upon the startled countenances of all. A great man has
just fallen — Calhoun! His race is ended. His restless and fiery spirit
sleeps in that deep and long repose which awaits all the living. He died
Ihis morning about seven o'clock. Peace to his ashes! His name will
n long be remembered in the history of this country. He has closed his
/ career at a. most eventful period of that history, and perhaps it is most
(fortunate for his fame that he died just at this time."
April 4th. — A letter mostly about the Galphin claim, in which
Governor Crawford, of Georgia, then Secretary of War, was
interested, and from which he received one hundred and eighteen
thousand dollars. Much blame was heaped on Mr. Crawford
in reference to this matter. Mr. Stephens writes :
" Of course Crawford is not to be blamed in any respect. For the claim
was not adjusted in his department. It was allowed and settled by the
Secretary of the Treasury on the opinion of the Attorney-General ; and it
is but just to those officers, and it should be known that neither of them
knew that their colleague in the Cabinet had any interest in the claim
until after it was adjusted and paid. Crawford was by contract of fifteen
years to have half of the recovery. He is a lucky man in old claims, but
a purer man, I believe, is rarely to be met with."
April 12th. — " The state of affairs fills me with deep interest and con
cern for the future. We have great troubles ahead. Campbell, the Clerk,
died to-day. We shall have trouble in electing a successor, and lots of
* Harry, afterwards widely known as the faithful major-domo of Liberty
Hall.
252 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
troubles beside. I am beginning to look for a general bloiv-up before long.
This Administration cannot get along with this Government. I am pained
and made heart-sick at witnessing their folly."
April loth. — " I feel less interest in politics, and particularly in parties,
than I ever did. I don't think, if spared many a year to come, that I
should ever again feel any deep interest in the success of any ticket upon,
mere party considerations. The principles at issue, and the men before
the country, combined, shall always hereafter control my vote. (AJl^parties
are corrupQand all party organizations are kept up by bad men for cor
rupt purposes. I am out of party. I have been very much pained lately
at seeing the course of men that I once thought well of, and for whose
elevation to office I strove so hard. My only consolation is the conscious
ness of the integrity of my own motives. I looked to nothing but the
common good and prosperity of the country. I was green enough to sup
pose that there was such a thing as disinterested patriotism. I find I was
mistaken. I feel mortified at my disappointment ; but bear my mortifica
tion as I do a bruise or a sprain. I shall endeavor to avoid such accidents
in future. The men to whom I allude are , , and . These
men, I think, I had put in the Cabinet: I know I contributed to it. I am
inclined to feel that the responsibility rests upon me. I would not have
you understand me as saying anything against them further than that I
have been disappointed in the course of policy they would pursue. •
is kindly, honest, and, I think, free from all intrigue; but he is wholly
unfit for his present place. He takes no interest in public affairs ; he con
sults with nobody on the propriety of his appointments, and makes great
blunders in them. As for , I am much more disappointed in him, for
I find he is a scheming, intriguing politician. . . . He has done more to
ruin this Administration, I think, than all the members of the Cabinet
together. He has Taylor's confidence. Taylor is pure and honest : his
impulses are right; but he suffers his own judgment to be controlled
by others', and by no one so much as . The great blunder he made
was in suffering himself to be influenced by Seward. Seward ' came it
over . I have no doubt an alliance was formed between them before
Congress met. The extent of the implied understanding (to call it nothing
else) I do not know: but the anti-slavery men of the North were to be
brought to the support of Taylor by Seward ; not by a surrender of the
sentiment, but by making Taylor the head of their party, — not as an
abolitionist, but as a liberal man of the South, opposed to the extension of
slavery, and willing for the majority of the men of the North to carry out
any measure they might think proper. The Whig party, in other words,
was to absorb the Free-Soil party in the North, and become the great anti-
slavery party of the nineteenth century. The ' Locos' at the North would
be put down by their affiliation with slavery. The whole North would be
Whig. Taylor would be re-elected, and then Seward would succeed, and
a long list of successions, doubtless, loomed up in the opening vista. . . .
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 253
I have told him that his policy would ruin General Taylor. It will break
down his Administration, North and South, and leave him with a smaller
party than Tyler had. . . .
" I told you last fall that in my opinion Taylor would sign the Proviso.
You may now understand why I thought so. That point alone would not
have caused me to break with the Whig party ; but I soon saw that the
expectation was that Winthrop was to be elected by a coalition of the
Southern Whigs with the Free-Soilers, and the Whig party was to be the
anti-slavery party. ... If we carry McClernand's Bill, we shall do it
against the whole power of the Government, and the Whig party will be
defunct."
April 17th. — " I told you some days ago about the general feeling here
among the Whigs, North and South, against the Cabinet. That is, I told
you that a general blow-up might be looked for. I now say that no blow
up may be expected soon. The Cabinet intend to stand. I don't think
they intend to correct their errors, but they do intend to hold their places.
I often hear good things about them, collectively or individually. I heard
a good one on Clayton the other day. To relish it, you ought to know
him. He is good-natured, can't deny anybody anything, promises all
things to all men, and disappoints all. Another feature in his character
is that he can't keep a secret, — a great fault in a Secretary of State. lie
tells everything that happens in Cabinet meetings, and some things that
don't; for he sometimes promises a poor fellow an office, and after voting
against him in the Cabinet, goes out and tells him that he was overruled.
Well, it so happened not very long ago that the Secretary and Sir Henry*
Bulwer had a talk, as the report goes, about Nicaragua. The next day,
or the day after, the substance of the talk appeared in the correspondence
of one or two Northern papers. This annoyed Sir Henry, and at his next
interview he said, ' How is this, Mr. Clayton ? I thought our conversation
here was private. I have mentioned it to no one, and yet I see what we
conferred about at our last meeting published in all the papers. Can you
explain it?' This to most men would have been embarrassing, but to our
Falstaffian Secretary of State it was a small matter. With all imaginable
composure he said that he could not account for it. Such things annoyed
him extremely, — they perplexed him almost to death. It was owing to
the character of our people : they were always meddling with things that
did not concern them. These publications were nothing but the l surmises
of prurient letter-writers that were a pest of the city.' Sir Henry, to this
rational explanation, replied by barely saying that he had often heard that
the people of this country were distinguished for the faculty of guessing,
but he confessed that it exceeded anything he had been prepared to expect.
The Secretary remarked that it was ' a most wonderful characteristic of
our people, sir. They find out everything that is done. They seem to
me, sir, to find out one's very thoughts. It annoys me to death.' "
April 17th. (Second letter.}— . . . " We are just in the midst of the fight
254 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
here. There never was such a scene in the Senate as was enacted there
to-day. Clay was in his glory. He rose to his full height and was mag
nificent. I did. not know such thrilling eloquence was in him. Foote and
Benton were having a fight."
April 21st. — A long letter of advice to his brother. He is
not anxious for him to obtain public office, but is most solicit
ous that he shall establish a reputation and character in the
community.
" You have no idea of my solicitude on this point. I have never told
you how intensely I feel about it. Perhaps it is wrong to indulge such
feelings, but all the hopes, desires, and ambitions of my life are now cen
tred in you. I feel as if my race is nearly run. I feel that I am unfit to
mix among men. I am inclined to retire, at an early day, from public life,
and seek the pleasures of solitude."
April 28th, Sunday. — He has been very unwell for several
days, so instead of going to church, stays at home and writes.
"I thought I should feel better in spending my time in writing to you
than in turning my attention to the faces and fantastic attire of the fash
ionable crowd who go up to the house of the Lord in this city of Pharisees.
If I knew where there was some humble building in the outskirts of the
town where the meek, the lowly in heart, congregate, I might venture out
and spend an hour with pleasure and profit to myself; but not knowing any
such place, I have resolved to stay in my room and talk a little with you."
May 2d. — "From the report of Mr. Webster's speech at Faneuil Hall,
it seems that he intends to ' stand up to the rack.' He certainly opens
well. I know it was pretty confidently expected in certain high quarters
here when he left that his nerves would fail him when he came to speak
face to face with the Faneuil Hall philanthropists. But I have hopes of
him now."
May 7th. — " I sat to-day for my portrait. What do you think of that?
It is one of the strangest events of my life. I never thought before of
having my portrait taken. I was walking by a committee-room, — I saw
some portraits, — walked up to look at them. The man of the brush asked
me to let him take mine. I told him I might, perhaps, at some other time.
He said then would do as well as any time : he would not want me to sit
longer than ten minutes at a time ; so down I sat and to work he went.
When all was done, I asked him how much he charged for them, lie said
' fifty dollars.' I walked off, thinking I was a fool for once. His pictures
are very good, but fifty dollars is too much for mine.'1'1
May 10th. — " The portrait I mentioned some days ago is completed, and
a most detestable-looking thing it is. The consolation I have is that all
my friends say it is no likeness at all. So much for a disposition to en-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 255
courage the fine arts. . . . The report of the Committee of Thirteen in
the Senate has come in. Its fate is very doubtful. Great efforts are being
made to defeat it. These efforts cume from the Free-Soilers, the Northern
Whigs, and the Southern Democrats. The main bill for the admission
of California and the creation of governments for Utah and New Mexico,
is not so good as I should like it to be. The worst feature of it was put
into it by Southern men on the Committee A It is that which restricts the
Territorial Legislature from passing any laws respecting African slavery.
Now when the rights of the South are in such hands, what can be done'?
I have pretty much made up my mind to go for it, let it come in what
shape it will, so the Proviso is not in it. I shall make a speech denning
my position, and asserting that we get nothing by it; that slavery is abol
ished there, and that without some law passed by the governing power, it
\_Js_ useless to speak of the constitutional rights of the South. But I shall
say that in this opinion a majority of the South seem not to concur. There
has been ample time for a correct opinion to be formed; and now I am
willing for the matter to be tested. I shall not vote for it as a compromise,
but simply as a measure to quiet the country. The South will get nothing
by it. Whether it will pass the Senate or House is now doubtful. A ma
jority of the Cabinet is hostile to it. ... If the Cabinet is not so6n blown
up, the Whig party will be worse off than Noah's dove; it will not have
a dry spot to rest a foot on. I never saw so unfit a body of men as the
present Cabinet, in the same places. I am utterly astonished at them :
they have not common sense. Tyler's Cabinet were shrewd men compared
to them. But enough. I am almost an outsider, and am beginning to
feel but little interest in politics, — I mean party politics. Two years ago
I took a strong dislike to Mr. Clay. The truth is, he did wrong and be
haved badly ; but now I am beginning to think well of him again, and
can but exult occasionally as I see his master-spirit triumphant over oppo
sition in the Senate."
May 18th. — This being Saturday and a holiday he has taken
a stroll, and records his meditations in a letter of sixteen pages.
His walk has led him near the jail, —
" The house of criminals, the strong place for the lawless ; that doubtful
evidence of civilization, where the innocent are often crowded with the
guilty. . . ^fhis world's justice is a great farce — no, a dark tragedy] I
never see ajail lhat I do not feel sympathy for all the poor inmates,
whether guilty or not : and I never see a poor wretch peeping through
the iron grates without thinking that if all mankind who have done
nothing worse than he were in similar places, there would be, in all prob
ability, but few at large. These poor wretches who are punished, even
when guilty, are only the scapegoats: the great villains are at large."
The letter thus closes :
256 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
11 A day is very much like a lifetime. Both have their morning, their
noon, and their evening. The morning with me was spent in strolling in
beautiful grounds, over gravelled walks, amid roses and pansies ; the noon
in action, exercise, looking for places not found, and hunting for a foun
tain of lost water that did not exist. And then comes the evening with
its meditation and philosophy. After all, if my life shall prove as pleasant
on the whole as this day has been, I shall have no cause of complaint. I
shall desire no greater blessing than to see the sun of its evening go down
as clearly and gently as the sun of this day is now softly and sadly laying
his head upon the verge of the western horizon. If this should be my
fortunate lot, I shall, without -regret, close my career here below, as I do
this letter, by saying to the world, as I now say to you, ' Good-by ; and
may heaven's choicest blessings rest upon you !' "
Iii June the excitement culminated. On the 15th of that
month the extreme Northern members having been asked in
debate if they would ever, under any circumstances, vote for the
admission of a slave State into the Union, refused to say that
they would. Mr. Toombs, who had greatly distinguished him
self by his eloquence in debate, exposed the policy of the Free-
Soil party, and declared that if the North deprived the South
of her rights to a just participation in the common territory,
he, for one, would look upon the Government as alien and
hostile, and he, for one, would strike for independence. This
speech produced the greatest excitement, and the House adjourned
without coming to a vote.
In the Senate, on the same day, very nearly similar ^excite-
ment was felt. Mr. Soule, of Louisiana, offered the following
amendment to that section of Mr. Clay's bill which referred to
the Territorial government of Utah :
" And when the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be
admitted as a State, it shall be received into the Union with or without
slavery as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission."
" This," says Mr. Stephens,* " presented to that body the issue squarely,
as it had been presented by Mr. Toombs in the House, and covered one
of the essential points made by the Southern Whigs. When the Missouri
line was thus for the last time voted down in the House,f the South fell
* Constitutional View of the War between the States, vol. ii. p. 217.
}• On the llth of June, in the House, Mr. Green's motion that the Missouri
line should be recognized through all the newly-acquired territory, was
rejected by a large majority.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 257
back in almost solid column to their original position. They now main
tained that there should' be no Congressional restriction of slavery, either
north or south of 36° 30X. On this principle alone \vould they now settle.
This amendment, therefore, of Mr. Soul6 was the turning-point, and upon
its adoption everything depended, so far as concerned Mr. Clay's proposed
Compromise."
Great anxiety was felt as to the action of several Northern
Senators, at the head of whom stood Mr. Webster. In an
eloquent speech he declared himself in favor of the amendment.
This assured its adoption ; and thus the principle of a division
of the public domain between the North and South — which
really meant that all this domain was open to the North, but
only a part of it to the South — was done away with ; the
principle of non-interference by Congress established, and the
Government brought back to the original and equitable position
of the South.
The further history of Mr. Clay's bill, which marks one of
the most important epochs in the political career of the country,
is succinctly as follows : On the 1st of August the bill passed
the Senate, but so modified as to contain only that part providing
a government for Utah, with Mr. Soule's amendment. Thus it
went to the House. Then the Senate took the separate parts
that had been removed, embodied them in separate bills, passed
them and sent them down to the House. The Utah Bill was
referred at once to the Committee of the Whole; but on the
bill for the settlement of the boundary between Texas and Nevv
Mexico, containing an amendment by Mr. Boyd providing a
Territorial government for New Mexico (in which the Soul6
amendment was embodied), there was a long and fierce debate
and a great display of partisan tactics. Finally, on the 6th of
September, the bill, with the amendments, was passed by a vote
of 108 to 97. The Senate concurred in the House amendments,
and the other measures into which Mr. Clay's " Omnibus" bill
had been divided, were speedily taken up and passed.
Thus, by the firmness of the Southern members in both
Houses of Congress, who had made up their minds that they
would not remain in the Union unless the South were admitted
to equal rights in the common domain, — if not by an equitable
17
258 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
division, then by the removal of all Congressional restrictions
on slavery in the Territories, — this great principle was established.
a The Compromise/' says Mr. Stephens, " was an agreement on
the part of the slaveholding States to continue in the Union, in
consideration of these renewed pledges on the part of the non-
slaveholding States, through their members and Senators, to
abide by the Constitution." The South had yet to learn that
these renewed pledges were no more to be regarded than the
old ones.
During the Speakership of Mr. Cobb, at Mr. Stephens's sug
gestion, a change was made in the mode of reckoning the Con
gressional and political year, which then began at midnight on
March 3d, but was changed to begin at noon on March 4th.
In the month of June there are no letters, Linton being with
him. The first w,e find of interest bears date July 10th, and
gives an account of the President's death. It closes :
" Thus has passed away General Taylor. I had for him a high respect
and sincere regard. I was mortified almost to death at the folly of his
Cabinet ; but General Taylor was an honest, well-meaning, patriotic man,
and if he had obeyed his own impulses instead of being governed by the
foolish counsels of his Cabinet, his Administration, if he had lived, would
have been eminently pacific and successful. As it was, with such as he
had about him, it is perhaps best for him that Providence has removed
him. He is fortunate in his death."
The debate on the Territorial Bill, and the distribution of the
votes both for and against it among the Democrats and Whigs,
showed clearly that old party-lines were loosening, and that the
time for a reorganization of parties had come. Mr. Clay and
other leaders on both sides signed and published a paper, drawn
up by Mr. Stephens, declaring their intention of supporting no
candidate for office who would not support the principles now
established. In Georgia, in December, a State convention was
held, in which a series of resolutions was passed, which were
afterwards known as "the Georgia Platform/' and the party
upholding them as the Constitutional Union Party. The prin
ciples of the Compromise measures were affirmed by both the
Whig and Democratic Conventions, held in Baltimore in 1852,
and met with the approval of the great majority of the people
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 259
in' both sections and of both great parties ; and to his hearty
approval of them the triumphant election of Mr. Pierce in
1852 was largely due.
We append the Georgia Resolutions :
"GEORGIA RESOLUTIONS OF 1850.
" To the end that the position of this State may be clearly apprehended
by her confederates of the South and of the North, and that she may be
blameless of all future consequences,
"Be it Resolved by the People of Georgia in Convention assembled,
First. u That we hold the American Union secondary in importance only
to the rights and principles it was designed to perpetuate. That past asso
ciations, present fruition, and future prospects will bind us to it so long
as it continues to be the safeguard of those rights and principles.
Second. "That if the thirteen original parties to the compact, bordering
the Atlantic in a narrow belt, while their separate interests were in
embryo, their peculiar tendencies scarcely developed, their Revolutionary
trials and triumphs still green in memory, found union impossible without
compromise, the thirty-one of this day may well yield somewhat in the con
flict of opinion and policy, to preserve that Union which has extended the
sway of republican government over a vast wilderness to another ocean,
and proportionally advanced their civilization and national greatness.
Third. " That in this spirit the State of Georgia has- maturely consid
ered the action of Congress, embracing a series of measures for the
admission of California into the Union, the organization of Territorial
governments for Utah and New Mexico, the establishment of a boundary
between the latter and the State of Texas, the suppression of the slave-
trade in the District of Columbia, and the extradition of fugitive slaves,
and (connected with them) the rejection of propositions to exclude slavery
from the Mexican Territories, and to abolish it in the District of Columbia ;
and, while she does not wholly approve, will abide by it as a permanent
adjustment of this sectional controversy.
Fourth. " That the State of Georgia, in the judgment of this Convention,
will and ought to resist, even (as a last resort) to the disruption of every
tie which binds her to the Union, any future act of Congress abolishing
slavery in the District of Columbia, without the consent and petition of
the slaveholders thereof; or any act abolishing slavery in places within the
slaveholding States, purchased by the United States for the erection of
forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, navy-yards, and other like purposes ;
or any act suppressing the slave-trade between slaveholding States ; or any
refusal to admit as a State any Territory applying, because of the existence
of slavery therein ; or any act prohibiting the introduction of slaves into
the Territories of Utah and New Mexico ; or any act repealing or mater
ially modifying the laws now in force for the recovery of fugitive slaves.
200 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Fifth. "That it is the deliberate opinion of this Convention that upon
the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Bill by the proper authorities
depends the preservation of our much-loved Union."
There are only four or five more letters of this year. In
Charleston Mr. Stephens heard Jenny Lind sing, and says in
several letters that he would like to give Lintotf some idea of
the impression her singing made upon him. This he never
quite does ; but by the references to it, the impression would
seem to have been remarkable. He is not himself much of a
musician, though he can turn an old-fashioned tune not un-
melodiously, especially before breakfast ; and the voice of the
"Swedish nightingale" seems to have given glimpses into a world
of harmony heretofore undreamed of, and for which he can find
no adequate expression.
CHAPTER XXV.
Rio, the Dog— The Secret of Mr. Stephens's Life— The Campaign of 1851—
Re-election to the House — Disappointed Curiosity — An Anecdote.
ABOUT this time we notice in the letters mention of a member
of Mr. Stephens's household who can never be overlooked by his
biographer. Some time before this he had received as a present
a very large and fine white poodle, named Rio, a dog of unusual
intelligence and affection, to whom he became very strongly
attached. While Mr. Stephens was in Washington, Rio stayed
with Linton at Sparta until his master returned. Mr. Stephens
would usually come on during the session of Greene County
court, where Linton would meet him, having Rio with him in
his buggy, and the dog would then return with his master.
When this had happened once or twice, the dog learned to
expect him on these occasions. The cars usually arrived at
about nine o'clock at night. During the evening Rio would
be extremely restless, and at the first sound of the approaching
train he would rush from the hotel to the depot, and in a few
seconds would know whether his master was on the train or not,
for he would search for him through all the cars. He was well
known to the conductors, and if the train happened to start
before Rio had finished his search, they would stop to let him get
out. But when his search was successful, his raptures of joy
at seeing his master again were really affecting. His intelligence
was so great that he seemed to understand whatever was said to
him ; at a word he would shut a door as gently as a careful
servant might have done, or would bring a cane, hat, or um
brella. He always slept in his master's room, which he scarcely
left during Mr. Stephens's attacks of illness. In a word, Mr.
Stephens found in him a companion of almost human intelli
gence, and of unbounded affection and fidelity, and the tie
between the man and the dog was strong and enduring. In
201
262 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
one of the first letters of the new year (1851), Mr. Stephens
mentions a dream he has had about Rio, and expresses a fear
that some harm may have befallen him.
January 23d. — He has dined at the President's, with a very
agreeable party.
" I was the first to leave, and as I came to where the hats and cloaks
were, the Irish Paddy whom you know, the porter, said to me, with all
the nonchalance imaginable, as he waved his hand toward the hats and
cloaks, ' "Well, I think you can get a purty good one to-night.' . . . Oh
that- 1 were with, you and llio ! I fear you do not feed Rio well enough.
... I would not give one week at home, — no, not one night with you
and Rio, for all the pleasures I enjoy here in a month."
February 3d. — A letter from Linton has referred to some
business matters, which, though not very momentous, have an
noyed him considerably. After discussing these, he continues :
" After reading your letter I relapsed more profoundly into a musing
mood in which I was indulging when it was handed me, and to break that
spell is the only object I haVe in writing. ^Thought often settles upon me
like a nightmare, .and as in the case of nightmare, action is necessary to
break it, so in troubles and mental anxieties I have often found relief in
nothing but action of some sort] This world is a strange place, and man's
life is but a dreamy pilgrimage through an inhospitable clime. His path
is over mountains and in deep and dark valleys, through bogs and morasses,
beset on all sides not only by brambles and thorns, but by gnats, flies,
mosquitoes, stinging insects, and venomous reptiles. Occasionally he
comes to an open space where the light of heaven seems to smile with
benignant rays upon the prospect around him, and where he may pluck a
violet or a rose. But ere the flower withers in his hands, the summons of
destiny bids him onward to encounter new dangers and new annoyances.
" Sometimes I have thought that of all men I was most miserable; that
I was especially doomed to misfortune, to melancholy, to grief; that my
pathway of life not only led over the same mountains, heaths, and deserts
with others, but that an evil genius was my inseparable companion, fol
lowing at my side, forever mocking and grinning, and making those places
which in the lives of others are most pleasant, to me most miserable. If
on the way I — but no, it is useless. The misery, the deep agony of spirit
I have suffered, no mortal knows nor ever will. The torture of body is
severe; I have had my share of that, — rheumatism, neuralgia, headache,
toothache, fever, and most maladies flesh is heir to. But all these are
slight when compared with the pangs of an offended or wounded spirit.
The heart alone knoweth its own sorrow. I have borne it these many
years. I have borne it all my life. . . .
LIFE OF ALEX AM) El! //. *'/'/•: /'///•: .VS. 263
"I am tempted to tell you a secret. It is the secret of my life. I
never told it to any one. But I will toll it to you, and I fear you will not
believe it. But it is true; and if you nev<T Misperted it, that shows how
true I have been to myself in keeping it.
"The si-i-ivr of my lif^ ha-i \>^\\ -rn'enge. reversed. That is, to ri-e
superior to the TU'irh-rt or contumely of the mean of mankind, by doim'
tin-in good instead of harm. A determination to war even against fate ;
to meet the world irratl" its forces ; to master evil with good, and to leave
no foe standing in my rear. My greatest courage has been drawn from
my deepest despair ; and the greatest efforts of my life have been the fruits
of a determination, a firm resolve, excited by so slight a thing as a look.
This feeling, this principle, — call it what you will, — is the mainspring of
my action. When I have looked upon the world and seen it filled with
knaves and fools, and have seen in the whole waste not one well of water
from which I could draw a drop to slake my thirsting, parched soul, with
all hopes blighted : when I have been ready to lie down and die under the
weight of that grief which is greater than all other griefs. —
' A young heart desolate
In the wide world,' —
I have often had my whole soul instantly aroused with the fury of a lion
and the ambition of a Caesar by, I repeat, as slight a thing as a look!
What have I not suffered from a look ! what have I not suffered from the
tone of a remark, from a sense of neglect, from a supposed injury, — an
intended injury ! But every such pang was the friction that brought out
the latent fires. My spirit of warring against the world, however, never
had in it anything of a desire to crush or trample ; no, only a desire to get
above them, to excel them, to enjoy the gratification of seeing them feel
that they were wrong; to compel their admiration. . . . This is the extent
of my ambition ; this the length, breadth, and depth of my revenge. It
has in it nothing low or mean, for it is to triumph over the base that it
stimulates me to action. To be really sweet it must be essentially pure, —
pure in principle, and pure in exertion.
" But wliat poof consolation is this ! What short-lived pleasures attend
victory thus attained ! Sometimes my evil genius, like Job's comforters,
jeers and taunts my human kindness, casts scorn upon my good nature, bids
me turn cynic and man-hater, — an Ishmaelite, — bids me raise my hand
against every man as every man's hand is raised against me. Oh, the
fiendish genius of the tempting imp! I shall take none of his counsels.
" Now you may think that I am somewhat moody to-night, to be in
dulging in such a strain. No; not more than usual. It is true, I was
musing when I got your letter, thinking over many things that have
annoyed and pained me excessively, — small things, it is true; but things
that sent their sting to the soul, — to the very quick of life, — and your letter
added some fuel to the flame. But still I am not in what I sometimes call
a melancholy mood."
2G4 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
The reader, remembering the trust and confidence that had
been placed by his fellow-citizens in Mr. Stephens, shown by
their placing him in high public office, and remembering also
that he was in a position where he could give full scope to all
his powers, and exercise no small influence on the destinies of
the country, will consider such utterances as these as the mere
moodiness of hypochondria. That they are so in part cannot
be denied ; bnt, as he says, no one knows or can know all that
he has suffered. There is one surviving friend to whom he has
confided more of his inner life than to any other, and he has
been filled with sympathy at the revelation of strange sufferings,
and with admiration at the fortitude with which they were en
dured. Endured and concealed ; for at this time it was only
to his beloved brother that he lifted up even a corner of the veil.
In the summer of 1869, while in conversation with his
friend, he alluded to this letter, and criticised the use of the
phrase " revenge reversed." " It was not," he said, u the right
word ; but I could not find a better/'
At the close of the session Mr. Stephens returned to Georgia,
where he spent the rest of the year. In the summer the politi
cal campaign, in the Southern States, opened on the action of
Congress in regard to the Territories. The leading men of South
Carolina, generally, and many of those of other States, favored
secession from the Union. Mr. Stephens, and most of the lead
ing men of his State, advised against separation, and this, with
his views on the subject of the admission of California, drew
upon him much hostility in South Carolina. His course in this
matter was determined, not by any doubt of the right, but by a
conviction of the inexpediency of its exercise. He had inti
mately studied the characters of the leading Southern statesmen,
and he feared there was not a sufficient weight of steadfast un
selfish patriotism and personal virtue to carry through such a
movement successfully. He foresaw that secession meant war,
and a war that would demand patriotism of a lofty, pure, and
enduring character to conduct it successfully, as well as a una
nimity in sentiment and policy such as could scarcely be hoped
for. And he still cherished the hope that wiser counsels might
prevail; that the North would render, if not complete justice to
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 265
the South, at least such partial justice as would render a con
tinuation in the Union preferable to separation. One of his
present biographers has heard him say that if his whole section
in 1851 had been unanimous in feeling, and he had felt any
assurance that among the men who would have been the leaders
of a new confederation were to be found the requisite patriotism,
virtue, and statesmanship to carry the new body politic through
all the perils and trials that would attend its birth, he would have
counselled such resistance as would either have secured equality
under the Constitution or have ended in disruption. As it was,
he opposed the policy of secession, and in conjunction with Mr.
Toombs and Howell Cobb easily carried the State. The Con
stitutional Union party was formed, on the platform of the
Georgia Resolutions of 1850, and Mr. Cobb was elected Gov
ernor by a heavy majority. Mr. Stephens was re-elected to the
House, and went on to Washington at the opening of the session
in December.
There are but few letters during this year. On October 26th
we find a very long one written from Lagrange. In it he tells an
anecdote related by a Mr. William Campbell, at whose house at
Atlanta Mr. Stephens spent an evening. He had been travelling
on the cars a day or two before, and this was what happened :
" William said that a man got off the cars at and ran out on the
platform, and cried out, ' Aleck Stephens is on the cars !' whereupon a
number of persons came out and gazed about, and looked in. One old
man came up and asked him if he knew me. Will said 'yes.' ' Is he on
the cars?' ' Yes.' ' Where is he? I want to see him,' said the old man.
' If you want to see him you must be in a hurry, for the cars will start in
a moment.' 'Oh, I just want to look at him; I never saw him; point
him out to me ; that will do.' William then led him forward to the bag
gage-car, where I was sitting smoking, looking out on the other side.
4 That is he,' said William. The old man raised his hands, exclaiming,
' Good Lord !' William told us of several other similar scenes on the road
the same day, how persons got him to point me out. But they all laughed
heartily at the exclamation of the old man. so great was his disappointment.
" I added to their glee by telling them that the old fellow was like a
man I met, in Cherokee in 1843, who came up to me after I had spoken,
and said,^ Well, if I had been put in the road to shoot a smart man, you
would have passed safe, sure n At this — which was strictly true — they
all laughed more heartily, I believe, than at William's story. For they
then seemed to laugh with a liberty, — I had given them a license to laugh."
CHAPTER XXVI.
Louis Kossuth — Speech in Baltimore — Marriage of Linton — Demoraliza
tion of the Whig Party— A Card— A Vote for a Dead Candidate— Ad
dress at Emory College — Reminiscences of Childhood — A Sad Year —
The Galphin Claim — Mr. Stephens's Speech on the Bill to Prevent
Frauds — Severe Accident to Mr. Stephens — Sickness — Two Humble
Friends.
WE have but few letters for the year 1852. The earliest,
dated January 4th, contains allusions to the arrival of the Hun
garian orator Kossuth, whose eloquent appeals in behalf of
Hungary excited an extravagant and inconsiderate enthusiasm
in the public, which Mr. Stephens feared might influence Con
gress to take some step that would compromise our foreign rela
tions. There was a contest for two or three days in Congress
over a resolution tendering him a complimentary reception in
the House, the majority trying to suspend the Rules in order to
pass it; but this was successfully resisted by the minority, of
whom Mr. Stephens was one.
Being invited to deliver an address to the people of Baltimore
on Washington's Birthday, he took occasion to warn the public
that in their generous sympathy for a foreign people they must
not forget the principles of justice and sound policy. After
showing the relations which the States bore to each other in the
Union, what that Union was, and the advantages which had
flowed and would still flow from it if the Constitution were
faithfully observed and its essential principles kept ever in view,
he then warned them of the perils which would attend any
interference with foreign politics, or entangling alliances with
foreign nations, and solemnly enforced his warnings with the
wise words of Washington.
"For the honor of Americans," he continues, "be it spoken that the
first attempt to arraign the wisdom of Washington on this question of our
266
LIFE 'OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 267
foreign policy was made by a foreigner. Would that I could say that no
American had yielded to the ' insidious wiles of his influence' ! But the
virus has taken effect; it is spreading through the land ; and we now hear
it openly proclaimed in many places that it is time for us to assume our
position among the nations of the earth ; that it is time we had a foreign
policy. What does this language mean? Is it intended by those who use
it to convey the idea that we have gone on for upward of sixty years in a
career of prosperity never before equalled without any foreign policy?
Was not the rule laid down by Washington, and acted on by every Presi
dent from his day to this, a policy? It was a policy. It was and is the
policy of attending to our own business and letting other nations alone.
It was and is the policy, the time-honored policy, of non-intervention. It
may not be a foreign policy, but it is a Washington policy ; by an observ
ance of which we have come to be what we are, — one of the first nations
of the earth. Are we to be told that it is now time for us to assume a
place among the powers of the world? Did not our forefathers do that
when they compelled Great Britain, in 1783, to acknowledge our sover
eignty and independence? Had we no position among the great nations
when France sought our alliance in 1795 and 1796, which overture was
rejected? Had we no position in 1812, when we again met in combat our
old enemy, and the most formidable foe in the world ? Had we no posi
tion when British fleets were driven from our seas, and her invading
armies were cut down and beaten back from our shores? Were the heroic
deeds of our naval officers, to whose memory a marble monument has been
erected on the Capitol grounds, performed before we had sufficient power
to be felt? Was the gallant and daring defence of your own city, which
you have put in monumental remembrance on your own public square, all
done without a foreign policy, and before we were enabled to take a place
among the nations of the earth? 'Be not deceived, my fellow-countrymen :
we have had a policy from the beginning. It is a good policy ; it has
worked well. Let us adhere to it."
On the 2d of February, Linton Stephens married Mrs. Emme-
line Bell, daughter of James Thomas, Esq., of Hancock County.
Alexander paid the newly-married couple a visit early in May.
After this there is a slight, a very slight, yet sensible difference
in the tone of the letters. The marriage was a judicious and
happy one, and had his entire approval, yet he could not but
feel that there was a change in their relations. Linton was,
now as always, the first and the only one to him, but he was not
now the first to Linton. He does not now unbosom himself
with the former unreserved ness: he writes about history, litera
ture, and general topics. In his letter of May 13th he goes into
a long argument about the letters of Junius, in which he disputes
268 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
the Franciscan theory.* In another of the same month he
dwells on the practice of the law. He says, among other things,
" I consider that almost any just case may be gained by mas
terly management. Always when I lose a case I feel that I
failed in some point that I ought to have been better prepared
on. Hence I always think a great deal about my lost cases. I
brood over them as Hannibal may have brooded over his worst
defeats."
The summer and fall of this year he spent at home. He took
but little interest in the Presidential election. We have seen
that he had never been in thorough accord with the Whig party,
but had generally acted with it simply because he preferred its
policy, on the whole, to that of the Democrats. The Slavery
question had now entirely demoralized the Northern Whig party,
and he had not enough confidence in the Democratic party to
unite with them. Between Pierce and Scott, therefore, he had
but little choice. A card was published in Washington, on July
3d, drawn up by Mr. Stephens, and bearing the signatures of a
number of leading Southern Whigs, giving their reasons for not
supporting General Scott. Daniel Webster was the man of his
choice, and though he died before the election, many of his ad
mirers, including Mr. Stephens, voted, after his death, the elec
toral ticket bearing his name, in the spirit in which the garrison
of Chateauneuf laid the keys of their stronghold upon the coffin
of Bertrand du Guesclin.
On July 21st he delivered by invitation an address before the
literary societies of Emory College, Georgia, in which he set
forth the principles which should guide young men in their
career through life, and especially in their struggles for dis
tinction and success. This speech won him new honors in an
entirely new field.
As usual, he marks the last day of the year by a letter, — a
melancholy one, full of sad memories.
December 31st. — ..." How time flies, and how the years pass by us !
I well remember the first letter I ever wrote. It was in 1826. It was, I
* This view he afterwards elaborated in an Address before the Literary
Societies of the University of Georgia, on August 4th, 1873, and subse
quently in the International Review of September-October, 1877.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 269
think, the second Sunday after I went to my new home upon the break-
ing-up of our little family-circle on the death of father and ma. Its date
therefore, I think, was May 28th, 1826. The letter was written to Uncle
James Stephens, of Pennsylvania, giving him an account of our affliction.
The day and its incidents I shall never forget. Uncle Aaron had gone to
meeting. . . . Brother Aaron Grier and I were both writing letters. The
day was clear, calm, and warm. We had a table in the middle of the big
room. It was some time before we could get a pen a-piece. I need not
tell you that at that time no such thing as a pen of any kind but a goose-
quill was ever heard of, in those parts, at least. Our inkstand was a little
leather-covered phial that Uncle Aaron used to take with him when he
went from home : in this phial was some cotton that held the ink ; and the
pen was filled by pressing it against the saturated cotton. ... I wish I
could see that letter now. I was all day at it. When Uncle Aaron came
home, he looked over both letters and made some corrections, and then we
had them to write over again. . . . This was my first letter. It was the
utterance of the bitterest grief. As children come into the world crying,
so my first effort of speech through the medium of writing was to make
known by such signs as I could command the almost unutterable emotions
of a wounded spirit. The body is better off in this respect than the soul :
the body can weep and cry 5 its pains have a natural outlet. But the
afflicted soul has no voice ; it cannot cry : it has no tears ; it cannot weep.
This I have often felt, but never so keenly and oppressively as at the death
of father. Could my suffering spirit then have given one shriek, it seemed
to me that it would have afforded some relief. . . . But there are no words
that can convey any idea of the agonies with which I was tortured. . . .
But where am I wandering to ? When I began this epistle I had no idea
of saying all this about my first letter.
" But an old year never goes out without receiving from me a melancholy
farewell. I am in the mood of mind to-day well suited for such a leave-
taking. I am confined to my room, half sick, and lonely. I am sitting
up, but feel weak and giddy, and should fall or faint if I were to attempt
to walk or stand long."
All the letters of this year are characterized by this tone of
sadness. Perhaps he would not have acknowledged it to him
self, but we can see that his brother's marriage has had its inevi
table effect upon him. It was a happy marriage ; he approved
it, was glad of it for his brother's sake, sent cordial messages of
affection to the new-married pair; yet his loneliness has been
made the deeper by it ; his life, unblest in so many ways, has
had an added shade of sadness. The one nearest and dearest to
him has chosen a nearer and dearer, and to some extent is lost
to him ; and though he knows not why it is, we can understand
270 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
why his memory went back to that early and first loss of his
nearest and dearest twenty-six years before.
A matter which excited considerable interest at this time was
the " Galphin claim," to which some allusion has already been
made, and in the debates on which, in the House, Mr. Stephens
took a leading part. It is now well-nigh forgotten, but the
facts, in brief, were these :
In 1773 the Cherokee Indians in the colony of Georgia, find
ing themselves in debt, made a treaty, by which they agreed to
cede two million five hundred thousand acres of land to the
Crown of Great Britain, for which the Crown was to assume and
satisfy the debt. One of the creditors was George Galphin,
whose claim, to the amount of £9791 15s. 5cL, was certified
by the commissioners in 1775. The Revolution then broke out,
and the State of Georgia took possession of the lands and gave
them as a bounty to soldiers. In 1780 the State passed an act
binding herself to pay all those Indian claimants who had been
true to their country in the war the full amount awarded by the
commissioners, with interest at six per cent, per annum. Gal-
phin's patriotism was not denied ; but for want of money the
debt, though several times brought before the Legislature by his
son, was not paid.
Now in 1790, the Federal Government passed an act assum
ing the indebtedness which each State had incurred for purposes
of defence during the War of Independence, and Georgia finally
referred the claim of Galphin to the Federal Legislature. Many
delays occurred in the various stages of legislation; but, in 1847,
a committee of the Senate reported that the claim was just, and
the bill authorizing its payment passed that body. In the next
year it passed the House : the principal was paid at once, and the
interest, a much larger sum, was settled some time after. For
political purposes reports were spread about that this claim was
a gigantic swindle, that persons high in office were parties to it ;
and for a while the cry of " Galphinism," as indicating any
monstrous and disgraceful fraud upon the Treasury, had con
siderable effect. In particular, some plausibility was given to
the charge by the fact that Mr. Crawford, at the time Secretary
of War, received a large sum from this claim. But his perfectly
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 271
legitimate interest in the matter long antedated his secretaryship;
the claim was not adjusted in his department; and it was allowed
by the Attorney-General and paid by the Secretary of the
Treasury without either of them knowing that Mr. Crawford
had an interest in it. Mr. Stephens, in his speech of January
13th, 1853, on the Bill to prevent Frauds on the Treasury of'
the United States, set the whole transaction in its true light,
after which no more was heard of Galphinism.
The following extract will show the spirit of this speech :
11 1 am here to resist all party clamor that may be brought against this
claim. What I have said5/I have stated for the House and the country.
The facts, as I have stated, are uncontroverted in the past, and will remain
incontrovertible for all time to come ; and I defy their controversies here
or anywhere.
'" I suppose that many of these expressions, such as ' Galphinism,' are
engendered by party heat, emanate from partisan feeling, and are used
without any distinct idea of what is meant by them. But I say that the
character of every man should be defended by those who love truth and
justice. The character of the humblest, alike with the character of the
highest, shall, at all times, receive defence from me when I can defend it.
I care not if the name of the wrongful accusers is Legion, I will face them
all, if necessary. I do not care to join with the shouting multitude merely
because they are strong in numbers. I do not fancy the taste of those
who play upon expressions because they catch the popular cant or whim
of the day. It is an easy matter to pander to the passions or prejudices
of the uninformed.
" Sir, this is the facilis descensus Averni, the downward road of the
demagogue. It is easy to travel it, and, to some, it seems to be a pleasant
jaunt; but to vindicate the truth, to stand up for the right against the
majority, hoc opus, Me labor est. I shall do it, or attempt to do it, sir,
though I be a minority of one."
Linton, after his marriage, removed to Sparta. We find Alex
ander writing to him in May from Crawfordville :
" If it were not for you, it seems that this wide world would be a perfect
desert to me. Among the millions who inhabit it, no other congenial
spirit is found with whom I can hold full communion of thought. . . .
Perhaps you may think I am low-spirited. Perhaps it is so. Have I not
enough to make me so? But I assure you that I do not feel depressed.
I have an elasticity of soul which seems to bear me up even in the midst
of the greatest troubles of mind and body."
On the 9th of June of this year (1853) Mr. Stephens met
272 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
with a very severe accident, which came near being a fatal one.
He was on his way to Macon, when the train by which he was
travelling was thrown from the track and wrecked. His right
shoulder blade was broken, his left elbow crushed, and his head
very badly cut, so that for a while it was thought that his skull
had been fractured. This injury kept him in the house all the
summer.
On July 6th, after disquisitions on the weather in his letter
to Linton, we have some talk about his dog Rio, to whom he
seems to turn, in his solitude, for companionship.
"• In all my strolls from one room to another I have a constant com
panion, — it is none other than llio. The dog never stuck so close to me in
his life. He sleeps at my feet in the day, and at night, before I go up
stairs to bed. Last week when it was so hot, he got into a way of starting
with me, but when I mounted the first step of the stairs he would throw
himself at the foot of it with a grunt, and remain there for an hour or so,
and then come up and see that I was in bed, when he would return to the
cool place. During the night he would repeat his visit several times. He
seemed to think that by his sleeping at the foot of the steps I could not
get out without his knowing it. ... But, notwithstanding many praise
worthy traits, he has a good deal of the dog about him. To-day he de
liberately took a bone away from Edmund's dog, Watch, and ate it up.
That, I thought, was a downright doggish trick. I tried to make him feel
mean about it; but he did not seem to comprehend me at all."
We find several letters written during the summer and fall ;
but none of special interest. He took an active part in the
canvass for Governor. The Constitutional Union movement of
1850, of which he had been the leader, lasted but two years, and
in 1853 the Whigs and Democrats relapsed into their old antago
nism. Mr. Jenkins* came forward, however, as the candidate of
this party, and with Mr. Stephens, Mr. Toombs, and others tried
to keep up the organization. But the Democrats, with Herschel
Y. Johnson as their candidate for Governor, fell back upon their
old platform. The contest was warm and close, resulting in the
election of Mr. Johnson by a majority of about five hundred votes.
Mr. Stephens had been very anxious that the old party issues
* Hon. Charles J. Jenkins, afterwards Judge of the Supreme Court and
Governor.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 273
shoulcl.be abandoned, and that Southern men should stand united
upon the Georgia platform of 1853 ; and when the union formed
upon this basis showed so little cohesion and permanence, he lost
still more of the little confidence he had in the ability of the
South to hold her own amid the perils and trials that were
gathering thickly and in many forms about her.
In the fall of this year he had a very severe attack of illness,
resembling in its symptoms that of 1842, and like that it re
sulted in an abscess of the liver, which discharged itself through
the lungs. Although relief followed, the prostration resulting
was so great that he was not able to leave his room during all
the latter part of 1853 and January, 1854.
On December 22d he writes from Washington :
" I have been very sick since I wrote to you last. That night — Mon
day — I was taken with high fever, ending in an attack which I call colic.
Tuesday 1 suffered greatly, but got easy about three o'clock. Last night
I had a return of high, burning fever, which lasted all night, and is not
off now, at two P.M. My pulse is 100. I am taking quinine, and am sitting
up, though perhaps I ought to be in bed, but I have some letters that I
must answer. When I shall write to you again I do not know. I am
now getting too sick to proceed. I will keep you advised of my condition
by others, if I cannot write myself. I am going to have a serious attack,
I feel assured of that. Withal, my lungs are badly affected, though I think
only sympathetically."
The 24th he feels somewhat better, and writes more cheer
fully ; and on Christmas, which is Sunday, writes again :
"A bright, joyous-looking day without. I am sitting up a little to
have my bed made, while enjoying the cheerful light from my window.
How delicious is pure light ! It falls upon the senses like pure water
upon the body. It invigorates and vivifies. I don't wonder at Milton's
apostrophe to light.''
After mentioning the gravity of his symptoms, and particu
larly the exhausting effects of night-sweats, he adds :
" There is one thing, however, that I wish to impress upon you. and
that is an earnest desire that you shall not permit yourself to become
uneasy on my account, or suppose that I suffer from any apprehension.
I had more uneasiness when I felt the first touch of the disease than now.
I have grown used to confinement, used to my room, feel no restlessness
to be out, and am prepared to get along in the best way I can, without
18
274 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
any heavy care about it. 'Patience is a great virtue,' some one has
said. If this be true, I have at least one great virtue."
On the 28th he writes that he feels better. Has had two
letters from Linton, in which mention is made of a Christmas
visit paid to the latter by his brother's servant Bob, with his
wife and children. In the answer he says much about Bob,
part of which we extract to show the relations that subsisted
between him and his servants, and his consideration for them.
" And poor Bob ! he went over in the sleet and snow with his wife and
little ones. I fear the exposure will make some of them sick. By the
way, Bob was not obnoxious to your apprehension that he had made too
free with the mules and buggy. He had my permission to make you the
visit, before I left. It was a darling visit to Bob. It had been- near his
heart all summer. I suspect he enjoyed it right well, if the simple-
hearted, good-natured fellow did not get drunk !
" Bob, with all his faults, has many excellent traits of character, and
some substantial virtues. He is honest, faithful, and truthful. Just
before I left home, he came up to town on Sunday, and stayed with me all
day. J was sitting in the front parlor alone, reading, when he came and
sat or the steps. He began to talk in a very serious mood about my
leaving home. I turned the subject to a religious talk. I asked him
if he ever thought what would become of him if he should die. He said
yes : that subject occupied more of his mind every day than all other
things put together. I asked him if he ever prayed. He said he tried
to pray. . . . Towards sundown I walked down to the back lot to take
some exercise, and Bob went with me. He, Rio, and I were the trio.
We looked at some young pigs, then walked through the apple-orchard,
peach-orchard, and potato-patch, back to the house, Bob still talking and
forgetting to go home. But about sundown he rose with, 'AYell, this
won't do for me; I must be gwine. Good-by, Mass' Ellick.' This ended
the last evening I ever had the pleasure of spending with Bob."
CHAPTER XXVII.
New Tactics of the Agitators— The Personal Liberty Bills— The Pledges of
1850 to be broken— Speech of February 17th— The Nebraska Bill— The
Kansas War— Death of Mrs. Ray — A Georgia Corn-Shucking — A Visit
from " Uncle Ben"— Speech of December 14th— Christmas-Eve— The
Know-Nothing Party.
THE quietude produced by the Compromise of 1850 was, as
might have been expected with such political elements in the
country, of no long endurance. The party of agitation, to whom
the abolition movement was not an end, but a means to gain their
political objects, were not likely to forego the most powerful
instrument in their reach for fostering that dissension upon which
all their schemes depended. They simply changed their tactics
and their point of attack. As for the time being they could
effect nothing in Congress, they turned their efforts to inflame the
popular mind and influence the local elections. The point they
selected for their operation was the Fugitive Slave Law, a pro
vision for the return of fugitives from service who had escaped
into other States.
In their agitation on this subject they were not only so suc
cessful as to make the capture and return of a fugitive almost
impossible, the attempt, though made by the United States mar
shal, being almost invariably resisted by a mob, but they induced
several of the Northern States to go much further in the path
of nullification than South Carolina had gone, whose Ordinance
had never been put into execution. These States passed acts,
called Personal Liberty Bills, which rendered void the act of
Congress within their limits, by interposing the action of the
State courts. The decision by the Supreme Court of the United
States that the act was constitutional, and that the States were
bound to carry it out, was met by denunciations of the court,
and of the Constitution, which, in the quasi-religious phraseology
which the agitators affected, was called " a covenant with Hell."
275
27-6 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
The subject came up in Congress again at the end of 1853
and the beginning of 1854. A portion of the land ceded by
Louisiana, and not covered by the bills providing for Utah and
New Mexico, was now in a condition to demand a Territorial
"government; and on the 4th of January Mr. Douglas reported
a bill in the Senate, providing for the organization of a govern
ment for Nebraska, in which he carefully adhered to the principle
and language of the Compromise of 1850. This was the signal
for a recommencement of the agitation. The agitators, with Mr.
Sumner at their head, declared their intention to break through
the Compromise of 1850, and renew to this Territory the old
Missouri restriction, which they now extolled as a "solemn com
pact" which had been broken by perfidy ; though they themselves,
as we have shown, had broken it almost as soon as it Avas made.
On the 17th of February, while this Nebraska Bill was still
pending, Mr. Stephens addressed the House on the subject. He
took issue with those who asserted that the Missouri Compromise
was a " solemn compact," and showed, moreover, that even if
it was a compact, those who were now proclaiming its sacred-
ness were those who broke it. He reviewed the history of the
slavery agitation, and the respective positions of the two sections,
and of the Whig and Democratic parties, closing with an elo
quent appeal in favor of constitutional justice as the only basis on
which the happiness, peace, and prosperity of the country could
be built up. This speech, one of the most powerful he ever
delivered, will be found in the Appendix.* What renders it
more remarkable is the fact that the day before its delivery Mr.
Stephens had, for the first time in two months, been able to leave
his room, and his appearance, as described by eye-witnesses, was
that of an animated corpse with flaming eyes.
On May 9th, Mr. Stephens writes from Washington :
" We took up the Nebraska question yesterday by twenty-one majority,
and will take a final vote on it this week. I think it will pass ; but the
vote will be closer on the final test than it was yesterday. We are on the
eve of a great issue with Cuba. England and France have set their heads
against the policy of that island toward us. We must and will have it;
* Appendix A.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS., 277
and we cannot permit them to go on with their policy of filling it with
Africans."
May llth. — " We have had no vote on Nebraska yet. How long we
shall be occupied with preliminary questions I cannot tell ; but if I had
my way, not one minute. I want to move to strike out the enacting clause,
which will cut off amendments. The friends of the bill could carry this
motion ; then the Committee would rise, the House would disagree to their
report and pass the bill under the previous question, if we have the
majority. That is my plan of tactics ; but I have not yet got the leaders
to agree to it. I am getting tired of their vacillating, timid, foolish policy.
... I am getting chafed in spirit at the thought of following the lead of
such men. I am growing insubordinate, and losing my self-respect. If
I had not come here, I verily believe that they would not have got the
question up -" [The remainder of this letter has been lost.]
May 23d. — " Nebraska is through the House, — majority thirteen. Eight
Southern men in the negative ; all Whigs except Benton. I took the reins
in my hand, applied whip and spur, and brought the ' wagon' out at eleven
o'clock P.M. Glory enough for one day. I will soon send you some inci
dents of the fight."
The passage of the Nebraska Bill — which included a provision
for the formation of a Territorial government in Kansas also —
again changed the tactics of the party of agitation. Framed in
accordance with the policy of the Compromise of 1850, it opened
these Territories to settlers from all the States, and to their
property, without restriction on the subject of slavery ; and
allowed the settlers to regulate their own affairs, with no other
limitations than those prescribed by the Constitution. The
agitators began at once to organize " Emigrant Aid Societies" in
the North, for the purpose of sending out bands of armed men,
not peaceable emigrants, whose object was, not to settle and culti
vate the soil, but to get the power into their hands, by violence
and intimidation, if necessary. Resistance was offered, of course,
and the series of disturbances known as the " Kansas War"
followed.
We have no letters now until June 6th. Mr. Stephens has been
at home for a few days, and is about returning to Washington.
"Yesterday I spent down on the plantation. I walked all over the old
place, ' solitary and alone.' With feelings of deep sadness I surveyed many
a spot sacred in memory. . . . Harry will take this on to you to-morrow,
and will also take Rio. Poor dog ! he has stuck to me this time as close
as a brother."
278 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
June 15th. — He writes from Washington :
" The public news here is of little importance. The Administration is
vacillating about Cuba. I do not now believe that they intend to do any
thing favoring the acquisition, and I doubt if they have the nerve to make
the treaty with Dominica. They are not worth shucks."
In this month he was afflicted by the loss of Mrs. Thomas
Ray, — " Cousin Sabra," — a lady very dear to him, of whom we
have had several notices in the account of his early years. She
was a woman of very exemplary character, much beloved by the
small circle who knew her. Mr. Stephens, who was keenly
sensitive to every loss of this kind, mourned her long and deeply.
He writes from Crawfordville on July 6th :
" I have not yet been to my plantation. I scarcely know how I can go
there. It seems my heart would fail me. The last day I was there I went
all over the place, — to the grave-yard, where I spent some time in lonely
musing. Little did I then think that another one so dear to me was so
soon to be laid away in that quiet repository of the dead."
Several letters in August refer to the death of his brother's
infant daughter, and are full of sympathy and consolation. In
the fall the correspondence assumes a more cheerful tone, though
he was troubled with an attack of intermittent fever. On
October 27th he writes :
. . . "Last night I had a corn-shucking. About thirty or forty negroes
assembled, shucked out all the pile, and after that, according to custom,
claimed the right of carrying me, the boss, about over the yard and through
the house, singing and cutting all sorts of capers. I thought discretion
was the better part of valor, and did not resist the 'toting' custom. The-
sport seemed to amuse the negroes very much, and when they had got
their hands in with me, they took brother John and John Tilly and car
ried them both through the rocking and tossing process. This sport, as
you may know, is like that which Sancho Pansa fell in with once. They
put their victim in a chair, and then swing him to and fro in the air
as high as their long arms will permit."
Rio came upon the scene during these extraordinary proceed
ings. " Poor fellow, he could not understand it, and was for a
fight; but the odds were too great against him." The frolic
closes with a grand supper. These old-time corn-huskings
and other harmless merry-makings in which the negroes took
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 279
such delight are now things of the past. With their new-found
liberty they seem to have lost the faculty of innocent enjoyment.
Displaced from a position for which they were especially fitted
by nature, they have not yet become adapted to the new order
of things, and will probably be, for a generation at least, a
grotesque and unhappy solecism in society.
Next month Mr. Stephens, though still sick, went to Colum
bus to try a case in the court then in session, and was taken
much worse. This has been an unfortunate case for him, and
this is the third time he has gone to Columbus to try it. The
first time the clerk of the court died; the second time the cars
ran off the track, as we have seen, and he was badly hurt ; and
now he is stricken down with the dysentery. Happily, the
severity of the attack was not of long duration.
November 16th. — Linton has been writing with some indigna
tion of the behavior of a certain preacher, and his brother gives
him a caution.
11 1 beg you not to let such conduct have an evil influence upon your
mind. I have been in just such a condition as you describe, and I came
near being shipwrecked in religious feeling once by the impertinence
of just such a man. . . . Cultivate your religious feelings. Be humble in
spirit and look to heaven for guidance. Don't suffer yourself to become
cold on this subject. I feel as if I should not live long, and I assure you
that the older I get, the greater is my submission to the will of my
heavenly Father. The life of a religious man is beautiful to contemplate,
and his end is one that angels might envy."
November 24th. — " Uncle Ben," an old family negro servant,
is paying him a visit.
" I saw Ben at the plantation to-day. lie looked sad. He had been all
over the old stamping- and hunting-grounds. In vain had he looked for
the old persimmon-tree. Perkins (the former owner) had cut it down.
Ben cried when he talked about the grave-yard to-day. lie said, ' When
Missis planted that cedar-tree at the children's graves, she told me if I
should live the longest to take care of it ; but many has been the year
since I saw it. When I went to Upson County it was a little bit of a
bush 5 now it looks like an old tree. Mass' Grier planted the poplar. He
just cut a twig and stuck it in the ground, and it grew. Now the tree has
grown up, lived out its life, and is dead.' I almost cried to hear Ben talk."
November 26th. — Another visit to the plantation with Ben.
280 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
. . . "When I got to the grave-yard I found Ben, as Old Mortality,
gazing on brother's tombstone trying to read the inscription. We re
mained about the sacred spot for some time. When we were about start
ing he said with tears in his eyes and faltering voice that he wanted me
to get Mass' John to let him come back and stay on the old place. He
wanted to live there the rest of his life, and when he died to be buried with
the rest. I answered that I would see about it."
He did see about it, and Uncle Ben had his wish granted.
Mr. Stephens returned to Washington on the 1st of December.
On the 4th he writes :
11 Congress met to-day. Everything is flat. Nobody cared a cent for
the Message or anything else. I don't believe that the tide of popular
feeling or popular interest in public affairs ever ran so low as at present
in this or any other free country."
His health continues bad, and at times he is confined to his
room, but there is no intermission in his letters, for he finds it,
he says, " easier to write than not to write."
On the 14th of December he made a speech in the House
in answer to Mr. Mace, of Indiana, who had announced the
determination of himself and his party to vote for the repeal
of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, on the ground that this measure
was condemned by the people, and had given notice of his
intention to introduce a bill to prohibit slavery in those Terri
tories. After showing that the local elections throughout the
States gave a very different testimony, Mr. Stephens thus meets
the allegation that the South had been in the habit of claim
ing and extorting more than her just rights from the Federal
Government :
" But the gentleman says that when Southern men's measures are vetoed,
they raise their voices in tones of thunder until they carry them. Sir, I
do not believe there ever was a Southern measure vetoed. I do not recol
lect one. The South has never asked anything from your Government
that called for a veto. There is the difference between us. The South
asks but few favors from you. It is a class of gentlemen from the North
who ask aid from the Government. Why, we never come here in that
attitude. Let me ask the gentleman when any measure from the South
was ever vetoed ? when the South ever asked anything that required the
exercise of the veto power ?
f" But the gentleman said that he admired the South, because ' knowing
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 231
/ their rights, they dared maintain them.' That I take as a compliment.
And now, what is his position? Why the South, 'knowing their rights,
and daring to maintain them,' lie would have the North rise up and pre
vent her from getting her known and acknowledged rights ! If we know
our rights, and they are our rights, and we dare maintain them, why ought
not the North, — why ought not the gentleman (I will not say the North) to
grant us our rights? Have we ever asked anything but what was right?
Now I say, with all due respect to the gentleman, that the true position
of the South is this : we la§k nothing but what is right, and we submit
to nothing that is wrong.' That is the position that the South has always
occupied, as I remember her history.
"Now, sir, upon the subject of internal improvements which the gentle
man alluded to, has the South ever asked legislative aid in that particu
lar ? I do not speak now sectionally, or against the North ; but look at
the whole history of our Government. Who is it that is constantly ap
pealing here for legislative aid and legislative patronage ? Who ask for
fishing bounties? Who ask for protection to navigation? Why, the
people of the South, if they were permitted to use or employ foreign
vessels in their coast trade, would be greatly benefited thereby. But
American shipping must be protected ; and who is it that asks that pro
tection, not only upon shipping, but almost everything else? Who is it
that wants a duty on coal? Who upon iron? Who upon woollen goods?
Who upon shoes, leather, cotton fabrics, — everything? Why, the indus
trial interests of the North. We of the South, it is true, sometimes
grumble and complain ; but the great majority of the people of the South
have yielded to what they consider in some instances very heavy exac
tions for the support of Government. But when did we ever come up and
ask any aid from the Government of the United States? The constant
r prayer of the South to you has been to stay your hands. All that we ask
/ of you is, — keep your hands out of our pockets. That is all that the South
, asks, and we do not get even that. It is true, sir, that in my own State
we have asked some little favors, but very few. Some years ago we asked
that you should take the obstructions out of the mouth of the Savannah
River, — not obstructions that nature put there, but that were put there
during the Revolutionary War, to keep out a foreign fleet, — put there not
by the citizens of the State, but by public authority. It seems to us no
thing but right and just that the General Government should remove those
obstructions; but we have asked in vain for that. The gentleman says
that the Representatives of the North come here and pass River and
Harbor Bills, which are vetoed, and the wishes of their constituents are
thereby defeated. Well, sir, we have some rivers in the South quite as
navigable as those in Indiana-, but when did Georgia, or South Carolina,
or Virginia, or the South generally, come and ask Congress to clear out
those rivers? . . .
" In the State of Georgia we have never asked for any harbor improve-
282 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
ments except for the removal of those obstructions at the mouth of the
Savannah River ; and we never got that, as I have stated. We never asked
the General Government to clear out our rivers. But we have a country
of hill and valley, and we have to go to market with our products, — for
we grow some things in Georgia, notwithstanding that, in the opinion of
the gentleman from Indiana, we are a heaven-accursed, slavery-doomed
land, — we grow some products in Georgia, I say. for market ; and how do
we get them to market? Do we come here and ask aid of the General
Government? No, sir. Why, in my State, we have now upward of a
thousand miles of railroad in full operation. How did we obtain it? We
took our surplus capital, and with it we bought human labor, human en
ergy, bone and sinew, — we bought the strong arms of our own citizens as
well as of foreigners, to come and dig down the hills and fill up the valleys,
and lay down the superstructure of our railroads, — we bought the iron, when
we could get it, in this country, and we went abroad for it when we could
not get it here ; and notwithstanding all that, when we brought our iron
into this country, we had to pay duty upon it to the General Government.
Twenty millions of dollars have been spent in Georgia in constructing
highways to our markets. That is the way we got our thousand miles
of railroad. So far from coming here and receiving assistance from Gov
ernment, we have actually had to pay a tax for the privilege of bringing
our iron into the country. Georgia has paid not less than a million and
a half of dollars as a duty on iron into the treasury for the privilege of
building her own works of internal improvement. Now I would ask any
candid man — I would ask the gentleman himself — if it is just, not only
to tax Georgia for the privilege of constructing her highways, but then to
take those very taxes that we have paid to open rivers in Indiana? It does
not strike me that it is very just."
After defending the principle established by the Nebraska
Bill, that the people of each State and of each Territory on
forming a State constitution should determine for themselves
whether they would or would not admit the institution of
slavery, he then touches the main question :
" Why is it that gentlemen object so much to the introduction of slavery
into Kansas, if the people of that Territory desire it to go there? When I
made a speech at the last session upon this subject, I stated that I would
vote for the principle of allowing the people of any section of the country
to come into the Union and form institutions as they please. This I said
when I knew there might be twice as many people there from the North
as from the South, and the chances of emigration I knew would greatly
preponderate in favor of the North. I am willing, now, to abide by that
principle. I have no desire to deprive the people of any State or Territory,
in our common country, of the right of adopting such institutions for their
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 283
government, when they become States, as they please. It is anti-Ameri
can, and entirely at war with the spirit of the age, about which we hear
so much. I ask why the people of any section of the country should be
prevented from adopting the institutions of the South, if they wish them ?
SofiiaUy^jnorally, or politically^^ in any respect of the question, is there
any reason for depriving them of that right? Is it for the sake of hu
manity that gentlemen are not willing for the people of Kansas to assign
"fine African the same condition there that he occupies in the South, if they
think it best to do so? Are gentlemen willing to degrade their own race
by not permitting them to vote upon matters relating to their own Govern
ment, while they are endeavoring to elevate the negro to the standard of
(jthe white man ? Youjnay degrade the white man, but you cannot raise
the negro to the level you purpose. It is impossible. You have to reverse
a law of nature first. Men may indulge in philanthropic speculations as
muclT"as they please, but here is the great immutable law of nature, and
they cannot avoid it. I.auLnjot here to argue •wh-ether'decrercs of "the Most
tli2h_are._r[ghtj wise, and just. sChere is a difference, a vast difference,
established by the Creator between the different races of menj For myself,
I believe that He who made all is just, and that He made the white man as
He made him, and that He maole the negro as He made him — for wise and
just purposes. Some vessels are made for honor, and some for dishonor]
one star differeth from another star in magnitude as well as brilliancy. Q
believe, too, that the system of government, as adopted by the South, de
fining the status or relation of these two races, is the best for both of them ;
and I am prepared to argue that question with the gentleman, here or any
where. Take the negroes in Indiana, take them in the North generally,
and compare their condition with those of the South. Take them in Africa,
take them anywhere on the face of the habitable globe ; and then take them
in the Southern States(jmd the negro population of the South is better off,
better fed, better clothed, better provided for, enjoy more happiness, and a
higher civilization, than the same race has ever enjoyed anywhere else on
the face of the world. Gould Howard the philanthropist, who has left an
undying fame for his deeds of humanity, have taken the same number of
Africans from their native country and raised them from their barbarous
condition to that of the slaves of the South, he would have added much
to that statue of immortality which, in his day, he erected to himself. It
would have grea.tly added to that reputation which now sanctifies his
memory in the hearts and affections of mankind.'
After comparing the condition of the slaves at the South with
that of the free blacks at the North, he continues :
" But some people say that slavery is a curse to the white man. They
abandon the idea that it is a curse to the negro. They say it weakens,
impoverishes, and demoralizes a State. Let us see. They say there can
284 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
be no high social, moral, or material development under the institution
of slavery. I have before me some statistics on this point, — statistics
relating to material development. But, before alluding to them, I will
say, upon the subject of morals, that I saw a table of crimes made out in
the census office for 1850. From those statistics it appeared — I speak
from memory — that the number of convictions for crimes of every grade
in Massachusetts, the 'land of steady habits,' and where we hear so much
of the immoral effects of slavery, with a population under one million, was
several thousand ; while in the State of Georgia, with a population about
as great, the similar convictions are less than one hundred. I say then,
upon the score of crime, upon the score of morals, I am ready to compare
my State with Massachusetts, or any one of the free States. Where, then,
is the moral curse which arises from slavery?"
He then turns to the question of material development, and
refutes the assertion that slavery impoverishes a State by a com
parison of the staple products of Georgia and Ohio. Ohio had,
by the census, nearly one-third more land under improvement
than the State of Georgia, and this land was valued at more
than three times the value of the Georgia lands. Her popula
tion was more than double that of Georgia. Yet the compari
son of products showed that those of Georgia were worth about
a quarter of a million dollars more than those of Ohio ! This
whole speech made a great impression, and led to an animated
debate with Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, next year.
We now return to the correspondence.
December 23d. — " I have been so pressed with business, and so unwell
withal under my pressure, that I have not been able to write you. It seems
to me that my labors here increase with my length of service. I am worn
down and nearly worn out, and yet I keep up at work until eleven o'clock
every night. I believe I never stood so high in public estimation here as
I now do, and this is what puts so much business on me. My position
on the Ways and Means makes it necessary for me to see a great many
persons and look into a great many matters."
December 24th. — The date of this letter warns us to expect the
usual gloom, which does not fail to find expression.
" It is Sunday and Christmas-eve. I am not exactly alone, but lonely
in feeling. About me I have company in abundance, but my mind wan
ders to persons and scenes far distant. The closing year always fills me
with sadness. At least it has done so ever since our family was dispersed,
when I was but a boy. Before that painful crisis in my life Christinas was
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 285
a joyous time. Its coming was looked to for weeks as a period of jubilee.
Never has it been so with me since I left the old homestead and fireside
lighted up with a father's smile. To-day, I know not why, I feel particu
larly melancholy on the return of that season which to all others is usu
ally the season of festivity. Perhaps the dreariness of the day adds some
weight to the depression of my spirits. At any rate, so it is ; the very
signals of joy that others are firing sound in my ears like minute-guns at
sea.
" Shall I ever see another Christmas-eve ? Why should I wish it? Life
to me is desolate. For what object should I wish to live ? As to myself,
I assure you I have none. YeJ: to the world I am by no means rnisan-'
throjiic, w_iiile-th.ei£-ar£ cords which bind jMeJio_a_j:]ejvj[^^
nerves of life. But what can my longer stay on this theatre do for them?
[Will it_jiat--kerif such a future is in store for me, but a prolongation of
painful anxiety and miserable solicitude for their welfare, without any
ability to shape, much less to control, their destiny ?f These you may look
upon as gloomy reflections. They are. I am utterly enveloped in gloom.
Shadows. surround me and thick darkness seems coming over me. My life
is burdened with the discharge of duties heavy and onerous. Among these
duties none^ oppress me more than the ordinary civilities and courtesies
of life. /JJjnean tne entertainment of those whom I meet, so as to render
them as happy as I can without making known to them by word or look
the ' aching void' within. /-This I consider a duty, but it requires a great
effort to perform it. It is a legitimate tax to society which every member
ought to pay. ... It is often a matter of thought and reflection to me,
when friends have left my room whomflhave kept in a roar of laughter,
how little do they know of the miserableness of one who appeared to be in
such spirits./ Then comes the self-inquiry, ^Am I indeed a hypocrite? — of
all_jjharacters_to me thejnost detestable. I think not. A man is under
no more obligation to expose his griefs than to exhibit his bruises and
sores. These should be shown" to only the trusted few who have access to
"tlie inner shrine of his heart. £jTo_ this shrine, with me, but one living
being upon earth was ever admitted, and that one is yourself. If I had
not one at least with whom I thus could communicate, it appears to me that
life would become intolerable^ Do you ask, then, why I am thus miserable?
It is because I meet with little sympathy from the world. Even the praise
of those who approve, from whatever motive given, is often, indeed most
frequently offered, in a manner which is gall and wormwood to me. My
life has been a warfare from the beginning. My strife kasLbppn with fn-f-P---
The contest began in the cradle and will encTonly in the grave. Weak
and sickly, I was sent into the world with a constitution barely able to
sustain the vital functions. Health I have never known and do not expect
to know. But this I could bear : pain I can endure ; I am used to it.
Physical sufferings are not the worst ills I am heir to. I find no unison
of feelings, tastes, and sentiments with the world. ... I feel myself to be
286 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
alone ; and feel that my habitation should be in solitude. But do not
think that I cower before fate. No ; to my destiny I bow, submissively
bow to that which is beyond my control. I yield to nothing else. And
even in solitude I feel that spirit within me which would enable me, so far
from sinking into despair, to drink to the very dregs the bitterest cup that
time can measure out, and looking up, ask for more."
Other letters refer to the Know-No thing party, then just
coming into notice. Not being informed of their policy, he
suspends his judgment about them, except that he is opposed to
all. secret organizations in a Republic, " where," he says, "every
man ought to have his principles written on his forehead."
December 31st. — A letter in the usual style for this season.
He digresses, however, into politics a little.
il Public sentiment in this country is in a transition state,- so far as the
principle of party organization is concerned. Old parties, old names, old
issues, and old organizations are passing away. A day of new things,
new issues, new leaders, and new organizations is at hand. The men now
in power, holding their places by the foulest coalition known in our his
tory, seem not to foresee that doom which evidently awaits them. Stand
ing upon no policy but the division of the spoils, their time is taken up in
revelry and riotous living out of the public treasury. But like Belshaz-
zar at the feast, they have the handwriting on the wall, whether they can
read it or not."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A Complimentary Dinner— Keply to Mr. Campbell— Letter on Know-
Nothingism — Becomes a Candidate for Re-Election — Speech at Augusta
— Linton's Nomination — The Campaign — Mr. Stephens elected — Dead-
Lock in the House — Advice to the President.
THE first day of 1855 is greeted with a long letter, full of
good wishes and good counsel to his brother. On the 4th of
January he writes again, and gives an account of a little merry
making the day before.
"Mr. and Mrs. Toombs and myself gave Mr.* and Mrs. Dawson a sort
of bridal or complimentary dinner. We had thirteen persons at table
besides ourselves. The company consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Dawson,
Governor and Mrs. Pratt, Governor and Mrs. Brown, Mr. and Mrs.
Badger, Mr. Hilliard, of Alabama, Dr. Ileese, of Georgia, Colonel liar-
dee, U. S. A., Judge Wayne, and Mr. Pearce, of Maryland. The dinner
was a splendid one, — one of the best I ever saw served in Washington."
After describing the arrangements and menu, the order of the
guests, etc., he speaks of the conversation at table.
"We had one pass that made a roar of laughter in which all joined.
Badger proposed to drink my health. He was at the farther end of the
table, so that all heard him. He began by saying that when La Fayette
visited this country, he inquired of some one who was presented to him
if he was married. The gentleman answered that he was. ' Happy man !J
replied the old general. The next one coming up was asked the same
question, and the answer was ' No.' ' Lucky dog !' exclaimed La Fayette.
Badger then drank to me as the ' lucky dog.' When all had emptied their
glasses, I said that La Fayette had shown great tact in getting out of a
scrape ; greater, I feared, than I should show. But, as I knew nothing
of the mysteries of the ' happy man's' case, I could only reply in the lan
guage of a Western lawyer I once heard of, who concluded his argument
by saying, ; May it please your Honor, I know nothing of the mysteries
* Hon. Wm. C. Dawson, Senator from Georgia, who had just married
his second wife.
287
288 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
of the law of this case, and my only reliance is to trust to the sublimity
of luck, and float on the surface of the occasion.' All laughed heartily
and agreed that I had got off very well."
Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, had replied to Mr. Stephens's speech
of December 14th, directing his reply especially to the assertion
that the South had asked and received few, if any, favors at
the hands of the General Government, and to the comparisons
which Mr. Stephens drew between the products of Ohio and
Georgia. To certain parts of Mr. Campbell's remarks Mr.
Stephens made some reply at the time, but when the speech,
considerably amplified and revised, had appeared in type, he
took occasion, as we shall see, to answer it thoroughly. To the
first part of this debate the next letter refers.
January 6th. — ''You are right in your opinion as to my reason for not
answering Campbell's question, 'has Congress the power to prohibit
slavery in a Territory ?' My apprehension is that if they were to do it,
the Supreme Court would hold it to be misconstitutional. Hence I always
fought the Wilinot Proviso, because I thought there was something in it.
But I believe that the exercise of such power on the principle and with a
view to the total exclusion of the South from a participation in the Terri
tories would be a gross abuse of power, such as would justify revolution.
If I had denied the power, as he expected I would and hoped I would,
then his object was to show that I had voted for the extension of the
Missouri line, which vote sanctioned the exercise of this power north of
36° 30X. That is an inconsistency I have never yet committed. I regret
that it has been committed by so many Southern men. Calhoun denied
the power, yet was for the compromise line ; and the same position is
taken by the whole fire-eating crowd. ... I have been endeavoring for
some days to get the floor in order to come back on Campbell on his sta
tistics. All of them have been compiled since he spoke. Not one word
of them was uttered in his spoken speech. He was more than a -week
writing it out."
January Sth. — This is another of his black days.
" It seems to me that but for an effort that no other mortal upon earth
would make, I should sink into profound indifference to all things con
nected with men and their affairs. But with that effort that I daily exert,
to the persons about me I appear, I have no doubt, to be one of the most
cheerful and happy men upon earth. I dined on Saturday at Preston's.*
There was a large party, — a splendid" show, and I went through it just
* W. Preston, of Kentucky, afterwards Minister to Spain.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 289
as if I enjoyed it. I thought it my duty to do so, and for that reason I
diditrTBut if I had consulted my own inclinations, I should have spent
thlj tihie in solitude."
On the 15th of January, Mr. Stephens made his remarkable
speech in reply to Mr. Campbell, of Ohio. The largest audience
of the session was present, and the impression made, both on
the House and the public, was very great. Mr. Campbell had
attempted to refute the assertion of Mr. Stephens that the South
had received few, if any, favors at the hands of the General Gov
ernment, by referring to the acquisition of Louisiana, Florida,
Texas, and the Territories acquired by the Mexican War. Mr.
Stephens replied that these acquisitions are not for the benefit
of the South alone, but for that of all the States. That, more
over, the purchase of Louisiana covered a vast tract of terri
tory reaching from the Gulf to 49° north latitude, and west to
the Rocky Mountains, of which the North received more than
double the amount that fell to the South. As to Florida, the
acquisition of that State brought with it the acquisition of Oregon
and Washington Territory, or three hundred and eight thousand
and fifty-two square miles, while Florida had but fifty-nine
thousand and sixty-eight. So while Texas came in as a slave
State with two hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred
and four square miles, the North, on the Territories obtained
from Mexico, received six hundred and thirty-two thousand
one hundred and fifty-seven square miles in California, New
Mexico, and Utah. He showed further that if the line of
36° 30' were to be taken as the boundary between North and
South, of the new Territories acquired one million eight hundred
thousand square miles lay north of that line, and but seven
hundred thousand south of it. So that it ill-befitted a Northern
man to refer to the acquisition of these Territories as favors
granted to the South.
He then referred to Mr. Campbell's strictures upon his sta
tistics of the products of Ohio and Georgia. Mr. Campbell
had asserted that Mr. Stephens had valued the products of Ohio
at too low figures, and those of Georgia too high, to prove
which assertion he had constructed a set of tables to show a
heavy balance in favor of Ohio. Mr. Stephens in reply pro-
19
290 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
duced a memorandum drawn up for him some time before by
Mr. Campbell himself, at his request, giving to Ohio products
the identical values which he had taken ! This exhibition was
a nailer , and its production caused a great sensation. Still, Mr.
Stephens continued, he was willing to adopt — though he denied
its equity — Mr. Campbell's position that the same prices should
be attached to the same articles in the comparison, irrespective
of what value they might bear in their home markets; and was
content to value all by Ohio prices. This done, the tables
showed a still greater balance in favor of Georgia! He then
took up Mr. Campbell's figures, and showed their monstrous
fallacies, such as estimating the hay-crop of Ohio at sixteen
dollars per ton, as so much of Ohio's wealth, when it bore no
such price there, nor anything like it ; the New York cost, which
Mr. Campbell had quoted, being chiefly due to the expense of
transportation. (This ridiculous fallacy of estimating the whole
hay-crop of the Western prairies at the price baled hay was
bringing in the New York market, as if the cost of transporta
tion of a product to a distant market was a part of the wealth,
instead of an offset to the wealth, of the producing region, has
been often since repeated and believed even by those who should
have more sense. It would be quite as reasonable to calculate
the tons of ice in the glaciers of Greenland and estimate them
at their value in the market of Havana; a proceeding which
would show that desolate region as richer than all Europe.)
Other points of statistics he took up in turn, and in each
showed triumphantly that they bore out the truth of his position.
We cite an instance :
" I come now to railroads. The gentleman says that Ohio has 2367
miles of railroad in operation, while Georgia has but 884, by the census,
placing Ohio 1485 miles ahead. Very well, sir. This is a very good
showing ; and if she had five times as many more miles, it would have
nothing to do with what I said about agricultural products. But. sir, as
favorable as this showing seems to be for Ohio, if we look a little into the
matter, it will not be so bad for Georgia as the gentleman seems to imagine.
I find, by looking into the Railroad Journal, and taking all the roads in
Ohio and Georgia, — the condition of which is given in that publication, —
that 1071 miles of the Ohio roads, which have a capital of $18,094,102,
have also a funded debt of $12,225,400; while in Georgia, 553 miles of
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 291
her roads, the capital of which is $9,099,975, have a funded debt of only
$732,401.
u From this it appears that the roads in Ohio, as far as I have been able
to get information, are two-thirds unpaid for ; while in Georgia less than
one-twelfth of hers is unpaid for. If all the roads in each State, therefore,
stand in a similar condition, or if the 1071 in one and 553 in the other
may be taken as a sample for the whole in each State, then Georgia has
more road completed and paid for than Ohio has. Two-thirds of 2367, the
number of miles of the Ohio roads, is 1578, which, taken from that sum,
leaves only 789 miles in operation and paid for. While one-twelfth taken
from 884 miles of the Georgia roads, leaves 811 miles complete and paid
for. And why should not these improvements, boasted of as they are as
evidence of prosperity, be subjected to this test? Is it any more evidence
of the thrift or prosperity of a people that they have railroads for which
they are heavily encumbered, than it is of the thrift or prosperity of a man,
from the fact that he accumulates property by running in debt for it? A
man's real thrift can only be correctly ascertained by knowing not only
what he has and what he makes, but what he owes ; and the same prin
ciple is equally applicable to States or communities."
With the same masterly clearness he swept away the other
sophistical arguments of his opponent, establishing more firmly
than ever the just boast of his friends that " no man ever got
the better of Stephens in debate." And these triumphs were not
won by flourishes of rhetoric, or by ingenious jugglery with
words ; but by strong argument, by reasoning clear and irrefrag
able, and by the power of his never-failing memory, that seemed
never to lose its grasp, and was always ready to supply the facts
on which his argument rested or which helped to sustain it.
January 18th. — " I have been quite unwell all this week. Monday I
spoke. I had an immense audience, and made, I think, a good speech."
After some complaints of the manner in which his speeches
are reported by the press, he concludes : " I would not thus
speak of myself to any other person upon earth."
January 21st. — " The Democratic members from the South are generally
a good-for-nothing set. They follow the Administration, and the whole
Administration policy now is courting the North. They are undisguisedly
against Cuba, and against Kansas coming in as a slave State. That is,
they want the people there to prohibit it, and hence Southern members do
not look with favor upon any argument in favor of Southern institutions.
As to the Southern press, what shall I say of it ? It does nothing but re-
292 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
vamp Northern ideas and Northern news. If I were to illustrate it by a
figure, I could draw a very apt one from Ohio, on which my thoughts have
lately been mostly occupied. The way of fattening hogs there in some
places is to put them in pens or floors in tiers over each other. The corn
is first given to the topmost tier. What passes through is fed upon by the
next, and so on down to the last, and what stuff they have ! Such is just
the stuff which descends from the Northern to the Southern press."
In the spring lie paid a visit of several days to Linton, and
after returning home he complains of ill health, and writes in a
rather melancholy vein :
" I have a presentiment that my career is nearly run. I have a great
deal to say to you ; but it does seem when we are together that I have no
time to talk. Soon we shall be separated, never to meet in this life ; and
then how strange it will seem to you that we talked so little about those
things that you will then think most about !"
The later letters for this year have much to say about Know-
Nothingism. The Whig party having been disorganized by
affiliations of its Northern members with the Free-Soilers, this
new party sprang into being, and soon drew into its ranks a
majority of Southern Whigs and a considerable number of
Southern Democrats. Mr. Stephens, so soon as he learned -its
principles, opposed it with energy. Its restrictions on foreign
ers desiring citizenship; its introduction of religious tests into
politics; the fact of its being a secret political organization, —
these he considered utterly opposed to republicanism and the
spirit of our institutions. But he had determined not to be a
candidate for re-election, and therefore took a public position on
this issue later than he would otherwise have done.
He writes, on April 20th, on his return from Oglethorpe
court :
"I have determined to have nothing more to do with politics under the
new regime. I notified them in conversation at Oglethorpe that I was out
of the field. I was not a candidate for re-election, and I should not be as
things were now going. The leading ideas now sought to be inculcated
upon the Whigs are to proscribe foreigners and Catholics ; but I should
do neither, . . . The most dangerous enemies to our country are the Free-
Soilers and Abolitionists. To crush them out I would join with any
honest man, be he Jew or Gentile, American-born or adopted citizen."
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 293
Oil the 5th of May, Judge Thomas W. Thomas addressed
him a letter, requesting him to make public his views with
regard to the Know-Nothing party, to which he replied* on
the 9th with what is known as-h» Letter on Know-Nothingism,
in whifthjift disspcfc fhf> prjnfj|TJfts of the party; shows the evtt
results which will flow from them, and the covert mischief
which they were intended to effect; and shows how, of all men,
the Southern people should be opposed to such a party and such
principles. This letter produced a strong impression throughout
the State, where the new order had a very large following ;
indeed, it is probable that at this time it was favored by a large
majority of the voters in his own district. The impressive
appeal from a man whose sincerity and patriotism had never
been really doubted, even by those who differed most widely
from him in political views, "kindled a blaze in ' Sam's' camp,
and for a while looked like blowing it up," especially in the
western counties of Georgia. But the leaders of the new party
exerted themselves to the utmost to counteract this effect, and
raised the excitement to a pitch that had never before been known
in the State. The most rancorous hostility was directed against
Mr. Stephens, and it was asserted by many leading Know-
Nothings that his opposition was merely the result of his dis
appointed ambition and mortification at being forced to retire
from Congress ; as he knew that the new party would have
nothing to do with him. These taunts, and a conviction of
the mischief that would result from the success of the new
party, changed Mr. Stephens's resolution, and he determined to
take the field again.
On May 26th he writes :
" To-morrow night I intend to go to Augusta and declare myself a
candidate for Congress. I have heard taunts that I am afraid to run. I
will run, let the consequences be what they may. I may be beaten : but I
may sow seeds of truth in the canvass that hereafter may save the country.
If I can do that, what though I fall ? ^The times are ominous, and every
man should do what he can to arrest a monstrous outrage upon the
Constitution, though he fall in his work??. . . I feel my blood up. When
the preacher's voice is raised for religious persecution, and against the
Catholics, I think of the infamous Titus Gates. Enough ! I shall be in
the fight, thick and heavy."
294 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
So he went to Augusta, and made a public speech, in which
he announced himself a candidate for re-election. Alluding to
the taunts that he was afraid, he speaks thus :
"I am afraid of nothing on earth, or above the earth, or under the
earth, but to do wrong. The path of duty I shall endeavor to travel,
fearing no evil, and dreading no consequences. I would rather be defeated
in a good cause than to triumph in a bad one. I would not give a fig for
a man who would shrink from the discharge of duty for fear of defeat."
• He then launched out into an attack upon the principles of
the new order :
"They assume," he says, "the specious motto 'Americans shall rule
America,' yet they aim at putting a large class of as good and as true
native Americans as the writer himself" [an opponent to whom he is
referring] " under the ban of civil proscription. Are not the descendants
of Catholic Marylanders as much Americans by birth as the New England
descendants of the Puritans that landed on Plymouth rock ? While the
specious outside title of the party is, 'Americans shall rule America/
when we come to look at its secret objects as they leak out, we find that
one of its main purposes is not that ' Americans shall rule America,' but
that those of a particular religious faith, though as good Americans as
any others, shall be ruled by the rest."
He next showed that the immediate, the pressing danger was
not from the Catholics, but from the Free-Soilers and Abolition
ists, and that it was the wildest madness to neglect a real and
imminent, to provide for a contingent and imaginary peril.
Again he strikes at the secret character of the movement, as
unfitted to a free and republican community, where all public
acts, measures, and parties should be open to public scrutiny.
Such an organization partook of the nature of a conspiracy,
and could only be justified on the ground that it was revolu
tionary in its character, and an attempt, by unlawful means,
to overthrow the Constitution. He denounced the attempt to
introduce religious tests, and bring about a religious Avar, for
such would undoubtedly be the result.
"It is," he says, "the first movement of the kind since the foundation of
our Government. Already we see the spirit abroad which is to enkindle
the fires and set the fagots a-blazing, — not by the Catholics: they are
comparatively few and weak ; their only safety is in the shield of the con
stitutional guaranty ; minorities seldom assail majorities; arid persecutions
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPII1-;.\X. 095
always begin with the larger numbers against the smaller. But this
spirit is evinced by one of the numerous replies to my letter. He says,
'We call upon the children of the Puritans of the North and the Hugue
nots of the South, by the remembrance of the fires of Smithfield and the
bloody St. Bartholomew, to lay down for once all sectional difficulties,'
etc., and join in this great American movement of proscribing Catholics.
What is this but the tocsin of intestine strife? Why call up the remem
brance of the fires of Smithfield but to whet the Protestant appetite for
vengeance? Why stir up the quiet ashes of bloody St. Bartholomew
but for the hope, perhaps, of finding therein a slumbering spark from
which new fires may be started? Why exhume the atrocities, cruelties,
and barbarities of ages gone by from the repose in which they have been
buried for hundreds of years, unless it be to reproduce the seed and
spread among us the same moral infection and loathsome contagion? Just
as it is said the plague is sometimes occasioned in London by disentombing
and exposing to the atmosphere the latent virus of the fell disease still
lingering in the dusty bones of those who died of it centuries ago !"
The speech closed with an eloquent appeal to all who loved
their country and constitutional liberty- to open their eyes to the
real dangers and the real enemies who were to be feared, and to
co-operate zealously with any men or party, North or South, who
would help to combat them. In conclusion he announced him
self as a candidate, irrespective of the action of any convention.
In June, Linton Stephens was nominated as a candidate for
Congress, in the seventh (adjoining) district, and on the 23d his
brother thus writes to him, on his return from a visit of several
days :
" The ride to me this evening was one of meditation. . . . You were
the central figure of my thoughts. Your success, not only in this new
step you are about to take, but in the greater future of life before you,
just now beginning to open, — this was the engrossing theme of my
thoughts. You embody all that is really dear to me in life. In you and
about you are centred all my hopes and aspirations of an earthly nature ;
and whatever affects your welfare and happiness touches me more sensi
tively, if possible, than anything that affects my own. I could bear
almost anything if I knew that all was well with you. And I shall feel
and take much more interest in your success in this race than in my own.
If you are elected I shall feel content, whatever may be my fate. Arm
yourself, therefore, for the fight. The first thing is to get a perfect com
mand of your temper: on all occasions on the stump to be in a good
humor. Provide yourself with every document or reference that you may
want. Think of the question in all its length and breadth, until your soul
296 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
shall glow with the ardor of patriotism, which shall seek vent by utter
ance through the lips. Good-night. My old house looks cheerless to
night."
June 29th. — " To-morrow I go to Ray town, then to Elbert, then to Co
lumbia, then to Jefferson. Fenn's Bridge on the 17th July. I have
been quite unwell all the week, and am so still. The weather is hot, and
I am getting weak. It is said that there will be a tremendous crowd at
Raytown to-morrow. Oh that I were strong in body !"
June 30th. — " I have just returned from Raytown. We had a good time
there to-day. A large crowd present, from Augusta, Washington, War-
renton, Greensborough, and Columbia Court-House. I was feeble, but I
think I made one of the best speeches I ever made in my life. This is my
opinion ; I do not know what others may think of it. I would not say
this to any other in the world but to you, and to you only because I know
you would like to have my opinion as well as that of others. Poor Ire
land was out in mass. . . . The spirit was in me, and I never spoke with
greater liberty and unction. P wished to know whom I would sup
port for Governor. I told him I would consider of that matter. He
knew I did not intend to vote for Johnson. If Andrews* would come
out and declare himself in -opposition to the two leading articles of the
Know-Nothing creed, I might vote for him. But the contest I was en
gaged in was one of my own. The Governor's election was a matter that
I should have nothing to do with, except, perhaps, to vote. I had my
own canoe to paddle, and every man in this campaign must ' tote his own
skillet.1 "
This " skillet" was a reference to an anecdote, well known to
Linton, of the elder General Dodge, Senator for Iowa. Daring
the war of 1812 he and a number of others were taken prisoners
by a party of Indians, who, in their marchings about, compelled
the prisoners to carry the cooking utensils of their captors as
well as their own. At the end of about the third day the
general, desperate of consequences, stopped, threw down his
burden, and remarked, " Mr. Indian, from henceforth every
man of this crowd has got to tote his own skillet, so far as I'm
concerned !"
August 5th. — Augusta. " We had a great day here yesterday. A very
large crowd, much larger than I expected. Jenkins announced and intro
duced me in his happiest style. I spoke two hours and a half. The
* Hon. Garnett Andrews, Know-Nothing candidate for Governor, against
Governor Johnson, who was a candidate for re-election.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 297
speech took very well, but it was by no means one of my best efforts.
The weather was too hot : I was too hoarse, and felt feeble. At the din
ner-table I gave them a brief home-touch with much greater effect. The
'"point in my speech there, which produced the greatest effect, was the com-
j ments I made on the Know-Nothing constitution, the three great powers,
I to tax, to punish, and to decide the national politics. That produced a
~strong effect, I think, and, strange to say, several of the most prominent
and sensible men in Augusta were surprised at it. They had never heard
of it before."
August 13th. — Louisville, Georgia. " I am glad you are getting on so
well. In my district I should have no difficulty, I think, if I were not
complicated with the Governor's election. How it will be in the end I
cannot say. In Burke there are but few Know-Nothings, but they will
not run a ticket there. The Johnson men will run me. I am apprehen
sive that this will cause the Andrews men to vote the other way. Johnson
cannot carry the county. lie will be beaten by two hundred votes, they
say. So you see how I may be mashed up by that operation. I made
them one of my best speeches at "\Vaynesborough, and am to speak at two
other places in the county this week. But all this is labor lost. They
have no ticket out for the Legislature, and it is folly to be addressing them
now."
September 16th. — " In Morgan* the die is cast. Men there are bitter.
Speaking does no good, — not a particle. At least speaking in towns does
not."
September 20th. — He and Mr. Toombs have been speaking in
Columbia, where friends say they will carry the election by a
tight squeeze. Toombs is going into Linton's district.
'• He will do you more good than he will me. I think I shall be elected
by six hundred majority. Write to me at Washington. I shall be there
next Monday, go to Augusta Tuesday, go up to Providence, speak there
Friday, and Raytown Saturday, come home then and watch the result. I
wish the election was over. I feel a great deal more interest in your case
than I do in my own. I am prepared for your defeat ; and yet I can but
hope against hope."
As he feared, Linton was beaten by his opponent, N. G.
Foster, by a small vote, — less than a hundred. Alexander was
elected over his opponent, Lafayette Lamar, by a majority of
nearly three thousand, one of the heaviest he has ever received.
This was perhaps the most exciting campaign ever held in
* Morgan County was in Linton's district.
298 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Georgia. \Mr. Stephens entered into it with unusual spirit and
zeal, and, though in very weak health, was indefatigable in his
exertions, making many addresses, as powerful as were ever
heard at the hustingsTj In some he rose to a truly wonderful
height of eloquence. The summer was excessively hot. He
would speak for hours, and at last sink exhausted from mere
fatigue, every thread of his clothes drenched with perspiration.
Wrapping himself in a cloak, he would hurry to his hotel,
change his clothes, and then drive off in his buggy, with his
servant Harry and his faithful Rio, to keep another appoint
ment, thirty or forty miles distant, on the next day. Such dis
plays of power by a being so slight and frail, excited even more
than the usual astonishment among his hearers. " My G !"
cried a man who then saw him for the first time, u there is
nothing about him but lungs and brains !" His denunciations
of the secret order were terrific, and often apprehensions were
felt of serious disturbances at his appointments. The wrath of
the Know-Nothing leaders knew no bounds; and threats were
made that unless he moderated his tone, measures would be taken
to silence him. He was once asked if he did not consider that
some of his attacks were rather too severe. " No," he an
swered ; " it is a disease not for plasters, but for the knife."
The sudden rise of this party, and the energy with which it
struggled for success, are among the strangest things in our
history. It was astonishing to see how quickly and fiercely the
passions of religious hostility were kindled up, while there were
many men, the disgrace of humanity, who strove to inflame these
passions, even at the risk of plunging the country into a religious
war, merely to gain their personal and selfish ends ; and even at
this day there are some who try to fan the extinct embers into
flame again, for purposes not more creditable. When the move
ment had collapsed, most of the participants were ashamed of
their connexion with it, and many and ingenious were the ex
cuses they devised to explain their action. Mr. Stephens was
asked by a friend if he thought they would renew the fight
next year. He answered, " No. They will run from Know-
Nothingism as they would from the carcass of a horse, — yes,
of an elephant."
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 299
In November he went to Washington, D. C., from which
place he writes, on the 30th :
" I am once more, as you see, in Washington, and I feel badly. If I
had my course for the last nine months to go over again, I believe now I
should not be a candidate, but should remain at home and attend to my
business. In public life the game with me is not worth the candle. I find
it is all I can do to live here without going in debt ; while my affairs at
home are sadly neglected in my absence. At the hotel I could not get
comfortable quarters for less than about one hundred and fifty to one hun
dred and seventy-five dollars per month for myself and servant. I looked
about a day or two, and am now settled on the corner of Sixth and D
Streets, at Crutchett's."
December 2d. — " I am very well pleased with the political prospect as
far as I have yet seen. I find that a better state of feeling is now existing
among the Northern Democrats than I ever saw before. I drew up a
resolution for their caucus last night, which was presented by J. Glancy
Jones, of Pennsylvania, and unanimously adopted. I did not go into the
caucus, but heartily approve what they did. Every Northern Democrat in
the House was for the resolution. You will see that I stick to your
resolution of the last Georgia Legislature as a nucleus. Did you think
when you drew that resolution that it was the germ of a great national
organization?"*
December 3d. — u The Northern Democrats seem to think more of me than
of their old party-line men. They have confidence in my integrity, and,
among other things, spoke of my quitting the opposition in the majority,
and acting with a minority on principle. This they look upon as a rare
virtue in these days of going into ' <a_wild _ Jurat- -after office and spoils.'
You have quite a reputation here as an orator and stump-speaker. Cobb
is loud in your praise. Georgia is held in high estimation ; and Cobb
openly attributes the result to you and me. I think the Georgia election is
more talked of than that of any other State in the Union. The members
from Alabama, North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas,
and Kentucky say they made the fight on my lead and the Georgia line."
There is also an account of a dinner party, at which one
thing struck him as curious :
" I saw what I never saw before, — persimmons set on the table with
other fruits as part of the dessert ; and, strange to say, they were con-
* In urging Mr. Jones to offer this resolution, Mr. Stephens said to him,
" If you will do this, I will go up to the House, and bring all the Southern
Whig support I can ; and if you will take the resolution and make it your
platform, I guarantee the result."
300 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
sidered a great rarity and favorite dish. Verily, other things besides
prophets are not without honor save in their own country."
At the beginning of this session of Congress occurred the great
dead-lock in the House, owing to the inability of either party to
elect a Speaker, which continued until the 4th of February.
December llth. — " We voted to-day again for Speaker. Banks got 107.
Whether he can get the six more needed for election I cannot tell. If men
were reliable creatures, I should say he never can. But my observation
has taught me that very little confidence is to be placed on what they say
asjio what they will do. ... I should not be surprised at any moment to
see Cullom's Tennessee friends go over in mass to Banks. I would as soon
vote for Banks as for Cullom. . . . Sometimes I have a good will to quit
work and take my ease, and go home and attend to my business, letting
the people get some one else to do their work. For what does it all amount
to? Nothing— absolutely nothing. This world's honor, when the cup of
ambition is filled to the brim, is nothing at last but vanity and vexation of
spirit."
December 27th. — "Banks came within three votes of election to-day.
They rescinded my resolution about adjourning. When the vote was
announced, old Miller at my right, whom you felt some interest about
(touching his religion at least), remarked to me in rather an undertone, ' It
is a G — d — shame !' I send you this as the only information I have
received as to what church he belongs to."
December 30th. — " We adjourned last night at six o'clock. No Speaker.
. . . We have had a little work going on behind the curtain here for nearly
two days, that may be interesting to you. The night before last, as I was
going into the caucus, I called by Cobb's room for him. In conversation
I learned from him that the President was very desirous for the House to
organize. His message, he thinks, has important matters bearing upon
foreign questions which may affect the question of peace in Europe, if
they can be communicated so as to go out in the steamer of this week.
By the by, I may tell you that he thinks that upon the publication of
certain correspondence of Palmerston, he will be overthrown in Parlia
ment, and then a peace ministry put in. Without considering the merits
of that view at all, of which I am not fully advised, and looking only at
the accomplishment of 'his object, to get his message out, I gave it as my
opinion that, if I were President, and thus wishing to communicate public
matters to Congress, I would send in my message without waiting an
organization of the House. I would consider the members in session, and
address them. Or, in any event, as the Senate was organized, I would
address them in executive session, and then let them take off the secrecy
and publish the message. This struck Cobb, and he put at me to take a
hack and go immediately with him to the President. This we did. At
first he did not seem to take to it at all : he was timid and shy ; but after
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 3Q1
a while said he would think of it and consult his Cabinet. The thing was
so unprecedented, he was afraid of it.
