Little Aleck A Life Of Alexander H. Stephens

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LITTLE ALECK

LITTLE ALECK

of

ALEXANDER H.
STEPHENS

Fighting 'Vice-president
of the Confederacy

by

E. RAMSAY
RICHARDSON

Illustrated

THE BOBBS-MERR1LL COMPANY

PUBtlSHKRS INJ^IANAPOLIS

COPYRIGHT,
BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY

EDITION

Printed in the United States of America

PRESS OF

BRAUNWORTH & CO. , INC.

BOOK MANUFACTURERS

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

To
DAVID MARSHALL RAMSAY

A Carolinian who has contributed generously
to the New South

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I THE ARREST AT LIBERTY HALL 17
II AN UNDERGROUND CELL AT FORT WARREN 29

III MINGLED SEED 42

IV THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS 57
V AMONG THE SOLONS OF GEORGIA 69

VI IN THE NATIONAL MAELSTROM 83

VII STEPHENS OPENS THE DOOR TO TEXAS 95

VIII FOLK'S PRIVATELY CONDUCTED WAR 102

IX LITTLE ALECK ELECTS A PRESIDENT 112

X COMPROMISE FOR A DAY 123

XI \TiiE WHIP AND SPUR TO NEBRASKA 136

XII DISTANT RUMBLINGS 147

XIII THE STORM GATHERS 167

XIV LIGHTNING STRIKES 182
XV A NATION Is BORN 198

XVI INTERNAL DISCORDS 219
XVII THE VICE-PRESIDENT OPPOSES THE

PRESIDENT 241

XVIII LITTLE ALKCK FIGHTS FOR PEACE 255

XIX OLD FRIENDS CONFER AT HAMPTON ROADS 272

XX TIIK VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 283

XXI Tine HARVEST YEARS 308

BIBLIOGRAPHY 343

INDEX 349

ILLUSTRATIONS

Alexander H. Stephens Front.

PAGE

Liberty Hall 24

The Little Fellow Who Practised Law in Crawf ordville 64
The Congressman from Georgia 120

Vice-President Stephens and Captain Linton Stephens
of the Confederate Army 214

Linton Stephens and Nora, the Oldest Daughter of
Linton and Mary Salter Stephens 214

Jefferson Davis 276

Aunt EH/,a, Who Reigned Supreme in "Marse Aleck's"
Kitchen, and Mary Frances Holden, Granddaughter
of Mr, Stcphcns's Niece Mollie 304

The Governor of Georgia 338

FOREWORD

I AM grateful to Douglas S. Freeman, of Richmond, recog
nized authority upon the Confederate period, for calling
my attention to the historical importance of Alexander H.
Stephens and to the need for a life of the great little states
man. I am indebted to Doctor Freeman for suggesting
obscure sources that might have escaped me.

I am grateful also to Henry Cleveland, who in 1866 pub
lished a book containing Alexander Stephens's speeches and
a biographical sketch, the accuracy of which Mr. Stephens
attested; to R. M. Johnston and W. H. Browne for the
Life of Alexander II. Stephens, which appeared in 1878 and
consists almost entirely of letters and diary excerpts; to
James D. Waddell for building his Life of Lint on Stephens
around the correspondence of the Stephens brothers; to
Myrta Lockett Avary for the careful editing of Alexander
H. Stephens'^ diary; to Ulrich B. Phillips for collecting the
Stephens, Toombs and Cobb correspondence; to the early
biographers of distinguished Georgians, contemporaries of
Little Aleck, who included in their books much Stephens
material; and to Alexander H. Stephens for A Constitu
tional View of the War between the States, for his histories,
and other publications that give clearly his stand on public
questions in other words, for sources that enabled me,
without resorting to any fictitious conversation, to make my
characters talk,

I am indebted to the daughters of Linton Stephens for
letters, pictures and recollections; to Mrs. Linton Andrew
Stephens, of Thomson, Georgia, for intimate glimpses of
Alexander II. Stephens at Liberty Hall; to Mrs. Henry F.
White, of Crawfordvillc, Georgia, and Mrs. Horace M.

xnr

xiv LITTLE ALECK

Holden, of Atlanta, for wills, letters and anecdotes; to
Judge Alexander W. Stephens, of the Georgia Court of Ap
peals, for the loan of valuable material, for pictures, and
for stories of the days in the Governor's mansion; to the
Honorable John M. Graham, member of the Atlanta Bar,
for accounts of Mr. Stephens's second congressional career;
to Mrs. Geline MacDonald Bowman, of Richmond, and
Mrs. Garnett McMillan, of Chattanooga, who assisted me
in making contacts with the relatives in Georgia; and to
Mrs. J. T. McLaws, formerly of Savannah, now of Rich
mond, for recollections of her father's gubernatorial
campaign of 1880; and to Oscar L. Shewmake, of Richmond,
for the loan of his grandmother's manuscript diary.

I am grateful also to Jack and Jill Woodford, to David
Marshall Ramsay, to Mary Woolfolk Ramsay, and to Dolly
Richardson who helped me in various ways; to Henry R.
Mcllwaine, state librarian of Virginia, for interesting me
in biographical research; and to the Virginia State Library
for its wealth of historical material and for the patient and
competent cooperation of its staff. My chief debt, however,
is to F. Briggs Richardson, who will probably deny that he
helped me at all.

Richmond, Virginia. E. R. R.

LITTLE ALECK

LITTLE ALECK

CHAPTER I
THE ARREST AT LIBERTY HALL

THE little village of Crawfordville in eastern Georgia
lay asleep in the May sunshine. The Civil War was at an
end. A bit over a month before, General Lee had surren
dered at Appomattox Court House. Stunned into con
sciousness of defeat, the people of the South were quietly
awaiting the results of that surrender* Beneath the morn
ing calm ran a current of uneasiness. For thirty years the
leading citizen of Crawfordville had drawn the village into
the national strife of which Appomattox was the climax.
Now the people who loved him feared for his safety.
Rumors that he and Robert Toombs, of the adjoining county,
would be arrested had reached them. Within the stores men
talked in subdued whispers. Now and then a woman peered
through drawn curtains to be assured that all was quiet.
At the railway station men stood in knots, waiting rest
lessly*

At nine-thirty a train steamed in and emptied its load of
blue-coated soldiers* A negro boy broke away from the
loiterers and ran, ashen-face and wild-eyed, toward the big
house at the edge of the village.

At Liberty Hall there was a peace that had not presaged
disaster. Hard by the Baptist Church, where people of all
faiths assembled for weekly worship, stretched the plan
tation, seemingly untouched by the cataclysm that had shat
tered the country. Through the grove of locusts, hickories
and cedars the sun spilled upon the turf.

An air of comfort and quiet dignity pervaded the house,

17

i8 LITTLE ALECK

There were statelier homes in Georgia but none where guests
were happier. Large and square it was, with an ell at its
rear. Down-stairs and up, four rooms opened into the large
center hall. Along the ell was a side piazza that looked to
ward fields, which faithful slaves had cultivated even during
the darkest days of the war. At the front of the house was a
quaint square portico around which flowers bloomed in semi-
tropical profusion. In the parlor the owner sat playing
casino with Robert Hull, a young man from Athens, who
had spent the night before at Liberty Hall. He had dressed
with the assistance of Tim, his serving boy, had breakfasted
in the dining-room above the rose-patterned carpet, with the
green and gold shades raised so that the morning light might
shine upon the ancient extension table and reveal the silent
handless clock upon the mantel and the picture of the frozen
traveler guarded by his faithful St. Bernard dogs. Then
he had written a few letters, which he had dispatched by the
hand of Tim. Now he sat in the parlor, playing casino with
his friend. Here, whenever he was at home, there were
guests for the morning game that served as a pleasant
hiatus between labors, for the old hotel in Crawfordville,
now grayheaded and leaning lazily toward the street, was not
so attractive as the free hospitality obtainable at Liberty
Hall

A strange figure was this little man who sat intent upon the
cards that fluttered between his tremulous fingers. Less
than a hundred pounds he weighed, though he measured
five feet ten. His sallow face was traced by myriads of
fine lines. The only features that seemed alive were the
large, dark eyes that burned from out their macabre setting.
Though ill and now beset by danger, the little man could
not be entirely unhappy at Liberty Hall. He loved the
village of Crawfordville, the Old Homestead a few miles
away, where he had spent the first years of his meager child
hood, the house and plantation that he had bought with his

THE ARREST AT LIBERTY HALL 19

first considerable earnings and this parlor of his utterly
delighted him. He himself had selected the green carpet
with its colored arabesque design. He would often sit
studying the engraving on the mantel, of Webster during the
great speech of 1850, remembering how he had welcomed
the Unionist's stand in favor of compromise and how san
guine he himself had been concerning the possibility of set
tling those sectional disputes in which he had taken no small
part. Every object in the room had for the owner some
sentimental association the cigar case that was a prized
gift from a "lady friend," the lithographs of himself and
of his lifelong friend Robert Toombs, the oil paintings in
their massive gilt frames, his own bust on a pillar of white
and green marble done by J. Q. A. Ward, of Ohio, in 1859,
and the Bible that contained his family registry. As the
little man played casino with his young friend, he was reso
lutely keeping from his mind the uneasiness for his welfare
that the townspeople were voicing to one another in awed
whispers.

He looked up, however, when the negro boy rushed in
from the station, panting and rolling his eyes in terror.

"Marsc Aleck I De Yankees come. Whole heap, goin'
'bout de town wid guns," the boy gasped.

Marse Aleck rose feebly from his chair and tottered in
the direction of his room. He knew that the Yankees had
come for him* He had expected them, and he had been both
unwilling to escape and too ill since his return from Rich
mond after the last conference with President Davis, which
had followed the trying interview at Hampton Roads with
Lincoln and SewarcL There were just a few arrangements
that he wanted to make. Then he would go willingly wher
ever orders would take him.

In a moment soldiers filled his yard. Officers walked
heavily across his porch and stamped upon the mosaic pat
tern of the oilcloth in his hall. In western nasals the

20 LITTLE ALECK

commanding officer was asking for Alexander Hamilton
Stephens. The little man squared his slim shoulders and
advanced as firmly as his feeble body could carry him.

"Alexander Hamilton Stephens ?"

The officer repeated his interrogation as though in doubt
that so frail a person could bear so impressive a name as
that of the Vice-President of the Confederacy.

The little man nodded. "That is my name," he said with
dignity.

"I am Captain Saint, of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry, at
tached to General Nelson's command/' the young man con
tinued without bravado. "I have orders to arrest Alexander
Hamilton Stephens and Robert Toombs,"

"May I see your orders?"

The Captain produced them. Alexander Stephens
examined the paper for a moment.

"There was no need to use force," he replied. "I should
have given myself up had I known there were orders for
my arrest. How are we to travel?"

"On the cars," said Captain Saint tersely.

"Will I be permitted to carry any clothing?"

"Yes."

"How much time shall I have for preparation?"

"A few minutes as long as necessary."

As Harry, the colored man who, with his wife Eliza,
ruled the domestic life at Liberty Hall, peered uneasily into
the room, "You may take a servant with you," said Captain
Saint.

"What will be our destination?"

"First, Atlanta; then, Washington City,"

There was a black boy Anthony whom Stephens had
brought from Richmond and who would doubtless be glad
for a chance to return to his mother.

"Tell Anthony that I will take him. lie must get ready
at once," Alexander Stephens directed Harry*

THE ARREST AT LIBERTY HALL 21

While Tim was hurriedly packing the carpetbag and
finding the warm clothing that Mr. Stephens needed even
in summer, the secretary, Mr. Hidell, having heard the
news in the village, arrived, as did Clarence, a nephew, with
some fellow students from the academy. There were so
many things that needed attention, so many directions that
should be given! Yet time was short. Would some one
look after his brother's widow and children, who were de
pendent on him? Would some one at once notify his
brother Linton, who was nearer and dearer to him than any
other person on earth? Hastily he scribbled a note to
Linton, telling him briefly all that he knew concerning the
arrest. There were things he should say about the prog
ress of the work on the plantation during his absence. In
the few minutes allowed him, however, Alexander Stephens
had time only to urge Harry to make good use of his free
dom, to be a law-abiding citizen, and to be sure to train his
children right and to send them to school.

In fifteen minutes the little procession had started for the
station friends who gathered in rapidly increasing num
bers, the servants, Clarence and the other boys from the
academy the negroes loud in their lamentations, the white
people weeping less audibly.

The little man and the large company of soldiers, who had
been sent to effect his arrest, boarded the train, which im
mediately puffed its way out of the station. Mr. Stephens
was left four miles from Washington, Georgia, with twenty
men to guard him, while the Captain and the rest of the
company went in search of General Toombs. They would
be back in an hour, said Captain Saint. A farmer permitted
Mr. Stephens to rest in his house. When the dinner hour
arrived, he apologetically shared with his guest the fried
meat and bread, which he said was all he had. The after
noon wore on. Again at supper the frail little man tried to
eat the rough fare that was offered him. Later the engine

22 LITTLE ALECK

returned, bringing food for the soldiers. Alexander
Stephens looked eagerly for the robust body and jovial face
of his friend, who had sustained him through many another
ordeal.

"Where's Toombs?" he asked of the Captain, but the
reply was evasive.

The engine pulled out again, and Mr. Stephens was left
in doubt and perplexity. As a spring storm gathered, Alex
ander Stephens shivered beneath his greatcoat. On nights
like this at Liberty Hall there was always a cheery fire in
his study. Forlorn and lonely and ill and miserably appre
hensive, he waited in the bare little farmhouse for what
ever might be in store for him.

At nine the train returned. Walking across the damp
ground, Mr. Stephens got his feet wet. At once his throat-
became sore, and a feverish condition was added to his gen
eral distress. The presence of Bob Toombs would have
been infinitely comforting. Again he made inquiries of the
Captain.

"Mr. Toombs flanked us," was the reply, rendered in
so irate a tone that Alexander Stephens asked no further
questions.

At eleven the travelers reached Barnett There they
waited an hour for the Atlanta train. The wind blew cold
through the broken panes of the windows. Chilled to the
bone, the frail little man shivered and ground his teeth to
gether to prevent their chattering.

The next morning in General Upton's headquarters in
Atlanta, Alexander Stephens was cheered by one familiar
face. The negro on duty was Felix, who had been with
Toombs and Stephens as cook during congressional days in
Washington.

Visitors were allowed to speak briefly to the pris
oner the surgeon whom Captain Saint sent to prescribe
for the cold the dampness of the evening before had in-

THE ARREST AT LIBERTY HALL 23

duced and a few friends who came offering money which
Mr. Stephens thought unnecessary since he had with him
five hundred and ninety dollars in gold.

When General Upton called the following day, the pris
oner was so hoarse that he could not speak above a whisper.
He learned, however, that Jefferson Davis had been cap
tured and that C. C. Clay, accused of complicity in the
assassination of President Lincoln, had surrendered him
self. Mr. Stephens was sorry to learn that he and the former
President of the Confederacy would be fellow travelers on
their way to prison. When they had parted after the Hamp
ton Roads Conference, their relations somewhat strained
during the entire period of the war had reached a chilly
climax. Alexander Stephens had expressed his determina
tion to return to Georgia and await the catastrophe that
seemed to him inevitable, and Jefferson Davis had con
tinued optimistic as to the final result of the war if the
South would put new zeal into its endeavors. Now Alex
ander Stephens steeled himself for the meeting, which he
apprehended with increasing concern.

The view of Atlanta from his window was not conducive
to a pleasant frame of mind. Everywhere were evidences
of the heavy toll the war had exacted. He could see the
ruins of the Atlanta Hotel. How many times he had
there met in conference men who with him were try
ing to preserve the constitutional rights of the South and
at the same time to save the Union 1 There in 1 848 he had
almost lost his life because he had resented being called a
traitor to the South. Now he was held as prisoner, accused
of treason against his country. He could see also the place
where the Trout House had stood. There Douglas had
spoken in 1860, supported by Stephens and others who be
lieved that under his leadership the Union might escape
destruction. Stephens had not been hopeful then, Now
dark despair settled upon him.

24 LITTLE ALECK

On Sunday, May fourteenth, the journey was resumed
toward its unknown destination. Mr. Stephens remembered
that the day was the anniversary of his stepmother's death
in 1826. Unhappiness, akin to that he was experiencing
now, had assailed him on that long ago Sabbath. A week
before, his father had died. The boy had known that the
little family was to be separated. The thirty-nine years
since that blighting morning had been filled with endeavor,
which had come to this imprisonment for treason and
possibly execution. Of the alternatives, the latter seemed
preferable.

At Crawfordville the train stopped for Alexander
Stephens to pack a few additional things. A funereal
crowd waited at the station. After all, it was comforting
to know that his fellow townspeople loved him and suf
fered with him now. News came, however, of the illness of
Linton. He had hoped for a word from his brother, had
known that Linton would have been in Crawfordville if
his coming had been within the realm of the possible.

There was hurried packing. There was time for a few
good-bys and for further directions that concerned the wel
fare of the servants toward whom Alexander Stephens felt
a paternal responsibility. Eliza and Harry and Tim would
remain indefinitely to care for the place- He bethought
himself of a colored boy Henry, who also had lived in Rich
mond, and secured permission for the lad to join the party.

Though Mr. Stephens knew that Jefferson Davis boarded
the train at Barnett, he postponed as long as possible the
meeting with his former colleague. At the river there
were carriages to convey the prisoners from the train to
the boat. Mr. and Mrs, Davis bowed as they passed. Clay,
Stephens had heard, was not greatly concerned by the
charges that had been placed against him, for he felt cer
tain that he could easily establish his innocence. Stephens
caught a glimpse of Mr. and Mrs. Davis and the officer who

THE ARREST AT LIBERTY HALL 25

guarded them. The nurse, carrying little Winnie Davis in
her arms, asked to ride in the carriage with Mr. Stephens.
Finally the procession, flanked on both sides by soldiers,
started slowly through the weeping crowds that lined the
road. Alexander Stephens bowed to the people who recog
nized him. It was as though he were part of a cortege,
he thought sorrowfully.

The carriages arrived at the river bank after dark. The
ground was rough and traced by deep ravines over which
there were no footpaths. Mr. Stephens's throat was still
sore ; his head ached with acute neuralgia. As he tottered
and almost fell, a major came to the rescue and supported
him the rest of the way, attempting to cheer the feeble
prisoner, who in turn made a valiant effort to share in the
conversation. Several soldiers practically carried Alex
ander Stephens across the narrow plank that led to the
deck. The boat was a river tug without a cabin. There
were a few bunks, however, for the ladies of the party.
The other prisoners (including Postmaster-General Reagan,
General Joe Wheeler and four of his men; Governor Lub-
bock and his private secretary and Colonel Johnston of
his staff; the ex-President's brother-in-law, Jefferson Davis
Howcll; and young Monroe, grandson of Judge Monroe,
of Kentucky) had to remain all night on the open deck.
The ex-President went below with the ladies.

Against the air, that blew chill from the ocean, the pris
oners huddled together for protection. Alexander Stephens
was cold despite the flannels he wore, the heavy suit and
the two cloaks in which he wrapped himself. The neuralgia
and the ache in his throat had grown steadily worse. He
had had nothing to eat since breakfast, and he heard of no
provisions being made ready for supper. General Wheeler
lent him a blanket, and Mrs. Davis seat a mattress. These
and his shawl he shared with Clay. Carpetbags served as
pillows. Yet from sheer exhaustion he slept soundly.

26 LITTLE ALECK

The next morning the prisoners were given a soldier's
breakfast The lunch at noon consisted of beef stew, pota
toes, bread and black coffee. During the day Davis and
Stephens met on deck and shook hands. Their common
place greeting was polite, if not cordial.

At four o'clock the morning of May sixteenth the tug
reached Savannah. At eleven the prisoners were trans
ferred to the Clyde, which was to bear them northward.
The time had come when Jimmy, the little colored boy
who had been young Jeff Davis's playmate from infancy,
had to be torn from his young master. Mrs. Davis had
written a letter to General Saxton, in charge of colonization
in South Carolina, asking that provision be made for the
negro boy. On the deck of the Clyde, Mr. Stephens wit
nessed the parting. Both lads, whose ages appeared to be
about seven, set up such a wailing as he had never heard.
Finally by force Jimmy was taken from the boat. On the
wharf he kicked and screamed and fought despairingly.
Some one threw a coin, which was picked up and handed
him. He would have none of it, however. He wanted his
Jeff, and Jeff wanted his Jimmy. As the steamer put out
to sea, Jimmy's cries grew fainter and fainter, to be drowned
at last in the incessant swishing of the waves*

No dinner was provided that day for the prisoners* Ra
tions were on board, it transpired, but there were no orders
for cooking them. Mr. Stephens tipped the steward to bring
him some bread. That evening the prisoners paid for a
dinner that had been prepared from the ship's supplies,
for which Mrs. Davis had made the arrangements. Though
meals were furnished the prisoners the next day, the poor
creatures had no interest in food, for the sea was rough
and the passengers were desperately sick. Poor Anthony
groaned on the floor of Mr. Stephens's stateroom and begged
not to be left to die alone. The white woman and the
negress servants of the Daviscs were so ill that Mr* and

THE ARREST AT LIBERTY HALL 27

Mrs. Davis, with such assistance as was volunteered, took
charge of the baby.

On the evening of May nineteenth anchor was cast
at Hampton Roads. How well Alexander Stephens recalled
the last time he had been upon those waters and the in
consequential outcome of his interview with the President
of the United States! He had left that conference with
forebodings heavy upon him. Indeed it seemed that some
prescience had enabled him to foresee the happenings that
had crowded into the last week.

Two days the ship lay at anchor, awaiting orders from
Washington. Alexander Stephens sent Henry ashore, bid
ding him go at once to Richmond in search of his mother.
He urged the boy to spend wisely the ten dollars he gave
him, to work hard, and never, never to gamble. Piously
Henry made his promises and departed in sorrow. The
good-bys and injunctions to Anthony followed. Mrs. Davis,
standing near, besought the Captain in charge, in view of
Mr. Stephens's feebleness, not to take both servants from
him. Her entreaties were unavailing, however. For the
first time since his youth the little man, whose friends had
always believed that he could not live from year to year,
was left with no one to look after him.

The farewell between Jefferson Davis and Alexander
Stephens was fraught with emotion on the part of both
men. Though they had not agreed concerning secession,
though they had been diametrically opposed in public
policies, they had worked for a common cause; both loved
the South; and both, having followed their different courses,
were suffering because of loyalty to a land to which they
thought their allegiance due. For a long moment Mr.
Davis squeezed the frail hand that was laid into his, and
then turned away. Though their minds remained divergent,
the hearts of the two men were united in grief. Jefferson
Davis was to be imprisoned at Fortress Monroe. Alexander

28 LITTLE ALECK

Stephens and Judge Reagan were to be carried to Fort
Warren in Boston Harbor,

It was the morning of May twenty-fifth that Alexander
Stephens heard the grating of the key that locked him in the
damp underground room at Fort Warren.

CHAPTER II
AN UNDERGROUND CELL AT FORT WARREN

THE floor of the room was of cold stone. The furnishings
were an iron bunk, a chair and a table. The prisoner's first
meal consisted of beef and sixteen ounces of bread served in
a pan. The eating utensils were an old knife and fork.
Other food, Mr. Stephens was told, might be purchased
from the sutler. The price, however, seemed prohibitively
high to a man cut off from all communication with the out
side world and imprisoned for an indefinite term. For a
pound of coffee he paid eighty cents, seventy-five for a can
of condensed milk, twenty-five for a pound of brown sugar,
a dollar for a pound of white sugar, two dollars for a pound
of tea, and one dollar for a can of tomatoes. Yet it was
clear that he could not live long in solitary confinement,
from which respite came but once a day when he was per
mitted to walk under guard and to speak to no other pris
oner.

Three days after reaching Fort Warren, Mr. Stephens
wrote to General Dbc, telling of his brother's illness and of
the families in Georgia who were dependent on him and
asking to be allowed to write and to receive letters. He
did not, however, mention his illness as an extenuating cir
cumstance or that he was even then threatened with a re
currence of the nephritic calculi that had so often tortured
him* lie was granted permission to communicate with his
home on matters of private business the letters, of course,
first to be censored*

There were times when the melancholy to which he had
been subject even under favorable conditions almost over-

29

30 LITTLE ALECK

whelmed him. There were others when, wracked by
paroxysms of pain, he could not summon help from the
soldier who was detailed to look after him. Though solitary
in his cell, he was always exposed to the curious glances of
visitors who wandered about the fort and eagerly peered
through his window upon the man who had so long figured
in the politics of the country and concerning whom there
was still much in the papers. Finally, he asked a soldier to
purchase for him a screen so that he might be able to take his
daily bath protected from public scrutiny. He was per
mitted to buy books and a tablet, upon the pages of which
he could pour forth his thoughts in diary form. Hour on
end he read until his eyes were weary, wrote until his hand,
maimed from the only physical encounter of his adulthood,
was numbed and cramped. Then he would sit, gazing into
space and dreaming of other days that loomed happier in
retrospect than they had been in actuality.

His nights were filled with homely visions of the people
he loved. He was back at Liberty Mall. Linton's little girl
Becky ran in, calling merrily that the Yankees had come.
Neither he nor Becky was afraid. The Yankees were power
less to hurt him, surrounded as he was by the dear familiar
scenes. Then he would wake to the devastating reality of
his cell at Fort Warren.

Again he was in Atlanta, about to return home. Pierce,
a negro who had served him loyally, was at his side, declar
ing that he would remain always. With Pierce was a puppy
whose naughty antics disturbed the negro. "Let him alone/'
the master directed. "The dog knows no better." Among
dogs and his negroes, Alexander Stephens was safe and
utterly content. Both knew and understood him.

Once he dreamed that he was at the Old Homestead
where he had been born. The fields were ripe with corn.
The stalks were large, each bearing many ears. The negroes
clustered about while he talked of the new condition that

AN UNDERGROUND CELL 31

had come to them, while he gave instructions concerning
their responsibilities, and told them how they should bring
up their children. His servant Bob had prepared a sumptu
ous dinner.

Sometimes he was visiting his friend Richard Johnston;
sometimes he was with his sister Catherine, who had been
dead these many years, his little niece Mollie, now grown,
sitting on his knee. Again he was journeying in a coach,
conscious that he was still a prisoner but unafraid because
Linton was with him. For a moment he was about to chide
his brother for the long delay in coming to him. Then hap
piness wiped the thought from his mind. In sleep he was
continually compensating for the loneliness, the physical
suffering and the mental anguish of his long waking hours.

The daily papers he was allowed to see added to his
distress. He read with sorrow that Jefferson Davis had
been placed in irons and uttered the wish that the Presi
dent's trial might be speedy and fair. "Widely as I differed
with him before and after secession," he wrote in his diary,
"ruinous to our cause as I thought his aims and objects,
much as I attribute the condition of our country to his
errors, yet I do now most deeply pity and commiserate his
condition."

Later when he read that Davis was reported as having
spoken from his cell in denunciatory terms of Stephens and
R. M. T. Hunter, he discounted the story as a fabrication.
As he read the conflicting estimates of the former President,
he wrote in his diary, "Mr, Davis is neither the greatest nor
the worst man in the United States or in the late Confed
erate States." And again: "lie is a man of good character,
well educated, and of more than fair ability, and of agree
able manner, but, in my judgment, far from being a states

man,"

An editorial in The New York Times entitled "The Doom
of Treason," demanded the trial of Davis, Alexander

32 LITTLE ALECK

Stephens, Breckinridge, Howell Cobb, Judah P. Benjamin,
and others. "And when tried," the writer concluded, "if
lawfully convicted, the President of the United States will
determine whether their execution or banishment will best
comport with the nature of their crime." Execution or
banishment! The alternatives were not cheering. Alex
ander Stephens told himself that of the two he preferred
the former.

Early in June he heard the rumor that Toombs, after
evading arrest, had committed suicide. He did not believe
it, however, for Robert Toombs was not the man to give
up the fight without a last gallant struggle.

In the long hours that he spent alone, the prisoner traced
again and again the course along which he had traveled
from his semi-invalided childhood through the terrible years
of civil war. Always he had struggled. Always achieve
ment had been alloyed with disappointment His health
had caused him to put the thought of marriage and children
out of his mind. Yet his life had been full and interesting.
Since 1836 the date of his entrance into the legislature of
his state he had had a part in every great crisis through
which the country had passed. He had written the plat-
forms of national political parties; he had been directly re
sponsible for the election and for the defeat of presidential
candidates; he had broken the back-bone of the Mexican
War; it was according to his plan that the great state of
Texas had been admitted; as a member of Congress he
had stood in the limelight during all the battles the question
of slavery had caused; he had helped to bring about the
compromises which had for a time quieted the country; to
the utmost of his ability he had tried to avert secession-
then, having cast his lot with his people who had rushed
blindly into error, he had accepted the vice-presidency of
the Confederate States only to find himself battling in
effectually against policies that he could not approve. Now

AN UNDERGROUND CELL 33

at the end of it all, there was no future toward which he
could look. Alexander Hamilton Stephens a prisoner in an
underground cell!

On the twentieth of June he read that the letter he had
written some time before to President Johnson, asking for
relief, had been referred to Secretary Seward. Because he
was certain that from Seward there was no hope of clem
ency, he was sunk further into despair. Four days later it
was said that Johnson intended to issue no other pardons
to leaders of the late rebellion.

Constantly Stephens saw himself misquoted in the press.
Speeches that he had never made were attributed to him in
The Rebellion Record, Again he wrote to the President,
once more summarizing the fight he had made to preserve
the Union and urging that attention be given his request
for a statement of the charges against him. On July
twenty-fifth he wrote to Secretary Seward, again signifying
his willingness to accept the issues of the war and to take
the oath of amnesty.

The discomforts of imprisonment were undermining his
small store of resistance. He had become so weak that,
when the guard came to take him for his hour in the open
air, he could walk only a few steps at a time. Flies and
bedbugs deprived him of sleep. It was Seaverns, the surgeon
at the fort, who finally interceded in his behalf and got
through the order that released Alexander Stephens from
close confinement and allowed him to walk at pleasure be
tween sunrise and sunset, to see his family and friends, and
to converse with ofEcers and others at the fort. On July
twenty-ninth Seaverns read the order to the prisoner. Mr.
Stephens burst into tears. The surgeon had the delicacy
to retire. Soon Lieutenant Newton entered with a duplicate
order in his hands and smilingly took the lock from the
door. "Jean Valjean," Alexander Stephens wrote in his
diary, * 'could not have experienced greater relief when the

34 LITTLE ALECK

lid of his coffin was lifted and .he was saved from being
buried alive." Then he scribbled the good news to Linton.
Now surely his brother would come to him I

In so far as orders would permit, the men at the fort had
tried to ameliorate the suffering of the kindly little man
who had been placed in their charge. Corporal Geary, de
tailed to attend to the prisoner's physical wants, soon re
placed his perfunctory attitude with one of real solicitude
for the comfort of his charge. Lieutenant Woodman, in
command of the fort when Stephens was committed, and
Lieutenant Newton, whose regime began toward the end
of July, were courteous and friendly in all their relations
to this strangest of prisoners and endeavored to obtain
modifications of the strict orders that had been issued to
them. When the bottle of whisky that had been tucked into
his bag by the thoughtful Harry, who knew that his master
in illness needed a stimulant, and the other presented by a
friend in Atlanta were almost gone, Lieutenant Woodman
gave him a bottle of gin,

One day Major Appleton brought the prisoner a book
entitled The Cavalier Dismounted, in which an attempt was
made to show that the aristocracy of the South had been
overturned. "What do you think of it?" the Major asked
later, Alexander Stephens replied with a whimsical smile.
"It reminds me of a story I heard long ago," he said.
"Artemus Ward, upon being introduced to Brigham Young,
remarked, *I believe, sir, you are a married man,' 'Pretty
much,' said the celebrated Brigham, So I should say that
the author is right the cavalier is pretty much dismounted/'

"As I returned from my walk," Mr. Stephens wrote in
his diary on July twenty-second, "a little girl handed
me a bunch of flowers. They were sweet and pretty, 1
have them in a tumbler of water on my table," Later he
found that the child was Annie Seaverns, the daughter of
the surgeon. As time went on, other children and several

AN UNDERGROUND CELL 35

of the ladies of the fort kept his cell bright with flowers,
and, after the close confinement was lifted, talked with him
frequently. That genius for friendship, which had endeared
the little man to the people of Georgia, served him in good
stead on the coast of New England.

Then, too, he could always find temporary solace in his
memory of other days. Constantly he was bolstering his
self-respect by recording in his diary petty victories he had
won. When he saw in the Boston Herald of June sixteenth
that James Johnson had been made provisional governor of
Georgia, it did him good to recall that at college he had
contested the highest honors with Johnson and had won.
On July twenty-second he remembered that thirty-one years
before he had been admitted to the bar of Georgia. Some
what boastingly he recorded that, although he had read law
only six weeks and entirely unassisted, he had so thoroughly
mastered the authorities as to answer all questions to the
complete satisfaction of the examiners who had compli
mented him in ordering his admission to the bar. On July
twenty-seventh he recalled that thirty years before he had
left his uncle's home to attend school in Washington,
Georgia, and that twenty-two years before he had started
upon his first canvass for a scat in the national House of
Representatives- Rather self-righteously he jotted down
the rules that had governed his legal career. Never, he said
proudfully, had he appeared in prosecution of a person who
was not condemned, and no client of his, black or white,
was ever hanged. All unfavorable decisions in his criminal
cases had later been reversed by the superior court and had
resulted either in acquittal or in reduction of the offense to
manslaughter, which he had urged as the right finding. In
deed, his record was of the sort to bring comfort.

"Why I should suffer thus I do not know," he wrote plain
tively. He had clone only what he thought to be right He
had been guided always by the dictates of his conscience. He

36 LITTLE ALECK

had worked hard and against difficulty all his life. Had
he not educated between thirty and forty young men who
would otherwise have faced life handicapped by lack of
adequate equipment? In his reading of the Bible, he turned
oftenest to the Book of Job. Here was a man who had
also suffered for his goodness as Alexander Stephens was
now suffering. The comparison was not without its com
forting aspects. Self-pitying though he had become, he
would not curse God and die.

Yet he gloried in remembering his triumph over the
preachers of Georgia that had taken place many years before.
He had defended a man by the name of Reese accused of
a murder committed in a house of ill-fame. Because of the
circumstances, the preachers had been against Reese's hav
ing a fair triaL The jury had pronounced the man guilty.
The case had been reversed, however, by the Supreme Court.
"The judge and the jurors," Stephens wrote reminiscent ly in
his diary, "as well as the whole tribe of Javerts, were
scandalized at the escape of their victim. May heaven
deliver me from a jury of preachers I . , They are too
impressed with the idea that they are God's viee-rtrgents
here below." Yes, comfort was always to be found in
thoughts of former prowess!

Over and over he reviewed his long conflict with Presi
dent Davis, justifying his stand against the eentrali/atum of
government, against the suspension of habeas corpus, u gainst
conscription, martial law, impressment. His mind ran con
stantly upon his suggested policies that concerned the
finances, the parole of federal prisoners and the campaign
he had proposed for a peaceful settlement of the difficulties,
More and more convinced he was that the outcome would
have been reversed if the government had taken the advice
that had been given by Alexander Stephens* Davis not
only failed to understand the popular aims and objects of
the South but permitted the natural resources of the Con-

AN UNDERGROUND CELL 37

federate States to be wasted. Besides, he did not compre
hend the true meaning of constitutional liberty.

When Stephens was not pondering upon the events of the
past, reading the books he ordered from Boston or secured
through the library at the fort, concocting plans for the
reconstruction of the country, or writing to Linton, he was
assailed in his loneliness by recurrent belief in the super
stitions of his childhood. Premonitions of good or evil
elated or distressed him. He found himself relying
strangely upon his dreams. When he saw a new moon over
his shoulder, he was greatly cheered. Though he declared
that some superstitions existed in all men, he added, "I do
not think I am at all superstitious." Yet when all the
Stephenses of Georgia had met for a reunion shortly before
his arrest, he had been sure that the happy occasion was
ominous of disaster.

His loneliness concentrated, moreover, in an overwhelm
ing desire to see Linton, for whom his affection was more
fatherly than fraternal. Much older than his half-brother,
he had been the boy's guardian, had sent him through the
University of Georgia and for his legal training to the Uni
versity of Virginia and to Harvard. Though in the early
days Aleck had been the mentor and the provider, he had
always leaned far more upon Linton than Linton upon him.
Here was some one to love and advise, some one who needed
him, some one to whom he could write long, counseling,
affectionate letters, some one to take the place of wife and
children. He was conscious of having shaped Linton's
thinking so that the minds of the two brothers were always
in unison. When he read his speeches to Linton or discussed
with him some policy of government, it was as though he
were conferring with another self, Oh, if he could only hear
from Linton, could know that Linton was well! he sighed
into the pages of his cliary. Captain Saint had not permitted
him to post the letter he had written before leaving Craw-

38 LITTLE ALECK

fordville. Then news had come three days later that Linton
was ill.

The first letter from Georgia arrived on June ninth. Then
Joe Myers wrote, obviously in fear of censorship. On July
eighth, almost two months after his arrest, came a letter
from Linton. The envelope was worn and dog-eared. The
postmark was dated May twenty-fourth. Though infinitely
relieved, the prisoner was more than ever desolated by lone
liness. After that, letters came from time to time. Strange
it was that he should dream once that Linton was dead I
He remembered well the day he had been told of Linton's
birth. Another half-brother added to the burdens of his
childhood! Nevertheless, resentment had not lasted.
Almost at once he had loved this small brother, who later
became his ward.

On August nineteenth, in response to a request from
Doctor Monroe, the surgeon who had replaced Doctor
Seaverns at the fort, President Johnson issued orders for
Alexander Stephens to be given more comfortable quarters.
The prisoner, with Corporal Geary, was forthwith assigned
a suite of three rooms. It was as though he had moved
from a cell to a palace, Stephens recorded happily in his
diary. If Linton would only come to him, now that he was
no longer doomed to solitude, he felt that he could endure
indefinite imprisonment. Each day he watched for the boat,
hoping that Linton would be aboard. He dreamed that he
saw his brother approaching the door. Then he read in the
papers that Linton and Governor Joseph E. Brown were
in Washington, seeking with the President an interview in
behalf of Alexander Stephens; then that they had secured
the interview, which had proved unavailing* One rainy
night he dreamed of Linton and was terrified. "To dream
of the dead," he wrote, <( is said to be a sign of rain," Per
haps some ill fortune had befallen his brother. It was pos
sible that the converse of the adage might also be true : to

AN UNDERGROUND CELL 39

dream of some one during a rain might mean that the person
was dead.

On September first Linton arrived, bringing with him
Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, defeated candidate for
the vice-presidency of the United States on the Douglas
ticket. He bore no news that concerned probable release.
Nothing mattered, however, for Linton had come. Some
one who loved Alexander Stephens was at hand. The
brothers talked together by the hour. Linton wept as he
read the prison journal. There was a strong arm to lean
upon during those walks about the fort. Other friends
came from Georgia and elsewhere to see Stephens in his
exile, but Linton lingered.

An importuning letter was dispatched to President John
son and another to General Grant, asking for help. Alex
ander Stephens had hope that Grant would intercede in his
behalf. In 1865, when he was waiting to confer with
President Lincoln, he had met the General at City Point.
While Stephens awaited permission to proceed to Wash
ington, which was later denied, between Grant and him some
thing approaching real friendship had been consummated.
When he had read on July thirty-first of Grant's reception
at Faneuil Hall, he had written in his diary: "General Grant
is a remarkable man and, if he lives and continues in good
health, will figure largely in the future history of this
country. I consider him one of the most remarkable men I

ever saw,"

At once there came a reply, the first of an official nature
that Stephens had received since his arrest. It was signed
by General Comstock. "Lieutenant-general Grant," it said,
"desires me to say in reply to your note of September i6th
that he has already spoken once or twice to the President
in reference to your case and will do so again."

There can be little doubt that General Grant was instru
mental in securing the orders for Stephcns's parole, which

40 LITTLE ALECK

came ten days after the arrival of the letter from head
quarters.

Among the Boston sympathizers who had been sending
little luxuries to the distinguished prisoner was a Mrs.
Salter, who, it seems, had met Linton but whom Alexander
Stephens did not know. A few days after Linton's arrival,
she called at Fort Warren, accompanied by her two
daughters Edith, a child, and Mary, a young lady of seven
teen or thereabouts. The little girl played about the fort,
while Mrs. Salter, Mary, the prisoner and Linton talked
together in Mr. Stephens's apartment. The guests were
charming, the host decided. Miss Mary was a young lady of
beauty and of unusual intelligence. After their departure,
he realized that Linton quite agreed with him. Then he
remembered that Linton had been a widower for eight years,
caring for his three little girls with the assistance of servants.
Linton's marriage thirteen years before, which his brother
had had to admit was entirely suitable, had been a blow to
Alexander Stephens. Until he had adjusted himself to
sharing Linton with some one else, he had been more than
usually melancholy. Contemplation of Linton's possible
second marriage did not bring happiness to Alexander
Stephens. The Salters made another trip to Fort Warren,
and Linton found excuses for visits to Boston. Aleck had
learned to trust his sixth sense. He had a hunch that could
not be lightly cast aside.

At four o'clock October thirteenth the Stephens brothers,
with Judge Reagan, the order for whose release had come
simultaneously with that paroling the former Vice-President
of the Confederacy, stepped aboard the William ft hand on
the first lap of their journey homeward. The prison ex
perience was at an end.

There followed a day at the Revere House in Boston,
another at the home of George W. Pierce, a wealthy relative
of the former President, FranJdin Pierce, a stop at the Astor

AN UNDERGROUND CELL 41

House in New York, a call upon President Johnson in
Washington, and then a journey through the country that
had been laid waste by the ravages of war.

Alexander Stephens was optimistic concerning the future
of the South. He had faith in the President, faith in Gen
eral Grant. The South must now accept the issues of war
and unite with northern leaders in the task of restoration
and reconstruction. In his brief interview with the Presi
dent, Mr. Stephens gave some unsolicited advice that was
politely received. He had dwelt chiefly on the problem pre
sented by the emancipated negroes. He suggested that the
blacks be organized in guilds, corporations or tribes, that
would be represented in the lawmaking bodies. The states
should be districted, and the blacks should vote separately
from the whites* The suffrage should be limited, standards
of eligibility to the franchise, however, to be within the
reach of ambitious and self-respecting negroes. In this way
there would be no mingling of the races on the hustings,
while the rights and Interests of both would be safeguarded.
Provisions for the education of the negro should be made
at once, with school attendance compulsory. Though the
President listened willingly to the exposition of the plan,
Mr. Stephens gathered that he favored moving the negroes
as the Indians had been moved. Despite the many knots in
the problem, Mr. Stephens returned to Georgia hopeful as
to the ultimate unraveling.

The faithful Harry met the home-coming train. The
people of Crawfordville were effusive in their greetings.
At Liberty Hall the negroes wept for joy. There was,
however, one dominant note of sadness, for Sir Bingo
Binks, the clog that Alexander Stephens had loved, had
passed on to whatever reward there is for canine devotion.

CHAPTER III
MINGLED SEED

AMONG the Jacobite adventurers who fought in behalf of
Charles Stuart, the Young Pretender, was a lad who bore
the name of Alexander Stephens a lad who loved warfare
and excelled therein. After the decisive battle of Culloden
Moor, he took refuge in Pennsylvania among the Shawnee
Indians, There he married Catherine Baskins, the daughter
of a well-to-do gentleman who disinherited the girl because
she permitted herself to be swayed by romance and not by
her father's sound advice. Alexander distinguished himself
in the French and Indian Wars, fighting under a young
colonel by the name of Washington, and later won a cap
taincy in the Revolutionary War. In 1784, when he settled
on Kettle Creek in Georgia, he found farming wholly un
congenial to a gentleman of outstanding martial ability.

Accordingly, a son Andrew was early forced to assume
a share of the family's support By way of evading filial
responsibilities, Alexander's son James returned to Penn
sylvania, and another son Nehemiah set out for Tennessee.
Andrew, a studious, industrious and rather oppressively
pious young man, applied himself to the professions of teach
ing and farming. His good sense led him to marry a woman
of intelligence. Indeed, Margaret Grier, who became his
wife, had various collateral claims to distinction. Her
brother Aaron had been an Indian fighter of note; her
brother Robert founder of Grier's Almanac, once a house
hold necessity in Georgia achieved a seat on the bench
of the national Supreme Court, Unfortunately, however,
Margaret died in 1 8 1 2 at the birth of a delicate baby, who

42

MINGLED SEED 43

deprived of her maternal ministrations was left to struggle
through a puny infancy and childhood. With three children
to rear, the sensible Andrew married again as soon as
decency and opportunity permitted. Because other babies
followed in rapid succession, little Aleck was forced to
shift not only for himself but also for the younger brothers
and sisters.

Aleck must have heard many a story of the Cherokee and
Creek Indians who inhabited North Georgia. How the
Creeks won their title to the northern part of Georgia
was surely talked of around the hearth-fire of the
Stephenses. At first the warlike Creeks had been the un
disputed tenants, ruling the country according to their own
laws. Then the Cherokees began to make encroachments
upon them. Finally the Creeks proposed a gage of battle.
The milder mannered Cherokees refused to fight and sub
stituted a challenge to a ball game that would decide the
issue. During three long days picked warriors from both
tribes contested upon the ball field. By a Cherokee victory
North Georgia was lost to the Creeks. Like their pred
ecessors, the victorious Indians ruled themselves quite
apart from the white men of the South. Now and then
wandering tribesmen were seen in Taliaferro County. Now
and then came accounts of Indian outrages often enough
, to frighten the timid little boy and make him dread lonely
and dark places.

Aleck knew he was different from other children. The
realisation made him lonely and unhappy. Over and over
he had heard neighbors say that it was miraculous that he
had lived at all, frail as he had always been. He knew, too,
that no one believed he would reach manhood. That, of
course, was why it was not important for him to attend
school regularly. Education was thought to be prepara
tion for life. To Aleck, however, It was more than that

44 LITTLE ALECK

it was a process altogether pleasant in itself. At his father's
school he learned a great deal whenever he was allowed to
attend. In bad weather, however, he was kept at home and
given the simple chores that were not considered too diffi
cult for a small invalid. He helped his stepmother with the
cooking. He brought in wood for her fires. He dressed
and fed the younger children and watched over them at their
play, all the while envying his older brother who trudged to
school each morning with his pedagogical father. One ac
cepted being different, but one was lonely nevertheless.
When there are no playmates, a boy does a great deal of
thinking all by himself. He learned to associate places with
his thoughts and to love the trees and brooks and fence
corners that shared his loneliness. On the hillside above
the spring Aleck would lie on pleasant days when Ma did
not need him and gaze toward the flying clouds. Then
he would think of the mother he had never seen and wonder
if she were somewhere above the sky, watching over him
and understanding how much he wanted her.

His father and stepmother were not unkind, but they
were always busy the one with his teaching and reading
and his half-hearted supervision of the farm, and the other
with her never-ending household duties. The Stephenses
were on agreeable but not intimate terms with their neigh
bors. The farm folk did their visiting chiefly on Sundays
a custom that Andrew Stephens did not approve, for he
believed that the Sabbath was a day that should be devoted
to Bible reading. So, whenever the neighbors did drop in
for a social chat, Aleck's father read to them from the
Scriptures, thus both hastening their departure and discour
aging other visits.

Much worse than loneliness, however, were the fears
that constantly assailed the sick little boy. The world was
full of terrors. He was afraid of big boys who played
games in which he was apt to be hurt. He was afraid of his

MINGLED SEED 45

stepmother's scoldings, of his father's frown, of thunder
storms, of the dark, afraid that something would happen to
the younger children, and afraid of the big unknown that
pressed in upon him. Because he knew so much about pain,
he dreaded to see any living creature hurt He was always
finding birdlings that had fallen from nests, lame dogs,
starving cats, any suffering thing that needed nursing. His
stepmother knew that the babies were safe in his care. So
perhaps Aleck was sometimes kept at home when he was
well enough to go to school.

It was Aleck's duty to tend the sheep. Aaron, when not
at school, was assigned more difficult tasks. While Aleck
could not be expected to plow and hoe, he could certainly
walk to the pastures, see that the sheep did not wander far
afield, and bring them home at night. In summer he found
the work no hardship. He liked to be out-of-doors to lie
in the sun and drcarn. He liked, too, to feel that the woolly
creatures looked to him for protection. In the winter, how
ever, it was frequently long past dark when he returned
home. Then he was afraid. One evening as he was nearing
the house, he discovered that a ewe had strayed away from
the flock. It was cold and inky dark. At home there was a
fire, and, there was safety. He wanted to find the ewe, of
course* First, however, he would go in and warm his hands.
As usual his father sat reading by the flickering light of the
lamp. The food that his stepmother was cooking smelled
savory good. lie would not go out again until supper was
over* Perhaps his father would offer to accompany him
or would send Aaron. After the meal, however, Andrew
Stephens returned to his book, and Aaron began to study.
Aleck was sure that he would have to go alone in search
of the ewe if he mentioned that she was missing. He could
hear the wind soughing through the trees. Outside the night
was ghastly in its darkness* Shivering with fear, the little

46 LITTLE ALECK

boy crouched before the fire. He could not tell his father.
In the morning he would find the ewe.

He did find her at last. In the night she had given birth
to a lamb. The ewe and the lamb were both dead. Aleck
wept in conscience-stricken anguish. He had been the cause
of suffering and of death. He could understand the suffer
ing. He felt that he would like also to experience the death.
He could bear the thrashing his father gave him, but he
could scarcely bear the grief. If he had not been afraid,
there would have been no tragedy. Somehow, someway
fear must be overcome. At least he must never give in to
it again, for fear that developed cowardice brought suffering
to others and to oneself. A boy must not be afz~aid to do
what he knows is right.

It was the first of July, 1823. The sun was hot in the
open field. It had baked the sterile clay upon the Home
stead into solid blocks. As usual, the crops were poor and
inadequately worked. Yet Aleck was hoeing diligently, try
ing to forget his aching back and the terrible dizziness that
came upon him whenever he leaned over. What with his
stepmother ill and his father reading and teaching, he was
now considered old enough to help with the harder work
about the place, though no one could say that Aleck had
grown strong with the passing years. Nevertheless, it-
was necessary for an eleven-year-old boy to make himself
as useful as possible. A neighbor came out of the house
and crossed toward the place where Aleck was working,
bearing unwelcome news* Another baby had been born. It
was a boy, the neighbor said, and he was to be called Lmton.
Aleck listened without comment. There was really nothing
for him to say under the circumstances. Another baby
meant that he would have a great deal more work to do, that
his stepmother would be busier and wearier than ever.
Mechanically the lad continued his hoeing. He loved the

MINGLED SEED 47

other children. He rather hoped he would not love this
little Linton.

Later he returned to the house and stole timidly into the
room where his stepmother lay. By her side was a tiny
squirming object Linton Stephens, his half-brother. There
was a lump in Aleck's throat, a mist before his eyes. Poor
little baby! Life would probably be hard for him, too.
Aleck felt sadder than he had ever felt before. Just as he
had feared, he loved this baby and wanted desperately to
shield it from hardships. It was as though he was adopting
little Linton Stephens for his own.

Aleck Stephens was fourteen. He knew, to his chagrin,
that he looked much younger. Why he did not grow like
other boys in stature and in strength he did not know.
Though he had been busy always, he had not done the sort
of work that would stunt a boy's growth. He envied chil
dren who could play* Yet he had little desire to enter into
their games; his strength was not enough for the things
that had to be done. Now that his father and mother lay
ill, Aleck was filled with an overpowering sense of his
youthful inadequacy. He felt both unable to bear the grief
and to shoulder the responsibility that should be assumed
by a boy of fourteen.

When news carne on that seventh day of May, 1826, that
his father was dead, in his anguish Aleck thought that he
wanted to die also. He loved the taciturn, studious, strait-
laced Andrew Stephens with a boyish idolatry destined to
increase with the years. Was life always to be like this
full of suffering, death and sorrow?

A few nights later he heard the unearthly screams of a
bird piercing the stillness. He thought that the sound came
from a raven perched outside upon the limbs of the mulberry
tree. The old negro Ben, however, said that no living bird
emitted those horrible sounds. At any rate, such cries were

48 LITTLE ALECK

signs of death. Though Aleck closed his ears with his
fingers and would not listen to anything else Ben had to
say, he believed that the negro spoke the truth. His step
mother, ill with the same malarial fever that had caused the
death of his father, would not live. Therefore, he had tried
to steel himself against the second catastrophe of the week.
On May fourteenth his stepmother died.

When the Homestead was sold, it was found that each
child's share amounted to but four hundred and forty-four
dollars. Aleck and Aaron went to live with their Uncle
Aaron Grier, and the younger children were taken by their
mother's relatives.

The following summer Aleck entered the school at Locust
Grove established by the Catholics and presided over by a
Mr. O'Cavanaugh, who stolidly held to the accent of his
native land and to a belief in the efficacy of the switch he
kept constantly in hand. Sitting before O'Cavanaugh's
massive hulk, Aleck felt very small and inconsequential.
Whenever the great voice boomed through the schoolroom
and the switch descended upon the desk or upon the
shoulders of some offending pupil, he would scringe in terror.
Yet it was good to be in school regularly. He liked to study
and applied himself diligently to his work. He was fright
ened, however, not only by O'Cavanaugh but also by the
great lumbering boys who were thought to need the harsh
discipline administered by the mighty Irishman. Never
had little Aleck Stephens been so utterly miserable. Never
had he hated so genuinely the weakling he knew himself to
be. He must not let himself be afraid. Some day he must
be a man. Surely the time had come to make a start in the
right direction.

"Spelling," thundered O'Cavanaugh.

Aleck took his place in the row of pupils. The first word
would come to him. He told himself that he had nothing

MINGLED SEED 49

to fear, for he knew how to spell every word on the list.

"Ah-raw-bia," said O'Cavanaugh, fixing Aleck with his
steely Irish eyes.

Aleck hesitated. There was no such word in the lesson.
Arabia was the first, but that was not what Mr. O'Cavan
augh had said. Perhaps Aleck had taken the wrong assign
ment.

"I can't spell it," he faltered.

O'Cavanaugh was apoplectic in his rage.

"You can't spell it!" he roared. "You confounded little
rascal I You tell me you can't spell it. Spell it, sir ! Ah-
raw-bia I"

Blood surged toward Aleck's head. He was not afraid
of O'Cavanaugh. He was afraid of nothing on earth. He
was merely murderously angry.

"I know all the words on that list," he said defiantly. "I
can spell any one of them if it is pronounced right. I don't
understand your pronunciation. And, sir, you shall not
speak to me that way I"

The little fellow was standing very straight. His head
was thrown back. His dark deep-set eyes were flashing,
He saw the switch quivering in O'Cavanaugh's hand. He
saw it lifted for a second. He knew that it might descend
upon his shoulders. Yet he was not afraid. Proudfully
he was certain that O'Cavanaugh knew that he was not
afraid.

"Sir," he repeated evenly, "you shall not speak to me like
that!"

Then he glanced through the doorway upon the stones
that filled the schoolyard. If O'Cavanaugh struck him,
he was determined to pick up one of those stones and hurl
it with all his might in the teacher's direction. O'Cavanaugh
glared furiously. Aleck met his eyes without flinching,

"Next," said O'Cavanaugh, passing the word to another
pupil.

S o LITTLE ALECK

After school the older boys clustered around little Aleck
Stephens. He was a hero in their eyes. In his own esti
mation he was a hero also. From that day he and
O'Cavanaugh were the best of friends. Aleck had learned
an important lesson: the little fellow could command re
spect by standing up for his rights. In the future, no matter
how frightened he happened to be, he would not be bullied
by a person of superior size. Strength of brain could be
made to compensate for weakness of body. He would make
his own way in the world, demanding the respect that he
believed to be his due.

Aaron Grier, being a God-fearing man intent upon per
forming his duty as he saw it, sent his small ward to Sabbath-
school. There Aleck began to shine. If he could not beat
a big boy in a fight, he could certainly show how fast he
could learn, whether it was spelling, arithmetic, or verses
from the Bible. Mr. Charles C. Mills, a devout gentle
man who attached a great deal of importance to the Scrip
tures, listened to young Stephens's recitations with amazed
appreciation. Here was a lad worth watching. Queer little
specimen he was, too, with his large eager eyes, his enormous
head, covered with waving brown hair, and his poor shriv
eled body. Aleck expanded under the pleasing patronage.
Never before in his cramped little life had he been singled
out for special attention. He did have a brain. He had
suspected its existence a long time. Now he was sure. So
with increased concentration he devoted himself to studying
the Bible. He liked the large words that rolled glibly from
the tip of his small tongue. It was fun to say them over
and over, verse after verse. It warmed him from the top
of his disheveled head to the soles of his feet to see the
amazement on the faces of those who listened Aleck had
never had such a delightful time. At last he stood in the
center of a charmed circle. At last he had learned that there
was a way to overcome the disabilities of his body. He

MINGLED SEED 51

would study and study and study until the world was forced
to recognize him.

Would Aleck like to go to the Academy at Washington,
Georgia? inquired the benevolent Mr. Mills. Aleck said
that he would, of course, that he wanted to learn all there
was to be found within the covers of books. Then Mr.
Mills agreed to make the arrangements. He wanted to
use his money for the promotion of the kingdom, and he
was sure that young Aleck Stephens would prove a good
investment. Aleck thanked him and said that he would
talk the matter over with his uncle and aunt.

The upshot was that the boy soon found himself in Wash
ington, living at the home of the Reverend Alexander Ham
ilton Webster. Aleck was thrilled by the coincidence of
the names. The Reverend Mr. Webster gave him a book
out of which he was to study. On the fly-leaf Aleck saw
the name written in a bold clear hand Alexander Hamil
ton Webster. Beneath it he wrote, as firmly as he could,
Alexander Hamilton Stephens. The imposing name suited
his hopes and aspirations. The boy studied with earnest
assiduity. Though a weakling in body, he would become
a giant in mind.

Vaguely Aleck knew that there was a plan on foot to
educate him for the Presbyterian ministry. The idea some
what pleased him, though he was frankly doubtful of his
qualifications for the high calling. No one actually discussed
the matter with him. It was rather taken for granted
that a lad so proficient in Bible study would have no objec
tion to wearing the cloth. The death of the Reverend
Mr. Webster, which took place not long after Aleck entered
the Academy, did not interrupt the boy's studies, for other
worthy citizens were anxious to contribute to the Lord's
work by boarding a future expounder of the Gospel.

In June, 1828, Alexander Stephens was pronounced ready
to enter the University at Athens then known as Franklin

5* LITTLE ALECK

College. He had attended the Academy but ten months and
during that time had taken a vacation of six weeks. At
last Aleck knew that his mind was compensating for the
deficiencies of his body.

In his sophomore year at the University Alexander
Stephens was assailed by doubts. Here he was a bene
ficiary of the Presbyterian Board not only rejecting many
of the tenets of the faith but also certain that no call to
the ministry had come to him. The introspective lad was
thrown into the depths of the old melancholy from which
he had suffered as a lonely boy on the farm. Of one thing,
however, he was certain ; he wanted an education and by dint
of personal effort must achieve it. If it were not for the
nagging of those distressing doubts, he could have been
utterly happy at college. Like Bacon, he longed to take all
knowledge as his province. Since the entrance examinations
when he had had the stroke of luck to be given to read the
only part of Cicero's Orations with which he was familiar,
he had met with no scholastic difficulties. He knew that he
was expanding under the encouragement of the professors
and in congenial association with kindred minds. Yet daily
he was becoming more convinced that he could not be a
minister honestly and that he would not be a dishonest
member of any profession.

During vacation he discussed the problem with his uncle.
Aaron Grier was loath to give advice. His wife, however,
argued on Aleck's side. The boy should be free to make
his choice later, unhampered by further obligations. Finally
Uncle Aaron turned over to Aleck the corpus of the small
patrimony Andrew Stephens had left his children. With
this Aleck could continue his education without accepting
assistance. He made some sort of explanation to the board
and promised as soon as possible to return the money that
had been advanced.

The young men on the campus at Athens were not a par-

MINGLED SEED 53

ticularly serious lot. Their strange sense of humor must
have caused the professors many an uncomfortable moment.
There was Doctor Lehman, of German origin, who used to
drill the students in Greek and listen to the merriment his
English pronunciation occasioned. There was old man
Hopkins, who wore a long queue of silvery whiteness. One
day the boys caught a pig and arranged the creature's tail
so as to present a very close resemblance to that queue.
They slipped the mangy pig into the classroom. He walked
about the room, shaking the queue with each grunt, while
the students roared and the professor attempted to emulate
the philosophic Stoics.

Professor Shannan, who used to warm into enthusiasm
when he unfolded the beauties of Cicero's De Oratore, was
fond of fiddling but was thrown into fits whenever he heard
a boy whistle. One day a fellow sauntered along the pas
sage whistling. Shannan slammed his book upon the desk
and made for the door. The fellow, hearing him, bolted
down the hall, Shannan after him. The Professor returned
without having overtaken the culprit and vented his wrath
upon the class who had dared to be amused by his anger.
Later some silly fellow came to the door and bleated like a
goat. Shannon was on his feet in a twinkling. Unfor
tunately, the key being on the outside, the boy gave it a
turn and stood laughing at the Professor's fury.

Though Aleck enjoyed the fun, he applied himself to
learning.

The summer of 1832. Alexander Stephens had grad
uated from the University. Supposedly he was ready for
LIFE. Four years in academic halls were thought to give
the necessary preparation. Now, however, that the routine
of college work was lifted, he was unhappy again. The
melancholy of his baffled childhood had returned with dev
astating force* He felt like a sailor whose ship and com-

54 LITTLE ALECK

panions had left him at mid-ocean. There had been tasks
aboard that had been both familiar and pleasant. Now
that he had been thrown upon an unsafe and uncharted
sea, the old timidity had come again.

Aleck looked back upon the last four years longingly.
The recognition that he had always craved had come to
him. He had been graduated two points ahead of James
Johnson and William Crawford, son of the nominee for
the presidency of the United States. Since no separate
honors were assigned, however, Stephens, Johnson and
Crawford had delivered the three commencement orations.
It had all been very gratifying. He had liked standing be
fore the crowd of people at commencement and delivering
the speech he had so carefully prepared. Now it was all
over. Aleck had aspirations without plans for their at
tainment. He had spent his patrimony and was in debt.

Already there were criticisms from the Presbyterian
Board that had advanced the money for the two years at
college. It was being said that young Stephens had accepted
aid under false pretenses. The debt must be paid. Aleck
appealed to his brother Aaron, who had become self-
supporting. Yes, Aaron could lend him enough to pay the
debt.

Already the law was beckoning to Alexander Stephens.
It was out of the question, however, to contemplate further
study. He had to earn as quickly as possible. So he ac
cepted the only offer that came immediately. It was to teach
school in Madison, Georgia.

Alexander Stephens was wretched. He was not fitted for
the position of schoolmaster. The tedium of the work
oppressed him. It was galling to realize that he had sunk
into insignificance, that he was constantly associating with
children and with adults whose minds were inferior to his.
He, who had longed to forge ahead, had been caught in a
trough. He had no patience with the stupidity with which

MINGLED SEED 55

he was surrounded. His situation would have been more
nearly bearable if there had been more recognition of his
superiority. People beneath his intellectual level did not
distress him so long as they gave him the adulation he de
sired. But children and children's parents did not think that
Alexander Hamilton Stephens was a great man. He would
never be a great man if he continued to live in Madison.
Still, he worked conscientiously and filled his diary with his
melancholy broodings.

At college his health had been better or perhaps he
had thought less about it. In Madison it grew distinctly
worse or perhaps he made it worse by constantly dwelling
upon it. He was not cheered by the realization that he
looked younger than many of his pupils. He was five feet
seven inches, and, because of the shortness of his trunk,
seemed not nearly so tall when he sat behind the teacher's
desk. His face was round like a child's, with features that
had gained nothing in maturity. There was a shrill girlish
quality to his voice that he could not overcome. Nervous
dyspepsia was added to his other discomforts. Days on
end bread and milk constituted the only diet that he could
digest. His head ached constantly, and weariness dragged
upon his every nerve and muscle. Yet there is a tradition
extant that the little schoolmaster, who had no thought of
letting his infirmities be considered a handicap, once applied
the switch to two boys much larger than he.

Then, too, he imagined that he had fallen in love. The
girl, of course, was one of his pupils. He fought to drive the
folly from his mind* A penniless invalid contemplating
matrimony I The idea was preposterous. He resented its
intrusion into the processes of his thinking. At college he
had escaped the emotional entanglements that had diverted
his fellow students from their work- As a devotee of Greek
culture, he had assured himself that Platonic friendship
would always prove satisfying to him. Mental activities

56 LITTLE ALECK

had forestalled bodily cravings and had exhausted the small
store of his strength. Later, however, he had read a great
deal of Burns and Byron and had begun to insert too many
passionate quotations into his diary. He had come to be
lieve in love in the abstract and was seeking concrete
materialization. He did not realize that he had injected
into his subconscious mind the thought that the male should
permit sex to play a part in his development. He told him
self that he was hopelessly in love. His pride prevented his
telling the girl. Therefore he must leave Madison and
never see her again. This he did.

Since teaching was the only vocation that seemed to offer
immediate income, he became tutor for the children of
Doctor LeConte and Mr. Varnadoe in Liberty County. He
was sustained, however, by the determination to use teach
ing as a stop-gap between college and the law. Again he
was definitely looking toward the future, certain that some
day little Aleck Stephens would be a man of note would
be Alexander Hamilton Stephens whom the world would
honor.

CHAPTER IV
THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS

IT WAS the last of May. The year was 1834. Aleck
Stephens had come home. He was preparing to study law
in the village of Crawfordville. Though his savings were
small and though the adventure was hazardous, he was de
termined nevertheless.

One stroke of good fortune came at once. Mr. Swep-
ston C. Jefferies, an attorney who was retiring, sold Aleck
for the small sum of twenty-five dollars the books that were
necessary: Starkie's Evidence, Maddox's Chancery,
Comyn's Digest, Chitty's Pleadings, and a few other vol
umes to serve the young man's immediate uses. Then, too,
the sheriff was entirely willing that Aleck should study be
fore the desk in his office, which had formerly been used by
Jefferies.

