Taliaferro-Wilkes County GaArchives Biographies.....Stephens, Alexander H. 1812 - 1883
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Francesca Henle-Taylor henle@fmfproductions.com December 16, 2004, 3:12 pm

Author: Edited by Forkner and Samway
ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS (1812 - 1883)

Alexander Hamilton Stephens was born in Wilkes (now Taliaferro) County, 
Georgia. After his parents died when he was fifteen, Stephens went to live 
with an uncle in Warren County. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 
1832 and worked for two years as a schoolteacher. He then studied law and was 
admitted to the bar in 1834. Entering politics in 1836, he denounced 
nullification and protested tactics used against abolitionists. He was elected 
to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843 and supported the annexation of 
Texas. He joined the Democratic Party in order to support Daniel Webster. 
Moderately proslavery, Stephens opposed secession and retired from Congress in 
1859. He was elected in both 1861 and 1862 Vice President of the Confederate 
States, though he was often at odds with Jefferson Davis. He was arrested by 
Union soldiers after Appomattox and was confined to Fort Warren in Boston 
until October 12, 1865. When he returned to Georgia, Stephens advocated 
reconciliation and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1866, but was denied his 
seat. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1873 to 1882. 
Stephens wrote Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States in two 
volumes (1868-1870). The section of Alexander Stephens's diary printed in this 
volume is from Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens: His Diary (1910).



Additional Comments:
From The New Reader of the Old South
Edited by Ben Forkner and Patrick Samway, S.J.
Copyright 1991  Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta Georgia


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