American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1867-05-22
Mistellaneous.
ALEXANDER q. STEPHENS.
What he thinks of the Rebellion.

What he thinks OF the Rebellion.
"Mack" prints in the Cincinnati Cons
mercial an entertaining account OF a visit to
the home of Alexander II. Stephens, the
principal part of which we give below;
Returning from the farm, Mr.. Stephens
talked freely Of the late war. The South,
he believed, made two fearful mistakes {:
First, in going to war at all, and secondly
in the object for which they went to war
II was a great absurdity to think that there
could be such thing as permanent separas
ton of the two sections. lie was opposed
TO secession in the first place but when he
could not resist that-when Georgia went
out, and be, as a States rights man, felt
bound to go with Georgia, then he wanted
to fight only on terms of reconstruction
such as would cement the country on bet
ter basis than it ever stood. JEFF. Davis
and the fire eaters fought for Southern in
dependence, and ruined the South in doing
so. l called his attention to reports in
Southern newspapers during the war, that
he, Stephens, had declared his opposition to
reconstruction upon any terms. They were
all false, he said, and he was sorry to see
in Polard's Lost Cause, which he consider
ed a wretchedly bad history of the war,
what pretended to be an extract from
speech made by him at Charlotte, North
Carolina, after his unsuccessful attempt to
confer with Lincoln at Fortress Monroe
(before the Hampton Roads conference,l in
which he is represented as saying that under
no circumstances would he consent to recon
struction. He never said any such thing.
lie was reconstructionist, he said, from
the first day of the war till the last. Re-
ferring to politics in the North during the
war, he expressed his regret that the peace
party had not been successful in 1864. He
thought the Democrats made mistake in
nominating war man. If a straightsout
peace man had been nominated he might
have been elected, and the reconstruc-
structionists of the South would then have
made terms of peace and reunion with them.
could not be persuaded that the peace party
was not secession party "There's
where you made great mistake" said Mr..
Stephens. "Jeff. Davis wanted Lincoln
elected; he told me So The reconstruc.
tionists of tho South wanted you of the North
to elect peace man, and we would then
have overthrown the Davis war party of the
South, and made terms of reunion without
any difficulty" replied that thought if
the people Of the North had had any assur-
ance that the election of a Peace Democrat
would have restored the Union ON honorable
terms they would have elected one. But
the Democratic party of the North had made
itself obnoxious as secession party its
leaders had been to great degree instru-
mental in bringing the war about by assur
ing the Southern FIRE eaters Of fire in the
rear party, and while they might prefer
Union to secession they certainly preferred
secession to war--while the Republican par
ty preferred Union to any thing else, and
were willing to kee pup the war ten years to
secure it. Besides, if there were SO many re-
constructionists in the South, why did they
not make their influence felt-why not
make overtures to the Republican party of
the North - Mr.. Stephens replied, "there
we're a great many of us, but we couldn't
get the helm. One man at the helm of a
ship has more power than FIVE hundred
amidship. But, if the first desire for peace
had come from the North we would have
been strengthened SO that we could have
broken down tho permanent separation par
ty. All we wanted was for you Of tbess North
to show that you wanted peace and reunion;
and then we could have responded. Take
the State of Georgia, for instance. While
there was an immense majority il favor of
keeping up the war as long MS the Federal
army was in the field against us, there was
great majority in favor of reconstruction,
but they wanted the first indications to come
from the North,i
Speaking of ths..conduct of the war on the
part of the South, Mr.. Stephens criticised il
as extremely unwise. 1t ought never to
have been an offensive war, and if the re.
sources of the South had been properly
economised, instead Of being wasted in ag,