At work night and day, Aleck was far from happy. When
he was not poring over books, he was indulging in intro
spection and in mental criticism of persons about him. His
diary, as usual, supplied a safety-valve for his emotions.
"I am too boyish, childish, trifling, simple in my manner
and address," he wrote searchingly. In his unhappiness the
people of the village grated upon his overwrought nerves.
"I do detest vulgarity," he declared. "Sometimes I almost
have a contempt for the whole human race the whole ap
pearing like a degenerate herd." Having denied the first
call of sex that had come to him, he fell to criticizing other
men who were not breathing the same sublimated at
mosphere with which he had tried to surround himself.
"Sensuality is the moving principle of mankind," he said

57

58 LITTLE ALECK

defensively, further complaining that the most brutish were
the most honored. "Of all things to me an obscene fool is
the most intolerable. Yet such I am compelled to mix with
daily. ... I long to be associated with the mind that soars
above the infirmities of human nature." He could not have
realized that he was contrasting himself with vigorous
young men and coveting the pleasures that were denied him.
So condemnation of his subconscious urges became his secret
pastime, the more bitter because repressed in his relations
with people. Witnessing the waltz for the first time on
June twenty-fifth, he interpreted his emotion as one of dis
gust. All the while, however, in mental activities he was
violently compensating for his physical deficiencies. His
money could not last long. He must fit himself with all
speed to earn a livelihood. Therefore, eight weeks after
he began the study of law, he presented himself for admission
to the Georgian bar.

Many of Aleck's boyhood friends gathered at the court
house on that hot morning in July. There were lawyers
from neighboring counties whose business had brought them
to Crawfordville that day. The pale-faced youth took his
place before the examiners. He was trying to assure himself
that his preparation had been adequate. Chapter by chapter
he had outlined the books he had studied. He believed
that he could give from memory analyses of each subject
treated by the various authors. Judge William H. Craw
ford presided over the examination. First came Judge
Lumpkin's queries on Blackstone. Logically Aleck gave
his answers. Judge Lumpkin turned to Judge Crawford
He had never heard a better examination, he said. William
C. Dawson questioned the candidate on the statutes of the
state, and Daniel C. Chandler questioned him on criminal
law. Both complimented the young applicant upon his
knowledge.

"Take an order for admission, Mr, Solicitor, and have

THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS 59

the oath administered," said Crawford. "I am satisfied."
Then the visiting lawyers and the people from the village
crowded around Aleck, profuse in their congratulations.
Quinea O'Neal, clerk of the inferior court, who had been
helping the young applicant all he could, was elated beyond
all power of restraint.

Aleck had caught a glimpse of one young lawyer whom
for some reason he did not meet. Robert Toombs he was,
from the adjoining county of Wilkes, who had been ad
mitted to the bar several years before. During the rest
of his life Aleck Stephens never entirely escaped from the
spell cast that day by Robert Toombs. The virile young
man was the sum of Aleck's hopeless longings. His every
gesture denoted energy and power. Six feet tall was Robert
Toombs. His fine head was set well upon a pair of broad
shoulders. His hair was black and glossy; his teeth were
brilliantly white; his eyes flashed dauntlessly; and his voice
was thick, harsh and masculine. Aleck had heard that Bob
Toombs drank too much, swore many a manly oath and had
been recklessly unruly at college. In other words, he was all
that Alexander Stephens was not. The little invalid admired
the strong man for his very bravado. A few days later in
Wilkes County he met Toombs. At once began the friend
ship which was to endure through the triumphs and vicissi
tudes of the coming years when the two men battled together
in behalf of the South and then for a short time were sep
arated by their divergent public policies to be reunited at
the Montgomery convention.

Aleck was not deceived by his victory before the judges.
He knew that the path he was blazing toward the far goal
of his ambitions would be rocky* Rather defiantly he de
termined to remain in Crawfordville where he was known
as ( Little Aleck." He longed to be big in the eyes of his
own small world, and paradoxically he loved the place where
he had scarcely known a happy moment.

60 LITTLE ALECK

Yet little enough could be said in behalf of the village.
Built in 1826 and named for the Honorable William H.
Crawford, it was scarcely eight years old when Alexander
Stephens decided to cast his lot with its people. Sixty-four
miles from Augusta it was, and from Atlanta one hundred
and seven miles. Yet near Crawfordville Alexander
Stephens had been born, and here he was determined to be
come a prophet with honor among his own people.

When Jefferies proposed that Stephens practise with him
in Columbus and guaranteed fifteen hundred dollars a year,
"No," said Aleck, "I should prefer to stay in Crawfordville
if I knew I could earn but a hundred dollars than to re
ceive five thousand dollars a year anywhere else."

The handicap of his youthful appearance sometimes
seemed more than he could bear. Constantly some jesting
friend would relate to him stories that caused him to smile
in public but sent him scurrying to his diary in order to
express his galling mortification. One day he passed a shoe
factory where three negroes were at work.

"Who dat IIP fella walk so fas' eb'ry mawnin'?" one asked
another.

"Man, dat's a lawyer."

"Law! Lawyer, you say!" the negro replied mirthfully.
"Dat UP fella a lawyer! Ha, ha! Dat's too good"

There was nothing, of course, for Aleck to clo but to
laugh also when he heard the story, but tears would have
suited his mood better.

Those were the days when lawyers rode the circuit from
court to court, when counsels for the defendant and for the
plaintiff stayed together at the inns. Therefore a horse was
an indispensable part of legal equipment. Aleck had none,
however, and was too proud to borrow from his friends in
Crawfordville. Starting on the circuit, he walked to his
uncle's home ten miles away, carrying a change of clothing in
a saddle-bag. Aaron Grier lent his nephew a horse, and

THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS 61

Aleck set out again. Near Washington, Georgia, he dis
mounted, dressed in the shelter of a wooded place and
arrived at his destination sufficiently presentable to appear
in court.

On September tenth Aleck Stephens was employed as
counsel in his first important case. The son of Isaac Battle
had died, leaving a wife and little girl Martha Ann. The
widow had subsequently married one John Hilsman. Now
both Isaac and the mother claimed the child. Aleck was
employed by Hilsman to present the claims of the mother,
while the veteran Jefferies represented the grandfather.
That evening Aleck made an epochal entry into his diary
"This day I was employed by Mr. Hilsman with the con
ditional fee of twenty dollars." In other words, if the case
was not won, the young lawyer would probably receive no
fee at all. Consequently, Aleck was on his mettle. Money
and influence were on the side of the grandfather. Jefferies
delivered an argumentum ad homlnem directed toward Hils
man, who he said was intemperate and unworthy to assist
in his stepdaughter's upbringing. He extolled the virtues
of Mr. Battle. Here were to be found all the conditions by
which youth should be surrounded uprightness of char
acter, position in the community and wealth in addition. It
looked as though Mrs. Hilsman's case was lost.

When Alexander Stephens rose, the court-room was
crowded, principally with the friends and kinspeople of the
Battles. In high falsetto the young lawyer opened his case.
As he proceeded, however, new timbre came into his voice.
He was pleading not only for the rights of motherhood
but for the future of Alexander Stephens. The audience
listened in rapt silence. The judge blinked his judicial eyes.
Tears streamed down the cheeks of the jurors. The child
was given into the custody of her mother. "When that little
fellow began to argue, " said a kinsman of the defeated
grandfather, "that even among the wild beasts of the forest

62 LITTLE ALECK

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 everybody fell to crying, I knew Isaac would have to
give up Martha Ann."

That was the beginning. By the end of the year Alex
ander Stephens felt reasonably certain that he could make
a success of the law if his frail body could endure the strain
of circuit-riding in Georgia. The winter had been hard,
however. The oldest natives declared that they had never
before endured such cold. As far north as Augusta the
Savannah River had been coated with ice ; and even below
Saint Augustine fruit trees were dead. Yet Aleck did not
lose courage. Miraculously he managed to live on six dol
lars a month and to save most of the four hundred dollars
his profession brought him. There was no time for lounging
with the idle crowds in the village. There was none for
unprofitable frivolity. Perhaps it was better to stand a bit
aloof from the people while he evinced his interest in them
by championing the cause of the humblest man who appealed
to him for help and charging no fee at all or one withift the
client's reach.

One of his first paying clients was a Mr. E. Ellington,
concerning whom there was a story which Aleck Stephens
was to tell for many a day to come. Several years before
he contributed his twenty-five-dollar fee to the young
lawyer's maintenance, Mr. Ellington had been laid low by
a terrible form of malarious fever. The therapeutics of the
time denied water to patients suffering from the illness so
common to Georgians. The physicians had given up his
case as hopeless. But Mr. Ellington lingered on, making
himself more and more disagreeable by begging for water.
One evening he was attended only by his negro boy.

"Shadrach," directed the dying man, "go to the spring
and fetch me a pitcher of water from the bottom.' 1

The boy insisted that he could not disobey the doctor.

THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS 63

"Shadrach, if you don't bring me that water, when I get
well, I'll give you the worst whipping you ever had."

Shadrach did not relent, however.

"Shadrach, my boy, you are a good nigger, Shadrach.
If you'll go now and fetch old master a nice pitcher of cold
water, I'll set you free and give you five hundred dollars."

The loyal Shadrach was not to be bribed. The old fellow
moaned and groaned, smacking his dry lips, and flicked a
feathery tongue against the corrugated roof of his mouth.

"Shadrach, I'm going to die, and it's all 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 haunt
you as long as you live."

The boy was on his feet in an instant. "Oh, Lawdy,
Marsa," he gasped. "You shall hab dat water."

The story runs that the old man drank the whole pitcher-
ful and more and that the next day he was decidedly
better. So it happened that Stephens was grateful to the
superstition of the darkies that saved a paying client from
the other world.

In his friendship with Bob Toombs, Aleck Stephens
always found stimulation. The two lawyers met frequently
at the courts and fell to occupying the same room at the inns.
Far into the night two topics never failed to hold their
interest law and politics. So different physically and
mentally, Toombs and Stephens supplemented each other's
needs.

In 1835 Aleck Stephens was advised to leave Georgia in
the hope of improving his health. Rather aimlessly he
wandered to Pennsylvania to visit his father's brother.

"What business do you follow, Aleck?" asked his uncle
by way of making conversation during one of the family
dinners.

"I'm a lawyer, Uncle James."

The older man sat for a moment, silent and perplexed.

64 LITTLE ALECK

"Aleck, don't you have to tell lies?" he asked at last.

Aleck was sure, however, that his profession was an hon
est one. Indeed he had laid down for himself certain rules
that he intended following to the letter. First, he had de
termined to investigate the justice in each case that he was
asked to defend or to prosecute. Then, if he did not believe
the client entitled to success before the court, he would not
appear in his behalf. He resolved also never to prosecute
a criminal case if he did not believe the accused person guilty.
He would not refuse to engage in the defense of a man
charged with homicide if there was the slightest doubt as
to fact, motive or criminal intent. Yes, Alexander Stephens
believed that there was no profession more worthy than the
one he had chosen.

Unless, of course, it was politics, which he thought of ac
cording to the Greek concept. The promotion of good
government he believed to be the highest aim of the indi
vidual citizen. The affairs in his own state and those that
centered about the national capital had for years interested
him deeply. Accordingly, it occurred to Aleck to drop in
upon President Jackson on his return from Pennsylvania.

The young man thought that he knew a great deal about
the condition of the country. He had already lived through
stirring times. The year of his birth had witnessed the
victory over England, which had definitely established the
greatness of young America. Concerning all that had hap
pened since, he felt that he had first-hand information.
Those were the days when people took their politics from
the stump and when national issues were of such vital
moment as to be discussed when two or three citizens gath
ered together at the corner store or before some fireside.
The absence of a daily press made it necessary for states
men to report to their constituents all that had taken place
in state and national capitals and to defend the stands they
had taken on public questions.

Til!', LlTTLK FhLI.OW

Who Practised Law in Craxvforclville.

THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS 65

Alexander Stephens was brought up a Jeffersonian of the
Crawford and Troup schools in Georgia. His earliest
definite recollections of a presidential campaign centered
about the year 1824. Then his neighbors were of one mind:
everybody the boy knew supported Crawford for president.
Before he cast his first vote, however, there had been a split
in southern ranks. Across the state line in South Carolina
lived a great man who was enunciating doctrines, which,
founded as they undoubtedly were upon the Constitution's
original intent, had within them elements of danger. John
C. Calhoun was directly responsible for the rift among the
Democrats of Georgia. Since college days Aleck had studied
the doctrine of nullification. In 1830 he had been thrilled
by the speeches of Hayne and Webster. Though his study
of the history of the Constitution itself led him to the be
lief that the states, having voluntarily entered into a con
federation, might withdraw at their pleasure, he thought
that they should not remain in the Union and nullify an act
of Congress. Furthermore, he concluded that expediency
demanded differences to be settled within the Union. Per
plexed, he watched the kaleidoscopic changes that were
taking place throughout the country. The Jeffersonian Re
publicans had become the Democratic-Republican Party. In
Georgia the Crawford-Troup wing opposed the doctrines of
Calhoun and was known as the State Rights Party with
William H. Crawford as its president. John Forsyth, then
in the United States Senate, opposed both wings and organ
ized the Union Party of Georgia, nominating Joel Crawford
for governor. By 1833, Alexander Stephens, then of age,
had taken his stand. His first vote was cast with the Union
ists for Joel Crawford,

Unionist, though he called himself, young Stephens was
thoroughly indoctrinated with the principle of state rights.
He believed that the Constitution safeguarded those rights
and that under it peace and prosperity and liberty were

66 LITTLE ALECK

possible. The theory of government which he had evolved
during the years of his adolescence, was destined to remain
with him through life. No question of expediency, no dan
ger to the nation could be sufficient reason for the federal
government to exercise any powers other than those that had
been specifically delegated.

Indeed it was rather an opinionated young man who called
upon the President in 1835. Old Hickory, in his dressing-
gown and slippers with his silver pipe at his side, received
the youth from Georgia.

"What's the news from your state ?" the President in
quired.

Aleck told of the recent uprising of the Creek Indians.
The matter was uppermost in his mind, for when leaving
Georgia he had narrowly escaped one of the outrages.
Stages had been captured, he said, between Columbus,
Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama. Passengers had been
massacred. Aleck had seen perfectly clearly that there was
little Georgia could do, for the disturbances had not been
intra-state but inter-state. So he saw no reason to blame
Major Howard, of Georgia, for his inaction.

The President listened to the story with rising indignation.

"In God's name where's Howard?" he roared.

"I don't know," Aleck replied solemnly. "As Major
Howard's forces are under the control of the Georgia legis
lature, there is the question of jurisdiction."

"Jurisdiction by the Eternal 1" Old Hickory boomed.
"When the United States mail is robbed and citizens mur
dered, you talk to me about jurisdiction!"

Aleck had the wisdom not to call forth other explosives
from the President. He merely listened while the older man
outlined plans for quelling the disturbance. Nevertheless,
he was deeply interested in the question of jurisdiction which
had been so lightly cast aside. Much more Important than
the individual citizen was the sacred Constitution* No

THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS 67

amount of presidential thundering could shake loose con
victions that had been firmly rooted in his young mind.
He knew a great deal about government, he thought. At
college he had read nothing else during his leisure hours.
When the students, both the roustabouts and the diligent
boys, had gathered in Aleck's room, it was politics that every
one discussed, for Aleck had been rather a prude in those
early days, serving neither drinks nor tobacco to guests
who, he believed, needed all their faculties for conversational
purposes. As he sat listening to Old Hickory there was in
his mind a foreshadowing of thoughts that actuated him
later when other presidents were guilty of usurpations that
he became bold enough to resist.

His health slightly improved by travel, Alexander Hamil
ton Stephens returned to Georgia. Even though his body
was still feeble, his mind was strong for the great work that
he had begun to feel he would accomplish after all.

There was little in Crawfordville to interest a young man
like Stephens. Therefore, he could work with fine concen
tration. The town, which had formerly amused itself by
holding lotteries, by gander-pulling, and cock-fighting, hav
ing gone religious, offered few diversions other than revivals.
Into these the people threw themselves with fine emotional
abandon. Once at least Alexander Stephens wandered in
while the religious fireworks were going on. He found
himself thoroughly disgusted. The minister exhorted. The
people prayed and wept and sang and shouted. Mourners
filed down the aisle, unable to contain themselves. On the
back seat sat a young man with his pretty wife and in close
proximity another young man from the village. The hus
band was swept forward among the mourners. The wife
and the other young man were the victims of an emotion
akin to religious zeal. While the husband knelt at the front
of the church, beseeching God to save his soul and have
mercy upon the greatest of sinners, the wife was abandoning

68 LITTLE ALECK

herself to illicit embraces. Aleck, an unimpassioned on
looker, decided that "there dwells but little good in the
human heart." "I need not tell," he wrote in his diary that
night, u how the furies seemed to urge on the man, and how
female weakness showed itself. Alas, the world!"

Since Aleck could never be quite in tune with the villagers,
work became his nepenthe.

CHAPTER V
AMONG THE SOLONS OF GEORGIA

WHEN Stephens returned to ply his trade in Crawfordville,
large national questions were changing party alignments.
Of these the Bank of the United States was perhaps fore
most in the popular mind. The bank had been created in
1781 as a part of Hamilton's program for the stabilization
of national finances. In 1811, disapproving of the prin
ciple involved, Jefferson's party had allowed the charter to
lapse. Five years later, however, because of financial exi
gencies, a renewal had been granted. President Jackson,
looking upon the bank as an enemy of democratic gov
ernment and declaring it an "un-American monopoly,"
doubted its legality despite the decision rendered in its favor
by the United States Supreme Court. Sponsored by Hamil
ton and befriended by Henry Clay's followers, it appeared
as part of the old aristocratic order. Because its officials
were known to be hostile to Jackson, they were suspected of
using bank money to defeat the commoner's reelection. The
President, therefore, was fighting the bank with all his
rugged power. In 1835 the finances of the country were in
excellent condition; revenues were pouring in; and the
national debt had been paid. The surplus, according to
the President's plan, was being lent to states without interest.
Many Cassandras there were to make prophecies which the
authorities did not heed-

A new party, made up of Jacksoman opponents, was con
ceived and brought forth by a union of Clay's National Re
publicans and the anti-tariff and strict construction group
led by Calhoun. The hybrid offspring was found to possess

69

70 LITTLE ALECK

in its make-up strangely opposing characteristics. The
National Whig Party it was called, deriving its name from
the old exponents of constitutional liberty. Its birth year
was 1834. In the South it drew largely from the people of
wealth and distinction. The young lawyers, Alexander
Stephens and Robert Toombs, were soon leaning noticeably
in its direction.

News had reached Georgia of a movement that at first
seemed ridiculous, then ominous. It was clear at last that
the abolitionists of the North were intent on depriving the
South of her slaves. Having become more and more ag
gressive, they organized themselves in 1833 formally into
the Anti-Slavery Society. There was an immediate reaction
in the South. Undoubtedly a few northern incendiaries had
been circulating their doctrines among the slaves. To deal
with the .situation, several counties in Georgia organized
vigilance committees, which took upon themselves the task
of bringing offenders to justice outside the law.

In Taliaferro County a convention of citizens was called
to the end that such a committee might be established.
Young Aleck Stephens was among those who attended. The
people were hysterical in their protestations against the
methods of the northern agitators. Emotion, and not
reason, swayed the convention. Resolutions, subverting
established authority, were prepared and were about to be
passed without opposition. Aleck Stephens, looking like a
small boy who had slipped in through curiosity, sat listening.
Finally he rose to his feet. His high girlish voice addressed
the chair. Then he began to speak, slowly and deliberately
at first. The delegates were silent as Aleck gathered mo
mentum. I Ie was beseeching the people to stand by the
supremacy of the law. Slavery was protected by the Con
stitution. Agitators could be dealt with in the courts. At
last the room shook with his eloquence. He resumed hh
:;eat When the vote was taken, the resolutions went down

AMONG THE SOLONS OF GEORGIA 71

in defeat. Aleck was satisfied. He had seen a vindication
of the actuating principle of his life, and he knew at last what
gradually had been dawning upon him: he was an orator
with power to draw the masses toward him through the
magic of his eloquence and logic.

In 1835 the South was looking with interest toward Texas.
Aleck was a boy of seven when the United States, in order to
secure all the Floridas, had yielded in its treaty with Spain
all claim to the territory then comprising Texas, which had
been a part of Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase of 1803. He
was nine when Mexico abandoned Spain and set up its own
dominion, and he was twelve when President Adams futilely
offered to buy the territory for a million dollars. He could
remember well, however, when the states of Coahuila and
Texas became members of the Mexican Federal Union, for
that was the year that he entered the Academy at Washing
ton. He had watched with interest the migration of the
southerners to the great Southwest and had agreed with
those leaders who prophesied that the settlers' disregard of
the Mexican law prohibiting slavery a law adopted to win
favor with the negroes of Haiti possessed its elements of
danger. He was twenty-one when these southern immi
grants, having found Mexican rule contrary to their tastes,
framed a constitution and put it into operation without the
sanction of their mother country. With no prescience con
cerning the part he was later to play in the annexation of
Texas, he watched the subsequent developments, vaguely
realizing that the new state would figure in American politics.
In 1835 the Mexican government was overturned and Santa
Anna was made dictator. The independence of Texas was
established at San Jacinto on April 26, 1836. The future
of Texas, peopled as it was with southerners, hung in the
balance*

Aleck knew that the times in which he was living were
fraught with great possibilities. He was thankful that his

72 LITTLE ALECK

health was better. When he attended a reunion at the Uni
versity in August, 1836, his classmates remarked upon the
change in his appearance. He had grown two inches since
his admission to the bar, and he had gained twenty-five
pounds since college days. He now measured almost five
feet ten inches, and he weighed all of ninety-six pounds.

Therefore, he found no good reason not to yield to per
suasion and allow himself to be nominated for a seat in the
state legislature. He warned his friends that his stand
against nullification had not added to his popularity and that
his opposition to the county vigilance committee had laid him
open to the accusation of being unsound on slavery.

The campaign was heated from the beginning. Georgians
were taking their politics seriously. A summer canvass in
the state was a sport in which all the people engaged.
Though Stephens knew that the odds were not in his favor,
he worked diligently. It was not until election day, however,
that his mettle was put to a real test. When everything was
going against him, he mounted a box in a public place and
made one of the speeches for which he was becoming locally
famous. The week before, he had been exceedingly ill. He
was so weak that the auditors thought that he would fall at
the completion of each sentence. Yet the young man poured
forth with oratorical fervor arguments that carried power
to convince. As he spoke, Aleck must have realized that
physical weakness, reenforced by mental strength, was an
almost invincible bulwark against opposition. He would
appeal to the sympathies, as well as to the minds, of his
hearers. Men shuffled oft their former convictions and
hurried to the ballot box to cast their votes for Little Aleck.

Alexander Stephens was twenty-four years old when he
took his seat among the solons of his state. Taliaferro and
adjoining counties knew him certainly. Yet to the rest of
Georgia he was a stranger who must win his spurs or return
to his constituents defeated. His chance came when the

AMONG THE SOLONS OF GEORGIA 73

bill for the rebuilding of the Western and Atlantic Railway
was before the House. To the debate that had lasted four
days Aleck had listened attentively. He had given much
thought to the subject. Concerning it he had made an entry
in his diary as early as 1834. "The stupendous thought,"
he had written, "of seeing engines moving over our hills
with the safe and rapid flight of fifteen miles an hour pro
duces a greater effect in dissuasion of the undertaking than
any discovered in favor of it." Then he had added opti
mistically, "Speed to the work!"

As he listened to the words of the veterans on the floor of
the House, the young man's imagination was fired. The
road meant the ultimate joining of the East with the West.
It symbolized territorial expansion, power, future growth
and prosperity. These men were without vision. They
were thinking of the present, while youth was looking to
ward a future, great and inspiring. Aleck rose to his feet.
"Mr. Speaker," he called in high treble. As Judge Iverson
L. Harris later wrote to Williams Rutherford, "Every eye
was turned to the thin, attenuated form of a mere boy with
a black gleaming eye and cadaverous face." The road meant
the rehabilitation of Georgia, the young man was saying.
It would link the cotton- and the rice-fields of the seaboard
and gulf with the grain-fields of Tennessee and the West.
It would serve generations yet unborn. The House listened
to the argument. When the young representative took his
seat, there was a burst of applause from the floor and the
gallery. Charles Jenkins, then leader of the House, shook
the speaker's hand immediately after adjournment.

"That speech was electrical," he said. "Sir, that speech
will send you to Congress."

Aleck was happy over his first legislative effort. The bill
passed. In addition, Stephens of Taliaferro was no longer
one of the crowd. He was a member singled out from
among the others who merely warmed the seats in the House.

74 LITTLE ALECK

Oratory had done the work. Great was oratory! To the
gods who had bestowed upon him the divine gift, the humble
recipient was profoundly grateful. Feeling that he could
now speak with some authority, he wrote piously and sopho-
morically upon the subject to Dr. Thomas Foster.

"I have come to the conclusion since I came here," he
said, "that words are, if you please, moral instruments
capable of effecting much when properly handled and di
rected. And it is altogether useless, at any and all times,
to talk without having in view some object to effect."

Then, from the perspective ftirnished by his twenty-four
years, he ridiculed citations from Scipio and Hannibal, so
frequent among the orators of the time, as well as allusions
to Greece arid Rome, Tyre and Carthage., Instead of read
ing Blair for rules, Scott and Addison for figures, Byron and
Shakespeare for quotations, orators would do well, said he,
to study the people they were addressing. Yet at the same
time young Aleck Stephens, though certainly remembering his
constituents, was making use of all the erudition at his
command.

Another bill, quite different from that involving trans
portation, called forth the young legislator's active support
during the session of 1836. It had to do with the higher
education of girls. The Georgia Female College, the first
college for women in the South, was seeking a charter. The
frail little representative, looking himself so much like a girl,
spoke in behalf of the new venture. Reviewing his career
many years later, Stephens said, "The movement at the time
was the occasion of amusement to some. I may be pardoned
in this presence for saying that it met my warm support. The
experiment proving successful far beyond the expectations
of its most sanguine friends, the example became conta
gious not only in our state but in adjoining states."

His efforts in behalf of the weaker sex gave to Aleck a
consciousness of strength. So long he had been befriended

AMONG THE SOLONS OF GEORGIA 75

by those physically superior to him, by those who pitied his
poverty, that he enjoyed to the uttermost stepping into the
position of benefactor. He was understanding why it was
more blessed to give than to receive, for in so doing the
donor could enlarge that nebulous quality known as self-
respect. It was because he disliked to be the beneficiary of
even small favors that he had hesitated to borrow a horse,
even from his uncle, during that first struggling year at the
bar and why he recorded in his diary the depth of his humil
iation upon the occasion when his uncle had refused the loan.
That was why he had so quickly paid the Presbyterian
Board and why he stinted himself of necessities in order to
wipe out the debt to Aaron. For ever he was goaded into
achieving one sort of strength to take the place of another
that he could not possess.

Stephens's fame was spreading throughout Georgia. No
one who saw and heard him ever forgot Little Aleck of
Crawfordville. His power over juries became a legend that
grew in the telling. People in trouble asked him to take
their cases persons of wealth and persons without a penny
to their names. He was the friend of negroes and poor
whites, refusing only those whom he thought unworthy. As
his income increased, he thought more often of the little
half-brother Linton. The boy had lived four years with a
grandmother and maiden aunt. In 1830 he had been
adopted by his mother's brother, John W. Lindsay. Aleck
had always loved the lad. Since the death of his father, he
had felt nearer to him than to any other person. In 1837
he asked that the boy be transferred to his guardianship.
His request granted, Aleck brought Linton to Crawfordville
and entered him in the school of Simpson Fouche, Here was
some one upon whom his starved affections could feed, whom
he could educate and mold into a man after the image of his
own ideal. Aleck was happier than he had ever been.

But the village of Crawfordville was daily becoming a less

76 LITTLE ALECK

imposing background for statesmanship. Never very much
of a place, it was growing smaller, for during 1836 and 1837
there was an exodus that would have alarmed an average
young lawyer. Still, it never occurred to Aleck to join the
migration. He would be all the more famous for having
emerged from his own little Nazareth.

During the latter part of the Jackson administration the
financial condition of the country reached a crisis. The
President had interpreted his reelection as a verdict against
the Bank of the United States. In defiance of Congress and
by the removal of two secretaries of the treasury, he had
succeeded in turning national revenues over to state banks,
A flutter of credit and distress in the money market had
resulted immediately. In 1836 the Bank of the United
States accepted a charter from the state of Pennsylvania.
Government funds were placed in the President's "pet"
banks in the various states. Since all were banks of issue,
paper money flowed for a time from every hamlet. The
surplus that had existed in 1835 was soon sunk in schemes
the states had evolved to take care of it. Speculation had
boosted the sale of public lands. The President's command
that his "pets" keep specie to cover their circulation availed
little, for few knew which were the specie banks. By the
time Van Buren was inaugurated March 4, 1837 the
country's fabric of credit was completely tattered. Many
factors entered into the crash: the money market had not
accommodated itself to the changed status of the Bank of the
United States; the increase in the volume of imports had
sent much specie out of the country. When the paper that
had gone west for the purchase of public lands carne back
for call, the collapse was immediate. Corn had risen from
fifty-three cents a bushel in 1834 to one dollar and fifteen
cents; flour from five dollars a barrel to eleven dollars*
Banks failed all over the country. In New York bread riots
were the order of the day.

AMONG THE SOLONS OF GEORGIA 77

In Georgia the financial situation was acute. Lawyers
were the only men who prospered, for the increased liti
gation threw to them an immense volume of business. Alex
ander Stephens's health, however, did not survive the crisis.
Just at the time when he was needed most and when re
maining at work would have been most profitable, he was
desperately ill. From his bed he managed somehow to keep
up with a great deal of his practise, his brother Aaron enter
ing his court records for him. During the summer he
traveled in the mountains of Georgia with little benefit. He
had become a dyspeptic, subsisting almost entirely on his
diet of bread and milk. Yet in September he was again
elected to the legislature. Even when he was unable to leave
his room for weeks at a time, his clients' cases were not neg
lected.

While the legislature was in session Little Aleck
managed to reach his seat, with the assistance of his cane and
the strong arm of some friendly member. In the summer of
1838 his physician advised a sea voyage. On May 25, 1865,
when he arrived at Fort Warren as a prisoner he remem
bered that twenty-seven years before to the day he had seen
Boston Harbor for the first time as a free man in search of
the liberty that only health can bring. While he was away
Robert Toombs took care of his practise.

The two lawyers had already been dubbed the Castor
and Pollux of Georgia. Antithetical in appearance and per
sonal characteristics, they were thinking alike on public
questions. In 1832 Robert Toombs had cast his first vote
for Andrew Jackson. If Stephens had been of age, he also
would have voted the Democratic ticket. After the force
bill of the administration, both men joined the opposing
State Rights Party, which elected Stephens to the legis
lature in 1836 and both Toombs and Stephens in 1837. In
the battle that centered about Georgian finances, the young
men stood together. The fight between the advocates of

78 LITTLE ALECK

further inflation and the champions of sound money was
heated and acrimonious. Stephens and Toombs earnestly,
though unsuccessfully, opposed a bill to palliate the situation
by permitting the central bank to borrow one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. The following year, moreover, it
was largely through their efforts that the legislature re
fused to permit the bank's capital to be increased to five
million dollars. They expressed their opposition to the
Jackson and Van Buren regimes by voting against a reso
lution denying the constitutionality of the Bank of the United
States, though the measure passed by a majority of twenty-
three votes. On a measure denouncing the pet banks,
Stephens voted a consistent aye, but Toombs, wavering in his
stand against the administration, answered no to the roll-
call and swelled the volume of the victorious voices.

Consistency, moreover, was not a jewel with which
Toombs cared to adorn himself. His mind was his, to be
changed at his pleasure. He never felt constrained to ex
plain the various stands he had taken. Once when he was
interrupted during a speech by a man who reminded him of
a vote on record in the Journal of the House, "Yes, it was
a damned bad vote," he said, "What are you going to do
about it?"

His was not Stephens's method, however. With the last
breath in his body Aleck would have defended himself
against attacks of all kinds. Conviction guided his every
act. When he reversed a policy, he made a public confession
of his new faith and built up careful arguments in justifi
cation of his apparent inconsistency. It was, of course, the
sense of inferiority, engendered by his pitiable childhood and
adolescence and nurtured during a manhood that his poor
little body placed always on the defensive, that caused him
to walk warily and to resent the slightest insult to his integ
rity or to his intellect. Though the methods of the dauntless
Toombs could never be his, contact with his friend was al*

AMONG THE SOLONS OF GEORGIA 79

ways energizing. Toombs plunged into his arguments like
a bull attacking a toreador, ruthlessly trampling his antago
nists, annihilating the opposition. Stephens won by calm
logic which his engaging personality reenforced. Pushed to
the wall, however, he could hurl sharpened invective that ad
vanced with a deadly thrust, though somewhat hidden by
a coating of humor. The one commanded; the other per
suaded. Together Castor and Pollux were invincible foes
and friends worth cultivating. No one who had ever seen
the handsome dashing Toombs ever forgot the man.
Stephens's emaciated body, massive head and burning eyes
created an impression equally indelible. By the late 'thirties
Georgia recognized the power in the Toombs-Stephens
liaison.

In the spring of 1838 Alexander Stephens first achieved
fame outside his state. He was sent as delegate to a com
mercial convention held in Charleston. His companions
were merchants from Georgia who stood in need of an
eloquent spokesman. On his own stamping-ground Ste
phens had somewhat overcome the handicap of his youth
ful appearance. In Charleston he was again made to realize
that no one who did not know him would suspect that he was
a man of note. Arriving at the boarding-house where he and
his friends were to spend the night, he dropped upon a couch
in the parlor. When the landlady entered and saw one of
her guests standing, she turned reprovingly to Stephens.
u Get up, sonny/' she said, "and let the gentleman have a
a seat." Though he had learned long ago to take such
speeches good-naturedly, the entries in his diary show that he
was never happy when he pondered upon his physical ap
pearance. Immediately after remarks of the sort the land
lady had made, he attempted to find compensation in some
spectacular display of intellectual prowess.

At Charleston opportunity soon came to show that in
wisdom Alexander Stephens was no lad. The subject under

8o LITTLE ALECK

discussion at the convention had to do with the importance
of direct trade between the South and Great Britain. Con
cerning the mode of action South Carolina and Georgia dif
fered materially. Orators of the caliber of General Hayne,
General Hamilton and the Honorable William Preston had
spoken with convincing eloquence. The little man from
Georgia had been an inconspicuous member of the audience.
As usual he had sat listening and awaiting his opportunity to
speak.

u At length," said John Savage, giving an account of the
meeting, u an individual rose in one of the boxes, the tones of
whose voice were as rich and penetrating as a Swedish night
ingale. . . . He snatched their laurels from the most brilliant
lawyers of the occasion."

When Aleck returned to Georgia, he knew that his fame
had spread abroad at least through the breadth of the
Palmetto State. It seemed, however, that his health had set
up an obstruction to his progress over which his ambition
could not vault. Yet his constituents insisted on sending him
to the legislature, and he continued to handle the enormous
volume of his practise.

In the fall of 1839 when Linton left Crawfordville to en
ter the University at Athens, the older brother saw the
train speed into the darkness and returned home, lonely and
forlorn. Writing to Linton on the eve of the boy's grad
uation, he confessed that when he had told him good-by
almost four years before, he had not expected to live to see
the completion of his college course.

With the departure of Linton, Aleck succumbed for a time
to the melancholy moods- Liberty Hall, the comfortable
home he had purchased and in which he had begun to dis
pense hospitality, now seemed desolate. Daily he found
time for long letters to Linton. There was no doubt that he
took his guardianship with the utmost seriousness. Keenly
he felt his responsibility for the boy's mental, spiritual and

AMONG THE SOLONS OF GEORGIA 81

physical development. He was distressed that Linton ap
peared not to like rhetoric. Evidently he did not understand
how the subject should be studied. So the elder brother
outlined a method that he had found effective. He was
appalled when Linton hesitated to make a speech for which
he had been chosen and urged him never to appear unless
he could appear well and always to appear whenever the
opportunity was presented. Alexander, than whose hand
writing none could be worse, urged Linton to devote himself
earnestly to chirography. Painstakingly he corrected the
young student's English, warning him against the Georgian's
use of "reckon," which he declared as bad as the New
Englander's use of "guess. " He discoursed on politics,
philosophy, history, law and religion, extolled the learning
of the ancients, quoted at length from Byron, Scott, Burns,
Bulwer and Shakespeare, and emphasized the importance
of good manners and self-discipline. He wrote also in some
detail of the cases he was trying. When he sent Kirkland
to the penitentiary for seven years for attempting to procure
Farmer's negro woman to poison fyer mistress and when
he got an acquittal for a penniless negro who had been
accused of assault and battery upon a white man, he wanted
Linton to share his pleasure in the verdicts. In the same
letter he talked of God and changing into summer^ clothes
too early in the spring. "This is the most dangerous
season in the year," he warned, "for influenza and such
catarrhal affections as sometimes end in consumption."
Always he was affectionate and solicitous, even sending
on several occasions twice as much money as Linton re
quested, though there was at the time another boy John
Byrd, a cousin whose expenses at college Alexander
Stephens was defraying. To the lonely little invalid there
was infinite satisfaction in giving perhaps the only real
pleasure he ever found in life.

In 1841 he was obstinate In his refusal to be sent again

82 LITTLE ALECK

to the legislature. What with two boys at college and an
expensive estate to keep up, he felt that he must devote him
self to his practise that was fast getting out of all bounds.
Tortured by dyspepsia, wracked by neuralgia, feverish with
malaria, he knew that he was unequal to the additional tasks
the legislature would impose.

Yet in 1842 he allowed himself to be nominated for the
state Senate. The principal issue in the campaign served as
a challenge he could not refuse to accept. His election
would be in the nature of a vindication of the ineffective
stand he and Toombs had taken in the General Assembly
of 1838. The potential Whigs of Georgia were rapidly
being welded together by their opposition to the central bank
of the state. His victory at the polls erased whatever was
left of the mortification he had experienced at the capital
three years before when he and Toombs had fought in vain
against reckless speculation.

Stephens's health, however, was worse than it had ever
been. For weeks it was thought that he could not recover.
He lay at Liberty Hall, delirious with fever, his pulse a
hundred and twenty, his breast and side raw and blistered,
coughing and expectorating distressingly. At last the local
physician pronounced that the trouble was not consumption,
after all, but u an abscess of the liver, which broke and
drained through the lungs."

The indomitable will won at last* Little Aleck, leaning
on his cane, was again able to hobble to his seat on the
pleasant side veranda at Liberty Hall and now and then to
ride through the village. There was enough strength left
with which to begin the larger work that awaited him.

CHAPTER VI
IN THE NATIONAL MAELSTROM

THE summer of 1843! Alexander Stephens had been
nominated by the newly organized Whigs to fill a seat in
Congress vacated by the Honorable Mark A. Cooper, who
was running in the gubernatorial campaign. The Demo
crats had chosen James H. Starke to oppose Stephens. The
Whigs the year before had formally entered Georgia. Their
platform was virtually the minority report drawn up by
Stephens in 1842 for the senatorial committee on the state
of the Republic. That members of the legislature are not
the proper constituents of Congress and that senators in
Congress are no more responsible to them than to any other
equal number of citizens; that a national bank should exist;
that the sale of public lands should be distributed without
partiality among the states ; and that duty on imports, though
constituting the best way to meet the expenses of the gener
al government, should be laid for revenue and not for pro
tection these were the fundamental principles of the plat
form.

The campaign was heated from the outset. Since Geor
gia had not adopted the districting plan enacted by Con
gress on June 25, 1842, the canvass was state-wide. Ill
though he was, Stephens spoke in towns, cities and hamlets
all over Georgia. At Cassville he debated William H.
Stiles; at Rome and Chattoogaville, John H. Lumpkin;
at Daholonega, Solomon Cohen; at Canton, Howell Cobb.
It was very clear that the little fellow and the new party
were getting the best of the arguments. Democrats, certain
of victory in the early days of the campaign, began to show

83

84 LITTLE ALECK

signs of alarm. In a letter written while he was stumping
Dade County, Stephens wrote, "Last year our [Whig]
ticket got but one vote in the county this year I think I
shall get at least forty." Unquestionably the Whigs were
threatening the entrenchments of the older party. The
Democrats determined that the best man they had must
meet Stephens at Newnan and chose Walter T. Colquitt,
veteran debater. Whigs implored the young candidate not
to accept the older man's challenge. Colquitt was fresh and
in health, they argued, while Stephens was weary and ill.
Judge Colquitt, who lived at LaGrange only thirty miles
from Newnan, would be among sympathetic neighbors;
Stephens would come as a comparative stranger. Little
Aleck, however, had no intention of tucking his tail and
running. Not he 1 He wanted the world to know that he
feared no man.

When the appointed night rolled around, the scattering
of Whigs at Newnan could not conceal their nervous anx
iety. The judge opened the argument Clearly he was
sure of himself, for the audience was friendly, and he knew
his subject. A few days before, he had been heard to say that
his hands itched to get hold of that little fellow Stephens.
His attitude now showed that he expected to shake him as
though he were a puppy. First he eulogized the great
Democratic Party and ridiculed the upstart Whigs, Then
he addressed himself to the candidate and spoke sneeringly
of Stephens's size and appearance. "I could swallow him
whole and never know the difference," he added.

From the Journal of the legislature, he showed that Ste
phens had voted against bills providing pensions for Georgia
soldiers who had fought in the Creek War and against pay
ing men attached to General Charles Nelson's command
during the expedition against the Scminoles in Florida. The
audience was with the speaker. A dreadful thing it was not
to show appreciation in a substantial way to the country's

IN THE NATIONAL MAELSTROM 85

defenders. Stephens's friends sank lower in their seats.
Some were so chagrined that they left the hall.

At last Little Aleck was on his feet. He seemed so frail
that it was a wonder that the very applause which followed
Colquitt's speech had not blown him away. His eyes were
snapping, however, and his great head was tossed back.
Yes, he had voted against those bills, he said. He was not
opposed to pensions, but he knew that Georgia should not
pay the debts incurred by the country when she was already
contributing to the national fund. If the people would send
him to Congress, he would see that the soldiers Were ade
quately pensioned and that the bill was paid by the govern
ment for which it had been made. Certainly he had voted
against the resolution that appropriated money for salaries
to be paid to the Nelson troops. Then he turned to the
Constitution. Here, he said, was explicit provision against
appropriating money except by bill. He reached for the
Journal and showed that, when the bill had been presented
in legal form, he had voted for it. In constitutional govern
ment lay the only hope of liberty. Representatives of the
people must have the knowledge and the integrity to stand
by the Constitution, Then he opened the Senate Journal,
which he had sent for while Colquitt was speaking, and
brought the house down by showing that his vote and his
opponent's had been identical.

"If Judge Colquitt should swallow me whole," he said,
"there would be more brains in his belly than there ever
were in his head. 57

The audience roared.

"Judge," some one called, "your hands itch to let him go
now, don't they?"

It was a sort of political meeting that Georgians adored.
A bantam rooster had worsted the big cock of the barnyard.
The Whig ticket was triumphant at Newnan. The young
candidate from Taliaferro County was elected to Congress.

86 LITTLE ALECK

Immediately on his arrival in Congress, however, Alex
ander Stephens was so ill that it seemed for a time that he
was to take no part in the questions that were before the
nation. His letters, written upon his partial recovery, testi
fied that he himself had despaired of living. A physician
came to the rescue, however, with a prescription of nitric
acid, which either proved an effective hepatic or one that the
patient thought effective. At any rate, the representative
from Georgia was soon hobbling to Congress.

There Stephens availed himself of the first chance for
notoriety that presented itself. The question before the
House had to do with seating the members from those four
states that had not adopted the districting plan of electing
representatives. Georgia was among the delinquents. Her
legislature had passed an act conforming to the federal law.
The Governor had vetoed the measure, however- The bill,
subsequently reenacted, had received executive sanction but
too late to be effective in the election of the congressmen then
in Washington. Some members were saying that the federal
law, compelling the states to elect by districts, was unconsti
tutional and that congressional interference was in the nature
of usurpation of state authority. Stephens disagreed. Con
gress had a right to make laws affecting its own membership.
Though he would be swearing to his own hurt, he would
adhere to the Constitution* He knew, moreover, that he
would be returned without question. Though he and Robert
Toombs, who lived in adjoining counties, had both been
elected by the state at large, Georgians had had the good
sense to place Wilkcs and Taliafcrro in different districts
so that two of their best men would not be competitors for
seats in the national House of Representatives,

On February 9, 1844, Stephens was heard for the first
time in Congress, speaking against himself and in behalf of
the sacred Constitution. The strenuous campaign that had
impaired his health had been conducted in vain, it seemed*

IN THE NATIONAL MAELSTROM 87

The state-wide election had not been legal. The matter of
seating him and the other representatives from the four
states should be left now with Congress. If he should be
denied membership in the House, he was ready to return
to Georgia and conduct another campaign in his own district.
His defense of the constitutional right of Congress over
elections to the federal lawmaking body was vehement and
convincing.

The new member had put himself on the national map.
No one in the House would ever forget Alexander Hamilton
Stephens, of Georgia, or would doubt that here was a man
who could speak with power and logic, a man who placed
principles above personal interests. The House had listened
attentively. It was reported that even John Quincy Adams,
who seemed never to hear anything that was said in con
gressional debates, commented favorably on the young
Georgian. However that may be, in June of that year the
veteran statesman wrote a few lines of very poor poetry,
which Stephens treasured to the end of his days.

"To ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, ESQ., OF GEORGIA

"Say, by what sympathetic charm,
What mystic magnet's secret sway

Drawn by some unresisted arm
We come from regions far away.

"From North and South, from East and West,
Here in the People's Hall we meet,

To execute their high behest

In council and communion sweet.

"We meet as strangers in this hall,
But when our task of duty's done,

We blend the common good of all
And melt the multitude in one.

"As strangers in this hall we met,
But now with one united heart,

Whatever of life awaits us yet,
In cordial friendship let us part."

88 LITTLE ALECK

Coming as they did from the man whom the South con
sidered its most powerful enemy, the lines were preserved
by Stephens as strong testimony to a friendship that could
rise above political differences. The former President, since
his entrance into the House in 1831, had alarmed the South
by continually harping on slavery. The petitions and me
morials, which he was for ever presenting, were at first little
heeded. On December 28, 1837, however, John C. Cal-
houn had been exasperated into taking some action against
the persistent meddling of Massachusetts. Adams's petition
of that year had requested the abolition of slavery not only
in the District of Columbia but in the states as well The
fiery South Carolinian clearly thought that the time had come
to put New England in her place. Therefore, early in 1838
he offered resolutions that were adopted. They included re
iteration of the states' voluntary entrance into the Union and
of their right to settle matters of a domestic nature. Since
slavery had existed when the Constitution was framed, any
attempt to overthrow it now was unconstitutional. Further
more, any attempt to abolish slavery in the District of Colum
bia interfered with the rights of the people in the District
Later in the year the South Carolinian had been reenforced
by Atherton of New Hampshire, who seemed also to be
annoyed by the other New linglander's persistence and who
introduced a scries of resolutions that passed with large
majorities. That this government is a government of limited
powers was stated in the first and that Congress has no
jurisdiction over slavery in the several states. The second
declared that petitions for the abolition of slavery were a
part of the plan to destroy the institution. The third con
tended that continued agitation was against the true spirit
of the Constitution. The purpose of the resolutions was
summed up in the last. Petitions and memorials, Atherton
said to the satisfaction of the House, should be laid on the
table without being printed, debated or referred.

IN THE NATIONAL MAELSTROM 89

Despite the rebuff at the hands of his colleagues, John
Quincy Adams, at the time that he penned his agreeable line
to Stephens, was by no means silenced. His position had been
somewhat strengthened by the last of Atherton's resolutions.
Now, instead of fighting against slavery per se, he was urging
the right of petition and was appearing as one persecuted by
gag-law. From the beginning, therefore, the member from
Massachusetts and the member from Georgia belonged to
violently opposing camps. John Quincy Adams had started
something that both North and South knew could not
be annihilated by resolutions. In 1844 sta te rights and
slavery were uppermost in the minds of congressmen and
senators.

The admission of Texas was merely an issue of the anti-
slavery agitation. When recognition of Texan independence
was before the Senate in 1837, John C. Calhoun, whose in
terest in the extension of slavery could not be denied, had
avowed that he was not only in favor of recognizing Texas
but also of accepting her into the Union. It was perfectly
clear that Texas, if admitted, would enter as a slave state.
Webster, in speaking before a New York audience, had ex
pressed the general feeling of the North when he said, "In
my opinion, the people of the United States should not
consent to bring into the nation a new, vastly extensive, slave-
holding country."

The question had been evaded until 1843. Then it was
found that the Democrats favored annexation and that the
northern and southern Whigs differed with each other. In
the meantime Harrison, elected president by the Whigs, had
died in 1841, a month after his inauguration, and Tyler had
succeeded to office. President Tyler, a southerner who had
once been a Democrat, appointed Calhoun in 1844 as his sec
retary of state. Immediately Texas ceased to be a dormant
issue. The year that Stephens entered Congress, every one
knew that a bomb was about to explode,

90 LITTLE ALECK

On March 7, 1844, Alexander Stephens wrote his friend
James Thomas, of Sparta, Georgia :

"The annexation project is a miserable humbug got up
as a ruse to distract the Whig party at the South, or per-
adventure with even an ulterior view that is the dissolution
of the present confederacy."

Furthermore, he expressed the belief that Tyler would
destroy a country willingly if he could no longer be the chief
ruler and that Calhoun was using Texas for his personal
aggrandizement He and Toombs had long been foreseeing
the danger of a solid South against a solid North and had
been insisting that the good of the country demanded that
both sections be represented in the two major parties. It
now looked as though the situation they had feared was
inevitable.

Calhoun not only promised to lend the Army of the United
States to Texas to be used against Mexico but also signed
the treaty of annexation, which the Senate promptly rejected.
The question, therefore, became the issue of the presi
dential campaign of that year.

Alexander Stephens went as a delegate to the Whig Con
vention which opened in Baltimore on May i, 1844. Among
other members of the delegation from Georgia were Senator
Berrien, Dawson, T. B. King, General Clinch, Joseph H.
Lumpkin, Colonel Sayre, Joshua Hill and Robert Toombs*
It was known that Stephens did not stand with the ma
jority of his party on the annexation question* Indeed
in 1839 in a speech before the Georgia legislature he had
advocated the admission of Texas. He had also made no
secret of his opposition to the Tyler treaty,

In a letter to Linton written May fourth he described the
impressive gathering at Baltimore. There were thirty thou
sand Whigs m the procession, he said. Yet so vast a number
was not missed from the crowd. "But one feeling, one spirit,

IN THE NATIONAL MAELSTROM 91

and one hope animated every breast in the countless thou
sands," he added. "You will learn before you get this that
Clay and Frelinghuysen were nominated." With the candi
dates Alexander Stephens was content.

May twenty-second had been set as the date for the Demo
cratic Convention. Stephens was watching developments
with interest. May fourteenth he wrote Linton that he
could see some leanings toward Tyler but that he did not
believe the President could be nominated for another term.
Congress, he said, was being continued indefinitely. u The
Democrats do not intend to quit here until they can see some
land ahead, even though it should be some of the points of
Texas."

According to Stephens's prophecy, Tyler was rejected.
Instead, James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was nominated with
George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, 'as his running mate.
For the first time the abolitionists flocked into a party and
nominated James G. Birney, of Michigan, as their candi
date for the presidency. The campaign issue was now clear-
cut. The country was to decide whether or not Texas
should be annexed. It was a foregone conclusion that the
new state, settled by southerners, would desire to perpetuate
slavery.

Despite all the weighty matters before Congress, Ste-
phens's first session had its pleasant interludes. In Decem
ber, 1843, Linton visited Washington. Aleck enjoyed in
troducing this younger brother to the friends he had made in
Washington. Here was his own handiwork of which he had
a right to be proud. Physically Linton was the antithesis of
Aleck. Undoubtedly there was a future for a young man
who had just been graduated with first honors from college
and who had already begun the study of law in the office
of Robert Toombs. By exposing Linton to the influences
in the capital, Stephens felt that he was completing the edu
cation for which he had assumed full responsibility.

92 LITTLE ALECK

From the beginning of his congressional career Stephens
was in demand at social gatherings, for he was a merry con
versationalist with an anecdote to suit any subject that was
introduced and a pleasant way of turning a friendly joke
upon some member of the group. Most of his stories dealt
with characters he had known in his boyhood back in rural
Georgia. There were several that concerned a school
master by the name of Day under whom the young Aleck
had studied for a brief period. The congressmen who knew
nothing of such customs as prevailed in the Old Field schools
of Georgia were vastly amused by Stephens's stories. This
Mr. Day, it appeared, enjoyed his bottle and now and then
became a trifle "disguised." Once when he denied the stu
dents a holiday they had expected, a mutiny was planned,
which came to a head with the master's threatening to flog
a popular boy who had been guilty of insolence. In a flash
all the boys fell upon Mr. Day and pinned him to the floor.
They would not let him up, they said, until he promised not
only a holiday but a treat also. "All right, all right,"
gasped the master. The treat was a gallon of liquor, for
which a big boy was dispatched forthwith, Then teacher
and pupils got "disguised" together and there was no ill
feeling at all. Though Aleck had been too young to enjoy
the treat, he never forgot the incident.

There was another schoolmaster about whom the young
congressman liked to talk, though Aleck had never been the
beneficiary of his wisdom. Duffic was the fellow's name.
He was a preacher and a politician as well as a teacher, and
guiltily he harbored love for a gootl horse-race.

"Boys," Stephens quoted him as saying once, "there's
going to be a horse-race Saturday afternoon. Now, boys,
don't you go to it. But, boys, if you do go to it, don't you
bet But, boys, if you do bet, mind what I tell you ; if you do
bet, be sure to bet on Abercromble's marc*"

All this and much more took place during the good days

IN THE NATIONAL MAELSTROM 93

of the Old Field schools of Georgia. Congressmen in Wash
ington listened as Stephens recounted the stories, sorry that
they had not been country boys in Georgia.

It was not long after the three parties had thrown their
presidential candidates in the field that Stephens attended
his first diplomatic dinner. Before he went to bed that night
he wrote Linton an enthusiastic account of the affair, quite
after the manner of a girl who had just made her first bow
to society. The dinner was given by Senators Archer and
Berrien, who had just moved to quarters just across from
those Stephens occupied. When Stephens arrived at the ap
pointed hour, he found that Barrow, of Louisiana, and the
Belgian charge were the only other guests in the drawing-
room. Very soon, however, the others were announced :
the British Minister, the French Minister; the late Minister
to Mexico; the late Texan plenipotentiary and several
members of Congress. The pomp and ceremony of the
occasion amazed the young man from Georgia. Accus
tomed to the groaning boards of the South, he was surprised,
when the company was seated at dinner, to find nothing on
the table but flowers, glass, strawberries and jellies sur
prised that the eleven courses were served ad seriatim, and
that the plates were changed after each course. "The ser
vants who handed the meats," he explained to Linton, "were
called waiters, those who served the wine were called butlers.
They were all colored but one, a French cook, who figured
largely, and all wore silk gloves and had on aprons." The
six wine-glasses beside each plate were kept constantly filled
with Madeira, claret, champagne, brandy and hock* Per
haps because there was an abundance of food to absorb the
liquids or perhaps in deference to the one lady present
Mrs. Berrien no one got drunk. The seating evidenced
meticulous planning. Mrs. Berrien sat at the center of the
table, the French Minister on her right, the British Minister
on her left In writing of it all to Linton, Aleck omitted

94 LITTLE ALECK

no detail. He even mentioned the snuff-boxes that were
passed to the guests at the conclusion of the dinner and that
coffee was served in the drawing-room "In the handing
order." Of course, every one was jovial; and, of course,
conversation flowed merrily. Aleck described the appear
ances, manners and the costumes of the guests, and men
tioned that the Brazilian charge, small, dark and sprightly,
"tried to show off like a flea in company."

Impressed though he was, Stephens did not forget to put
in a few strokes in connection with the Texas dispute. He
found that General Thompson, late Minister to Mexico,
who had been a member of Congress, opposed Tyler's an
nexation program. Before the evening was over, the Gen
eral had promised to address a mass meeting in Madison,
Georgia, on July thirty-first.

Contrary to all expectations, the presidential campaign
went against the Whigs. Clay was defeated, and Polk was
elected. The gauntlet was down. It was clear that the
winter session of Congress must decide the issue. Alexander
Stephens and Robert Toombs, reelected to Congress, girded
their loins for the struggle that was inevitable.

CHAPTER VII
STEPHENS OPENS THE DOOR TO TEXAS

THE winter of 1844-45! Congress had assembled. The
stage was set for high drama, with Texas and Oregon so
dominant in the theme that the tariff was almost forgotten.
On the two questions Alexander Stephens's mind was made
up. In addition, he had learned a bit about political ma
neuvering during his one term in the House.

President Tyler gave his interpretation of Polk's election.
The people, he said in his message, had declared in favor of
immediate annexation. A man of Stephens's good sense,
Whig though he was, could enter no denial of a truth so
self-evident. He knew that Clay's vacillation had cost him
the election. The candidate had first declared himself
against annexation and alienated the friends of the measure.
Later he had expressed the wish to see Texas added "upon
just and fair terms" and the hope that the subject of slavery
would not "affect the question one way or another," thus
losing the support of many anti-annexation Whigs. Though
Stephens could not always agree that the leader of his party
was wise, he never ceased to admire the man and correctly
to evaluate his ability.

On January x8, 1845, he wrote Linton of Clay's great
speech on colonization that had been delivered the night be
fore. Thousands of people were in the House and galleries,
he said* Acres of others were turned away. Afterward
Sheppard, of North Carolina, whom Stephens described
as "more Whiggish than Clayish," had remarked that
"Clay could get more people to run after him to hear him
speak and fewer to vote for him than any man in America/ 7

95

96 LITTLE ALECK

Yet Stephens never joined the ranks of Clay's critics. The
Kentuckian was powerless to stay at the moment the onward
rush of the enthusiastic annexationists. But Stephens saw
that something might be accomplished by closet diplomacy.

As soon as Congress convened the administration measure
was introduced by Charles J. Ingersoll, who, by the way, had
been one of the guests at the diplomatic dinner which
Stephens had attended the spring before. Other plans were
presented, all of which Stephens disapproved. One after
noon, while Texas was being kicked like a football from
party to party, Milton Brown, of Tennessee, crossed to
Stephens's seat and suggested a conference, saying that he
believed his friends in the Senate would agree to a com
promise measure. In Stephens's room that night a resolu
tion was framed the phrasing Brown's and the substance
Stephens's. Because Ingersoll had left slavery unsettled
and had provided for the assumption of the Texas debt,
there seemed the possibility of danger ahead.

It was in behalf of the Brown resolution that Stephens
spoke on January 25, 1845. Failure to settle the slavery
question in the new territory, he said, would lead to inevi
table discord. As for the debts, we had at the time enough
of our own. It was, moreover, difficult to ascertain the exact
amount that Texas owed, for there was much discrepancy
between the various estimates. It seemed wiser, therefore,
to leave Texas to handle her debts just as other states had
handled theirs. Concerning the wisdom of annexation, how
ever, he entertained no misgivings, Texas had gained her
independence and now asked for admission. Rightfully she
could claim the United States as her mother country, for
her people were Anglo-Americans with no ties that hound
them to Spanish Mexico. Furthermore, expediency prompted
annexation. As a cotton- and sugar-growing country, she
knew that rivalry with the United States would be unwise.
Since one of her navigable streams flowed into the Missis-

STEPHENS OPENS THE DOOR 97

sippi and the others into the Gulf near by, she wanted to
prevent possible conflicts with the neighboring republic.
Then, too, the vast lands of Texas could indefinitely take
care of our surplus population.

Frankly Stephens acknowledged to Congress that the ad
mission of Texas would "give additional power to the south
western sections in the national councils" and that as a south
erner he welcomed any reenforcements that might come
thereby. The tide of immigration had so continually flowed
westward that already the West was vying for ascendency
with the North and South on the floor of Congress. "Why
should not the South also be advancing? . . . Let her too
enter into the glorious rivalship, 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?"

He denied a desire for the extension of slavery. Texans
were already slaveholders. Only the blacks could stand
the hot summers in the cotton- and rice-fields of the South.
In a confederacy such as ours domestic questions must be
settled within the confines of the various states and not
by the federal government. Accordingly, he argued that
the people who lived in the new state should be free to make
their own decision in the matter of slavery, committing him
self to a policy from which he never deviated.

"I am no defender of slavery in the abstract," he con
tinued. "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
inalienable,' if a stern necessity, bearing the marks of the
Creator himself, did not, in some cases, interpose and pre
vent. Such is the case In the states where slavery now exists.
But I have no wish to see it extended to other countries ; and
if the annexation were for the sole purpose of extending

98 LITTLE ALECK

slavery where it does not now exist 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."

On the day this speech was made the resolution acceptable
to Stephens came to a vote in the House. It provided
against the assumption of the Texas debt and for four slave
states to be carved out of the Texas territory if the people
presented constitutions asking that slavery be allowed.
Alexander Stephens had done some effective work since his
conference with Milton Brown: he had won for the resolu
tion the support of seven other Whigs whom he persuaded
to follow the sectional, rather than the party, interests.
These men held the balance of power. Without their de
fection the annexation project could not have been carried
to its conclusion. The final vote stood one hundred and
nine to ninety-nine, the eight bolting Whigs having decided
the issue. The bill, somewhat amended, passed the Senate,
went through the House on the last day of February, and
received Tyler's signature just before Folk's inauguration.
Stephens had the satisfaction of knowing that, in its details,
it was not altogether pleasing to President Tyler, whom he
honestly detested.

The Texas speech was the most important one the young
orator had ever made. He had prepared it with care, and
he had corrected the reporter's notes painstakingly. Indeed,
from the beginning of his career Stephens had been sensitive
to the errors in the printed versions of his speeches, always
writing the newspapers that had let errors creep in and de
manding that wrong impressions be speedily made right.
Earnest in his desire to appear well, he frequently com
plained that neither his exact language nor the structure of
his sentences had been preserved. Consumed with anxiety
to know what people were saying about his speech on an
nexation, he talked to fellow members of the House* In a

STEPHENS OPENS THE DOOR 9

letter to Toombs he expressed his satisfaction. The Whigs,
he said, as far as he could ascertain, were not criticizing the
stand he had taken. He wanted, however, to hear from the
South. Perhaps a good friend would tell him honestly how
this speech had been received. Accordingly, he wrote to
Thomas W. Thomas, asking to be told what the Whigs of
Hancock were saying concerning his speech and his vote.
Soon enough he was to discover that he had displeased the
South, though he had brought about the victory. He had
not defended slavery strongly enough to suit the sensitive
southerner. He had really not advocated the principle of
extension. Had he not said that he was no defender of
slavery in the abstract? The South was becoming hot
headed and unreasoning. Men who fifteen years ago had
actually worked upon tentative plans to end the institution
had been made rabid champions of slavery in both the con
crete and the abstract because of the activities of the north
ern abolitionists. A sensitive person in public life suffers a
great deal. Alexander Stephens, standing by his convictions,
spent many an uneasy hour.

His conscience, his ambition, and his desire for appro
bation, moreover, kept him plugging away at a rate that
would have exhausted a man with twice his strength. In a
letter to Linton he outlined his daily routine. At half past
eight every morning he rose, allowed himself twenty minutes
for dressing, ten for glancing over the newspaper, and then
breakfasted at nine. Until twelve he devoted himself to the
study of American history, current and past. Until four in
the afternoon he was always to be found at the House.
From adjournment till seven with a few minutes out for
tea he answered the letters that had accumulated during
the day. After closing his correspondence, he read and
studied until midnight unless interrupted by callers or by
some social engagement.

There were callers, moreover, and there were social en-

ioo LITTLE ALECK

gagements. Frequently Cobb and Lumpkin, of Georgia,
who lived next door, dropped in for a chat. It was during
this session of Congress that some of the older members of
the Senate, of the House and of the Judiciary included young
Stephens in their gatherings. Among the men he mentioned
frequently in his letters were Judge Story, Associate Justice
of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Taney, Judge McLean,
Judge McKinley, General Clinch and Jacob Collamer.
Again and again he referred to the rare "Attic nights" as
chief among the privileges he enjoyed as congressman.

The companionship of men with whom he had much in
common seems for a time to have lifted the cloud of gloom,
for in Stephens's letters and in his diary appeared less of
melancholy. Never in his life was there a time when he did
not appreciate a good joke or when his sense of humor did
not rescue him from fits of depression. So much did he en
joy Judge Story's excellent yarns that he often recounted
them to Linton. The Judge used to say that a man should
laugh for at least one hour each day, and certainly adopted
the advice he gave others. A story that Judge Collamer,
of Vermont, used to tell over and over never failed to amuse
Judge Story. Collamer had a way of talking to himself.
Whenever some one ridiculed him, he told of another man
who, similarly chicled, had replied, "I like to talk to a sen
sible man, and I like to hear a sensible man talk." General
Clinch also was the means of furnishing his friends a deal
of amusement. Stephens records in his diary, for instance,
that the old General one morning, late as usual, came puffing
and panting into the House just as his name was being called.

"No," he called loudly.

"General," said Stephens, "say 'here. 1 It's the roll-call"

"Damn!" Clinch replied. "I don't care, I'm against all
they do anyhow."

Sick or well, genial soul that he was, Alexander Stephens
found pleasure in Washington.

STEPHENS OPENS THE DOOR 101

Still, with all his duties, social and legislative, he never
lost sight of the obligations imposed by his guardianship.
Soon after the momentous Congress had convened, he took
time to send Linton a book on etiquette. It seemed that
General Clinch had remarked that the young man paid more
attention to his mind than to his manners. The older brother
was no little disturbed. Perhaps he had been remiss in
his training. Perhaps, after all, he had emphasized mental
education to the exclusion of social. In great detail he
explained to Linton that the amenities were important,
especially for a man who hoped to become an eminent
lawyer.

He could not doubt that he was giving the boy every
advantage. After having spent several months in Toombs's
office, Linton was then matriculated in the senior law class
at the University of Virginia, where Aleck trusted the con
tacts more than the instruction. In the spring of 1845, he
suggested that Linton plan to enter Harvard after his
graduation at the University. "The additional expense/'
he urged, "would not be an object, I think, compared with
the advantages to be derived." When Linton expressed his
willingness to study at Harvard, Aleck was delighted.
"Your last six months, I take it," he wrote, "have been sort
of a holiday, you must now go to work." He sent the warn
ing that life would be more serious in Cambridge than it
had been in Charlottesville. "You will find no card playing,
horse racing, cigar smoking there. You must, therefore,
drop your Virginia habits and go to work." And this when
Linton had been awarded a degree from the University of
Virginia after half a year's residence I

CHAPTER VIII
FOLK'S PRIVATELY CONDUCTED WAR

ALEXANDER STEPHENS heartily disapproved every move
made by the Polk administration. He could be friendly
with Democrats. He could even vote with them when the
interests of the South demanded that he lay aside his alliance
with the Whigs. Yet he could not endure such secret
diplomacy as Tyler and Calhoun had initiated and such
tortuous, autocratic and unconstitutional methods as char
acterized Folk's regime from the moment the new President
stepped into office. His indignation, kindled during the
inaugural address of March 4, 1845, l ca P^l into a steady
flame as month by month he watched Folk's devious machi
nations.

