Background
Stephens, Alexander Hamilton was born on February 11, 1812 in Wilkes County (later Taliaferro County), Georgia, United States. Son of Andrew and Margaret (Grier) Stephens.
congressman Confederate government official
Stephens, Alexander Hamilton was born on February 11, 1812 in Wilkes County (later Taliaferro County), Georgia, United States. Son of Andrew and Margaret (Grier) Stephens.
Public school, private school, southern university.
He was the son of Andrew Baskins Stephens, a poor merchant’s clerk, and his wife Margaret (Grier). With the help of a benefactor, Stephens was able to attend Franklin College (later the University of Georgia), from which he graduated first in the class of 1832. He had odd jobs, taught school, studied law, and was admitted to the Crawfordsville bar in 1834.
He early became a successful lawyer and turned his attentions to public service. He was a Presbyterian, a lifelong bachelor, and a Whig. He served in the Georgia legislature from 1836 to 1840, and again in 1842.
He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1843 to 1859, where his intelligence and biting oratory soon carried him to leadership in the Whig party. He was a staunch unionist who was personally responsible for the Georgia unionist movement in 1850. In 1859, he decided that his party no longer had any power in the South, but he remained active in politics as a supporter of Stephen A. Douglas in 1860.
After the presidential election, he called for a convention of all the Southern states in the hopes of at least forging a united Southern effort if he could not forestall disunion. He was a union delegate to the Georgia secession convention, but signed the Ordinance of Secession. As a delegate to the Montgomery convention to create the Confederacy, he was a leader in constructing a conservative constitution.
The provisional Confederate Congress elected him vicepresident of the Confederacy in February 1861. He was also the commissioner to Virginia to persuade that state to join the Confederacy. A staunch states’ rights enthusiast, actions of the Davis government soon drove him into political opposition.
He returned to Georgia, became a champion of Governor Joseph E. Brown {, and sabotaged much of the Confederate government’s relations with that state. In 1862, Stephens became the leader of the Senate opposition to the Davis administration. Along with R.M.T. Hunter i and John A. Campbell, he was a delegate to the abortive Hampton Roads Peace Mission in late 1864.
When the war ended, he was arrested and held prisoner in Boston for six months. When released he settled in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1866, he was elected to the U.S. Senate but was never able to present his credentials.
As with many other leaders, the federal government refused him public office during Reconstruction. He became a vehement foe of Reconstruction. In 1871, he bought the Atlanta Southern Sun and, in his editorials, opposed the Democratic fusion with the Liberal Republicans in 1872.
From 1873 to 1882, he again served in the U.S. House, and in 1882-1883, he was governor of Georgia. He also published the best selling history, A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States (1868-1870), He died on March 4, 1883, in Atlanta, Georgia.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Member United States House of Representatives from Georgia, 28th-35th congresses, 1843-1859, opposed dispatch of troops to Rio Grande in 1846, Wilmot Proviso and Clayton Compromise, 1848, supported Compromise of 1850 while proclaiming right of secession of any state.