" Yesterday he went to see Toombs about it in person. He [Toombs]
concurred with me. In the evening I found a precedent in the British
Parliament, when the House failed to elect a Speaker for fourteen days,
and the Crown communicated with them by message, etc. The precedent
is cited in Jefferson's Manual, under head ' Speaker.' I showed it to
Cobb : he immediately sent it to the President. In about an hour after
wards Sam Smith, of Tennessee, who had been saying all day that the
President wanted the House organized (this was said privately to friends),
came to me and said that he had just received a note from the President,
that we had better adjourn, as it made no matter about the election that
day. The conclusion I came to was, that he had resolved to send in his
message to-morrow, anyhow, either to both Houses, as I have stated, or to
the Senate. Cobb got a note from him just before we adjourned, requesting
him, Quitman, and myself to call to see him to-morrow morning at ten
o'clock. So I am expecting the message to-morrow, and if it turns out
to be a premature birth, when you see this you will know the occasion of
it."
The message, as Mr. Stephens had anticipated, was sent in
the next day ; but the House, not being organized, refused to
have it read.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Debate with Mr. Zollicoifer — Election of Mr. Banks — A Plausible Scamp
and a Domestic Tragedy — The Minority Keport on the Kansas Election
— Anecdote of Mr.. Hale — Speech on the Kansas Election — News from
Kansas — Speech on the Admission of Kansas — Death of John Stephens —
Correspondence with Mr. Johnston — Negligence of Southern Kepresen-
tatives— Challenges Mr. B. H. Hill.
THE first letter of the new year bears date January 8th, 1856.
" Last night the Richardson men had a meeting, and we resolved to sit
it out. This I brought them up to : the plurality rule they could not go.
So to-morrow we shall have a continuous session. I am not well to-day.
The snow is still unmelted. The thermometer yesterday morning. was 6£°
below zero, in the city. Mine, hanging at my window, was at 2° above
when I got up at seven. It was intensely cold : never since I have been
in Washington was it colder."
On the 17th of January, — the House being still unorganized,
and the Clerk in the chair, — Mr. Stephens had a lively debate
with Mr. Zollicoifer, of Tennessee, on the question whether
Congress had or had not the power to establish or prohibit
slavery in the Territories. The gist of his argument may be
found in the closing paragraphs. The question had been asked :
" If the people of the Territories have no power except that given
to them by Congress, and Congress has no power to exclude
slavery in the Territories, where do the people of the Territories
get the power to exclude it there ?" Mr. Stephens replies :
"The people have, in my opinion, the power to exclude it only in a
State capacity, or when they form their State constitution. Then they
get it where all the States get it. The people, in a Territorial condition,
are but new States in embryo: this latent power of full sovereignty .^hen
they assume State form, then develops itself 5 as wings to rise and fly,
though latent in the chrysalis, do nevertheless develop themselves in full
beauty, vigor, and perfection at the proper time. But I have this further
to say in reply to the gentleman from Maine [Mr. Wash borne] . That
gentleman, and I suppose a majority of this House, hold that Congress has
the full and absolute power to exclude slavery from the Territories. Well,
302
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 303
sir, if Congress has such power, it has conferred that power upon the.
p£oplii of Kansas and Xebniska. I hold that Congress has not such un
qualified power ; but if it has, as the gentleman believes, then the people
of those Territories possess it under the bill. This is evident from the
language of the bill itself:
f "'That the Constitution and all laws of the United States, which are not locally
' inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect in the said Territory of Nebraska
as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth section of the "Act pre
paratory to the admission of Missouri into the Union," approved March 6th, 1820,
which being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with
slavery in the States nnd Territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, com
monly called the Compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it
being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Terri
tory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly
free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only
to the Constitution of the United States :
" ' Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in
! force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the Act of Cth March,
' 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery/
" Now, sir, as I have stated, I voted for this bill, leaving the whole
matter to the people to settle for themselves, subject to no restriction or
limitation but the Constitution. With this distinct understanding of its
import and meaning, and with a determination that the existence of this
power being disputed and doubted, it would be much better and much
more consistent with our old-time republican principles to let the people
settle it, than for Congress to do it. And although my own opinion is
that the people, under the limitations of the Constitution, have not the
rightful power to exclude slavery so long as they may remain in a Terri
torial condition, yet I am willing that they may determine it for them
selves, and when they please. I shall never negative any law they may
pass, if it is the result of a fair legislative expression of the popular will.
Never! I am willing that the Territorial Legislature may act upon the
subject when and how they may think proper. We got the Congressional
restriction taken off. The Territories were made open and free for immi
gration and settlement by the people of all the States alike, with their
property alike. No odious and unjust discrimination or exclusion against
any class or portion ; and I am content that those who thus go there from
all sections, shall do in this manner as they please under their organic
law. I wanted the question taken out of the halls of national legislation.
It has done nothing but disturb the public peace for thirty-five years or
more. So long as Congress undertakes to manage it, it will continue to
do nothing but stir up agitation and sectional strife. The^eopifL-CaiL. dis
pose of it better than we can. Why not then, by common consent, drop
~TT7it~once and forever? Why not you, gentlemen, around me, give up
your so-called and so-miscalled republican ideas of restoring the Missouri
restriction, and let the people in the far-off Territories of Kansas and Ne-
304 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
braska look after their own condition, present and future, in their own
way? Is it not much more consistent with Mr. Adams's ideas of republic
anism for them to attend to their own domestic matters than for you or
us to undertake to do it for them ? Let us attend to our business, and let
them attend to theirs. What else keeps this House disorganized and sus
pends all legislative business? I wished, sir, in voting for the Kansas
Bill, and in carrying out in good faith the great principles established in
1850, — that memorable epoch, the middle of the nineteenth century, — and
fixing them as the basis and rule of action on the part of the General Gov
ernment in her Territorial policy, to get rid of this disturbing question here,
by referring it unrestrictedly, as far as I could under the Constitution, to
tfre"""p£0ple. If they have not the power to settle it while a Territory, as a
matter of absolute right, — ex debita justitia, — I was willing, so far as I
was concerned and had the power to do it, to give it to them as a matter
of favor, — ex gratia. I am willing, as I say, that they shall exercise the
power; and, if a fair expression of the popular will — not such as may be
effected by New England Emigrant Aid Societies, or other improper inter
ference, but the fair expression of the will of the hardy pioneers, who
going from all sections without let or hindrance seek new lands and new
homes in those distant frontier countries — shall declare, in deliberate and
proper form under their organic law, that slavery shall not exist among
them, and, if I am here at the time, I shall abide by their decision. I, as
a member upon this floor, never intend to raise the question of their con
stitutional power to adopt such a measure. I shall never attempt to tram
mel the popular will -in that case, although I may think such legislation
wrong and unjust, and not consistent with constitutional duty on the part
of those who enact it. Yet it will be a wrong without any feasible remedy,
so far as I can see. I am for maintaining with steadfastness the Territorial
Bills of 1850, — the principle of leaving the people of the Territories, with
out Congressional restriction, to settle this question for themselves, and to
come into the Union, when admitted as States, either with or without
slavery, as they may determine. This principle was recognized and estab
lished after the severest sectional struggle this country has ever witnessed,
and after the old idea, whether right or wrong in itself, whether just or
unjust, whether constitutional or unconstitutional, of dividing the Territo
ries between the sections, was utterly abandoned and repudiated by the
party that at first forced it as an alternative upon the other.
" The Kansas and Nebraska Act carries out the policy of this new princi
ple instead of the old one. fThe country, with singular unanimity, sus
tained the measures of 1850 ; ancfall that is now wanting for the permanent
peace and repose of the whole Union upon all these questions is an
adherence to the measures of 18507]both ' in principle and substance,1 as
the settled policy of Congress upmrSn such matters. That the people of all
sections will come ultimately, and that before long, to this stand I cannot
permit myself to doubt. Let us hear no more, then, of repeal. Let us
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 3Q5
organize this body upon a national basis and a national settlement. Let
us turn our attention to the business of the country which appropriately be
longs to us. Yes, sir, the great and diversified interests of this truly great
and growing country of ours, about which we talk and boast so much, and
about which we have so much reason to talk and boast. Let us look to the
fulfilment of the high and noble mission assigned us. Do not let the party
watchwords of ' liberty' and ' freedom' for the black man, which some gen
tlemen seem always ready to repeat, cause you to forget or neglect the
higher objects and duties of government. These relate essentially to our
own race, their well-being, their progress, their advancement. Let the infe
rior race in our midst take that position for which, by a wise Providence,
it was fitted, and which an enlightened and Christian civilization in the
different sections of our common country may think proper to assign it.
" Mr. Clerk, we hear a great deal nowadays about Americanism, — and
by not a few of those, too, who call themselves, par excellence, republicans.
Now, sir, has America, — with her hundreds of millions of foreign trade,
and millions almost beyond count of internal and domestic trade, — with
her incalculable resources of commerce, agriculture, and manufactures in
a state of rapid development, — has America, the asylum of the misruled,
misgoverned, and oppressed of all climes, — the home of civil and religious
liberty, — the light of the world and the hope of mankind, — no higher objects
to occupy our attention than those questions which, whatever may be their
merits touching the condition of the African race in the several States and
Territories, do not properly come within the purview of our duties to look
after here? — questions, the discussion of which in this hall can have no
possible effect but to create agitation, stir up strife, array State against
State, section against section, and to render the Government, by suspend
ing its legislative functions, incapable practically of performing those great
and essential objects for which alone it was expressly created."
February 1st. — He lias just received a letter from Linton, at
Lagrange, where he has been to see their brother John, who has
been sick.
" I have been sorely afflicted in mind, — greatly grieved and troubled on
account of John's illness. Life began to wear an unusually dark and
melancholy appearance to me. I am now much more cheerful in spirits.
How long this will last I cannot tell. . . . We are getting along very
well without a Speaker yet. But for a faux pas on the part of that fool
C , I think we should have made Aiken Speaker to-day. I had set
the programme for it about ten days ago. My plan was this : after the
plurality rule should have been adopted (which I have all along believed
after a while would be) and two ballots should have been had under 'it, if
the Southern Know-Nothings should not indicate a purpose to go over to
Orr to prevent Banks's election (which I did not much expect them to do),
20
306 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
then Aiken was to be put in nomination on the floor, Orr to decline and
let the last vote be between Aiken and Banks. From my knowledge of
the House, its present tone and temper, knowledge of Aiken and the esti
mation he was held in by several of the scatterers, I believed he would
beat Banks. This I communicated to a few, and a few only. I gave
Cobb, of Georgia, my idea : he was struck with it, and communicated it
to a few others. It took finely. I sounded some of the Western Know-
Nothings, — Marshall and others, — and found that they could be brought
into it. I said nothing of my plan, but simply asked carelessly how Aiken
would do. I found that he would do for them. But after his name began
to be talked of, he got so popular in the minds of many that C , a fool,
plugged the melon before it was ripe. That is, he offered a resolution to
make Aiken Speaker, lie came within seven votes. If we had then been
under the pressure of the plurality rule, and the choice between him and
Banks, he would have been elected, sure as fate, in my opinion. For Scott
Harrison, who voted No on C 's resolution, had said he would vote for
Aiken as between him and Banks. I have but little doubt that Haven would
have done the same thing. So would Cullen, of Delaware, and Barclay,
of Pennsylvania, who voted ' No' to-day. These four would have carried
the election, to say nothing of the scattering. As it is now, I fear the fat
is all in the tire, but hope not. In a resolution to-day to make Banks
Speaker he got 102: on a similar resolution Aiken got 103, even with
Cullen, Barclay, Haven, and Harrison voting against him ; so if we had
then been under the plurality rule, Aiken would have been chosen."
February 2d. — "The plurality rule has just been offered by Smith
(Democrat). I am in the House, and the motion has been made since
I commenced this letter. My apprehension is that all has been lost by
yesterday' s faux pasS '
February 4th> — This letter is so blurred as to be almost illegi
ble. It speaks of the election of Banks, and notes that this
was the first election of the kind in the history of the country
that was purely sectional. The course of the Democratic party
in the election is highly praised. From this time Mr. Stephens
acted with that party.
February 5th. — Linton has been inquiring about some money
that he had lent.
" You asked me some time ago if D and Y had returned me the
amount I lent them. Not a dime of it; nor have I ever seen or heard a
word. from either of them since I lent them the money, except that two
days afterwards Y was here in this city. Cobb had lent him fifteen
dollars, and Lumpkin, I believe, as much. I had a good will to go and
have the wretch arrested. But I took a walk, and that cooled me off. I
have often thought I never would let another mortal have money under
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 3Q7
any circumstances to get away from this city on. It was a rash and foolish
resolve on my part, for in about a week afterwards a very clever, frank,
and manly-looking young gentleman called on me about three o'clock at
night, informing me of the very unpleasant situation into which he had
unexpectedly been thrown. His name was Crawley ; his father lived in
Richmond County."
Then follows an account of the young man's misfortunes,. his
getting twenty dollars, and his turning out to be a " regular
sharper." This was no uncommon adventure with Mr. Stephens,
who, with all his knowledge of the world, was liable to be im
posed upon by any sharper, male or female, that could tell a
plausible story and appeal to his benevolence. But not all the
applicants for his assistance have been of this class, and he has
relieved so many cases of real distress, which probably a more
suspicious nature would have turned away, that he has been
more than overpaid for the mortification of finding himself
every now and then the victim of a swindler. His thoughts,
however, in the letter before us, are soon diverted from this
unpleasant subject by the memory of a domestic tragedy.
"Harry sends me word that my old white cow is 4ead. Poor old soul !
She went to jump into Billy Bell's field, and encountered a ditch on the
other side of the field, into which she fell, and out of which she never came
alive. She got her head up-stream, dammed up the water, and, Harry
thinks, drowned. Another motherless calf has mourned the loss of an
ill-fated dam."
March 5th. — " I made a decided hit in the House to-day by reading the
minority report in the Kansas election case. . . . You will of course see
the report, and I need not inform you, I suppose, that I drew AVhitfield's
paper, which is part of it. The report was all got up last night after ten
o'clock. I wrote until two o'clock. The Committee, I mean the majority,
acted like knaves. They would not let us see nor hear what to examine
at all. I went it blindly, and wrote what you see under the circumstances
related. I was gratified to see that what was so hastily done met with
such favor. I tell you it was in the reading. I did that better than I ever
did anything of the kind in my life."
March 9th. — Account of a dinner at a Mr. Sullivan's.
" The only objection I have to dining with him is that he always gives
his dinner on Sunday. But his company is generally select, and I have
never seen anything at his table inconsistent with the quiet and decorum
which are becoming to the day. Still, I do not like it."
308 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
Cobb and Ward had been invited to dine with him, but were
going to the President's.
" By the way, I have thought it a little strange that I have never yet but
once been invited (and that when I was very ill, two months ago) to dine
with Pierce, nor have I yet dined with a single member of his Cabinet.
Whether I have been omitted by intention or from forgetfulness I do not
know nor do I care. I only mention the fact as a singular one. It never
occurred with any previous President, not excepting Polk or his Cabinet."
In connexion with the dinners at Mr. Sullivan's, Mr. Stephens
occasionally tells this anecdote : While the adjustment measures of
1850 were pending there was a dinner at Mr. Sullivan's, — on a
Sunday as usual, — at which Clay, Toombs, Hale, of New Hamp
shire, and other prominent actors in the exciting discussions of
the day were present. Mr. Hale was then in the Senate, and
with all his talents was noted as something of a wag. In the
course of conversation, Mr. Clay, with great earnestness, made
an appeal to Hale to quit the agitation of the Slavery question.
" No good," he said, " can come of it ; there is nothing practical
or useful in it; it only tends to produce ill feeling and hinder
the prosperity of the country." Mr. Hale, with an arch look,
replied, " Mr. Clay, it sent me to the Senate, and I think there
is something in that !"
March llth. — "I have just come from the House, where I spoke upon
the Kansas election, on the motion to empower the Committee to send for
persons and papers. I will give you no opinion of the speech, except that
I did not disgrace myself, me judice. What the audience thought of it
I shall be better able to judge when I see the papers. I received many
compliments, but they are so cheap here I do not regard them as of much
importance. I had a large audience ; the largest that has assembled since
the House was organized ; galleries full and crowded. No other person has
drawn anything like such a crowd. ... I got your letter this morning.
It was greeted with pleasure. I was anxious to hear from you. Poor
Rio ! my heart yearned for him. I tell you the truth, I almost wept when
I read your account of his encounter with Bill Alexander's dog. Not that
I felt great apprehension for llio's safety ; but I feel an interest in that
dog that I never did in the inferior animals, and never shall in any again,
I am certain. And the reason of it is mainly on account of his attachment
and fidelity to me. I dream of him frequently."
About the 1st of April Mr. Stephens went home, and returned
to Washington on May 2d.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 3Q9
June 13th. — " The House did not sit to-day. Butler finished Ins reply
to Simmer in the Senate. Sumner was not present, as I hear. Wilson,
as I hear, took up the Massachusetts side of the vituperation, for debate
it was not."
June 14th. — " We have some news here. Stringfellow has got to the
city direct from Kansas. I have not seen him myself, but Toombs, who
left me just now, saw him last night. Stringfellow is our main man
in Kansas, you know. According to Toombs's report all things are now
comparatively quiet there. The newspaper reports of burnings and civil
war are unfounded, and got up by Northern agitators for effect. The
hotel at Lawrence was presented by the grand jury as a nuisance, and
ordered to be demolished as such. He says the investigations of the Com
mittee will work in our favor greatly when published. The Committee
will be here this wreek. lie says they want no more men in Kansas ; they
want no fighting; that all is working just as it ought. His account, in a
few words, is better than I expected."
On June 28th the question before the House was the bill
providing for the admission of Kansas as a State, under what
was called the " Topeka Constitution." This was a constitution
drawn up by the Free-Soil Party, composed chiefly of the
emissaries of the Emigrant Aid Societies, and it not only pro
vided for the exclusion of slavery, but prohibited negroes or
imilattoes from settling in the State.
On this question Mr. Stephens addressed the House at con
siderable length. He reviewed the manner in which the Kansas
Bill had passed, and showed how false were the charges that
a state of war existed in Kansas, or that what few disturbances
had occurred \vere due to the Southern party there, or to the
Kansas Bill. He showed how rumors were created, or facts
exaggerated, to arouse popular feeling and create agitation at
the North, for party purposes ; and how those who breathed fire
and slaughter were really the Northern agitators, and no others.
He then examined the bill before the House, and showed that
the Topeka Constitution was framed in open opposition to law
foy men with arms in their hands, who in no sense represented
ithe bona-fide settlers of the Territory, the parties who, under the
Kansas Bill, were the persons to determine the policy of the new
I State with reference to slavery. Finally, he took up the ques
tion of slavery itself, and compared the position of the negro in
the South with his position in the North. In the former he had
310 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
a recognized place, duties, and protection ; in the North he was
" a nondescript outcast, neither citizen nor slave, without the
franchise of a freeman or the protection of a master." In con
clusion he said :
11 Gradation is stamped upon everything animate as well as inanimate, —
if, indeed/'ihero l>e anything inanimate. A scale, from the lowest degree
of inferiority to the highest degree of superiority, runs through all animal
life. We see it in the insect tribes, we see it in the fishes of the sea, the
fowls of the air, in the beasts of the earth, and we see it in the races of men.
We see the same principle pervading the heavenly bodies above us. One star
differs from another star in magnitude and lustre, — some are larger, others
are smaller, — but the greater and superior uniformly influences and controls
the lesser and inferior within its sphere. If there is any fixed principle or
law of nature it is this. In the races of men we find like differences in
capacity and development. The negro is inferior to the white^mJ^ ; nature
has made him so ; observation and history, from the remotest nmes,"estab-
lish the fact ; and all attempts to make the inferior equal to the superior are
but efforts to reverse the decrees of the Creator, who has made all things
as we find them, according to the counsels of His own will. The Ethiopian
can no more change his nature or his skin than the leopard his spots. Do
what you will, a negro is a negro, and he will remain a negro still. In
the social and political system of the South the negro is assigned to that
subordinate position for which he is fitted by the laws of nature. Our
system of civilization is founded in strict conformity to these laws. ^Order
and subordination, according to the natural fitness of things, is the prin
ciple upon which the whole fabric of our Southern institutions rests.
"Then as to the law of God. — that law we read not only in His works
about us, around us, and over us, but in that inspired Book wherein He
has revealed His will to man. When we differ as to the voice of nature,
or the language of God, as spoken in nature's works, we go to that gr< at
Book, the Book of books, which is the fountain of all truth. To that
Book I now appeal. God, in the days of old, made a covenant with the
human family for the redemption of fallen man : that covenant is the
corner-stone of the whole Christian system. Abram, afterwards called
Abraham, was the man with whom that covenant was made. He was
the great first head of an organized visible church here below. He be
lieved God, and it was accounted to him for* righteousness. He was in
deed and in truth the father of the faithful. Abraham, sir, was a slave
holder. Nay, more, he was required to have the sign of that covenant
administered to the slaves of his household."
MR. CAMPBELL. — " Pnge^rinp^a*»-«rJ^|e."
MR. STEPHENS. — " I have one here which iftie gentleman can consult
if he wishes. Here is the passage, Genesis xvii. 13. God said to
Abraham :
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 31 1
"'13. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs
be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.'
" Yes, sir ; Abraham was not only a slaveholder, but a slavedealer it
seems, for he bought men with his money, and yet it was with him the
covenant was made by which the world was to be redeemed from the
dominion of sin. And it was into his bosom in heaven that the poor man
who died at the rich man's gate was borne by an»els, according to the para
ble of the Saviour. In the 20th chapter of Exodus, the great moral law is
found. — that law that defines sin, — the Ten Commandments, written by the
linger of God Himself upon tables of stone. In two of these command
ments, the 4th and 10th, verses 10th and 17th, slavery is expressly recog
nized, and in none of them is there anything against it; this is the moral
law. In Leviticus we have the civil law on this subject, as given by Gud
t » Moses for the government of His chosen people in their municipal affairs.
In chapter xxv., verses 44, 45, and 46, I read as follows :
"'44. Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be
of the heathen that are round about you ; of them shall ye buy bondmen and
bondmaids.
" '45. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of
them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your
land: and they shall be your possession.
\"'And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit
theittx for a possession ; they shall be your bondmen forever : but over your brethren
the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.'
" This Was the law given to the Jews soon after they left Egypt, for their
government wlren they should reach the land of promise. They could have
had no slaves then* It authorized the introduction of slavery among them
when they should become established in Canaan. And it is to be noted
that their bondmen and bondmaids to be bought, and held for a possession
and an inheritance for their children after them, were to be of the heathen
round about them. Over their brethren they were not to rule with rigor.
Oor^Southern system is in.&trict conformity with this injunction. Men of
our own blood and_our_own race, where ver.born, or. from whatever clime they
comeT'are free and equal. We have no castes or classes among white men, —
no 'upper t^njom^OT ' lower tendom.' All are equals. Our slaves were
takenTrom the heathen tribes, — the barbarians of Africa. In our households
they are brought within the pale of the covenant, under Christian teaching
and influence ; and more of them are partakers of the benefits of the gospel
than ever were rendered so by missionary enterprise. The wisdom of
man is foolishness ; the ways of Providence are mysterious. Nor_ does
the negro feel nny sensa-^g -degradfttion in his condition; he is \\niilf.ijraded.
and-£U& th& -same gj*ade or rank in society and the. State
thjit Jie_ilues-4«- th« scale of being; it is his natural place; and all things
nt_when nature's great first law of order is conformed to.
" Again : Job was certainly one of the best men of whom we read in
312 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
the Bible. lie was a large slaveholder. So, too, were Isaac and Jacob,
and all the patriarchs. But, it is said, this was under the Jewish dispen
sation. Granted. Has any change been made since ? Is anything to be
found in the New Testament against it? Nothing, — not a word. Slavery
existed when the gospel was preached^ by Christ arid His Apostles, and
where they preached : it was all around them. And though the Scribes
and Pharisees were denounced -toy our Saviour for their hypocrisy and
robbing 'widows' houses,' yet not a word did He utter against slave-
holding. On one occasion He was sought for by a centurion, who asked
Him to heal his slave, who was sick. Jesus said He would go ; but the
centurion objected, saying, ' Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest
come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be
healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me : and
I say to this man, Go, and he goeth ; and to another, Come, and he cometh ;
I and to my slave, Do this, and he doeth it.' Matthew viii. 8, 9. The word
rendered here ' servant,' in our translation, means slave. It means just such
\a servant as all our slaves at the South are. I have the original Greek."
Here the hammer fell. Mr. Stephens asked that he might be
permitted to go on, as long as the gentleman from Ohio [Mr.
Campbell] had taken up his time. He had but a little more to
say. Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, objected ; and what follows is the
substance of what he intended to say, if he had not been cut off
by the hour-rule.
" The word in the original is (JovAo^ and the meaning of this word, as
given in Robinson's Greek and English Lexicon, is this, — I read from the
book : ' In the family the dovho? was one bound to serve, a slave, and was
the property of his master, — "a living possession," as Aristotle calls him.'
And again : ' The om>Ao^ therefore, was never a hired servant, the latter
being called pafliof,' etc. This is the meaning of the word, as given by
Robinson, a learned doctor of divinity, as well as of laws. The centurion
on that occasion said to Christ Himself, ' I say to my slave do this, and he
doeth it, and do Thou but speak the word, and he shall be healed.' What
was the Saviour's reply? Did He tell him to go loose the bonds that fet
tered his fellow-man? Did He tell him he was sinning against God for
holding a slave ? No such thing. But we are told by the inspired pen
man that:
" ' When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I
say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto
you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom
shall be cast out' into outer darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it
done unto thee. And his servant [or slave] was healed in the selfsame hour.'
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 313
"Was Christ a 'doughface'? Did He quail before the slave-power?
And if He did not rebuke the lordly centurion for speaking as he did of
his authority over his slave, but healed the sick man, and said that He had
not found so great faith in all Israel as He had in his master, who shall
now presume, in His name, to rebuke others for exercising similar author
ity, or say that their faith may not be as strong as that of the centurion?
'•In no place in the New Testament, sir, is slavery held up as sinful.
Several of the Apostles alluded to it, but none of them — not one of them
— mentions or condemns it as a relation sinful in itself, or violative of the
laws of God, or even Christian duty. They enjoin the relative duties of
both master and slave. Paul sent a runaway slave, Onesimus, back to
Philemon, his master. He frequently alludes to slavery in his letters to
the churches, but in no case speaks of it as sinful. To what he says in
one of these epistles I ask special attention. It is 1st Timothy, chapter
6th, and beginning with the first verse :
" ' 1. Let as many servants [fioOAoi, " slaves," in the original, which I have before
me] as are under the yoke [that is, those who are the most abject of slaves] count
their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be
not blasphemed.
"'2. And they that have believing masters, [according to modern doctrine, there
can be no such thing as a slaveholding believer; so did not think Paul,] let them
not despise [or neglect and not care for] them, because they are brethren ; but rather
do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit.
These things teach and exhort.
u<3. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the
words of our Lord Jeans Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness ;
" ' 4. lie is proud [or self -conceited,] knowing nothing, but doting about questions and
strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil suruiisings.
"<5. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, sup
posing that gain is godliness : from such withdraw thyself.'
" This language of St. Paul, the Great Apostle of the Gentiles, is just as
appropriate this day, in this House, as it was when he penned it, eighteen
hundred years ago. No man could frame a more direct reply to the doc
trines of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Giddings] and the gentleman
from Indiana [Mr. Dunn] than is here contained in this sacred book.
What does all this strife, and envy, and railings, and 'civil war1 in Kansas
come from, but the teachings of those in our day who teach otherwise than
Paul taught, and 'do not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our
Lord Jesus Christ' ?
" Let no man, then, say that African slavery as it exists in the South, in
corporated in and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States, is in
violation of either the laws of nations, the laws of nature, or the laws of God !
" And if it ' must needs be' that such an offence shall come from this
source as shall sever the ties that now unite these States together in fra
ternal bonds, and involve the land in civil war, then ' wo be unto them
from whom the offence cometh !' "
314 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
On July 20th he writes to Linton :
• " This morning's mail brought me letters containing the sad intelligence
that our only brother was no more on earth. I am truly overwhelmed with
grief, and hardly know what to say or how to write to you on the subject.
The truth is I can hardly realize the fact. . . . This day week I wrote him
a long letter. That letter I am informed he did not live to read ; it reached
his office the day after his eyes were sealed in death. And is it so that I
shall never see his familiar face and form again ? ... It seems to me now
that if I could recall any unkind word or look I may have given him, that
it would afford me consolation. But this cannot be. I shall go home as
soon as I can leave here. I did intend to go to New York next Saturday,
but that is out of the question now. I was going there to make a speech 5
but I do not now feel as if I could make any speech this summer. I must
see after the family of my poor brother, and must do what 1 can to keep
those most dear to him from want."
Several following letters show how greatly he suffered at his
brother's loss. He cannot think of him without tears. The
family, he writes, must be kept together, at least for a while.
" The bitter pangs attending the breaking up of a family I re
member too well ever to advise a similar course when it can be
prevented."
Before the time of which we are now writing, a close friend
ship had grown up between Linton Stephens and R. M. John
ston, and they had been law-partners since the year 1854.
This connection had led to a more intimate acquaintance with
the elder brother; and it was in this year (1856) that the idea
of preparing this biography was first conceived. From this
time a correspondence was kept up with Mr. Stephens relating
to the events of his life, from which we shall henceforth quote,
as well as from that with Linton.
The first letter of this series which we present was written
at Washington, August 12th, 1856. In it Mr. Stephens thus
alludes to the Presidential candidates of that year:
" I see from the papers that the Fillmore men are trying hard to get up
a movement in his favor ; but I cannot think it will amount to much.
The people are putting the issues of the present canvass too much upon
the past records of Fillmore and Buchanan. Old issues are past and dead.
. . . The great question now is : how do those gentlemen stand upon the
living issues of the day? Mr. Fillmore was and is against the Kansas
Bill. Nearly all his friends at the North are for restoring the Missouri
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 315
Restriction. Mr. Buchanan has approved that bill, and all his friends,
North and South, are for maintaining its principles for all time to come.
This is the question. The position of Mr. Fillmore and his party North,
at present, is not much better for the South, on this question, than that of
Fremont. The only difference between him and Fremont is that he is not
so rank an Abolitionist in his tendencies and associations as Fremont.
But so far as the Kansas Bill is concerned, I see but little difference
between them. Fremont's election would bring into power such men
as Hale, Wilson, and Co.. and hence is much more to be deprecated
than the election of Fillmore. But Fillmore does not stand the ghost of
a chance before the people. His only chance is in this Black llepublican
House, and that is a slim one."
The rest of the correspondence of this year which we shall
quote is to Liuton.
August 19th. — " Much to my disappointment and annoyance, I am de
tained here. An extra session has been called. It was a most unwise
step, in my opinion. Indeed, I doubt if it has been the result of stupidity
altogether. ... I do verily apprehend that Mr. Pierce is lapsing back
into his original policy in regard to Kansas. I fear the cloven foot will be
shown in his message. It will be part of my earnest efforts to prevent such
a relapse if possible. But what is to come of this extra session the Ruler
above, who shapes the destinies of nations, only knows. I must stay."
August 22d. — " We have just taken the final vote on the motion to lay
on the table a motion to reconsider the vote of the House by which they
had declared their adherence to their proviso scheme. The vote was
9G to lay on the table to 95 against it. One vote against us. This is the
end of the bill. . . . Seven more Southern men absent than Northern:
that is, without pairing. If our men had stayed, we should have been
triumphant to-day. On several votes we lost two to three Southern men
who were too drunk to be brought in."
August 23d. — " We may reconsider on Monday our vote whereby we
agreed to adhere to the proviso. And if so, we may get out of the woods.
But I am enraged at the last vote. Rust, of Arkansas, was out, — lost his
vote. It seems impossible to keep Southern Representatives in their seats.
About one-tenth of them need a master. If our men had all been here to
day we should have beaten the enemy by a clear majority of three."
On August 30th Congress adjourned. Mr. Stephens at the
time was under medical treatment, and had to delay his de
parture for a few days, anxious as he was to be at home. He
writes on August 31st :
" I get great numbers of letters from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, urging me to go to those States ; but not a line from home. My
316 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
intention is to go home as soon as I can get there. I do not like the tone
of our Georgia papers. It makes me almost despair of the future of our
section. rTTefjjusLe are doomed to divisions and factions!) I cannot believe,
however, tnat the Fillrnore movement can result in anything more than in
sowing seeds of mischievous divisions hereafter. ... I understand that
the Republicans have spent five hundred thousand dollars on Pennsyl
vania. These merchants of the North, who have grown rich out of us,
are shelling out their money like corn now to oppress us j and yet thou
sands, even of Georgians, would sing hosannahs at the triumph of our
enemies
Immediately upon his return, Mr. Stephens visited the family
of his late brother, arranged for the settlement of his debts,
and bought a house and lot in Crawfordville for the family.
He entered into the political campaign with his usual energy.
In the course of it an angry correspondence sprang up between
him and Mr. B. H. Hill, which led to a challenge from Mr.
Stephens. Mr. Hill, however, declined the challenge.
December^ 15th. — He writes from Washington :
\ ..." I have been urging all the influences I could bring to bear upon
^he Supreme Court to get them to postpone no longer the case on the Mis
souri Restriction before them, but to decide it. They take it up to-day."
[This was the famous -lired Scott case, decided March 6th, 1857.] " If
they decide, as I have reason to believe they will, that the restriction was
unconstitutional, that Congress had no power to pass it, then the question,
— the political question, — as I think, will be ended as to the power of the
people in their Territorial Legislatures. It will be, in effect, a res adjudicata.
The only ground upon which that claim of power can then rest will be
General Cass's ' Squatter Sovereignty' doctrine ; that is, that they possess
the power, not by delegation, but by inherent right ; and you know my
opinion of that.''
December 30th. — In his letter to his brother of this date, a
faint foreboding, or rather the idea of a possibility, finds an
expression, which, unlikely as it seemed, was to be realized long
after.
"If you," he says, "were to be called hence, my existence would be
miserable indeed. I do not know how I could bear it. But if I were to
be called, your lot would not be so bad. You have other reliances for
support and sustainment. The thought that by possibility I may be de
tained on the stage of action longer than you, fills me with the deepest
gloom."
CHAPTEK XXX.
Adroit Strategy of the Kepublicans — Their Eapid Growth — The Dred Scott
Case — Speech on the President's Message — Death of Mrs. Linton Ste
phens — Sad and Solemn Thoughts — Remarks upon Pickpockets — Mr.
Douglas.
THE year 1857 opened hopefully for the friends of Constitu
tional Union. The passage of the Kansas Bill, the reduction of
the tariff, and the election of Mr. Buchanan on a platform en
dorsing the slavery adjustment of 1850, and the Territorial pol
icy of 1854, all seemed to indicate a determination on the part
of the people to reprobate the schemes of the agitators and dis-
unionists, and maintain the Union on principles of justice and
amity. Yet to the observant eye the future was full of danger.
The agitators were indefatigable in action and inexhaustible in
resources. Their opposition to the Territorial policy of Con
gress had given them a taking popular cry, and a platform on
which all could agree, and on which they had organized a com
bination under the name of the Republican party, which, taking
dexterous advantage of a fit of popular irritation against the
Mormons, adroitly coupled Polygamy with Slavery as "twin
relics of barbarism," and asserted the right of Congress to pro
hibit both in the Territories. The Presidential election showed
the rapid strides they were making. In 1844 the Abolitionists
first put a candidate in the field for the Presidency, who received
a popular vote of nearly 65,000, but no electoral vote. In 1848
they again, under the name of Free-Soilers, nominated a candi
date, who, it is true received no electoral vote, but polled a
popular vote of nearly 300,000. In 1852 they fell off, polling
only 156,000 votes, owing to the general satisfaction that was
felt at the Compromise of 1850. But they counted safely on
the irresistible power of persistent agitation. The election of
1856 showed the startling result of an electoral vote of 114, or
317
318 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
eleven States, for the Republican candidates. It was easy to
see that, though yet in the minority, this party was increasing
with alarming rapidity, which, unless checked, would make it
triumphant in the next election. The spirit of sectionalism,
also^had borne its evil fruit; and already the alliance between
the Constitutional parties of the North and South, the only
barrier against disunion, was being weakened by jealousy and
Suspicion. While their enemies formed a compact phalanx,
unwearied in their exertions, these were growing careless, and
beginning to divide into sections, each over-confident in itself
and suspicious of its natural allies. The doctrines of Know-
Nothingisni had also acted as a powerful solvent. On the whole,
the situation, apparently hopeful, was full of peril, — peril only
to be averted by what was never to be obtained : a firm alliance
of all, North and South, who desired justice to all, and the
Rights of the States preserved in the Union, under a strict
construction of the Constitution.
We resume the correspondence with Linton :
January 1st, 1857. — u I send you my New Year's salutation. Eighteen
hundred and fifty-seven is duly registered. When I gazed for the first
time on the new-born this morning, it seemed to be snugly wrapped in a
beautiful mantle of snow. . . . To-day I send you the speech of Curtis on
the Dred Scott case before the Supreme Court. The speech I think chaste,
elegantTTorensic ; but I do not think it convincing. The case is yet unde
cided. It is the great case before the court, and involves the greatest
questions, politically, of the day. I mean that the questions involved, let
them be decided as they may, will have greater political effect and bearing
than any others of the day. The decision will be a marked epoch in our
history. I feel a deep solicitude as to how it will be. (T?rom what I hear,
sub rosa, it will be according to my own opinions on every point, as ab
stract political questions.";} The restriction of 1820 will be held to be un
constitutional. The judges are all writing out their opinions, I believe,
seriatim. The chief justice will give an elaborate one. Should this
opinion be as I suppose it will, ' Squatter Sovereignty speeches' will be
upon a par with ' Liberty speeches' at the North in the last canvass."
January 3d. — " I have the floor to make a speech on the President's mes
sage. I suppose Tuesday will be as soon as I shall speak. Monday is
Resolution-and-Humbug-Day generally. . . . The late election, its issues
and its results, will be my theme."
On January 6th he delivered- the speech before a House
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 319
densely crowded, both floor and galleries, by an eagerly attentive
audience. He began by alluding to the great crisis through
which the country had passed, and its escape from immediate
danger, and congratulating " the House, the country, and even
you, Mr. Speaker,* against your will, upon our safe deliverance."
He then refers to the political principles which had triumphed
in the election of Mr. Buchanan on the Cincinnati platform,— N
the principle that " there shall be no Congressional prohibition-'
of slavery in the common territory," and the principle that
" new States arising in the common Territories shall be admitted
as States, either with or without slavery, as their inhabitants may
determine." Alluding to the Kansas Bill, he took occasion to
eulogize its Northern supporters ; for in the midst of his grati
fication at the success just gained, he was not blind to the dan
gers that still threatened, and he knew 4hat the only hope of ..the
South in the Tin ion Iny in a firm alliance with the Constitutional
"I know something,'' he says, "of the difficulties attending its passage
[the Kansas Bill], — the violence, the passion and fanaticism evoked against
it. I well remember the opinions -then given, — that the North would never
submit to it ; and that the seats then filled by those who voted for it from
that section, would never again be filled by men of like sentiments. By
indignant constituencies such members were to be driven forever from the
public councils. Forty-four members from the North in this House voted
for the bill, only one of whom, I believe, acted with its enemies in the
late struggle for its maintenance. To the present House, owing to causes
that I need not mention, only eighteen were returned from that section in
favor of it. This was matter of great boast at the time. But, sir, to the
next House we have forty-nine members already chosen from the North
at the late elections upon the distinct issue of their advocacy of this bill.
This is five more than the number originally for it: the cause jrroj
- weaker. ,_ This is one of the results of thelate election
particularly gratifying to me in itself. It shows what men of nerve, with
fidelity to the Constitution, relying upon the virtue, intelligence, loyalty,
and patriotism of the people, can effect. Language would fail me in an
attempt to characterize as they deserve those sterling and noble spirits
who bore the Constitutional flag in the North against the popular preju
dice and fanaticism of the people of their own section in this contest.
" Sir, it is an easy thing for a man to drift along with the popular cur-
* Hon. N. P. Banks.
320 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
rent. Any man can do that. Honors thus obtained are as worthless as
they are cheap ; but it requires nerve — it requires all the elements that
make a man to stand up and oppose men in their errors, and advocate
truth before a people unwilling to hear and receive it — to speak to those
who ' having ears, hear not, and having eyes, see not.' History furnishes
some examples of this sort : but the history of the world, in my judgment,
has never furnished nobler and grander specimens of this virtue than the
late canvass in the North. When a man discharges his duty upon any
occasion, he deserves respect and admiration ; but when a man discharges
his duty against the prevailing prejudices of those around him, and even
against Jhis own natural feelings and inclinations, that man commands
something higher than respect and admiration. The elder Brutus, who
sat in judgment and pronounced sentence against his own son, silencing
the adverse promptings of a father's heart, made himself 'the noblest
Roman of them all' •, and those statesmen at the North to whom I allude,
who had the nerve, in the crisis just passed, to stand up and vindicate the
right, under the circumstances in which they were placed, give to the
world an instance of the niaml-siiblime in human action never surpassed
before. Our history furnishes no parallel with it. They bore the brunt
of the fight. • To them the preservation of the Republic is due ; and if our
Republic proves not to be ungrateful, they will receive patriots' rewards, —
more to be desired than monuments of brass or marble, — honored names
while living, and honored memories when dead."
/ After showing that the Kansas and Nebraska Bill, which the
Northern agitators had denounced as an insult to their section,
was framed in strict conformity with the Utah and New Mexico
Bills and the settlement of 1850, he touches the topic of "squatter
sovereignty/7 a name which had been given to the doctrine that
the people of a Territory possess sovereign powers previous to
their organization into a State, and independently of any action
of Congress,* and shows that no such doctrine is implied in the
Kansas Bill. He then proceeds thus :
* The rational and logical doctrine, at least from an American point of
view, would seem to be this, that any community has the right to change
its form of government, and, if a territory, province, or other dependency,
to organize itself into a sovereign and independent State ; and by such
action and organization it does, ipso facto, so become. This is simply the
universally-admitted right of revolution. Now if this action be forcibly
resisted by the power of which it has declared itself independent, the ques
tion, not of its independence, but of its ability to maintain that independ
ence, comes to be tested, and if adversely decided, the new State lapses once
more into dependency, and loses its sovereignty by the submission of its
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 321
" But the practical point, looking to the probable prospect of any of
these Territories becoming slave States, dwindles into perfect insignificance
in view of the principle involved. That principle is one of Constitutional
rigkLand equity. Its surrender carries with it submission to unjust and
unconstitutional legislation, the sole object of which would be to array
this Government, which claims our allegiance, in direct hostility, not only
to our interests, but the very frame-work of our political organizations.
Who looked to the practical importance of the ' Wilmot Proviso' to the
South in 1850, when it was attempted to be fixed upon New Mexico and
Utah, with half so much interest as they did to the principle on which it
was founded? It was the principle that was so unyieldingly resisted
then. It was this principle, or the threatened action of Congress based
upon it, which the whole South, with a voice almost unanimous, including
the gentleman himself [Mr. II. Marshall, of Kentucky], then said, ' They
would not and ought not to submit to!"1 Principles, sir, are not only out
posts, but the bulwarks of all constitutional liberty ; and if these be
yielded or taken by superior force, the citadel will soon follow. A p^pjgle
wjip would ..maintauaJheir :.. rights Lmust look to principles much more than
to practical results. Thejmdependence of the United States was declared
and established in the vindication of an abstractjmnciple. Mr. Webster
never uttered a groat truth in simpler language — for which he was so
distinguished — than when he said, 'The American Revolution was fought
on a preamble.' It was not the amount of the tax on tea, but the asser
tion (in the preamble of the bill taking off the tax) of the right in the
British Parliament to tax the colonies, without representation, that our
fathers resisted ; and it was the principle of unjust and unconstitutional
Congressional action against the institutions of all the Southern States of
this Union that we, in 1850, resisted by our votes, and would have re
sisted by our arms if the wrong had been perpetrated. Those from the
people. But it it an error to suppose that revolution is of necessity accom
panied by violence, or must be resisted by the supreme power. In the rela
tions of the United States with their Territories, provision is expressly made
for accomplishing this act of revolution peacefully, and indeed with encour
agement. So soon as the population of a Territory have reached a certain
numerical proportion they organize themselves into a State, and by so doing
become a free, sovereign, and independent State. Their subsequent appli
cation for admission into the Union of States is a voluntary act on the part
of the new State; but it is the condition on which the United States agree
to acknowledge the new State as an independpnt State. If this condition
were not complied with, the United States would have the right to compel
its observance by force, or use force to reduce the new State to its former
Territorial condition. Thus the organization of a Territory into a sovereign
State is a simple act of revolution ; a revolution to which no resistance is
offered by the mother-country (the other States conjointly) provided certain
conditions are complied with. k
21
322 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
South who supported the New Mexico and Utah Bills did so because this
principle of Congressional restriction was abandoned in them. It was
not from any confidence, in a practical point of view, that these Territories
ever would be slave States. The great constitutional and essential right
to be so if they chose was secured to them. That was the main point.
This, at least, was the case with myself; for when I looked out upon our
vast Territories of the West and Northwest I did not then, nor do I now,
consider that there was or is much prospect of many of them, particularly
the latter, becoming slave States. Besides the laws of climate, soil, and
productions, there is another law not unobserved by me, which seemed to
be quite as efficient in its prospective operations in giving a different char
acter to their institutions, and that is the law of population. There were,
at the last census, nearly twenty millions of whites in the United States,
and only a fraction over three millions of blacks, or slaves. The stock
from which the population of the latter class must spring is too small to
keep pace in diffusion, expansion, and settlement with the former. The
ratio is not much greater than one to seven, to say nothing of foreign im
migration and the known facts in relation to the tardiness with which
jiLave population is pushed into new countries and frontier settlements.
(Hence the greater importance to the South of a rigid adherence to princi-
' pies on this subject vital to them. If the slightest encroachments of power
are permitted or submitted to in the Territories they may reach the States
ultimately. And although I looked, and still look, upon the probabilities
of Kansas being a slave State, as greater than I did in the case of New
Mexico and Utah.Qret I voted for the bill of 1854 with the view of main-
taining the principle much more than I did to such practical results} As
a Southern man, considering the relation wincn~The~ African benflfto the
white race in the Southern States as the very_besi condition for tlie-grealest
good of Jioth ; and as a national man, looking to the best interests .of the
country, the peace and harmony of the whole by a preservation j?f the
balance of power, as far as can be (for, after a^L, the surest check to
encroachments is the inability to make them)^I should prefer to see
Kansas come into the Union as a slave State; but it was not with tlje
fview or purpose of effecting that result that I voted for the Kansas Bill,
any more than it was with the view or purpose of accomplishing similar
results as to New Mexico and Utah that I supported the measures of 1850.
It was to secure the right to come in as a slave State, if the people there
so wished, and to maintain a principle which I then thought, and still
think, essential to the peace of the country and the ultimate security of
the rights of the South."
; After alluding to the misrepresentations of those opposed to
he Kansas Bill, who had asserted that the question at issue was
vhether Kansas should be a slave State or a free State, — a con
test between freedom and slavery ; whereas it really was the far
LIFE OF ALEXANDER IL STEPHENS. 323
more important question whether the people of Kansas had or
( had not the right to determine the former question for theru-
j selves, at the proper time, uuinterfered with by Congress, — he
(thus concludes :
| " Its passage was not a triumph of the South over the North, further
• than a removal of an unjust discrimination against her people, and a
>/ restoration of her constitutional equality maybe considered a triumph.
To this extent it was a triumph; but njX-seetianal triumph. It^was a
_ C, ^ tiTurn^h_of^ the Constitution. It was a triumph that enhanced the value
y. ^eljth^UnionTnT the Estimation of the people of the South. The restriction
of 182(Thad 'been for many years in the body politic as a ' thorn in the
flesh,' producing irritation at every touch. On the principles upon which
it was adopted (reluctantly accepted as an alternative at the time by them)
the South would have been, and was willing to acquiesce in and adhere to
it in 1850. But it was then repudiated, again and again, by the North, as
was shown by me in this House on a former occasion. The idea of its
having been a sacred compact, or being in any way binding, was scouted
at and ridiculed by those who have raised such a clamor on that score
/since. This thorn was removed in 1850. The whole country seemed to
j be relieved by it. It would have been completely relieved by it but for
Vthejate attempt to thrust back this thorn. This attempt has been signally
rebuked. And may we not now look to the future with hopes — well-
grounded hopes — of permanent repose? Repose is what we want. With
that principle now established, that each State and separate political
community in our complicated system is to attend to its own affairs, with
out meddling with those of its neighbors, and that the General Government
is to give its care and attention only to such matters as are committed to
its charge, relating to the general welfare, peace, and harmony of the
whole, what is there to darken or obscure the prospect of a great and
prosperous career before us? Men on all sides speak of the Union and
its preservation as objects of their desire ; and some speak of its dissolu
tion as impossible, — an event that will not be allowed under any circum
stances. To such let_jne__gny that-, f.hift TTnion can only be_ preserved by
conforming to the laws of its existence. When these laws are violated,
like aTl otheForgahisms, either political or physical, vegetable or animal,
dissolution will be inevitable. The laws of this political organism — the
union of these States — are well defined in the Constitution. From this
springs our life as a people. If these be violated, political death must
ensue. The Union can never be preserved by force, or by one section
attempting to rule the other.
"The principle on this sectional controversy, established in 1850, carried
out in 1854, and affirmed by the people in 1856, I consider, Mr. Speaker,
as worth the Union itself, much as I am devoted to it, so long as it is
devoted to the objects for which it was formetT. And in devotion to it, so
324 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
long as these objects are aimed at, I yield to no one. To maintain its
integrity, — to promote its advancement, development, growth, power, and
renown, in accomplishing those objects, is my most earnest wish and
desire. To aid in doing this is my highest ambition. These are the
impulses of that patriotism with which I am imbued ; and with me
'All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of love,
And feed this sacred flame.'
But the constitutional rights and equality of the States must be pre-
| served/'
January 1,5th. — Mrs. Lin ton Stephens has been dangerously
sick since the birth of her child. Alexander writes in great
anxiety, and begs his brother to bear with patience whatever
Providence may have in store. The letter thus closes :
" May lie who rules over us and shapes our destinies guard and protect
you, watch over and protect her who always puts trust in Him ! I write
this in the House in the midst of confusion. I can only say, God be with
you, and be merciful to you in sparing her who is so dear to you, and
whose speedy recovery is my earnest desire and prayer."
January 18jh. — Mrs. Linton Stephens had died, and he had
been informed of the death by a letter from a friend.
11 1 do wish I had been there ; not only that I might have seen her once
more in this life, but that I might have mingled my sorrow with yours,
and thus have afforded you at least the small comfort of the sympathy of
a heart not unused to the bitterest pangs that life can bear. Few mortals
have suffered more than I have ; and few that see me and associate with
me daily, have a conception of what torture and misery I endure. But
of all the sufferings I have ever yet been subjected to, the loss of dear
ones is the worst. This is like cutting the very heart-strings of life. I
felt it on the death of our dear father, whose dead form now lies stretched
before me in my mind's eye. Then my cup of grief was near running
over. One more drop, and I should have sunk and died under it. I felt
something of the same upon the death of my brother Grier. These were
the most severe trials of my life. I have felt deep grief upon many other
occasions 5 but on those, the very nerves of my life were touched. I have
no doubt that you have felt, or do now feel, that deep agony of the soul
that I then felt. Oh, how I sympathize with you, and how I wish I could
be with you ! I think of you day and nigh£. If I were not afraid of
being detained on the road in exposure that would jeopard my life, I
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 305
would go immediately to see you. But such is the condition of the roads,
I fear to start. The appearance this morning indicates another snow
before to-morrow. I to-day raised blood upon coughing. ... I want to
see you and talk to you. But as this is impossible at present, let us
commune as often on paper as we can. May Heaven watch over, guard,
and protect you !"
February 1st. — Another long letter of condolence, concluding
thus :
" Mr. Toombs has just come in, and I must close. He feels deeply for
you. In speaking of the death of Mr. Brooks the other day in the Senate,
he broke out in weeping and had to stop. I never saw him shed tears be
fore. His heart was full and ran over. He had heard the day before of
sister Em's death, and it seemed to me then, when I told him, that it
had a peculiar effect upon him. His whole soul seemed to be touched."
About this time Mr. Stephens paid a visit to his bereaved
brother, and there is a break in the correspondence. After his
return he wrote very frequently, letters full of sympathy and
consolation. Fearing lest Liu ton may let despondency prey
upon him, as his letters seem to forebode, those of Alexander
have a more decidedly religious cast, and the teachings and
promises of the Christian faith are a frequent theme, and are
urged upon his brother with a solemn and reverent tenderness.
He once or twice alludes to his own severe and manifold trials,
as in the following passage :
" No mortal has ever had more reason to despair — to curse his fate and
die — than I have had ; and few men, I imagine, have ever suffered more
deeply and intensely. I have sometimes been on the very brink of despair :
but I have borne all, and believe that I am better in consequence. Out of
the very bitterest weeds of life I draw sweetness and consolation ; out of
disappointments, crosses, and ills I extract comfort and hope. . . . The
subject of the condition of the spirits of the dead, whether they are in a
conscious state or not, whether or not they are permitted to look on and
see what we the survivors are doing, was once a matter of most perplexing
thought to me. But these are matters not intended for mortals to know ;
and no good can come of thinking upon them. It is sufficient for me to
be resolved that if the spirits of those most dear to me when living, who
are now departed, do look on and see what I am doing, they will be grati
fied at what I do or try to do. In my severest grief for the death of friends,
the best consolation I ever had was the reflection that those friends would
be pained to know that I was suffering so much on their account. This
thought has checked many a sigh and tear. . . . Father told me, two nights
326 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H< STEPHENS.
before he died, that he thought he should die. We were alone, and he
talked a long time with me. He enjoined upon me how I should act in
case he died. All my energy came from those dying injunctions. At
least in my greatest grief, a resolve to perform them was the ruling pas
sion that prevailed. And it is a ruling passion with me yet. His memory
I can never forget. And it seems to me that I should never have been
happy since his death had it not been for the reflection that he would
take pleasure in seeing me happy. And now again good-by. May God,
the God of our common father, protect and sustain you and make you still
useful and happy in your day and generation !"
His brother seemed drawn even closer than before to his heart
by this sorrow. His letters of sympathy never cease, whether
he be at home or travelling. His thoughts, he says, by day and
night, and even his dreams, are of his brother. On the 15th of
June he writes :
" I have no object on earth but you and your happiness to engross my
mind. I am thinking of you nearly all the time. Business I have to
attend to, but in business, at home or abroad, you are in my mind."
This year Linton Stephens was again a candidate for Con
gress, his opponent being the Hon. Joshua Hill. Alexander
took a warm interest in his brother's canvass, and made several
speeches, in his district. Linton, however, was beaten at the
election by about the same majority as in 1855.
Alexander left for Washington in the latter part of Novem
ber, and while on the cars had his pocket-book stolen, containing
some hundred and fifty dollars in money, and about twenty
thousand dollars in promissory notes belonging to himself and
clients. The book and papers were recovered in a few hours,
but the money was gone.
On November 29th he writes from Washington :
" I called on Cobb, and found him well, and apparently in good spirits.
He is to come round here to-night. The Administration have staked their
all upon sustaining the Kffnsas Constitution, as it may be ratified. Walker
is here} and is going to break with them. Forney will back Walker, but
I hear of no other disaffection at present."
December 1st. — He again alludes to the loss of the pocket-book,
in which, besides money and notes, there were several land-
warrants belonging to poor constituents.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER If. STEPHENS. 327
"I was truly lucky in recovering the pocket-book; and luckier still in
not losing it before I had paid out the large amounts I had taken down
with me. The truth is, I did not feel very uneasy about the papers. I
felt sure they would not be destroyed. Those pickpockets, after all, are
a downright clever honest sort of people in their way. They have no
malice. They commit no wanton destruction of property. They take the
money, — that is all they are after. I have a sort of kindly feeling towards
them, particularly since they saved me all my papers, including the land-
warrants, that I had counted as a dead loss. . . . Everything here is in
a better condition than I feared it would be. (The Administration is for
the Kansas Constitution, and I think the Northern Democrats will gen
erally be so too.). . . Orr will be Speaker. I have forbidden my name to
be used in corfnexion with the office. Orr is for the Kansas Constitution,
and on that line I am for organizing the House, with as much harmony
as possible. The signs are now good ; but perhaps, like a bright May
morning, the horizon may soon be closed in by clouds portending storm.
I was glad to hear that old Mat [an old servant] was better. Poor old
woman ! When I left, I thought she was low-spirited and rather hysteri
cal."
December J}ih. — " I have seen Douglas twice. He is against us : decid
edly, but not extravagantly, as I had heard. He puts his opposition on
the ground that the Kansas Constitution is not fairly presented. He looks
upon it as a trick, etc. His course, I fear, will do us great damage. The
Administration say they will be firm. He and they will come into open
hostility, I fear. ... I felt sanguine four days ago : now I hardly know
what sort of feelings to indulge in. It is said that all Pennsylvania, New
York, and Connecticut will stand firm, even against Douglas ; but I doubt."
December 25tji. — " This morning I got your letter of the 20th, the one
in which you spoke of Rio, and told me he had been howling, off and on.
all the evening. Poor dog ! How that news affected me ! I wonder if
he was howling for his master. — if he was grieving for my absence. The
thought that he might be touched me deeply, and made me sad. I have
been sad all day. . . . Mr. Toombs reached here this morning. He called
up soon ; but notwithstanding all his hilarity and flow of spirits, I could
not drive off the melancholy which the thought of my poor dog's howling
for me produced."
CHAPTEE XXXI.
Kansas again — Walker the Filibuster — Interview with the President — " A
Battle-Royal" — Defection of Southern Know-Nothings — A Hard Struggle
— Intense Anxiety — Kansas Bill passes both Houses — Speech on the
Admission of Minnesota — A Bird of Ill-omen—British War-Steamer
Styx — A Reception at Athens — The Orator in a Panic — A Summer Tour
— No Desire for the Presidential Nomination— Visit to President Buch
anan.
IN December, 1857, Kansas had applied for admission as a
State under what was called the Lecompton Constitution. In
the formation and ratification of this the Free-Soil partisans in
the Territory had taken no part, their plan being to form a sepa
rate constitution in conformity with their views. The admission
of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution, the expedition
sent to enforce the execution of the laws in the Territory of
Utah, — popularly known as the Mormon War, — and Walker's
filibustering movements in Nicaragua, were the topics of interest
and excitement in the early part of this session.
On January 3d, 1858, he writes to Lin ton :
" We have no news. The Walker and Paulding imbroglio just now
embarrasses us. Our sympathies are all with the filibusters. We do not
agree with the Administration on this Central American question ; but if
we denounced it as we feel it deserves to be, we endanger their support of
our views of the Kansas question. This we fear. The strength of that
question in the North lies in its being an Administration measure ; but if
we of the South oppose the Administration on one question, it affords a
pretext for men of the North to oppose it on another, and yet be good party
men. In this way the question embarrasses us. . . . We meet to-morrow,
and shall have a great deal of steam and gas let off, I expect, upon all
sorts of questions. At present our count on the Kansas question is : two
from Connecticut, ten from New York, three from New Jersey, twelve
from Pennsylvania, three from Indiana, two from Ohio, one from Illinois —
thirty-three in all, — enough to carry it in the House if all the South vote
with us, and seven to spare. It is safe in the Senate."
January 20th. — " I never had so much work — hard work — to do before.
328
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 329
I am at it night and day. I seldom get to bed before twelve and one
o'clock, and am up at half-past seven. I am wearing out. I wish I had
not consented to come here. I see but little good I can do. I am opposed
to most of the policy, as far as I can perceive it, of the present Adminis
tration. The Walker-Paulding affair I look upon as a great outrage. In
my late letter to you, I believe I said that I could not afford to quarrel
with them at present. But when I saw what they were doing I could not
keep my mouth closed, but I kept back my wrath. The reason of their
line of policy and opposition to Walker was their hostility to his enterprise
because if successful he would introduce African slavery there. This is
the whole upshot of the business. It is the object of this Government, in
conjunction with the British, to prevent any colony or state arising in
Central America on the basis or status of the Southern States."
February 3d. — " My interview with the President took place last night
at the appointed time. I think it fortunate for him, in some respects, that
he sought it. He submitted his message to me, which was sent in yester
day. At my suggestion he made three very important modifications, I
think. I insisted on his making another, which he declined to do. This
is the only real or solid objection I have to the message as it now stands,
— that is, the opinion expressed that by the Kansas Bill the Slavery ques
tion was to be submitted to the popular vote. That is a great error ; but
he ' had sworn that the horse was fifteen feet high,' and he must needs
stand to it. I am fully persuaded that if I had had an interview with him
on that first message before it was sent in, that error would never have
been committed. This I am led to believe from his general bearing. On
all the other points he seemed quick to take an idea and perceive its force,
and as readily yield to it as any man I ever conversed with. The conclu
sion I came to is that Mr. Buchanan really means to do right. What he
most needs is wise and prudent counsellors. He is run down and worn
out with office-seekers, and the cares which the consideration of public
affairs has brought upon him. lie is now quite feeble and wan. I was
struck with his physical appearance ; he appears to me to be failing in
bodily health.
" We have now the Kansas question in full blast. The vote will be
close. A sort of test-vote was taken in the House yesterday on the motion
to adjourn. We lost it by four, — three Southern men out of their seats.
Had they been in their places, where they ought to have been, the Speaker
would have brought it to a tie. As it was, the apparent strength of the
opposition on the first skirmish emboldened and encouraged them, and
caused our Northern friends to tremble in their knees. I have been more
provoked at the course of Southern men on this Kansas question from the
beginning than upon any other subject in my public career. I mean their
culpable negligence."
February 5th. — " I fear we shall be beaten on the admission of Kansas.
The Northern Democrats do not stand up as they have been counted ; and
330 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
our mean Southern men will not stay in their places. Last night we had
a battle-royal in the House. Thirty men at least were engaged in the
fisticuff. Fortunately, no weapons were used. . . . Nobody was hurt or
even scratched, I believe ; but bad feeling was produced by it. It was the
first sectional fight ever had on the floor, I think ; and if any weapons had
been on hand it would probably have been a bloody one. LA11 things here
are tending to bring my mind to the conclusion that the Union cannot or
will not last lorFg.T*)
The letters of this period have frequent references to his health,
which was very bad ; and his mental depression combined with
his bodily ailments to make him wish himself safe out of the
turmoil and trouble, where, as he said and thought, he was
" making a useless sacrifice of himself for nought, and nought
only."
" I am wearing out rny life for nothing. To mix daily writh men who
have no patriotism, and no object but their own little selfish ends, is dis
gusting to me. If the admission of Kansas is carried, I shall be done writh
politics. It is a business I take no pleasure in. ... I have done my part.
Some other must take my place. The rest of my life, whether long or
short, I wish to spend in quiet retirement and uninterrupted solitude.
Physical pains I am used to : mental pains as well. No change can in
crease either. My fortitude, I trust, will never fail me in whatever may
await me in the future. ... If the South would but have the right sort
of men here, there would not be the least difficulty. We should carry the
'JL^compton Constitution, and achieve the greatest triumph in our history.
; But patriotism is defunct, public virtue is gone, integrity is gone, or at
V least all these high qualities are fast dying out."
March llth. — "Last night our Committee of fifteen agreed upon a report.
I drew it up and submitted it. The labor of drawing up the report was
nothing compared with that of looking after the members of the Commit
tee and getting them to be present and ready to sustain it. I do not be
lieve another man, in the House or outside, would have done it. But I
succeeded. I wished to offer it next day in the House, but our side thought
it best to wait on the minority. I agreed to do so for a wreek, and did
wait a week until yesterday. The minority was not ready. I then pre
sented the report, which could be carried only by unanimous consent.
That was not given, and I had it printed. All the time I had urged the
Democrats to keep in their places ; for I expected Harris to spring some
question in the House. To-day he did this by raising what he called a
question of privilege, alleging that a majority of the Committee had not
executed the order of the House. This was to keep the report from ever
being made. The Speaker decided, very properly, that it was not a ques
tion of privilege. But with a majority they could overrule the decision of
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 331
the Chair. He moved a call of the House. But in the call of the roll
there were twenty-two Democrats — Lecompton men — absent, and only five
anti-Lecornpton. Thirteen of the twenty-two were from the South. Had
they been present we should have saved the question. How shamefully
the South is represented ! Some of the Southern men were too drunk to
be got into the House. We got a postponement of the question until
to-morrow. In the vote to-day II. Marshall and all the Maryland Know-
Nothings voted with the Republicans. ... I amjvery apprehensive that
we shall be beaten, but it will be by the South.<^J[jim almost overwhelmed
with mortification to think that the deed will be done by our own people.
My heart is sad — sad — sad. . . . If we sho"^ aqpamtp, wh-if is <-r>
of jig in the hands of such representatives? Have we any future but mis-
eraTTe petty MjimLiblus, pail'ms, filULlo'ns, and Fragments of organizations,
led on by contemptible drunken demagogues? My country — what is to
become of it ! It is the idol of my life. Her glory, her prosperity, her
welfare, happiness and renown. Perhaps it is too much my idol ; but it
has been the absorbing object of my life's ambition 5 and yet all is, I fear,
about to be blasted."
Marsh 12th. — " We had a fight again in the House — not fisticuffs, but
parliamentary — on Harris's appeal from the decision of the Speaker. As
usual, we lost the question by the absence of two Southern votes : Branch,
of North Carolina, and Caruthers, of Missouri. Clarke, of New York, a
good Kansas man, has the small pox, and could not be there. Luck seems
to be against us. We had all our other men there to-day except those
paired. Some were so drunk they had to be kept out until they were
wanted to say ' ay' or ' no,' as the case might be. The worst thing about
it to-day was that H. paired off with Me , of California, who would
have voted with us on that question, which I think H. knew. Had he not
made that pair, and voted with us, as Me would have done, we should
have succeeded. I fear II. intended to follow H. Marshall, but being afraid
to do it openly, skulked behind a pair"
March 19th. — " I am very apprehensive that the admission of Kansas
under the Lecompton Constitution will fail. The Southern ' Americans'
J Know-Nothings], I fear, will abandon us in mass. If so, all is lost. The
great fight will come off in the House next Monday or Tuesday, when the
Senate Bill will come in. The tactics of the opposition will be to defeat
the bill without a direct vote. They will move to refer it to the Select
Committee of fifteen. That being a select committee, under the ruling it
can never report until all the Committees are called. This can easily be
prevented during the whole session, so the question cannot again be
brought forward. The Southern ' Americans' will all, I fear (or enough
of them), vote for this reference, knowing its effect, while they would per
haps not dare to vote against the bill. This gives me great uneasiness by
day and night. I was never so much worn with care and anxiety in my
life."
332 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
April 2d. — " We lost the Senate Bill for the admission of Kansas in the
House yesterday. This was as I expected. Six Southern ' Americans'
defeat3d us. Twenty-nine Northern Democrats stood firm. Had all the
Southern members stood firm also, our majority with a full House would
have been eight.
"I am not yet without hope that the Senate will yet recede from the
substitution of Crittenden's bill for the Senate Bill. If so, we may yet
succeed over the Republican and Know-Nothing alliance which defeated
us yesterday. But on this point I am not so hopeful now as I was yester
day. Northern men now begin to say that they cannot fight Republicans
and Southern men both in defence of Southern rights."
April 7th. — " The Senate will return us the Kansas Bill with its non-
concurrence in the House substitute to-day. To-morrow we shall take a
vote on receding or adhering. Our side will be beaten on the vote. We
may be able to get a conference asked by the House, but I doubt that. If
we do, that will be what our side will be better satisfied with than a vote
to adhere. If we adhere, the bill will go back to the Senate, and they
will ask a conference. Then it will come back. I think we shall then
agree, if not before, to a committee of conference. I cannot predict, but
will venture the opinion that nothing will be agreed upon but a recom
mendation that the House recede. Then will come the decisive tug of
war. ... I am still hopeful, but not sanguine. Good-by. I have worked
hard, worn out myself in the cause of my country. If I succeed, I shall
greatly rejoice on her account.V Tf I fail, the bitterest feeling I shall
suffer will arisejroni the fact thaTTTie failure ensued from the defection
of Southern men./
On the 17th of April, Mr. Stephens thus wrote to R. M. J. :
" I have been overwhelmed with business. My time is taken up, day
and night, with the absorbing question of the admission of Kansas. I am
now on the Committee of Conference.* I am sick, besides, and yet am
compelled to be up to give audience to all sorts of views and suggestions.
... If we can get a recognition of the principle we have been contending
for, the right of the State to come in with slavery, or without objection on
that score, it is ail I can hope for."
April 26th. — " My room has been crowded all day and night with friends.
The theme was the Kansas question, and the report of the Committee of
Conference. The vote on it is still in great doubt. ... I am now in my
seat before the House meets, interrupted every minute by inquiries as to
what is the prospect. I am exceedingly harassed, but am as patient as
Job. Never did man work harder or effect more than I have done in this
matter. The whole labor has been on myself. The most disagreeable re
flection attending the whole subject to me is, that all may be for nought,
and that we may ultimately fail. This is now my serious apprehension."
* Mr. Stephens was head of the House Committee of Conference.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 333
April 29th. — ..." The tide of battle every day ebbs and flows like
that of the sea. So uncertain and fickle is man, yes, even grave members
and Senators. In proportion to the number, there are more fools in Con
gress than in any constable's beat in Taliaferro County. Since the report
of the Conference Committee there have been several periods when we could
have carried it, if we could have got a vote, by a majority of eight; and
I should not be surprised if we should finally lose it by a greater one."
May 1st. — The bill reported by the Committee of Conference
for the admission of Kansas as a State, passed both Houses on
April 30th. In the lower House it was carried by a majority of
thirteen, the same numerical majority by which the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill had passed in 1854. Mr. Stephens, referring to
its passage, writes :
" Every Southern Democratic Senator present voted for it. Jefferson
Davis had himself sent for to record his vote for it. He is in very bad
health, — has been extremely ill. I took the paper to him and got his ap
proval of it before I would agree to report it. This is the way I worked
the matter with all the leading men from the South."
After discussing the merits of the Conference Bill, which he
prefers to the original Senate Bill, he continues :
" I had a discussion in the House the other day with II. Winter Davis
on this Conference Bill. My remarks were impromptu : I had no idea of
his making a speech, and no idea of replying to him until a few minutes
before he closed. I never made a speech in the House that seemed to
please my friends better. The speech reported as Davis's in the Globe is
not the speech he made. That he wrote out afterwards, and in it he has
tried to anticipate and evade the force of the points I made on him. He
has also corrected and interlined sentences in his remarks in the running
debate between us, which greatly weaken the apparent force of the points I
made on him, when taken into connection with the speech as he has it
going before. This is unbearable, if there were any way to prevent it. The
plan of reporting in the Globe is abominable : the whole system is a
nuisance. In Davis's first speech as he made it, he broadly denied and
challenged the production of a case, since the admission of Missouri, when
a State had been admitted on a condition. He was so completely and
thoroughly used up, that the House was several times in a roar of laughter
and applause.
" I want to go home soon. I feel it necessary to recruit my health. I
am worn out."
On the llth of May, Mr. Stephens addressed the House on
334 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
the bill for the admission of Minnesota. Several objections had
been made, the chief of which, and that to which Mr. Stephens
especially addressed his reply, being the assertion that the con
stitution of Minnesota was in conflict with that of the United
States, in permitting persons other than citizens of the United
States to vote at State elections. To this Mr. Stephens replied
that on the question of the admission of a State into the Union,
Congress had only the right to inquire whether. its constitution
was republican in form, and whether it fairly expressed the
will of the people. If any parts of her constitution were at
variance with the Constitution of the United States, they were
overruled by that Constitution ; but that this was a matter to
be determined, not by Congress, but by the proper judicial
authority, whenever a conflict arose. From this point he passed
to the more important question of the rights of the States to
determine, each for itself, the qualifications of their own voters
at State elections. This was a right which had never been
delegated to the General Government, and therefore, by the
express words of the Constitution, it was reserved to the people
of the several States. This right he showed had been recognized
by numerous acts of Congress, coining down from the very
formation of the Government.
Here he answered an argument of Mr. Davis, of Maryland,
who, taking the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott
case, in which the chief justice had said that the words " people
of the United States" in the Constitution were synonymous
with " citizens of the United States/7 had ingeniously coupled
this with part of a clause in the Constitution in which that
instrument appoints that the Representatives shall be chosen
by the " people of the several States.77 Mr. Davis's argument,
if it can be called such, was, that " people of the several States"
was the same thing as " people of the United States," and that
as these, by the decision of the Supreme Court, were "citizens
of the United States," it followed that the admission of any
but citizens of the United States to vote for Representatives
was unconstitutional. Mr. Stephens simply pointed 6ut that he
had taken just so much of the clause in question as seemed to
bear him out, and had left out the rest, which completely de-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 335
stroyed his argument. For the clause, after appointing that
Representatives in Congress shall be chosen "by the people of
the several States," proceeds, " . . . and the electors in each
State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the
most numerous branch of the State Legislature," thus explicitly
leaving the States to fix the requisite qualifications, as un
restrictedly as in the case of their own Legislatures.
He then commented upon the decision of the Supreme Court
in the Dred Scott case, in which it was decided that persons of
African race, slaves or descendants of slaves, formed no part
of the original aggregate of persons called "people," or "citizens
of the United States" ; that no State laws could confer that
citizenship upon them ; but that the State could confer upon
them the privilege of suffrage within its own limits, and no
more. From this decision Mr. Stephens conclusively argued
that Minnesota might confer upon persons who were not citizens
of the United States the rights of State-citizenship, and with
the rest the right to vote for members of the State Legislature
and for Representatives in Congress, without violation of the
Constitution of the United States.
May 14th. — " When I received your letters I was thinking of this day
thirty-two years ago. It was on that day your mother followed our
common father to the world of spirits, leaving you, as I was left before,
an orphan in the complete sense of the word, — a helpless child, without
father or mother. The day you have perhaps no recollection of 5 but
well do I recollect it. It was the consummation of my woes at that
period of my life ; that was the day on which the fate of our little family
circle was sealed. Soon we were scattered ; and never did the family
hearth blaze in cheerfulness again. A few nights before my heart almost
sank within me on hearing the screams of an ill-omened bird, — a raven
it must have been, — which came near the house on the hill to the south
west, perched, I think, upon the mulberry that still stands there. Ben
said, when he heard the croaking of the nightly messenger, that it was
the sign of death. His remark sank deep into my soul. I have never
heard such a bird before or since, and what kind of a bird it was I do not
know. You may set this down to a sprinkling of superstition in my
nature ; I will plead guilty. . . .
"Whether the Conference Bill be right or wrong, I am responsible for
it. I will give you the history of it when I see you."
Another "sprinkling of superstition" appears in the letter
336 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
of May 23d, which gives an account of a dinner at Mr. Toombs's,
the party being thirteen in number.
u The number Avas an unlucky one, and I felt some uneasiness when
sitting down to the table, which was increased by a sudden and violent
attack of illness of one of the party."
Mr. Stephens had been expecting to go home after the de
cision of the Ohio contested election case, — Vallandigham and
Campbell, — in which he took a strong interest in favor of the
former. The decision wras in favor of Vallandigham ; but
he concluded now to stay to the end of the session.
About this time considerable irritation was felt in the country
at the action of the officers of the British war-steamer Styx, then
cruising in the Gulf, afor the suppression of the slave-trade/'
who had brought- to, boarded, and searched a number of
American vessels. The matter was brought before Congress,
and was the subject of some correspondence between the Secre
tary of State and the British Minister at Washington. Mr.
Stephens was indignant at the affair, and writes :
" I feel deeply enraged at the course of the British cruiser in the Gulf.
I have urged the President to send down naval force sufficient, and bring
in the Styx and all other like craft, dead or alive. I would not ask any
reclamation from England for such insults ; but I would seize her ships,
if necessary, and explain myself afterwards."
June llth. — This is an eventful day. He has bought him a
pair of spectacles, on which he moralizes much in the strain of
the melancholy Jaques :
"Thus life passes away; time rolls on, years troop by, leaving their
foot-prints in wrinkles in the face, gray hairs on the head, and dimmed
vision in the eyes. In a few more years, loss of teeth, bending shoulders,
and trembling limbs will close the scene."
In July of this year Mr. Stephens paid a visit to Mr. Johns
ton at Athens. One evening while he was at the house of the
President, Dr. Church, a message was received that the students
with a band of music were at Mr. Johnston's gate, desiring to
pay their respects to Mr. Stephens. The latter was extremely
embarrassed by the news, and intimated an intention to avoid
the proposed honors by remaining where he was. This the com-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 337
pany would not hear of: he was almost carried off by force; and
on reaching the house, strange as it may seem, the veteran
orator was seized with a panic of embarrassment at the idea of
addressing a party of students ! He took refuge in Mr. Johns
ton's study, and while there seemed to be looking about for an
opportunity to escape by flight. " I will not speak." " You
must speak : the boys will not go away without a speech." " I
can't speak. I don't know what to say." uSay anything."
He rushed about the room and rubbed his head. " I have
nothing to speak about. Give me a subject, and I can talk all
night; but I can't speak about nothing!" His embarrassment
would have been amusing if it had not been so painfully ex
treme. The music ceased, and then arose the cry, " Stephens !
Stephens !" There was no help for it. He went to the door,
as reluctantly as a criminal to the block, and made a short ad
dress, which it may be presumed was satisfactory, as it was loudly
applauded.
In August, Mr. Stephens went with his brother on a tour
through the Northwest for the benefit of his health, which had
been seriously impaired by the fatigues of the session. During
this summer the contest took place in Illinois between Mr.
Douglas and Mr. Lincoln, rival candidates for the Senatorship.
Mr. Buchanan's Administration had broken with Douglas on his
refusal to support its policy for the settlement of the Kansas dif
ficulties. Mr. Stephens, notwithstanding his firm adherence to
that policy, refused to part from Douglas, and thought the hos
tility to him both unwise and unjust. This refusal rendered
him an object of suspicion to the Administration, which, strange
to say, lent its influence to the election of Mr. Lincoln.
In the course of this summer tour Mr. Stephens spent some
time in Chicago, especially for the purpose of seeing the artist
Healy, and having painted portraits of his brother and his
brother's deceased wife. On his return he found that the Ad
ministration papers in Georgia had been criticising his move
ments, and attributing to his Illinois tour the purpose of helping
Mr. Douglas in the canvass. These charges were uttered pretty
freely, especially by the friends of Governor Cobb, who was
looked upon as Mr. Buchanan's choice for the succession, and
22
338 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
who was especially hostile to Mr. Douglas's election. On Mr.
Stephens^ return he wrote a long letter to Mr. Johnston, from
which the following extract is taken :
Crawfordville, September 3d. — " We got home safely, and in time for our
court. My health has been considerably benefited. I was a little annoyed
when I returned and found that our newspapers had got into such a muss
about the purpose of my visit to Illinois. I was really provoked at their
ill-grounded surmises and unjust suspicions, — charging political motives
and personal objects in forming political combinations, — but I don't care a
button for it now. Politics had nothing in the world to do with my travels,
and I had as little as possible to do with politics. I was, in reality, run
ning away from the subject. I was in quest of rest and relaxation, and,
as far as possible, eschewed even the mention of the theme in conversation.
When my opinion was asked I gave it ; as I always have done and always
shall. I did not hesitate to say in Ohio and Illinois and everywhere just
what I said at home and in Athens before I left, that I should prefer to
see Douglas elected to Lincoln, and I thought the war of the Washington
Union on him ought to cease. I did not say that I considered it a ' wick
edly foolish' war ; but I did say that I thought it an unwrise and impolitic
war. This is my deliberate judgment ; and it is perfectly immaterial with
me \vho approves it and who disapproves it."
At this time Mr. Stephens began to be spoken of in many
sections of the country as a possible candidate for the Presidency,
and he was regarded with increasing jealousy by those who
cherished hopes of the Democratic nomination for 1860. But,
as we have seen from his confidential letters to his brother, he
had no such ambition. He was growing heartily sick of polit
ical life, — sick of rolling up the stone of Sisyphus which kept
forever rolling back, — sick with the mental and the physical
exertions his duties required, and sick at the prospect for the
country. In December he returned to Washington, whence he
writes on December 7th :
" Cobb called on me Saturday night. He is exceedingly bitter against
Douglas. I joked him a good deal, and told him he had better not fight,
or he would certainly be whipped ; that is, in driving Douglas out of the
Democratic party. He said that if Douglas ever wras restored to the con
fidence of the Democracy of Georgia, it would be over his dead body,
politically. This shows his excitement, that is all. I laughed at him,
and told him he would run his feelings and his policy into the ground."
December 8th. — "On my way from Georgetown I called at the White
House, and made my bow to the President. He looked well ; that is, in
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 339
good health, but did not seem much inclined to talk. I suppose he has
an idea that I am against him, because I am not against Douglas's re
election to the Senate.
" I have been a little provoked. The circumstance was this : Mudd,
whom I believe you know, called to see me. He said he had just had
a discussion about me. It was with Junius Hillyer, and about iny
being the next Democratic candidate for the Presidency. He gave me
the particulars of the conversation. It had been commenced by Hillyer
asking him about Cobb's prospects. Then, in speaking of Georgia, on
Mudd's asking him what Cobb's chances would be in his own State, he
said that I was figuring for it, or wanted it, or something to that purpose,
which was new to Mudd. But Hillyer insisted on it that I was. But
this was not all. Mudd went into Clayton's room, and Clayton asked
him if I had come or if he had seen me. Mudd said he had barely seen
me at the House, but had had no conversation with me ; whereupon Phil
said, ' Stephens is intensely Douglas,' and went on in this strain. Now
after the long, frank, candid talk I had had with Cobb on Saturday night
(Clayton being present), I did feel almost offended at hearing that he
should talk thus about me. I told Mudd I would take it as a favor if he
would in person say to Hillyer, and to all others who might in his
presence take a like liberty in the use of my name, that I told him to
say that I would just as lief be put upon a list of suspected horse-thieves
as to be considered in the number of those who were aspiring or looking
to the probabilities or chances of ever being President. I looked upon all
such with feelings of great pity, commingled with contempt ; and I should
loath myself if I felt conscious of such a spirit taking possession of my
breast. This is about the substance of what I told him, and I was in
earnest in what I said. I do wish an end put to all such use of my name.
I have had it alluded to several times since I have been here, greatly to
my annoyance. Perhaps ' Old Buck' to-day thought I was an insidious
rival, slyly worming myself into his place, or trying to do it. If so, alas !
poor old fellow ! How his views would change if he did but know how I
pitied him, as I looked upon him, with all his power!"
CHAPTEK XXXII.
A Mysterious Confidence — Overwork — A Toung Protegee — Ophthalmic
Surgery — The Blind Dog's Guide — Busts of Mr. Stephens — The Mariner
in Port — Linton on the Bench — Home Troubles — Farewell Dinner of
fered Him by Congress — Public Dinner at Augusta — A Farewell Speech
— Warning to President Buchanan — A True Prophecy — Canine Psy
chology — Address at the University of Georgia — Law Business— A Kule
adopted — Plans for the Future.
EARLY in December, 1858, Linton Stephens came to Washing
ton, where he represented the State of Georgia in a suit between
that State and Alabama before the Supreme Court of the United
States, touching a question of boundary. The correspondence,
therefore, ceases until his return. On the 25th Mr. Stephens
wrote him a letter, which has been destroyed, but the following
extract from Linton's reply will show a part of its purport :
" You maybe right in your opinion that you have succeeded in keeping
to yourself the secret of a misery that has preyed upon you, and yet preys
upon you. The fact has long been known to me, for you have several
times written it to me, though you have never mentioned it in conversation.
The cause of it you have never communicated to me, but I do not doubt
that I know it. I may be wholly mistaken ; and I have never asked you
a question about it to settle any doubt I might have, for several reasons.
I look upon it as a key to your character. If I am right, I comprehend
your character and feelings far better than you seem to think ; if I am
wrong, I don't understand you at all. In my judgment it is the founda
tion of your highest virtues, and the source of your greatest faults. If
I know you, one of your leading virtues is a resolute, determined, almost
dogged kindness and devotion of service to mankind, who have, in your
Mudgment, no claim on your affection, and whom your impulses lead you
to despise. This is a great battle which often rages, the conflict between
your resolution to be kind and your impulse to be almost revengeful.
x The habitual triumph of the principle over the feeling is all the more
bright from the fierceness of the~conflict. I think I not only partly know
' what's done,' but also much of ' what's resisted.' One of your greatest
faults, which has been more and more corrected from year to year, and
340
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 1L STEPHENS. 341
which must therefore be known to you, is a residuum of what's not re
sisted, — an imperiousness which loves to show the herd how much they are
your inferiors in certain points. It produces good and evil too. I think
you are under a mistaken and unhappy philosophy ; or perhaps it is more
accurate to say that your philosophy has failed to cure the unhappiness
of your constitution. I do not think it is an attainable thing, either to
feel universally kind and brotherly towards all mankind, or to acquire an
utter indifference to their opinions ; and yet I do believe that the greatest
happiness and wisdom consist in the nearest possible approximation to
universal good will toward mankind and profound indifference to their
opinions. The opinions of people have too much power to affect your
happiness. It is so. Besides, you impute to them sometimes opinions
which they do not have. I would not obtrude an unwelcome word upon
you : and I hope I have not done so."
On the next day Linton writes again, referring to the same
letter of the 25th :
" Your letter, to which I wrote some sort of an answer last night, has
produced strange feelings in me. I can't define them very well, but they
are not pleasant feelings. I have burned the letter. It has been rather a
rare thing with me to burn one of your letters. I have piles of them on
hand : one in a similar strain with the last, but none like it or approaching
it in its energy, its despair, and yet its unwavering resolution to bear on
and despair on. I read it at first in the light of an opinion which I
already had ; but when I re-read it to-day, and compared all its points, I
don't understand it. You must allude to something I don't understand ;
or else what I had really discovered has assumed proportions and magni
tude that I had little suspected. I don't feel anything that can be called
curiosity about it, but I do feel a deep interest in it. I had thought that
no human heart had ever felt a woe or an agony without yearning to
tell it to some sympathizing ear. Such is my nature, and such is my
judgment of human nature. To find something different from this seems
strange indeed. To have the yearning without finding the sympathizing
heart for communication of the burden is what I can and do well and
often, so fully comprehend ; but a desire to hoard a misery to yourself is
what I don't understand."
On the 28th of January, Mr. Stephens writes to E,. M. J.,
giving a sketch of his multifarious daily occupations.
" I know you would pity me if you were to see my operations for one
day. Now what do you think? I was just going to say, if you could
see my work, interruptions, calls, and long sittings of visitors, etc.; but
before I got the words penned here carne a man who consumed a half-
hour of my time ; and so it is from morning until night, and from night
342 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Jill morning. I rise and breakfast at eight ; then commence with my mail.
Frequently I do not get half through that before I am bored almost to
death with calls on business of all sorts ; then to the Committee at ten ;
then to the House at twelve : then to dinner at four ; then calls before I
leave the table till twelve at night. Then I take up and get through my
unfinished reading of letters and newspapers of the morning ; and then
at one o'clock get to bed. I now have about one hundred letters before
me unanswered. Were you here, you would pity me. . . . But on one
thing I am determined : when this session ends, with it will and shall
end my connection with politics forever. Then I can follow, and if life
and strength allow, I can and will devote myself to pursuits more con
genial to my tastes and nature."
On February 3d, Mr. Stephens writes to Linton :
"I have not yet commenced my letter to the people of the Eighth Dis
trict, declining to run any more; but I shall do it just as soon as I can.
The House has not yet set aside any day for the consideration of Territorial
business. The session, I think, will come to a general smash-up of the
public business in the closing scenes. This will be no affair of mine.
Those will be mostly concerned who remain on the public boards. I am
daily becoming more anxious for the close of my labors here."
On the 18th he writes to K. M. J. :
" I send you a small slip from a newspaper in this city. To you I will
say it is from a lady whose daughter I am educating. She is the wife of
. He is poor, very poor : his wife was once well off, of good
family, but they are now reduced. They have a little daughter of sprightly
mind, but severely afflicted in body. I sent her to school last year, and
intend to keep her at school until she gets her education. I make this
explanation that you may know to what she alludes in the last stanza."
The slip contained a few stanzas praising an unnamed bene
factor; of no great merit as poetry, but pleasing to him as the
sincere expression of a gratitude which had nothing else to give.
At this time Mr. Stephens was paying the expenses of several
young persons of both sexes in schools and colleges ; a practice
which he had begun years before, and as soon as his means
would allow. In this particular way he has probably done
more, to the extent of his means, than any other person. His
legal practice was hicjratwej^eyeji .while he was in Congress;
ImcTas His "own wants were few and simple, he expended the
greater part of his income in benefactions of various sorts.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 343
"We ranch regret the loss of all the letters between this clate^
and that of March 16th. This was an interesting period in
Stephens's career, and, as he then believed, the last of his labors
in Congress. Several of Linton's letters allude to events of
this time, and especially to his speech on the admission of
Oregon ; the speech which of all he ever made in Congress
made perhaps the strongest immediate impression. All who
heard it spoke of it as a master-piece of eloquence. It was not
written out, and the summaries given by the press from the
reporters' notes represent it so imperfectly that we refrain from
giving an extract from them.
On the 16th of March he writes from home, where he has
settled down with the conviction that he has finally retired from
public life. The letter is chiefly about his old friend and
favorite Rio, of whom he has sad news to tell.
" A part of my daily duties is to doctor poor Rio. Poor fellow, he is
blind. When I got home, driving into the yard, just before dark, and
saw him at a distance, and called to him, and saw from the motion of his
head and body that he could not se'e me, I almost wept. He knew iny
voice and came as fast as he could in a devious way, turning right as I
spoke to him, until he scented me out, and then put up the most piteous
rejoicing bark in evident tones of lamentation. My heart was overcome,
but I could do and say nothing but, ' Poor dog ! you know your master,
do you?' whereupon he seemed to utter something like a cry himself. He
now follows me about wherever I go. He barks incessantly if I leave
him. He keeps close after me, and follows the sound of my feet. I
usually carry a cane, and let that drag along behind for him to hear it
more distinctly than he can my tread. He goes thus with me to town ;
knows when he gets to the court-house steps, knows when he gets to the
platform of the depot, knows when he is on the hill-side of the Spring-
branch. For two days I have been washing his eyes with sugar of lead:.
I think it helps them. To-day in walking out in the old fields, I fancied
he could see a little. I thought he shunned a bush. Usually he will butt
against anything in the way. When I noticed him going round the bush
as I thought, I called him to me and said, ' Why, Rio, can master's dog
see again?' He opened his inflamed eyes wide, and looked me in the face.
Whether he could see or not, I do not know, but he barked joyously and
frisked off as he used to do in play. I said. ' Do you want to catch a
rabbit?' whereupon he barked as before and seemed to have life enough
if he had had his sight. I am going to do my best to cure him."
Here the writer details the system of treatment he proposes
344 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
to carry out, which, as it unhappily proved unsuccessful, we
omit.
March 18th. — After a long discussion on the subject of novels,
he reverts to the health of poor Rio, in which he flatters him
self he discovers some improvement.
" My daily recreation and amusement, apart from books and writing, is
the melancholy pastime of strolling about the lot and grounds, leading, or
rather guiding, a blind dog. Who knows what he will come to? But I
tell you it is a great thing for a man to take pleasure in whatever lot he
finds himself cast in. This is the secret of life ; and I assure you I find
more pleasure in thus exercising Rio, and witnessing the pleasure it affords
him, than I ever did in the enjoyment of all the honors this world has ever
seen fit to bestow upon me, though some of the papers say that no man
ever retired from public life with more general good will and favor than I
have. So be it : I am content ; and whether it be so or not, I am content."
About this time Mr. Stephens, who had heard of the talents
of Mr. Ward, the sculptor, hunted him up and gave him his
first commission, which was for a bust of himself. For this he
paid four hundred dollars. He had previously had one taken
by Count Sandors, a Polish refugee, and artist of genius, whose
return to Poland he procured by his interposition with the Rus
sian Minister. For this he paid six hundred dollars, and made
it a present to an intimate friend. The Count, it may be men
tioned, was assassinated about three years after his return.
On the 15th of March he writes a long letter to R. M. J.
After speaking of his severe headaches and other ailments, he
says, in reference to his reaching home :
" I felt like a mariner after a long and perilous voyage, who, once more
in safety, is permitted to tread the firm ground about his own mansion.
God willing, he will remain there. This is my feeling. ... I feel truly
gratified myself that my public services have been closed as they have.
Few men have passed more critical junctures with more uniform success,
and none in my knowledge have ended their careers with more of the gen
eral good will and esteem of men of all parties than I have. This is no
small compensation for the cares, anxieties, and perplexities attending the
labors I have performed, in all which I can assure you I have looked to
nothing so much as the public good. In all my public acts that has been
the leading object and controlling motive. The remainder of my days,
whether few or many, I wish to devote to objects more congenial to iny
nature than looking after and watching the interest and welfare of a rest-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 345
less, captious, and fault-finding people. It is true, I have less to complain
of on that score than any one who ever occupied the position I have so
long. Indeed, I do not complain at all. Still, it is more agreeable to me
to look after my own affairs than other people's. In this course I shall at
least be free from that intense sense of responsibility which ever pressed
so heavily upon me while occupying a post of public trust and confidence."
In May of this year the death of the Hon. Charles J. Mac-
donald caused a vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court of
the State. There were many applicants for the post among the
first lawyers of the State. Lin ton Stephens was at this time
only thirty-five years of age, had no thought of applying for
the appointment, which, indeed, he did not desire, and was
greatly surprised when it was offered him by Governor Brown.
His first impulse was to decline ; but at the urgent instance of
his brother and other near friends he accepted. His course
upon the bench fully justified the appointment. At this time
the court had several places for its sittings, and the first, after
Linton's appointment, was held at Athens in the same month.
The brothers came up together and were guests of the present
writer, who well remembers the anxiety of the elder brother
as to how the younger would acquit himself as the associate
of Chief-Justice Lumpkin, and the satisfaction with which he
noted his brother's entire fitness for the place.
At this time Mr. Stephens had a great deal of vexation from
an unpleasant domestic matter. Thomas Ray, who managed
his plantation, fell into bad courses. He had married again
after his first wife's death; but Mr. Stephens still employed him
for "Cousin Sabra's" sake. He is now becoming a drunkard,
neglecting his duties, and otherwise misbehaving, so as to try
his employer's patience sorely ; and yet he hates to discharge
him, — hates to use any harshness to one connected in so many
ways with " auld lang syne." The difficulty was settled by
removing him from the control of the homestead and putting
him on another place, which Mr. Stephens bought for the
purpose.
On Mr. Stephens's retirement from Congress, a very unusual
compliment had been paid him in the offer of a public dinner
tendered by members of both Houses, without distinction of
346 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
party, headed by the Vice-President (in his capacity of President
of the Senate) and by the Speaker of the House, as a testimony
of personal esteem. Business engagements, however, compelled
him to decline the honor.
On the 2d of July, his constituents of the Eighth District of
Georgia gave him a public dinner at Augusta, on which occasion
he delivered a farewell address, touching upon the most impor
tant points of his public life, and those subjects which he had
taken interest, and perhaps gained some honor in promoting;
and to none with more satisfaction to himself than the assistance
he had given in 1836, on his first entry into public life, to the
Female College at Macon. He remarks :
11 Contrast, for a moment, in your minds, the condition of Georgia, phys
ically and intellectually, in 1836, when I first entered the Legislature, with
her condition now. The change seems almost equal to the works of magic.
Passing by those material developments which have given us the honor of
b.eing styled the Empire State among our sisters of the South, take but a
glance in another department, — that which embraces higher and nobler
improvements. Then, there was but one college in the State, and that,
for the education of men. Now, we have five times that number, of the
same character. Then, there was not in the State, or in the world, I be
lieve, a single chartered university for the education and regular gradua
tion of women ; I mean such as conferred the usual college degrees. The
Georgia Female College, at Macon, incorporated in 1836, with such objects,
purposes, and powers, I believe, was the first of its kind anywhere. The
movement at the time was the occasion of amusement to some. I may be
pardoned in this presence in saying that it met my warm support. The
experiment proving successful beyond the expectation of its most sanguine
friends, the example became contagious, — not only in our own State, but
in adjoining States, — and we now have a perfect galaxy of these brilliant
luminaries, sending forth their cheering beams in every direction, like new
stars in the firmament above, just brought into existence in the progress
of creation. Whatever honor, therefore, Georgia is entitled to for her
other great works of improvement and achievement ; and however broad,
massive, and substantial the materials may be that enter into the monu
ment reared to her fame ; and however high they may be piled up, let this
still be at the top, the filling and crowning-point of her glory, that she
took and holds the lead of all the world in female education."
He congratulated the country upon the peaceful settlement at
that time of all the agitating questions which were disturbing
the country when he entered Congress in 1843. These were
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 347
settled on the principles set forth in the Cincinnati platform, and
by adherence to those there was a bright prospect of peace for
the country; but if they departed from them, they might expect
disaster.
"Our safety," said he, "as "well as our future prospects, depend alto
gether upon rigid adherence to those principles, and the adjustment effected
by them. They are the ship on which, as Paul said, ' Except ye abide, ye
cannot be saved.' "
This speech was intended as a solemn warning not only to his
constituents and the people of the South, but the whole country,
that in his opinion the peace and prosperity of the country de
pended upon a strict and inflexible adherence to the principles
of the adjustment measures of 1850 upon the subject of slavery,
as carried out and expressed in the Democratic Baltimore plat
form of 1852, with the additional plank inserted in the Cincin
nati Convention of 1856. It was well known then that Mr.
Stephens had serious apprehensions that those principles would
be departed from in the next Democratic Convention to be held
in Charleston the following year. It was also known that he
did not finally determine to withdraw from Congress until after
a personal interview with Mr. Buchanan, in which he had urged
the President to cease his warfare against Mr. Douglas, and the
support of the paper known as his organ in Washington in in
sisting upon the insertio-Q-of A new plank in the next Convention,
asserting it to be the duty of Congress to pass acts to protect
slavery in^tl^T£mtories,_a,nd not to leave that subject, as
Cincinnati platform had done, with" the people of the Territories.
Mr. Stephens most urgently assured the President that if he
continued to pursue the line of policy he was then following
there would be a burst-up at Charleston, and with that a burst-
up of the Union, — temporary or permanent, — "as certainly as
he would break his neck if he sprang from that window" [of
the reception-room at the White House, in which they were con
versing] " or as that the sun would set that night.77 Mr. Buch
anan seemed surprised at this opinion, but was unshaken in his
determination to adhere to the policy he was then following.
Mr. Stephens, in taking leave, told the President that his object
348 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
in seeking the interview was to know if his purpose was as
stated, and if that was so, his own intention was, not to allow
himself to be returned to the next Congress. He had spent
sixteen years of life in striving to maintain the Union upon the
principles of the Constitution ; this he thought could be done
for many years to come upon the principles set forth in the Cin-
cijinati platform. The Government administered on these prin
ciples he thought the best in the world ; but if it was departed
from, he saw nothing but ruin ahead. He did not wish to be
in at the death ; but if disunion should come in consequence of
this departure, he should go with the people of his own State.
Another fact connected with the retirement of Mr. Stephens
from Congress may be noted here. When leaving Washington,
with a number of other Southern members, on the beautiful
morning of the 6th of March, 1859, he stood at the stern of the
boat for some minutes, gazing back at the Capitol, when some
one jocularly said, "I suppose you are thinking of corning back
to those halls as a Senator." (It was known that he had an
nounced his intention not to return as a Representative.) Mr.
Stephens replied, with some emotion, " No ; I never expect to
see Washington again, unless I am brought here as a prisoner
of war." This was literally fulfilled in the latter part of
October, 1865, when he passed through Washington on his way
to his home as a paroled prisoner from Fort W^arren.
His peculiar fondness for dogs, often referred to, finds ex
pression again in a letter of July 17th, in which he speaks of a
little dog, formerly the pet of " Cousin Sabra" Ray, which had
been bitten by a snake the day before.
" Last night he wandered off below the vineyard and there breathed his
last. I could but wonder if the poor dog was trying to get to the grave
of his mistress, that his last resting-place might be near hers. Why should
he have gone in that direction? Why quit the house, which he seldom
left? Yet, who can suppose that the dog knew anything about where his
mistress was laid? All this is a foolish conjecture ; and yet, what unac
countable instincts, when death was upon him, prompted him to go off
there to die ? Poor dog I I almost wept myself when I heard he was
dead. I seldom saw him without thinking of Cousin Sabra."