Drunk with their recent victory, the Democrats wanted
more land, and more power at any cost They were scornful
of England's claims in Oregon. What did they care for the
rights of the weak little Republic of Mexico? Folk had
declared that our title to the whole of Oregon as far as 54
40' north latitude in other words to the southern boundary
of Alaska was clear and that he intended to maintain it,
Stephens had no patience with a stand so patently unjust In
1825 Russia had seemed the likely claimant to the disputed
territory. It was then that Monroe had entered his warn
ing against European aggression. With England and the
United Slates, Russia had agreed to make no claim south
of 54 40'. Henceforth English and American squatters
had occupied the land informally. Though the northern
boundary seemed to Stephens a matter to be settled by arbi
tration and not by presidential proclamation, one of the

102

FOLK'S WAR 103

battle cries of the Polk campaign had been "Fifty-four-forty
or fight, " Such tactics were thoroughly revolting to a man
accustomed to weighing evidence and reaching decisions
fair to the contestants.

Soon it appeared that the strength of England made
arbitration seem advisable. Not so, however, in the case of
poor revolution-torn Mexico. Texas had already claimed as
her northern boundary 42 and that part of Coahuila that
lay between the Nueces and the Rio Grande del Norte as
hers. Polk, who even before Texas had been admitted had
accepted her contention as just, immediately sent General
Zachary Taylor to the bank of the Nueces. Later he re-
enforced the command by four thousand men. The follow
ing winter, when the President ordered Taylor to advance
to the Rio Grande, the Mexican Commander at Matamoras
demanded that the United States forces withdraw to the
Nueces. Taylor refused. The war that resulted was a
series of victories of strength over weakness. The Presi
dent had acted upon no authority but his own.

Alexander Stephens was incensed. All his life he had
studied the Constitution. All his life he had loved his
country because he thought it safeguarded liberty and pro
vided against such usurpation of power, such autocracy, as
he was then witnessing. When the people babbled of vic
tory, he was indignant. What was victory at the cost of
liberty? His utterances then were not unlike those which
were later to distress President Davis. Where was the
glory of defeating a foe that lacked organization and re
sources? Never had Congress been placed in such an em
barrassing position. A president, having taken upon him
self the fixing of Texan boundaries, permitted his troops
to occupy the disputed territory and then declared that the
Mexicans had passed the boundaries of the United States
and had "shed American blood on American soil," and that
war existed by the act of Mexico*

io 4 LITTLE ALECK

Thoughtful men made up the personnel of that twenty-
ninth Congress, men who were later to play important parts
in the greatest drama of American history, the material
for which was being gathered. John Quincy Adams was still
at work in legislative halls. David Wilmot had been sent
from Pennsylvania; Robert M. T. Hunter from Virginia;
Armistead Burt and R. Barnwell Rhett from South
Carolina; William L. Yancey from Alabama; Jefferson
Davis from Mississippi; John Slidell from Louisiana; An
drew Johnson from Tennessee; Stephen A. Douglas from
Illinois; Daniel R. Tilden from Ohio; Lumpkin, Cobb,
Stephens and Toombs were among the Georgians. These
were not men who would lightly pass over crimes com
mitted by a president. Whigs and Democrats alike were
distressed and perplexed. Yet national honor was at stake.
There was nothing to do but declare war upon Mexico.

Alexander Stephens, however, was watching his chance
to let the world know what he thought of the whole disgrace
ful affair and to suggest a way out of the difficulty. Toombs
was already screaming from the housetops his. condemna
tion of Polk; "The conquest and dismemberment of Mexico,
however brilliant may be success of our arms, will not re
dound to the glory of our Republic. 7 ' That was Toombs,
fearless and explosive always, Stephens was content to
wait until he could prepare a logical argument and deliver
it convincingly.

Twice he spoke before Congress on the Mexican War
and in no uncertain terms* He charged that Folk's sending
Taylor into the disputed territory was a "masked design"
to bring on war for the President's personal aggrandize*
ment. lie attacked Polk for acting without the authority
of Congress.

"I hope never to see the day when the Kxecutive of this
country shall be considered identical with the country itself
in its foreign relations, or when any man, for scanning his
acts, however severely when justly, shall on that account

FOLK'S WAR 105

be charged with opposition to his country. Such is the case
only where allegiance is due to a crown, where people's
rulers are their masters ; but, thank God, in this country
we can yet hold our rulers to an account. How long
we shall be permitted or be disposed to do so I know not;
but whenever we cease to do it we shall become unfit to
be free."

It was the real Stephens speaking, the man who could not
put expediency above principle, the man who never forgot
his devotion to^an ideal and who, years later, was arraign
ing the head of a new confederacy under whom he served
as vice-president.

"I am not, as some gentlemen seem to be, the, advocate
of war in the abstract war for war's sake. I hold all wars
to be great national calamities. I do not claim that war can
or should always be avoided. ... I am no non-resistance
man, I am far from holding that all wars are wrong. But
I do hold that they ought never to be rushed into blindly
or rashly. This ultima ratio this last resort of nations
to settle matters of dispute or disagreement between them,
should always be avoided, when it can be done without a
sacrifice of national rights or honor. And the greatest
responsibility rests upon those at the head of affairs, to
whom are confided the interests and destinies of a country,
that they do not disregard the heavy obligations of this most
important trust. . . .

'There is much said in this country of the party of prog
ress, 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 them
selves are using their utmost exertions to push forward. . . .
It is to progress in these essential attributes of national
greatness I would look: the improvement of mind, 'the in
crease and diffusion of knowledge amongst men,' the erec
tion of schools, colleges, and temples of learning; the prog
ress of the intellect over matter; the triumph of the mind
over animal propensities; the advancement of kind feelings

io6 LITTLE ALECK

and good will amongst the nations of the earth; the cultiva
tion of virtue and the pursuits of industry; the bringing into
subjection subserviency to the use of man of all the elements
of nature about and 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
carnage may make men brave and heroic, but seldom tend
to make nations either good, virtuous, or great. 7 '

The little man, pleading eloquently in behalf of a weaker
nation, could not have understood the prophetic quality of
his words. Yet perhaps even then vaguely lie knew that his
country was rushing toward the great national calamity
which through the years that were to follow he was to try
in vain to avert

It was shortly after this speech that Hurt, of South
Carolina, brought Alexander Stephens an important mes
sage: John C. Calhoun wanted to talk to him. Stephens
was flattered. He had never admired the great Carolinian.
Yet here was the sort of recognition that he had always
craved. Yes, Burt might arrange the conference. The
meeting somewhat changed Stephen^ attitude toward the
man with whose nullification and territorial extension policies
he had been at variance,

Calhoun, it seemed, agreed fully with all Stephens had
said. He could not, however, at the moment afford to lose
his influence with Polk, for he was endeavoring to get the
President to accept England's proposal that the northern
boundary be compromised at 49 north latitude, When the
Oregon matter was settled, he would not hesitate to de
nounce Polk in the Senate, In the light of the part Calhoun
had played as secretary of state under Tyler in lending
troops to be used by Texas against Mexico, there was ap
parent hypocrisy in the stand he declared himself ready to
make. Yet Stephens seemed not to doubt the sincerity of
his words. Perhaps his judgment was somewhat clouded by

FOLK'S WAR I07

CalhoWs flattery. After all, the Georgian was still a young
man, while the Carolinian had fought for many years in the
public arena. Then, too, Stephens endorsed Calhoun's
efforts to settle by arbitration the dispute with England.
The President's letters to England had filled him with con
sternation. If any man could stop them, Calhoun could.
Earlier in the year Aleck had written to Linton, expressing
the fear that Folk's insistence upon 54-40 would lead to war.
"England has rights in Oregon, and we shall have to admit
them/ 7 he had said, "and the position of our chief Magis
trate will have to be abandoned. This will lower us in the
eyes of foreign nations. Such has never been the case be
fore," Yet a bit of humiliation seemed better than war.
He was glad that he and Calhoun could agree upon two im
portant subjects.

Commendation from a stranger, however, no matter how
eminent that man might be, could not soothe the sting of
criticism that came from another quarter. Herschel V.
Johnson, of Georgia, who had been one of Alexander
Stephens^ closest friends, was attacking the Mexican War
speech in the Federal Union. When Little Aleck was deeply
hurt, he had to do something quickly. Accordingly, he wrote
Johnson and demanded retraction. When none was forth
coming, Stephens, who never could stand criticism cer
tainly not from a person who should have observed the laws
of friendship -challenged Johnson to a duel. In the man
there was much of the small boy who had stood defiant be
fore the Irishman O'Cavanaugh, crying, u Sir, you shall
not speak to me that way," and looking about the school
yard for the stone that he would hurl toward the offending
teacher- The frail little man, like the frail little boy, wanted
the world to acknowledge his superiority, to defer to him,
and to treat him with the respect he craved. For years
Stephens could not forgive Johnson for the dignified refusal
he sent. Until 1855 the two men did not speak. Then,

io8 LITTLE ALECK

when Herschel V. Johnson was elected governor of Georgia,
the old friends were brought together. In 1860 Stephens
was active in support of the Douglas- Johnson ticket; and it
was Johnson who came with Linton in 1865 to see the little
prisoner at Fort Warren.

There was certainly enough that year to induce the old
melancholy moods. "I am beginning to think that Congress
is the last place that a man of honor and honorable am
bition would aspire to," Stephens wrote. 'There is a reck
lessness of purpose here perfectly disgusting and most alarm
ing." Yet Linton supplied him with needed diversion. In
February, 1846, the young student was preparing for ex
amination at the bar. Aleck's letters were full of advice.
To him the brother was still a child who must be spurred
toward achievement. Aleck urged him to study diligently
so that he might acquit himself with honor. He quoted
Howell Cobb as saying that Linton had a great deal better
mind than Aleck and pointed out the responsibility imposed
by so generous an endowment. To him Linton was not
merely the most beloved of human beings but part of Aleck's
career that must not be allowed to fail. In March Linton
passed the bar with flying colors, yet Aleck's tutelage was
never to end.

Nor, it seemed, were the troubles that grew out of the
War with Mexico. In August, 1846, while the United
States forces were piling up one victory after another, the
President although liberal appropriations for the prosecu
tion of the war had already been made asked for two mil
lion dollars for the purpose of settling the difficulties with
Mexico. It leaked out at once that the money was to be
used to gain additional territory. Stephens was immediately
alarmed, for he knew that the slavery agitation would be
given new impetus. His forebodings materialized on Au
gust eighth when David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, proposed
his condition to the appropriation bill, which provided that

FOLK'S WAR 109

slavery should be for ever prohibited in all the territory to
be acquired by the United States from Mexico. The Wil-
mot Proviso received a majority of nineteen in the House,
but in the Senate it went down to defeat. Its opponents,
therefore, had a chance to muster their strength for a sec
ond fight.

On January twenty-second of the following year, with
the Mexican War still being waged, Stephens asked for a
suspension of the rules in order that he might propose a
resolution against the administration's military policy. Since
the honor of the country must be sustained, the paper stated,
as long as war existed, since the object to be gained was not
clear to the people, and since speedy termination of hostilities
was desirable, it was resolved that the war was not being
waged for conquest or for the dismemberment of Mexico
and that it should be ended upon terms honorable to both
countries. Though the motion to suspend the rules and
vote upon the resolution was defeated by twelve votes,
Stephens was not discouraged. He had begun a fight which
he intended to see to its conclusion. With renewed energy
he tackled the President's appropriation bill.

Polk was then asking the thirtieth Congress for three
million dollars, instead of two. When the Proviso was
again tacked to the bill, congressional fur began to fly.

Alexander Stephens's health and spirits were distinctly
improved. In other words, he had put on his fighting boots
and was thinking less of his own miseries, though he at
tributed his optimistic outlook to Burton's Anatomy of
Melancholy, which he had recently read. He did not be
lieve that the Wilmot Proviso could be passed. "The whole
government, I think," he wrote to Linton on January fifth,
"is about to break down at least the administration. There
is no concert in any party. . , , The North is going to stick
to the Wilmot amendment, and then all the South will vote
against any measure thus clogged."

no LITTLE ALECK

He was at his best when he rose on February twelfth to
speak on the three-million-dollar bill. It amazed him, he
said, to find any man believing that a president should con
duct a war and that Congress should merely vote the ap
propriations he requested. Again he reminded Americans
that "the king can do no wrong" was a doctrine suited only
to the despotisms of Europe. Again he declared that the
war was of the President's making. At last, pronounce
ments showed that it was a war for conquest. When he
addressed himself to the Wilmot Proviso, it was clear that
his defense of slavery had been strengthened by echoes of
criticisms that were still ringing in his ears. "It is suffi
cient . . . that the morality of that institution stands upon
a basis as firm as the Bible; and upon this code of morals
we are content to abide until a better be furnished. Until
Christianity be overthrown and some other system of ethics
be instituted, the relation of master and slave can never be
regarded as an offense against the Divine law."

To what extent Stephens was consciously courting the
popularity he had lost by the first speech on the Mexican
War there is, of course, no way of determining. Perhaps
he was not consciously insincere. A sensitive man is an
easy subject for auto-hypnotism. Certainly the methods
of the abolitionists had been high-handed. Exaggerated
stories of cruelty on the southern plantations had been cir
culated throughout the North. The negroes in the South
had been incited to the commission of outrages that terri
fied the whites. The slaves owned by Stephens were well-
treated and contented with their lot. The gradual evolu
tion of his attitude toward slavery indicates that Stephens
was building up a defense for something that he knew to be
inherently indefensible. His falling back upon the Scrip
tures was an admission of weakness. Had he lived in Utah,
is it not possible that to satisfy the demands of his con
stituents he would have cited Biblical justification for polyg-

FOLK'S WAR in

amy? In extenuation, however, it should be remembered
that Stephens was a southerner and that he was surrounded
by a hysteria of the sort to impair judgment.

In the thirtieth Congress a raw-boned, ungainly fellow
from Illinois leaped into sudden prominence. He was a
Whig by the nameof Abraham Lincoln. He and Alexander
Stephens were immdiately drawn together in their common
opposition to the Mexican War. Both men had voted for
the resolutions condemning the action of the President. Like
Stephens, Lincoln expressed his views in a set speech made
upon the floor of the House. The friendship, begun in 1847,
survived even the stormy years of the war.

In dealing his most telling blow against the administra
tion, Stephens had the support of Abraham Lincoln. Clev
erly the gentleman from Georgia introduced into the reso
lutions tendering thanks to the soldiers the phrase "in a
war unconstitutionally begun." Stephens knew that those
words would end the Mexican War.

In 1847 the appropriation bill passed the House with a
majority of only nine. The Senate, however, struck out
the amendment. The House then agreed to the bill as it
came from the Senate. With the defeat of the Wilmot
Proviso, the slavery issue was merely postponed. A storm
had passed without a cloudburst. Yet thunder rumbled
in the distance. Hearing it, Alexander Stephens tried in
vain to close his ears.

CHAPTER IX
LITTLE ALECK ELECTS A PRESIDENT

EIGHTEEN FORTY-EIGHT! Alexander Stephens was thirty-
six. Not so old for a man who had been heard upon most
of the important questions before the nation ! He was feel
ing better, moreover. Indeed it was seldom necessary for
him to lean heavily upon his cane when walking from his
lodgings in Washington to his seat in the House. Burton's
Anatomy of Melancholy, Linton's progress in the courts, the
friendliness of his constituents, the pleasant vacations at
Liberty Hall, and the companionship of kindred minds which
he enjoyed at the capital all combined to make life worth liv
ing. Five years ago he had been prominent only in his own
state. Now he was headed toward national greatness.
Leading members of Congress were deferring to the little
man from Georgia. Liberty Hall, long a sort of Mecca for
politicians from Stephens's own state, was now attracting
men from a distance. There hospitality was free to all. It
was Robert Toombs who said that his town did not need a
hotel because any decent man could stay with him and that
the others were not wanted. The remark, however, might
have been made by Stephens. Meals at Liberty Hall were
timed to suit the arrival of the trains. Eliza, the cook, was
never annoyed because of not being able to know how many
would be seated at the table. She merely put a few unknown
names in the pot and helped her master to make every one
welcome. Aleck, moreover, had laid aside the puritanical
ways of college years. He no longer disapproved of tobacco,
cards and moderate drinking, and he had on hand good wine
and good cigars for himself and his guests. After break-

112

ALECK ELECTS A PRESIDENT 113

fast in the morning and after tea in the evening he com
mandeered his guests into a game of whist, casino or piquet.
What with friends and work and books, he was far from
unhappy as he passed from youth into the maturer years.

Grave matters confronted the Congress of 1848. Oregon,
for instance, was waiting to be organized into a territory.
By the treaty of peace with Mexico vast lands had been
acquired for which some sort of government must be estab
lished. Early in the year Douglas, of Illinois, introduced
his Oregon bill into the Senate, which was immediately side
tracked. Meanwhile the House was wrangling ineffectually
over the details of the territorial issues. The presidential
campaign of the following summer had already proved dis
tracting. Whigs and Democrats were both searching for
sure winners.

As for Alexander Stephens he was engaged in the gigan
tic task of making General Zachary Taylor president of
the United States. The idea seems to have sprung full
grown from his own fertile brain. In it there was a sort of
irony and poetic justice that Stephens enjoyed. The Demo
crats had entered upon a nice easy war that would bring
glory to their administration. The victories had been won,
moreover, by a Whig general. What a boomerang it would
be to elect- that general Whig president of the United
States I The little Georgian had paved the way for his big
coup by those resolutions of thanks to the soldiers and by
the clause of condemnation aimed toward the Tyler and
Polk administrations. The ball that he had set rolling at
the convention in his own state was gathering momentum
not, however, without a few telling prods from its owner in
Washington. It seemed important to enlist the interest
of influential congressmen in Taylor's behalf.

In March Stephens moved into the Rush House with
Robert Toombs, Mrs. Toombs and their little daughters.
There opportunity was afforded for informal entertaining.

ii 4 LITTLE ALECK

Members, dropping in for meals and for long chats in the
evening, naturally discussed the conventions scheduled for
late spring. Months before, Stephens had conceived the
idea of organizing a Taylor-for-president club. "Young
Indians" was the name by which the group of Taylor men in
Congress were known. At first Stephens was able to en
list the interest of only a few. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois ;
Truman Smith, of Connecticut; John S. Pendleton, William
Ballard Preston and Thomas S. Flournoy, of Virginia; and
of course Toombs, of Georgia, were responsive at the out
set. The organization grew so steadily that it soon looked
as though Taylor's nomination could be brought about.
Stephens was counting on the popularity the General had
won in Folk's privately conducted war.

In New York State the feeling was so tense that it was
almost impossible to maintain order at political gather
ings. Several meetings had been attempted with the same
disastrous results. In the pivotal state it was imperative
that a Taylor man be given a respectful hearing. Stephens
knew that Toombs was the man to send to New York and
told him so. His very presence commanded attention ; he
could argue convincingly. Toombs yielded to his friend's
persuasion and agreed to go to New York, if the meeting
were arranged. Determined that the audience should be
orderly, Stephens sent for Isaiah Rhynders, celebrated cap
tain of the Roughs of the great city. Could he assure
Toombs a hearing and how much would it cost? asked
Stephens. The trick could be worked for two hundred
dollars, Rhynders replied. Immediately Stephens made the
bargain. Rhynders suggested that Toombs meet the boy-
hoys at a saloon the evening before the meeting and estab
lish the good fellowship that would be essential to success.

Aleck Stephens felt that if Bob Toombs couldn't handle
the audience with such help as Rhynders could give him, then
nobody could. He liked to recount in Washington Toombs's

ALECK ELECTS A PRESIDENT 115

experiences with gatherings in Georgia. Bob had a very
bad habit in those days of chewing tobacco while he spoke
and spraying the people who sat on the front row. Once
a red-haired fellow, who had had too much to drink, called
out, "Don't let your pot boil over." "Take your fire from
under it then," Toombs had replied to the red-head.

There was simply no way of getting the best of Toombs
in repartee. Once an auditor had accused Toombs of hav
ing said something in a former speech. He had never said
anything of the kind, Toombs denied. When and where
had the man heard him make such a statement? Where
upon the man rose and gave the time and place. "Well, I
must have told a damn lie," Toombs countered and pro
ceeded with his argument.

Telling the young Indians about his friend's many vic
tories on the stump, Aleck expressed confidence that the
New York meeting would be a success.

Robert Toombs fell in line good-naturedly. As a matter
of fact, the affair was much to his liking. He went to New
York, treated the men at the saloon, chatted and drank
with Bill Sullivan, Bill Ford and several other boxers whom
Rhynders had engaged, and returned to his hotel after
Rhynders had assured him that all would go smoothly.

When the speaker appeared at the hall the following
night, an immense crowd had gathered. The Taylor men,
however, showed signs of extreme nervousness. Robert
Toombs ascended the platform, looking his best and in ex
cellent trim for speaking.

"Fellow citizens of New York," he began.

"Slaveholder!" cried a man in the audience.

"Slaveholder I" echoed another.

"Fellow citizens of New York," Toombs repeated,

"Hurrah for Clayl" cried some one.

"Hurrah for Clay!" came the echo.

Mr. Toombs made a third beginning.

n6 LITTLE ALECK

"Fellow citizens . . ."

"Slaveholder, slaveholder, slaveholder 1" resounded
through the house.

A free-for-all was beginning.

"Put him out, put him out, put him out," came from the
four corners of the hall. Rhynders's men were at work.

"Whatcha putting me out for?" several asked. "I
haven't opened my mouth."

"Out you go," was the rejoinder. "There's a chalk mark
on your back."

The boxers were not people who dealt in words. They
were hurling offenders through the open door. Scattered
among the audience, their henchmen had marked the backs
of the men who had created the disturbance. In a few mo
ments an audience sat quiet to hear the address that
Robert Toombs had been trying to make. Forty or more
rowdies had been ejected, and no others came to fill their
places. The orator plunged into his argument with char
acteristic force and earnestness.

"Three cheers for Zach!" a man cried.

Others took up the refrain. Zachary Taylor had gained
a foothold in New York. Hearing of the result of the
meeting, Alexander Stephens was content. Though he had
never abandoned his personal loyalty to Clay, he had
ceased to believe that the Kentuckian could carry the coun
try and was anxious to see the Whigs nominate a man who
could be swept into office upon a wave of popularity.

The Democrats met in Baltimore on May twenty-second
and nominated Lewis Cass, of Michigan, and William O.
Butler, of Kentucky; June first the Whigs at Philadelphia
nominated Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore and
adopted Stephens's resolutions concerning the Mexican War
as their platform in so far as the war was concerned ; and the
Free-Soil factions of the Democrats and Whigs put Martin
Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams in the field.

ALECK ELECTS A PRESIDENT 117

Congress, continuing in session, soon seemed affected by
the summer heat. John M, Clayton, of Delaware, chair
man of a special senatorial committee, had introduced a
bill, providing territorial governments for Oregon, New
Mexico and California. By it slavery was to be prohibited
in Oregon, but in New Mexico and California the ques
tion was to be referred to the territorial courts with the
right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.
The Clayton Compromise passed the Senate and was im
mediately tabled in the House, to come up for discussion
during the hottest days in August.

Stephens was among those who opposed the measure,
agreeing with Thomas Cowin who said, "It does not enact a
law; it enacts a lawsuit." Of late the Georgian had been
silent in the House. He had won his spurs, however, and
he knew that, when he did speak, the members would listen.
It was earlier in the year that Lincoln had written to his
law partner, "I take up my pen to tell you that Mr. Stephens
of Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man, with
a voice like Logan's, has just concluded the very best speech
of an hour's length I have ever heard. My old withered,
dry eyes are full of tears yet." Stephens had clipped and
preserved the press comments that had appeared immedi
ately after all his public appearances. Now that he had no
laurels to win, he could afford to bide his time, occupy him
self with political maneuvering and speak only in response
to the spirit's insistent urgings. Against the Clayton Com
promise he felt irresistibly impelled to protest.

It had been rumored that Stephens, of Georgia, would be
heard on August seventh. Members were in their seats;
galleries were packed. The little man had never been more
earnest in his life. His voice was shrill and clear when he
made his deliberate beginning. As usual, it gathered volume.
The compromise, he declared, meant the South's abandon
ment of her position. By suggesting that the decision be

n8 LITTLE ALECK

left to the Supreme Court, the North was striving to exclude
the southern institution from all the new "territory. The
South, however, had no desire for all half would satisfy
her. She had a right to demand that her citizens, migrating
westward, 'be left some spot where they could settle with
their slave property and not incur expensive litigation. The
report of Clayton's committee had implied that the laws in
force in the territories should be sustained. It was known
that Mexico had abolished slavery prior to its war with the
United States. Therefore, the bill/instead of being a com
promise, appeared in the light of a complete concession to
the policy of the Free-Soilers. He was asking for a com
promise that involved a fair division of the territory.

When tfae~session of Congress came to an end, no govern
ments for the territories had been set up. The representa
tives had left a legacy of contention to their immediate suc
cessors.

Returning to Georgia, Alexander Stephens was amazed
to find that his conduct was being censured, amazed that any
of his constituents should approve the Clayton Compro
mise. As usual, criticism wounded him deeply. He had
done his best. Now he was ready to take to task any man
who disagreed with him.

Accordingly, he was in no happy frame of mind when
word came to him that his old friend, Judge Cone, had called
him a traitor to the South. Alexander Stephens a traitor
to the land that he loved! Alexander Stephens who had
worked solely for the advancement of Georgia ! He did
not believe his friend had said anything of the kind. Still,
if he discovered that his informant had spoken truthfully,
he would slap Cone's face. Little Aleck slapping huge
Judge Cone ! The people were intensely amused. Stephens
was cut to the quick. He would show them that he was no
coward and that no man could call him a traitor with im
punity.

ALECK ELECTS A PRESIDENT 119

Shortly afterward he met the Judge at a Whig gathering.

"Judge Cone," he said with dignity, "I have been told
that you, for reasons of your own, have denounced me as
a traitor, and I take this opportunity of asking you if the
reports are true. 1 '

"No, sir," replied the Judge. "They are not true."

"I am very glad to hear you say so," Stephens said with a
trifle less formality. "Of course I do not desire to be in
any way offensive to you, but in order that we may have no
further misunderstanding through misrepresentation of
others, I think it right to tell you that I have said I would
slap your face if you admitted having used the language at
tributed to you."

Stephens thought that the incident was closed. Georgians,
however, were too fond of a joke to let the matter rest.
Everywhere the Judge went some one inquired if Little
Aleck had slapped him yet. They hoped he could hold his
own against his violent assailant. If he needed help, he
could call upon his friends. Everybody laughed except the
Judge, whose sense of humor seemed to have disappeared.
Cone wrote Stephens, asking for a public retraction of the
threat. Stephens replied affably that, since the threat had
been contingent upon Cone's admission of the charge, there
was no reason for hard feeling.

Several days later Cone found Stephens alone on the
piazza of the Atlanta Hotel.

"Mr. Stephens," roared the Judge, "I demand that you
make immediate retraction of your threats against me."

Alexander Stephens straightened his slight body. No
man could talk to him like that. Years ago he had made
a decision when he stood face to face with O'Cavanaugh.
Certainly now he was not afraid of Cone.

"Pardon me, sir," he said with exasperating politeness,
"I have already written to you upon that subject. I must
decline to discuss it further,"

120 LITTLE ALECK

"Am I to take that for an answer?"
"It is the only answer that I have to give you."
"Then I denounce you as a miserable little traitor."
Instantly the cane upon which Stephens was leaning struck
Cone squarely across the face. A dirk knife flashed in
Cone's hand. Stephens, fencing quickly with an umbrella,
received a cut on his arm. Then, like a mad man, Cone
was upon him, gashing his breast, his body, his arms. Yet
the little fellow was still standing, still fighting with all the
strength that was in him. A man might call him a traitor,
but no man could now accuse him of cowardice. Weakling
though he had always been, he would not appear afraid.
When Cone's great weight broke the umbrella, Little Aleck
fell to the floor. Cone pinned him down and poised the
dirk knife above his breast.

"Retract or I'll cut your cursed throat," he said.
"Cut! I'll never retract," Stephens gasped.
He caught the descending knife in his right hand. It
cut through the muscles and tendons and into the bones.
Then it was that men pulled Cone ofi his victim. The Judge
was arrested. Little Aleck was taken to a hospital where
for days he lay at death's door. He had been slashed
from head to foot, one wound being but a sixteenth of an
inch from his heart. Friends asked him to prefer charges
against Cone, but he refused. He had put up a good fight,
and he was satisfied thus to close the incident. Neverthe
less, the Judge was fined a thousand dollars,

News of the encounter spread throughout Georgia. The
people were sorrowful and indignant. Little Aleck could
not be spared. Always a picturesque figure, he was now a
hero. Hundreds thronged the Crawfordville depot. They
had heard that their friend was not expected to live. The
train arrived at last. Little Aleck had been pronounced out
of danger. A shout went up from the multitude. It was
weeks, however, before he sat again upon the pleasant piazza

THE CONGRESSMAN FROM GEORGIA

ALECK ELECTS A PRESIDENT 121

at Liberty Hall. It was months before he could use his
poor mutilated hand, which through the rest of his life
remained stiff and twisted and which accounts for the in
creased illegibility of his writing.

Yet when his friends insisted that he attend the Taylor
mass meeting to be held in Atlanta on the fourteenth of
September, he yielded to their entreaties. For him to be
seen in his crippled state would be a real service to the presi
dential candidate, and it could not hurt his own cause in the
state. Too weak to walk, he was borne by strong men to
the carnage that waited before the door, and he was drawn
by these men and others through the streets of Atlanta.
"Thank God for Little Aleck 1" the people cried as the
strange procession advanced toward the meeting-place. Hats
flew into the air. "Three cheers for Little Aleck and for
Zachl" rang out from corner to corner. The hall was
thronged with Georgians and with people from neighbor
ing states. "Stephens! Stephens 1" ran the echo as Alex
ander Stephens was carried down the aisle.

Judge Berrien opened the meeting with an address in
advocacy of the presidential candidate. As the applause
that followed his speech subsided, again there were cries
of "Stephens! Stephens!" The audience wanted a speech
from the man who had miraculously escaped the clutches of
the enraged Judge Cone. Alexander Stephens tottered
across the platform and rested his hand on the table for
support.

"I am too weak to speak," he said. "But I will tell you
a story. An old soldier of Doniphan's regiment returned to
New Orleans after service in Mexico. Ragged and starv
ing, he was taken in by a storekeeper, who fed and clothed
him, gave him money, and sent him on his way. When the
soldier was leaving, his benefactor asked if there was any
thing more he could do. 'No/ said the man gratefully, and
he turned to go. 'You have already done a great deal.'

122 LITTLE ALECK

In a moment, however, he was back again. 'I forgot/ he
said, 'there is one thing you can do for me. You can vote
for Old Zach. 1 So now, like the soldier, all I have to say
i s vote for Old Zach."

There was a riot of shouts and applause. It was clear
that Little Aleck and Old Zach were slated for victory.

In a letter written to Senator John J. Crittenden, of Ken
tucky, September 26, 1848, "You have doubtless heard of
the occurrence/' Stephens said, "which put me out of the
canvass in this state for three weeks past and upwards. I
am now recovering slowly. My right hand is still in bad
condition, and I fear I shall never be able to use it as for
merly. I can now only scribble with my left hand but
enough of this."

Though the one fight of his life seldom entered into his
conversation, it made a deep impression on him. Pushed
out of the conscious mind, it frequently returned in dreams.
Twice in his prison diary he mentions dreaming of Judge
Cone, who had then been dead some time. Even through
the pain and mortification, he must have realized that Cone
had succeeded in binding Georgians closer to Stephens.
Robert Toombs, whose love for Little Aleck contained much
of the protective quality, wanted to wreak some violent
vengeance upon Cone. Later in September he wrote Crit
tenden that Stephens had been cut down by a cowardly
assassin and was unable to continue active in the Taylor
campaign. Toombs's already large store of energy, how
ever, seemed to have been doubled. He was speaking all
over the state in behalf of the Taylor ticket, in addition
to conducting his own campaign for Congress and canvassing
Stephens's counties in the interest of his friend's election,
Stephens and Toombs were returned to their seats and Zach-
ary Taylor carried Georgia. Alexander Stephens had made
Zachary Taylor president of the United States,

CHAPTER X
COMPROMISE FOR A DAY

CHAOS reigned after the convening of the thirty-first Con
gress. The old party lines were being for ever erased.
The southern Whigs were classifiable with the Democrats;
and the Democrats of the North, the northern Whigs and
the Free-Soilers were about to merge. Stephens had be
come virtually a man without a party. Early in December
at a Whig caucus he had attempted in vain to get his north
ern colleagues to agree not to press the Wilmot Proviso.
Failing in his purpose, he announced that he would have
nothing to do with a party that did not disconnect itself with
the aggressive abolition movements. Whereupon he 'and
Toombs and other southern Whigs left the caucus, That
night he wrote Linton that the North was insolent and
unyielding. What would be the result, he dared not
prophesy.

Steadily Stephens's pessimism was deepened. In the last
days of Folk's administration the southerners met in con
ference and listened to John C. Calhoun's manifesto,
modeled as it was upon the Declaration of Independence
and airing all the southern grievances. The Virginia legis
lature passed its resolutions, which declared that between
the alternatives of "submission to aggression and outrage"
and "of determined resistance at all hazards and to the
last extremity," the sovereign people of their state could
have no difficulty in making their choice. The Missouri
legislature also passed resolutions of protest against the
Wilmot Proviso. In Tennessee the Democratic State Cen
tral Committee said to the voters that the "encroachments

123

I2 4 LITTLE ALECK

of our Northern brethren have reached a point where for
bearance on our part ceases to be a virtue." The cotton
states endorsed the Virginia resolutions. In the North
excitement was great: the Wilmot Proviso must be main
tained.

January fifteenth Stephens wrote Linton that he was look
ing deplorably to disunion as the inevitable outcome of the
slavery controversy. In the halls of Congress he was hear
ing nothing but insults directed toward slaveholders. If
any adjustment were made, he believed it would smooth
matters out only temporarily.

In the Senate Calhoun, Clay and Webster appeared to
gether for the last time. Old men they were, weary now of
the long struggle. Calhoun had not lost his vitriol, how
ever; Clay was still believing that the Union might be pre
served; Webster showed the influences of the mellowing
years and lost many old friends by advocating adjustment.

On January twenty-ninth Clay introduced into the Senate
his "omnibus" bill, containing the celebrated compromises.
It proposed the admission of California under its free con
stitution; that governments for the territories acquired from
Mexico be established without slavery restriction; that pay
ment be directed for the public debt of Texas contracted
prior to annexation, for which the duties upon foreign im
ports were pledged, upon condition that Texas relinquish
her claims to any part of New Mexico ; that slave trade in
the District of Columbia be prohibited; and that provision
be made for the return of fugitive slaves. The resolutions
further declared that the abolition of slavery in the District
of Columbia was inexpedient without the consent of Mary
land and the people in the District and without just com
pensation to slave-owners, and that Congress had no right
to interfere with slave trade between the states*

Before any part of Clay's resolutions had been presented
in the House an important conference of members from

COMPROMISE FOR A DAY 125

the North and South met in Alexander Stephens's rooms.
Howell Cobb, Robert Toombs and Stephens, of Georgia,
and Boyd, of Kentucky, represented the pro-slavery ele
ment in the House; William A. Richardson and McCler-
nand, of Illinois, and Miller, of Ohio, the anti-slavery
element. McClernand, who was at that time chairman of
the committee on territories in the House, said that Douglas,
as chairman of the senatorial committee, had expressed his
willingness to act in concert with him. It was Alexander
Stephens who got the group together at McClernand's sug
gestion. The upshot of the conference was the agreement
that California be admitted with its free constitution, that
the territorial governments be organized without slavery
restrictions, and that abolition be defeated in the District.
The fight then moved to the floor of Congress.

In the meantime Alexander Stephens was losing hope.
He and Toombs had reached the conclusion that their efforts
in behalf of President Taylor's nomination were turning into
a boomerang. A Whig emulating the Democrats and adopt
ing the spoils system in making his appointments ! Stephens
was distressed and profoundly shocked. On February sixth,
in writing to urge J. J. Crittenden to accept a post in Taylor's
Cabinet, he had expressed the fear that the President was
about to be assailed by those who viewed politics merely as
spoils. Stalwart men could not evade responsibility at such
a time.

Soon he saw the first materialization of his fears. The
President was not only attacked by the leeches, whom he
put in office to displace good men, but was being influenced
by the abolitionists. Without a party and without a presi
dent, Stephens felt like a passenger whose sturdy ship had
met disaster. There was nothing to which he could hold.
On February tenth he wrote Linton that the political situa
tion augured anarchy. "I see no prospect of a continuance
of this union long. . * . If we had virtue and patriotism

ia6 LITTLE ALECK

among our people, I should hope much from a Southern
confederacy. 35 He had become convinced, however, that
the leaders in his own section could not be trusted. And
again three days later to James Thomas: "What is to be
the result of the slavery question I can not tell I suppose,
however, that some adjustment of it will be made some
adjustment of It for the present. But when I look to the
future and consider the causes of the existing sectional dis
content, their extent and nature, I must confess that I see
very little prospect of peace and quiet in the public mind
upon this subject. Whether a separation of the Union and
the organization and establishment of a Southern confeder
acy will give final and ultimate security to the form of society
as it exists with us, I am not prepared to say." There was
too much dogmatism in the country, he thought, too little
statesmanship.

The debates in Congress had become more and more
bitter. Tongues lashed out acrimony and invective. There
were several fist-fights between members. It was inevitable
that Stephens's health should break under the strain. On
March twenty-second Toombs wrote Linton that Aleck had
been ill for the last fortnight. Two days later, however,
from his couch Aleck was taking his mind off affairs of state
to send his permission for his cook to marry a negro who
belonged to a neighbor. "Tell Eliza to go to Solomon &
Henry's," he directed Linton, "and get a wedding dress,
including a fine pair of shoes, etc., and to have a decent
wedding of it. Let them cook a supper and have such of
their friends as they wish. Let the wedding come off when
you are at home so that you can keep order among them.
Buy a pig, and let them have a good supper. Let Eliza
bake a pound cake and set a good wedding supper."

Aleck was always homesick when he thought of the simple
folk at Liberty Hall. After all, why had ambition driven
him to Washington, where so little could be accomplished

COMPROMISE FOR A DAY 127

for the public good? He recalled that the jonquils were
even then blooming in yellow blazes about his pleasant side
piazza. Rio, the dog who loved him, was probably still
meeting the incoming trains, hoping that one would bring
his master back to Liberty Hall. Eliza, faithful Eliza, now
about to be married to Googer's Harry ! There was no food
in Washington quite so good as that prepared by his own
dusky cook. Eliza knew how to cater to an invalid's whim
sical appetite. He longed for the sweet smell of the Geor
gian spring. The soft earth was falling back from his
negroes' plow blades. He wanted to occupy his own com
fortable chair on the piazza where he could see and smell
and feel the sweetness of March. Years ago Jefferies had
been unable to lure him away from Crawfordville. Why
had he not resisted the ambition that had sent him first to
the state legislature and then to Washington? With nos
talgia heavy upon him, he could not analyze the mingled
motives that had actuated his life. He knew, however, that
as much as he loved Crawfordville, he could not have been
content to remain an inconspicuous citizen in the friendly
village. When he was ill, he longed more than ever for the
comfort of the bedroom he had furnished according to his
own tastes. He could close his eyes and see it all the fire
burning cheerily, the low French bed draped in white, the
cot for the waiting boy, who always slept near his master,
the bedside table, where stood his pair of reading lamps
and his watch stand, the shelves that contained the books
that he loved best, his littered writing table no one was per
mitted to touch lest some valuable paper be destroyed.
There was peace at Liberty Hall, contrasting painfully with
the strife in the capital. Years ago he had often been lonely
In Crawfordville. Now, however, Linton was there not a
callow boy whom one must train from day to day, but a
man with whom the older brother could converse upon topics
that interested him. Linton was a bit of handiwork of which

128 LITTLE ALECK

Aleck was proud. The boy was not only succeeding at the
law in partnership with young Byrd, whom also Stephens had
educated, but in 1849 he had been elected by Taliaferro
County a member of the state legislature. It was hard to
be separated from the person one loved best of all others
in the world!

The moods of depression, however, did not last. Alex
ander Stephens frequently admitted that they were induced
entirely by illness. "As to my health," he wrote Linton
toward the end of March, "I am in statu quo perfectly
well except that disease which Alfriend calls urticaria and
which Whiting calls eczema, and which I call the mange."
Yet toward the middle of April: "I feel less interest in
politics than I ever did in my life. I don't think, if I should
live 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 in issue, and not the men be
fore me combined, shall always hereafter control my vote
upon all elections. All parties are corrupt, and all party
organizations are kept up by bad men for corrupt purposes.
I shall hereafter treat all alike. I am out of party. I have
been very much pained lately at seeing the course of men
that I once thought so well of and for whose elevation to
office I strove so hard. . . .

"Taylor is pure and honest { his impulses are right, but
he suffers his own judgment to be controlled by others. . . .
The blunder he made was letting himself be duped and In
fluenced by Seward."

Stephens thought he had detected the scheme to turn the
Whigs into the anti-slavery party. He knew, moreover,
that there were powerful forces at work on the part of
Clay's enemies to prejudice the President against the com
promise measures. The . Cabinet could not be trusted.
Clayton, for instance, who was always plausible, seemed a
thoroughly dangerous person. The man promised anything,

COMPROMISE FOR A DAY 129

and did nothing, he complained to Linton. It was impos
sible for him to keep a secret: he told everything that hap
pened in Cabinet meetings and a great many things that
never happened at all.

Wrangling wrangling wrangling day after day!
Would there never be a way out of the muddle? For
Stephens, however, there was escape in letters to Linton.
With pen in hand he could put his philosophy on paper.
Writing was vastly more pleasant than his afternoon rambles
about Washington, where he was constantly seeing things
to distress him. He passed the jail u that doubtful evi
dence of civilization where the innocent are often crowded
with the guilty. . . . The world's justice is a great farce
no, a dark tragedy. ... 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 probability, but few at large. The
poor wretches who are punished, even when guilty, are only
the scapegoats; the great villains are at large."

All about Congress Stephens was seeing them day after
day. He was returning to the misanthropy of his earlier
days. Yet only in those letters to Linton did he give ex
pression to his cynicism. Outwardly he was still the genial
companion with the ready joke at the tip of his tongue. He
and Toornbs continued the center of a jovial group of con
gressmen who represented the vast diversity of opinion at
the time.

Necessity to sit for a photograph did not add to Stephens's
small store of cheerfulness. His unmanly appearance always
distressed him particularly when he saw it staring out from
a piece of cardboard in his hand. Yet, if one is in public life,
one has to have pictures for the press. Early in May he
endured the ordeal. The result was appalling. "The most
detestable looking thing it is," he wrote Linton when the
finished product was delivered to him. "The consolation I

I3 o LITTLE ALECK

have is that all my friends say it Is no likeness at all."
Always what other people said had power to give him pain
or pleasure.

June saw the culmination of the long struggle. Northern
members of Congress, asked in debate if they would ever
vote for the admission of slave states, refused to say they
would. On the fifteenth of the month Robert Toombs made
a brilliant and startling speech. If the North deprived the
South of just participation in the common territory, he
would look upon the government as alien and hostile and
would strike for independence. The House was shocked,
then frenzied. Alexander Stephens was profoundly
alarmed. It was like Toombs to throw down the gauntlet
boldly, but was he wise in so doing? How was it possible
to know wisdom from folly when minds were not function
ing normally?

Men's tongues seemed to have no direct connections with
their brains. The newspapers were so full of lies and mis
representations that Stephens was kept in a state of constant
uneasiness. Soon the President was reported ill. Then it
was that the Baltimore Clipper accused Stephens and
Toombs of calling to intimidate the dying man, threatening
that unless he aided the pro-slavery cause, they would see
that the House censored him for his participation in the
settlement of the Galphin claim. Though Stephens rushed
into print with a denial that he had visited the President
during his illness, the report continued to be circulated. He
would have been doubly disturbed, interested as he was in
the place he was later to occupy in history, could he have
known that chroniclers of the period would continue to use
the newspaper report and not his correction as their source
material.

In the light of his conviction that the Galphin claim was
just, the story of his holding it over the President's head
Stephens thought particularly absurd. He had gone to the

COMPROMISE FOR A DAY 131

bottom of the matter to reach his conclusion. In 1773 the
Cherokee Indians, then in debt, made a treaty ceding two
million five hundred thousand acres to Great Britain, by
which the crown was to satisfy the Indians' debt. The sum
due George Galphin, one of the creditors, amounted to
nine hundred and seventy-nine pounds, fifteen shillings, and
five pence. In 1775, after the debt was certified by com
missioners, Georgia took the land and gave it as a bounty to
the soldiers. In 1780 Georgia passed an act binding her
self to pay those Indian claimants who had been true to their
country the full amount plus six per cent, interest. Galphin's
patriotism was duly established. Yet for the want of money
the debt had not been paid. In 1 790 the federal government
assumed the debts that the states had incurred during the
Revolutionary War for purposes of defense. Accordingly,
Georgia referred the Galphin claim to the national authori
ties. In 1848 the principal had been paid. The interest,
which in the meantime had grown intb a sum larger ^than
the original debt, was settled during Taylor's administra
tion. Politics had been responsible for the report that a
gigantic swindle had been perpetrated upon the government.
Since a large amount of the money went to Crawford, of
Georgia, who was then secretary of war, the story was not
without plausibility. Crawford's interest, however, ante
dated his secretaryship. Since the claim was allowed by the
Attorney-General and paid by the Secretary of the Treasury,
his finger was not in the settlement.

Through it all Stephens had freely expressed ^his endorse-
ment. Three years later, when misunderstanding was still
current, he had the opportunity in a public address to ex-
plain the history of the claim in such a way that criticism
was silenced. In iS^o^kQwever^Ae public mind was in no
condition to enter jnto logic, research or justice. Therefore
Stephens "knew that ma"ny people thought that he had been
guilty of threatening Taylor on the poor. man's death-bed

i 3 2 LITTLE ALECK

and, unlike the independent Toombs, was much disturbed.

After Taylor's funeral Congress turned again to con
sideration of the compromise measures. Clay's omnibus
bill, now divided into its several parts, was passed by Sep
tember sixteenth. Stephens was content. He knew that the
passage of the compromises was due largely to the support
of northern Democrats and southern Whigs. In the bills,
however, he knew also that there were bitter pills for the
South to swallow. Weary though he was, he hurried home
to try to quiet his restless Georgians. He believed in the
compromises and had voted for them. He would make his
constituents see that the South had gained more than it had
lost.

In his state he found such an upheaval as no sane man
could have anticipated. Parties were disrupted; people did
not know to what leadership they should look. In Nash
ville the Democratic Party had met in convention, with
McDonald, of Georgia, presiding, had repudiated the
compromises and had appealed to the states to provide for
joint conventions clothed with power to restore the rights of
the South within the Union if possible and if not to pro
vide for "safety and independence." Unless something sane
was speedily brought to pass, war seemed inevitable.

During the fall Stephens traveled three thousand miles
over the state. The hot-headed southerners were more
bitterly opposed to the compromises than he had believed
possible. It was distressing to see the impetus that had been
given the secession movement. Over and over he told his
audiences that the admission of California as a free state,
when its people so desired it, was no just ground for com
plaint. According to the terms by which territorial govern
ments had been established in Utah and New Mexico, the
Sputh^he tried to^pime, had recovered the principle lost
By the Missouri Compromise^ wHch had arbitrarily taken
the question of slavery out of the hands of the states. He

COMPROMISE FOR A DAY 133

was pleading for peace and the Union before an unreason
able people. "Give us the line of 36-30 or fight/ 1 inter
rupted a man in Green County. "My friend," Stephens
replied, "we have already secured the line of forty-nine de
grees, or twelve and a half degrees more than you ask, and
without a fight; are you content, or do you want a fight
anyhow?"

Though discouraged at times, Stephens plugged on. He
had begun to feel that the responsibility for preserving the
country that he loved rested upon his own slender shoulders.
The immediate issue was the election of delegates to the
Georgia state convention. At last he realized that Union
men had been chosen, he among the number.

At the convention Charles J. Jenkins, a native of South
Carolina who had moved to Georgia in. 1816 and who since
1830 had been prominently identified with the state-rights
group, having been for fourteen consecutive years a member
of the General Assembly, was appointed chairman of a
committee to frame the Georgia platform. Stephens served
with him. The platform that resulted was the embodi
ment of Little Aleck's thought. It declared that the Union
was secondary only to the principles it was designed to per
petuate ; that the South would do well to yield somewhat for
the perpetuation of the Union; that, while not entirely ap
proving all the details of the compromise, the state should
abide by the whole as permanent settlement of the sectional
controversy; that Georgia should resist disruption of the
ties that bound her to the Union; and that it was the belief
of the convention that upon faithful execution of the fugitive
slave bill the preservation of the Union depended.

Dissatisfied with both Whigs and Democrats, Stephens
had been laying plans for organizing a party of his own, the
dual purpose of which would be to safeguard state rights and
at the same time to hold the country together. During the
conventioar~he~saw the [.materialization, of his scheme in the

i 34 LITTLE ALECK

establishment of the Constitutional-Union Party, which
nominated Howell Cobb for governor. Alexander Stephens
was beginning to believe that perhaps after all peace was
possible. Everything depended on the success of the new
party. The leaders among the Whigs and Democrats in
Georgia had at last been united in the common cause. Cobb,
who had forsaken the party that had formerly elevated him
to the speakership of the House of Representatives, and
Stephens and Toombs, who were responsible for the election
of a Whig president, were working together with the single
objective of preserving state rights within the Union.

Alexander Stephens in the weeks that he remained in
Georgia concentrated upon the gubernatorial campaign. He
spoke through the length and breadth of the state and be
times wrote long and detailed letters to Cobb, full of advice
that concerned the conduct of the canvass. "Show that the
settlement is better than fourteen slave states asked,' J he
admonished. Cobb must be sure to turn the argument
against the revolutionary movement in South Carolina and
to urge the citizens to stand by the supremacy of the law.
He must not fail to plant himself against the factionists in
South Carolina, and above all things, he must treat the right
of secession as an abstract question. Foreseeing the conse
quences of the slightest misstep, Stephens wanted to keep the
situation in hand. Yet in Howell Cobb's leadership, he had
confidence. In the days when Cobb had remained a staunch
Democrat Stephens had trusted and respected him. Still,
consecrated as he was to the interest of his country and his
state, he was breathless in his desire to sail calmly through
the stormy waters.

Toward the end of August, 1851, the heat of the cam
paign, blending with the rays of the Georgian sun, pros
trated the little invalid. In place of the nagging dyspepsia,
other ailments had come. Attacks of nephritic calculi were
frequent and distressing. Yet on September first he wrote

COMPROMISE FOR A DAY 135

Howell Cobb that, feeble though he was, he could now walk
without assistance and that he would fill the engagements
that extended to election day. It never could be said that
Alexander Stephens was a quarter horse: he would see a
race to its finish, though he might fall dead when the goal
was reached.

Howell Cobb, candidate upon Stephens's Constitutional-
Union ticket, was elected governor of Georgia; Stephens
was returned to Congress; and Toombs was made a senator.
Perhaps the nation could be persuaded to lay aside partizan
politics and be saved after all. In Georgia Stephens,
Toombs and Cobb had turned the tide against disunion.

It was a small matter, of course, and yet one that gave to
its author a degree of satisfaction: in 1851 with all the
larger issues that engrossed him Stephens suggested that the
congressional year, in order to coincide with the inaugura
tion of the incoming president, begin at noon, March fourth,
instead of at midnight, March third, and he saw the launch
ing of the new custom that was destined to become per
manent.

Among friends and foes in Congress Stephens was still
the genial companion, the excellent raconteur. Many of
his stories were at his own expense. During the heated can
vass of the preceding fall, he was riding on a train when a
man ran out and announced that Aleck Stephens was aboard.
Curious people rushed in to see the fighting congressman.
"Point him out to me," cried one old man, who, when his
request had been granted, raised his hands and exclaimed
eloquently, "Good Lord!"

"The old fellow," Stephens added when telling the story,
"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,

CHAPTER XI
THE WHIP AND SPUR TO NEBRASKA

THE summer of 1851 another presidential campaign in the
offing! Alexander Stephens had become a man without a
party. On the first of June the Democrats met in Balti
more and nominated Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire,
and William R. King, of Alabama. Two weeks later the
Whigs placed General Winfield Scott and William A. Gra
ham in the running. After the schismatic declarations the
Democrats had made in Nashville, Stephens had no desire
to align himself with their party. It was equally impossible
to return to Whiggery. Now avowedly Free-Soilers, the
northern Whigs were identified with efforts to nullify the
fugitive slave law, which seemed to Stephens to constitute
the most important part of the compromise measures. They
made no protest when mobs prevented the capture of slaves.
They had been responsible in many states for the passage
of the personal liberty bills which, by intercepting the action
of the state courts, rendered the law, within their limits, null
and void. Stephens was incensed because of the apparent
violation of the Constitution. He had staunchly opposed
the South Carolina nullifiers of many years before. He was
consistent in recognizing no higher temporal law than the
Constitution of his country. In April the Constitutional-
Union Party of Georgia had resolved to endorse no can
didate who did not recognize the compromise measures as
a final settlement of the sectional disputes. When General
Scott maintained silence on the subject, they declared for a
ticket of their own, headed by Daniel Webster, who in 1850
had come out strongly in favor of the compromises* Defi-

WHIP AND SPUR TO NEBRASKA 137

nitely severed from the party to which he had adhered so
long, Alexander Stephens stated in the National Intelli
gencer his reasons for not supporting Scott: the Whig can
didate had not espoused the principles of the manifesto, de
claring for non-interference with slavery in the territories,
drawn by Stephens, and signed by more than forty leaders
in both houses; he had not expressed himself as favorable
to the compromises; and, furthermore, he "had suffered his
name to be held up as candidate in Pennsylvania and Ohio by
the open and avowed enemies of the compromise measures."

The year before, Stephens had written prophetically to
Howell Cobb, declaring it to be his belief that the Whig
Party as a national organization was dead. Now he was
engaged in the melancholy task of throwing sod upon the
coffin that held the remains of his old love. His letter in
the Intelligencer was not the only one in which he opposed
General Scott's candidacy. A few days after the nomination
in the Whig Convention he wrote the Chronicle and Sentinel
of Augusta his opinion that Scott's note of acceptance had
fallen far short of the South's expectations. It should be
clear to all discerning minds, he added, that Scott was the
candidate of the Free-Soil Whigs and that, as such, he was
unworthy of support in. the South. Yet it was not without
sadness that Stephens helped to bury the party in whose be
half he had waged many a gallant fight.

He knew, however, that his support of Daniel Webster
was merely a gesture, for all his and Toombs's efforts to
give national scope to the Constitutional-Unionists had
been futile. Party leaders among both Whigs and Demo
crats were far more interested in the spoils that nurtured
them than they were in saving the country from destruction.
Indeed, early in the year he had come to see that he was
waging a losing fight. Yet doggedly he continued to preach
his doctrine of constitutional liberty within the Union.
Speaking in Baltimore on George Washington's birthday,

i 3 8 LITTLE ALECK

he made an eloquent plea for a return to Jeffersonian prin
ciples. The last words of the address epitomized the mes
sage that he still half hoped the people would hear "Our
country, our whole country, and nothing but our country !
May her progress be onward and upward!" Yet, from his
letters it is clear that while he prayed that the mountain of
opposition be removed, he had lost his faith in miracles.
The philosophy that sustained him through the dark days
expressed itself in an address delivered that year to the
students of Emory College. Success in life, he said, was
dependent upon self-knowledge; upon integrity of principle;
upon a fixity of purpose that would mold a man into the
sort of character he desired to achieve; and upon energy
that was never allowed to lag. The tenets set forth in that
speech were the ones that had guided Alexander Stephens
since the first days of his mental awareness. Principle must
never be sacrificed upon the altar of expediency.

Even though Daniel Webster died shortly before the elec
tion, Stephens marked his name upon the ballot, believing
that a lost vote was preferable to a vote cast for a party
he did not trust. Since he had utterly broken with the
Whigs, however, there was perhaps some satisfaction in
the realization that his card in the Intelligencer served to
disrupt the party that had proved false to the faith he had
placed in it, to defeat Scott, and to elect Franklin Pierce,
who to a southerner must have seemed the lesser of the two
evils.

It Is no small wonder that melancholy again crept into
Stephens's thinking and that the old minor note once more
found its way into his letters. His own future and the
future of his country were obscured by impenetrable clouds.
What was more devastating, yet never to be admitted, he
was lonelier than he had ever been before Linton Stephens,
whom he loved more, he thought, than any man had ever
loved a brother and more than most men love their sons,

WHIP AND SPUR TO NEBRASKA 139

had married. It could never be quite the same between
Aleck and Linton not that the younger man would love
the older less but merely that some one else now must come
first with him, while he would continue first with Aleck.
Still, the new sister-in-law was all that one could desire. A
wldow^ she was: Mrs. Emmeline Bell, beautiful, and as the
daughter of his friend, James Thomas, of Hancock well
born. Linton moved from Crawfordville to Sparta, became
the law partner of Richard Johnston, and established a life
apart from the brother who through the years had counseled
him. Henceforth the relationship must be somewhat
changed.

In Washington Alexander Stephens awaited Pierce's in
augural with interest. On February twenty-second he wrote
James Thomas, "Mr. Pierce Is here. He keeps secluded.
I am much pleased with his conduct so far. How I shall
like his cabinet I do not know until I know who it is. But
I fear he has not the nerve to stand up against the great
Democratic party clamor of those who force themselves
upon him. If he were a man of stern nature and principle
he might do a great service to the country. I hope for the
best but fear the worst. I shall give him a fair trial. I
shall not factiously oppose him."

Soon, along with the rest of the country, Stephens found
himself attracted to the handsome young President. In
his personality Pierce had power to draw men toward him.
There had never been a more impressive inaugural address
than the one delivered on the fourth of March, 1853, from
the east portico of the Capitol. Snow fell upon the vast
audience and obscured the tall straight figure of the speaker.
The voice, however, rang clear and full through the cold air.
Using neither manuscript nor notes, Franklin Pierce de
livered a carefully prepared literary address. From a pro
tected place Alexander Stephens listened. He could not
approve all that was said. Yet he could not withstand the

i 4 o LITTLE ALECK

magnetism of the man. "The policy of my administration
will not be controlled by any timid foreboding of evil from
expansion." (He was vindicating his party's policy toward
Mexico and Texas. Well, be that as it may, the errors that
had been made were now past history. There was no reason
to continue to oppose a war that had already ended in
victory.) "Indeed, it is not to be disguised that our attitude
as a nation, and our position on the globe, render the acqui
sition of certain possessions, not within our jurisdiction,
eminently appropriate for protection," (He was referring
to Cuba, of course. Stephens had no objection to the an
nexation of Cuba if the result could be honorably accom
plished.)

While Pierce went on to affirm the principle of the Mon
roe Doctrine, Stephens applauded. Though he might not
approve the intimation that Whigs in office would be re
placed by Democrats, Stephens knew that the spoils system
was too solidly entrenched to be speedily wiped away. "I
acknowledge, 1 ' Pierce said, "my obligations to the masses
of my country men, and to them alone." Stephens's high
treble joined in the shouts when Pierce urged the preserva
tion of the Union and spoke in behalf of the compromises
of 1850 which should "unhesitatingly be carried into effect."

During the tumult that marked the close of the address,
Alexander Stephens reached his decision. He would line up
with Pierce's administration. Though he could not approve
all the policies of the Democratic Party, though he could
not condone the crimes that had been committed in the past,
he had come to believe that his dear South would better be
entrusted to. Democrats than to Whigs. He would, how
ever, not be blindly partizan. Nor would he place con
fidence in men, r Great issues pressed upon the country. As
long as the Democrats seemed more nearly right than the
Whigs, he would call himself a Democrat, reserving, how
ever, the privilege of differing with the party.

WHIP AND SPUR TO NEBRASKA 141

During the summer of 1853 the country settled into a
calm prosperity that scarcely presaged the storm that was
to follow. On the plantations of the South there were peace
and plenty. The largest cotton crop ever produced was
being marketed at good prices. Never before had sugar
yielded such rich returns. Railroads were being built. A
deluded people believed that the specter of civil war had
departed never to return.

Alexander Stephens, however, was confined to his bed in
Crawfordvillc. On June ninth he had sustained a broken
collar-bone, a crushed elbow and a gash on his head when a
train in which he was riding had been derailed near Macon.
Railroad accidents, the encounter with an irate judge who
towered above him with deadly dirk knife in his hand, in
addition to the ailments by which he had always been as
sailed ! Yet during the summer Stephens read a great deal,
did some writing with his crippled hand and dictated fre
quently to an amanuensis. By early fall the bones and
gashes had healed. Then came a recurrence of an old
malady. He knew that his friends did not expect him to
live. According to the physicians, another abscess of the
liver had developed. Again his frequent expectorations
were said to be brought about by the drainage that was ac
complished through the lungs. Nevertheless, he rallied in
time to return to Washington in December*

Soon after the thirty-third Congress convened, hell broke
loose again. Leaders were losing confidence in the Presi
dent, who at the moment of his inaugural address had been
the most popular man in the country, Stephens's fear, ex
pressed in the letter to James Thomas, that Pierce lacked
the stamina needed at so critical a time, reasserted itself.
Always charming and urbane, he was proving _ vacillating, on
important questions. Men accused him of making up his
mind in the morning and changing it in the afternoon. Over
and over he made conflicting promises that could never be

i 4 2 LITTLE ALECK

kept The South began to fear that the influence of Van
Buren was turning the President toward the abolitionists.

Scarcely had congressmen settled comfortably in their
seats when a bill was introduced for organizing a territorial
government in Nebraska. In the Senate the matter was
referred to the committee on territories, of which Stephen A.
Douglas, of Illinois, was chairman. By enunciating a new
doctrine, distressingly controversial, Douglas's report re
opened the question of slavery, which the people had hoped
the compromise had settled for ever. "Squatter sover
eignty/ 5 the name by which the new doctrine was called,
held that "the Constitution of the United States secures to
every citizen an inalienable right to move into any of the
territories with his property, of whatever kind and descrip
tion, and to hold and enjoy the same under sanction of law."
Though the Missouri Compromise had been thought for
ever to prohibit slavery in Nebraska, which lay above the
line of 36 30' north latitude, Douglas proposed to leave
the decision to the citizens of the territories. Again the
fight was on. Men formed quickly into the line of battle.
Sumner, of Massachusetts, presented a memorial, declaring
that the Missouri line was a sacred pledge. The Nebraska
bill was expanded to include the organization of a terri
torial government for Kansas also. Lightning flashed
through the corridors of the Capitol. Thunder rumbled
from the plains of the West to the borders of New Eng
land and through the plantations of the far South. "Better
that Congress should break up in wild disorder," wrote
Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune } "nay better that
the capitol itself should blaze by the torch of the incendiary,
or fall and bury all its inmates beneath the crumbling ruins,
than that this perfidy and wrong should finally be accom
plished."

Still, by Douglas's strategy the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
passed the Senate. In the House Alexander Stephens was

WHIP AND SPUR TO NEBRASKA 143

ready to render all the assistance within his power. On
February 17, 1854, he took the floor to answer Meacham,
of Vermont, who had argued that the bill abrogated the
Missouri Compromise, which was a sacred compact adhered
to for thirty years, and that such a breach of faith would
be attended by disaster. In the argument Alexander
Stephens was entirely at home. There was no man who had
made a more thorough study than he of the history of the
country. The Missouri Compromise a sacred compact!
His frail body shook with indignation. The compromise,
nothing more than a compact between Missouri and the
government, had never been agreeable to the South. It had
merely been accepted at the time In lieu of something better.
Certainly the North had not deemed it inviolate. As early
as 1836 the North had fought the admission of Arkansas
as a slave state though it lay below the famous 36-30 line.
"The gentleman spoke of honor," Stephens cried disdain
fully. "I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word!"
Yet every delegate from his state of Vermont had voted
against the admission of Arkansas. The majority of the
northern representatives had opposed the admission of
Texas as a slave state, despite the sacred quality of the
Missouri Compromise. He pointed out that when a bill to
organize the government for Oregon had come up in 1847,
with the anti-slavery provision, Burt, of South Carolina,
in order to take the sense of the North concerning the 36-
30 line, had moved to insert the clause "inasmuch as the
whole of the said territory lies north of 36-30 north latitude
known as the line of the Missouri Compromise"; yet only
seven northerners had voted for the amendment. Effec
tively Stephens piled up instances to show that long ago the
Missouri Compromise had been abrogated not by the
South but by the North who now prated of the sacred obliga
tions It imposed upon Congress. "I do not know what you
call me or how you class me, whether a Whig or a Democrat,

144 LITTLE ALECK

in your political vocabulary," he concluded eloquently.
"Principles should characterize parties, not names."

The effect of the Kansas-Nebraska speech was nation
wide. Papers throughout the country carried a detailed
report of the arguments and word pictures of the man who
had held the attention of friends and opponents of the bill.
A correspondent in the Pennsyhanian wrote :

"Mr. Stephens is slightly above medium height, and pain
fully thin in appearance. His head is small and flat; his
forehead low, and partially covered with straight, dark,
lustre-lacking hair; and his cheeks thin, wrinkled, and of
parchment texture* His walk, his features, his figure,
bespeak great physical emaciation. You look in vain for
some outward manifestation of that towering, command
ing intellect which has held the congregated talent of the
country spell-bound for hours . . . but still you feel con
vinced that the feeble, tottering being before you is all
brain brain in the head, brain in the arms, brain in the
legs, brain in the body that the whole man is charged and
surcharged with electricity of intellect, that a touch would
bring forth the divine spark."

