Stephens, Alexander Hamilton (1812-1883), was vice president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861-1865). He was opposed to secession, but he remained loyal to Georgia when the state left the Union in 1861. He served as a delegate to the Montgomery Convention, which formed the Confederacy, and he was chosen vice president of the new government. During the war, Stephens often disagreed with Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, on questions of states’ rights.
In February 1865, Stephens led an unsuccessful peace commission that met with United States President Abraham Lincoln at Hampton Roads (see Hampton Roads Conference ). After the war, Stephens was arrested and imprisoned for six months at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. Georgia elected him to the United States Senate in 1866, but Congress refused him his seat. He then wrote A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States (1867-1870). Later, he wrote other books, and he became editor of the Atlanta Southern Sun in 1871. Stephens was again elected to Congress in 1872 and served 10 years. He was elected governor of Georgia in 1882 but died on March 4, 1883, a few months after taking office.
Stephens was born near Crawfordville, Georgia, on Feb. 11, 1812. He was educated at the University of Georgia. He had intended to become a minister but changed his mind and studied law instead. In 1834, he was admitted to the bar, and two years later, he became a member of the Georgia state legislature. He opposed vigilance committees, and the “slicking clubs,” which were the parent of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1843 to 1859, he served as a congressman from Georgia. Stephens represents Georgia in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.