Mr. J., being Professor of English Literature in the State
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 349
University, invited Mr. Stephens to deliver the usual address
upon the presentation of the medals at the Sophomore prize
declamations. He accepted; but afterwards found himself in
great perplexity about it, and wrote that he was " a fool for ac
cepting any such position." He came to the Commencement,
still much troubled about what one would have thought a mere
trifle to so practised a speaker. By the day before Commence
ment he had written out an address, but had not memorized it.
On the morning of the day, the professor (whose guest he was)
went into his room before breakfast, and found him dressed, and
in quite a sprightly frame of mind. To the inquiry how he had
slept, he replied that he had not closed an eye all night, having
spent the hours in committing his speech to memory ! When
the time came, he delivered the address precisely as it was
written.
During all the fall of this year Mr. Stephens suffered much,
though he gave constant attention to his business, which was
large, and involved many journeys to courts and elsewhere. At
the time he went to Congress he was worth about fourteen
thousand dollars. During the sixteen years he was at Congress
his law-office was closed; and when he left Congress he was
worth about sixteen thousand dollars, the increase having arisen
from a small accumulation of interest. During the two years
following he made twenty-two thousand dollars at his profession.
A rule adopted by him in entering Congress in 1843, was not
to make a dollar in Washington beyond his salary. For all his
services rendered to his constituents before the Departments, as
well as the Supreme Court, when Congress was in session, re
covering for them upwards of three hundred thousand dollars,
he would never receive a dollar, though compensation was often
urged upon him by his constituents, who averred that they would
never have committed their business to him if they had known
thatjhe would not charge as regular attorneys did for similar
services. """""He never took a case into one of his State courts while
he was in Congress ; though during that period he often ap
peared, as an advocate only, on trial of causes ; but always
refused to engage himself as such advocate, if that duty would
conflict with his duties at Washington. In this way he made
350 L1FE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
considerable sums, often as much as two thousand dollars at a
time ; all which he devoted to charitable purposes, aiding in
building churches, and in the education of young persons without
means, as before stated.
The last word we have from his pen this year is this: "I like
law better than politics, but like being at home better than either ;
and am now inclined to the opinion that very soon I shall quit
the courts, and devote all my time to myself, or with myself.
Not this year; but very soon, — if I live." The fates, however,
had determined otherwise.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The Family at Liberty Hall — A Cautious Passenger — Favors the Nomi
nation of Mr. Douglas — Charleston Convention — Baltimore Convention,
, and the Split in the Democratic Party — Four Candidates in the Field —
Mr. Stephens's Views and Apprehensions — Letter of Advice— The Plan
of Safety— Duty of the Party — Sickness — Signs of Approaching Rabies —
" He is Insane !" — Election of Mr. Lincoln and the Feeling at the South —
Speech at Milledgeville — Impression produced — Anecdote — Letters from
Northern Men — Correspondence with Mr. Lincoln.
WHEN Mr. Stephens thus settled down into domestic life for
the rest of his days, as he fondly imagined, it was not to pass
those days in solitude. Though a bachelor, he had a little family
at Liberty Hall. One member of this family was Mr. George
F. Bristow, a young man whom he had assisted in his education,
and who was then a lawyer of distinction in the county ; the
other was Mr. Quinea O'Neal, jocularly termed " the Parson."
A great many of the letters to Linton are filled with humorous
descriptions of domestic scenes at the Hall. They are generally
given in dramatic form, and each character and incident, even
down to the part in the scenes taken by Pup, Rio, and Troup
(the dogs), is very vividly set forth. Much of the fun hinges
on the dry caustic humor of "the Parson," as he is called. Mr.
O'Neal had been Ordinary of the county for about thirty years,
and was greatly respected and liked in the town, not only for his
high moral character, but also for his cordial and familiar inter
course with the young men of the neighborhood, whom he often
very good-naturedly and pleasantly lectured, especially those who
gave promise of talent and usefulness. Among these was John
Bird, Linton's cousin. Bird, as we have before mentioned, was
a young man of brilliant talents, and stood at the head of that
class of young men to whom Mr. O'Neal gave most of his at
tention. It was Bird who gave the sedate and didactic old
Ordinary the sobriquet of " Parson," though he was never con-
351
352 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
nected with any church. The u Parson" became an inmate of
Mr. Stephens's family by his invitation, after the death of his
wife, and is known not only by the visitors to Liberty Hall, but
all over the State. The most devoted friendship existed between
him and the brothers, and he has ever claimed no small part in
moulding the characters of both.
January 29th. — He had received a letter from Linton, show
ing great depression of spirits, on account of the loss of his
wife, and it had affected him deeply.
" I have been down to the old homestead place, over the play-grounds
and work-grounds of my youth. These but brought in review their
many soul-touching memories. You cannot conceive how deeply I am
touched by your tone of depression. But what can I say for your relief?
Nothing — absolutely nothing. That must come from yourself, and from
Him in whose hands we all are held. Sometimes I am totally bewildered,
as if stunned by the incomprehensibilities around me. However, I recover
with the confidence that all will be right in the end, if I do my duty.
This is the only light by which my faith is guided. This is my only stay,
my only staff. The calls of duty, activity, and exertion keep me up, and
they are all that do. But for a will which I believe few possess, and for
which I am truly thankful. I should long since have sunk into hopeless
despair. But that will seems sometimes weak and faltering, as it does this
day. Shall it fail me? I trust not. But who can tell? . . . Shall I be
able to hold on to the end? That is the question. For twenty-odd years
you have been the polar star of my existence. In you all my hopes have
been centred. Should you by any means be removed from me, I fear my
stay, my staff, would break. You may know, therefore, how keenly Jfeel
anything that concerns you."
During this year Mr. Stephens was very actively engaged in
the practice of his profession, which was now quite lucrative, as
stated.
In many of his letters to K. M. J. there are allusions to his
cases. One, tried before the Supreme Court, was the appeal of
a man indicted for murder and found guilty by the lower court.
Mr. Stephens was his counsel, and the former judgment was
reversed. He expresses his gratification at this result, partly
because he did not believe his client guilty of murder, and
partly because, as he says, " I had never defended a man that
was hung, and I did not wish this prestige broken."
The Democratic Convention for the Presidential nomination
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, 353
was to meet in Charleston in April. Mr. Stephens had re
peatedly expressed his determination to avoid henceforth all
public connection with politics. We have seen from his letters
during the last session how little hope he felt in the triumph of
just principles, and with what apprehension he viewed the
general lack of statesmanship and patriotism. To a friend who
asked him why he had withdrawn from public life, he answered,
f' When I am on one of two trains coming iir opposite directions
?on a single track, both engines at high speed, and both engineers
[drunk, I get off at the first station." But notwithstanding his
expressed determination, there were many who desired that he
should be put in nomination for the Presidency. To those who
applied to him on the subject, he invariably replied that he did
not wish his name brought before the Charleston Convention ;
and while he was anxious that the Convention should agree
upon a candidate on a proper platform of principles, such as
those of 1856, his own determination not to attend was final.
Among the more prominent aspirants he preferred Mr. Douglas.
Notwithstanding that the latter opposed the policy of the ma
jority of the Democratic party on the question of the admission
of Kansas, yet Mr. Stephens believed him a sincere patriot
and the foremost defender of the rights of the States under
the Constitution. He thought, too,, that with the old platform
of 1856 unaltered, Mr. Douglas would be the most available
candidate.
Among Mr. Stephens's political opponents there were some
who suspected him, notwithstanding his declarations, of secretly
plotting to secure the nomination. Early in the spring, the
editor of a newspaper in Governor Cobb's interest wrote to him
on the political situation, and Mr. Stephens replied, giving his
views in reference to the approaching Convention. Among
other things, he declared his entire willingness to support Mr.
Cobb, should he be the nominee. This editor, through a com
mon friend, asked permission of Mr. Stephens to publish the
letter, on the ground that such a publication would place Mr.
Stephens on a right footing in the minds of many who did not
fully understand his position. In reply he wrote to the friend
alluded to :
23
354 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
" I cannot consent to the publication o^ the letter. It was not written for
the public. While it contains nothing that I should care about the public
seeing, if they had any business with it, yet they have none 5 and for this
reason I am opposed to any such personal exhibition of myself. Mr,
urges as a reason for it that it will set me right with many persons in that
section of the State. On this point I am indifferent. So I am right with
myself, I care but little for the opinions of others. ... I have a great
repugnance to figuring before the public on any such questions. If I
have to suffer from the unjust suspicions of some which the publication
of the letter might remove, I should but subject myself to the criticisms
of others for the indulgence of a personal vanity in obtruding myself
upon the public in a way and at a time uncalled for. So it is better to
bide my fortunes, and let time effect its own cure for all the evils incident
to a straightforward course in all things. This has been my rule of action
from the beginning of this controversy, and I intend to abide by it."
The Charleston Convention met, and matters were at once
brought to an issue by the party opposed to Mr. Douglas offer
ing a resolution which contained the new "plank" which it
was proposed to insert into the Democratic platform. It ran as
follows :
" Resolved, That the government of a Territory organized by the act of
Congress is provisional and temporary ; and during its existence all citi
zens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their property
in the Territory without their rights, either of person or property, being
destroyed or impaired by Congressional or Territorial legislation."
These words, " Territorial legislation," were aimed at the
" Squatter Sovereignty" doctrine, as it was called, of Mr.
Douglas and those who held with him that the people of a
Territory had the right of regulating their local affairs. The
resolution was rejected, upon which a number of the delegates
withdrew, and called a Convention to meet at Richmond on the
second Monday in June. The remaining delegates adjourned
to meet at Baltimore on the 18th of June; and the Richmond
Convention, after assembling, adjourned to meet at the same
time and place as the regular Convention. At the meeting in
Baltimore another split took place. The regular Convention
nominated Messrs. Douglas and Fitzpatrick ; but the latter
declining, the nomination for the Vice-Presidency was given
to Mr. Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, The " bolters" adopted
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 355
the Cincinnati platform, with the Charleston Resolution, and
nominated Breckenridge and Lane.
Previously to this a third party had put in nomination
Messrs. Bell, of Tennessee, and Everett, of Massachusetts ;
and the Republicans at Chicago afterwards nominated Messrs.
Lincoln, of Illinois, and IJamlin, of Maine.
Thus there were four sets of candidates in the field ; but the
division only weakened the South, as none of the candidates
opposed to Mr. Lincoln was able to carry a single Northern
State.
After the dissolution at Charleston, Mr. Stephens lost all
hope of a settlement of the dissensions of the party. On the
6th of May he thus wrote to R. M. J. :
" As to the blow-up at Charleston, all I can say is that I deeply regret
it, though I was not much disappointed with it. The country is in a bad
state, much worse than the people are aware of. This may be the begin
ning of the end. ... I am sorry things are as they are ; sorry as I should
be to see the paroxysms of a dear friend in a fit of delirium tremens. On
such occasions it is useless to indulge in complaints or upbraidings ; the
only question is, can any relief be afforded? But enough. I am taken
up with plantation business and with law business, and have but little
time to devote to public affairs. I can get along with any sort of govern
ment as well as anybody else."
Shortly after the receipt of this letter, Mr. Johnston paid a
visit to Mr. Stephens and had a long conversation with him.
Some things that he said were so striking that they were after
wards noted down ; and from these notes we append an extract.
MR. J. — li Well, the Charleston Convention has adjourned without a
nomination. What do you think of matters noAv?"
MR. S. — " Think of them ? Why, that men will be cutting one another's
throats in a little while. In less than twelve months we shall be in a
war. and that the bloodiest in history. Men seem to be utterly blinded to
the future. You remember my reading to you a letter which I wrote to a
gentleman in Texas, asking the use of my name in his State as a candi
date for the Presidency?"
MR. J. — " The one in which you said that we should make the Charles
ton Convention a Marathon or a Waterloo?"
MR. S.— " Yes. Well, we have made it a Waterloo."
MR. J. — " Do you not think that matters may yet be adjusted at Balti
more?"
356 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
MR. S. — " Not the slightest chance for it. The party is split forever.
Douglas will not retire from the stand he has taken, and the party will
nominate somebody else. The only hope was at Charleston. If the party
could have agreed there we might carry the election. As it is, the cause
is hopelessly lost. The election cannot be carried without the support of
Douglas."
MR. J. — " I hope he will give his support yet."
MR. S.— "Never."
MR. J. — "What a misfortune it was that he did not support the Le-
compton Constitution."
MR. S. — "Yes. But he knew, as all men knew, that it was procured
by stratagem. I supported it, not in consideration of any matters con
nected with its formation, except that it was framed in strict and technical
conformity with the enabling act. I thought it ought to be adopted, and
think so yet, because it gave us only what we were entitled to under the
Kansas Act."
MR. J. — "You think Douglas entitled to the nomination?"
MR. S. — " I won't say that he is entitled to it ; but I will say that he is
one of the foremost defenders of constitutional rights in the country. And
then his name has been the strongest in two Conventions. He voluntarily
withdrew it in 1852 5 the same in 1856. I suppose he has made up his
mind not to withdraw it a third time. The greatest alleged objections to
Douglas are his ambition and the hordes of office-seekers that are in his
suite. If the party would be satisfied with the Cincinnati platform, and
would cordially nominate Douglas, we should carry the election ; but I
repeat to you that is impossible."
MR. J. — " But why must we have civil war, even if the Republican
candidate should be elected?"
MR. S. — " Because there are not virtue and patriotism and sense enough
left in the country to avoid it. Mark me, when I repeat that in less than
twelve months we shall be in the midst of a bloody war. What is to
become of us then God only knows. The Union will certainly be dis
rupted ; and what will make it so disastrous is the way in which it will be
done. The Southern people are not unanimous now, and will not lie, on
the question of secession. The Republican nominee will be elected. Then
South Carolina will secede. For me, I should be content to let her have
her own way, and go out alone. But the Gulf States will follow her
example. The people are by no means unanimous; but the majorities
will follow her. They are what we will start off with in our new nation,
—the Gulf States following South Carolina. After that the Border States
will hesitate, and their hesitation will encourage the North to make war
upon us. If the South would unanimously and simultaneously go out of
the Union we could make a very strong government. But even then, if
there were only Slave States in the new confederacy, we should be known
as the Black Republic, and be without the sympathy of the world. Still,
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 357
if we had wise and patriotic men, and men that were statesmen, we could
make a great country of the South."
MR. J. — 4k Do you think it was entirely right in you positively to forbid
your name going before the Charleston Convention?"
MR. S. — " Yes : I think so, decidedly. The Democratic party had quite
enough men from whom to choose. I did not wish the office. In perfect
sincerity with you, I should exceedingly dislike to be President. I do not
wish that office nor any other. What amazes me in Douglas is his desire
to be President. I have sometimes asked him what he desired the office
for. It has never yet added to the fame of a single man. You may look
over the list of the Presidents : which of them made any reputation after
he became President ? Four years, or even eight, are too short a time to
enable a man to pursue a policy which will be permanent enough to give
him reputation. Louis Napoleon, as President of France under the Con
stitution, could have made no reputation. He is beginning now to make
it. When he shall have been where he is as long again as he has been
already, he may then, if his abilities are really great, become illustrious.
I could never see why so many men in this country should be anxious to
be President. People don't generally believe me in what I say about my
self in this respect ; but that is all very indifferent to me. Some of your
people in Athens will insist on believing that I opposed the nomination of
Governor Cobb by the State Convention at Milledgeville. I had nothing
upon earth to do with that, neither for nor against him. No, sir ; I far
prefer living here — right here — to being President of the United States.
If I had loved office I should have continued in the House of Representa
tives. That office to me is preferable to the Presidency. If I were ambi
tious to make a reputation, I should be able to make it faster in that place
than in the other."
On May 5th of this year a letter was addressed to Mr.
Stephens by thirteen gentlemen of Macon, expressing their
apprehensions arising from the discord exhibited in the Charles
ton Convention, and asking his counsel, especially with reference
to the adjourned Convention to be held in Baltimore. As his
reply embodies completely his views of the situation and its
exigencies, we give it at length :
"CRAWFORDVILLE, GEORGIA, May 9th, 1860.
" GENTLEMEN, — Your letter of the 5th inst. was received last night, and
I promptly respond to your call as clearly and fully as a heavy press of
business engagements will permit. I shall endeavor to be no less pointed
and explicit than candid. You do not, in my judgment, over-estimate the
importance of the questions now pressing upon the public mind, growing
out of the disruption of the Charleston Convention. While I was not
358 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
greatly surprised at that result, considering the elements of its composi
tion and the general distemper of the times, still I deeply regret it, and,
with you, look with intense interest to the consequences. What is done
cannot be undone or amended : that must remain irrevocable. It would,
therefore, be as useless as ungracious to indulge in any reflections as to
whose fault the rupture was owing to. Perhaps, and most probably,
undue excitement and heat of passion in pursuit of particular ends con
nected with the elevation or overthrow of particular rivals for preferment,
more than any strong desire guided by cool judgment, so necessary on
such occasions to advance the public good, was the real cause of the rup
ture. Be that as it may, however, what is now to be done and what is
the proper course to be taken? To my mind the course seems to be
clear.
"A State convention should be called at an early day, and that con
vention" should" consider the whole subject calmly and dispassionately,
with the ' sober second thought,' and determine whether to send a repre
sentation to Richmond or to Baltimore. The correct determination of this
question, as I view it, will depend upon another ; and that is, whether the
doctrine of non-intervention b^Cpngre£s..s:itk- slavery in the- Territories
-ought to be adhered to or abandoned by the South. This is a very grave
and seTious question, and ought not to be decided rashly or intemperately.
No such small matters as the promotion of this or that individual, how
ever worthy or unworthy, ought to enter into its consideration. It is a
great subject of public policy, affecting the vast interests of the present
and the future. It may be unnecessary and entirely useless for me to
obtrude my views upon this question in advance of the meeting of such
convention upon whom its decision may primarily devolve. I cannot,
however, comply with your request" without doing so to a limited extent
at least. This I shall do.
*' In the first place, then, I assume as an unquestioned and unquestionabl'e
fact that 7ion-m^rvewfoow>.as.sJtated,4iasbeen for many years received, recog-
nizeoTanH acted upon as the settled doctrine of the South. By non-interven
tion, I mean the principle that Congress shall pass no law upon the subject
of slavery in the Territories, either for or against it, in any way, — that they
shall not interfere nor act upon it at all, — or, in the express words of Mr.
Calhoun, the great Southern leader, that Congress shall ' leave the whole
subject where the Constitution and the great principles of self-government
placed it.' This has been eminently a Southern doctrine. It was an
nounced by Mr. Calhoun in his speech in the Senate on the 27th of June,
1848 ; and, after two years of discussion, was adopted as the basis of the
adjustment made in 1850. It was the demand of the South, put forth by
the South, and since its establishment finally has been again and again
affirmed and reaffirmed as the settled policy of the South by party conven
tions and State Legislatures, in every form in which a people can give
authoritative expression to their will and wishes. This cannot be matter
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 359
of dispute. It is history, as indelibly fixed upon the record as the fact
that the colony of Georgia was settled under the auspices of Oglethorpe,
or that the war of the American Revolution was fought in resistance to
the unjust claim of power on the part of the British Parliament.
u I refer to this matter of history connected with the subject under con
sideration barely as a starting-point, — to show how we stand in relation to
it. It is not a new question. It has been up before, and whether rightly
or wrongly, it has been decided, — decided and settled just as the South
asked that it should be,— not, however, without great effort and a prolonged
struggle. The question now is, Shall the South abandon her own position
in that decision and settlement? This is the question virtually presented
by the action of the seceders from the Charleston Convention, and the
grounds upon which they based their action ; or, stated in other words, it
amounts to this: whether the Southern States, after all that has taken
place on this subject, should now reverse their previous course, and de-
inand Congressional interventwn for the protection i of slavery in the Terri
tories as a condition of their remaining longer in the Union? For I take
it for granted that it would be considered by all the most mischievous folly
to make the demand, unless we intend to push the issue to its ultimate and
legitimate results. Shall the South, then, make this demand of Congress,
and when made, in case of failure to obtain it, shall she secede from the
Union, as a portion of her delegates (some under instructions and some
from their own free wrill) seceded from the Convention on their failure to
get it granted there ?
" Thus stands the naked question, as I understand it, presented by the
action of the seceders, in its full dimensions, — its length, breadth, and
depth, in all its magnitude.
" It is presented not to the Democratic party alone : it is true a conven
tion of that party may first act on it ; but it is presented to the country,
to the whole people of the South, of all parties. And men of all parties
should duly and timely consider it, for they may all have to take sides on it,
sooner or later.
"It rises in importance high above any party organization of the pres
ent day, and it may and ought to, if need be, sweep them all from the
board. My judgment is against the demand. If it were a new question,
presented in its present light for the first time, my views upon it might be
different from what they are. It is known to you and the country that the
policy of non-intervention, as established at the instance of the South, was
no favorite one of mine. As to my position upon it, and the doctrine now
revived, when they were original and open questions, as well as my pres
ent views, I will cite to you an extract of a speech made by me in Augusta,
in July last, on taking final leave of my constituents. I could not re
state them more clearly or more briefly. In speaking of and reviewing
this matter, I then said :
" ' And, as you all may know, [non-intervention] came short of whai I wished. It
was, in my view, not the full measure of our rights. That required, in my judg-
360 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
ment, the enactment by Congress of all needful laws for the protection of slave
l>reperty in the Territories, so long as the Territorial condition lasted.
"'But an overwhelming majority of the South was against that position. It was
said that we who maintained it yielded the whole question by yielding the jurisdic
tion, — and that, if we conceded the power to protect, we necessarily conceded with
it the power to prohibit. This by no means followed, in my judgment. But such
was the prevailing opinion. And it was not until it was well ascertained that a
large majority of the South would not ask for, or even vote for, Congressional pro
tection, that those of us who were for it yielded to non-intervention, because, though
it came short of our wishes, yet it contained no sacrifice of principle, — had nothing
aggressive in it, and secured for all practical purposes what was wanted, that is, the
unrestricted right of expansion over the common public domain, as inclination, con
venience, or necessity may require on the part of the people.
"'Thus the settlement was made, — thus the record stands; and by it I am willing
still to stand, as it was fully up to the demands of the South through her represen
tatives at the time, though not up to my own; and as by it the right of expansion
to the extent of population and capacity is amply secured.'
" In this you clearly perceive what I think of the proper course now to
be taken on the same subject. While in the beginning of this controversy
I was not favorable to the policy adopted, yet I finally yielded my assent.
It was yielded to the South, — to the prevailing sentiment of my own sec
tion. But it never would have been yielded if I had seen that any of our
important rights, or any principle essential to our safety or security, could
by possibility result from its operation. Nor would I now be willing to
abide by it if I saw in its practical workings any serious injury to the South
likely to result from it. All parties in the South, after the settlement was
made, gave it the sanction of their acquiescence, if not cordial approval.
What, then, has occurred since to cause us to change our position in rela
tion to it? Is it that those of the North who stood by us in the struggle
from 1848 to 1850, did afterward stand nobly by us in 1854 in taking off
the old Congressional restriction of 1820, so as to have complete non-inter
vention throughout the length and breadth of the common public domain?
Was this heroism on their part in adhering to principle at the hazard and
peril of their political lives and fortunes the cause of present complaint?
This cannot be ; for never was an act of Congress so generally and so
unanimously hailed with delight at the South as this one was, — I mean the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. It was not only endorsed by all parties in
Georgia, but every one who did not agree to its just provisions upon the
subject of slavery was declared to be unfit to hold party associations with
any party not hostile to the interests of the South. What, then, is the
cause of complaint now? Wherein has this policy wrorked any injury to
the South, or wherein is it likely to work any?
"The only cause of complaint I have heard is that non-intervention, as
established in 1850, and carried out in 1854, is not understood at the North
as it is at the South ; that while we hold that, in leaving 'the whole subject
where the Constitution and the great principles of self-government place
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 361
it,' the common Territories are to remain open for settlement by Southern
people, with their slaves, until otherwise provided by a State constitution, —
the friends and supporters of the same doctrine at the North maintain that,
under it, thej3eople_oi 'an organized Territory can protect or exclude slave
property before the formation of a State constitution. This opinion or
construction of their* is wliai is commonly dubbed 'squatter sovereignty.'
" Upon this point of difference in construction of what are ' the great
principles of self-government' under the Constitution of the United States,
a great deal has been said and written. We have heard of it in the social
circle, in the forum, on the hustings, and in the halls of legislation. The
newspapers have literally groaned with dissertations on it. Pamphlets
have been published for and against the respective sides. Congress has
spent months in its discussion, and may spend as many years as they have
months without arriving at any more definite or satisfactory conclusion in
relation to it than Milton's perplexed spirits did upon the abstruse questions
on which they held such high and prolonged debate when they reasoned
'Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate;
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.'
11 It is not now my purpose to enter the list of these disputants. My
own opinions on the subject are known ; and it is equally known that this
difference of opinion or construction is no new thing in the history of this
subject. Those who hold the doctrine that the people of the Territories,
according to the great principle of self-government, under the Constitu
tion of the United States, can exclude slavery by Territorial law, and
regulate slave property as all other property, held the same views they
now do when we agreed with them to stand on those terms. This fact is
also historical. The South held that under the Constitution the Terri-r
torial Legislatures could not exclude slavery, — that it required an act "of
sovereignty to do this. Some gentlemen of the North held, as they now
do, that the Territorial Legislatures could control slave property as abso
lutely as they could any other kind of property, and by a system of laws
could virtually exclude slavery from among them or prevent its introduc
tion if they chose.
" That point of difference it was agreed by both sides to leave to the
courts to settle. There was no cheat, or swindle, or fraud, or double-
dealing in it. It was a fair, honorable, and constitutional adjustment of
the difference. No assertion or declaration by Congress, one way or the
other, could have affected the question in the least degree : for if the
people, according to ' the great principles of self-government' under the
Constitution, have the right contended for by those who espouse that side
of the argument, then Congress could not and cannot deprive them of it.
And if Congress did not have, or does not have, the power to exclude
slavery from a Territory, as those on our side contended, and still contend
362 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
they have not, then they could not and did not confer it upon the Terri
torial Legislatures. We of the South held that Congress had not the power
to exclude, and could not delegate a power they did not possess, — also that
the people had not the power to exclude under the Constitution, and there
fore the mutual agreement was to take the subject out of Congress and
leave the question of the power of the people where the Constitution had
placed it — with the courts. This is the whole of it. The question in dis
pute is a judicial one, and no act of Congress, nor any resolution of any
party convention can in any way affect it, unless we abandon the first
position of non-intervention by Congress.
" But it seems exceedingly strange to me that the people of the South
should, at this late day, begin to find fault with this Northern construction,
as it is termed, especially since the decision of the Supreme Court in the
case of Dred Scott. In this connection I may be permitted to say that I
have read with deep interest the debates of the Charleston Convention,
and particularly the able, logical, and eloquent speech of the Hon. Win.
L. Yancey, of Alabama. It was, decidedly, the strongest argument I have
seen on his side of the question. But its greatest power wras shown in its
complete answer to itself. Never did a man with greater clearness demon
strate that ' squatter sovereignty,' the bugbear of the day, is not in the
Kansas Bill, all that has been said to the contrary notwithstanding. This
he put beyond the power of refutation. But he stopped not there, — he
went on, and, by reference to the decision of the Supreme Court alluded
to, he showed conclusively, in a most pointed and thrilling climax, that
this most frightful doctrine could not, by possibility, be in it, or in any
other Territorial bill, — that it is a constitutional impossibility. With the
same master-hand he showed that the doctrine of ' squatter sovereignty'
is not in the Cincinnati platform 5 then why should we of the South now
complain of non-intervention or ask a change of platform?
" What else have we to do but to insist upon our allies standing to their
agreement? Would it not have been much more natural to look for
flinching on their side than on ours? Why should we desire any other
platform of principles than that adopted at Cincinnati? If those who
stood with us on it in the contest of 1856 are willing still to stand on it,
why should we not be equally willing? For my life I cannot see, unless
we are determined to have a quarrel with the North anyhow, on general
account. If so, in behalf of common sense, let us put it upon more
tenable grounds. These are abundant. For our own character's sake,
let us make it upon the aggressive acts of our enemies, rather than any
supposed short-comings of our friends, who have stood by us so steadfastly
in so many constitutional struggles. In the name of patriotism and honor,
let us not make it upon a point which may so directly subject us to the
charge of breach of plighted faith. Whatever may befall us, let us ever
be found, by friend or foe, as good as our word. These are my views,
frankly and earnestly given.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 363
" The great question, then, is, shall we stand by our principles, or shall
we, cutting loose from our moorings where we have been safely anchored
so many years, launch out again into unknown seas, upon new and perilous
adventures, under the guide and pilotage of those who prove themselves
to have no more fixedness of purpose or stability as to objects or policy
than the shifting winds by which we shall be driven ? Let this question
be decided by the Convention, and decided with that wisdom, coolness, and
forecast which become statesmen and patriots. As for myself, I can say,
whatever may be the course of future events, my judgment in this crisis
is that we should stand by our principles ' through woe' as well as ' through
weal,' and maintain them in good faith, now and always, if need be, until
they, we, and the Republic perish together in a common ruin. I see no
injury that can possibly arise to us from them, — not even if the constitu
tional impossibility of their containing ' squatter sovereignty' did not
exist, as has been conclusively demonstrated. For, if it did exist in them,
and were all that its most ardent advocates claim for it, no serious prac
tical danger to us could result from it.
" Even according to that doctrine, we have the unrestricted right of
expansion to the extent of population. It is admitted that slavery can,
and will go, under its operation, wherever the people want it. Squatters
carried it to Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and
Arkansas, without any law to protect it, and to Texas against a law pro
hibiting it, and they will carry it under this doctrine to all countries where
climate, soil, productions, and population will allow. These are the nat
ural laws that will regulate it under non-intervention, according to that
construction ; and no act of Congress can carry it into any Territory
against those laws, any more than it could make the rivers run to the
mountains instead of the sea. If we have not enough of the right sort
of population to compete longer with the North in the- colonization i_qf new.
Territories and States, this deficiency can never be supplied by any such
act of Congress as that now asked for. The attempt would be as vain as
that of Xerxes to control the waters of the Hellespont by whipping them
in his rage.
" The times, as you intimate, do indeed portend evil. But I have no
fears for the institution of slavery, either in the Union or out of it, if our
people are but true to themselves, — true, stable, and loyal to fixed prin
ciples and settled policy ; and if they are not thus .true, I have little hope
of anything good, whether the present Union last or a new one be formed.
There is, in my judgment, nothing to fear from the 'irrepressible conflict'
of which we hear so much. Slavery rests upon great truths^which can
never be successfully assailed by reason or argument. ^ It has grown
stronger in the minds of men the more it has been discussed, and it will
still grow stronger as the discussion proceeds and time rolls on. Truth
is omnipotent and^ must prevail. We have only to maintain the truth
with firmness and wield It aright. "Our system rests upon an impregnable
364 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
basis, that can and will defy all assaults from without. My greatest
apprehension is from, causes within, — there lies the greatest danger. ~We
Have grown luxuriant in the exuberance of our well-being and unparalleled
prosperity. There is a tendency everywhere, not only at the North, but
at the South, to strife, dissension, disorder, and anarchy. It is against
this tendency that the sober-minded and reflecting men everywhere should
now be called upon to guard.
__^My opiniont thent,is that delegates ought to be sent to the adjourned
Convention at Baltimore. The demand made at Charleston by the seceders
ought not to be insisted upon. Harmony being restored on this point, a
nomination can doubtless be made of some man whom the party, every
where, can support, with the same zeal and the same ardor with which
they entered and waged the contest in 1856, when the same principles
were involved.
" If, in this, there be a failure, let the responsibility not rest upon us.
Let our hands be clear of all blame. Let there be no cause for casting
censure at our door. If, in the end, the great national Democratic party,
— the strong ligament which has so long bound and held the Union to
gether, — shaped its policy and controlled its destinies, — and to which we
have so often looked with a hope that seldom failed, as the only party
North on which to rely, in the most trying hours when constitutional
rights were in peril, let it not be said to us, in the midst of the disasters
that in ay ensue, ' you did it !' In any and every event, let not the reproach
of Punic faith rest upon our name. If everything else has to go down,
let our untarnished honor, at least, survive the wreck.
"ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS."
In a letter of May 23d, to K. M. J., lie writes :
" I greatly fear that our friends in Athens, as well as elsewhere, have
sowed the wind and may reap a whirlwind beyond their control. I have
no idea that , or , or thousands of others who favored this seces
sion movement,* dreamed of the consequences of this misguided course of
the counsels of those in whose judgment they placed confidence. All
this I warned them of. I fear it is now too late to save them from the
conflagration their random sparks, foolishly and wickedly scattered about
in the midst of combustible materials, will bring upon us. What is to be
the end I do not know : I cannot foresee. But if there ever was a time for
wise, prudent, and firm men to speak out and put forth all their energies,
that time is now. The indications now are that the American party in
Georgia will not run Bell. They will fall in with the sectional organiza
tion to be formed at Richmond. Should the great mass of the Democratic
party South, or even a respectable portion, go that way, the nominee of
* The secession of the Alabama, Georgia, and other delegations from the
Charleston Convention.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 365
the Baltimore Convention will be defeated, let him be who he may. The
election will be thrown into the House, and in that event, in the present
general distemper of the times, I doubt if we ever have another Presi
dent of the United States. We certainly shall not, unless the men who
have brought these evils upon us change their present line of policy. And
if they do, they will then be denounced as bitterly for traitors as Douglas
In the latter part of this month Mr. Stephens spent several
days with Mr. Johnston at Athens, attending the Supreme Court.
One morning during this visit he was suddenly struck with ver
tigo, and afterwards suffered from it during the whole summer.
Dr. Moore, of Athens, treated his case with nitric acid, from
which he derived benefit ; but all the following letters of this
year contain allusions to his bad health.
On June 19th he writes, complaining of delays and irregu
larities in the mails, which he is disposed to look upon as another
instance of the disjointedncss of the times, and moral profligacy
of public servants :
a The post-office is beginning to be a nuisance. It is now the field for
almost as much espionage and villainy, from the prying into a private note
to the stealing of a package of bank-bills, as ever the same institution was
in Spain, or is now in Cuba. ... I have no idea what will be done in
Baltimore ; my conjecture is that they will blow up in a row. The seced-
ers intended from the beginning to rule or ruin •, and when they find that
they cannot rule, they will then ruin. They have about enough power for
this purpose ; not much more ; and I doubt not but they will use it. Envy,
hate, jealousy, spite, — these made the war in heaven, which made devils
of angels, and the same passions will make devils of men. The secession
movement was instigated by nothing but bad passions. Patriotism, in my
opinion, had no more to do with it than love of Gnd had with the other
revolt. ... I am always more or less an invalid in summer. Last year
was the exception with me. I enjoyed better health that summer than I
ever did in my life, taking the whole summer together. I have no hope
of doing so well this summer, if ever again."
July 12th. — " I am surprised that anj^body could have supposed it pos
sible for me to support-th^~sece3er8^_nomination. I_shiould have to kfet
ouTTTry own record for several years past toUcTtliis. Others may eat their
words, but I do not feed on such diet. It is to me the worst sign of the
times to see so many of our public men doing this thing. The surest sign
that a dog is going mad is to see him eat his own ordure ; and this eating
of words and old party principles is, in my judgment, a like sign of ap-
366 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
preaching rabies among the people. But good-by. I am out of politics,
and mean to stay out."
But notwithstanding his firm resolve to keep out of politics,
and his very feeble health, his extreme anxiety at what he be
lieved to be the greatest peril that had ever menaced the country
drew him to take a part in the Presidential campaign of this
year. Of these speeches only one has been reported, — a very
powerful address made in Augusta, on September 1st; and
during its delivery he was compelled to pause for some minutes
from sheer exhaustion. In it he announced his belief that in
less than six months the country would be convulsed by war.
His best friends thought that the weakness of his body had
mounted to his head; while the less charitable said, "He is
insane !"
The excitement produced by the election of Mr. Lincoln, by
a purely sectional vote, was intense, in Georgia as well as in the
other Southern States. Not merely the fiery spirits who had
long been desirous of a separation, but the more sober and far-
seeing began to ask themselves what was the real value to the
South of that Union which they had been accustomed to look
upon almost with idolatry, as-if it were in itself an end, instead
of being only the means toward an end. True, in the Union
they had attained great prosperity ; but was this owing to the
Union? Had it not, in truth, rather been accomplished in spite
of it? One great advantage which the friends of the Union
had always represented as cheaply purchased by the pecuniary
sacrifice which this connexion entailed on the South, was the
strength of the united republics against a foreign enemy. But
in the two wars which had occurred since the Union was formed,
the Northern States — or a considerable portion of them — had
not only entered with reluctance, but had shown no equivocal
symptoms of refusing to bear their share of the common burden.
Supposing the Southern States attacked by a powerful foe, was
it so very improbable that the North might decline all partici
pation in the contest? — nay, might they not make common cause
with the enemy? The circumstances attending and following
the atrocious attempt of John Brown, and the sympathy openly
and widely expressed for that malefactor, made such a suspicion
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 367
by no means unreasonable. Then the recent political victories,
such as the passage of the Kansas Bill, what were they after all
but the concession of the simplest rights, only won after the
fiercest struggle, and held by the most precarious of tenures?
Did such a Union offer sufficient advantages to tempt them to
await the time, certainly not very far distant, when the North
having obtained the requisite majority in both Houses of Con
gress would have the South hopelessly at her mercy ? If, as
even the most temperate conceded, such a state of affairs would
justify separation, even though it had to be effected by arms,
why wait, when every day increased the proportionate strength
of their adversary ?
It was while thoughts like these were beginning to force them
selves upon even moderate and prudent men, that Mr. Stephens
was invited by the Legislature of Georgia to give them his views
and counsel in this great crisis ; and he addressed them on the
14th of November. As this speech is one of the most important
of his life, and fully illustrates his views, both as patriot and as
statesman, we give it entire in the Appendix.*
The effect produced by this speech was a general impression
that it had given the quietus to secession in Georgia. The Hon.
T. W. Thomas, a warm personal friend of Mr. Stephens, taking
this view of the subject, and feeling deep mortification and cha
grin at the expected result, believing that Lincoln's policy would
be carried out without resistance, and that the institutions of the
South would be overthrown, sought to revive his spirits by giving
a social dinner at a hotel in the city. The guests, of whom Lin-
ton Stephens was one, were all his special friends. The party
sat over their wine until a late hour, when just before breaking
up, Thomas called the head-waiter, a colored man, and taking
from his pocket a silver dollar, said, in his peculiar vein of
%
* Appendix B. This speech was made off-hand, and the stenographic
report is very imperfect. At its close, the Hon. Kobert Toombs, his dis
tinguished opponent, arose and said, "Fellow-citizens, we have just listerjed
to a speech from one of the brightest intellects and purest patriots that now
lives. I move that this meeting now adjourn, with three cheers for Alex
ander H. Stephens, of Georgia !" The applause thus invoked was tremen
dous.
368 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
solemn drollery, "Here, Charley, my friend, and soon to be my
fellow-citizen, take this in remembrance of me; and when you
come to your kingdom, do unto me as I do unto you." This
was, in one sense, a true prophecy; but its fulfilment came from
a source directly opposite to that which he had apprehended.
We turn again to the correspondence :
November 21st. — " I see by the Constitutionalist'1'1 [the leading Demo
cratic paper of the State] " of last night that my plan is not to be backed
by that paper. It is going, I suppose, for immediate secession. What else
to make of it I do not know. This disheartened me a good deal. I
shall patiently wait for -further developments, and shall, in the mean time,
hold on to my line of policy without wavering or faltering. I think it is
right. If that paper is now following the lead of Mr. Toombs, as I ap
prehend, I do not know what he meant by saying that he did not want the
issue in our election to be made on union or disunion per se. Why did he
say that he did not want any disunion man elected to the Convention ?
Secession or separation and disunion mean the same thing. I do not see
how, under the idea of the Constitutionalist, the Convention can be chosen
but upon the issue of union or disunion without further effort. We have
/indeed fallen upon sad times ; and I doubt if there is enough patriotism
in this country to save us from anarchy, either in the Union or out of it."
\~Noveniber 23d. — "Yesterday evening I had a visit from Banks, formerly
of the South Side Democrat (Virginia) ; more recently from Washington,
a leading Douglas man in the late nomination and canvass. He was on
his way from Alabama to Washington, and called to see me. His object
seemed to be to get the run of Georgia politics, and to know what our
State would do. He was much pleased with my late speech at Milledge-
ville, and thinks that all the South, Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland,
could be brought to the line of policy therein indicated, if South Carolina
could be induced to hold off from any separate rash action. He wished
me to write to Governor Letcher, and get him to convene the Virginia
Legislature at an earlier day than that announced, in order to send a
Commission to South Carolina before their Convention sits. I told him'
that Letcher would see my speech ; and I did not think it would do any
good to write to him."
November SJfth. — " We had a county meeting to-day. I gave them a
talk, — literally a talk. My cold and cough were so bad that I could not
speak. The meeting was large, — all parties out. We passed resolutions de
claring Lincoln's election no cause for secession., and approving a call for a
State Convention. My tall took well with the people. After this was all
over^a motion was made to nominate candidates for the Convention. Monk
moved that Judge Perkins and myself be unanimously nominated. This
was done. But I do not yet know whether I shall go or not. I have not
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 11. STEPHENS. 3$ 9
made up my mind. I had no idea of any such nomination being made
when I went over to the meeting."
November 25th, — "On my return last evening I got a great number of
letters from all parts of the country, except the Western States. My
speech, I find, has had the most general circulation at the North, I sup
pose, of any speech ever made in the United States. . . . The great bulk
of the letters I receive are in relation to it, and every one in the highest
commendation, except one. That one was from a Georgia lady in New
York. She don't like it. She is for immediate unconditional secession.
Several of my letters are from Republicans ; one of them from one of
Governor Banks' aides, of Massachusetts. They all state that my demands
will be granted. George P. Curtis, from Boston, an old Webster Whig,
says that he believes Massachusetts will repeal her laws; that if our State
would send a proper man there, it would, in his judgment, be done. They
intend, at any rate, to make the effort ; and if they do not, we would be
justified in quitting the Union. ... 1 have no doubt of our success, if we
will seek the redress of our wrongs in the right spirit, and with an honest
purpose. But my apprehension is that that is not the object of our agita
tors. They do not wish a redress of our grievances. . . . We are, I fear,
in the hands of those who are bent upon dissolution at all hazards.
Nothing will satisfy them but to get out of the Union and form a separate
government. I have great apprehension that this will be the prevailing
sentiment of our Convention. The evil genius of civil discord seems to be
rampant."
November 30th. — " I am daily becoming more and more confirmed in the
opinion that all efforts to save the Union will be unavailing. The truth is,
our leaders and public men who have taken hold of this question, do not
desire to continue it on any terms. They do not wish any redress of
wrongs ; they are disunionists per se, and avail themselves of present
circumstances to press their objects; and my present conviction is that
they will carry the State with them by a large majority. What I say on
this point is for your own reflection only. I write just as I would talk to
you, that you, for your own information, may know what I think of the
ultimate course of events, and not with the view either to influence your
judgment or that of others, much less their action, as might be the case
were my opinions known, as my opinions may be erroneous. Let the
popular will be as fairly represented as possible."
December 3d. — " Letters from all parts of the country continue to pour"
in on me. I find it impossible to answer them all. 'Last night I got
one from Richard Brodhead, of Pennsylvania, former Senator. He was
greatly pleased with my speech, and gave it as his opinion that the present
Republican Legislature of Pennsylvania would immediately, in January,
repeal their Personal Liberty Laws. He thinks that if we would be
moderate as well as firm, all will be right. Other letters, of the most
fulsome character, I have received, from Memphis, Detroit, New York.
24
370 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
But I will say no more. I fear it will all come to nought; that it is too late
to do anything 5 that the people are run mad. They are wild with passion
and frenzy, doing they know not what.
" This is a beautiful, clear, cool day, a big frost in the morning with a
considerable freeze, but now pleasant and charming. The air is still, and
all things look pleasant in the calm, placid sunshine. If I were well
enough to be out in it, it seems that I should rejoice to walk abroad in such
an elastic atmosphere. But I can only indulge in fancy as I peep through
my windows, sitting as I am by a comfortable fire with Rio, poor fellow,
sleeping at my feet. He has been looking for me to go out with him for
some time, until he got wearied at that, and then, child-like, fell asleep."
December 22d. — '" Frank tells me that some of the Taliaferro boys have
been to Augusta this week. The minute-men down there are in a rage at
Toombs's letter. They say that he has backed down, that they intend to
vote him a tin sword. They call him a traitor. Poor fools ! So the world
goes. I see that some of the secession papers have given him a severe
railing. Mr. H. says his letter was the theme of constant talk on the cars,
the fire-eaters generally discussing it, and saying that they never had any
confidence in him or Cobb either. So the world again goes. These are
but the indications of the fury of popular opinion when it once gets
thoroughly aroused. Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind."
December 29th. — " I got a letter from Douglas last night, requesting my
opinion on certain propositions of adjustment he had submitted to the
Senate. I shall write to him to-day, telling him that I have no idea that
the South would be satisfied with them, the ultra men especially ; and I
do not think any considerable portion of them would be [agreed to?].
I should not approve them myself. Better let all things remain as they
are, so far as the Constitution is concerned. His proposition looks to
constitutional amendments. The Constitution as it is, with a discharge of
all its present obligations, is what I want."
December 22d. — (To R. M. J.) "I hear from divers quarters that
Mr. Toombs's late letter is not well received by the precipitators, who
call him all sorts of names. ... So far from his letter being any back
down, I look upon it as a master-stroke to effect his object. He has
more sense than any man in this movement. But from this effusion of
indignation he ought to catch some slight glimmerings of what he may
expect when his object is accomplished, and he attempts, as I doubt not
he would, or will, to build up a new government on sound and correct
principles. If the violent cannot now see his motive, how shall they
appreciate his efforts hereafter? Just as the Mountain did Mirabeau in
France."
Among the letters which his speech at Milledgeville brought
Mr. Stephens was a brief note from the President-elect, asking
for a revised copy. Mr. Stephens replied, stating that he had
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 37 J
not revised it further than looking over the reporter's notes,
which were substantially correct. He concluded with the remark :
"The country is certainly in great peril, and no man ever had heavier
or greater responsibilities than you have in the present momentous crisis."
Mr. Lincoln replied in a letter dated December 22d, and
headed, "For your own eye only," — an injunction strictly ob
served by Mr. Stephens, until the close of the war and the
death of Mr. Lincoln removed all necessity for further secrecy, —
of which these are the words :
" MY DEAR SIR, — Your obliging answer to my short note is just received,
and for which please accept my thanks. I fully appreciate the present
peril the country is in, and the weight of responsibility on me.
" Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican
Administration would, directly or indirectly, interfere with the slaves, or
with them about the slaves ? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a
friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears.
"The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in
the days of Washington f" I ~ suppose, however, that does not meet the
case. You think slavery is right., and ought to be extended ; while we
think it is wrong, and ought to be abofished. That,'t srrppoFe, is the rub.
It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.
" Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN."
Mr. Stephens's reply was as follows :
" CRAWFORDVILLE, GEORGIA, 30th December, 1860.
"DEAR SIR, — Yours of the 22d instant was received two days ago. I
hold it and appreciate it as you intended. Personally, I am not your
enemy, — far from it ; and however widely we may differ politically, yet
I trust we both have an earnest desire to preserve and maintain the
Union of the States if it can be done upon the principles and furtherance
of the objects for which it was formed. It was with such feelings on my
part that I suggested to you in my former note the heavy responsibility
now resting upon you, and with the same feelings I will now take the
liberty of saying, in all frankness and earnestness, that this great object
can never be obtained by force. This is my settled conviction. Consider
the opinion, weigh it, and pass upon it for yourself. An error on this
point may lead to the most disastrous consequences. I will also add,
that in my judgment the people of the South do not entertain any fears
that a Republican Administration, or at least the one about to be inaugu
rated, would attempt to interfere directly and immediately with slavery
in the States. Their apprehension and disquietude do not spring from
that source. They do not arise'from the fact of the known anti-slavery
372 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
opinions of the President-elect. Washington. Jefferson, and other Presi
dents are generally admitted to have been anti-slavery in sentiment. But
in those days anti-slavery did not enter as an element into party organi
zations.
" Questions of other kinds, relating to the foreign and domestic policy, —
commerce, finance, and other legitimate objects of the General Govern
ment. — were the basis of such associations in their day. The private
opinions of individuals upon the subject of African slavery, or the status
of the negro with us, were not looked to in the choice of Federal officers
any more than their views upon matters of religion, or any other subject
over which the Government under the Constitution had no control. But
now this subject, which is confessedly on all sides outside of the consti
tutional action of the Government, so far as the States are concerned, is
made the 'central idea' in the platform of principles announced by the
triumphant party. The leading object seems to be simply, and wantonly,
if , you please, to put the institutions of nearly half the States under the
ban of public opinion and national condemnation. This, upon general
principles, is quite enough of itself to arouse a spirit not only of general
indignation, but of revolt on the part of the proscribed. Let me illustrate.
It is generally conceded, by the Republicans even, that Congress cannot
interfere with slavery in the States. It is equally conceded that Congress
cannot establish any form of religious worship. Now suppose that any one
of the present Christian churches or sects prevailed in all the Southern
States, but had no existence in any one of the Northern States, — under such
circumstances, suppose the people of the Northern States should organize
a political party, not upon a foreign or domestic policy, but with one
leading idea of condemnation of the doctrines and tenets of that particular
church, and with the avowed object of preventing its extension into the
common Territories, even after the highest judicial tribunal of the land
had decided they had no such constitutional power. And suppose that a
party so organized should carry a Presidential election. Is it not apparent
that a general feeling of resistance to the success, aims^ and objects of
such a party would necessarily and rightfully ensue ? Would it not be
the inevitable consequence? And the more so, if possible, from the
admitted fact that it was a matter beyond their control, and one that they
ought not in the spirit of comity between co-States to attempt to meddle
with. I submit these thoughts to you for your calm reflection. We at
the South do think African slavery, as it exists with us, both morally and
politically right. This opinion is founded upon the inferiority of the
black race. You, however, and perhaps a majority of the North, think it
wrong. Admit the difference of opinion. The same difference of opinion
existed to a more general extent among those who formed the Constitution,
and when it was made and adopted. The changes have been mainly to
our side. As parties were not formed on this difference of opinion then,
why should they be now? The same difference would, of course, exist
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 373
in the supposed case of religion. When parties or combinations of men,
therefore, so form themselves, must it not be assumed to arise, not from
reason or any sense of justice, but from fanaticism? The motive can
spring from no other source, and when men come under the influence of
fanaticism there is no telling where their impulses or passions may drive
them. This is what creates our discontent and apprehension. You will
also allow me to say that it is neither unnatural nor unreasonable,
especially when we see the extent to which this. reckless spirit has already
gone. Such, for instance, as the avowed disregard and breach of the
Constitution in the passage of the statutes in a number of the Northern
States against the renxlition of fugitives from service, and such exhibitions
of madness as the John Brown raid into Virginia, which has received so
much sympathy from many, and no open condemnation from any of the
leading men of the present dominant party. For a very clear statement
of the prevailing sentiment of the most moderate men of the South upon
them I refer you to the speech of Senator Nicholson, of Tennessee, which
I inclose to you. Upon a review of the whole, who can say that the
general discontent and apprehension prevailing is not well founded?
" In addressing you thus, I would have you understand me as being not
a personal enemy, but as one who would have you do what you can to save
our common country. A word ' fitly spoken' by you now would indeed
be like 'apples of gold in pictures of silver.' I entreat you be not de
ceived as. to the nature and extent of the danger, nor as to the remedy.
Conciliation and harmony, in my judgment, can never be established by
force. Norcan the Union under the Constitution be maintained by force,
The Union was formed by the consent of independent sovereign States.
Ultimate sovereignty still resides with them separately, which can be re
sumed, and will be, if their safety, tranquillity, and security, in their,
judgment, require it. Under our system, as I view it, there is no rightful '
power in the General Government to coerce a State, in case any one of
them should throw herself upon her reserved rights and resume the full
exercise of her sovereign powers. Force may perpetuate a Union. That
depends upon the contingencies of waii\ But such a Union would not be
the Union of the Constitution. It would be nothing short of a consoli
dated despotism. Excuse me for giving you these views. Excuse the
strong language used. Nothing but the deep interest I feel in prospect of
the most alarming dangers now threatening our common country could
induce me to do it. Consider well what I write, and let it have such
weight with you as in your judgment, under all the responsibility resting
upon you, it merits.
" Yours respectfully,
"ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS."
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Feeling at the South— Secession of South Carolina— Conventions called by
the other States — Views of Mr. Stephens — Real Causes of Complaint —
Secession Rightful, but not Expedient — Will abide by his State — Thoughts
and Memories — A Storm and a Speech — Break-up of the Cabinet — Fort
Pulaski secured — Convention at Milledgeville — Speech — Ordinance of
Secession passed — A Forged Speech — Sent to Montgomery — Formation
of the Provisional Government — Elected Yice-President — Inaugurated
— The Constitution — Toombs and Cobb — Relations with Mr. Davis — An
ticipations.
EVENTS were now hurrying rapidly to a catastrophe. Con
sidering the election of Mr. Lincoln, the first candidate for the
Presidency who had offered himself as the representative of one
section only, and the victorious champion of a party which
openly professed hostility to the Southern States and their insti
tutions, as the declaration of a settled purpose to carry that hos
tility into the Administration of the Federal Government, most
of the leaders of public opinion at the South were convinced
that the rights of the Southern States were no longer secure in
the Union, and that their only safety lay in separation.
South Carolina immediately called a Sovereign Convention of
the people, which, on December 20th, 1860, unanimously passed
an Ordinance of Secession, repealing the. ordinance which ratified
the Constitution in 1788, and thus restoring South Carolina to
the position of a separate and independent sovereign State. The
six States of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
and Texas followed the example of South Carolina, and called
Conventions. That of Georgia was called to meet at Milledge
ville on January 16th. The letters to Linton will show the
further progress of events, and the views and action of Mr.
Stephens at this critical time.
January 1st. — " It is night. I have just received your letter. I think
the views you give as to the outline of what you intend to say to-niorrow,
374
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 375
so far as relates to the course our own State ought to take, and the policy
she ought to pursue towards South Carolina, are entirely correct. This
letter, of course, you will not get until after your speech and until the
election is over. But I assure you I feel the deepest concern in the prog
ress of events on the other side of the Savannah River. By force of cir
cumstances they will necessarily involve the interests and fate of Georgia.
" I have read the address put forth by the Convention at Charleston to
the Southern States. It has not impressed me favorably. In it South..
Carolina clearly shows that it is not her intention to be satisfied with any
redress of grievances. Indeed, she hardly deigns to specify any. The
Slavery question is almost entirely ignored. Her greatest complaint seems
to be the Tariff, though there is but little intelligent or intelligible thought
on that subject. Perhaps the less she said about it the better. For the
present tariff from which she secedes is just what her own Senators and
members in Congress made it. There are general and vague charges
about consolidation, despotism, etc., and the South having, under the oper
ation of the General Government, been reduced to a minority incapable of
protecting itself, etc. This complaint I do not think well founded. It
arises more from a spirit of peevishness or restless fretfulness than from
calm and deliberate judgment. The truth is, the South, almost in mass,
has voted, I think, for every measure of general legislation that has passed
both Houses and become law for the last ten years. (^Indeed, with but few
exceptions, the South has controlled the Government in its every impor
tant action from the beginning^/ The protective policy was once, for a
time, carried against the South ; but that was subsequently completely
changed. Our policy ultimately prevailed. The South put in power —
or joined a united country in putting in power and sustaining the Adminis
tration of Washington for eight years. She put in and sustained Jeffer
son eight years, Madison eight years, Jackson eight years, Van Buren four
years, Tyler four years, Polk four years, Pierce four years, and Buchanan
four years. That is, they have aided in making and sustaining the Admin
istration for sixty years out of the seventy-two of the Government's ex
istence. "T)oes this look like we were or are in an abject minority at the
mercy of a despotic Northern majority, rapacious to rob and plunder us?
It is true we are in a minority, and have been a long time. It is true also
that a party at the North advocate principles which would lead to a des
potism, and they would rob us if they had the power, — I have no doubt of
that. But by the prudent and wise counsels of Southern statesmen this
party has been kept in the minority in the past, and by the same prudent
and wise statesmanship on our part I can but hope and think it can be so for
many long years to come. Sound Constitutional men enough at the North
have been found to unite with the South to keep that dangerous and mis
chievous faction in a minority. And though Lincoln has J>een elected, it
ought to be recollected that he has succeedecTByli minority vote, and even
this was the result of a dissension in the ranks of the Conservatives or
376 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Constitutional men North and South ; a most unfortunate and lamentable
event, and the more so from the fact that it was designedly effected by men
who wished to use it for ulterior ends and objects.
" Now we have real causes of complaint against the North, — or at least
against certain States of the North, — causes which, if not redressed, would
justify the extreme course, the ultima ratio, on the part of the South.
I These, however, are barely glanced at in the South Carolina address.
These causes are the ' Personal Liberty Acts,' as they are called, in several
of the Northern States. Other acts of their Legislatures which openly
and avowedly refuse obedience to, or compliance with, their constitutional
obligation to return fugitive slaves. These acts are in flagrant violation
cf constitutional obligations ; and they constitute the only cause, in my
(opinion, which can justify secession. All other complaints are founded
on threatened dangers which may never come, and which I feel very sure
could be averted if the South would pursue a judicious and wise course.
Whether we ought to secede in consequence of the faithlessness of those
Northern States alluded to is simply a question of policy. It is one on
which able men and true may differ. One thing is certain : the South
would be justified in doing it. For nothing is better settled by all law,
recognized by savage as well as by civilized people, than that a compact
broken by on-e party to it is not binding on the other. But if we secede,
I should like to see it put on the right ground ; and while I think the
ground would fully justify the act, yet I do not. think it would at present
be wise to resort to that remedy. For I feel confident' that, if we should
adopt the right course, those States would recede and repeal their obnox
ious statutes. Hence I am mortified and grieved when I read such papers
as the South Carolina manifesto. It is not on the right line.
" But I am grieved at almost everything I see and hear every day. The
times are fearfully distempered. I am fully persuaded of one thing, and
that is, there is no power on earth that can bring any good out of the
present state of things. The progress of events cannot be arrested. I
tell you now, as you cannot get this until after your election, and it cannot,
therefore, influence your action in the matter. If you were not a candi
date I should not allow my name to be used to-morrow for the Convention.
I have no desire to be in that body. I have a repugnance to the idea. I
believe the State will go for secession, — have believed it ever since I left
Milledgeville. I have no wish to be in a body of men that will give that
vote. My judgment does not approve it. But when the State acts I shall
abide by her decision^ with the fidelity of one who imagines he feels the
dictates of patriotism as sensibly and as strongly as any one who ever
breathed the breath of life.
" I must confess in the darkness and gloom that hang upon the future
I see no prospect and but little hope for good government ever again in
this country, North or South. The mischievous faction at the North will
bear sway there. /^Constitutional liberty they never understood, or did not
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 377
like, if they did.} How it will be with us at the South time must disclose :
but when our public men act so unwisely under present circumstances,
I cannot hope for much under their rule in the days of real peril. We are
on the high road to ruin I verily believe. How far a man can, consistently
with a proper sense of duty to his country, abandon it to its fate when he
sees its fate inevitable, I will not undertake to say. But this country, as
it was and has been, is entirely demoralized if not ruined. It is bevond
the power of salvation. If I am elected, and you are, I shall go to the
Convention simply to share your fate, and to link my destiny with yours
and that of our State, just as I would, if I could, in the blow-up of a
steamer at sea, get on the same fragment of the wreck with you and other
dear ones, that wre might in the last hour have the consolation of going
down together.
" I am communing with you now as I do with no one else ; and I would
not have you mention my feeling to any one. I would give no one
unnecessary pain in the anticipation of impending evils. Let all enjoy
themselves who can ; all indulge better hopes who can. Despair is a ter
rible feeling for one who has not the nerve to bear it. I feel as if I can
bear anything. After all, perhaps what I apprehend will not take place.
Don't, therefore, let what I write affect your cheerfulness. It may be a
misfortune to have our lives cast upon such evil times. (JkTt still we have
duties to perform, and these should be performed, to the best of our abili
ties, with fidelity under all circumstances, whether of good or eviLAAll that
a man can do is to discharge his own duty, whatever that mTTy'be. This
I shall do, to the best of my understanding of it, in whatever fortunes
betide me or the country. I have ceased to put much confidence in our
public men. Most of them are destitute of principle. I will not particu
larize. It is painful to me to think of it.
" To-day, after reading Judge Ezzard's late letter, coming out for imme
diate secession, on the back of Judge Nisbefs speech in Macon, to drown
my thoughts on these disagreeable subjects, I took a long walk. The
evening was cloudy, cold, and bleak. But I felt as if I wanted to get
away from all company , — human company and human society at least. I
took my poor old blind dog, string in hand, and sought solitude. I went
through the old fields over on the Berry Little place, through the pines,
sighing in the chill wind. I went until I came to the Bristow place, — the
place your grandmother settled. Old memories were here awakened. I
approached the old houses. What a wreck was before me ! The inclosures
and fences were all down. I went up to the spot where I first met you
on my first visit to your grandmother after you went there to live. You
were then a very little boy. You had run out at the gate to meet me. Do
you remember the time and the spot? There this evening I stood and
gazed on all around me. Emotions, deep and strong, swelled my breast,
and for a time public affairs were all lost in contemplations of another
sort.
378 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
"Rio, though sightless and almost deaf, seemed to be impressed, through
some strange instinct, with the agitations of my mind. lie whined in
sympathy, and raised a mournful howl. I was looking at the old house,
in all its present dilapidation and ruin, — the doors all broken down, and
rooms now become a shelter for stray goats and sheep in foul weather. A
few old peach-trees stood, the survivors of the orchard. A lonely cedar,
on the edge where the yard used to be, remains to the memory of some
kind hand that planted it. These scenes I had in full view when Rio gave
utterance to his sympathetic melancholy howl. Aroused by this, I went
on to the spring, leading him by the string down the rough hill-side path.
That bold and pure fountain of cool waters in other days I found all
covered with mud and sand. What a change in all things about this once
human habitation from what I saw on my first visit to it ! How changed
those who imparted so much life and cheerfulness to this now dreary and
desolate place ! Many of them gone to the grave, — all of them, I believe,
but yourself, — all gone from the land of the living. . . .
"With these reflections I wended my way back through the woods, the
pines, and old fields, with a heart as bare, as desolate, and as shattered as
the waste places I had been gazing and meditating upon. But enough of
these gloomy midnight thoughts. Good-by. My best wishes attend you
now and forever. It may be that I am too desponding as to the fate of
our country. I hope and trust I am ; but I give you my feelings as they
are and have been for some time."
January 3d. — This letter was written the day after the elec
tion of delegates to the Convention. There had been a violent
storm the day before, and Mr. Stephens remarked to a friend
that this storm had cost the Conservative party at least ten
thousand votes, and that the State was committed to secession.
"Yesterday was an awful day. The elements of nature seemed to be
in accordance with the distemper of the times. I suffered severely with
a headache, and should not have gone out, but was sent for to go to the
court-house to make a speech. I went up, — found about one hundred
persons standing about, some by the stove, some on the stair-steps, some
in the jury-boxes, all dripping with wet, and exhibiting as hopeless a
spectacle of men in dark and doubt, oppressed with some appalling calamity
about to come upon them, as I ever beheld.
UI gave them a talk of about an hour and a half. The speech was well
received by a large majority, though I gave them but little encouragement.
I gave them many illustrations, but above all guarded them against panic.
There was nothing to cause real alarm. If the worst came4, we were
abundantly able to defend and protect ourselves. The greatest danger
was from fear or panic. I felt none of it. The sensation telegraphs from
Washington had no effect on me. As to what our Convention would do.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 379
or ought to do I could not tell them, — that depended upon circumstances
to be disclosed. All that I could say as to myself was that I should keep
two things constantly in view. The first was the right, honor, safety, and
security of Georgia, — that I should maintain at all hazards and to the last
extremity. The" second was the maintenance of the Union, if it could be
done consistently with the other object. If I became satisfied that this
could not be done, then I was for taking such measures as would by
co-operation with other States lead to another Union on the basis of the
present Federal Constitution, taking within it all who would comply with
its existing obligations. I thought the Constitution as it is good enough.
I saw no necessity for any new guaranty. South Carolina seems to think
so too. She wants the Southern States to unite with her upon that ; and
if that be the basis, we have the admission of the present States, — Con
gress could not ask any but the adoption of the fundamental law of
union, etc.
41 When I got through, J II cried out ' Three cheers for South
Carolina !' This he repeated three or four times, but got no response. . . .
" Yesterday was the worst day for an election I ever saw in Georgia.
It has told greatly against the Conservative cause, I have no doubt. It
really appears as if Providence was on the other side. From the begin
ning of this movement last spring every incident of what is termed luck
seems to be against the Conservatives. I call it Providence. My reading
of it is that a severe chastisement for sins of ingratitude and other crimes
is about to be inflicted upon us, — ' when the wicked rule the nation mourns.'
We are about to suffer as we have never suffered before. This is my
apprehension.
" I received the following despatch from Mr. at ten o'clock to-night:
'" WASHINGTON, Jan. 1, '61, 3 o'clock P.M.
" ' Cabinet broken up. Floyd and Thompson out. Coercion policy adopted by
Administration. Holt, our bitter foe, Secretary of War. Fort Pulaski in danger.
Abolitionists defiant.' "
Mr. Stephens was strongly disinclined to go to the Convention,
but finally concluded to do so. On the 10th lie wrote to his
brother as follows :
" I look upon it as a fixed fact that the South will secede, and have been
of that opinion ever since I was at Milledgeville. I saw that we were
borne along upon currents that there was no hope of resisting. But I am
just as firm in my judgment that the policy is wrong as I was then.
What course I shall take will depend upon circumstances and what line
is presented by the majority. I should like for unanimity to prevail ; but
it never can be on such a manifesto as South Carolina put forth, or on
such a resolution as passed the Alabama Convention/' I shall maintain
my principles to the last, let what may come.n^)
380 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
The Convention met at Milledgeville on the 16th of January,
and Mr. Stephens and his brother were present. The most im
portant question brought before that body — except the Ordi
nance of Secession itself — was the substitute for that Ordinance
drawn up by the Hon. Herschel V. Johnson (former candidate
for the Vice-Presidency of the United States on the Douglas
ticket), after consultation with Alexander and Linton Stephens.
After recapitulating the grievances of which the South com
plained, this paper proposed that the Convention should invite
the ten Southern Slates still in the Union, and " the Independ
ent Republics of South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Mis
sissippi," to send respectively delegates and commissioners to
meet the delegates from the State of Georgia in a Congress at
Atlanta on the 16th of February, to take into consideration the
^existing state of affairs, and determine on a course of action.
/While refraining from making any formal demand on the
i^orthern States for the repeal of the " Personal Liberty Acts,"
the State of Georgia announced her unalterable determination
to sever her connection with those States unless those acts were
repealed7">nd she pledged herself, in the case of the Federal
Government undertaking to coerce any of the seceded States in
the mean time, to make common cause with such State or States.
Finally, if all efforts failed to secure the rights of the State of
Georgia in the Union, it was announced that she would resume
her separate independence, and unite with the seceded States.
When this paper was offered, Mr. Stephens supported it in
the following words :
" Mr. President, — It is well known that my judgment is against seces
sion for existing causes. I have not lost hope of securing our rights in
the Union and under the Constitution. My judgment on this point is as
unshaken as it was when the Convention was called. I do not nowr intend
to go into any arguments on the subject. No good could be effected by it.
That wras fully considered in the late canvass ; and I doubt not every dele
gate's mind is made up on the question. I have thought, and still think,
that wre should not take this extreme step before some tpositive aggression
upon our rights by the General Government, which may never occur ; or
until we fail, after effort made, to get a faithful performance of their con
stitutional obligations, on the part of those confederate States wrhich now
stand so derelict in their plighted faith. I have been, and am still opposed
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 33!
to secession as a remedy against anticipated aggressions on the part of the
Federal Executive or Congress.*'^ have held, and do now hold, that the
point of resistance should be the point of aggression?^
" Pardon me, Mr. President, for trespassing on'^our time but for a mo
ment longer. I have ever believed, and do now believe, that it is to the
interest of all the States to be and remain united under the Constitution
of the United States, with a faithful performance by each of all its con
stitutional obligations. If the Union could be maintained on this basis,
and on these principles, I think it would be the best for the security, the
liberty, happiness, and common prosperity of all. I do further feel con
fident, if Georgia would now stand firm, and unite with the Border States,
as they are called, in an effort to obtain a redress of those grievances on
the part of some of their Northern confederates, whereof they have such
just cause to complain, that complete success would attend their efforts, —
our just and reasonable demands would be granted. In this opinion I may
be mistaken, but I feel almost as confident of it as I do of my existence.
Hence, if upon this test vote, which I trust will be made upon the motion
now pending, to refer both the propositions before us to a committee of
twenty-one, a majority shall vote to commit them, then I shall do all I can
to perfect the plan of united Southern co-operation, submitted by the hon
orable delegate from Jefferson, and put it in such a shape as will, in the
opinion of the Convention, best secure its object. That object, as I under
stand it, does not look to secession by the 16th of February, or the 4th of
March, if redress should not be obtained by that time. In my opinion it
cannot be obtained by the 16th of February, or even the 4th of March.
But by the 16th of February we can see whether the Border States and
other non-seceding Southern States will respond to our call for the pro
posed Congress or Convention #t Atlanta. If they do, as I trust they may,
then/fnat body, so composed of representatives, delegates, or commission
ers, as contemplated, from the whole of the slaveholding States, could,
and would, I doubt not, adopt either our plan or some other, which would
fully secure our rights with ample guaranties, and thus preserve and
maintain the ultimate peace and union of the States) Whatever plan of
peaceful adjustment might be adopted by such a Congress I feel confident
would be acceded to by the people of every Northern State. This would
not be done in a month, or two months, or perhaps short of twelve months,
or even longer. Tung frnnld npn.flpM.ri1y htpft fn V>P allowed for a consid
eration of the questions submitted to tlio |.«-opl« of the Northern States,
and for their deliberate action on them in view of all their interests, pres
ent and future. How long a time should be allowed would be a proper
question for that Congress to determine. Meanwhile, this Convention
could continue its existence by adjourning over to hear and decide upon
the ultimate result of this patriotic effort.
"My judgment, as is well known, is against the policy of immediate
secession for any existing causes. It cannot receive the sanction of my
382 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
vote ; but if the judgment of a majority of this Convention, embodying as
it does the Sovereignty of Georgia, be against mine ; if a majority of the
delegates in "this Convention shall, by their votes, dissolve the compact of
union which has connected her so long with her confederate States, and
to which I have been so ardently attached, and have made such efforts to
continue and to perpetuate upon the principles on which it was founded,
I shall bow in submission to that decision."
In reference to his views at this time, Mr. Stephens elsewhere
remarks :
" I did not attach any serious importance to the fact that the equality
which had so long been maintained in the number of the non-slaveholding
and slaveholding States no longer existed. It is true the loss of that
equilibrium, or balance of power, as it was called, caused many at the
time to come to the conclusion that the slaveholding States could not, with
safety to themselves, remain longer in the Union without some additional
guaranty. This was the belief of Mr. Callioun.vJSut the only true equi
librium, or balance of power, in my opinion, under our system, which it
was essential to maintain, was tl\e recognized Sovereignty of the several
States. This was the all-powerful check against aggression upon the rights
of any State. This was the complete regulator of the entire system^ This
was my view on the admission of California, as it was on the admission of
•Oregon. The result showed that, so far from the admission of those States
working injuriously to the interests of the slaveholding States, by the loss
of the balance of power, so called, California and Oregon became their
allies on all these great constitutional questions. California and Oregon
were as strongly opposed to the doctrines of the centralists as the Southern
States were.''
The substitute was rejected by the Convention, and the Ordi
nance for immediate secession passed by a vote of 208 to 89, Mr.
Stephens voting " no." It was then moved that all the dele
gates should sign the Ordinance; but before the motion was put
to the vote, Linton Stephens, who also had voted against the
Ordinance, drew up and presented to the Convention the follow
ing preamble and resolution :
11 Whereas, The lack of unanimity in the action of this Convention in the
passage of the Ordinance of Secession indicates a difference of opinion
among the members of this Convention, not so much as to the rights which
Georgia claims, or the wrongs of which she complains, as to the remedy
and its application before a resort to other means of redress :
" And whereas, It is desirable to give expression to that intention which
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 383
really exists among all the members of this Convention, to sustain the
State in the course of action which she has pronounced to be proper for
the occasion ; therefore,
" Resolved, That all members of this Convention, including those who
voted against the said Ordinance as well as those who voted for it, will
sign the same as a pledge of the unanimous determination of this Conven
tion to sustain and defend the State, in this her chosen remedy, with all
its responsibilities and consequences, without regard to individual approval
or disapproval of its adoption."
This preamble and resolution were carried at once without a
count, and all the delegates present, including Mr. Stephens,
signed the Ordinance, except six, who entered on the journal a
declaration of their purpose to yield to the will of the majority
of the people of the State.
Mr. Stephens was shortly afterwards elected to the Provisional
Government at Montgomery, much against his wish, and he
hesitated for some days whether or not to accept. He finally
concluded to go, provided the Convention would pass two reso
lutions which he offered, touching the mode of organization of
the Provisional Government, and the subsequent formation of a
Permanent Government "upon the principles and basis .of the
Constitution of the United States." These resolutions having
passed with great unanimity, Mr. Stephens felt it to be " his
duty to do all that he could to preserve and perpetuate the
principles of our Federal system/7 and consequently accepted
the position.
It may be as well to mention here that the speech given above
was the only one made by Mr. Stephens in the Convention on the
subject of secession. A speech purporting to have been made by
him, and extensively circulated in the North in 1864, was a mere
forgery, contrived in that section for political purposes.
We now tatfe up the correspondence with R. M. J. :
February 2d. — " Time rolls on rapidly, and each day brings with it a
heavy load on me of unlooked-for duties. Only a month has passed, I be
lieve, since I wrote to you, and now I have but a moment to devote to your
service. In this moment I can say nothing that I could wish to say and
would say, if I had time, of those great events that have happened since
I saw you. I am going, as you see, to Montgomery. I am to start to-
384 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
morrow night, and am now very busy getting ready\It was with great
reluctance, I assure you, I undertook this du£y>v It wasonTy from a sense
of duty, upon the urgent solicitations of a great many members of the
Convention, representing the wishes, I was satisfied, of nine-tenths of the
bod}7, that I should go. But one man voted against it, — that man was
my old friend . I expected nothing else from him, and he perhaps was
right in his vote. My own feelings were as averse to my going as his
could possibly have been. I yielded to others just as I did last year when
I consented to the use of my name as an Elector at large on the Douglas
ticket in our State. I did not think any good would come from that con
sent, and I don't now think any good will come of_yielding in this instance
to like earnest entreaties on the part of others. C I have, however, yielded,
and I will perform the duty to the best of my ability^jtly apprehension
and distrust of the future arises from the want of high integrity, loyalty
to principle, and pure, disinterested patriotism in the men at the head of
the movement, who necessarily control it, at least for the present) ''This
is a melancholy truth. It is with pain I write it. I would not write it to
any one where the utterance of it could be of any public injury ; but to
you I may and will express myself as I feel. And to show that what I
have said does no injustice to any, I can bring a great array of evidence.
. . . My word for it, this country is in a great deal worse condition than
the. people are at all aware of. What is to become of us I do not know.
I shall go to Montgomery, — do all I can to prevent mischief, if possible. —
and if the new Government shall be successfully launched, as I sincerely
hope it may be, then I shall again go into that retirement so congenial to
my feelings, t If my efforts in this last movement shall fail. — if I see no
prospect of domg good at Montgomery. I shall retire and give up all as
lost) Don't think me desponding, — I write to you exactly as I feel : and
what I write is for yourself alone. Whatever feelings of despondency I
have in looking to the future come from my knowledge of the men in
whose hands we are likely to fall. They are selfish', ambitious, and un
scrupulous. Republics cannot be built up or successfully administered
without the strictest and sternest virtue and purest patriotism on the part
of those at the head of affairs."
A brief note written later on the same day, seems to have been
intended as a partial corrective to the tone of the former, that
the floods of Cocytns might not roll altogether over the soul of
his correspondent.
"I was rather dispirited when I wrote you my long letter to-day. You
must make some allowance for that. I am still in the same depressed state
of mind, and have been ever since the burst-up at Charleston. I shall,
however, continue to hope for the best and strive for the best, as I have all
along been doing, while I shall still be prepared in mind for the worst."
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 335
Montgomery, February 5tk. — " Nothing was done after organization ex
cept the appointment of a Committee to prepare and report rules. This
was on my motion, and of course I was put on the Committee, though I
requested Cobb [Howell Cobb, President of the Provisional Government]
not to do it. I did not wish to be on it. I made the motion merely be
cause the crowd generally seemed green and not to know how to proceed.
South Carolina and Mississippi had instructed their delegations to vote by
States ; and Louisiana members said the same of their State. I saw, there
fore, that there was no doing anything until some rules of proceeding were
adopted. The Committee appointed was Stephens, Keitt, Curry, Harrison,
of Mississippi, and Perkins, of Louisiana. All were in my parlor last
night except Curry, who sent word that he was sick. Before they came
I had drawn up a set of rules which I submitted to them, and, with one
or two exceptions, they were adopted by the Committee. I culled them
partly from the rules of the United States Senate and House of Represent
atives, and there were some entirely new ones that I introduced. After
the report was agreed upon, I went to the printing-office, after ten o'clock
at night, and got them to promise to strike off fifty copies by twelve o'clock
to-day for me, at my expense."
February 9th. — " We agreed last night at about midnight to a Constitu
tion for a Provisional Government for the Confederate States. That is
the name. It is the Constitution of the United States, with such changes
as are necessary to meet the exigencies of the times. Two^ new features
have been introduced by me: one, leaving out the cTause that excluded
Cabinet Ministers from being members of Congress ; the other, that Con
gress should not have power to appropriate any money unless it be asked
for by the Executive or some one of the heads of Departments. Wright
and myself Avere on the Committee from Georgia to report the Constitu
tion. Each State had two members on it. Memminger, of South Carolina,
who moved the raising of the Committee, was Chairman.
"We have just elected the President and Vice-President of the Confed
eracy. Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, was unanimously chosen President, and
I was unanimously chosen Vice-President. I knew that such was the un
derstanding as to what would be the result, and did not go to the hall
when the election took place. The vote was cast by States. I have a
good deal to say about this and other matters transacted here when I see
you.'*
February 10th.—" To-morrow I am to be inaugurated, or signify my
acceptance and take the oath of office publicly in the Congress hall at
twelve o'clock. ... I almost shrink from the responsibilities I shall as
sume. To making any speech on the occasion I have a strong aversion;
but such is the request in the letter asking my acceptance."
February lltli. — " This, as you know, is my birthday ; and this day at
the hour of one I was inaugurated (if such be the proper term for the pro
ceeding) Vice-President of the Confederate States of America. The co-
, 25
386 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
incidence, altogether accidental, made a marked impression upon my mind.
The remarks I made you will of course see. They were delivered as if
extemporaneous, though they had been written and committed to memory.
As you will see, they were very short. I wrote them down this morning
before going to the Capitol. There was, I suspect, great disappointment
at their brevity. I had been urged to make a speech, and a very large
crowd was assembled to hear it. I was satisfied that such a course would
be injudicious, indelicate, and improper. Since it is all over, a great many
have told me that I did exactly right. I was governed entirely by my own
judgment and sense of propriety in the matter."
February 17th. — (To Linton.) "The President-elect reached here last
night at ten o'clock. Mr. T combs, Mr. Crawford, and myself called at his
hotel at ten this morning, but he was not up. ... I get about thirty letters
daily, but cannot answer above fifteen of them. As to the point in the new
Constitution you mention, I will state that the provision I wished is in it;
that is, the exclusion in the old Constitution is omitted. All I wanted is
thatjthe President should not be forbidden to go into the Houses of Congress
in the selection.'^ his Cabinet. I think it would be better still to require
him to do it, but that is not so important. Mr. Toombs backed the policy
with great force. I had the clause of prohibition left out of the draft sub
mitted by the Committee. I was on the Committee. Upon motion to in
sert it, in the House, Mr. Toombs sustained my position. This, however,
is one of the secrets of our body, which you will so regard: and I would
not communicate it to you but for the fact that we are permitted to dis
close any of these secrets to our State Conventions in secret session ; so, as
you are a member of that Convention, I can state it to you in confidence.
Mr. Toombs tells me, however, that in the Committee raised to present
a constitution of permanent government he has been out-voted on this
point ; that the old clause is retained, and that we shall have a fight over
it in the Congress when the report is made. He is very friendly with me
now, and confers freely with me on all matters either before his Committee
on the Constitution or before Congress, lie now seems to be as cordial as
he ever did in his life.* He never lets Cobb pass without giving him a
lick. The other night, in high glee, he told him in company that he had
done more for secession than any other man. He had deprived the enemy
of the sinews of war, and left them without a dollar in 'the treasury. He
did not even leave old ' Buck' two quarters to put on his eyes when he
died. This is a sore point with Cobb ; but Toombs seemed disposed to rub
in the salt. Even when the skin was off, he applied it to the raw."
February 21st. — u I am bored to death with company and calls. . . .
Sometimes it does seem to me that it will kill me. I cannot get ten
* After the wide difference between them on the question of secession,
there had been a temporary suspension of that warm cordiality which had
ahvavs before existed.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 337
minutes of solitude during the twenty-four hours. As one leaves another
calls. . . . When the Cabinet will be announced I do not know. Mr.
Toombs, I think, will be sent in for the State Department. He declined
at first. The President telegraphed him asking a reconsideration, and he
replied last night that he would accept temporarily. He wishes to hold
his place in the Senate under the Provisional Government. The President
seems to be entirely confidential in his relations with me."
February 21st. — (To R. M. J.) "I am occupied day and night; never
did I have such a heavy load of work on my hands. Sometimes I think
I shall sink under it. If it was not for calls and visitors I could get
along ; but almost every moment of the day, when I am out of Congress,
until twelve at night, I have to receive and talk to people calling to see
me on business. As to public affairs here, I am gratified in feeling able to
say that they promise better for the future than I expected. I am, how
ever, still filled with solicitude and anxiety. My every effort is devoted to
the public weal, and my earnest hopes are that all will yet end well.
Greater difficulties surround us than I fully realize : perhaps I am more
apprehensive in relation to their extent and magnitude than I ought to
be. I knowr I am much more so than the majority of those with whom
I come in contact. Still, I cannot divest myself of deep anxiety, and a
consideration that we have more troubles ahead than many of our more
sanguine friends see or realize. There is more conservatism, as it is
called, in Congress than I expected to see. and this increases my hopes.
"I was induced to accept the place under the Provisional Government
assigned to me from no motive in the world but a desire to promote the
public weal. I thought it would have that effect, and therefore could not
decline. As far as my individual wishes are concerned, I assure you I
would not exchange the pleasures of one day at my quiet home for all
the honors or emoluments of all the offices and powers this world could
bestow.
" It will require a great deal of patience, forbearance, and patriotism on
the part of the people to bear us successfully through the dangers that sur
round us. All must be content with knowing that we will do the best we
can under the circumstances : this, I think, is the desire of Congress, and to
this end their labors will be devoted. And what they do will be sustained
by a generous patriotism on the part of the people. Many inconveniences
incident to a change of government will be looked for and borne with
fortitude by the people. War I look for as almost certain. Every effort
should be made to avoid it, if possible, consistent with honor and right.
But we are told by high authority that ' offences must needs come' ; and
I think this is one of the occasions on which we may expect such a result."
CHAPTEE XXXV.
Peace Congress — Commissioners appointed to the United States Government
— How Mr. Davis was nominated — Character of the Confederate Congress
— The South and the West — Hopes and Fears — Action of the Federal
Government — Secretary Seward's "Faith" — A Declaration of "War —
Speech at Savannah — Capture of Fort Sumter — Call for Seventy-five
Thousand Men — Secession of Virginia — Sent as Commissioner to Kich-
mond — The 19th of April in Baltimore — Excitement throughout the
South — Convention "between Virginia and the Confederate States — Finan
cial Policy of Mr. Stephens — Death of Mr. Douglas — Linton joins the
Army — Mr. Stephens in Eichmond.
can but briefly indicate the political events that were
occurring at this critical time. On the 4th of February what
was called the Peace Congress, for devising some plan for paci
fication, met at Washington at the call of Virginia. Thirteen
Northern and seven Southern States were represented in it.
The attitude of the Northern delegates was one of defiance; and
their most distinguished man, Salmon P. Chase, afterwards
Chief Justice of the United States, declared emphatically that
the North and West would never fulfil their constitutional
obligations or regard the decisions of the Supreme Court upon
the question of slavery ; that they would never allow the South
a share in the common territory, nor return fugitive slaves.
That they considered that those "principles," as he called them,
had triumphed in the election of Mr. Lincoln, and would be
maintained at all hazards. With such an attitude on the part
of the North, of course any reconciliation was impossible, and
the Peace Congress accomplished nothing except giving the
South clearly to understand that fact.
On the 15th of February the Confederate Congress passed
a resolution instructing the President to appoint, after his in
auguration, three Commissioners to be sent to the United States
Government "for the purpose of negotiating friendly relations"
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 389
"and for the settlement of all questions of disagreement." The
President-elect had not yet reached Montgomery, but after his
inauguration, in compliance with the resolution, appointed
Mr. John Forsyth, of Alabama, Mr. Martin J. Crawford, of
Georgia, and Mr. A. B. Roman, of Louisiana, — all three able
and patriotic men.
February 23d. — (To Linton.) " I concur with you as to Mr. Toombs's
superior qualifications for the Presidency to those of any other man con
nected with the late secession movement, and I have but little doubt that
he would have been elected but for one thing, which I will explain hereafter.
" I went to see the President this morning on his invitation through
Mr. Secretary Memminger. He wanted me to head the Commission to
Washington. I declined, because I did not think I could do any good.
I have no idea that Mr. Buchanan will recognize our Government or enter
into any treaty with us. He may entertain the question so far as to
receive the Commissioners officially, and then turn them over to his suc
cessor. This even is doubtful. That, it is true, would be a great point
gained. But still the Commission, I think, will end without success. At
least I see no other prospect, so far as any efforts I could exert. Under
these feelings I declined, and urged upon him the appointment of one
man from each of the late great divisions of the Southern people : one
Bell man, one Douglas man, and one Breckenridge man. As the Bell
man, Judge Ililliard, of this State ; as the Douglas man, II. V. Johnson,
of Georgia ; the Breckenridge man, Benjamin, of Louisiana, who is to be
the Attorney-General. Whom he will appoint I do not know, but think
he will take Governor Roman, of Louisiana, for the Bell man. Yancey and
Slidell will be on the mission to go abroad. Who the other will be, if
there is a third, I do not know. This is not agreed upon. Mallory, of
Florida, will be the Secretary of the Navy, and Elliot, of Mississippi,
Postmaster-General. The Florida people are very much opposed to Mal
lory, but I think he Avill be presented."
The explanation promised Linton in this letter was afterwards
given by Mr. Stephens in conversation with R. M. J. (May
24th, 1862), and noted at the time:
MR. S. — " What I know about Mr. Davis's nomination for President
can be told in few words. Toombs and I, as we got upon the cars at
Crawfordville, on our way to Montgomery, met Mr. Chestnut. The latter
said that the South Carolina delegation had talked the matter over, and
looked to Georgia for the President. I remarked that either Mr. Toombs,
Mr. Cobb, Governor Jenkins, or Governor Johnson would suit very well.
He answered that they were not looking to any of the others, but to Mr.
Toombs and myself. I told them, very frankly, that I did not wish the
390 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
office ; that as I had not been in the movement, I did not think it policy
to put me in for it. After getting to Montgomery, Mr. Keitt told me that
I was the preference of the South Carolina delegation, and asked if I
would serve if elected. I told him that I would not say in advance
whether I would or would not accept. Even if unanimously chosen, I
would first consider whether or not I could organize a Cabinet with such
concert of ideas and ability as to justify hopes of success on such line of
policy as I should pursue.
" The night after the adoption of the permanent Constitution, the motion
was made to go into the election of chief officers. It was then suggested
that the election should take place the next day at twelve M., and in the
mean time the delegations should consult separately. The Georgia dele
gation met at ten o'clock on the morning of the day of the election. I
proposed that we put in the name of Mr. Toombs for the Presidency, and
asked him if he would have it. He said he would accept it if it was
cordially offered him. Mr. T. Cobb and F. T. Bartow* said that the dele
gations of Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana had conferred,
and agreed to support Mr. Davis. Mr. Toombs seemed very incredulous
of this, and his manner indicated some surprise. I did not understand
this then, but did afterwards. The statement was reiterated ; and upon
it the delegation forbore to nominate Mr. Toombs, but determined to
appoint a committee to ascertain if the report was true. Mr. Kenan then
proposed that if it should be correct I should be put forward for Vice-
President. Judge Nisbet said, ' I second that, heartily !' Mr. Toombs
said, 'I do, too ; what do you say, Aleck?' I replied that I had not been
in the movement, and doubted the policy of my assuming any office. But
still there might be reasons why I should : as for the sake of harmony 5
that if I were to have any, I decidedly preferred the Vice-Presidency to
any office in the Government, but would not accept it unless it should be
tendered me unanimously by the States and by every delegate. Mr.
Crawford was then appointed a committee of one to ascertain and report
to us, first, whether the report as to the action of those States was true ;
and, second, if my nomination would be acceptable to the entire body.
Very soon he returned and announced that both the conditions were ful
filled. I afterwards learned that the action of the States alluded to was
based upon intelligence received by them the night before that Mr. Cobb
would be presented by the Georgia delegation, and that Mr. Davis was
not their choice. Toombs was the choice of the Florida, the Louisiana,
and the South Carolina delegations."
J. — "Did not Mississippi desire Mr. Davis?"
S. — " They did not. They wished him to be the commander-in-chief
of the army. That was what he wished also. He did not desire to be
President."
J. — " For whom was Alabama?"
* Afterwards General Bartow, killed at the first battle of Manassas.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 39 1
S. — " For Mr. Toombs, I think. It was in consequence of the under
standing I spoke of that I did not go to the hall when the election took
place."
~-- February 25th. — (To Linton.) " The President has sent in nominations
for the Commission to Washington [names given as in letter of 23d] and
they have been confirmed. I do not think Crawford will accept the appoint
ment tendered him. He knew not one thing about it until Mr. Toombs told
him about an hour before his name was sent in. lie does not wish it.
He was very anxious that Johnson should be appointed, and is exceedingly
embarrassed in his present position."
Februanj 26th. — " I am now in hopes we shall get through with the
permanent Constitution by an early day in next week. I intend to go
home then. Crawford is in a great strait. He will, I suppose, now not
decline, but is greatly embarrassed by it. I am getting home-sick. I fear
that the appointing power will not act with sufficient discretion and wis
dom. I was very anxious that II. V. Johnson should be appointed to Wash
ington. He would have been a good and judicious appointment. Crawford
fully agrees with me on this point."
February 27th. — " The debates in this body are becoming a great bore
to •me.jpnly occasionally a member speaks whom I have any patience
with.^I fear,,we shall not get through with the permanent Constitution
in timeiorthe Georgia Convention next wee^H-^
February 2Sth. — " In public business we are getting on slowly but har
moniously. I may be mistaken, but I think we have great troubles
ahead, — not with this body but with the people. I have a great deal to
say to you when I see 'you, but I cannot write. I am anxious to see you.
I want to get home badly. . . . Crawford started for Washington last
night. My advice controlled him in accepting the appointment."
March 1st. — " The reason I have said so little on public affairs .is twofold :
first, the great uncertainty of anything I might say getting safely to you ;
and, secondly, the great uncertainty of my mind upon the course of events.
All I can say would be speculative. I have thought, and still think, we
shall have war. Still we may not, and I earnestly hope not. In all my
letters to friends who have written to me for my views on particular ques
tions I have concluded with these general ideas, that great forbearance and
patience must be exercised by the people in sustaining those necessary
inconveniences and burdens incident to a change of government, — the
derangements of the mails, the derangements of commerce, the increase
of taxes, these and a thousand other things not thought of must be borne
with nerve and patriotism. If the public or bodvpolitic cannot stand
this shock, I don't know what will become of us. v^eare getting along I
harmoniously here, but still I see great troubles ahead tliat nobody I meet I
with seems to be in the least aware"o?T)Thia annoys me. We lack states
manship of what I consider the •hrrrfre'st order. We have but little, if any,
of real forecast. This renders me uneasy."
392 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
March 3d. — " Yesterday the President sent me a telegraphic despatch
he had just received from two gentlemen in Little Rock, Arkansas, urging
me to go to their State Convention. If I would go all would be right.
So I went down to see him about it ; told him it was out of the question
for me to go. I could not undertake the travel if there were no other
reason ; but that I was confident I could do no good if I were there. I
advised him to send Tom Cobb. He might be able to effect something.
He immediately rang for a servant and sent for Cobb. Cobb came, and
the President stated the object of his call. Cobb said he would reflect
about it and give him an answer after the adjournment of Congress at the
close of the night session. This interview was at six P.M. We were to
have a night session at half-past seven. I did not attend it in consequence
of my neuralgia, but Toombs reported to me this morning that Cobb
declined to go."
March 3d. — After some sketches of the personnel of Congress,
he remarks :
,*-— - —
Upon the whole, this Congress, taken all in all, is the ablest, soberest.
>st intelligent, and conservative body I was ever inT> . . Nobody look
ing on would ever take this Congress for a set of revolutionists."
March 5th. — "We have run against a snag, that is, a disturbing ques
tion in the formation of the fundamental law, not yet decided, — cannot say
how it will be decided. Some feeling has been thrown into the debate,
and some temper exhibited. . . . The general opinion here is that war is
almost certain. This has been my opinion all the time. I see great
troubles ahead."
March 8th. — " The. most exciting of all the questions we have had was
decided to-day. If we have no motion to-morrow to reconsider, I shall be
his was the clause relating to the admission of other States."
Mr. Stephens desired the Constitution to be so framed as to
idm.it nqn-slaveholding States if any should incline to enter the
Confederacy, as he thought might be the case with some of the
States of the West. To this point he attached great importance,
and often dwelt on it with great earnestness in conversation with
his friends. He considered it a narrow and most erroneous
policy not to leave a way open for the admission of other States,
whether slaveholding or not. Indeed, one ground of his oppo
sition to secession in the previous year was that he foresaw that
such a policy would be insisted on by the men who would be
the leaders in the new organization. " We should be known as
' The Black Republic/ " he would urge, " and as such should
be without sympathy from any of the world outside."
LIFE .OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 393
After the secession had been accomplished, lie was very
anxious for the new Government to adopt such a policy as
might induce the Western States, whose material interests were
so closely allied with those of the South, eventually to join
it. For, to use a phrase which we shall find him using here^ j
after, he soon came to the conclusion that unless the South
could conciliate and control the West by reason and ideas, the j
West and Middle States would govern the South by force. ..
March 10th. — " This is Sunday night. We got through the permanent
Constitution last night. I do not like all its provisions. . . . The only hard
contests were in keeping it from being greatly worse than it is. I was in
an agony all day yesterday for fear that some serious mischief might be
done. A divided State only saved us several times upon points almost
vital. SLeren still dread to-morrow, tor fear that some new motion may
be brought forward, though we have ordered it to be engrossed; There
are some yery bad passions and purposes beginning to develop themselves
here. I am constantly suspended between hope and fear for the future.
I have not yet any settled conviction or confidence on which I can rely. I
am anxious to see you, when I can confer freely with you upon all these
questions.''
March 13th. — (To R. M. J.) u As to public affairs, I can only say that
in my judgment our destiny, under Providence, is in our own hands.
What our course shall be will depend upon our people. We are in the
position of a young man of talent and ability setting out in life. As such
a one, we shall be the architects of our own fortunes. With truth, fidelity,
integrity, and industry a young man of parts in this world, under the
smiles of Heaven, will seldom fail to succeed ; and with virtue, patience,
and patriotism on the part of our people, I doubt not the success, the
complete success, of this our new enterprise. But should dissensions,
strifes, and factions spring up among us, all will go to ruin. This is the
riddle of our present position. We have all the elements of a great empire.
All that is necessary for us to become so is the intelligence, virtue, and
patriotism to wield them to that high end. I am not without hope that our
people will prove themselves equal to the demand of the times."
The Confederate Commissioners, on the 12th of March, ad
dressed a note to the new Secretary of State, Mr. Seward,
informing him that they were commissioned by the Govern
ment of the Confederate States to make overtures for opening
negotiations with that of the United States, with the object of a
just and amicable settlement of the various questions relating to
the common property, public debt, etc. Mr. Seward took no
394 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
official notice of this action, but sent a verbal message through
Justice John A. Campbell, of the Supreme Court of the United
States, to the effect that he was well-disposed toward peace,
though an official answer to the Commissioners, in his opinion,
would do harm rather than good. As to the Federal forts, he
promised that Fort Sumter (South Carolina) would be evacuated
by the United States forces in less than ten days', and that noti
fication would be given of any design to alter the status of
affairs at Fort Pickens (Florida).
Relying on the Secretary's faith, the Commissioners refrained
to press for a direct official reply to their note until they heard
that a squadron of seven ships had put to sea, under sealed
orders, from New York and Norfolk. Fearing that this was
intended to reinforce Fort Sumter, the Commissioners waited
upon Judge Campbell to learn the facts of the case, and the
judge addressed a note to Mr. Seward, asking if the assurances
he had given in the latter's name were to be kept or violated.
To this inquiry — on the 7th of April, at the time when the
fleet conveying reinforcements and provisions to Sumter was
nearing Charleston harbor — Mr. Secretary Seward replied to
Judge Campbell, "Faith as to Sumter fully kept: wait and
see/7 So soon as the Commissioners learned what had been
done, on the 9th of April, they notified Mr. Seward that they
considered the action of the United States Government, under
the circumstances, "a declaration of war," and they withdrew
from Washington. Judge Campbell, who had been made an
involuntary instrument in this act of perfidy, soon after resigned
his seat on the Supreme Bench.
On the 21st of March, Mr. Stephens, by request, addressed
the citizens of Savannah on the state of public affairs. The
Athena3iim building was crowded to its utmost capacity, and a
large assemblage collected outside the building, and remained
though unable to obtain admittance. This address, from an ex
pression which occurs in it, and which was grossly misrepre
sented, was known as the " Corner-stone'' speech. It was delivered
impromptu, and very imperfectly reported.
After calling attention to the fact that the Constitution of the
Confederate States embodied all the essentials of the old Consti-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER If. STEPHENS. 395
tution, he proceeds to enumerate the changes which had been
introduced into the new instrument, which made it, in his judg
ment, decidedly better than the old.
" Allow me briefly to allude to some of these improvements. The ques
tion of building up class interests, or fostering one branch of industry to
the prejudice of another under the exercise of the revenue power, which
gave us so much trouble under the old Constitution, is put at rest forever
under the new. We allow the imposition of no duty with a view of giv
ing advantage to one class of persons, in any trade or business, over those
of another. All, under our system, stand upon the same broad principles
of perfect equality. Honest labor and enterprise are left free and unre
stricted in whatever pursuit they may be engaged. This subject came
well-nigh causing a rupture of the old Union, under the lead of the gallant
Palmetto State, which lies on our border, in 1833. This old thorn of the
tariff, which was the cause of so much irritation in the old body politic, is
removed forever from the new.':
After showing how the abuses which, under the pretence of
" Internal Improvements/' had been perpetrated under a wrested
construction of the old Constitution, were done away with in the
new, by leaving every locality to bear the burdens necessary for
its own commerce or industry, he continues :
"Another feature to which I will allude is, that the new Constitution
provides that Cabinet Ministers and heads of Departments may have the
privilege of seats upon the floor of the Senate and House of Representa
tives, — may have the right to participate in the debates and discussions
upon the various subjects of administration. I should have preferred that
this provision should have gone further and required the President to
select his constitutional advisers from the Senate arid House of Repre
sentatives. That would have conformed entirely to the practice in the
British Parliament, which, in my judgment, is one of the wisest provisions
in the British constitution. It is the only feature that saves that gov
ernment. It is that which gives it stability in its facility to change its
administration. Ours, as it is, is a great approximation to the right
principle.