On the twenty-first of March the bill came up in order,
was referred to the committee on territories, and later re
turned with amendments that befogged the issue. Several
times its opponents were hopeful that it would come to a
vote. Stephens was doing his best to create public senti
ment in its favor. On May seventh he wrote to W. W.
Burrell, editor of The Southern Quarterly Review:

'Tomorrow I think we shall get a vote on the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill. . . . Anything that you may feel disposed to
say favorable to the measure will be very timely this
week. . . . The moral effect of the victory on our side will
have a permanent effect on the public mind. . . . The Clay
ton amendment will be dropt. This will be the ground upon
which Southern defectionists will attempt to justify their

WHIP AND SPUR TO NEBRASKA 145

alliance with the free soilers. It will be only a pretext, and
they should not be permitted to escape on it. The great
question for the South is whether she can be in a worse
condition than she now is with the "flaming sword' of a public
act denying her entrance into the territory on any condition
or the votes of anybody. 7 '

On the second day of May Stephens, with the idea of
cutting off all amendments, moved to strike out the enacting
clause of the bill and have it reported to the House so that
a vote might be taken. "After a most exciting contest/'
wrote Baker in his Memoirs of Seward, "lasting nearly
two months, Mr. Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia by an
extraordinary stratagem in parliamentary tactics succeeded
in closing debate and bringing the bill to a vote in the
House." It was almost midnight when the vote was taken.
The bill passed with one hundred and thirteen ayes to one
hundred noes. Before he retired Alexander Stephens
scribbled a note to Linton; "Nebraska is through the

House majority thirteen I took the reins in my hand,

applied the whip and spur, and brought the wagon out at
eleven p.m. Glory enough for one day I"

Alexander Stephens was not thinking of the possible re
sults of the legislation he was supporting. For him it was
always enough to be satisfied in his own mind that he was
right. The intrinsic act was of importance paramount to
the consequences. For years he had believed the Missouri
Compromise to be unconstitutional and therefore wrong.
After it had been disregarded by Congress and after the
North had refused to abide by her own bargain, there
was poetic justice in defeating this belated attempt to de
clare it sacred. He was arguing for the principle in which
he believed, whatever might be the result. When he de
clared that under the popular sovereignty plan the free
states would have an immense advantage over the slave
states, because of their larger population and the likelihood

146 LITTLE ALECK

of greater immigration therefrom into the territories, he
was speaking sincerely. It was the same Stephens who had
argued against his right to a seat in Congress back in 1843.
It was the same Stephens who voted for the admission of
free states, the Stephens w T ho opposed the War with
Mexico, the Stephens who saw the justice of England'?
claims in Oregon, the Stephens who later opposed the
policies of the President of the Confederacy. Expediency
figured not at all in his reasoning. His conception of right
was the only guidance that he knew how to follow. Even
though he may have later realized that the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill caused the formation of the Repub
lican Party on the principle of no extension of slavery, led
to the downfall of the Democrats, and made the Civil War
inevitable, he entertained no regrets, for he had acted ac
cording to the dictates of his own mind the only guidance
that he ever recognized.

CHAPTER XII
DISTANT RUMBLINGS

SUMMER again in Crawfordville 1 Alexander Stephens
wondered why the people complained of the heat. It was
the cold of winter that he dreaded, never the rays of the
summer sun. On his side piazza he was happy and at
peace. There was not an evening that he did not send Harry
or one of the colored boys to bring him a shawl. Even
beneath the oil lamp he was comfortable when playing whist
with whoever happened to be passing the night at Liberty
Hall. Linton came frequently from Sparta to be with him
and sometimes brought Emm and the baby. Each day guests
arrived, for whom Eliza set places about her bountiful table.
Yes, it was good to be at home. Over and over Aleck was
amazed that politics drew him with its irresistible magnet
ism. He did not admit even to himself that he derived
enjoyment out of the fray or that one of his reasons for lik
ing to be in Crawfordville consisted in the applause the
people were giving him for his accomplishments in Wash
ington. He knew, moreover, that the hospitality of his
home was immensely pleasing to him and that he liked the
visits of the great and the realization that not even a tramp
was ever turned away from his door. Far and wide had
spread the news of the room he kept for the hoboes, who
merely inquired where they could find lodging and were
directed at once to Liberty Hall.

Stephens was glad that opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill reached him only through the press. In the South the
settlement was pleasing to the people. Nevertheless, he was
reading with apprehension the editorials of Horace Greeley

147

i 4 8 LITTLE ALECK

who said that the passage of the bill had made more aboli
tionists in two months than the northern anti-slavery Agi
tators could have converted in half a century. He realized
that much sentiment had been aroused against the enforce
ment of the fugitive slave law. The extremists in the North
were undoubtedly gaining in numbers and in momentum.
There would be more trouble when Congress next convened,
trouble from persons who believed that slavery was an in
human institution and that the slaveholder was a fiend who
drove his negroes cruelly and relentlessly. Looking about
his own plantation, Alexander Stephens was reassured. He
was judging the institution by its operation at Liberty Hall,
where his negroes were happy and care-free, where Eliza
had more help in her work than she needed, where the slaves
loved their master and were treated kindly. There was
Harry, for instance, with his pocket filled with tips which
came liberally from the guests. Robert Toombs scattered
coins about the place in a most prodigal fashion. Nothing
opened his pocketbook more quickly than Eliza's cooking
and the wines and brandies that were served him whenever
he stopped the night to talk matters over with his old friend.
Harry drove his own dray and made extra money, which
his master encouraged him to save. The negro children,
romping upon the lawn, were happy through the long sum
mer days. To Alexander Stephens this was slavery as it
ought to be, as he had brought himself to believe it must
be in all sections of the South.

So the summer passed peacefully, in spite of the distant
rumblings. Came corn-shucking time. The negroes
gathered from other farms for the annual celebration. The
master could hear their merriment rising from the quarters
below the house. He knew that they were happy in the aban
donment to their tribal dances. He closed his eyes and
listened to their songs. According to long established cus
tom, they came at last to the house, between thirty or forty

DISTANT RUMBLINGS 149

strong. It occurred to the master to protest, for he knew
the corn-shucking custom. The negroes were preparing to
carry Marse Aleck on their shoulders in a sort of triumphal
march across the fields. "I thought discretion the better
part of valor," he wrote to Linton the next day, "and did
not resist the 'toting' custom.'* After all, there was no
chance that he would fall from the strong shoulders that
bore him aloft. Negroes were like children: one could live
peaceably with them only when one joined in their play.
The party closed with a grand supper in the quarters. Alex
ander Stephens could hear the songs and the laughter long
after he lay tucked in his French bed.

It was pleasant to realize that old Uncle Ben was at last
among the negroes who belonged to the Liberty Hall plan
tation. The old fellow, whom Stephens had loved back
yonder in childhood days upon the Homestead, had asked
to be bought by Marse Aleck. The wish had been granted,
of course. Indeed, it was the boast of the owner of Liberty
Hall that no negro was ever purchased against his will.
Googer's Harry, after his marriage to Eliza, had become
a Stephens darky. It was only right that husband and wife
should not be separated.

The season in Crawfordville ended all too soon. Wash
ington again with its discord and its constant rumors of
other troubles yet to be. Alexander Stephens was installed
at Mrs. Duncan's boarding-house. Among the lodgers was
a young man who interested him a great deal chiefly be
cause he considered worthy of his attention most young men
who carried large ideas in their heads. Espey was the fel
low's name. He was then employed in the meteorological
department of the United States Navy. Yet he was not the
sort to stay comfortably located in a niche. A visionary
crank people called him, for he had written an outlandish
treatise on the philosophy of storms, which he declared
might some day make weather forecasting an accurate

LITTLE ALECK

science. The other guests at Mrs. Duncan's either made
light of the young man's theories or were completely in
different. Not so in the case of Alexander Stephens, how
ever. He listened to Espey's story and read the book. He
learned that The Philosophy of Storms had been presented
to the American Association of Scientists, who had rejected
it. Likewise the Royal Society of London had set aside its
findings. The French Academy of Science at Paris, how
ever, had treated it more hospitably. The committee had
gone so far as to report favorably upon the contents of the
book and to recommend that Espey be placed by the gov
ernment of the United States "in a position to continue his
important investigations and to complete his theory, already
so important."

Therefore Espey had been taken into the meteorological
department of the Navy. Yet, because of limited funds,
his work was practically at a standstill. Impressed by the
young man's book, Stephens insisted that the government
should make immediate utilization of the material in his
possession. There should be daily telegraphic announce
ments of weather conditions and daily forecasts, he urged.
The appropriation of two thousand dollars a year was not
enough, Espey argued. Then another way should be found,
Stephens countered. Accordingly, he went himself to the
National Intelligencer and to the Union with the suggestion
that short weather reports be secured from different parts
of the country and used by way of news. A visit to the tele
graph company resulted in the agreement that the com
munications would be carried without charge. It was not
long, therefore, until weather announcements the first to
appear in this or any other country became a daily feature
of the Washington newspapers. "His [Espey's] appro
priation," Stephens wrote years later, "was often assailed
by members of Congress, but a few of us were able to save
it." Alexander Stephens was perfectly sure that he had

DISTANT RUMBLINGS 151

been the means of starting a program of national forecasting
that would be far-reaching in its beneficial results and that
would be steadily of greater significance as more scientific
data were available.

Small matters like those involved in the assistance he
rendered Espey served for Stephens as antidotes for the
distress engendered by the affairs of the nation. Certainly
the political skies were dark during the winter of 1854-55.
Country-wide opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had
produced an ominous situation. Raymond, then editor of
the New York Times, and Seward were making a last
valiant effort to revive the Whig organization, while they
sent through the states propaganda directed toward the
proposed repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Men op
posed to slavery extension had met on July sixth and had
organized themselves into the Republican Party, pledged to
secure the repeal of the Fugitive Slave and Kansas-Nebraska
Acts and to the abolition of slavery in the District of Colum
bia. And another party, self-styled the Americans but de
risively called the Know-Nothings, had sprung into being
and had made itself felt in the fall elections. Alexander
Stephens looked with enmity upon both the new political
organizations.

The Know-Nothings were a secret order built upon dis
trust of Catholicism. When, soon after bishops and other
members of the clergy had tried to bring about the exclusion
of the Bible from the public schools, a papal nuncio arrived
in America to settle a dispute that had arisen in Buffalo
concerning property alleged to belong to the Church, ex
citement had run high. The growth of the foreign vote
was also viewed as a menace. So the Know-Nothings banded
themselves together to wage war against French infidelity,
German socialism and skepticism, and the papacy. Alex
ander Stephens opposed the entire movement. The crusade
against the Catholics he considered a violation of the Ameri-

LITTLE ALECK

can Constitution. The campaign against foreign-born citi
zens he thought unjust and illogical. When news came to
him through letters from Linton that the Know-Nothings
were gaining ground in Georgia, he was angered and dis
tressed. It irked him that he must remain in Washington
where he could do little to stem the tide of radicalism. Yet
there were important reasons why he was needed in Con
gress*

The national hysteria, fomented by the wide-spread popu
larity of Uncle Tom's Cabin, by the incendiary articles in
the press, by the activities of the Emigrant Aid Society
of New England that was sending se'ttlers into Kansas, and
by the western Missourians, who were rapidly staking off
claims for settlers who favored the southern institution,
soon found its expression on the floor of the House. When
Mace, of Indiana, signified his intention of introducing a
bill to restore the Missouri Compromise, Alexander
Stephens knew that the time had come for him to speak.
On December fourteenth he gained the floor. As usual his
argument was carefully prepared. He spoke, however,
without notes. It was clear, he said, that Mace had as his
objective the abolition of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska.
His contention that the recent election had proved public
sentiment to be overwhelmingly against the act that had
been passed during the last session of Congress was with
out basis in fact.

"I ask the honorable gentleman from Indiana how he
reaches the conclusion that these elections set the seal of
the public condemnation upon the friends of the great move
ment of the last session? I believe, Mr. Chairman, that
there was no man more zealous in his opposition to the bill
then passed, not even excepting the gentleman from Indiana
himself, than yourself, and you will pardon me, sir, the
illustration. Even you, sir, from the city of brotherly love,
are no longer returned to your seat, which you liave filled

DISTANT RUMBLINGS 153

with so much ability. Now, I ask the gentleman from In
diana whether that is proof that the people of Philadelphia
agree with him and with you, Mr. Chairman? . . . Again,
Mr. Chairman, my honorable friend from another district
in Pennsylvania, who sits to my right [Mr. Heister], who
was quite as zealous in his opposition as you or the gentle
man from Indiana, has also been defeated in the canvass for
reelection. ... I have not attempted the Herculanewn
excavating process of ascertaining the depths to which he
has been buried in this popular irruption/'

Looking over the assemblage, Alexander Stephens cited
man after man who had opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
and who would soon be vacating his seat in Congress.

"Mr. Chairman, now let me turn to the state of Illinois.
If there is a State north which may be appealed to as one
where there was anything like a contest on the question, it
was Illinois. And what was the result? There were but
three men from that State who voted for the Nebraska bill,
and now we have four Nebraska men from Illinois."

Washburne, of Illinois, leaped to his feet, demanding to
be told the popular vote of Illinois on the Nebraska ques
tion. Stephens replied that the only test vote in the state
was taken in the canvass for state treasurer. The Nebraska
candidate was elected by a large majority. Mr. Washburne
was soon on his feet again, declaring that the man who ran
in opposition to the Nebraska candidate was not known in
the southern part of the state and accordingly got no vote
at all in that section.

"I suppose sol" piped the little Georgian sarcastically,
and the laughter In the House was uproarious.

Again Washburne clamored to be heard. He was insist
ing that if the anti-Nebraska man had been known, he would
have been elected by a majority of five or six thousand.

"Well, sir," countered Stephens, "I do not think the
people of Illinois could have been exceedingly offended and

I 54 LITTLE ALECK

outraged by this measure if they did not take the trouble to
have their candidates in opposition known."

"I will state to the gentleman," Washburne persisted,
"that the candidate regularly nominated declined, and the
other candidate was brought out only a short time before
the election."

'Then I can only say," retorted Stephens, "that their
candidate ran before the popular demonstration got hold
of him."

He paused dramatically for the laughter to subside.

"And it only shows," he continued, "that the first candi
date saw the handwriting upon the wall, and was more pru
dent than the last one." Again there was laughter.

Having finally silenced Washburne, Alexander Stephens
continued with his speech without further interruptions.
The time had come, it seemed to him, for a strong defense
of slavery. In the past he had been continent in his praise
of the institution. Now, however, the activities of the
abolitionists had strengthened his belief in slavery. Then,
too, he was thinking perhaps of Eliza and Harry and old
Uncle Ben, and of all the other happy negroes about
Liberty Hall and neighboring plantations.

"Look at the three millions of Africans," he said sin
cerely, "as you find them in the South and where is the
man so cold hearted and so cold blooded as would wish them
put in the position that their forefathers were or that their
kindred are now in Africa? . . . Again take our negroes
and compare them with the free negroes of the North. . . ."
Convincingly he backed his generalizations with figures.
Between 1840 and 1850 the increase in the population of
the free negroes, which included fugitives and slaves that
had been recently emancipated as well as additions by birth,
amounted to ten and ninety-five hundredths per cent. Dur
ing the same period the slaves of the South had increased
twenty-eight and fifty-eight hundredths per cent. He painted

DISTANT RUMBLINGS 155

a beneficent picture of the institution in the South a pic
ture which was probably accurate in so far as the negroes
who belonged to him and to his friends were concerned.

It seems possible, however, that misgivings came now and
then to the man who loved liberty and who could not bear
to see a prisoner looking from behind iron bars, who cer
tainly must have realized that there were upon the vast
plantations of the South overseers who drove slaves like
cattle. Surely Stephens could not close his mind and his
broad sympathies to the other and darker side of slavery.
Indeed, he had come a long way since he told Congress in
his speech on the admission of Texas that he did not favor
slavery extension into territory where there were no slaves,
but that he was merely seeking sanction for an institution
that already obtained In the land that was about to be
acquired. Yet he was to go still farther in his defense of
the institution. As he struggled through the winter he was
seized with the sort of depression which in recent years he
had been able to overcome. With the approach of Christ
mas he found no way to dispel the gloom. On December
twenty-fourth he wrote Linton that he feared he would
never see another Christmas. "It is often a matter of
thought and reflection to me, when friends have left my
room whom I have kept in a roar of laughter, how little do
they know of the miserableness of one who has appeared to
be in such spirits." He told himself that his unhappiness
was caused by the lack of sympathy of those about him.
Perhaps beneath the surface of his consciousness he was
for ever doubting the Tightness of the stand he had taken,
"I find no unison of feelings, tastes, and sentiments with
the world," he wrote, without realizing doubtless that
thoughts far beneath the superstructure built by his reason
ing were clamoring for expression.

There were gay occasions, however, when the genial
statesman, never in reality a misanthrope, was at his best.

i 5 6 LITTLE ALECK

He joined with Mr. and Mrs. Toombs in tendering a dinner
to Senator and Mrs. William C. Dawson, of Georgia, who
had just been married. The guests were Governor and Mrs.
Pratt, Governor and Mrs. Brown; Mr. Milliard, of Ala
bama; Doctor Reese, of Georgia; Colonel Hardee, of the
United States Army; Judge Wayne and Mr. Pearce, of
Maryland; and Mr. and Mrs. Badger. Every one was in
excellent spirits, proving in his own way that all the world
loves a lover and envies a bride and groom. Healths were
drunk to Senator Dawson and to Mrs. Dawson.

"Now a toast to the bachelor," said Badger, "to our
friend Aleck Stephens I"

The guests lifted their glasses and waited.

"When Lafayette was in America," Badger continued,
"he inquired of the first man he met at a dinner, 'Sir, are
you married?' When the reply was in the affirmative,
'Lucky dogi' said Lafayette. To his next inquiry came a
negative answer. 'Lucky dog I* said Lafayette again. So
we drink to Aleck Stephens, the lucky dog!"

The glasses were drained. The guests laughingly waited
for the response. Stephens rose to his feet.

"I know nothing of the mysteries of the happy man's
case," he said. "I can only reply in the language of a West
ern lawyer who concluded his argument fay saying, 'May
it please your honor, I know nothing of the mysteries of
the law in this case, and my only reliance is to trust to the
sublimity of luck and float on the surface of the occasion.' "

As Alexander Stephens took his seat, it w T as gratifying
to realize that he had handled the pleasantry well. Like
his friend Lincoln, of Illinois, he was always rescued by one
of his stories. That night he confided to Linton how well
he thought he had acquitted himself. It was always com
forting to brag a little in those letters to Linton, who could
never entirely misunderstand !

There could be no doubt that Stephens needed such re-

DISTANT RUMBLINGS 157

laxation as the dinner for the Dawsons provided, for in
Congress there was no abatement of the strain under which
he was working. His speech of December fourteenth, in
which he had laid great claim to advancement in the South
under the institution of slavery, brought forth a reply from
Campbell, of Ohio, who had compared his own state to
Georgia in an effort to show that progress was more rapid
where free labor was employed. Stephens was at once on
his mettle. Day and night he searched for statistical proof
of his contentions. While he knew that figures do not lie,
he must also have known that figurers can handle them to
their own sophistical uses. He had set himself the task of
defending the South. The performance would be the best
of which he was capable a consummation which he had
faith to believe would be good. January fifteenth had been
set as the date upon which he would make reply to Mr.
Campbell. It was no small gratification to see that the floor
and the galleries were filled when he entered to take his seat.
Washington had learned that whenever Stephens spoke the
entertainment would be good. A correspondent of the
Macon Messenger said that the occasion reminded the old
inhabitants of the times of Clay, Calhoun and Webster.
The figures that Stephens had compiled were astounding,
chosen as they were for purposes of proof. There was
volume in the high shrill voice. The audience leaned for
ward in the gallery, intent upon every word. The repre
sentatives were quiet. There was no rustling of paper.
There were no whispered conferences among members.
Stephens's quick wit was equal to Mr. Campbell's inter
ruptions. The audience, under the spell of the orator,
agreed that the little Georgian had worsted his opponent.
"While he spoke," wrote a correspondent of the Frederick
Citizen, "his eyes glowed like living coals. . . . You cease
to be annoyed by that voice that pierces the ear with its
shrill and discordant notes, and the awkward gestures seem

158 LITTLE ALECK

awkward no longer, for they are evidently prompted by
nature." The man looked like "intellect incarnate," he
added.

Later when John C. Rives, of the Congressional Globe,
asked Stephens if he did not think it would be well to revise
the figures before they were published, the author of the
manuscript notes replied that he was never mistaken about
a matter to which he had given careful study. When the
speech was printed, no error was found. In the selection,
moreover, Stephens had exercised the utmost care,.

Linton, however, made bold to advance a criticism. His
brother, he thought, had been a trifle out of taste when he
had said that his record was for all time. That was the
sort of assertion to leave for others to make. Yet he added
his opinion that the speech had advanced new ideas unsur
passed by any similar address in the history of oratory.
Alexander Stephens was merely thinking aloud when he
spoke of the permanent quality of his work. He had come
to see himself as a force in the making of government.

Despite all his earnest efforts, however, Stephens was at
last reaching the conclusion that the cause of the South was
hopeless. The growth of the Know-Nothings was to him
a constant source of discouragement. What hope was there
for a country that woiiid yie]|4 to ^och leadership as was
now to be f 0cpd m all tfee Southern States? What was the
use of an honest man's battling against ignorance and cor
ruption? As winter merged into the first days of spring,
he reached his decision : he would not ran again. During
tfae years before he entered Congress he had made a great
deal of money. In spite of all he had spent for the educa-
of young men;, in spite of the extravagant manner of
and > all the charities that had been his, he had
I those ^ears twelve thousand dollars. Since that
ta^jfej^ e&rned little more than his salary as congress
man* . Qij^^i^B^hen lie was not in Washington fees hjad

DISTANT RUMBLINGS 159

come from cases. Yet, because he 'had made it a custom,
from which he allowed himself never to deviate, to accept
no money for services while he was employed by the people,
he needed more than the amount of his salary. He would
again become a private citizen. As soon, however, as he
made his decision public, importuning letters poured in on
him. His constituents declared that they could not spare
him. His comrades in the House insisted that his place
could not be filled by another. Nevertheless, Stephens was
for a time obdurate. Then on May fifth came a letter from
Thomas W. Thomas that gave him pause. There was the
urgent request that Stephens run again. There was also
the implication that the people were thinking that he feared
the opposition of the Know-Nothings. Thomas begged his
friend to make public his opinion of the new party.

So he was being accused of cowardice. That was not a
taunt that Little Aleck could brook. All his life he had
striven to prove his bravery. Had he not withstood the
switch in the hand of O'Cavanaugh ? Had he not challenged
one man to a duel? Had he not remained unflinching when
Cone towered above him, an angry giant with a dirk knife
in his hand?

Immediately he sent to Thomas a letter which he was
willing to see in print. It was true, he said, that he had
been influenced in his decision by the realization that many of
his old friends had joined the Know-No things. The new
party, however, was not for him. Never would he go before
the people "with his principles in his pocket." Amongjiis
m^ny reasons for opposing the^ KnpwN
crecy was foremost. "Hiding places are the natural sources
oTerror," He likened the organization to the first Jacobin
clubs in Paris, where legislation was framed in secret meet
ings. The party did not deny the two objectives generally
credited to it, both of which were basically un-American:
the crusade against Catholics, and the exclusion of the

i6o LITTLE ALECK

foreign-born citizens from politics. Religion and politics
should not be mingled. In America a Catholic as a citizen
should stand upon his own merits. The history of the
country showed that Catholics were the one people who
had not warred against American institutions. In throw
ing down the gauntlet to his new enemies, Stephens did not
repeat his decision not to enter the arena in the coming
election.

Those who knew him well had no doubt that the die had
been cast by Thomas's letter. His formal announcement
was made at the City Hall in Augusta. The auditorium
was filled to its capacity. As Stephens began to speak, the
clamor of the throng outside became more and more in
sistent. Soon he yielded to entreaty and addressed the
people from the steps of the building. He admitted that
he had finally thrown his hat into the ring because it had
been said that he was afraid of defeat at the hands of
the Know-Nothings. "I am afraid of nothing on the earth,
or above the earth, or under the earth except to do wrong.
The path of duty I shall ever endeavor to travel, fearing
no evil and dreading no consequences. I would rather be
defeated in a good cause than triumph in a bad one. * . .
I am again a candidate for Congress from this district.
My name is hereby presented not by any convention but
by myself. Do with it as each of you may think proper."

He handled the Know-Nothings without mercy. Their
proscription of Catholics and foreigners was contrary to
every principle which the Revolution of 1776 had estab
lished. His defense of Catholicism was eloquent and fear
less. Lord Baltimore and the early settlers in Maryland
came in for their share of praise, as did Charles Carroll,
Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. The
Know-Nothing movement, essentially revolutionary in char
acter, unless checked, would lead to civil war. The people
cheered. When some one wanted to know his party affilia-

DISTANT RUMBLINGS 161

tion, "I am toting my own skillet," he replied. He knew
that the bitterest campaign of his career had been launched
upon stormy waters.

One of the officers on the Know-Nothing craft was a
young man about whom Stephens was beginning to hear
a great deal. Benjamin H. Hill was his name. Rumor
had it that the fellow was striking in bearing and appear
ance, that he was a fluent speaker and invincible in argu
ment. To Stephens, however, he was a young upstart in
execrable company. When he heard that Hill had expressed
a wish to meet Stephens in debate, he was amused. Other
men had been cured of similar longings. The rope was
available. Hill should certainly be permitted to make his
own noose.

Stephens was full of confidence. He knew that Georgians
did not doubt his ability to handle Hill. Stories of his
prowess before audiences were entering into the folk-lore.
People had not forgotten, for instance, that in the days when
the Whigs were trying to wrest the state from the Demo
crats a drunken fellow in a meeting that Little Aleck was
addressing had kept crying out, "I'm a Dimmy-cratl"
Finally in exasperation, Stephens had replied, "My friend,
you may be a Dirnmy-crat, but if you had a few hickory ribs
around your middle, you'd be a dimmy-john." Georgians
were anticipating that there would be a good show when Hill
and Stephens should occupy the same platform.

The two men met at Lexington, Georgia the one hand
some, vigorous, exuding the arrogance of youth; the other
frail In body, strong in mind and certain that he was firmly
entrenched in the hearts of his people. Stephens soon saw,
however, that the ability of his opponent was not to be dis
counted. He had met many a man in debate but none more
able. The audience, anticipating a good performance, was
not disappointed. Afterward there was considerable dif
ference of opinion as to which man got the better of the

162 LITTLE ALECK

argument. Stephens was not happy Stephens who had
always carried off the laurels in debate. After that night
he knew that he did not like Ben Hill and that Ben Hill was
a man well worth watching. He did watch him, moreover,
rather too closely for his own peace of mind.

Disquieting stories reached his ears from time to time.
Hill was endeavoring to convey the impression that Stephens
had been discomfited at Lexington. That Hill spoke more
or less truthfully added to Stephens's distress. Linton was
probably right when he said that Aleck cared too much for
what people were saying about him. It would probably
have been better to emulate Toombs's fair example and
snap his fingers in the face of critics. Toombs had met
Hill during that same campaign. Hill was also boasting of
what he had done to Toombs. Big Bob Toombs, however,
could laugh and shrug those great shoulders of his. That
was not Little Aleck's way. He always had to do something
about every disparaging comment that came to him.

Then the last straw Hill was reported as having said
that Stephens had ' 'betrayed the Whig Party and acted worse
toward it than Judas Iscariot." Judas was a traitor to a
man who had loved and befriended him. Hill's accusation
was more than Stephens could bear. A traitor! He had
spent his whole life trying to be true to his convictions and
loyal to his friends.

From Crawfordville Stephens wrote to Hill. He de
manded to know whether or not the information he had re
ceived was correct. Hill replied unsatisfactorily, failing
to deny the Judas Iscariot comparison. Stephens asked for
a more definite statement. He found the answer particu
larly offensive. Then by Thomas W. Thomas, Stephens
sent a challenge to Hill. Thomas forwarded Hill's re
fusal to Stephens, who was then in Washington.

The little man was baffled and chagrined. Would it ap-

DISTANT RUMBLINGS 163

pear to his world that Hill was patronizing him because of
his frailness? He had always wanted in some way, other
than through the exercise of his intellect, to assert his man
hood. In the encounter with Cone he had possibly shown
that he was not a coward; he had not been a match, however,
for his assailant. Herschel Johnson had refused to accept
his challenge. Now another refusal. The words of Hill's
letter rang in his mind with taunting insistence: "It might
be some satisfaction to you to shoot at me, though I should
entertain no great fear of being hit." (Again disparage
ment of the manhood he longed to see recognized!) "I
might possibly kill you, and though you may not consider
your life valuable, to take it would be a great annoyance
to me afterward." (Patronizing, insulting phrases, yet
cleverly worded. What were the people of Georgia saying
and thinking? Were they applauding the author of that
letter?) "This determination is but strengthened when
the contrary course involves the violation of conscience and
the hazard of my family, as against a man who has neither
conscience nor family."

Insults of the sort Stephens could not endure in silence.
"I have prepared and sent to the Constitutionalist a short
card which seems to me proper," he wrote to Thomas.
"You were perfectly right about the pistols. I should not
have hesitated to fight with any weapon I could have used.
I meant only to exclude the right of choosing any kind of
weapon, such as broadswords, rifles, etc. ... I only in
tended to put you on guard on that point as it might not
have occurred to you that a rifle was too heavy for me."
(Always the necessity to think of his physical disabilities
never the chance to meet a man on a man's own terms! It
was galling enough without the added insult of the re
fusal to be met at all. There was no intellectual achieve
ment that could compensate a man for a body that was too
weak for the struggle.)

i64 LITTLE ALECK

Stephens wanted to be assured that his constituents were
not wholly against him. "Write me fully," he implored
Thomas, "what you think of the course I have taken. I
did not want to be coarser in my language than the neces
sity required Was I enough so or not? Was I too short
or not?"

As the weeks passed there was no lessening of his un
easiness. Because he was in Washington where he could
not easily explain himself to the people who were probably
misunderstanding the circumstances surrounding his quarrel
with Hill, he was all the more anxious that Thomas set
him right before Georgians, "I have done just what I con
ceived to be my duty to myself," he wrote piously two weeks
later. "No man of recognized position shall insult me with
impunity unless he shirks responsibility. ... A man who
might call me a damn liar and then take to his heels might
escape punishment from me, for I could not catch him. But
the damn lie from such a craven would not greatly excite
my ire. And that is the present situation of Mr. Hill. . . .
It is true that I can not horsewhip him even if I could catch
him, which I would be justified in doing. . . . That some
may presume upon my inability to use the cudgel or the
horsewhip I have no doubt. . . . But if I had the strength
of Samson, I should have done just what I have done, and

no more."

To himself he was building up a defense against his
weakness. It was comforting to believe that Hill had run
like a craven. It was consoling to think that had he been
a man strong enough to apply the whip something that
in his secret soul he had always longed to do in the cir
cumstances he could have done nothing more than send the
challenge that had been refused. It was good to know that
his card in the Constitutionalist had been read throughout
the state. Perhaps his language had been rather reckless.
Still, what else could he call Hill but a "lying gasconader,"

DISTANT RUMBLINGS 165

"an impudent braggart and a despicable poltroon besides,"
who had set up "wantonly to asperse private character and
to malign individual reputation?"

Hill's reply went even further in the art of invective.
"The truth is," he said, "Mr. Stephens has discovered that
I have found him out, and if you want a man to hate you,
let him be aware that you are honest, and that you know he
is mean, . . . He is a monomaniac on the subject of false
hoods."

The amusement of Stephens's friends was suddenly reas
suring. Hill, they said, had gone too far beyond the limits
of verisimilitude. Georgia knew that her Little Aleck, con
tentious though he was, anxious though he might be for
vindication even in the smallest matters, was neither mean
nor a monomaniac on the subject of falsehoods. The time
had come, they argued, to let the matter rest. Later he
could deal with Hill, for the Know-Nothings were groom
ing him for the next gubernatorial campaign. Now the
Democrats must find a man who could defeat him at the
polls.

Though Stephens, "toting his own skillet," had been vic
torious over the Know-Nothings, the result of the campaign
had not made him happy, for Linton, who also had been
running for Congress in another district, had been defeated
by a narrow margin. Aleck had been almost wholly sincere
when he wrote to Linton during the campaign, "You em
body all that is really dear to me in life. In you and about
you are centered all my hopes and aspirations of an earthly
nature, and whatever affects your welfare and happiness
touches me more sensibly, if possible, than anything that
affects my own. ... If you are elected, I shall be content,
whatever my fate."

Alexander Stephens had been returned to Congress, how
ever, and Linton Stephens had been defeated. Yet despite
the personal troubles and disappointments, he must be about

1 66 LITTLE ALECK

the business the people had entrusted to him. Certainly
grave matters were before the nation.

During the summer Stephens had scored a legal triumph
that afforded him no small amount of gratification. The
Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the decision in a case
that Stephens had lost before a lower court. A man by
the name of Reese had been killed in a brothel by one
Keener. The church people, rising in righteous wrath, had
been in favor of hanging Keener not so much because he
had committed a murder as because he had been caught in a
house of ill-fame. Therefore a fair trial had been almost
impossible in the face of the public opinion that surrounded
the accused man. The prosecution produced witnesses to
show that Reese was a mild-mannered man. Stephens's
case turned on one point: the deceased's character in the
particular place where the killing occurred. The argument
of the lawyer for the defense was sustained by the Supreme
Court. A man might be mild under certain conditions and
violent under others; therefore general reputation was not
important. The court's decision that a man might possess
a "character for railway cars and a character for the brothel,
a character for the church and one for the street, a char
acter when drunk and a character when sober" established
a doctrine which has subsequently been recognized as law in
Georgia. Alexander Stephens knew that to him was due
credit for its recognition. Altogether, he had had a hard
year but not an unprofitable one.

CHAPTER XIII
THE STORM GATHERS

ALEXANDER STEPHENS had at last become a Democrat, for
the situation in Kansas had brought about a sectional align
ment that he could not evade. Though it was difficult to
get the facts concerning u Bleeding Kansas," his loyalty to
the South led him to espouse the cause of the pro-slavery
Missourians, who, since the establishment of the popular
sovereignty principle, had been crossing into the neighboring
territory for the purpose of swinging Kansas into the ranks
of the slaveholding states. He had no sympathy with the
Emigrant Aid Society, composed as it was of New Eng
land abolitionists who were paying the transportation of
anti-slavery settlers to add to the number of Free-Soilers.
Yet he knew that the state of affairs was ominous of dis
aster. After all, Abraham Lincoln had been right when he
told Douglas that the squatter-rule doctrine would bring
the Missourians and the Yankees into collision. To
Lincoln's belief that the first drop of blood shed would be
the death knell of the Union, Stephens was inclined to sub
scribe. Yet, as invented propaganda, he discounted many of
the stories that concerned the "Kansas War."

With the majority of the Democrats he believed the con
stitutional convention, that had met at Topeka on October
23, 1855, and had framed a constitution prohibiting slavery,
to have been illegally influenced by the Emigrant Aid
Society. When the bill for the admission of Kansas under
the Topeka constitution came before the House, he spoke
in opposition, scouting the stones of the uprisings in Kansas.
The Topeka constitution, he said, had been framed not by

167

168 LITTLE ALECK

bona fide voters but by men with guns in their hands. Again
he defended slavery. "He that is born in thy house, " he
quoted from Genesis, "and he that is bought with thy
money must be circumcised." Accordingly, it could not be
denied that Abraham was a slaveholder and a dealer in
slaves. Did not the Old Testament command that the slaves
of the Israelites "should be of the heathen that are round
about" and that "over your own brethren ye shall not rule
with rigor"? "Our Southern system is in strict conformity
with this injunction. Men of our own blood and our own
race, wherever born and from whatever clime they come,
are free and equal. We have no estates or classes among
white men. . . . Our slaves are taken from the heathen
tribes the barbarians of Africa. In our households they
are brought within the pale of the covenant, under Christian
teaching and influence. . . Nor does the negro feel any
sense of degradation in his condition. He occupies the
same grade or rank in society that he does in the scale of
being; it is his natural place; and all things fit when nature's
great law of order is conformed to."

By slow degrees Alexander Stephens had reasoned him
self into complete advocacy of slavery. He had even
blinded himself to the evils that the institution had wrought
in the South. In declaring that there was no caste system
among the people of the white race, he had overlooked the
effect of the slaveholding aristocracy upon the masses of
poor tenant farmers, who could own no slaves and who were
thrown into a lower stratum of society from which the insti
tution prevented their escape. In the late 'fifties, however,
men were reasoning little; they were swept on the tide of
emotionalism that rose higher and higher as the national
crisis became more acute.

It was a motley Congress that convened in December,
1855, which even the Congressional Globe despaired of
classifying into parties. Two months were consumed in the

THE STORM GATHERS 169

election of a speaker, with Banks, Fuller and Richardson
running close. During the wrangling Stephens lost his last
vestige of faith in congressmen. u lf men were reliable
creatures," he wrote Linton, "I should say Banks can never
be elected, but my experience has taught me that very little
confidence is to be placed on what they say or what they do."

Yet on February second the plurality rule was set aside
and Banks with a majority of two votes was declared
speaker. The election was a victory for the Republicans,
though Democrats were still the majority party. The weeks
passed with no cessation of the wranglings. Kansas poor
"Bleeding Kansas" caused all the trouble. In the Senate
contention reached its climax when Charles Sumner, of
Massachusetts, delivered his philippic, which he called The
Crime against Kansas. Two days later Preston Brooks,
of South Carolina, beat the Senator from Massachusetts
insensible. Robert Toombs, also outraged by Sumner's
attack upon the South, had stood by without interfering.
There was a consequent increase of excitement in Congress
and throughout the country, which precluded all chance of
settling the Kansas question.

In the meantime a presidential election was imminent.
Inevitably Kansas would be the principal issue before the
people. The Democrats met in Cincinnati on June second
and nominated James Buchanan, chiefly because the electoral
votes of his state of Pennsylvania were needed. The Re
publicans nominated John C. Fremont, of California. In
their platform they claimed that it was "both the right and
the duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those
twin relics of barbarism polygamy and slavery." The
American Party or Know-Nothings nominated Fillmore.

On August 21, 1856, while the national campaign was
under way, Congress was called in extraordinary .session.
The Proviso, aimed at the prohibition of slavery from the
territories, was revived. The day after the convening of

170 LITTLE ALECK

Congress Alexander Stephens wrote to his brother, "We
have just taken a 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 the proviso scheme. . . .
One vote against us. This is the end of the bill. Seven
more Southern men absent than Northern. On several
votes we lost two or three Southern men who were too
drunk to be brought in." The next day, however, he wrote
again: "We may reconsider 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 Arkan
sas was out lost his vote. It seems impossible to keep
Southern representatives in their seats. About one-tenth of
them need a master. If all our men had been here, we
would have beaten the enemy by a clear majority of three."

Though he had become a member of the Democratic
Party, Stephens was not in sympathy with the methods of
his colleagues. Drinking out of working hours was a man's
own affair. Representatives, however, were paid to look
after their people's interests. Day after day as he sat
through the tedious roll-calls and voted again and again
on questions that could have been settled finally if members
had remained in their seats, as he helped to round up the
missing Democrats and saw them tottering in at late hours,
his indignation increased. What was the use, after all, of
continuing the fight when so little real patriotism and loyalty
existed? Yet, homesick as he was for the peace of Craw-
fordville, believing at times that there could never be a
satisfactory settlement of the difficulties, Alexander
Stephens fought doggedly in behalf of convictions, around
which he had thrown up entrenchments that could not be
taken.

The eyes of the country were turned away from Congress
toward the presidential election of the fall. In the South
there was hope that a Democratic victory might bring

THE STORM GATHERS 171

some kind of solution. "The election of Fremont would be
the end of the union and ought to be/' Toombs was saying.
u The object of Fremont's friends is the conquest of the
South. I am content that they should own us when they
conquer us but not before." Stephens, however, did not ad
mit that any situation could make dissolution a necessity. He
was hoping that Buchanan would be elected but making no
predictions and no threats. Nor did the Democratic victory
of the fall bring to him any real assurance that troublous
times were at an end.

He saw at once that the Dred Scott decision, rendered
March 6, 1857, and declaring that negroes "were not in
tended to be included under the word 'citizen' in the con
stitution and therefore can claim none of the rights and
privileges which that instrument provides for and secures
to the citizens of the United States" and further declaring
the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, was fraught
with dangerous possibilities. The hysteria in the North had
reached a peak that would cause the people not only to dis
regard Supreme Court decisions but to find a way to defy
them openly.

During the winter and spring there had been no abate
ment of the furor in Kansas. The arrival of the new
Governor the latter part of May did not bring about peace.
Pessimism in the South had taken a violent form. Leaders
in Georgia, though gratified that Buchanan had been elected,
expressed in daily conversation the conviction shared by
other southerners that the time had passed for compromises.
The South must be assured that her rights and her peculiar
institution were safeguarded. Alexander Stephens, very
low in his mind, was saying little.

In Georgia the political situation was crucial. The Amer
ican Party had placed Benjamin H. Hill in the field as its
candidate for governor. Stephens felt that no disaster
could be greater than Hill's election. Yet the man had

172 LITTLE ALECK

gained in popularity. He was powerful on the stump. His
personality was pleasing. In Stephens's thinking there was
always present the undercurrent of hatred he felt for the
young man who had shown no reverence for his political
elders, who could call him and Toombs names that should
never have come from the lips of youth. To make matters
more serious, Toombs was out of the state. Some lands
that he had purchased in Texas were reported to be oc
cupied by squatters who challenged Toombs's ownership.
Certainly Bob Toombs was not the man to sit calmly in a
distant state and permit his property to go to others. He
had traveled as rapidly as possible to Texas just at the time
that he was most needed in Georgia. There was no way to
communicate with him. Stephens was rather lonely and for
lorn a Castor unfortified by his Pollux. Yet Democrats
must meet and name a candidate who could successfully
oppose the formidable Hill. The man must be young. It
was better that he should have no political past which Hill
could use against him as he had used the careers of Toombs
and Stephens. In times like these men had of necessity laid
aside old party affiliations and reversed judgments to suit
new conditions. Hill was a genius when it came to capital
izing the mistakes of the older leaders. Toombs and
Stephens were not available for the gubernatorial race.
Howell Cobb had accepted the secretaryship of the treasury
under Buchanan. George M. Troup, now seventy-six years
old, was living in wealthy retirement upon his plantation.
Judge Berrien was dead. Ex-Governor George W. Craw
ford was refusing public honors. There was a young man,
however, who had recently become prominent. Joe Brown
was his name. He had sprung from plain people in South
Carolina. Since his coming to Georgia, he had taken ef
fective interest in politics, always evincing a genius either
for choosing the winner or for helping his choice to become
the winner. People had smiled when they heard a story

THE STORM GATHERS 173

current in 1 856. A neighbor had called on Brown's mother,
wanting to know whom Joe was supporting for governor.
"Joe's been a-thinkin' he'll take it himself this time,' 5 Mrs.
Brown had replied ingenuously. Soon Democrats reached
the conclusion that Joe's idea was not a bad one. They met
in convention and nominated him to oppose the urbane and
accomplished Hill. Toombs, having been on his ranch lands
cut off from the world, arrived at a railroad station in
Texas and asked for news from Georgia. "Joe Brown is
the Democratic candidate for governor," some one told
him. "Who in the devil is Joe Brown ?" Toombs is re
ported to have replied.

Later he and Stephens confided to each other their fear
that Brown would not be able to handle Hill in debate.
They were mistaken, however. The newcomer was a match
for his opponent Brown was elected governor of the state
to the utmost satisfaction of Alexander Stephens, who prob
ably would have preferred Lucifer to HilL

The young man who had decided to take the governor
ship himself was a headstrong fellow. It was soon perfectly
clear that he intended to reform the social life at the execu
tive mansion. At other inaugurations the guests who had
gathered from the four corners of the state had been royally
entertained. Every one had got gloriously drunk on the
wines and liquors that were freely dispensed. Crockery had
been broken ; furniture had been demolished ; and Georgians
had enjoyed the occasions according to long established
ante-bellum standards. But Joe decreed that there would
be no bacchanalian feast at his inauguration. The country
boy was against all that sort of thing. He argued, of course,
that his Baptist-trained conscience guided him. It is more
likely that his early life in the little town of Pickens, South
Carolina, had not given him the social graces requisite for
executive functions. At any rate, the state was rather
annoyed. Who indeed was Joe Brown to be overturning

174 LITTLE ALECK

established custom and depriving his constituents of their
fun? Nevertheless Joe piously went his way. His inaugur
ation was exceedingly dull, and the tame receptions that
took the place of the levees of other years were utterly
Impossible. But Brown knew what he was doing. There
had been numerous revivals throughout Georgia, coming,
of course, as a corollary of the sectional hysteria. The
church people were growing in power. With these the
Governor was making himself solid.

While the country and the state were torn by conflicts, the
death of Linton's wife touched Alexander Stephens deeply.
Linton's marriage had been altogether happy. Though the
older brother was frequently lonely, in the second place to
which he had been relegated, he had derived a deal of
vicarious happiness from Linton's contentment. Emm had
been a devoted wife. The three little girls were merry and
well. The visits to Sparta had been the nearest approach
to real home life that Alexander Stephens had ever experi
enced. Now Linton's grief was his own as the younger
brother came to him for comfort or wrote long heartrend
ing letters. "You, above anything else or anybody else, are
the object of my solicitude, anxiety, and love," he wrote one
evening in March, 1857, after Linton had returned home
from a visit to Liberty Hall. "I feel for you in your grief.
I mourn with you in your sorrow. I weep with you in your
distress." Then followed suggestions for rehabilitation of
a life that had temporarily lost all purpose and objective.
Linton needed him now as the boy had needed him in the
long-ago days. The two men in their loneliness were drawn
closer together.

In Washington that winter Stephens took up the old
national conflict where it had been left off. Kansas had
applied for admission under another constitution. In a
convention held in October and dominated by the pro-
slavery element, the Lecompton Constitution had been

THE STORM GATHERS 175

framed in opposition to the Topeka. It was presented to
the people to be voted on with the slavery provision or
without the slavery provision. There had been no chance
to vote upon the constitution itself. The advocates of
slavery had carried the election held on December twenty-
first. Douglas, who had brought about the whole troublous
situation by his popular sovereignty doctrine, was indignant
because of the apparent injustice. Stephens, however,
weary of the long struggle and desirous of seeing the ques
tion settled in a manner advantageous to the South, was in
favor of admitting Kansas on the Lecompton Constitution.
When the President discussed the matter with him early
in February, he advised Buchanan to incorporate in his
message recommendation that Kansas be admitted. He
confided to Linton, however, that he thought it unfortunate
in many respects that the interview had been sought. He
expressed the opinion that Buchanan meant to do right but
was worn down by office-seekers. Indeed he was feeble and
wan and appeared to be in failing health. As usual, Stephens
added a word in condemnation of the southern representa
tives who were neglecting the duties entrusted to them.

Two days after writing this gloomy letter, he witnessed
a depressing episode in the House. Another hot-headed
South Carolinian precipitated a fight. Grow, of Pennsyl
vania, was attacked by Keitt, of South Carolina. The next
day Aleck wrote Linton that he was doubtful as to the out
come of the Kansas bill. "Last night we had a battle royal
in the House. Thirty men at least were engaged in the
fisticuff. Fortunately no weapons were used. No one was
hurt or even scratched, I believe, but bad feeling was pro
duced by it. ... All things here are tending to bring my
mind to the conclusion that the Union can not and will not
last long."

Stephens was a member of the select committee of fifteen
appointed to consider the President's message. It was he

176 LITTLE ALECK

who wrote the majority report averring that a large number
of states would look upon the rejection of Kansas "with ex
treme sensitiveness, if not alarm." The report expressed
the author's deepest convictions. Governor Brown had
written him: "If Kansas is rejected I think self-respect will
compel the Southern members of Congress, and especially
the members from Georgia, to vacate their seats and re
turn to their constituents to assist them in drawing around
themselves new safeguards of their rights in the future.
When the Union ceases to promote our equal rights, it
ceases to have any charms for me." And again a few weeks
later: "If Kansas is rejected by a direct vote I see no other
course for Georgia to take but to stand by her rights, upon
her platform, and act, or confess to the world that she has
backed down from her solemn pledges."

Again the invalid's health was breaking under the strain.
What was the use, he asked Linton, of sacrificing himself
for a cause that was being lost by its friends ? Again the
southerners were not in their seats when important measures
came to a vote. The Union he loved was about to go under
despite all his efforts to save it It was hard to be mixing
daily with men who had no real patriotism. It seemed that
he did nothing now but try to keep southerners sober and
get them to attend Congress in condition to know what
they were doing. The Kansas bill, which had passed the
Senate, was defeated in the House on April first. All
Fools' Day it was. Alexander Stephens told himself that
he might have known something foolhardy would take place.
Now that he was weary and sick, he had lapsed again into
superstition. He reminded Linton that the night before
his stepmother had died he had heard the screams of a
strange bird, which Ben had said were signs of death. Again
a sense of impending disaster was bearing down on him.
When Toombs gave a dinner on May third with thirteen
people seated at the table, he admitted to Linton that he

THE STORM GATHERS 177

was inordinately uneasy. Early in June he found that he
was seeing poorly. At last he purchased glasses. That
evening when he poured out his soul to Linton, he was
filled with sorrow. He was getting old. The struggle
was almost at an end. Had it, after all, been worth the
great effort it had cost?

When Buchanan broke with Douglas over Kansas and
lent his influence to Lincoln who was then opposing Douglas
in Illinois, Stephens was aghast. He, too, had differed
with Douglas, but even large differences could be forgotten
now. He admonished the President but always to no avail.
Toward the close of the year he had a long conference with
Buchanan and sought to bring about a reconciliation between
him and Douglas. "I suppose he thinks I am against him,"
he wrote Linton, "because I am not against Douglas's re
election to the Senate.' 7

Then it was that he sent Linton a letter which the brother
immediately destroyed because of some morbid secret it
disclosed.

"You may be right in supposing," Linton replied, "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. The cause 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 that 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
better than you think; if I am wrong, I don't understand you
at all. In my judgment it is the foundation 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 man
kind, who have, in your judgment, no claim on your affection,
and whom your impulses lead you to despise. This is a
great battle that often rages, the conflict between your reso
lution to be kind and your impulse to be almost revengeful.

i 7 8 LITTLE ALECK

The habitual triumph of the principle over the feeling is
all the more bright from the fierceness of the conflict. ^1
think I not only partly know 'what's done' but also 'what s
resisted.' One'of your greatest faults, which has been more
and more corrected from year to year, and which therefore
must be known to you, is the re'siduum of what's not re
sisted an imperiousness which loves to show the herd how

much they are your inferiors in certain points 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. . . . The opinions
of people have too much power to affect your happiness.
It is so. Besides, you impute to them sometimes opinions
that they do not have. I would not obtrude an unwelcome
word on you; and I hope that I have not done so."

Though the letter provided food for serious thought,
Aleck did not misunderstand the spirit in which it was writ
ten. Perhaps Linton was entirely right. As he looked back
over the hard years of his youth, over the struggles that
had brought his first, successes at the law, over those early
political campaigns when the man who looked like a boy
had striven for recognition, he knew that he had been sus
tained by a realization that within that massive head of his
was a brain with power to lift him above the herd whose
mental processes he scorned. In his letters to Linton he
had expressed himself sincerely. Of course, the superiority
he felt to his associates crept into the words and between the
lines. Yet had he always fought against revengeful tend
encies in his nature? Perhaps. His kindness to tramps, his
financial assistance to many boys who wanted an education,
the help he was giving a girl, deformed in body but strong
in mind, might be merely unconscious efforts to overcome
the vengefulness that Linton had detected. He thought,
moreover, that Linton's discovery had not been made by
others. Members of his immediate family believed in him
implicitly. His brother, John L. Stephens, who had died
in 1856, had practically willed his family to Aleck. All

THE STORM GATHERS 179

his estate he had left to Alexander H. Stephens u to be man
aged, controlled, and disposed of by him and at his discretion
for the payment of my debt and for the use of my beloved
wife and children" because of his "unbounded confidence"
in him and reliance upon "that fraternal kindness which had
heretofore been unfailing." Since the estate had amounted
to little after the payment of the debts, that will had meant
that Alexander Stephens must support his brother's family.
He had done so joyfully. Could it be that his efforts to
overcome the great fault that Linton had described were re
sponsible for all his good deeds?

Just what was the "morbid secret" that Alexander
Stephens confided to Linton? Johnston and Browne, who
published their biography five years before Stephens's death,
hazarded a guess. It had to do, they said, with Mr.
Stephens's celibacy. Twice the little invalid had been in
love with the little girl in Madison, Georgia, and later
with a mature woman who he had reason to believe would
have been willing to marry him. He was too proud, thought
the contemporary biographers, to impose his invalidism
upon a wife. So they conjectured that the secret he con
fided to Linton had to do with unconsummated love. Others
who knew Mr. Stephens, however, are prone to discount
Johnston's and Browne's romantic explanation. Alexander
Stephens, all brain and little body, was not the victim of
the inexorable call that comes to other men. The emotion
which he interpreted as love was wholly a mental experience.
Many years later he confided to his secretary, John M.
Graham, that he believed there was in his nature more of
the woman than existed in any other man he recalled unless
it was "Dick" Clark, referring to Judge Richard H. Clark
of the Supreme Court. His attachment to Linton savored
strongly of the maternal. There was a romantic element
in his friendship with Toombs. Strong men attracted
him. He needed frequently to be comforted and susr

i8o LITTLE ALECK

tamed by them, far more than he needed the love of
woman. That he was set apart from other men, though
the differences were attributable to frailness and not to ab
normality, doubtless preyed on his mind. Just as he longed
to be able to put up a good fight, so doubtless he desired
the sense of completed manhood which sex experiences seem
to have power to bring. Something of this may have been
the secret he confided to Linton.

The self-analysis to which he subjected himself after the
receipt of Linton's letter may have gone a long way toward
curing the fits of despondency that he had not been able to
resist. Self-knowledge, he had said when speaking to col
lege boys some years before, was a requisite of success. He
would seek to know himself better. Later he wrote that
he was overcoming the melancholy that had been his curse.
Perhaps Linton's letter helped him to find a way to silence
the dominant minor chord in his thinking. He must see
himself in relation, not only to his own unhappiness, but to
the history he was helping to make. He was living in an
age great in achievement and pregnant with future possi
bilities. That year the submarine cable had been laid. The
salutations between Queen Victoria and James Buchanan
marked the dawning of a new era when the peoples of all
the world would be in daily communication with one another.
From the perspective afforded by the ages, the difficulties
that now loomed large would seem of petty consequence.

One last appeal Stephens made to Buchanan. Again he
urged cessation of the war against Douglas. He warned
the President that if the rift between the two men were not
closed, there would be a "burst-up" at the Democratic Con
vention in Charleston. When Buchanan continued obdurate,
Stephens reached the decision with which he had been toy-
Ing: he would not return to Congress. There was work for
him to do in Georgia. If the Union were to be preserved,
men would be needed to carry the fight to the states. At any

THE STORM GATHERS 181

rate, he was sure that he could be of no further service in
Washington.

Stephens made his last speech in Congress on February
12, 1859, when he argued for the admission of Oregon.
There were southerners who opposed allowing another free
state to enter the Union because of the advantage that the
North would derive from an increased number of senators
and representatives in Congress. The admission of Oregon
as a free state was logical, however. Slavery was not wanted
or needed in the North. To Stephens the opposition seemed
unjust and unwise. Oregon should be admitted. Again
the man who was capable of placing right above expediency
was speaking.

When news of his retirement spread among his friends,
the House and the Senate expressed a desire to give a ban
quet in his honor. On account of other engagements, how
ever, he was forced to decline. On that chilly March
afternoon in 1859 when the steamer was carrying him to
ward Georgia, Alexander Stephens, wrapped in his greatcoat
and shawl, stood looking back toward the city that he was
leaving. A friend touched him on the shoulder.

"Perhaps you are thinking," he said, "of the time when
you will be returning to Washington."

"No," Alexander Stephens replied with uncanny pre
science, "I never expect to see Washington again, unless I
am brought here as a prisoner of war."

He was retiring to private life, he told those who in
quired concerning his plans. Yet he must have known that
in the years that were to follow there could be no private
life for a man who had become enmeshed in the affairs that
were tearing a nation asunder. He was merely going back
to try to save the state and the people he loved.

CHAPTER XIV
LIGHTNING STRIKES

As ALEXANDER STEPHENS might have foreseen, Georgians
had no intention of letting him rest. There was chance for
only a few games of whist with the guests who flocked to
see him at Liberty Hall before the insistence that he make
known in a public address his reasons for retirement from
Congress caused him to accede to the general demand. He
was glad to review before his constituents the part he had
played in national affairs. There were points that he wanted
to drive home. There were stands of his that perhaps
needed vindication. There were warnings that needed to be
given.

So on the second of July, 1859, he spoke at City Hall
Park in Augusta. His record was inextricably tangled with
the^progress of Georgia since 1836. He had sponsored
the first woman's college in the South; he had stood for sup
porting the University at Athens; the annexation of Texas
had been immediately beneficial to the interests of Georgia.
He retold the story of his opposition to the Mexican War.
In rapid and able summary he sketched the other large ques
tions he had helped to solve. In his advocacy of slavery
he went the whole way. The institution, he said, rested
upon principles that could not be assailed by law, and its
entrenchments of late had been substantially strengthened.
Thirty years before, Virginia had been on the verge of aboli
tion. Then, abolition sentiment had been growing through
out the entire South. Now, thinking southerners were
realizing, he declared, that "subordination was the normal
condition of the negro." The change had been due to the ac-

182

LIGHTNING STRIKES 183

tivities of the northern agitators following the Compromises
of 1850. "Questions that were doubtful and mooted be
fore these agitations have since been settled, settled by all
the departments of the government, the legislative, the ex
ecutive, and the judiciary/'

Then Stephens leaped to the ultimate conclusion pred
icated by his premises and advocated the reopening of the
slave traffic and an increase of negroes from abroad. "It
takes people to make states, and it requires people of the
African race to make slave states. You may not expect to
see many of the territories come into the Union as slave
states unless we have an increase of African stock."

Step by step Stephens had convinced himself that slavery
was humane and right, that the negro from the jungles was
better off about southern homes than he could ever be in his
native land, and that slavery was conducive to progress in
the South. From mild advocacy he had evolved into vehe
mence. Yet through it all he remained the kindest and most
humane of men. The negroes about the village loved him.
When one was asked to describe Mr. Stephens, he said,
"Marse Aleck's kinder to dawgs dan mos 1 men is to folks."
The speech in Augusta must be viewed in its relation to the
abnormal times that immediately preceded the terrible
'sixties.

The temper of the Augusta speech was calm. Stephens was
trying to assure an excited people that all would be well.
Nothing could be gained, he thought, by transferring to them
the discouragement that caused his retirement from Con
gress. If peace were to be achieved, the minds of men must
be turned from all thoughts of war. The South must be
made to feel that the Compromises of 1850 were fair and
that there was a possibility that they would provide a per
manent basis for future adjustments of sectional difficulties.
The leaders who were inciting the people to wrath were
guilty, he thought, of the greatest crime that had ever been

i8 4 LITTLE ALECK

committed against the country. When he besought his au
dience u to stand by the constitution in any and every event/ 7
the people rose to their feet, cheering wildly. Perhaps there
was yet a chance to reestablish the principles set down in
1787.

"I must now take my farewell leave," Stephens concluded.
"My race has been run my career is ended; whether it has
been for good or for evil, the record is made up. ... There
is no office under heaven that I desire or wish ever to hold."

When leading Georgians gave him a farewell dinner, he
reiterated his desire to spend the rest of his days practising
law in Crawfordville. Weary of the long struggle, he was
sincerely desiring rest.

Yet how could there be rest in days so pregnant with dis
aster? Less than two weeks later Iverson, of the Georgia
senate, spoke in opposition to all that Stephens had said. He
denounced the compromises, the Kansas bill, Douglas's doc
trine of popular sovereignty, and declared that Congress
should protect slavery in all the territories. Georgia was
divided between the conservative and the radical camps.
Early in June Governor Brown had written Stephens that,
according to rumors that had reached him, efforts were being
made to organize a new party in Georgia. "The indi
cations," he had said, "seem to be that we shall have two
delegations at Charleston." In that event, he added, the
position of the state would be considerably weakened. Brown
wanted advice from Stephens, who was himself too per
plexed by the recent developments in Georgia to know just
what course would be most effective.

In the meantime many men were requesting Stephens to
allow his name to be presented as Democratic candidate
for the presidency. He occupied a middle ground, they ar
gued, between the Douglas and the Buchanan factions.
Brown was insistent in urging him not to say that he would

LIGHTNING STRIKES 185

refuse the nomination if it were tendered him at Charleston,
Stephens, however, did not want the honor. <; I had as lief
be put on a list of horse thieves as in the number of those
aspiring to the presidency," he said. And again: "Perhaps
Old Buck thinks I am an insidious rival. If so, alas, poor old
fellow ! How his views would change if he could know how
I pity him !" "What amazes me in Douglas," he is reported
to have said later, "is his desire to be president. I have
sometimes asked him what he desired the office for. It has
never added to the reputation of a single man." Though
Alexander Stephens could never keep out of public affairs,
he did not want to be placed in positions of the greatest
responsibility. Indeed, the year before he had been adaman
tine in his refusal to run for the speakership of the House.

Through the summer the rift in the Democratic Party of
Georgia widened. What with the law practise that now
came to him, with the guests who flocked to Liberty Hall to
discuss the many ramifications of the situation, and with the
heat,, Stephens was exhausted by the first of September.
Nevertheless, he spoke again in Augusta* The people
wanted to hear him; and there were things that he should say
to them. He made another plea in behalf of the Union.
His voice faltered, however, and his knees gave way be
neath him. Finally it was necessary for him to finish his
address from a seat on the platform. The audience was
attentive. The people could not doubt the sincerity of the
earnest, intense little man who pleaded with them.

Between Toombs and Stephens difference of opinion had
arisen. On September eighth Toombs spoke in favor of
Buchanan's policy of slavery protection in the territories and
against "squatter sovereignty." Georgia was puzzled. It
was the first time that their Castor and Pollux had not stood
together on an important issue.

Stephens had not lost his power over the audiences of
Georgia, however. Ill though he was, he accepted other in-

i86 LITTLE ALECK

vitations to exhort the people to patience and amity. Yet
there were forces at work to break the spell he was able to
cast from the platform. After John Brown's raid of Octo
ber seventeenth, all reason seemed to have been destroyed.

When Congress reassembled in December, Robert
Toombs returned to his seat in the Senate. Immediately he
wrote Stephens that everybody in Washington was at sea.
"The old fogies are all candidates for the presidency," he
said, u from the highest to the lowest, and are as silent and
sanctimonious as a whore at a christening/' He reiterated
his oft-expressed regret that Stephens had refused to allow
his name to be presented at the Charleston convention. "I
think it is very unwise in you and hurtful to the country. I
think you could be nominated, especially after they are done
fighting their battle of weakness."

Stephens was too sick, however, and too discouraged to
yield even to Bob Toombs's persuasion. On January fifth he
wrote gloomily to his friend, J. Henly Smith, a newspaper
correspondent in Washington, that he was out of softs in
health, a condition that might be attributed to bad weather.
Times were hard, he said. Provisions were high, and prop
erty was higher than he had ever known it to be. What
distressed him most, moreover, was the apathy of the people.
The President's message had been published more than a
week. Yet no one in the village had read it not even the
two lawyers. "How the honor of being a member of Con
gress," he wailed, "and working and worrying oneself half
to death for the good of the people at home vanishes into
thin air and becomes perfectly nothing in the estimation of
one mingling with the people and seeing how little they care
for such things! I had no idea that what was going on at
the seat of government produced so little effect upon the
public mind as it does. If I had known the fact, I think I
should have quit long ago."

It was rumors, he decided, and the propaganda of the fire-

LIGHTNING STRIKES 187

eaters that incited the people. No one seemed to be study
ing public questions and reaching sane conclusions.

Toombs wrote on January 1 1, 1 860, that he had no proph
ecy to make concerning the outcome of the nomination
tangle. He thought, however that Buchanan would like to
prevent the nomination of another in order to make him
self necessary. "This is impossible. He weakens with the
party every day."

Stephens could no longer blind himself to the inevitability
of disunion. He would not fear it so much, he confided in
a letter to Toombs, if he could trust the stability of the
leaders. Yet he knew the South would be no better ofi in a
new republic than it was now. There would be the same
wrangling, he prophesied. The troubles, he insisted, grew
out of the characters of the public men in both North and
South. Disunion would lead only to further confusion un
less men could agree upon some line of policy; and, if they
could, disunion would be unnecessary. "Republics," he said,
"can be sustained only by virtue, intelligence, and patriot
ism." Little of these qualities he had discovered among
congressmen, who seemed to be concerned only with votes
and personal aggrandizement.

Stephens thought it passing strange that his friends, to
whom he had expressed himself emphatically, continued to
urge that he reconsider and allow his name to be presented
at Charleston. It was annoying that Georgians were
seriously contemplating placing him in the running when the
state convention met at Milledgeville. He wrote asking J.
Henly Smith to do all in his power to silence the news
papers. He begged Dr. Henry R. Casey, who had been
elected delegate to the convention, to use his influence against
the movement. This was no time, he insisted, for states to
be putting forward their favorites.

He was not surprised when events took their disastrous
course at Charleston. Had he not prophesied it all to Bu-

i88 LITTLE ALECK

chanan, again and again to Robert Toombs, and to others
who visited Liberty Hall? "This may be the beginning of
the end," he wrote to his friend Richard Johnston on May
sixth. "I am sorry things are as they are, sorry as I should
be to see some dear friend in a fit of delirium tremens. n

Stephens had known that Douglas's opponents would in
troduce a plank declaring for protection of slavery in the
territories. That their resolution would be rejected, he
had also had no doubt. He had even believed that the
faction opposed to Douglas would withdraw from the con
vention and nominate a candidate of their own. The ad
journment to Richmond and thence to Baltimore was in ac
cord with his somber predictions. Certain that there would
be two sets of candidates to oppose the Republican nominees,
he was not surprised when a third appeared in the field.
Though he had no hope that Lincoln could be defeated, he
declared himself for Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V.
Johnson, whom the regular wing of the party had nominated.
His old animosity for the man who had refused to meet him
in a duel was drowned in the larger issues. Douglas and
Johnson stood for the preservation of the Union, he
thought; therefore, Alexander Stephens would support them
to the utmost of his ability, though he knew that both Bell
and Breckinridge would receive larger votes in Georgia.

"You will see from my speeches," Toombs had written
before the convention, "fully where we differ, though I am
perfectly prepared to accommodate the party differences
when you think proper." Agreement, however, had proved
impossible. He and Toombs knew now that the condition
of the party precluded all hope of victory. As Stephens had
expected, the Georgia Democrats met and endorsed Breck
inridge and Lane. With Toombs as presiding officer and
genius of the body, nothing else could have happened. The
next week the Dougla's wing convened and appointed Alex
ander H. Stephens and A. R. Wright their electors. There

LIGHTNING STRIKES 189

was a third convention also, composed of the followers of
Bell.

