Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States

STEPHENS

STEPHENS, Alexander H., was born in Wilkes (now Taliaferro) county, Ga., Feb. 11, 1812, and died at Atlanta, March 4, 1883. He was graduated at the university of Georgia in 1832, and was admitted to the bar in 1834. On the formation of the whig party in the state from the old state rights, or Troup, party, he became one of its prominent leaders. After six years' service in the state legislature, he became congressman from his state, 1843-59, taking rank as a whig leader in congress until the whig party was dissolved, and afterward as an independent democrat. In 1860-61 he opposed secession earnestly, but yielded when his state seceded. (See ALLEGIANCE, III.) He then became vice-president of the confederacy until the downfall of the rebellion. (See CONFEDERATE STATES.) In 1877 he was again sent to congress as a democrat, where he remained until his election as governor in the autumn of 1882.

—See Johnston & Browne's Life of A. H. Stephens (1878); Savage's Living Representative Men, 451; Bartlett's Presidential Candidates of 1860, 179; Cleveland's A. H. Stephens in Public and Private (1886); A. H. Stephens' Constitutional View of the War Between the States, and The Reviewers Reviewed.

ALEXANDER JOHNSTON.