![]() He stands near two other Confederate icons in the capital of a nation they fought to conquer: President Jefferson Davis (representing Mississippi) and General Robert E. Outside of the speech, Alexander (who later became a Georgia governor) may be best known for his statue that sits in National Statutory Hall at the US Capitol as one of two representatives of the Peach State. Taylor in a June 23 article about the Confederate battle flag are pointing to the speech as evidence that the South mainly fought to defend slavery and not to protect states rights or for any other reason. Paul Pelosi attack highlights soaring threats of political violenceĬommentators like Monitor contributor Steven L. He went further: the battle over slavery “was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.” This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.” In what’s now known as the “Cornerstone Speech,” Stephens told a Savannah, Ga., crowd in 1861 that “our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. Instead, he’s in the news today because he was a believer and told the truth – much to the chagrin of his colleagues – about the South’s motives. He even pushed for peace.Ī century and a half after the Civil War ended, Stephens is slipping out of obscurity amid the national debate over the meaning of the Confederate battle flag. ![]() Once the war began, he disagreed mightily with the Confederate president and despised wartime measures like mandatory service. To modern eyes, the vice president of the Confederacy was a most unusual rebel.Īlexander Stephens didn’t want the South to leave the United States, and he tried to keep his home state of Georgia from abandoning ship.
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