Hopelessly but doggedly Stephens canvassed the state
from seashore to mountains, from the Savannah River to
the boundary of Alabama, preaching his doctrine of peace
and adherence to constitutional liberty. In Dalton, when
his strength completely failed, Linton took his place. At
last Aleck rose and stumbled toward the speaker's table.
" f Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,' cried the thin shrill voice,
'thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are
sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered my chil
dren together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, but ye would not P " The words produced a profound
effect. Yet as Linton continued his address there were fre
quent interruptions that touched upon Douglas's doctrines.
Again Alexander Stephens rose. With his thin right hand
lifted above his head, he said in a voice that suddenly
gathered volume, "Rather than that this hand should put
a vote in the ballot box in condemnation of Stephen A.
Douglas, I would prefer letting it go down to posterity
covered with the infamy of having poured the hemlock into
the cup of Socrates."

On Saturday evening, September I, 1860, he told a vast
audience that had again assembled to hear him at the City
Hall Park in Augusta that when he had last appeared to
speak in their city he had honestly expected to retire from
public life. Yet the exigencies of the situation had caused him
to come again before the people of Georgia. He still be
lieved, he said, that it was possible to check the disruption
that seemed imminent. The government as it was, he
thought worth preserving. The question before the people
of Georgia now was which candidate to support in the fall
election. His answer was unequivocally the national Demo
cratic ticket headed by Douglas and Johnson, which was
based upon congressional non-interference with slavery in

190 LITTLE ALECK

the states and in the territories. His defense of Douglas
was powerful 'There is much more I wish to say," he
concluded, "but my strength has failed I am completely
exhausted. I can only add : Look at the questions in all their
bearings and as patriots do your duty, trust the rest to
God."

As he sat down, there were calls for other speakers who
did not respond. George W. Lamar then announced that Mr.
Stephens would be able to continue in a few moments. The
audience waited patiently. When Stephens rose again, his
voice was trembling. Yet, because of its penetrating qual
ity it reached the furthest hearer. "I do not feel, fellow
citizens," he said, u as if, in justice to myself, I ought to
attempt to say more to-night ; but there is no cause in which I
would more willingly die than in the cause of my country;
and I would just as soon fall here, at this time, in the
advocacy of those principles upon which its past glory has
been achieved, its present prosperity and its future hopes
depend, as anywhere else, or on any other occasion."

The audience was with the speaker. When Stephens de
clared that the movement at Charleston which Breckinridge
and Lane had countenanced would certainly lead to disunion,
the applause was deafening. Whatever might be the out
come of the election, it was clear that Little Aleck was en
shrined in the hearts of his neighbors.

The desperately serious campaign was not without its
amusing aspects. A. R. Wright and Alexander Stephens
were working for the same candidate. Georgians had not
forgotten the time that the two men had opposed each other.
They liked to recall one debate that had proved interesting.
Colonel Wright had quoted his opponent as having re
marked that he could eat Ben Hill for breakfast, Ranse
Wright for dinner, and Bob Trippe for supper. When
Stephens rose to reply, he denied having said anything of the
sort. "If I had contemplated a feast of these characters,"
he piped, "I should have reversed the order. I should prefer

LIGHTNING STRIKES 191

Ben Hill for breakfast and Bob Trippe for dinner, and, re
membering my mother's advice always to eat light suppers,
I should tip off with my friend, Colonel Wright."

Early In the summer Stephens had prepared the way for
the stand he would make after the inevitable election of
Abraham Lincoln : he had written then to J. Henly Smith
that he would not be in favor of disunion in any event. In
deed, he considered Lincoln as good a man as Buchanan and
quite as safe. "I know the man well. He is not a bad man.
He will make as good a president as Fillmore better,too,
in my opinion. He has a great deal more practical common
sense. Still his party may do mischief." Yet he saw no
reason to hope for greater security out of the Union. "We
have nothing to fear from anything so much as unnecessary
changes in government."

The summer was hot and dry. The people were uneasy
and distressed in mind. Stephens's health was at its worst.
He missed the long political talks with Toombs and the in
timacy that had always sustained his trying seasons* Now
when he saw his old friend, he refrained from talking poli
tics. Consequently, the relationship was strained and un
natural. It is not surprising that in his frame of mind he
should have quarreled with Thomas W. Thomas, to whom
he had been devoted for years. In the hottest of dog-days
Stephens lost a case in Judge Thomas's court. After making
an appeal, he said in bad temper that Thomas was^a tyrant.
The Judge was deeply hurt. Because he knew his friend,
however, he made allowances which later restored the for
mer cordial relation. A fall which Stephens sustained early
in August added to his general discomfort. He tripped and
stumbled down eight flights of steps to the pavement below.
Frail as he was, he began to feel that he was destined to
nothing but suffering.

He was in better health, however, when news came of
Lincoln's election. "It does not surprise me in the least,"
he wrote to Smith. "I have been expecting it ever since the

i 9 2 LITTLE ALECK

burst-up In Baltimore, as you know very well. Whf4t is to
be the result I can not tell We shall, I apprehend, have
trouble."

When the state legislature invited him to address the
body upon the situation, he accepted willingly. Robert
Toombs had spoken on the evening of November thir
teenth. Stephens replied on the fourteenth. "Will you sub
mit to abolition rule or will you resist?" Toombs had thun
dered. "I ask you to give me the sword, for if you do not
give it to me, as God lives, I will take it myself." It was
not an easy task to answer the forensic and impassioned
oratory of his dearest friend.

Stephens was in no happy frame of mind a 4 s he entered
the legislative hall, though he was greeted by prolonged
applause. He began in cool dispassionate logic, however,
warming slowly as his argument advanced. * 'Don't give up
the ship. Don't abandon her yet," he pleaded.

"The ship has leaks in her," some one called.

"Let us stop them if we can," Stephens rejoined. "Many
a stout old ship has been saved with the richest cargo after
many leaks and it may be so now."

When the cheering ceased, Stephens argued that the elec
tion of no man as president of the United States was suffi
cient cause for disunion. "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." The applause
served as a stimulant. To the contention that Lincoln's
principles were against the Constitution, he answered, "If
he violates the Constitution, then will be 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." Since Lincoln was to be
no king, he could not jeopardize the safety of the South.
Though the Republicans had elected him president, Con
gress was still preponderantly Democratic. He could not

LIGHTNING STRIKES 193

even appoint his Cabinet without the consent of a Demo
cratic Senate.

"If the Senate is Democratic, it is for Breckinridge," cried
Bob Toombs.

"Well, then, I apprehend that no man could be justly un
true to the interests of Georgia to hold an office which a
Breckinridge Senate had given him even though Lincoln
should be president.' 5

The applause was prolonged.

Stephens went on to declare thai he wanted equality for
Georgia, and that he believed equality was possible within
the Union. As he continued, the interruptions from Toombs
were more and more frequent. Stephens, however, remained
calm, always addressing Toombs as "my friend." He did not
deny that there were defects in the country. Yet under its
government Georgia had prospered. Now before seceding
Georgia should wait for an act of aggression. The legis
lature, moreover, was without power to commit the state to
any policy. On the question the whole people must be heard.
Therefore, he urged that a convention be called. Then, If
Georgia should secede, Alexander Stephens would bow to
the will of the people.

The mighty voice of Robert Toombs rose above the ap
plause and cheers that followed Stephens's address. "Fellow
citizens," he was saying to men who were accustomed to give
heed to his words, "we have just listened to a speech from
one of the brightest intellects and purest patriots that now
live. I move that this meeting now adjourn with three cheers
for Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia."

When some one later complimented Toombs upon the
magnanimity of his proposal, "I was always taught to behave
well at a funeral," he replied with a smile that was not in the
least merry.

Stephens's Milledgeville speech, published in the National
Intelligencer and widely read throughout the country, came

i 94 LITTLE ALECK

at once to the attention of Abraham Lincoln, who wrote
asking that a copy be sent him. Stephens answered at once,
enclosing a copy of his speech. 'The country is certainly in
great peril/' he said in closing the note, "and no man ever
had heavier or greater responsibility resting upon him than
you have in the present momentous crisis."

Lincoln wrote again. Because at the top of the page were
the words 'Tor your eye only/' Stephens did not show the
letter to any one until long after Lincoln's death.

"Your obliging answer to my short note is just received,"
wrote the President-elect, "and for which please accept my
thanks. I fully appreciate the present peril that the country
Is in, and the weight of the 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. 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 abolished. That, I suppose, is the rub. It cer
tainly is the only substantial difference between us."

In replying to the letter, Stephens expressed his conviction
that nothing was to be accomplished by force. Certainly, he
pointed out, the difference of opinion concerning slavery had
always existed. "In addressing you thus," he wrote, "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."

But Stephens himself had ceased to believe that the
country could be saved. In his despairing mood, for a time
he had been undecided whether or not he would allow his
constituents to send him to the Georgia convention, "I am

LIGHTNING STRIKES 195

inclined," he had written to Smith, u to let those who sowed
the wind reap the whirlwind. It does seem to me that we
are going to destruction as fast as we can." Perhaps deep
down in his mind he had known all the time that he would
attend the convention and make a last stand in favor of the
Union. Certainly, his friends had never doubted the course
that he would take.

Yet on November twenty-fourth, he dominated the con
vention in Taliaferro County. It was his speech that brought
about the passage of resolutions against secession. When
his constituents nominated him to represent Taliaferro at
the state convention, he accepted without protest.

The next day he wrote a friend that he still believed the
wrongs of the South could be redressed within the Union.
"Revolutions are much easier started than controlled," he
said, "and the men that begin them seldom end them. . . .
Human passions are like the winds when aroused they
sweep everything before them in their fury. The wise and
the good who attempt to control them, will themselves most
likely become the victims. . . . When the moderate men, who
are patriotic, have gone as far as they think right and proper,
and propose to reconstruct, there will be found a class below
them governed by no principle, but personal objects, who
will be for pushing matters further and further, until those
who sowed the wind will find that they have reaped the
whirlwind. . . . Before tearing down even a bad government,
we should first see a good prospect for a better."

During December he tried to concentrate upon his legal
work. The days were cold and dismal, however, and for
him utterly without hope. On December twenty-second
Toombs'sent from Washington the telegram that aroused
his many followers in Georgia to still greater excitement:

"I tell you upon the word of a true man that all further
looking to the North for security for your constitutional
rights in the Union ought to be instantly abandoned. It is

196 LITTLE ALECK

fraught with nothing but ruin to you and your posterity.
"Secession by the fourth of March next should be thun-
ciered from the ballot box by the unanimous voice of Georgia
on the second day of January next. Such a voice will be your
best guarantee for liberty, security, tranquillity, and glory."

Two days before, South Carolina had seceded. In At
lanta guns had been fired at sunrise. Crowds had assembled
on the streets. There had been a torchlight procession in
the evening. Abraham Lincoln had been burned in effigy.
The people were mad, thought Stephens. There was no
chance that they would listen to reason. Yet, sitting in de
spair at Liberty Hall, he poured out his meditations to the
few friends who seemed to him not to have completely lost
their sanity.

In the various plans for compromise and adjustment, how
ever, he could place little hope. The South, of course, would
never agree to Douglas's scheme that involved sending the
blacks to Africa. It was clear that the ultras in both North
and South wanted redress, not compromise, not solution of
the problem. Nowhere was there a ray of hope. "Mr.
Buchanan has ruined the country," Stephens wrote to J.
Henly Smith. "It is past praying for, I fear. His appeal
to heaven was made too late."

Early in January Mrs. Toombs wrote, asking what dis
position she should make of the furniture Mr. Stephens had
left in Washington. "I have despaired of the Union," she
said, "and will begin to pack up my things to-day. If you
can do anything, you must be at it. I have given up the
ship notwithstanding your old friends' opinion in a telegram
of the morning papers."

Stephens had read the telegram. While he applauded
Douglas's and Crittenden's urging the people not to give up
the ship, not to despair of the republic, he was ready to agree
with Mrs. Toombs that the ship was doomed. He had just
written these views to Linton. South Carolina had not put

LIGHTNING STRIKES 197

secession on the right ground, he had declare'd. The per
sonal liberty acts passed by the North, in order to set aside
the Fugitive Slave Act, were the South' s greatest grievance.
While he did not doubt the justice of secession, he did doubt
its expediency.

Gloom had supplanted excitement in Georgia. One cold
dripping morning in January, Alexander Stephens was called
to the court-house where a hundred despondent, soaked, be
draggled men had gathered. He talked to them for an hour
and a half In an effort to give to them a bit of hope. If the
worst came, the South could defend herself. Yet the Union
must be preserved if preservation were possible. When he
sat down, some one called, u Three cheers for South Caro
lina I" There was no response, however, from the crowd.

On January sixteenth Alexander Stephens went to the con
vention, certain that the state would secede, yet determined
to continue his fight in behalf of the Union. Judge Eugenius
A. Nisbet introduced the ordinance declaring for immediate
secession* The substitute resolution which Alexander and
Linton Stephens drew and presented to the convention, ask
ing the Southern States to come to Atlanta for a conference,
was voted down* Strangely enough, the two leaders who
stood by Alexander Stephens were Hersdhel V. Johnson and
Benjamin H. Hill, men whom he had challenged to duels and
whose refusals had added further insults to the injuries that
had provoked his request for a gentleman's satisfaction.
When Nisbet's resolution was passed, Alexander Stephens
accepted appointment on the committee charged with the
task of drawing up the ordinance of secession. When the
convention elected him delegate to the congress of Confed
erate States, he agreed to be among those representing
Georgia in Montgomery, He had lost his fight to preserve
the Union that he had loved since boyhood days. [To
Georgia was due his first loyalty*

CHAPTER XV
A NATION IS BORN

FEBRUARY 3, 1861! Crawfordville was bleak and cold.
Shivering groups of townspeople awaited the incoming
train. Alexander Stephens was leaving for the meeting of
the Confederate Congress, which would open the next day
in Montgomery, Alabama.

Throughout Georgia people were certain that justice was
on the side of the South and that the future would be bright
for the country about to be born. Not far from Crawford
ville at the town of Alexander in Grant County a little
woman wrote the next day into her diary thoughts that
she shared with the Georgians about her. Mrs. Oscar
Shewmake she was a native of England, whose father,
Captain Francis Cornwall, had fought with Wellington at
Waterloo and later had brought his family to America.
She was one of the early graduates of Wesleyan at Macon,
the college in behalf of which Alexander Stephens had
spoken soon after he entered the legislature to represent
Taliaferro County.

"To-day is an important era in our country's history,"
wrote Mrs. Shewmake on that memorable February fourth.
u The first Southern Congress meets to-day at Montgomery.
Our delegates are Toombs and Howell Cobb from the
state at large, E. Nisbet, F. Burton, A. H. Stephens, Mar
tin Crawford, A. R. Wright, T. R. R. Cobb, B. Hill, A. H.
Kenan from the district.

"A nobler band of men could not be found in all the
states. Intellect in no ordinary degree each one of them
is possessed of, but this is not all. Most of them are men
of piety and irreproachable morals. A little leaven leaveneth

198

A NATION IS BORN 199

the whole lump. We need not fear for the honor or repu
tation of our gallant state when such men are her representa
tives.

"May the good Lord who suffereth not a sparrow to fall
without His observation take cognizance of our wants and
supply these men with wisdom proportionate to their needs!
May He overrule all things for good and make of us a
great people, not great in the worldly sense merely but
a people eminent for faith and good works a Gospel-loving
and God-fearing people! May He incline the hearts of
our former brethren to justice and promote peace between
us ! The clouds look threatening. Folly and fanaticism
blind the eyes of those who are at the head of affairs. A
domineering spirit influences them to desire to have their
way or break asunder every tie that has hitherto bound us
together. We ;// not be ruled by them. It they persist
in their mad course, the consequences be upon their own
heads!

"There is much poetry in the hitherto sectional attach
ment to the Union. It is like uprooting some of our holiest
sentiments to feel that to love it longer is to be treacherous
to ourselves and to our country. But we can love the past
of our glorious country still, and remember her as a maiden
does her mother. We can forget her faults and envy her
virtues.

"The South has a glorious future in store if she acts with
wisdom, justice, and moderation. There is room enough
on this wide continent for more than one nation, and, God
helping us, we will prove it!"

There might have been expressions of merriment, exulta
tion and excitement at the station that February night had
Mr. Stephens not looked so tragic. It was clear that for
him the great drama about to be enacted bore no resem
blance to comedy. As the train pulled in, the people looked
eagerly through the windows to see the distinguished men
and women who were aboard. Most of the Georgians they
recognized, and the identity of the South Carolinians they
could guess.

200 LITTLE ALECK

Alexander Stephens mounted the platform, waved his
good-by and entered one of the coaches. In a few moments
he was seated beside Colonel David Twiggs Hamilton.
Just in front of him were Chesnut, of South Carolina, and
his charming and witty wife, both of whom he had known
In Washington. Behind sat Robert Toombs somewhat
subdued by the accomplishment of his secession project.
Aleck was glad that his year of conflict with Bob Toombs
was at an end. Now again the two old friends were united
in a common cause. It occurred to him, however, that
the delegates en route to Montgomery, intent on the im
mediate problems confronting them, were not thinking of
the dangerous consequences of their rashness. A great deal
was being said about the organization of the new govern
ment, little about the war that was inevitable.

It was not long before Mr. Chesnut turned to Alexander
Stephens.

"Mr. Stephens/' he said, "the delegation from my state
has been conferring and has decided to look to Georgia
for a president."

"Well, sir," Stephens replied, "we have Mr. Toombs,
Mr. Cobb, Governor Jenkins and Mr. Johnson. Any would
suit I would give my vote to any one of them."

"We are looking to you and Mr. Toombs," countered
Chesnut. "No other names were mentioned, and the ma
jority of the delegation favors you."

Alexander Stephens's face grew pale. It was with an
effort that he spoke calmly in reply.

"No, that can never be," he said with emphasis.

Toombs, who had caught only a part of what had been
said, leaned over the back of Stephens's seat.

"What is it, Aleck?" he asked

"Come over here, Bob," Stephens directed. "You ought
to hear all of this."

When Colonel Hamilton started to make place for

A NATION IS BORN 201

Toombs, Alexander Stephens laid a hand on his knee. So
Mrs. Chesnut slipped away and gave Mr. Toombs her seat
Then Mr. Chesnut repeated the words he had just spoken.

"That settles it, Aleck/ 5 said Toombs. "You are the
choice of the Georgia delegation. We have talked it over.
So you must let us present your name to the convention."

For a moment Alexander Stephens seemed to be fumbling
for words. The deadly pallor had not left his face. Per
haps he was moved by his old friend's magnanimity. It
was generally thought that Toombs wanted the honor of
the presidency. Certainly, he was the more logical man for
the place, he who had been one of the moving forces in
favor of secession.

"No, no/' Stephens answered, gulping out the words.
"I have not been in the movement. I was opposed to seces
sion. I can not take any office under the government. It
would not be judicious. It would not be good policy to
put me forward for any position."

"Aleck," Toombs said with every evidence of beginning
an argument, but Stephens would not let him speak. He
merely laughed his dry shrill little laugh and changed the
subject.

During the remainder of the journey, he managed to
guide the conversation into other channels and to spend a
great deal of time talking to Mrs. Chesnut. Here was an
intelligent woman who could be of great value if she could
be made to feel the seriousness of the situation. She
showed, however, the impression the South Carolina spirit
had made upon her. Now that the states had withdrawn
from the Union, there was surely no danger of future
trouble. Alexander Stephens assumed the task of setting
her right. There would be a war a terrible war, he told
her. The South must do its utmost to foster a spirit that
would lead to arbitration and not to continued combat.
Mrs. Chesnut had a brain. It was gratifying that she

202 LITTLE ALECK

listened attentively to all he said. Moreover, Alexander
Stephens had always liked clever women. Between him and
them there was a kinship that he admitted without shame.

An hour after Stephens had arrived in his room at the
Montgomery hotel there came a knock at the door. Willy
P. Harris and Colonel A. M. Campbell were calling on him.

"The Mississippi delegation prefers you for president,"
one of them announced, "and we have come, Mr. Stephens,
to see if you will allow us to present your name."

This time Alexander Stephens was not taken by surprise.

"Gentlemen," he replied at once, "I can not be candidate
for the presidency of the southern Confederacy. I was op
posed to secession. You must eliminate my name as a
candidate for all offices. It would be bad policy to present
my name."

Bending forward earnestly, Campbell continued:

"You are mistaken, sir. It would be good policy the
very best policy. You opposed secession. You had good
reasons weighty reasons, sir. The whole country, North
and South, the whole world knows your reasons. You are
the only man to whom the Unionists will give their cordial
support. You are the only man who can take away from
this movement the character of a rebellion. 1 '

"I think you do the Unionists an injustice, Colonel Camp
bell," Stephens replied.

There was a slight smile on his lips less irritation in his

voice.

"The men who opposed secession," he continued, "will
be willing now ardently to defend their states. Is it true
that Union sentiment is less strong in Mississippi?"

"No," said Colonel Campbell, "there has been little
change recently, though it is certainly not so strong as it
was when Mississippi defeated Jefferson Davis for governor
and elected Henry S. Foote."

The men lingered for two hours, arguing valiantly.

A NATION IS BORN 203

When they left, Alexander Stephens had agreed to give
their suggestion some consideration.

The next day there was a series of importunings. To
Colin McRae and Judge Chilton, of Alabama, Stephens
advanced the arguments that had begun to fall glibly from
his tongue. The Alabamians had scarcely left his room
when Keitt, of South Carolina, entered the gentleman
whom Mrs. Chesnut described as always interesting and
entertaining. Alexander Stephens was amused to see the
figure of Robert Toombs hiding just outside the door.

"You are the preference of South Carolina, and I am
sent to ask you if you will serve," Keitt began, launching
into his argument without giving Stephens a chance to inter
pose his objections.

"Well," Stephens replied at last, "if I should be the
unanimous choice of the delegates, as well as of the states,
and if I can organize a Cabinet with such concert of ideas
as will justify the hope of success, I will take it, but on no
other conditions.* 3

Then it was that Robert Toombs bobbed into the room.
He was jubilant. Keitt seemed satisfied. Alexander Ste
phens, however, was far from happy. It seemed that there
would never be materialization of his dream that had to
do with retirement from public activity. On February
second he had written Richard Johnston, "I shall go to
Montgomery do all I can to prevent mischief if possible
and if the new government shall be successfully launched . . .
then I shall go into that retirement so congenial to my feel
ings." Again he had expressed the belief that southern
leaders were selfish, ambitious and unscrupulous. Certainly
he had no desire to pilot the ship that was destined so soon
to enter stormy waters.

Yet in the organization of the provisional government,
Alexander Stephens was taking no small part. It was a
sobered body of men who gathered in solemn conclave on

204 LITTLE ALECK

February fourth in Montgomery. Fiery secessionists were
realizing that order must be brought out of the chaos they
had created. After the opening prayer, by the nomination
of Robert Barnwell Rhett, of South Carolina, Howell Cobb
was elected president of the Congress. Hooper, of Ala
bama, was then made secretary.

Howell Cobb in a letter to his wife expressed his gratifi
cation that his speech on taking the chair was well received
by the delegates. He admitted that Stephens's words of
commendation pleased him especially, adding that Stephens,
Wright, Hill and Kenan were now "as strong against re
construction as any of us 1 ' and that both Stephens and Hill
had made "strong speeches to that effect."

Throughout Georgia the people were proud of the part
their state was playing in the organization of the new gov
ernment. "To-day we have the news that our honored
statesman, Howell Cobb," Mrs. Shewmake wrote in her
diary on February sixth, "has been chosen president of the
Southern convention. No one more pleasing to Georgians
and more capable of discharging the duties of that position
could have been selected. In this assertion I do not hazard
my own judgment. It is but the echo of public sentiment."

Characteristically Stephens moved immediately upon the
assembling of Congress that a committee of five be ap
pointed to report rules for governing the body. The presi
dent named Stephens chairman and placed on the commit
tee Keitt, of South Carolina; Curry, of Alabama; Harrison,
of Mississippi; and Perkins, of Georgia.

"I made the motion," Alexander Stephens wrote his
brother, "merely because the crowd generally seemed green
and not to know how to proceed."

When the committee met in his parlor that evening,
Stephens, of course, had the rules ready. Here was the
chance of a lifetime to insure the handling of congressional
business with order and dispatch. Though admitting that

A NATION IS BORN 205

he had culled from the rules of the United States Senate
and House of Representatives, he added some entirely new
regulations particularly to his liking. Then at ten that eve
ning, after the report was agreed on, he found a printing
office that would deliver fifty copies by noon the next day
and paid the bill himself.

Stephens was also a member of Memminger's committee
charged with drawing up a provisional constitution. The
instrument, which was reported on February seventh, was
essentially that which a few weeks later was adopted as the
permanent Constitution of the Confederate States. Its
basis was the Constitution of 1787. The preamble was
clarified so that there could be no doubt that each state
might act "in its sovereign and independent character." The
presidential term was extended to six years with reelection
prohibited. There were to be no taxes to foster any branch
of industry. By special cause only could the president re
move officers. Citizens could not sue one another in the
Federal Courts. Slave property was to be respected, but
the African slave trade was for ever prohibited. By call
of three states amendments were to be considered by a
convention of states. The vote of two-thirds of the states,
meeting in convention, was required to ratify an amend
ment Cabinet members were given seats in Congress and
were permitted to discuss measures appertaining to their
departments. The power of Congress over territories was
settled in opposition to the doctrines of both the centralists
and those in favor of "squatter sovereignty." It was
Stephens, moreover, who proposed that seats in Congress
be given Cabinet members. He advocated that the Presi
dent be required to appoint his Cabinet from men elected
to Congress, but he was overruled by the rest of the com
mittee. He succeeded, however, in having appropriations
limited to those requested by the executive or heads of de
partments.

206 LITTLE ALECK

When consideration of the provisions of the Constitution
was before Congress, Stephens was alert to correct minor
points that had escaped him in committee. He moved, for
instance, to strike out as meaningless the words in the pre
amble "In the name of Almighty God." He opposed the
suggestion of Chilton, of Alabama, that instead should be
used "In the name of the Almighty who is the God of the
Bible and the source of all rightful authority and rule,"
It was due to his influence that Georgia did not vote on
Harrison's substitute that invoked "the favor of Almighty
God." In article seventeen that had to do with the power
of Congress and read, "to make all laws which shall be
necessary and proper for carrying into execution the fore
going powers vested by this constitution in the Provisional
government," Stephens moved that for the sake of avoid
ing future uncertainty, the word vested be changed to ex
pressly delegated and the word in be changed to to. In
former years he had witnessed trouble enough because of
difference of opinion concerning the powers of Congress*
The provisional Constitution was amended and unanimously
adopted on February eighth. The next day was appointed
for the election of officers.

That evening Alexander Stephens was in his room at the
hotel, resting after the arduous work of the day, when there
appeared a group bearing the earmarks of a delegation.
It consisted of Toombs and the other Georgians, Keitt,
Judge Chilton, Willy Harris, General Sparrow, and Henry
Marshall, of Louisiana, Norton and Owen, of Florida.
Toombs was radiant and, Stephens thought, handsomer
than ever.

"Aleck," he said, "you are the choice of every man in
Congress, and all of us are ready to pledge to help you
form your Cabinet. There is only one point those fellows
from Virginia and the border states want you to promise to
strike the first blow."

A NATION IS BORN 207

^Alexander Stephens gazed steadily into the eyes of his
friend. For a moment there was silence. Then Toombs
continued :

'Those fellows say their states are hanging in the balance,
ready to turn with the first blow. They know Buchanan will
never dare to strike. They believe Lincoln will be as
cowardly. Now they want the question settled in their
states, and they want you, when the first opportunity offers
say, if the administration should attempt to reenforce or
provision Fort Sumter to strike the first blow."

For perhaps several minutes the two men faced each
other, neither speaking the mighty Toombs, to whom the
adjective "leonine" had so often been applied, and Little
Aleck, earnestly defiant.

"No, I will never strike the first blow/ 1 Stephens replied
at last slowly and distinctly.
"Aleck!" roared Toombs.

The little man did not flinch. He merely looked into
Robert Toombs's eyes in silent resolution. Then Toombs
turned on his heel and strode from the room, the other men
following him. Though Alexander Stephens stayed in his
room, he knew that the various delegations held caucuses
that lasted till daybreak.

Martin J. Crawford later reported that Stephens said
to him after the departure of the delegates, "To make me
president would be like taking a child out of the hands of
its mother and giving it to a stepmother. Some one
identified with the cause should be chosen. Yet if at the
last we shall lose all, I do not care to survive the liberties
of my country."

The next day by the unanimous vote of the delegates
Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was elected president of the
Confederate States and Alexander Stephens was elected
vice-president. The two men had long known each other in
Congress, but they had seldom agreed on important ques-

208 LITTLE ALECK

tions. In the old days Davis had been a Democrat, while
Stephens was aligned with the Whigs. During the time
that Stephens was fighting Tyler and Polk, Davis was mak
ing patriotic speeches upon the Mexican War. While
Stephens was supporting the Compromises of 1850, Davis
was fighting them. Davis had stood against Douglas's
"Squatter Sovereignty" program and for protection of
slavery in the territories. Indeed, he had been responsible
for the plank in the Democratic platform that had brought
about the schism at Charleston. While Stephens was try
ing to hold the South within the Union, Davis was advocat
ing secession. The President and Vice-President of the Con
federacy were a strangely mated team that should never
have been harnessed together.

On February eleventh Stephens took his oath of office
before the arrival of Davis, who had to be summoned to
Montgomery from his Mississippi plantation, "This, as
you know, is my birthday," he wrote Linton that night,
"and this day at the hour of one I was inaugurated.'' The
coincidence affected him profoundly. It was as though his
birth and the birth of the new country, in the destiny of
which he was playing a major part, were supernaturally
linked. A sense of responsibility was heavy upon him. The
people expected a speech. Yet he believed that he should
speak only briefly, leaving to Davis the task of outlining
all governmental policies. Before leaving his room he care
fully prepared his words of acceptance. "There was, I
suspect," he wrote, "great disappointment at their brevity."
Yet when it was all over, he was gratified to hear many of
his friends say that he had done exactly right and that any
other course would have been "injudicious, indelicate, and
improper." As usual, the approbation of his fellows was
vastly reassuring.

Plans for the organization of the provisional government
were well under way before the President arrived. The

A NATION IS BORN 209

ten standing committees had been appointed upon motion
of Stephens, and the organizing of the executive depart
ments of the government had been entrusted to the Vice-
President. In secret session It had been resolved that com
missioners be sent abroad and to the government of the
United States for the purpose of establishing friendly rela
tions. A great deal of time had been consumed in discus
sions involving a flag and a seal for the newly formed con
federation. One delegate after another had presented from
his state models which the body was requested to consider.

Then on the evening of February sixteenth the President
arrived. The next morning at ten o'clock Alexander
Stephens, Robert Toombs and Martin J. Crawford called
to pay their respects. Davis was not up, however.

Despite the differences of past years, the President and
Vice-President saw each other frequently after Davis's in
auguration. Aleck wrote Linton that the President was
entirely confidential with him in all relationships.

Stephens was too busy during the days that followed and
too burdened by responsibility and presentiments of coming
disaster to enter into the frivolities in which the delegates
engaged. There were those who seemed to view the Mont
gomery Congress as an opportunity to indulge their social
ambitions. There were dinners and receptions where the
wives of the delegates glittered in all their finery and where
the men paid court to the assembled belles of the South.
"I am occupied day and night. Never did I have such a
heavy load of work upon my hands, " Stephens wrote.
"Greater difficulties surround us than I fully realized; per
haps I am more apprehensive in relation to their extent
than I ought to be. I know I am much more so than the
majority of those with whom I come in contact."

Though he strove in every way to avert war, he believed
that It was imminent. Strange that the people could frolic
and laugh and seem not to care! What a spectacle was

210 LITTLE ALECK

Jefferson Davis's inauguration! The President rode
through the streets of the city in a coach drawn by four
white horses, the people cheering wildly and throwing their
hats in the air! It was time for sober thought and not for
mad exultation. "It will require a great deal of patience,
forbearance, patriotism on the part of the people to bear
us successfully through the dangers that surround us."

When the President asked Stephens to head the com
mission to negotiate with Washington, he refused, for he
believed that nothing could at the time be accomplished.
"I declined because I did not think I could do any good,"
he explained. "I have no idea that Mr. Buchanan will
recognize our government or enter into any treaty with us."

In the meantime Stephens was losing no opportunity to
impress the people with the solemnity of the tasks secession
had imposed upon them. He must have been a rather dis
cordant note in the social gatherings that he attended. At
Mrs. Toombs's reception, for instance, he talked again with
Mrs, Chesnut. Here was an intelligent woman who could
do much to turn the tide of frivolity. Since the journey
toward Montgomery there had been other opportunities to
enlist her cooperation. He had sat next her at a dinner and,
instead of exchanging the pretty compliments that were the
order of the evening, he warned her that danger was ahead.
Among the gay crowd that Mrs. Toombs had invited he
knew that he was the only cheerless person. It was a
cbmfort that Mrs. Chesnut was willing to hear his story.
Still, she called him half-hearted and accused him of look
ing back. Though it was difficult to continue a conversation
with a charming woman, around whom many men flocked,
talking their "frivle-fravle" according to the description
of their conversation that Mrs. Chesnut entered that eve
ning in her diary he held on. He wanted to make her
realize that the future was important and that there should
be less exultation over the recent successes of the new gov-

A NATION IS BORN 211

ernment. "He was deeply interesting, and gave me some
new ideas as to our dangerous position," Mrs. Chesnut
recorded.

The harmony that had characterized the early meetings
of the Congress gave place shortly before adjournment on
March fifteenth to discord that caused Stephens genuine
apprehension. He had already written to Linton that
"upon the whole, this Congress, taken all in all, Is the ablest,
soberest, most intelligent and conservative body" of which
he had ever been a member. The strife that was beginning
to develop caused him real alarm. It seemed to him that
the Confederacy was in the position of a young man of
talent and ability setting out in life. He was discovering
among the members some bad passions and purposes, how
ever. Above all things, harmony must be preserved.

So when he was requested to address the people of Savan
nah, there seemed to him no alternative but acceptance of
the invitation. The address that he delivered on March
twenty-first at the Athenaeum was known throughout the
country as the "corner-stone speech."

Mr. Stephens was introduced by C. C, Jones, mayor of
Savannah. He had advanced to the front of the rostrum
and had spoken only a few words before the clamor of those
outside made it necessary for him to stop. The mob that
could not get seats wanted to hear the words of the Vice-
President "Come out! Come out!" was the command
from the doors. The mayor rose at once and said that Mr.
Stephens's health would not permit open-air speaking. The
speaker, however, declared his willingness to leave the de
cision with the audience. The result was that he remained
within, while Colonel Lawton, Colonel Freeman, Judge
Jackson and J. W. Owens attempted by impromptu ad
dresses to quiet the furor. Alexander Stephens explained
the details of the new Constitution. It was the old, he said,
with the defects corrected. On the subject of slavery, he

212 LITTLE ALECK

explained, there was no essential change. "As Judge Bald
win of the Supreme Court of the United States announced
from the bench several years before, slavery was the corner
stone of the old Constitution. So it is of the new." In
his defense of the southern institution he reiterated much
that he had said before concerning the natural subordina
tion of the blacks to the whites. The man who had once
been lukewarm in his defense of slavery was now receiving
and sending out the currents of thought that circled about
him. At the moment scarcely a man or woman in the South
doubted that slavery was promoting the welfare of both
blacks and whites and that the institution was part of the
divine scheme upon which the universe was built. Over
in Grant County Mrs. Shewmake was piously writing in her
diary convictions that were firmly entrenched in the southern
mind.

"By and by it will be understood," she wrote, "that the
Southern master is not merely a power like steam to drive
his machinery at will without reference to capacity or use
fulness, but he is a skilful engineer who knows how to
develop the motive power to a thing of immense advantage
without disastrous results. The negroes in their natural
state are a reproach to the Christian world. No humaniz
ing influence has been exerted by the coast colonies of Africa.
Even England with her boasted enlightenment has failed
to redeem even a handful of their vast numbers from igno
rance and degradation. . . .

"It is not to be doubted, as Robert Toombs remarked
in substance to a Boston audience, that the very efforts of
the^ Abolitionists to abolish slavery have delayed, if not
entirely defeated, this consummation of their hopes. Their
interference in the form of incendiary documents and dis
guised emissaries has caused the inaction of laws to prevent
all literary culture and freedom of speech with the slaves
as a class.

"Yet in spite of this, we are assured that they are more
refined and better cultivated than their class at the North.

A NATION IS BORN 21*

"It Is certain that there is not so much want among them.
They are the happiest laboring people on the globe. No
one can doubt it who has studied them.

"This struggle of the South for independence will teach
her people ^ their true position, the importance of the pecul
iar ^institution, and the necessity for its maintenance. As
anti-slavery sentiments lead to infidelity by proclaiming that
'higher law' doctrine which sets conscience above the re
vealed word, so a faithful discharge of our duties as slave
owners will lead to a higher development of moral power
and final and universal spread of the gospel civilization.
God grant that we may be impressed with the deep re
sponsibility resting upon us, and discharge our duties as in
the very presence of the Just Omniscient Father!"

Though entrenched at the time by the southerner's belief
in the rightness of slavery, Stephens was to discover later
that his use of the term "corner-stone" in his Savannah
speech had been unfortunate. Badly reported and widely
circulated throughout the country, the address gave the
North a chance to quote the Vice-President of the Con
federate States as having said that the new government was
built upon the corner-stone of slavery.

Events were hurrying too rapidly toward the catastrophe
that Alexander Stephens had predicted for the days at
Crawfordville to provide the rest that he needed. On April
eleventh the Confederate government made its final de
mand for the surrender of Fort Sumter* Two days later
began the bombardment by Confederate troops under
General Beauregard. The evacuation of Fort Sumter was
immediately followed by President Lincoln's first call for
troops. Aleck Stephens was visiting Linton when he re
ceived from President Davis a telegram summoning him to
Montgomery for conference. It was clear that a state of
war existed between the United States and the Confederate
States and that no time could be lost in organizing men and
resources for the struggle. The strategic state of Virginia,

214 LITTLE ALECK

in which a convention had been sitting for weeks, must be
brought in line. Stephens, it seemed, was the man to ad
dress the assembled delegates.

On April nineteenth he wrote Linton :

"In a few hours I am to start for Richmond. ... I go
to Virginia as a representative of this government in form
ing a treaty of alliance offensive and defensive between the
government and that state. ... I was strongly inclined
not to accept the position, owing to my health and the ap
prehension 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."

In the meantime Stephens was astounded that Lincoln
actually contemplated a war of subjugation. It appeared
that the President of the United States was acting with
out design or settled policy. What the outcome would be,
he could scarcely predict.

At six o'clock on the morning of the twenty-second
Stephens reached Richmond. Even at so early an hour the
streets were crowded with people, some terrified, some ex
cited, some exultant. The journey from Montgomery had
been fatiguing in the extreme. He found North Carolina
in a fever of excitement. Though it was Sunday when
Stephens passed through the state, people had been gathered
at all the stations, waving Confederate flags and demand
ing that the Vice-President speak to them. Stephens had
acceded, of course. There seemed to be little strength left
for the work he must accomplish in Virginia. Everywhere
the people were fearing immediate attacks. Though Vir
ginians had voted in favor of secession four days before,
there was as yet no connection between their state and the
Confederate government. During the day it became known
that Lincoln had issued his order for blockading the
southern ports.

2 ^

c

A NATION IS BORN 215

Stepheas's address before the convention was clear and
convincing, outlining as he did the policies of the new gov
ernment and inviting Virginia to cast her lot with the Con
federate States. There was irony in the appointment of
ex-President Tyler to head the committee that would confer
with the Confederate Vice-President. It seemed that the
war was to be the means of throwing Stephens into close
association with all the men whom he had opposed in other
days.

Before conferring with Tyler, Stephens talked with
General Lee, who had just been placed in charge of the
twenty thousand Virginia soldiers then ready to defend the
state. It seemed to him important that the General's com
pliance with his plan be secured before entering into negotia
tions with the committee appointed by the convention.
Because Virginia had not been a member of the Confedera
tion that had already commissioned its commanding officers,
the General would of necessity be subordinate to others in
higher command. Not knowing the man, Stephens was a
trifle doubtful what his attitude might be under the cir
cumstances. Accordingly, he invited General Lee to meet
him at the Ballard House and explained the situation
which he feared might cause embarrassment to his mission.
Robert E. Lee, however, agreed at once that union with
the Confederate States was in every way desirable. It was
immediately clear to Stephens that the General had no per
sonal ambitions. Whether he led the troops or whether
he occupied the humblest position in the army, his concern
was merely to serve the common weal.

The next day, however, when the Virginians on the com
mittee saw that the articles that Stephens had brought from
Montgomery made no provision for their General, they
urged the necessity of an immediate change. Stephens,
insisting that he was without power to grant the request,
referred the Virginians to Lee himself, who persuaded them

216 LITTLE ALECK

that consideration for him must not stand in the way of
their signing the treaty with the Confederate States.

While ex-President Tyler and Vice-President Stephens
were negotiating their treaty, martial spirit was sweeping
Virginia. The men of the state were rushing to arms.
Fifteen thousand soldiers had been stationed in and around
Richmond. "The work of my mission is in suspense before
the convention/' Stephens wrote to Linton on the morning
of the twenty-fifth. "The Virginians will debate and speak,
though war be at the gates of their city, , . . All I have
said here, I am told, has been well received by both 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."

That afternoon the Virginia convention ratified the treaty
that Stephens had drawn with Tyler. Armed with the
documents, the Vice-President started for Montgomery.
There was time for just one day in Crawfordville eft route,
for the President had called the Confederate Congress to
convene in extra session on April twenty-ninth.

Though Alexander Stephens was still trying to hope that
^ general war might be averted, he agreed that preparations
were immediately necessary." Into the task of laying the
financial and military foundations of the new government
he 'threw himself whole-heartedly, forgetting for a time his
physical infirmities and working* at a rate of speed that
TO>hld have taxed a man of twice Ms strength. Arkansas
seceded on May sixth. On the seventh Tennessee cast hef
lot with the Confederate States." On the twentieth North
GaraHiia adopted her ordinance of iSecessfon: On the
teerity-first Congress axjjoumed to tiifttt next' iti Richmdndi
foto days later Virginia* voters ; ratified th : drdih&:ntb 1 ]b'as$fe1d
convention. < >A^ UfiiQtfMc&^^

at
p, ctiaali ty.

A NATION IS BORN 217

At his home in Crawfordville Alexander Stephens was
very ill. After the long weeks of strain the reaction had
come. NeverthelesSj as he lay in his room or sat upon the
side porch to which he dragged himself now and then, filled
with gloomy forebodings, he turned over in his mind plans
that should be immediately perfected. When Robert
Toombs's letters ceased to be permeated by the hopeful
spirit that had formerly characterized them, he wrote urg
ing Linton to come to Liberty Hall. At a .time like this he
needed to be sustained by either Bob Toombs or Linton.

When Stephens arrived in Richmond for the convening
of the third session of the provisional Congress, he found
the excitement even greater than it had been on his former
visits. A battle was about to be fought in northern Virginia.
The population of the city had swelled far beyond its normal
forty thousand. The Confederate government had brought
its thousands of employees. There had been an influx from
the surrounding country; and newly recruited soldiers were
to be seen everywhere. The hotels were filled far beyond
their capacities, with parlors converted into bedrooms and
commanding high prices. Hungry mobs awaited their turns
outside the dining-rooms. Everywhere people were anxious
for news from Manassas. The morning of the twenty-first,
the^TP^esident, exercising his constitutional function as
commander-in-chief of the army, left for the battle-field on
a special train, carrying with him a volunteer staff. As dark
approached, crowds became restless. By midnight there
wa&n&W&pf victory. The exultant multitudes did not sleep
that night. At last the sobering, aftermath of triumph-
there was demand for stretchers, for tourniquets and instru
ments ; there were wild stdrief of death and suffering. The
city that had not slept was seeking news of its sons. Yet
^&nf<apA*j**s sure that the first great victory meant that
war would soon be ended triumphantly.

f Stephens, however, did not share the optimism

218 LITTLE ALECK

that pervaded the South. u We shall probably have before
long several such fights as took place at Manassas on the
twenty-first," he wrote Richard Johnston. "I have no idea
that the North will give it up. Their defeat will increase
their energy."

Linton had_vplunteered. Aleck, anxious concerning the
safety of all the men in the army, was haunted by the fear
that the brother whom he loved might be suffering, that
he might be killed. A few days before leaving Crawford-
ville he had written Linton, "I have thought of nights on
my bed how I could sleep if I knew you were on the cold
ground in camp, with nothing but a blanket under you and
a tent cloth to shut out the rain. . . . May God protect
you wherever you go or whatever you do!" He could not
make himself believe that the war would be short. He
could not banish from his mind the suffering that it would
cause.

CHAPTER XVI
INTERNAL DISCORDS

No SOONEK had Congress convened in Richmond than the
discords that Stephens had sensed during the last days in
Montgomery began, again to assert themselves. Represen
tatives of the people, Cabinet members and wives of both
had been glad enough to move away from Montgomery.
There was excellent chance that a summer in Richmond
might be more bearable than the heat of the far South.
Indeed, Mrs. Chesnut confided to her diary that the heat
and poor hotel accommodations were entirely responsible
for the move of the capital to Richmond, though Stephens
had expressed the belief that Congress was actuated by a
desire to be nearer the theater of war. "Our statesmen
love their ease," the astute lady had commented, "and it
will be hot here hr summer." Then, too, every one wanted
the gaiety possible in a larger city where social prestige
was well established.

Richmond was headily gay. In Chimborazo Park and
on Gamble's Hill and along Franklin Street, officers, re
splendent in new uniforms, strolled beside hoop-skirted
beauties, whose very curls danced with patriotism and ex
citement. When men were not fighting, they must be made
happy* And who could bring about that pleasant consum
mation more skilfully than the belles of Virginia? Sewing
circles invariably broke up in "danceable teas" and pretty
heads were for ever planning balls, parties and theatricals
that would take the minds of soldiers from the grim thought
of war. It mattered very little whether the men left wives
or sweethearts at home in Richmond they must be made

219

220 LITTLE ALECK

happy. So, from the passe beau to the lad with down on
his cheek, from the ancient bachelor to the young husband,
the soldiers were entertained by the very most charming
girls that Richmond had to offer to the great cause. Though
the Vice-President of the Confederacy was on all important
lists, and though he made himself entirely agreeable, he
was finding it hard to be gay when he could see beyond the
day to the suffering of to-morrow*

The bickerings began at once. Richmond women were
exceedingly critical. Who indeed were these people who
h$d suddenly come to occupy the center of the stage? The
costumes of the official ladies, they declared, left much to,
be desired. As for Mrs. Davis, there was a rumor that on
at least one side of her family she was not to the manner
born. As a matter of fact, who could be quite right with
out ancestors that were rooted in the traditions of the Old
Dominion? The men, too, were not above quarreling with
one another. "And now I could be happy," wrote Mrs*
Chesnut on July twenty-seventh, "but this Cabinet of
ours are in such bitter quarrels among themselves every?-
body abusing everybody else."

Alexander Stephens was not entering into the ^ petty
wrangles. He cared precious little for the social side of
congressional j life when large matters were before^ the
country. "!Besldes;iie^hard^iia wifeVho must be irecogriized,
irfd "\dbose figure and dothfcs must be generally approved.
He was conderned with two great: questions that had to doj
with finandng the 'new government and raising tfn adequate,
arrtiy^' Constantly he- was working upon a^scHerne that fhe;
believed would, prbvMe ^tifficierit fumds If ori ickrrying on tfar^
' Foreseeing tfefrWat^dj^^
^

^ Aithis ^ in

INTERNAL DISCORDS 221

under the circumstances would be inevitable. The cotton,
h&^elievefdj would yield enough to finance the war, and the
steamers would keep the coast jdean Secretary Meni-
minger, however, had plans of his own which Stephens did
not approve and which certainly seemed to him to constitute
no grounds for ceasing to press those that he thought more
practical. Cotton was the great resource of the South. If
it were properly utilized, victory was possible. Otherwise,
financial troubles could not be averted. Still, the Secretary
of the Treasury had gone blunderingly ahead, paying not
the least attention to the advice that the Vice-President
was willing to give and not to demand credit therefor. At
Montgomery, Stephens advanced his plan hopefully. There
were members of Congress who agreed with him that there
would be a blockade and that cotton might be the means of
saving the South if something were done at once to insure
its crossing the ocean. Chesnut, of South Carolina, was
easily converted to the plan, as were others from the various
states* Yet what could South Carolina do in the face of
the headstrong methods of Memminger? Nevertheless,
there was a great deal of favorable talk' that had at i first
encouraged Stephens. Mrs, Chesnut mentioned in her diary
that the project met with her husband's support and that
Mir. Chesnutr spent k destl of time urging that immediate
action be taken* "The very cotton we have now, if sent
&crO^ the water, would be a gold mine to us," she wrote.
-Still, wEeh every one was having an excellent time iA
Montgomery,' delightfully isolated from the ; >Nteth, it
Seemed entirely unlikely that the Lincdln government Wbtild
attempt" Subjugation* and bldck&des &&d s&noirs Warfare.
Besides, if there! should 1 be &ny refal fightirig^ ample funds
i fe^ r f brttMomfng^ frMn ' kh- enl h$astife p'eople. Was

thet Cohf edfer^cy to febf r6w fifteen million
dollars, being quickly subscribed? There was plenty of time

222 LITTLE ALECK

to consider the words of the socially objectionable Cas-
sandras who were marring the festivities with their gloomy
prophecies. Then, when the blockade became an unhappy
reality and when there was a war and when there were
rumors of more war, Stephens's plan of sending cotton
abroad appeared altogether impracticable. Still, the Vice-
President knew that, blockade or no blockade, the wealth
of the South was its cotton and that every effort should be
made to get the staple to European markets. So he con
tinued to preach the faith that was in him, though he must
have known that his was a voice crying in the wilderness.
It had suddenly become difficult to get the President's
ear on questions of policy. Davis was beset both by the
multitudinous details involved in bringing order out of the
governmental chaos that surrounded him and by the jealousy
and contentions that had arisen in his Cabinet, in Congress
and among his military officers. There was Toombs, for
instance, with his powerful following, who had begun to
argue in Montgomery the necessity of carrying the war into
(he enemy's territory. "We must invade or be invaded,"
he roared into every listening ear. The Cabinet was divided
concerning the military exigencies. Congress had not
known what to advise. Toombs, however, was declaring
that if he had been in Davis's place, he would have taken
the responsibility and ended the war speedily with an aggres
sion that the North could not have withstood. It must
have been a relief to the President when Toombs resigned
his portfolio of state in July and became a brigadier-general.
But R. M. T. Hunter, who succeeded Toombs, was not so
pliable as the President would have liked to see him, "Mr.
Hunter succeeds Toombs in the state department," wrote
Jones in his Diary of a Rebel War Clerk, "and that disposes
of him if he will stay there. It is an obscure place, and if
he were indolent without ambition, it would be the very
place for him.' 1

INTERNAL DISCORDS 223

Yet it seemed that nobody was without ambition, that
nobody was willing to follow leadership in such a way as
to assure the orderly conduct of the war. The very principle
of state rights that had actuated secession was beginning to
present an insurmountable obstacle in the raising of troops.
On February twenty-eighth the provisional Congress had
passed an act empowering the President "to assume control
of all military operations in every state" and authorizing
him "to receive from the states all the arms in their posses
sion" and "to receive state troops who might be tendered
or who might volunteer by the consent of their states."
In other words, the principle of decentralization for which
the South was fighting was being established paradoxically
byjthe centralization that the states heartily detested. To
the astute it was clear there was trouble ahead.

Mrs. Davis was doing her best to offset the President's
taciturnity. Mr. Davis dropped in upon her daily "at
homes/' looking so thoughtful that he was almost austere,
. and saying little. Mrs. Davis, however, was playing her
role to perfection discussing the latest book, describing
some earlier experience, telling some good story exceedingly
well. It was Richmond's fault, not hers, that her popularity
did not increase. Who was interested in books, stories and
experiences ? Conversation had to be personal in Richmond
to be enjoyed. Varina Howell Davis did not know every
one's aunts and grandmothers and cousins. Therefore it
was hard for her to entertain ladies who were concerned
witlTmatters entirely genealogical. The bimonthly levees
were ' notable failures. People came through curiosity and
left to ridicule what they had seen.

Alexander Stephens, set apart from the gossips, was
among tfibs^wCTwere watching to see that the govern
ment was.guilty of no usurpation of authority that remained
vested in the states, He was spending a great deal of time
and thought upon the prpblem &at concerned itself with

224 LITTLE ALECK

arming the soldiers that had volunteered in satisfactory
numbers.

The Confederacy had few arms and little ammunition.
There was a small amount that had been secured after John
Brown's raid, more that had been captured from the United
States arsenals and forts, and throughout the South there
was a supply of private arms that a frontier position had
made necessary. Not only were the states not placing their
arms in the hands of the government but were discouraging
individuals from selling to the Confederate agents and were
attempting to keep for their own use arms captured from
the arsenals. Governor Brown, of Georgia, was holding
on to what he had and trying to get as much more as he
could from the Confederacy. Davis knew, of course, that
Alexander Stephens, believing as he did in the sovereignty
of the states and the importance of protecting all those
rights which had not been delegated to the central govern
ment, was championing, though unobtrusively, the cause of
the decentralists. Therefore, it is not strange that the con-
fidefrtial relationship that had existed during the first weeks
in Montgomery should have given place to restraint be
tween the two men.

b Resides; when Congress convened in Richmond, the Presi
dent was "111* Conjectures were rife as to what would hap-'
p,eo in the-event of his delath. There were those who even
weatso far as to welcome the thtiugkb Mrs. Todmbs even*
suggested that Davis, was not really sick but was pretending
illness a3 a protection. <c All humbug!" she would say^
There was not even a good word 6r the effort Mrs. Davis
was making to be agreeable ' to the' ladies. l Every one
laughed at the functions over which she presided. "That
reception, for instance JV scoffed Mrs; Toombs.* * l Was mat
tha^t ?a 'humbug ? Mrs; Reagan could have donte better than?
tJwrfAf>So'*the women knitted and vilified one anotheip tod
t<!>rie 'dtfwo; I the; morale thfey^daitaed to be trying { to build i

INTERNAL DISCORDS 225

There seemed to be a distinct connection between the
velocity of needles and tongues, the one weapon vying with
the other in sharpness and the intricacy of the patterns
woven* It was little wonder that there were too many
socks and not enough of other comforts. One poor soldier
complained that he had only one shirt and a dozen pairs of
socks. Knitting was such a pleasure, for it scarcely inter
rupted the social functions with which the men and the
women seemed never surfeited 1 What a chance had come
to the leaders in Richmond! There was the pretty Mrs.
Randolph, presiding over the charades that lasted all night.
There was Hetty Gary, breaking men's hearts without any
particular concern for the wives she was distressing. There
was Mrs. Haxall, whom Mrs. Chesnut described as a "ci-
devant beauty and belle," already beginning to dispense her
delightful hospitality. When the weather became too hot,
the ladies gathered at White Sulphur Springs, where the
wives of the newly installed officials overheard the Vir
ginians say a great many things that were quite discomfiting.
Indeed, the social battles seemed as important as those that
took place between northern and southern troops.

Alexander Stephens was trying to hear as little of the
gossip as possible. Still, there was no way of escaping the
letters from friends who occupied positions of importance.
He was constantly serving people who came to him for
help, and he had already begun his visits of mercy to the
hospitals about Richmond. That he was alleviating suffer
ing helped him to stand the hardships that the war was
imposing upon his people. He who had never wanted to
see an insect killed, who had given orders that no snake
should be hurt on his plantation unless it was known to be
dangerous to the lives of people, felt that in a measure he
was responsible for the agony and death and warfare. At
least, Jie had not been able to avert the calamity, .and he
was now one~of those at the head of the government that

226 LITTLE ALECK

i$as in mortal combat. The people were grateful to him
for all he was doing at the hospitals. "Remember me to
Ellick," Thomas W. Thomas had written to Linton. "Say
to him how much I am grateful to him for his kindness to
the sick."

There seemed to be deplorable laxness in all the depart
ments, as though none realized that a state of war existed.
Passports, for instance, were being issued indiscriminately
to people who went north, carrying full knowledge of
southern defenses and who had gleaned much information
concerning military projects. Thoroughly out of key with
the Cabinet and finding the President inaccessible, Stephens
resorted to protests made to minor officials whose influence
might be effective. Perhaps it was indiscreet to discuss the
situation with a clerk in the war office. Yet there was a
chance that mild agitation would do good. Therefore he
suggested to Jones that something should be done to cut
down the number of passports daily issued. Stephens added
his belief that the country was not in a prosperous condition.
Therefore, all facts should be safeguarded. Jones was an
intelligent fellow whose words might have weight with men
higher up. At least, one could not be expected to be silent
when policies were rushing the country toward disaster.

Daily, too, the unrest of the people was being brought
to him through letters. It had not been possible to prevent
Toombs's entering the army. Robert's brother, Gabriel,
had been right in his efforts at dissuasion. There would be
trouble, of course. Yet who could do anything with Bob
once the stubborn fellow had made his decision? For ever
the discord at the camps was being brought to the Vice-
President. In October Thomas W. Thomas wrote from
Camp Pine Creek near Fairfax that when Davis reviewed
the soldiers there was not a cheer, even though some one
asked for it. No system and policy existed, Thomas said.
The temper of the army was AQLgqod. Then only a few

INTERNAL DISCORDS 227

days later came other complaints from Colonel Thomas.
"All governments are humbugs," he averred, "and the Con
federate government is not an exception. Its president this

day is the prince of humbugs I do know that he possesses

not a single quality for the place save integrity. . . . Imbecil
ity, ignorance, and awkwardness mark every feature of his
management of this army. He torments us, makes us sick,
and kills us by appointing worthless placehunters to trans
act business for us."

, Stephens was distressed. With such a spirit among the
officers, there was little chance of victory. He would do all
he could among his friends to quiet the complaints that could
do only harm. His letter to Thomas was unavailing, how
ever. His friend merely said that he was sorry to have
pained Stephens. "You tell me to have patience, heroic
patience," he exploded. "There is nothing heroic about me
... but I have been patient and still am. May God prolong
your life for my country's sake 1"

Yet Alexander Stephens was feeling that he could do little
to help. The Congress that had adj ourned on August thirty-
first had been ineffectual The affairs of the government
were in the hands of the Cabinet, whom Stephens did not
Believe competent to. direct the great Issues before the Con
federate States. The theater of the war was in the mean
time being widened. The defeat of the Union ^rmy at
Manassas had, as he had predicted, been the means of start
ing new endeavor at the North. Skirmishes continued in
Virginia and West Virginia. There was fighting in the Mis
sissippi Valley. In August the taking of Hatteras and in
November the capture of Port Royal in South Carolina by
the Union navy made the blockade more effective. Jt looked
asjhough the war was settling ^into a long conflict, the out
come oFwETcf could notTeloreseen. Recognition by Euro
pean powers, daily, feeogme less probable. Commissioners
Mason and Slidell had not reached England and were now

228 LITTLE ALECK

txeing held as prisoners of war. In December Thomas W.
Thomas, on leave in Georgia, wrote Stephens that "Mr.
and the peculiar people he trusts have given cause to
gentleman in the Army to mutiny/' Indeed, he said
large numbers of the soldiers were complaining and
thinking of a compromise by going back and that nine-tenths
would vote for peace. In reply Stephens urged loyalty to
the administration. Whatever Davis' s faults might be, he
argued, the man still had the public confidence. Therefore,
success of the cause was impossible if he was dislodged.
Gradually, however, Stephens began to believe that he was
wrong. Governor Brown was distrusting the President.
Thomas's letters became more rabid. Toombs was writing
in a most incendiary manner. The Charleston Mercury had
begun its opposition to Davis as Barnwell said, even before
the President had a chance to do wrong.

As 1 86 1 drew toward its close, much of the first zeal had
waned. The men in the army, who had volunteered for one
year, were looking longingly toward home. The provisional
Congress tried to meet the emergency by offering a fifty-
dollar bounty and a two-month furlough for two- and three-
year enlistments and for enlistments for the entire period
of the war. Indeed, the fifth session of the provisional
Congress, which lasted from November 18, i86i,to Feb
ruary 17, 1862, devoted almost all its time to recruiting the
army.

Then on February eighteenth the first permanent Congress
convened. Four days later, on Washington's birthday, Jef
ferson Davis and Alexander Hamilton Stephens, who on
November 6, 1861, had been unanimously elected President
and Vice-President of the permanent government, were in
augurated.

The ceremony was simple but impressive. The Capitol
Square was thronged with people who shivered beneath a
downpour of rain and warmed their hands by constantly

INTERNAL DISCORDS 229

applauding. At twenty-five minutes past eleven members of
the Senate proceeded to the hall of the House of Delegates
accompanied by governors of the Confederate States, army
officers and members of the Judiciary. Then solemnly Con
gress filed through the eastern door of the Capitol to the
statue of Washington, where a temporary awning and plat
form had been placed. There Jefferson Davis delivered his
inaugural address and took the oath of office administered by
Judge J. D. Halyburton. R. M. T. Hunter, president pro-
tempore of the Senate, administered the oath to Alexander
Stephens. "Speech, speech I" cried men from the four cor
ners of the square. Stephens, however, bowed in solemn
silence and returned to his seat. Then the President, the
Vice-President and the members of the two houses returned
to the Capitol and adjourned immediately.

That evening there was a gloomy reception at the man
sion. The rain poured in torrents ; the air was raw and cold.
Though guests made every effort to be gay, the chill in the
atmosphere could not be overcome certainly not by the
President who seemed a trifle stiff and ill at ease, certainly
not by Mrs. Davis, who had not yet learned to accept with
equanimity the attitude of Richmond toward the stranger
within its gates. The permanent government of the Con
federate States of America had been established neverthe
less.

^Alexander Stephens was not looking hopefully toward, the
future. Forts Henry and Donelson had fallen;, Nashville
and Memphis were threatened by the invaders ; the army of
the defense was retreating toward the boundaries of Mis
sissippi and Alabama ; New Orleans had fallen; Roanoke Is
land, the key to the Sound country, had been captured by
the naval forces and the Burnside expedition. Men must
bemadded to the Confederate army- It was^said Davis
favored conscription. Stephens was fundamentally op
posed. In the first place, the central government did not

230 LITTLE ALECK

have the power, he thought, to enforce such a mandate up
on the states. In the second place, if the military operations
were properly conducted, and if the confidence of the people
were kept, it would not be necessary to compel men to fight.
Certainly at the beginning of the war there had been suf
ficient response to the call for troops. The South was fight
ing to maintain not only national independence but personal
liberty. The ardor of the people must not be checked by
the sort of compulsion that they would surely resist. Be
fore leaving Georgia, Stephens had grown apprehensive
because of the popular attitude toward the central govern
ment. With the coming of spring, Toombs wrote discourag-
ingly of conditions in the army. "Davis seems determined to
perpetuate inefficiency, in the Navy and post office depart
ments especially," he said. u We shall get our independence,
but it will be in spite of him."

There was a general demand for a new secretary of war.
It appeared for a time that the portfolio would be offered to
General Lee. "I think well of him as a prudent, safe,' and
able general, but I do not think he will make a good war
minister," Stephens wrote Linton on February 26, 1862.
"Toombs, I think, would make the best in the Confederacy.
. . . The message of the President sent into Congress
yesterday surprised me. It is not such a paper as I or the
country expected. But we have to bear what we can not
mend. . . . The present Congress is not what I would wish to
see it,, either in the Senate or in the .House,"

As Stephens had expected, Hunter resigned his post as
secretary of state. That was in February. William M.
Browne was appointed ad interim, to be succeeded March
eighteenth by Judah P. Benjamin. Davis wanted a premier
whom he could control. .Certainly from his point of view
the choice of Toombs had been a mistake. Then, Hunter
had not been acquiescent. The rapid turn-over in the Cabi-
tiet looked inauspicious. In scarcely more than a year four

INTERNAL DISCORDS 231

secretaries of state, four attorneys-general, and two secre
taries of war! Benjamin, in spite of all opposition, was
being tried everywhere. As surely as there was criticism of
him in the position he occupied at the moment, Davis would
defy public opinion by promoting him to a place of greater
responsibility. Galling under a sense of ineffectualness, Ste
phens was both angered and saddened by the situation.

Although he was prepared for the conscription law that
passed on April 16, 1862, he was not reconciled to it, nor
did he cease to fight what he thought to be fundamentally
against the liberty in which he had always believed. Accord
ing to the law, all men between the ages of eighteen and
thirty-five might be drafted into the service. Because nine-
tenths of the men in the state organizations were immedi
ately affected, new companies had to be formed for local
protection. The governors became excited and troublesome.
As early as March fifteenth Governor Joe Brown had voiced
before the Georgia convention his protest against the con
templated legislation, declaring that Georgia had not sur
rendered her right to protect herself when she joined the
Confederacy. Though the press was divided on the subject,
many newspapers were violently condemnatory. In Con
gress Davis's opponents were becoming outspoken. Ben
jamin H. Hill, who was upholding the President's policies,
and William L. Yancey, of Alabama, who was attacking the
administration, were the actors in an ugly little drama when
Yancey accused Hill of having made a statement that he
knew to be false and Hill threw an inkstand that gashed
Yancey's cheek with a broken edge of glass.

Whole the battle raged, Alexander Stephens did not hesi-
tateto state hispiSitXw-T Ke^thought that tlie Confederate
government had authority to make requisition upon the states
ojily wKen ^ it could raise by vol

untary cnllstis^ts^nd^th^t the states should do whatever
drafting^ became necessa/y. Yes, he replied to those who

232 LITTLE ALECK

asked his opinion, he considered the conscription act very
bad policy. Linton, however, in stating the case in stronger
terms, was known to be expressing the conviction of his
brother. The essence of conscription, he said publicly, was
"the right to take away the fighting men of the states against
the wills of both the citizens and the states." Sovereign
states could not be coerced in that manner even "though all
the judicial tribunals on earth should affirm that they could."

The Athens Banner reflected the sentiments of many
Georgians when it said that the people, while agreeing
that perhaps conscription had become necessary, blamed the
"criminal dilly-dallying while the Philistines were coming
upo v fi us," Herschel Johnson, however, though opposed on
principle, waived his objections and said that he had yielded
to conscription with "cheerful acquiescence."

