Passed Vice Presidents – CSA VP # 1 - Alexander Stephens

Grave of Alexander Stephens (18 May 2024)

Served under Jefferson Davis

22 February 1862 – 11 May 1865

Preceded by – Nobody

Succeeded by – Nobody

Born – 12 February 1812

Died – 4 March 1883 (Age 71)

Buried – A.H. Stephens State Park, Crawfordville, GA

Date Visited – 18 May 2024

I caught some heat when I included Jefferson Davis in my ‘Dead Presidents Quest.’ While my (somewhat lame) justification was that he WAS an American president and the Confederate States were, before and since, part of the U.S. of A., the main reason he earned a post was because his grave is in the same cemetery where two other presidents currently reside. Had he been somewhere else, remote and alone, probably not.

Grave and Monument to Alexander Stephens

Crawfordville, GA (18 May 2024)

A.H. Stephens State Park is adjacent to his home.

The monument, erected ten years after he died,

like so many of that 1890-1920 period dedicated to glorifying

the Lost Cause myth, has on all four sides flowery

inscriptions to his valiant, unwavering courage and character.

While I maintain that my current Vice President Scramble is a quest of convenience, this summer’s road trip back to New Orleans found us driving from one gracious host in South Carolina to another in Atlanta. Who might we find on the road between the two places but the rebel country’s first and only vice president, Alexander Hamilton Stephens. The Number Two Traitor needs to be cited every time some Confederate apologist throws the lame ‘states’ rights’ nonsense out there to justify why the South seceded. After all, admitting the Civil War was over slavery and White supremacy is a bit harsh in this age of Michael Jordan, Denzel Washington and Barack Obama. A broader, more vague reason would require further questioning. “States’ rights” to do what? You got me there...the right to own other human beings and treat them like livestock...when you’re not raping them. Oh that.

 

Alexander Stephens later in life

The man who would become vice president of the breakaway republic made it very clear why they needed to go their own way in 1861. In a speech given in March, weeks after many southern states left the Union and three weeks before they opened fire on Fort Sumpter, he said White supremacy was the great truth, ‘the cornerstone’ on which their new constitution was based. While very much like the U.S. version, it dispensed with the ‘all men being equal’ parts and codified the subordination of inferior races. It’s remembered as the ‘Cornerstone Speech’ for that reason.

Before joining the rebellion, Stephens served in Congress for 16 years. After the war, he was again elected to the House for nine more years. Before his second stint in the House, the Georgia legislature selected him to serve in the Senate but the body refused to seat him given restrictions on traitors returning to national government. Sometimes, the ‘Upper House’ actually lives up to its standards.

Monument to Alexander Stephens

Crawfordville, GA (18 May 2024)

Stephens left Congress to serve as Georgia’s governor but died four months into his term. He never married and left no descendants.

The statue on his monument makes him look like one of the Beach Boys. This is no time for realism...when idealism will do.

Alexander H. Stevens

Truth is Mr. Stephens faced physical and health challenges all his life, and at times, he weighed less than one hundred pounds. To me, he looked more like ‘Banjo Boy’ from the movie ‘Deliverance.’