" Under the old Constitution, a Secretary of the Treasury, for instance,
had no opportunity, save by his annual reports, of presenting any scheme
or plan of finance or other matter. He had no opportunity of explaining,
expounding, enforcing, or defending his views of policy: his only resort
was through the medium of an organ. In the British Parliament, the
Premier brings in his budget and stands before the nation responsible for
its every item. If it is indefensible, he falls before the attacks upon it,
as he ought to. This will now be the case, to a limited extent, under our
396 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
system. In the new Constitution provision has been made by which our
heads of Departments can speak for themselves and the Administration in
behalf of its entire policy, without resorting to the indirect and highly ob
jectionable medium of a newspaper. It is to be greatly hoped that under
our system we shall never have what is known as a government organ.
" Another change in the Constitution relates to the length of the tenure
of the Presidential office. In the new Constitution it is six years instead
of four, and the President is rendered ineligible for re-election. This is
certainly a decidedly conservative change. It will remove from the in
cumbent the temptation to use his office or exert the powers confided to
him for any objects of personal ambition. The only incentive to that
higher ambition which should move and actuate one holding such high
trusts in his hands will be the good of the people, the advancement,
prosperity, safety, honor, and true glory of the Confederacy."
What lie said on the subject of the " corner-stone" was sub
stantially this :
" On the subject of slavery there was no essential change in the new
Constitution from the old. As Judge Baldwin, of the Supreme Court of
the United States, had announced from the Bench several years before,
that slavery was the corner-stone of the old Constitution, so it is of the
On the llth of April, General Beauregard, commanding the
Confederate forces in Charleston, demanded the evacuation of
Fort Sumter. On the next day he opened fire upon the fort,
and the conynander capitulated on the 13th. On the 15th, Mr.
Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand
troops; and on the 17th, Virginia, whose Convention was still
in session, withdrew from the Union.
April 17th. — " There is no truth whatever in the telegraphic despatches
that the President intends to head an expedition to Washington, and to
leave me at the head of the Government here. lie has no idea at present
to take command of the army. The matters he wished to consult me
about [Mr. Stephens had paid a short visit to Linton during the adjourn
ment, and had returned to Montgomery in response to a telegram from
the President] were the subjects of receiving volunteers from the Border
States, the issuing of letters of marque, and other matters relating to the
state of the country. A proclamation will be forthcoming to-morrow, I
expect, inviting privateering. The proposals will be received and held
ready for the action of Congress when that body meets. The proclamation
will be put forth to let the Northern merchants know what they may
expect, and to have privateers ready.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 397
" It is expected here that Virginia will secede, and all the Border States
will follow her ; and then, I think, the whole North will consolidate. This
will keep the Republicans in power. This is perhaps what they are mainly
aiming at. But events happen so rapidly now that it is useless to specu
late two days ahead."
April 18th. — " The news came that Virginia was out. Great rejoicing —
firing cannon, etc. The day is brilliant. The news this morning is that
General Scott has resigned. This is important, if true."
April 10th. — " In a few hours I am to start for Richmond. I shall, if
nothing Providential prevents, pass by home to-morrow evening, and shall
mail this on the road. I go to Virginia as a representative of this Gov
ernment in forming a treaty of alliance offensive and defensive between
this Government and that State. She, of course, will soon be a member
of this Confederacy. But Governor Letcher has telegraphed for a Com
mission to be sent on forthwith, that the two Governments may act in
concert in the impending dangers. They want help, expecting a hard
fight soon. They are about, I take it, to seize Harper's Ferry and the
Navy Yard at Portsmouth. Perhaps they are looking for an attack from
Washington.
" I was strongly inclined not to accept the position, owing to my health
and the apprehension that night travel might make me sick ; but upon the
urgent request of the President and all his Cabinet I have consented to go.
The subject admits of no delay : Letcher telegraphed for immediate action."
April 19th. — (To R. M. J.) After expressing his deep sorrow
at hearing of the death of Mrs. Church, wife of Dr. Church,
President of the college, in whose family he had resided during
his collegiate studies, he continues :
"Events of the greatest magnitude are now almost hourly developing.
When the war that has now commenced will end no human power can
divine. The issues are with Him who rules the universe, in whose hands
are the destinies of nations. . . . The idea of Mr. Lincoln to urge a gen
eral war of subjugation against us seems to me to be too preposterous for
a sensible man to entertain. But what his real designs are I suppose it
would be difficult to imagine. The worst feature about it in prospect is the
possibility that he has no real design on the subject, that he has no settled
policy, that he is, like the fool, scattering fire without any definite purpose."
On the 18th of April the first Federal troops passed through
Baltimore, and much excitement was created, though their pass
age was not opposed. On the 19th, a Massachusetts regiment,
on its way through the city, was pelted with stones by a mob,
and fired upon the people. They were then fiercely attacked,
and several were killed on both sides, being the first blood shed
398 LJFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
in the war. The greatest excitement prevailed : telegraph wires
were cut, and the bridges destroyed on the roads leading to the
North, to prevent the further passage of troops. The mayor
of Baltimore sent three prominent citizens to wait upon Presi
dent Lincoln and represent that any further attempt to pass
Northern troops through the city would lead to a bloody con
flict ; upon which the President promised that no more should
be sent through. They were afterwards sent by the way of
Annapolis, but considerable delay was thus occasioned.
On the same day (19th) a blockade of the ports of the seven
Confederate States was declared, and on the 27th this blockade
was extended to those of Virginia and North Carolina. On
this day also (27th) President Lincoln authorized the suspension
of the writ of habeas corpus near the military lines, and on the
10th of May authorized its suspension in Florida, all which acts
were confirmed by the Federal Congress early in July.
April 22d, Richmond. — "I arrived this morning at six o'clock; came
through without stopping or any detention. All is excitement here. War
like preparations are seen at every corner and along every street. . . . The
Governor of Maryland* is with us. They are making strong resistance
to the inarch of Federal troops through that State. Ten or fifteen thousand
troops are detained on the other side of Baltimore. They are for Wash
ington. A desperate and sanguinary conflict is at hand there. Maryland
will be the battle-ground at first, — this I think probable. General Scott
has not resigned and will not, from best advices. We are on the eve of a
tremendous conflict between the sections. Sentiment is rapidly consoli
dating on both sides of the line. North Carolina is in a blaze from one
extremity to the other.. Yesterday, Sunday as it was, large crowds were
assembled at all the stations along the railroad, — at Wilmington five thou
sand at least, the Confederate flag flying all over the city. I had to make
them a speech at all the places, — only a few words at some, and longer at
others ; at Wilmington nearly half an hour. I alluded to the Sabbath,
and made the remarks as appropriate as possible. They were more like
a sermon than a political speech.
" To-morrow, at one o'clock, I am to meet the State Convention here in
closed-doors session. The mails north are all stopped, and there is no
travelling even to Alexandria without special passport. Our people in
* Governor Hicks, who, after asseverating publicly, in the most solemn
manner, that he would never draw the sword of Maryland against a sister
State, became one of the most pliant instruments in the hands of the Gov
ernment at Washington.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 399
Georgia have no idea of the feelings entertained here of the dangers of
impending war hanging on their immediate borders. All the cities and
towns of Virginia are under guard day and night ; and all persons not
able to give an account of themselves taken up. There is a strong incli
nation on the part of some here to make an attack upon Washington.
What course and policy will be adopted is not yet determined upon. . . .
" The people are in apprehension this city will be attacked by the forces
now in the Chesapeake and Potomac below. There are no forts on the
James River to prevent armed ships from coming up. The Pawnee, Cum
berland, and others, with a large force of soldiers at Old Point, are below.
I must now close for the mail. May God bless you and save our land from
bloodshed !"
April 25th. — u The work of my mission is in suspense before the Con
vention, — been so hung up since yesterday. I am anxious as to its fate.
The Virginians will debate and speak, though war be at the gates of their
city. I shall be highly gratified if the convention I have entered into with
the Committee of the Convention shall be ratified by that body. If it be
rejected, I hardly know what course to pursue.
"This city is all excitement. Fifteen thousand troops are nowhere.
All Virginia is in arms. Unless things have greatly changed in Georgia
since I left, you can have no idea of the state of things here. Yet the
Convention acts slowly: they are greatly behind the times. The first
night I got here I made a speech in response to a serenade. The next day
I addressed the Convention in secret session. All that I have said here, I
am told, has been well received by all parties.
" My health holds up tolerably well ; though I was very much relaxed
and rather feeble the first two days. I am now stronger and better. Though
I cannot be with you in person, my thoughts are with you."
The Ordinance adopting the Convention entered into between
Virginia and the Confederate States, and the text of the Con
vention itself, ran as follows:
" An Ordinance for the Adoption of the Constitution of the Provisional
Government of the Confederate States of America.
"WE, the delegates of the People of Virginia, in Convention assembled,
solemnly impressed by the perils which surround the Commonwealth, and
appealing to the Searcher of Hearts for the rectitude of our intentions in
assuming the grave responsibility of this act, do, by this Ordinance, ADOPT
AND RATIFY the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Con
federate States of America, ordained and established at Montgomery, Ala
bama, on the 8th of February, 1861 ; provided that this Ordinance shall cease
to have any legal operation or effect if the People of this Commonwealth,
upon the vote directed to be taken on the Ordinance of Secession passed by
this Convention on the 17th day of April, 1861, shall reject the same.
"A true copy. JOHN L. EUBANK, Secretary:''
400 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
11 CONVE.VTION BETWEEN THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA AND THE CON
FEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.
" THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, looking to a speedy union of said
Commonwealth and the other slave States with the Confederate States of
America, according to the provisions of the Constitution for the Provisional
Government of said States, enters into the following temporary Convention
and Agreement with said States, for the purpose of meeting pressing
exigencies affecting the common rights, interests, and safety of said Com
monwealth and said Confederacy :
" 1st. Until the union of said Commonwealth with said Confederacy
shall be perfected, and said Commonwealth shall become a member of said
Confederacy, according to the Constitutions of both Powers, the whole
military force and military operations, offensive and defensive, of said
Commonwealth, in the impending conflict with the United States, shall be
under the chief control and direction of the President of said Confederate
States, upon the same principles, basis, and footing as if said Common
wealth were now and during the interval a member of said Confederacy.
" 2d. The Commonwealth of Virginia will, after the consummation of tho
union contemplated in this Convention, and her adoption of the Constitution
for a Permanent Government of the said Confederate States, and she shall
become a member of said Confederacy under said permanent Constitution,
if the same occur, turn over to the said Confederate States all the public pro
perty, naval stores, and munitions of war, etc., she may then be in possession
of, acquired from the United States, on the same terms and in like manner
as the other States of said Confederacy have done in like cases.
"3d. "Whatever expenditures of money, if any. said Commonwealth of
Virginia shall make before the union under the Provisional Government
as above contemplated shall be consummated, shall be met and provided
for by said Confederate States.
" THIS CONVENTION entered into and agreed to, in the City of Richmond,
Virginia, on the 24th day of April, 1861, by Alexander II Stephens, the
duly authorized Commissioner to act in the matter for the said Confederate
States, and John Tyler, William Ballard Preston, Samuel McD. Moore,
James P. Ilolcombe, James C. Bruce, and Lewis E. Harvie, parties duly
authorized to act in like manner for the said Commonwealth of Virginia,
— the whole subject to the approval and ratification of the proper authori
ties of both Governments respectively.
" IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, the parties aforesaid have hereto set their hands
and seals, the day and year aforesaid, and at the place aforesaid, in duplicate
originals. "ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS, [SEAL.]
" Commissioner for Confederate States.
[SEAL.]
Commissioners | rSEAL]
" JOHN TYLER,
"WM. B. PRESTON,
"S. McD. MOORE,
"JAS. P. IIOLCOMBE,
"JAS. C. BRUCE,
" LEWIS E. HARVIE, J (^ [SEAL.]
for
[SEAL.]
[SEAL.]
Virginia. I [SEAL.]
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 4Q1
" Approved and ratified by the Convention of Virginia on the 25th of
April, 1861.
"JOHN L. EUBANK, Secretary. JOHN JANNEY, President."*
Orawfordvitte, April 29th. — Mr. Stephens had just returned
from Richmond, and spent a day at home. He writes to Lin-
ton, giving an account of the raising a volunteer company in
Taliaferro, and thus continues :
" What is to be the end of this impending conflict, or when the end will
be, is beyond my conjecture. Never was the country so thoroughly roused,
from the Rio Grande to the Canada line. The feeling at the North is just
as intense, from all I can learn, as it is at the South. If one general bat
tle ensue, it will take many men to end the strife. All things are in the
hands of an overruling Providence, and He will shape events according to
the counsels of His own will. The race is not to the strong nor the swift.
Let us trust in Him, and that in His mercy the country may be saved from
the terrible curse of a general fratricidal war. ... I feel anxious to see
the message of President Davis delivered to-day. I trust he will recom
mend defensive measures only, not aggressive or offensive. If we act on
the defensive strictly, we may yet avoid a general war. This should be
done, if it can be, honorably."
Montgomery. — Several letters follow, urging Linton to come
to this city. He has been staying at home, preparing to raise a
volunteer company.
May 4th. — " I think we shall move the Government in summer, perhaps
to Richmond. That will be nearer the theatre of war. I am prepared
for. and expect, a prolonged and bloody conflict. It may not be so. I
hope it may not. But I have never believed that a separation of the States
of the old Confederation would take place without a severe conflict of arms.
How long it will last none can tell. Our Congress will have recognized
the existing war, and made all arrangements and preparations possible to
meet it by the time this reaches you, I expect. It will require great sac
rifice on the part of the people to secure the success of our cause ; but I
feel entirely assured their patriotism is fully equal to the crisis."
May 5th. — "We have no news here; all in Congress goes on smoothly.
But very little is doing except preparing for war on an extensive scale. It
will take not less than forty millions per annum, I think, to maintain our
cause while the conflict lasts. This, of course, to some extent, is conjec
ture. May God be with you and bless you! Don't fail to rely on Him
and put your trust in Him.''
* Further particulars concerning this Convention are given in The War
between the States, vol. ii. p. 378.
26
402 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS,
May 7th. — He writes recurring to the fact that it is the anni
versary of his father's death.
May 13th. — " We shall adjourn on the 18th, or perhaps on the 23d at
farthest, to meet in Richmond in July. This has not been made public,
and you will therefore keep it secret. I am glad you have determined to
go into the volunteer service for the war. That bill for the war is a good
one : we shall get a large force under it, but will not get all we shall need
to meet the requirements, arid have passed another bill to authorize the
President to receive for any time he may think proper. Both bills will
accommodate all and bring a very effective force into the field. Do not
let the military ardor of our people be lessened. ... I am very unwell
to-day."
May 14th. — "Another memorable anniversary of an epoch of great
grief and affliction to me. This day of May, 1826, your in-other died, and
with her death the fate of our little family was sealed. Father died on
the 7th and she died on the 14th. . . . My grief was great on the death
of my father, — almost greater than I could bear ; but the cup of affliction
did not run over until 'ma,' as we called her, was also taken from us.
Then I felt that we should have to be dispersed ; and we were dispersed.
Who can tell what I suffered at that period of my life ! The anniversary
always fills me with sadness."
Mai/ 14th. — (To R. M. J.) " I have been, and am still, overwhelmed with
public affairs. We are in the midst of a war of the hugest magnitude. —
in every issue and consequence nothing short of political, and, it may be,
of physical existence. What is to be the end is beyond the reach of
human speculation. . . . The destiny of nations is in the hands of Him who
directs all things according to the counsels of His own will. When I say
rtKatno one can tell what is to be the end of the conflict, I do not intend
? to be understood as expressing any apprehensions as to the success of our
| arms, — far from that. 'We cannot, I think, be conquered or subjugated
I under proper counsels. But when is the conflict to end, and what is to
come after it? These are to me perplexing questions. I have but little
doubt that the' North will go into anarchy. What is to become of us?
That depends upon the virtue, intelligence, and patriotism of our people.
These noblest of all public traits (if I may so express myself in desig
nating the character of bodies political) will, with us, soon be put to the
severest test. I will not permit myself to doubt that the people of the
South will prove equal to the crisis. I do not concur with those who
. think we shall have a short war. I wish I could. ... I do not see any
prospect of immediate peace, nor can I see how it will ever be attained, —
I mean fixed and permanent peace between the sections. We may have
suspension of hostilities, — truces, — temporary stipulations, etc. But how
or on what principles a treaty of permanent peace is ever to be effected,
I cannot now see. For instance, will the Confederate States ever make a
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 1Q3
treaty that will not provide for and secure the rendition of fugitive slaves ? I
Certainly not. Will any Administration of the United States ever agree!
to such a treaty? or if it should, will the people of those States ever sus-J
tain such an Administration, unless utterly exhausted by war?
" Congress will probably adjourn in a few days. The next session will
most probably meet in Richmond, Virginia. The President, it is expected,
will take command in person of our forces now in the field on the border.
He will doubtless convene Congress at some place convenient for him to
communicate with at his headquarters.
" One of the great pressures now upon us is the want of money. We
have plenty just now; but our expenditures are upon a basis of not less,
I suppose, than forty millions per annum. How are we to get the money ?
Loans, treasury-notes, and direct taxes are our only expedients. Taxes to
meet interest on bonds and treasury-notes must be raised. It is thought
that one-quarter of one per cent, on the property of the Confederate States
will be sufficient. This will make the Confederate tax in Georgia about
four times what our State tax has been for several years. Independence
and liberty will require money as well as blood. The people must meet
both with promptness and firmness.
" But I can indulge in this scribbling no further. My attention has been
frequently called off since I commenced. To this fact ascribe any inco-
herency in the line of thought in it you may perceive. It is written for
yourself only, not for the public in any sense of the term. We are all
here harmonious and perfectly united, ^fcvery one feels the dangers that
surround us, and every one seems determined to do his whole duty. Pri
vate considerations have all merged in the public safety^
" With best wishes for you individually, your family, and for our com
mon cause and common country, I will say no more except that I am not
well."
May 25th. — (To R. M. J.) " In my last I was certainly not inclined to
indulge in gloomy forebodings, — far from it. I only intended to express
the opinion that we were in for a long and severe conflict, the end whereof
no one can see. This is so, — that is, such is my opinion ; but while such
are my views I take the survey without anything like depression or gloom.
The future has to be mH with spiril and energy. These with > ; • are tt\
the highest point needed. I did feel the deepest depression last week when
in the penumbra of the shadows which the great events now before us
were casting before them. But all that has passed away 4 I am now
nerved for the conflict.^
" You say J. J. hearcf in Montgomery that I thought there would be but
little fighting. This is a great mistake. I have seen it in the papers that
I thought there would be no war, but others thought that there would be,
etc. At this statement I was almost provoked. For I have been of the
contrary opinion all the time. I was hopeful there might not be, about
the time Seward [a line illegible : probably refers to Seward's promise to
404 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
evacuate Sumter] — but this hope I had only for a short time. I soon saw
it was a delusion, and I was recalled to my old conviction of an almost
interminable war. I know there are but few who agree with me in this
opinion. J3ut it is mine, and has been all the time since the short period
^-stated. (We.-inay have suspensions of hostilities, truces, etc., but how a
permanent peace is ever to be made I do not now see. I gave you some
inkling of the difficulties on this head in my last. I cannot now repeat
them unless by enlarging on them.<^JBut this view of the future produces no
i effect upon me but to inspire me with energy to meet it with whatever
I magnitude of consequences it shall involve\ We have the elements of
Independence, and these we must wielcFtrTtne attainment of that, without
hope for any peace from our enemies, or even exemption from aggressions,
except such as power will secure."
On May 30th, Mr. Johnston, with Judge — afterwards Col
onel — Thomas W. Thomas, made a visit to Mr. Stephens at
Crawfordville. They found him quite sick with dysentery, but
he had much to say about public matters. Of his remarks we
append some notes.
MR. S. — "All Lincoln's Cabinet, except Blair, were opposed to the war
at first, — honestly, as I think. They were driven into it by such men as
Cassius M. Clay, Jim Lane, and the Republican Governors.
" The North, I believe, will go into anarchy. They have lost all appre-
__ciation of constitutional liberty. They may hold up for some time, and
they may break down in six months. The ruin is certain to come. They
never before had any just idea of the value of the South to them. Four
hundred millions would not cover the losses they have already suffered by
our breaking from them. They are now like leeches that have been
shaken from a horse's legs, and are beginning to find out what it was
that fattened them. We are the horse ; and what they are determined to
do is to get the horse back again."
JUDGE T. — "Governor Cobb thinks that when Congress meets, the
showing which Chase will make, of money, will drive them to a cessation
of hostilities."
MR. S. — "I wish from my heart it might be so. But I tell you that
there is not the slightest chance for such a thing. You might as well
expect two men, after they have stripped and exchanged blows, to pause
and put their hands in their pockets in order to see if they have money
or not. When that Congress meets, it will become an assembly of Jacobins,
and will raise money if they have to lay assignats upon Astor and the
other rich ones there. The Administration cannot stop the war. They
are pushed on by the people, and those in the lead who hesitate will be
bung or banished. The mild must give way,to the violent, as the Girond-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 405
ists gave way to the Mountain. Seward may be clever enough to become
another Robespierre."
JUDGE T. — " What do you think of the South having a dictator?"
MR. S. — u That would never do. That would be the very worst thing
we could do. We are the only people on this continent who have consti-
tutional liberty. We must hold on to that and not part from it for a day.
"The War Department is managed badly. The Secretary is very in
efficient. He'll 'do and do and do,' and at last do nothing. He is like a
man who in playing chess thinks and thinks and thinks before moving,
and at last makes a foolish move. He is very rash in counsel, and lament
ably irresolute and inefficient in action. There were twenty thousand
stand of arms offered us for sale. He postponed it until after the fall of
Sumter ; then tried to get them, but it was too late. Toombs ought to
have been there. He is the brains of the whole concern."
Iii this conversation Mr. Stephens spoke much of the neces
sity of taking immediate steps to raise a navy. Judge Thomas
suggested that such was the importance of cotton to England
and France that they must interfere and prevent a blockade.
Mr. Stephens insisted that such an interference was not to be
looked for ; yet that the present crop of cotton would be of the
utmost value to the South if the Government would use it prop
erly. " Cotton was King," men said ; but they should remember
that it was not a political, but a commercial king.
" If the Government would now buy one million of bales, for which
they might afford to give ten cents a pound, which is two cents more than
the market price, with these they could raise a navy that could compete
successfully with the North. It is vain to expect relief from the blockade
from foreign powers. We alone could relieve ourselves of that; and our
cotton, unless it was put toTHe^use suggested, would be of little impor
tance to us."
Crawfordville, June 7th. — Congress had adjourned in Mont
gomery to meet in Richmond on the 28th of July.
" Douglas,' we have seen, is dead. I almost wish he had either lived
longer or died sooner. It is, however, best as it is, since it is as it is.
Had he lived he might have had great power in staying the North from
aggressive war. I can but think this would have been his position. He
would have been against attempted subjugation. He would have been for
a treaty, for recognition, and for peace. This is my opinion. But it may
be he could have done nothing ; it may be he would have been over
whelmed ; it may be it is better for him, and with an end [?] for the
country that he is removed. I have but little doubt that the state of the
406 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
country had a great deal to do with his death. A diseased body has but
little recuperative or reactive energy when the spirits are low. The vital
powers depend greatly upon mental stimulus. 1 can but mourn his loss,
though he was nominally an alien enemy. lie was a man of great ability
and many virtues. Few public men had more nerve than he had to oppose
what he thought wrong, and to advocate what he thought right, against
the prevailing popular sentiment. He had his faults; but who has not?
He was ambitious, — too aspiring, perhaps, for his own true fame. Had he
died just twelve months earlier, what a difference, perhaps, would our
country present in its political aspect! But for him there would have
been no split at Charleston, and but for that split there would have been
no disunion as yet. Whether that would have been better for us is known
only to Him who shapes the fortunes of men and guides the destinies of
nations. From present indications it would seem that we did not cut
loose from the North too soon. They will go into anarchy or despotism.
The only hope of constitutional liberty on this continent is now with us;
and whether we shall successfully pass the ordeal in store for us time
alone can determine."
June 15th. — Mr. Stephens had been speaking in different
places on the plan of a great produce loan, and had been sjic-
ceeding well. He has alluded several times to his anxiety to
hear from Mr. Toombs, then Secretary of State, to whom he
had written for information in regard to the general prospects.
11 1 have heard from Toombs. He does not write in his usual good
spirits. I wish you to see his letter. Come over to-morrow evening, if
you can. Mr. Toombs's letter has greatly increased my desire to see
you. He thinks Lincoln will bring on a big battle between now and the
meeting of his Congress, to have all his measures sanctioned, sitting as
they will be almost under the fire of our guns."
«
There are but few more letters of importance for this year.
Linton had raised a volunteer company for the war, and had
gone to Virginia as lieutenant-colonel of the Fifteenth Georgia
Regiment, which nearly interrupted the correspondence between
them.
On the 21st of July occurred the first battle of Manassas, in
which the Confederate forces, about twenty thousand in number,
under Generals J. E. Johnston and Beauregard, defeated about
sixty thousand Federals, under General McDowell.
Richmond, July 29th.— (To R. M. J.) " We shall probably have before
long several such fights as took place at Manassas on the 21st. I have no
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 4Q7
idea that the North will give it up. Their defeat will increase their
energy. This is what I expect, and we should be prepared to meet this
result. The victory at Manassas was great and complete. May all our
conflicts to come be as triumphant !"
September 3d. — (To R. M. J.) Much of this letter is on the
subject of Linton, who was with him, very sick.
"I see no end to the war, — not the slightest prospect of peace. So far
from it, all the signs of a protracted conflict are more portentous to me
than they have ever been. The war on the part of the North is founded
upon no rational principle. It is against principles, against interest, and
against reason ; and with nations it is as with individuals when they act
against reason, there is no accounting for their conduct or calculating
upon it on any rational principles. The reaction at the North [a few
words here are illegible.] . . .
" This is but the beginning. The guillotine, or its substitute, will soon
follow. The reign of terror there has not yet fully commenced. The
mob, or ' wide-awake' spirit, has not the control there yet, but it will have
before the end. All the present leaders will be swept from the board.
They will be deposed or hung to make way for worse men who are yet
to» figure in this great American drama. . . . We have a great conflict
before us, and it will require all our energy, our resources, and patriotism,
under a favoring Providence, to bear us safely through it.'r
During the last months of the year Mr. Stephens was in
Richmond in feeble health. He had, however, already begun
that habit of visiting the hospitals in Richmond, which he
continued whenever he had the opportunity, and in which he
was able to render the most essential service. Every day when
he was able to walk, and often when his ill health rendered
walking impossible, he was to be seen at these hospitals, tending
and looking after the sick. This habit was maintained until
December, when he was almost prostrated by neuralgia, and so
remained for several weeks ; but so soon as he was able to go
about again, he resumed his visitations.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Discouragements — Policy of Conscription — Richmond Hospitals — Military
Operations — Conversations — How Mr. Davis was nominated — Prospects
— Prospects of European Recognition — Resistance to Martial Law — State
of Things North and South — Letter to James M. Calhoun — Speech at
Crawfordville — Financial Policy — Education of Young Men — Relations
with Mr. Davis — Views on Men and Matters.
WE have seen how strong was the opposition of Mr. Stephens
to the secession of the Southern States from the Federation, and
the motives of that opposition. A firm adherent to the doctrine
of State Sovereignty, however inexpedient or unwise he might
consider the policy of his native State, he could not hesitate to
follow her behests, and regard her enemies as his own. Re
luctant as he was to enter again into public life, especially in
circumstances which seemed to him to foreshadow unhappy
consequences, he felt it his duty to do all in his power to
contribute to the successful administration of the new govern
ment. At first their action had his hearty co-operation, and,
as we have seen, he had at first some confidence in its success.
But it was not long before he began to entertain serious fears
that the Confederate Government was tending towards errors
which, if committed and persisted in, would result in its over
throw. He had full confidence in the ability of the Confederate
States to maintain their independence, if their resources should
be wisely managed and the spirit of the people be understood.
This people had withdrawn from the United States because
they believed that they had been treated with flagrant injustice
and bad faith, and their intense desire was to preserve, by
means of this separation, their rights and their liberties. Though
they were inferior in numbers and wealth to their adversaries,
Mr. Stephens did not doubt that they could maintain the con
flict indefinitely, and eventually obtain from them and from
the world the recognition of their separate nationality.
408
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 409
His first discouragement came from what seemed to him to
O
be want of sufficient judgment in the appointing power; and
it was increased by the failure of the Administratiorrto make
a judicious use of the available resources, especially ._the cotton,
according to the plan suggested by him.* But an error even
more grave, in his opinion, was about to be committed in the
matter of raising and controlling the armies. No country has
ever shown more enthusiastic patriotism than existed in the
Confederate States at the beginning of the war and down to
the close of the first year. The call for volunteers was answered
with an alacrity that filled the South with confidence, and the
successful battles of the summer and fall of 1861 inspired all
men of military age with an eager desire to join their com
patriots. Toward the close of the year some leading men of
Congress had it in view to move a call for more, for the volun
teers alone; but this movement was discouraged by the confi
dential friends of the Administration, and it was ascertained
that the policy of conscription would be preferred. When this
fact became known, Mr. Stephens and those who shared his
views felt great discouragement and apprehension. Whatever
might have been the state of popular feeling and spirit after
longer and harder conflict, it is certain that it had not in the
least flagged when this policy was first suggested. To mention
the case of onlylme of the Confederate States : Governor Brown,
of Georgia, had been called upon for twelve thousand more
men; he responded readily to the call, and fifteen thousand
Georgians offered themselves. All the other States were equally
ready to yield every service in their power.
Mr. Stephens believed from the first that the policy of con
scription was dangerous, and might be fatal. He believed that
it would tend to check the ardor of the people by appearing to
slight their spontaneous patriotic service, and thus impair what
he considered the most promising element of success — the sense
of fighting to maintain not only national independence but
personal liberty. He considered, moreover, this policy hostile
to the rights of the States individually, and foresaw the conflict
* This plan will be explained further on.
410 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
which must ensue between the General Government and those
Governors of States who might feel it their duty to demand a
strict construction of Congressional action. The friends of the
conscription policy considered these fears of its opponents ground
less, and urged that independence and not liberty was the imme
diate object of the struggle, that liberty should be sacrificed to
independence while the conflict was pending, and that after the
latter was secured, it would be quite time enough to restore the
former.
Another cause of apprehension was a disregard of constitu
tional law in matters of suspension of the privilege of habeas
corpus, and the subordination of the civil to the military power,
in the appointment of military governors in cities and the
declaration of martial law in whole sections of country.
We do not propose to discuss the question here ; but so much
seemed necessary to be said as explanatory of the position of
Mr. Stephens toward the policy of the Administration.
During this winter (1861-2) his health was worse than usual,
and he had great anxiety about Linton, who remained in the
army until his health was seriously impaired. The first letter
we have of this year is to It. M. J., from Richmond.
January 12th. — "I am now up and out, though suffering to-day with
neuralgia in the jaw and face. But I went to the hospitals, — the first time
I have visited them in five weeks. By ' the hospitals,' I mean the three
Georgia hospitals. There are a great many hospitals in the city. I went
to the Georgia buildings and to two others. I was looking up some Ala
bama men I had been telegraphed about.
UI saw but few of those whose faces had become so familiar to me
before. There was another generation of suiferers from those who were
in the same places six or eight weeks ago. I was gratified to see that the
number of faces was a great deal smaller than it was in September and
November. There were to-day many empty beds in all three of our build
ings. Several bad cases, however, met my eye : several in the agonies of
death, — none that I knew. The scenes I witnessed were exceedingly pain
ful. I thought of the homes of the dying men, and the dear ones there
who, if where I was, could have administered consolation and comfort that
neither I nor any of those around could administer. It is a sad thing to
sicken, languish, and die, with no kind friend near."
After giving some statistics of the mortality in the hospitals,
the letter thus proceeds :
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 41]
" As to the war, I have nothing of interest to write. I see no prospect
of peace ; and yet the indications of a break-down at the North are more
favorable than they have been. Qly greatest apprehensions now are that
there will "be a corresponding break-down of the war spirit on our part/)
The conduct of our military operations and the discipline of our army are
well calculated to produce this result. . . . We have a fiery ordeal to go
through yet. It is that patience under wrong and suffering to which our
people are so little accustomed, — this test we have yet to be submitted to,
and it is the severest to which our human nature can be subjected. It is
that to which the army under Washington was submitted when they were
about to mutiny, and he made them a speech (at Newburg) which, all
things considered, I look upon as the greatest speech ever made by man.
In its conclusion he called upon the neglected and ill-provided-for soldiers
who had suffered so much wrongfully from their Government ' still to
bear — to be patient — to suffer on, — and to show the world by their conduct
that but for that day's trial mankind would have lacked the highest ex
ample of virtue that human nature is capable of exhibiting.' I do not
give the words, but something of the idea. And yet Washington is not
usually counted among our orators."
The military operations in the early part of this year were
discouraging to the Confederates. The Federals had collected
two great armies, one under General McClellan destined to
move upon Richmond, and one under General Halleck for
operations in the Southwest. To the former of these the Con
federates opposed the forces under command of General J. E.
Johnston, at Manassas, and to the latter, those under General
A. Sidney Johnston, at Bowling Green, Kentucky.
On the 19th of January was fought the battle of Fishing
Creek, in Kentucky, in which the Federals, under command of
General Thomas, were victorious, and the Confederate com
mander, General Zollicoffer, was killed. On the 6th of Feb
ruary the Confederates lost Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River,
and on the 16th Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River, with
severe loss in both cases, and with the result that General A.
S. Johnston was compelled to fall back to a position south of the
Tennessee River. On the 23d the Federal forces took posses
sion of Nashville, and were pushed forward to Pittsburg Land
ing, on the Tennessee. Here they were opposed by the forces of
Generals Sidney Johnston and Beauregard, and on the 6th and
7th of April were fought the two battles of Shiloh, in the first
of which the Confederates lost their commander, General A. S.
412 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Johnston, but were completely victorious over the Federal forces
under General Grant ; but in the second, the Federals, having
been reinforced, recovered their lost ground, with heavy losses
on both sides. Towards the end of May General Beauregard
withdrew his forces into Mississippi. Fort Pillow was soon
after abandoned, and the Federal forces occupied Memphis.
On the 25th of March began the celebrated " Valley Cam
paign" of the illustrious " Stonewall" Jackson, who on that day
defeated General Shields at Kernstown. On the 8th of May
he defeated General Milroy at McDowell ; on the 25th of May,
General. Banks at Winchester; on the 8th of June, General
Fremont at Cross Keys ; and on the 9th of June, General
Shields at Port Republic. In the mean time G.eneral McClellan
had been slowly advancing on Richmond, much delayed by the
skilful strategy of General J. E. Johnston. On the 31st of
May the battle of Seven Pines was fought by the two armies on
the south side of the Chickahoininy. On the 26th of June,
General Jackson, having rendered the Federal forces in the val
ley powerless, fell on the rear of McClellan's army. The " Six
Days' Fighting" followed, by which McClellan was driven to
the shelter of his gunboats on the James River, and the campaign
in the Peninsula was ended. Mr. Lincoln now called for three
hundred thousand additional troops.
On the water, the Federals had taken Roanoke Island on
February 8th. On March 8th the Confederate iron-clad Vir
ginia destroyed the frigates Cumberland and Congress in Hamp
ton Roads. On the next day an engagement took place between
the Virginia and the Federal turret gunboat Monitor, in which
no serious damage was done on either side, but after about three
hours' fighting the Monitor ran off into shoal water, whither the
Virginia, drawing twenty-two feet, could not follow her, and
refused to come out and renew the contest. The Virginia, hav
ing received considerable injuries from ramming the Cumberland,
her cast-iron prow having been broken off and the stem twisted,
was then taken up to Norfolk for repairs. On the llth of
April she was taken down to Hampton Roads again and chal
lenged the Monitor, which hugged the shore under the guns of
the fort and refused to fight,, though the Confederate gunboat
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 413
Jamestown ran in and took several prizes. On the 8th of May
a squadron, including the Monitor, bombarded the Confederate
batteries at Sewell Point. The Virginia immediately steamed
out into Hampton Roads, upon which the Monitor and her
consorts ceased firing and retreated under the guns of the forts.
On the 10th of May Norfolk was evacuated by the Confed
erates, and the pilots declaring that the Virginia could not be
taken up the James River, she was destroyed by fire.*
Island No. 10 in the Mississippi, which had been strongly
fortified and obstinately held by the Confederates, was taken on
April 7th, and Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, on April 13th.
On the 24th of the same month a Federal fleet passed the forts
at the mouth of the Mississippi, and New Orleans surrendered.
With this brief note of the military movements in the first
half of the year, we turn again to the correspondence.
On February 26th he writes to Linton :
<; I urge you not to return to the array. If, in the spring, you are well
enough, go and present yourself to General Toombs as a volunteer aide.
He will accept you. You can then control your time; leave when no
danger is at hand, and be present when danger is threatened. You will
in this way be more useful, I think, than in having a regiment; for your
greatest usefulness, in my judgment, will be in your advice. As an aide
you will be on intimate terms with the general.
" General Lee, I think, will be made Secretary of War. I think well
of him as a prudent, safe, and able general, but do not think he will make
a good War Minister. Toombs, I think, would make the best in the Con
federacy. . . .<5jhe message of the President, sent into Congress yesterday,
surprised me^) It is not such a paper as I or the country expected. But
Ave have to bear \vjiat we cannot mend. The country must work out its
own deliverance. \£he present Congress [this was after the installation of
the Permanent Government] is not what I could wish to see it. either in
the Senate or Housed Our new Government is now in its crisis : if it can
stand, and will stai>#, the blow that will be dealt in the next eighty or ninety
days, it may ride the storm in safety. . . .
"P.S. — Hereafter my letters to you will be without address or signa
ture, for fear the enemy may get them at Weldon or Wilmington."
April 8th. — . . . " I am truly sorry to hear of the fall of General Albert
* We have given these particulars at some length, because most accounts
assert that the Virginia was disabled by the Monitor. The facts as above
stated are taken from the published narrative of her executive and ord
nance officer, Lieutenant Catesby Ap R. Jones, who succeeded to the com
mand after Flag-Officer Buchanan was wounded in the first day's fighting.
414 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Sidney Johnston. I fear he was reckless in the fight. I don't regard the
action as a decisive one, as far as heard from. The enemy will make
another, and perhaps several other desperate stands at other places before
they are driven out of West Tennessee. But we have abundant reason to
rejoice over our success, as far as it has gone. I do not, however, permit
/^myself to be much elated by successes, just as I do not permit myself to
^"-be-Tfiuch depressed by reverses. We shall have many bloody battles yet
before our independence is achieved. This will ultimately be done, how
ever, if our people will but have the patience, fortitude, and patriotism to
stand the ordeal before them. These, I trust, will not fail them."
This letter just quoted was written from Crawford ville, Mr.
Stephens having gone home about the first of the month, and
remaining for several weeks. Mr. Johnston had also returned
to his old home in Hancock County, and frequent visits were
exchanged between the brothers Stephens and himself. In the
confidence of this circle Mr. Stephens spoke his mind freely on
public men and events, and from notes made of his remarks
we subjoin a few extracts, which the lapse of time and change
of circumstance have made it no longer indiscreet to publish.
The conversation one day turned upon the fact that so few of
the ablest men of the South, even among those not in the army,
seemed to care for political office. Mr. Stephens remarked :
" This is a very poor Congress. There are few men of ability in the
House. In the Senate not more than two or three. Tom Semmes is the
ablest. The next are Barnwell, Hunter, and Clay."
Speaking of the West Point policy, he said :
" If the West Point policy should prevail fully we shall be beaten. If
the Southern volunteer should ever come to forget that he is a gentleman
(and that is what the West Point men say he must do), then it will be
merely a struggle between matter and matter, and the biggest and heavi
est body will break the other. We have less matte?*, and to have equal
momentum we must have greater velocity than our enemies,— so to call cur
spirit and the consciousness of being gentlemen."
Some one remarked that the Government had been acting with
more energy lately :
f MR. S. — " The energy I discover now seems to me like that of a turtle
/ after fire has been put upon his back."
• MR. J. — " When do you expect to go back to Richmond?"
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 415
MR. S. — •' Not very soon. I can do no good there. The policy of the
Government is far against my judgment, and I am frequently embarrassed
on account of this difference. I am frequently called upon to give my
opinions, and I do so always with frankness, hut without asperity. I do
all I can to avoid even the appearance of that.
u The Conscription Act was very bad policy. Heavy fighting maybe
expected within the next few months. We should have called for volun
teers for the war, and no doubt they would come. It would have been
better to rely upon soldiers thus recruited. Conscripts will go into
battle as a horse goes from home ; volunteers, as a horse goes towards
home: you may drive the latter hard and it does not hurt him. . . . But
the day for a vigorous policy is past. It is too late to do anything. I fear
we are ruined irretrievably. . . .
"What stupendous ignorance we have shown of the value of cotton!
The Government and those who favored its policy did not undervalue cot
ton, but misunderstood the character of its value. In their opinion,
cotton was^ a political power. There was the mistake. It is only a com-
inerciaTpower. If it had been understood and employed in that way, it
would have been easy to manage the Government by getting enough iron
clad ships in Europe to keep several ports open. It is now too late for
that. Our portal system is closed effectually, and we cannot stand that
any more than a man can stand it in his own case. He dies of strangury
and such evils. Nationally, we must do the same thing."
MR. J. — " Do you think the President has any confidence in the attain
ment of independence?"
MR..S. — " lie acts as if he had not. I suspect he intends to imitate the
career of Sydney Johnston. That is the way I read some of his conduct."
One of Mr. Stephens's visitors this summer was Judge James
Thomas, Linton's father-in-law. The old dog Rio had spent
several months with the judge years before, while his master
was in Washington and Linton was travelling North, and had
formed a great attachment for that worthy gentleman. Mr.
Stephens writes about him :
u Rio knew Judge Thomas last night : barked over him a great deal. In
the night he left my room and went down-stairs to the judge's ; and tried
to follow him off when he left. Last night, before I went to bed, Rio went
up-stairs. I could not account for this proceeding until Harry told me
what he had done the night before. Poor old dog! I suspect he thinks
if he could get back to the places \vhere he used to be with the judge,
he would be rejuvenated: would get back his sight and hearing. I won
der if this is so, — if the dog ever thinks of such things?"
Again we will briefly sum up the military operations of the
416 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
latter half of the year, by way of a key to any allusions in the
correspondence. The Federal army in Virginia, after its disas
trous defeats in the Six Days' Fighting, was reorganized and
placed under the command of General Pope. On the 9th of
August the advance of this force, under General Banks, was
met by " Stonewall" Jackson at Cedar Run and defeated.
General Lee now advanced with all his forces, and on the 30th
the second battle of Manassas was fought, in which Pope was
routed and fell back upon Washington. The Federal loss in
men and munitions of war was enormous; and Pope was at
once superseded by McClellan.
In the West, General Braxton Bragg had undertaken a cam
paign in Tennessee and Kentucky, and two battles were fought,
one at Richmond, Kentucky, in which the Federals were defeated,
and one at Perryville, October 7th, in which Bragg claimed a
victory, but retired to Murfreesboro', Tennessee. The Federal
General Rosecrans was sent to supersede Buell as chief in com
mand and drive Bragg from his position. On the 31st of De
cember and 1st of January a great battle was fought between
the two armies, numbering about forty thousand each, at Mur-
freesboro'. The losses in killed and wounded were very heavy,
amounting in the aggregate to about twenty-five thousand. Both
sides claimed the victory.
In the mean time Lee, with the Army of Virginia, had made
a movement into Maryland. On the 15th of September Har
per's Ferry was taken by General Jackson, with the capture of
eleven thousand prisoners and seventy-three pieces of artillery.
On the 17th the great battle of Sharpsburg was fought between
about one hundred and twenty thousand Federals under McClel
lan and sixty thousand under Lee, without decisive results; but
McClellan being largely reinforced, Lee retired to Virginia.
On the 22d of September, President Lincoln issued his Emanci
pation Proclamation, and soon after General McClellan was
superseded by General Burnside in the command of the Army
of the Potomac.
Burnside commenced a movement upon Richmond by the
way of Fredericksburg, where there was a battle between his
forces and Lee's on December 13th, resulting in a brilliant
LIFE OF ALEXANDER IT. STEPHENS. 417
victory for the Confederates, with a loss of over twelve thousand
men to the Federals.
We have seen that from the first Mr. Stephens did not share
the popular belief that the European powers, or some of them,
would recognize the independence of the Southern States, even
before they had established that independence by force of arms.
But for a short time, during this summer, he was disposed to
regard an early foreign recognition as probable. It was there
fore with more cheerfulness than he had felt for some time that
he went back to Richmond on the reassembling of Congress in
August. Shortly after his arrival he writes to Linton :
August 17th. — u I have heard nothing officially since I have been here.
I called to see the President yesterday evening, but he was in Cabinet
meeting, — had been for two days. I could see none of the Secretaries.
... I am now looking for an early recognition abroad, — {gay by the 1st
of October. Still, I may mistake/ The North seems in a great ferment.
Something will come of this: either the mellow wine of reaction and
peace, or the gall of a more determined and bitter hostility.''
August 27th. — " I was much struck by your views on the tendency of
things toward the merging of all power and authority in the hands of the
military. I have been deeply impressed with these convictions for several
weeks past. Mercer's impressment orders without the shadow of authority,
either military or civil ; Van Dora's orders establishing martial law in parts
of Mississippi, with stringent rules abridging the freedom of speech and
the liberty of the press; and, last of all, Bragg1 s order establishing mar
tial law in Atlanta and appointing a civil (?) governor for that city, with
numerous subordinates, etc., — these things aroused my indignation, and I
have not been idle in attempting to arouse our members of Congress, both
in the Senate and House, to the importance of arresting these proceedings.
... At this time, I am glad to say, a reaction is in active progress here.
I think I have done some good. I first called on the Secretary of War
about Mercer's orders, and upon a review of the matter he telegraphed
Mercer that he must not resort to force. ... I got Mr. Semmes, the most
sensible man in the Senate, to introduce a resolution there requiring the
Judiciary Committee to report upon these questions. That Committee is
now at work, and matters are progressing favorably. I have got Semmes
to agree with me that no power in this country can establish martial law ;
neither the President, nor Congress, much less a general in the field. Con
gress may suspend the writ of habeas corpus ; but that is the utmost ex
tent to which they can go. A^TdTfieiTsome nice questions arise as to the
effect of the suspension of the habeas corpus. It does not interfere, in
my opinion, with the regular and speedy trial to which the party is en
titled, nor with his full redress in action at law for an illegal arrest, against
27
418 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
the party making it, be he general or what not. All arrests are at the
peril of the party making them. They must be upon oath and upon prob
able cause. I have pointed out six plain and palpable violations of the
Constitution in these military orders. I am unremitting in my efforts, in
a calm and dispassionate manner, to get Congress to awaken to the heavy
responsibility resting upon them at this crisis to save our constitutional
liberties ; and I am glad to say that my efforts thus far have met with
more success than I anticipated when I saw the general apathy prevailing
at first. The truth is, I believe the fault of our people to which you allude,
and wrhich I saw and felt, arose from an excess of patriotism. They wanted
to do all that was proper and right for the advancement of our cause, and
were not, and are not, sufficiently watchful of great vital principles. I
hope we shall come out right. The President, I am informed, has written
Xfoall the generals revoking these orders of martial law, and telling them
^-they have no power to assume such authority^
"I had a long interview with the Secretary of War last night for the
first time. I was better pleased with him than I expected to be. lie is
against the extension of the [military age under the] Conscript Act to the
age of forty-five. If more troops should be wanted, he is in favor of call
ing on the Governors of the States in the first instance. lie says, however,
and truly, I think, that we now have as many in the field as we can clothe,
feed, and arm. There are on the rolls about four hundred thousand. He
said what struck him with surprise was that the President had not con
sulted with him on what he said on this point in his message, and he did
not know such matter was in the message until after it was sent to Congress.''
August 31st. — " Nothing has yet been done in Congress on the Martial
Law, Provost-Marshal, and Passport systems, or the usurpations of gen
erals in passing their unlawful orders in violation of the Rules and Articles
of War, wherein is established the military law of the country, by which
officers as well as men are governed. But the reaction is going on. We
are beginning to look to and understand it, and I think as well as hope
that proper action will be taken before long. It is strange what ignorance
prevailed on this subject, and how little the representatives of the people
know of the nature of the Government under which they live. This gen
eration of men, from the highest to the lowest classes, seems to have lost
X all sight of principles. Born and reared under free institutions, they seem
never to have understood or cared to understand anything about them any
more than the constituent elements of the air they breathe. They seem to
have looked upon constitutional government as a matter of course, without
knowing anything of its original cost, its constant hazards, and the only
securities for its perpetuation. I hope they will be brought to think and to
act before it is too late. What wre most need nowr is wise, well-informed,
bold, firm, and patriotic legislation, as well in the States as in Congress.'*
September 1st. — (To 11. M. J.) "In regard to our prospects in general,
I can only say that I can see no approach to the end. I did think some
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 419
d.ays ago that foreign powers would offer their mediation, — England and
France especially. I have changed that opinion. I had not seen the
Queen's speech to which you allude. That and Palmerston's since the
adjournment of Parliament put an end to such ideas. England and
France do not intend ever to recognize us, I think, so long as we show
ability to weaken, cripple, and injure the Northern Government. I am
somewhat in doubt whether even this is the turning-point with them, or
whether they are looking for the extinction of slavery first. They want
the final separation to take place, and they want slavery abolished also.
They may think that the North can uproot the institution among us with
out being able to subjugate us to their rule. To this extent they may
weaken and cripple us, while we, in the mean time, greatly weaken and
cripple them by the wasting of their resources and the accumulation of
the enormous debt attending the continuation of the struggle.
" Were I the President I should forthwith recall all my Ministers or
Commissioners abroad. European powers look upon ^his war with a
complication of views, if I may so express myself. ("They have no real
sympathy with either side. Their interests prompt tnemTto side with us,
but the feelings prompted by these interests are about equally balanced
by their aversion to slavery,) They had become very jealous of the United
States Government as a great and growing power. Its example as a
republican government was becoming dangerous to them. They there
fore rejoice to see that strife now raging here which, if left alone, will,
in their judgment, end in the destruction of republicanism on both sides
of the line. It requires no statesmanship to see that the North is already
a despotism, complete and fearful. The powers of it are daily becoming
more widely displayed and more intensely felt, Its march is onward.
Blood will soon flow there as it did in France under the Directory. There
will never, I apprehend, be anything like constitutional liberty in that
country again. European powers, looking to the history of the world,
doubtless think the same fate is in store for us. And I must confess the
tendency of things with us for the last few months is well adapted to
stimulate and strengthen such speculations. The readiness with which our
people surrender most important and essential constitutional rights to what
for the moment they consider the necessity of the case, is an indication
of their character. Such, for instance, is the submission, without a mur
mur, to the usurpations of commanding generals in their orders of
impressment, establishing martial law, appointing provost-marshals and
governors in certain localities, etc. All such orders are palpable and
dangerous usurpations, and if permitted to continue will end in military
despotism. Of this I feel as certain as I do that the sun will go down
to-day and rise to-morrow. (There is nothing that has given me^ half so
much concern lately as these same military orders and usurpations.^ Not
the fall of New Orleans, or the loss of the Virginia. Better, in my judg
ment, that Richmond should fall, and that the enemy's armies should
420 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
sweep our whple country from the Potomac to the Gulf, than that our
people should submissively yield obedience to one of these edicts of our
own generals./! do not mean to question the patriotism with which they
were issuecTpthe object supposed to be attainable by them, nor the patriot
ism of the people thus far in yielding to them. But, my dear sir, it is
the' principle involved. We live under a constitutional government, with
clearly-defined powers. By our constitution, the law-making power, as
well for the army as for the citizen's not in military service, is vested in
Congress. This power is limited even in their hands. Martial law sets
at defiance the Constitution itself. It is over and above it. It is directly
against its most important prohibitions, put there for the protection of
the rights of the people. Congress cannot establish martial law. No
power under this Government can do it. Congress may suspend the writ
of habeas corpus, but that is not martial law by any means. It does not
interfere with the redress that one injured by an illegal arrest may have
against the party making the arrest. It does not authorize anybody to
arrest another, except upon probable cause, supported by oath. It does
not dispense with the right to a speedy and public trial by a jury under
an indictment found by a grand jury. It does not authorize any infringe
ment of the liberty of the press or the freedom of speech. These great
bulwarks of liberty and barriers against the encroachments of power
remain untouched. My apprehensions on this point have been more
thoroughly aroused from the fact that the people seem willingly and even
patriotically to be yielding to usurpations. They do not consider what
they are doing. They do not recollect that the price of liberty is eternal
vigilance. They forget that the first encroachments of power are often
under the most specious guises. But you may be assured that, in the
forcible language of De Lolme, 'our acts, so laudable when we only con
sider the motive of them, will make a breach at which tyranny will one
day enter.' The North to-day presents the spectacle of a free people
having gone to war to make freemen of slaves, while all they have as yet
attained is to make slaves of themselves. We should take care and be
ever watchful lest we present to the world the spectacle of a like free
people having set out with the object of asserting by arms the correctness
of an abstract constitutional principle, and losing in the end every principle
of constitutional liberty, and every practical security of personal rights.
11 1 have not time, however, to continue this subject. I must go to the
Senate. But my whole soul is in it, and I am laboring day and night,
in season and out, to awaken attention to the dangers that threaten us."
September 7th. — (To Linton.) " I am still of the opinion that Congress,
by the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, cannot infringe upon the
constitutional guaranty of a speedy and public trial by a jury, and cannot
give indemnity or indemnify against the right of a citizen unjustly arrested,
or without probable cause, against the party who may have made such
arrest. In England, where Parliament is considered omnipotent, such acts
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 421
of indemnity have been passed where abuses of power have taken place
under the writ of habeas corpus. But no such power is delegated to our
Congress ; and it cannot be obtained, I think, except by implication from
the force of the words in analogy to the same state of things in England,
from which country the words were obtained. It may be argued that it
must have been intended to give Congress the same power on this subject
that the British Parliament has. To this I reply that such construction is
inconsistent with another express provision that no person shall be arrested
without due process of law, and that Congress shall pass no law abridging
the liberty of a person, the freedom of speech, etc., and the express guar
anty to all for a speedy and public trial by a jury, etc. The suspension
of the writ of habeas corpus, therefore, under our system, can only operate
to hold the accused and secure his appearance to answer the charge. It
cannot interfere with the courts. If the State is not ready in every case,
Congress can regulate the grounds upon which continuances may be
granted. They should be wisely and judiciously done, locking to the
public interest as well as to the rights of the citizen. NL am utterly
opposed to everything looking to military rule, and all encroachments of
power founded upon the specious, insidious, and dangerous plea of neces
sity^ It ig tne tyrant's plea. Our Constitution, as you say, was made for
war as well as peace ; and it will work well in both states if the people as
well as their rulers will but understand it and see that the machinery is
kept right. The indications of proper action on these questions on the
part of Congress, I regret to say, are not so strong as they were some ten
days ago. Still, I think something will be done. The difficulty is, we have
not the men in Congress to do it. They have not the information. They are
ignorant of principles, — lamentably ignorant. You may impress an idea
upon their minds, get a full assent: they may appear to see clearly, and,
after meeting with some military man who himself has no knowledge upon
the subject, he will suggest some imaginary case, which knocks all your
reasoning out of the weak head which once thought it saw the truth. The
imaginary case is easily answered ; but the whole ground has to be gone
over with these children in politics and statesmanship."
On the 8th of September, Mr. Stephens wrote a letter to
the Hon. James M. Calhoun, who had been appointed by Gen
eral Bragg " civil governor of Atlanta/7 and who desired sonre
enlightenment as to his powers and duties in this anomalous posi
tion. Mr. Stephens goes over the ground of the unconstitu
tionally, and therefore nullity, of martial law :
" I am not at all surprised," he writes, u at you being at a loss to know
what your powers and duties are in your new position, and your inability
to find anything in any written code of laws to enlighten you upon them.
The truth is, your office is unknown to the law. General Bragg had no
422 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS,
more authority for appointing you civil governor of Atlanta than I had ;
and I had, or have, no more authority than any street-walker in your
city. . . .
" We live under a Constitution. That Constitution was made for war
as well as peace. Under that Constitution we have civil laws and military
laws : laws for the civil authorities and laws for the military. The first
are to be found in the statutes at large, and the latter in the Rules and
Articles of War. But in this country there is no such thing as martial law,
and cannot be until the Constitution is set aside, if such an evil day shall
ever come, upon us. All the law-making power in the Confederate States
Government is vested in Congress. But Congress cannot declare martial
law, which, in its proper sense, is nothing but an abrogation of all laws.
If Congress cannot do it, much less can any officer of the Government,
either civil or military, do it rightfully, from the highest to the lowest.
Congress may, in certain cases specified, suspend the writ of habeas cor
pus; but this by no means interferes with the administration of justice so
far as to deprive any party arrested of his right to a speedy and public
trial by a jury, after indictment, etc. It does not lessen or weaken the right
of such party to redress for an illegal arrest. It does not authorize arrests
except upon oath or affirmation upon probable cause. It only secures the
party beyond misadventure to appear in person to answer the charge,
and prevents a release in consequence of insufficiency of proof, or other
like grounds, in any preliminary inquiry as to the formality or legality of
his arrest. It does not infringe or impair his other constitutional rights.
These Congress cannot impair by law. The constitutional guarantees are
above and beyond the reach or power of Congress ; and much more, if it
could be, above and beyond the power of any officer of the Government.
Your appointment, therefore, in my opinion, is simply a nullity. You, by
virtue of it, possess no rightful authority, and can exercise none. The
order creating you civil governor of Atlanta was a most palpable usurpa
tion. I speak of the act only in a legal and constitutional sense, — not of
the motives that prompted it. But a wise people, jealous of their rights,
would do well to remember, as De Lolme so well expressed it, that ' such
acts, so laudable when we only consider the motive of them, make a
breach at which tyranny will one day enter' if quietly submitted to too
long.
"Now, then, my opinion is, if any one be brought before you for pun
ishment for selling liquor to a soldier, or any other allegation, where there
is no law against it, no law passed by the proper law-making power, either
State or Confederate, and where, as a matter of course, you have no legal
or rightful authority to punish either by fine, or corporeally, etc., you
should simply make this response to the one who brings him or her, as the
case may be, that you have no jurisdiction of the matter complained of.
" A British queen (Anne) was once urged by the Emperor of Russia to
punish one of her officers for what his Majesty considered an act of in-
LIFE OF ALEXANDER IT. STEPHENS. 423
dignity to his ambassador to her court, though the officer had violated no
positive law. The queen's memorable reply was that 'she could inflict
no punishment upon any, the meanest of her subjects, unless warranted
by the law of the land.'
" This is an example you might well imitate. For I take it for granted
that no one will pretend that any general in command of our armies could
confer upon you or anybody greater power than the ruling sovereign of
England possessed in like cases under similar circumstances. The case
referred to in England gave rise to a change of the law. After that an
act was passed exempting foreign ministers from arrest. So with us. If
the proper discipline and good order of the army require that the sale of
liquor to a soldier by a person not connected with the army should be
prohibited (which I do not mean to question in the slightest degree), let
the prohibition be declared b}7 law, passed by Congress, with the pains
and penalties for a violation of it, with the mode and manner of trying
the offence plainly set forth. Until this is done, no one has any authority
to punish in such cases ; and any one who undertakes to do it is a tres
passer and a violator of the law. Soldiers in the service, as well as the
officers, are subject to the Rules and Articles of War, and if they commit
any offence known to the military code therein prescribed, they are liable
to be tried and punished according to the law made for their government.
If these Rules and Articles of War, or, in other words, if the military
code for the government of the army is defective in any respect, it ought
to be amended by Congress. There alone the power is vested. Neither
generals nor provost-marshals have any power to make, alter, or modify
laws either military or civil ; nor can they declare what shall be crimes,
either military or civil, or establish any tribunal to punish what they
may so declare. All these matters belong to Congress ; and I assure
you, in my opinion, nothing is more essential to the maintenance and
preservation of constitutional liberty than that the military be ever kept
subordinate to the civil authorities.
"You thus have my views hastily but pointedly given.
" Yours most respectfully,
"ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS."
Mr. Stephens returned to Crawfordville about the 1st of Oc
tober. On the 1st of November he addressed a meeting called
for the purpose of soliciting contributions in money or kind for
providing the soldiers from Taliaferro County with shoes and
clothing. He made a strong appeal to the patriotism and sym
pathy of his audience, dwelt upon the rightful ness and justice
of the cause of the South, which he pronounced a war " for
home, for firesides, for our altars, for our birthrights, for property,
for honor, for life, — in a word, for everything for which freemen
424 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
should live, and for which all deserving to be freemen should be
willing, if need be, to die.'7 He explained the 'plan, which he
had urged upon the Government, of making the cotton the basis
of a system of finance.
"I was in favor of the Government's taking all the cotton that would
be subscribed for eight per* cent, bonds at a rate as high as ten cents a
pound. Two millions of bales of the last year's crop might have been
counted upon as certain on this plan. This at ten cents, with bales of the
average commercial weight, would have cost the Government one hundred
millions of bonds. QVith this amount of cotton in hand and pledged, any
number, short of fifty, of the best iron-clad steamers could have been con-
.tracted for and built in Europe, — steamers at the cost of two millions
each could be procured. , /Thirty millions would have got fifteen of these,
which might have been enough for our purpose. Five might have been
ready by the 1st of January last to open some one of the ports blockaded
, on our coast. Three of these could have been left to keep the port open,
and two could have convoyed the cotton across the water, if necessary.
Thus the debt could have been promptly paid with cotton at a much
higher price than it cost, and a channel of trade kept open till others,
and as many more as necessary, might have been built and paid for in the
same way. At a cost of less than one month's present expenditure of our
army, our coast might have been cleared. Besides this, at least two more
millions of bales of the old crop on hand might have been counted on ;
this, with the other, making a debt in round numbers to the planters of
two hundred million dollars. But this cotton, held in Europe until its
price shall be fifty cents a pound, would constitute a fund of at least one
billion dollars, which would not only have kept our finances in sound
condition, but the clear profit of eight hundred million dollars would
have met the entire expenses of the war for years to come."
Mr. Stephens still advocated this policy as not yet too late,
and exposed the fallacy of those who recommended a cessation
of cotton culture and destruction of the stock on hand in the
hope of compelling England to raise the blockade. He dis
couraged the expectation of European recognition, and exhorted
to firmness and fortitude in preserving the last stronghold of
constitutional liberty. Addresses of similar import were de-
'^livered at various points in Georgia.
We have mentioned in an earlier part of this work Mr.
Stephens's generosity in assisting young persons of both sexes
to obtain an education. In the case of young women, the
money advanced by him was always a gift; with young men,
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 425
it was understood that after going into business they should
repay their benefactor his advances, whenever able to do so.
These beneficiaries were rarely selected from among the children
of his friends or acquaintance, or on account of any personal
prepossession in their favor. Whenever an appeal was made to
him on behalf of a youth of promise, without means to acquire
an education, he almost invariably responded. His friends,
taking into consideration the somewhat indifferent success of
many of his proteges, and the report that but few of them had
shown any gratitude to their benefactor, were rather of opinion
that he would have done more wisely in consulting his own
preferences in making the selection. This point was touched
upon in a letter to him from R. M. J., in which also he was
asked for some account of his beneficiaries ; and from the
answer to this letter we make the following extract :
;'I have assisted upwards of thirty young men in getting an education.
About a third of these I have taken from the stump and put through col
lege. The other two-thirds I assisted to graduation, but most of them at
a medical college. Out of the whole number only three who have lived
have failed to refund the money. The three I have alluded to are, I think,
scamps, except perhaps one. One who refunded I think is a scamp also,
though he is a preacher. Nine of the number I assisted are dead ; five
of these died before refunding : two died while at school. Only four of
the number studied law. Six are preachers : four Baptists, one Presby
terian, and one Methodist. One of them is (or was when last heard from)
a man of distinction in Tennessee, a professor and author. Another is at
the head of a high school in Mississippi, and another at the head of a high
school in Georgia. Mr. , the preacher, is, I think, a shabby fellow.
lie showed some ingratitude. The other three I spoke of I think shabby,
but I never heard of any ingratitude. Take the whole lot, all in all, I
think very well of them. The per centum of black sheep in the flock is
small : not more than one in twelve or thereabouts. Of the number I
assisted in getting medical diplomas, there are now living in the State
six. all clever physicians of good standing. Two of the physicians died
some years ago."
This was a more favorable report than his correspondent
had expected. A week later, Mr. Stephens again referred to
the same subject.
" In my letter a few days ago about those whom I had assisted in getting
an education, I omitted one fact which ought perhaps to have been stated.
426 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Fourteen of the number, at one time, or some time after quitting school,
became teachers. Several of them are still teaching. It is proper also to
state that none of them, that I am aware of. was ever addicted to intem
perance except one. He sometimes drank too much ; but he abandoned
liquor entirely before he died. I ought to say also that the four I spoke
of as shabby fellows all maintain what is considered respectable positions
in society. ... A great majority of those I have aided have done good
in their day and generation in their quiet spheres of life. This is a source
of great gratification to me."
Mr. Stephens has continued in this habit of aiding indigent
youth ; and the number of those whom he has thus helped has
amounted at the time of this writing to fifty-two.
During this winter Mr. Stephens and H. M. J. had many
conversations, memoranda of which were occasionally made.
We append some of these notes.
Being asked on what terms he was with the President, he
said:
" Very good. Whenever we meet he is quite cordial and agreeable.
We meet but seldom, however, lately. He used to send for me often to
consult with me; but since the Government has been removed to Rich
mond he has done so but once. What caused a change in him I do not
know. He has never shown any change in his bearing when I called to
see him." . . .
" Are he and Toombs avowed enemies?"
" By no means. Toombs treasures resentment against no one : malice has
no place in his nature. He and Davis had, as you know, a quarrel on the Gas-
kell affair some years ago. Whether there is any remnant of this in the
President's mind I do not know, and do not think there is any in Toombs' s.
He is, however, very decidedly hostile to many things in the conduct and
policy of the war. They are personally on good terms. I think the Presi
dent thinks very highly of Toombs's ability. When he was first elected
he consulted with me in reference to offering Toombs a place in his Cabinet.
I advised him to give him the choice of places, hoping that Toombs would
take what he ought to have taken, the Secretaryship of War ; but the
President replied that he wished to pay him the highest compliment by
offering him the highest position, which he did. He sent the offer by tele
graph to Augusta, where Toombs then was ; and Toombs answered declining
the position. The President sent this answer to me. Upon consultation
with me, he sent him another telegram. — the terms of which I dictated, —
urging him to take it. Upon his return to Montgomery he decided to
accept for a short time. They were on the best of terms, I think, so long
as Toombs remained in the Cabinet."
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 427
Some one having suggested that the Secretary of the Treas
ury had lately been purchasing cotton, as if he were taking
Mr. Stephens's views on the financial question, the latter re
marked :
" Yes. He has entirely abandoned his first views as to the unconstitu
tionally of the measure, and is now buying, as I sqe by the newspapers.
But it is too late to accomplish the good that might have been attained if
the policy had been adopted at first. I was very much surprised a few
days ago at getting a note from the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury,
complimenting my speech and saying that it was the ablest effort of my
life. I don't agree with him as to that ; but was quite surprised at getting
such a note from him. If he speaks the opinion of the Secretary, it is
very significant."
The conversation turning upon General Lee, Mr. Stephens
said :
"I have always regarded him as the ablest man in our army; indeed,
the first military man on the continent. I have always placed a very high
estimate upon him; not only as a general, but as a man, from my first
acquaintance with him. ... It requires a rare combination of qualities to
make a great leader of armies.
" The last time the President consulted with me on any question, it was
about who should be sent to command at Charleston. I urged him to send
Lee. Lee was sent. This was in November, 1861. The President thinks
very highly of his abilities. Yet I think Lee was surprised at Sharpsburg.
I do not think that he knew the enemy were pressing so close on his rear
after he went over into Maryland. Still he gained the fight, and I think
him vastly superior to McClellan, or any other one on the board at pres
ent, except J. E. Johnston, who perhaps is a better tactician than even
Lee."
One of the company remarked that there seemed to be a
growing sentiment among the people in favor of a strong gov
ernment, and that the experiment of self-government by the
people seemed to be regarded as a failure. He replied :
" I do not think so. There was no fault in the Government of the United
States. The difficulty was mainly with those in power and in the admin
istration of it. The machinery was good and sound : it was from the bad
working of it that the miseries came."
" But," it was insisted, " it was a failure. And if from that cause the
failure is more certain and more melancholy, might we not as well give up
the question ?"
MR. S. — "By no means. /I shall never be willing to give up constitu-
428 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
tional liberty, or the doctrine that the people can easily and safely govern
themselves upon the principles upon which our institutions rest."") In our
system these principles rest upon the rights and sovereignty of tHe States.
For their support are requisite virtue, intelligence, patriotism, and con
stancy on the part of the great body of the people. When I see the ap
parent indifference of so many among us on the questions involving these
essential principles of our liberties, and the success of our system, I must
confess I have fears for the future. Still, I am far from giving it up. I
think the system at the North is a failure. But our people are different.
We have more virtue, and by far more political intelligence in the masses
of our people than they have. The great body of our people are honest,
industrious, frugal, pure, and not disposed to look to Government for any
thing but wise and equal laws. In other words, they look to Government
for nothing but justice. At the North the great mass look to Government
as a means for living by their wits in some way. Government with them
is a license to rob and plunder in some way or other ; and to get control
of Government for these purposes is the highest object of their ambition.
The people there, as well as their rulers, have been corrupted for years, —
at least a large portion of them, if not the majority. The same thing is
true of a portion of our people, and we have some corrupt leaders. But
the great majority are not so. They understand their rights, and all they
want of rulers is to give them good government. So long as this shall pre
dominate I shall never despair of the principles of self-government with
our people."
The conversation turning to Mr. Douglas, Mr. Stephens said :
" I expected that Douglas would oppose the settlement of the Kansas
difficulties under the Lecompton Constitution. I won a bet on that from
Governor Cobb. The Free-Soil men had been promised by Governor
Walker — who told them that he spoke for one higher than himself [mean
ing President Buchanan] — that the constitution framed should be sub
mitted to the people for their ratification. Acting upon that promise, they
did not vote. Douglas was willing to make the issue on that first election,
but the Administration refused to do that, and so refused for the purpose
of ruining Douglas at the North. As the issue was not thus made, Doug
las refused to abide by the first election. I voted purely upon the legality
of that election, and upon its being right. Mr. Buchanan had given
assurances which he had no right to give ; but the election was legal, and
the result gave to the South only what was just and right. Afterwards I
urged both Buchanan and Cobb not to wage war upon Douglas, but I
could exert no influence upon either."
Speaking of secession, he said :
"If the South had not seceded, Lincoln's Administration would have
broken down in sixty days. He was utterly powerless to do harm."
CHAPTER XXXVII.
The Conscript Law — Sir Bingo Binks — Lord Lyons and Seward — Canine
Nomenclature — Linton's 'Resolutions — Generals Lee and Johnston —
Death of Rio— A Tribute to an Old Friend— Religion— Confederate Bonds
— Military Operations — Exchange of Prisoners — Proposed Mission to
"Washington — Speeches — Home News.
MR. STEPPIENS'S health was still very delicate, and about the
opening of the new year, 1863, he was troubled with unusual
symptoms. He employs his leisure moments, however, in read
ing the "Waverley novels, on which he passes some general criti
cisms in a letter to Lin ton. We find, too, in his correspondence
frequent allusions to the smallpox, which was spreading in a
rather alarming manner; disseminated by the paper money, he
thinks. At this time the Conscription Law was creating con
siderable excitement, and we have his views on the subject in
the following letter:
CrawfordmUe^ January 15th. — . . . u I send you in this the decision of
our Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Conscript Laws. I think
it overshoots the whole question. The authorities cited are not one of them
to the point, except Monroe's letter and Troup's speech. As far as they
are authority, they are to the point. But they, like the decision, rest solely
upon assumptions. The more this question is sifted and discussed, the
more I am satisfied that its whole merits turn upon the proper meaning in
the Constitution of the word ' militia.' That word imports, proprio vigore,
as I understand it, the fighting men of a country who are to be relied upon,
or called forth by any sort of compulsory process. Our old Constitution
contemplated two kinds of fighting forces; such as they were used to, —
such as England had: the one the regular army, the other the militia.
The power in the twelfth clause refers solely to the former: the other
clause relates to the latter. And in the exercise of the power under
the twelfth clause the Government was to have the same power which in
like circumstances the government of England had, — no more. Our court
seems to think this a very small power. The truth is, it is a very great
power in itself: and it was against that that the strong declamations were
made in the State Conventions. It was in favor of that — that alone —
429
430 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
that Hamilton and Madison spoke and wrote. It was a very great con
cession on the part of the States to empower the Common Government to
enlist, raise, or hold troops, armies, etc., and support them at the common
expense, with power to raise the funds thus to support them. All the
authorities cited from contemporaneous history by the court refer to that
point only, — the power to maintain and support an army at all without
the consent of the States. This, after argument, was what was granted,
and nothing more. On the question of how that army was to be raised
not a word was said, because no one dreamed of its ever being raised in
any but the old time-honored way, by voluntary enlistment. If, as you so
strongly stated in your speech, it gave or was intended to give unlimited
power as to the mode of raising, then the militia clauses were useless and
nonsensical. . . . The truth is, there were strong, very strong objections
against even empowering the General Government to act directly on the
citizens of the State at all. The opponents specially protested against
tax-gatherers and armed men to sustain them. These two points were
more opposed perhaps than any in the Convention. Both points were
carried : both powers were delegated, but neither was delegated unlimit-
edly. The power to collect revenue is closely guarded in several particu
lars ; but so far as the argument of our court goes, that is just as unlimited
as the other. Such a rehash of old Federal doctrine as this decision pre
sents I have not met with in many a day. If its principles be correct, on
what ground can our court justify our present position towards the Federal
Government? It must be a rebellion. The constitutional right of the
Federal Government to compel the services of the entire arms-bearing
population in all the States to obey the behests of the Washington authori
ties, except such as may be necessary to keep up the functions of a State
Government, is clear, according to the doctrines of this decision. At least
it so seems to me. This inference, however, the court would doubtless
deny. . . .
" I see Mr. Gardner, of the Constitutionalist, has opened against the States
assuming the Confederate debt. I wrote to him some time ago on this
subject. ... I see he has used my ideas very freely, — in many instances
my very language. I do trust this great folly will not be perpetrated.
Memminger, I am informed from Richmond, is in favor of it. I suppose
really it originated with him. On this point I do trust Georgia will prove
the bulwark of our safety.''
This letter further illustrates how the opposition of Mr.
Stephens to the policy most in favor at Richmond, while at the
same time he did not wish to assume an attitude of direct hos
tility to the Administration, left him no choice but to remain,
as far as possible, retired from public affairs, except when im
perative duty summoned him.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 431
January 18th. — Poor Rio being now in the last stage of
senility and decrepitude, Linton has presented his brother with
another dog, a bull-terrier pnp. The name of this pup is a
subject of considerable deliberation ; and Mr. Stephens's recent
study of Scott now stands him in good stead.
" I have concluded upon reflection that the dog's name shall be ' Sir Bingo
Binks,' in full. I will not do the illustrious hero the indignity of quar
tering him while I embalm his memory by giving his name to my bull-
terrier. He shall have the whole name, title and all. So there will be
plenty of room for nicknames. — Sir Bingo, Bing, or Binks, as may best
please the fancy. . . .
" By the morning train I got the President's message. It is decidedly the
best, upon theHvhole, that has yet emanated from him. The general tone
and character of it is admirable. I do not like his recommendation of the
States guaranteeing a portion of the common or Confederate debt, — that is
decidedly a wrong policy. Nor do I like his boast about the working of the
Conscript Laws. These things in it I wish were out. Still, as a whole, it
has fewer faults and more excellences than any he has ever before made.
" I have been wondering with myself for some time as to what it is that
has caused the change of tone in the leading British press toward us and
our cause. There evidently has been such a change. This time last year,
before that, and up to midsummer, the London Times and other papers
were more friendly to us than they have been since. A change of some
sort seems to have come o'er the spirit of their dr.eam. I have felt it, and,
as I said, have been trying to discover the cause. The conclusion I have
corne to is that it was effected by Lord Lyons. I suspect that was the
business of his visit home last summer; the change corresponds with that
time. Lyons is an abolitionist of the Palmerston and Seward school. He
had been in this country or at Washington only a short time before seces
sion, lie had formed but few acquaintances with Southern men. I don't
think Toombs had ever met him. I know he had no intimacy with him.
In his position and with his predilections he was easily duped by Seward,
and made a fit instrument to effect his purposes in securing the favorable
opinion of European courts. This is my solution of the matter. Palmer
ston and Seward are in alliance ; and I should not be surprised if his Ad
ministration is overturned soon. Davis's message is calculated to have a
better effect upon our foreign relations, both with the United States and
abroad, than anything he has ever before said. I now think that the war
will break down in a twelvemonth somewhere. We may not have peace,
but we shall have a smash-up. The present armies cannot be sustained.
Gold is going up rapidly at the North. If we can stand before the enemy
and hold our own until May, a large part of the Federal army will go out
of service, — three hundred thousand of those called for in August last were
for nine months. Meantime, it will be no easy matter for us to hold on.
432 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Our expenditures are enormous, — to meet them we have nothing as yet
but the new issue of treasury-notes. These swell the currency until prices
are frightful, — expenditures increasing in the same ratio. Taxation can
not itself reduce it. Four hundred millions are now required, I see by
the Treasury Report. We cannot stand a tax for more than a hundred and
twenty millions, — that would be very heavy. I think it would be better
to tax in kind, — take produce and army supplies, and quit issuing treasury-
notes.''
January 22d. — It seems a. letter from Lin ton has been lost,
which he "regrets extremely, as I should have been pleased to
read what you said on the subject of naming dogs, and especially
what yon said about Scott and the order of his works," — on which
latter topic he had solicited his brother's views in a previous
letter.
..." What Davis means by Lincoln's proclamation being irrevocable,
or its admitting ' of no retraction,' I suppose is this : it is not in its nature
executory, as his first one was ; it is not menacing, but absolute and final
action. It is a declaration of emancipation absolutely within the extent
of its limits. The power that issued it is forever estopped by the act in
opposing or changing it. It is like a pardon, — final, absolute, and beyond
retraction. It would, I think, be impossible upon any public principles,
or those recognized among nations, for Lincoln to agree to any terms of
peace which would change that fact; or I do not mean exactly that, but
I mean it would be impossible for the States to go back into the Union
with their slaves. He, as President, could not hereafter ignore his act,
and put back into slavery those now declared free. The proclamation
destroys all prospect of a restored Union with slavery as it was.
But I am not in condition to express myself clearly, and I will quit. My
pen, too, is abominable, and I never could write or think either when I
am trying to write with a mean pen."
January 25th. — Sir Bingo seems to be scarcely more polished
or dignified in manner than his sponsor in St. Ronan's Well.
"When I got home the other morning, I found that Sir Bingo Binks
had created quite a stir on my lot. He had greatly rumpled Rio's feelings
by his rude familiarity, he had provoked sundry snaps from Troup for
biting and catching at his legs, which had greatly alarmed Ellen [the
chambermaid] for the puppy's safety, the more so as she laid claim to him
as hers. When I arrived, I found Binks after the chickens, which had
brought old Mat out, greatly disturbed at this new pest in her poultry-
yard. She was driving him from one brood, where he had produced
considerable confusion, but the mischievous rascal immediately put out
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 433
after another, when an old hen, nothing daunted by his appearance, flew
upon him with impetuous fury, which turned the tide of war, or fun, as
the case happened to be viewed by different sides. Binks gave a squall,
tucked his tail and fled, much to old Mat's gratification. Now whether the
dog perceived this, and determined upon his own revenge in his own way,
or not, I cannot undertake to say ; but a change came over the spirit of
his humors. He broke out in a new direction. This time he took after
old Mat herself, caught the skirts of her dress, running round first on one
side and then the other, and almost tripping her up. She looked to me
very strongly tempted to kick or stamp the insolent whelp, and perhaps
would have done it if Binks's good fortune had not come to his timely
relief by bringing my presence on the ground. I was surprised to see
him so well grown and sprightly. By supper-time every room, corner,
and nook of the house into which he could find entrance was explored,
and all the grounds and houses round about ; even under the kitchen he
had found his way in pursuit of a chicken, and there he found a place
which it seems suited him better for lodgings than any he elsewhere dis
covered. To this place soon after supper he betook himself for the night,
and no calling or coaxing was effectual in getting him out. It was
amusing to hear the different names that were given him. Frank Bristow
calls him ' Binger' ; the parson calls him ' Mingo' ; I call him sometimes
' Sir Bingo Binks,' but usually ' Binks' ; while Anthony gives the Dutch
sound of the B, and calls him ' Pinks.' Old Mat, whether from spite or
not, calls him 'Minks'; while Ellen, Tim, and the younger fry, seeing
such confusion among the elders, content themselves with simply styling
him the ' puppy.' So he is likely to have names enough. And if you
think there is really anything in a dog's name, I should like to have
your prognostications in this case."
Some reference having been made to Captain Raphael Semmes,
of the Alabama, Mr. Stephens writes :
" I was quite intimate with Captain Semmes. — used to correspond with
him. He is a planter in Alabama ; never quitted the navy, however. For
several years before secession he was at the head of the Lighthouse Board
in "Washington. He resigned as soon as Alabama seceded, though he
agreed thoroughly with me in my position on that question, as his letters
to me show. He was a Douglas man, and you need not therefore be
surprised when I tell you that I consider him a very sensible, intelligent,
and gallant man. I aided him in getting honorable position in our navy,
and in getting him afloat as soon as possible, which he greatly desired.
I tried my best to get Lieutenant Graves at a later period — last October —
a position on the Florida, which lately sailed from Mobile. Graves is a
gallant fellow. I appointed him to the naval school at Annapolis. He
is at present on duty at Fort Morgan, and was very anxious to go out on
this new steamer."
28
434 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
January 29th. — A long, chatty letter, beginning with remarks
on the naming of dogs, — still a prominent subject in his
thoughts, — and running off to a general disquisition on the
subject of humor, with special reference to the humor of Eras
mus, Plato, Cicero, Cervantes, Scott, Shakspeare, and Dickens.
It is to the infusion of humor into their deeper thoughts, he
thinks, that all those works which are destined to last for ages
owe their immortality. Finally, he calls a halt, somewhat
surprised at the train of speculation he has fallen into, — " all
springing indirectly from the very small matter of giving a
name to a puppy, — Bingo, or Sir Bingo Binks, now lying fast
asleep on the rug by the fire, little dreaming what combinations
of thoughts he has set a-going."
January 29th. — Linton, his brother John's son, has just left
for the army, to join the " Jo. Thompson Artillery" as a vol
unteer.
"I was very much struck with Linton's general bearing before and at
the time of his departure, lie seemed perfectly calm and deliberate, with
out any excitement one way or the other, — neither elated nor depressed.
. . . Up to the time of leave-taking he was cheerful as usual, not the
slightest change whatever in his usual manner ; and when the watches in
dicated twenty minutes to the time the cars were due, he went out. rigged
himself up, and threw around him that double thick carpet-blanket in the
library which I had before told him to take. This he wore as a sort of
shawl. The large red pattern gave it a fantastic appearance, very much
like a Mexican blanket. At this he smiled, as all looked on admiringly,
said it was very comfortable, and bid us good-by just as if he had been
going home. I walked out with him to the steps on the portico toward
the church. The shawl hung low down, sweeping the ground, Binks fol
lowed and seized one corner of it in play. Linton said, laughing, ' Let go
my dress !' This was the last thing I heard him say. He seemed to have
a humorous idea that he was habited something like a woman. I felt sad ;
but the feeling was softened by the cheerfulness with which he stepped on
board the bark just launching him upon the voyage of life. 1 suspect his
mother is now lonely in feeling, all her boys who have been with her so
long having left her almost at once. I want to go down to see her."*
He then comments on some resolutions which Linton pro
posed to introduce in the Legislature on the subject of the Con-
* Mrs. John Stephens and family were then living at the old homestead.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 435
script Laws, and suggests some modifications. For the seventh
resolution he proposes this wording :
"Resolved, That while we regard the said Conscript Acts as thus violat
ing the Constitution of the Confederate States, and involving principles
dangerous to liberty as well as subversive of the Sovereignty of the States
in cases that may arise ; yet, under existing circumstances, we waive all
opposition to their present execution, reserving to ourselves the use of such
remedies as may be demanded by any future emergency."
This he thinks the better way to put it. And he desires that
the eighth resolution shall provide for their presentation to both
Houses of Congress, as " Georgia's solemn protest against the
principles and policy of said acts," but " omitting the allusion to
repeal." Then follows a rather touching mention of a humble
friend who had just died.
" I saw him frequently during the last session of Congress. He used to
come and visit me when, he could get out of the hospital. He seemed to
consider me as kinsfolk, and acted as if he had home-folks to go to see and
talk with. This sort of feeling is a great relief to one in a distant land
among strangers, especially when weak and sick."
January 29th. — (To R. M. J.) " I do not think much of the demonstra
tion spoken of by the Democrats in the Northwestern States. I have no
idea of anything like armed resistance to the Lincoln Administration there ;
and indeed I don't put much faith in what is said of the extent of the dis
affection or the degree to which it has gone in that section. It is very
much like accounts heralded in Northern papers of the disaffection among us.
What do you suppose a Yankee paper would say over Governor Brown's
proclamation about bands of traitors or tories in our State that require the
military to put them down ? Nothing of that sort has occurred in any part
of the North yet; and we know, or ought to know, how little confidence is
to be attached to it from what we see among ourselves. The great major
ity of the masses, both North and South, are true to the cause of their
side,— no doubt about that. A large majority on both sides are tired of
the war ; want peace. I have no doubt about that. But as we do not
want peace without independence, so they do not Avant peace without
union. There is the difficulty. I think the war will break down in less
than a twelvemonth : but I really do not see in that any prospect for
peace, permanent peace. Peace founded upon a treaty recognizing our
separate independence is not yet in sight of me."
Februai~y 7th. — " I have from the beginning looked upon Lee as our
ablest general. Before the Government was removed to Richmond, and
before any reputation was won by any man in either army, except by Beau-
regard -at Charleston, I gave it frequently as my opinion that Lee was our
436 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
best officer and McClellan the best the Yankees had. I have never changed
that opinion in the slightest degree from that day to this. The President
always thought that General Albert Sydney Johnston was the ablest gen
eral on the continent. This I have heard him say, or its equivalent. I
did not know General Johnston, but thought highly of him on account of
the President's opinion, until he had been at the head of the army awhile
in Kentucky. I then came to the conclusion that the President was mis
taken in his estimate of him, and that conclusion of my mind has not been
shaken since, not even by the battle of Shiloh. General Joseph E. Johns
ton is, I think, General Sydney Johnston's superior. In some things I
think he is Lee's superior, or has some qualities essential for a general in
a superior degree 5 but he lacks others which Lee possesses. So, taken on
the whole, he is, in my judgment, Lee's inferior. I regard Lee as one of
the first men I ever met. I was wonderfully taken with him in our first
interview. I saw him put to the test which tries the metal of character. —
the stuff that a man is made of^lle came out of the crucible pure and
refined gold, so far as integrity and patriotism are concerned."
February 8th. — He is rather indignant at the views of the
Conscript Act and its constitutionality recently propounded by
certain public men.
" In my opinion the power to raise armies delegated to Congress is pre
cisely the power given by the Secretary of War to any person he may
select ' to raise a regiment.' Nothing more and nothing less. Suppose
such authority given, as it has often been done, 'with full power to raise
a regiment;' would anybody in this day, in this country, ever dream that
such an agent had power to impress freemen into his corps? An attempt
to do so would excite wonder as well as indignation ; but not a whit more,
in my opinion, than would have been excited in the Convention that formed
the Constitution in 1787, if it had been told them that their agent, Congress,
under this clause would attempt that thing.
..." There are two ways of levying troops : one by enlistment, the
other by compulsion. Congress has power to raise a levy in both wavs, —
no doubt about that. — with a qualification, however, in the latter mode.
The power in the first clause to. raise extends only to the former mode.
The following clause relates only to the subject how troops are to be
ordered into service when necessary. For the power to provide for calling
out the militia means nothing more than the power to order out or compel
those to go into service who are able to go and who will not go without
the call, the order, or the compulsion. All those who stand in this class
are militia, whether organized or not, ex m iermini, though they are to be
organized before they are called out. This is what Congress has power
to provide for by law : to have that class of people put into companies,
regiments, etc., and trained ready to be i called out,' 'ordered out,' or
'compelled' to go out when required."
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 437
u March 8th. — (To R. M. J.) '\If our Congress will not do something,
and that speedily, to sustain our finances, the break-down will be on our
own side) Our credit is suffering greatly. Nothing will save it but im-
mediate4axation, and high taxation at that. Lincoln is no more a dictator
now than he has been all the time ; and as for the Herald, I am not sur
prised at anything in it. It is a mercenary sheet, and utterly destitute
of any principle whatever, either moral, social, or political. The Yankee
Conscript Law was what I was apprehensive they would adopt. Its main
object is to retain in the service those whose terms were about to expire.
I don't think Lincoln will call out a great many more troops. lie will
keep his army at about a million strong. I have been expecting our
recognition by Napoleon early in the spring. One or two items of news
from Northern papers within the last ten days tend to check this expecta
tion. These are the correspondence which has come to light between
Secretary Seward and the Mexican Minister at Washington. From this
it is clearly seen that Seward is currying favor with Napoleon by afford
ing indirect aid in his Mexican War. That war he must feel a deep in
terest in, and such favor as the Washington Government may show him
will go a long way in keeping him from making it his enemy. Again, I
see it stated that Lincoln has been closeted with Mercier at Washington.
There is no foundation for the assertion in our papers that Seward had
given the lie direct to Mercier's statement touching his visit last year to
Richmond. I have read Mercier's letter and Seward's ; there is no con
tradiction in them."
March 19th. — He has just returned from Washington (Geor
gia), where he has been to see General Toombs, who is very
sick. He has other sad news to tell, of the loss of a faithful
friend :
" It is all over with poor old Rio ! He died soon after I left the house
for the cars on Monday. I left him in the passage between the library
and the main building. He was very quiet and seemed to be in a sleep.
I took a last look at him, for I never expected to see him again. After I
got out of the gate near the academy, I heard him bark loud and repeat
edly, just as he used to bark when I left home. It seemed to me that he
knew I had gone. I verily believe he did,— by what strange instinct I
cannot say. I told Anthony, who was with me, to go back and be with
him, and keep him from falling out at the door, and to take care of him.
Before the cars left the depot, Harry sent word to me that he was dead.
''Anthony says that after he stopped barking he got up and staggered
into the library and went towards my room. His strength failed just at
my room door; then he fell and died without any struggle or evidence of
suffering. I had given orders about his burial before I left. — these were
followed. He lay in the library all night, in the position in which he
438 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
usually slept, with his face on his fore-feet. Next day he was put into a
box or coffin made by George, and buried in the garden, between the rock-
pile and the palings. lie was placed in the coffin as he lay.
"It is just two weeks this evening since he and I took our last evening
walk. That night he had a cough and seemed unwell ; next day he was
worse. The last two days he did not seem to suffer so much as he did two
or three days before, but slept quietly most of the time.
" He was a remarkable dog, — most devoted in his attachment to me : and
I do heartily sorrow and grieve for him. After his afflictions, when he
was deaf and blind, it Avas a source of melancholy pleasure to me to lead
and direct him about, and think of his acts in his better days ; and now
the remembrance of these walks with him in his infirmities awakens
associations of as much interest as any connected with his whole life. . . .
" The world will never see another Rio. And few dogs ever had. or
ever will have, such a master. Over his grave I shed a tear, as I did over
him frequently as I saw nature failing."
March %Oth.—(To R. M. J.) After speaking of a visit he
had just made to General Toombs, he tells of the death of poor
Rio. He recounts the details that have been already given, and
thus concludes :
" I shed tears at his grave yesterday, and feel as if I shall shed many
more for him before he passes from my memory. The infirmities of his
old age rather increased than lessened my attachment to him. His devo
tion to me was, I believe, stronger than life. For nearly thirteen years
he has been my constant companion, day and night, when I have been at
home, and until he became blind a few years ago, he always attended me
wherever I went, except to Washington City. You may well imagine then
how I miss him ! Miss him in the yard, in the house, in my walks ; for,
though blind, he used to follow me about the lot wherever I went. When
I was reading or writing he was always at my feet. At night, too, his
bed was the foot of my own. His beautiful white thick coat of wool was
soft as silk. But you know him and need no description.<J[Ie is gone.
You, nor I, nor any one will ever see his like again>> Who that knew him
as I did could refrain from shedding a tear for Rio?"
March 29th. — Heavy and continued rains interfere with farm
operations.
" This is a dull and gloomy day, — well adapted in my loneliness to in
crease that sadness which your last two letters produced ; but I have long
since learned not to indulge such feelings. They always increase as they
are nurtured. ... I have much to make me melancholy : indeed, I should
have been a victim of melancholy long ago if I had not resisted it with
all my might. I now feel as i£ I had conquered in the conflict. It was
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 439
not, however, without great danger from another source which I perceived
and had to guard and strive against with equal vigilance and energy, —
that was misanthropy. These have been the Scylla and Charybdis in my
life. Melancholy and misanthropy, — the rocks and the whirlpool. I have,
I think, escaped both. This I do not think I have accomplished by myself:
I feel within that I have been sustained by an unseen power on whom I
have relied and to whom I have locked in my worst trials, even in the
darkest hours, with hope and assurance that all would be well under His
guidance and protection. I do not feel justified before Him ; but I do
feel that with his long-suffering and loving-kindness my frailties will be
graciously pardoned, my weakness strengthened, and patience and forti
tude imparted sufficient to enable me to bear all the ills of this life, and
that by discharging rny duties fully and to the best of my ability during
this probationary existence, I shall be fitted for that higher sphere here
after, where there will be no more pain and no more suffering, no more
trouble and no more sin. These are the principles and convictions on
which I act. I have for years made it my business to devote a portion of
each day to prayer — in communing with this unseen, all-pervading Power
— with God. I was in early life deeply impressed with what is called
religious feeling ; but after I grew up and entered the world these feelings
greatly subsided. I at one time became skeptical, callous. The world
was a mystery : I could see nothing good in it. I was miserable, and that
continually. But coming to the conclusion, after a close self-examination,
that the error might be in myself, I determined to adopt a new line of
policy for my conduct. jf-TRe first resolution was to cease finding fault
with, or thinking about, >rh at I could not understand. The second was
to nurture and cultivate assiduously the kindlier affections of the heart,
and with this every day, at some hour, to put myself in communion with
God to the best of my ability, asking Him to aid, assist, direct, and pro
tect me in doing right.
" The effect of this upon my mind and feelings, and general views of
things, was soon felt by me. The exercise which at first seemed meaning
less and senseless, soon appeared to bring a certain inexplicable satisfaction
to the spirit. The earlier impressions of life soon revived. I felt a better
— a much more contented and happier man. The feeling grew with its
culture, — it softened the temper, awakened deeper emotions of reverence,
gratitude, and love. It gave consolation in grief, strength in resisting
temptation. It impressed the mind with man's weakness and frailties,
and his dependence on God. It seemed to elevate the soul and put it in
unison with its Maker. This is what sustains me.
"Such is the character of my religion. I make no boast of it; and
perhaps very few people who know me have any idea of its existence, even
to this extent. For I heard last year that had expressed the opinion
that I was an unbeliever ; and some years ago Toombs told me that a
gentleman whom I will not name — now dead — said in speaking of me
440 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
that I was an infidel — or atheist, I forget which. These opinions produced
but one effect on me, and that was the rather painful reflection that I had
perhaps not set the world such an example of the real faith that was in
me, as I ought to have done. But I have always had such an aversion
to what I consider the cant of religion, that I have been rather inclined
to suppress than to exhibit to others what I really think and feel in such
matters. So far as it concerns the world's judgment in my case, it must
look to my acts and conduct.
" I must ask pardon from even you for what I have said in this digres
sion on the subject. I only meant briefly to say a few things about that
inward, and I believe spiritual, Power that sustains me in hours of doubt
and darkness, as well as in periods of sunshine and good fortune, and to
assure you that my life, upon the whole, for many years, has not been an
unhappy one. ... I can say no more now. Indeed, I have said a great
deal more than I intended. I have never before said, even to you, so much
about some of my heart's secrets. May God be with you, sustain you,
guide you, and protect you !"
March 29th. — (To 11. M. J.) " So soon as the spring opens, I expect to
go on to Richmond. I am in lower spirits than usual. The signs of the
times are dark and gloomy to me : darker and gloomier than they ever have
been here, except during the summer and fall of 1860, when I saw por
tended so clearly all the troubles we now have upon us, and those still
worse which I fear are ahead of us. . . .
" Our country is in a sad condition : worse than the people are at all
aware of. It is painful to me to look towards the future. I shrink from
it as from a frightful gulf towards which we are rapidly tending. This is
a general fast-day, dedicated to humiliation and prayer, — most appropriate
duties. . . .
"My motto is patience, fortitude, and duty, at all times and under all
circumstances. The world and its events are beyond my control : all I can
do is to perform my part faithfully to the best of my ability, with the firm
conviction that all in the end will be right, whether it is as I wish it or
not."
April %d. — He has received a letter from Linton touching
upon religious matters, and takes up again his former train of
thought. Then continues :
"I spent three pleasant days and nights down at my homestead place.
Did a great deal of work, and have had a great deal done which I think
will be useful, mostly in hill-side ditching to save the old hills over which
I wandered and worked when a boy. My mind all the time was filled
with recollections of my earliest youth.
"I was entertained at night with Andy . He is a smart little fellow
and says some rare things. The other night his mother was washing him
for bed, and, as usual with children, he cried under the operation, and told
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 441
his mother not to put her finger so deep into ' the mud-holes of his ears.'
The deep recesses of those organs he called ' the mud-holes,' and the other-
parts ' the gullies' of his ears."
April 3d. — . . . " I do hope our State will not endorse the Confederate
bonds; but I see A. expresses the opinion that the bill for this purpose
will pass by a large majority. It will be a great error and blunder if it
is done 5 and those who vote for it will rue it if they live. The whole
scheme is radically wrong in purpose. The responsibility of creating debt,
and paying it, or providing for its payment, ought to rest on the same
shoulders. No possible good can result from the measure. For the power
to tax is plenary in the Confederate Government, — State endorsement can
not add a particle to the credit of the bonds in case of success in estab
lishing independence. No good then can possibly come of it; but much
mischief may. For if Congress has let its credit run by appropriating
without the nerve to tax, what will they not do when they are relieved
from that responsibility, or imagine themselves relieved, and turned loose
to spend without limit? Many do not understand this matter: they do
not consider that if Congress does not pay the interest on these bonds, say
next year, that the State will have to tax the citizens to meet this payment.
The debt now is not much short of one thousand millions. Georgia's part
of this would be, in round numbers, about one hundred millions. The
annual interest on this will be, in round numbers, about eight millions.
Are these people who will vote for this bill of endorsement ready to vote
this annual tax on their constituents? The truth is. they are not, and
will not do it. Why, then, should they say they will? Why give the
pledge? They unwisely think they nor their successors will never be
called on to redeem it. In this they are sadly mistaken. I feel deeply
upon the subject. It is utterly wrong, and the worst consequences will
follow the policy, if adopted.''
April 7th. — Has been to see General Toombs, who is recover
ing, and speaks with much gratification of the mental vigor he
displays. Thinks it desirable that General T. shall go into the
House, as he refuses to be a candidate for Governor.
" I am not without hope that the endorsement matter will fail in our
Legislature. I am beginning to think that our President is aiming at the
obtainment of power inconsistent with public liberty. I wrote to Mr.
G last week that if the views of the Richmond Enquirer were adopted
by the people, we should be lost and ruined forever. Still, I am not with
out hope that the people, with proper counselling and rallying, will check
any such schemes. I was put greatly in hopes on this point from the man
ner in which General Toombs talked. But in all things I do not permit
myself to despair. I am determined to do my duty, and leave consequences
to the Great Disposer of events, feeling assured that all will be right.<CX_
may not see it, but it will be right.
442 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Richmond, May 1st. — Refers to rumors of a great fight going
on at Fredericksbnrg. This was the great four days' fighting
between Hooker and Lee; Hooker with one hundred and thirty-
two thousand men, well drilled and equipped, and Lee with
about fifty thousand effective strength. Hooker Avas met and
foiled at every point, and finally driven back. From the point
where the combat was most severe this has generally been called
the Battle of Chancellorsville. But it cost the Confederacy
dearly in the irreparable loss of " Stonewall" Jackson, fatally
wounded by a shot fired in mistake by his own men.
