www.itoccoa.com
History and Heritage
Alexander Hamilton Stephens
 |
| Alexander Hamilton Stephens |
Alexander Hamilton Stephens, LL. D., Vice-President of
the Confederate States was one of that body of great men who stood
firmly by the venture on independence made by the Southern people in
1861.
He was born February 11, 1812, in Georgia, near Crawfordsville, where he is buried, and where a monument erected by the people speaks of his fame. Educated during his early youth in the schools of the times, he was graduated in 1832 at the age of twenty years, and was admitted to the bar in 1834.
After declining political honors and seeking to pursue without interruption a professional life, he represented them in political office. His county sent him in 1836 to the State legislature, repeated their selection until in 1841 he positively declined re-election. But in 1842 he was chosen State senator.
His record as a State legislator shows him diligent in protecting all common interests, and in advancing the State's material welfare. His first entry into the United States Congress occurred in 1843, after which he served 16 years with distinction constantly increasing until in 1859 he returned to private life by his own choice. He had been a firm advocate of the compromise measures of 1850, and having subsequently participated in the settlement of the Kansas troubles, accepted the result as an end of sectional strife so far as the South was concerned. He was elected a member of the Georgia convention of 1861, and after strenuous effort to delay the passage of an ordinance of separate State secession, he yielded when the act was passed and gave his entire energies to maintain the Confederacy.
The Provisional Congress chose him to be Vice-President of the Confederate States. His talents and commanding influence throughout the South caused his services to be put to immediate use.
Mr. Stephens considered the Southern cause hopeless after returning from the Hampton Roads conference, and finding the administration resolved on defending Richmond to the last, he left Richmond for his home February 9th and remained in retirement until his arrest on the 11th of May.
He was confined as a prisoner for five months at Fort Warren, which he endured with fortitude and without yielding up his convictions. His release by parole occurred in October, 1865, and on the following February the Georgia legislature elected him United States senator, but Congress was now treating Georgia as a State out of the Union, in subversion of the Presidential proclamation of restoration and he was therefore refused a seat.
Later, when the reconstruction era was happily ended, he was elected representative to Congress, in which he took his seat and served with unimpaired ability. In the year 1882 he was elected governor of Georgia, and during his term was taken sick at Savannah, where he died March 4, 1883. Extraordinary funeral honors were paid him at the capital and in the State generally, and his memory is cherished warmly as one of the great men of his times.
Source: Home of the American Civil War. “Alexander Hamilton Stephens”.
He was born February 11, 1812, in Georgia, near Crawfordsville, where he is buried, and where a monument erected by the people speaks of his fame. Educated during his early youth in the schools of the times, he was graduated in 1832 at the age of twenty years, and was admitted to the bar in 1834.
After declining political honors and seeking to pursue without interruption a professional life, he represented them in political office. His county sent him in 1836 to the State legislature, repeated their selection until in 1841 he positively declined re-election. But in 1842 he was chosen State senator.
His record as a State legislator shows him diligent in protecting all common interests, and in advancing the State's material welfare. His first entry into the United States Congress occurred in 1843, after which he served 16 years with distinction constantly increasing until in 1859 he returned to private life by his own choice. He had been a firm advocate of the compromise measures of 1850, and having subsequently participated in the settlement of the Kansas troubles, accepted the result as an end of sectional strife so far as the South was concerned. He was elected a member of the Georgia convention of 1861, and after strenuous effort to delay the passage of an ordinance of separate State secession, he yielded when the act was passed and gave his entire energies to maintain the Confederacy.
The Provisional Congress chose him to be Vice-President of the Confederate States. His talents and commanding influence throughout the South caused his services to be put to immediate use.
Mr. Stephens considered the Southern cause hopeless after returning from the Hampton Roads conference, and finding the administration resolved on defending Richmond to the last, he left Richmond for his home February 9th and remained in retirement until his arrest on the 11th of May.
He was confined as a prisoner for five months at Fort Warren, which he endured with fortitude and without yielding up his convictions. His release by parole occurred in October, 1865, and on the following February the Georgia legislature elected him United States senator, but Congress was now treating Georgia as a State out of the Union, in subversion of the Presidential proclamation of restoration and he was therefore refused a seat.
Later, when the reconstruction era was happily ended, he was elected representative to Congress, in which he took his seat and served with unimpaired ability. In the year 1882 he was elected governor of Georgia, and during his term was taken sick at Savannah, where he died March 4, 1883. Extraordinary funeral honors were paid him at the capital and in the State generally, and his memory is cherished warmly as one of the great men of his times.
Source: Home of the American Civil War. “Alexander Hamilton Stephens”.
Copyright ©2012 iToccoa, iTerion Steward. All rights reserved.
To request permission to use this article in your publication please Contact Us.
All use, including that categorized as "Fair Use" should include ouas r Copyright and a link to the original article on this site. Thank you.