When martial law was declared soon after the permanent
Congress convened, Stephens was more than ever fearful
that liberty was about to vanish from his world. Recourse
to the writ of habeas corpus he had thought to be every
freeman's right. The suspension by Lincoln in parts of the
North, he had welcomed as a means of showing the people
to what extremes an autocratic government might go. He
had been pleased by that part of Davis's inaugural in which
the President had said that "through all the necessities of an
unequal struggle, there has been no effort on our part to im
pair personal liberty or the freedom of speech, of thought,
or of the press," and that "the courts have been open, the
judicial functions fully executed, and every right of peaceful
citizens maintained as surely as if a war of invasion had not
disturbed the land." Then, on February twenty-seventh
Congress enacted a law authorizing the President to declare
martial law in such districts as he thought in danger of at
tack; and on March first, scarcely a week after the utterance
of Davis's brave words, martial law had been proclaimed
in and around the city of Richmond, and the writ of habeas

INTERNAL DISCORDS 233

corpus had been suspended. All along Stephens had been
watching the effect of Lincoln's policies upon the North.
Whenever the Republican administration had been criticized,
he had hoped there would be a revolution that would bring
about peace. He had believed that it would be possible
to demonstrate the principles for which he thought the South
was fighting. Now that the Constitution -was being violated
by the administration and that the individual citizen was
losing the privileges and the rights that had been secured by
that instrument, he felt that the prop upon which he had
been leaning had suddenly given way. He was gratified that
the people did not submit docilely. There can be no doubt
that Stephens used his influence against the law wherever he
thought a word would be effective. He felt, when the
law was limited on April nineteenth to thirty days after the
next meeting of Congress, that his protest had not been
unavailing.

When Congress agreed to the impressment of supplies
that were needed for the army, Stephens was sure that indi
vidual rights had been further jeopardized. Patriotism
should prompt the people to contribute to the needs of the
soldiers or to sell their property to the country, but the
government was going too far, he thought, to force a man
to part with that which belonged to him and which he should
be able to dispose of according to his pleasure.

So rather hopelessly he read Robert Toombs's violent let
ters. From a camp near Richmond his friend wrote him on
May seventeenth that the Confederate troops could have
advanced to defeat McClellan had orders not gone wrong.
"This is generalship!" he raged. "Davis's incapacity is
lamentable ; the very thought of the baseness of the impress
ment act makes me sick. I feel but little like fighting for a
people base enough to submit to such despotism from such
contemptible sources."

Alexander Stephens was in Crawf ordville when the letter

234 LITTLE ALECK

reached him. It had seemed utterly useless to remain in
Richmond where he could accomplish nothing. Perhaps it
would be better for the country if he should withdraw his
presence from the center of political activities. So he re
turned to Liberty Hall, got his faithful dog Rio from the
custody of Thomas W. Thomas, and tried to restore some
degree of mental equanimity. He felt that, like Rio, he had
seen his best days. The dog was blind now and wabbly on
his poor legs. Stephens found a lotion that seemed to
soothe Rio's eyes and kept the dog with him constantly. He
wondered if Rio remembered the time when he would gaily
await the incoming trains and then sniff from coach to coach
in search of his master. He wondered, too, if in canine old
age there was a baffling sense of futility that came to men
during senescence. Rio was sick now, and so was the master.
Stephens and the dog attempted to comfort each other.

There were other friends, however, at Liberty Hall, who
kept the conversation upon war and politics. Richard John
ston, who had returned to his home in Hancock County
near by, came often. With Johnston Stephens was free to
express the thoughts that were passing continually through
his mind. The Congress was very poor, he said. In the
House there were few men of ability; in the Senate only two
or three. Tom Semmes was the ablest. Next came Barn-
well, Hunter and Clay. Like Toombs, Stephens admitted
that he was opposed to the West Point policy that seemed
about to prevail. The energy that the South was showing
now was like that of a turtle with fire on its back. The
policy of the government was far against his judgment. Be
cause of the difference he was frequently embarrassed. Con
stantly he harped on conscription. There would be heavy
fighting in the next few months, in which the spirit of the
volunteer would be needed. "Conscripts will go into battle
as a horse goes from home; volunteers as a horse goes to
ward home: you may drive the latter, and it does not hurt

INTERNAL DISCORDS 235

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 of the value of cotton the
South had evinced ! In the opinion of the government, cot
ton had constituted a political power, while its real power
was merely commercial. If the plan he had suggested had
been adopted, how different would have been the results!
Cotton had now risen in value. It would have been the
means of financing the Confederacy. And the iron-clad ships
that should have been built before the days of the blockade
would have kept the ports open. With the portal system
closed, the country would die of strangury.

All this he said to his friend. From the public, however,
he hid his despair. At least once he addressed the people,
urging continued energy and sacrifice. The government was
right in insisting that farmers should plant more foodstuff
and less cotton. He did not approve Toombs's stubbornness
in ordering that a full crop of cotton should be planted on
his land, and he was sorry to read his friend's telegram in
reply to the Georgia committee, though he understood that
it had been occasioned by the high-handed methods of the
impressment agents. The words were, of course, character
istic of Toombs: "Your telegram has been received. I re
fuse a single hand. My property as long as I live shall never
be subject to the rules of those cowardly miscreants, the
commissioners of Randolph County and Eufala. You may
rob me in my absence, but you can not intimidate me."

June brought hope to the saddened southerners. The
Seven Days' Battle was fought, and Richmond was no longer
closely besieged by the invaders. Yet Toombs, writing on
July seventeenth of the victory over McCIellan, was not in
good spirits. "The loss was terrible," he said, "and the men
fought without skill." Longstreet, he considered an excel
lent general. "Stonewall Jackson and his troops did little or
nothing," he added, "and Lee was far below the occasion. If

236 LITTLE ALECK

we had had a general in command, we could easily have
taken McClellan's whole command and baggage. . . . I
shall leave the Army the instant I can do so without dis
honor. . . . Davis and his Janissaries conspire for ^the de
struction of all who will not bend to them, and avail them
selves of the public danger to aid them in their selfish and
infamous schemes."

Though Stephens knew Toombs well enough to discount
much that he said, there were other influences at work to
make him feel that the policies of Davis were not inspiring
the people with confidence. He was seeing Governor Brown
often, in whose flesh the conscription act was a thorn not to
be endured with fortitude and in silence. Outwardly he had
acquiesced. Inwardly he was revolting violently. The
clause permitting substitutes, moreover, was giving the state
a great deal of trouble. According to its provisions, non
commissioned officers and privates might with the permis
sion of their captain procure substitutes, provided no
company should receive more than one substitute a month.
After the conscription act and before enrolment, a great
many Georgians had volunteered in the new regiments organ
ized under authority already granted. Then they had
found substitutes who they thought would be allowed to con
tinue in their places after the enrolment of conscripts.
Later, difficulties had arisen. At Brown's suggestion Alex
ander Stephens wrote to G. W- Randolph, then secretary
of war, attempting to straighten out the tangle.

"The enrolling officers," he explained, u now hold these
parties subject to service notwithstanding they have sub
stitutes in their places, upon the grounds that not more than
one substitute per month could be received in any company.
This is deemed hard and oppressive. I suggest to you that
instructions be given to Major Dunwody that all persons in
this state liable to conscription shall be exempt who honestly
and bona fide have substitutes not liable to conscription."

INTERNAL DISCORDS 237

It was the clear intention of the act, he added, that sub
stitution be allowed. If the men had waited for enrolment,
it was obvious that they could have presented their substi
tutes. He cited instances of men whose brothers were in the
war, who could not be spared from dependent families, and
who had procured substitutes at high rates. "It would cer
tainly be hard now," he argued, "to require these men to go
into service or to procure another substitute."

The military successes of the summer, however, were
sufficiently encouraging for Stephens's spirits to be raised for
a time. Therefore, despite all his misgivings that concerned
the internal affairs of the Confederacy, he returned to Rich
mond the middle of August, ready again to do what he could
for the country. His hope, however, of being able to see
the President at once was soon dissipated. Davis continued
immured with his Cabinet and could talk with no one
else.

In the meantime Stephens was hearing distressing news
from his friend. For supposed or real usurpation of power,
Longstreet had ordered Toombs's arrest. Toombs's request
to be relieved from following the army during arrest was
granted. Next morning, however, when cannonading began,
the deposed General sent Longstreet an explanation of his
apparent usurpation and asked that the arrest be suspended
that he might fight with his brigade. This, he had been
informed by Generals Wilcox, Evans and Pryor, was the
usual course pursued under the circumstances. "Unfortu
nately for me," he wrote Stephens, "when I got up to my
brigade, it raised a loud cheer, which so incensed the mag
nates, Lee and Longstreet, etc., who were nearby that I got
no reply to my request, but was ordered peremptorily to
this place (camp near Gordonsville) and two charges put
against me for breaking my arrest and disobeying orders in
not immediately coming here."

He closed the letter by expressing his belief that a quick

238 LITTLE ALECK

march to Maryland would cause Washington to be evac
uated and end the war.

Stephens was busy at once, trying to help his friend out of
the sort of difficulty a man of Toombs's temperament could
not escape under the pressure of military discipline. He
wrote Mrs. Toombs that he was at work in her husband's
behalf. Toombs was still at Gordonsville. How long he
would remain, there was no way just now of telling. He had
thought at first it would be for only a day or so. With a
sense of relief, he soon learned that Toombs had been re
stored to his command.

At the same time, though unable to reach the presidential
ear, he was busy talking to congressmen about the dangerous
tendency of merging all power and authority in the military.
Many of the impressment orders, he argued, were without
the shadow of authority. The establishment by Van Dorn
of martial law in parts of Mississippi, with stringent laws
abridging the freedom of speech and of the press, and
Bragg* s proclaiming of martial law in Atlanta enraged him.
The time had come, he thought, for a man who believed in
liberty to act. Therefore, he called upon the secretary of
war and secured from him the promise to forbid the use of
force* In the Senate Semmes seemed the man most likely
to give effective cooperation. Stephens persuaded him that
no power in the country could establish martial law, that
Congress could go no further than the mere suspension of
the writ of habeas corpus. The upshot was that Semmes in
troduced in the Senate a resolution requiring the judiciary
committee to report upon the question. "The committee is
now at work," Stephens wrote Linton, "and matters
are progressing favorably. 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 an-

INTERNAL DISCORDS 239

ticipated when I saw the general apathy prevailing at first."
An interview with the Secretary of War made Stephens
feel that it might be possible to defeat Davis's recommen
dation that the age limit for conscripts be raised to forty-five.
He was pleased with Randolph, chiefly because the Secre
tary expressed himself as opposed to the higher age. If
more troops were wanted, he said, he would be in favor of
calling on the governors of the states. The President,
moreover, had not consulted him before preparing the mes
sage in which he had advocated another conscription act
As the days wore on Stephens became less sanguine con
cerning the possibilities of getting Congress to resist the
policies of the President. The representatives, he decided,
were ignorant of principles. "You may impress an idea upon
their minds," he said, "get a full assent j they may appear to
see clearly and after meeting with some literary 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 that once thought it saw the truth. . . . The
whole ground had to be gone over again with these chil
dren in politics and statesmanship."

Stephens was obviously not enjoying his position as lobby
ist in the Halls of Congress. He had been accustomed to
the limelight when he advocated a principle. Now he was
a man of no importance, disapproving all that was done and
powerless effectively to oppose trends that he considered
dangerous to all for which he had stood. The hopefulness
that had lasted throughout the summer was supplanted by
new fears. After the battle of Antietam, Lee abandoned
his offensive movement into Maryland and returned to Vir
ginia. On September 17, 1862, in a frenzy of fear, Con
gress passed the second Conscription Act, which drafted into
the service all white men between the ages of eighteen and
forty-five. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of Sep
tember twenty-second in the eyes of foreign nations changed

240 LITTLE ALECK

the character of the war. It was not merely two systems of
government that were in conflict: a war was being waged on
a high moral issue to free an oppressed people from its long
and cruel bondage. Lincoln's clever stroke took from the
South all hope of receiving recognition or help from abroad.
With a number of embryonic plans taking shape in his mind,
Alexander Stephens returned to Georgia around the first of
October. He was doing no good in Richmond. Perhaps
something might be accomplished among his own people.

CHAPTER XVII

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OPPOSES THE
PRESIDENT

DURING October Alexander Stephens had time to think
through his^ problem and reach a conclusion that was des
tined to guide his actions during the remaining years of
the war. He had never been interested in the establish
ment of a separate southern Confederacy. He had loved
the Union that had been built from the Constitution of
1787. For the principles therein set down and as inter
preted by him he had been willing to make sacrifice after
sacrifice. It was only when the preponderance of the people
of the North had violated the essence of the Constitution
that he had at last joined the party of the South.' He had
never believed that under the leadership his section had
produced there was a chance of perpetuating constitutional
liberty. Yet when he saw that the United States was tend
ing toward a centralization and an autocracy that took
sovereignty from the states and liberty from the individual
and when the course of events had convinced him that there
was no chance of getting the men who believed in the
original intent of the Constitution to continue to fight within
the Union, he had joined with his state, hoping to see the
new government established upon the principles that he be
lieved to be just and sound. Never had he been fighting
primarily for the South. Always he had been actuated by
an idea and an ideal. Gradually he had come to see that
patriotism was sweeping the people away from the principle
into the war itself. To him there could be no justification
for the war unless the fight was made to preserve liberty.

241

242 LITTLE ALECK

The trend toward centralization that had been steadily be
coming more pronounced in the Confederacy and that was
taking more and more power from the states, conscription,
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, martial law,
impressments had robbed him of all interest in the success
of the southern cause.

"There is nothing that has given me half so much con
cern lately as these same military orders and usurpations,"
he had written Richard Johnston just before leaving Rich
mond. "Not the fall of New Orleans or the loss of The
Virginia. Better, in my judgment, that Richmond should
fall and that the enemy's armies should sweep our whole
country from the Potomac to the Gulf than that our people
should submissively yield obedience to one of these edicts
of one of our own generals."

He felt that under the guise of war insidious influences
were at work to destroy free government. "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 per
sonal rights."

Though Alexander Stephens had lost faith in the leaders,
he still believed that there was hope that the people might
be awakened to a sense of their responsibility in preserving
the form of government for which their forefathers had
fought. All his life he had been defending constitutional
liberty. Even when his country was at war, he saw no
reason to relinquish either convictions or the right to up
hold them. Since the capital of the Confederacy had been
moved to Richmond, Davis had not called the Vice-

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OPPOSES 243

President into conference. Because his counsel was neither
sought nor accepted when given, there was no reason why
he should not attempt to mold public sentiment among the
people themselves.

Besides, there was yet a chance that the peace groups in
the North and those who were opposing the very policies
of Lincoln that Davis was emulating might be brought into
contact with open-minded southerners to the end that war
be honorably terminated. So Stephens in Georgia made
bold to expound the faith that was in him.

On the third of October he published a strong letter in
which he maintained that no power existed, derived either
from the Constitution or acts of Congress, by which martial
law could be declared. All punishments inflicted by military
officers upon civilians he declared to be illegal. The letter
was widely read, he knew, and he gathered that it had not
only produced a profound effect upon the country at large
but had proved disconcerting to the leaders who had stood
behind the usurpations it condemned. A few days later
he had the gratification of seeing that the Senate, over which
Hunter was presiding in the Vice-President's absence, had
passed resolutions, embodying the gist of his letter to the
press.

On the first of November Stephens addressed a meeting
of citizens in his own county called to solicit supplies for the
soldiers. The cause of the South was just, he said. He
made clear, however, what that cause was and must con
tinue to be. The war was being fought "for home, for
fireside, for our altars, for our birthrights, for property,
for honor, for life in a word, for everything for which
freemen should live and for which all deserving to be free
men should be willing, if need be, to die." He explained
the plan for financing the war by means of the cotton crop
of the South. Though the ports were now closed, he be
lieved there was yet a chance to run the blockade with sue-

244 LITTLE ALECK

cess sufficient to send some cotton to Europe. Similarly,
he spoke in various other parts of Georgia. If he could
not be of assistance in Richmond, he could help to keep
before the people the fundamental causes underlying the
war.

Stephens was seeing Governor Brown now and then and
hearing from him frequently. The Governor's acquiescence
toward the first conscription act had given place to violent
opposition to the second. He refused to allow enforcement
until the legislature had convened and deliberated upon it.
When the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the act that
winter, Stephens remained unconvinced as to its constitu
tionality. Quoting from Hamilton and Madison, he ad
vanced such technical arguments as to perplex the people
before whom he talked. Still, every one knew that the
Vice-President was opposing the President. The effect on
the country was far from good and far from pleasing to
Davis and his Cabinet.

Linton Stephens spoke before the legislature in opposi
tion to the law, saying that if the fighting men could be
taken against the will of the state, sovereignty was gone.
"To speak of such is mockery; it is insult added to injury
and robbery." He would have Colonel Flood and his forty
thousand militiamen ordered to Savannah under Georgia's
"retained right" of keeping troops in time of war for her
own protection. There was no doubt in the minds of the
people that Alexander Stephens not only approved what
Linton said but had gone over with him the substance of
the address.

Though the Georgia legislature voted to uphold the law,
because of the exigencies of the war, it protested against
the principle by passing resolutions which Linton had pre
sented after consultation with his brother.

Toombs attributed the action of the legislature in per
mitting conscription to be put into effect in Georgia to the

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OPPOSES 245

spineless Know-Nothings, whom he had in a moment of
careless generosity allowed to get into power. He ought
to have known, he scolded himself, that they would support
the administration. "They are a terribly whipped set of
scoundrels and are afraid even to do right lest they may be
thought to be what they really are traitors to public
liberty/'

Brown discussed with Stephens his alarm that the second
act should take men from the state immediately after Lin
coln's proclamation had emancipated the negro. He was
fearing that there might be uprisings that would endanger
the women, children and older men who had been left at
home. When he declared that "no act of the government
of the United States prior to the secession of Georgia struck
a blow at constitutional liberty so fell as has been struck
by the conscription act," Alexander Stephens heard the
voicing of his own convictions. In a recriminating cor
respondence, behind which Davis must have detected the
hand of Stephens, he sent the warning that Georgians would
"refuse to yield their sovereignty to usurpation and would
require the government, which is the common agent of the
states, to move within the sphere assigned it by the Con
stitution."

The very wording of many of Brown's letters to the
Secretary of War smacked so strongly of Stephens that
there must have been no doubt in Richmond that the trouble
the recalcitrant Governor was giving the authorities could
be attributed to the Vice-President who remained at his
home in Georgia because he was opposed to practically
every major policy of the Confederacy. Indeed, the Savan
nah Republican said that Brown was being put forward as
t the tool and exponent of far shrewder men than he. It
was known that Alexander Stephens often stayed at the
executive mansion in Milledgeville and that he frequented
the lobbies of the two houses, watching the proceedings.

246 LITTLE ALECK

Brown was for ever finding some new subject for conten
tion. From the beginning he had objected to the state regi
ments not being allowed to select their own officers. In the
spring of 1863 he actively brought forward the issue when
Colonel Slaughter, of Georgia, was killed and the com
manding officer appointed his successor* Three Georgians,
it became known, were keeping the government in hot
water: Stephens, the Vice-President, organizing no opposi
tion but talking and writing a great deal; Toombs in the
army, criticizing the military program; and Brown, gov
ernor of one of the most important states, refusing to sub
mit to dictation from Richmond. Disintegrating forces of
the sort to prove more hurtful than the onslaughts of the
enemy were at work.

Whenever he could, Alexander Stephens sought refuge
in the Waverly novels. Reading and his dogs served to take
his mind from the perils that surrounded the country. Poor
old Rio was on his last legs! It was pitiable to see him
sniffing about the house, depending in his blindness entirely
on that keen olfactory nerve of his. When the master was
at home, he kept the poor dog always in sight; and, when
ever he left Liberty Hall, he charged Anthony, the serving
boy, not to let Rio stumble off the porch or butt his head
against some closed door. Anticipating that Rio's end was
at hand, Linton sent a substitute in the form of a naughty
bull terrier. "I have concluded upon reflection that the
dog's name shall be Sir Bingo Binks in full," Aleck wrote
solemnly. "I will not do the illustrious hero the indignity
of quartering him while I embalm his memory by giving
his name to my bull terrier. He shall have the whole name,
title and all."

Besides Scott's heroes and their namesakes, Stephens's
adapted family offered diversion for the harassed Vice-
President. The widow and children whom John L. Ste
phens had willed to his brother were constantly on his

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OPPOSES 247

mind. There is evidence enough that the bachelor enjoyed
the responsibility. He bossed and advised his sister-in-
law and was generous to a fault. He quarreled with the
children, played with them and spoiled them. When the
boy, Linton Andrew, left in January, 1863, to J' m J
Thompson's Artillery, the uncle was anxious and sad. Lin-
ton was in love, it was said, with pretty Lucinda Frances
Hammack. When some one asked him why he wanted to
fight, he had replied, "To protect the fair sex." Uncle
Aleck was pleased with his manner, for the lad was calm
not at all elated or depressed. Twenty minutes before the
cars were to arrive on that January morning that he left
Crawfordville, he rigged himself in something that was in
tended to represent a uniform and threw about his shoulders
a fantastic shawl that looked very much like a Mexican
blanket. The family that had gathered at Liberty Hall for
the leave-taking looked on admiringly. After the good-by
in the green and gold parlor, Alexander Stephens walked
with the lad as far as the front steps. The shawl, trailing
across the porch, was too great a temptation for the rest
less Sir Bingo Binks, who caught its edge between his sharp
little teeth. "Let go my dress," Linton laughed, as he
wrapped the mantle closer about him and reached for his
uncle's hand. That evening Alexander Stephens went down
to the Old Homestead to see Linton's mother. He knew
that she was sad "all her boys who have been with her
so long. having left her almost at once," he explained.

It was only with dogs and books that Alexander Stephens
could lose himself. As he rode through the quiet streets
of the village, people were continually stopping him with
requests that concerned the men at the front. Was there
news from the northern prisons? Was there any way to
get the latest lists of the killed and wounded? From all sides
there were calls for help. With Confederate money de
preciating rapidly, a soldier's pay would not buy his wife

248 LITTLE ALECK

a pair of shoes. Food was scarce and growing scarcer. On
the second of March Toombs wrote that he was resigning
from the army. Then a few days later news came that he
was ill at his home in Washington, Georgia. Alexander
Stephens went at once to visit him, leaving Rio so feeble that
he was quite sure the faithful friend would not live till his re
turn. Just as the train was pulling out of the station,
Anthony arrived with the news that Rio had dropped dead,
while staggering toward his master's room. "I shed tears at
his grave yesterday," Stephens wrote Richard Johnston.
The lonely man had lost a friend whom he could trust. "His
devotion to me was, I believe, stronger than life. ... I
miss him in the yard, in the house, in my walks. . . . He is
gone. You, nor I, nor any one will ever see his like again."
Frisky, fickle, superficial Sir Bingo Binks proved a very
poor substitute for Rio.

Alexander Stephens knew, moreover, that the great days
of the Confederacy had ended. He had known all along
that they could not last, that with blockaded ports, unsound
finances and dissensions within its boundaries, the Con
federacy could not be made permanent by military victories,
no matter how brilliant. The expenses of the government
were steadily rising. In July, 1861, the debt was ten million
dollars; in November of the same year, fifty-nine million;
in February, 1862, one hundred and thirty-nine million; in
August, three hundred and thirteen million; and by the
end of 1862, five hundred and sixty-seven million. It had
become hard to find lenders to advance capital in exchange
for interest-bearing bonds. To overcome the difficulty
resort was made to treasury notes. In January, 1863, the
Confederate Congress, by a secret act, had legalized the
French loan of fifteen million dollars secured by cotton.
How to get the product out of the country constituted
another problem. The amount of the loan was almost the
only source of specie revenue. To check the terrific depre-

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OPPOSES 249

elation of the currency, Secretary Memminger was making
various recommendations, all of which Stephens thought
unsound. Memminger's proposal to compel Confederate
note-holders to exchange notes for bonds he considered an
infringement of the contract between the lender and the
government. When Memminger further proposed that
the states guarantee the bonds, Stephens was outspoken in
his disapproval of the Secretary's suggestions and policies.
The opposition to the Funding Act of March 3, 1863,
which was rather general throughout the Confederacy, was
acute in North Carolina and Georgia. While H. S. Foote,
then of Tennessee, was opposing the proposals Memminger
and Davis sent to Congress, Governor Brown, conferring
frequently with Alexander Stephens, was writing violent
letters to Richmond based upon the decision of the Georgia
Supreme Court, which had held that the Confederate
authorities were bound to pay the debt and that the Fund
ing Act was unconstitutional. Brown, moreover, opposed
the states' taking over the Confederate debt as calculated
to confuse national and state finances.

Newspapers all over the Confederacy began to "deplore
the flagrant breach of public faith." They were holding
that compulsory funding was virtually a repudiation of the
obligations; while Memminger and Davis argued that it
presented the only method of correcting the redundant cur
rency. Alexander Stephens opposed every utterance that
either Davis or Memminger made concerning the financial
policy. "The whole scheme is radically wrong in purpose,"
he said. "The responsibility of creating debt and paying
it ought to rest on the same shoulders, ... If Congress
has let its debt run appropriating without the nerve to tax,
what will they do when they are relieved of that responsi
bility? . . . The debt now is not much short of one thou
sand million. Georgia's part of this would be, in round
numbers, about one hundred million. They unwisely think

250 LITTLE ALECK

that they or their successors will never be called on to re
deem it. In this they are sadly mistaken. I feel deeply
upon the subject. It is utterly wrong, and the worst con
sequences will follow the policy if adopted."

By this time it was generally known that the President
and the Vice-President were diametrically opposed on prac
tically every question of public policy. The newspapers
were lining up with the two factions that had sprung into
being. Stephens, however, disclaimed knowledge of fac
tional leadership. He was not fighting the President, he
insisted. Nor was he attempting to organize opposition.
It was merely his duty, as well as his right, to express him
self and to endeavor to get Congress to act in accordance
with what he ^honestly believed to be right. It had seemed
wiser, he said, for him to remain in Georgia. In the late
spring, however, he went again to Richmond, for suddenly
a new plan by which peace might be brought about had oc
curred to him. Two and a half years of war had moderated
the temper of the South. There was less talk throughout
the states of the necessity for a separate confederacy. The
people would be content to return to the Union if their
rights could be safeguarded. For months public meetings
had been held in New York City, at which the United States
had been denounced. It had been a good sign when Wash
ington had interdicted the exchange of newspapers. Never
theless, papers had filtered in, which told of peace
movements in various sections of the North. Depressed
articles had been appearing from Horace Greeley's pen,
urging more fury, attacking the New York World for peace
articles that had appeared, and excoriating those who
clamored for peace. Mrs. Shewmake in her diary reflected
the hope that was spreading throughout the South when
she wrote, "There are reports that Indiana, Illinois, Ken
tucky, and perhaps Ohio will league together to stop this
war. ... If this be true, the day of our triumph is right

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OPPOSES 251

at hand." Many northerners had opposed Lincoln's re
versal of policy involved in the proclamation emancipating
the slaves. There were many northern advocates of state
rights and individual liberty who found conscription, martial
law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus ex
ceedingly distressing. Honorable Benjamin R. Curtis, for
instance, who as former justice of the United States Supreme
Court had dissented in the Dred Scott decision, had issued
a warning against the dangerous encroachments of which
the President was guilty. The Old Guard, published by
C. Chauncey Burr of the Jefferson School of Politics, was
now permitted to appear, denouncing the war party. The
Democrats of Ohio had nominated Vallandigham, who had
opposed the President's policies in Congress, and seemed
to have a very good chance of electing him governor. In
New York had been tolerated public meetings at which
peace resolutions had been passed, and opponents of Lin
coln's policies had carried the state elections. A peace
convention had been called to meet in Philadelphia.

The armies of the South occupied strategic positions.
Hooker, moreover, had been repulsed in his march toward
Richmond; it looked as though Grant would be repulsed at
Vicksburg; and the North stood in fear of an offensive
from Lee.

Therefore it seemed to Stephens that circumstances were
auspicious for the making of peace proposals. A conference
could be sought upon the pretext of discussing the exchange
of prisoners, concerning which many difficulties had arisen.
If peace were not brought about, at least some of the suffer
ing in the prisons of both North and South might be amelio
rated.

The cartel, which had been agreed upon early in the war,
had been broken the year before by the Federals. Since
then, there had been no exchange of prisoners. The South,
with food supplies exceedingly scarce, was put to it to care

252 LITTLE ALECK

for the prisoners on their hands and would gladly have
returned the men to the North. Yet stories came con
stantly of mistreatment of their own men in northern
prisons. Therefore, it seemed that the only chance of get
ting tolerable conditions for their captured soldiers con
sisted in holding prisoners and threatening retaliation.
While in Richmond, however, Stephens chanced to see a
letter that had been written to Davis on the twenty-third
of April by General D. Hunter. The contents was alarm
ing in the extreme and distressing to a man who all his life
had suffered and who shrank from contemplating the suf
fering of others. "In the month of August last," Hunter
had written, "you declared all those engaged in arming the
negroes for the country to be felons and directed the im
mediate execution of all such as were captured. ... I
now give you notice that unless this order is immediately
revoked, I will at once cause an execution of every Rebel
officer and every Rebel slave-holder in my possession."

As soon as Stephens saw the letter, he wrote to Davis,
suggesting that a conference might bring about relief for
the prisoners and offering his services. He referred to his
refusal to accept just after the organization of the gov
ernment the President's commission to enter into negotia
tions with Washington. At that time he had believed that
conferences would prove unavailing. Now he had hope
that some good might be accomplished. The recognition
of the sovereignty of the states, however, he held to be the
only basis upon which a settlement could be made. "That
the Federal government is yet ripe for such acknowledg
ment," he added, "I by no means believe, but that the time
has come for a proper presentation of the question to the
authorities at Washington I do believe." The mission that
concerned a minor point might be the means of opening the
larger.

The letter was written from Georgia on June twelfth.

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OPPOSES 253

On the nineteenth the President replied by telegram, re
questing Alexander Stephens to return to Richmond. When
Stephens reached the capital of the Confederacy, conditions
had changed materially: Lee had crossed the Potomac, and
Vicksburg was in danger. Frankly he told the President
that circumstances had altered the views he had expressed
in his letter. He feared that the presence of Lee in the
North would excite the war party and that Lincoln would
refuse to see him. Davis, arguing, however, that the pres
ence of Lee's army in northern territory increased the
probability of the conference's being accomplished, called
a Cabinet meeting, which he requested the Vice-President
to attend. The Secretaries agreeing with the President,
Stephens consented to undertake the mission.

According to the slow motion of events that characterized
executive action, it was not till the third of July that Alex
ander Stephens and Robert Ould, Confederate agent for
the exchange of prisoners, started down the James River
on a small steamer that had been made ready for them.
Before the commissioners reached Newport News by the
slow river route, the battle of Gettysburg had been fought
and Lee was retreating toward Virginia. While they were
detained by a blockade squadron, Vicksburg surrendered.
Then came from Washington Lincoln's refusal to see the
Rebel commissioners. As Alexander Stephens had warned
President Davis, he had expected nothing else. He felt
that Lee should have been kept on the Rappahannock, that
some of his men should have been sent to reenforce Vicks
burg, and that General Morgan should have been kept out
of Ohio, where he surely aroused the war spirit. On July
ninth he wrote Linton that he was sorry that Lee had
crossed the Potomac. "If I had known that he was going
to do it, I should not have written the President. . . . My
policy and the policy of invasion were directly opposite."

A few days later Alexander Stephens returned to Georgia.

254 LITTLE ALECK

He was through with the business that had taken him to
Richmond. It appeared that the North and South would be
gin retaliation. Perhaps he could work upon some other
plan for ending the savagery of war. Certainly he could ac
complish nothing by remaining in the faction-torn capital.
He might, of course, have entered into the gaiety that had
power to drown problems of state. There were many
bright coteries that would have welcomed him. The Mosaic
Club, for instance, was meeting informally from parlor to
parlor and serving refreshments far better than muffins and
waffles and coffee for men and women who gathered for
the purpose of forgetting worry. No end of interesting
games had been invented, of which the "forfeit essay" was
perhaps the most popular. From one hat you drew a ques
tion, from another a word that was to be used in the answer.
Alexander Stephens could have matched wits with the best
of the members with quaint George Bagby, Virginia's poet-
humorist; with gallant Willie Myers; with Harry Stanton,
Kentucky's soldier-poet; or with "Ran" Tucker, who could
tell an inimitable story and sing an excellent ballad; or with
Innes Randolph, who when he drew from one hat the ques
tion, "What kind of shoe was made on the Last of the
Mohicans?" and from the other the words Daddy Longlegs
was guilty of the extemporaneous rhyme :

"Old Daddy Longlegs was a sinner hoary

And punished for his wickedness according to the story.

Between^ him and the Indian shoe this likeness does

come in-
One made a mock o' virtue, and one a moccasin 1"

But Alexander Stephens was taking the war very seriously.

CHAPTER XVIII
LITTLE ALECK FIGHTS FOR PEACE

THOUGH the theater of war had not yet been expanded to
include Georgia, the people were suffering from the de
preciated currency and the shortage of crops, and were con
stantly hearing tragic news that concerned the boys at the
front. Having utterly despaired of the war's ending in
victory for the South and earnestly desiring to end the
suffering, Alexander Stephens was watching hopefully the
political developments in the North. There was chance
that the peace party and the opponents of Lincoln might
defeat the President's reelection and turn the tide in favor
of a settlement that the South would be able to accept.
Though he could be of no service in Richmond, he had not
despaired of preparing the public mind to entertain what
ever peace proposals might be offered.

Stephens hoped that the opposition to Lincoln was grow
ing. There were many people in the North who had held
the President responsible for the Federal defeats in the
summer of 1862 and for Lee's great victories at Fredericks-
burg in December of 1862 and at Chancellorsville in May
of 1863. Stephens did not believe that Lee's retreat after
Gettysburg or that the fall of Vicksburg had greatly
strengthened Lincoln's position. Constantly watching the
northern papers for encouraging news, he knew that when
Chase was approached regarding the presidency, he was
reported to have said, "If I were controlled by mere per
sonal sentiments, I should prefer the reelection of Mr.
Lincoln to that of any other man. But I doubt the ex
pediency of re-electing anybody, and I think a man of dif-

255

256 LITTLE ALECK

ferent qualities will be needed for the next four years. I
am not anxious to be regarded as that man ; and I am quite
willing to leave that question to the decision of those who
agree in thinking that some such man should be chosen."

If the South could be persuaded to hold fast to those
principles that constituted in Stephens's mind the reasons
for the establishment of a separate government and if the
opponents of centralism in the North could be encouraged
to stand against the Lincoln policies, there was a chance
that the Federal administration might be overthrown. At
the moment, however, Stephens could do no more than
preach his doctrine in the South and await its propagation
and spread. Therefore he accepted all invitations that were
extended to him to address the people.

In Sparta on August first he attempted to give encourage
ment at the same time that he expounded the purpose under
lying the organization of the Confederate States. Yes, the
country was in great peril, he told his audience, but the situa
tion was far from hopeless. If the South were determined
to be free, subjugation was impossible. Not for a moment
could the people lose sight of the main issue which was
the principle of state rights and personal liberty. The
country must in its government exemplify the doctrine that
had actuated secession.

He was beginning to see, .moreover, that the President
was not altogether to blame for the errors that were being
made. His subordinates, the devotees, of West Point, were
chiefly responsible. Davis was ill most of the time. Again
there was much discussion as to what would happen in the
event of his death. As much as he disapproved the policies
that had been inaugurated, Stephens shrank from the
thought of being placed at the helm of the government.
He knew that many of the leaders did not trust the judg
ment of the Vice-President. Nor was he sure of his ability
to administer the government "I know that affairs in

LITTLE ALECK FIGHTS FOR PEACE 257

many particulars would not be managed as they are; but
would they be managed for the better or the worse? I
know not," he wrote Johnston.

At Liberty Hall there was never a chance to escape the
pressure of public affairs: visitors flocked to see him; he
was deluged by letters. So, as often as he could, he fled
to Linton's home in Sparta, certain of finding there three
little girls who knew nothing about Confederate politics.
November twenty-third was Becky's birthday. Uncle Aleck
remembered the day and planned a surprise visit The
house was utterly deserted when he arrived except for Lin-
ton's dog, Pompey, who extended a cordial welcome. Pom-
pey, as the grandfather of Sir Bingo Binks, was a person
of some dignity, who knew how to meet difficult situations.

Finally the servants and the little girls arrived. Becky
got her presents, and she and Claude quickly supplanted the
important Pompey. Every one had news that Uncle Aleck
or Marse Aleck must hear. Many of the young pigs seemed
to have bad colds. There were eighty acres of corn to
gather. If fire-wood wasn't soon hauled, the house would
be cold, and no food could be cooked. Becky, who had
learned to write very well, wanted a bit of assistance in get
ting off a letter to her father, who was away. Then little
Claude, not to be outdone by an older sister, must write one
too. The effort cost her a great deal of labor. Uncle
Aleck doctored up some of the letters and assured her that
Father could read what she had written. Cosby Connel,
a bachelor who lived with the Stephenses of Sparta, pleased
her by remarking between rheumatic grunts that her writing
was quite as plain as her Uncle Aleck's.

Then there was a great deal of very delightful chattering.
Because Uncle Aleck seemed interested in hearing every
thing that had happened recently } Becky and Claude were
most accommodating about telling him all the news.

When evening came, Doctor Berckmans dropped in for

258 LITTLE ALECK

a game of piquet, over which he and Alexander Stephens
and Cosby Connel quarreled in friendly fashion. Finally
Alexander Stephens sat in the corner and smoked his pipe
while the other men quarreled on. Half asleep, he would
hear Cosby saying, "Five cards and four sequences is nine
and three is twelve is twelve is twelve is twelve," while,
"You will play for thirteen/' scolded the Doctor. The
game was still going on when Mr. Stephens and Pompey
went to bed. Unlike his grandson, however, Pompey made
no attempt to climb upon the visitor's bed. Sir Bingo Binks
was notorious for finding soft places and warm ones in cold
weather.

Without such interludes as the visit to Sparta provided,
the Vice-President could scarcely have stood the ordeal of
the winter. Therefore he went frequently to see Linton
and the children and managed to cultivate a philosophy that
rescued him from despair. "Man's happiness depends more
upon himself than upon everything else combined," he said.
"Never let the mind turn upon anything disagreeble turn
it to something else. With proper discipline of oneself in
this way, ever keeping the passions in perfect subjection,
contentment and happiness are obtainable by all, with a con
stant culture of the moral faculties, and a firm reliance upon
the great Father of the universe."

He knew that the placidity he was cultivating with so
great effort was all that sustained him. Not a day passed
that some one did not place before him a knotty problem.
Throughout Georgia it was clear early in the summer that
a movement was on foot to organize a reconstruction party
for the purpose of ending the wan Stephens, of course,
was in favor of reconstruction on the basis of state
sovereignty and liberty for the individual as he had in*
sisted from the beginning. Yet as Vice-President of the
Confederacy, he was without power to act Brown, he
knew, looked hopefully toward the movement The

LITTLE ALECK FIGHTS FOR PEACE 259

would never come, however, for Georgia to act inde
pendently of her sister states. Therefore, he did not take
kindly to Brown's suggestion to address the people upon
the subject of reconstruction. Yet whenever there was a
chance that his intervention might relieve suffering, he im
portuned Richmond. In November he wrote lengthily to
the Secretary of War concerning the routine policies of
granting furloughs and extensions, suggesting that in each
district some one be given authority in the matter. Wounded
men were dying by the thousands because, without regard
to their condition, they were being hurried back to the war
before recovery had been accomplished, The harrowing
stones that came to him, sometimes seemed more than
Stephens could bear. The boy who so many eons before
had lain awake all night because of the death of a lamb
and a ewe had in many respects changed little since he had
become a man*

Through the fall and winter Brown's fight with the Con
federate authorities became more and more bitter, abetted
as it was by Stephens's counsel to hold firmly to the prin
ciples of non-interference from the central government
Reelection in 1863 for a fourth term, despite the opposi
tion of the administration, had emboldened Brown in his
stand against Confederate decrees* "I am for the cause
and not for the dynasties," he was enunciating clearly while
he prepared the message to be presented to the legislature
at its March convening. Upon the act again suspending the
writ of hab&&$ corpus, which Congress had passed before
adjourning on the seventeenth of February, he was center
ing his attention. Anxious to have his message particularly
effective, Brown wrote requesting Alexander Stephens to
meet him at Linton's that the three might confer together,
Just before the legislature met there was a deal of corre
sponding between the Governor and the Vice-President
Yes t said Brown, it would be well to get the cooperation of

260 LITTLE ALECK

Ben Hill, who throughout the war had been a supporter of
the administration. Would Stephens use his influence ? Ste
phens would, of course. The relationship between Hill and
him since the Montgomery conference had been agreeable,
if not cordial.

Brown's message left no doubt in the people's minds, if
there ever had been any, as to how the Governor felt toward
the Confederate administration. Ben Hill, moreover, de
tected the fine hand of Stephens. With those two-edged
words of his, he congratulated his old enemy upon the mes
sage. The statement as to the "causes of the war, how
conducted, and who responsible," he pronounced excellent
"I know I must thank you for it," he said ironically. "The
whole country will owe you an everlasting debt of gratitude.
Governor Brown can never repay you for the great benefit
you have bestowed upon him. You have given grandeur
of conception, an enlargement of views, and a perspicuity
of style to which he never could have reached. His only
trouble can be the footprints are too plain not to be
recognized." In the light of Hill's agreement however
with the main issue involved in the letter, to which he was
replying, the irony in the paragraph just quoted was over
looked. Hill admitted that the time had come for the
government to negotiate for reconstruction on the basis of
the maintenance of state sovereignty. It was also well, he
thought, to make known to the world that negotiations
would now be agreeable to the South.

On March sixteenth when the legislature had scarcely
had the chance to digest Brown's message, Stephens ad
dressed the body. First he tried to boost the people's
morale, which, in the face of recent defeats, was very low.
Then he sharply criticized the conscription and habeas
corpus acts and warned the people against supposing that
any danger was sufficient to cause them to surrender their
liberties. Though the funding and tax acts were utterly

LITTLE ALECK FIGHTS FOR PEACE 261

wrong, he said, the states must now pass legislation to save
themselves as much loss as possible. He expressed disap
proval of raising the military age to include men as old as
fifty. Conscription was wrong in principle. This particular
act, moreover, was dangerous in that it would strip the
farms of the few laborers that remained. The suspension
of the writ, conferring upon the President and the Secretary
of War and the General in command in the trans-Mississippi
section power to arrest and imprison any person who might
be charged with certain acts not all of which were even
crimes under the law was an outrage, chiefly because ar
rests were allowed without oath or affirmation. The peo
ple should protest against the congressional usurpation.

Herschel Johnson wrote soon after the address had ap
peared in print that Stephens's antipathy to the President
was perceptible. "I think you had as well unbottled your
wrath," he said, "for after all you are as well understood
in the estimation of the country to be hostile as if you had
avowed it. * * . You arc to be classed with those whose
palpable object is to organize a party in opposition to the
administration**' Indeed, Johnson went so far as to de
clare that antipathy to Davis had misled Stephens's judg
ment.

Alexander Stephens answered quickly with his denial that
he harbored enmity against the President "While I do
not and never have regarded him as a great man or a states
man on a large scale or a man of any marked genius, yet I
have regarded him as a man of good intentions, weak and
vacillating, petulant, peevish, obstinate, but not firm* Am
now beginning to doubt his good intentions*" Then Stephens
suggested that perhaps Davis's shortcomings were to be
attributed* not to weakness, but to bad purposes. At any
rate, his whole policy would indicate that He was desirous
of absolute power, "You have heard me in conversation,"
he continued, "speak of his weakness and imbecility, * . . I

262 LITTLE ALECK

had no more feeling of resentment toward him for these
than I had toward the defects and infirmities of my poor
old blind and deaf dog that you saw when you were here.

Poor old Rio ! He is dead now and gone to his last rest

This cry .of sustaining the administration you will allow me
to say, with all due respect to you, is nothing but a stupid,
senseless cachination." Stephens ended the letter with an
emphatic denial that he was party to any movement in
Georgia against Davis; as an individual he was merely
voicing his convictions as he had been accustomed to voice
them all his days.

'Linton Stephens was presenting to the Georgia legislature
resolutions he had prepared in collaboration with his
brother. The first condemned the suspension of the writ
of habeas corpus as unconstitutional and declared that con
stitutional liberty, the sole cause of the war, must be sus
tained in the South in contrast to the usurpations of which
the North was guilty. The peace resolution suggested that
the Confederate States in the flush of recent victories make
the United States government an offer of peace, based upon
the principles asserted by our forefathers of 1776, but
pledged Georgia to a prosecution of the war until peace
could be obtained upon just and honorable terms* Both
resolutions were passed by the legislature*

There caa be no doubt that the Vice-President's speech
and Linton's resolutions were far-reaching in their conse
quences. On April fifth Governor Brown wrote Stephens
that the Messrs. Wartzfielder had agreed to pay for print
ing and distributing among the army a thousand copies of
Stephens's speech and that copies of Linton's resolutions had
already been sent the captains of all companies in the Geor
gia regiments.

Alexander Stephens's object was clear-cut and sincere. He
wanted to show the peace party at the North that people
in the South were sympathizing with their efforts to bring

LITTLE ALECK FIGHTS FOR PEACE 263

the war to a close. He wanted to plant in their minds the
principles that had actuated the South in seceding, and he
wanted to assure victory not merely for a separate gov
ernment, but for a government based upon the constitutional
liberty to which his allegiance was pledged. The rank and
file, however, in the United States and in the Confederate
States were in no frame of mind to follow the abstract
reasoning of a man like Alexander Stephens. In the North
the war party used the action of the Georgia legislature to
prove that disintegrating forces were at work among the
rebels. In the South Stephens's utterances so weakened the
power of the administration as to make successful prosecu
tion of the war impossible.

Almost at once Alabama, North Carolina and Missis
sippi followed with condemnation of the suspension of the
writ When Stephens saw that Mississippi had been unan
imous in its vote, "What will Mrs* Grundy say now?"
he chuckled* "Is Mr* Davis's own state in unanimous op
position to the administration in this particular? Are they
all f actionists and malcontents ? 11 In the executive mansion
in Richmond the sick and harassed President of the Con
federacy must have realized that the work of Alexander
Stephens, as he remained in retirement, was far-reaching
and destined to be devastating in its results. Nevertheless,
the little Vice-President was following the dictates of his
mind and conscience* He believed in constitutional liberty*
War or no war, he must be true to his convictions.

Toward the end of March there came a letter from one
David F* Cable, who was held at the Andersonville prison,
making a suggestion that fell in line with Stephens's plans.
Cable claimed that he was from Ohio and that he had ac
companied the northern forces into the South as a non-
combattnt, hoping to be able to talk over with southerners
the peace movement in which he was interested* He felt
that t if the abolition party could be defeated in the corning

264 LITTLE ALECK

elections, there was an excellent chance for negotiations.
Having been captured, however, he was then interned at
Andersonville. Now he asked parole in order that he might
discuss his mission with Stephens and others.

At the time the chance of defeating Lincoln seemed good.
If Lee could keep Grant from achieving victories in Vir
ginia, there would be less and less confidence in Lincoln's
administration. Stephens sent the prisoner's letter to Davis,
suggesting that Cable be paroled and expressing his belief
that, if hostilities were once suspended and negotiations
started, both sides would come to the conclusion that the
British authorities and the colonists had reached in other
words, that reciprocal advantage and mutual convenience
are the only foundations of peace and friendship between
states.

Stephens's letter was mailed on April thirteenth. On the
nineteenth Davis replied that he would have Cable's case
investigated. If the man had spoken truthfully, he might
visit Stephens and then return to Ohio. The President,
however, seemed not to have read the portion of the Vice-
President's letter that had to do with peace negotiations.
At least, he made no comment upon it.

When days passed without news from Andersonville,
Stephens sent an inquiry to the commanding officer, who
replied that Cable would not be able to visit Mr. Stephens.
The latter part of June another letter came from Cable,
complaining of the hardships endured at the prison and
saying he believed he would not live to return to Ohio un
less something were done speedily. Again Stephens wrote
to Davis. To this letter there was no reply.^ On the twenty-
third of July the commanding officer at Andersonville sent
the news that Cable was dead.

Alexander Stephens reached the conclusion that the Presi
dent did not approve a conference with Cable, that he was
not interested in the defeat of Lincoln or in peace negotia-

LITTLE ALECK FIGHTS FOR PEACE 265

tions of any kind. This attitude, in the face of the suffer-
ing that the war was causing in both the North and the
South, was distressing in the extreme. The fate of Cable
was concrete evidence of the tragedies daily enacted at
Andersonville, Stephens felt that the North was to blame
for the inoperation of the cartel Certainly Quid, the Con
federate agent for exchange, had made effort after effort
to exchange man for man and to parole the surplus numbers.
It was daily becoming more and more clear that the North
was using the sufferings and death of their men in southern
prisons as a means of fostering the war spirit and thus
hastening victory, Stephens believed also that the authori
ties *rt Andersonville were doing all in their power to make
conditions bearable. Thirty thousand men, however, were
crowded together. They were receiving exactly the food
that was rationed to Confederate soldiers. With supplies
scarce throughout the South, it was hard enough to make
the amount sufficient to sustain life. The southern boys
could live on com bread and "fat-back/ 1 for many of them
had never been used to any other diet Corn bread, how
ever, was not food for northerners* Therefore, the men
were dying of disentery and scurvy and not from poor sani
tation and starvation, Over and over Stephens argued with
the authorities that in the name of humanity the prisoners
confined at Andersonville should be sent home with or with
out exchange. First, some one should explain to them the
motives for so doing. If they understood that their govern
ment had left them to die and that a magnanimous South
was unwilling for the savagery to continue, they might re
turn with the gospel of peace upon their tongues. Davis
and his Cabinet thought otherwise, however, arguing that
the only chance to see that the Confederate prisoners in
the North were well treated was to hold northern soldiers
that had been captured. Alexander Stephens was seeing
that Jefferson Davis stood for nothing short of subjuga-

266 LITTLE ALECK

tion or sweeping victory for the South. If he could not
work with the President, he would work without him.

Nevertheless, in May, 1864, the Vice-President at
tempted to return to Richmond. At Charlotte, North
Carolina, the delays began. All the way from Georgia the
trains had been traveling irregularly, making slow speed
up the grades and dashing furiously down. A the top of a
hill the coach that carried the Vice-President broke loose
from the rest of the train and sped backward by its own
momentum until the necessity to climb gave it pause. An
approaching engine applied brakes just in time to prevent
the coach from being utterly demolished. Four days later
Stephens had got as far as Reidsville, North Carolina.
Near Danville a collision killed several soldiers and de
stroyed a bridge. Because it then appeared impossible to
reach Richmond, Alexander Stephens started again toward
Georgia. The twenty-third of May found him at Columbia,
South Carolina. The days had been full of interesting ad
venture. At every stop wounded Confederates and Federal
prisoners were taken aboard. Stephens managed to talk
with most of the passengers, fed the hungry, distributed
money among the destitute, tried to cheer the poor fellows
Who were chafing under the delays that kept them from
reaching their homes. The wounded soldiers who were pre
vented from entering the crowded train by the doors climbed
m through the windows. One of them resented preference
being given the Vice-President. "I'll be damned if I don't
go, the poor fellow cried, "I'm as good as the Vice-
President. Stephens smiled and did not doubt that the
soldier was speaking the truth.

At last the weary little Vice-President was nodding in his
seat when the voices of some ladies awakened him. "The
Vice-President is aboard," a young man whispered. "Which
is he ? came the reply "That man there-that little nT n
A guttural sound that signified disappointment caused

LITTLE ALECK FIGHTS FOR PEACE 267

Alexander Stephens to open his eyes. The lady was laugh
ing. The little man felt very sad not because of his bad
looks, he said later, but because he had disappointed one of
his constituents. Altogether it was a relief to know that
he would after a while reach Liberty Hall.

The hardships of the trip left him feeble for weeks. "My
disease is constantly shifting," he wrote Richard Johnston
a few weeks later, attempting to speak lightly of his ail
ments. "Poor TithonusI While I never believed that
story about him, Aurora, and the grasshopper, yet part of
the fable is certainly applicable to me premature old age
and infirmity. I am in very much the same condition, con
stitutionally, with my country* In my opinion, it is just as I
am, on the decline."

Sherman had reached Georgia the spring before- On
July seventeenth he crossed the Chattahoochee River and
began his movement toward Atlanta, which was for a time
checked by the Confederates. In the North, however, the
peace party was growing- Every one seemed to be sick
and tired of war but Abraham Lincoln, whose second term
began to appear doubtful. On the twenty-third of August
Lincoln had written the memorandum; "This morning,
as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that
this administration will not be elected." So it appeared to
Alexander Stephens also, who was reading hopefully all that
Lincoln's critics had to say. On the twenty-ninth of August
the Democrats met in Chicago, nominated McClellan and
passed a resolution drawn up by Vallandigham, favoring
peace. On September third, while Republicans were pre
paring their minds to accept defeat, came the news that
Sherman had taken Atlanta. The war spirit at the North
gathered momentum, and despondency gripped the Con
federate States.

While Sherman's raiders were galloping through
Georgia, Stephens crossed the Savannah River into South

268 LITTLE ALECK

Carolina and, circulating among the people, talked freely of
public affairs. Because the strength and resources of the
South were exhausted, he said, peace should be made at
once. The South, returning to the Union and assisted by
the peace party at the North, could elect the president of
the United States and then make her own terms. Stephens's
words, reported to Richmond by Burt, of South Carolina,
proved exceedingly disturbing to the Confederate author
ities at the capital.

On September 15, 1864, Sherman wrote to Major-
General Halleck: "Governor Brown has disbanded his
militia to gather the corn and sorghum of the state. I
have reason to believe that he and Stephens want to visit
me, and I have sent them a hearty invitation."

The General's "reason to believe" that he could make
headway with Stephens consisted in his knowledge of the
Vice-President's opposition to the administration's program
and not of the man himself. He knew, of course, that
Stephens wanted peace. So on September seventeenth
Sherman wrote his little scheme to Lincoln.

"A Mr. Wright, former member of Congress from
Rome, Ga., and a Mr. King of Marietta are now going
between Governor Brown and myself. I have said that some
of the people of Georgia are now engaged in rebellion
begun in error and perpetuated in pride but that Georgia
can now save herself from the devastations of war prepar
ing for her only by withdrawing her quota out of the Con
federate Army and aiding me to repel Hood from the
borders of the state, in which event, instead of desolating
the land as we progress, I will keep our men to the high
road and common and pay for the corn and meat we need
and take. I am fully conscious of the delicate nature of
such assertions, but it would be a magnificent stroke of
policy if I could, without surrendering a foot of ground or
of principle, arouse the latent enmity to Jeff. Davis of
Georgia. The people do not hesitate to say that Mr,

LITTLE ALECK FIGHTS FOR PEACE 269

Stephens was and is a Union man at heart, and they feel
that Jeff, Davis will not trust him or let him have a share in
his government"

Before King reached Crawfordville Toombs, hearing of
Sherman's plan, forthwith dispatched a letter to Stephens,
advising him not to see Sherman. "He will endeavor merely
to detach Georgia from the Confederacy," he said with
prophetic discernment,

Stephens, however, was already writing William King
that he had no power to enter into negotiations.

"In communicating this to General Sherman, you
may also say to him that if he is of the 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 of the
premises, and will make this known to me in some formal
and authoritative manner (being so desirous for peace him
self, 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 harmony to the
country, upon principles of honor, right, and justice to all
parties. This drfes not seem to me to be at all impossible,
if truth and reason should be permitted to have their full
sway*"

It is entirely likely that Stephens influenced Brown's curt
reply to the Sherman overtures.

"Say to General Sherman," wrote ^ the Governor, "that
Georgia has entered into a confederation with^her Southern
sisters for the maintenance of the same sovereignty of each,
severally, which she claims for herself, and her public faith
thus pledged will never be violated by me- Come weal or
come woe, the state of Georgia shall never by my consent
withdraw from the Confederacy in dishonor. She will

270 LITTLE ALECK

never make separate terms with the enemy which may free;
her territory from invasion and leave her confederates in
the lurch."

Davis must have been alarmed by the reports that
Sherman was making overtures in Georgia, for he left
Richmond at once, ostensibly to confer with his generals
in the South. "You say Jeff Davis is on a visit to Hood,"
Lincoln wrote Sherman on September twenty-seventh. "I
judge that Brown and Stephens are the objects of his visit,"
Davis, however, should have known better than to distrust
Alexander H. Stephens in such a crisis. It was one thing
to oppose the President's policies; it was quite another to
desert a country.

Nevertheless, Alexander Stephens was now working with
singleness of purpose to end the war. Years before he
had said in Congress, "Fields of blood and carnage may
make men brave and heroic, but seldom tend to make na
tions good, virtuous or great" He could have gone much
further. This war was bringing out the worst in the men
about him. It was engendering malice, hatred, lying and
vice of every other sort. Papers of both North and South
were representing their former countrymen as monsters,

Stephens, still hoping for the defeat of Lincoln, and the
success of the peace party led by McCIellan, felt that the
friends of peace in the South should take some indirect part
in the campaign. When the Chicago convention proposed
a meeting of all the states and planted itself upon a state*
rights platform, Stephens thought that the time had come
for the South to show that its mood was at least receptive.
He was, therefore, distressed to find that Davis, on the
speech-making tour that followed his trip to Georgia, ex*
pressed himself before an audience in Columbia, South
Carolina, as opposed to a convention of the states. He had
further weakened the position of the peace party at the

LITTLE ALECK FIGHTS FOR PEACE 271

North by saying that there could be no peace except by the
sword and that "the only way to make spaniels civil was to
whip them." Such taunts could not fail to arouse bitterness
at the North and strengthen Lincoln's cause.

Lincoln's reelection and the perpetuation of the war party
did not cause Stephens to cease his efforts in behalf of peace.
Sherman was marching on to the sea, laying waste a path
more than fifty miles wide. Young men were being uselessly
sacrificed on the battle-fields and were dying in the prisons
of North and South. Women were broken-hearted. Little
children were starving* President Davis was declaring
foolishly that victory was in sight and that Sherman "would
meet the fate that befell Napoleon in the retreat from
Moscow." The little Vice-President, consistent unto the
end, continued to fight for peace upoa the basis of constitu
tional liberty*

Linton's children through it all were providing the diver
sion the harassed little bachelor needed. They were always
amusingthese youngsters who invariably expressed them
selves freely without a great deal of reverence for their
distinguished elders, Linton's letters were full of their com*
ments,

"Papa," little Becky had said just after the affair with
Sherman, "if Uncle ElHck was a school teacher, his children
wouldn't learn anything."

"Why not?" asked her father.

"Because he'd tell 'em everything."

Alexander Stephens entered no denial of her charge.
He must have known that the little girl was right He did
like to tell people what to do, and he was always rather
irritated when his advice was not taken and when there was
argument concerning facts upon which he knew himself
to be an authority.

CHAPTER XIX
OLD FRIENDS CONFER AT HAMPTON ROADS

DECEMBER 5, 1864! The Vice-president of the Confeder
ate States was again presiding over the Senate. Eighteen
months had passed since the people of Richmond had seen
the queer little man who had been elected to the second
position of executive importance. There had been news,
of course, that he had been doing some sort of agitating in
Georgia. Yet Richmond was not paying a great deal of
attention to his absence or wondering much about him.
What with the constant fear that some relative would be
killed at the front and the eternal effort to be gay, despite all
the harrowing news that kept coming from every direction,
Richmond had had its mind and hands quite full. The offi
cial ladies from a distance had been put to it to vie with the
Virginians in dispensing hospitality. Even with prices
prohibitive, one had to serve delicious food in Virginia. Mrs.
Chesnut was recording it all gaily enough in her diary.
Everywhere there was evidence of good Virginia cooking
"terrapin stew, gumbo, fish, oysters in every shape, game and
wine: as good as wine ever is juleps, claret cup, apple
toddy, whiskey punches and all that such hams as these
Virginia people cure; such home*made bread there is no
such bread in the world just think of the dinners, suppers,
breakfasts we have been tol"

But Richmond now, in the upper crust, was frightened
again as frightened as it had been when McClellan was
threatening the city and food was getting distressingly
scarce. Of course, for a long time people had been looking
shabby, for Virginians can do without clothes far more

273

OLD FRIENDS CONFER 273

happily than they can yield to the necessity of curtailing the
amount of food served. Money was simply no good at all.
Thirty dollars a day Alexander Stephens had to pay for his
meals and room. "Fuel, lights, and extras generally will be
about thirty dollars per day more," he wrote in despair.
"So it will not take long to consume my salary."

Yet he was determined to stay in Richmond as long as he
thought there was a chance for him to accomplish some
thing. How could the President fail to know that the
country was completely exhausted? The poor man was too
ill and harassed to see clearly. Perhaps his optimism was all
that kept him alive. To Stephens it became certain that
Davis's blindness to the true state of affairs was all that
fanned the war spirit into flame. The people who were the
prey to the Federal armies seemed ready to accept peace on
almost any terms. Toward the middle of December, when
it was reported that the President was dead, Stephens did
not know whether or not to believe the rumor. Certainly the
attitude of the Cabinet was suddenly more deferential to
ward the Vice-President, who had been opposing every move
the government had made. "It is amusing," wrote Jones in
his diary, "to observe the change of manner of the secretaries
and of the heads of the bureaus toward Vice-President
Stephens when it is feared that the President is in extremis"
Even Mr. Hunter, fat as he was, flew about quite
briskly.

Congress was again wrangling over martial law and the
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. It mattered not
what might be happening to the armies in the field, Stephens
felt that when constitutional liberty was at stake he should
make a fight in behalf of his convictions. The bill passed
the House and came to a vote in the Senate. General Har-
dee had recently surrendered Savannah, and Sherman had
sent his famous message to President Lincoln: U I beg to
present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah with

274 LITTLE ALECK

one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition and
twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."

Stephens's mind, for a moment turned away from the war,
was centered upon the injustice and unconstitutionality of
suspending the writ of habeas corpus, which was the Anglo-
Saxon's birthright. In the Senate the vote of the bill was
a tie Burnett, Caperton, Dortch, Henry, Hunter, Hill,
Johnson of Georgia, Maxwell, Orr, Walker, voting affirma
tively; Baker, Barnwell, Brown, Garland, Graham, John
son of Missouri, Semmes, Simms, Sparrow, Watson, voting
negatively. The vote of Alexander H. Stephens was re
quired to decide the question. The president of the Senate
announced forthwith that he would like to cast his vote "if
the Senate would indulge him in giving his reasons." When
Mr. Henry objected, Stephens put the question: "Is it the
sense of the Senate that the chair in exercising his consti
tutional right to vote on a question on which senators are
equally divided has the right to give the reasons for the
vote he shall give?" Dortch, of North Carolina, leaped to
his feet and announced that he would change his vote from
affirmative to negative. Whereupon Stephens ruled that the
gentleman could not change his vote without the unani
mous consent of the Senate. A heated debate followed the
chair's ruling. When the vote was taken, Stephens was not
sustained, and the Senate adjourned immediately.

Alexander Stephens called R. M. T. Hunter to him* He
was ready to resign at once, he said* Mr. Hunter expressed
belief that the Senate had not intended its action to be con
strued in the nature of an affront The members had
merely felt that at such a time as this, a speech by the Vice-
President in opposition to the policies of the administra
tion would be disastrous. Yet Stephens was not convinced.
He was remaining in Richmond for but two purposes: to in
fluence Congress in behalf of constitutional liberty and in
the hope that he might be instrumental in ending the war-

OLD FRIENDS CONFER 275

Feeling that he was failing in both purposes, he thought
that it would be as well for him to return to Georgia.

The next day, however, Mr. Hunter brought the Vice-
President a resolution passed unanimously by the Senate,
requesting that Stephens address the body in secret session
upon the condition of public affairs. The Vice-President
accepted the invitation. Here was a chance to impress
upon the lawmakers the principles that he had been trying to
teach all the days of his public life. He entered the Senate
chamber and without resuming the chair, delivered an ex
egesis of his governmental theory, of the principles actuating
the war, and of the administration policies which he thought
dangerous when accepted by a country that should be dem
onstrating to the world the practical application of the
liberties in which it professed to believe.

Profoundly impressed, the Senate asked him to present
his views in the form of resolutions, Alexander Stephens
lost no time in complying. The resolutions declared the
sovereignty of the individual states to be the only basis upon
which peace could be restored and recognized the necessity
that the several states act upon any proposed treaty. They
"hailed with gratification" the peace sentiment in the North
and suggested that three commissioners be passed through
the lines for the purpose of inaugurating negotiations. The
resolutions passed the Senate without a dissenting vote.

In strange coincidence, it happened that almost imme
diately there appeared in Richmond Francis P, Blair, Senior,
whom Lincoln had permitted to pass through the lines* It
was on January sixth that Stephens addressed the Senate,
It was on the twelfth that Davis saw Blair for the first
interview* Stephens's resolutions were fresh in the minds
of the senators* Blair had come, it transpired, to propose
a peace conference. Slavery was doomed, argued Blain
Then why not close that issue and deal with another? Both
North and South, because of adherence to the Monroe

276 LITTLE ALECK

Doctrine, should look with alarm upon the designs that
France had upon Mexico.

In 1 86 1, on account of a money dispute, France, Spain
and England had sent expeditions into Mexico, Great
Britain and Spain, however, had soon withdrawn their
forces. France, it seemed, was anxious to restore in America
the prestige of the Latin race and place a European monarch
in Mexico. Seward's diplomacy had later brought from
France the assurance that she had no intention of dis
turbing Mexico's republican form of government* Slidell,
moreover, the Confederate commissioner in France, had
proposed to side with France in order to secure her assis
tance in the war against the United States. Louis Napoleon
'delaying, Slidell's diplomacy had finally proved unavailing.
By the autumn of 1863 it had become known on this side of
the water that the emperor of France had planned to estab
lish an imperial government in Mexico and had offered the
throne to Maximilian of Austria. The convention that had
nominated Lincoln had passed resolutions against the
supplanting in Mexico of the republican form of govern**
ment.