In this note Mr. Stephens expresses himself as much gratified
by the friendly way in which he was received by the members
of both Houses of Congress.
Richmond, June 26th. — Lee had now started on his movement
into Pennsylvania, and had crossed the Potomac the day before,
Hooker following him. There was much excitement in Rich
mond, as the enemy was making another " demonstration" on
that city. Mr. Stephens had been home on a brief visit, and
had been summoned to the capital by a telegram from the
President, but at the time of writing had not yet seen him.
" I learned an important fact in North Carolina, which I suppose is the
cause of the President's call for militia for State defence. Correspondence
intercepted between Foster, of North Carolina, and Montgomery, on the
Georgia coast, shows that a plan was concocting to have a general insur
rection among the slaves on the 1st day of August. Indeed, the plan is
concocted and perfected on a limited scale. They are to make it as exten
sive as possible by the time. From prudential reasons the correspondence
has not yet been made public."
June 27th. — On this day Hooker was succeeded by Meade,
and pressed on to meet Lee, now entering Pennsylvania.
" To-day I had an interview with the President. I may go further
before my return.* There is great excitement in the city : no doubt a
formidable force is advancing on it from below, far superior in numbers
to any that can be brought against it. It may be a feint, but is believed
* The reference is to Mr. Stephens's first attempt to have an interview
with Mr. Lincoln and the authorities at "Washington. It is explained in
full in The War between the States, vol. ii. coll 22.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 11. STEPHENS. 443
to be real. We have now five steamers running from a Southern port to
a neutral one. These are not armed vessels. The Alabama, Florida. Vir
ginia, Georgia, and Clarence are armed ships afloat. We have got by our
commercial steamers about eighty thousand stand of arms lately, powder,
etc., and eight hundred cases of bacon and other army supplies. Vicks-
burg has been replenished with provisions from the other side. No news
from Lee. Nobody here knows where he is. I am still very anxious to
hear from home, but would advise you to trust nothing of importance to
the mails."
Vicksburg, however, was near its fall. On the night of the
22d of April, Grant's transports had rim by the batteries to
Grand Gulf, where his forces were, from which point lie brought
them up, and being joined by Sherman, began a siege. The city
was held by General Pemberton with about thirty thousand men.
It was partly to relieve Pemberton, by drawing off a part of
Grant's force, that Lee invaded Pennsylvania. On the 1st, 2d,
and 3d of July was fought the great battle of Gettysburg, in which
the Confederates were not only checked in their advance, but
compelled to retire into Virginia. On the Fourth of July
Vicksburg surrendered, and Port Hudson on the 9th, thus open
ing the Mississippi.
Richmond, June 28tli. — The excitement in the city continues,
all citizens under arms, but nothing definitely known.
"The state of the controversy on the condition of affairs between the
two Governments in regard to the exchange of prisoners is in a very
unsatisfactory condition. We are upon the eve of the bloodiest and most
barbarous system of retaliation. The enemy refuses to exchange any
prisoner: they hold all our prisoners to retaliate upon if we execute such
officers as may be captured leading negro troops. Whether anything can
be done to avert this result I do not know. I am willing to do all I can
to avert it, but am not hopeful."
June 30th. — ... "It is desired, I believe, by the Government that I
should go farther, or at least attempt to go farther, and see if any agree
ment can be made on the disputed points. It is not certain that I would
be received. . . . From what I can see of the state of the questions, I
have but little hope of being able to effect anything, even if negotiations
should be entertained. ... It is thought important to have the effort
made and the overture rejected before resort to retaliation, which is now
apparently the next step before us. . . . No news from Lee. None from
Vicksburg. The enemy at White House are increasing their forces, it is
said. The citizens are all out under arms this evening."
444 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
July 1st. — u I believe it is pretty well settled that I shall go farther. . . .
I saw the President again this morning. He is quite sick with dysentery,
and was suffering greatly. He has conversed with me very freely, unre
servedly, and most confidingly on all matters pertaining to the present
position of our affairs. So have all his Cabinet. Would that my powers,
under the guidance and aid of the Ruler of the universe, were equal to
what they desire me to accomplish! But I assure you that I have but
little hope of succeeding in the least one of these objects. They urged
me to go, though I told them candidly that in the present condition of
things I could effect nothing. I yielded my judgment to theirs."
Evening. — . . . " Mr. Seddon has just left me. It is determined that I
go. Expect to start the day after to-morrow. ... I have to-day read the
' Montgomery correspondence,' as it is called. Montgomery is the Kansas
'Jay-hawker.' The correspondence is nothing but a letter from him to
Foster, dated Washington, D. C., May J2th. It is in the nature of a circular
to the commanders of Federal forces in the several Southern districts,
stating in substance that a plan was arranged to sever the communications
throughout the Southern States. The plan was for the negroes, as far as
possible, and as far as information could be got to them by agents, — slaves
from their lines, seeming to be escaped, while really sent on this business,
— to be induced to rise in mass on the night of the 1st of August, and
tear down all bridges, railroad bridges, telegraphic wires, etc., using any
and all weapons they could find, and then to make for the swamps or
mountains until they could get communication with the enemy. They
were not to use arms except in self-defence. They were to live on roast-
ing-ears, etc. As the letter haw not been made public, I do not wish you
to make any allusion to it ; but there is no doubt of its genuineness. We
have no further information from the enemy on the Peninsula. ... A
party crossed the Pamunkey day before yesterday, — cavalry, — it was
thought with the intention of making a raid on Gordonsville. The militia
up there were called out. The citizens of that place drill every day : the
number is said to be two thousand four hundred, all armed."
July 9th. — " The news from Lee's army is bad. What will befall Virginia
in case he has met, or should meet, with a great disaster no one can tell.
... I was very sorry that he crossed the Potomac. If I had known he
was g(jing to do it, I should not have written the President the first letter
I did. My policy and the policy of invasion were directly opposite."
The object and result of Mr. Stephens's mission are explained
in the following letter of July 10th :
" I am about todeave this place for home again. I am through with the
business that brought me here, or at least have done all that I can in it.
The object was to hold a conference with the enemy upon several points
of disagreement on the existing cartel for the exchange of prisoners.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 445
These points of disagreement present questions of the gravest char
acter. Both sides are about to begin retaliation. I was exceedingly
anxious to avoid such revolting scenes, and undertook a mission for this
purpose. The proposition was rejected by the enemy, after deliberating
on it for two days. I went as far as Newport News. There my arrival
and object were telegraphed to Washington City by Admiral S. P. Lee.
of the North Atlantic squadron. I deeply regret the result. The final
determination not to receive the mission may have been induced by news
received of the fall of Vicksburg, and a turn in the tide of war at Gettys
burg. How this was I do not know. My object was made known on the
4th, and the rejection of the mission, or refusal to receive it, was notified
to me in the afternoon of the 6th. We have no news — none reliable at
least — from General Lee. The greatest anxiety is felt for the fate of his
army. Misfortunes seldom come singly. The prospect before us presents
nothing cheering to me. But my rule is neither to be elated by good news
nor depressed by bad."
A few remarks made by Mr. Stephens in conversation during
the summer of 1863 were committed to writing at the time.
One day, in speaking of the call upon Georgia for eight thousand
more volunteers, he said :
u I think it was expected and desired that the call should fail, because
the policy of conscription is preferred. When Governor Brown called for
volunteers for State defence, here comes a call for the eight thousand. As
soon as it is ascertained that both calls will be successful, the call under
the Conscription Act is extended to forty-five years. Then officers are
instructed to receive none but able-bodied men. All this was done, in my
opinion, to prevent volunteering and make conscription appear to be in
dispensable. They refuse all but able-bodied men under the volunteer
principles ; but General Cooper decides that incipient consumption shall
not exempt a conscript. Now, it is well known that camps are fatal to
incipient consumptives, while they are sometimes, Avith the observance of
great care, cured. We had much better take a confirmed consumptive.
He will die in any event; but he might kill one of the enemy before he
died." . . .
" The hardships growing out of our military arrangements are not the
fault of the President. I once thought they were. But they are due to
his subordinates, the devotees of West Point. Cases arise, and are brought
to the attention of the President, who must decide upon them almost at
once. He is often sick, and having abundant confidence in General Cooper,
gives his consent to whatever he proposes."
Happening to be in Sparta on the' 1st of August, he was
called on, by a large number of citizens, for a speech, and he
446 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
addressed them at some length on the state of affairs. He began
by saying that the country was in great peril, it was true ; but
that there was no adequate cause for the great despondency
which seemed to have seized the public mind. The fall of
Vicksburg and of Port Hudson were misfortunes. The fall
of Charleston and of Richmond would be still greater misfor
tunes. But all together, should all happen, ought not to
discourage us. There was but one question to ask ourselves,
and that was, " Are we determined to be free ?" If we are,
subjugation is impossible. Charleston, Savannah, and Augusta
were long in possession of the British in the war of independ
ence. Our Congress was driven from Philadelphia, and that
city was also long in possession of the enemy. The taking of
cities is a small matter toward subjugating a people if they are
determined not to be subjugated. Frederick the Great was
driven backwards and forwards over his dominions for seven
years, his capital was taken twice; but determining not to yield,
and having true statesmanship combined with the highest mili
tary genius, he succeeded at last, and came out of the war far
more powerful than when he went into it.
Our people did not lack for courage. The Yankees predicted
that our great want would be the want of patience. And this
is our greatest difficulty.
If the doctrine of State Rights had been acknowledged, we
shouTcThave had no war. If it were acknowledged now, we
should have peace. When South Carolina seceded she ought
to have been allowed to go in peace. This was her perfect
right. If it had been best for her to secede, it was her right
to do so. Had it appeared after secession that this was not for
her interest, she would have returned.
Wherever Mr. Stephens went the people were eager to have
him express his views upon the situation and the prospects of
public affairs; and this was frequently very embarrassing to
him, for, while in several important points he disapproved of
the policy of the President, and feared its results, he had no
wish to cast any further discouragement on the spirit of the
people, who, he did not doubt, were able to maintain their in
dependence, if they would have but resolution, fortitude, and
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 447
•
patriotism, and keep always in view the motives which had
determined them to prefer separation to union, even at the cost
of war. He was also often annoyed by inaccurate reports of
his speeches, wherein not only were points omitted on which he
had laid great stress, but he was made to say things which he
never said, and express views quite the opposite of his own.
At times he almost resolved not to speak again in public, on
whatever occasion.
The correspondence still turns chiefly on public matters.
September 21st. — (To R. M. J.) . . . "As to what I was saying in the
conversation to which you allude, about the future relations of the Con
federate and Western States, it was in substance this ( We must govern
the Northwest by ideas, or they will govern us by forcfi) There is no
reason in the world why we should not be upon the most intimate and
friendly terms with them, so far as trade and commerce are concerned.
It is to the interest of both parties that such should be the case. Whether
both sections shall ever again be under a common government is beyond
all satisfactory conjecture or speculation at this time. But this is not
necessary for the purposes I indicate. Their policy could be controlled
by ideas emanating from us without the exercise by us of any govern
mental authority over them, or by them over us, when the war is over,
and it must end at some time in some way ; we must, if we succeed, have
some treaty or compact with these people, regulating our trade and inter
course with them. What will be the nature of such treaty or compact
we now cannot say. But in my opinion now is a fitting time, — indeed,
from the beginning the time has been fitting to throw out such ideas as
may be the nucleus on which the future compact may be formed. These
ideas should be well considered and matured, looking to their interests as
well as ours."
October 28th. — He writes in reply to R. M. J., who has asked
what would be his probable course in the event of the death of
the President.
"I should regard the death of the President as the greatest possible
public calamity. What I should do I know not. I have never permitted
my mind to contemplate the future so far. Should the contingency happen
while I hold my present position, I should be governed in my action by
circumstances: I should look to such men as I might find agreeing with
me in the line of policy I might think it best to pursue. Who they might
be I do not know. I have many strong personal friends 5 but such would
not do to rely on in matters of state. Men of the greatest ability, united
448 L]FE OF ALEXANDER PL STEPHENS.
with me in opinions, whose services I could command on such a line of
policy as I might adopt, would be those. I would seek after. My first and
great object would be to secure the confidence of the people ; to make the
Administration acceptable to all classes ; to make every man who fights
or suffers by privation or sacrifice in any way, feel that it is all for his
rights and liberties, and not for a mere dynasty. ^Good government and
constitutional liberty, the birthright of our people, should be the governing
principle.) This I state to you, not as the result of any reflection on the
subjecTpbut as the instincts of my nature. Hence I think it not improb
able that among the first acts I should perform would be the clearing of
the hospitals of thousands of sick and invalid soldiers, who are doing
nothing but wasting what of life is left them where they can do the public
no good, but are exhausting supplies which will soon be very much needed.
Every provost-marshal should soon be dismissed, and the whole passport
system abolished. Fifty thousand men now engaged all over the country
in this sort of annoying business should either be sent to the army where
they belong, or sent home to some profitable occupation. All impress
ments, except hx-ease of actual necessity for the army, should be instantly
discontinued. C Supplies should be bought at market value. Virtue, hon
esty, justice, and patriotism, that lofty sentiment which looks to good
government as something worth living for and dying for, should be incul
cated in every possible way."
November 3d. — (To R. M. J. ) " In my letter of last week, written just
before starting for Atlanta, I did not say as much as I intended on one
point alluded to. That was, my reason for looking upon the death of the
President, should such an event happen, as one of the greatest public
calamities that could befall us. This is an unpleasant subject to me 5 but
as your letter brought it to my mind, and I gave you the opinion I did, it
is but proper to state the reasons upon which it was founded<X_The gen
eral and profound shock such an event would produce throughout the
country in its present restless and dissatisfied condition, would of itself
tend to gender and increase a spirit of dissension and faction^* Such a
spirit at all times exists in a country situated as ours is; antTwith us it
would almost certainly manifest itself in a formidable way, from the fact
that a large party in the country, or at least a large number of prominent
and active men in the country, who would, in all probability, soon form a
party for concert of action, really and honestly would distrust my ability
to conduct affairs successfully. They have now, and would have, no con
fidence in my judgment or capacity for the position that such an untimely
misfortune would cast upon me. They believe, 1 am confident, that under
my administration all would go to ruin. To what extent these demonstra
tions might go I cannot conjecture ; but quite far enough greatly to weaken
and cripple my efforts on any line of policy I might adopt, even assuming
that it might be the best. The unhinging and upturning and unsettling
things so little settled at present; the greater confounding of things even
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 449
now confused ; the uncertainties, the disquietudes, the breakings-up of hopes
and expectations that such an event would occasion, would render it un-
questionahly one of the greatest calamities that could befall us, to say
nothing of the correctness of the views of those who entertain such serious
doubts of my ability to direct affairs. On that point I assure you I have
the strongest distrust of myself. I know that affairs in many particulars
would not be managed as they are ; but would they be managed for the
better or the worse? I know not; and it Avould be with trembling and
fear I should take the helm if the necessity should ever arise.
"I wish never to advert to this subject again."
Sparta, November 23d. — Mr. Stephens writes to Lin ton from
Linton's own house, where he had come to pay him a visit, but
found him not at home. So he has his talk on paper. He
makes quite a little dramatic scene of his entrance and greetings
by the children and servants. It is the birthday of his niece
" Becky," and he has brought her some presents. There is some
joking at the expense of one of the family, who in running from
a clog had broken down part of a panel of fence. "Uncle
Aleck" enters very heartily into it all, and is particularly solicit
ous for information about this " running-from-the-dog affair;"
and afterwards records it all with great gusto for the absent
father. The next morning he continues his chronicle, and gives
in dramatic form a " scene in the library," where he seems to
have held a sort of High Court of Investigation as to how
things are going on on the place. There is a kind of murrain
among the young pigs, it seems, but no scarcity of meat is ap
prehended. There are eighty acres of corn to gather. Firewood
is running low, but they are going to haul some. And thus all
the personages of the household, in their own persons, are made
to tell the little news, — the so trivial yet so precious talk of
home. He thinks, though he does not say so, that in this form
it will please his brother best.
Sparta, November %4th. — Another little batch of home news.
The children are writing to their father.
..." Becky got her letter off yesterday. Claude did not get through
with hers in time this morning. I told her to write another and not to
make it so long. This she did. I inclose both of them to you. They cost
her a great deal of labor. She does not know I am going to send both. I
don't know whether you can read either. I made her captions for her, and
29
450 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
have trimmed a few of her double t's, so as to make them a little plainer.
I can read both letters very well, but doubt if you can. Cosby ,* however,
says that they are as plain as mine. He, by the by, is writing to you and
grunting. He is badly off with rheumatism."
November 25th. — He has made an omission in a previous letter,
— an omission for him really surprising, — and writes to correct
it.
"I did great injustice to a member of your household in my letter of
Monday. I fully intended to make the amende honorable yesterday, but
forgot it. In my letter I said that when I got here I found nobody at
home, when the truth was, Pompey [Linton's dog] was on the steps and
gave me a most cordial welcome. He said nothing, but conducted me into
the library with a great deal of canine gallantry. He has ever since kept
close to me. Last night he slept in my room (your room, I should say),
but did not make any attempt on the bed. This showed better breeding,
I think, than his grandson Binks would have shown under the circum
stances. Sir Bingo always looks out for soft places and warm ones in cold
weather.
11 Dr. Berckmans came over yesterday evening to play piquet with me.
We had several games. After supper he and Cosby played : I sat in the
corner and smoked my pipe. They played on until I got sleepy: the game
between them about equal from what I could gather. Half asleep, I would
occasionally hear Cosby saying, ' Five cards and four sequences is nine —
and three aces is twelve — is twelve — is twelve — twelve ' The Doctor :
' You will play for thirteen, if you please.' Cosby : i Twelve — twelve/
Then on another hand the Doctor would say, ' I am cant-e-corse; (quints et
quatorze: fifteen sequences and fourteen by pairs), — 'I am fifteen on spades
and four aces.' In this way it went on until I got up and went to bed."
Crawfordville, December 9th. ... "I see it stated that Johnston is to
take command of the Army of Tennessee. I am glad of this. . . . One
thing about Johnston I like, — or at least I have the opinion of him that
he will not fight unless he feels assured of victory. Our ultimate success
now depends as much upon not fighting as fighting."
December 31st. — He would have gone to Richmond by this
time, but has been suffering greatly with his side, and the un
usually wet weather makes travelling dangerous for an invalid.
Linton has been confiding some trouble to him, and he writes:
" Your last letter has awakened my deepest sympathy. Could I say or
* Cosby Council, Esq., a bachelor-friend of Linton's, residing at his
house.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 1L STEPHENS. 451
do anything to afford relief or even consolation, most cheerfully would 1
do it. But I can do no more than give you my own experience. I can
but hope that you may perhaps profit by it. I have in my life been one
of the most miserable beings, it seemed to me, that walked the earth, — sub
ject to occasional fits of depression that seemed well-nigh bordering on
despair. (Without enjoyment, without pleasure, without hope, and without
sympathy \vith the world. Everything seemed to render me more and
more miserable. The first lesson I learned in this condition that did me
any good was this great truth : that man's happiness or misery depends
more upon himself than everything else combined/^Every one carries with
him passions and emotions with which, according to their cultivation, he
may make a heaven or a hell. The first rule of conduct deduced from
this lesson was the strict and absolute avoidance of everything that
annoyed, or tended to excite those passions that rendered me unhappy,
and the assiduous cultivation of those feelings that were attended with the
opposite effect. Great and heroic effort was necessary at first and for a
long time. . . . Never let the mind dwell upon anything disagreeable, —
turn it to something else. Even in the worst state of things that befall us
there. are some prospects more agreeable than others: let the mind be
directed to them. ^With a proper discipline of one's self in this way, ever
keeping the passions in perfect subjection, contentment and happiness are
attainable by all, with a constant culture of the moral faculties, and a
firm reliance on the great Father of the univers~e;v> _/
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Sudden Illness — Hospitality of Liberty Hall — An Emergency — Speech
before the Legislature — "Habeas Corpus" and "Peace" [Resolutions —
Weather Notes — Keminiscences of Governor Troup — A Night Adven
ture and an Escape — A Cynic Philosopher — Notes of Travel — Wounded
Soldiers — Sherman approaching — The Chicago Convention — Letter to
Georgia Gentlemen — General Sherman's Device and its Failure — Plans
of Adjustment — Thinks of resigning — Judge Taney's Decision.
THE health of Mr. Stephens was worse than usual during
the winter of 1863-64. To his existing infirmities was added
another, which, in the matter of actual physical suffering,' was
more than all the rest together. About the middle of January
he was suddenly, and without any premonitory symptoms,
seized with an excruciating pain in the side. Familiarity with
suffering and sickness had already led him to some researches
into the causes and symptoms of disease, and the nature of that
organism which was susceptible of such variety of torment ; and
he at once judged that his new trouble was calculus in the kid
ney. He had but just time to summon a servant and send for
his brother and a physician, when his pain became so extreme
that he fell down helpless. From this disease he suffered greatly
for more than a year; but none of the following paroxysms
was so violent as the first, and having learned to anticipate
them, he was enabled to break their force by precautionary
measures.
On the 1st of January he writes to R. M. J. :
"Our affairs, in my judgment, have been growing worse and worse for
the last four years, and will be greatly worse yet, I fear, unless there be
a radical change in our military policy, — if indeed we have any, which I
very much question. It seems to me that those at the head of our affairs
on this subject have had no policy, no definite line of action with a view
to fixed objects. They have all along been like the Tennessee lawyer,
' trusting to the sublimity of luck, and floating upon the surface of the
452
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 453
occasion.' . . . But I will not croak or grumble. I am a patient looker-
on,— that is all."
January 21st. ..." If the pending proposition before Congress passes,
to put the whole country under martial law, with the suspension of the
writ of habeas corpus, and the President signs and enforces it, and the
people submit to it, constitutional liberty will go down, never to rise agaii
on this continent, I fear. This is the worst that can befall us. Far b(
that our country should be overrun by the enemy, our cities sacked and
burned, and our land laid desolate, than that the people should thus suffer t
the citadel of their liberties to be entered and taken by professed friends^
/There was probably no home in Georgia where the old-
fashioned virtue of hospitality was— ind still is — practised on
a more liberal scale than at Liberty Hall.* For many years it
has been Mr. Stephens's practice, during court week, to entertain
all the lawyers in attendance from other counties. As he lived
on the line of the railroad, every one who passed between Au
gusta and Atlanta, whether previously acquainted with him or
not, felt entirely free to favor Mr. Stephens with a brief call, — a
visit of a day or two, or a stay of several weeks, as they might
feel inclined. Some came out of respect, some from curiosity, some
to ask pecuniary assistance, and many from the feeling that his
house was open to everybody. As for the people of Taliaferro
County, there was not a man, woman, or child there who did
not feel as much at -home in Mr. Stephens's house as in their
own, which they were free to enter at any time and stay as long
as they pleased. So it can be easily surmised that, although his
personal manner of living has always been'of the simplest kind,
his domestic expenses have been exceedingly heavy. In addition
to the sums he has bestowed on the education of young men, as
already mentioned, he has probably expended in charity a greater
proportion of his income than has any other man of his part of
the country.
* This name he gave his residence in 1845, when he first became its pro
prietor. The name was given because he expected all friendly visitors to
act with as perfect liberty as if they were at home. The house was always
open, whether Mr. Stephens was there or not. During the war many gave
it the name of '• the Wayside Home," where sick and crippled soldiers
were always hospitably received and well cared for by Harry, the excellent
luajor-dorno of the establishment, and his worthy wife, Eliza.
454 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Rarely does a chance visitor call at Liberty Hall at dinner
time thatflie do^jaot_fini. other guests, some of whom were as
little expected as himself. Mr. Johnston has often seen a plain
countryman walk into Mr. Stephens's office, where the latter
was writing, and after an exchange of greetings not a word
has been spoken until dinner was announced. Immediately
after dinner the guest has departed with as little ceremony
as graced his entry ; very frequently first asking and receiving
an order on the village store for groceries, or a pair of shoes, or
a frock for his wife. It may be thought that this practice does
not tend to improve the independence and self-respect of the
stalwart yeomen of Taliaferro ; but they seem to feel that they
stand in a different and closer relation to Mr. Stephens than to
the rest of their more affluent neighbors.
Mr. Stephens, however, never allows himself to be incom
moded by these visitations. If he is occupied, he welcomes his
guests and then continues what he has in hand, leaving them
to entertain themselves. His dinner-hour is never postponed ;
and whether his guests be few or many, they must content them
selves with what is already prepared or can be got ready without
delay. The following letter, written after an unexpected influx
of guests, will serve to show some of his resources on such
occasions :
"Just as I was concluding that letter, Dr. and his family came in, —
wife, children, and servants, — ' frustrating' me a little, as it was dinner
time, and I knew that only three names beside my own had been put into
the pot, and as I was unwell, and besides it was Eliza's [his cook and
laundress] wash-day, I thought of but little during the winding-up of my
letter but the scanty showing for dinner we should have for so many more
than were expected, unless new arrangements were immediately put in
motion. For, besides the doctor and his family, I soon saw two others
coming.
" And now if you have any curiosity to know how the little affair of
dinner at short notice on a wash-day was managed, I will state for your
satisfaction that Eliza very soon had us an excellent meal of fried ham
and eggs, quite enough for all, which all seemed to relish very well. too.
The bread was hasty corn-cake, good enough for hungry people. This,
with butter and buttermilk, constituted our dessert. The children pitched
into sorghum syrup with as keen a relish as if it had been apple-pie.
Upon the whole I do not know if it did not all pass off as well as if I had
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 455
delayed dinner an hour or two and had tried to do better. My rule in
such cases is, never to fix up anything for persons dropping in at meal
time. If I have not enough cooked, as in this case, I set them to cooking
that which can be got ready in the quickest time."
Mr. Stephens continued his opposition to the bill authorizing
the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. Frequent
allusions to it occur in the correspondence.
February 20th.— {To Linton.) "I see by the telegrams yesterday that
the habeas corpus suspension is not general ; but the limitations are not,
as to totality, as I expected. They are as to causes of arrest. The efforts
to suspend the act were once defeated, I think. The matter then, as the
bill shows, was brought forward at the instance of the President. Con
gress, I suspect, granted only part of the request, — not, probably, what
was wanted. So the courts are still left open for the protection of ordinary
legal rights. But I trust the new Congress will repeal the present act.
Power should not be allowed to make any encroachment."
On the 16th of March, Mr. Stephens, by request, addressed
the Legislature of Georgia on the state of public affairs. In
this speech, which was made the subject of much hostile news
paper comment, he reviewed and sharply criticised the " Con
scription" and " Habeas Corpus" acts, and warned the people
against the danger of supposing that any emergency could
render necessary the surrender of their liberties.
In this month two sets of resolutions, known as the " Habeas
Corpus" and " Peace Resolutions," were drawn up and presented
by Linton Stephens to the Georgia Legislature, and adopted by
that body. Their character and tone had great effect, and the
Peace Resolutions, as the expression of so powerful a State of
the Confederacy, greatly strengthened the hopes of that party
at the North who wished the war to be closed on some amicable
plan. These Resolutions were as follows :
" The General Assembly of the State of Georgia do resolve,
I' 1st. That under the Constitution of the Confederate States there is no
power to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, but in a man
ner and to an extent regulated and limited by the express, emphatic, and
unqualified constitutional prohibitions that ' no person shall be deprived
of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,' and that 'the
right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
456 L1FE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the places to be searched and the
persons or things to be seized.' And this conclusion results from the two
following reasons : First, because the power to suspend the writ is derived,
not from express delegation, but only from implication, which must always
yield to express, conflicting, and restraining words. Second, because this
power being found nowhere in the Constitution, but in words which are
copied from the original Constitution of the United States, as adopted in
1787, must yield in all points of conflict to the subsequent amendments
of 1789, which are also copied into our present Constitution, and which
contain the prohibitions above quoted, and were adopted with the declared
purpose of adding further declaratory and restrictive clauses.
" 2d. That due process of law for seizing the persons of the people, as
denned by the Constitution itself, is a warrant issued upon probable cause,
supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the persons
to be seized; and the issuing of such warrants, being an act of judicial
power, is, if done by any branch of the Government except the judiciary,
a plain violation of that provision of the Constitution which vests the
judicial power in the courts alone; and therefore all seizures of the per
sons of the people by any officer of the Confederate Government, without
warrant, and all warrants for that purpose, from any but a judicial source,
are, in the judgment of this General Assembly, unreasonable and uncon
stitutional.
" 3d. That the recent act of Congress to suspend the privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus in cases of arrests ordered by the President, Secre
tary of War, or general officer commanding the Trans-Mississippi Military
Department, is an attempt to sustain the military authority in the exercise
of the constitutional judicial function of issuing warrants, and to give
validity to unconstitutional seizures of the persons of the people; and as
the said act, by its express terms, confines its operation to the upholding
of this class of unconstitutional seizures, the whole suspension attempted
to be authorized by it, and the whole act itself, in the judgment of this
General Assembly, are unconstitutional.
"4th. That in the judgment of this General Assembly, the said act is a
dangerous assault upon the constitutional power of the courts, and upon
the liberty of the people, and beyond the power of any possible necessity
to justify it; and while our Senators and Representatives in Congress are
earnestly urged to take the first possible opportunity to have it repealed,
we refer the question of its validity to the courts, with the hope that the
people and the military authorities will abide by the decision.
" 5th. That as constitutional liberty is the sole object which our people
and our noble army have, in our present terrible struggle with the Govern
ment of Mr. Lincoln, so. also, is a faithful adherence to it, on the part of
our own Government, through good fortune in arms, and through bad,
one of the great elements of our strength and final success ; because the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 457
constant contrast of constitutional government on our part with the usur
pations and tyrannies which characterize the government of our enemy,
under the ever-recurring and ever-false plea of the necessities of war, will
have the double effect of animating our people with an unconquerable
zeal, and of inspiring the people of the North more and more with a desire
and determination to put an end to a contest which is waged by their
Government openly against our liberty, and as truly, but more covertly,
against their own.''
The " Peace Resolutions" were as follows :
The General Assembly of the State of Georgia do resolve,
" 1st. That to secure the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi
ness ' governments were instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed ; that, whenever any form becomes de
structive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such princi
ples, and organizing its powers in such form, as shall seem to them most
likely to effect their safety and happiness.'
"2d. That the best possible commentary upon this grand text of our
fathers of 1776 is their accompanying action which it was put forth to
justify ; and that action was the immortal declaration that the former
political connection between the colonies and the State of Great Britain
was dissolved, and the thirteen colonies were, and of right ought to be,
not one independent State, but thirteen independent States, each of them
being such a ' people' as had the right, whenever they chose to exercise it,
to separate themselves from a political association and government of their
former choice, and institute a new government to suit themselves.
"3d. That if Rhode Island, with her meagre elements of nationality,
was such a ' people' in 1776, when her separation from the Government
and people of Great Britain took place, much more was Georgia and each
of the other seceding States, with their large territories, populations, and
resources, such a 'people,' and entitled to exercise the same right in 1861,
when they declared their separation from the Government and the people
of the United States ; and if the separation was rightful in the first case,
it was more clearly so in the last, the right depending, as it does in the
case of every 'people' for whom it is claimed, simply upon their fitness
and their will to constitute an independent State.
" 4th. That this right was perfect in each of the States, to be exercised
by her at her own pleasure, without challenge or resistance from any other
power whatsoever ; and while these Southern States had long had reason
enough to justify its assertion against some of their faithless associates,
yet, remembering the dictate of 'prudence' that 'governments long estab
lished should not be changed for light and transient causes,' they forbore
a resort to its exercise until numbers of the Northern States, State after
State, through a series of years, and by studied legislation, had arrayed
458 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
themselves in open hostility against an acknowledged provision of the
Constitution, and at last succeeded in the election of a President who was
the avowed exponent and executor of their faithless designs against the
constitutional rights of their Southern sisters ; rights which had been
often adjudicated by the courts, and which were never denied by the aboli
tionists themselves, but upon the ground that the Constitution itself was
void whenever it came in conflict with a ' higher law,' which they could
not find among the laws of God, and which depended for its exposition
solely upon the elastic consciences of rancorous partisans. The Constitu
tion thus broken, and deliberately and persistently repudiated by several
of the States who were parties to it, ceased, according to universal law,
to be binding on any of the rest ; and those States who had been wronged
by the breach were justified in using their right to provide ' new guards
for their future security.'
f "5th. That the reasons which justified the separation when it took
place, have been vindicated and enhanced in force by the subsequent course
of the Government of Mr. Lincoln, — by his contemptuous rejection of the
Confederate Commissioners who were sent to Washington before the war,
to settle all matters of difference without a resort to arms; thus evincing
his determination to have war, — by his armed occupation of the territory
of the Confederate States, and especially by his treacherous attempt to
reinforce his garrisons in their midst, after they had, in pursuance of
their right, withdrawn their people and "territory from the jurisdiction of
his Government : thus rendering Avar a necessity, and actually inaugurating
the present lamentable war, — by his official denunciation of the Confeder
ate States as 'rebels' and 'disloyal' States for their rightful withdrawal
from their faithless associate States, while no word of censure has ever
fallen from him against those faithless States who were truly ' disloyal' to
the Union and the Constitution, which was the only cement to the Union,
and who were the true authors of all the wrong and all the mischief of
the separation ; thus insulting the innocent by charging upon them the
crimes of his own guilty allies, — and finally, by his monstrous usurpations
of power and undisguised repudiation of the Constitution, and his mock
ing scheme of securing a 'republican' form of government to sovereign
States by putting nine-tenths of the people under the dominion of one-
tenth who may be abject enough to swear allegiance to his usurpation,
thus betraying his design to subvert true constitutional republicanism
in the North as well as in the South.
" 6th. That while we regard the present war between these .Confederate
States and the United States as a huge crime, whose beginning and continu
ance are justly chargeable to the Government of our enemy, yet we do not
hesitate to affirm that, if our own Government and the people of both
Governments, would avoid all participation in the guilt of its continuance,
it becomes all of them, on all proper occasions and in all proper ways, — the
people acting through their State organizations and popular Assemblies,
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 459
and our Government through its appropriate departments, — to use their
earnest efforts to put an end to this unnatural, unchristian, and savage work
of carnage and havoc. And to this end we earnestly recommend that our
Government, immediately after signal successes of our arms, and on other
occasions when none can impute its action to alarm, instead of a sincere
desire for peace, shall make to the Government of our enemy an official
offer of peace on the basis of the great principle declared by our common
fathers in 1776, accompanied by the distinct expression of a willingness
on our part to follow that principle to its true logical consequences by
agreeing that any border State whose preference for our association may
be doubted (doubts having been expressed as to the wishes of the border
States) shall settle the question for herself, by a convention to be elected
for that purpose, after the withdrawal of all military forces of both sides
from her limits.
" 7th. That we believe that this course, on the part of our Government,
would constantly weaken, and sooner or later break down the war-power
of our enemy, by showing to' his people the justice of our cause, our will
ingness to make peace on the principles of 1776, and the shoulders on
which rests the responsibility for the continuance of the unnatural strife ;
that it would be hailed by our people and citizen- soldiery who are bearing
the brunt of the war as an assurance that peace will not be unnecessarily
delayed, nor their sufferings unnecessarily prolonged ; and that it would
be regretted by nobody on either side, except men whose importance or
whose gains would be diminished by peace, and men whose ambitious
designs would need cover under the ever-recurring plea of the necessities
of war.
" 8th. That while the foregoing is an expression of the sentiments of
this General Assembly respecting the manner in which peace should be
sought, we renew our pledges of the resources and power of this State to
the prosecution of the war, defensive on our part, until peace is obtained
upon just and honorable terms, and until the independence and nationality
of the Confederate States is established upon a permanent and enduring
basis."
It should be added here that the 8th of the " Peace Resolu
tions" was not prepared by Linton Stephens, but was offered as
an amendment, and adopted.
April 17th. — (To Linton.) "I see the Mississippi Legislature has
unanimously' passed the Resolutions against habeas corpus suspension.
Have you seen their Resolutions? They are jam up on our line. "What
will Mrs. Grundy now say? Is Mr. Davis' s own State in unanimous
opposition to his Administration in this particular? Are they all fac-
tionists and malcontents?"
Many of these letters abound in comments on the weather, of
460 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
which Mr. Stephens was always a curious observer, and of the
various changes of which he had a remarkable recollection.
We give some extracts from one as a specimen :
April 18th. — " This is certainly a very late and extraordinary spring.
I have seen crops as late as they are now; but never did I see the 16th
of April come with so little start in vegetation generally. For instance,
on this day of this month, in 1849, I saw a frost that killed everything, —
wheat in the head, corn half-leg-high (some of it ploughed over once),
young peaches as large as the end of your thumb. Not only the fruit, but
the leaves of the trees were killed, and the whole forest was rendered
almost black. The leaves on all trees were full-grown when the frost
came. . . . One of the singular things or facts to be noticed in this spring
is that peach-trees on high land bloomed about as early as they usually
do, while those in the low land held back like the apple-trees. The red
oaks, post oaks, hickories, and black locusts in my yard .still present a
wintry appearance; the buds have hardly commenced to swell. The
Spanish oak has made more advance ; the buds show plainly on it, and
some tasselled blooms are to be seen. But the forest still looks wintry.
Such a state of things on the 16th day of April I never saw before, and
I have a distinct recollection for the last forty-five years. The latest
spring I ever saw before this, in respect to planting, was in 1843. All
March was cold that year, — big snows on the 19th and 29th, succeeded
by hard frosts. But when that spell broke up, as it did on the night of
the 31st of March, it was in one of the most wonderful thunder-storms
ever witnessed in this country, and the more noted at the time by the
superstitious from the fact that that was the day the world was to come
to an end, according to the Millerites, who had been cutting some figure
for a few years."
And so he goes on, giving particulars of remarkable springs,
with day and date for each phenomenon, running back as far as
1826. Then criticises a performance of Blind Tom, and con
cludes by remarking that he expects frost in the morning, the
wind being from the northwest.
A letter of about this date recites some curious particulars
that he had learned about the personal habits and mode of liv
ing of Governor George M. Troup, of Georgia, who wras quite a
celebrity in his day, and constituted his ideal of a statesman.
"His dwelling, which he called ' Valdosta,' in Laurens County, con
sisted, until a few years before his death, of five log cabins built in a row,
ranging from east to west. These cabins were about fifteen feet square,
and built about ten feet apart ; the cabins and spaces between all covered
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 461
with three-feet boards. On each side was a piazza running the whole
length of the row of cabins ; and at the eastern and western end of the
row there was a chimney made of sticks and dirt. There were two doors
in all the intermediate cabins, and these faced each other, opening on the
space between ; but no doors opening on the piazzas. The end cabins
had but one door each, opening on the space between them and the adjoin
ing cabin. There was no window in any of the cabins except one small
one, — about a four-glass light, — on the north side of the east cabin, which
was the parlor or sitting-room, and this window opened by hinges. Troup
generally sat near this window in a large mahogany arm-chair. There
was no clock, watch, or timepiece about his house, save a sort of sun-dial
that he had made on the floor of the south piazza. When he wanted
dinner, — and it was never served until he called for it, — he would open
the little window mentioned, and sayr ' Madison, let us have dinner.' He
had a man cook named Madison. He lived by himself, except one unmar
ried daughter, until his son George M. came home from college ; and after
that George was frequently away from home on some of his other planta
tions, or on visits and travels, so that the old Governor and his maiden
daughter were generally by themselves. The logs of these cabins were
all roughly hewn with an axe, and the cracks stopped with long, rived
boards. There was a floor laid on hewn joists overhead in all the cabins,
but no ceiling, nor was there any up-stairs. The parlor had a carpet, and
the walls of that room were painted a deep green, the color of forest leaves.
The Governor had no library-room, though he had a great many books.
These were generally scattered about the cabins, the only place for them
being shelves against the walls in all the rooms. These shelves were made
by two upright planks with cross planks. His guests were put off to sleep
in these rooms without any fire, and there was no light except when the
door was opened. Where the Chief himself slept Hitt did not know.
At about the same hour at night a servant brought him something in a
teaspoon, which he took in his hand, bid all good-night, and went to bed
somewhere. ... In his ordinary dress he wore the same cloth as his
negroes. . . . He thought his place, Valdosta, was the healthiest in the
world, and could not be induced to travel in the summer to the up country,
for fear of getting sick. At one time, speaking to-Hitt of this subject, he
said, ' I have five hundred and ten in family, — only three whites, — and
have not had a death in twelve months.' . . . His plan with his negroes
was to require a stated service from them, and the remainder of the time
they worked for themselves. . . . His negroes all looked up to him with
a devotional reverence. . . . Hitt says Troup's negroes were the largest
corn-sellers in Laurens County ; the crops they made for themselves were
corn."
Several of the letters refer to his expectation that Governor
Brown would offer Linton a place on the bench, and his desire
462 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
that the offer, if made, should be accepted. On the 5th of May
he writes:
" If the Governor should tender you a judgeship, consider it well before
you decline. There are many reasons why I think you would do well to
accept it. First and foremost is the great importance of having a judicial
decision on the new Conscript Act. But few, if any, of the judges in this
State considered that question ; and not one of the applicants for the
place in this circuit, I think. It is important when the case goes again
before our Supreme Court that they should have a decision to show that
cannot be answered. This is really the only consideration that would
control my own action in the matter. It would be a sense of duty to the
country. Your retirement from the Legislature would be a great loss
there ; but could you not, and would you not, in the new sphere, render
the country quite as great, if -not greater and more essential service in
this particular juncture? — that is the question. I do not think there
would be any difficulty in the confirmation ; nor do I think there will be
any in your re-election to the Legislature. These are my views. It is
only a question as to which place you could render the country most
efficient service in."
Charlotte, North Carolina, May 12th. — He is on his way to
Richmond by rail, travelling in a passenger car attached to a
train loaded with bacon for the army. After describing an
eccentric fellow-traveller, whom, he says, " Dickens ought to
come across," he continues :
" About dark it began to rain. I had before discovered that there was
another train following in our rear, about five minutes behind us. I
inquired of the conductor about the danger of being run into in the dark,
and learned that the only precaution was a lamp in the rear of our car.
On we went, making slow speed up the grades, and dashing at a furious
rate down them. All fell asleep. I was stretched out on two benches,
dozing. The cars were halting, — -jerking up a high grade. Presently I
felt a big jerk, and soon heard a soldier say, ' The cars have broken loose,
and we are running back down the grade.' I jumped up, looked out, and
saw it was so. Our speed was increasing rapidly ; the rain was pouring,
and all outside was dark, — black as pitch. I went to the rear end of the
car to look out for the train behind us, and there I found the conductor
standing with the signal-lamp. No sign of the other cars. The rain
pouring, all black with darkness, the cars gaining in speed every moment,
I woke up Hidell and Myers ; this woke all in the car. On we went to
the foot of the grade, about two miles, and then we began to ascend. Our
speed now began to slacken, — this brought hope and relief to all. In
about half a mile farther we stopped. I asked the conductor if he
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 463
knew where we were, or the nature of the road immediately in our rear?
Were we on a curve, or was there a straight stretch on the line, the rear
cars would come ? He said it was a straight stretch for a mile and a half
to the Catawba River. This put me at ease, and I took my bed again.
Soon Ilidell, who remained at the end door, came and reported to me that
the conductor was mistaken, — we were on a curve. lie saw by the light
ning. I went and looked, and when it lightened saw that the road could
not be seen more than fifty yards. I looked for the conductor ; he was
gone and could not be found: the signal-lamp was held by one of the
train-hands. Upon a survey of the premises I discovered that the step of
the car was exactly opposite a bridge across the side ditch. A fence was
near the road, inclosing woods and a pair of bars right opposite the little
bridgeway across the ditch. So I concluded it safest to get out. All fol
lowed except two or three, who remained watching for the approaching
cars. We who got out passed over the bridge, got into the woods, and
just at this time the other train came dashing down the grade. On it
came until it turned the curve, — the lantern man gave a whoop, left his
lantern standing where it could be seen, and followed us. The whistle
instantly sounded, all brakes were put down, and the engine reversed.
The train halted within the distance, and no harm was done. Our engine
came back for us after awhile. We all got off in the course of an hour,
and reached here at the time stated.
" No definite news from Richmond this morning, and no news at all
from Dulton." [At this time Grant was moving on Richmond from the
North with about one hundred thousand men, while Butler, with about
thirty thousand, was approaching by way of Petersburg. Sigel, with
about ten thousand, and Crook, with about six thousand, were operating
in Lee's rear. This movement of Grant's was baffled by Lee in the battles
of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court-House, North Anna, and Cold
Harbor. The movement of Butler was arrested by Beauregard, and the
Federal commander '• bottled up" at Bermuda Hundreds. Crook and
Sigel were routed by Breckenridge at New, Market. Sherman, with a
force of about two hundred thousand, was moving upon Atlanta, but was
checked at Dalton, Georgia, and thwarted for months by the superior gen
eralship of Joseph E. Johnston, with a force of about forty-five thousand.]
" No news I am always inclined to look upon as bad news. I am uneasy
about the state of affairs at both points, Dalton and Richmond. I am fearful
that our authorities have under-estimated Grant's force. If he has two
hundred thousand, as I think he must have, it seems to me that if he has
disposed of them as he might have done, we must be in great peril there.
Suppose, for instance, he brought against Lee eighty thousand, — about
Lee's number, perhaps, — and suppose he landed twenty thousand on the
Rappahannock below Predericksburg, and fifty thousand at the head of
navigation on the Pamunkey, and fifty thousand near City Point. Sup
pose his object in attacking Lee was to detain him, skirmish with him for
464 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
four or five days as he was making his way down on the south side of the
Rappahannock to Fredericksburg, while the twenty thousand were moving
up to reinforce him if he should be hard pressed, and while the fifty thou
sand landed at West Point or higher up were moving up on the south side
of the South Anna towards Beaver Dam and the Central Railroad, thus
putting fifty thousand men between Lee and Richmond, and cutting off
Lee's supplies by railroad, on which he is solely dependent, — then his
army, or what remains of it, say at least fifty thousand, reinforced by the
twenty thousand coming up the river, could easily join the other fifty
thousand between Lee and Richmond, making in all one hundred and
twenty thousand, most of them fresh troops, to face Lee's reduced and
fatigued forces. In the mean time, the fifty thousand at or about City
Point would hold Beauregard, with not over fifty thousand, in complete
check. If Grant has adopted any such programme as this, it seems to me
that we are in great peril ; and if he has not, he is not the military chief
tain he is asserted to be. I am anxious. I hope all will end well. Lee
is a man of great ability ; but Bragg is controlling everything at Richmond
now."
Reidsville, North Carolina, May 16th. — He is again interrupted
on his journey, the railroad between Danville and Richmond
having been cut by the enemy. He came over in an ambulance,
called "avalanche'7 by John, the negro driver, of whom he
gives a facetious account.
" He is a philosopher in his way, and not destitute of wit. One of his
peculiarities is a standing phrase used in giving his estimate of men. In
stead of speaking of them as ' great men,' or ' little men,' his phrase was
'a heavy dog' and 'a light dog.' 'John, do you know Governor More-
head ?' ' Oh, yes, sir.' ' What sort of a man is he ?' ' Oh, sir, he is a heavy
dog: one of the heaviest dogs, sir, we have.' 'Who keeps the tavern at
Reidsville where we are going to stop ?' ' His name is L , sir.' ' What
sort of a man is he, John?' 'Oh, he is just a common dog, sir. He is
taking a rise since the war began, — is making lots of money now. He
keeps a good house ; plenty to eat ; is very kind, and will treat you like a
gentleman. He is very well-to-do in the world, — is a fair common dog, —
not one of your heavy dogs ; but if the war lasts and he keeps raking in
the money in the way he has been raking it in for some time, and it only
turns out good, he will be a heavy dog himself before long. If what he
has made was only the heavy stuff money used to be, he would be a heavy
dog now.' "
John tells how a short time before he drove General Beaure
gard over to take the cars.
" ' What did you think of General Beauregard ?' ' I never was so disap
pointed in a man in my life.' 'Why?' 'He was so blamed plain and
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 465
ornary-looking. I 'spected to see a great fine-looking man, with gold lace
and buttons and epaulettes, and some sort of a hat, — I did not know what.
But when I saw the man they said was General Beauregard, I wouldn't 'a'
believed it if they hadn't told me. Indeed, I didn't believe it anyhow,
until I saw the ladies shaking him by the hand and making such a to-do
over him.' 'What was the matter with him ?' ' Oh, he was so plain in his
clothes, and looked so like common folks. He had no epaulettes, no buttons,
no stripes, no stars, no lace, — nothing but a shabby hat, and his clothes all
looked old and worn.' "
Various " dots by the way/' as he calls them, follow from
Reidville and Danville. At the latter place he was again
stopped by a railroad accident, — one train ran into another on a
bridge, killed several soldiers, and broke the bridge, — and find
ing that, owing to the state of the roads and the movements of
the enemy, it was almost impossible to get to Richmond, he
resolved to return. At Columbia, South Carolina, he resumes
his " dots/' from which we shall give an extract or two as giving
an idea of the state of the railroads and difficulty of travelling
in this region.
May 23d. — " As notified by the conductor of the trains on the Piedmont
Road, I appeared at the depot to start for Greensboro', North Carolina, a
little before one o'clock P.M. . . . The day was hot and sultry, — no sign
of any train in readiness, or any conductor. Remained for two hours, —
no sign of making ready to start. Another hour passes. A train is
brought out, and seven hundred and fifty Yankee prisoners marched out
to be put on it. All the cars filled with prisoners, — the tops of the cars
fillexl. Another train brought out, and two hundred and fifty more Yankee
prisoners marched out and put in. At the end of this train a passenger-
car is attached, all the others and all the cars of the first train being box
cars. My conductor appears ; apologizes for his delay, — had not control
of the trains, — under Government officers ; but we would get off in this
last train in half an hour. Takes me to the car and gives me u good seat.
Baggage put on. I walk out on the platform before the car leaves. A
great number of wounded soldiers standing about trying to get passage
home: some with bandages on the head, some with arms in slings, and
some on crutches. In reply to their questions the conductor says they
cannot go, — they must wait until to-morrow. Great murmuring in the
crowd : ' They had been there two days waiting and without money.' —
' No more care or thought is given to a wounded soldier than if he were a
dog,' — such exclamations were common. I stepped up to one poor fellow
who had his arm in a sling: 'Are you from the army?' 'Yes, sir.'
'What regiment?' 'Twenty-fifth Georgia.1 'What is your name?'
30
466 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
4 Roberts.' ' At what place were you wounded?' ' I was wounded in the
Wilderness, the first day's fight.' ' Can you tell me anything about the
other wounded or killed in the regiment?' 'No, sir; I was wounded
about the first of the action, and sent back to Orange Court-House. '
" I take my seat in the car, — the man with a gun at the door lets me in.
On this quite a number of the wounded soldiers get in at the windows.
Conductor comes and makes them get out, — they complain bitterly. Some
one tells them, I suppose, that I was the Vice-President, for I hear some
vociferous fellow say aloud, in a passion, ' I'll be d — d if I don't go ; I am
as good as the Vice-President !' Time rolls on, — the Yankee train rolls off.
Half-past five comes, — the conductor tells the wounded about the car that
as many as can fill the car may go, — that the worst cases should have
preference. The car is soon full. Those outside look sad, — the conductor
tells them that a train will leave at eight o'clock and take them all. This
pacifies them. By the by, when I had seen the state of things, I had gone
to see Major Morphet, who had come down in charge of the prisoners,
whom I knew, and who had charge of the trains, and urged upon him to .
send the wounded soldiers forward as soon as possible. Among the loudest
complaints they were making was one that the Yankees should be sent on
before them. Some of them swore in their wrath that the Yankees ought
to be killed ; but instead of that they were cared more for than the men
who had been wounded in defending their country. I was truly sorry for
them. . . . Our train rolled off at last. We had forty-eight miles to go.
and the conductor told me we should get there, or were due, at nine o'clock.
But it was three when we got to Greensboro'. The water on the road had
given out, and the hands had to haul it up with buckets at the creeks and
branches. . . . Soon after starting, a soldier looking very weak and sick,
and much emaciated, passed by me, looking for a seat. The conductor
had given me a seat to myself, so I touched the soldier and told him to
take a seat by me. He did so with a good deal of modesty as well as
thankfulness. He evidently, from his manner, knew who I was. He
seemed to be sick and not wounded. ' Do you belong to the army?' said
I. ' Yes, sir,' he replied, looking steadily but timidly in my face, when
for the first time I saw he was a mere boy. 'What regiment?' 'The
Fifteenth Georgia.' 'What's your name?' 'Noel Monroe Humphrey.
I live in Hancock County, but joined the Taliaferro company last winter.
Don't you recollect the night that Ed. Johnson and all of us took supper
at your house? — that's the time I joined. I was going on then. I got to
the company and was taken sick, — was sent back to the hospital at Liberty,
•Virginia, where I have been ever since, until last week they furloughed
me. I have been here three days trying to get on. but couldn't.' . . . The
poor fellow looked very badly. I recollected all about his stopping at my
house and taking supper. On my asking him if he had any money, he
said he had not a cent. I asked him h6w he got along for something to
eat. The only chance, he said, was at the wayside houses. I asked him
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
if he had had anything that day. Nothing since breakfast, as he had been
waitino- ever since twelve for the train to start. I asked him if he was not
tD
hungry ; he said he was. I hauled out my basket and gave him as much
as he wanted. Seeing others about looking anxiously on, I passed the
basket round, — about half a dozen ate up what was laid in for our travel
ling lunch for some days. I was sorry I did not have enough for all.
Among those who did get some, I noticed a sprightly-looking fourteen-year-
old boy, who said he was from Marion County. . . .
" At Winsboro' three ladies and a young gentleman got in. — the young
gentleman of a pale, rather sallow, complexion. I was half asleep, but
heard the young gentleman whisper, ' The Vice-President is aboard.'
' Which is he?' asks one of the ladies in a whisper ; — 'that man there?
that little man?' 'No, that one on the seat right behind you.' 'This
little man?' says she, in a very low voice. I heard no reply, but heard
her utter a guttural sound that you are well acquainted with, but I know
not how to write or spell. It was all guttural, and may be imagined from
my expressing it as well as I can with the letters ' eh en' — with the French
sound of the en. I opened my eyes and thought she was laughing. I
felt badly ; not at my own bad looks, but at the great disappointment I
had caused one of my constituents."
Throughout the whole of these letters there are frequent allu
sions to his ill health and sufferings, but never in any tone of
fretfulness or complaint. He is much more anxious about his
brother's health than his own.
Jane 23d. — (ToR. M. J.) " My disease is constantly shifting. . . . Poor
Tithonus ! While I never did believe that story about him, Aurora, and
the grasshopper, yet part of the fable is certainly applicable to me, — pre
mature old age and infirmity. I am in very much the same condition,
constitutionally, with our country. You ask me about that. In my
opinion it is just as I am, on the decline. Mains, pejor, pessimus. applies
to the state of public affairs as well as to myself. If either the country
or I should have great length of days, from present indications, the fate
of Tithonus will not be inapplicable in many respects. ... I feel intense
interest and anxiety about the condition of things in Virginia and Upper
Georgia. If we can but hold our own for six months longer, I shall then
indulge stronger hopes than I can possibly feel now. I think Johnston
acts wisely in not hazarding his army in a fight, if this be his reason for
falling back as he has done. Unless he has the prospect of doing the
enemy a great injury by crippling and routing them, he should avoid an
encounter of arms as long as possible. Temporary invasion is not con
quest. The loss of property may be great, the devastation appalling ;
still, so long as our army is preserved the work of the enemy is unaccom
plished. We may all be subjected to privations and sacrifices ; these can
be borne, not only for six months, but for years, if the right spirit is kept
468 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
alive with our people. This depends as much upon the policy of the
Administration as anything else; indeed, I believe more."
When the following letter was written Sherman's advance
had just been repulsed by Johnston at Kenesaw Mountain, but
the Federal commander's great superiority in numbers enabled
him to turn Johnston's flank and continue his march to Atlanta.
June 28th.— (To R. M. J.) "Without fail come by to see me. I have
some old papers that I wish to hand you. Whether you or I live longer
in the contingencies of war, they may be safer in your hands, or where
you may put them, than they would be here. Should the enemy make
incursions into the interior of our State (which I do not think improbable,
whatever may be my hopes that they may not), this place would probably
be in their line of march towards Augusta. In that case, of course, my
house would be rifled. ... I am still feeble, but better than when I wrote
you last. I am confined pretty much to the house. It is too hot for me
to go out: I cannot even drive to the plantation."
August 29th. — " This is Monday, the great day at Chicago. I feel a
deep interest as well as anxiety to know what will be done there. Very
great events depend upon it. I saw yesterday in the Chronicle and Senti
nel Gilmer's account of his and Colonel Jaques's interview with President
Davis and Mr. Benjamin. It is a curious paper. The whole interview
was a curious affair : I hardly know what to make of it. If this paper
was drawn up by Gilmer, it is a still more curious aifair. It is really
difficult to discern whether the paper as it stands is calculated or intended
to do more damage to one party or side than to the other. How he should
have presented our side so favorably, upon the whole, is strange to me.
Only on one or two [points] has the paper failed to present us as strongly,
in the main, as it could have done. One of them is when Davis went off
upon the subject of majorities. The strength of our position on that point
is that the old Government was no-t, nor is the present one, a government
of majorities. It is a government of States — separate and denned — not
merged in any sort of unlimited unity as a single community ; and does
not present a case for the will of the majority of a community to govern.
This idea faintly appears, but is not presented strongly. It is not true,
either, that two million slaves have been emancipated, — at least I think
that admission is an exaggeration.
" Sometimes I think this paper may have been agreed upon, — that both
parties, before separation, agreed upon the substance of the interview that
should go to the country. This is a bare supposition ; but the whole mat
ter, in any view I can place it, is a strange affair. But every day passing
events confirm me more and more in the opinion that Georgia started all
these peace agitations, and particularly the idea of the Sovereignty of the
as the basis of peace. Dodd's speech is directly on the line laid
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 469
down ia the Georgia Peace Resolutions. These Resolutions are as bread
cast upon the waters."
September 4th. — " The Chicago Convention did not do as well as I hoped
they would, and as I think they would have done if our authorities had
backed the leading peace men there from the beginning, as they should
have done. Still, I am not without hope that good will result from their
action. The prospect for the early dawn of the day of peace is not so
good as it would have been if an out-and-out peace man had been nomi
nated on an out-and-out peace platform. Still, under the circumstances,
it may be that many of the real advocates of peace on the basis of a sepa
ration of the States thought it best to pursue the course they have, which,
in their judgment, will ultimately lead to the same result. I think they
made a mistake. Still, they may be better informed as to the state of the
popular mind at the North than I am. They may have thought it was
hazarding too much to submit the naked question of separation to the
people there now, and, moreover, it may be that while a large majority of
that body would to-day be for separation rather than a continuation of
the war, yet the same majority would greatly prefer a restoration of the
Union with every fair and just guaranty to the South if such restoration
can be effected. And it may be that they felt it a patriotic duty with
these views to make the effort; while at the same time they are prepared,
if the effort fails, to have peace eve.n_iipou, the basis of ultimate separation.
This is my reading aneTUnderstanding of their action, knowing as I do
the sentiments of several men who would give that action their sanction.
This idea, I think, is about this: we will first elect McClellan if possible,
und in order to do this we will put ourselves upon the most plausible plat
form entirely consistent with the dictates of the highest patriotism work
ing to a restoration of the Government in its pristine purity. If we elect
McClellan on this platform, we will then do everything that can be done by
the most patriotic efforts to effect such a restoration by negotiation, not by
a-rms. If that fail, then we will take peace as the last alternative on the
basis of separation. This is" my rendering of their action. For their plat
form is out and out for a suspension -of hostilities,— for opening negotia
tions, — and if they fail of restoring the Union, their platform stops them
from a return to a coercive policy. So, upon the whole, if our authorities
commit no blunders, all may yet be well. ^But^vvjiD-aan count upon any
thing that depends upon the contingency that our authorities will commit
no blunders?"
On the 14th of this month Mr. Stephens received a letter
from some gentlemen of Georgia, desiring his views on the
question whether it was not possible and expedient to begin
some movement looking to the establishment of peace. His
letter in reply, which was made public, attracted much atten
tion, and gave occasion for much misrepresentation of Mr.
470 LIFE OF ALEXANDER PL STEPHENS.
Stephens's views and position. In reference to the basis on
which peace should be sought, he says in this letter: •
" The Resolutions of the Georgia Legislature, at its last session, upon
tire subject of peace, in my judgment, embodied and set forth very clearly
those principles upon which alone there can be permanent peace between
the diiferent sections of this extensive, once happy and prosperous, but
now distracted country. The easy and perfect solution to all our present
troubles, and those far more grievous ones which loom up in prospect and
portentously threaten in the coining future, is nothing more than the sim
ple recognition of the fundamental principle and truth upon which all
American constitutional liberty is founded, and upon the maintenance of
which alone it can be preserved ; that is, the sovereignty — the ultimate,
absolute sovereignty — of the States. This doctrine our Legislature an
nounced to the people of the North and to the world. It is the only key
note to peace — permanent, lasting peace — consistent with the security of
public liberty. The old Confederation was formed upon this principle.
The old Union was afterwards formed upon this principle ; and no union
or league can ever be formed or maintained between any States. North or
South, securing public liberty upon any other principle. The whole frame
work of American institutions, which in so short a time had won the
admiration of the world, and to which we were indebted for such an
unparalleled career of prosperity and happiness, was formed upon this
principle. AJ!_pjir_.^p^«errtr troubles spring from a departure from this
principle; from a violation of this essential, vital law of our political
organism. In 1776 our ancestors and the ancestors of those who are
waging this unholy crusade against us proclaimed the great and eternal
truth, for the maintenance of which they jointly pledged their lives, their
fortunes, and their sacred honor, that ' governments are instituted amongst
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed :' and
that ' whenever any form of government becomes destructive of those ends
[for which it was formed], it is the right of tjie people to alter or abolish
it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations on such prin
ciples, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety and happiness.'
"It is needless here to state that by 'people' and 'governed' in this
annunciation is meant communities and bodies of men capable of organ
izing and maintaining government, not individual members of society.
' The consent of the governed' refers to the will of the mass of the com
munity or State in its organized form, and expressed through its legitimate
and properly-constituted organs. It was upon this principle the colonies
stood justified before the world in effecting a separation from the mother-
country. It was upon this principle that the original thirteen co-equal
and co-sovereign States formed the Federal compact of the old Union in
1787. It is upon the same" principle that the present co-equal and co-
sovereign States of our Confederacy formed their new compact of union.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 471
'The idea that the old Union, or any union between any of the sovereign
States, consistently with this fundamental truth, can be maintained by
force, is preposterous. This war springs from an attempt to do this pre
posterous thing. Superior power may compel a union of some sort; but
it would not be the Union of the old Constitution nor of our new : it
would be that sort of union that results from despotism. /The subjugation
of the pe'ople of the South by the people of the North would necessarily
involve the destruction of the Constitution and the overthrow of their
liberties as well as ours. The men or party at the North, to whom you
refer, who favor peace, must be brought to a full realization of this truth
in all its bearings before their efforts will result in much practical good ;
for any peace growing out of a union of the States established by force
will be as ruinous to them as to us."
After speaking with some hopefulness of the results which
might possibly spring from the action of the Chicago Conven
tion, and with approbation of the idea of a suspension of
hostilities during which delegates from all the States might
assemble to devise some plan of adjustment to be submitted to
the several States for their ratification, he emphasizes the impor
tance of a watchful guardianship of liberty, always in peril in
times of war and revolution, and only to be maintained by a
firm adherence to the principles upon which it was established.
" The chief aid and encouragement we can give the peace party
at the North, is to keep before them these great fundamental
principles and truths which alone will lead them and us to a
permanent and lasting peace, with the possession and enjoyment ,
of constitutional liberty/'
About this time General Sherman, who had taken Atlanta
(September 2d), and was about to set out on that march across
the State, in which, as he characteristically expressed it in his
despatches, he was to " make Georgia howl,"* and " make its
inhabitants feel that war and individual ruin are synonymous
terms," conceived the idea of having an interview with Mr.
Stephens. In his published despatch to General Hal leek, of
September 15th, he says that he has sent "a hearty invitation"
to that gentleman and to Governor Brown. This invitation was
* Report on Conduct of the War. Supp. I. (The reader is particularly re
ferred to these remarkable despatches, in which both the text and the breaks
in the text are alike instructive.)
472 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
verbal, and the cause of it was stated to be the truly noble and
humane desire to devise some plan for terminating the war
without further bloodshed. Mr. Stephens, however willing to
concur in such an object, desired something more than a mere
verbal message, as may be seen by his answer to General Sher
man's intermediary :
u CRAWFORDVILLE, GEORGIA, October 1st, 1864.
" WM. KING, ESQ. :
" SIR, — I have considered the message you delivered me yesterday from
General Sherman with all the seriousness and gravity due the importance
of the subject. That message was a verbal invitation by him through you
to me to visit him at Atlanta, to see if we could agree upon some plan of
terminating this fratricidal war without the further effusion of blood. The
object is one which addresses itself with peculiar interest and great force
to every well-wisher of his country, — to every friend of humanity, — to
every patriot, — to every one attached to the principles of self-government,
established by our common ancestors. I need not assure you, therefore,
that it is an object very dear to me, — there is no sacrifice I would not
make, short of principle and honor, to obtain it, and no effort would I
spare, under the same limitations, with reasonable or probable prospect
of success.
,"-•" But, in the present instance, the entire absence of any power on my
part to enter into such negotiations, and the like absence of any such
power on his part, so far as appears from his message, necessarily precludes
\ my acceptance of the invitation thus tendered. In communicating this to
General Sherman, you may also say to him that if he is of opinion that
there is any prospect of our agreeing upon terms of adjustment to be
submitted to the action of our respective Governments, even though he
has no power to act in advance in the premises, and will make this known
to me in some formal and authoritative manner (being so desirous for
peace himself, as you represent him to have expressed himself), I would
most cheerfully and willingly, with the consent of our authorities, accede
to his request thus manifested, and enter with all the earnestness of my
nature upon the responsible and arduous task of restoring peace and har
mony to the country, upon principles of honor, right, and justice to all
parties. This does not seem to me to be at all impossible, if truth and
reason should be permitted to have their full sway.
" Yours most respectfully,
"ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS."
October 2d. — (To R. M. J.) "I was very much pleased with Governor
Brown's reply to the message of Sherman. As to the prospects of peace,
they do not appear so hopeful to me as when I wrote to you last on the
subject, soon after the Chicago nomination, and before McClellan's letter
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 473
of acceptance. That letter, I think, will greatly lessen his chances of
election, and it also weakens any hopes of peace at an early day, even in
case he should be elected. Still, I should prefer his election to that of
Lincoln. He will, or would, of course, suspend hostilities and try negotia
tion. Efforts failing in that line, he would renew the war for the restora
tion of the Union and the old Constitution with all its guaranties. These
include the perpetuation of slavery. Whenever the war assumes this
attitude on the part of the North, England will no longer be silent. She
will recognize us. France and other powers will join. With our recog
nition abroad, the moral power of the war at the North will be greatly
crippled. Peace after awhile will follow. The position of England and
France for the last two years is owing to their strong desire to have
slavery exterminated. I believe Lincoln's emancipation policy was dic
tated by England. He was told if the war had no great object in view in
aid of the progress of civilization and Christianity, such, for instance, as
the abolition of slavery, as they viewed it, recognition would take place.
Lincoln was compelled to issue his emancipation proclamation, or witness
immediate foreign recognition after the battles of Richmond in, 1862; and
whenever the war is renewed, if that should be the case, with a view to
continue the old Union, Constitution, and slavery, England will no longer
regard it as a war for any high and noble purpose, but as a war for subju
gation and havoc, and she will say it must be stopped."
October 9th. — (To Linton.) After referring to a published
letter, in which the writer expressed his views that the people of
the Confederacy were living "under a complete despotism, worse
than Lincoln's/7 but that such a state of things was a necessary
result of their position, Mr. Stephens remarks :
"This is the great mistake which has deluded thousands^ Despotism is
not necessary to put into active operation the maximum of military power
of any nation or people?) What nation in modern times has put forth
greater military energy than Great Britain? My opinion is that our in
stitutions, even freer in their organic law, are capable of calling forth and
putting into exercise quite as great a maximum of military power^as
England, and without the sacrifice of a single constitutional right. CA11
that is wanting are brains and integrity in properly administering and
working the machinery of Government.^}
"This idea that any amendment to the' Constitution is necessary before
there can be called a convention of the States, is all wrong. The two
Governments could give their assent to this form of adjustment, or initia
tion of adjustment, as well as any other. . . . My opinion is, that if such
a convention should be called by the consent of both Governments, and it
should be agreed in that body that the Sovereignty of each State separately
should be recognized with all its legitimate and rightful consequences as
474 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
a basis of peace, there would, or ought to be, no difficulty on the part of
either Government in ratifying these terms. The whole scheme would
work easily and conformably to the Constitutions of both Governments.
Each State at the ballot-box would decide — as she ought to be permitted
to do — her own destiny."
October loth. — " I concur entirely with you in your views upon the
subject of good or bad faith on the part of the several States in relation
to their Action in severing or not their connection with others, either during
war or peace. The war makes no difference. The right ground on which
to meet any proposition for a severance at this time is, not that it would
be an act of bad faith, but an act highly injurious to the interest of any
such State. The Confederation was formed for the mutual advantage and
interest of alLJ Should any State at any time become satisfied that the
cior^tged for purposes securing her best interests, future safety,
and protection, she has a perfect right to withdraw, and would commit no
ich of faith, either expressed or implied, in doing so.
"What I meant by both Governments giving their consent to a conven
tion of the States, was, that such consent could be given without any
violation of the Constitution. In this way the meeting of the States in
convention could be regularly, rather than constitutionally, assembled.
As under our Constitution the initiation of peace properly belongs to the
Executive, it seems to me that to have all things done regularly and prop
erly, should a Convention of the States be resorted to, the proposition
should be made by one, and acceded to by the other Government. Each
State in our Confederacy, and each in the old Union, has delegated the
treaty-making power, and all powers relating to foreign intercourse, to the
Federal Head; and if any State should be disposed to take control of the
present issues of peace and war without the consent of the Federal Head,
I am inclined to think that she would first have to resume her sovereign
powers, — in other words, she would first have to secede. But Avith the
consent of the Federal Head this would not be necessary, — the delegates
to such convention would be but commissioners on the part of each Con
federation, who might be appointed in this way as well as any other. At
least they could be appointed in this way without any violation of the
Constitution. Mr. Davis, in his speech at Columbia, says such a conven
tion would l)e against the Constitution ! I do not see how this is. Should
McClellan be elected, this may, and perhaps will, become a great question ;
but if not, it will pass away, most probably, as a thousand other shadows
of the day. without leaving any impression, and without indicating any
thing even to the most observing minds, except the real substance to which
they owe their origin. Hence I said so little on the subject in my letter:
that little was said barely for the purpose of making a favorable response
to the Chicago movement, that it might have all the influence that any
thing coming from me could have. That, I know, would not be much.
But I did think, and do think, if President Davis had said even as little
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 475
as I did on that general line, or favoring the idea to the extent I did, it
would have had a telling effect at the North. He, however, has chosen
to repel the^>ffer at the threshold."
October 18th. — He is still annoyed by the misconstructions
placed upon his letter of September 14th. (See ante.}
" Some seem to think that my purpose was to announce a plan for call
ing the States in convention to settle their own disputes without reference
to either the Government at Washington or that at Richmond, but to throw
them both off, — ignore them ; and that my view was in this way to recon
struct the old Union ! No such idea entered my head. I understood the
Chicago platform simply to announce the purpose of that party, if suc
cessful in getting control of the Washington Government, to make this
proposition through its properly-constituted channels to the like author
ities on our side. It was not my object to moot or inquire into that other
and graver question whether the States could or could not in good faith or
otherwise meet in convention and settle the strife even despite their pres
ent Confederate authorities. This question was hinted at by Governor
Brown in the concluding sentence of his letter to Sherman. But that
question I did not intend by any word uttered by me to broach. It is a
great and grave question, which may become an interesting one ; but it is
not presented in the Chicago platform nor in my favorable response to that
platform."
On the 3d of December, Mr. Stephens went to Richmond to
attend Congress, and on the 5th lie writes to Linton, mentioning
that he is suffering more than usual from his old affection of the
kidneys. He adverts to the high price of lodgings in Rich
mond : where he is staying he pays thirty dollars (currency) a
day for meals and room.
"Fuel, lights, and extras generally will be about thirty dollars per day
more ; so it will not take long to consume iny salary."
December 23d. — ..." I am satisfied that I can do 'no good here. Yester
day I got hold of Judge Taney's decision on the Habeas Corpus question in
the case of John Merryman, in Baltimore, May, 1861. It is a great paper.
I will try to have it republished in Georgia. It sets at nought the prevail
ing opinions here on the power of Congress over this great writ of right.
" I have strong inclinations to resign my position as Vice-President. !>,
shall do nothing hastily or rashly, but I can never approve doctrines and J
principles which are likely to become fixed in this country. Judge Taney
uses this language, — speaking of the President of the United States, — ' He
is not empowered to arrest any one charged with an offence against the
United States, and whom he may from the evidence before him believe to
476 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
be guilty ; nor can he authorize any officer, civil or military, to exercise
this power, for the Fifth Article of the Amendments to the Constitu
tion expressly provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law, — that is, judicial process.' This is
very high authority for the position that warrants for arrest under the
Constitution must be judicial warrants, — emanating from the Judicial
Dejmrtment of the Government and not the Executive. In another part
/of the decision he quotes another of the Amendments to the Constitution.
Vand then says, ' And these great and fundamental laws which Congress
itself could not suspend have been disregarded.' . . . The decision is
'jam up' to your resolutions; and if you had had it before you, and had
been drawing resolutions founded upon its principles, you could not have
done it more exactly than you did in the Georgia Resolutions of last
March."
December 2Jf.th. — '* You will see by a vote of the House taken in open
session to-day, that the indications are strong that it is the intention of that
body again to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. ... I
went to the Whig office this morning and offered them two hundred and
twenty dollars to republish Judge Taney's decision. I could not get a
positive answer whether they will do it or not. I offered their price. . . .
" If this bill passes in such form as it is most likely to pass, I do trust
Governor Brown will issue his proclamation advising the justices of the
inferior courts in the State to disregard it until the matter may be adju
dicated by our own Supreme Court. If that court shall decide the act to
be constitutional, I shall feel very little further interest in the result of
the conflict. It will simply be a contest between dynasties, — a struggle
between two powers, — not for rights or constitutional liberty, but for
despotism."
To those who urged that the loss of liberty should be, for a
time, endured, for the sake of securing independence, and that
Davis would be a better master than Lincoln, Mr. Stephens re
plied that without liberty independence was worthless. "I will
never," he said, ^choose between masters. Death, rather than
any master whatever?*""
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Difficulty with the Senate— Address before them — Change of Policy recom
mended — Sympathy for Prisoners— Resolutions — The Hampton Roads
Conference — Exchange of Prisoners — Declines to speak at Richmond —
Returns to Crawfordville — Letter about the Conference — Sherman's Ad
vance — Lee's Surrender — Arrest of Mr. Stephens — Imprisonment in Fort
Warren — Linton joins him — Prison Journal — Release — Life at Liberty
Hall— Declines to be a Candidate for the United States Senatorship —
Urgency of his Friends — His Election — Not allowed to take his Seat, —
Address to Georgia Legislature — Summoned before " Reconstruction
Committee'7 — Philadelphia Convention — His Opinions of Seward, Stan-
ton, and Grant — Undertakes a History of the War — Sufferings from
Renal Calculus.
THE year 1865 opened more gloomily for the Confederate
cause than any before. But while feeling all the gravity of the
situation, Mr. Stephens did not despair. He still believed that
by an entire change in the policy of the Administration the
success of the cause might yet be secured.
Early in January, when the bill to suspend further the writ
of habeas corpus, which had passed the House, came up for
action in the Senate, the vote upon its passage was a tie. Mr.
Stephens announced from the chair the result, and stated that it
then became his duty to give the casting-vote; but before doing
this, and thus deciding the question, he would take the occasion
to give the reasons which influenced him. Hereupon the ques
tion of his right to deliver his opinion was raised, and discussed
at some length, when a Senator arose and proposed to change his
vote, so as to dissolve the tie and cut off the speech. Mr. Ste
phens, in the chair, decided that the Senator could not change
his vote after the result had been announced by the presiding
officer. From this an appeal was taken, which was sustained
by the Senate, and the decision of the Chair overruled. This
Mr. Stephens looked upon as a direct indignity. The Senate.
477
478 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H> STEPHENS.
immediately adjourned ; and Mr. Stephens called Mr. Hunter
to him, and notified him that he intended to resign at once, as
he felt that he could no longer render any useful service to the
country when the Senate, in violation of parliamentary rules,
refused to allow him, the second officer of the Government, to
state his views upon a matter which he thought of vital im
portance to the cause. He then left the Senate-chamber, intend
ing never to re-enter it.
Mr. Hunter, however, urged him not to act hastily in the
matter; and the next day he brought Mr. Stephens a resolution,
unanimously passed by the Senate, requesting him to address
them in secret session upon the situation of public affairs. Mr.
Hunter assured him that the Senate was unanimous in desiring
that he should not resign, and that they had not intended any
personal or official indignity in not allowing him to speak the day
before. To these earnest representations Mr. Stephens yielded,
entered the Senate, and witlfout resuming the chair addressed
them from the floor in a speech of great length. As this was
delivered in secret session it was not reported ; but we extract the
following account of its tenor and substance from Mr. Stephens's
Constitutional View of the War (vol. ii. p. 587) :
" The sum and substance of it was that our policy, both internally and
externally, should be speedily and thoroughly changed. Conscription,
impressments, t suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and. all those
measures which tended to dispirit our people in the great cause for which
they were struggling, should be immediately abandoned. The resources
of the country, both of men and subsistence, should be better husbanded
than they had been. Proclamation should be made inviting back to the
army all who had left it without leave ; and all who were then subject to
conscription to come in under leaders of their own. In this way I be
lieved Price and Johnston, to say nothing of others, would in thirty days
bring to their ranks more than the Conscript Bureau had, by compulsory
process, brought from the beginning. Men who should so come would
never desert, and might be relied on to fight when they did come.
"I reminded them of what they knew had been my opinion upon these
subjects from the beginning ; that the policy of holding posts or positions
against besieging armies, as well as of engaging in pitched battles, should
not be pursued. We could not match our opponents in numbers, and
should not attempt to cope with them in direct physical power. War was
a collision of forces 5 and in this, as in mechanics, the greater momentum
must prevail. Momentum, however, was resolvable into two elements :
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 479
quantity of matter and velocity. The superior numbers — the quantity of
matter in this instance — were on the other side ; and to succeed in the end
we must make up the other requisite element of momentum, not only by
spirit, animation, and morale of our unequal numbers, but by their skilful
movements, and by other resorts which were at our command. These
consisted in the many advantages which an invaded people have over
invaders. The policy of Johnston from Dalton to the Chattahoochee was
the right one. To preserve the lives of our arms-bearing men was itself
a matter of the utmost importance. Our supply of these was limited, while
that of our opponents was inexhaustible. They could afford to lose any
number of battles, with great losses of men, if they could thereby
materially thin our ranks. In this way, by attrition alone, they would
ultimately wear us out. The leading object should be to keep an axmy
in the field, and to keep the standard up .somewhere, wherever it could
be done, without offering battle, except where the advantages were de
cidedly in our favor. If, in pursuing this course now, of retiring when
necessary, instead of offering or accepting battle, as stated, our whole
country should be penetrated, and should even be laid waste, as the Valley
of Virginia and the smoking belt in Georgia had been by Sheridan and
Sherman, these devastations would be borne by our people so long as their
hearts were kept enlisted in the cause. On this line of internal policy our
standard might even yet be kept up for at least a year or two longer, —
perhaps for a period far beyond that ; and in the mean time, by a change in
our external policy toward the masses of the people at the North, a reaction
might reasonably be expected to take place there. A financial revolution
there might be certainly expected in less than two years. The deprecia
tion of their currency had already reached a point which was quite
alarming to capitalists. Greenbacks had already sold in New York at
nearly three for one, in gold. When the crash did come, as soon it must,
the effects would be, politically, as well as in other respects, tremendous.
At that time they could not be properly conjectured ; but when it did
come, then, with a proper policy toward the million eight humlred
thousand and more of the other side who had so recently and decidedly
demonstrated thrnr opposition to tl>e Centralists in the late election, we
might, tlvrougn^TTrern^thoroughly aroused to a sense of their own dan
ger, — look for a peaceful adjustment upon a basis which would secure
best both their liberties and ours. My opinion was that by pursuing this
course we might in the end succeed in the cause for which we were,
struggling, without relying solely upon the sword.
" The policy thus stated necessarily involved the abandonment of a
continued attempt to hold Richmond. This, however, I did not state in
express ternis in my speech to the Senate. I only left all to draw their
inferences. To Mr. Davis .alone I submitted the propriety and necessity of
this course ; for I knew if he could not first be brought to see it, it would'
be not only useless, but most probably exceedingly injurious, in the then
480 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
state of the public mind, to mention it to others. When the subject was
mentioned to him, his reply in substance was, that the abandonment of
Richmond would be a virtual abandonment of the cause."
This speech produced a great impression upon the Senate, and
he was requested to submit his views in the form of resolutions,
which lie did. They were the following :
RESOLUTIONS.
J. Resolved, That the independence of the Confederate States of America,
based upon the constitutional compact between the Sovereign States com
posing the Confederacy, and maintained for nearly four years of gigantic
war, justly claims from their former associates and from the world recog
nition as a rightful fact.
2. Resolved, Thatall the States which composed the late American
Union, as well thosFlimlmicetr wTtliTn the present United States as those
embraced within the Southern Confederacy, are what the original thirteen
States were declared to be by their common ancestors in 1776, and ac
knowledged to be by George the Third of England^jnjjle^ejajient and
sovereign States, not as one political communitv.Jbut as States, each one
of them constituting such a " People"' as have the inalienable right to
terminate any government of their former choice by withdrawing from it
their consent, just as the original thirteen States, through their common
agent acting for and in the name of each one of them, by the withdrawal
of their consent put a rightful termination to the British Government which
had been established over them with their perfect consent and free choice.
/o. Resolved, That in the judgment of this Congress, the sovereignty of
/the individual and several States is the only basis upon which a permanent
j peace between States now at war with each other can be established, con-
( sistently with the preservation of constitutional liberty ; and that the
recognition of this principle will, if the voice of passion and war can once
be hushed, and reason be allowed to resume her sway, lead to an easy and
lasting solution of all matters of controversy involved in the present
unnatural conflict, by simply leaving all the States free to form their
political association with each other, not by force of arms, which excludes
%the idea of consent, but by a rational consideration of their respective
interests growing out of their natural condition, resources, and situation.
4. Resolved, That as the very point of controversy in the present war is
the settlement of the political associations of the several States, no treaty
of peace can be perfected consistently with the sovereignty of the indi
vidual States without separate State action on the part of at least those
States whose preferences may be justly regarded as doubtful, and have not
yet been expressed through their appropriate organs ; and therefore State
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, 481
co-operation becomes not only appropriate but necessary in perfecting any
articles of peace consistently with the principles of the sovereignty of the
several States respectively.
5. Resolved, That we hail with gratification the just and sound senti
ments manifested by a large portion of the people of the United States
since the last session of this Congress, that all association of these Ameri
can States ought to be voluntary and not forcible ; and we give a hearty
response to their views and wishes for a suspension of the present conflict I
of arms, and an appeal to the forum of reason, to see if the matters in
controversy cannot be properly and justly adjusted by amicable settlement,
without the further effusion of blood.
6. Resolved, That being wedded to no particular or exclusive mode of
initiating or inaugurating negotiations looking to a peaceful settlement and
adjustment of the questions now in issue between the United States and
the Confederate States, it is the judgment of this Congress that if it should
be more agreeable to the Government and people of the United States, or"
even a large and respectable portion of them, that the questions should^
be submitted to the consideration of commissioners or delegates from each' ]
State, one or more, to be assembled in the character of a convention of all
the States, than to plenipotentiaries appointed in the usual way (as lately :
manifested as aforesaid), then such a plan of inviting negotiations should }
be acceded to, or proposed by, the Confederate States. Such convention
being acceded to, or proposed, only as an advisory body ; the commissioners
or delegates to it being authorized by the treaty-making power of each
Government respectively not to form any agreement or compact absolutely
between the States, but simply to confer, consult, and to agree, if possible,
upon some plan of peaceful adjustment to be submitted by them to their
respective Governments. This mode of inaugurating negotiations, in the
opinion of this Congress, would be relieved of all possible constitutional
objections by the consent of the properly-constituted authorities of the two
Governments. With such consent, the proposed delegates would but act,
in any view of the subject, as commissioners appointed in any other way
to negotiate for peace ; and whatever they might agree upon or propose
would be subject to the approval or disapproval of the two Governments
respectively, and subject also to the approval or disapproval of the par
ticular States whose sovereign rights might be involved.
And inasmuch as the authorities at Washington have heretofore rejected
all formal offers for a free interchange of views looking to negotiations
made by our authorities, and as we deem it a high duty not only to our
gallant citizen-soldiers but to the whole body of our people, as well* as our
duty to the cause of humanity, civilization, and Christianity, that Congress
should omit or neglect no effort in their power to bring about negotiations,
if possible,
Therefore be it further
7. Resolved, That the President of the Confederate States be informed
31
482 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
'~bf these resolves, and that he be requested to grant permission to three
persons, to be selected by the House of Representatives (members from each
State voting in such selection by States, and a majority of all States being
necessary to a choice in each case), to cross our lines, who shall immedi
ately proceed to ask and obtain, if possible, an informal interview or con
ference with the authorities at Washington, or any person or persons who
may be appointed to meet them, to see if any such plan of inaugurating
negotiations for peace upon the basis above set forth can be agreed upon ;
and if not, to ascertain and report to the President and to Congress any
other, or what terms, if any, of peaceful settlement may be proposed by
the authorities at Washington. Should this effort fail, we shall have the
consolation of knowing that we, in our high and responsible trusts, have
done our duty. We shall have given assurance to our people that we have
done all that we can do in our position and capacity to end the strife upon
just and proper principles ; and the rejection of this overture by the Presi
dent of the United States will afford additional evidence to the people of
those States that he is waging this unnatural war not for peace or the good
of his country, but for purposes of the most unholy ambition ; while it
will demonstrate to our people that his object as to them is nothing short
of their utter subjugation or extinction."
On the reading of these resolutions the Senate, as Mr. Ste
phens was informed, unanimously agreed to them, and they
were to be passed in the House as soon as possible, and come
back to the Senate, where they would meet no opposition, the
Senate having come entirely round to Mr. Stephens's policy.
A long letter to Linton, dated January 5th, gives an account
of a visit he paid to a Mr. Bassford, of Atlanta, then confined
in the Richmond jail, where he had been for eighteen months
under a charge of murder. The visit was made at the prisoner's
solicitation, who was anxious to have Mr. Stephens to defend
him. According to his statement, the homicide was committed
in defending himself from a murderous assault, and Mr. Ste
phens agreed to undertake his defence, " as a friend/7 if he was
in Richmond when the case was tried. A very minute account
is given of the jail, its interior arrangements, and the wretched
condition of its inmates. The letter concludes :
"I was glad that I went to see the prisoner. Liberty, — the bare right
of locomotion, — to walk out in the open air and enjoy the light of day,— •
what an inestimable blessing it is! How many millions enjoy and never
think of its value ! How many thousands daily walk the streets of Rich
mond by the numerous prisons in it, and never think of the unfortunate
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 483
beings who repine and often die in the cold dusky walls on which they
direct not a glance nor bestow a thought ! Whenever I see a head at an
iron grate, my heart is interested in behalf of the sufferer; and I often
speculate on the history, or tragedy it may be, of that life. Good-night.
I dreamed of you last night. May I dream of you again to-night !''
We have before noticed Mr. Stephens's great sympathy for
prisoners. He could not at this time have foreseen — though such
a fate had often presented itself to his mind as a possibility—
that in four months he would himself be the tenant of a prisoner's
cell.
January 6th. — ..." The feeling here is better than it was. The pres- .
ent indications are that the habeas corpus suspension will be abandoned, .
and several other follies as well as mischievous measures. I sent you a
copy the other day of a rehash of your Resolutions" [the "Georgia Reso
lutions" of March, 1864] "which I did up for Atkins of the House to be
offered by him to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, hoping to get their
endorsement of them in a report to the House recommending their adop
tion. The Committee consisted of nine members : the vote stood four to
four. The Chairman, Rives, cast the vote against them ; but it is thought
he wTill reconsider, and that they will pass the House.
" The Senate to-day held a meeting after adjournment, — Hunter in the
chair, — and passed a resolution unanimously requesting me to address
them on the present condition of the country. It was with closed doors.
The whole took me by surprise ; but I complied with the request and spoke
to them two hours. I gave them my views very freely."
Then follows an account of the general tenor of the speech,
which we have already given more in detail. He adds :
•• I urged the importance of offering to the_North negotiations-
basis of the Resolutions alliided"t(57"Ttola"them that we had ten friends
at the North to one in any other part of the world. Our external policy
should look to co-operation with these. By ' friends at the North,' I did
not mean men who were in favor of disunion, or those wrho would even
avow a willingness for our separation, but men who really had the same
interests at stake in the contest that we have, — the preservation of State
Rights and Constitutional liberty. This made them our natural, allies ;
and we should pursue such a course of policy towards them as to bring
their efforts in maintaining their own liberties to co-operate with us to
maintain ours. We should let them know that, after the contest was over,
we would then consider with them all questions looking to new union, and
settle them upon rational considerations in view of reciprocal advantages
and mutual convenience.
484 LIFE OF ALEXANDER It. STEPHENS.
" The speech was delivered off-hand, without a moment's reflection, but
it made, I think, a very decided impression. . . . ^Whether anything can
be made of the concern, I do not know. I shall labor to the last and do
all I can. I am not sanguine, but am not by any means depressed./ 1 am
prepared for anything, and have a spirit that I trust will prove equal to
any crisjssy With duty discharged with fidelity, I shall have a clear con
science, and feel content, let events take what direction, under Providence,
they may."
Early in January, Mr. Francis P. Blair, Sr., visited Rich
mond and had several private interviews with President Davis.
The result of these — if we may call it a result — was the Hamp
ton Roads Conference, held on February. 3d, between Messrs.
Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on the part of the Confederate
authorities, and President Lincoln and Secretary Seward of the
United States. The whole account of this interview is given so
circumstantially by Mr. Stephens himself in his Constitutional
View of the War (ii. pp. 589-622), that it is unnecessary to re
produce it here. Some of his own remarks upon this subject in
conversation with Mr. Johnston, who visited him shortly after
his return from Richmond on the 20th of February, may not
be without interest.
MR. S. — " The objects of the mission to Fortress Monroe have not been
understood by the people generally. It was to endeavor if possible to ob
tain an armistice. Blair had stated in Richmond that President Lincoln
was very much pressed by the Radical party at home to employ the most
extreme measures with what he termed ' the rebels' : and that now, as the
relations with France were becoming embarrassing, it would be a good
time to make overtures to the United States Government on the basis of
the ' Monroe doctrine.' I believed that, if Blair was sincere, much could
be done by the exercise of prudence. When the President made known
the matter to me, I urged him to keep it a profound secret, and to go him
self to meet Lincoln. He expressed himself as decidedly opposed to that.
I then advised him to send some one whose absence would not be especially
noticed, and suggested Judge Campbell. The President maintained that
the Commission must consist of more than one; so I suggested in addition
Thomas S. Flournoy, who was then in Richmond, and General Benning,
in which suggestion I thought he acquiesced. But the next day the Presi
dent sent for me, and said that the Cabinet had agreed upon Campbell,
Hunter, and myself. I found that the appointment was already generally
known in Richmond. I was very reluctant to go, because I felt that the
President did not fully sympathize with the real objects of that mission •,
but I concluded to go because of even a slight hope of doing some good.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 485
" Lincoln and Seward, of course, would not agree to consider any tern
of truce which did not recognize a return of the Southern State* to the
Union. I urged an armistice, allowing the States to adjust themselves as
suited their interests. If it would be to their interests to reunite, they
would do so ; but that according to the principle of State rights and State
sovereignty, they could not be compelled. Seward made the supposition
that Louisiana, bordering as she does for a great distance on both sides
of the Mississippi, the great outlet of the West, should secede. I answered
that he took indeed an extreme case ; but that if France would treat her
better than the Union of which she was a member, she ought to secede."
One of the guests asked if it was true that Mr. Lincoln told
the anecdote of the turkey and the buzzard.
MR. S. — " No. But he said something that was quite characteristic.
Allusion having been made to Charles I., of England, and his treating with
men whom he called ; rebels,' Lincoln laughed and said we must talk with
Seward about that matter; all he remembered about Charles was, that he
lost his head."
At the close of the conference, Mr. Stephens brought up a
subject which had long rested on his mind, — that of the exchange
of prisoners. The policy of non-exchange, persevered in by the
Federal Government, despite all representations and propositions
made by the South, kept the prisons on both sides crowded, and
entailed fearful suffering and mortality on both Northern and
Southern prisoners. It was believed that the responsibility for
this cruelty rested, not with the President, but with his Secretary
of War; and Mr. Lincoln showed no disposition to resist the
appeal to his humanity, but referred the Commissioners to Gen
eral Grant, whom he would authorize to act in the matter. On
returning to City Point, the Commissioners had an interview
with General Grant (whose manner and bearing impressed Mr.
Stephens very favorablyj2_wjiicJiJ^sul4edy-«fwrr after^in a general
exchange. At the interview with Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Stephens
also maderlfpplication for the special exchange of his nephew,
Lieutenant Stephens, then a prisoner at Johnson's Island, which
was readily acceded to, and on Mr. Lincoln's return the lieuten
ant was promptly released, on the condition that there should be
exchanged for him "that officer of the same rank, imprisoned
in Richmond, whose physical condition most urgently requires
his release."
486 L]FE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
After the failure of the Hampton Roads Conference, Mr.
Davis addressed the citizens of Richmond in an eloquent speech,
urging them to continued resistance. Mr. Stephens was also
requested to address this meeting, but declined. " I could not,"
he says, " undertake to impress upon the minds of the people
the idea that they could do what I believed to be impossible, or
to inspire in them hopes which I did not believe could ever be
realized."
In truth the day of hope had now gone by. Fort Fisher had
fallen, closing the last port of the Confederacy to foreign trade.
Sherman had commenced that march from Savannah, the atro
cities of which culminated in the burning of Columbia with
circumstances of such cruelty that even the little-scrupulous
Congressional Committee thought it prudent to suppress the
despatches.
Mr. Stephens left Richmond on the 7th of February, and
reached Crawfordville on the 20th, having been detained by
sickness on the way. On the 17th of March he writes a long
letter to R. M. J., giving some details of the Hampton Roads
Conference, on which he remarks :
/ " I have, from the first, not been without some suspicion that the whole
( arrangement with Blair wras planned with a view to stop and forestall, just
Vtis it did, the action of Congress on the line (indicated by my resolutions)
they were about to adopt. This would have been done in ten days, or per
haps sooner, but for the denouement of the Blair affair. What Congress
most probably would have done is this : they would have passed the reso
lutions submitted, and would have appointed Commissioners to seek an
informal conference with the authorities at Washington, to ascertain upon
what terms peace could be obtained ; and would have been instructed to
propose a convention of all the States as a mode of initiating negotiations.
This would not have been done under any expectation that Lincoln would
agree to it ; but to show to the people of the North and the world the
fairness of our course, and to make allies at the North of all friends of
constitutional liberty there. It was to be the first step in the change of
our foreign policy in the conduct of the war. It was to unite our people
and divide the North ; and was to be followed up by a like change of
policy in this. Hereafter the question of the future relations of the States
toward each other was to be left for adjustment among themselves, when
the great principle of the sovereignty — ultimate, absolute sovereignty —
/of each was first acknowledged. If it should be first settled by the friends
of .constitutional liberty, North and South, that there is no rightful power
LIFE OF ALEX. I M) Kit H. STEPHENS. 487
in the central Government to coerce a State ; with this principle once ac- I
knowledged and settled as the basis of American institutions, then all I
other questions as to the relations of the States among themselves wefirttr
be left for time and reason to adjust upon the principle of 'reciprocal ad
vantages and mutual convenience.' This was my programme for continu
ing the war on this line. On no other did I see much chance of success ;
and on no other did I see much good to be obtained even by success. For
independence without liberty had no attractions for ine ; and I see no pros
pect of liberty except upon the acknowledged principle of the rights and
sovereignty of the separate States, North or South."
On the 20th of April he writes to Linton:
..." I hear the enemy have possession of Macon and are moving on
Augusta. These reports will keep me from going over to Sparta this
week. While I do not know that I shall attempt to get out of their way
if they do pass through here, I do not feel disposed to get voluntarily in
their way. I wish you would come over here and let us stand or fall
together. I have positive information that General Lee's army surren
dered on the 10th inst. Johnston must soon do the same. Organized war
is, or soon will be, over with us. If I knew when a letter from me to
Governor Brown would reach him, I would write him advising him to
convene the Legislature and* recommend the call of another State conven
tion to consider our present condition and provide for the future. Almost
anything is better than guerilla warfare."
On the llth of May, Mr. Stephens was arrested at his house
by Captain Saint of the Federal army, acting under orders
from Major-General Upton, and conveyed under guard to At
lanta, where he was placed in charge of Colonel Pritchard, who
had then in his custody Mr. Davis and those captured with him.
At Hampton Roads orders were received for Mr. Stephens to
be sent to Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, where he arrived
May 25th. At first his confinement was rigorous, and the damp
ness and closeness of the room partly underground in which he
was placed had a serious effect upon his health ; but he was
afterwards removed to more comfortable quarters, and allowed
the freedom of the grounds. Books, newspapers, and writing
materials were allowed him. On the whole, he was treated with
as much humanity as circumstances permitted, and received
much kindness from many citizens of Boston, which he grate
fully remembers to this day.
As soon as Linton could get permission to share his brother's
488 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
confinement he went to him, and remained with him until he
was released on parole on the 12th of October.
During his confinement Mr. Stephens kept a journal. Be
lieving that he would not survive his imprisonment, he wrote
this, as he says in the preface, chiefly in order that his brother
and his friend might, after his death, know his thoughts and
feelings at this time, and thus have a complete knowledge of
that life which up to that time had been always open to them.
After his return he allowed them to read this journal, — a re
markable record of the sufferings of a keenly sensitive spirit.
It is not, however, only a chronicle of suffering. He devoted
much of his time to reading and meditation; and much of this
journal is taken up with criticisms and reflections on books,
men, and events, and commentaries on passages of Scripture.
Among classical authors he gave particular study to Cicero,
whose genius and eloquence he greatly admired.
The first time Mr. Johnston saw Mr. Stephens after his im
prisonment it was at his house in Hancock. It was a beautiful
October morning. Mr. Stephens had never been at all gray,
and his fine chestnut hair had kept all its gloss and freshness ;
but now his head was almost white. Otherwise there was but
little change in his appearance. The journal was produced, and
he expressed his intention to destroy it after it had been read by
the two for whom it was written. He was urged not to do this,
but to preserve it ; and he so far yielded as to consent to retain
it for a time at least. It is still in existence; and perhaps at
some future day may be allowed to see the light.
J Probably not a man in the South more readily adapted him-
Yself to the changed relations and new condition of affairs than
I Mr. Stephens, and his home-life scarcely underwent a change.
VHis advice was always freely given to his neighbors or fellow-
Mtizens in the various difficulties and emergencies that continu
ally arose. During his absence Harry and his family remained
at Liberty Hall, and took care of everything with the fidelity
which had always characterized him. The only alteration in
his domestic arrangements was in the management of his plan
tation. This, before the war, was not looked to as a source of
revenue beyond supplying the wants of the inmates at the Hall.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 489
The surplus was expended on the improvement of the place and
presents to servants. Since the war he has divided it into a
number of small farms, which he rents to his former slaves,
and thus obtains a small income from it. Harry and his family
still remained at the house, attending to their former duties.
Old " Aunt Mat" and her husband, " Uncle Dick/' both super
annuated, remained with him as long as they lived. There was
the same simplicity as before in everything, and the same free
dom from constraint which induced him to give his home the
name it bears. " Why do you call it Liberty Hall ?" asked a
friend of him one day. " Because I do as I please, and all my
guests are expected to do the same."
