Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/21

 STEPHENS

STEPHENS

years. Andrew B. Stephens died in 1826, and Alexander was left an orphan, his mother having died some years before. He inherited about $444, and this with a small legacy from his grand- father was spent upon his education. He lived with his uncle, Charles C. Mills, of Washington, Wilkes county, a man of wealth and influence. He was sent to the high school at that place, taught by the Rev. Alexander Hamilton Webster, pastor of the Presbyterian church, through whose influence Alexander (who then first made use of the middle name Hamilton in respect for his teacher and friend) received an offer from the Presbyterian Educational society to loan him the money for a college course, and he matriculated at Franklin college (University of Georgia) in 1828, and was graduated in 1832, but refused to pay two dollars for a diploma. He taught school to repay his indebtedness to his benefactors, 1832- 34, and determining to adopt the profession of law, he was admitted to the bar, July 22, 1834, having given but two months' time to prepare for his examination. W. H. Crawford and J. H. Lumpkin, his examiners, both declared it to be the best examination they had ever witnessed. He lived frugally, and soon earned sufficient money to purchase his father's plantation in 1839, and the estate which became Liberty Hall, his future home in Crawfordville. He was a states rights Whig, but opposed to nullification, and he was elected a representative to the Georgia legislature in 1836, against a determined opposition, and after a heated canvass of the district. He took a front rank in the house, and his presentation to the state of the earning capacity of a railroad from Atlanta to Chattanooga secured the appropria- tion for the Western and Atlantic railroad, which became known as the state road. He also secured the first charter ever granted in the United States for a college for the regular graduation of women in classics and the sciences, the Georgia Female college at Macon, chartered in 1836, and opened, Jan. 7, 1839, with six professors and as many assistants. He was re-elected to the legis- lature in 1837, and each following year until 1841, when he declined a re-election, but was «ent to the state senate in 1842-43. He was a delegate to the Charleston commercial conven- tion in 1839, and in 1843 was elected a represen- tative from Georgia to the 28th congress (to com- plete the term of Mark A. Cooper, who resigned to run for governor of the state) by 3000 majority. At this time Georgia had not formed congres- sional districts, and after he had taken his seat he addressed the house on the question of his right to be seated when Georgia had not con- formed to the Federal act requiring the state to divide into districts instead of electing representa- tives from the state at large on the general ticket.

His right to a seat was sanctioned by the com- mittee on elections, and Georgia thereafter com- plied with the law. He was re-elected from the seventh district to the 29th-32d congresses, and from the eighth district to the 33d-35th con- gresses, serving continuously, 1839-59, when he declined further office, and announced his retire- ment from public life in a speech at Augusta, Ga., July 2, 1859. He had supported Harrison in 1840, Clay in 1844, and Taylor in 1848. He urged the admission of Texas, and in February, 1847, introduced in the house resolutions opposing the prosecution of the war against Mexico, as a viola- tion of the constitution and carried on for con- quest, but the house refused to consider the resolutions. In 1848 he opposed the Clayton com- promise against the opinions of his constituents, and the protests of the citizens of the whole state. When he appeared in Atlanta he was at- tacked and nearly killed in the public street by Judge Francis Cone, a prominent citizen of his own district, who sought to force him to retract his words spoken in opposition to the measure. He also sought to settle a dispute with Herschel V. Johnson and with Benjamin H. Hill by chal- lenging them to meet him on the field of honor, but neither would accept the call. He opposed the policy of President Taylor ; supported the Kansas- Nebraska bill in 1854 ; opposed Know- nothingism in 1855 ; advocated the doctrine of Senator Douglas, and in 1856 supported James Buchanan. During the presidential canvass of 1860 he supported the candidacy of Stephen A. Douglas for President, and was an elector-at- large for Georgia on the Douglas and Johnson ticket. On Nov. 30, 1860, a letter passed from Abraham Lincoln of Springfield, 111., to Mr. Ste- phens at Crawfordville, which led to a correspond- ence in which the views of both statesmen were fully expressed, but as Mr. Lincoln had marked his second letter " For your own eye only," this correspondence was not made public until after the close of the war. Mr. Stephens opposed se- cession, but proposed the state convention of Jan. 16, 1861, that a full voice of the people might be obtained, and he voted against seces- sion with 88 other delegates, 208 voting for the measure. He was appointed by this convention a member of the proposed Provisional congress to assemble at Montgomery, Ala., Feb. 4, 1861, and was then chosen provisional Vice-President of the proposed Confederacy, with Jefferson Davis as President. On March 21, he spoke in Savannah in favor of the upholding of the new Confederate States constitution, declaring that its chief corner stone was slavery ; and in April he urged upon the Virginia state convention assembled at Ricli- mond the adoption of the ordinance of secession. The regular election for President and Vice-