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| Alexander H. Stephens. |
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and I cannot but hope that we shall advance higher still.
Let us be true to our cause.”
1
Mr. Stephens's speech made a powerful impression throughout the Republic, and many men in the North expressed a wish that Mr. Lincoln might invite him to a seat in his cabinet, as a concession to the South.
The true friends of the Government everywhere hoped that it might do its proposed work of allaying the storm of passion, then increasing in violence in the Slave-labor States every hour.
That storm had been long gathering.
Its elements were marked by intense potency, and it had now burst upon the land with such force that no human work or agency could withstand its blind fury.
It was sweeping onward, roaring with the most vehement rage, like a tropical tornado, making every thing bend to its strength.
Mr. Stephens himself was lifted by it from the rock of the, Constitution, on which he had so ostentatiously planted his feet at this time, and within ninety days he was riding proudly upon the, wings of the tempest, as the second actor in a Confederacy of rebellious men, banded for the avowed purpose of destroying that Constitution, and laying in hopeless ruins the glorious Republic which rested upon it, and which he now professed so ardently to love and admire!
He did, indeed, seem to try hard to resist the storm for several weeks; and, during that time, told his countrymen some sober truths concerning the control of the National
Government by the Slave interest from its beginning; which should have made the cheeks of every conspirator crimson with shame, because of his mean defiance of every principle of honor and true manhood — his wickedness without excuse.
In the State Convention of Georgia, early in January, 1861, Mr. Stephens said:--“I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest Government, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of heaven ever shone upon.
Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a ”
1 In a private letter, written eleven days after this speech (dated “Crawfordsville, Ga., Nov. 25, 1860” ), Mr. Stephens revealed the fact that in him the patriot was yet subservient to the politician — that his aspirations were really more sectional than national. He avowed that his attachment to Georgia was supreme, and that the chief object of his speech at Milledgeville, on the 14th, was not so much for the preservation of the Union as the security of unity of action in his State. “The great and leading object aimed at by me, in Milledgeville,” he said, “was to produce harmony on a right line of policy. If the worst comes to the worst, as it may, and our State has to quit the Union, it is of the utmost importance that all our people should be united cordially in this course.” After expressing a desire that the rights of Georgia might be secured “in the Union,” he said :--“If, after making an effort, we shall fail, then all our people will be united in making or adopting the last resort, the ultima ratio regum” --the last argument of kings — the force of arms. He then predicted, that when the Union should be dissevered, “at the North, anarchy will ensue,” yet he was doubtful whether the: South would be any better off.
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