On the meeting of the Legislature of his State, under Presi
dent Johnson's proclamation, his name was at once brought
forward as the most suitable candidate for the United States
Senatorship; and a letter inquiring if he would accept the
nomination, and inviting him to address the Legislature on the
state of the country, was written him by several members of
that body. We quote his reply and the correspondence that
followed, as they are of a tenor somewhat unusual under similar
circumstances :
" MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA, January 22J, 1866.
"MESSRS. J. F. JOHNSON, CHARLES II. SMITH, and others:
"GENTLEMEN, — Your note of invitation to me to address the General
Assembly on the state of the country, and assuring me that it is the
almost universal desire of the members that I should do so, if consistent
with my feelings, etc., was received two days ago. I have considered it
maturely ; and be assured, if I saw any good that could be accomplished
by my complying with your request, I would cheerfully yield any personal
reluctance to so general a wish of the members of the General Assembly
thus manifested. But as it is, seeing no prospect of effecting any good
by such an address, you and your associates will, I trust, excuse me in
declining. My reasons need not be stated ; they will readily suggest
themselves to your own minds upon reflection.
" In reference to the subject of the election of United States Senators,
which is now before you, allow me to avail myself of this occasion to say
to you, and through you to all the members of the General Assembly, that
I cannot give my consent to the use of my name in that connection. This
inhibition of such use of it is explicit and emphatic. I wish it so under
stood by all. As willingly as I would yield my own contrary inclinations
to what I am assured is the general and unanimous wish of the Legislature
490 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
in this respect, if I saw any prospect of niy being able, by thus yielding,
to render any essential service to the people of Georgia ; and as earnestly
desirous as I am for a speedy restoration of civil law, perfect peace, har
mony, and prosperity throughout the whole country, yet, under existing
circumstances, I do not see any prospect of the availability of my services
to these ends in any public position. Moreover, so far as I am personally
concerned, I do not think it proper or politic that the election should be
postponed with any view to a probable change of present circumstances
or a probable change of rny position on the subject ; and I do trust that no
member will give even a complimentary vote to me in the election.
" Yours truly, ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS."
This brought another application in the following form :
" MILLEDGEVILLE, January 29th, 1866.
"HoN. A. II. STEPHENS:
" ESTEEMED SIR, — We have read with deep regret your letter to the
Legislature, withholding the use of your name in connection with the
Senatorial canvass ; but while we grant to you the right of refusing a
candidature for a seat in the United States Senate, yet at the same time
we claim to have also the right to bestow upon you this trust, involving,
as it does, important considerations. We feel, sir, that a vast majority
of the people of the State are looking to you as the man for the crisis.
As the representatives of that constituency, desirous to carry out this
manifest demonstration of the public will, we now ask, will you serve if
elected ?
" II. R. CASEY, P. B. BEDFORD.
" WM. GIBSON, 0. L. SMITH,
"CLAIBORNE SNEAD, GEO. S. OWENS,
"JAMES M. RUSSELL, J. A. W. JOHNSON,
"JESSE A. GLENN, P. J. STROZER,
"JOHN 0. GARTRELL, B. A. THORNTOIJ."
" BEN. B. MOORE,
" MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA. January 29th, 1866.
" MESSRS. II. R. CASEY, WILLIAM GIBSON, and others :
" The right claimed by you in your note to me, of this date, I do not
wish to be understood as at all calling in question.
"In reply to your interrogatory. I can only say that I cannot imagine
any probable case in which I would refuse to serve, to the best of my
ability, the people of Georgia in any position which might be assigned to
ine by them or their representatives,' whether assigned with or without
my consent. Yours truly,
ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS."
The result was that he was elected for the long term, the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 491
Hon. H. V. Johnson being his colleague ; but was not alloweoVX
to take his seat by those who rejected the Executive plan of
restoration, and were determined to carry out one of their own ^
for reconstruction of the Union.
On the 22d of February, in compliance with the request of
the Legislature, Mr. Stephens addressed that body and a large
audience in the Capitol at Milledgeville on the state of the
country. This speech, one of the most important of his life,
we give at length.*
On the 16th of April he was summoned before the " Recon
struction Committee'7 of Congress to testify in regard to the
existing state of affairs in the South, and the disposition of the
people. His evidence, which was published in full,f showed
the anxiety of that people for the restoration of order and just
government, their desire to return to the Union on equal terms,
and their disposition to abide in good faith by the results of the
war. With reference to himself, he said :
"My convictions on the original abstract question" [as to the reserved
rights of the States] "have undergone no change; but I accept the issues
of the war and the result as a practical settlement of the question."
Or, as he has elsewhere expressed it :
" The cause which was lost by the surrender of the Confederates was
only the maintenance of this principle*' [that of a Federation of Sovereign
States] " by arms. It was not the principle itself that they abandoned.
They only abandoned their attempt to maintain it by physical force."
Speaking of some of the prominent men of the time, he said :
" Nobody is more misunderstood than Seward. He is frequently spoken
of as*a leader of public opinion ; but it is a great mistake, — it leads him.
He is always quick to see its drift, and when he does, he instantly follows,
and seems to lead, like boys at a military procession, who seem to lead the
inarch by following in front of the music."
Of President Johnson he said :
. . . "Johnson prefers to do things indirectly. He looks one way and
rows another. It is difficult to understand him fully ; but I think he
really desires to see the South restored to all its rights. As for Stanton,
he is a monster of evil. It is strange the influence he has to keep himself
* See Appendix C. f See Appendix D.
492 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
in the Cabinet. In the case of Mrs. Surratt his conduct was sickening to
humanity."
Being asked if he still retained his high opinion of General
Grant, he answered :
" I do. He is an unsophisticated, honest, and, I think, as yet unam
bitious man. There is a great deal of development for Grant yet. He is
young, and will yet have a more important destiny than he has had thus
far. I do not doubt that he is a patriot. The Radicals pretend to claim
him ; but they know that he is not with them. He says little about
politics, but what he does say is to the point. For instance, one day when
I called to see him, he was speaking about the Radical policy, and said.
4 The true policy should be to make friends of enemies. The policy of
the present majority is to make enemies of friends.' One of the party
asked him if it was true that he had been fined for fast driving on the
street. He answered, l Yes, I was. I expect the next thing will be that
they will take me before the Freedmen's Bureau.' "
Mr. Stephens being excluded from participation in public
affairs, and too much of an invalid to resume active practice at
the bar, now for the first time thought of turning to literary
work. While in Philadelphia a publisher suggested to him the
preparation of a history of the war, and the idea struck him
not unfavorably. In a visit which R. M. J. paid him in De
cember, he referred to it, and seemed almost determined to
undertake it. It was to be finished within a year, and he
thought he would adopt the form of dialogue, as the most
animated.
The evenings of this visit were mostly spent in alternate
readings from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations. On reaching the
second book, and the proposition "Pain is no evil," Mr.
Stephens remarked, " If a calculus had been in any of their
kidneys, they would have thought it as bad as I do." And the
reading had not gone very far before we arrived at the defalca
tion of Demetrius to the Stoic doctrine, on account of a disorder
of his kidneys ; at which our host laughed in great triumph at
this verification of his judgment.
The following year, 1867, opened with many trials for Mr.
Stephens. His health was worse ; and his sufferings from
neuralgia, and his old enemy, renal calculus, were at times
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 493
extreme. He was deeply grieved by the death of his two old
servants and pensionaries, Mat and Dick; and alludes to it
with great feeling in most of his letters about this time. The
" reconstruction" policy of Congress filled him with gloomy
forebodings.
" We are now," he writes, "just entering that dark region in our future,
that impenetrable cloud in our destiny, embracing what I have so often
spoken of to you as the ' pessimus* point in our affairs, to which we have
been tending for many years. From the hideous outlines of the portentous
prospect the soul instinctively recoils as from the visage of death. Our
political doom is sealed : the great and dreaded night has corne upon us.
My soul is in anguish at the death of American constitutional liberty 1"
He sought refuge from these gloomy thoughts in the prepara
tion of his history of the war, on which he worked as assidu
ously as his health would allow. Had his health and political
status permitted, he would have had his hands full of business
in the Federal courts, in which a plentiful crop of litigation
sprang up from the suits instituted by creditors of the North,
especially in the " cotton cases." In one or two of these Mr.
Stephens, though he could not plead before the court, was re
tained as advisory counsel, with Mr. Toombs, who was equally
incapacitated.
By December the manuscript of the first volume of his history
was ready for the press, and he went on to Philadelphia. His
friend, Mr. Johnston, had by this time removed to the vicinity
of Baltimore, and Mr. Stephens arranged to stay at his house
while the work was passing through the press, and there correct
the proofs.
CHAPTER XL.
Publication of First Volume of his History of the "War — An Accident —
Attacks upon him — The Southern Review — Replies — Elected Professor
in University of Georgia — Declines — Opinion of the Linton Correspond
ence — Attacked with Inflammatory Rheumatism — Proposes Final Retire
ment from Public Life — A Severe Trial — History finished — Another be
gun — Law Students — Connection with the Western Atlantic Railway —
Judge Stephens arrested, but no Bill found — Letter to his Students —
Opinion of President Grant — The Atlanta Sun.
MR. STEPHENS spent the winter of 1867-68 and a part of the
following spring in Philadelphia, superintending the publication
of his Constitutional History of the War. He suffered severely
from the consequences of a fall upon the ice, and was under a
physician's hands a great part of the time. Early in April he
returned to Crawfordville.
After the appearance of the first volume of his History,
articles appeared in some Southern publications attacking the
author on various grounds, but especially on account of what
some imagined to be his views upon the subject of the ratifi
cation of the Constitutional Amendment of Congress by the
Radical Legislature of Georgia. He thus alludes to these
articles in a letter :
August 3d. — (To R. M. J.) . . . " The truth is, there seems to be a great
covert spite against me by a certain class of our politicians. This is
shown in a striking manner by several of their papers throughout the
South in starting and propagating slanders against rne. ... They were
all equally groundless and false ; or at least they had this ground and
this only to rest upon: I had expressed the opinion in Atlanta that it
would be best for the State and for the whole country that the Radicals
in the Legislature should adopt the Constitutional Amendment. I advised
no Democrat to vote for it. On the contrary, I urged all I saw and talked
with — and they were few — to vote against it. I said that if I were in the
place of any one of them, I would not vote for it. That would be endors
ing what I thought utterly unconstitutional. But if my not voting against
it would permit the Radicals to pass it, I would not vote on the question.
494
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 495
To defeat it at this step of the question could do us no possible good that
1 could see, but might do us harm. It would continue us under military
rule, and would put it out of our power to aid in electing Seymour, which
we might do if the election was left to the people and our counsels
prevailed in the canvass.
u Enough States had already adopted it to make it part of the Consti
tution in case it should be held to be valid. Georgia's action therefore would
not affect that question. The great and vital question now was to elect the
Democratic nominees. If they carried the country, this Constitutional
Amendment would be held to be a nullity. Its passage, therefore, by the
Radicals in our State could not possibly do us any practical harm, and its
adoption by them would not only remove us from under military govern
ment, but enable us, if we were wise, materially to aid, by nine electoral
votes, to bring those into power who would hold it, as we did, null and void
from the beginning.
4i Divers other reasons I gave why statesmanship should be directed to
the policy of letting the Radicals pass it. One was that if the Radical
nominees were elected to the offices of President and Vice-President, we
could not expect to get a better State Constitution than that which we now
have. Under it all whites, as well as blacks, are entitled to vote. If this
Constitution should be rejected, another, disfranchising a large class of
whites, as in Tennessee and Alabama, might be put upon us. While this
would be no reason for me to vote for what I believed to be unconstitu
tional, yet it would be a reason why I should not vote at all."
In the Southern Review for October of tin's year there ap
peared an article from the pen of the senior editor, Dr. A. T.
Bleclsoe, criticising with much asperity and some personal feel
ing the first volume of Mr. Stephens's History. In reference
to this, Mr. Stephens writes :
October llth. — (To R. M. J.) . . . "It is my intention to reply, under my
own name, to Dr. Bledsoe's tirade against the Constitutional View; or
rather his attack on me under guise of reviewing the book. While the
occasion and provocation might justify considerable passion, yet he shall
see that I can and will show up his outrages on me with as much cold
bloodedness as that with which I have exhibited the enormous and infa
mous wrongs of those who wielded the Federal authority in the subjugation
of the Southern States. As my object in the former case was not to dis
gust the world with my own passions, however deep and intense, but to
present truth in such a light as to arouse the just indignation of all can
did and unprejudiced minds by such a wanton violation of justice and
right as the war was, so will it be in the other. My vindication against
Dr. Bledsoe's assertions and misrepresentations shall be as full and com
plete as the vindication of our cause in the Constitutional View is against
496 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
all the malign assaults of our enemies ; and it shall be equally temperate
in manner and expression."
In his reference to " cold-bloodedness/' Mr. Stephens alludes
to a passage in which the reviewer had referred contemptuously
to the uni til passioned style in which the historian discussed the
great questions involved. His reply to the article in the Review
was published in the Baltimore Statesman, and evoked a rejoin
der from the reviewer. These papers, with replies to other critics,
were afterwards published by Mr. Stephens in a volume entitled
The Reviewers Reviewed.
Toward the close of the year Mr. Stephens was elected Pro
fessor of Political Science and History in the University of
Georgia, which had previously conferred on him the degree of
Doctor of Lawrs. In reference to this and the previous subject
he writes :
December 28th.— (To R. M. J.) ..." I expect to go to Athens to-mor
row to look into matters touching the Professorship before deciding on my
acceptance of it. ... I don't intend to notice Dr. Bledsoe's ' Rejoinder,'
so called. I laid it aside on first perusal to take it up afterwards in order
to see if there was really anything in it that would justify a notice from
me. On a careful examination I can see nothing of the kind. His posi
tion in asserting that there is an inconsistency between the speech and the
book, on the question of secession, is astonishing to me."
He was, however, compelled to decline the Professorship by a
severe attack of rheumatism early in 1869, from the effects of
which he suffered for years.
The year 1869 found Mr. Stephens in worse health than ever.
On January 5th he thus wrote to R. M. J. :
" I have been very badly off lately, and am now hardly able to sit up.
... I shall not accept the Professorship. I am not now able to walk,
except to hobble about the house. Pain in the knee. I cannot assume the
duties of the chair in the University. Moreover, I could not live upon the
salary."
At Mr. Johnston's request, Mr. Stephens had obtained all that
could be procured of his correspondence with Linton, for the
biography for which Mr. J. was collecting material. In January
of this year he received a considerable package of these letters
accompanied by a note, in which they are thus alluded to :
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 497
" I glanced over the last cursorily, and I came to the conclusion that
my character was more completely embodied in them than any personal
likeness was ever set forth by daguerreotype or photograph. They ex
pressed the most secret thoughts of my heart without reserve upon many
questions, public and private. ... I was almost ama/ed at finding that I
had said so little that I would now wish unsaid, or would even wish to see
modified in any way. What I said of Judge Story I would not modify in
the slightest degree ; and yet when I wrote these letters I had never read
that portion of his Commentaries upon the Constitution of the United States
which treats of our early history, and which I so thoroughly review in my
work. At that time, too, I did not think very well of Mr. Jefferson. I
never understood his character until I read his life by Randall many years
afterwards. It was not published, I think, until 1858 or 1859. . . . This
is all the explanation I have to make about anything you may see in these
letters.
" ... I have formally declined the Professorship, at least for the
present. I had a very severe attack of my old disease two days ago, and
am now barely able to be up."
Mr. Stephens had just recovered strength enough to be about
a little, when he was again prostrated by an attack of acute in
flammatory rheumatism, aggravated by an accident, in which the
sciatic nerve was seriously injured. From this attack he suffered
excruciating pain, and was rendered helpless. Its effects kept
him confined to the house for four years.
On March 12th he writes:
" I am still almost helpless. I cannot move the body without assistance.
This I write propped up with pillows. I fear it will be a long time before
I get on foot again, if I ever do. I am weak, and grow weaker, it seems,
every day, and have no lessening of the pain. You ask if I feel lonely.
No, I do not. I read a little every day, and scribble a little too. . . . The
delay of my work worries me a great deal. But I have made up my mind
not to be worried with it. I have directed all the MS. to be burned, except
a small part, in case I should not be able to finish it. The part excepted
is the chapter on the Hampton Roads Conference."
March 16th. — . . . "As for myself I am so-so; and every day . in
creases my apprehension that I am to be an invalid the rest of my life. I
mean that I am to be a cripple, and never to be on foot as of yore. An
invalid I have been all my days. With assistance, I can get out of bed
and sit up in a chair supported by pillows, and can move from chair to
chair in the room. But -I see no prospect of being able to walk again
soon. I can do nothing on the History in this condition."
Notwithstanding his illness, he worked vigorously upon his
32
498 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
second volume whenever he was able to dictate to an amanuensis.
On June 22d he writes :
" I am barely able to be up: cannot walk or stand without assistance of
some sort. I am at work, however, part of most of the days. Some days
I can do nothing."
And thus in great physical weakness and suffering, but de
voting every hour of comparative ease to his duties, or to the
task he had set himself of showing the world what the cause of
the Southern States really was, he passed the remainder of this
year.
In the summer of this year Mr. Johnston spent several days
with Mr. Stephens. Though still confined to his house, and
apprehending that he should never be able to leave it again, he
had never seemed more serene. The first volume of his book
had had a large sale, and this gratified him, as well as the
encomiums it deservedly received. ( Perhaps never has the his
tory of a great struggle, both political and military, been written
by one of its leaders with equal candor and impartiality^ By
the mouths of his interlocutors he has stated the case of his
opponents in the language of their ablest men ; he never con
descends to passion, declamation, or subterfuge, but builds an
unanswerable argument upon the solid ground of fact and his
tory. While candidly admitting certain errors that, in his
opinion, the South committed, he proves incontestably that her
cause was the cause of justice and of right; and whether the
last emergency did or did not make the appeal to the sword
necessary, she can never be justly accused of a want of patience
and forbearance in the previous years.
Mr. Stephens at this time seemed to feel that all public and
out-door work was over for him, and he not merely resignedly,
but even cheerfully contemplated the prospect of absolute re
tirement for the rest of his life. This retirement, however, was
not to be inactive. Although his income more than sufficed for
his personal needs, yet his lavish contributions for charitable
purposes, and the expense of keeping an open house for all,
whether friends or strangers, who claimed his hospitality, made
it necessary for him to work as long as work was possible.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 499
Encouraged by the success of his first book, he had thoughts
of devoting himself to literary labor. Far from being dispirited
by the prospect of a life-long confinement, he was surprised to
find himself so free from the desire to return to the active life
of the world and mingle again in society.
On a single occasion this serenity was interrupted. There
was one subject on which he had never hitherto spoken to his
friend and guest, although on all others he opened his heart to
him without reserve. In the course of intimate conversation
reference was made to the strangely sorrowful, even despairing
tone in which, in many of his letters to his brother, he had
spoken of his inner life, and especially that in which the word
"revenge" is used; and his friend intimated that he must have
had some trials more painful than any that had been made
known, to justify such poignant and hopeless anguish. Grad
ually his friend drew from him the admission — confirming his
own suspicion — that his greatest griefs had grown out of the
peculiar circumstances which, as he conceived, forbade his ever
marrying. He was by nature ardent in the admiration and love
of woman ; and we have seen how, in the miserable time at
Madison, he had conceived a strong attachment to one of his
pupils, a girl of great beauty. But his poverty and feeble con
stitution made him shrink from any avowal, or even intimation
of his ieelihgs ; and, as has been told, he left that village to
return no more. He looked upon the circumstances we have
indicated, and his anticipation of an early death, as debarring
him from all thoughts or hopes of marriage. It so happened
that his eminent talents and his rapid attainment of distinction
and prosperity threw him into the society of the leading families
of the Northern Circuit; and several opportunities for a suitable
marriage were presented to him, but he adhered to his determi
nation to lead a single life. Years later, when he had long been
a distinguished member of Congress, in spite of all his resolu
tion, he grew deeply interested in a lady of uncommon loveliness
both of character and person, who, he had reason to believe,
entertained a reciprocal feeling toward himself; but apprehend
ing that even if she should consent to share his life, he might
soon become an invalid to be nursed, rather than a husband to
500 LIFE OF ALEXANDER 1L STEPHENS.
be looked to for support, he forbore the expression of his love,
and adhered to his resolution. It was during his struggle
between this passion and his resolve that he wrote the letter
referred to. His friend still urging that the causes named were
scarcely of weight to render so great a sacrifice imperative, he
answered with a single word — " Pride I"
And thus, by a perhaps exaggerated sensitiveness, his affec
tionate nature denied itself the very solace and companionship
which it most craved, and his baffled longings at times turned
upon him and rent him. Even his beloved brother, who filled
so large a space in his heart, had never known that heart's
saddest mystery until after the receipt of that letter which he
could not quite understand.
By the first of the new year, 1870, Mr. Stephens had finished
the greater part of the second volume of his History, in spite
not only of his frequent attacks of sickness and of pain, but
also of the interruption occasioned by a continual flow of visitors
to Liberty Hall. On January 23d he writes to R. M. J. :
u I have been very much annoyed by company. Two or three strangers
have been here all the time visiting : I should say, however, that only one
of them was an absolute stranger."
This stranger, he goes on to explain, had come on an errand
of benevolence. He was a physician, who believed that by a
particular mode of treatment he could relieve Mr. Stephens of
the ill effects of his accident, and had come a great distance to
ask to be allowed to try it. "To gratify him," as he writes,
Mr. Stephens consented to undergo the treatment, but not with
the results promised.
" It has done me no good. Indeed, I am worse off than I was before,
and have quit it. This is the present situation. I am at this time right
badly off, but hope to be better soon."
February 26th. — More company, and among the rest a cor
respondent of the New York Herald.
" I feel exceedingly annoyed by this visit. I told him I did not wish him
to make me an object of his correspondence, and how much I was annoyed
by such things. I was almost rude to him in the positiveness with which I
expressed myself on that subject. What he will do I cannot say, for there
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 5Q1
is no telling what this class of men will do. ... P.S. — I forgot to tell
you my old dog Troup is dead. He died the night before iny attack, worn
out with old age."
April llth, — " I have just time enough to say before the mail closes.
and just strength enough also to say, that the book is done. The last
sheets went off by express this morning. ... I have been in a bad way
lately, and could do nothing: hence the delay. What the papers said
about my health was all utterly false. When they said I was better I was
greatly worse."
After completing the second volume of his History, Mr.
Stephens was requested by some gentlemen who were preparing
a School History of the United States to look over the manu
script, and suggest such changes as he thought advisable. The
result was that he determined to write such a history himself, —
an undertaking which took more time than he had expected.
In September he writes :
" You ask me what I expect to do when I get through with the .School
History. Well, I do not exactly know. If in life, I shall do what my
hands may find to do at that time. I cannot be idle. I am compelled to
do something in some department of labor for a support while I remain
here ; and I prefer that sort of work which, in my opinion, will be most
useful to mankind, while it yields a comfortable living."
October 10th. — " I have another little matter on hand, — a little matter
of recreation. I have five lawr-students in my office, to whom I devote
about one hour every evening when I am able. ... I make no charge against
them for instruction or use of books. I do what I can for them by way
of recreation from my own labors, and they agree to reimburse me here
after for their board. . . . The order of the day is close application to
books and work during the morning, recitation and conversation during
the afternoon, and whist at night. I cannot use my eyes in reading or
writing by candle- or gas-light, so we have a whist-party every night.''
Iii the early part of the year 1871, Mr. Stephens, who was
still confined to his house by the results of his late attack, was
surprised to find himself the subject of censure in some quarters
on account of his connection with the Western Atlantic Railway,
commonly called the State Road, as it was the property of the
State of Georgia. The management of this road during the
period in which the State endured the system of organized out
rage called " reconstruction" had been of a kind quite in keeping
with the other administrative measures, and with such results
as to make the need of prompt reform highly urgent. In
502 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
accordance with the almost unanimous wish of the Democratic
party, a bill had been passed in the last Legislature authorizing
the lease of the road, upon sufficient guarantees, for a sum not
less than twenty-five thousand dollars per month. A statement
appeared in the papers that Governor Brown proposed to organize
a company to bid for the lease; and seeing this, Mr. Stephens
wrote to the Governor that he would like to be one of this
company, and would take an interest uto the extent of his
property, which, over and above all liabilities, he thought was
ten thousand dollars." He advised the bidding to be carried to
forty thousand dollars, if the Governor thought it worth it. He
added, however, the provision that if any member of the com
pany objected to his being interested in the scheme, his name
should not be presented. In his answer the Governor said that,
taking all the risks into account, he did not consider that the
company could safely bid higher than the minimum fixed by
the Legislature, and this was what he proposed to offer. Shortly
after Mr. Stephens heard that the offer had been made and
accepted by the Governor, and that he was one of the lessees.
A cry was soon raised in certain quarters that this transaction
was "a swindle," and that a more liberal offer had been made
by other parties and not accepted. The conspicuous position
occupied by Mr. Stephens made him a special mark for these
assaults, to which he replied by a letter, rehearsing the facts of
the case as given above, and adding that he knew nothing of
the transaction beyond them ; that the measure while before
the Legislature, and while the advertisement for bids was in
the papers, had been freely commented on by the press, and no
charge brought of unfair dealing, nor had he seen any cause for
suspicion that the transaction was not perfectly fair and above-
board. A few days after this letter, he was shown a written
statement by certain parties in Atlanta, averring that they had
put in a bid for the lease of the road at thirty -four thousand
five hundred dollars per month, tendering ample security. Upon
receipt of this statement Mr. Stephens was led to suspect that
there had been unfair dealing, and he at once transferred his
whole interest, being one-fourth of one share, to the State of
Georgia, thus ending the matter.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 11. STEPHENS. 5Q3
The Republican party had been very desirous of carrying
the elections in Georgia in the fall of 1870, and to secure this
end had recourse to their familiar tactics. One of their favorite
devices, that of exciting the hostility of the blacks against the
whites, failed of its usual success. The relations between the
races in Georgia differed from those in South Carolina and
Alabama; the land in Georgia was divided into smaller planta
tions, and the climate of these was for the most part healthy,
so that the planters resided on their own lands, and were thus
brought into closer contact with the negroes, who were therefore
less easy to deceive as to their feelings toward them. There was
also a considerable number of intelligent and determined men
who had resolved that the State elections should be held in con
formity with the laws of the State. Among these was Linton
Stephens, who caused one of the leaders of those who attempted
to violate the laws to be arrested and carried before a magistrate.
This prompt action discouraged the rest of the party, and the
Conservatives carried the election. Linton Stephens was soon
after arrested under a Federal warrant for violating the Enforce
ment Acts, and had a hearing before the United States com
missioner at Macon. On this occasion he made one of the ablest
constitutional arguments ever made in the United States, which
will ever remain a monument to his memory. These facts
explain the following letter :
January 30th. — " I suppose you have seen that Linton was required to
give bond in the sum of five thousand dollars for his appearance at the
next Federal Circuit Court in Savannah, in April, to answer the charge.
This is nothing more than I expected. It is part of the programme of the
powers at Washington and Atlanta. As to final results, I give myself
very little uneasiness. Let them do as they may, it will but add to the
reputation of him who is the object of their wrath. The penalty, in case
of conviction, is a fine of five hundred dollars, or three years' imprisonment,
or both, at the discretion of the court. In the worst form it can take, his
is the greater honor as the victim of tyrannical vengeance. But I have no
serious apprehensions that there will be any conviction : the law and the
justice of the case too strongly forbid it. Still, there is no telling to what
extremes faction, in its madness and folly, may be driven. Packed juries
seldom fail to obey orders, ^rreat crises must be met with fortitude by all
who value true fame above^crsonal sacrifices Usurpations must be de
nounced and put down through the judicial-tribunals if possible. Those
504 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
who fall in that arena deserve as high a place on the roll of honor as those
who give their blood for the same cause on the field of battle ; and in
my judgment no man deserves to be free who would not, when occasion
required it, be perfectly willing to do either."
In April the grand jury found No Bill in Linton's case, and
so the matter ended, the object, which was to intimidate, having
failed.
In the same month the five young gentlemen who were study
ing law with Mr. Stephens, and formed his family, addressed
him a note, asking him to embody in a letter, for subsequent
publication, the remarks which he had made to them at the
beginning of their studies, on the great principles which are the
foundation of all law, whether municipal, federal, or interna
tional, and on the duties incumbent upon members of the legal
profession. With this request he complied, and his letter was
published in pamphlet form. He handles the subjects with his
accustomed breadth and clearness, and calls their attention to the
peculiarities introduced into the structure of our laws by the
peculiar character of the Government, as an organic Federation
of Sovereign Powers.
Mr. Stephens's feeble state of health continued through this
year, and he suffered almost constant pain from the results of
his attack. The probability that he should never be able again
to leave his house seemed almost a certainty, but his cheerfulness
was even greater than usual.
In this spring he was gratified by seeing a very able and ap
preciative review of the second volume of his Constitutional
View of the War in the London Saturday Review. The re
viewer gave a brief but compendious abstract of the argument,
praised the fairness with which the historian had stated the
strongest points of the opposite side, and confessed that he had
proved that throughout the whole political struggle the North
had been the aggressor and the South had acted on the defensive,
and that he had sustained this doctrine with "an unequalled
knowledge of facts, an abundant collection of authorities, and
remarkable clearness of constitutional reasoning." The article
concludes thus : " On the whole, no contribution to the history
of the civil war of equal value has as yet been made, or is likely
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 5Q5
to be made, unless some one of General Lee's few surviving
lieutenants should one day do for the military history of this
struggle what Mr. Stephens has done for its political aspect."
In the passages of this work referring to the Hampton Roads
Conference, it has been mentioned that Mr. Stephens had formed
a higher opinion of the intelligence of General Grant than was
at that time generally entertained. He always maintained that
the latter was destined to exercise a very important influence, for
good or evil, upon the destinies of the country; that, while he
judged him to be not naturally ambitious, he was earnest of
purpose, combative by nature, impatient of all opposition, and
being a purely military man, little acquainted with political
science, should lie attain an exalted position with unscrupulous
leaders to urge him on by taking advantage of his weaknesses, he
might be led to break through constitutional limitations. The
acts of Congress, which, at the time of which we are writing,
scarcely deigned to veil its determination to perpetuate the rule
of the majority in defiance of Constitution and law, and the
high-handed usurpations which Federal officials had lately been
practising in the South, seemed to Mr. Stephens to indicate that
the President was tending toward the worse of the alternatives
he had predicted. On the 2d of March he thus writes to R.
M. J. :
" You ask what I now think of Grant. I think of him just as I did on
first acquaintance. My opinion of the man has not changed, either as to
his ability or future career since our interview at City Point, in 1865. I
am now inclined to think, from his surroundings, that his policy is tending
to empire, and whether he will succeed or not will depend upon whether
there are brains and patriotism enough combined in the land to defeat his
purpose. I have not yet reached a satisfactory solution of this question.
I am upon it as I was upon the question of our success during the war.
/The difficulty was not with the people, but with their leaders/\An over
whelming majority of the people of the United States are devoted to the
institutions of their ancestors, and are utterly opposed to anything like
monarchy or imperialism. All they want to drive usurpers from power
is the lead of bold, wise, sagacious, discreet, patriotic standard-bearers,
through constitutional channels and instrumentalities."
In the spring of this year Mr. Stephens purchased an interest
in the Atlanta Sun, a daily newspaper, and became its political
506 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS
editor. His co-proprietors were Messrs. Archibald M. Speights
and J. Henly Smith. His object was to exert his influence in
preventing the proposed coalition of the Democrats with the
Liberal or anti-Grant Republicans, and maintaining the funda
mental principles of Democracy. Of that insensate and unlucky
coalition, afterwards notorious as the " New Departure," more
will be said presently.
For the rest of this year there is nothing of general interest
in the correspondence, nor did any change of moment occur in
Mr. Stephens's life. He was still confined to his house, though
able at times to move about a little on crutches, and employed
his time in writing for his paper, and preparing his School His
tory of the United States. He had noticed a serious defect in
works of this class, which confined their account of post-revolu
tionary events chiefly to the Presidential elections and the ad
mission of new States, without giving any clear narrative of the
political history, — the rise, aims, and struggles of the great par
ties, which really constitute the history of the country. Much
of our trouble was doubtless due to the almost universal igno
rance on these points, so that it was rare before the war to find
any one (not a special student of those subjects) who knew how
the Constitution was formed and the objects of all its provisions,
the true character of the States and their relation to the Federal
Government, the various crises through which the Union had
passed, and so forth. And we can now see that the war between
the States was due in no small measure to the popular lack of
knowledge on these points, astounding examples of which may
still be seen even in the cases of high public officers, and pre
tentious writers and speakers.
Mr. Stephens rightly conceived that in a country where every
man is expected to exercise the primary functions of government,
and any man may be called on to administer its trusts, a knowl
edge of these facts was of the first importance; and he therefore
gave, in his History, a condensed, but clear and impartial account
of the formation of the Government and the principles of its
organization, of the great questions on which public opinion
was divided, the parties which arose upon these questions, and
the contests between them. The work covers the period from
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 5Q7
the discovery of America to the year of its completion, and the
author bestowed great care and labor upon it; though suffering,
in addition to his other ailments, with severe attacks of vertigo.
As a recreation, he had historical readings in the evening, and
we find in the letters an admiring reference to Lord Mahon's
History of England.
And thus cheerfully looking forward to a life to be passed not
only in seclusion from public affairs, but in the condition of a
cripple, and cheerfully guiding his students, writing his book,
contributing to his paper, and doing whatever work his hand
found to do, he spent the rest of this quiet year.
CHAPTER XLL
Situation of Affairs in the South — The " New Departure"— Mr. Greeley —
Pluck, the Dog — Life at Liberty Hall — Death of Judge Linton Stephens
— A Crushing Sorrow — Contest for Election to the Senate.
As the reader cannot here have the guidance of a work as
full and impartial as the Constitutional View to unfold the polit
ical complications of this period, we must enter somewhat fully
into details to explain the situation.
President Grant had entered office without any well-defined
political views, and rather disposed to deal justly with the South,
and to consolidate peace on an equitable basis. He had been
supported in 1868 by a large class of the more conservative
Republicans, who wished for a restoration of tranquillity and
prosperity. But he unfortunately allowed himself to be guided
by the extremists of his party (including Horace Greeley), repre
senting the moneyed interests of protection, the national bank
system, etc., and the allies of the carpet-baggers, who persuaded
him that his own re-election and the continued supremacy of the
Republican party depended upon the forcible repression of polit
ical liberty at the South, and the maintenance of the "carpet
bag" governments by the military power. This turned the
conservative Republicans from him ; but they were not able to
cope with the adroit and unscrupulous strategy of their oppo
nents, who skilfully kept alive the embers of hate left by the
war, and, among other things, worked the North into great
excitement over that absurd phantom, the " Ku-Klux Klan."*
* The origin of this was as follows. Some time before the period we
are writing of, apprehensions were felt throughout the South that a con
certed rising of the negroes to massacre the disarmed whites was in prepa
ration. Emissaries were known to be busy among them ; nightly meetings
for drill were being held, and they were not sparing of mysterious hints
and threats. Even where this was not the case, they were thieving and
508
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 509
In May, 1871, was organized what was called the "New
Departure," which Mr. Stephens regarded as an abandonment
of all the ancient landmarks of Democracy, — one which, if
adopted by the party generally in the United States, would lead
to an overwhelming defeat of the party in the ensuing Presi
dential campaign.
Mr. Horace Greeley was a supporter of the new movement, —
through hostility to Grant, Mr. Stephens maintained, and because
the principles of the movement tended more directly toward
consolidation than any ever before announced in this country by
any party. Mr. Greeley was a man of much intelligence, of
amiable disposition, but most inflexible purpose. Mr. Stephens,
from their first acquaintance, had admired his many excellent
traits, and had the kindest personal feeling toward him. When
his name was prominent among the candidates for the Baltimore
Democratic nomination in 1872, Mr. Stephens, in advance of
• that nomination, wrote a letter to the Hon. J. Glancy Jones, of
Pennsylvania (who had solicited Mr. Stephens's influence in
behalf of Mr. Greeley's nomination, and expressed the opinion
that he would sweep almost the entire North, and, with the con
currence of the South, would defeat Grant). In reply to this
Mr. Stephens expressed opinions directly in opposition to these,
and stated that so far from Mr. Greeley's sweeping the North,
he saw no possibility of his carrying a single Northern State,
and but few Southern. This letter was written several days
plundering to an intolerable extent in nocturnal forays. Some young men
hit upon the idea of checking these doings by taking advantage of the
superstitious fears of the race. Partly with serious purpose and partly as
a mischievous frolic, they patrolled the country at night in fantastic and
terror-striking disguises, and caused terrific reports to be spread of the
awful powers and direful deeds of the "Klan." They chose as their desig
nation the Greek name Kukldps, or Cyclops, as a name at once striking
and mysterious, their leader being called the " Grand Cyclops," which negro
pronunciation corrupted to "Ku-Klux." As the device was adopted in
various parts of the country, the wildest rumors soon spread among the
negroes of the atrocities perpetrated by the " Klair ' ; and these were skilfully
used at the North to rouse a paroxysm of indignation against what was in
reality scarcely more than a grotesque bugbear, though, no doubt, deeds of
violence were perpetrated in some cases by real or pretended members of
the "Klan."
510 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
before the nomination at Baltimore, and was published not long
after. The result confirmed the prediction, for Mr. Greeley did
not get a single Northern State. In this contest for nomination
Mr. Stephens took no part. For this course he was sharply
denounced by the Greeley supporters and " New Departure"
Democrats in Georgia.
Mr. Greeley was nothing of a statesman ; he was, on many
points, fanatical ; was deeply tinged with socialistic doctrines,
and governed rather by his feelings and temperament than by
his calm judgment. It was thought by many that his unques
tionably great popularity in the North and West had been
chiefly due to his placing himself in the van of fanaticism, and
that it would fall away from him so soon as he opposed its
further advance. Especially did it seem absurd for Conserva
tive Democrats to advocate his election, since their true and
strong position consisted in the maintenance of the rights of
the States under the Constitution and a firm adherence to
the latter as the palladium of civic liberty ; and Mr. Greeley
had been notorious in years gone by for the scorn which he had
heaped upon that instrument, and the facility with which he
gave it whatever construction suited his views, regardless both
of its plain tenor and its history. It was, moreover, absurd for
a party whose strength lay in its unwavering opposition to
the abuses of a protective tariff to select as its standard-bearer a
life-long and extreme protectionist. The wiser Democrats and
Liberals felt that he was a man, however excellent his inten
tions, upon whom little reliance could be placed in any crisis
/demanding wisdom, prudence, tact, and solid judgment; and
in the one vital question upon which his views were unmis
takable and unalterable, he was in direct conflict with them.
Still, deceived by his apparent popularity, the Cincinnati
Convention nominated him as the Liberal Republican candi
date, with Ex-Governor Brown, of Missouri, for Vice-Presi-
dent, thus renouncing the strongest plank in their platform,
that of Free-trade; and the Democratic Convention at Balti
more, by accepting the nomination, completed this short-sighted
and disastrous coalition.
In January of this year Mr. Stephens suffered extremely from
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 51 1
rheumatism and neuralgia. Still, besides his editorial work on
the Sun, he was able to do a little every day on his School His
tory, and on the 27th of February he triumphantly announces
to R. M. J. that he is " relieved from a great labor. My history
is off to the press." The rest, however, that he was promising
himself did not come with the end of this work ; and he writes :
"I am still absorbed, — not on the same subjects, but in the fifty other
matters that are on my table to be attended to. It is impossible under
such circumstances to write an old-fashioned letter, springing from a full
heart in its spontaneous pourings-forth to a bosom-crony."
Our old four-footed friend, Sir Bingo Binks, notwithstanding
his merits, had never been able to fill the place of the lamented
and incomparable Rio in his master's affections. Nor was this
possible for Pluck, a brindled cross between St. Bernard and
bull-terrier, that Mr. Stephens had raised, though he was quite
a favorite. His most eminent accomplishment, beside his hered
itary qualities as a biter and a fighter, was the trick of rearing
up against his master, at command, and giving utterance to a
singularly loud and dismal sound, which was supposed to be
"crying."
During the spring and summer of this year Mr. Stephens
kept up an active warfare in the Sun against the Greeley
coalition.
In the summer R. M. J. spent some time with Mr. Stephens,
whom he found deeply interested in public affairs, but more
hopeless of the future of the country than he had ever known him
before. He condemned the New Departure in the strongest terms
as an abject abandonment of principle by the Democratic party,
especially that of the South. But what surprised him most
was the facility with which this party had been led into the
belief that Mr. Greeley could be elected. He laughed at the
scores of men who came to his house from all parts of the United
States, soliciting him to join the movement which they predicted
would sweep the country at the November elections ; and never
for a moment wavered in his predictions of the utter defeat of
the coalition.
At this time Mr. Johnston had his last meeting with the
two brothers together. Linton had just returned from Atlanta,
512 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
where lie had been engaged as leading counsel by especial ap
pointment of the Governor, under resolution of the Legislature, in
prosecuting the plunderers of the State treasury under Governor
Bullock's administration, and was spending a day or two with
his brother at Liberty Hall, the last days that he ever passed
there. The two brothers were in full accord on the political
issues of the day, and heaped arguments and friendly raillery
upon their guest, who unfortunately had sided with the coalition,
because, as it seemed to him, he had no alternative. Under
Greeley, he argued, we should have at least a civil instead of a
military government, towards which, under Grant's adminis
tration, the country seemed to be rapidly drifting. But the
brothers thought it best to take no part in the contest between
Grant and Greeley on their respective platforms, maintaining
that while the former had no declared political principles except
to carry out the behests of Congress, Greeley did have very fixed
principles, and those eminently false and mischievous.
It was remarkable how little change, to the eye of their
guest, the war and its consequences had made in the life at
Liberty Hall. The same servants were there, and the same
order of domestic economy ; Harry was still at the head of out
door affairs ; Eliza, his wife, was still cook and laundress ; and
their children did the housework. When we drove out in the
afternoons, Pluck, who had then, like his predecessor Rio, become
blind, and old Frank, a small black "fice," were lifted into the
carriage beside their master, from whom they could not bear to
be separated. When night came, and Harry had put his master
to bed, some newspapers were spread at the foot, on which Pluck
mounted to sleep for the night. A small riding-whip was
stuck under Mr. Stephens's pillow, with which he could repress
any encroachment of his companion. Then the guest would
read aloud until Mr. Stephens had fallen asleep; after which
he retired to his own apartment.
On July 1st (Linton's birthday) Mr. J. left with Linton for
a visit to him at Sparta. On the 5th he received a letter from
Mr. Stephens, of which the following is an extract :
" I have had another attack since you were here, from which I am still
LIFE OF ALEXANDER IT. STEPHENS. 513
suffering, but am able to sit up. I am a little more depressed and low-
spirited than I have been for some time. ^This springs from the clear in
dications of the times, that the Southern people will most likely, in the
coming Presidential canvass, cast their lot with Mr. Greeley) This greatly
increases the apprehension that I have felt for the last twelve years, that
our people are really incapable of self-government : that they do not pos
sess the essential requisites, the necessary intelligence, virtue, and patriot
ism. No people can be free long, no self-governing people, I mean, who
do not study and understand the principles of the Government, and who
do not have the virtue and patriotism to maintain these principles.
" The reflection that our people — the Southern people — are getting ready
and ripe for 'a master, is a sad, sad one to me. But it presses heavily upon
me just now, and renders me not only depressed but gloomy in spirits
sometimes."
When he wrote this he was, though he knew it not, about to
be called upon to endure the heaviest sorrow of his life. On
the 14th day of this month (July) Linton Stephens died, after a
brief illness. This blow for a time almost crushed his brother,
who was now the only survivor of his father's family. Those
who bore him the sad message, and who saw him while fresh
from the blow, speak of his grief as most heart-rending. On
the 16th he writes to R. M. J. :
" I am now passing through one of the bitterest agonies of my life.
Before this reaches you, you will have heard of the death of my dearest
of brothers. He died at his home on the evening of Sunday last."
After a short account of his illness, the letter proceeds :
"Oh that T had you to comfort me! — some one to whom I could talk,
and in this way find relief from an overpressed heart, which converse with
friends alone can afford. The light of my life is extinguished. How long
I can survive it, God in His infinite mercy alone knoAvs. The bitterest
pang I have is that all the world to me is now desolateC-I-have no one to
whom I can talk and unbosom my woesr^eretofore, when heavy afflic
tions of any sort came upon me, for thirty years or more, he was my prop
and stay. Towards him my thoughts constantly turned for relief and
comfort. Now that prop and stay is gone. I. am indeed most miserable.
All around me is dark, gloomy, cheerless, hopeless. I am not able even
to go and take a last look at that noble form who has so long been my
life's support. Oh, how little did I think, when he bade me adieu with
you two weeks ago, last Saturday, that it would be the last time I should
see him ! But so it was. CTo the decrees of the Most High we must all
submit with whatever resignation He shall afford us grace through faith
in His mercy to command. \
33
514 LIFE OF ALEXANDER 11. STEPHENS.
" In this most afflictive bereavement I am not without some consolation
— some comfort. This springs from reflecting upon his well-rounded life.
He was in the full prime of manhood, and in the zenith of a well-earned
and enduring fame, with a character for honor and integrity unsullied,
with deeds that will live after him, leaving a deep impress upon the times,
not only at the bar and in the forum of popular discussion, but in the
halls of legislation and in the records of our judiciary. What more could
I desire? All must die. He has but paid the debt of nature, — has passed
from the stage of earthly existence where he had acted an honorable, a
useful, and a noble part. He did not remain to be subject to the infirmi
ties, either of body or mind, which seem to be the inevitable attendants
of old age. What he has done is a rich inheritance for His posterity.
Why, then, should I weep? Why should my heart be torn with such
anguish ?
" These are the consoling thoughts which come to my relief and comfort.
" But, oh! the bitter consciousness that I shall never see him more ; that
I now have no one to whom I can look for support in distresses of body
and mind,)— this overwhelms me. May you, my dear friend, while you
live, btrSpared the deep agony I now feel ! . . .
" My brother was perfectly in his senses to the last, and was entirely
conscious of his condition and rapidly-approaching end. He expressed a
willingness to die, and showed no fear at the approach of dissolution.
Did not suffer any very severe pain, and had no struggle. He was calm
and resigned, and spoke to within a few moments of his last breath. Thus
passed away my dearest brother."
Those who knew well the relations of these two brothers
could have foreseen that the death of Linton would fall with
extreme and peculiar weight upon Alexander. He had guided
and watched over his younger brother with more than paternal
solicitude, as we have seen, in his childhood, youth, and early
manhood, until he saw him fully his peer at the bar. They
had never at any time been partners in business, but they had
tacitly agreed never to appear on opposing sides in lawsuits.
Some thought that in political matters Linton followed the lead
of his elder brother; but this was at no time the case; No
doubt their long habits of association, interchange of thought,
and co-operation, produced a great similarity in their views;
and on new questions arising each could anticipate the judgment
and action of the other; but the opinions and conduct of the
younger were as independent as those of his elder brother.
Both were men of uncommonly deep and tender feelings, and
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 515
their mutual affection was heightened by the peculiar circum
stances of their lives, and founded on a deep respect for each
other's character. Yet neither was at all given to outward de
monstrations of fraternal affection. They usually met and parted
as any two friends would have done. After Linton's marriage,
the increased loneliness of Alexander's existence seemed only to
deepen his love for the brother who now had dearer ties than those
of fraternal affection. (The intimate friend of both avers that
never has he known a love so absorbing, so constant, so single
as that felt by Alexander for Linton. xTIe was more eager for
his brother's advancement and rejoiced more at his success than
at his own. Linton himself was not ambitious: indeed, had a
repugnance to public office, though deeply interested in public
affairs; and his defeat in 1855 was scarcely a disappointment to
him, while Alexander was thinking more of his brother's chances
than his own, and would most gladly have borne defeat if that
could have insured Linton's election. To the friend referred to,
the letters of this period, especially those in which he analyzes
the sources of possible consolation, indicated a sorrow very near
to despair. Despair itself would have followed, had he not
thrown himself again into active political life.
On July 19th he writes:
" Your consoling letter was received this morning. . . . The accidents
of every day seem only to add deeper pangs to my grief. The more I
realize my situation, the deeper I am impressed with the sense of rny utter
isolation from anything that can bind me to this world. I can write
nothing — I can do nothing. My thoughts are upon him all the time. . . .
To-day my sorrows were increased by a message from old Uncle Ben ,
the old family servant down at the homestead, now in his seventy-second
year, who has been an invalid nearly all his life, that he is in low con
dition. I fear from what George said that he too may soon pass away.
Linton's death greatly affected all down there, and old Uncle Ben in par
ticular, who was his nurse in childhood, as his rheumatism kept Ben about
the house for several years. When Linton went to his Uncle Lindsay's,
in Upson County, in 1828 or 1829, Ben went with him, and was with him
until I became his guardian, in 1837. He was much attached to him, and
the old man was greatly afflicted by his death. I sent him a doctor, and
will go to see him just as soon as I can. I feel as if it would be a relief
to me to visit the old man on his sick-bed, and mingle my tears with his
for one whom he loved so much as well as I. I am grieved that he is
suffering so much. May God have mercy on us all !"
516 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Many such letters followed during the summer. Mr. Stephens
improved sufficiently in health to write for his paper and vigor
ously oppose Mr. Greeley 's election. On September 9th he
writes :
" I have been overwhelmed with work. Have had no time to do any
thing but work on business connected with the Sun. . . . Politics in
Georgia are now greatly mixed and confused. What turn events will
take depends upon what is done in Louisville next week. If a sound
Democratic platform is adopted, and a ticket of sound mejn put upon it
who will accept, we shall have a lively time of it."
The reference here is to the "straight-out" Democratic Con
vention, or those opposed to the Greeley coalition, which met in
Louisville September 4th and 5th, 1872, and dissolved with
out making a nomination, Mr. Charles O'Conor, their choice,
having refused to accept.
There are no letters of interest now before November -Oth,
when he writes on the eve of starting for Atlanta, which he had
not visited for nearly four years, so long had lie been at home.
" How shall I stand this trip? Oh, if I had my dear brother to go with
me ! My poor dog, what will become of him ? How he will grieve and
aj^iejijjiir-ine ! For nearly four years he has seldom, and for a few mo
ments only at a time, been out of my sight, Day and night he has been
with me and depended on me, blind and unable to take care of himself.
- " I go to Atlanta on business} and hope to be able to return on Saturday,
but no one can imagine what H costs me in feeling to make this adventure,
to leave my home once more. .; . .
. . . "You seem to be despondent at Grant's election. In my opinion
the country is better off with Grant than with Greeley. I opposed Grant
for the principles of his party, not for any principles of his own. Grant
seems to have no principles but to execute the mandates of Congress ;
Greele^Jia* pnnt^i^lc&^nd the worst now avowed by any public man in
this country.''
The course that Mr. Stephens had followed in the Presidential
campaign brought upon him the hostility of many of the lead
ing Democrats, both North and South. The utter defeat of the
coalition seemed to have exasperated these persons, especially
against one who had not only refused to join the movement, but
had so constantly and truly predicted its disastrous end. On
December 14th he writes :
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
"Jo* as Urn liai 111 i ii nii»lffj,lil"l Xortfc mmd
ill ' "ii * n^ •! ih ti •! ••••••• •• I mill Did
:
:
.
old putr jBsociatEs. - Either the * New Dtputore,' w be
"or I, ahall die, polhictlh-, in Geoqrn.*" He spoke an
noanced his cuididmire. The «o^fc«^ in the Legidatiir
- :; -
tioo with his biuthei, which miwmed strict adherenee ID the
• r " '
518 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
that the State was rescued from Radical and carpet-bag rule in
the ensuing elections of that year.
Mr. Hill received but few votes. Mr. Stephens was for
awhile a little ahead ; but changes were made which resulted in
General Gordon's election by a small majority. It was said
that the general, owing to his distinguished military services
and activity in the Presidential canvass, had a majority, or very
nearly a majority, of the Legislature pledged to his support
before Mr. Stephens had announced his name. Mr. Stephens
said that he had gained his main object, which was to kill the
" New Departure" in Georgia ; and that he was content with
the result.
CHAPTER XLII.
Candidate for Congress — Civil Eights Bill — Speech of January 5th — Serious
Illness — The Salary Act — Re-elected — Controversy with the Hon. B. H.
Hill — Withdraws from the Atlanta Sun, with heavy loss — Action on the
Louisiana Report — Fourth of July at Atlanta— Liberty Hall again —
Sunday-School Celebration at Crawfordville — Re-election — Appearance
in the House — Attack of Pneumonia — Report of his Death — Views on the
Electoral Commission — Mr. Stephens in Congress — Speech at the uncov
ering of Carpenter's Picture — Letters — Social Habits.
JUST before the Senatorial election, General Ambrose R.
Wright, who had been returned as a member from the Eighth
District to the next Congress, died ; and a general desire was
shown throughout the State, after his defeat for the Senate,
that Mr. Stephens should be elected to the vacant seat. This
was the old Eighth District before the war, which he had
represented so long. This feeling both surprised and touched
Mr. Stephens, who had given up all thought of being again a
candidate for public office. Indeed, if Linton had been living,
he would not have entertained the idea ; but his brother's death
had so utterly shattered his dreams of a peaceful domestic life,
had left him so desolate, and stricken out of his existence its
chief and almost sole happiness, that he found it a relief to set
some immediate purpose before him on which he could concen
trate his thoughts, and into which he could throw what energies
he possessed. He at once entered into the campaign, and was
returned without opposition from any quarter, — Republicans
and Democrats alike voting for him.
It was, perhaps, the best thing that could have happened to
him. From this time forward a more cheerful tone became
apparent in his letters and conversation ; and the belief that it
was still in his power to do some good, and that life was not
yet over for him, gradually returned.! This characteristic showed
itself so markedly, that some who did not know him intimately
519
520 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
thought that he was growing arrogant, and cherishing an over
weening estimate of his own powers ; but it was really the re-_
action from an almost unrelieved despair, and the consciousness,
which never forsook Imnytirat "his "life was henceforth absolutely
alone.
The following extract from a letter of April 7th will show
how busy a man he was this spring :
"You ask me what I am so busy about. Why, my dear sir, I am busy
with company; busy with answering letters, — fifteen or twenty sometimes
a day : — busy with giving legal advice — gratuitously in most cases — to
neighbors, widows, and the poor : even the blacks come to me constantly
for advice ; busy with my law-class. I have another class of five law
students now who make a constant draft on my attention. They are not
in a class, but all in separate books. Then I write a great deal more for
the Sun than you seem to be aware of, — two or three and sometimes four
articles in the week. This is not all. Every once in a while comes a
long manuscript for me to read over and advise about, and tell how it is
to be published."
In such occupations he spent most of the spring and summer.
In September he was invited to deliver an address in New York
in behalf of a plan for a great general celebration of the hun
dredth year of American independence, and accepted on condition
that his health would permit. He greatly favored the design,
believing that such a celebration, by reviving memories of the
past, and bringing together in a common spirit the people of all
sections, would greatly tend to promote harmony and good
feeling, and help to efface the lingering animosities. How far
this might have been the case had the year 1876 not also been
that of a Presidential election, we cannot say ; as it was, instead
of a return of peace and good-will, the exertions of one party at
least were all to revive old discords and rekindle the embers of
sectional hatred; and probably at no time since 1865 has so
much bitterness been aroused.
Despite his good wishes, however, Mr. Stephens was so unwell
this fall, chiefly with rheumatism and dysentery, that all thoughts
of the address and of travel had to be abandoned. He grew
better at the approach of winter, and at the opening of the ses
sion of Congress was able to go to Washington.
In this year the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 521
him by Bowdoin College. He also was selected as one of the
associate editors of Johnson's Encydop&dia, taking the depart
ments of American history and Southern statistics.
Early in the session the Radical party in Congress introduced
what was called the u Civil Rights Bill," by which they en
deavored to compel social as well as political equality between
blacks and whites. The bill ran as follows :
" A BILL to protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights.
" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, .That whoever, being a corpora
tion or natural person, and owner, or in charge of any public inn ; or of
any place of public amusement or entertainment for which a license from
any legal authority is required ; or of any line of stage-coaches, railroad, or
other means of public carriage of passengers or freight ; or of any cemetery,
or other benevolent institutions, or any public school supported, in whole
or in part, at public expense or by endowment for public use, shall make
any distinction as to admission or accommodation therein, of any citizen
of the United States, because of race, color, or previous condition of ser
vitude, shall, on conviction thereof, be fined not less than one hundred
nor more than five thousand dollars for each offence j and the person or
corporation so offending shall be liable to the citizens thereby injured, in
damages to be recovered in an action of debt.
" SEC. 2. That the offences under this act, and actions to recover damages,
may be prosecuted before any Territorial, district, or circuit court of the
United States having jurisdiction of crimes at the place where the offence
was charged to have been committed, as well as in the district where the
parties may reside, as now provided by law."
This bill Mr. Stephens strongly opposed in a speech deliv
ered January 5th, 1874. He first explained that his opposition
did not arise from an indisposition to concede full justice to
every human being within the Federal jurisdiction, nor from
any prejudice founded on race or previous servitude. While
he had never held nor believed the manifestly false assertion
that all men are equal, he held "that all men have an equal
right to justice, and stand, so far as governmental powers are
concerned or exercised over them, perfectly equal before the
law." That the blacks should have full security in their per
sons and property, and that they should enjoy, as amply as the
whites, the protection and redress afforded by the law, was a
doctrine which he had publicly advocated shortly after the close
522 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
of the war, and never ceased to hold ; and that doctrine, when
presented by him in an address, had been unanimously approved
by the Georgia Legislature, showing the feelings and dispositions
of the leading men of that State.
Mr. Stephens then proceeded to state why he opposed the
bill. First, even if the rights proposed to be secured by it were
just, there was no constitutional power in Congress to secure
them by the proposed enactment. The advocates of the bill
claimed such power under the first and fifth sections of the
Fourteenth Amendment and under the Fifteenth. These run as
follows :
"ARTICLE XIV.
" SEC. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of
the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.
" SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article.
"ARTICLE XV.
" SEC. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
" SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation."
These amendments, then, declare that the native negroes are
citizens, and prohibit the States from denying or abridging their
civic rights on account of race, color, or previous servitude.
Now, argues Mr. Stephens, this places the colored race under
the same protection as was enjoyed by citizens under the Con
stitution before amendment, and provides for them the same
remedy, and no other.
" The exercise of no new power was conferred by either of these new
Amendments. The denial of the exercise of any number of powers by
the United States, severally, does not, most certainly, confer its exercise
upon the Congress of the States. Neither of these Amendments confers,
bestows, or even declares any rights at all to citizens of the United States,
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 523
or to any class whatever. Upon the colored race they neither confer, be
stow, or declare civil rights of any character, — not even the right of fran
chise. They only forbid the States from discriminating in their laws
against the colored race in the bestowinent of such rights as they may
severally deem best to bestow upon their own citizens. Whatever rights
they grant to other citizens shall not be denied to the colored race as a
class. This is the whole of the matter. The question then is, how can
Congress enforce a prohibition of the exercise of these powers by a State?
Most assuredly in the same way they enforced or provided for violations
of like prohibitions anterior to these Amendments. The proper remedies
before were and now are nothing but the judgments of courts, to be ren
dered in such way as Congress might provide, declaring any State act in
violation of the prohibitions to be null and of no effect, because of their
being in violation of this covenant between the States as set forth in the
Constitution of the United States. No new power over this matter of a
different nature or character from that previously delegated over like sub
jects was intended to be conferred by the concluding sections of either
the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Article of Amendment. No such thing as the
tremendous power of exercising general municipal, as well as criminal
legislation over the people of the several States could have been dreamed
of by the proposers of these Amendments. Such a construction woulu
entirely upset the whole fabric of the Government, the maintenance of
which in its integrity was the avowed object of the war."
He then quoted from the decision of the Supreme Court of
the United States in what were known as the u Slaughter-house
cases/7 in which that tribunal affirmed, with emphasis, that the.
Fourteenth Amendment did not transfer the security and protec-^
tion of civil rights from the States to the Federal Government,
nor bring the domain of those rights within the jurisdiction /
of Congress ; but that all the essential features of the original /
Federal system remained unchanged.
But he not only objected to the bill as unconstitutional, but
also as inexpedient. JThere was no desire among the negroes (in
Georgia at least) to mix with the whites in churches, in schools,
or socially ; and this voluntary separation, on a basis of equal
justice, tended, far more than any unnatural mixing, to promote
good feeling and harmony between the races.
There was, however, a much more serious danger in the
introduction of this bill than the disturbance of harmonious
relations between the races.
" Interference by the Federal Government, even if the power were clear
524 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
and indisputable, would be against the very genius and entire spirit of our
whole system. If there is one truth which stands out prominently above
all others in the history of these States, it is that the germinal and .seminal
principle of American constitutional liberty is the absolute, unrestricted
right of State self-government in all purely internal municipal affairs^
The first Union of the colonies, from which sprung the Union of the States,
was by joint action to secure this right of local self-government for each.
It was when the chartered rights of Massachusetts were violated by a
British Parliament, the cry first went up from Virginia, ' The cause of Bos
ton is the cause of us all !' This led to the declaration and establishment
of the independence, not of the whole people of the united colonies as
one mass, but of the independence of each of the original thirteen colo
nies, then declared by themselves to be, and afterwards acknowledged by
all foreign powrers to be, thirteen separate and distinct States.
" It is not my purpose at this time even to touch upon any of the issues
involved in the late war, or the chief proximate cause which led to it, or
upon whom devolves the responsibility of its direful consequences. But,
taking it for granted that the chief proximate cause was the status of the
African race in the Southern States, as set forth in the decision of the Su
preme Court to which I have first referred, suffice it to say on this occasion
tfiat that cause is now forever removed. This thorn in the flesh, so long
the cause of irritation between the States, is now out for all time to come.
And since the passions and prejudices which attended the conflict are fast
subsiding and passing away, the period has now come for the descendants
of a common ancestry, in all the States and sections of the country, to re
turn to the original principles of their fathers, with the hopeful prospect
of a higher and brighter career in the future than any heretofore achieved
in the past. On such return depends, in my judgment, not only the lib
erties of the white and colored races of this continent, but the best hopes
of mankind. And if any breach has been made in any of the walls of the
Constitution, in the terrible shock it received in the late most lamentable
conflict of arms, let it be repaired by appeals to the forums of reason and
justice, wherein, after all, rest the surest hopes of all true progress in
human civilization. If, 'in moments of error or alarm,' we have 'wan
dered' in any degree from the true principles on which all our institutions
wTere founded, in the language of Mr. Jefferson, ' let us hasten to retrace
our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and
safety !'
" This I say in all earnestness to the members of this House from all
sections of the Union, — South, East, West, and North ; and especially to
those who bear the party-name of Republican. If you, Mr. Speaker, and
your political associates, be really and truly of the old Republican school,
then be first and foremost to rally in the support of the principles of the
great Chief who organized that party to rescue the Federal Government
from centralisation in one of the most dangerous periods of its history ;
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 525
and under the auspices of whose doctrines, when the rescue was accom
plished, the country was so happy, prosperous, and glorious for sixty
years of its existence. If you do not, be assured your opponents will
rally again under the banner of their ancient creed, and seize it from the
hands of those who profess it by name, but reject it by their acts, — ' keep
ing the word of promise to the ear while breaking it to the hope.'
" Excuse me, sir : please to pardon something to an ardent nature. The
dawn of a new epoch in politics is upon us. There will soon be a break
ing up of the elements of present party organizations. The great and
vital issue between Constitutionalism and Centralism must soon be di
rectly met by the people of the States. ySeven- tenths of the people of
the United States, in my judgment, are to-day as true to the principles
of liberty, on which the Federal Constitution was founded, as were their
ancestors who, in 1787, perfected its matchless and majestic structure,
/'they are as much opposed to Centralisation and Empire, and the neces-
\»ary consequence, — ultimate Absolutism and Despotism, — as the men of
1776 wereL^ All that this immense majority now want for concert and
co-operation are young and vigorous leaders, thoroughly in earnest, as
well as thoroughly imbued with the importance and sacredness of the
Cause. Nothing will hasten action in this direction more than the passage
by Congress of this bill, or any like it, because its unnecessary and irri
tating effects will strike chords which will awaken opposition in every
State of the Union, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes
to the Gulf."
He then adverts to some allusions by a speaker on the other
side to the Roman Republic, points out the vital distinction
between the Federal organization of the States and that con
solidated empire :
" In the workings of our complex system under our Federal Republic,
each State is a distinct political Organism, retaining in itself all the vital
powers of individual State government and development; while to all the
States, in joint Congress assembled, are delegated the exercise of such
powers, and such only, as relate to extra-State and Foreign affairs. The
States are each perfect political Organisms, with all the functions of per
fect government in themselves, respectively, on all matters over which
they have not assigned jurisdiction to the Federal Head, or on which they
have not restrained themselves by joint covenant in mutual prohibitions
upon themselves. Under this system, adhered to, no danger need be ap
prehended from any extent to which the limits of our boundary may go,
or to any extent to which the number of States may swell. For the main
tenance of this model and most wonderful system of government, in its
original purity and integrity, every well-wisher of his country should put
forth his utmost effort. No better time for an effort on this line than now,
right here in this House.
526 LIFE OF ALEXANDER 11. STEPHENS.
"Let us not do, by the passage of this bill, what our highest judicial
tribunal has said we have no rightful power to do. If you who call your
selves Republicans shall, in obedience to what you consider a party behest,
pass it in the vain expectation that the Republican principles of the old and
true Jeffersonian school are dead, be assured you are indulging a fatal de
lusion. The old Jefl'ersonian, Democratic, Republican principles are not
dead, and will never die so long as a true devotee of liberty lives. They
may be buried for a period, as Magna Charta was trodden under-foot in
England for more than half a century ; but these principles will come up
with renewed energy, as did those of Magna Charta, and that, too, at no
distant day. Old Jeffersonian, Democratic, Republican principles dead,
indeed ! When the tides of Ocean cease to ebb and flow, when the winds
of Heaven are hushed into perpetual silence, when the clouds no longer
thunder, when Earth's electric bolts are no longer felt or heard, when her
internal fires go out, then, and not before, will these principles cease to
live, — then, and not before, will these principles cease to animate and
move the liberty-loving masses of this country. Dead, indeed ! What
mean these utterances just heard from the Chief Magistrate of the Old
Dominion on his entering into office, to which he has recently been chosen
by a majority of over twenty-seven thousand, in a State which General
Grant carried last year by a majority I need not name? A notable point
in these utterances is what he said in them of President Grant. Hear
them, and judge whether they come from one dead or alive. Says Gov
ernor Keinper in his first message :
"'Adhering to those principles, Virginia seeks these ends: to secure and main
tain her full constitutional rights and relations, and to perform all her-constitutional
duties, as one of the co-equal members of the Union ; to exercise all rightful powers
of self-government, and to determine, adjust, and regulate the internal, domestic,
and municipal interests of her people, their relations and rights, including such as
are known as civil rights, in strict conformity to the Federal Constitution and the
late decision of the Supreme Court of the United States expounding recent amend
ments thereto, and the respective powers of the Federal and State Governments
thereunder j to obtain an equitable settlement of her just claims against the com
mon Government; to promote universal reconciliation upon the basis of equal jus
tice to all the States and people; to cultivate harmonious relations with the common
Government; and to yield a liberal support to every department thereof co-operat
ing in the accomplishment of the ends thus sought. Virginia, recognizing no such
obligations as bind her to any national party organization, maintaining her fidelity
to all who are and who shall become allies in the defence of measures calculated to
secure the ends named, is ready to co-operate cordially with men of whatever party
in upholding those measures, by whomsoever proposed, — supporting those who sup
port them, and opposing all opposition to them. One of the articles announcing
the principles and purposes recently ratified by an overwhelming majority of our
people declares that, disclaiming all purpose of captious hostility to the present
Executive Head of the Federal Government, "we will judge him impartially by his
official action, and will co-operate in every measure of his Administration which
may be beneficent in design and calculated to promote the welfare of the people and
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 527
cultivate sentiments of good will between the different sections of the Union." This
article was no political expedient of the hour. It embodies the sentiments of hon
orable men, and binds by the obligations of good faith and justice. It pledges
such liberal support as may be consistent with our principles and justified by the
developments of the future.'
" The principles here announced are in strict accordance with the old
Jeffersonian, Democratic, Republican creed, f As thus uttered they clearly ^
indicate more than the dawn of that new epoch, and future new alignment
of the elements of present party organizations in this country, to which i
have referred. They are the key-note of that movement stirred by these
old Jeffersonian principles, which, dead as some may suppose them to be,
will, at no distant day, be the basis of as signal a triumph by that party
which plants itself squarely upon them, whether styled Republican, Dem
ocratic, or by any other name, as was that achieved in 1800, under the
guide of Jefferson himself. These are, indeed, the ever-living principles
to which the country must return, and which alone lead ' to Peace, Lib
erty, and Safety!'"
Not long after the delivery of this speech Mr. Stephens was
again prostrated by sickness, and all who knew him thought, as
he himself believed, that his end was rapidly approaching, but
neither this prospect nor his acute sufferings disturbed the equa
nimity of his spirit. Contrary to the injunctions of his physi
cian, he insisted upon seeing the visitors who, drawn some by
friendship aud sympathy and some by curiosity, came every day
in crowds ; and it seemed as if the mental stimulus of conver
sation and discussion helped to keep him alive. Later in the
spring he left Washington and returned home.
Some of Mr. Stephens's acts in this Congress were made the
subject of rather severe censure. He had always had, and ex
pressed more charitable views of General Grant and his Admin
istration than were shared by his party. One thing in particular
was fastened on for special animadversion. In the previous
session Congress had passed an act increasing the salaries of the
members, and doubling that of the President. Of the right of
Congress to fix the compensation of its members there can be
no question, and there is no doubt that the salary was insufficient
to keep up the style of living which had grown into fashion at
Washington with the depreciation of the currency. A great
part of the enormous corruption among public officers at this
time unquestionably had its origin in this fact. They were
523 LIFE OF ALEXANDER IT. STEPHENS.
expected to live in a certain style, to give entertainments, and
so forth, and if their legitimate sources of income were insuf
ficient, there was always the " lobby " at hand, ready and eager
to pay lavishly for their vote and influence. No wonder that
integrities, perhaps never very robust, succumbed to the pre
vailing influences. If it could have insured the honesty of the
public service, it would have been an excellent thing to double
or even triple their salaries ; but of such happy result the public
saw no guaranty. Still, the feeling would not have been so
strong had not the majority of this Congress made itself in
many ways specially odious; and this act seemed to fill up the
measure. Some of the members refused from the first to accept
the increased pay ; others, when they found how strongly the
public felt in the matter, returned it to the treasury. At the
session in which lie entered a bill was introduced to repeal this
increase, and Mr. Stephens was courageous enough to oppose it ;
which he could do with a better grace than some others, as his
bitterest enemy had never charged him with avarice or with
taking a bribe. He looked at the matter as one quite irrespec
tive of the faults or excellences of members or of their legisla
tion. The old salary, he maintained, was altogether insufficient;
the increase, considering the enhanced cost of living, was not
excessive ; and Congress had ample power to fix the salaries of
its members and other public officers at what it might deem a
proper rate.
It was thought by the opponents of Mr. Stephens that his
action in the matters just mentioned had so lessened his popu
larity that |ie would not be proposed as a candidate for re-election
in the fall. But at the meeting of the District Convention,
when his- name was presented, there was some opposition at first,
but he was finally nominated unanimously. He entered into
the campaign with as much energy as his weak health would
permit, and at Greensborough, on September 17th, he made
the first open-air speech he had delivered for nearly twelve
years. He came forward limping on his crutches (which he
has never been able to dispense with since his attack in 1869),
and leaning on a desk provided for the purpose, delivered a
long and eloquent address on the questions of the day. He also
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 529
spoke in October at Augusta. In both these speeches he de
fended the action of General Grant in the Louisiana business,
on the ground that the President was compelled, by virtue of
his office, to sustain the law and the decisions of the courts ; and
that if wrong was done to a State, the fault must be laid at the
door of those who made bad laws, or gave wrongful decisions,
and not at the door of the Executive.
His appearance in public was everywhere greeted with marks
of esteem and confidence ; and his popularity was so great, that the
ideawrhich had been entertained, of running an opposing candidate,
was dropped, and he was again elected by the votes of both parties.
In the spring of this year, 1874, Mr. Stephens had been in
volved in a rather Avarm newspaper controversy with the Hon.
B. H. Hill of his own State. Mr. Hill had delivered a " His
torical Address," in which, as Mr. Stephens maintained, he had
misrepresented certain facts in the history of the war, and in
especial the facts in relation to the Hampton Roads Conference,
and the attitude of Mr. Stephens toward the Confederate Ad
ministration. The controversy, turning on questions of honor
and veracity, took a quite acrimonious tone, but came to an end
after a while, as all such things do.*
By this time he had disposed of his interest in the Atlanta
Sun. Living always at Crawfordville, he had not been able
to keep an eye on the business management of the paper, and
was astonished to find that more than half his fortune had been
sunk in it. From his Constitutional View of the War he had
received about thirty-five thousand dollars, f and of this sum
twenty thousand were gone. Although during a considerable
part of his life his income from his law practice had been
handsome, and his personal tastes and habits were of the sim
plest, yet the boundless hospitality of Liberty Hall, and his
ever-ready bounty to all who needed, or professed to need, his
assistance, had prevented the accumulation of any large fortune,
and this loss by the Sun left him a comparatively poor man.
* This correspondence will be published hereafter in book-form if Mr.
Stephens^ health permits.
f He received a royalty of twenty-five cents per volume, the work being
in two volumes. This would indicate a sale of seventy. thousand copies.
34
530 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
He was not able to take any very active part in the session
of 1874-75. His action at the close of the session in voting to
take up and adopt the report of the Committee on Louisiana
Affairs subjected him to some unjust censure. By his vote,
which turned the scale, not only the consideration of that report
was secured, but the great result was gained that the notorious
Returning Board of Louisiana received the unanimous condem
nation of the House. His course was soon after fully vindicated
by the harmonious settlement of the Arkansas question. It is
true that since that time we have seen the acts of this Returning
Board, on a still more important question, upheld by the very
men who then condemned them ; but such a peripateia no man
could at that time have foreseen, nor do we believe it would
have been sanctioned even then, except for the peculiar strait in
which the leaders of the party found themselves.
During the summer of 1875, Mr. Stephens's health was so
far restored that he was able to make several journeys into dif
ferent parts of the State. On the 5th of July (the Fourth falling
on Sunday) there was an unusually imposing celebration at
Atlanta, where, as the orator of the day, he delivered an eloquent
address, tracing historically the rise of American independence,
the principles upon which the States united into a confederation,
the origin and nature of the Constitution of 1787, and, in a
rd, the whole foundation of our political institutions; a task
which his long and profound study of American political history
qualified him to perform as few other men could have done.
Dissenting entirely from the view of those distinguished South
erners who thought that under the circumstances in which the
South was placed such a celebration was a mockery, he thought
that now, more than ever, was the time to look back to the
patriotic deeds of our ancestors, study the origin of the Republic,
and while we measured the distance that we had travelled from
the old ways in the process of a century, to resolve that we would
use our utmost efforts to regain the right road and revive the
ancient spirit. With this view also he strongly favored the
proposed Centennial Celebration at Philadelphia, from which
he hoped for happy results, — results which probably would have
followed if all the people had been filled with his spirit.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 531
He also delivered an address at Anthon Academy, in Houston
County, of which H.W.Baldwin, A.M., was Principal, on the
subject of Education. This address was printed in the news
papers throughout the State, and afterwards extensively circulated
in pamphlet form.
In October of this year he was stricken down with one of
the most violent attacks of illness he had ever suffered from,
and was unable to reach Washington during the first session of
the Forty-fourth Congress. He was confined to his bed for
nearly nine months, and his life was frequently despaired of.
He, however, at last slowly improved ; and in July, 1876, a
short time after he had been able to leave his bed, Mr. Johnston
made him a rather prolonged visit, when the former was more
than ever struck with the peculiar domestic economy of Liberty
Hall. This is probably the only mansion in the country where
the domestic and social arrangements are entirely unaffected by
the sickness or health of the master of the house. ( Visitors
come and go, partake of his hospitality, make themselves at
home, whether he be able to receive them in person or not.
Almost every train that stops brings coming guests and bears
away departing. N Dinner is served at one, and all who happen
to be present take their places at the board. Later visitors take
supper, and early ones breakfast; and as the night-train is sure
to bring one or more who take what sleep the time allows, the
breakfast-table always presents new faces.
Mr. Stephens's own habit was to rise at nine, and after dress
ing, to be rolled in his easy-chair out upon the piazza, where he
usually called for a game of whist, — an amusement which had
become a habit with him, and helped to solace many an hour
of suffering. After an hour or two he returned to bed and
rested till dinner, when he rose and took the head of his table,
this being the only meal he took in the dining-room. After
dinner conversation and whist were in order, and at seven he
went to bed.
Crawfordville is situated on the Georgia Railroad, sixty-four
miles from Augusta, and a hundred and seven from Atlanta,
on the foot-hills of the great Alleghany ranges, and has an
elevation of six hundred and eighteen feet above the sea. It is
532 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
an unpretending village, with an air of faded respectability as
of one who has seen better days. Liberty Hall is just beyond
the village, in a skirt of native forest. Large oaks and hick
ories, interspersed with many fine transplanted trees and choice
exotics, are scattered over an inclosure of about three acres, cast
ing a delightful shade over a grassy lawn. The house is a
spacious one, and furnished with elegant simplicity. At the
rear, separated by a piazza, are the owner's study and library,
the latter more richly stored than is usual among Southern country
gentlemen. His law library contains about fifteen hundred
volumes; his miscellaneous library about five thousand, collected
during many years, at a cost of more than sixteen thousand
dollars.
During the visit referred to an incident of more than common
interest occurred. The colored Sunday-schools of Taliaferro and
the adjacent counties assembled to celebrate the Fourth of July
in a grove near Crawford ville. They had previously expressed
a wish to march in procession to Liberty Hall, after the celebra
tion and the dinner, and sing some of their songs to Mr. Stephens,
if agreeable to him, to which he cordially assented. The scene
which followed we give in the words of an eye-witness.
"At about half-past two in the afternoon we saw them coining, pre
ceded by the brass band of the village, and a goodly sight it was. Besides
the eight or ten Taliaferro County schools, there were a number from
Greene, Hancock, and Wilkes. Mr. Stephens was rolled in his chair out
into the long piazza as the vast crowds advanced up the lawn. As the
various delegations arrived at the piazza they filed alternately to right
and left, and pausing under the shade of the trees, each in turn sang a
song, and then, wheeling, retired to the rear until the last delegation had
sung. Then, all forming in mass, a young colored man standing upon
the steps announced that all the schools would sing several pieces in chorus.
" Perhaps you have never heard a Georgia negro sing. At all events, I
am sure that you have never heard three thousand of them sing in chorus
as they did on that afternoon, partly to please the invalid statesman whom
of all men they honor and love the most, and partly in their humble way
for the worship of God. As they began, there was some danger lest in
such a throng the time of the music might be not well preserved ; but
Mr. Gorham, the leader of the band, stood forward on the piazza, and
marking the time with his cane, the chorus kept in even harmony to the
end. Such a sight and such a hearing I might desire, but cannot expect
to witness again. Men and women, young and old, boys and girls, and even
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 533
some little children, lifted up their voices in that shady old grove, and sent
them towards heaven in a flood of harmony in which not a discordant
note was to be heard, in the midst of which the tears which we could
not repress flowed from our eyes. The most of these schools had been
taught Sunday-school music under the superintendence of their white
pastors, and carried their music-books in their hands. The negro's vobe
is almost always true, and Avhen, as in this case, it has had some training,
it is wonderful to notice the harmony and compass which it can attain in
numerous chorus. In such chorus these sang with all their heart and all
their might on that afternoon. Their grand music, — I can find no fitter
epithet, — their neat and orderly appearance, with their Sunday clothes and
simple banners, not only gratified Mr. Stephens, but, as he afterwards
said, enraptured him.
44 When the whole chorus was over, the young man upon the steps, as
the spokesman of the assembly, asked Mr. Stephens to address them. I
have known him for many years, and have often heard him speak, but
have never seen him under the influence of such intense feeling. lie could
not stand, but leaning forward in his chair, with his arms resting on the
railing, spoke to the hushed crowd; and weak as he was, and even in that
unfavorable position, his voice at times, under the inspiration of his feel
ings, rang out so that it could be heard at the village nearly half a mile
distant. He told them how gratified he was to see the progress the colored
people were making, especially in his neighborhood, amid the friendly
relations of the two races ; he advised them, cautioned them, encouraged
them to persevere. He told them of the duties they owed to themselves,
of the duty of educating their children that they might understand the
position in which they were placed, the new responsibilities that rested on
them, and the all-importance of a faithful and intelligent performance of
duty. His heart seemed overflowing with kindness and benevolence, and
he ceased only when he was too much exhausted to speak further.
'' Several songs were then called for from separate schools, after which,
as the sun was nearly set, they marched in file past, and each touched Mr.
Stephens's feeble hand as they retired. Though greatly exhausted, he
was reluctant to see them depart. That night, on his bed, he said that no
celebration on that day had ever delighted him so much, and, if it had
been God's will, he could almost have wished to die while listening to that
music which of all he had ever heard was the most enrapturing. And
then he spoke of the generally good condition of the negroes in that sec
tion, where many of them own snug little farms and other property, and
between wrhom and their white neighbors the most friendly relations obtain.
Though he said nothing of their attachment to him or his services to them,
yet his strong feeling in the matter was very plain. It is delightful to see
the many thousands of negroes in that section look up to him as their
greatest and best earthly friend, and his influence on them has been most
beneficent."
534 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
During this summer he was attacked by so dangerous an
illness that even a partial recovery seemed almost miraculous.
But at the assembling of the nominating convention in his dis
trict, it seemed enough for his constituents to know that he was
still alive, and he was nominated unanimously for the next Con
gress, and elected. He had so far recovered that he was able to
go to Washington and take his seat. His appearance in the
House is thus vividly described by a not altogether unfriendly
newspaper correspondent :
" A little way up the aisle sits a queer-looking bundle. An immense
cloak, a high hat, and peering somewhere out of the middle a thin, pale,
sad little face. This brain and eyes enrolled in countless thicknesses of
flannel and broadcloth wrappings belong to the Hon. Alexander II. Ste
phens, of Georgia. How anything so small and sick and sorrowful could
get here all the way from Georgia is a wonder. If he were to draw his
last breath any instant you would not be surprised. If he were laid out
in his coffin he needn't look any different, only then the fires would have
gone out in those burning eyes. Set, as they are, in the wax-white face,
they seem to burn and blaze. Still, on the countenance is stamped that
pathos of long-continued suffering which goes to the heart. That he is
here at all to offer the counsels of moderation and patriotism proves how
invincible is the soul that dwells in this shrunken and aching frame. He
took the modified oath in his chair, and, when he had taken it, his friends
picked him up in it and carried him off as if he were a feather. So old
Thaddeus Stevens used to be picked up and carried in and out when this
same man, of the same name and an opposite lineage, wras the Vice-Presi
dent of the Southern Confederacy. The old lion of Pennsylvania rests
from the fight; and (the great 'rebel' of Georgia, with the very shadow of
death -upon his face, lifts his failing voice in behalf of moderation and
Not long after he had taken his seat ne was again prostrated
by an attack of pneumonia (January 1st, 1877), and laid upon a
bed from which few of his friends dared to hope that he would
ever rise. He was himself convinced that his end was near, but
gave an example of how tenacious vitality may be, even in the
frailest bodies. For weeks together he took almost no food,
never slept but under the influence of narcotics, and grew more
and more emaciated, until it seemed almost incredible that a form
so attenuated could retain life at all, and he himself wondered
that he did not die. Once a report of his death was telegraphed
LIFE OF ALEXANDER IL STEPHENS. 535
all over the country, and most of the newspapers published
obituary notices and short biographical sketches, which, after
wards, he found a sort of grim amusement in reading. All the
houses in Crawfordville were draped with mourning. When
the report was found to be false, the greatest joy prevailed;
there were congratulations and handshakings, and the little town
took holiday.
His spirits during this attack were at times unusually de
pressed. Being asked the reason of this, " Oh," he exclaimed,
" to be unable to do anything of use to any one, and yet not to
die!" His memory frequently reverted to his departed friends
and kindred, with more than usual sadness ; and with tears
streaming down his cheeks he would repeat, again and again,
the names of his father and mother, of his sister, and his beloved
Linton.
On one occasion he and K. M. J. had been reading together
some pages of a memoir of his brother. On the next day he thus
wrote (by the hand of his secretary) :
" I was full to overflowing when you left me last night. Had you lin
gored another moment, or said another word, I should have gushed into
tears. Your reading the letters about Linton had stirred my grief afresh,
and brought vividly to my mind the remembrance of the day you and he
last spent together at my house. Oh, the memories of that day !"
He still persisted in seeing visitors, old and new; took a deep
interest in the political events of the day, and would occasionally
jest with a gaiety strangely contrasting with his death-like
appearance. In the contest before the Electoral Commission, he
strongly dissuaded from any forcible resistance, though he re
garded the evidence as conclusive of great frauds in the returns
from Florida and Louisiana, and thought that the Commission
acted very wrongly in not going behind these returns and setting
them aside on account of those frauds.
In an article published in the International Review (January,
1878) Mr. Stephens examined the whole question, from the his
torical point of view. He showed that the design of the Con
vention of 1787, in establishing the system of State Electoral
Colleges, was not, as some alleged, to take the liberty of choice
from the people, but t( had its origin in the fixed purpose of the
536 LIFE OF ALEXANDER U. STEPHENS.
fathers of the Kepublic to preserve the federative feature in that
system of government for States united which they were framing.
It was to preserve the individuality of the States, as the integral
and equal members of the Government. They were forming a
constitution for a number of States united in a Federal union,
and not for a homogeneous mass of people, constituting a single
State, commonwealth, or nation." It was because of their" de
termination to secure this power to the States as States that the
proposition to choose electors by direct vote of the people was
persistently rejected. This feature is conspicuous in the provision
for a failure to elect; in which case the House elects the Presi
dent, but the vote is taken by States, each State having one vote.
And in the count in ordinary cases it is done by both Houses in
joint convention, where the combined Senators and Representa
tives from each State exactly equal her Electoral College.
The true rule, as shown by the Constitution, he maintains to
be:
" That all matters appertaining to the count, involving questions of dis
puted votes, and all matters relating to the validity or invalidity of the
returns furnished by the President of the Senate, as well as all questions
touching the constitutional qualifications of electors, shall be determined
by both Houses in joint convention. Had it been the intention that these
questions should be determined by each House separately, . . . why was
it not so expressly said ? Why was the power of counting conferred on
both Houses, if both Houses in joint action were not to determine the
question? and how could both Houses in joint action determine such a
question in any other way, as the Constitution stands, than by a per capita
vote?"
The inference naturally follows that there is no defect in the
Constitution ; and that all that is necessary, to avoid any possi
ble misconstruction, is, not the adoption of a joint rule, but the
passage of a law to meet such cases should any such recur. The
competency of Congress to raise a commission or establish a
tribunal to decide the matters in dispute, Mr. Stephens does not
deny, though he looks upon it as not the best mode of attaining
the end.
The Electoral Commission having decided favorably to Mr.
Hayes, Mr. Stephens at once advocated an acquiescence in the
LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. 537
decision. In conversation he remarked, " We had a first-rate
case; but we lost it 'by imperfect pleadings." He was gratified
by the course pursued by Mr. Hayes in removing the troops in
South Carolina and Louisiana, and foresaw the happy results
that speedily followed ; and far from desiring to embarrass or
discredit the Administration, he has always given his approval
and support to such of its measures as were wise and salutary.
The health of Mr. Stephens during the summer of 1877 was
rather better than usual. At the close of the session he returned
to Georgia, and in September visited some friends in Baltimore
and New York.
In the present session of Congress Mr. Stephens, with health
much improved, has played a very prominent part, and never
has he exercised greater influence, or been regarded with more
general respect. The correspondent of a Northern paper said
of him, in language scarcely exaggerated,^" Whatever he wants
done is done, and every measure he advocates passes^" Through
the kindness of Mr. Speaker Randall, he has had the use of the
Speaker's room, in the rear of the chamber, and here he usually
comes an hour or so before the meeting, and is punctual at roll-
call. His seat is in the open area in front of the Speaker, where
he occasionally exercises himself by rolling himself in his wheeled
chair. Still, the business of the day is no small tax upon his
strength, and he economizes the time spent in the House as much
as possible. His long experience enables him to see, early in
the day, the drift of the day's business, and he avails himself of
any opportunity when he may retire without disadvantage. In
this way he has gone through a surprising amount of business,
among other things, leading in conduct of the great financial
measure which has now become a law, and which he regards as
highly beneficial.
Perhaps the most remarkable event in his career during the
present session has been his speech in Congress on the 12th of
February, at the uncovering of Carpenter's painting, " The
Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation." This was the day
on which he entered the sixty-seventh year of his age. It seemed
almost an " irony of fate" that such a duty should be assigned
to a former slaveholder and Vice-President of the Confederate
538 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
States. This speech was made off-hand, without notes, and was
listened to by perhaps the largest audience ever assembled in the
chamber. We give it in full in the Appendix.*
This speech was extensively circulated and rep ubli shed through
out the country. Congratulatory letters poured in from all parts
of the country, and from men of all shades of party. But of
all such letters, Mr. Stephens most highly appreciated one from
President Barnard, of Columbia College, New York, which was
as follows :
" COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YORK, February 16th, 1878.
" To HON. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS :
" MY DEAR SIR, — I want to thank you with all my heart for your very
beautiful, judicious, and patriotic address on the occasion of the presenta
tion and reception of the Carpenter picture of Lincoln.
" It is indeed a marvellous thing how, after her trials, the South still
continues to maintain her noble pre-eminence in statesmanship and in
moral dignity ; and still more marvellous, perhaps, that one who has been
so conspicuous in the councils of the Nation before the war, and also during
the progress of that painful struggle had been identified with equal promi
nence with the Southern cause, should continue after all to command
equally, North and South, a homage, a respect, and a confidence which arc
awarded by the people to hardly any other. It is a beautiful and a noble
tribute to a character always consistently distinguished for unselfish devo
tion to principle and to a tone of sentiment so far elevated above the base
and mean passions which disfigure so much of our public life, as to be
almost without a parallel. The recent address to which I have referred is
in perfect harmony with this character, and it has been read with deep
gratification by millions of your countrymen.
" Very sincerely yours,
" F. A. P. BARNARD."
* Appendix E.
CHAPTER XLIII.
*
Congressional Duties — Re-elected to Congress — General R. Taylor's charges
— Facts of his Release from Fort Warren — Interviewers — A Georgia
Dinner — Writes a Book — James P. Espy — His Seventieth Birthday —
An Accident— Elected Governor— Pardons — The Sesqui-Centennial— Ill
ness — Death — Concluding Remarks.
FIVE years have passed since the foregoing account of Mr.
Stephens's life was written, and his biographers resume the pen
to add its last chapter. We can no longer say of him, as here
tofore, that he is and does thus; he now belongs to the past, and
the little we have yet to tell must be told in a sadder tense.
In the early summer of 1878 Mr. Stephens thought, more
seriously than ever before, of retiring from Congress. The ap
prehension that he might no longer be physically equal to the
combats and labors which his position required, pressed upon his
mind the question whether it was not his duty to make way for
a younger and stronger man ; and his feelings in the matter had
been so often and so openly expressed, that it came to be looked
on as a settled fact that he would refuse to be a candidate at the
October elections. A number of young men, some of distin-
ti O
guished ability, had been waiting for some time for his retire
ment to open to them the chances of succession, and they now
felt sure that the time had come.
Yet, in reality, the work done by Mr. Stephens in Congress
was far more effective than was admitted by those who urged
his physical infirmities as an objection to his continued re-elec
tions. While, even as in the times before the war, these dis
qualified him from taking the most active place at the head of
political associations, on the other hand they favored study, ma
ture reflection, and the vigorous, unbroken work of the brain.
His influence upon politics was to the full as important as that
of any other man from his district would have been. He watched
539
540 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
all political and legislative movements with unceasing vigilance,
and often, even when confined to bed, guided the course and
indicated the methods of political action./^ No Democrat was
more frequently consulted by leading men from all sections and
all shades of opinionN To such consultations it was well known
that sickness, unless of unusual severity, was no bar. Many a
time, when confined to his bed, he was visited at late hours of
the night by members of Congress to consult upon the course of
the morrow ; and often the leaders were seen sitting by his bed
side with heads bent over to catch the feeble voice that came
from among the pillows. As he was, for nearly the whole time
of his service, in the minority, there was little opportunity for
the origination of measures. During the short period of party
majority, his influence was somewhat lessened by his steadfast
opposition to the Potter resolutions concerning the title of Mr.
Hayes. Many of those who at the time were most displeased
with his course in this matter, came afterwards to admit that his
judgment had been sound.
Apart from his strictly legislative and political duties, he did
an enormous amount of other work, and that not for his con
stituents alone. Claims upon the various departments were in
trusted to his management, both from Georgia and from other
States, — some so small, or so hard to verify, that the proper rep
resentatives would not be troubled with them, — and he was never
known to slight such applications.
He took much interest in the work of his committee, — that on
Coinage, Weights, and Measures ; and he favored an increase in
the circulation of silver, believing that it would work to the
advantage of the poorer classes. If this belief be thought at all
quixotic, it was in entire consistency with the hopes, sympathies,
and aims of his whole public life.
His rooms at the National Hotel were always open to callers
of all classes and conditions of life. The trust that was reposed
in him by the masses of the people was really most affecting, and
he felt it deeply. Once he told, with a faint smile of pleasure,
the answer given in 1878 by a countryman, in whose presence
some one had been enlarging on Mr. Stephens's physical infirmi
ties. " Well, gentlemen," said he, " as long as Aleck ?s alive,
LIFE OF ALEXANDER If. STEPHENS. 541
and '11 go thar, I'm a-goin' to vote for him. If he can't do
nothin' else, he can send his crutches up thar to Congress, and
they '11 do as much as the speakin' o' some o' them that want his
place. And, gentlemen, thar's a heap more o' my way o' think-
in' ; and that you mout believe !"
Upon his return to Washington, after a visit to R. M. J. (who
went back with him), Mr. Stephens found a letter from Mr.
Wright, of Augusta, asking if he was to be considered out of the
field; and at the same time he heard that a leading politician
of his district had been in Washington during his absence, and
had started for Georgia just before his return. At once his face
assumed the peculiar smile which always marked the awakening
of the combative instinct :
"They think they will not only retire me, but ignore me, it
seems. I'll show them that they cannot do it !"
He said little more upon the subject during the rest of the
day, had his game of whist in the evening, and went to bed at
ten o'clock. It was, however, well understood by his intimate
friends that this retirement was no signal for their departure;
as he would often chat with them at his bedside for hours, and
sometimes, though not often, indulge in a social smoke. On
this occasion he had been in bed an hour or so, talking, among
other things, about the answer to be sent to Mr. Wright, when
another friend dropped in. Suddenly Mr. Stephens asked him
to write a telegram for him in about these words :
" Yours received. I shall stand for re-election." His guest,
surprised at his sudden resolution, asked him if he would not
take more time for reflection, and was at once answered, "No;
I want it to come out in to-morrow morning's Chronicle" (Mr.
Wright's paper). " I want to strangle in their nest these little
hawks."
Steps toward choosing his successor had already been taken
in some of the counties; and even after his determination was
known, many of the leading politicians were still disposed to
rebuke what they Considered his attitude of defiance. But this
was soon reconsidered when the feeling of the people was known ;
and the Convention, seeing that no other nominee would have a
chance of success if Mr. Stephens chose to run as an independent
542 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
candidate, gave him the nomination. At the election of 1880
the experiment was not attempted ; and there is no doubt that
had he been a candidate for Congress in 1882, no one would
have taken the field against him.
It is true that during these years he often spoke of retiring;
but it was evident that he had not made up his mind. Several
reasons contributed to this persistence, and they serve to illus
trate the peculiarity of his character. If his brother Linton
had not died, it is more than probable that he would ere this
have withdrawn from public life, of which lie had long been
over- weary. But the death of this loved brother seemed to sever
the last tie that bound him to life. He saw plainly that he
must either sink into utter prostration of spirit or plunge into
incessant activity. He felt that he
— must mix himself with action, lest he wither by despair."
It was the choice between death and life that was offered him;
and his choice was the instinct of self-preservation. And some
of the old feelings of his youth came back to him when the ap
proval, confidence, and continued affection of the people followed
his action.
The void in his heart was, to some slight extent, filled by the
two or three most intimate friends to whom he turned with almost
beseeching love and tenderness. It is touching to see, in his let
ters, how he craves their presence, in which all his old associa
tions revive ; how grateful he is for such visits as could be made,
during which he would scarcely leave them out of his sight;
and how their departure renews the old sadness and the old pain.
On such occasions he would speak of his longing to rest from
public life; but from this the friend who saw him most, always
dissuaded him, not only for the reasons above given, but also be
cause, from his habits, the salary was indispensable to him. For
himself he wanted nothing; but his indiscriminate hospitality,
the many young persons he was helping to educate, his utter
inability to refuse any appeal, even from the most unworthy, to
his charity, demanded a constant and considerable income ; and
as it was, he was often cratnped in means, and, no doubt, would
have been made a bankrupt but for his horror of debt.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 543
During this winter Mr. Stephens spent most of his time in
his chambers, except when he thought his presence specially
needed in the House or at the sessions of his Committee. But
his ill health did not prevent his attention to business nor to
his heavy correspondence. He delighted to gather his friends,
especially old friends from Georgia, around his table, and was
deeply disappointed if an invitation could not be accepted. Re
ferring to a disappointment of this kind, he writes (to R. M. J.) :
<; I have peculiar feelings. It seems that my days are drawing near
their end, and yet I am as well as usual. I am impressed with a recol
lection of the feelings expressed by Linton the last night he spent with me.
He said he felt as if his days were approaching their end.* It does not
lill me with sadness, and (yet it makes me anxious to be as much with
devoted, life-long friends as possible. "\
He was anxious about the contest for the Speakership at the
opening of Congress. On March 10th he writes :
" The contest for the Speakership is waxing fierce. Democrats are fight
ing Democrats as angrily as they ever fought Radicals. I am somewhat
removed from the seat of war, but the din of the battle is heard all over
the city. The contest is not for the Speakership only, but for the clerk
ship and office of doorkeeper, while the strife and struggle for the good
positions in the Senate under the new organization of that body is quite
characteristic of the times."
On the 12th he writes, deferring a promised visit :
" Such is the intense feeling on the subject of the organization of the
House on Tuesday that I am almost afraid to leave the city lest some
accident should happen that would prevent my presence when required."
One of the greatest surprises that ever befell Mr. Stephens
was the attack made upon him by General Richard Taylor in
a published article, in which it was alleged that he had received
with coldness an application made to him by General Taylor to
aid in obtaining the release of ex-President Davis. Mr. Ste
phens proved that at the time General Taylor professed to have
met him in Washington he was himself a prisoner in Fort War
ren. The general in reply admitted his mistake as to the date,
* This remark was made by Linton just two weeks before his death, in
July, 1872.
544 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
but insisted upon the fact. In a letter of April 28th (to R. M. J.),
Mr. Stephens thus alludes to this matter :
"As for Dick Taylor's attack on me, I care very little about it. The
statement in his note that the interview referred to was in the latter part
of October instead of July is as utterly unfounded as his first assertion.
I was at home the latter part of October. I did pass through Washington
on my return home after my parole from Fort Warren. I left that fort on
the 13th of October, and spent one day in Washington in going to Georgia.
I stopped at Willard's Hotel, but saw no man connected with the Govern
ment here during the day I remained over except President Johnson. 1
called and paid my respects to him. I was a paroled prisoner, and the
statement that I was in favor with the Government officials at that time is
utterly untrue. I do know that General Taylor did not call upon me at
that time upon the subject he states. The idea is utterly preposterous.
Indeed, I have no remembrance of ever seeing General Taylor to speak to
him in my life ; but the idea that he should have called upon me for the
purpose he states at that time, even if he had called and I had not known
him, is, as I have said, utterly preposterous."
With regard to Mr. Stephens's release from Fort Warren,
above referred to, he was not aware until long after that it was
largely due to the active intervention of Mr. John W. Garrett.
