# Alexander Stephens [[Alexander Hamilton]] Stephens (1812–1883) was the **Vice President of the Confederate States of America** (1861–1865) and the author of the **"[[Cornerstone Speech]]"** — the single most important document in understanding what the Confederacy actually stood for, and the single most devastating piece of evidence against Lost Cause mythology. On **March 21, 1861**, three weeks before the [[American Civil War]] began, Stephens delivered an address in Savannah, Georgia, that declared the Confederacy's "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." This sentence — from the Confederacy's own vice president, in an official public address — makes the Lost Cause claim that "the war wasn't about slavery" historically untenable for anyone who reads the primary source. Stephens matters for the KB as the **evidence**. When Lost Cause apologists claim the Confederacy was about states' rights, constitutional principle, or Southern heritage, the Cornerstone Speech is the document that refutes them — in the Confederacy's own words, from the Confederacy's own vice president. ## Background - Born February 11, 1812, in Taliaferro County, Georgia — orphaned young, raised in poverty - University of Georgia (1832); admitted to the Georgia bar (1834) - Georgia state legislator (1836–1841) - U.S. Representative from Georgia (1843–1859) — initially a Whig, then a Democrat - Known as "Little Aleck" — weighed barely 100 pounds, frequently ill throughout his life - Opposed secession initially but accepted the Confederate vice presidency when Georgia seceded - Confederate Vice President (1861–1865); increasingly critical of Davis's wartime leadership - Imprisoned at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor (May–October 1865) - Elected to U.S. Senate (1866) but denied his seat under Reconstruction - U.S. Representative again (1873–1882) - Governor of Georgia (1882–1883) - Died March 4, 1883, in Atlanta, at age 71 ## The Cornerstone Speech (March 21, 1861) The speech, delivered in Savannah to explain the new Confederate constitution, contained these key declarations: **On slavery as the Confederacy's foundation:** Stephens declared that the new Confederate government's "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. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth." **On the American founders' error:** Stephens argued that [[Thomas Jefferson]] and other founders were wrong to suggest that "all men are created equal" — that this idea "was fundamentally wrong" and that the Confederacy was explicitly correcting the founders' mistake. **On the inevitability of slavery's recognition:** Stephens predicted that eventually "the civilized and thinking world" would recognize the truth of racial inequality and that the Confederacy would be vindicated. ## Why the Cornerstone Speech Matters ### As Evidence Against the Lost Cause The Cornerstone Speech is devastating to Lost Cause mythology because: 1. **It's from the Confederate vice president** — not an outside critic, not a hostile witness, but the second-highest official of the Confederacy 2. **It was a public address** — not a private letter or off-the-record remark, but an official explanation of the Confederacy's purpose 3. **It was delivered before the war** — it cannot be dismissed as wartime propaganda or postwar revisionism 4. **It explicitly names slavery** as the Confederacy's "cornerstone" — not states' rights, not tariffs, not constitutional principle 5. **It explicitly claims white supremacy** as a "great truth" — not an unfortunate necessity but a moral and philosophical foundation ### Stephens's Own Revisionism After the war, Stephens attempted to **bury his own speech**. In his two-volume *A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States* (1868–1870), he reframed the Confederacy as a fight for constitutional liberty and states' rights — contradicting almost everything he had said in the Cornerstone Speech. This personal revisionism is itself a case study in how the Lost Cause was constructed: the same man who declared slavery the Confederacy's cornerstone rewrote his own history to claim the war was about constitutional principle. The pattern — say the quiet part loud, then deny you said it — recurs throughout the KB's history of racial politics. ## See Also - [[Jefferson Davis]] — Confederate president whose postwar revisionism Stephens's speech contradicts - [[John C. Calhoun]] — The intellectual ancestor whose "positive good" argument Stephens restated - [[The Lost Cause]] — The mythology that requires ignoring the Cornerstone Speech - [[Dred Scott v. Sandford]] — The judicial declaration of Black non-citizenship that Stephens's speech echoes