It appears that Davis listened with an open mind to
Blair's scheme, which involved a secret armistice that would
enable President Davis to transfer part of his forces to the
banks of the Rio Grande to join northern soldiers in dis
pelling "the Bonaparte-Hapsburg dynasty from our South
ern flank." Davis, in a note that Blair was given permission
to show to Lincoln, expressed his willingness to enter upon
peace negotiations, and the self-appointed emissary departed
to deliver the message to his chief, A few days later Blair
returned and continued to urge a conference between the
heads of the two governments* Though he brought no let
ter from his chief, his close friendship with Lincoln led
Davis to believe that the President of the United States
would meet Confederate commissioners*

DAVIS

OLD FRIENDS CONFER 277

Then for the first time since the capital had been moved
to Richmond, Jefferson Davis asked Alexander Stephens
to meet him in conference. The President wanted to hear
what the Vice-President thought of the advisability of the
scheme. Though Stephens believed that the plan was worth
trying, he argued that the conference should be between
Davis and Lincoln. No, the President countered, there
should be three commissioners. Stephens suggested John
A. Campbell, then assistant secretary of war; General Henry
L. Benning, ex-justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia,
then commanding a brigade near City Point; and Thomas
S. Flournoy, of Virginia. When the President insisted that
he could think of no better man to head a peace commission
sent to negotiate with Lincoln than Alexander H. Stephens,
there was probably irony in his words, which may or may not
have escaped the astute Vice-President. At any rate, the
Cabinet, called to consider the question, commissioned
Stephens, Campbell and R. NL T. Hunter.

On January twenty-ninth the three men left Richmond,
They were able during the day to proceed as far as Peters
burg. On the twenty-first they were conveyed by railway
to City Point There Stephens met Grant for the first time.
The General sat before an open fire in a log cabin, writing
by the uncertain light of a kerosene lamp. He was simple,
natural, gracious and unassuming in his manner. There
were no guards or aides about him, Though his conversa-*
tion was easy and fluent, it also possessed the quality of
terse directness. While the commissioners remained for two
days quartered on a dispatch boat, Stephens saw Grant fre
quently. Between the two men a friendship was born that
later served Stephens in good stead* It was evident that the
General was anxious both for the conference to be held and
for peace to be restored. Yet, despite the passport he
had given Blair, Lincoln was about to refuse to see the
Confederate commissioners* However, upon the receipt

278 LITTLE ALECK

of Grant's telegram of February first, In which the General
expressed his belief that the intentions of Stephens and
Hunter were good and that their desire to restore peace was
entirely sincere, Lincoln telegraphed that he would come
to Hampton Roads.

He knew, of course, that his advisers were not in favor of
peace negotiations. (That day Gideon Welles, Secretary
of the United States Navy, was writing in his diary, "The
President and Mr. Seward have gone to Hampton Roads
to have an interview with the Rebel commissioners, Stephens,
Hunter, and Campbell. None of the Cabinet were advised
of this move, and, without exception, I think, it struck them
unfavorably that the Chief Magistrate should have gone
on such a mission.")

The next morning the commissioners went aboard the
President's steamer. Because the wind was blowing cold
across the bay, Alexander Stephens was wrapped in a great
coat, muffler and several shawls. He was standing in the
saloon of Lincoln's steamer, beginning to unwind, when the
President entered and stood looking on with that half-sad,
half-merry smile of his. When the operation was ended,
he advanced toward Stephens with outstretched hand,
"Never," said he, "have I seen so small a nubbin come out
of so much husk." Alexander Stephens laughed, and the
ice was broken. The two men had been fast friends in
Congress years before. Together they had worked as fel
low Whigs. On the floor of Congress, they had both op
posed the Mexican War. They had been among the first
seven Young Indians who started the "Taylor for Presi
dent" movement. After Lincoln's election, they had written
each other friendly letters. Certainly now they were not
personal enemies. Reminiscences of the old days in Con
gress would be vastly more pleasant than the mission that
was nowJbringing them together. So, for a while they talked
of the past according to the anecdotal fashion in which both

OLD FRIENDS CONFER 279

men excelled. It was Alexander Stephens who directed the
conversation into another channel.

"Well, Mr. President," he said, "is there no way of put
ting an end to the present trouble and bringing about a
restoration of the general good feeling and harmony, exist
ing between the different states and sections of the country ?"

(Perhaps Lincoln noticed that he did not say "of the two
countries." Had Jefferson Davis been present, how dis
turbed he would have been!)

At once Secretary Seward wanted to be assured that the
conference would be entirely informal, with no note-taking
by any one* There was general assent. Then Stephens
repeated his question,

"There is only one way," Lincoln replied, "and that for
those resisting the law to cease resistance."

"Is there no other question that might temporarily en
gage our attention?" Stephens asked, adding that he had
been led to believe that there was*

"I suppose you refer to something Mr Blair has said,"
Lincoln countered and launched upon an elaborate explana
tion concerning the unauthorized nature of Blair's visit to
Davis.

Stephens then introduced the Mexican situation and the
violation of the Monroe Doctrine, which were matters of
concern to both North and South.

"There can be no settlement without the recognition of
the national authority of the United States no armistice,"
Lincoln replied emphatically*

The argument that followed, though friendly and earnest
on both sides, brought forth no plans for settlement. At
last Judge Campbell asked Lincoln to state the terms upon
which he would be willing to end the war,

"By the Confederate States disbanding their armies and
permitting the national authorities to resume their funo-
tkma n said

28o LITTLE ALECK

Further he declared that he would never change or moclify
his proclamation freeing the slaves.

Mr. Hunter interpolated his conviction that the condition
of the emancipated slaves would be utterly pitiable. What
did the President of the United States propose to do to help
the poor blacks whom he had declared free? Lincoln re
plied by telling a story that concerned a destitute farmer
and dependent pigs. The fellow had solved the problem
by saying, "Let 'em root." The parable was a perfect
answer to Mr. Hunter's question.

'That, Mr. President," said Stephens, "must be the origin
of the adage, 'Root, pig, or perish.' "

"If the Confederate States should abandon the war,"
Stephens asked later, "would they be admitted to repre
sentation in Congress?"

Lincoln replied entirely in character that, while he thought
they should be, he could not treat with parties in arms
against the government.

"This has often been done," said Hunter, "especially by
Charles the first when at civil war with the British parlia

ment."

"I do not profess to be posted on history," Lincoln re
plied. "On all such matters, I will turn you over to Seward.
All I distinctly recollect about the case of Charles is that
he lost his head in the end."

Though the conference lasted for several hours, it came
to nothing. When Stephens insisted that something be done
to alleviate the suffering of the prisoners of war, Lincoln
evaded the whole question by saying that all matters of
exchange were in the hands of General Grant. Thus the
conference ended. Before leaving the steamer, however,
Stephens asked that his nephew, John A. Stephens, then
in a northern prison, be exchanged. Lincoln promised to
attend to the matter as soon as he reached Washington* In
parting, Stephens expressed the hope that the President

OLD FRIENDS CONFER 281

would reconsider the question of an armistice and reverse
his decision against it.

'Well, Stephens/' Mr. Lincoln replied, "I do not think
my mind will change, but I will reconsider."

The commissioners returned to Richmond, where Alex
ander Stephens, as Vice-President of the Confederate States,
was to have his last interview as such with the President
whom he had opposed through four tragic years.

Almost at the moment, Lincoln was reporting to his
Cabinet the results of the Hampton Roads Conference.
'The President and Mr. Seward got home this morning,"
Gideon Welles entered in his diary on February fourth.
"Both speak of the interview with the Rebel commissioners
as having been pleasant and without acrimony. ... No re
sults were obtained, but the discussion will be likely to tend
to peace. In going the President acted from honest sin
cerity and without pretension He thinks that he, better

than any other agent, can negotiate and arrange. Seward
wants to do this/'

Stephens was returning to Georgia to await the catas
trophe, which he now believed to be inevitable. When the
people of Richmond asked him to address them, he refused,
for he was unwilling to impart hope that he himself did not
feel. He could not know that Lincoln was keeping his
promise to reconsider the decision that he had given the
Confederate commissioners and that he was being thwarted
by his Cabinet According to Welles's entry in his diary on
February sixth, "the President had matured a scheme, which
he hoped would be successful in promoting peace. It was
a proposition for paying the expenses of the war for two
hundred days or four hundred millions, to the Rebel states,
to be for the extinguishment of slavery, or for such pur
pose as the states were disposed* It did not meet with favor
but was dropped/*

Soon after Alexander Stephens reached Crawfordville,

282 LITTLE ALECK

his nephew arrived, bringing with him a letter from Abra
ham Lincoln. "According to our agreement," wrote the
President, "your nephew, Lieutenant Stephens, goes to you,
bearing this note. Please, in return, to select and send to
me, that officer of the same rank imprisoned at Richmond
whose physical condition most urgently requires his release."

On April ninth General Lee surrendered to General
Grant.

At Liberty Hall the Vice-President of the Confederacy
awaited the terribtfe aftermath of defeat.

CHAPTER XX
THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH

ALEXANDER STEPHENS returned from his imprisonment at
Fort Warren an old man. Yet, according to the calendar
reading, he was but fifty-four. His hair, which had been
chestnut brown on the day of his arrest, had become snow
white. In color and texture his cheeks resembled a dried
apricot* He walked with the tottering uncertainty of se
nescence. His deep-set eyes showed that he had suffered
and that tragedy was then heavy upon him.

Georgia had been laid waste by the pillaging army that
had so recently made its way to the sea. The people, in
poverty and want, were mourning the dead and struggling
to feed and clothe the living* The state loss in slave prop
erty had been estimated to be $272,015,490, The land
had fallen to half its former value. Over two thousand
miles of railway had been stripped and ravaged* Never
theless, from Liberty Hall Alexander Stephens began to
preach his gospel of patience and industry* Good feeling
between the sections of the country must be restored. Then
through diligence the people could reclaim their lands. He
did not believe that the North would crush the states that
had surrendered. National prosperity depended too much
on the prosperity of the South for so shortsighted a policy
to be followed* Had he not talked with President Johnson ?
Was there not reason for him to know that the South would
be given a chance? The Radicals who had opposed Lin
coln's policies before the President's assassination and who
were striving to control Johnson would fail in their dia
bolical schemes.

284 LITTLE ALECK

Starting with North Carolina, the President had ap
pointed provisional governors for the returning states and
was proceeding to reconstruct the South essentially accord
ing to Lincoln's plans, which had involved excluding the
negro from the ballot box. During Alexander Stephens's
imprisonment, suffrage for the former slaves had been agi
tated throughout the North. Stephens had not disapproved
enfranchising the negro by a gradual process and had dis
cussed with Johnson the scheme he had evolved. His atti
tude, however, upon his return to Georgia, was to accept
whatever situation presented itself and make the best of
it. With the rest of the South, he was grateful for peace.
Now that the ports were open again, the states would resume
the trade upon which they had depended in other days.

The Georgia legislature convened, quickly repealed the
ordinance of secession, abolished slavery, ratified the
thirteenth amendment, repudiated the war debt, passed an
act allowing the freedmen to testify in courts, and remained
in session till December 15, 1865.

Judge C. J. Jenkins, whom the people had elected gov
ernor, was officially recognized by Washington on December
nineteenth. Reassembling on the fifth of January, the legis
lature elected Alexander H, Stephens and Herschel V. John
son to represent Georgia in the Senate of the United States.

On George Washington's birthday, Stephens, addressing
the legislature upon the condition of the country, urged
patience, a liberal spirit of forbearance, and the abandon
ment of all ill-feeling as the only means by which peace could
be maintained and happiness secured. The South, he said,
could rely upon the restoration policies of the President*
"We should accept the issues of war," he exhorted the law
makers, "and abide by them in good faith, , . . The Con
stitution 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, none

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 285

for any practical purpose can exist now, . . . The whole
United States, therefore, is now without question our coun
try, to be cherished and defended as such by all our hearts
and by all our arms."

Touching upon the new status of the negro, he pointed out
to the legislators that changes must be made in the laws of
the state. The negroes must be surrounded by protections.
"They cultivated your fields, ministered to your personal
wants, nursed and reared your children, and even in the
hour of peril they were, in the main, true to you and yours.
To them we owe a debt of gratitude as well as acts of kind
ness* . * * All obstacles, if there be any, should be removed.
. . - Channels of education should be open to them. Schools
and the usual means of moral and intellectual training should
be encouraged amongst them. This is the dictate not only
of what is right and just in itself, but it is also the prompt
ings 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 to be reared in ignorance,
depravity, and vice."

The people of Georgia> accustomed as they were to listen
to the words of the little leader whom they loved, were not
the only ones who were impressed by Alexander Stephens's
words* The speech, appearing in full in the New York
Tim$) then the organ of the administration, made a pro
found impression upon the country.

Stephens was speaking, however, not to cajole the North
but to quiet Georgia and to influence her to act construc
tively* As evidence of the effectiveness of his words, in less
than a month the legislature passed an act, removing all legal
disabilities from the negro.

In Congress Thaddeus Stevens, venomous in old age, had
already begun the poisonous work that was to make greater
wreckage of the country, which wise and good men were

286 LITTLE ALECK

trying to rebuild. Stevens's resolution, providing for a joint
committee from the House and the Senate to report whether
or not the Southern States were entitled to representation in
Congress, had passed in December. Nevertheless, in April,
1866, Andrew Johnson proclaimed that reconstruction had
been accomplished and that peace had been restored.

By the time the Georgia senators and representatives
reached Washington the Radical Congress had decided to
deny seats to southern members. The fight between John-
son and the Radicals had been acute since the executive veto
of the Freedmen's Bill and the speech of February twenty-
second, in which Johnson had announced that he looked
upon Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner and Wendell
Phillips u as being opposed to the fundamental principles of
this government/' The breach between the President and
the Radicals had widened when on March twenty-seventh
Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Bill "as a stride toward
centralization and the concentration of all legislative power
in the national government." On the evening of April sixth
the Senate passed the bill over the President's veto. Alex
ander Stephens sat quietly in the gallery as the vote was
taken. He knew that the omens were against the continu
ance of Johnson's policies and that from henceforth there
would be a fight to the finish between the President and the
Radicals.

General Grant had invited Stephens to the reception he
and Mrs. Grant were giving that evening. There were
rumors that Thaddeus Stevens and his crowd intended to
be present in large numbers and to appropriate Grant of
at least to convey to the public the impression that the
General was siding with thetft against the administration.
A motley assemblage gathered in the drawing-rooms of the
Grants. Alexander Stephens was circulating through the
crowd, meeting old acquaintances a strange little figure
mid the glitter and glamour when the President and his

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 287

two daughters arrived. Then came Montgomery Blair and
some of his ladies. When Thaddeus Stevens, Trumbull and
others of Stevens's group entered, amazement and disap
pointment were written upon their faces. They had not
believed that Andrew Johnson would appear in public im
mediately after the blow that had been dealt him by the
Senate. It was evident that the presence of Alexander
Stephens was also disconcerting. Now it appeared that
they could not at once offset the mischief Grant had done
by reporting after his trip through the former Confederacy
"that the people were more loyal and better disposed than
he had expected to find them and that every consideration
called for the early re-establishment of the Union." Nor
could they claim that the man who had invited the former
Vice-President of the Confederacy to his home favored the
harsh policy toward the South summed up in the Radical
pronouncement; "The conquered Rebels are at the mercy
of the conquerors, 7 * Mid the exultation over the senatorial
vote, there were frequent expressions of vexation that such
a strange assortment of people had attended General Grant's
reception, Thaddeus Stevens was merely gathering more
venom to spew upon the South.

On April sixteenth Alexander Stephens gave his testimony
before the Reconstruction Committee. He answered with
out fear and without malice all the questions that were put
to him. He said that he believed the people of Georgia
were anxious to assume their former place in the Union*
Though they had thought secession necessary, they had
abandoned the idea that liberty could be obtained through
force. He was speaking merely for himself, however, when
he expressed the opinion that the breaking down of the con
stitutional barriers during the war were the reasons for the
change of attitude. Though the state was accepting eman
cipation calmly, it was opposed to the enfranchisement of
the negro, he said* The question of suffrage, he believed to

288 LITTLE ALECK

be one that constitutionally belonged to the state. Yes, he
had opposed secession as a matter of policy and not be
cause he questioned the right. The war, he considered a
practical settlement of the issues involved.

Despite his brave words and despite his faith in many
northern leaders, Alexander Stephens returned to Georgia
pessimistic as to the future of the South. He could not
have known that even while he was in Washington "The
Reign of Terror" was being inaugurated. Yet vague fore
bodings dragged upon his mind.

Georgia had been laid waste, and there were few to re
build it, for the negroes had at last discovered that they
were free. Free to earn a living, to educate their children,
to till the soil and make crops that would bring them money?
Not at all I They were free to lie idle in the pleasant sum
mer sun, frolic through the short nights and to sleep by day,
f^ee to vent their passions at religious revivals that were
followed by sexual excesses and raids upon pigsties and
barnyards. Children they were, suddenly released from
supervision. Northerners had come South for the purpose
of turning them from their former masters. The negroes
listened and paid guileless heed to what they heard. Across
the state line in South Carolina Mrs. Chesnut was writing
in her diary, "The negroes have flocked to the Yankee
squad." One old freedman was saying cheerfully, "If you
want anything, call for Sambo I means call me Mr*
Samuel dat my name now." Negro girls were adorning
themselves fantastically and coquetting with the Yankee
soldiers. The slaves believed that the land that had be
longed to their masters would be given to them. Grant,
in his report, had credited the agents of the Freedmen's
Bureau with telling the poor blacks that such were the plans
of the government. All night the air was filled with weird
chantings from the revivals. In the mornings there were
no negro laborers in the fields, no cooks in the kitchens.

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 289

The conditions described in South Carolina prevailed also
in Georgia,

But the negroes at Liberty Hall were still boasting that
they belonged to Marse Aleck. Uncle Dick was then eighty
years old and his wife, Aunt Mat, about seventy. Too old
to work, they gave a pleasant bit of color to the place
Aunt Mat in her gay bandanna and Uncle Dick with his
predilection for red shirts. Then down at the Homestead
there was another pensioner Uncle Ben, who had belonged
to Alexander Stephens's father and who years before had
begged Marse Aleck to buy him. Eliza and Harry and all
their dusky tribe, which had sprung successively into being
after Marse Aleck's consent to the marriage of his Eliza
to Googer's Harry, were as loyal as ever. Ellen, aged
fifteen, and Tim, aged twelve, were old enough to be quite
useful, the girl helping her mother with the cooking and
Tim acting as serving boy and sleeping in the room with
his master. The little fellows merely romped on the lawn
and were petted and scolded and spoiled by Marse Aleck.
Then there was a young negro who went by the name of
George. Assistant gardener was the title he used, but as
a matter of fact, he was merely Harry's right-hand man.
While Alexander Stephens was at Fort Warren, the negroes
had kept the place in ship-shape, quite as though it had
belonged to them and that, in reality, was how they
thought of it. Now, though they were getting weekly
wages, out of which they were supposed to buy their clothes
and their pleasures, they were not conscious of changed
status* Clothes they had always had and very good ones
at that, for they knew how to wheedle from Marse Aleck
just what they wanted; and there had never been any scarcity
of spending money, with the tips that were for ever jin
gling in their pockets* Their cottages, always comfortable,
were exactly as they had been before the war. Even the
children could not see that freedom brought any advantages,

290 LITTLE ALECK

for Marse Aleck was still insisting that they work at the
difficult task of learning to read and write and figure. "The
children take learning in broken doses," wrote a visitor at
Liberty Hall in 1866, "that is, they study a very little and
play a great deal."

In addition to Sir Bingo Binks, Troup and Frank were
two other canine successors of Rio. Very much spoiled dogs
they were, though by no means replacing Rio in their
master's affection. But dogs and negroes were not the only
companions of Alexander Stephens at Liberty Hall. His
nephew, John Alexander, one of the children his brother
had willed him, the same young man whom Lincoln had
exchanged for an officer of equal rank, was practising law
in Crawfordville and serving as his uncle's secretary. Then
the old man, Guinea O'Neal, whom the village had long
ago dubbed "The Parson," was living at Liberty Hall,
pottering about the yard or doing nothing at all as the notion
struck his erratic fancy. Linton Andrew, the nephew who
had so cheerfully entered the army to fight for the fair
sex, had married his pretty Lucinda Frances and was living
in Crawfordville. With guests dropping in constantly, it
was never hard to get up a game of whist. Yet what an
ordeal it was for Lucinda, who was commandeered so often^
to make a fourth at the table I She testifies to this day how
her knees shook beneath her and how the cards fluttered be
tween her trembling fingers. Uncle Aleck took his game
with such desperate seriousness, and he had such little pa
tience with players as inexperienced as she 1 Yet there was
nothing to do but draw up a chair when Uncle Aleck made
his request really a command for all around him. Why
was it that Mr. Stephens was always obeyed? Mrs. Linton
Andrew Stephens even now isn't quite sure. There was just
something indefinable that made him that way. No one
ever thought of opposing him. He didn't have to be firm,
for his very eyes commanded- Then, too, he was so gen*

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 291

erous and kind and considerate except at the card table that
it would have seemed a shame not to try to please him. Yet
how he could scold at whist! The little bride of Linton
Andrew used to feel very small and inconsequential when
she sat across the table from him, knowing that at any
moment some false lead of hers would occasion an out
burst that would set her teeth chattering for the rest of the
evening. It did no good to try to hide. If Uncle Aleck
needed another player, he would find her, and she would
have to spend a wretched two hours or so. It was perfectly
clear, too, that he was not really angry. When he held
those thirteen cards in his hand, he seemed not to be re
membering that there had been a war or an underground
cell at Fort Warren or that the country was in the throes
of radical policies.

The summer of 1866 held another interest for the Vice-
President who had lost his country and for the Senator
who had been deprived of his seat in Congress and for the
lawyer who was now too ill to accept the cases that he
might have been trying* Henry Cleveland was collecting
Stephens's speeches and gathering material for a biograph
ical sketch of the statesman. It was most important that
no errors creep in, for there had been misrepresentation
enough. Toombs said that Aleck would never be satisfied
until he had corrected the proof of his obituary. Well, let
Bob have his little joke 1 Alexander Stephens would do all
in his power to set himself right with thi public.

Poor Bob I Aleck was thinking of him often these days.
How much trouble he had caused himself by escaping
through the back door when Captain Saint came to arrest
him I It would have been better to endure an underground
cell in a northern prison. At least Stephens was now at
home, while Toombs was an exile from America, after hav
ing wandered through Georgia for six months before he
found a way to evade the vigilant Yankees. Stephens had

292 LITTLE ALECK

heard part of the story from Linton at Fort Warren. The
rest he had gathered after his return. Then, too, a letter
had come from Toombs, describing his experience as a fugi
tive, how he had finally reached Mobile, where Miss Augusta
Evans and her father, dismissing the servants that there
might be no chance of his identity being discovered, had
entertained him until he could get out of the country. At
once Alexander Stephens wrote a note of appreciation to
the authoress. "I have just received a letter from Mr.
Toombs," he said, "who has been so united with me in
friendship and destiny all our lives, giving such account of
the kind attentions from you and your father while in
Mobile, that I can not forbear to thank you and him for it
in the same strain and terms as if these attentions had been
rendered to myself. What you did for my friend in this
particular, you did for me."

Castor was missing his Pollux, and Georgia was needing
her Toombs. On June eighth Congress passed the four
teenth amendment. Its ratification was now before the leg
islatures of the states. The amendments safeguarded the
citizenship of the negroes, virtually based congressional
representation among the number of voters, disqualified for
federal office all persons who had engaged in the rebellion
or who had "given aid and comfort to the enemy," and re
pudiated the Confederate debt. When Alexander Stephens
had appeared before the Reconstruction Committee, he had
said, "The people of Georgia feel that they are entitled
under the Constitution of the United States to representa
tion. ... I do not think they should ratify the amendment
suggested (one to base representation substantially upon
the voters) as a condition precedent to her being admitted
to representation in Congress."

Still hopeful, Stephens attended the National Union Con
vention held in Philadelphia on August fourteenth. The
gathering had been instigated by Seward and Weed, with

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 293

the concurrence of the President and Henry J. Raymond,
Editor of the New York Time's. In Georgia Joe Brown
presided over the meeting called to elect delegates. Alex
ander Stephens, Herschel V. Johnson, A. H. Chappell, and
D. A, Walker were chosen to represent the state. Linton
Stephens attended as one of the district representatives.
Moderate men from the South joined with Republicans and
Democrats from the North who wanted to put an end to
the strife that had continued long enough. From twelve
to fifteen thousand delegates gathered in the gigantic wig
wam built for the occasion. The spirit was good. Arm in
arm walked the delegates from Massachusetts and the dele
gates from South Carolina, with General Couch, of Mas
sachusetts, and Governor Orr, of South Carolina, leading
them. So throughout the country the meeting was known
as the Arm-in-Arm Convention. "Slavery is abolished and
forever prohibited," said Judge Verger, of Mississippi, "and
nobody wants it back again. 1 * Governor Graham replied
that he could safely say that North Carolinians agreed with
Verger and that the sentiment was echoed by the entire
South. The convention passed resolutions, endorsing Presi
dent Johnson's reconstruction program.

Nevertheless, the Radicals, headed by Thaddeus Stevens,
were marching on as surely as Sherman had trampled the
state of Georgia on his way to the sea. The Radical victory
at the polls in the fall of 1866 officially inaugurated the
Reign of Terror in the South*

At home in Crawfordville, Alexander Stephens was mak
ing no fight against the military rule that had been inflicted
upon the state* The hope that had radiated from his
speech before the Georgia legislature had utterly disap
peared. What chance was there that his feeble voice could
be heard above the clamor of the Radicals? The President,
swinging through the country on a speech-making tour, was
meeting with insults at every stop. In Cleveland cries of

294 LITTLE ALECK

"Traitor," u Hang Jeff Davis," "You abandoned your party"
and other interruptions made speaking out of the question.
In Chicago the audience showed as little decorum. Certain
that he could be of no service to his people, Alexander
Stephens determined to write a book. He was visiting his
friend, Richard Johnston, in December, 1866, when he
reached his decision. He would adopt the dialogue form
after the manner of the ancients, he said. Then forthwith
he took to reading Cicero's Tuscalan Disputations. "Listen
to this," he said, looking up as he began the second book,
"pain is no evil, the fellow says. If a calculus had been
in any of their kidneys, they would have thought it as bad
as I do." He had not progressed a great deal farther
when he arrived at a defalcation of Demetrius to the Stoic
doctrine because of a disorder in the kidneys. "I told you
so," the little sufferer chuckled. "Kidney trouble is enough
to rob the staunchest Stoic of his philosophy."

There was a wedding in Crawfordville that December.
Stephens's widowed niece, Mary Stephens Reid, was married
to William H. Corry on December twelfth. After the
death of her first husband Mollie, with her little son, had
lived at her mother's home in Crawfordville, She, too,
was one of the children John L. Stephens had left to his
brother. The morning of the wedding Uncle Aleck sent
for her.

"Well, Mollie," he said, "you have two things I want
you to give me. May I have them?"

Mollie was amazed. Uncle Aleck asking favors of
people Uncle Aleck who was accustomed to give, not to
receive 1

"Why, of course," she replied. "You're welcome to any
thing I have."

"Well, they are possessions of yours to which IVe taken
rather a fancy. That little marble-top table I want There's
a spot in my parlor that needs it."

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 295

Mollie laughed.

'The table's yours, Uncle Aleck. Now what's the other
possession you're coveting?"

"The little Leidy. I want you to give him to me to rear
and to educate."

Mollie was no longer smiling.

"I don't know what mother will think of that, Uncle
Aleck," she said. "She's had Leidy with her so long. Since
all of us are marrying and leaving her, she's been counting
on having Leidy. I'm afraid you've asked a favor I can't
grant"

There was a twinkle in Stephens's eye.

"Who said anything about taking Leidy away from his
grandmother?" he countered. "You don't object to my
educating him, do you?"

Then Mollie assured him that the favor could be granted.
Somehow, as long as she had known him, she had never
quite understood Uncle Aleck. She remembered that once,
when she had attempted to kiss him, he had 'waved her aside
with a crisp, "Now, none of that, Mollie 1" Yet she had
known that he wanted the affection that he seemed unable to
accept. Instead, he showered his family with gifts and re
ceived nothing in return, How he had outfitted her brothers
who had been living at the Old Homestead 1 Such an array
of china and silver as he had sent then platters large
enough for hotel service I How absurdly full he had kept
their larder 1 Mollie was very grateful to Uncle Aleck for
wanting her little mahogany table. (Years later, when writ
ing his will, Alexander Stephens remembered that the table
had belonged to Mollie and bequeathed it to her.)

Early the following year the book was begun. John Grier
Stephens, another son of Aleck's brother John, served as
amanuensis* The young man soon saw that he had under
taken an enormous task, for Uncle Aleck was outrageously
particular concerning not only historical detail but English

296 LITTLE ALECK

as well. Once when John read a chapter aloud, the author
pointed out a mistake in grammar that must be corrected.
"Oh, Uncle Aleck," the nephew argued, a trifle exasperated,
"there isn't one person in a thousand that would notice
that."

"But that's the very one I wouldn't want to see it,"
Stephens replied.

Work was Alexander Stephens's salvation during the
terrible year of 1867. On March second the Reconstruc
tion Act was passed by Congress : the Southern States were
divided into five military districts; all male citizens "of
whatever race, color, or previous condition" should have the
right to vote, "except such as may be disfranchised for par
ticipation in the rebellion"; conventions must be held to
frame new state constitutions that would provide for negro
suffrage; when the resultant legislatures of these states
should have ratified the fourteenth amendment, and when
that amendment should have become part of the Constitu
tion, the senators and representatives of the states, on tak
ing the "iron-clad oath," should be admitted to Congress.
On March twenty-third teeth were put in the earlier act
when provision was made for registration and election. No
one could qualify as a voter until he had sworn that he had
not taken part in the rebellion. Georgia was at the mercy
of the slackers, the negroes, and the northerners who had
recently migrated into her territory. Toombs was still out
of the state; Howell Cobb was silent; Joe Brown had gone
over to the Republican ranks, declaring that the only hope
of the state lay in submission; Alexander Stephens, sick and
hopeless, was trying through work to forget himself and his
surroundings and was taking little part in public affairs.
To Dr. E. M Chapin he wrote on March twenty-ninth that
in his judgment white men who could qualify as voters
should do so,

"The Congressional plan of Reconstruction will be car-

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 297

ried out," he said. "Whether the whites who are not dis
franchised join in forming a new organization or not ... I
think they should be governed by the public interest only.
By taking part they may secure control, and thus save them
selves from domination by the black race." He had already
written Montgomery Blair concerning the colonization plan
Blair was proposing. He believed that it was to the interest
of both races to live together ; removal would be enormously
expensive and would bring upon the negroes shocking suffer
ing and loss of life ; moreover, the blacks could not maintain
civilization except in contact with a type higher than their
own.

Finally was heard the voice of the man who had so long
been Stephens's enemy and who, because of many similar
ities of characteristics and purposes, should have been
friendly with the other great statesman. On July to, 1867,
Ben Hill spoke to the people of Atlanta on the Military Bill
Alexander Stephens, reading the account of that speech,
could not fail to applaud the gift of invective that had once
cut him to the quick* "Ye hypocrites I Ye whited sepulchres !
Ye mean in your hearts to deceive him and buy the negro
vote for your own benefit I" he said to the Bureau agents
and carpetbaggers* "Ye hell-born rioters in sacred things I"
he denounced the Radicals. What should Georgians do?
In piercing words Hill thundered the advice that Stephens
was giving in milder fashion* The people should register.
By their ballots they should free the state of the fakers,
quacks and demagogues.

But Ben Hill was only forty-fourover six feet of vigor
ous manhood, Alexander Stephens was fifty-five a frail
body wracked by pain. He was writing a book that would
explain to the world the causes underlying the war and
perhaps would reawaken the Anglo-Saxon love of liberty.
A Constitutional Fiew of the War between the States it
would be called. At present he could do no more.

298 LITTLE ALECK

Though peace reigned at Liberty Hall, the rest of the
state was in turmoil. The Supreme Court of the United
States having decided that the Military Act did not come
within its jurisdiction, the generals in charge of the districts
were continuing their work undisturbed. General Meade,
to whom Georgia had been assigned, removed Governor
Jenkins from office and gave the place to one of his generals.
Jenkins fled, carrying the state seal with him. In Georgia
the people were too poor and too crushed to do a great
deal of protesting. The cotton crop, upon which their
prosperity depended, had been small, of course. The
large production in India had lowered the price. "The
whole South is settled and quiet," wrote Frances Butler, a
young woman who had returned after spending the period
of the war in the North, "and the people too ruined and
crushed to do anything against the government even if they
felt so inclined, and all are returning to their former peace
ful pursuits, trying to rebuild their fortunes and thinking
of nothing else. Yet the treatment we receive from the gov
ernment becomes more and more severe every day. The
one subject southerners discuss whenever they meet is, ( What
is to become of us?'" Of the one hundred and seventy
delegates that met at the state convention, thirty-three were
negroes. Yet under the leadership of Joe Brown, who was
trying to justify his apostasy, a fairly good constitution was
passed. Though universal negro suffrage was adopted, no
white man was disfranchised.

By the end of December the first volume of A Consti*
tutional Fiew of the War between the States was finished.
Stephens had written a profound exposition of constitutional
government, and he had given a name to the recent struggle,
Often in speeches he had used the term "War between the
States." Now he was to see that term crystallized on the
cover of a book that would be read throughout the land.
He had, moreover, by carefully documented argument,

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 299

proved that it was not a "civil war" that had just ended.
Alexander Stephens carried his book to Philadelphia.
Then, while it was being put through the press, he visited
Richard Johnston, who had moved near Baltimore. When
the galley proof was before him, came the discouragement
that every author knows. The book was not so good as
he had thought it. Why had it ever occurred to him that
he could be a writer? He adopted without protest all the
changes Linton had suggested and then in a letter, "I am
fully convinced that writing is not my forte. The truth
is I have no forte. I am fit for nothing and never ought
to have attempted to do what nature never designed me
to do."

Perhaps it was Linton's marriage to Mary Salter the year
before that was inducing the melancholy moods. Not a
whit, however, had he receded from the estimate of Miss
Mary's worth* She was as charming as he had thought her
when she and her mother had visited him at Fort Warren.
He might have known that her reading of Enoch Arden that
day in the prison was irresistible. Aleck himself had ad
mitted that never before had he been able to see any great
beauty in Tennyson, Still, it must have been hard a second
time to relinquish Linton to some one else*

As though nephritic calculus and malaria and neuralgia
and all the other ailments were not enough for any one
man, Stephens slipped upon the icy street in Philadelphia
and was so severely injured that he had to do his proof
reading in bed* All the while he was watching the trend of
events at the capital The House had passed articles of
impeachment against the President. The injustice of the
Radical attack upon Johnson distressed him no little. Here
was another man martyred by the opponents of constitu
tional liberty* Would there never be an end to the infamies
that had been committed in the name first of freeing the
negro and then of safeguarding his citizenship ? "The Pres-

300 LITTLE ALECK

ident's letter to the Senate, in answer to their resolutions on
the subject, is an able paper," he wrote, and added pro
phetically, "It will forever justify his acts in the minds of
rightly thinking men, whatever may be the results of the
impeachment. I have said nothing to you on politics lately.
I feel like a passenger who has no control in the direction
of the ship." In April Alexander Stephens returned to
Crawfordville.

That month the Republicans nominated Rufus Bullock as
their candidate for governor. A handsome, easy-going man
he was, with a pleasant smile and ability to promote his
own interests. For nine years he had been a resident of
Georgia, unknown in public circles. The Democrats nom
inated John B. Gordon and worked jointly for his election
and for the defeat of the Constitution. Joe Brown was for
Bullock and the Constitution. Alexander Stephens occupied
a middle ground. He wanted Gordon for governor, but he
thought it was just as well to accept the Constitution. "If
the Radicals continue in power in the nation," he said, "we
could not expect to get a better state constitution. , . .
Under it, all whites as well as blacks are entitled to vote. If
this constitution should be rejected another disfranchising
a larger class of whites as in Tennessee and Alabama might
be put upon us."

Bullock became governor; the constitution stood; eighteen
Democrats and twenty-six Republicans were elected to the
Senate; and the political division of the House was un
certain. Twenty-eight negroes became legislators.

In July the fireworks began. Toombs was back from
exile; Ben Hill had not lost his oratorical power; Howell
Cobb emerged from retirement; and one Raphael J. Moses
leaped into prominence. The Democrats gathered at a
mighty convention. Beneath an arbor of bushes stood the
speakers, while mobs sweltered on plank seats* All the
pent-up hatred and suppressed resentment of the indignities

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 301

that had been visited upon the South found expression in
the words of the orators. The Radicals, the carpetbaggers,
the scalawags, and the southern reconstructionists were
pelted with sharpened words. The abuse of Joe Brown for
his defection was savage. In his excitement Toombs threw
his hat into the crowd. A bright-faced boy picked it up and
brought it to him. The lad was Henry Grady, who was
later to play an important part in reconstructed Georgia.
Perhaps that day inflammable material within him was ig
nited by the fires of southern oratory. At any rate, Toombs,
Hill, Cobb and Moses succeeded in waking the people from
their hopeless apathy.

When the legislature declared Bullock governor for four
years, the applause was slight "Go to it, niggers 1" called
a voice from the galleries, and the twenty-eight dusky as
semblymen responded with corn-field whoops. The Gover
nor's message was short, for Bullock was a man of action
not of words. Then the legislature proceeded to the elec
tion of senators. Joe Brown, Aleck Stephens, Joshua Hill,
C, H. Hopkins were the candidates. The Democrats had
but one objective and that was to defeat Brown. On the
first ballot the vote stood Brown 102; Stephens 96;
Hill 13; Hopkins x Immediately the Stephens phalanx
rushed to Hill. Brown was defeated by sixteen votes.
There was a tornado of applause. Hats were hurled into
the air. Men clambered across desks. Joe Brown, who
had deserted the party, had been Hcked I The police were
called to restore order. Georgians did not realize that
they had elected a Republican. They knew only that his
name was not Brown. Hill declared his party affiliation,
and the Democrats ceased their exultations. It was dawn
ing upon them that their Little Aleck had been sacrificed.

Such a legislature! Carpetbaggers, scalawags, and
negroes who could not read and write I A few men of an
other sort, however, had crept in, some Republicans, some

302 LITTLE ALECK

Democrats. It was better than the South Carolina legisla
ture, where there were eighty-five negroes, fifty-two carpet
baggers and scalawags, and twenty-one Democrats, for in
Georgia the white Republicans fast sickened of the situa
tion. H. L Kimball, with his fingers dipping in the
treasury, while the negroes sang :

"H. I. Kimball's on de flo'.
Tain't gwine rain no mo' I"

Carpetbaggers from the West serving as Bullock's hench
men 1 Georgians were not blaming the f reedmen ; they were
sorry for the poor creatures who in their ignorance were fol
lowing corrupt leaders. Nevertheless, the legislature ex
pelled the negro members but not before Georgia had
complied with those requirements upon which her readmis-
sion into the Union depended.

At Liberty Hall Alexander Stephens was far from happy,
He was being criticized by the press throughout the South
for his inaction and for his willingness to see the fourteenth
amendment ratified by the Southern States. As usual he
suffered because of the popular misunderstanding of his
attitude. "To defeat it at this step of the question could
do us no possible good that I could see, but might do us
harm. It would continue us under military rule* . * *
Enough states have already adopted it to make it part of
the Constitution,"

Then, too, some of the reviews of his book were unfavor
able. Dr. A. T. Bledsoe in The Southern Quarterly
Review had been lengthily critical. Therefore, it behooved
the little man, who never left anything unanswered, to pre
pare a still more lengthy criticism of Doctor Bledsoe's re
view. This was published in The Baltimore Statesman and
called forth a rejoinder from Bledsoe. So for ever new
links were being welded in the chain. Alexander Stephens
was kept exceedingly busy taking critics to task for what

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 303

they had said. Later he was to collect a number of the
articles and, in further vindication of his public stands, to
publish them in a book which he styled The Reviewers
Reviewed.

The first volume of A Constitutional View of the War
between the States was going well. Already it was bringing
in returns that compensated for the time the author had
taken from the practise of law. Perhaps it was in recogni
tion of the merits of the book that the University of Georgia
offered Alexander Stephens the chair of Political Science
and History. This time there was a bit of variety in the
ailment upon which his declining was based, for he was
suffering with rheumatism. The pain in his knees was so
acute that he was scarcely able to hobble about the house.

According to a story that is still told in Georgia, it was
during this year that Stephens and Toombs together entered
a crowded train and that Stephens sat beside a countryman,
who immediately showed signs of opening friendly con
versation.

"Stranger," asked the man, "what might be your name?"

"Stephm/' came the piping reply with meticulous empha
sis upon the last syllable.

"Stephens! And what might your first name be?"

"Aleck Stephens. Alexander H. Stephens" said the
former Vice-President in thin shrillness.

"Wall, wall," replied the countryman, "I wonder if yc
be airy kin to Bill Stephens, the blacksmith."

Toombs, who had been listening to the dialogue, leaped
to his feet, throwing both his mighty arms into the air.

"My God I" he roared to the astonishment of the other
passengers. "Such is fame 1"

"Now I see," Stephens flashed, "why it was Robert
Toombs could wander through Georgia six months without
being discovered even though there was a price on his
head,"

304 LITTLE ALECK

It would have been better perhaps if the rheumatism had
continued. It might have prevented the walk that caused
Stephens to be lame the remainder of his life. Late in
February, 1869, he and the little negro boy, Quin, were
rambling together across a field, the boy a few paces behind
his master. A fence and a large iron gate separated one
pasture from another. Until Mr. Stephens's hand was
actually on the gate, it probably had not occurred to Quin
that Marse Aleck would try to open it. Then he called in
terror, "Marse Aleck, don't open dat gate." But Alexander
Stephens, who was not used to receiving orders from small
negro boys, gave the gate a tug. It fell^ upon him. In
answer to Quin's screams for help, Mr. John Aiken arrived.
Mr. Stephens was taken to the home of Mr. Rhodes and
later to Liberty Hall. "Effen Marse Aleck had er minded
me, he wouldn't er got hurt," the weeping lad told Harry
and Eliza and all the other servants who were blaming him
for neglected stewardship. The accident was the finishing
touch to the invalidism that had cursed Alexander Stephens
since early boyhood. An injured hip kept him confined to
his bed for weeks and condemned him afterward to crutches
and a wheel-chair. He never referred to the accident, and
he allowed no specific mention of its nature in the biography
that was published during his life. It was rheumatism, he
said, that caused his lameness*

While Alexander Stephens was trying to recover, in order
to complete the second volume of his book, Georgia was
again feeling the weight of the iron hand. By expelling the
negroes from her legislature and by seating therein white
men ineligible under the fourteenth amendment, she had in
curred the displeasure of the authorities. Her senators had
been admitted. The forty-first Congress, however, as*
scmbling in March, was shutting out her representatives
and hearing the clamor that she be remanded to military
rule. Then on December twenty-second under radical

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 305

sure Congress passed an important act: members of the
Georgia legislature must take oath that they were not
ineligible under the fourteenth amendment or that their
disabilities had been removed; no negro might be excluded
on account of his color; the President should employ mili
tary force to execute the act; and Georgia must ratify the
fifteenth amendment before her senators and representa
tives could be admitted to Congress. General Terry forth
with was placed in command of Georgia to perpetrate the
outrage known as 'Terry's Purge." Twenty-four Demo
crats were ousted from the legislature and replaced by
Republicans, and the negroes were returned. Immediately
the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were ratified.

In the meantime Bullock was showing signs of nervous
ness* Military rule could not last indefinitely. Another
election was near at hand* It would be well to prolong the
regime of the present legislature that seemed to have little
inclination toward an investigation. There were a great
many things that it would never do for even the Radicals
to discover about Bullock, For instance, the matter of the
railroad, to which Georgia had a sentimental attachment
that had increased since the warl One of Stephens' first
speeches m the legislature had concerned the project in its
early stages. Under Brown's administration the road had
put money into the coffers of the state. Now it ran through
the very land upon which General Johnston had repelled
Sherman's advances* The road was no longer paying; it
was creating a debt Many deduced that Bullock and his
henchmen had pocketed the profits. Now the Governor
was proposing that there be no other election till the fall
of 1872. In behalf of his prolongation scheme, he was lob
bying in Washington earnestly and unscrupulously, giving
parties, entertaining the congressmen at his rooms with
Georgia paying the bill But Bullock went too far. Per
haps because Congress saw through his scheme or perhaps

306 LITTLE ALECK

because Ben Hill made a visit to Washington, on July
fifteenth Georgia's right to hold an election in November,
1870, was affirmed.

In August the Democrats met in convention for the pur
pose of reorganizing their party. Sane men had decided
that nothing could be accomplished by inaction. On the
j>lans for the meeting Alexander Stephens had been at work,
though Linton was to be his mouthpiece. The brother pre
pared ringing resolutions that were intended to sound the
note which the trumpets were to continue until the people
were awakened. Linton introduced the resolutions. Unan
imously adopted, they became the new Georgia Platform.
The little Moses, who could not leave his wheel-chair, was
again leading Georgia out of the wilderness, with his
brother Aaron to speak for him. Again constitutional
liberty was the theme and the variations were slight. The
state party must stand on the principles of the Democratic
Party of the Union, said the resolutions. That this is a
union of states and that the doctrine of state rights and state
equality is indestructible, was reaffirmed. Georgians were
urged to cooperate at the approaching election to change
the present usurping and corrupt administration by placing
in power men true to the principles of constitutional liberty
and to the faithful and economical administration of public
affairs.

The election witnessed the redemption of the state from
carpetbag rule. Bullock Ijad tried to prevent just what hap
pened. He had induced the legislators to extend the election
over a three-day period in order that the negroes might
be given a chance to repeat from precinct to precinct. He
had put through a law providing that no votes should be
challenged and declaring that the poll tax should no longer
be a requisite to voting. On election day Linton Stephen
was active. For his vigilance in challenging the votes of
repeaters and for insisting Oft the payment of the poll tax

THE VENGEFUL AFTERMATH 307

as a constitutional requirement, he was arrested, and, upon
refusing to give bond, was put in jail. There was excite
ment throughout all Georgia during the election. The new
attitude on the part of the whites was terrifying the negroes,
who were beginning to decide that perhaps, after all, this
was a white man's country- Linton's arrest provided the
Stephenses an opportunity to restate their interpretation
of the Constitution, for Linton, in consultation with his
brother, prepared his own defense.

"The public mind needs an awakening," Alexander
Stephens wrote in characteristic vein after Linton had de
livered himself before the court. "Particular cases have
always been the immediate occasions of awakening. Most
fortunate it is for any man, so far as it relates to his fame
and distinction, to be the one prominent in the case of the
awakening."

Linton's address was delivered on January 23, 1871,
before a federal commission. The case was dropped as
Georgians might have expected in the light of President
Grant's reply given to Bullock's committee that waited upon
him, charging frauds in the Georgia election. "Gentle*
men" said the President, "the people of Georgia may
govern themselves as they please* without any interference
on my part, so long as they violate no federal law."

Those words officially ended the Reign of Terror in
Georgia*

CHAPTER XXI
THE HARVEST YEARS

JANUARY, 1872! Alexander Stephens was nearing the end
of his sixtieth year. He was condemned to crutches and
a wheel-chair. He had been intermittently ill for months.
Nevertheless, he was still very much alive. Part II of A
Constitutional View of the War between the States had
been completed. He had written A School History of the
United States, also in two volumes. He had been teaching
law to five young men, who were living with him at Liberty
Hall. Zeno I. Fitzpatrick, Juriah H. Casey, Paul C. Hud
son, William G. Stephens and John T. Olive they were. In
compliance with their request that he set down the principles
that he had taught them, he had published a pamphlet on
the study of law. He had read all the reviews of his books,
and he had answered those that were unfavorable. Fortu
nately, many had pleased him. The London Saturday
Review, for instance, had said that the Constitutional View
showed "an unequalled knowledge of facts, an abundant
collection of authority, and a remarkable clearness of con
stitutional reasoning" and that "on the whole, no contribu
tion to the history of the Civil War of equal value had yet
been made," Through Consul George C. Tanner, the King
of Belgium was reported to have said something equally
superlative.

The preceding year had encompassed an unpleasant ex
perience that had caused Stephens a great deal of concern
as seriously as he always took any matter that might reflect
upon his integrity or judgment. It was evident that under
the Bullock administration there had been perpetrated in

308

THE HARVEST YEARS 309

connection with the Georgia State Railroad frauds that
had lined the pockets of the Governor and his henchman,
Foster Blodgett, the road superintendent. Having already
drawn six hundred thousand dollars of state funds for
maintenance, Bullock asked for an additional five hundred
thousand dollars for repairs. Then it had been decided to
lease the road. Brown organized a company and secured
the lease. Stephens became one of the stockholders. As
far as he knew, the transaction had been entirely straight.
Then had come a letter from Toombs, which expressed the
hope that the report of Aleck's connection with the lease
was a mistake. He dubbed the lessees "a lot of the greatest
rogues on the continent, your name excepted." From many
quarters there were cries of "Swindle 1" Alexander Stephens
connected with a swindle I He made an investigation and
discovered that, though a bid of thirty-four thousand, five
hundred dollars had been made, Brown had leased the road
for twenty-five thousand dollars a month. Then Stephens
drew out of the company, transferring his share of the
stock to the state, He had no intention of being connected
with a transaction that even suggested the possibility of
fraud.

In 1872 he was again stirring the stew within the political
kettle. With Archibald M. Speights and J. Henly Smith,
he had become co-proprietor of The Atlanta Sun and, as
political editor of the paper, was conducting a valiant fight
against the coalition of Liberal Republicans and Democrats
known as "The New Departure." Writing ponderous and
erudite editorials that scarcely any one read, the little
cripple was again in the fray and enjoying himself im
mensely.

October of the year before, the terrible Bullock had been
forced to resign. The regeneration of Georgia was com
pleted on January 12, 1872, when James ^ M, Smith, a
Democrat, was inaugurated governor. Politically the re-

310 LITTLE ALECK

spectable whites of Georgia, along with thdse of the sister
states of the late Confederacy, had swung in line with the
party of the "Solid South," which must henceforth present
an adamantine front against Republicanism. Peace had
been restored. Miss Frances Butler, who had written two
years before that "the negroes were almost in a state of
mutiny," had declared that the negroes were then "behaving
like lambs." The general amnesty of May twenty-second
had restored citizenship to such men as Alexander Stephens.
Altogether, it seemed that the Georgia Platform, framed
in 1870 by Linton and Aleck Stephens, was sound enough
and sufficiently productive of success to continue to embody
the principles of the Democrats of Georgia. The Stephenses,
therefore, thought consolidation with the Liberal Repub
licans the height of foolishness. Grant's opponents within
the President's party had met in Cincinnati in May and
nominated Horace Greeley. The regular Republicans on
June fifth had nominated Grant. In Georgia Alexander
Stephens, through the columns of his paper, and Toombs,
in forensic, were fighting the proposed consolidation of
Democrats and Liberal Republicans.

On June twenty-sixth there was a Democratic convention
at which the thermodynamics may have been caused some
what by the weather. Alexander Stephens was on hand,
attempting to be dispassionately persuasive. Toombs,
who never having asked for a pardon was voteless but
still influential, was firing continually, most of the time with
the nagging persistence of a machine-gun but now and then
like a bomb that seemed to have power to demolish the dele
gates and the building in which they had gathered. The
business had to do with electing men to sit with the Na
tional Democrats in Baltimore. Albert R, Lamar was
elected president of the convention, The mercury rose In
the thermometers. Orators mirrored its readings- No
decision was reached. Since division precluded the chance

THE HARVEST YEARS 311

of ultimate agreement in the matter of instructions, dele
gates were told merely to do their best for the party.
Toombs and Stephens knew, however, that their policy had
been defeated. When the names of the delegates were read,
"Packed, by God!" cried Robert Toombs.

Alexander Stephens spent Sunday, July first, in Sparta
with his brother. Though it was Linton's birthday and
though there was a family celebration to honor the occasion,
with children all over the place and Mary doing her best to
play hostess and lead the conversation into lighter channels,
the brothers managed to get in a deal of political talk. On
his return to Crawf ordville, Aleck in a letter to Linton took
up the subject where he had left off.

"I arn a little more depressed and low spirited than I have
been for some time* This springs from the clear indica
tions of the times, that the Southern people will most likely,
in the coming presidential canvas, casit 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 possess the
essential requisites, the necessary intelligence, virtue, and
patriotism, No people can be free long, no self governing
people, I mean, who do not study and understand^ the prin
ciples of the government, and who do not have 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 one to me.
But it presses heavily upon me just now and renders me not
only depressed but gloomy in spirits sometimes,"

He was fighting now with his pen. It was no longer pos
sible for him to travel three thousand miles during a cam
paign and exhort the people from the stump* He must have
realized that his words, well chosen as they were, backed
as they were with constitutional law and historical facts,
lo$t much when they appeared in cold print, divorced from

3 i2 LITTLE ALECK

the magnetic personality that once had sent them straight
from the platform into the hearts and minds of the
audience.

Democrats met in Baltimore on July ninth, nominated
Greeley and endorsed the Cincinnati Platform, which had
been drawn by the Liberal Republicans, the Georgia dele
gates voting for Greeley and against the platform. A few
days before, Stephens had written to J. Barrett Cohen,
"Who would have believed that men who could not vote for
Douglas then would be huzzahing for Greeley now? Did
the world ever witness such a spectacle before ?" He could
see no reason why the Democrats should prefer Greeley to
Grant The President was now rectifying the mistakes of
the early days of his administration. Greeley's past, more
over, was not such as should recommend him to southerners.
Stephens remembered those ringing editorials of his against
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and the pronouncements in favor
of the methods of the abolitionists. Had Greeley not ad
vocated through his paper a war of subjugation even when
the idea seemed preposterous to most northerners ? What
ever might be his attitude now, he had favored the early
reconstruction measures and the amendments that were ob
noxious to the South, and he was on record as a supporter
of the political rights of the negro. So Stephens wrote
columns for his paper in the vain hope that people would
read them.

After the fourteenth of July, he had no heart to put into
the campaign, for it was then that Linton died, Members
of Alexander Stephens's family still testify to the depth of
the little man's grief. When the news was brought to him
at Liberty Hall, he uttered one scream and then sat in dumb
misery. Linton was dead the baby he had watched, the
little lad who had been unhappy with his foster parents and
whom Aleck had adopted and educated, the young man who
had distinguished himself at college, the lawyer, the leglsla-

THE HARVEST YEARS 313

tor, and finally the judge, of whom the brother had been
inordinately proud Linton, who for forty years had been
constantly in Aleck's thoughts, to whom he had written
daily letters that had contained the outpourings of a lonely
soull Linton was dead! He groped toward the friends
who were left Toward Linton's wife and children. To
ward Toombs. Toward Richard Johnston. Toward the
nephews in^Crawfordville. In letters he tried to find relief.
Linton's wife had said the year before that Aleck seemed
to have a charm against loneliness. His charm had been
Linton. When Linton was alive, there was no loneliness.
With pen in hand and paper before him, he could summon
Linton's presence. And then would come the all-satisfying
answers.

Dr, Ed Alfriend hurried to Liberty Hall to give ac
count of Linton's brief illness, for the brother was too
prostrated to attend the funeral in Sparta. Then in letters
Alexander Stephens poured out his grief. He begged Mary
to bring the children to Crawf ordville the next Sunday. He
urged her to preserve Linton's papers with all care. Hour
after hour he sat at his desk writing.

"How long I can survive it, God in his infinite mercy
alone knows. * , Heretofore when heavy affliction of any
sort came upon me, he was my prop and stay. . . . Toward
him I constantly turned for relief and comfort . . . The
bitter consciousness that I shall never see him again 1 , . .
I have no one to whom I can look for support in distresses
of body and mind. , . . Why am I permitted to live? Why
am I here hobbling about and Linton gone?"

Linton's wife accepted the invitation to visit Liberty
Hall She came at once, bringing the children with her.
Alexander Stephens was sitting on the side piazza when
Harry brought them into the yard "I can never forget the
impression made upon me by that sad welcome," writes

3H LITTLE ALECK

Madame Claude M. Stephens, Linton's second daughter.
"His sympathy for us was indeed keen, but his own grief
seemed to check the power of speech. The tears rolled
down his cheeks, and the plaintive voice could utter but one
word my father's name." Mary must have told him then
of the letter Linton had written years ago to her mother.
"My brother is the wisest and best man I ever knew in my
life," he had said. "I don't know, even in history, any
person who exceeded him in wisdom and goodness. To
think, and know, that I have the whole heart of such a per
son is my blessed privilege." That there could be no regrets
must have brought a measure of solace.

Fortunately the needs of poor old Uncle Ben rescued
Alexander Stephens from the sloughs of self-pity. The
negro who had been with the Stephenses when Linton was
born and whom Mr. Stephens was keeping as a pensioner
at the Old Homestead, appeared to be grieving himself to
death. Alexander Stephens sent a doctor to see Ben and
then went himself. The visit to the grief-stricken old negro
was bracing. One had to live on, no matter how desolate
life might be. Finally he plunged again into editorials for
The Atlanta Sun.

Georgia went for Greeley, but Grant was elected* It was
all right Nothing was really a matter of great moment
Yet one must work, work, work, and think of oneself as
little as possible.

December, 1872! Alexander Stephens was In Atlanta*
People were thronging to see him, asking him to speak,
showing that they still loved and esteemed him, even though
they had not followed his leadership or kept his paper
from going on the rocks* It was all very helpful And
heaven knows he needed comfort. The publishing venture
had absorbed most of the very considerable money he had
from the sale of his books* Almost forty thousand

THE HARVEST YEARS 315

dollars had been the royalties from the Constitutional View.
The School History had also been profitable. Yet notes
pressed upon him for payment. Since Linton's death, he
had been more than ever prodigal in his charities. It had
become impossible to refuse any call for help. He was still
educating young men and women. Now the debts.

Then one night Robert Toombs dashed in and threw some
papers into Stephens's lap.

"Here, Aleck," he said, "are those notes. Use them to
light the fire."

News of his friend's financial plight had reached Bob
Toombs in Washington, Georgia. He had come forthwith
to Atlanta, routed out Stephens's creditors, purchased the
notes to the tune of thousands of dollars and now he was
gaily tossing them to Aleck. With a friend like Bob
Toombs, life could not be altogether desolate.

Politics had absorbed Stephens once. There was a very
good chance that it might again prove interesting. With
Linton gone, he must keep busy grindingly, goadingly
busy*

"Pm going to run for the Senate," said Stephens.

"Bravo I" said Toombs, who had no more vote than a
kitten. "We'll see the thing through." ,

"Either The New Departure or I shall die politically in
Georgia," said Stephens,

"You die in Georgia 1" laughed Toombs, "Try to think
up another,*'

Little Aleck in his wheel-chair, rolling through the halls
of the general assembly 1 Little Aleck, on crutches, fighting
the Republicans and the Democrats who dared to talk of
coalition with the enemy I The legislators applauded the
gallant spirit The people were deeply touched. Ben Hill,
however, who had not forgotten that Stephens was his
enemy, also announced himself for the Senate, as did John
B, Gordon, Herbert Fielder and A. T* Akerman. Again

316 LITTLE ALECK

Little Aleck was a man without a party, for the Democrats
of Georgia had declared in favor of The New Departure.
Gordon, as an ex-Confederate general and a much younger
man than Stephens, had a powerful following. The gal
leries were packed for the voting, with people cheering
wildly for their favorites. The roll was called for the first
ballot. Gordon 84 ; Stephens 7 1 ; Hill 35 ; Akerman
14; Fielder 8. With so many odds against him, Little
Aleck's vote was remarkable. On the succeeding ballots
Stephens gained strength. The shouting in the galleries
and on the floor was so great that it was hard to hear the
answers to the roll-call. Over and over the legislators
balloted for the necessary plurality. Afterward it was said
that once Stephens was ahead by a single vote. The roll
was called again and again, with legislators somersaulting
from one candidate to another. Finally Gordon 112,
Stephens 86. Little Aleck had been defeated. He was
content, he said, for Ben Hill had been beaten, and The
New Departure in Georgia had been killed.

That night Toombs, stormed into Stephens's room, "It's
all fixed, Aleck," he said, "You are to run for Congress
to fill the place left vacant by the death of Ranse Wright,
There isn't going to be any opposition."

The next day the Constitution raised Stephens's name
for the place. That, of course, was the work of Bob
Toombs. Then Toombs announced in the same paper that
Stephens would stand for Congress, The numerous other
aspirants dropped out of the race. Bob Toombs, disfran
chised though he was, had not lost his political genius.

Yet the very next spring Stephens came near having an
altercation with his friend. Toombs said something affecting
the original lessees of the Western and Atlantic Railroad,
which Stephens interpreted as a reflection upon the part
he had played in the transaction. Instead of writing to
Toombs, he rushed into print, resenting the fancied impu-

THE HARVEST YEARS 317

tation. But Toombs made no public reply. He merely sat
down and patiently wrote a detailed explanation of what he
had meant. Then, of course, all was well again. Bob was
always patient with Aleck. In fact, it has been said that
outside his own family Alexander Stephens was the only per
son with whom Robert Toombs was ever patient.

Alexander Stephens was back in Congress. He had made
his race from his wheel-chair. Because of his fear of
draughts, he was never seen without his high hat not at
church, not on the platform. Frequently he would have to
pause in his speaking to sip brandy, but he never did so
without saying first, "Here's to Jeffersonian Democracy 1"
There were persons in the North who were horrified that
Stephens was back in Congress. Scarcely eight years after
Appomattox, the Vice-president of the Confederacy helping
to make the laws of the country I Republican papers were
generous in their comments, though scarcely charitable.
"Alexander Stephens does not emulate the modesty of the
rose," wrote the Commercial Advertiser. "He positively
refuses to 'pine upon the bush.' He is not only ready to be
plucked, but means to oblige somebody to pluck him. He
feels that his dear Georgia can not get along without him
in Washington. . , . This little irrepressible human steam
engine, with a big brain and scarcely any body, is one of the
most accomplished parliamentarians the world has ever
seen*" So the Advertiser concluded with the words, "Let
him come back. 11

Little Aleck was not asking any one's permission, how
ever, to resume his old place among the solons of the coun
try. Nor had he any intention of emulating the rose. He
had always given voice to his convictions. Just this he in
tended to do* At the session before his entrance upon his
second congressional career, a bill had been passed by Con
gress raising the salaries of the President and the members

318 LITTLE ALECK

of the two houses. The "Salary Grab" the people had called
it. Because of the wide-spread criticisms of the increases
granted, some of the members had refused to accept the
larger salaries. A motion for the repeal of the bill was
before the House almost immediately after Alexander Ste
phens reached Washington. He opposed it and backed
his stand with forceful arguments. Congressmen were ex
pected to live in a certain style, he said, to give entertain
ments that were embarrassing to their incomes. With the
lobby for ever on hand, the temptation to accept bribes was
great, Alexander Stephens could make bold to say that sort
of thing, for there was no man who had ever accused him
of dishonesty. It was still true that the unpopularity of a
measure had no power to influence him.

That was the year of the great post-war panic, when it
was a comfort to belong to the minority party that could
riot be held responsible for the condition of the country.
Under the Republican regime, there had been boom after
boom until at last American enterprise exceeded American
capital Then came that terrible Sunday in September when
the President and William A. Richardson, Secretary of the
Treasury, conferred all day at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in
New York with leading business men and financiers, who
thronged the corridors, beseeching the President to increase
the currency by every means in his power and declaring that
nothing else could avert national bankruptcy. But the
President seemed unable to meet the emergency. The stock
exchange remained closed for eight days. After the partial
recovery of Wall Street, came the commercial crisis, which
for five years paralyzed the industries of the country, Busi
ness was at its worst when Stephens reached Washington
in December, 1873. Therefore, it took a deal of bravery to
declare himself in favor of the salary Increases. He was
dealing again with principle and not with the question of
temporary expediency*

THE HARVEST YEARS 319

Eighteen hundred and seventy-four! An inevitable con
sequence of the financial panic and subsequent depression
under the Republican administration had been Democratic
victories at the polls. Again the Democrats were in control
of the House. A Civil Rights Bill, passed by the Republi
can Senate, was sent across for the approval of the congress
men. Its object was to force the whites of the South to sit
beside the blacks in public conveyances, in theaters, in
schools, to eat with them in hotels, and to lie beside them in
cemeteries, stopping just short of providing for racial
equality in the next world. On January fifth Stephens, lean
ing upon his crutches, spoke against the bill. New members
listened to the queer little man with awed interest. Con
gressmen who had served with him before the war saw that
Little Aleck had not changed a great deal. The speech had
been prepared with the accuracy and thought that had char
acterized all the others that he had delivered in the House.
Though the face was now traced by many lines and though
the hair was snow white, the voice still rang out in shrill
clearness. Stephens still knew the Constitution of the United
States* As of old, he could explain wherein a law was un
constitutional This he was doing in the matter of the Civil
Rights Bill in such a way that the man who runs might under
stand. In addition, the bill was inexpedient* The negroes
in the South did not desire to mix socially with the whites.
When Congress adjourned^ the bill had not reached a vote.
Nine years later, however, the Supreme Court of the United
States in a decision rendered upon another civil rights bill
was to uphold Stephens' contention that the legislation was
unconstitutional*

The attention of Congress was being called to Louisiana,
where carpetbag-negro rule had continued since 1868. Be
cause the black population of the state exceeded the white
by about two thousand, it had been easy for corrupt leaders
of both races to swing the elections in their favor. Taxa-

320 LITTLE ALECK

tion was so high in the state and poverty among the formerly
well-to-do so great as to amount practically to confiscation
of the lands of the better classes. With a returning board,
composed of the carpetbag governor and lieutenant-
governor and the secretary of state, empowered to cast out
precincts in which they detected fraud, it was impossible for
Louisianians to get justice at elections. A bloody attempt at
revolution in the summer of 1874 and a contested election
that fall called forth congressional investigation. The re
port of the Republican committee, presented to Congress
on February 23, 1875, dwelt upon the southern "outrages"
which were the sole remaining arguments for continuing
military rule in the conquered states. Yet the other facts
contained in the report constituted an indictment of the con
gressional policies of reconstruction. Because of the Re
publican bias evident, many Democrats opposed acceptance
of the report. Not Alexander Stephens, however 1 Despite
the party alignment on the question, he welcomed the report,
as a basis for further investigation. By his vote the scale
was tipped. Though there was some censure at the time
by fellow Democrats, he was later to see his stand vindicated
when the House unanimously condemned the returning
board of Louisiana and inaugurated the policy that made
rehabilitation of the state possible.

Throughout the year Stephens had engaged in an acri
monious controversy with his most indefatigable enemy*
Ben Hill had made a speech in which he had arramged
Stephens for his attitude during the war and in which he had
made some startling statements purporting to give the "un
written history" of the Hampton Roads Conference, The
battle conducted through the press proved that neither an
tagonist had been mellowed by the years* In the use of in
vective Stephens and Hill were both at their best,

July, 1876! The great International Centennial was

THE HARVEST YEARS 321

being held in Philadelphia. The month before, the Re
publicans, meeting in Cincinnati, had nominated Rutherford
B. Hayes as their candidate for the presidency and the
Democrats in St. Louis had nominated Samuel J, Tilden.
The acrimony of the campaign was counteracting the good
effect that peace lovers had hoped would result from the
celebration in Philadelphia.