In the fall of 1865, Mr. W. Prescott Smith, Superintendent of
Transportation of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, while on a
tour to the White Mountains, stopped at Boston to visit Mr.
Stephens. Greatly shocked at the condition to which confine
ment had reduced the prisoner, and the sufferings which it was
evident would soon put an end to his life, Mr. Smith at once
abandoned his proposed tour and hurried back to Baltimore to
solicit the offices of Mr. Garrett with the Government. Mr.
Garrett went to Washington the next morning, but his applica
tion was met by a stern refusal from Mr. Stanton, who declared,
with bitterness, that he looked upon Mr. Stephens as more re
sponsible than any other man in the South for the secession,
because of hj.s eminent abilities, and his refusal to exert them to
prevent a rupture, which it was known that he did not approve,
at a time when such exertions might have frustrated the whole
design.
Mr. Garrett replied that Mr. Stanton judged Mr. Stephens
from the stand-point of the North; that he was himself fully
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 545
convinced that Mr. Stephens had acted under as firm a conviction
of duty and of patriotism as the Secretary himself; and that he
had no doubt whatever that had Mr. Stanton been born and
reared at the South and in the Southern political faith, his ser
vices on the side of the South would have been as ready, as
eminent, and as conscientious as they had been on that of the
North. He added that if Mr. Stephens, as was more than prob
able, should die from this totally unnecessary rigor, the reputation
of those who were responsible for it would be sullied forever.
The discussion was prolonged to some length, and the final
result was the success of Mr. Garrett's intervention and the re
lease of Mr. Stephens. Some years after, Mr. Garrett and Mr.
Stephens happening to meet (at the house of R. M. J.), the
grateful remembrance of the one, and the natural gratification
of' the other, were very impressive to those who witnessed the
meeting.
We now return to the correspondence. On January 10th
Mr. Stephens writes :
u I think it probable that Congress will adjourn early next week. We
are getting all things in right shape. The limitations on appropriations
to the army at the polls as deputy marshals are just where I wanted them
at the beginning/' •
We have more than once spoken of his remarkable fondness
for dogs and interest in their ways. Upon his return home this
summer he discovered that a new subject had been found for the
exercise of these qualities, in a puppy which the servants had
picked up somewhere and domiciled in the family under the
name of " General Toombs." Now, at Mr. Stephens's first re
turn, his old canine friends, Frank and Boz, did not" run to
meet him as usual, a fact which had given him so much dis
quietude that he had enlarged upon it in a letter. He now
writes to say that he Has found the key to the mystery in the
new puppy.
" It was the presence of this little scion of their race. It is said that
old dogs greatly dislike puppies, while old horses are very fond of colts.
The philosophy of this fact in natural history used to be explained when
I was a boy by Tom Ray, one of the sages of his class, upon the grounds
that old dogs were jealous of the rivalship of the young ones in the
35
546 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
affections of their masters, while old horses look hopefully upon colts as
rising aids to bear a portion of their burthens/'
Many following pages are devoted to a recent illness of this
PuPP)r? afc the crisis of which his master lay awake nearly all
night, prescribing and receiving bulletins of the invalid's fluctu
ating conditions from the nurses who had him in charge.
"At three o'clock in the morning he was given up as hopelessly gone;
at four o'clock, just as day was breaking, Harry reported that his breathing
was getting too, weak to be heard, indicating a near dissolution. It was
then I advised whiskey. Soon after this he became quiet and went into a
profound sleep."
The account winds up with :
" There was general joy on the place when it was authoritatively stated
that the General was better, and thought to be out of danger."
In the fall of this year Mr. Stephens went to*Louisville on
private business, and while there was much gratified by the re
spect shown him. A public exhibition of industries was going
on, and a committee of citizens waited upon him and invited
him to the hall, where he made an address.
During the winter of 1879—80 Mr. Stephens was confined
most of the time to his room by suffering from neuralgia.
He writes on January 3d recalling memories of past times, in
which the last night of the year was always a solemn season with
him, and expressing the foreboding that he shall never see an
other new year. This presentiment was probably increased by a
letter which he incloses, received from ex-Governor H. V. John
son, — for many years, with a single interruption, his affectionate
friend, — written in a serious mood, and reflecting on the prob
ably speedy close of the earthly careers of both. Mr. Stephens
was afterwards preparing to make the Governor a visit, when he
received news of his somewhat sudden death.
On January 26th, 1880, he wrote to K. M. J., inclosing an
article on himself which had shortly before appeared in the New
York Times, and giving some account of the paper and its au
thor, part of which we quote as showing how he was pestered
and exploitered by interviewers and reporters. One of these,
one Mr. Carroll, had called on him the previous summer at
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 547
Long Branch, where a number of the Committee for Revising
the Rules of the House had met, and had endeavored to get from
him some materials for a sketch of his life, in which he had but
very partial success, and was therefore obliged to supplement the
deficiencies from other sources. Mr. Stephens says :
" I considered Howard Carroll's article a sort of romance. I never had
twenty minutes' talk with him in my life. He called to see me at Long
Branch for an interview for a general sketch, and especially my views
upon the General Government. As to the latter, he took down in short
hand what he has very well produced in the last chapter. As to the
former, I handed him a copy of your and Dr. Browne's biography, and
told him that in that he would find all the material facts of my life accu
rately set forth. The greatest fault, I thought, in his article was the ab
sence of any allusion whatever to that book. All the facts he got from
me was my statement to him that the book was substantially correct on
all matters relating to my life, quite as much so as if I were to go over the
whole of it with him. In using several ideas gathered from the book,
and re-vamping the matter in his own words, he made several mistakes."
Mr. Stephens goes on to specify a number of errors in im
portant matters of fact, ending with " etc., etc."
During the latter part of May Mr. Stephens was gratified by
a visit from his nephew, William G. Stephens, in company with
his father-in-law, Mr. W. W. Simpson, who both stood very
high in his regard ; but the pleasure was dampened by the too
evident signs of declining health in William G. Stephens. For
this young man his uncle felt an affection approaching that which
he had lavished on Linton. Under a modest exterior he had a
mind of more than ordinary intelligence, much original humor,
and the highest sense of obligation to duty.
In the summer of this year, after the adjournment of Congress,
Mr. Stephens made a visit to Mr. Johnston, which was to be
his last. He was very feeble in health, but in the main cheer
ful. For some time before the meeting of the Convention to
nominate a candidate for the Presidency, he had been anxious
that General Hancock should receive the nomination. He con
sidered that of all the military men in the country General Han
cock best understood the constitutional relations of the civil and
military powers. He was therefore much gratified with the re
sult at Chicago ; but soon saw cause to apprehend that the leaders
548 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
of the party would lose by injudicious management the benefit
of a good nomination Y His letters are .full of complaints of the
dissensions and divisions among the Democrats/ while the Re
publicans were busy healing breaches and consolidating their
forces.
In the fall he was again a candidate, and there being no op
position of any consequence, he was returned to Congress. On
his return to Washington he planned a special Georgia dinner
for Christmas, and it proved an eminent success. Peculiar
Georgia dishes graced the board, and the host calling the guests'
attention to a fine opossum, said, " Let no Georgian go back on
his raising to-day. " The company enjoyed the meeting to the full,
and jests and stories were told in the quaint Georgia country-
speech that gave them the genuine racy home-flavor. It was an
occasion to be long remembered by all who participated in it.
The unusual severity of the following winter kept him much
within-dooL's. He was greatly depressed by the rapid decline
of health of his nephew William, who died on the first of
March .
The cold winter was succeeded by a hot summer, which much
debilitated him ; yet, despite all drawbacks, he undertook the
task of writing a History of the United States, at which he worked,
surrounded by six or eight secretaries, almost without intermis
sion, even when the mercury stood at 100° in the shade. The
attempt on President Garfield's life was a most painful shock to
him, and he shared to the full the general anxiety and grief.
On September llth he writes :
" The weather is still very dry and hot. I think the thermometer will
nearly reach 100° to-day. I sent off about half my MS. last week, arid hope
to get it all off by the first of November, if my health does not fail. The
book is a big one, and I am engaged at it ten hours a day, sometimes
more."
We have frequently had occasion to mention Mr. Stephens's
extreme sensitiveness to changes in the^veather, and his habit of
recording them. This led to an interest in all meteorological phe
nomena and studies, an interesting fact in connection with which,
properly belonging to an earlier date, may find insertion here.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 549
In the winter of 1853—54, Mr. James P. Espy, author of
Philosophy of Storms, and then a subordinate official of the
War Department, was a boarder in the same house with Mr.
Stephens, who became much interested in the book, and in Mr.
Espy's views and schemes, in which he thought there lay the
promise of great usefulness. Mr. Espy's plan involved the trans
mission and daily publication of weather reports from the various
stations, and for this he was unable to provide. Mr. Stephens
prevailed on the Washington Intelligencer and Union to publish
without charge a daily telegraphic synopsis of the reports, which
previously had been published only at the end of the year. The
utility and importance of these were soon recognized, and thus
the foundation was laid of the present admirable Signal Service,
the value of which to the country and the world can never be
fully estimated.
The following winter in Washington was spent by Mr.
Stephens in his usual way, attending with punctuality to his
various duties in the House, and in looking up claims which in
great numbers were brought before him. On his seventieth
birthday, February llth, 1882, he gave a dinner to his friends,
followed by a reception, which was numerously attended. Miss
C. P. Culver, of Washington, presented him with an album, on
the fly-leaf of which were written the following original verses :
" Midwinter is not always cold and drear :
From many a sheltered nook and Southern slope
"Where the warm light of heaven is cherished,
Are gathered tufts of grass and fern and moss,
Crocus, and snow-drops, and purple violet,
Which scent the air, and bring to eye and heart
Good cheer by their rare loveliness.
The robin and the oriole full oft
Bide in their native haunts the live-long year,
And chant, defiant of King Winter's frown,
From cozy perch amid the piny wood
Their wondrous melodies.
So thou :
Spring's short and fitful and capricious hour,
Summer's hot toil, and Autumn's rich ingathering;
IIav;> brought thee to the winter of thy life y
Chastened and sore disciplined, forsooth,.
550 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
Yet all unhardened by the season's changes,
Thy spirit, strong within, has caught the warmth
Of heaven, and holds it there.
Thy hopeful nature, and thy kindly smile,
Thy willing service in the noble cause
Of truth, of country, and humanity,
Make light and warmth, music and summer fragrance,
Mid thy threescore years and ten."
The numerous callers left their autographs in the album, to
which many added a few lines expressive of their feelings. He
was greatly gratified by this spontaneous tribute, and joining
with the book the many notes and letters sent by friends who
could not, be present, consigned the whole to the care of Mr.
Johnston, whom he detained for some time in affectionate talk
after the guests had departed and he had retired to rest.
Early in May, while descending the steps of the Capitol, his
crutch slipped, and his ankle received a severe sprain, from
which he never entirely recovered. The confinement that fol
lowed added to the depression of spirits which lately had been
growing upon him, and his chief consolation was found in the
society of a few chosen friends. About this time it was pro
posed to reconcile the divisions of the party in« Georgia by
bringing him forward as candidate for Governor. He was wil
ling to serve, and, indeed, was gratified at this new proof of the
confidence reposed in him. A place in the Senate he had often
said he did not desire, as he did not care to hold any office that
was not in the direct gift of the people. Having once consented
to allow his name to be presented, he put forth all his vigor in
the contest for the nomination. His competitor, Mr. Bacon,
developed unexpected strength, and the charge was brought
against Mr. Stephens of being in some degree compromised with
the Independents, who had first put forward his name. Having
once gone so far, he could not brook a failure ; and it was won
derful to see with what skill and judgment he arranged the
campaign in Georgia from his sick-room — and much of the time
from his bed — in Washington. When the day of the nomina
tion was approaching he had himself conveyed to Atlanta, as
he confided more in his own resources than in those of all his
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 551
friends. His success gratified him, but less than might be sup
posed. He was often haunted by the premonition that his end
was at hand, and frequently recurred to it in his letters.
When the time came for him to leave Washington, Mr. Johns
ton, as usual, went over to bid htm good-by. It was saddening
to witness what he evidently considered his final leave-taking
of a city in which he had spent so much of his public life.
There was more gravity than usual in his farewells to the num
bers who poured in to take his hand, even to the servants of
the hotel, for each of whom he had a friendly word and a little
gift. A carriage had been ordered for one more ride with his
friend. Slowly he drove along past the various public build
ings, at which he sadly gazed, as if conscious that he was looking
upon them for the last time.
" Perhaps you will come here again as Senator," his friend
suggested.
" Never, never," he answered, " My days are nearly over.
This may be, and probably is, the last time that we shall ever
see each other; and I tell you solemnly that if I were to consult
my own feelings, I should prefer to be beaten in this race. I
have consented to be a candidate only because of the hope of
healing the wounds in the Democratic party of Georgia."
When he arrived at the station he was carried to his state
room. In passing through the anteroom he noticed a young
dog tied, and one of the servants remonstrating with its owner,
saying that there was no room for the animal. Mr. Stephens at
once rested on his crutches, and said, sharply, "Let it alone;
there's plenty of room for him. We can take care of him."
Then, turning to the dog, he said, " Poor fellow ! they want to
turn him out, do they? They sha'n't do it!"
Although it lacked two hours to the starting of the train,
both felt it best that their parting should take place at once,
and they bade each other farewell, as it proved, for the last
time.
On his return he made a brief tour in the western part of the
State, speaking at various places. The opposing candidate was
General Lucius J. Gartrell, Independent Democrat. On the
12th of October he writes:
552 LIFE OF ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
"My majority turns out to be something over sixty thousand. Gartrell
carries only six counties. This is certainly a triumph signal enough for
any one to be gratified at, if not proud of. I assure you, however, that I
have none of the feeling of pride about it, and quite as little disposition
to exult over it. The sense of responsibility resting upon me greatly
oppresses me with its weight. I have about ten offices to fill, and already
have at least one thousand applications for them. Think of that, my dear
friend !"
Nor was it much better when these applications were all dis
posed of. His correspondence, always heavy, grew to be really
oppressive. On January 3d he writes :
"My health is just about as it has been. I usually write from seven
o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock at night, pretty constantly engaged
every hour in the day. The letters I have to answer number usually daily
from twenty to forty. The number to-day is about forty. But when Mr.
Slidell is with me I endeavor to clear the table every night."
He had not been long in office before dissatisfaction was ex
pressed by some at what was considered his excessive liberality
in pardoning offenders. While admitting that his clemency in
this respect was somewhat unusual, and that his disposition nat
urally inclined him to err, if at all, on the side of mercy, we
submit that, before censuring him for this, the censor should be
informed of the circumstances of each case and the representa
tions that were laid before the Governor. It should also be
remembered that many of the offenders were poor, and unable
to provide themselves with counsel who were at all a match for
the ability exerted on behalf of the prosecution. Moreover, the
law of Georgia, until comparatively recently, was very severe,
and allotted in many cases terms of imprisonment altogether
disproportionate to the offences. This was afterwards remedied
by the Legislature; but of those pardoned by Mr. Stephens
many had been sentenced under the old rigorous laws, and had
already suffered imprisonment fully as long as would now be
imposed for the same offences.
On this subject Mr. Stephens writes on December 4th, " I care
but little for the flings made at me about pardons. In this mat
ter I shall be governed by my own sense of duty ; not, however,
without some regret when I shall differ from good friends." He
LIFE OF ALEXANDER 11. STEPHENS. 553
then goes on to speak of an application for the commutation of
a sentence of death, in which he thinks of acting against the
protest of the Solicitor-General of the Eastern Circuit :
" The man was found guilty of murder, where the evidence, as reported
to me, shows no previous existing grudge or quarrel. In my judgment
of the laws of Georgia there cannot be murder without malice aforethought.
My present intention, therefore, is to commute his sentence to life impris
onment; but I have written for a copy of the recorded evidence before I
act."
On January 3d he writes :
''We are getting along very well at the executive mansion. We gave
a reception on New Year's day. It was the first time that the Governor
ever gave a New Year's reception in the day, or, I believe, at any hour.
The custom in Atlanta is for ladies to give receptions at night on New
Year. The example set at the mansion was said to be a rather unexpected
success."
The last letter received from him was dated February 2d,
and gave an account of a visit from Mr. Samuel Lumpkin, Mr.
J. T. Olin, and Colonel Mark Johnston, with warm expressions
of the pleasure this reunion had given him.
His last public appearance was at the Sesqui-centennial cele
bration in Savannah on February 1 2th. This was the most
imposing pageant that had ever been in the State, and drew
thousands from far and near. The aged statesman, seated in
his chair, reviewed the past, the humble beginnings of a great
State. When he had spoken, his hearers crowded round to
touch his withered hand in reverent affection. He enjoyed the
scene greatly, but the exposure to inclement weather did fatal
harm to one who was already much exhausted. On returning
to Atlanta, he betook himself at once to his bed, evidently fore
seeing that he should rise from it no more. The strange hold,
apparently so slight, and yet so tenacious, that he had on life,
that had held through seventy-one years of uninterrupted sick
ness, was loosened at last. He sank gently away ; so quietly
that the watchers by his bed did not notice his departure. His
death occurred on March 4th, 1883.
Rarely, if ever, has such a funeral been seen in this country.
From seventy-five to eighty thousand persons were in attend-
554 LIFE OF ALXANDER H. STEPHENS.
ance, of whom many thousands came to the city for that pur
pose alone. The funeral sermon was preached by the Rev.
John Jones, and many of the leading orators of the South gave
eloquent expression to their universal sorrow and sense of a
great loss. Perhaps the most touching tribute was that of his
life-long friend, General Toombs : "I come only to bring my
tears." No similar death has called forth more general and sin
cere grief; for of all the men whom the South in this century
lias produced, he was the most widely known and beloved. Far-
distant cities displayed the ensigns of mourning, with lowered
flag and tolling bells, and the whole land lamented that a chief
of the people had fallen.
The life of Alexander Hamilton Stephens has now been
recorded in the way he himself desired. From the many mis
representations that were put forth during his life, he foresaw
that, after his death, whether by malevolence or well-meaning
officiousness, these would be greatly increased. To prevent this,
he empowered his present biographers to undertake the task ;
and furnished them with all necessary material, in addition to
what one of them had collected during an intimacy of thirty
years. They have, to the utmost of their ability, performed
with faithfulness the work intrusted to them ; and every word,
with the exception of this last chapter, has been read by him,
and has received his sanction and approval.
Our object has been not merely to recount the incidents of
his life, but to show from his own words and confidences the
workings of his thought and the inmost feelings of his heart;
and if his character, in its weakness as well as its strength, has
not unfolded itself in our pages, then have we failed in our
undertaking.
Some points, however, may now be touched which it would
not have been fitting to submit to his judgment, or to speak of
during his life.
We have already shown how the consciousness of those mani
fold physical infirmities which handicapped him so heavily in
the race with his fellows tended at one time to beget in him a
spirit of bitter misanthropy, from which his spirit recoiling.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 555
rushed to a boundless sympathy and charity for his fellow-men.
This sentiment at last became a passion with him that often
clouded his judgment. The sight or knowledge of suffering and
distress was so intolerable to him that he neither considered the
character of the sufferer nor the causes of its infliction if it was
in his power to help. If his labor was needed, it was given
without stint ; if money, as long as he had anything to give. In
gratitude made no difference to him, — he was used to that all
his life, — the ingrate had only to return with a fresh plea to be
relieved again. Hence some who deserved help forbore to apply,
knowing the incessant drain upon him ; while frontless impostors
and undeservers of all kinds and classes fastened on him with
the voracity and tenacity of leeches. Linton once said, with
mingled sadness and indignation, " Brother is like a ship other
wise stanch, but eaten up by barnacles that he cannot dislodge."
The detection of deceit, mean selfishness, actual injury to him
self, did not move him ; it seemed that he had the power to par
don wrongs as oft as any man had power to wrong him. Cases
of unusual flagrancy sometimes called up a transient flash of in
dignation ; but it vanished at the first intimation of regret on
the part of the offender, who knew that, after forgiveness, his
hand was, if possible, more open than ever.
Linton keenly judged his character when he said, " As a
judge of mankind in the aggregate, brother sometimes seems to
me almost infallible. He can foresee what the multitude will
do. But as to individuals, I do not know any one who can be
so deceived and put upon."
We might illustrate this by many shameful instances of in
gratitude and treachery; but as we have no wish to arouse in the
reader's mind the feelings they would naturally call up, we prefer
to cite an incident rather ludicrous than serious.
One day, R. M. J., on entering his rooms, heard him sav,
with a kind of plaintive peevishness, "I tell you I. haven't got
it in my pocket nor in bank !"
When the applicant had gone his visitor said, —
" Run out, have you ?"
"Yes, sir, except thirty cents; and the man doesn't live that
can get that !"
556 LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
He then went on, with the most comic blending of irritation
and a sense of the ludicrousness of the whole matter, to tell the
following story :
u There came a fellow here a week ago, professing to be an
agent for Davis's History. I told him I had already subscribed
to at least a dozen, and had been worried that none of the agents
brought me the book. He said that if he could get six dollars
he could get the book, and would bring it to me the next morn
ing. I told him that I had but three dollars and thirty cents
to my name. Then he said he thought he could make out with
that. I told him that I'd let him have the three dollars, but I
must keep the thirty cents. He took the three dollars and
started to go. At the door he paused, came back, and said, if
I could spare it, he would like to have the thirty cents too. But
I was firm as a rock on the thirty cents.77
" He brought you the book ?7'
"No!77 he exclaimed, with a laugh like that of an amused
.child; "I never heard of him any more.77
" I am glad at least that you were able to hold on to your
thirty cents.77
" So am I. I wouldn't let him put me entirely out of seed.77
And he chuckled with self-satisfaction at this proof of his
firmness and sagacious providence.
The hospitality of Liberty Hall was of an extraordinary kind.
People of all sorts, ages, and colors; friends, acquaintances,
strangers, enemies, came whenever they pleased and remained as
long as they pleased. The hours of his meals were arranged to
suit the trains. In 1875, R. M. J. found him with his dinner-
hour fixed at half-past eleven, to give guests, that came only for
that purpose, time to dine between the coming and departing
trains. When the night-train passed Crawford ville before day
break it usually brought visitors, who were let in by Harry and
put to bed for a nap ; and the host only knew of their arrival
by seeing them at the breakfast-table. Every visitor was ex
pected to take at least one meal. When remonstrated with by
friends for thus turning his house into a caravanserai for the
sake of swarms who had no claim whatever upon him, whom he
LIFE OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 557
did not even know, he would say, " Oh, it takes only a little
more meat and bread, and everybody must eat."
For the stewardship of this lavish hospitality he relied mainly
upon Harry ; and Mr. Stephens had a heavy blow in the death
of that faithful servant and friend.
Regarding the religious views of Mr. Stephens, we have little
to add beyond what has appeared in former pages. They seem
never to have been very clearly defined even to himself, and
neither his brother nor his most intimate friend could ever draw
from him a distinct statement of them. His last attendance
upon public worship in Washington was when Bishop Gross,
of Savannah, preached at the Church of St. Dominic. The
bishop was a most valued friend, and after dinner Mr. Stephens
spoke warmly in his praise, and adverted to his eminent services
to the cause of Christianity in Georgia, saying that in his opinion
Bishop Gross and Bishop Pierce (of the Methodist Church) were
the two most useful men in the State.
For more than fifty years he had contemplated death as likely
to come at any hour. He made no profession of philosophic
indifference to death, and whenever it seemed at hand he was
gratified to be told that prayers were offered up for him. He
has been heard to say in reference to his living, " I want all the
chances I can get." He carried with him the consolation that,
as far as human frailty would allow, he had been no unfaithful
steward of the talent intrusted to him by the Master, and that
whatever he had done, or tried to do, had been in the fear of
God.
His last official act was in harmony with his life, and proba
bly such as he would himself have chosen. It was to grant a
petition for mercy. A fitting end for him.
APPENDIX A.
SPEECH ON NEBKASKA AND KANSAS.
Delivered in the House of Representatives, February 17th, 1854-
The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.
I WAS very anxious day before yesterday, Mr. Chairman, when the gen
tleman from Vermont [Mr. Meacham], and the gentleman from New York,
upon my left [Mr. Fenton], addressed the House upon the subject of the
Nebraska Bill, to make some remarks upon the same subject in reply to
them. I desired to do so at the time, but the opportunity was not afforded
me. And though I have lost some of the ardor of feeling which the occa
sion then excited, yet I think it important that these positions should be
answered, and it is for that purpose that I rise to address the Committee
to-day. I assure you I shall be as brief as possible.
The gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Meacham], if I understood the train
of his argument, opposed the Nebraska Bill, as presented to the House,
mainly upon the ground that it declares the eighth section of the act of
1820, preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union as a State,
inoperative, because it is inconsistent wTith the principles of the acts of
1850, known as the Compromise of that year. This eighth section of the
act of 1820 is that clause which, without any relation to the State of
Missouri, prohibits slavery forever from all that part of the territory
acquired by the Louisiana cession outside of Missouri north of 36° 30'
north latitude. The argument of the gentleman consisted of the following
series of assumptions :
f First. That that restriction or prohibition was in the nature of a com
pact, or contract, as he called it.
Secondly. That it had been continuously adhered to from that time to
this.
Thirdly. That the measure now proposed would be a, violation of that
compact.
Fourthly. That this breach of good faith would be attended with disas
trous consequences to the peace, quiet, and repose of the country.
This, sir, was the outline of his argument. Now I propose to take up
these positions, and show to the House, if not to the gentleman himself,
that in every particle they are untenable.
In the first place, I state that that eighth clause of the act preparatory
to the admission of Missouri into the Union, restricting slavery north of
"559
560
APPENDIX.
36° 30', never was a compact. It never had any of the requisites or char
acteristics of a compact. A compact between whom? Between the North
and South ?
MR. MEACHAM. — I used the word " contract," not " compact."
MR. STEPHEXS. — The gentleman from Vermont used the word " con
tract," as I said, but others have used the word "compact," and, in this
connection, they both mean about the same thing. But what I was about
to affirm is, that that "great Missouri Compromise" which Mr. Clay pro
posed, and with which his fame is identified, had nothing to do with this
restrictive clause of the act of 1820. That compromise [Mr. Clay's] was
in the nature of a "compact." It was a "compact" between the General
Government and the State of Missouri. I am aware that the general
opinion on this subject is very erroneous. This Mr. Clay fully explained
in 1850. The common idea is, that Mr. Clay was the author of the pro
hibition of slavery north of 36° 30'. But such is not the fact. He did
not even vote for it. That proposition came from a gentleman from
Illinois. The compromise that Mr. Clay offered was afterwards. Its his
tory is this: The people of Missouri, under the act of 6th March, 1820,
went on and formed a State constitution, which contained a clause author
izing the Legislature to pass a law to prevent the immigration of free
negroes ; and when application was made for admission as a State into
the Union, Congress refused the admission, unless that clause should be
expunged. It was then that Mr. Clay brought forward his measure.
Here it is :
" RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI INTO THE UNION
ON A CERTAIN CONDITION.
" Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America
in Congress assembled, That Missouri shall be admitted into the Union on an equal
footing with the original States, in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental con
dition that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the
Constitution, submitted on the part of the said State to Congress, shall never be con
strued to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in con
formity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States in this Union shall be
excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges find immunities to which such
citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That the
Legislature of the said State, by solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the
said State to the said fundamental condition, and transmit to the President of the
United States, on or before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy
of the said act; upon the receipt whereof the President, by proclamation, shall
announce the fact; whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of
Congress, the admission of the said State into this Union shall be considered as
complete. * "Jonx W. TAYLOR,
" Speaker of the House of Representatives.
"JOHN GAILLARD,
" President of the Senate, pro tempore.
"Approved March 2d, 1821.
"JAMES MONROE."
APPENDIX.
This proposition, when submitted to the people of Missouri, and acceded
to by them, as it was, may very properly be called a "compact." For
there were parties to it, — the General Government on one side, and the
people of Missouri on the other, — both agreeing to it. But not so with
the eighth section of the act referred to, — there were no such parties to
it, — that was nothing but a law, with no greater sanction than any othei
statute that may give place to subsequent legislation. There was no
compact about it. Missouri never gave her sanction to it. She could
not have been any party to it. She had no right to the territory outside
of her limits. She had no power or authority to make any compact
concerning it.
But the gentleman argued as if he considered this eighth section of the
act of 1820, fixing the line of 36° 30X, north of which slavery should be
forever excluded, and which is commonly called the "Missouri Compromise
line," as a contract between the North and South, as the parties. How.
then, stand the facts upon this point of view? How did this eighth sec
tion get into the bill of 1820? It was in this way, — the North insisted
upon a restriction against the admission of Missouri as a State, which
required her to abolish slavery within her limits, as a condition precedent
to her admission, — the House passed a bill with such restriction, — to which
the South were in mass opposed. In the Senate, on motion by Mr. Thomas,
of Illinois, that clause containing a restriction on the State was stricken
out, and this eighth section inserted in lieu of it. The South in mass
were opposed to the State restriction, as I have said; but manyof her
members — a majority of two, I believe — voted for the substitute as the
lesser evil of the two. In this way the substitute was carried as an
amendment tp the bill. This amendment was agreed to in the House by
a vote of 134 to 42. Among these 42 noes are to be found the names of
several of the most prominent men of the South. In this way this line
of 36° 30' was incorporated in the bill of 1820, preparatory to the admis
sion of Missouri as a State. And to this extent, and no other, can it be
called a compromise, a contract, or compact. It was literally forced upon
the South as a disagreeable alternative, by superior numbers, and in this
way went upon your statute book as any other law passed by a majority
of votes. So much, then, sir, for this "compact" or contract. Now let
us see, in the second place, how it has been fulfilled or adhered to from
that day to this.
The gentleman says it shas been acquiesced in and conformed to for
thirty years ; and he asks, with much solemnity, if we are now about to
violate and abrogate it? I have shown, sir, that the South was in no
sense a party to this Congressional restriction north of 36° 30'j except as
a vanquished party, being out-voted on the direct question ; protesting
against it with all her might and power. Yet, sir, notwithstanding this,
and notwithstanding a large majority of her people from that day to this,
as I think I may safely affirm, have held that clause of the Missouri act
36
562 APPENDIX.
to be unconstitutional, as it was based upon the principle of a division of
the common territory between the free States and slave States of the
Union, for the sake of peace and harmony, the South did patriotically
yield, and was willing for all time to come to abide by it. I say was,
because of this " Missouri Compromise," and the principles upon which
it was founded, it may n'ow be said " Ilium fuit"
The issue I make with the gentleman upon this branch of his speech is,
that this agreement or contract, as he argued it, between the North and
the South as to the line of division between slave territory and free terri
tory, has not remained undisturbed and inviolate for thirty years, as he
affirms. It has been shamelessly disregarded by Congress repeatedly, and
in principle was entirely superseded, as I shall show, by the principles
established by your legislation in 1850.
But as much as the arrangement was originally obnoxious to the South,
the charge of violation of it cannot justly be made against her. No, sir;
no, sir ; it was the North that refused to abide by her own bargain. This
I affirm. Now let us see how the record stands upon the subject. The
first time that this question came up afterwards, was within twelve months
from the date of the act itself and before the same Congress. It came up
on the application of Missouri for admission, in pursuance of the pro
visions of the very act that contains the "covenant." She had formed a
State constitution in pursuance of it 5 she had violated none of its condi
tions.- The whole South were for letting her be admitted, and the entire
North, nearly, were against it. Here is the vote rejecting her admission, —
the vote was 79 for it and 93 against it, — the North in mass, almost,
against it. Why was this refusal? If they recognized the provisions of
the act of March precedh 3 as containing any section binding upon them
in the nature of a "contract" or "compact," why did they refuse to fulfil
it? The pretext assigned was, that the constitution of Missouri contained
a clause empowering the Legislature to pass a law to prevent the introduc
tion of free persons of color, as I have stated. But this could have been
nothing but a pretext, for at that very day Massachusetts had a similar
law in actual force upon her statute book. The truth is, the North at
that early day showed that she did not regard the provisions of the act of
1820 as at all obligatory upon them as any thing like a compact. The real
objection to the final admission of Missouri as a State was, that slavery
was tolerated within her limits by her constitution. It was the old ques
tion which gave trouble before this " contract" of 1820 was made. It was
then that Mr. Clay's compromise was adopted. Twelve months, therefore,
had not passed before the North repudiated this compact by refusing
Missouri admission without another compromise.
"Well, the next time this question arose was on the admission of Arkansas
into the Union in 183G. This State wras formed out of a part of the Louis
iana purchase south of 36° 30'. By the terms of the Missouri " contract,"
the gentleman from Vermont admits that she was to come in as a slave
APPENDIX. 563
State. Did the North then so recognize and act upon these terms? The
gentleman from New York [Mr. Fenton] said that this division line had
been approved by the North for thirty years. If so, I ask him when or
where? Did they raise no objection when Arkansas applied for admis
sion ? Let us see ; here is the record.
Mr. John Quincy Adams, in this House, June 13th, 1836, moved an
amendment so as to make a section of the bill for the admission of that
State read thus :
"And nothing in this act contained shall be construed as an assent by Congress
to the article in the Conntitution of the said State relating to slat-cry and to the eman
cipation of slaves,'" etc.
" Still harping on my daughter."
On a vote, the effect of which was to allow this amendment, there were
80 in favor of affording the opportunity. There were 109 on the opposite
side, which prevented its being offered. Of these 80 votes, some were
from the South. The object may have been to get a vote upon this dis
tinct question of the recognition by the House of the line established in
1820. But after the amendment was ruled out on the direct vote for the
admission of Arkansas with a constitution tolerating slavery, though she
was south of 36° 30', there are 52 names under the lead of Mr. Adams in
the negative, — every one of them, I believe, from the North, — I have the
journal before me. And among these names I see Ileman Allen, Horace
Everett, Ililand Hall, Henry F. Jones, and William Slade. The entire
delegation from Vermont, and the gentleman's [Mr. Meacham's] own pre
decessor upon this floor, or he who then represented a portion of the same
constituency that that gentleman now does, recorded his vote against the
admission of Arkansas, Did he or his colleagues have any other objection
to it except that it was a slave State? If they regarded the line of 36° 30'
as a solemn covenant between the North and South, why did they not give
it their sanction at that time?
The gentleman spoke of " honor," —
" I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word."
Where was the "honor" of the representatives of Vermont on that oc
casion? In whose keeping was it placed? I suppose in the hands of their
constituents, of whom the gentleman was one. The representatives from
the gentleman's own State did then unanimously — most dishonorably, if
he chooses so to characterize their conduct — repudiate that " contract"
which the South never offered to disturb until it was totally abandoned by
an overwhelming majority at the North, as I shall presently show. I
have shown that it was disregarded within twelve months after it was
made, and refused to be sanctioned by the representatives of the gentle
man's own State in 1836, the first time it came up again.
The next time anything was said in our legislation about the u Missouri
564 APPENDIX.
line of 36° 30/," was on the annexation of Texas. That measure was
carried with that line in it, but not by Northern votes. It was the
South, still willing to abide it, that carried it then. There were 125
Northern votes given on that occasion. Of these, only 51 were for the
annexation with this line established in it; while there were 74 — a
large majority, — who refused to give it their sanction. I do not mean
to say that all who voted against that measure were opposed to that
line of settlement. Many of them had other reasons. And I know
full well, for I was here, that of those 51 Northern men who voted for
it, many of them would not have voted for the recognition of that line
if the question had come up by itself. But those resolutions of annexa
tion were so presented that they had to be taken as a whole or not at
all. I allude to this vote merely because it was the next time in order
when the question came up, and the vote certainly fails to show that the
North, or even a majority of them, gave it their sanction. For that reason
only I allude to it.
I come down now to another step of vour progress, — to the period from
the year 1847 to 1850. The gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Meacham] had
a map for illustration, which he exhibited to us. He pointed out to us the
boundary of the Louisiana purchase. It commenced at the mouth of the
Sabine, ran up that river to the 32° of north latitude ; thence due north to
the Red River ; thence up that river to the 100° of west longitude from
Greenwich ; thence due north to the Arkansas River, and up that river to
the 42° of north latitude; and thence due west to the South Seas or the
Pacific Ocean. By this map, and his demonstrations from it, it appears
that we had a title ceded to us from France to territory extending to the
Pacific Ocean. Well, that of course included Oregon, — that is, according
to the gentleman's map, we derived title to Oregon under the cession from
France in 1803, and that Territory was part of the Louisiana purchase.
Mr. Jefferson so considered it, and sent Lewis and Clarke to explore the
country.
Well, then, how did the South act towards this "solemn compact" as it
is now called, — the line of 36° 30', — when we came to organize a Territorial
government for Oregon in 1847? The southern boundary was the 42° of
north latitude, and of course the whole of it lay north of 36° 30'. At
this time (in 1847) we were in a war with Mexico, and it was well under
stood to be the policy of the Administration to acquire territory from that
Government, Avhich, in all probability, would to some extent be south of
the line 36° 30'. From the votes of the House upon what was well known
as the "Wilmot Proviso," the South had just reasons to apprehend that
it was the fixed determination of a majority of the North to disregard,
entirely what is now called the "sacred covenant of 1820." When, there
fore, the bill to organize a Territorial government for Oregon came up in
this House on the 15th of January, 1847, Mr. Burt, of South Carolina, to
take the sense of the North directly upon the question of abiding by this
APPENDIX. 565
line of 36° 30', moved as an amendment to that clause in the bill which
excluded slavery forever from the Territory, these words:
..." inasmuch as the whole of said Territory lies north of 36° 30' north latitude,
known as the line of the Missouri Compromise."
The object of this amendment was to put a direct test to the North whether
they intended to recognize the principle upon which the controversy on
the subject of slavery in the Territories was disposed of in 1820 or not.
Sir, the North understood the question fully and clearly, and they met it
promptly, — their response was that they did not. Here is the vote upon
this question : there were in this House then 82 votes for Mr. Burt's amend
ment, and 113 against it ! Of these noes, every man was from the North.
Every Southern man in the House voted for it. And of the 82 who voted
to adhere to the principle of that adjustment, not as something too sacred
to be touched, but for the sake of peace and quiet, there were I believe but
six from the whole North, — they were Douglas and Robert Smith, from
Illinois ; Cunningham and Parish, from Ohio ; Charles J. Ingersoll, of
Pennsylvania, and Hastings, of Iowa. Every man from Vermont and
New York voted against it.
In the face of this record, the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Meacham]
and the gentleman from New York [Mr. Fenton], in their places upon this
floor, two days ago, declared that this "Missouri Compromise" had met
the approval of the North for thirty years. The South, in this instance,
proposed it unanimously as a " peace-offering," and it was almost as unani
mously rejected by the North. "Honor," I think, the gentleman said.
They rejected it over territory to which we derived title by the very ces
sion alluded to in the act of 1820. And so thoroughly opposed were
they to giving it their approval, and so bent upon its total abrogation,
that they refused to affirm the principle when they got all by the affirma
tion. u Honor P* indeed! But, sir, to proceed. This bill was defeated in
the Senate, I believe. It did not become a law. The question came up
again in 1848. Another bill was brought forward to establish a Territorial
government for Oregon. The Senate put in the following amendment:
" That the line of 36° 30' of north latitude, known as the Missouri Compromise
line, as defined by the eighth section of an act entitled 'An act to authorize the
people of the Missouri Territory to form a constitution and State government, and
for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original
States, and to prohibit slavery in certain Territories,' approved March 6, 1820, be,
and the same is hereby, declared to extend to the Pacific Ocean; and the said eighth
section, together with the compromise therein effected, is hereby revived and declared
to be in full force and binding for the future organization of the Territories of the
United States, in the same sense and with the same understanding with which it was
originally adopted." •
It came up for action in this House on the llth of August, 1848. On
the question to concur with the Senate in this amendment, the yeas were
566 APPENDIX.
82, and the nays 121. I have the vote before me. This was a proposition
to revive and declare in force a provision which is now claimed to have
been held all the time as a sacred compact, — almost as sacred as the Con
stitution itself; and it was rejected by an overwhelming majority in this
House, — rejected, sir, by the North. The South was again unanimous for
it. From the North at this time I think there were but four votes for it, —
Birdsall, from New York ; Charles Brown, Charles J. Ingersoll, and Brod-
head, from Pennsylvania. Here is the journal. This proposition in the
Senate was moved by Mr. Douglas. It received every Southern vote in
that body, and was opposed by every Northern vote except Douglas. Dick
inson, Bright, Cameron, TIannegan, Sturgeon, and Fitzgerald. The vote
on the adoption of it in that body was 33 to 21. Mr. Calhoun, who was
well known to be opposed to the principle on which it was founded, gave
it his support.
But upon the rejection of this amendment by the House, and a disagree
ment between the two Houses upon it, the amendment was lost, and tho
Oregon Bill passed, and received the sanction of the President without this
recognition of the Missouri Compromise, but in the face of its open repudi
ation and abrogation by the North. This, sir, is the truth of history, and
so let it be written. And with what sort of face can gentlemen, with these
facts before them, rise up here and say that this compromise has been
undisturbed and acquiesced in for thirty years? But, sir, there is still
another chapter in this history.
At the close of the war with Mexico, extensive territories, as was expected,
were acquired. — territories extending south as well as north of the line of
36° 30', — constituting a public domain of hundreds of thousands of square
miles, purchased by the common blood and common treasure of the people
of the South as well as the North. The policy of the advocates of the
u Wihnot Proviso" from the beginning had been to appropriate the whole
of this immense region exclusively to the North. Hence their uniform
hostility to the Missouri Compromise, because that was founded upon the
principle of division. Their determination was to have all. The South was
still willing to divide, notwithstanding the policy which she ever advocated
was to leave all the Territories open for the occupancy and colonization of
the people of the whole country, from whatever section they might emi
grate, with the liberty of forming such institutions, upon a republican
basis, as they might deem most conducive to their happiness, interest, and
prosperity, without any Congressional restriction or dictation whatever.
This was always the doctrine maintained at the South. She was willing
to divide, only as an alternative between that and a greater evil. ' To an
entire exclusion, by act of Congress, she had made up her mind never to
submit, let consequences be what they might. This was the state of
things upon the assembling of the Thirty-first Congress. The events of
that Congress are too recent and vivid upon the recollection of all to need a
rehearsal. The majority of the North still proclaimed their determination
APPENDIX. 567
to appropriate the whole of the public domain to themselves. Both sec
tions stood in hostile array against each other. The strife became so em
bittered and fierce that legislation was paralyzed, and everything seemed
to threaten confusion and anarchy. The South again repeatedly proposed
a settlement upon the Missouri line. The proposition was made in this
House, on the part of the South, for the last time, on the 13th day of June,
1850. It was in these words :
" Provided, however, That it shall be no objection to the admission into the Union
of any State which may hereafter be formed out of the territory lying south of the
parallel of latitude of 36° 30', that the constitution of said State may authorize or
establish African slavery therein."
This proposition was rejected in committee of the whole upon a count
by tellers, — ayes 78, noes 89. It was the last time, sir, it was ever offered.
When the North had again, and again, and again, for three years, refused
to abide by it, the South, driven to the wall upon it, was thrown back
upon her original rights under the Constitution. Her next position was,
that territorial restriction by Congress should be totally abandoned, not
only south of 36° 3(K, but north of that line, too ! Upon this ground she
planted herself on the 15th day of June, — the debates in this House on
that day were more exciting, perhaps, than ever upon any day since the
beginning of the Government. It was upon that day I put the question
directly to a distinguished gentleman, then here from Ohio [Mr. Vinton],
whether he would vote for the admission of any slave State into the Union,
and he refused to say that he would. The determination, as manifested
by the votes of the majority of the North, was to apply legislative restric
tion over the whole of the common territory, in open and shameless dis
regard of the principles of the so-called Missouri Compromise, notwith
standing the gentleman from Vermont says that it has been adhered to
and held inviolate for thirty years. It was on that day. sir, that a dis
tinguished colleague of mine [Mr. Toombs], then on this floor, now in the
other wing of the Capitol, made that speech which has become somewhat
famous in our State, in which he said, with eloquence seldom heard within
these walls :
"We do not oppose California on account of the anti-slavery clause in her consti
tution. It was her right, and I am not even prepared to say that she acted unwisely
in its exercise, — that is her business; but I stand upon the great principle that the
South has a right to an equal participation in the Territories of the United States."
"Deprive us of this right and appropriate this common property to yourselves, —
it is then your Government, not mine. Then I am its enemy ; and I will then, if I
can, bring my children and my constituents to the altar of liberty, and, like Hamil-
car, I would swear them to eternal hostility to your foul domination. Give us our
just rights, and we are ready as ever heretofore, to stand by the Union, every part
of it, and its every interest; refuse it, and, for one, I will strike for independence."
It was then, when the North had refused all compromise, and went
568 APPENDIX.
into the contest for the " whole or none," that the South took up the
gage, planted herself upon her original ground, armed, as she conceived.
in the panoply of truth ; and her representatives boldly meeting those
arrayed, not only against her rights, but a great principle of free gov
ernment, face to face, said:
" Lay on, Macduff ;
And damn'd be he that first cries, Hold, enough !"
The grounds she then took were, that there should be no settlement of
this territorial controversy but upon the recognition of her original prin
ciples, which were, that all Congressional restrictions upon this subject
were wrong, and should be totally abandoned. This was the basis of her
ultimatum, as then proclaimed. It was offered in this House on the 15th
day of June, 1850. No decision was had on it. It was offered two days
after in the Senate to the then pending Compromise Bill in the Senate.
This proposition was in these words :
"And when the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be admitted as a
State, it shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitu
tion may prescribe at the time of admission."
The whole question of slavery or no slavery was to be left to the deter-
, mination of the people of the Territories, whether north or south of 36°
3CK, or any other line. The question was to be taken out of Congress,
where it had been improperly thrust from the beginning, arid to be left to
the people concerned in the matter to decide for themselves. This, I say,
was the position originally held by the South, when the Missouri restric
tion was at first proposed. The principle upon which that position rests
lies at the very foundation of all our republican institutions ; it is that the
citizens of every distinct and separate community or State should have
the right to govern themselves in their domestic matters as they please,
and that they should be free from intermeddling restrictions and arbitrary
dictation on such matters from any other power or government in which
they have no voice. It was out of a violation of this very principle, to a
great extent, that the \var of the Revolution sprung. The South was
always on the republican side of this question, while the North — no ; or,
at least, I will not say the entire North, for there have always been some
of them with the South on this question ; but I will say, while a majority
of the North, under the free-soil lead of .that section, up to the settlement
of the contest in 1850 — were on the opposite side.
The doctrine of \\\Q' lies trictioni sis or Free-Soilers, or those who hold that
Congress ought to impose their arbitrary mandates upon the people of the
Territories in this particular, whether the people be VilHng or unwilling,
is the doctrine of Lord North and his adherents in the British Parliament
towrard the colonies during his administration. He and they claimed the
right to govern the colonies "in all cases whatsoever," notwithstanding
the want of representation on their part. The doctrine of the South upon
APPENDIX. 569
this question has been, and is, the doctrine of the Whigs in 1775 and 1776.
It involves the principle that the citizens of every community should have
a voice in their government. This was the doctrine of the people of Bos
ton in 1775, when the response was made throughout the colonies, " The
cause of Boston is the cause of us all." And if there be any here now
who call themselves Whigs arrayed against this great principle of republi
can government, I will do toward them as Burke did in England ; I will
appeal from u the new to the old Whigs."
I say nothing of the constitutional view of the question. When I have
been asked if Congress does not possess the power to impose restrictions
or to pass the " Wilmot Proviso," I have waived that issue ; I never dis
cuss it. On that point I have told my constituents, and I tell you, I treat
it as Chatham treated it in the British Parliament, when the question of
power to tax the colonies without representation was raised there. That
question Chatham would not discuss-, but he told those who were so un
justly exercising it, that if he were an American he would resist it. The
question of power is not the question ; the question is, is it right thus to
exercise it? Is it consistent with representative republican government
to do it? That is the question. Where do you new latter-day Whigs
from the North stand on this question? Will you take the side of Lord
North and the British Tories, and maintain that it is the duty of this
great Government, with its superior wisdom, to legislate for the freemen
of this country, as free-born as yourselves, who quit your State jurisdic
tions and seek new homes in the West?
And where do you, calling yourselves Democrats from the North, stand
upon this great question of popular rights? Do you consider it demo
cratic to exercise the high prerogative of stifling the voice of the adven
turous pioneer and restricting his suffrage in a matter concerning his own
interest, happiness, and government, which he is much more capable of
deciding than you are? As for myself and the friends of the Nebraska
Bill, we think that our fellow-citizens who go to th§ frontier, penetrate the
wilderness, cut down the forests, till the soil, erect school-houses and
churches, extend civilization, and lay the foundation of future States and
empires, do not lose by their change of place, in hope of bettering their
condition, either their capacity for self-government or their just rights to
exercise it, conformably to the Constitution of the United States.
We of the South are willing that they should exercise it upon the sub
ject of the condition of the African race among them, as well as upon
other questions of domestic policy. If they see fit to let them hold the
same relation to the white race which they do in the Southern States, from
the conviction that jt is better for both races that they should, let them do
it. If they see fit to place them on the same footing they occupy in the
Northern States, that is, without the rights of a citizen or the protection of
a master, outcasts from society, in worse condition than Cain, who, though
sent forth as a vagabond, yet had a mark upon him that no man should
570 APPENDIX.
hurt him, —I say, if they choose to put this unfortunate race on that foot
ing, let them do it. That is a matter that we believe the people there can
determine for themselves better than we can for them. We do not ask you
to force Southern institutions or our form of civil polity upon them ; but
to let the free emigrants to our vast public domain, in every part and par
cel of it, settle this question for themselves, with all the experience, intel
ligence, virtue, and patriotism they may carry with them. This, sir, is
our position. It is, as I have said, the original position of the South. It
is the position she was thrown back upon in June, 1850. It rests upon
that truly national and American principle set forth in the amendment
offered in the Senate on the 17th of June, which I have stated ; and it was
upon the adoption of this principle that that most exciting and alarming
controversy was adjusted. This was the turning-point-, upon it every
thing depended, so far as that compromise was concerned.
I well recollect the intensity of interest felt upon the fate of that propo
sition in the Senate. Upon its rejection in the then state of the public
mind depended consequences which no human forecast could see or esti
mate. The interest was enhanced from the great uncertainty and doubt
as to the result of the vote. Several Northern Senators, who had before
yielded the question of positive restriction,- — that is, the " Wihnot Proviso,"
— had given no indication of how they would act upon this clear declara
tion that the people of the Territories might, in the formation of their
State constitutions, determine this question for themselves. Among these
was Mr. Webster. Just before the question was put, and while anxiety
was producing its most torturing effects, this most renowned statesman
from New England arose to address the Senate. An immense crowd was
in attendance. The lobby, as well as the galleries, was full. All eyes
were instantly turned toward him, and all ears eager to catch every word
that should fall from his lips upon this, the most important question, per
haps, which had ever been decided by an American Senate. His own vote?
even, might turn the s*,le. That speech I now have before me. In it he
declared himself for the amendment. His conclusion was in these words :
"Sir, my object is peace, — my object is reconciliation. My purpose is not to
make up a case for the North, or to make up a case for the South. My object is not
to continue useless and irritating controversies. I am against agitators North and
South; I am against local ideas North and South, and against all narrow and local
contests. I am an American, and I know no locality in America. That is my
country. My heart, my sentiments, my judgment, demand of me that I should
pursue such a course as shall promote the good, and the harmony, and the union of
the whole country. This I shall do, God willing, to the end of the chapter."
The reporter says :
[" The honorable Senator resumed his seat amidst the general applause from the
gallery."]
Yes, sir ; he did. I was there, and witnessed the scene ; and no one, I
fancy, who was there, can ever forget that scene. Every heart betit easier.
APPENDIX. 571
The friends of the measure felt that it was safe. The vote was taken, —
the amendment was adopted. The result was soon communicated from
the galleries, and, finding its way through every passage and outlet to the
rotunda, was received with exultation by the crowd there; with quick
steps it was borne through the city ; and in less than five minutes, per
haps, the electric wires were trembling with the gladsome news to the
remotest parts of the country. It was news well calculated to make a
nation leap with joy, as it did, because it was the first step taken toward
the establishment of that great principle upon which this Territorial
question was disposed of, adjusted, and settled in 1850. It was a new step
in our governmental history. From the beginning, nothing had been the
cause or source of so much sectional feeling and strife as this question of
slavery in the Territories, — a question so nearly allied in principle to the
old controversy between the colonies and the mother-country.
With the colonies the question was not so much the amount of taxation ;
it was not the small duty on tea, — that was far from being oppressive, —
but it was the principle on which it was placed ; it was the principle as
serted and maintained in the "preamble" that our forefathers resisted by
arms. And Mr. Webster well said, on some occasion, that the American
Revolution was " fought against a preamble." That .preamble asserted the
right, or power, of the home government to govern the colonies in all
cases. It was against that principle the war was commenced.
The cause of right in which the men of '76 engaged was vindicated in
the success of the Revolution and the disruption of the British Empire.
And, as a coincidence worthy to be noted, it so happened that this kindred
principle of the proper and just rights of the people 'of our territories, or
colonies, made its first step toward ultimate success on the anniversary of
the battle of Bunker Hill. It was on the ever memorable 17th day of
June. It was on that day (1775) the blow was struck, by the colonists
at Boston, against the unwise, unjust, and arbitrary policy of Lord North.
And it was on the same day, just seventy-five years after, that the unwise,
unjust, and arbitrary policy, to say no more of it, of this General Govern
ment — attempting to compel the people of our Territories to adopt such
institutions as may please a majority of Congress, without consulting the
rights, interests, or wishes of those immediately concerned — was, for the
first time, abandoned by the American Senate without a blow. It is for
tunate for us, and fortunate for millions that shall come after us, that it
was abandoned without a blow. Had the restrictionists of this country held
out as Lord North's ministry did in their policy, it might have ended in
consequences most disastrous to our common well-being, and the hopes of
mankind. But they did not. The power of truth prevailed. Patriotism
trampled over faction. And as soon as this great American principle — I
so call it because it lies at the foundation of all our republican institu
tions—was vindicated in the Senate, the House did not again resume the
subject. We waited until the bills came from the Senate. The same
572 APPENDIX.
provision as that I have read was put in the New Mexico Bill. That
swept away the restriction that had been put in the Texas annexation
resolutions over all that part of Texas lying north of 30° 3(K, included in
the present Territory of New Mexico. The House took up these bills,
after they were passed by the Senate with these amendments, with this
new principle incorporated in them, and gave them their sanction.
This, sir, is what is called the Compromise of 1850, so far as this Terri
torial question is concerned. It was adopted after the policy of dividing
territory between the two sections, North and South, was wholly aban
doned, discarded, and spurned by the North. It was based upon the truly
republican and national policy of taking this disturbing element out of
Congress, and leaving the whole question of slavery in the Territories to
the people, there to settle it for themselves. And it is in vindication of
that new principle — then established for the first time in the history of
our Government — in the year 1850, middle of the nineteenth century —
that we, the friends o£ the Nebraska Bill, whether from the North or
South, now call upon this House and the country to carry out in good
faith, and give effect to the spirit and intent of those important measures
of Territorial legislation. The principle of those Territorial acts was utterly
inconsistent with every thing- like Congressional restriction. This is what
we wish to declare. And this principle, carried out in good faith, neces
sarily renders all antecedent legislation inconsistent with it inoperative
and void. This, also, we propose to declare.
The restriction imposed by the eighth section of the act of 1820 — thrown
into that act out of place and without any legitimate connection with it,
like a fifth-wheel to a wagon — is just such antecedent legislation. The
principle on which it was based has been abandoned, totally abandoned,
as I have shown, by those who now contend for it, and superseded by
another, a later, a better, and a much more national and republican one.
We do not propose to repeal " any compact," or to violate faith in any
sense, — we only invoke you to stand upon the Territorial principle estab
lished by what is known as the Compromise of 1850. That has already re
ceived the sanction of a-n overwhelming majority of the American people,
as I doubt not it always will receive when fairly presented. I have
seen it suggested,. that if a proposition should be made to extend the pro
visions of this bill to the guarantee to the South in the Texas annexation
resolutions for the admission of slave States from Texas, south of 36° 30',
such proposition would certainly defeat it. T5y no means, sir ; those who
reason thus show nothing so clearly as how little .they understand the real
merits of the question.
That guarantee, secured in the Texas resolutions, so far as the character
of the institutions of such States, hereafter to be formed, is concerned, —
that is, whether they be slave or free, — is, itself, in perfect accordance
with the present provisions of this bill. That guarantee was not that
those new States should be slave States, but that the people there might
APPENDIX. 573
do as they please upon the subject. The reason that the guarantee was
important, at the time, was, because the policy of Congressional restriction
had not then been abandoned. The South never asked any discrimination
in her favor from your hands. All that the South secured by those reso
lutions, so far as the character of the States is concerned, was, simply,
that they should be admitted at a proper time, " either with or without
slavery," as the people may determine. As to the number of States, that
is a different question. So that if you should repeal that so-called guar
antee for slave States, by extending this bill to that country, you would
only erase to fill again with the same words. We ask no discrimination
in our favor. And all we ask of you men of the North is, that you
make none in your own. And, why should you? Why should you even
have the desire to do it? Why should you not be willing to remove
this question forever from Congress, and leave it to the people of the
Territories, according to the Compromise of 1850? You have greatly
the advantage of us in population. The white population of the United
States is now over twenty millions. Of this number, the free States have
more than two to one, compared with the South. There are only a little
over three millions of slaves.
If immigration into the Territories, then, should be assumed to go on in
the ratio of population, we must suppose that there would be near seven
white persons to one slave at least ; and of these seven, two from the free
States to one from the South. This is without taking into the estimation
the immense foreign immigration. With such an advantage are you afraid
to trust this question with your own people? — men reared under the in
fluence of your own boasted superior institutions ? With all the prejudices
of birth and education^ against us, are you afraid to let them judge for
themselves? Are your "free-born"1 sons, who never " breathed the tainted
air of slavery," such nincompoops that they cannot be " trusted out without
their mothers' leave" ? It must be so, or else another inference is legiti
mate and clear; and that is, that notwithstanding all your denunciations
of the "hated and accursed institution," you have an inward conscious
ness that it is not so bad after all, and that the only way you can keep
wise, intelligent, and Christian men, even from New England itself, from
adopting it, is to set yourselves up as self-constituted guardians and law
makers for them. I consider your policy and the tenacity with which
you hold to it, as the fullest and amplest vindication of the institutions of
the South against all your misrepresentations, abuse, and billingsgate
about them.
I think, sir, I have shown conclusively that the line of 36° 3(K, known
a? the Missouri Compromise line, never was a "compact," in any proper
sense of that term. And even if it was, that it has been disregarded
broken, and trampled under- foot by the parties who have lately so sig
nalized themselves as its champions and defenders. I have shown that
while the South was opposed to the policy by which it was adopted, and
574 APPENDIX.
took it as a disagreeable alternative, yet she never offered to disturb it,
but was willing to abide by it for the sake of peace and harmony. I have
shown, also, that the present measure is no " breach of faith" but that its
object is to carry out and give effect to the great Territorial principle
established in 1850.
It remains for me now to say something upon the last part of the speech
of the gentleman from Vermont ; and that is, the great excitement that
this measure is likely to produce. The country was in peace and quiet,
says the gentleman, until this bill was introduced. Well, sir, who raises
any excitement now? Whence does the opposition come? And what
are the reasons for it? The North, it is said, is to be excited. And ex
cited about what ? Why, because Congress, when this bill passes, will
have recognized the Territorial principle established in 1850, and declared
all antecedent legislation over the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska
inconsistent with that principle inoperative and void. An-d what is the
harm or mischief to be done ? Why, nothing, but extending to the freemen
of Kansas and Nebraska that privilege which ought to be the birthright of
every American citizen, — to have a voice in forming the institutions, and
passing the laws under which he is to live. That is all. ' Who, then, is
to be agitated at this monstrous outrage ? Why, nobody but those who
wish to impose an unjust restriction upon a freeman's franchise ; nobody
but those who deny to a portion of their fellow-citizens a fitness or capacity
for republican government. Nobody but those who would maintain the
same policy on the part of the General Government toward the people of
the Territories which Lord North and his Tory confederates, on the part of
England, held toward the colonies. That there may be, and that there
are, some such bodies I do not doubt. But who are they, and what is
their force? They are nothing but the fragments of the old "Wilmot
Proviso," "Free-Soil," and "Abolition Phalanx," attempting to rally
their broken and routed columns by this hypocritical cry about the sacred-
ness of compacts. Who ever expected to see the New York Tribune and
the Evening Post, and such newspapers, pouring forth their invocations in
behalf of the u sanctity of the Missouri Compromise"? The men who
thus cry aloud now are the very same who denounced every man at the
North who voted to maintain that line, while the question was open, as
a " dough-face" and " traitor." They thought then that they had the
world in a swing, and would have everything their own way : not satisfied
to have "the Wilrnot" fixed upon all territory north of 36° 30X, they de
termined to have it fixed upon the whole of the public domain. With this
spirit they went into the contest. And so far from getting it fixed where
it was not, they came out of the contest with the establishment of a
principle, which took it off where it was fixed before. Like the man that
failed properly to use his talent, they had taken away from them "even
that which they had." They went a " woolling," and came back thoroughly
"fleeced" themselves, — hence their desperation. That such men may
APPENDIX. 575
rail, and rave, and rage, may be expected. Let them rage on. Had they,
and men of like opinions before them, never thrust their unjust and anti-
republican territorial policy in the halls of Congress, there never would
have been sectional strife within these walls. Whatever of party conflicts
we might have had growing out of questions of legislation for so vast a
country as ours is, with all its complicated and diversified interests, we
should have been saved from this lamentable quarrelling about State insti
tutions, which threatened such fearful consequences in 1850.
But, sir, we are told that discord once reigned in heaven. The evil
spirit of pride and ambition, craving powers and prerogatives not proper
or legitimate, entered the breasts of those admitted even to the presence
of the Most High ; jealousy, envy, and hate produced not only Avords, but
bloAVS, between archangels ministering round his throne.
" Long time in even scale
The battle hung."
These unholy conflicts, so unsuited to that place, Avere never composed
until heaven's First-Born, clothed in the majesty of divine power, arose
and hurled the factious hosts from the empyrean battlements to the bot
tomless pit beloAV.
" Nine days they fell ; confounded chaos roared,
And felt tenfold confusion, in their fall,
Through his wild Anarchy : so huge a rout
Encumber'd him with ruin. Hell, at last,
Yawning, received them whole, and on them closed:
Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire
Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.
Disburden'd Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired
Her mural breach, returning whence it rolled."
From that profound deep, beloAV which there was no lower deep, they
still sent up much cursing, wailing, howling, and hissing.
So, sir, in these halls, sacred to national purposes, and those objects for
which the Government Avas formed, we have had peace-destroying feuds
and unseemly conflicts engendered and instigated by the fell demon of
"Restriction," or " Wilmot Proviso," which once stalked with insolent
brow, in our very midst. These scenes lasted until the Genius of our
country rose in its might, on the 17th of June, 1850, armed with the great
American principle of self-government, Avhich had borne our fathers
through the struggle of the Revolution, and drove the hideous monster,
with all his impious crew, from the Capitol, — cast them out and hurled
them downward to that IOAV deep from which their plaintive howls noAV
ascend.
These convocations at the Tabernacle and at Chicago and elsewhere —
the ravings of the infidel preacher, Theodore Parker, and all his weaker
folloAvers— are but the repetition of the Pandemonium scenes; there con-
576 APPENDIX.
sultations were held, and grave debate had, how the banished fiends should
regain their lost estate, " Whether by open war or covert guile." These
manifestations may be expected. We have had them before, — yea, and
much more violent, too. When the Compromise of 1850 was passed, these
same men declared open war against its provisions. " Repeal 1" " Repeal !"
was blazoned upon their banners ; mobs were got up in Boston, in Syra
cuse, and at Christiana; blood was shed by these resisters of the law.
The spirit of the North was appealed to in fanatic accents. That spirit
answered in prompt and patriotic tones of popular reprobation at the
ballot-box, just as it will do again. These threats of what will be the fate
of, and " political graves" of, Northern men who vote for this bill, can
fright nobody but old women and timid children. They are worse than
ghost stories, — we have heard them before.
I recollect well with what eloquence a gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Root]
some years ago, in this House, spoke of the deep degradation that awaited
every man at the North who should dare to vote against the Wilmot Pro
viso. No patronage of the Government could save him ; no land-office,
ever so remote, could keep him from being hunted down, ferreted out, and
held up to the just scorn of an indignant constituency. But his prophetic
warning came far short of becoming history. Northern men did abandon
the Proviso. In doing so they acted wisely, justly, nobly, and patriotically ;
and so far from digging their political graves by the act, they have but
planted themselves deeper and firmer in the hearts, love, affection, and
admiration of their countrymen.
The same " scarecrow" was held up to Northern men who occupied
national ground on the admission of Missouri. It was said then that they
would find u their graves" in the ground where they stood. And some
pretend now to say that such was the fact. But in the record I have before
me, I see, among the very few from the North who did then stand up for
the right against the huge clamor that was raised against them, the names
of Baldwin, from Pennsylvania; Holmes, of Massachusetts; and Storrs,
of New York ; and Southard, of New Jersey. Where did Southard find
his grave ? Mr. Baldwin was afterwards one of the judges of the Supreme
Court of the United States. Mr. Holmes, when Maine was admitted as a
State, was elected to the Senate, and held that highly honorable post, for
aught I know, as long as he wanted it.
Mr. Storrs, who was a man of great talents, never lost the confidence
of his constituents. Had he not been cut down by death at an early age,
he might, and most probably would, have attained the highest honors of
the country, not excepting the chief magistracy itself. These statesmen
found " political graves" where many of those who now rail so fiercely
would, doubtless, be very willing to find theirs. But of those who espoused
the side of the restrictionists at that time I do not see the name of a single
man who ever attained high political distinction in this country. Their
very memories, in most instances, have passed away, and their "graves"
APPENDIX. 577
if they have any, would be about as hard to find as that " of Moses in the
wilderness." •
So much, then, for these threats. They are buf the "ravings," and
"howlings," and "hissings" of the beaten and routed ranks of the fac-
tionists and malcontents. They are the wailings of the politically con
demned, coming up from the bottom of that deep pit where they have
been hurled by a patriotic people for the good, the peace, quiet, and har
mony of the whole country. We need not expect to silence them, — the
friends and advocates of the Compromise of 1850 did not expect or look
for that at the time. That would have been a forlorn-hope ; and though
many of the enemies of the compromise, of the North, who were beaten
in the great battle of 1852, have since seemingly surrendered and begged
for quarters, pretending to be ready to acquiesce, I must be permitted to
say on this occasion, without any wish to push myself in the New York
contest, I have very little confidence in the integrity of their professions.
They fought the compromise as long as there was any prospect of making
anything by fighting it. When whipped, routed, and beaten, then, like
craven and mercenary captives, they turned to power, to see if anything
couW. be made there by subserviency and sycophancy. I have no faith in
their conversion, — never have had any. Warmed into life again by the
genial rays of Executive patronage, I have always thought, and still think,
that they will only become the more formidable whenever the occasion
offers for their real principles to manifest themselves. Hydrophobia can
never be cured, — it will break out on the' changes of the moon. And so
with the disease of negromania. Sir, the viper will hiss and even sting
the bosom that nurtures and fosters it. Whether I am right in this an •
ticipation, or whether this Administration is right in its present policy,
we shall see.
But we who stood by the Compromise of 1850, and intend to stand by it
now, and carry it out in good faith, are not to be moved by any clamor
got up by its old enemies ; nor are we to be shaken in our purpose by any
mistaken appeals in behalf of the " sanctity of compacts," coming from a
source even as respectable as that of the National Intelligencer. That
paper, in a late article, seems to consider the line of 36° 30X almost as
binding as the Constitution, — the bare "suggestion" for a departure from
which should arouse the friends of the Constitution everywhere. If so,
why did not that paper raise the alarm in 1836, when Mr. Adams in
this House, backed by fifty-two Northern votes, made some more than " a
suggestion" to depart from it?
In 1845, when a majority of the North voted against the annexation of
Texas with this line in it, why was not its voice again raised? In 1847
and 1848, when it was completely set at naught and trampled upon by
the North, as I have shown, why was it not then raised? Then the con
test was fierce and hot between those who stood by that line and those
who were for its total obliteration. For three long years when this contest
578 APPENDIX.
raged, why did the Intelligencer never say one word in behalf of its main
tenance and preservation? That was certainly the time for any one who
regarded it as imbued with u sanctity" and " sacredness" to speak. It is
too late now. The old principle in our Territorial policy has passed away,
and we have in its stead a new one. We are not, therefore, to be shaken
in our purpose to carry out this new principle b;y any such clamor or
appeals. Our purpose is fixed, and our course is onward. What little
agitation may be got up in Congress, or out of it, while this debate lasts,
will speedily subside, as soon as this new principle is once more vindicated.
Why do you hear no more wrangling here about slavery and freedom in
Utah and New Mexico? Because by this new principle the irritating
cause was cast out of Congress, and turned over to the people, who are
most capable of disposing of it for themselves. Pass this bill — the sooner
the better — and the same result will ensue. This shows the wisdom and
statesmanship of those by whom this principle was adopted as our settled
policy on this subject in 1850. A cinder in the eye will irritate and inflame
it, until you get it out; a thorn in the flesh will do the same thing. The
best remedy is to remove it immediately. That is just what the Com
promise of 1850 proposes to do with this Slavery question in the Territories
whenever it arises. Cast it out, of Congress, and leave it to the people, to
whom it very properly and rightfully belongs.
In behalf of this principle, Mr. Chairman, I would to-day address this
House, not as partisans, — neither as Whigs nor Democrats, but as Americans.
I do not know what you call me, or how you class me, whether as Whig
or Democrat, in your political vocabulary, nor do I care. Principles should
characterize parties, and not names. I call myself a Republican, and I
would invoke you, one and all, to come up and sustain this great Repub
lican American policy, established in 1850, for the permanent peace,
progress, and glory of our common country. If any of you are convinced
of its propriety and correctness, but are afraid that your constituents are
not equally convinced, follow the example of Mr. Webster, after his 7th
of March speech, when the doors of Faneuil Hall were closed against him.
Meet your constituents, if need be in the open air, and, face to face, tell
them they are wrong, and you are right. I think, sir, that great man, on
no occasion of his life, ever appeared toN greater advantage in the display
of those moral qualities which mark those entitled to lasting fame than
he did in the speech he made in an open barouche before the Revere
House, in Boston, to three thousand people, who had assembled to hear
what reason he had to give for his course in the Senate. He stood as Burke
before the people of Bristol, or as Aristides before the people of Athens,
when he told them above all things to be "just." In that speech Mr.
Webster told the people of Boston, "You have conquered an inhospitable
climate ; you have conquered a sterile and barren soil ; you have conquered
the ocean that washes your shores ; you have fought your way to the re
spect and esteem of mankind, but you have yet to conquer your preju-
APPENDIX. 579
dices." That was indeed speaking llvera pro gratis" And that was a
scene for the painter or sculptor to perpetuate the man in the exhibition
of his noblest qualities far more worthy than the occasion of his reply to
Mr. Hayne, or his great 7th of March speech. Imitate his example, —
never lose the consciousness that " Truth is mighty and will ultimately
prevail." The great " truth" as to the right principle of disposing of this
Slavery question in the Territories was first proclaimed by the Congress
of the United States in 1850. It was as oil upon the waters. It gave
quiet and repose to a distracted country. Let it be the pride of us all in
this Congress to reaffirm the principle. — make it co-extensive with your
limits, — inscribe it upon your banners, — make it broad as your Constitution,
— proclaim it everywhere, that the people of the common territories of the
Union, wherever the flag floats, shall have the right to form such repub
lican institutions as they please. Let this be our pride ; and then with a
common feeling in the memories and glories of the past, we can all, from
every State, section, and Territory, look with hopeful anticipations to that
bright prospect in the future which beckons us on in our progress to a still
higher degree of greatness, power, and renown.
APPENDIX B.
SPEECH BEFOEE THE LEGISLATURE OF GEORGIA.
Delivered at Milledgeville, November 14th, 1860.
FELLOW-CITIZENS : I appear before you to-night at the request of mem
bers of the Legislature and others, to speak of matters of the deepest
interest that can possibly concern us all, of an earthly character. There
is nothing, — no question or subject connected with this life, that concerns
a free people so intimately as that of the Government under which they
live. We are now, indeed, surrounded by evils. .Never, since I entered
upon the public stage, has the country been so environed with difficulties
and dangers that threatened the public peace and the very existence of
society as now. I do not appear before you at iny own instance. It is
not to gratify any desire of my own that I am here. Had I consulted my
own ease and pleasure, I should not be before you; but believing that it is
the duty of every good citizen, when called on, to give his counsels and
views whenever the country is in danger, as to the best policy to be pur
sued, I am here. For these reasons, and these only, do I bespeak a calm,
patient, and attentive hearing.
My object is not to stir up strife, but to allay it ; not to appeal to your
passions, but to your reason. Good governments can never be built up or
sustained by the impulse of passion. I wish to address myself to your
good sense, to your good judgment, and ifT after hearing, you disagree, let
us agree to disagree, and part as .we met, friends. We all have the same
object, the same interest. That people should disagree in republican
governments upon questions of public policy is natural. That men should
disagree upon all matters connected with human investigation, whether re
lating to science or human conduct, is natural. Hence in free governments
parties will arise. But a free people should express their different opinions
with liberality and charity, with no acrimony toward those of their fellows
when honestly and sincerely given. These are my feelings to-night.
Let us, therefore, reason together. It is not my purpose to say aught to
wound the feelings of any individual who may be present; and if, in the
ardency with which I shall express my opinions, I shall say anything which
may be deemed too strong, let it be set down to the zeal with which I advo
cate my own convictions. There is with me no intention to irritate or offend.
580
APPENDIX. 581
Fellow-citizens, we are all launched in the same bark ; we are all in the
same craft in the wide political ocean, — the same destiny awaits us all for
weal or woe. We have been launched in the good old ship that has been
upon the waves for three-quarters of a century, which has been in so many
tempests and storms, has been many times in peril, and patriots have often
feared that they should have to give it up ; ay, have at times almost given
it up ; but still the gallant ship is afloat. Though new storms now howl
around us, and the tempest beats heavily against us, I say to you, Don't
give up the ship, — don't abandon her yet. If she can possibly be pre
served, and our rights, interests, and security be maintained, the object
is worth the effort. Let us not, on account of disappointment and chagrin
at the reverse of an election, give up all as lost ; but let us see what can
be done to prevent a wreck. [ A voice. — " The ship has holes in her."] And
there may be leaks in her, but let us stop them if we can ; many a stout
old ship has been saved with richest cargo after many leaks ; and it may
be so now.
I do not intend, on this occasion, to enter into the history of the reasons
or causes of the embarrassments which press so heavily upon us all at this
time. In justice to myself, however, I must barely state upon this point
that I do think much of it depended upon ourselves. The consternation
that has come upon the people is the result of a sectional election of a
President of the United States, one whose opinions and avowed principles
are in antagonism to our interests and rights, and we believe, if carried
out, would subvert the Constitution under which we now live. But are we
entirely blameless in this matter, my countrymen ? I give it to you as my
opinion, that but for the policy the Southern people pursued, this fearful
result would not have occurred. Mr. Lincoln has been elected, I doubt
not, by a minority of the people of the United States. What will be the
extent of that minority we do not yet know, but the disclosure, when
made, will show, I think, that a majority of the constitutional conservative
voters of the country were against him ; and had the South stoo.d firmly
in the Convention at Charleston, on her old platform of principles of non
intervention, there is in my mind but little doubt that whoever might have
been the candidate of the national Democratic party would have been
elected by as large a majority as that which elected Mr. Buchanan or Mr.
Pierce. Therefore let us not be hasty and rash in our action, especially
if the result be attributable at all to ourselves. Before looking to extreme
measures, let us see, as Georgians, that everything which can be done to
preserve our rights, our interests, and our honor, as well as the peace of
the country in the Union, be first done.
The first question that presents itself is, Shall the people of the South
secede from the Union in consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to
the Presidency of the United States? My countrymen, I tell you frankly,
candidly, and earnestly, that I do not think they ought. In my judgment,
the election of no man, constitutionally chosen to that high office, is-suffi-
582 APPENDIX.
cient cause for any State to separate from the Union. It ought to stand
by and aid still in maintaining the Constitution of the country. To make
a point of resistance to the Government, to withdraw from it because a
man has been constitutionally elected, puts us in the wrong. We are
pledged to maintain the Constitution. Many of us have sworn to support
it. Can we, therefore, for the mere election of a man to the Presidency,
and that too in accordance with the prescribed forms of the Constitution,
make a point of resistance to the Government, without becoming the
breakers of that sacred instrument ourselves by withdrawing ourselves
from it? "Would we not be in the wrong? Whatever fate is to befall this
country, let it never be laid to the charge of the people of the South, and
especially to the people of Georgia, that we were untrue to our national
engagements. Let the fault and the wrong rest upon others. If all our
hopes are to be blasted, if the Republic is to go down, 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 responsibility be upon
them. I shall presently speak more of their acts ; but let not the South —
let us not be the ones to commit the aggression. We went into the elec
tion with this people. The result was different from what we wished ; but
the election has been constitutionally held. Were we to make a point of
resistance to the Government and go out of the Union on that account, the
record would be made up hereafter against us.
But it is said that Mr. Lincoln's policy and principles are against the
Constitution, and that, if he carries them out, it will be destructive of our
rights. Let us not anticipate a threatened evil. If he violates the Con
stitution, then will come our time to act. Do not let us break it, because,
forsooth, he may. If he does, that is the time for us to strike. I think it
would be injudicious and unwise to do this sooner. I do not anticipate
that Mr. Lincoln will do anything to jeopard our safety or security, what
ever may be his spirit to do it ; for he is bound by the constitutional checks
which are thrown around him, which at this time render him powerless
to do any great mischief. This shows the wisdom of our system. The
President of the United States is no emperor, no dictator, — he is clothed
with no absolute power. He can do nothing unless he is backed' by power
in Congress. The House of Representatives is largely in a majority
against him. In the very face and teeth of the heavy majority which he
has obtained in the Northern States, there have been large gains in the
House of Representatives to the Conservative Constitutional party of the
country, which here I will call the National Democratic party, because
that is the cognomen it has at the North. There are twelve of this party
elected from New York to the next Congress, I believe. In the present
House there are but four, I think. In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio
and Indiana there have been gains. In the present Congress there were
one hundred and thirteen Republicans, when it takes one hundred and
APPENDIX. 583
seventeen to make a majority. The gains in the Democratic party in Penn
sylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Indiana, and other States, notwith
standing its distractions, have been enough to make a majority of near
thirty in the next House against Mr. Lincoln. Even in Boston, Mr. Bur-
lingame, one of the noted leaders of the fanatics of that section, has been
defeated and a conservative man returned in his stead. Is this the time,
then, to apprehend that Mr. Lincoln, with this large majority in the House
of Representatives against him, can carry out any of his unconstitutional
principles in that body?
In the Senate he will also be powerless. There will be a majority of
four against him. This, after the loss of Bigler, Fitch, and others, by the
unfortunate dissensions of the National Democratic party in their States.
Mr. Lincoln cannot appoint an officer without the consent of the Senate, —
he cannot form a cabinet without the same consent. He will be in the
condition of George the Third (the embodiment of Toryism), who had to
ask the Whigs to appoint his ministers, and was compelled to receive a
cabinet utterly opposed to his views-, and so Mr. Lincoln will be compelled
to ask of the Senate to choose for him a cabinet, if the Democracy of that
party chose to put him on such terms. lie will be compelled to do this or
let the Government stop, if the National Democratic men — the conserva-
' tive men in the Senate — should so determine. Then how can Mr. Lincoln
obtain a cabinet which would aid him, or allow him, to violate the Consti
tution. Why, then, I say, should we disrupt the ties of the Union when
his hands are tied, — when he can do nothing against us?
I have heard it mooted that no man in the State of Georgia who is true
to her interests could hold office under Mr. Lincoln. But I ask who ap
points to office ? Not the President alone-, the Senate has to concur. No
man can be appointed without the consent of the Senate. Should any
man, then, refuse to hold office that was given him by a Democratic Senate?
Mr. Toombs interrupted, and said, if the Senate was Democratic, it was
for Breckenridge.
Well, then, continued Mr. Stephens, I apprehend that no man could be
justly considered untrue to the interests of Georgia, or incur any disgrace,
if the interests of Georgia required it, to hold an office which a Brecken
ridge Senate had given him, even though Mr. Lincoln should be President.
[Applause.]
I trust, my countrymen, you will be still and silent. I am addressing
your good sense. I am giving you my views in a calm and dispassionate
manner, and if any of you differ from me, you can on some other occasion
give your views, as I am doing now, and let reason and true patriotism
decide between us. In my judgment, I say, under such circumstances,
there would be no possible disgrace for a Southern man to hold office. No
man will be suffered to be appointed, I have no doubt, who is not true to
the Constitution, if Southern Senators are true to their trusts, as I cannot
permit myself to doubt that they will be.
584 APPENDIX.
My honorable friend who addressed you last night [Mr. Toombs], and
to whom I listened with the profoundest attention, asks if we would sub
mit to Black Republican rule? I say to you and to him, as a Georgian, I
never would submit to any Black Republican aggression upon our Consti
tutional rights.
I will never myself consent, as much as I admire this Union, for the
glories of the past or the blessings of the present, as much as it has done
for civilisation ; as much as the hopes of the world hang upon it : I would
never submit to aggression upon my rights to maintain it longer ; and if
they cannot be maintained in the Union standing on the Georgia platform. )
where I have stood from the time of its adoption, I would be in favor of
*w disrupting every tie which binds the States together. I will have equality
* for Georgia and for the citizens of Georgia in this Union, or I will look
for new safeguards elsewhere. This is my position. The only question
now is, Can this be secured in the Union ? This is what I am counselling
with you to-night about. Can it be secured? In my judgment it may be ;
but it may not be ; but let us do all we can, so that in the future, if the
worst comes, it may never be said we were negligent in doing our duty to
the last.
My countrymen, I am not of those who believe the Union has been a
curse up to this time. True men, men of integrity, entertain different
views from me on this subject. I do not question their right to do so: 1
would not impugn their motives in so doing. Nor will I undertake to say
that this Government of our fathers is perfect. There Js nothing perfect
in this world of human origin ; nothing connected with human nature
from man himself to any of his works. You may select the wisest and
best men for your judges, and yet how many defects are there in the ad
ministration of justice ! You may select the Avisest and best men for your
legislators, and yet how many defects are apparent in your lawrs ! And it is
so in our Government. But that this Government of our fathers, with all
its defects, comes nearer the objects of all good governments than any
other on the face of the earth, is my settled conviction. Contrast it now
with any other.
[" England," said Mr. Toombs.]
England, my friend says. Well, that is the next best, I grant; but I
think we have improved upon England. Statesmen tried their 'prentice
hand on the Government of England, and then ours was made. Ours
sprung from that, avoiding many of its defects, taking most of the good,
and leaving out many of its errors ; and from the whole our fathers con
structed and built up this model republic, — the best which the history of
the world gives any account of. Compare, my friends, this Government
with that of France, Spain, Mexico, the South American republics, Ger
many, Ireland, Prussia; or, if you travel farther east, to Turkey or China.
Where will you go, following the sun in his circuit round our globe, to
find a government that better protects the liberties of its people and se-
APPENDIX. 585
cures to them the blessings we enjoy? I think that one of the evils that
beset us is a surfeit of liberty, an exuberance of the priceless blessings
for which we are ungrateful. We listened to my honorable friend who
addressed you last night [Mr. Toombs] as he recounted the evils of this
Government. The first was the fishing-bounties, paid mostly to the sailors
of New England. Our friend stated that forty-eight years of our Govern
ment were under the administration of Southern Presidents. Well, these
fishing-bounties began under the rule of a Southern President. I believe.
No one of them, during the whole forty-eight years, ever set his Adminis
tration against the principle or policy of them. It is not for me to say
whether it was a wise policy in the beginning ; it probably was not, and I
have not a word to say in its defence. But the reason given for it was to
encourage our young men to go to sea and learn to manage ships. We
had at that time but a small navy. It was thought best to encourage a
class of our people to become acquainted with seafaring life ; to become
sailors, to man our navy. It requires practice to walk the deck of a ship,
to pull the ropes, to furl the sails, to go aloft, to climb the mast; and it
was thought that by offering this bounty a nursery might be formed in
which young men would become perfected in these arts, and it applied to
one section of the country as well as another. The result of this was. that
in the war of 1812 our sailors, many of whom came from this nursery,
were equal to any that England brought against us. At any rate, no
small part of the glories of that war were gained by the veteran tars of
America, and the object of these bounties was to foster that branch of the
national defence. My opinion is, that whatever may have been the reason
at first, this bounty ought to be discontinued, — the reason for it at first no
longer exists. A bill for this object did pass the Senate the last Congress
[ was in, to which my honorable friend contributed greatly, but it was not
reached in the House of Representatives. I trust that he will yet see that
he may with honor continue his connection with the Government, and that
his eloquence, unrivalled in the Senate, may hereafter, as heretofore, be
displayed in having this bounty, so obnoxious to him, wiped off from the
statute-book.
The next evil that my friend complained of was the tariff. Well, let us
look at that for a moment. About the time I commenced noticing public
matters this question was agitating the country almost as fearfully as the
Slave question now is. In 1832, when I was in college, South Carolina
was ready to nullify or secede from the Union on this account. And what
have we seen? The tariff no longer distracts the public councils. Reason
has triumphed. The present tariff was voted for by Massachusetts
South Carolina. The lion and the lamb lay down together, — every man
the Senate and House from Massachusetts and South Carolina, I think,
voted for it, as did my honorable friend himself. And if it be true, to use
the figure of speech of my honorable friend, that every man in the North
that works in iron and brass and wood has his muscle strengthened by
tvhat
ason
and /
in in /
586 APPENDIX.
the protection of the Government, that stimulant was given by his vote,
and I believe that of every other Southern man. So we ought not to
complain of that.
[Ma. TOOMBS. — u That tariff lessened the duties."]
Yes, and Massachusetts, with unanimity, voted with the South to lessen
them, and they were made just as low as Southern men asked them to be,'
and those are the rates they are now at. If reason and argument with
experience produced such changes in the sentiments of Massachusetts from
1832 to 1857 on the subject of the tariff, may not like changes be effected
there by the same means, reason and argument, and appeals to patriotism
on the present vexed question? And who can say that by 1875 or 1890
Massachusetts may not vote with South Carolina and Georgia upon all
those questions that now distract the country and threaten its peace and
existence? I believe in the power and efficiency of truth, in the omnipo
tence of truth, and its ultimate triumph when properly wielded.
Another matter of grievance alluded to by my honorable friend was the
navigation laws. This policy was also commenced under the Administra
tion of one of those Southern Presidents who ruled so well, and has been
continued- through all of them since. The gentleman's views of the policy
of these laws and my own do not disagree. We occupied the same ground
in relation to them in Congress. It' is not my purpose to defend them
now. But it is proper to state some matters connected with their origin.
One of the objects was to build up a commercial American marine by
giving American bottoms the exclusive carrying trade between our own
ports. This is a great arm of national power. The object was accom
plished. We have now an amount of shipping not only coastwise but to
foreign countries which puts us in the front ranks of the nations of the
world. England can no longer be styled the mistress of the seas. What
American is not proud of the result? Whether those laws should be con
tinued is another question. But one thing is certain, no President, Northern
or Southern, has ever yet recommended their repeal. And my friend's
effort to get them repealed has met with but little favor North or South.
These, then, were the three grievances or grounds of complaint against
the general system of our Government and its workings : I mean the
administration of the Federal Government. As to the acts of several of
the States I shall speak presently, but these three were the main ones
urged against the common head. Now suppose it be admitted that all
of these are evils in the system, do they overbalance and outweigh the
advantages and great good which this same Government affords in a thou
sand innumerable ways that cannot be estimated? Have we not at the
South, as well as at the North, grown great, prosperous, and happy under^
its operation ? Has any part of the world ever shown such rapid progress
in the development of wealth and all the material resources of national
power and greatness as the Southern States have under the General
Government, notwithstanding all its defects?
APPENDIX. 587
[MR. TOOMBS.— "In spite of it."]
My honorable friend says we have, in spite of the General Government ;
that without it I suppose he thinks we might have done as well or perhaps
better than we have done. This grand result is in spite of the Govern
ment? That may be, and it may not be ; but the great fact that we have
grown great and powerful under the Government as it exists is admitted.
There is no conjecture or speculation about that; it stands out bold, high,
and prominent like your Stone Mountain, to which the gentleman alluded
in illustrating home-facts in his record, — this great fact of our unrivalled
prosperity in the Union as it is is admitted, — whether all this is in spite
of the Government, — whether we of the South would have been better off
without the Government, is, to say the least, problematical. On the one
side we can only put the fact against speculation and conjecture on the
other. But even as a question of speculation I differ from my distin
guished friend. What we would have lost in border wars without the
Union, or what we have gained simply by the peace it has secured, is not
within our power to estimate. Our foreign trade, which is the foundation
of all our prosperity, has the protection of the navy which drove the
pirates from the waters near our coast where they had been buccaneering
for centuries before, and might have been still, had it not been for the
American navy under the command of such a spirit as Commodore Porter.
Now that the coast is clear, that our commerce flows freely, outwardly
and inwardly, we cannot well estimate how it would have been under
other circumstances. The influence of the Government on us is like that
of the atmosphere around us. Its benefits are so silent and unseen that •'
they are seldom thought of or appreciated.
We seldom think of the single element of oxygen in the air we breathe,
and yet let this simple unseen and unfelt agent be withdrawn, this life-
giving element be taken* away from this all-pervading fluid around us, and
what instant and appalling changes would take place in all organic creation !
It may be that we are all that we are " in spite of the General Govern
ment," but it may be that without it we should have been far different
from what we are now. It is true there is no equal part of the earth
with natural resources superior to ours. That portion of the country
known as the Southern States, stretching from the Chesapeake to the Rio
Grande, is fully equal to the picture drawn by the honorable and eloquent
Senator last night in all natural capacities. But how many ages, cen
turies, passed before these capacities were developed to reach this advanced
stage of civilization? There these same hills rich in ore, these same
rivers, valleys, and plains, are as they have been since they came from the
hand of the Creator. Uneducated and uncivilized man roamed over them,
for how long no history informs us.
It was only under our institutions that they could be developed. Their
development is the result of the enterprise of our people under operations
of the Government and institutions under which we have lived. Even
588 APPENDIX.
our people, without these, never would have" done it. The organization
of society has much to do with the development of the natural resources
of any country or any land. The institutions of a people, political and
moral, are the matrix in which the germ of their organic structure
quickens into life, takes root, and develops in form, nature, and character.
Our institutions constitute the basis, the matrix, from which spring all
our characteristics of development and greatness. Look at Greece ! There
is the same fertile soil, the same blue sky. the same inlets and harbors, the
same ^Egean, the same Olympus, — there is the same land where Homer
sang, where Pericles spoke, — it is in nature the same old Greece 5 but it
is living Greece no more!
Descendants of the same people inhabit the country ; yet what is the
reason of this mighty difference ? In the midst of present degradation we
see the glorious fragments of ancient works of art. — temples with ornaments
and inscriptions that excite wonder and admiration, the remains of a once
high order of civilization, which have outlived the language they spoke.
Upon them all Ichabod is written, — their glory has departed. Why is this
so? I answer, their institutions have been destroyed. These were but
the fruits of their forms of government, the matrix from which their grand
development sprang ; and when once the institutions of our people shall
have been destroyed, there is no earthly power that can bring back the
Promethean spark to kindle them here again, any more than in that
ancient land of eloquence, poetry, and song. The same may be said of
Italy. Where is Rome, once the mistress of the world? There are the
same seven hills now, the same soil, the same natural resources ; nature
is the same ; but what a ruin of human greatness meets the eye of the
traveller throughout the length and breadth of that most down-trodden
land! Why have not the people of that Heaven-favored clirne the spirit
that animated their fathers? Why this sad difference? It is the destruc
tion of her institutions that has caused it. And, my countrymen, if we
shall in an evil hour rashly pull down and destroy those institutions,
which the patriotic hand of our fathers labored so long and so hard to
build up, and which have done so much for us and for the world, who
can venture the prediction that similar results will not ensue? Let us
avoid them if we can. I trust the spirit is among us that will enable us
to do it. Let us not rashly try the experiment of change, of pulling down
and destroying, for, as in Greece and Italy, and the South American
republics, and in every other place, whenever our liberty is once lost, it
may never be restored to us again.
There are defects in our Government, errors in our administration, and
shortcomings of many kinds, but in spite of these defects and errors
Georgia, has grown to be a great State. Let us pause here a moment. In
1850 there was a great crisis, but not so fearful as this, for of all I have
ever passed through this is the most perilous, and requires to be met with
the greatest calmness and deliberation.
APPENDIX. 589
There were many among us in 1850 zealous to go at once out of the
Union, — to disrupt every tie that binds us together. Now do you believe,
had that policy been carried out at that time, we would have been the
same great people that we are to-day? It may be that we would, but
have you any assurance of that fact? Would we have made the same
advancement, improvement, and progress in all that constitutes material
wealth and prosperity that we have?
I notice in the Comptroller-General's report that the taxable property of
Georgia is six hundred and seventy million dollars and upwards, — an
amount not far from double what it was in 1850. I think I may venture
to say that for the last ten years the material wealth of the people of
Georgia has been nearly, if not quite, doubled. The same may be said
of our advance in education and everything that marks our civilization.
Have we any assurance that had we regarded the earnest but misguided
patriotic advice, as I think, of some of that day, and disrupted the ties which
bind us to the Union, we would have advanced as we have? I think not.
Well, then, let us be careful now before we attempt any rash experiment"
of this sort. I know that there are friends whose patriotism I do not
intend to question who think this Union a curse, and that we should be
better off without it. I do not so think ; if we can bring about a correc
tion of those evils which threaten, — and I am not without hope that this
may yet be done, — this appeal to go out with all the promises for good
that accompany it, I look upon as a great, and, I fear, a fatal temptation.
When I look around and see our prosperity in everything, — agriculture,
commerce, .art, science, and every department of progress, physical, moral,
and mental, — certainly, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can, with-
oui the loss of power, or any essential right or interest, remain in the
Union, it is our duty to ourselves and to posterity to do so. Let us not
unwisely yield to this temptation. 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. It may be that out of it we may become
greater and more prosperous ; but I am candid and sincere in telling you
that I fear if we yield to passion, and without sufficient cause shall take
that step, instead of becoming greater, more peaceful, prosperous, and
happy, — instead of becoming gods, we shall become demons, and at no
distant day commence cutting one another's throats. This is my appre
hension. Let us, therefore, whatever we do, meet these difficulties, great
as they are, like wise and sensible men, and consider them in the light of
all the consequences which may attend our action. Let us see first, clearly,
where the path of duty leads, and then we may not fear to tread therein.
590 APPENDIX.
I come now to the main question put to me, and on which my counsel
has been asked. That is, what the present Legislature should do in view
of the dangers that threaten us, and the wrongs that have been done us
by several of our confederate States in the Union, by the acts of their
Legislatures nullifying the Fugitive Slave Law, and in direct disregard
of their constitutional obligations ? What I shall say will not be in the
spirit of dictation. It will simply be my own judgment for what it is
worth. It proceeds from a strong conviction that, according to it, our
rights, interest, and honor, — our present safety and future security can be
maintained without yet looking to the last resort, the "ultima ratio regum."
That should not be looked to until all else fails. That may come. On
this point I am hopeful, but not sanguine. But let us use every patriotic
effort to prevent it while there is ground for hope.
If any view that I may present, in your judgment, be inconsistent with
...the besjbjnterest of Georgia, I ask you as patriots not to regard it. After
hearing me and others whom you have advised with, act in the premises
according to your own convictions of duty as patriots. I speak now par
ticularly to the members of the Legislature present. There are, as I have
said, great dangers ahead. Great dangers may come from the election I
have spoken of. If the policy of Mr. Lincoln and his Republican asso
ciates shall be carried out, or attempted to be carried out, no man in
Georgia will be more willing or ready than myself to defend our rights,
interest, and honor at every hazard and to the last extremity. What is
this policy? It is, in the first place, to exclude us, by an act of Congress,
from the Territories, with our slave property. He is for using the power
of the General Government against the extension of our institutions.
Our position on this point is, and ought to be, at all hazards, for perfect
equality between all the States and the citizens of all the States in the
Territories, under the Constitution of the United States. If Congress
should exercise its power against this, then I am for standing where
Georgia planted herself in 1850. These were plain propositions which
were there laid down in her celebrated platform as sufficient for the dis
ruption of the Union if the occasion should ever come ; on these Georgia
. has declared that she will go out of the Union, and for these she would be
justified by the nations of the earth in so doing. I say the same ; I said
it then ; I say it now, if Mr. Lincoln's policy should be carried out. I
have told you that I do not think his bare election sufficient cause ; but if
his policy should be carried out, in violation of any of the principles set
forth in the Georgia platform, that would be such an act of aggression,
which ought to be met as therein provided for. If his policy shall be
carried out in repealing or modifying the Fugitive Slave Law so as to
weaken its efficacy, Georgia has declared that she will, in the last resort,
disrupt the ties of the Union, — and I say so too. I stand upon the Georgia
platform and upon every plank in it ; and if these aggressions therein
provided for take place, I say to you and to the people of Georgia, Be
APPENDIX. 591
ready for the assault when it comes ; keep your powder dry, and let your
assailants then have lead, if need be. I would wait for an act of aggres
sion. That is my position.
Now, upon another point, and that the most difficult and deserving your4
most serious consideration, I will speak. That is the course which this
State should pursue toward those Northern States which, by their legisla
tive acts, have attempted to nullify the Fugitive Slave Law. I know that
in some of these States their acts, pretended to be based upon the princi
ples set forth in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.
in the case of Prigg against Pennsylvania; that decision did proclaim the
doctrine that the State officers are not bound to carry out the provisions
of a law of Congress ; that the Federal Government cannot impose duties
upon State officials ; that they must execute their own laws by their own
officers. And this may be true. But still it is the duty of the States to
deliver fugitive slaves, as well as it is the duty of the General Government
to see that it is done.
The Northern States, on entering into the Federal compact, pledged them
selves to surrender such fugitives ; and it is in disregard of their constitu
tional obligations that they have passed laws which even tend to hinder or
inhibit the fulfilment of that obligation. They have violated their plighted
faith. What ought we to do in view of this? That is the question.
What is to be done? By the law of nations you would have a right to
demand the carrying out of this article of agreement, and I do not see
that it should be otherwise with respect _ to the States of this Union ; and
in case it be not done, we would, by these principles, have the right to
commit acts of reprisal on these faithless governments, and seize u-pon
their property, or that of their citizens, wherever found. The States of
this Union stand upon the same footing with foreign nations in this respect.
But by the law of nations we are equally bound, before proceeding to
violent measures, to set forth our grievances before the offending govern
ment, to give them an opportunity to redress the wrong. Has our State
yet done this? I think not.
Suppose it were Great Britain that had violated some compact of agree
ment with the General Government, what would be first done? In that
case our Minister would be directed in the first instance to bring the mat
ter to the attention of that Government, or a commissioner be sent to that
country to open negotiations with her, ask for redress, and it would only
be after argument and reason had been exhausted in vain that we would
take the last resort of nations. That would be the course toward a foreign
Government; and toward a member of this Confederacy I would recom
mend the same course. Let us not, therefore, act hastily or ill-temperedly
in this matter. Let your Committee on the state of the Republic make out
a bill of grievances ; let it be sent by the Governor to those faithless
States : and if reason and argument shall be tried in vain, — if all shall
fail to induce them to return to their constitutional obligations, I would
592 APPENDIX.
be for retaliatory measures, such as the Governor has suggested to you.
This mode of resistance in the Union is in our power. It might be
effectual; and in the last resort we would be justified in the eyes of
nations, not only in separating from them, but in using force.
[A voice. — '• The argument is already exhausted."]
Some friend says that the argument is already exhausted. No, my
friend, it is not. You have never called the attention of the Legislatures
of those States to this subject that I am aware of. Nothing on this line
has ever been done before this year. The attention of our own people
has been called to the subject lately. w
Now, then, my recommendation to you would be this : In view of all
these questions of difficulty, let a convention of the people of Georgia be
called, to which they may all be referred. Let the sovereignty of the /
people speak. Some think that the election of Mr. Lincoln is cause suffi
cient to dissolve the Union. Some think those other grievances are suffi
cient to dissolve the same, and that the Legislature has the power thus to
act, and ought thus to act. I have no hesitation in saying that the Legis
lature is not the proper body to sever our federal relations, if that neces
sity should arise. An honorable and distinguished gentleman, the other
night (Mr. T. 11. R. Cobb), advised you to take this course, — not to wait
to hear from the cross-roads and groceries.
