, 1863-09-19
Testimony of Alexander H. Stevens.


Testimony of Alexander H. Stevens.
The following is an extract from the
speech of Alexander II. Stevens, the Vice
President of the Southern Confederacy,
made in the Convention that took Geor-
gia out of the Union, January, 1861.
He places the cause of the rebellion where
it justly belongs;
'That this step once taken could never
be recalled and all the baleful and wither-
ing consequences must follow, (as they
would see, will rest on the Convention for
all coming time. When we and our pos
terity shall see our lovely South desolated
by the demon of war which this act of yours
will inevitably invite and call forth when
our green fields cf waving harvests shall be
trodden down by the murderous soldiery
and fiery car of war sweeping over our land +;
our temples of Justice laid in ashes; all the
horrors and desolations of war upon us
who but this Convention will be held res
ponsible for it : and who but him who shall
have given his vote for this unwise and i'll
timed measure, las honestly think and
believe shall be held to account for this
suicidal act, by the present generation, and
probably cursed and excreated by poster
ity for all coming time, for the wide and
desolating ruin that will inevitably follow
this act you now propose to perpetrate?
Pause, entreat you, and consider for a
moment what reasons can you give that will
even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments
what reasons you can give to your fell
low-sufferers in the calamity that it will
bring upon US What reasons can you
give to the nations of the earth to justify
it? They will be the calm and deliberate
| Judges in the case and to what cause or
one over act can you name or point, on
which to rest the plea of justification ?
What right has the North assailed?-
What interest of the South has been inva-
ded What justice has been denied? and
what claim founded in justice and right has
been Withheld? Can either of you to-day
name one governmental act of wrong de-
iberately and purposely done by the gov
ernment of Washington, of which the South
has right to complain [ challenge the
answer While on the other hand, let me
show the facts, and believe me, gentlemen,
l am not here the advocate of the north /;
but am here the friend the firm friend
and lover of the South and her institutions
and for this reason speak thus plainly and
and faithfully for yours, mine, and every
mans interests, the words of truth and So
berness, of which I wish you to judge, and
I will only state facts which are clear and
undeniable, and which now stand as records
authentic in the history of our country.
Then we of the South demanded the
slave trade, or the importation of Africans
for the cultivation of our lands, did they
not yield the right for 20 years When
we asked a three-Gfths representation in
Congress for our slaves, it was granted p
When we asked and demanded the return
of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery
of those persons owing labor or allegiance,
was it not incorporated in the Constitution ?
and again ratified and strengthened in the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850?
Do you reply that in many instances they
have violated this compact, aud have not
been faithful to their engagements AS
individuals and local communities they may
have done so; but not by the sanction of
government for that has always been true
to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen,
loo K at another fact; when we have asked
that more territory should be added, that
we might spread the institution of slavery,
have thew ,rot yielded to our demands in Civ
inc rs Louig ana, Florida, and Texas, out
of which four States have been carved, and
ample territory for four more to be ad-
ded in due time; if you by this unwise and
imnolitic act do not destroy this hope, and,
perhaps, by it lose all, and have your last
Slave wrenched from you by stern military
rule, as South America and Mexico were
or by the vindictlve decree Of universal
emancipation which may reasonably be ex-
pected to follow?
But, again, gentlemen, what have we to
gain by this proposed change of our rela-
ton to the general government? We
have always had the control of it, and can
yet, if we remain in it, and are as united
as we have been. We have had MAORI
ty of the Presidents chosen from the South,
as well as the control and management OF
most of those chosen from the North We
have had sixty years ofSouthern Presidents
to their "a, thus controlling the Executive
department. So of the Judges of the Su-
preme Court, we have have had Is from the
South, and but from the North; although
nearly four ffths of the judicial business
has arisen in the Free States, yet a majority
of the Court has always been from the South.
This we have required so as to guard against
any Interpretation of the Constitution un-
favorable to US. In like manner we have
been equally watchful to guard our inter
est in the Legislative branch ofgovernment
In choosing the presiding Presidents (prO
ten1.) of the Senate, we have had "a to their
IL. Speakers of the House, we have had