While the country was tossed by the political storm, there
was peace at Liberty Hall. Marse Aleck, who had been
confined to his bed for nine months, following a desperate
illness diagnosed as pneumonia, was better. Indeed, it ap
peared that he would regain the good health that had been
his the summer before, when he had been well enough to
travel through the state, making speeches and shaking hands
with the thousands of people who seemed about to canonize
him. It had done his friends good to see how pleased Little
Aleck had been happier, in fact, than they had thought
he ever could be with Lmton gone. Then the terrible ill
ness. Now Eliza boasted that Marse Aleck was eating the
food she prepared for him. "I goes into his room ebery day
an' axes him, 'Marse Aleck, what ya want fer dinner?'
When he tell me he don't want nothin', I jes' goes out and
ketches me a nice young pullet, an' I breaks up de bones an'
puts dat pullet on to mek a nice chicken soup an 1 I meks
some nice corn muffins an' cooks dem as brown as a berry.
Den atter while I hears dat wheel-chair grindin' 'long de
piazzy, an' sees Marse Aleck at de do' an' I hears him say,
"Liza, dinner ready?' an' I says, *Yas, Marse Aleck, I done
cook jes' what ya tole me to,' an' Marse Aleck kin eat
what I cooks him-"

After the long months of illness, It was good to see Marse
Aleck again on the piazza. He would rise at nine, and,
after dressing with the assistance of the serving boy, he
would be rolled on to the side piazza. Then the game of
whist Fortunately, there were always guests to be com-

322 LITTLE ALECK

mandeered. At eleven Little Aleck would return to his
room for the rest that enabled him to preside at the dinner
table.

In July Richard Johnston arrived for a visit at Liberty
Hall. This meant a great deal of excellent conversation be
tween games and much reading aloud while Alexander Ste
phens rested in obedience to doctor's orders.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon. On the side piazza
Alexander Stephens sat with his friend. A pleasant breeze
was blowing across the lawn and rustling the leaves of the
great oaks near the house. The negroes of the surrounding
counties were celebrating the Fourth of July at a church near
by. Word had come just before dinner that they would like
to visit Mr. Stephens in the afternoon and sing to him some
of their spirituals. At half past two the procession wound
its way around the house, preceded by the Crawfordville
band. The lawn was filled with negroes, wearing their
gay cheap finery, and their holiday smiles, Mr. Stephens
nodded his greeting. Then a young negro mounted the steps
and led the singing. Such singing it was 1 Three thousand
voices blended in perfect harmony. Africans improvising
as they sangl Missing not a notel Bodies swaying rhyth
mically 1 Christian thoughts put to mystic music brought
from the jungles of Africa 1 A childlike race losing itself in
song I Forgetting the back-breaking days under the scalding
southern sun ! Forgetting the long years of bondage 1 Sing
ing of the heaven in which their simple hearts believed I Clos
ing their eyes and visioning a day when there would be no
work, when, white-robed, they would loll along the golden
streets through gloriously idle days I

Tears traced their ways through the furrows of Alex
ander Stephens's cheeks. He loved these people, and they
loved him. They loved him I

Would Mr. Stephens speak to the people? inquired the
song leader. Mr, Stephens would of course, though he was

THE HARVEST YEARS 323

too weak to stand. Leaning forward upon the banister of
the piazza, he addressed the assemblage in words that
pierced the stillness of the summer afternoon. He was
proud, he said, of the progress the colored people were
making. He rejoiced that there was good feeling between
the two races that lived side by side in Georgia. With
freedom had come new responsibilities, he said. In every
way they must strive to lift themselves higher and higher.
They must learn to read. They must educate their children.
On and on he spoke earnestly until exhaustion overcame
him. Then the procession filed past, and negroes touched
the frail hand that was extended to them.

Later when Richard Johnston sat beside his bed, Alex
ander Stephens said that no other celebration had ever de
lighted him so much as that which had just taken place on
his lawn. "If it had been God's will, I could have almost
wished to die while listening to that music,"

Though Little Aleck suffered a relapse that summer, the
Democratic convention of his district nominated him again
for Congress* For his constituents it was enough to know
that Little Aleck was still alive*

Eighteen hundred and seventy-seven 1 The country was
in a furore of excitement. No one knew whether Tilden
or Hayes had been elected president of the United States.
Congress had wrangled and argued and had at last left the
decision to an electoral count committee, consisting of five
members from the Senate, five from the House, and five
from the Supreme Court,

In the House had sat Alexander Stephens, watching the
count with his judicial eye and with an ear ever ready to de
tect the least violation of the sacred Constitution. Each
morning he was wheeled into the speaker's room about
an hour before, the opening of the session. Later his chair
would be placed in the open area in front of the speaker's

324 LITTLE ALECK

desk. There he would remain protected from the draughts
by his high hat and his greatcoat.

"A little way up the aisle," wrote a newspaper corre
spondent, "sits a queer-looking bundle. An immense cloak,
a high hat, and peering somewhere out of the middle a thin,
pale, sad face. This brain and eyes enrolled in count
less thicknesses of flannel and broadcloth wrappings belong
to the Honorable Alexander H. Stephens 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 tne 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 counsel of moderation and
patriotism proves how invincible is the soul that dwells in
this shrunken and aching frame."

There was considerable doubt as to the rightness of the
mode by which the national election was to be decided. At
four o'clock on the morning of March second* the committee
rendered its report one hundred and eighty-five votes for
Hayes, one hundred and eighty-four votes for Tilden. On
March 4, 1877, Hayes was inaugurated president of the
United States. The Democrats were furiously indignant.
From coast to coast they were crying that a fraud had been
committed against them. Then the voice of Alexander
Stephens rose above the hubbub, pleading for acquiescence in
the decision. "We had a first-rate case," he said, "but
we lost it by imperfect pleadings." It would be better to
fall in line, support the new President and gather strength
for the next election- The International Review of January,
1878, carried a long and carefully prepared article written
by Alexander Stephens in which the southern statesman
explained the constitutionality of the mode by which the

THE HARVEST YEARS 325

decision had been reached and registered his acceptance of
the verdict against the Democrats.

February 12, 1878 the seventieth birthday of Abraham
Lincoln! A great throng had gathered in the House of
Representatives for the unveiling of Carpenter's painting
of Lincoln's Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation,
which had been purchased by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson and
presented to Congress.

At two o'clock the assistant doorkeeper of the House of
Representatives announced the arrival of the Senate. Pre
ceded by the Vice-President and accompanied by the
sergeant-at-arms, the senators entered. Seated in front of
the Speaker of the House were the artist and the donor.
James A. Garfield, of Ohio, made the brief presentation, and
then the speaker of the occasion was introduced. It was
none other than Alexander H. Stephens, the former Vice-
President of the Confederacy. The House and the Senate
and the audience that crowded the galleries were profoundly
touched. The little man who had suffered for his South,
who had spent five months wretched in a northern prison,
was about to pay tribute to the Lincoln who had been his
friend. He spoke from his wheel-chair. Yet his voice pene
trated the House and the galleries. Of the man he said, "I
knew Mr. Lincoln well We met in the House in Decem-
ber, 1 847* We were together during the thirtieth Congress.
I was as intimate with him as with any other man in that
Congress except perhaps one. That exception was my col
league, Mr* Toombs. Of Mr* Lincoln's general character
I need not speak. He was warm-hearted; he was generous;
he was magnanimous; he was most truly as he afterwards
said on a memorable occasion, 'with malice toward none,
with charity for all* "

Of slavery he said, "Many errors existed in the institu
tion. Whether emancipation would prove to be a boon or

326 LITTLE ALECK

a curse remained to be seen. Upon the subject of emanci
pation itself may here be stated that the pecuniary view,
the politico-economic question involved, the amount of prop
erty invested under the system . . . weighed in my estimation
no more than a drop in the bucket compared with the great
ethnological problem now in the process of solution."

Upon the people he enjoined forbearance and the laying
aside of prejudices. Slavery had its faults, "and most griev
ously has the country, North and South, for both were
equally responsible for it, answered them." Now that the
negroes had become our wards, North and South must be
aware of the divine trust imposed upon both sections, "If
the embers of the late war shall be kept a-glowing . . . 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,"

One of those who had suffered most because of the war
was sending his voice across the chasm that divided his
country and pleading for a bridge of friendship. The listen
ing multitude could not fail to be impressed*

F. A. P. Barnard, President of Columbia College, wrote ;

"I want to thank you with all my heart for your beautiful,
judicious, and patriotic address on the presentation and re
ception of the Carpenter picture of Lincoln,

"It is indeed a marvelous thing how, after many trials,
the South still continues to maintain her noble pre-eminence
in statesmanship and in moral dignity, 11

At the moment Alexander Stephens was effectively advo
cating a project that would tend to unite the country, He
was working diligently upon the Texas-Pacific Railroad
Bill. Having begun his public life by advocacy of the Geor
gia Central Railroad, he said, he would like to end it with

THE HARVEST YEARS 327

the accomplishment of a project that would connect the
East and the West.

March, 1878 ! Alexander H. Stephens was expected back
from Washington. Little Mary Corry, five years old,
whose mother, nee Mollie Stephens, had moved back to
Cra'wfordville upon the death of her second husband was
wakened from the very sound sleep of babyhood. It was
almost time for the train. Mary must be on hand, with
other members of the family, to welcome Uncle Aleck.
Though she was very young at the time and exceedingly
sleepy, Mary Corry, now Mrs. Horace M. Holden, of
Atlanta, remembers well the celebration that greeted Uncle
Aleck's arrival and which had become a sort of ritual when
ever the statesman returned from Washington.

As the train pulled in, Crawfordville's very excellent band
was playing, the people were shouting, and torches flared
through the darkness surrounding the little depot Citizens
carried Mr- Stephens to his carriage. The handsome gray
horse, driven by the smiling Harry, led the procession. The
band came next, playing its gay music. The people fol
lowed, waving their torches, shouting, singing. Here was a
prophet who was "not without honor in his own country,
and among his own kin, and in his own house."

Eighteen hundred and eighty 1 Little Aleck was still in
Congress* John M. Graham, a young lawyer, who had gone
to Washington as Mr* Stephens's secretary, recalls the busy
days of the congressional session. The feeble little con
gressman from Georgia was alert to all that was going on at
the capital. It was only when he was desperately 111 that' he
was not wheeled into the House. He rode to and fro in a
stylish little coupe, which the official ladies were for ever
borrowing for their afternoon outings. According to Mr.
Graham, Alexander Stephens was rather imposed upon in

328 LITTLE ALECK

this matter. It was easy to take advantage of such gener
osity as his. Then there were far too many callers at his
apartment during the hours he should have been resting.
Because no man gave more freely of advice that was firmly
rooted in experience and in an unsurpassed knowledge of con
stitutional law, congressmen found it profitable to sit at his
feet. And Alexander Stephens, enjoying the position he had
won, pushed no one aside, though his strength was taxed by
the many visitors. He was the friend of Jews and Catholics,
and the Irish adored him, for in all his life he had never
taken a stand that was characterized by sectarian motives.
Two men were with him always, his secretary and his servant
and namesake, Aleck Kent, the one attending to his enor
mous correspondence and the other to his physical needs.

Eighteen eighty-one I On March fourth James A. Gar-
field was inaugurated president of the United States. Alex
ander Stephens was again in Congress, He knew the Presi
dent well and respected him. The two men had served
together on the congressional rules committee. Stephens
had heard the story of Garfield's early struggles and of the
widowed mother who had built fences, plowed, spun, woven,
paid off the mortgage on her farm, educated her children
and brought them up in respectability. He honored the
President for bringing that work-worn mother to live with
him at the White House.

Shortly after the inauguration, Stephens, accompanied
by his secretary, called on Mr. Garfield, Mr, Graham re-
calls^ vividly the impression made on him by the stalwart
President A big man was Garfield, with a stony blue eye
and a handshake that was cordial and genuine. Immediately
Alexander Stephens did the characteristic thing he asked
for the President's mother. Mrs, Garfield came at once,
pleased that Mr, Stephens wanted to see her, pleased by his
manner and bearing toward her. In a moment Mr, Gar-

THE HARVEST YEARS 329

field drew Mr. Stephens aside. There were several matters,
he said, that he would like to discuss with him. The con
ference was cut short by the entrance of Mrs. McKinley and
several other ladies whose presence made general conver
sation necessary. That was the only time during Garfield's
short administration that Stephens talked in private with
the President. He was profoundly affected by the tragedy
that took place four months after the inauguration.

Mr, Stephens spent the summer of 1 88 1 in Crawfordville.
Resting from his strenuous days in Washington? By no
means. With the secretarial assistance of John Graham,
he was amplifying his School History of the United States
into a book for adult readers, stressing as usual the consti
tutional and political struggles that lay behind the events
which the other chroniclers had recorded. He had learned
that work was the only antidote for miseries of the mind
and body.

Life was flowing smoothly at Liberty Hall. Every com
fort was provided there even to the acetylene gas gen
erated on the plantation. Eliza and Harry and their grown
and half-grown children were still about the place. Three
new servants were much in evidence Henry Clay, Bill
Anderson, and Spencer Alfriend, who had chosen the names
of their former master or of a favorite hero. To the list of
pensioners had been added a three-legged mule and a com
mon dog Frank, who* like the tramps, knew where food and
shelter were to be found. Friends still arrived on every
train ; and the children of nieces and nephews were constantly
on hand. Marse Aleck or Uncle Aleck or Little Aleck ac*
cording to the relationship involved ruled in merciful
tyranny* He still had his whist whenever he asked for it,
and he still scolded his partners relentlessly. Yet old Guinea
O'Neal, The Parson, did exactly as he pleased. He pot
tered about the garden; he played whist, of course; but at
mine o'clock, whether or not he was in the midst of a hand,

330 LITTLE ALECK

he went to bed. Mr. Stephens had never found a way to
bend the will of this beneficiary of his. Now that the old
man had passed his ninetieth birthday, there was no use
trying.

The girl whom his nephew John Alexander had married
had a spirit which Mr. Stephens could not fail to admire.
"Now look here, Uncle Aleck," she would say, "I'm per
fectly willing to play whist with you, but I won't play if you
fuss. Now remember, the first time you scold me, I'm going
to stop."

"All right, all right," Mr. Stephens would agree, and then
he would try very hard not to criticize her leads,

But the children held Uncle Aleck somewhat in awe. He
was a very great man, they knew. He was a person you
were supposed to obey without argument. Then, too, he
was different from everybody else so thin and queer-looking
in that wheel-chair of hist They kissed him, of course,
for that was expected of them now that he had overcome the
inhibition or whatever it was that had made him repel the
advances of his niece, Mollie, so many years before; yet
they stayed out of his way as much as possible, because they
knew they were supposed to do whatever Uncle Aleck sug
gested.

Little Sallie Stephens, for instance, the daughter of Lu
anda Frances Hammack and the young soldier, Linton,
didn't like pie. Now Uncle Aleck thought there was no
such delicacy as pie and that all children should eat it,
whether or no. Because there were always so many people
at Liberty Hall, the children were served at second table*
One day there was pie. Uncle Aleck being nowhere in the
offing, Sallie pushed her piece aside* Just as the children
left the dining-room, down the hall came Uncle Aleck,
wheeling himself in his chain "Well, children," he piped,
"have you had your pie?" emphasizing the last word with
a squeaky rising inflection. Sallie hid behind the others. If

THE HARVEST YEARS 331

she admitted that she had had no pie, Uncle Aleck would
call, "Eliza, get this child a piece of pie at once," and there
would be nothing for her to do but eat the whole slice.

Despite all the hubbub about him, Alexander Stephens
worked methodically upon his History of the United States.

Eighteen hundred and eighty-two 1 Summer again in
Crawfordville. Alexander Stephens was at home. He had
reached his seventieth year. His determination to retire
from Congress had been announced. Since 1855 he had
been declaring intermittently that he was ready to spend
the remainder of his days peacefully at Liberty Hall. Now
he meant exactly what he said. The people must cease to
urge him. Washington was too far away. His strength
Was unequal to the frequent trips back and forth.

Because the Democrats of Georgia could not answer the
arguments he advanced, his district agreed not to renominate
him. Then came the counter-plan. Georgia had another
position that needed to be filled with the right man. The
Democrats would make him governor of the state. Ac
cording to Mr. Graham, who was still his secretary, Mr.
Stephens, when approached early in 1882, had refused to
become a candidate. Later, when much pressure was
brought to bear on him, he consented to run, provided the
demand continued to be wide-spread and insistent. Finally
the nomination was made by a body of Independent Demo
crats, as well as by the regular Democratic organization.
Then it was that Mr. Stephens felt that he could not refuse
to accept it.

So, despite his perennially expressed desire to retire from
public life, Alexander H. Stephens was again in the arena.
Indeed, there seemed to be unanimity in the wish that he
become the governor of Georgia.

The first appearances proved deceptive. Two years be
fore, a rift had occurred in the Democratic Party of the

332 LITTLE ALECK

state, which had riot closed. During his first term, Gov
ernor Colquitt who was, by the way, the son of the Judge
Walter T. Colquitt whom the young Stephens had worsted
in debate back in 1843 had been censured for placing the
state's endorsement upon the bonds of the Northeastern
Railroad. The investigating committee, the appointment of
which the Governor had demanded, had branded the rumors
of improper conduct on the part of Colquitt as "vile and
malignant slanders." Nevertheless, the anti-Colquitt camp
had grown more and more violent. The resignation of
Senator Gordon had been accompanied by a scandal, for
Colquitt appointed as Gordon's successor none other than
the redoubtable Joe Brown, who had returned to the Demo*
cratic fold. It was said that Gordon had resigned in order
to get favors from Brown and that Colquitt had appointed
Brown for the influence that the former Governor could
wield in his behalf. Alexander Stephens believed that Gor
don had resigned because he had a chance to make a for
tune in Oregon and that Colquitt, having tried to dissuade
him, had appointed Brown unconditionally.

Colquitt's campaign for reelectioft had been bitter. The
Democratic nominating convention had given the encumbent
Governor a majority of votes but not a plurality. When a
parliamentary tangle had ensued, Alexander Stephens, as
one of the delegates to the convention, had suggested bring*
ing in a dark horse as a compromise* But Colquitt had stood
firm. After thirty-three ballots, the convention adjourned,
Colquitt still lacking nine votes of a plurality. It had been
rumored that Stephens would enter the race* Finally, the
Democratic committee of the minority reported Thomas
Manson Norwood as their candidate* Mr* Norwood had
been among those who during the war had been against
Brown's opposition to the policies of President Davis. It
was he who before the Georgia legislature answered Linton
Stephens on conscription- After the war he had added his

THE HARVEST JEARS 333

voice to the denunciations of Brown's apostasy. He had
since served in the United States Senate and in the House
of Representatives. In the campaign Brown was not only
promoting Colquitt but evening scores with Norwood.
Those must have been bitter days in Georgia that preceded
the reelection of Governor Colquitt. The daughter of the
defeated candidate, Mrs. Anna Hendree Norwood Mc-
Laws, who now lives in Richmond, recalls her father's
humorous accounts of the divisions in families sons voting
against fathers, brother against brother, a row among
Democrats who had thought themselves for ever united by
the so recent carpetbag rule.

Two years later Stephens was inheriting all the animosi
ties that the last gubernatorial fight had left in its wake.
His opponents, who must have known that the lonely little
man was trying to escape from himself through work, were
charging Stephens with unsatisfied ambition. Unsatisfied
ambition indeed! Had he not all his life refused the posi-
tions of highest responsibility? Might he not once have
been nominated for the presidency of the United States?
Could he not by the utterance of one word have been made
president of the Confederate States? The newspapers were
digging up the stands he had taken during the war and dur
ing reconstruction, misquoting things he had said, misinter
preting his motives. It was all very hard for the sick little
man, who had been kept alive by the admiration his con
stituents had given him. The negro vote that had figured
largely in the last campaign, would figure in this. Two years
before Brown, a sometime Republican, had worked for Col
quitt The candidate, a Methodist and sort of lay preacher,
had frequently spoken to the negroes in their churches,
Mr. Norwood, it seems, had made little effort to enlist the
support of the negroes* So it was thought that the freed-
men largely influenced the result of the election throughout
the state.

334 LITTLE ALECK

On August twelfth Georgia paused to pay homage to Ben
Hill, who had died. Stephens had buried the hatchet that
had been in use since 1855, and had visited Hill in his last
illness. There was just time before The History of the
United States went to press for Stephens to insert a tribute
to the most formidable of his antagonists. He followed a
biographical sketch of the man by saying, "He took an
active part against the reconstruction measures . . . and
some of the ablest papers against the constitutionality of
these measures were prepared by his pen. He possessed
oratorical gifts in an eminent degree. In power of statement
and force of invective, he had few if any superiors," Since no
one in Georgia had suffered more because of Hill's force of
invective, who was better able than Alexander H. Stephens
to testify to the man's powers?

With the history completed, Little Aleck set out upon his
canvass. It seems incredible that a man so old and sick and
weary should have been able still to hold the multitudes as he
spoke to them from his wheel-chair. The brain was clear;
the voice had not lost its carrying power. In Atlanta an
enormous audience listened attentively to the review of his
long public record. He spoke from the piazza of Liberty
Hall to a crowd that had gathered to hear him, among which
there were many negroes.

"I have never been beaten when I have come before the
people," he cried* "Is my own county going to let me be
beaten now?"

"Naw, sah I" cried Cy Stephens, and a chorus of voices
echoed the word "Nawl"

Gartrell, who was running in opposition, was claiming the
negro vote. Alexander Stephens did not believe that the
negroes would go solidly against him, and he was not mis
taken- On election day the ballot-box was brought to
Liberty Hall that he might cast his vote. That night he
knew that he had been elected.

THE HARVEST YEARS 335

Autumn, 1882! Alexander Stephens was ensconced in the
Governor's mansion along with his dogs, his negroes and his
relatives. On the evening before the inauguration, report
ers who had gone to Crawfordville to accompany the Gov
ernor-elect to Atlanta, rendered playful by the liquors they
found in Mr. Stephens's sideboard, made merry with the
ever-present tramp, who happened to be passing the night
at Liberty Hall. This was no ordinary tramp partaking of
southern hospitality he was a "Massachusetts Yankee,"
who had been directed to the place where food and lodging
were freely dispensed. The reporters had got the poor fel
low drunk and then had encouraged him to talk. What he
said had amused them hugely, for it was a diatribe against
the South, against those who had been at the head of the
Confederacy, against the very man who was at the moment
befriending him. The tramp boarded the special train /for
Atlanta the next day, still casting aspersions upon the South,
still egged on by the reporters, though Alexander Stephens
protested that advantage was being taken of his guest.
Later when some one made inquiry concerning the strange
passenger, the Governor-elect replied, "He is a poor fellow
who has nothing and wants to get work. I had no employ
ment for him in Crawfordville, and I told him to come
along with me to Atlanta, and I would see what I could do
for him there."

Mrs. John A. Stephens kept house at the mansion and
acted in the capacity of official hostess. She was powerless,
however, to keep the crowds away from the Governor.
Little Aleck, as a matter of fact, didn't want them kept
away. So all day long the bell was ringing, and guests were
being admitted. His Excellency was too soft-hearted to
refuse the suppliants* Indeed, he was putty in the hands of
those who asked pardons for relatives. Having once been
in prison, he had infinite compassion for others in the same
plight.

336 LITTLE ALECK

Judge Alexander W. Stephens, now on the Georgia Court
of Appeals, then a lad of nine, remembers those days in the
mansion. His father, John A. Stephens, who had been ap
pointed adjutant-general of the state, declared that "every
grand rascal in Georgia hung around Uncle Aleck" and
took advantage of his boundless sympathy. Certain it was
that the tramps and beggars frequented the mansion just as
they had frequented Liberty Hall. Young Aleck was pres
ent when a poor woman arrived, begging a pardon for her
husband. She had no money, she said. Her children were
hungry. "Aleck, hand me my purse," said the Governor.
"Here're two dollars. It's all I have." Judge Stephens is
not sure that the woman secured the pardon also. The
chances are that she did.

The dogs at the mansion proved to be the sources of
considerable trouble. Besides those that belonged to the
Governor, there were two that young Aleck had brought
with him. Prince was the one that the boy loved especially,
though the dog was a fice of no great beauty or remarkable
lineage. Uncle Aleck had named him, by the way, according
to a rite of his own, which consisted in placing slips of paper
in a hat and drawing therefrom. Nevertheless, when the
chief of police of Atlanta complained that Prince had bitten
him, Uncle Aleck was quite exasperated. Whereupon, he
commanded the negro man, Mott, to get rid of Prince.
Mott, knowing his master far better, It seemed, than did the
disconsolate small boy, merely took the dog home with him
that night The next morning at breakfast Prince was not
among the dogs that crowded around the Governor, begging
for food.

"Where's Prince ? n demanded his Excellency*
"I done took him home wid me," replied Mott
u Well> bring him back at once," was the executive de
cree, "and get muzzles for all the dogs* I won*t have the
police of this city bitten*"

THE HARVEST YEARS 337

So young Aleck began to see that there was a way of
getting around Uncle Aleck. Nevertheless, he was still
somewhat in awe of the great little man in the wheel-chair.
This same Prince was the cause of further embarrassment.
Like Mary's lamb, he had the habit of following children to
school. One day Aleck did not discover him until well away
from the house. Returning, he rang the bell a number of
times before the servants, who knew exactly who was calling
them from their breakfast, deigned to answer. After the
dog had been pushed inside, Aleck, according to a small boy's
idea of retaliation, rang the bell several more times before
hurrying to school. When he returned that afternoon, the
servants told him maliciously that Marse Aleck wanted to
see him. Aleck knew exactly what had happened. The
Governor had heard the persistent ringing of the bell and
had made inquiry. The servants, in their annoyance, had
presented a good case against young Aleck. The boy de
clared defiantly that he wasn't going alone into Uncle Aleck's
room* So he sent his Aunt Mollie Corry t6 do the ex
plaining. Later he heard that his mother went also and told
Uncle Aleck that as long as she remained in official capacity,
her children must consider the mansion their home and that
the servants must answer the bell promptly when they rang
it "All right, all right," the Governor had agreed* There
can be no doubt that Mrs. John A. Stephens was just the per
son to manage both the household and the Governor and that
of this no one was more fully convinced than Alexander H.
Stephens.

Perhaps the weary little man should have been resting at
Liberty Hall. Yet perhaps it was better that he was occupied
unto the last with the people he loved and with the interests
that had always filled his life. Perhaps if the quiet days
ht$ ever come to him, he would have had little relish for
them* He had been but twenty-four when he entered the
legislature* Then the "Fiery Epoch" was dawning.

338 LITTLE ALECK

The days of his life were threescore years and ten. There
had been much of labor and much of sorrow. He had wit
nessed the evening of the Fiery Epoch the storm, in
the twilight hour and then the new day. The country was
at peace once more. Yet Little Aleck was still busy. In
his heart he must have known that it was better so. Stephens
knew that the dreaded centralization of power in the hands
of the federal government had come to pass. The states,
with their varying traditions and their widely different peo
ple, were to be ruled from Washington, it seemed. Though
Stephens had lived through the enactment of the fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments, he was to be spared such con
summation of his fears as was expressed in the eighteenth.
It is likely that he still half-hoped for a reaction that would
bring about reaffirmation of the principles of local self-
government, which the framers of the Constitution had en
deavored to secure.

Came an invitation to deliver an address at the Sesqui-
centennial celebration in Savannah* The historic occasion,
commemorating the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
landing of Oglethorpe, appealed strongly to the man who
had so long served his state. So the Governor went to
Savannah. The city had cast off the gloom of recent years,
flags and banners fluttered from stores and houses- Holi
day crowds thronged the streets. Companies of soldiers^
outfitted in new uniforms, paraded in military procession*
From a gaily fastooned platform the gallant little states*
man delivered his valedictory.

The theme that had underlain all his public utterances
was still dominant. "Our object on this occasion is to
celebrate and honor, not only the founders of the colony,
but the principles upon which our institutions were based,"
He quoted from Oglethorpe's charter, which he besought
the people never to forget He gloried in the thought that
Georgia had beea settled by the poor and destitute, who in*

THK GOVKRNOR 01- GKORCIA

THE HARVEST YEARS 339

creased in wealth and population under the free institutions
they had established. Graphically he sketched the history of
his Georgia and the stories of the great men who had con
tributed thereto. And the last words that Little Aleck was
ever to speak publicly were the far vision of a man ripe in
years and understanding, and yet they mirrored the high
dreams of youth. "By our past energy, industry, under our
institutions, we have already acquired the appellation of the
Empire State of the South. With like energy in the future,
under Providence, in the development of our resources, our
mineral, our agricultural, our fields and forests, our edu
cational and religious institutions, we have yet ahead of us
the opportunity of acquiring the greater appellation of the
Empire State of the Union,"

Then Little Aleck returned to Atlanta to die. He lin
gered two weeks, however, never losing his contact with the
affairs of state, unto the last signing his name in those
strange hieroglyphics that represented the words Alexander
Stephens. Among the letters that reached him was one from
Robert Toombs, sending congratulations upon the masterful
way in which Aleck had sketched the history of Georgia,
The Governor knew that the letter had been dictated, for
his old friend had almost completely lost his sight.

The Governor's room had been converted into a work
shop* In place of the Louis the Fourteenth bed used by
his predecessors, which the Governor had declared entirely
too reminiscent of Bourbon luxury, were two iron cots one
for Aleck Stephens and one for Aleck Kent, the servant.
Against the wall were rows of files, which the family accused
Uncle Aleck of purchasing from the descendants of Noah.
The rest of the furnishings were quite too plain to be called
gubernatorial, but they suited the tastes of a man who was
using his bedroom as a workshop. Colonel C. W. Seidell,
the private secretary, brought news from the offices and
Irom the state, and Aleck Kent hovered about, pressing up-

340 LITTLE ALECK

on his master food and other attentions, while the Governor
protested, "Aleck, didn't you ever hear that you should
never feed a horse till he whinnies?"

Then at last came delirium. The mind, that had never
been clouded during all the many illnesses of that seventy
years, had slipped back to the great era that had preceded
the war. Though the words were not distinct, it was clear
that Alexander Stephens was again In Congress, pleading
for the moderation that could avert the disaster he was fore
seeing.

"The Governor is dying," said Doctor Steiner.
The family and closest friends gathered about*
"Doctor, you are hurting me," said Little Aleck.
And then a bit later, "Get ready we are nearly home."

While the body of Little Aleck lay in state at the capitol,
it seemed that all the people of Georgia filed by to pay
a last tribute to the man who had served them in high
devotion and whom they loved as their own. Flowers
filled the room and covered the roller chair that stood empty
beside the coffin.

At the services in the capitol, men who had been the
political friends and foes of Alexander Stephens paid their
verbal tributes to the great Georgian. Then the cortege
filed through the crowded streets of the city all the officials
of the state, the military companies, citizens in carriages and
on foot. At the grave Robert Toombs, massive and totter*
ing and almost totally blind, wept aloud and then chokingly
delivered the oration. "He was more the child of his coun
try than any man that ever lived," said Robert Toombs,
whose fire had been extinguished by age and grief* "He
was always determined to live for his country,"

,THE END

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ALFRIEND, FRANK H., Jefferson Davis.

Annual Report of the American Historical Association, Vol. II, 1911.
Letters of Toombs, Stephens and Cobb, edited by Ulrich Bonnell
Phillips.

AVARY, MVRTA LOCKETT, Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens;
His Diary Kept When a Prisoner at Fort Warren, with Biograph
ical Study.

AvERY, I. W., History of Georgia.

BARTLETT, J. R,, Literature of the Rebellion.

BENTON, THOMAS HART, Thirty Years' View.

BLEDSOE, A. T,, "Review of A Constitutional View of the War
between the States/' The Southern Review, October, 1868.

BOWERS, CLAUDE G., The Tragic Era.

BOYKIN, SAMUEL, A Memorial Volume of the Honorable Howell
Cobb of Georgia.

BRADFORD, GAMALIEL, Confederate Portraits.

CARROLL, HOWARD, A Man of the South Alexander H. Stephens.

CHANNING, EDWARD, History of the United States.

CHESNI^T, MARY BOYKIN, A Diary from Dixie.

CLEVELAND, HKNRY, Alexander H. Stephens in Public and Private
with Letters and Speeches, published 1866.

COLE, ARTHUR CHARLES, The Whig Party in the South.

DAVIS, JEFFERSON, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Govern-
ment*

DAVIS, VARINA HOWELL, Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of the Con
federate States of America, a Memoir by His Wife.

ECKENRODE, H, J,, Jefferson Davis, President of the South,

FIELDER, HERBERT, Life and Times of Joseph E, Brown,

GORDON, ARMISTEAD, Jefferson Davis,

GREENE, J. M> Prose and Verse, containing sketches of Georgians.

HAMILTON, DAVID TWIGOS, "Presidency of the Confederacy Offered
to Alexander H. Stephens and Refused/ 1 Southern Historical
Society Paptn* VoL 36*

343

344 LITTLE ALECK

HENRY, ROBERT SELPH, The Story of the Confederacy.

HILL, BENJAMIN H., JR., Senator Benjamin H. HilL

HOLDEN, MRS. HORACE M., manuscript material.

JOHNSTON, R. M. and BROWNE, W. H., Life of Alexander H.

Stephens^ consisting largely of letters.
JONES, J. B., A Rebel War Clerk's Diary.
Journal of the Confederate Congress.
KNIGHT, LUCIAN LAMAR, Alexander H, Stephens, the Sage of

Liberty Hall
MAURICE, MAJOR-GENERAL SIR FREDERICK, Statesmen and Soldiers

of the Civil War.

MOORE, ALBERT B., Conscription and Conflict in the Confederacy*
Newspapers of the period,

NICOLAY and HAY, Abraham Lincoln; A History, VoL VIL
NORTON, FRANK H*, Life of Alexander H. Stephens.
NORWOOD, THOMAS MANSON, A True Vindication of the South*
OBERHOLTZER> ELLIS PAXSON, Abraham Lincoln*
Official Records of the Rebellion*
OWSLEY, FRANK I/,, State Rights in the Confederacy.
PENDLETON, Louis, Alexander H. Stephens*
PHILLIPS, ULRICH BONNELL, The Life of Robert Toomb$>
PHILLIPS, ULRICH BONNELL, Georgia and State Rights*
POLLARD, E. A., The Lost Cause.
POLLARD, E. A n Jefferson Dam.
REAGAN, JOHN H*, Memoirs.
REED, JOHN C, The Brothers' War,
RHODES, JAMES FORD, History of the United States from Compromise

of 1850*

RICHARDSON, J. D, Messages and Papers of thi Confederacy*
SCHWAB, J. O, Tht Confederate States of America,
SHBWMAKB, MRS, OSCAR L, Manuscript Diary*
Southern Historical Society Publications, "Memoirs of Georgians."
STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H., A Constitutional History of thi War

between the States,
STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H "The Count of the Electoral Vote for

President and Vice-President," International Rwim* January,

1878*
STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H A School Hutory o/ thi United States.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 345

STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H., History of the United States.

STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H., The Reviewers Reviewed.

STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H., The Study of the Law, pamphlet.

STEPHENS, ALEXANDER W., letters, articles and other manuscript
material.

STEPHENS, LINTON, Speech in Macon, Georgia, on the Recon
struction Measures and the Enforcement Act of 1870, delivered
January 23, 1871,

STOVALL, PLEASANT A., Robert Toombs.

TATB, ALLEN, Jefferson Davis, His Rise and Fall.

THOMPSON, CHARLES WILLIS, The Fiery Epoch.

TRENT, WILLIAM P., Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime.

TURNER, H. G., Reconstruction of the South.

WADDBLL, JAMES D., Life of Linton Stephens.

WELLES, GIDEON, Diary.

WlLSON, WOODROW, History of the American People.

INDEX

INDEX

'Adams, Charles Francis, 116
Adams, John Quincy, 71, 87, 88, 89,

104

Africa, 196, 212, 322
Aiken, John, 304
Akerman, A. T., 315, 316
Alabama, 66, 104, 136, 156, 189, 198,

203, 204, 229, 231, 263, 300
Alaska, 102
Alexander, 198
Alfriend, Ed, 128, 313 '
America, 64, 95, 151, 156, 160, 198,

229, 276, 291
Anatomy of MslancAoly, Burton, 109,

112

Anderaonville, 263, 264, 265
Antietam, 239
Appleton, Major, 34
Apporaattox, 17
Archer, Senator, 93
Arkansas, 143, 170, 216
Aitor House, 40
Atheni, 18, 52
Athtns Banntr, 232
Atlanta, xSv, 20, 22 f 23, 30, 34, 60,

121, 197, m, 267, 297, 314, 315,

334, 335, 336, 339
Atlanta Hotel, 23, 119

Bnn f Thi> 309, 314
o"0, 63, 137, 160, 182, 183,

185, 189
Austria, 276

?, Myrta Locfcttt, xil!

y, George, 254
Baldwin, Judge, 212
Btllard House, 215
B*te*0r SHO, 116, 186, 137, 18*,

19% m, 312
ftdttaw

Baltimore Statesman, The, 302

Barnard, F. A. P.
quoted, 326

Barnett, 22, 24

Barnwell, Mr., 228, 234, 274

Baskins, Catherine, 42

Battle, Isaac, 61

Battle, Martha Ann, 61, 62

Beauregard, General, 213

Belgium, 308

Bell, Mrs. Emmeline
see Mrs. Linton Stephens

Benjamin, Judah P., 32, 230, 231

Benning, Henry L., 277

Berckmans, Doctor, 257

Berrien, J. M., 90, 93, 121, 172

Binks, Sir Bingo (dog), 41, 246, 247,
248, 257, 258

Birney, James G., 91

Blair, Francis P., 275, 276, 277, 279

Blair, Montgomery, 287, 297

Bledsoe, A. T,, 302

Blodgett, Foster, 309

Boston, 37, 40, 212

Boston Harbor, 28, 77

Most on Herald, 35

Bowman, Mrs. Geline MacDonald,
xiv

Bragg, Braxton, 238

Breckinridge, John C,, 32, 188, 190,
193

Brooks, Preston, 169

Brown, John, 224

Brown, Joseph E., 38, 156, 172, 173,
174, 176, 184, 186, 224, 228, 231,
236, 244, 245, 246, 249, 258, 259,
260, 262, 268, 269, 270, 293, 296,
298, 300, 301, 305, 309, 332, 333
quoted, 269-70

Brown, Milton, 96, 98

349

350

LITTLE ALECK

Browne, W. H. (and Johnston, R.
MO, 179

Life of Alexander H. Stephens, xiii
Browne, William M, 230
Buchanan, James, 169, 171, 175, 177,

180, 185, 187, 196, 207, 210
Buffalo, 151

Bullock, Rufus, 300, 301, 302, 305, 309
Burns, Robert, 56, 81
Burr, C. Chauncey, 251
Burrell, W. W., 144
Burt, Armistead, 104, 106, 143, 268
Burton, F., 198
Burton, Robert

Anatomy of Melancholy^ 109, 112
Butler, Frances, 298, 310
Butler, William 0,, 116
Byrd, John, 81, 128
Byron, 56, 74, 81

Cable, David F., 263, 264, 265
Calhoun, John C., 65, 69, 88, 89, 90,

102, 106, 107, 123, 124, 157
California, 117, 124, 125, 132, 169
Camp Pine Creek, 226
Campbell, A. M., 202
Campbell, John A., 277, 278, 279
Canton, 83
Carpenter
Signing of the Emancipation Proc*

lamation, 325
Carroll, Charles, 160
Carthage, 74
Casey, Henry R, 187
Casey, Juriah H., 308
Cass, Lewis, 116
Cassville, 83

Cavalier Dismounted) Tht 9 34
Chancellorsville, 255
Chandler, Daniel C,, 58
Chapin, E. M., 296
Chappell, A. H., 293
Charleston, 79, 180, 184, 185, 186,

187, 190, 208
Charleston Mtrcvry* 228

Charlotte, 266
Charlottesville, 101
Chase, S. P.

quoted; 255

Chattahoochee River, 267
Chattanooga, xiv
Chattoogaville, 83
Chesnut, Mr., 200, 201, 221
Chesnut, Mrs., 201, 203, 210, 225

diary quoted, 211, 219, 220, 221,

272, 288

Chicago, 267, 270, 294
Chilton, Judge, 203, 206
Chronicle and Sentinel* 137
Cicero, 52

De Oratory 53

Ttiscalan Disputations, 294
Cincinnati, 169, 310, 321
Citizen (Frederick)

quoted, 157-58
City Point, 39, 277
Civil War, 17, 146, 308
Clark, Richard H., 179
Clay, C, C. 23, 24, 2$
Clay, Henry, 69, 94, 95, US, 116, 124,

132, 157, 234
Clayton, John M,, 117
Cleveland (Ohio), 29$
Cleveland, Henry, xiii, 291
Clinch, General, 90, 100
Clyde, the, 26
Coahuilt, 71, 103

Cobb, Howell, *i!!, 32, 83, 100, 104,
108, 125, 134, 135, 137, 172, W,
200, 204, 296, 300, SOI
Cobb, T. R, It, 198
Cohen, J, Barrett, 312
Cohen, Solomon, 83
ColUmcr, Jacob, 100
Colquitt, Governor, 332, S33
Colquitt, Walter T., 84, 85, 332
Columbia (South Carolina), 266,J70
Columbia College, 326
Columbus, 60, 66

INDEX

Commercial Advertiser
quoted, 317

Comstock, General, 39

Cone, Judge, 118, 119, 120, 122, 159,
163

Congresswn&l Globe, 158, 168

Connecticut, 114

Connel, Cosby, 257, 258

Constitution, 316

Constitutional View of the War be
tween the States, A, Stephens,
xiii, 297, 298, 303, 308, 315

Constitutionalist , 163, 164

Constitutional-Union Party, 134, 136

Cooper, Mark A., 83

Cornwall, Francis, 198

Corry, William H,, 294

Couch, General! 293

Co win, Thomas, 117

Crawford, George W., 172

Crawford, Joel, 65

Crawford, Martin J., 198, 207, 209

Crawford, William H,, 58, 60, 6$

Crawfordville, xiii, 17, 18, 24, 38, 41,
57, 58, 59, 60, 67, 69, 75, 80, 120,
127, 139, 141, 147, 149, 162, 170,
184, 198, 213, 216, 217, 21$, 233,
247, 269, 281, 290, 293, 294, 300,
$11, SIS, 322, 327, 329, 331, 3?J

Creek Wir, 84

Crlttenden, John J,, 122, 125, 196

Cuba, HO

Culloden Moor, 42

Curtii, Benjamin R. 251

Dade County, 84

Daholonega, 83

Dallas, George M, 91

Dalton, 189

Danville, 266

Davii, Jeffcnon, 19, 23, 24, 26, 27,
$1, $, 103, 202, 207, 201, 209,
210, 31S, 222, 224, 228, 229, 231,
233, 214 917, 239, 242, 243,

an, 30, w ait, ?*6, 2*1,

Davis, Jefferson continued

262, 264, 265, 268, 269, 270, 271,
273, 275, 276, 279, 332

Davis, Mrs. Jefferson, 24, 25, 26, 27,
220, 223, 224, 229

Dawson, William C,, 58, 90, 156, 157

De Oratore, Cicero, 53

Delaware, 117

Democratic Party, 84, 132, 139, 170,
185, 306

Democratic-Republican Party, 65

District of Columbia, 88, 124, 151

Dix, General, 29

Douglas, Stephen A., 23, 104, 113,
125, 142, 167, 175, 177, 180, 184,
185, 188, 189, 190, 196, 208

Dred Scott decision, 171, 251

Dunwody, Major, 236

Ellington, E., 62
^ Emory College, 138
England, 64, 102, 103, 106, 107, 146,

198, 212, 227, 276
Enoch Arfan* Tennyson, 299
Espey, J, P., 149, 151

Philosophy of Storms, The, 150
Europe, 110, 220, 244
Evans, General, 237

Fairfax, 226

Faneuil Hall, 39

ftderal Union, 107

Fielder, Herbert, 315, 316

Fillmore, MiHard, 11& 169, 19|

Fitzpatricfc, Zeno I*, 308

flprida, H, 206

Flournoy, Thomas 8., 114, 277

Foote, Henry S n 202, 249

Fort Donehon, 229

Fort Henry, 229

Fort Sumter, 207, 213

Fort Warren, 28, 29, 30, 40, 77, 108,

^83, 289, 291, 299
Fortress Monroe, 27
Foiter, Thomas, 74

35 2

LITTLE ALECK

Fouche", Simpson, 75
France, 276
Franklin College, 51
Fredericksburg, 255
Free-Soilers, 118, 123, 136, 167
Freeman, Douglas $., xiii
Fremont, John C., 169, 171
French and Indian Wars, 42

Galphin, George, 131

Garfield, James A., 325, 328

Geary, Corporal, 34, 38

Georgia, xiii, xiv, 17, 18, 21, 23, 29,
35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 51, 54,
61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 70, 72, 73,
75, 77, 79, 80, 82, 83, 86, 87, 89,
90, 92, 93, 94, 107, 108, 111,
112, 114, 115, 117, 118, 120, 125,
131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 145,
152, 156, 157, 161, 163, 165, 166,
171, 172, 173, 174, 176, 179, 180,
181, 182, 184, 185, 188, 189, 193,
195, 196, 197, 198, 200, 201, 204,
206, 224, 228, 230, 231, 235, 240,
243, 244, 245, 246, 248, 249, 250,
252, 253, 255, 258, 259, 262, 263,
266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 272, 274,
275, 277, 281, 283, 284, 285, 287,
288, 289, 291, 292, 293, 296, 298,
300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306,
307, 309, 310, 312, 314, 315, 316,
317, 323, 324, 331, 333, 334, 336,
338, 339, 340

Georgia Female College, 74

Gettysburg, 253, 255

Gordon, John B., 300, 315, 316, 332

Gordoftsville, 237, 23$

Grady, Henry, 301

Graham, John M, xiv, 179, 327, 328,
329, 331

Graham, William A*, 136, 274, 293

Grant, Ulysses 8*, 3?, 41, 251, 2$4>
277, 278, 280, 282, 2S* 287, 307,
310, 312, 314

Grant County, 198, 212

Great Britain, 80, 131, 276

Greece, 74

Greeley, Horace, 142, 147, 250, 310,

311, 312, 314
Green County, 133
Grier, Aaron, 42, 48, 50, 52, 60
Grier, Margaret

see Mrs. A, B, Stephens
Grier, Robert

c^ 42

Haiti, 71

Halleck, Major-General, 268
Halyburton, J, D,, 229
Hamilton, Alexander, 69, 80, 244
Hamilton, David Twiggs, 200
Hammack, Lucinda Frances

set Mrs, Linton Andrew Stephens
Hampton Roads Conference, 19, 23,

27, 278, 281, 320
Hancock County, 99, 13?, 234
Hardee, Colonel, 156, 273
Harris, Iverson L,, 73
Harris, Willy ?,, 202, 206
Harrison, President, 89
Harvard, 37, 101
Hatterii, 227

Hayes, Rutherford B, 321, 323, 324
Hayne, General, 65, 80
Holden, Mrs* Horace M* (Mary

Corry), xiv, 327
Hooker, Joseph, 251,
Hopkins, C, H 301
Howard, Major, 66
Howe!!, Jefferson Davit! 25
Hudson, Paul O, 301
Huil t Robert, 18
Hunter, D., 252
Hunter, R, M T, 3J 104, 222, 220,

230, 234, 243, 274> 275, 277, 27$,

2SO

Hidcll, Mr., 21
Hill, Benjamin H* 161, 162, 163, 164,

10, 171, 173, IMt 197, m, 204^

INDEX

353

Hill, Benjamin E,*->continued

231, 260, 274, 297, 300, 301, 306,
315, 316, 320, 334

Hill, Joshua, 90, 301

Billiard, Mr., 156

Hilsman, John, 61

Illinois, 104, 'ill, 113, 114, 125, 142,

153, 156, 177, 250
Indiana, 152, 153, 250
Ingersoll, Charles J., 96
Intarnational Revi*w f Th* 324

Jackion, Andrew (Old Hickory), 64,

66, 67, 69, 76, 77, 78
Jackson, T. J. (Stonewall), 235
James River, 253

Jewries, Swepston C 57, 60, 61, 127
Jefferson, Thomas, 71
Jenkins, Charles, 73, 133, 200, 284,

298
Johnson, Andrew, 33, 38, 39, 41, 104,

283, 284, 286, 287, 293
Johnson, Herschl V., 39, 107,

108, 163, 188, 197, 232, 261, 284,

293

Johnson, James, 35, 54
Johnston, R, M,, xiii, 31, 139, 179,

188, 203, 218, 234, 242, 248, 257,

267, 294, 299, SIS, 322, 323
Jonti, C C, 211
Jfonts, J* B,
Rtfal W&f GlttV* &iwy> *

quoted, 222, 273

Kansas, 142, 152, 167, 169, 171, 174,

175, 176, 177
Kaasas-Nftbratfca Bill, 142, 144, 146,

14r f 151, 1SS, m
Kintan, A, H,, 198, 204
Kentucky, 25, It*, 450, 254
Ktfctl* Cretfe, 48
Kimbtll, H. L, 302
Kiuf, T. B* 90
King, William It, 136

Know-Nothings, 151, 152, 158, 159,
160, 161, 165, 169, 245

LaGrange, 84

Lamar, Albert R., 310

Lamar, George W., 190

Lawton, Colonel, 211

Lecompton Constitution, 174, 175

Lee, Robert E., 17, 215, 230, 235, 237,
239, 251, 253, 255^ 264, 282

Lehman, Doctor, 53

Lexington, 161, 162

Liberty County, 56

Liberty Hall, xiii, 17, 18, 20, 22, 30,
80, 82, 112, 121, 126, 127, 147,
H8, 149, 154, 174, 182, 185, 188,
196, 217, 234, 246, 247, 257, 267,
282, 283, 289, 290, 298, 302, 304,
308, 312, 313, 321, 329, 331, 334,
335, 336, 337

If/* of Alexander H. Stephens*
Browne and Johnston, xiii

lift of Union Stephens, Waddell,
xiii

Lincoln, Abraham, 19, 23, 39, 111,
114, 117, 156, 167, 177, 191, 192,
194, 196, 207, 213, 214, 221, 232,
233, 239, 240, 243, 245, 251, 253,
255, 256, 264, 267, 268, 270, 271,
273, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280,
281, 282, 283, 284, 325

Lindsay, John W n 75

Locust Grove, 48

London, 150

London Saturday Rtview* The
quoted, 308

Longstreet, General, 235, 237

Louisiana, 93, 104, 206, 319, 320

Lubbock, Governor, 25

Lumpkin, John H., 83

Lumpkin, Joseph H., 58, 90

Maoon, 141, 198
Macon M*ssenger t 157
Madison, 54, 55, 56, 94, 179

354

LITTLE ALECK

Manassas, 217, 21$, 227

Marietta, 268

Marshall, Henry, 206

Maryland, 124, 156, 160, 238, 239

Mason, Commissioner, 227

Massachusetts) 88, &9, 142, 169,

293

Matamoraa, 103
Maximilian, 276
McClellan, George B., 233, 235, 236,

267, 270, 272
Mcllwaine, Henry R,, xiv
McKinley, Judge, 100
McKinley, Mrs., 329
McLaws, Mrs, J f T, (Anna Hendree

Norwood), xiv, 333
McLean, Judge, 100
McMillan, Mrs. Garnett, xiv
McRae, Colin, 203
Meade, General, 298
Memrainger, C. G. 205, 221, 249
Memphis, 229
Mexican War, 32, 104> 107, 109, 110

111, 116, 182, 208, 278
Mexico, 71, 90, 93, 94, 102, 103, 104,

106, 108, 109, 113, 118, 121, 134,

140, 146, 276
Michigan, 91, 116
Milledgeville, 187, 245
Mills, Charles C, 50, 51
Mississippi (state), 104, 204, 207, 208,

229, 238, 269, 293
Mississippi River, 97, 227
Missouri, 123, 143, 274
Missouri Compromise, 132, 142, 143,

145, 152, 171
Mobile, 292
Monroe, Doctor, 3$
Monroe, James, 102
Monroe, Judge, 25
Monroe Doctrine, 140, 276, 279
Montgomery, 59, 66, 197, 198, 200,

202, 203, 204, 208, 210, 213, 214>
215, 216, 219, 230, 231, 222, 224>
260

Morgan, General, 253

Moscow, 271

Moses, Raphael J., 300, 301

Myers, Joe, 38

Myers, Willie, 254

Napoleon, Louis, 276

Nashville, 132, 136, 229

National Intelligence 137, 138, 150,

193

National Whig Party, 70
Nebraska, 142, 152
Nelson, Charles, 20, 84
New England, 35, 88, 142, 1J2, 167
New Hampshire, 88, 136
New Mexico, 117, 124, 133
New Orleans, 121, 229, 242
New York, 41, 76, 89, 114, 115, 116,

250, 251, 31$
York Times, The, 31, 151
York Tribun*, 142

84, 85
Newport News, 253
Newton, Lieutenant, S3, $4
Nitbet, Eugenlu* A*, 197
North Carolina, 95, 214, 216, 249,

263, 266, 274, 284
Norwood, Thomas Manson, SS2

O'Cavaaaugh, ifc 48, 4*, SO, 107,

119, 159
Ohio, 19, 1H *37, 7, 250* 251, 353*

261, 264, S25
Old Guard, Tk* 9 2S1
Old Homestead, 18, SO, 46, 48, 149,

247, 295, 314
John IV $08

CWoea, 59, 290, $29
Oregon, 95, 102, 106, 113, 117, 14S,

146, 181, 332
Orr, Governor, 29$
Ould, Robert, 253, 261
Oweiif, J W., 2U

Paris, 110, 159

INDEX

355

Pendleton, John S., 114
Pennsylvania, 42, 63, 64, 76, 91, 104,

108, 137, 153, 169, 175
Pennsylvania?*
quoted, 144
Petersburg, 277

Philadelphia, 116, 251, 292, 299, 321
Phillips, Ulrich B., xiii
Phillips, Wendell, 286
Philosophy of Storms f The, Espey, 150
Pickens, 173
Pierce, Franklin, 40, 136, 138, 139,

140

Pierce, George W., 40
Polk, James K., 91, 94, 95, 102, 103,

104, 106, 109, 113, 123, 208
Port Royal, 227
Potomac River, 242, 253
Pratt, Governor, 156
Preston, William Ballard, 114
Preston, William C, 80
Pryor, General, 237

Ramsay, David Marshall, xiv
Ramsay, Mary Woolfolk, xiv
Randolph, G. W., 236, 239
Randolph, Innes, 254
Randolph County, 235
Rappahannock River, 253
Raymond, Henry J, 293
Reagan, Judge, 25, 28, 40
Rtbtl War Clerk* * Diary* A, Jones

quoted, 222, 273
Rtbtllion Record, Tht> 33
Reese, Doctor, 156
Reese, James, 36, 166
Rtid, Mary Stephens, 294
Reldiville, 266
Rgpuklifattj 245
Republican Farty, 146> 151
Revere House, 46
Rtviewtn Rtviewtd, Tht, Stephens,

303

Revolutionary War> 42, 131, HO
Rhctt, R. Banmell, 104, 204

Rhynders, Isaiah, 114, 116

Richardson, Dolly, xiv

Richardson, P. Briggs, xiv

Richardson, William A., 125~ 318

Richmond, xiii, xiv, 19, 20, 24, 27,
188, 214, 216, 217, 219, 220, 223,
224, 225, 229, 232, 233, 234, 235,
237, 240, 242, 244, 245, 246, 249,
250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 259,
263, 266, 268, 272, 273, 274, 275,
277, 281, 282, 333

Rio (dog) 127, 234, 246, 248, 262

Rio Grande del Norte, 103, 276

Rives, John C., 158

Roanoke Island, 229

Rome, 74, 83, 268

Rush House, 113

Russia, 102

Rutherford, Williams, 73

Saint, Captain, 20, 21, 22, 37, 291
Saint Augustine, 62
Salter, Edith, 40
Saltcr, Mary

see Mrs. Linton Stephens
Salter, Mrs,, 40
San Jacinto, 71
Santa Anna, 71
Savage, John, 80
Savannah, xiv, 26, 211, 213, 244, 273,

338

Savannah River, 62, 189, 267
Saxton, General, 26
Sayre, Colonel, 90
School History of the United States,

A, Stephens, 308, 315, 329, 331,

334

Scott, Walter, 74, 81, 246
Scott, Winfield, 136, 137, 138
Seaverns, Annie, 34
Seaverns, Doctor, 33, 38
Seidell, C. W., 339
Semmes, Tom, 234, 238, 274
Seven Days' Battle, 235

356

LITTLE ALECK

Seward, William H., 19, 33, 128, 145,

151, 276, 278, 279, 281, 292
Shakespeare, 74, 81
Shannan, Professor, 53
Sherman, William T., 267, 270, 271,

293, 305

quoted, 268-69, 273-74
Shewraake, Oscar L,, xiv
Shewmake, Mrs f Oscar, 198
diary quoted, 198-99, 204, 212-13,

250-51

Slaughter, Colonel, 246
Slidell, John, 104, 227, 276
Smith, J. Henly, 186, 187, 191, 196,

309

Smith, James M., 309
Smith, Truman, 114
South Carolina, 26, 65, 80, 104, 106,
133, 134, 136, 143, 169, 172, 173,
175, 196, 197, 200, 201, 204, 221,
227, 266, 268, 270, 288, 289, 293,
302
Southern Quarterly Review, The* 144,

302

Spain, 71, 276

Sparrow, General, 206, 274
Sparta, 90, 139, 147, 174, 256, 257,

258, 311

Speights, Archibald 3M, 309
St Louis, 321
Stanton, Harry, 254
Starke, James H*, 83
State Rights Party, 65, 77
Stephens, Aaron, 45, 48, 54, 75, 77,

306

Stephens, Alexander (First), 42
Stephens, Alexander Hamilton
admitted to bar, 58*59
affection for Lin^on, 37, 138, 312-14
ancestry of, 42-43
and Cone encounter, 119-20
and guardianship of Linton, 80-81,

108

and Lincoln
quoted, 325

Stephens, Alexander Hamilton con
tinued
and slavery
quoted on, 97-98, 168, 183, 325-

26

and state rights, 65-66
appearance of, 18, 55, 72, 129, 144,

324

arrest of, 20
as raconteur, 92-93, 135
at Confederate Congress, 198-207
at Georgia state convention, 133
boyhood of, 43-51
challenges Hill, 162
confers with Lincoln at Hampton

Roads, 278-81

Constitutional View of the War
between tht States* A, xiii, 297,
298, 303, 308, 315
daily routine of, 99
death of, 340

declining health of, 308, 321
delegate at Whig Convention, 90
diary quoted, 31, 33-34, 35, 36, 38,

39, 57, 58, 61, 68, 7$
education of, 48*54
elected

governor of Georgia, 334
to Congreii, 85, 94, 135, 317
to Georgia legislature, 72, 77
vice-prtaidem of Confederate

State*, 207

frailty of, 22, 25, 29-30, 32, 43, 44-
45, 55, 82, U> 126, 12$, 134-35,
141, IH, 217

frame* Georgia Platform, 306
home-coming of, 41*42
houiehold servant* of
Anthony, 20, Z6 t 27, 246, 248
Ben, 47, 48, 149, 154, 176, 28?
Bllsa, 20, 24, 112, 126, 127, 147,
148, 154, 289, 304, 329, 131
fltrry, 20, 3i 24, 14, 41, 147,
*48 t!4> m> *K , *%?,
S29

INDEX

357

Stephens, Alexander Hamilton con
tinued

household servants o continued
Henry, 24, 27
Tim, 18, 21, 24, 289
others mentioned, 22, 26, 30, 31,

289, 304, 336
imprisonment of, at Fort Warren,

28, 29-40
letter from Lincoln

quoted, 194

letters of, 81, 90, 93, 94, 101, 107,
109, 122, 125-26, 128, 129-30,
139, 144-45, 155, 165, 170, 174,
188, 192, 195, 196, 203, 208,
214, 216, 218, 230, 238-39, 242,
253, 256-57, 267, 269, 296-97,
311, 312

love-affairs of, 55-56, 179
"morbid secret" of, 177-80
(offered chair at University of

Georgia, 303

oppose* Clayton Compromise, 117
opposes Know-Nothings, 1 51-52,

159

oratorical power of, 70-71, 74
quotations from speeches
at City Hall Park, 190
before legislature, 284-85
before Reconstruction Committee,

287-88

corner-stone, 211
on Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 143-44
on Mexican War, 104-6
on three-million-dollar bill, 110
Western and Atlantic Railway,

73

Reviewers Reviewed* The> 303
fakwl History of the United States,

J, 30, 3*5, 329, 331, 334
lecttre* parole, 39
supports Georgia Female College,

" 74

8tpfceLi Alexander W,, xly, 336
Stephens, Andrew, 42, 43, 44, 47, 52

Stephens, Mrs. A. B. (Margaret
Grier), 42

Stephens, Becky, 30, 257, 271

Stephens, Catherine, 31

Stephens, Claude, 257

Stephens, Madame Claude M.
quoted, 313-14

Stephens, James, 42, 63

Stephens, John Alexander, 290, 330,
336

Stephens, Mrs. John A., 335, 337

Stephens, John Grier, 295

Stephens, John L., 178, 246, 294

Stephens, Linton, xiii, 21, 24, 30, 31,
34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 46, 47, 75, 80,
81, 90, 91, 93, 99, 100, 101, 107,
108, 112, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127,
129, 138, 139, 145, 147, 149, 155,
156, 158, 165, 170, 174, 175, 176,
177, 178, 179, 180, 189, 196, 197,
208, 209, 211, 213, 214, 216, 217,
218, 226, 230, 232, 238, 244, 246,
253, 258, 259, 262, 271, 292, 299,
306, 307, 311, 312, 315, 332
letter quoted, 177-78

Stephens, Mrs. Linton (Emmeline
Bell), 139, 147, 174

Stephens, Mrs. Linton (Mary Salter),
40, 299, 313, 314

Stephens, Linton Andrew, 247, 290,
291

Stephens, Mrs. linton Andrew (Lu-
cinda Frances Hammack), xiii,
247, 290, 330

Stephens, Mollie, 31, 294, 295, 330

Stephens, Nehemiah, 42

Stephens, William G., 308

Stevens, Thaddeus, 285, 286, 293

Stiles, William H., 83

Story, Judge, 100

Stuart, Charles, 42

Sumner, Charles, 142, 286,
Crime against Kansas, The, 169

358

LITTLE ALECK

Taliafcrro County, 43, 70, 72, 73, 85,
86, 128, 195, 198

Taney, Chief Justice, 100

Tanner, George C, 308

Taylor, Zachary, 103, 104, 113, 114

Tennessee, 42, 73, 91, 96, 104, 123,
216, 249, 300

Tennyson
Enoch Arden, 299

Terry, General, 305

Texas, 32, 71, 89, 90, 91, 94, 95, 96,
97, 98, 103, 106, 124, 140, 143,
155, 172, 173, 182

Thomas, James, 90, 126, 139, 141

Thomas, Thomas W., 99, 159, 160,
162, 163, 164, 226, 227, 228, 234

Thompson, General, 94

Tilden, Daniel R., 104

Tilden, Samuel J., 321, 323, 324

Times, New York, 285, 293

Toombs, Robert, xiii, 17, 19, 20, 21,
22, 32, 59, 63, 70, 77, 78, 79, 82,
86, 90, 91, 94, 99, 104, 112, 113,
114, 115, 116, 122, 123, 125, 126,
129, 130, 132, 134, 135, 148, 156,
162, 171, 172, 173, 176, 179, 185,
186, 187, 188, 191, 192, 193, 195,
198, 200, 201, 203, 206, 207, 209,
212, 217, 222, 226, 228, 230, 233,
234, 235, 236, 237, 244, 246, 248,
269, 291, 292, 296, 300, 301, 303,
309, 310, 311, 313, 315, 316, $17,
325, 339, 340

Toombi, Mrs. Robert, 113, 15$, 196,
210, 224, 238

Toptka, 167, 175

Trippe, Bob, 190

Troup, George M,, 172
Trout Home, 23
Tucker, "Ran," 254

Tuscalan Disputations, Cicero, 294
Tyler, John, 89, 90, H, 95, 98, 102,
106, US, 208, 215, 216
e, 74

Uncle Tom's Cabin, 152

Union, the, 150

Union Party, 65

United States, 27, 31, 32, 39, 54, 66,
69, 71, 76, 78, 89, 90, 96, 102, 103,
108, 109, 113, 117, 118, 122, 142,
150, 171, 192, 209, 212, 213, 214,
224, 241, 245, 250, 263, 268, 276,
279, 280, 284, 285, 292, 298, 319,
323, 324, 328, 333

University at Athens, 51, 80, 182

University of Georgia, 37, 303

University of Virginia, 37, 101

Upton, General, 22, 23

Utah, 110, 132

Valjean, Jean, 33

Vallandigham, Clement, 251, 267

Van Buren, Martin, 76, 78, 116, 142

Verger, Judge, 293

Vermont, 100, 143

Vicksburg, 251, 253

Victoria, Queen, 180

Virginia, xiv, 104, 114, 123, 124, 182,
206, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 219,
227, 239, 253, 254, 264, 272, 277
* 9 242

Walker, D, A,, 29$

Ward, Artemu, 34

Waihburnc, Mr,, 153, 114

Washington (D, C.) 22, 27, S8 39,
41, 86, 91, 100, 112, 113, 114,
126, 127, 129, 139, 141, 150, 152,
157, 15* 162, 164, 174, 181, 186,
195, 196, 200, 210, 238, 250, 252,
253, 280, 284, 286, 288, 305, 306,
317, 318, S27> 32$, SSI, SIS

Washington ( Georgia )> 20, 21, IS,
51, 61, 71, 248, 315

Waterloo, 18

Wayne, Judge, IH

Web*tcr, Alexander Hamilton, 51

Webster, DfcnJtl, 1*, *5, *#, W, 13*,
117, 13S t 117

INDEX 359

Welles, Gideon Wilmot, David, 104, 108

diary quoted, 278, 281 Wilmot Proviso, 109, 110, 111, 123,
Wellington, 198 124, 169

Wesley an, 198 Woodford, Jack and Jill, xiv

West Virginia, 227 Woodman, Lieutenant, 34

Wheeler, Joe, 25 World, New York, 250

Whig Party, 137, 162 Wright, A. R., 188, 190, 191, 198, 204,
White, Mrs. Henry F,, xiii 316

Wilcox, General, 237

Wilkes County, 59, 86 Yancey, William L., 104, 231

William Shand> the, 40 Young, Brigham, 34

08935