I say to you you have no power so to act. You must refer this question
to the people, and you must wait to hear from the men at the cross-roads and
even the groceries ; for the people of this country, whether at the cross
roads or groceries, whether in cottages or palaces, are all equal, and they
are the sovereigns in this country. Sovereignty is not in the Legislature.
We, the people, are sovereigns. I am one of them, and have a right to
be heard ; and so has every other citizen of the State. You legislators — I
speak it respectfully — are but our servants. You are the servants of the
people, and not their masters. Power resides with the people in this
country. The great difference between our country and all others, such as
France and England and Ireland, is, that here there is popular sovereignty,
while there sovereignty is exercised by kings and favored classes. This
principle of popular sovereignty, however much derided lately, is the
foundation of our institutions. Constitutions are but the channels through
which the popular will may be expressed. Our Constitution came from
the people. They made it, and they alone can rightfully unmake it.
[MR. TOOMBS. — " I am afraid of conventions."]
I am not afraid of any convention legally chosen by the people. I
know no way to decide great questions affecting fundamental laws except
by representatives of the people. The Constitution of the United States
was made by the representatives of the people in convention. The consti
tution of the State of Georgia was made by representatives of the people in
convention, chosen at the ballot-box. Let us, therefore, now have a conven
tion chosen by the people. But do not let the question which comes before
APPENDIX 593
the people be put to them in the language of my honorable friend who
addressed you last night: " Will you submit to abolition rule or resist?"
[MR. TOOMBS. — " I do not wish the people to be cheated."]
Now, my friends, how are we going to cheat the people by calling on
them to elect delegates to a convention to decide all these questions, with
out any dictation or direction? Who proposes to cheat the people by letting
them speak their own untrammelled views in the choice of their ablest and
best men, to determine upon all these matters involving their peace ?
I think the proposition of my honorable friend had a considerable smack
of unfairness, not to say cheat. He wishes to have no convention, but for
the Legislature to submit this question to the people, "submission to
abolition rule or resistance." Now, who in Georgia would vote "submis
sion to abolition rule" ?
Is putting such a question to the people to vote on a fair way of getting
an expression of the popular will on thes~e questions ? I think not. Now,
who in Georgia is going to submit to abolition rule ?
[MR. TOOMBS. — " The convention will."]
No, my friend, Georgia will not do it. The convention will not recede
from the Georgia platform. Under that there can be no abolition rule in
the General Government. I am not afraid to trust the people in convention
upon this and all other questions. Besides, the Legislature was not elected
for such a purpose. They came here to do their duty as legislators.
They have sworn to support the Constitution of the United States. They
did not come here to disrupt this Government. I am, therefore, for sub
mitting all these questions to a convention of the peeple. To submit these
questions to the people whether they wTould submit to abolition rule or
resist, and then for the Legislature to act on that vote, would be an insult
to the people.
But how will it be under this arrangement if they should vote to resist,
and the Legislature should re-assemble with this vote as their instructions?
Can any man tell what sort of resistance will be meant? One man would
say, secede ; another, pass retaliatory measures, — these are measures of
resistance against wrong, legitimate and right, — and there would be as
many different ideas as there are members on this floor. Resistance don't
mean secession, — that is no proper sense of the term resistance. Believing
that the times require action, I am for presenting the question fairly to the
people, for calling together an untrammelled convention, and presenting
all the questions to them whether they will go out of the Union, or what
course of resistance in the Union they may think best, and then let the
Legislature act, when the people in their majesty are heard, and I tell you
now, whatever that convention does, I hope and trust our people will abide
by. I advise the calling of a convention, with the earnest desire to pre
serve the peace and harmony of tlie State. I should dislike above all
things to see violent measures adopted, or a disposition to take the sword
in hand, by individuals, without the authority of law.
38
594 APPENDIX.
My honorable friend said last night, u I ask you to give ine the sword;
for if you do not give it to me, as God lives, I will take it myself."
[MR. TOOMBS.— "I will."]
I have no doubt that my honorable friend feels as he says. It is only
his excessive ardor that makes him use such an expression ; but this will
pass off with the excitement of the hour. "When the people in their
majesty shall speak, I have no doubt he will bow to their will, whatever it
may be, upon the " sober second thought."
Should Georgia determine to go out of the Union, I speak for one,
though my views might not agree with them, whatever the result may be,
I shall bow to the will of the people. Their cause is my cause, and their
C destiny is my destiny, and I trust this will be the ultimate course of all.
The greatest curse that can befall a free people is civil war.
But, as I said, let us call a convention of the people. Let all these
matters be submitted to it, and when the will of a majority of the people
has thus been expressed, the whole State will present one unanimous voice
in favor of whatever may be demanded ; for I believe in the power of the
people to govern themselves, when wisdom prevails and passion does not
control their actions. Look at what has already been done by them in
their advancement in all that ennobles man ! There is nothing like it in
the history of the world. Look abroad from one extent of the country
to the other ; contemplate our greatness. We are now among the first
nations of the earth. Shall it be said, then, that our institutions, founded
upon the principles of self-government, are a failure?
Thus far, it is a noble example, worthy of imitation. The gentleman
[Mr. Cobb], the other night, said it had proven a failure. A failure in
what? In growth? Look at our expanse in national power. Look at
our population and increase in all that makes a people great. A failure !
Why, we are the admiration of the civilized world, and present the brightest
hopes of mankind.
Some of our public men have failed in their aspirations, that is true; and
from that comes a great part of our troubles.
No; there is no failure of this Government yet. We have made great
advancement under the Constitution, and I cannot but hope that we shall
advance higher still. Let us be true to our trust.
Now, when this convention assembles, if it shall be called, as I hope it
may, I would say, in my judgment, without dictation, for I am conferring
with you freely and frankly, and it is thus that I give my views, it should
take into consideration all those questions which distract the public mind ;
should view all the grounds of secession so far as the election of Mr. Lin
coln is concerned; and I can but hope, if reason is unbiassed by passion,
that they would say that the constitutional election of no man is a suffi
cient cause to break up the Union, but that the State should wait until he
at least does commit some unconstitutional act.
[Mr. TOOMBS. — " Commit some overt act?"]
APPENDIX. 595
No ; I did not say that. The word overt is a sort of technical term con
nected with treason which has come to us from the mother-country, and it
means an open act of rebellion. I do not see how Mr. Lincoln can do this
unless he should levy war upon us. I do not, therefore, use the word overt.
I do not intend to wait for that. But I use the word unconstitutional act,
which our people understand much better, and which expresses just what
I mean. But as long as he conforms to the Constitution he should be left
to exercise the duties of his office.
In giving this advice, I am but sustaining the Constitution of my coun
try, and I do not thereby become a "Lincoln aid man" either, but a con
stitutional aid man. But this matter the convention can determine.
As to the other matter, I think we have a right to pass retaliatory meas
ures, provided they be in accordance with the Constitution of the United
States ; and I think they can be made so. But whether it would be wise
for this Legislature to do this now is the question. To the convention, in
my judgment, this matter ought to be referred. Before making reprisals,
we should exhaust every means of bringing about a peaceful settlement of
the controversy. Thus did General Jackson in the case of the French.
He did not recommend reprisals until he had treated with Franco and got
her to promise to make indemnification, and it was only on her refusal to
pay the money which she had promised that he recommended reprisals. It
was after negotiation had failed. I do think, therefore, that it would be
best, before going to extreme measures with our confederate States, to
make the presentation of our demands, to appeal to their reason and judg
ment to give us our rights. Then, if reason should not triumph, it will be
time enough to commit reprisals, and we should be justified in the eyes of
a civilized world. At least let these offending and derelict States know
what your grievances are, and if they refuse, as I said, to give us our
rights under the Constitution, I should be willing, as a last resort, to sever
the ties of our union with them.
My own opinion is, that if this course be pursued, and they are informed
of the consequences of refusal, these States will recede, will repeal their
nullifying acts ; but if they should not, then let the consequences be with
them, and the responsibility of the consequences rest upon them. Another
thing I would have that convention to do. Reaffirm the Georgia platform
with an additional plank in it. Let that plank be the fulfilment of these
constitutional obligations on the part of those States, — their repeal of these
obnoxious laws as the condition of our remaining in the Union. Give
them time to consider it; and I would ask all States South to do the same
thing.
I am for exhausting all that patriotism demands before taking the last
step. I would invite, therefore, South Carolina to a conference. I would
ask the same of all the Southern States, so that if the evil has got beyond
our control, which God in His mercy grant may not be the case, we may
not be divided among ourselves ; but, if possible, secure the united co-opera-
596 APPENDIX.
tion of all the Southern States, and then in the face of the civilized world
we may justify our action, and with the wrong all on the other side, we
can appeal to the God of battles, if it conies to that, to aid us in our cause.
But do nothing in which any portion of our people may charge you with
rash or hasty action. It is certainly a matter of great importance to tear
this Government asunder. You were not sent here for that purpose. I
would wish the whole South to be united if this is to be done ; and I be
lieve if we pursue the policy which I have vindicated, this can be effected.
In this way our sister Southern States can be induced to act with us;
and I have but little doubt that the States of New York. Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and the other Western States will compel their Legislatures to recede
from their hostile attitude, if the others do not. Then, with these, we
would go on without New England, if she chose to stay out.
[A voice. — " We will kick them out.:']
No ; I would not kick them out. But if they chose to stay out, they
might. I think, moreover, that these Northern States, being principally
engaged in manufactures, would find that they had as much interest in the
Union under the Constitution as we, and that they would return to their
constitutional duty, — this would be my hope. If they should not, and if
the Middle States and Western States do not join us, we should at least
have an undivided South. I am, as you clearly perceive, for maintaining
the I'liion us it is if possible. T will exhaust every means thus, to main
tain it with an equality in it.
My position, then, in conclusion, is for the maintenance of the honor, the
rights, the equality, the security, and the glory of my native State in the
Union if possible ; but if these cannot be maintained in the Union, then I
am for their maintenance, at all hazards, out of it. Next to the honor and
glory of Georgia, the land of my birth, I hold the honor and glory of our
common country. In Savannah I was made to say by the reporters, who
very often make me say things which I never did, that I was first for the
glory of the whole country and next for that of Georgia. I said the exact
reverse of this. I am proud of her history, of her present standing. I
am proud even of her motto, which I would have duly respected at the
present time by all her sons, — " Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation." I
would have her rights and those of the Southern States maintained now
upon these principles. Her position now is just what it was in 1850, with
respect to the Southern States. Her platform then established was subse
quently adopted by most, if not all, the other Southern States. Now I
would add but one additional plank to that platform, which I have stated,
and one which time has shown to be necessary ; and if that shall likewise
be adopted in substance by all the Southern States, all may yet be well.
But if aTJ this fails, we shall at least have the satisfaction of knowing that
we have done our duty and all that patriotism could require.
APPENDIX 0.
ADDRESS BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
STATE OF GEORGIA.
Delivered February 22d, 18G6.
GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES :
I appear before you in answer to your call. This call, coming in the
imposing form it does, and under the circumstances it does, requires a
response from me. You have assigned to me a very high, a very honor
able and responsible position. This position you know I did not seek.
Most willingly would I have avoided it ; and nothing but an extraordinary
sense of duty could have induced me to yield my own disinclinations and
aversions to your wishes and judgment in the matter. For this unusual
manifestation of esteem and confidence I return you my profoundest
acknowledgments of gratitude. Of one thing only can I give you any
assurance, and that is, if I shall be permitted to discharge the trusts
thereby imposed, they will be discharged with a singleness of purpose to
the public good.
The great object with me now is to see a restoration, if possible, .of
peace, prosperity, and constitutional liberty in this once happy, but now
disturbed, agitated, and distracted country. To this end all my energies
and efforts, to the extent of their powers, will be devoted.
You ask my views on the existing state of affairs ; our duties at the
present, and the prospects of the future. This is a task from which, under
other circumstances, I might very well shrink. He who ventures to speak,
and to give counsel and advice in times of peril, or disaster, assumes no
enviable position. Far be that rashness from me which sometimes prompts
the forward to rush in where angels might fear to tread. In responding,
therefore, briefly to your inquiries, I feel, I trust, the full weight and
magnitude of the subject. It involves the welfare of millions now living,
and that of many more millions who are to come after us. I am also fully
impressed with the consciousness of the inconceivably small effect of what
I shall say upon the momentous results involved in the subject itself,
It is with these feelings I offer my mite of counsel at your request. And
in the outset of the undertaking, limited as it is intended to be to a few
general ideas only, well may I imitate an illustrious example in invoking
aid from on high ; " that I may say nothing on this occasion which may
compromit the rights, the honor, the dignity, or best interests of my
597
598 APPENDIX.
country." I mean specially the rights, honor, dignity, and best interests
of the people of Georgia. With their sufferings, their losses, their mis
fortunes, their bereavements, and their present utter prostration, my heart
is in deepest sympathy.
We have reached that point in our affairs at which the great question
before us is, "To be or not to be?" — and if to be, — How? Hope, ever
springing in the human breast, prompts, even under the greatest calami
ties and adversities, never to despair. Adversity is a severe school, a ter
rible crucible : both for individuals and communities. We are now in
this school, this crucible, and should bear in mind that it is never negative
in its action. It is always positive. It is ever decided in its effects, one
way or the other. It either makes better or worse. It either brings out
unknown vices or arouses dormant virtues. In morals, its tendency is to
make saints or reprobates, — in politics, to make heroes or desperadoes.
The first indication of its working for good, to which hope looks anxiously,
is the manifestation of a full consciousness of its nature and extent; and
the most promising grounds of hope for possible good from our present
troubles, or of things with us getting better instead of worse, is the evi
dent general realization, on the part of our people, of their present situa
tion : of the evils now upon them, and of the greater ones still impending.
These it is not my purpose to exaggerate if I could: that would be useless ;
nor to lessen or extenuate : that would be worse than useless. All fully
understand and realize them. They feel them. It is well they do.
Can these evils upon us — the absence of law, the want of protection and
security of person and property, without which civilization cannot advance
— be removed ? or can those greater ones, which threaten our very political
existence, be averted? These are the questions.
It is true we have not the control of all the remedies, even if these
questions could be satisfactorily answered. Our fortunes and destiny are
not entirely in our own hands. Yet there are some things that we may,
and can, and ought, in my judgment, to do, from which no harm can
come, and from which some good may follow, in bettering our present
condition. States and communities, as well as individuals, when they
have done the best they can in view of surrounding circumstances, with
all the lights they have before them, — let results be what they may, — can
at least enjoy the consolation — no small recompense that — of having per-
1 formed their duty, and of having a conscience void of offence before God
and man. This, if no more valuable result, will, I trust, attend the doing
of what I propose.
The first great duty, then, I would enjoin at this time is the exercise
of the simple, though difficult and trying, but nevertheless indispensable
quality of patience. Patience requires of those afflicted to bear and to
suffer with fortitude whatever ills may befall them. This is often, and
especially is it the case with us now, essential for their ultimate removal
by any instrumentalities whatever. We are in the condition of a man
APPENDIX. 599
with a dislocated limb, or a broken leg, and a very bad compound fracture
at that. How it became broken should not be with him a question of so
much importance as how it can be restored to health, vigor, and strength.
This requires of him, as the highest duty to himself, to wait quietly and
patiently in splints and bandages until nature resumes her active powers,
— until the vital functions perform their office. The knitting of the bones
and the granulation of the flesh require time ; perfect quiet and repose,
even under the severest pain, is necessary. It will not do to make too
great haste to get well ; an attempt to walk too soon will only make the
matter worse. We must or ought now, therefore, in a similar manner to
discipline ourselves to the same or like degree of patience. I know the
anxiety and restlessness of the popular mind to be fully on our feet again,
— to walk abroad as we once did, — to enjoy once more the free out-door air
of heaven, with the perfect use of all our limbs. I know how trying it is
to be denied representation in Congress, while we are paying our proportion
of the taxes,— how annoying it is to be even partially under military rule,
— and how injurious it is to the general interest and business of the country
to be without post-offices and mail communications ; to say nothing of
divers other matters on the long list of our present inconveniences and
privations. All these, however, we must patiently bear and endure for a
season. With quiet and repose we may get well, — may get once more on
our feet again. One thing is certain, that bad humor, ill-temper, exhibited
either in restlessness or grumbling, will not hasten it.
Next to this, another great duty we owe to ourselves is the exercise of
a liberal spirit of forbearance among ourselves.
The first step toward local or general harmony is the banishment from
our breasts of every feeling and sentiment calculated to stir the discords
of the past. Nothing could be more injurious or mischievous to the future
of this country than the agitation, at present, of questions that divided
the people anterior to, or during the existence of, the late war. On no
occasion, and especially in the bestowment of office, ought such differences
of opinion in the past ever to be mentioned, either for or against any one
otherwise equally entitled to confidence. These ideas or sentiments of
other times and circumstances are not the germs from which hopeful
organizations can now arise. Let all differences of opinion, touching
errors, or supposed errors, of the head or heart, on the part of any, in the
past, growing out of these matters, be at once in the deep ocean of
oblivion forever buried. Let there be no criminations or recriminations
on account of acts of other days. No canvassing of past conduct or
motives. Great disasters are upon us and upon the whole country, and
without inquiring how these originated, or at whose door the fault should
be laid, let us now as common sharers of common misfortunes, on all occa
sions, consult only as to the best means, under the circumstances as we
find them, to secure the best ends toward future amelioration. Good
government is what we want. This should be the leading desire and the
600 APPENDIX.
controlling object with all ; and I need not assure you, if this can be
obtained, that our desolated fields, our towns and villages, and cities now
in ruins, will soon — like the Phoenix — rise again from their ashes ; and all
our waste places will again, at no distant day, blossom as the rose.
This view should also be borne in mind, that whatever differences of
opinion existed before the late fury of the war, they sprung mainly from
differences as to the best means to be used, and the best line of policy to
be pursued, to secure the great controlling object of all, — which was GOOD
GOVERNMENT. Whatever may be said of the loyalty or disloyalty of any
in the late most lamentable conflict of arms, I think I may venture safely
to say that there was, on the part of the great mass of the people of Geor
gia, and of the entire South, no disloyalty to the principles of the Constitu
tion of the United States. To that system of representative government ;
of delegated and limited powers; that establishment in a new phase, on
this continent, of all the essentials of England's Magna C/iarta, for the
protection and security of life, liberty, and property ; with the additional
recognition of the principle as a fundamental truth, that all political power
resides in the people. With us it was simply a question as to where our
allegiance was due in the maintenance of these principles, — which author
ity was paramount in the last resort, — State or Federal. As for myself, I
can affirm that no sentiment of disloyalty to these great principles of self-
government, recognized and embodied in the Constitution of the United
States, ever beat or throbbed in breast or heart of mine. To tneir main
tenance my whole soul was ever enlisted, and to this end my whole life
has heretofore been devoted, and will continue to be the rest of my days,
— God willing. In devotion to these principles I yield to no man living.
This much I can say for myself ; may I not say the same for you and for
the great mass of the people of Georgia, and for the great mass of the
people of the entire South? Whatever differences existed among us arose
from differences as to the best and surest means of securing these great
ends, which was the object of all. It was with this view and this purpose
secession was tried. That has failed. Instead of bettering our condition,
instead of establishing our liberties upon a surer foundation, we have, in
the war that ensued, come well-nigh losing the whole of the rich inherit
ance with which we set out.
This is one of the sad realizations of the present. In this, too, we are
but illustrating the teachings of history. Wars, and civil wars especially,
always menace liberty ; they seldom advance it ; while they usually end
in its entire overthrow and destruction. Ours stopped just short of such
a catastrophe. Our only alternative now is, either to give up all hope of
constitutional liberty, or to retrace our steps, and to look for its vindica
tion and maintenance in the forums of reason and justice, instead of on
the arena of arms, — in the courts and halls of legislation, instead of on the
fields of battle.
I am frank and candid in telling you right here that our surest hopes,
APPENDIX.
in my judgment, of these ends, are in the restoration policy of the Presi
dent of the United States. I have little hope for liberty — little hope for
the success of the great American experiment of self-government — but in
the success of the present efforts for the restoration of the States to their
former practical relations in a common government, under the Constitution
of the United States.
We are not without an encouraging example on this line in the history
of the mother-country, — in the history of our ancestors, — from whom we
derived, in great measure, the principles to which we are so much devoted.
The truest friends of liberty in England once, in 1642, abandoned the
forum of reason, and appealed, as we did, to the sword, as the surest
means, in their judgment, of advancing their cause. This was after they
had made great progress, under the lead of Coke, Hampden, Falkland, and
others, in the advancement of liberal principles. Many usurpations had
been checked ; many of the prerogatives of the Crown had been curtailed ;
the petition of right had been sanctioned ; ship-money had been abandoned ;
courts-martial had been done away with ; habeas corpus had been re-estab
lished ; high courts of commission and star-chamber had been abolished;
many other great abuses of power had been corrected, and other reforms
established. But not satisfied with these, and not satisfied with the peace
ful working of reason, to go on in its natural sphere, the denial of the
sovereignty of the Crown was pressed by the too ardent reformers upon
Charles the First. All else he had yielded, — this he would not. The sword
was appealed to to settle the question ; a civil war was the result ; great
valor and courage were displayed on both sides ; men of eminent virtue
and patriotism fell in the sanguinary and fratricidal conflict ; the king was
deposed and executed; a commonwealth proclaimed. But the end was the
reduction of the people of England to a worse state of oppression than they
had been in for centuries. They retraced their steps. After nearly twenty
years of exhaustion and blood, and the loss of the greater portion of the
liberties enjoyed by them before, they, by almost unanimous consent, called
for restoration. The restoration came. Charles the Second ascended the
throne, as unlimited a monarch as ever ruled the empire. Not a pledge
was asked or a guaranty given, touching the concessions of the royal pre
rogative, that had been exacted and obtained from his father.
The true friends of liberty, of reform and of progress in government,
had become convinced that these were the offspring of peace and of en
lightened reason, and not of passion nor of arms. The House of Commons
and the House of Lords were henceforth the theatres of their operations,
and not the fields of Newberry or Marston-Moor. The result was, that in
less than thirty years all their ancient rights and privileges, which had
been lost in the civil war, with new securities, were re-established in the
ever-memorable settlement of 1688 ; which, for all practical purposes, may
be looked upon as a bloodless revolution. Since that time England has
made still further and more signal strides in reform and progress. But
602
APPENDIX.
not one of these has been effected by resort to arms. Catholic emancipa
tion was carried in Parliament, after years of argument, against the most
persistent opposition. Reason and justice ultimately prevailed. So with
the removal of the disability of the Jews, — so with the overthrow of the
rotten-borough system, — so with the extension of franchise, — so with the
modification of the corn-laws, and restrictions on commerce, opening the
way to the establishment of the principles of free-trade, — and so with all
the other great reforms by Parliament, which have so distinguished English
history for the last half-century.
May we not indulge hope, even in the alternative before us now, from
this great example of restoration, if we but do as the friends of liberty
there did? This is my hope, my only hope. It is founded on the virtue,
intelligence, and patriotism of the American people. I have not lost my
faith in the people, or in their capacity for self-government. But for these
great essential qualities of human nature to be brought into active and
efficient exercise, for the fulfilment of patriotic hopes, it is essential that
the passions of the day should subside ; that the causes of these passions
should not now be discussed ; that the embers of the late strife shall not
be stirred.
Man by nature is ever prone to scan closely the errors and defects of
his fellow-man, — ever ready to rail at the mote in his brother's eye, with
out considering the beam that is in his own. This should not be. We all
have our motes or beams. We are all frail ; perfection is the attribute of
none. Prejudice or prejudgment should be indulged toward none. Pre
judice! What wrongs, what injuries what mischiefs, what lamentable
consequences, have resulted at all times from nothing but this perversity
of the intellect! Of all the obstacles to the advancement of truth and
human progress, in every department, — in science, in art. in government,
and in religion, in all ages and climes, — not one on the list is more formid
able, more difficult to overcome and subdue, than this horrible distortion
of the moral as well as intellectual faculties. It is a host of evil within
itself. I could enjoin no greater duty upon my countrymen now, North
and South, than the exercise of that degree of forbearance which would
enable them to conquer their prejudices. One of the highest exhibitions
of the moral sublime the world ever witnessed was that of Daniel Web
ster, when in an open barouche in the streets of Boston he proclaimed in
substance, to a vast assembly of his constituents, — unwilling hearers, — that
'' they had conquered an uncongenial clime ; they had conquered a sterile
soil 5 they had conquered the winds and currents of the ocean; they had
conquered most of the elements of nature ; but they must yet learn to con
quer their prejudices F' I know of no more fitting incident or scene in the
life of that wonderful man, " Clarus et vir Fortissimus,'' for perpetuating
the memory of the true greatness of his character, on canvas or in marble,
than a representation of him as he then and there stood and spoke ! It
was an exhibition of moral grandeur surpassing that of Aristides when
APPENDIX. 603
he said, " Oh, Athenians, whatThemistocles recommends would be greatly
to your interest, but it would be unjust " !
I say to you, and if my voice could extend throughout this vast country,
over hill arid dale, over mountain and valley, to hovel, hamlet, and man
sion, village, town, and city, I would say, among the first, looking to resto
ration of peace, prosperity, and harmony in this land, is the great duty
of exercising that degree of forbearance which will enable them to conquer
their prejudices. Prejudices against communities as well as individuals.
And next to that, the indulgence of a Christian spirit of charity. "Judge
not, that ye be not judged," especially in matters growing out of the late
war. Most of the wars that have scourged the world, even in the Christian
era, have arisen on points of conscience, or differences as to the surest way
of salvation. A strange way that to heaven, is it not? How much dis
grace to the church, and shame to mankind, would have been avoided if
the ejaculation of each breast had been, at all times, as it should have been,
" Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Presume Thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land,
On him / deem Thy foe."
How equally proper is it now, when the spirit of peace seems to be
hovering over our war-stricken land, that in canvassing the conduct or
motives of others during the late conflict, this great truth should be
impressed upon the minds of all, —
" Who made the heart? 'Tis He alone
Decidedly, can try us ;
He knows each chord, its various tone,
Each spring, its various bias ;
Then at the balance let's be mute,
We never can adjust it;
What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted."
Of all the heaven-descended virtues that elevate and ennoble human
nature, the highest, the sublimest, and the divinest is charity. By all
means, then, fail not to exercise and cultivate this soul-regenerating
element of fallen nature. Let it be cultivated and exercised not only
among ourselves and toward ourselves, on all questions of motive or
conduct touching the late war, but toward all mankind. Even toward
our enemies, if we have any, let the aspirations of our hearts be, " Father,
forgive them; they know not what they do." The exercise of patience,
forbearance, and charity, therefore, are the three first duties I would at
this time enjoin, — and of these three, " the greatest is charity."
But to proceed. Another one of our present duties is this : we should
accept the issues of the war, and abide by them in good faith. This, I feel
fully persuaded, it is your purpose to do, as well as that of your constit-
£04 APPENDIX.
uents. The people of Georgia have in convention revoked and annulled her
ordinance of 1861, which was intended to sever her from the compact of
Union of 1787. The Constitution of the United States has been reordained
as the organic law of our land. Whatever differences of opinion heretofore
existed as to where our allegiance was due during the late state of things,
none for any practical purpose can exist now. Whether Georgia, by the
action of her Convention of 1861, was ever rightfully out of the Union or
not, there can be no question that she is now in, so far as depends upon
her will and deed. The whole United States, therefore, are now without
question our country, to be cherished and defended as such by all our
hearts and by all our arms.
The Constitution of the United States, and the treaties and laws made in
pursuance thereof, are now acknowledged to be the paramount law in this
whole country. Whoever, therefore, is true to these principles as now rec
ognized, is loyal as far as that term has any legitimate use or force under
our institutions. This is the only kind of loyalty and the only test of
loyalty the Constitution itself requires. In any other view, everything
pertaining to restoration, so far as regards the great body of the people in
at least eleven States of the Union, is but making a promise to the ear to
be broken to the hope. All, therefore, who accept the issue of war in
good faith, and corne up to the test required by the Constitution, are now
loyal, however they may have heretofore been.
But with this change comes a new order of things. One of the results
of the war is a total change in our whole internal polity. Our. former
social fabric has been entirely subverted. Like those convulsions in
nature which break up old incrustations, the war has wrought a new
epoch in our political existence. Old things have passed away, and all
things among us in this respect are new. The relation heretofore, under
our old system, existing between the African and European races, no
longer. exists. Slavery, as it was called, or the status of the black race,
their subordination to the white, upon which all our institutions rested, is
abolished forever, riot only in Georgia, but throughout the limits of the
United States. This change should be received and accepted as an irrev
ocable fact. It is a bootless question now to discuss whether the new
system is better for both races than the old one was or not. That may
be proper matter for the philosophic and philanthropic historian at some
future time to inquire into, after the new system shall have been fully
and fairly tried.
All changes of systems or proposed reforms are but experiments and
problems to be solved. Our system of self-government was an experiment
at first. Perhaps as a problem it is not yet solved. Our present duty on
this subject is not with the past or the future ; it is with the present.
The wisest and the best often err in their judgments as to the probable
workings of any new system. Let us, therefore, give this one a fair
and just trial without prejudice, and with that earnestness of purpose
APPENDIX. 605
which always looks hopefully to success. It is an ethnological problem,
on the solution of which depends not only the best interests of both races,
but it may be the existence of one or the other, if not both.
This duty of giving this new system a fair and just trial will require
of you, as legislators of the land, great changes in our former laws in
regard to this large class of population. Wise and humane provisions
should be made for them. It is not for me to go into detail. Suffice it to
say on this occasion, that ample and full protection should be secured to
them, so that they may stand equal before the law in the possession and
enjoyment of all rights of person, liberty, and property. Many consider
ations claim this at your hands. Among these may be stated their fidelity
in times past. They cultivated your fields, ministered to your personal
wants and comforts, nursed and reared your children ; and even in the
hour of danger and peril they were, in the main, true to you and yours.
To them we owe a debt of gratitude, as well as acts of kindness. This
should also be done because they are poor, untutored, uninformed ; many
of them helpless, liable to be imposed upon, and need it. Legislation
should ever look to the protection of the weak against the strong. What
ever may be said of the equality of races, or their natural capacity to
become equal, no one can doubt that at this time this race among us is
not equal to the Caucasian. This inequality does not lessen the moral
obligations on the part of the superior to the inferior, it rather increases
them. From him who has much, more is required than from him who
has little. The present generation of them, it is true, is far above their
savage progenitors, who were at first introduced into this country, in
general intelligence, virtue, and moral culture. This shows capacity for
improvement. But in. all the higher characteristics of mental develop
ment they are still very far below" the European type. What further
advancement they may make, or to what standard they may attain, under
a different system of laws every way suitable and wisely applicable to their
changed condition, time alone can disclose. I speak of them as we now
know them to be ; having no longer the protection of a master, or legal
guardian, they now need all the protection which the shield of the law
can give.-
But, above all, this protection should be secured, because it is right and
just that it should be, upon general principles. All governments in their
organic structure, as well as in their administration, should have this
leading object in view : the good of the governed. Protection and security
to all under its jurisdiction should be the chief end of every government.
It is a melancholy truth that while this should be the chief end of all
governments, most of them are used only as instruments of power, for the
aggrandizement of the few at the expense of, and by the oppression of,
the many. Such are not our ideas of government, never have been, and
never should be. Governments, according to our ideas, should look to
the good of the whole, and not a part only. " The greatest good to the
606 APPENDIX.
greatest number" is a favorite dogma with some. Some so defended our
old system. But you know this was never my doctrine. The greatest
good to all, without detriment, or injury to any, is the true rule. Those
governments only are founded upon correct principles of reason and
justice which look to the greatest attainable advancement, improvement,
and progress, physically, intellectually, and morally, of all classes and
conditions within their rightful jurisdiction. If our old system was not
the best, or could not have been made the best, for both races, in this
respect and upon this basis, it ought to have been abolished. This was
my view of that system while it lasted, and I repeat it now that it is no
more. In legislation, therefore, under the new system, you should look
to the best interest of all classes: their protection, security, advancement,
and improvement, physically, intellectually, and morally. All obstacles
if there be any, should be removed which can possibly hinder or retard
the improvement of the blacks to the extent of their capacity. All proper
aid should be given to their own efforts. Channels of education should be
opened up to them. Schools, and the usual means of moral and intellectual
training, should be encouraged among them. This is the dictate, not
only of what is right and proper and just in itself, but it is also the
promptings of the highest considerations of interest. It is difficult to
conceive a greater evil or curse that could befall our country, stricken
and distressed as it now is, than for so large a portion of its population,
as this class will quite probably constitute among us hereafter, to be
reared in ignorance, depravity, and vice. In view of such a state of things
well might the prudent even now look to its abandonment. Let us not,
however, indulge in such thoughts of the future ; nor let us, without an
effort, say the system cannot be worked. Let us not, standing still,
hesitatingly ask, " Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth ?"
but let us rather say, as Gamaliel did, " If this counsel or this work be
of men, it will come to nought : but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it ;
lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." The most vexed
questions of the age are social problems. These we have heretofore h*ad
but little to do with ; we were relieved from them by our peculiar insti
tution. Emancipation of the blacks, with its consequences, was ever
considered by me with much more interest as a social question, one re
lating to the proper status of the different elements of society, and their
relations toward each other, looking to the best interest of all, than in
any other light. The pecuniary aspect of it, the considerations of labor
and capital, in a politico-economic view, sunk into insignificance in com
parison with this. This problem, as one of the results of the war, is now
upon us, presenting one of the most perplexing questions of the sort that
any people ever had to deal with.
Whether the great barrier of races which the Creator has placed be
tween this, our inferior class and ourselves, shall prevent a success of the
experiment now on trial, of a peaceful, happy, and prosperous community,
APPENDIX. 607
composed of such elements and sustaining present relations toward eacli
other, or even a further elevation on the part of the inferior, if they prove
themselves fit for it, let the future, under the dispensations of Providence,
decide. Vie have to deal with the present. Let us do our duty now,
leaving results and ultimate consequences to that
"Divinity which shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will."
In all things on this subject, as in all others, let our guide be the admira
ble motto of our State. Let our counsels be governed by wisdom, our
measures by moderation, and our principles by justice.
So much for what I have to say on this occasion touching our present
duties on this absorbing subject, and some of our duties in reference to a
restoration of peace, law, and order ; without which all must, sooner or
later, end in utter confusion, anarchy, and despotism. I have, as I said I
should, only glanced at some general ideas.
Now as to the future and the prospect before us ! On this branch of the
subject I can add but little. You can form some ideas of my views of that
from what has already been said. Would that I could say something
cheerful! but that candor, which has marked all that I have said, compels
me to say that to me the future is far from being bright. Nay, it is dark
and impenetrable; thick gloom curtains and closes in the horizon all
around us. Thus much I can say : my only hope is in the peaceful re-es
tablishment of good government, and its peaceful maintenance afterward.
And, further, the most hopeful prospect to this end now is the restora
tion of the old Union, and with it the speedy return of fraternal feeling
throughout its length and breadth. These results depend upon the people
themselves, — upon the people of the North quite as much as the people of
the South, — upon their virtue, intelligence, and patriotism. I repeat, I
have faith in the American people, in their virtue, intelligence, and patri
otism. But for this I should long since have despaired. Dark and gloomy
as the present hour is, I do not yet despair of free institutions. Let but
the virtue, intelligence, and patriotism of the people throughout the whole
country be properly appealed to, aroused and brought into action, and all
may yet be well. The masses everywhere are alike equally interested in
the great object. Let old issues, old questions, old differences, and old
feuds be regarded as fossils of another epoch. They belong to what may
hereafter be considered the Silurian period of our history. Great, new,
living questions are before us. Let it not be said of us in this day, not
yet passed, of our country's greatest trial and agony, that " there was a
party for Caesar, a party for Pompey, and a party for Brutus, but no party
for Rome."
But let all patriots, by whatever distinctive name heretofore styled,
rally, in all elections everywhere, to the support of him, be he who he
may, who bears the .standard with "Constitutional Union" emblazoned
608 APPENDIX.
on its folds. President Johnson is now/ in my judgment, the chief great
standard-bearer of these principles, and in his efforts at restoration should
receive the cordial support of every well-wisher of his country.
In this consists, on this rests, my only hope. Should he be sustained,
and the Government be restored to its former functions, all the States brought
back to their practical relations under the Constitution, our situation will
be greatly changed from what it was before. A radical and fundamental
change, as has been stated, has been made in that organic law. We shall
have lost what was known as our ''peculiar institution," which was so
intertwined with the whole framework of our State body politic. We
shall have lost nearly half the accumulated capital of a century. But we
shall have still left all the essentials of free government, contained and
embodied in the old Constitution, untouched and unimpaired as they came
from the hands of our fathers. With these, even if we had to begin en
tirely anew, the prospect before us would be much more encouraging than
the prospect was before them, when they tied from the oppressions of the
Old World and sought shelter and homes in this then wilderness land.
The liberties we begin with they had to achieve. With the same energies
and virtues they displayed, we have much more to cheer us than they had.
With a climate unrivalled in salubrity ; with a soil unsurpassed in fer
tility ; and with products unequalled in value in the markets of the world,
to say nothing of our mineral resources, we shall have much still to wed
us to the good old land. With good government, the matrix from which
alone spring all great human achievements, we shall lack nothing but our
own proper exertions, not only to recover our former prosperity, but to
attain a much higher degree of development in everything that charac
terizes a great, free, and happy people. At least I know of no other land
that the sun shines upon that offers better prospects under the contin
gencies stated.
The old Union was based upon the assumption that it was for the best
interest of the people of all the States to be united as they were, each
State faithfully performing to the people of the other States all their
obligations under the common compact. I always thought this assump
tion was founded upon broad, correct, and statesman-like principles. I
think so yet. It was only when it seemed to be impossible further to
maintain it, without hazarding greater evils than would perhaps attend a
separation, that I yielded my assent, in obedience to the voice of Georgia,
to try the experiment which has just resulted so disastrously to us. In
deed, during the whole lamentable conflict, it was my opinion that how
ever the pending strife might terminate, so far as the appeal to the sword
was concerned, yet after a while, when the passions and excitements of
the day should pass away, an adjustment or arrangement would be made
upon continental principles, upon the general basis of "reciprocal advan
tage and mutual convenience," on which the Union was first established.
My earnest desire, however, throughout, was whatever might be done,
APPENDIX. (309
might be peaceably done ; might be the result of calm, dispassionate, and
enlightened reason ; looking to the permanent interests and welfare of
all. And now, after the severe chastisement of war, if the general sense
of the whole country shall come back to the acknowledgment of the
original assumption, that it is for the best interests of all the States to be
so united, as I trust it will, — the States still being " separate as the billows
but one as the sea," — I can perceive no reason why, under such restoration,
we as a whole, writh u peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all
nations and entangling alliances with none," may not enter upon a new
career, exciting increased wonder in the Old World, by grander achieve
ments hereafter to be made, than any heretofore attained, by the peaceful
and harmonious workings of our American institutions of self-government.
All this is possible if the hearts of the people be right. It is my earnest wish
to see it. Fondly would I indulge my fancy in gazing on such a picture of
the future. With what rapture may we not suppose the spirits of our
fathers would hail its opening scenes from their mansions above. Such
are my hopes, resting on such contingencies. But if, instead of all this,
the passions of the day shall continue to bear sway ; if prejudice shall
rule the hour; if a conflict of races shall arise; if ambition shall turn the
scale ; if the sword shall be thrown in the balance against patriotism : if
the embers of the late war shall be kept a-glowing until with new fuel
they shall flame up again, then our present gloom is but the shadow, the
penumbra of that deeper and darker eclipse, which is to totally obscure
this hemisphere and blight forever the anxious anticipations and expecta
tions of mankind ! Then, hereafter, by some bard it may be sung, —
" The Star of Hope shone brightest in the West,
The hope of Liberty, the last, the best;
That, too, has set, upon her darkened shore,
And Hope and Freedom light up earth no more,"
May we not all, on this occasion, on this anniversary of the birthday
of Washington, join in a fervent prayer to heaven that the Great Ruler
of events may avert from this land such a fall, such a fate, and such a
requiem !
APPENDIX D.
TESTIMONY OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS BEFORE
THE RECONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE.
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS sworn and examined:
By Mr. Boutwell :
Question. State your residence.
Answer. Crawfordville, Georgia.
Q. What means have you had since Lee's surrender to ascertain the
sentiments of the people of Georgia with regard to the Union ?
A. I was at home, in Georgia, at the time of the surrender of General
Lee, and remained there until the llth of May, and during that time con
ferred very freely with the people in my immediate neighborhood, with
the Governor of the State, and with one or two other leading or prominent
men in the State. From the llth of May until my return to Georgia,
which was the 25th of October, I had no means of knowing anything of
the public sentiment there, except through the public press and such let
ters as I received. From the time of my return until I left the State on
my present visit here, I had very extensive intercourse with the people,
visiting Augusta, visiting Milledgeville during the session of the Legisla
ture, first on their assembling, again in January upon their reassembling,
and again in the latter part of February. While there, I conversed very
freely and fully with all the prominent leading men, or most of them, in
the Legislature, and met a great many of the prominent, influential men of
the State, not connected writh the Legislature ; and by letters from and cor
respondence with men in the State whom I have not met. I believe that em
braces a full answer to the question as to my means of ascertaining the
sentiments of the people of that State upon the subject stated in the question.
Q. As the result of your observations, what is your opinion of the pur
pose of the people with reference to the reconstruction of the Government,
and what are their desires and purposes concerniifg the maintenance of
the Government?
A. My opinion, and decided opinion, is that an overwhelming majority
of the people of Georgia are exceedingly anxious for the restoration of
the Government, and for the State to take her former position in the
Union, to have her Senators and Representatives admitted into Congress,
and to enjoy all her rights and to discharge all her obligations as a State
under the Constitution of the United States as it stands amended.
610
APPENDIX.
Q. What arc their present views concerning the justice of the rebellion ?
Do they at present believe that it was a reasonable and proper under
taking, or otherwise?
A. My opinion of the sentiment of the people of Georgia upon that
subject is, that the exercise of the right of secession was resorted to by
them from a desire to render their liberties and institutions more secure,
and a belief on their part that this was absolutely necessary for that ob
ject. They were divided upon the question of the policy of the measure ;
there was, however, but very little division among them upon the question
of the right of it. It is now their belief, in my opinion,— and I give it
merely as an opinion, — that the surest, if not the only hope for their
liberties is the restoration of the Constitution of the United States and of
the Government of the United States under the Constitution.
Q. Has there been any change of opinion as to the right of secession,
as a right, in the people or in the States?
A. I think there has been a very decided change of opinion as to the
policy by those who favored it. I think the people generally are satisfied
sufficiently with the experiment never to resort to that measure of redress
again, by force, whatever may be their own abstract ideas upon that sub
ject. They have given up all idea of a maintenance of these opinions by
a resort to force. They have come to the conclusion that it is better to
appeal to the forums of reason and justice, to the halls of legislation and
the courts, for the preservation of the principles of constitutional liberty,
than to the arena of arms. It is my settled conviction that there is not
any idea cherished at all in the public mind of Georgia of ever resorting
again to secession, or to the exercise of the right of secession by force.
That whole policy for the maintenance of their rights, in my opinion, is at
this time totally-abandoned.
Q. But the opinion as to the right, as I understand, remains substan
tially the same ?
A. I cannot answer as to that. Some may have changed their opinion
in this respect. It would be an unusual thing, as well as a difficult matter,
for a whole people to change their convictions upon abstract truths or
principles. I have not heard this view of the subject debated or discussed
recently, and I wish to be understood as giving my opinion only on that
branch of the subject which is of practical character and importance.
Q. To what do you attribute the change of opinion as to the propriety
of attempting to maintain their views by force?
A. Well, sir, my opinion about that — my individual opinion, derived
from observation — is that this change of opinion arose mainly from the
operation of the war among themselves, and the results of the conflict,
from their own authorities on their individual rights of person and prop
erty, — the general breaking down of constitutional barriers which usually
attend all protracted wars.
Q. In 1861 'when the Ordinance of Secession was adopted in your State,
to what extent was it supported by the people?
612 APPENDIX.
A. After the proclamation of President Lincoln calling out seventy-five
thousand militia, under the circumstances it was issued, and blockading
the Southern ports, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the
Southern Cause, as it was termed, received the almost unanimous support
of the people of Georgia. Before that they were very much divided on
the question of the policy of secession. But afterwards they supported the
cause within the range of my knowledge, with very few exceptions (there
were some few exceptions, not exceeding half a dozen, I think). The im
pression then prevailing was, that public liberty was endangered, and they
supported the cause because of their zeal for constitutional rights. They
still differed very much as to the ultimate object to be attained, and the
means to be used, but these differences yielded to the emergency of the
apprehended common danger.
Q. Was not the Ordinance of Secession adopted in Georgia earlier in
date than the proclamation for seventy-five thousand volunteers?
A. Yes, sir. I stated that the people were very much divided on the
question of the Ordinance of Secession, but that after the proclamation
the people became almost unanimous in their support of the cause. There
were some few exceptions in the State, — I think not more than half a
dozen among my acquaintances. As I said, while they were thus almost
unanimous in support of the cause, they differed also as to the end to be
attained by sustaining it. Some looked to an adjustment or settlement of
the controversy upon any basis that would secure their constitutional
rights : others looked to a Southern separate nationality as their only ob
ject and hope. These different views as to the ultimate objects did not
interfere with the general active support of the cause.
Q. Was there a popular vote upon the Ordinance of Secession ?
A. Only so far as in the election of delegates to the Convention.
Q. There was no subsequent action ?
A. No, sir: the Ordinance of Secession was not submitted to a popular
vote afterward.
Q. Have you any opinion as to the vote it would have received, as com
pared with the whole, if it had been submitted to the free action of the
people?
Witness. Do you mean after it was adopted by the Convention ?
Mr. Boutwell. Yes ; after it was adopted by the Convention, if it had
been submitted forthwith, or within a reasonable time.
A. Taking the then state of things into consideration, South Carolina,
Florida, and Mississippi, I think, having seceded, my opinion is that a
majority of the people would have ratified it, and perhaps a decided or
large majority. If, however, South Carolina and the other States had not
adopted their Ordinances of Secession, I am very well satisfied that a
majority of the people of Georgia, and perhaps a very decided majority,
would have been against secession if the ordinance had been submitted to
them. But, as matters stood at the time, if the ordinance had been sub-
APPENDIX.
613
mitted to a popular vote of the State, it would have been sustained. That
is my opinion about that matter.
Q. What was the date of the Georgia ordinance?
A. The 18th or 19th ; I think the 19th of January, 1861, though I am
not certain.
Q. The question of secession was involved in the election of delegates
to the Convention, was it not?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And was there on the part of candidates a pretty general avowal of
opinions?
A. Very general.
Q. What was the result of the election as far as the Convention expressed
any opinion upon the question of secession ?
A. I think the majority was about thirty in the Convention in favor of
secession. I do not recollect the exact vote.
Q. In a convention of how many?
A. In a convention based upon the number of Senators and members
of the House in the General Assembly of the State. The exact number I
do not recollect, but I think it was near three hundred, perhaps a few over
or under.
Q. Was there any difference in different parts of the State in the strength
of Union sentiment at that time?
A. In some of the mountain counties the Union sentiment was gener
ally prevalent. The cities, towns, and villages were generally for seces
sion throughout the State, I think, with some exceptions. The anti-secession
sentiment was more general in the rural districts and in the mountain por
tions of the State ; yet the people of some of the upper counties were very
active and decided secessionists. There was nothing like a sectional divis
ion of the State at all. For instance, the delegation from Floyd County, in
which the city of Home is situated, in the upper portion of the State, was
an able one, strong for secession, while the county of Jefferson, down in
the interior of the cotton belt, sent one of the most prominent delegations
for the Union. I could designate other particular counties in that way
throughout the State, showing that there was not what might be termed a
sectional or geographical division of the State on the question.
Q, In what particular did the people believe their constitutional liberties
were assailed or endangered from the Union ?
A. Mainly, I would say, in their internal social polity, and their appre
hension from the general consolidating tendencies of the doctrines, and
principles of that political party which had recently succeeded in the
choice of a President and Vice-President of the United States. It was the
serious apprehension that if the Republican organization, as then consti
tuted, would succeed to power, it would lead ultimately to a virtual sub
version of the Constitution of the United States, and all essential guaran
tees of public liberty. I think that was the sincere and honest conviction
(J14 APPENDIX.
in the minds of our people. Those who opposed secession did not appre
hend that any such result would necessarily follow the elections which had
taken place; they still thought that all their rights might be maintained
in the Union and under the Constitution, especially as there were majori
ties in both Houses of Congress who agreed with them on constitutional
questions.
Q. To what feature of their internal social polity did they apprehend
danger?
A. Principally the subordination of the African race as it existed under
their laws and institutions.
Q. In what spirit is the emancipation of slaves received by the people ?
A. Generally it is acquiesced in and accepted, I think, in perfect good
faith, and with a disposition to do the best that can be done in the new
order of things in this particular.
Q. What at present are the relations subsisting between the whito
people and black people, especially in the relation of employers and em
ployed?
A. Quite as good, I think, as in any part of the world that ever I havo
been in, between like classes of employers and employes. The condition
of things, in this respect, on my return last fall, was very different from
what it was when I left home for my present visit to this city. During
the fall and up to the close of the year there was a general opinion pre
vailing among the colored people that at Christinas there would be a
division of the lands, and a very general indisposition on their part to
make any contracts at all for the present year. Indeed, there were very
few contracts, I think, made throughout the State until after Christinas,
or about the 1st of January. General Tillson, wTho is at the head of the
bureau in the State, and whose administration has given very general
satisfaction to our people, I think, was very active in disabusing the minds
of the colored people from their error in this particular. lie visited quite
a number of places in the State, and addressed large audiences of colored
people, and when they became satisfied they were laboring under a mistake
in anticipating a division of lands after Christmas and the 1st of January,
they made contracts very readily generally, and since that time affairs have,
in the main, moved on quite smoothly and quietly.
Q. Are the negroes generally at work ?
A. Yes, sir; they are generally at work. There are some idlers; but
this class constitutes but a small proportion.
Q. What upon the whole has been their conduct? Proper under the
circumstances in which they have been placed, or otherwise?
A. As a whole, much better than the most hopeful looked for.
Q. As far as you know, what are the leading objects and desires of the
negro population at the present time in reference to themselves ?
A. It is to be protected in their rights of persons and of property, — to be
dealt by fairly and justly.
APPENDIX. (J15
Q. What, if anything, has been done by the Legislature of your State
for the accomplishment of these objects?
A. The Legislature has passed an act of which the following is a copy :
" [No. 90.]
" Ax ACT to define the term ' persons of color,' and to declare the rights of such
persons.
"SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc., That all negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes, and their de
scendants, having one-eighth negro or African blood in their veins, shall be known
in this State as 'persons of color.'
" SEC. 2. Be it farther enacted, That persons of color shall have the right to make
and enforce contracts, to sue, be sued, to be parties and give evidence, to inherit, to
purchase, and to have full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the
security of person and estate, and shall not be subjected to any other or different
punishment, pain, or penalty for the commission of any act or offence than such as
are prescribed for white persons committing like acts or offences."
The third section of this act simply repeals .ill conflicting laws. It was
approved by the Governor on the 17th of March last.
Q. Does this act express the 'opinions of the people, and will it be
sustained?
A. I think it will be sustained by the courts as well as by public senti
ment. It was passed by the present Legislature. As an evidence of the
tone of the Legislature of the State, as well as that of the people of the
State upon this subject, I will refer you simply to a letter I wrote to
Senator Stewart upon the same subject. I submit to you a copy of that
letter. It is as follows :
"WASHINGTON, D. C., April 4th, 1866.
" DEAR SIR, — In answer to your inquiries touching the sentiments and feelings of
the people of Georgia toward the freedmen, and the legal status of this class 'of
population in the State, etc., allow me briefly to say that the address delivered by me
on the 22d of February last before the Legislature (a copy of which I herewith hand
3'ou) expresses very fully and clearly my own opinions and feelings upon the subjects
of your inquiry. This address was written and printed as you now see it, before
its delivery. It was delivered verbatim as you now read it, that there might be no
mistake about it. It was as it now stands unanimously endorsed by the Senate in
a joint resolution, which was concurred in in the House without dissent, and was
ordered to be spread upon the journals of both Houses. This I refer you to as a
better and more reliable index of the feelings and views of the people of the State
on this subject than any bare individual opinion I might entertain or express. The
Legislature of the State, it is to be presumed, is as correct an exponent of the gen
eral feelings and views of the State upon any political question as any that can be
obtained from any quarter. In addition to this, the Legislature subsequently evinced
their principles by their works in passing an act, which I also inclose to you. This
act speaks for itself. It is short, concise, pointed, as well as comprehensive. It
secures to the colored race the right to contract and to enforce contracts, the right to
sue and to be sued, the right to testify in the courts, subject to the same rules that
APPENDIX.
govern the testimony of whites, and it subjects them to the same punishments for all
offences as the whites. In these respects, embracing all essential civil rights, all
classes in Georgia now stand equal before the law. There is no discrimination in
these particulars on account of race or color.
" Please excuse this hasty note; I have no time to go more in detail.
" Yours most respectfully,
" ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
" Hon. WILLIAM M. STEWART, United States Senate."
Q. What, if anything, is being done in Georgia with regard to the
education of the negroes, either children or adults ?
A. Nothing by the public authorities as yet. Schools are being estab
lished in many portions of the State, under the auspices, I think, of the
Freedmen's Bureau, and quite a number by the colored people themselves,
encouraged by the whites.
Q. What disposition do the negroes manifest in regard to education ?
A. There seems to be a very great desire on the part of the children
and younger ones, and with their parents, to have them educated.
Q. What is the present legal condition of those who have lived together
as husband and wife? Do the laws recognize and sustain the relations and
the legitimacy of their offspring?
A. Our State laws do. They recognize all those living as man and
wife as legally man and wife. A good many of them took out licenses,
and were married in the usual way. There is no difference in our laws
in that respect. Licenses are issued for white and black alike, only they
are prohibited from intermarrying with each other. The races are not
permitted to intermarry.
Q. Were the amendments to the Constitution of the State of Georgia,
recently adopted, submitted to the people?
A. No, sir ; they were not submitted. I have no hesitation, however,
in expressing the opinion that nine-tenths of the people would have voted
for them if the Constitution had been submitted. That is but an opinion.
I heard no dissent at all in the State. I was there all the time. I got
home before the Convention adjourned. The State Constitution, as made
by the Convention, would have been ratified almost without opposition.
It would have been ratified nem. con. if it had been submitted. This, at
least, is my opinion.
Q. What was the voting population of your State in 1860?
A. Something upward of a hundred thousand.
Q. What is probably the present voting population ?
A. The voting population of the State, under the present Constitution,
is perhaps eighty thousand. That is a mere estimate.
Q. Has there been any enumeration of the losses of Georgia in the
field, in the military service ?
A. No accurate estimate that I am aware of.
Q. What is it supposed to have been ?
APPENDIX. (517
A. I am not able to answer the question with anything like accuracy.
Q. What is the public sentiment of Georgia with regard to the extension
of the right of voting to the negroes?
A. The general opinion in the State is very much averse to it.
Q. If a proposition were made to amend the Constitution so as to have
representation in Congress based upon voters substantially, would Georgia
ratify such a proposed amendment, if it were made a condition precedent
to the restoration of the State to political power in the Government?
A. I do not think they would. The people of Georgia, in my judgment,
as far as I can reflect or represent their opinions, feel that they are entitled
under the Constitution of the United States to representation without any
further condition precedent. They would not object to entertain, discuss,
and exchange views in the common councils of the country with the other
States upon such a proposition, or any proposition to amend the Constitu
tion, or change it in any of its features, and they would abide by any such
change if made as the Constitution provides; but they feel that they are
constitutionally entitled to be heard by their Senators and members in
the Houses of Congress upon this or any other proposed amendment. I
do not therefore think that they would ratify that amendment suggested
as a condition precedent to her being admitted to representation in Con
gress. Such, at least, is my opinion.
Q. It is, then, your opinion that at present the people of Georgia would
neither be willing to extend suffrage to the negroes, nor consent to the
exclusion of the negroes from the basis of representation ?
A. The people of Georgia, in my judgment, are perfectly willing to
leave suffrage and the basis of representation where the Constitution
leaves it. They look upon the question of suffrage as one belonging
exclusively to the States ; one over which, under, the Constitution of the
United States, Congress has no jurisdiction, power, or control, except in
proposing amendments to the States, and not in exacting them from them :
and I do not think, therefore, that the people of that State, while they are
disposed, as I believe, earnestly to deal fairly, justly, and generously with
the freedmen, would be willing to consent to a change in the Constitution
that would give Congress jurisdiction over the question of suffrage. And
especially would they be very much averse to Congress exercising any
such jurisdiction, without their representatives in the Senate and House
being heard in the public council upon this question that so vitally con
cerns their internal policy, as well as the internal policy of all the States.
Q. If the proposition were to be submitted to Georgia as one of the
eleven States lately in rebellion, that she might be restored to political
power in the Government of the country upon the condition precedent
that she should, on the one hand, extend suffrage to the negro, or, on the
other, consent to their exclusion from the basis of representation, would
she accept either proposition and take her place in the Government of the
country?
APPENDIX.
A. I can only give my opinion. I do not think she would accept either
as a condition precedent presented by Congress, for they do not believe
that Congress has the rightful power under the Constitution to prescribe
such a condition. If Georgia is a State in the Union, her people feel that
she is entitled to representation without conditions imposed' by Congress.
And if she is not a State in the Union, then she could not be admitted as
an equal with the others if her admission were trammelled with conditions
that do not apply to all the rest alike. General universal suffrage among
the colored people, as they are now there, would by our people be regarded
as about as great a political evil as could befall them.
Q. If the proposition were to extend the right of suffrage to those who
could read, and to those who had served in the Union armies, would that
modification affect the action of the State?
A. I think the people of the State would be unwilling to do more than
they have done for restoration. Restricted or limited suffrage would not
be so objectionable as general or universal 5 but it is a matter that belongs
to the State to regulate. The question of suffrage, whether universal or
restricted, is one of State policy exclusively, as they believe. Individually
I should not be opposed to a proper system of restricted or limited suffrage
to this class of our population : but in iny judgment it is a matter that
belongs of constitutional right to the States to regulate exclusively, each
for itself. But the people of that State, as I have said, would not willingly,
I think, do more than they have done for restoration. The only view in
their opinion that could possibly justify the war which was carried on by
the Federal Government against them was the idea of the indissolubleness
of the Union, — that those who held the administration for the time were
bound to enforoe the execution of the laws and the maintenance of the
integrity of the country under the Constitution ; and since that was ac
complished, since those who had assumed the contrary principle — the
right of secession, and the reserved sovereignty of the States — had aban
doned their cause, and the Administration here was successful in maintain
ing the idea upon which war was proclaimed and waged, and the only view
in which they supposed it could be justified at all, — when that was accom
plished, I say, the people of Georgia supposed their State was immediately
entitled to all her rights under the Constitution. That is my opinion of
the sentiment of the people of Georgia, and I do not think they would be
willing to do anything further as a condition precedent to their being per
mitted to enjoy the full measure of their constitutional rights. I only give
my opinion of the sentiment of the people at this time. They expected
that as soon as the Confederate cause was abandoned, that immediately the
States would be brought back into their practical relations with the Gov
ernment, as previously constituted. That is what they looked to. They
expected that the State would immediately have their representatives in
the Senate and in the House, and they expected in good faith, as loyal men,
as the term is frequently used, — I mean by it loyal to law, order, and the
APPENDIX. (519
Constitution, — to support the Government under the Constitution. That
was their feeling. They did what they did believing it was best for
the protection of constitutional liberty. Toward the Constitution of the
United States, as -they construed it, the great mass of our people were as
much devoted in their feelings as any people ever were toward any cause.
This is my opinion. As I remarked before, they resorted to secession with
a view of maintaining more securely these principles. And when they
found they were not successful in their object, in perfect good faith, as far
as I can judge from meeting with them and conversing with them, looking
to the future developments of their country in its material resources, as
well as its moral and intellectual progress, their earnest desire and expec
tation wras to allow the past struggle, lamentable as it was in its results, to
pass by, and to co-operate with the true' friends of the Constitution, with
those of all sections who earnestly desire the preservation of constitutional
liberty, and the perpetuation of the Government in its purity^ They have
been a little disappointed in this, and are so now. They are patiently
waiting, however, and believing that when the passions of the hour have
passed away, this delay in restoration will cease. They think they have
done everything that was essential and proper, and my judgment is that
they would not be willing to do anything further as a condition precedent.
They would simply remain quiet and passive.
Q. Does your own judgment approve the view you have given as the
opinion of the people of the State?
A. My own judgment is very decided that the question of suffrage is
one that belongs, under the -Constitution, — and wisely so too, — to the
States respectively and exclusively.
Q. Is it your opinion that neither of the alternatives suggested hi the
question ought to be accepted by the people of Georgia?
A. My opinion is, that these terms ought not to be offered as conditions
precedent. In other words, my opinion is, that it would be best for the
peace, harmony, and prosperity of the whole country that there should be
an immediate restoration, — an immediate bringing back of the States into
their original practical relations, — and let all these questions then be dis
cussed in common council. Then the representatives from the South could
be heard, and you and all could judge much better of the tone and temper
of the people than you could from the opinions given by any individuals.
You may take my opinion, or the opinion of any individual, but they will
not enable you to judge of the condition of the State of Georgia so well as
for her own representatives to be heard in your public councils in her own
behalf. My judgment, therefore, is very decided that it would have been
better, as soon as the lamentable conflict was over, when the people of the
South abandoned their cause and agreed to accept the issue, — desiring, as
they do, to resume their places for the future in the Union, and to look to
the halls of Congress and the courts for the protection of their rights in
the Union, — it would have been better to have allowed that result to follow,
620 APPENDIX.
under the policy adopted by the Administration, than to delay it or hinder
it by propositions to amend the Constitution in respect to suffrage or any
other new matter. I think the people of all the Southern States would,
in the halls of Congress, discuss these questions calmly and deliberately ;
and if they did not show that the views they entertained were just and
proper, such as to control the judgment of the people of the other sections
and States, they would quietly, patiently, and patriotically yield to what
ever should be constitutionally determined in common council. But I
think they feel very sensitively the offer to them of propositions to accept,
while they are denied all voice in the common council of the Union under
the Constitution in the discussion of these propositions. I think they feel
very sensitively that they are denied the right to be heard. And while, as
I have said, they might differ among themselves in many points in regard
to suffrage, they would not differ upon the question of doing anything
further as a condition precedent to restoration. And in respect to the
alternate conditions to be so presented, I do not think they would accept
the one or the other. My individual general views as to the proper course
to be pursued in respect to the colored people are expressed in a speech
made before the Georgia Legislature, referred to in my letter to Senator
Stewart. That was the proper forum, as I conceive, in which to discuss this
subject. And I think a great deal depends in the advancement of civilisa
tion and progress, looking to the benefit of all classes, that these questions
should be considered and kept before the proper forum.
Q. Suppose the States that are represented in Congress and Congress
itself should be of the opinion that Georgia should not be permitted to
take its place in the Government of the country except upon its assent to
one or the other of the two propositions suggested: is it then your opinion
that under such circumstances Georgia ought to decline?
Witness. You mean the States now represented, and those only?
Mr. Boutwell. Yes.
Witness. You mean by Congress, Congress as it is now constituted, with
the other eleven States excluded?
Mr. Boutwell. I do.
Witness. And you mean the same alternative proposition to be applied to
all the eleven States as conditions precedent to their restoration ?
Mr. Boutwell. I do.
A. Then I think she ought to decline under the circumstances, and for
the reasons stated ; and so ought the whole eleven. Should such an offer
be made and declined, and these States should thus continue to be excluded
and kept out, a singular spectacle would be presented. A complete re
versal of positions would be presented. In 1861, these States thought they
could not remain safely in the Union without new guarantees, and now,
when they agree to resume their former practical relations in the Union
under the Constitution as it is, the other States turn upon them and say
they cannot permit them to do so safely to their interest, without new
APPENDIX. 621
guarantees on their part. The Southern States would thus present them
selves as willing for immediate union under the Constitution, while it
would be the Northern States opposed to it. The former disunionists
would thereby become unionists, and the former unionists the practical
disunonists.
Examination o/* ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS resumed :
By Mr. Boutwell :
Q. Do you mean to be understood in your last answer that there is no
constitutional power in the Government, as at present organized, to exact
conditions precedent to the restoration to political power of the eleven
States that have been in rebellion?
A. Yes, sir. That is my opinion.
Q. Do you entertain the same opinion in reference to the amendment
to the Constitution abolishing slavery?
A. I do. 1 think the States, however, abolished slavery in good faith,
as one of the results of the war. Their ratification of the constitutional
amendment followed as a consequence. I do not think there is any con
stitutional power on the part of the Government to have exacted it as a
condition precedent to their restoration under the' Constitution, or to the
resumption of their places as members of the Union.
Q. What, in your opinion, is the legal value of the laws passed by
Congress and approved by the President in the absence of Senators and
Representatives from the eleven States ?
A. I do not know what particular law you refer to ; but my answer,
generally, is, that the validity of all laws depends on their constitutionality.
This is a question for the judiciary to determine. My own judgment,
whatever it might be, would have to conform to the judicial determination
of the question. It is a question for the courts to determine.
Q. Have you formed any opinion upon that question ?
A. I cannot say that I have formed any matured opinion in reference to
any particular act of Congress embraced in the question.
Q. Assume that Congress shall in this session, in the absence of Sena
tors and* Representatives from the eleven States, pass an act levying taxes
upon all the people of the United States, including the eleven, is it your
opinion that such an act would be constitutional?
A. I should doubt if it would be. It would certainly, in my opinion,
be manifestly unjust, and against all ideas of American representative
government. Its constitutionality would, however, be a question for the
judiciary to decide, and I should be willing to abide by that decision,
whatever it might be.
Q. If the eleven States have at present an immediate constitutional
right to be represented in Congress on a footing with the States at present
represented, has that been a continuous right from the formation of the
622 APPENDIX.
Government, or from the time of the admission of the new States respect
ively, or has it been interrupted by war ?
A. I think, as the Congress of the United States did not consent to the
withdrawal of the seceding States, it was a continuous right under the
Constitution of the United States, to be exercised so soon as the seceding
States respectively made known their readiness to resume their former
practical relations with the Federal Government, under the Constitution
of the United States. As the General Government denied the right of
secession, I do not think any of the States attempting to exercise it there
by lost any of their rights under the Constitution, as States, when their
people abandoned that attempt.
Q. Is it or not your opinion that the Legislatures and people of the eleven
States, respectively, have at present such a right to elect Senators and Rep
resentatives to Congress ; that it may be exercised without regard to the
part which persons elected may have had in the rebellion ?
A. I do not think they could exercise that right in the choice of their
Senators and members, so as to impair in the slightest degree the consti
tutional right of each House for itself to judge of the qualifications of
those who might be chosen. The right of the constitutional electors of a
Sf.ate to choose, and the right of each House of Congress to judge of the
qualifications of those elected to their respective bodies, are very distinct
and different questions'. And in thus judging of qualifications, I am free
to admit that in my opinion no one should be admitted as a member of
either House of Congress who is not really and truly loyal to the Consti
tution of the United States and to the Government established by it.
Q. State whether from your observation the events of the war have
produced any change in the public mind of the South upon the question of
the reserved rights of the States under the Constitution of the United States.
A. That question I answered in part yesterday. While I cannot state
from personal knowledge to what extent the opinions of the Southern
States upon the abstract question of the reserved rights of the States may
have changed, my decided opinion is that a very thorough change has
taken place upon the practical policy of resorting to any such right.
Q. What events or experience of the war have contributed to this
change?
A. First, the people are satisfied that a resort to the exercise of this
right, while it is denied by the Federal Government, will lead to war,
which many thought before the late attempted secession would not be the
case ; and civil wars they are also now very well satisfied are dangerous
to liberty ; and, moreover, their experience in the late war I think satisfied
them that it greatly endangered their own. I allude especially to the sus
pension of the writ of habeas corpus, the military conscriptions, the proc
lamations of martial law in various places, general impressments, and the
levying of forced contributions, as well as the very demoralizing effects of
vrir generally.
APPENDIX. 623
Q, When were you last a member of the Congress of the United States?
A. I went out on the 4th of March, 1859.
Q. Will you state, if not indisposed to do so, the considerations or
opinions which led you to identify yourself with the rebellion so far as to
accept the office of Vice-President of the Confederate States of America,
so called ?
A. I believed thoroughly in the reserved sovereignty of the several
States of the Union under the compact of Union or Constitution of 1787.
I opposed secession, therefore, as a question of policy, and not one of
right on the part of Georgia. When the State seceded against my judg
ment and vote, I thought my ultimate allegiance was due to her, and I
preferred to cast my fortunes and destinies with hers and he'r people
rather than to take any other course, even though it might lead to my
sacrifice and her ruin. In accepting position under the new order of
things, my sole object was to do all the good I could in preserving and
perpetuating the principles of liberty, as established under the Constitu
tion of -the United States. If the Union was to be abandoned either with
or without force, — which I thought a very impolitic measure, — 1 wished,
if possible, to rescue, preserve, and perpetuate the principles of the Con
stitution. This, I was not without hope, might be done in the new con
federacy of States formed. AVhen the conflict arose, my efforts were
directed to as speedy and peaceful an adjustment of the question as possi
ble. This adjustment I always thought, to be lasting, would have ulti
mately to be settled upon a constitutional basis, founded upon the principles
of mutual convenience and reciprocal advantage on the part of the States,
on which the Constitution of the United States was originally formed. I
was wedded to no particular plan of adjustment, except the recognition,
as a basis, of the separate sovereignty of the several States. With this
recognized as a principle, I thought all other questions of difference would
soon adjust themselves according to the best interests, peace, welfare, and
prosperity of the whole country, as enlightened reason, calm judgment,
and a sense of justice might direct. This doctrine of the sovereignty of
the several States I regarded as a self-adjusting, self-regulating principle
of our American system of State governments, extending, possibly, over
the continent.
Q. Have your opinions undergone any change since the opening of the
rebellion in reference to the reserved rights of States under the Constitu
tion of the United States?
A. My convictions on the original abstract question have undergone no
change, but I accept the issues of the war and the result as a practical
settlement of that question. The sword was appealed to to decide the
question, and by the decision of the sword I am willing to abide.
APPENDIX E.
SPEECH OF THE HON. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS,
OF GEORGIA.
Delivered in the House of Representatives, February 12th, 1878,
at the uncovering of F, B. Carpenter's picture.
MR. PRESIDENT AND MR. SPEAKER:
There is but little left to say in the performance of the part assigned
me in the programme arranged for this august occasion. Upon the merits
of the picture and the skill of the artist, my friend from Ohio [Mr. Gar-
field] has dwelt at large. I can but endorse all he has so well said on
that subject. As to the munificent gift of the donor, he has also left me
nothing to add. The present of a twenty-five thousand dollar painting to
the Government well deserves commendation. Few instances of this sort
have occurred in the history of our country ; I know of none. The ex
ample of this generous lady in the encouragement of art may well be
followed by others.
Mr. President, with regard to the subject of the painting, I propose, if
strength permits, to submit a few remarks ; first, as to the central figure,
the man ; after that, as to the event commemorated. I knew Mr. Lincoln
well. We met in the House in December, 1847. We were together
during the Thirtieth Congress. I was as intimate with him as with any
other man of that Congress, except perhaps one. That exception was my
colleague, Mr. Toombs. Of Mr. Lincoln's general character I need not
speak, lie was warm-hearted ; he was generous ; he was magnanimous ;
he was most truly, as he afterward said on a memorable occasion, " with
malice towards none, with charity for all."
In bodily form he was above the average ; and so in intellect ; the two
were in symmetry. Not highly cultivated, he had a native genius far
above the average of his fellows. Every fountain of his heart was ever
overflowing with the " milk of human kindness." So much for him per
sonally. From my attachment to him, so much the deeper was the pang
in my own breast as well as of millions at the horrible manner of his
" taking off." That was the climax of our troubles and the spring from
which came afterward "unnumbered woes." But of those events no
624
APPENDIX.
more now. Widely as \ve differed on public questions and policies, yet as
a friend I may say :
" No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode ;
There they alike in trembling hope repose,
The bosom of his Father and his God."
So much I have felt it my duty on this occasion to say in behalf of one
with whom I held relations so intimate, and one who personally stood so
high in my estimation.
Now as to the great historic event which this picture represents, and
which it is designed. to commemorate.
This is perhaps a subject which, as my friend from Ohio has said, the
people of this day and generation are not exactly in a condition to weigh
rightfully and judge correctly. One thing was remarked by him which
should be duly noted. That was this : Emancipation was not the chief
object of Mr. Lincoln in issuing the proclamation. His chief object, the
ideal to which his whole soul was devoted, was the preservation of the
Union. Let not history confuse events. That proclamation, pregnant as
it was with coming events, initiative as it was of ultimate emancipation,
still originated in point of fact more from what was deemed the necessities
of war than from any pure humanitarian view of the matter. Life is all
a mist, and in the dark our fortunes meet us.
This was evidently the case with Mr. Lincoln. He in my opinion was
like all the rest of us, an instrument in the hands of that Providence
above us, that '• Divinity which shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we
will." I doubt much, as was indicated by my friend from Ohio, whether
Mr. Lincoln at the time realized the great result. Mark you, the procla
mation itself did not declare free all the colored people of the Southern
States ; it applied only to those parts of the country then in resistance to
the Federal authorities. If the emancipation of the colored race, which is
one of the greatest epochs in our day, and will be so marked in the future
history of this country, be a boon or a curse to them (a question which,
under Providence, is yet to be solved, and which depends much upon
themselves), then, representing the Southern States here, I must claim in
their behalf that the freedom of that race was never finally consummated,
and could not be until the Southern States sanctioned the Thirteenth
Amendment, which they did, every one of them, by their own former con
stituencies. Before the upturning of Southern society by the reconstruc
tion acts the white people ihere came to the conclusion that their domestic
institution known as slavery had better be abolished. They accepted
the proposition for emancipation by a voluntary, uncontrolled sanction of
the proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States. This sanction was given by the original constituency of those
40
626 APPENDIX.
States, the former governing white race, and without that sanction the
Thirteenth Amendment never could have been incorporated in the funda
mental law. That is the charter of the colored man's freedom. Mr.
Lincoln's idea, as embodied in his first proclamation of September 22d,
1862, as well as that of January 1st, 1863, was consummated by the
adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United
States, and without that the proclamation had nothing but the continued
existence of the war to sustain it. Had the States in resistance laid down
their arms by the 1st of January, 1863, the Union would have been saved,
but the condition of the slave so called would have been unchanged.
Upon the subject of emancipation itself it may here be stated that the
pecuniary view, the politico-economic question involved, the amount of
property invested under the system, though that was vast2 not less than
two billion dollars, weighed, in my estimation, no more than a drop in
the bucket compared with the great ethnological problem now in tho
process of solution.
Mr. President, as to this institution called slavery in the Southern
States many errors existed, and many exceedingly unjust prejudices.
Prejudice! What wrongs, what injuries, what mischiefs, what lamentable
consequences have resulted at all times from this perversity of the intel
lect ! Of all the obstacles to the advancement of truth and human prog
ress in every department of knowledge, in science, in art, in government,
and in religion, in all ages and climes, not one on the list is more for
midable, more difficult to overcome and subdue than this horrible distortion
of the moral as well as intellectual faculties.
I could enjoin no greater duty upon my countrymen now, North and
South, as I said upon a former occasion, than the exercise of that degree
of forbearance which would enable them to conquer their prejudices. One
of the highest exhibitions of the moral sublime the world ever witnessed
was that of Daniel Webster, the greatest orator I ever heard, combining
thought with elocution, when after Faneuil Hall was denied him, he in an
open barouche in the streets of Boston proclaimed in substance to a vast
assembly of his constituents — unwilling hearers — that they had conquered
an uncongenial clime ; they had conquered a sterile soil ; they had con
quered the winds and currents of the ocean ; they had conquered niost
of the elements of nature, but they must yet learn to conquer their
prejudices.
I would say this to the people of the North as well as to the people of
the South.
Indulge me for a moment upon this subject of the institution of slavery,
so called, in the Southern States. Well, Mr. President and Mr. Speaker,
it was not an unmitigated evil. It was not, thus much I can say, without
its compensations. It is my purpose now, however, to bury, not to praise,
to laud, "nor aught extenuate."
It had its faults, and most grievously has the country, North and South,
APPENDIX. (527
for both were equally responsible for it, answered them. It also, let it be
remembered, gave rise to some of the noblest virtues that adorn civilisation.
But let its faults and virtues be buried alike forever.
I will say this: If it were not the best relation for the happiness and
welfare of both races or could not be made so, morally, physically, intel
lectually, and politically, it was wrong, and ought to have been abolished.
This I said of it years before secession, and I repeat it still. But as I have
said, this is no time now to discuss those questions.
I have seen something of the world and travelled somewhat, and I have
never yet found on earth a paradise. The Southern States are no excep
tion. Wherever I have been I have been ready to exclaim with Burns. —
" But oh ! what crowds in every land
Are wretched and forlorn !
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn."
It was so at tho South. It was so at the North. It is so yet. It is so
in every part of the world where I have been. The question of the proper
relation of the races is one of the most difficult problems which statesmen
or philanthropists, legislators or jurists, ever had to solve. The former
policy of the Southern States upon this subject is ended, but I do not think
it inappropriate on this occasion to indulge in some remarks upon the
subject. Since the emancipation, since the former ruling race have been
relieved of their direct heavy responsibility, for the protection and welfare
of their dependents, it has been common to speak of the colored race as
" the wards of the nation."
May I not say with appropriateness in this connection and due reverence,
in the language of Georgia's greatest intellect (Toombs), " They are rather
the wards of the Almighty," committed now under a new state of things
to the rulers, the law-makers, the law-expounders, and the law-executors
throughout this broad land, within their respective constitutional spheres,
to take care of and provide for, in that complicated system of government
under which we live ? I am inclined, sir, so to regard them and so to speak
of them, — not as to exceptional cases, but as a mass. In the providence
of God why their ancestors were permitted to be brought over here it is
not for us to say, but they have a location and habitation here, especially
in the South ; and since the changed condition of their status, though it
was the leading cause of the late terrible conflict of arms between the
States, yet I think I may venture to affirm there is not one within the
circle of my acquaintance*, or in the whole Southern country, who would
wish to see the old relation restored.
If there is one in all the South who would desire such a change back I
am not aware of it. Well, then, this changed status creates new duties.
The wardship has changed hands. Men of the North and of the South,
028 APPENDIX.
of the East and of the West, — I care not of what party, — I would to-day,
on this commemorative occasion, urge upon every one within the sphere
of duty and humanity, whether in public or private life, to see to it that
there be no violation of the divine trust.
Mr. President and Mr. Speaker, one or two other reflections may not be
out of place on this occasion. In submitting them I shall but repeat, in
substance, what I said in my own State nearly twelve years ago. What is
to be the future?
During the conflict of arms I frequently almost despaired of the liberties
of our country both South and North. War seldom advances, while it
always menaces, the cause of liberty, and most frequently results in its
destruction. The union of these States at first I always thought was
founded upon the assumption that it was the best interest of all to remain
united, faithfully performing each for itself its own constitutional obliga
tions under the compact. When secession was resorted to as a remedy, it
was only to avoid a greater evil that I went with my State, holding it to
be my duty so to do, but believing all the time that, if successful (for which
end I strove most earnestly), when the passions of the hour and of the day
were over the great law which produced the Union at first, " mutual in
terest and reciprocal advantage," this grand truth which Great Britain
learned after seven years of the Revolutionary War, and put in the pre
amble to the preliminary articles of peace in 1781, would reassert itself,
and that at no distant day a new Union of some sort would again be
formed.
My earnest desire, however, throughout was that whatever might be
done, might be peaceably done ; might be the result of calm, dispassionate,
and enlightened reason, looking to the permanent interests and welfare of
all. And now, after the severe chastisement of war, if the general sense
of the whole country shall come back to the acknowledgment of the origi
nal assumption, that it is for the best interests of all the States to be so
united, as I trust it will, — the States still being "separate as the billows
but one as the sea," — this thorn in the body politic being now removed, I
can perceive no reason why under such restoration, the flag no longer
waving over provinces but States, we as a whole, with " peace, commerce,
and honest friendship with all nations and entangling alliances with none,"
may not enter upon a new career, exciting increased wonder in the Old
World by grander achievements hereafter to be made, than any heretofore
attained, by the peaceful and harmonious workings of our matchless system
of American federal institutions of self-go vernm-ent. All this is possible
if the hearts of the people be right. It is uiy earnest wish to see it.
Fondly would I indulge my fancy in gazing on such a picture of the
future. With what rapture may we not suppose the spirits of our fathers
would hail its opening scenes from their mansions above. But if, instead
of all this, sectional passions shall continue to bear sway, if prejudice
shall rule the hour ; if a conflict of classes, of labor and capital, or of the
APPENDIX. 629
races shall arise ; if the embers of the late war shall be kept a-glowing
until with new fuel they shall flame up again, then our late great troubles
and disasters were but the shadow, the penumbra of that deeper and darker
eclipse which is to totally obscure this hemisphere and blight forever the
anxious anticipations and expectations of mankind ! Then, hereafter, by
some bard it may be sung, —
" The Star of Hope shone brightest in the West,
The hope of Liberty, the last, the best;
It, too, has set upon her darkened shore,
And Hope and Freedom light up earth no more."
INDEX.
A.
Abolitionists, practices, 125; run Presi
dential candidate, 317. '
Acquisition of Louisiana, 118.
Adams, J. Q., anecdote of, 181, 193:
death, 226.
Alabama, trip to, 101.
Alexander, A. L., 51, 99.
Alien and Sedition Acts, 117.
"Allison" letters, 227.
Atlanta Sun, connexion with, 505: loss
by, 529.
B.
Baltimore, affray in, 397.
Baltimore, Democratic Convention, 354,
364.
Banks, N. P., elected Speaker, 306; de
feated by Jackson, 412.
Barnard, F. A. P., letter from, 538.
Battle, Isaac, suit vs. Hilsman, 96.
Battles, first Manassas, 406; Shiloh,
411; Valley Campaign, Seven Pines,
Six Days', 41 2 ; second Manassas, Mur-
freesboro', Sharpsburg, 416; Chan-
cellorsville, 442 ; Gettysburg, 443 ;
Wilderness, etc., 463.
Beauregard, G. T., takes Sumter, 396;
checks Butler, 463 ; an opinion of, 464.
Bell, Emmeline, wife of Linton Stephens,
21, 267; death, 324.
Benton, T. II., 248.
Berrien, J. M., 158, 198.
Bird, J. L., 196, 198, 351.
Bird, W., residence with, 72; death, 194.
Bowdoin College, degree of LL.D. from,
520.
Bristow, C., toast by, 135; death, 197.
Bristow, F., 196, 208.
Brown, J. E., Governor, 409 ; proclama
tion by, 435; invited to meet General
Sherman, 471.
Brown, M., resolutions, 184.
Bryant, B., 24.
Buchanan, J., 249, 315; elected Presi
dent, 317; interview with, 329; breaks
with Douglas, 337 ; visit to, 338 ; re
monstrance with, 347, 428.
Bulwer, Sir II., anecdote of, 253.
Burch, R. T., 95.
Burton's Anatomy nf Melancholy, 221.
Cabinet of President Taylor, 252, 255;
of President Davis, 395.
Calhoun, J. C., opinion of, 203; Terri
torial Resolutions, 221; report, 235,
243; death, 251.
Calhoun, J. M., letter to, on martial law,
421.
California, admission of, 246; constitu
tion of, 248.
Campbell, D. G., 51.
Campbell, J. A., negotiation with Sew-
ard, 394.
Cass, L., 249.
Chaffin, T., 133; journey with, 145.
Chandler, G. A., generous offer, 71.
Chapman, J., election, 139.
Charleston Commercial Convention,
speech at, 132.
Charleston Democratic Convention, 353;
Secession Convention, 374.
Cherokee Indians, treaty with Great
Britain, 270.
Chicago Convention, 469.
Church, A.. 53, 55 ; household of, 62; 336.
Church, Elizabeth. 170.
Civil Rights Bill, speech on, 521.
Clay, H., Missouri Resolution, 121;
speech, 183; reception in Washing
ton, 224 ; remark by, 226 ; change of
purpose, 227, 243; Compromise Reso
lutions, 245; speech, 254; "Omnibus
Bill," 257; 308.
Clayton Compromise, 228.
Clayton, J. M., Secretary of State, 238;
anecdote of, 253.
Cobb, II., anecdotes of, 1 78, 1 79 ; Speaker,
241 ; charge against, 251 ; Governor,
265; 301; hostility to Douglas, 338 :
joke on, 386; advice to, 428.
College, Macon Female, 346.
Colquitt, W. T., debate with. 173.
Commissioners, Peace, 388, 393.
Committee on Federal Relations, report
of, 158.
Cone, F, H., assault on Mr. Stephens,
232.
Confederate bonds, 441.
Confederate steamers, 443.
Congress, Confederate Provisional, 387;
character of, 392; Permanent, 414.
631
632
INDEX.
Congress, Peace, 388.
Congressional year, mode of reckoning
changed, 258.
Connell, Cosby, 450.
Conscription policy, 409, 415, 417, 418,
429, 445.
Constitution of Confederate States, Pro
visional, 385 ; Permanent, 392.
Constitution of United States, 111 ; con
struction of, 117. "
Constitutional Amendment, ratification
of, 494 ; powers conferred, 522.
Constitutional View of the Wai; 492, 494,
500 ; reviews of, 495, 504 ; receipts
from, 529.
Constitutional Union party, 258, 272.
Convention of 1787, llO ; Hartford, 118;
Charleston Commercial, 132; Charles
ton Democratic, 353 ; Baltimore Dem
ocratic, 354, 365; Charleston Secession,
374; Georgia Secession, 380.
Convention between Virginia and Con
federate States, 399.
Cotton as basis of finance, 405, 415, 424.
Crawford, M. J., Peace Commissioner,
389, 391.
Crawford, W. H., 89, 172 j Governor,
197; Galphin claim, 251, 270.
Cravvfordville, 72; description of, 531.
J).
Davis, H. W., debate with, 333, 334.
Davis, Jefferson, President of Confed
erate States, 385 ; inauguration, 386 ;
Cabinet, 395 ; how nominated, 389 ;
396; relations with, 426; message,
431 ; interview with, 444, 468 ; speech,
474, 486; captured, 487.
Dawson, W. C., 287.
Day, N., 24, 26 ; anecdote of, 28.
Deadlock in House of Representatives,
300.
Dearing, W., 51.
Death of A. II. Stephens, 553.
Democratic party, 112, 124, 241.
Dinner offered by Congress, 345 ; at Au
gusta, 346.
Dodge, General, anecdote of, 296.
Dougherty, F., anecdote of, 150.
Douglas, S. A., 228; reports Nebraska
Bill, 276; opposes Lecompton Consti
tution, 327; contest with Lincoln, 337;
candidate at Charleston, 354; death,
405; 428.
Dred Scott decision, 316, 335.
K.
Election to Georgia Legislature, 126,
139, 147; to State Senate, 156; to
Congress, 174, 265, 297; to Vice-Pres
idency Confederate States, 385 ; to
Congress, 519, 529, 534.
Electoral Commission, 535.
Ellington, H., anecdote of, 92.
" Emigrant Aid Societies," 277, 309.
Encyclopedia, Johnson's, contributions
to, 521.
England, feeling toward the South, 419,
431.
Espy, J. P., 541.
Ewing, T., joke of, 182.
F.
Fair Play, debate at, 139.
Federal Government, formation of, 110.
Federal party, 111, 117, 145.
Fillmore, M., 249, 314; position of, 315.
Financial policy of Mr. Stephens, 405,
424, 427.
Fishing bounties, 122.
Florida, trip to, 169, 195.
Forsyth, J., 389.
Fort Sumter, evacuation promised, 394;
surrendered, 396.
Fort Warren, imprisonment in, 487.
Foster, N. G., election, 297.
Foster, T.> 81, 86, 99, 107, 126, 145.
Foster and Montgomery plot, 442, 444.
Fouche, S., 134, 139.
Fourth of July at Cravvfordville, 87, 134,
530 ; at Atlanta, 530.
Free-Soil party, 237, 317.
Fugitive Slave Law, 275.
Galphin claim, 251, 270.
Georgia and Ohio compared, 284, 289.
Georgia Education Society, 50, 59.
Georgia old-field schools, 26.
Georgia railroads, 291.
Georgia Resolutions of 1850, 259.
Georgia University, life at, 53, 60;
elected Professor, 496.
Georgia Whigs, 157, 167.
Giles and Finkle correspondence (see
Preface), 22, 24, 30, 34, 41, 44, 47, 50,
54, 59, 66.
Grant, U. S., 463, 485 ; anecdote of, 492;
opinion of, 505, 529; policy, 508.
Greeley, H., 509, 512.
Grier, A. W. (uncle), 41, 43, 45, 269.
Grier, Elizabeth (aunt), 23, 43.
Grier, Margaret, wife of A. B. Stephens,
20.
II.
Habeas corpus, suspension of, 398, 417,
420; resolutions, 455, 459; Judge
Taney's decision, 475.
Hale, Senator, anecdote of, 308.
Hampton Roads, naval battle in, 412;
Conference, 484, 486.
Harris, J. L., letter of, 127.
INDEX.
633
Harrison, W. II., President, 145 ; death,
149.
Hartford Convention, 118.
Hay, G., 51.
Hill, B. 11., 316, 529.
Hilsman, J., lawsuit with I. Battle, 96.
Hixtory of the United States, 501, 506,
511.
History of the War, 492, 494, 495, 500,
504, 529.
Hopkins, Professor, anecdote of, 60.
Hospitals in Richmond, 407, 410.
Houston, S., 248, 249.
I.
Inauguration of Executive officers C. S.
A., 386.
Internal Improvements, 122 ; in the
South, 281.
International Review, article in, 268, 535.
-I.
Jackson, A., President, protest, 75 ; anec
dote of, 103; action in South Carolina
case, 123.
Jackson, T. J. ("Stonewall"), 412, 416;
death, 442.
Jeffries, S. C., offer of partnership, 90.
Jenkins, C. J., 272.
Johnson, H. V., 208 ; Governor, 272.
Johnston, A. S., 411; death, 413, 436.
Johnston, J. E., ability, 427, 436; checks
Sherman, 463; strategy, 467, 479.
Jones, A., 250.
Journey to Alabama, 101; to Indian
Springs, 128; to the North, 129; to
Greehbrier Springs, 130; to Cherokee
country, 145 ; to Florida, 169, 195 ; to
Northwest, 337.
Junius Letters, authorship of, 267.
1C.
Kansas War, 277; Bill, 280,282; elec
tion, 308, 309, 317; admission, 328,
329, 330, 331, 332, 333.
Kemper, Governor, message quoted, 526.
King, W., letter to, 472.
" Know-Nothing" party, 286, 292 ; letter
on, 293 ; campaign against, 296, 298.
Kossuth, L.. address at Baltimore, 266.
"Ku-Klux Klan," 508.
L.
La Fayette, anecdote of, 287.
Lawrence, Dr., 139, 146.
Lecompton Constitution (Kansas), 328.
Le Conte, Dr., 70.
Le Conte, W., 69.
Lee, R. E., 413; opinion of, 427 ; ability,
435; invades Pennsylvania, 442; de
fence of Richmond, 463; surrender,
487.
Letter on Know-Nothingisui, 293 ; on
Charleston Convention, 357 ; to Mr.
Lincoln, 371; to J. M. Calhoun, 421 :
on mode of securing peace, 470 ; on
Senatorship, 489.
Lewis, L. A., 66.
Liberty Hall, 351, 453, 488, 512, 531.
Lincoln, A., contest with Douglas, 337,
Republican candidate for Presidency,
355 ; election, 366 ; correspondence
with, 371 ; suspends habeas corpus,
398; Cabinet, 404; Emancipation Pro
clamation, 416; 428, 432; anecdote of,
485.
Lind, Jenny, 260.
Lindsay, Matilda S., wife of A. B.
Stephens, 20.
Locust Grove Academy, 44.
Louisiana purchase opposed, 118.
Lumpkin, J. H., 89.
Lyons, Lord, 431.
Macon Female College, 346.
Madison, school at, 66.
Marshal], Chief Justice, anecdote of, 183.
Martial law, 417, 418, 420.
McClellan, G. B., 436, 469.
McLean, J., letter, 207.
Mercer, L. Bv 74, 78 ; controversy with,
128.
Metcalf, ex-Governor, 235.
Mexican Appropriation, speech on, 212.
Mexican War, 201; speech on, 204; res
olutions, 210.
Milledgeville Convention, 380.
Mills, C. C., 43, 47.
Minnesota, admission of, 334.
Mission proposed to Washington, 442,
443, 444.
Missouri Compromise, 120.
Missouri line abolished, 257.
Montgomery and Foster, plot and cor
respondence, 442, 444.
N.
National Bank, 168.
National Government rejected by Con
vention of 1787, 111.
" National party," 111, 117.
Navigation of Mississippi, proposed ces
sion to Spain, 116.
Navy, Confederate, 443.
Nebraska Bill, 276, 280.
Negroes at the South, 283; in Georgia,
503.
"New Departure, the," 509, 517.
New England States, 114; change of
policy, 118.
New Orleans, surrender of, 413.
Nicaragua, 328
634
INDEX.
Nisbet, E., 147.
Nullification, South Carolina, 123.
O'Cavanaugh, schoolmaster, 44.
Ohio and Georgia compared, 284, 289.
Old-field schools in Georgia, 26.
O'Neal, Q., 351.
Oregon, boundary question, 200, 202,
204; Territorial government, 212.
P.
" Parson, the," 351.
Parties, the two great, 109, 111.
Peace Congress, 388.
Peace Resolutions, 455, 457, 470.
" Personal Liberty Acts," 275, 376.
Pierce, F., President, message, 300; pol
icy, Ml 5.
Political year, change in, 258.
Polk, J. K., President, Mexican policy,
200, 203; caution, 204; popularity,
207; policy attacked, 212.
Powder Creek Sunday-school, 41, 42.
Powelton, speech at, 147.
Prisoners, exchange of, 443, 444, 485.
Problems at formation of Union, 110.
Protection policy, 122.
Provisional Government for Confederate
States, 383 ; Constitution for, 385.
Q.
Quincy, J., State-rights speech, 118.
K.
Railway accidents, 272, 463.
Railroad, Georgia, projected, 81 ; system,
how developed, 282; compared with
Ohio, 291.
Railroad, Texas Pacific, 538.
Ray, Sabrina (cousin), 72, 99, 170, 195;
death, 278.
Ray, T., 77, 99, 170, 345.
Recognition, European, of Confederate
States, 417, 419, 431.
"Reconstruction Committee," testimony
before, 491.
Report of Committee on Federal Rela
tions, 156.
Representation, how apportioned, 115.
Resolutions on Mexican War, 210;
Georgia, 259 ; in Confederate Con
gress, 480.
Rhetoric, study of, 150.
Richmond Democratic Convention, 354.
Roman, A. B., 389.
S.
Salary Bill, action on, 527.
Salter, Mary W., wife of Linton Stephens,
Saturday Review on History of the War,
504.
Scott, W., 268.
Secession of South Carolina, 374; Geor
gia, 382; Virginia, 396.
Secession looked to in 1851, 264.
Semmes, A. G., 51.
Semmes, R., 433.
Shannon, Professor, anecdote of, 61.
Sherman, W. T., 463, 468, 471, 486.
Signal Service Bureau, origin, 549.
Slavery, how regarded in 1787,114; at
the South, 191, 192 ; agitation in
Congress, 228 ; effects of, 283 ; in Ter
ritories, 302; in the South, 310.
Slaves, plot to raise the, 442, 444.
Slave-trade, Eastern States vote for its
continuance, 115, 120.
Soule1, P., amendment to Clay's bill, 256.
Southern Review, 495.
Speech at "Crawfordville, 87; on Rail
road Bill, 127 ; at Charleston Com
mercial Convention, 132; at Crawford-
' ville, 136; at Newnan, 173; on right
of members to seats, 176; on admis
sion of Texas, 185; on Mexican War,
204; on Mexican appropriation, 212;
on Clayton Compromise, 229 : at Bal
timore, 266; at Emory College, 268;
on Galphin claim, 271 : on Nebraska
Bill, 276; on repeal of Kansas-Ne
braska Bill, 280; in reply to Mr.
Campbell, 289; against Know-Noth-
ingism, 294; on Kansas election, 308;
on admission of Kansas, 309; on Presi
dential election, etc., 318; on admis
sion of Minnesota, 334 ; at Augusta,
346 ; against secession, 367 ; at Mil-
ledgeville Convention, 380 ; at Savan
nah on public affairs, 394; on support
of the war, 423 ; at Sparta on state
of affairs, 445 ; before Confederate
Senate, 478; at Milledgeville on state
of the country, 491 ; on Civil Rights
Bill, 521; at Atlanta, 530; on uncov-
• ering Carpenter's picture, 537.
State-Rights party, 112, 117; coalition
with Northern Democrats, 140.
Stephens, Aaron Grier (brother), 20, 41,
131; death, 174.
Stephens, Alexander (grandfather), im
migrates, 17; marries and removes to
Georgia, 18.
Stephens, Andrew Baskins (father), 18,
19; children, 20; recollections of, 33;
death, 40.
Stephens, James (uncle), visit to, 104.
Stephens, John (brother), 169, 305 ; death,
314.
Stephens, Linton (brother), 21, 41 ; en
ter? University, 133; letters to, 141;
graduation, 171 ; enters University of
INDEX.
Virginia, 181 ; goes to Cambridge, 195 ;
marries^ 267 ; removes to Sparta, 271 ;
candidate for Congress, 295 ; partner
ship, 314; runs for Congress, 326; ap
pointed judge, 345; resolution offered
by, 382 ; goes to Fort Warren, 487 ;
arrest, 503; death, 513.
Stephens, Linton (nephew), 434, '485.
Story, J., 181, 183; death, 197.
Styx (British steamer), 336.
SHU, Atlanta, 505, 529.
Sunday-school celebration at Crawford-
ville, 532.
T.
Taney. R. B., decision in Dred Scott case,
31fi. 335 : in Merryman's case, 475.
Tariff, 122. 157.
Taylor. Gen. Richard, 543.
Taylor. /., advances to Rio Grande, 201 ;
nominated for Presidency, 224 : "Alli
son'1 letters of, 227; elected President,
236 ; character and Cabinet. 252.
Texas, admission of, 184, 192.
Thomas, J , 267, 415.
Thomas, T. W., 293; anecdote of, 367;
404.
Toombs, R., 89: generous offer, 131;
friendship, 141 ; journey with, 195;
remark to Mr. Clay, 225 ; votes against
Mexican appropriation, 232 ; speech
on California Bill, 256; sympathy,
325 ; compliment, 367 (no'te) ; de
nounced, 370 ; in Confederate Con
gress, 386: proposed for President,
390.
Topeka Constitution for Kansas, 309.
Troup, G. M., 135, 137; mode of life,
460.
Tyler Whigs, 157.
u.
University of Georgia, student at, 53,
60 ; elected Professor, 496.
Utah, Territorial Government for, 255,
257; Mormon War in, 328.
\ .
Van Buren, M., President, 138.
Vason, P. -A., 69.
Vigilance committees, 125.
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions,
117.
Virginia secedes, 396 ; convention with,
399.
Vicksburg, fall of, 443.
W.
Waddell, M., 53, 55.
Walker, W., Nicaragua expedition, 328.
Walker, R. J., 218.
Webster, A. II., 47, 48, 51.
Webster, D., 243, 254, 257, 268.
Western and Atlantic Railroad, debate
on, 126 ; Mr. Stcphens's connection
with, 501.
Whig party, 124; led by Clay, 138; in
Georgia, 157; platform of, 167; lose
ground, 207; position in 1847, 210;
timidity, 219; Northern Whigs, 255 j
lean to Know-Nothingism, 292.
Wilmot Proviso, 212, 221, 230, 237, 245.
Wingfield, G., 42.
Winthrop, Mr., Speaker, 220, 237.
Witholo-mico, an Indian chief, 102.
Wright, A. R., 99.
Y.
Yancey, W. L., 207.
Young persons educated by Mr. Stephens,
425.
Zollicoffcr, Mr., debate with, 302.
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