Alexander H. Stephens
Library of Congress
Alexander H. Stephens was the vice president of the Confederacy under Jefferson Davis, its president. Born near Crawfordville, Ga., in 1812, Stephens attended private and public schools. He graduated from the University of Georgia at Athens in 1832. He was later admitted to the bar in Crawfordville in 1834.
Stephens, elected as a Whig to the 28th Congress, later became a member of the secession convention of Georgia in 1861, which elected him to the Confederate Congress. He was chosen by that Congress as Vice President of the provisional government. He served as one of the commissioners representing the Confederacy at the Hampton Roads conference in February 1865. After the Civil War, Stephens was imprisoned in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, for five months, until October 1865.
He was elected to the United States Senate in 1866 by the first legislature convened under the new State constitution but did not present his credentials since Georgia had not been readmitted to the Union. He was elected as a Democrat to the 43rd Congress, filling a vacancy, and elected to the 44th and to three succeeding Congresses and served from December 1873, until his resignation in November 1882.
Stephens was elected governor of Georgia in 1882 and served until his death in Atlanta, Ga., on March 4, 1883. He is buried on his estate, “Liberty Hall,” near Crawfordville, Ga. — adapted from "The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress"
ARTICLES ABOUT ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS
The president tried to reach a negotiated end to the Civil War in February 1865. Why didn’t it work?
February 3, 2015, Tuesday
A political theorist scrutinizes the Declaration of Independence, and see it as a clarion call for equality.
July 6, 2014, Sunday
What a fiery speech by Alexander H. Stephens, the Confederate vice president, meant for the crumbling state of Southern politics.
March 27, 2014, Thursday
Brenda Wineapple surveys a time of ferment and high passion.
August 11, 2013, Sunday
The Emancipation Proclamation has to be understood within the context of Lincoln's war strategy.
October 5, 2012, Friday
A Southern officer was part of the war against pro-Union tribes in the Southwest.
December 26, 2011, Monday
The Confederacy declares war on the United States, Maryland calls a secession convention, and Lincoln and Scott lay down the law.
May 1, 2011, Sunday
MORE ON ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS AND: News
A historian asks whether the country might have spared itself the carnage of the Civil War.
March 27, 2011, Sunday
Lincoln envoy Fox finds the situation in Charleston dire, while in Savannah CSA Vice President Stephens explains why African slavery is "the corner-stone of the Confederacy."