The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1878-04-16
THE GREAT COMMONER.
INCIDENTS IN TIE LIFE or HON.
<iLEXINDE{t III. STEPHENS.

His First Appearance IN Court. Merit
RecogniHed Under Peculiar Giro I'M
stances--How He Came Near Being
President i'll the Campain,gn Of 1860.
From The Nc,o Y0rh STR
The ex-Vice-Presidcnt of tho
Confederate States has been SO often
mentioned in the various rominis-
cences, that somo account Of him,
with additional anecdotes, may not
be out Of place. His ancestors were
English, and his grandfather, u gen
tleman by birth, adhered to the
fortunes of the Chcvalicr Edward
(called the Prctender), and was
therefore, opposed to the House of
Hanover, of which family George
III. CAME. This ancestor came to
America during tho Indian and
French wars, and served undor
General Braddock, near Fort Du-
quesne. He served, still later, under
Colonel (afterward Prcsident) Wash
ington. This first Stephens resided
in Pennsylvania during the war of
independence, and was the friend of
Stephen Hopkins, the Quaker signcr
Of the Declaration Of Independence.
In 1906 the Stephens family set.
tied Oh Kettle Creek, in Georgia,
and removed to the present homo
stead in 1906. The father of Alex
andor II. Stephens diol on the 7th
Of May, 1926, while the latter was in
his teens. His mother, Margaret
Grier, was a cousin to Justice Grier,
of tho United States Supreme Court,
and sister to the once famed author
of the Gricr Southern ILnanuc.
When Alexander II. Stephens
began tho practice Of law, there was
a shoe factory in the pleasant vii
laSe of Crawfordyille, his present
home, and the negro workmen par
took of their coffee and bread and
bacon, in the sun at the front door.
One day as Stephens walked past
very rapidly, rs WAS his wont, Que of
them suspended his tin cup near his
lips, and said loud enough for the
young man to hear, "Who is that
little fellow that walks by hero SO
fast of mornings 2" Il second 70
piled, "Why, man, that's lawyer.
The third Thought he saw
the point of q fine joke, and burst
into the loudest negro "yah yah D.!
yah !" with, ga lawyer ! A luwyer,
you say! Now dat's too good-ynh,
yah, yah !"
The next week was term time, and
that same laughing negro found
himself in peril of the whipping pest
for stealing leather. It was young
Stephens who was appointed by tho
court to defend him, and, although
the proof was clear, Stephens
quashed the indictment on q legal
flaw. The black now said with Il
bow Of humble reverence "Sah,
when I didn't know you, I thought
you was the littlcst man [ ever seed;
but now I knows you, you looks
big as pine tree" That poor
negro, and poorer white woman,
whose child WAS saved by Stephens
by means Of the writ of hudeas cor
pus from. the expressions Of cruel
family to whom she had bound out,
were the first on earth to 500 his
real greatness.
MIR. Stephens was once candi>
date for the ministry OF the Presby-
terian church, and still professcs to
be a member Of that communion.
This fact may seem somewhat
torango to Northern people who
possess copies of his challenges to
Governor Herschel V. johnson and
Senator Benz. H. Hill to mortal
combat, and who know Of book
that sayeth "No murderer hath
eternal life abiding in him." Those
eminent gentlemen declined to be
shot at, possibly on the ground
that Stephens is lath who can
scarcely make shadow without All
overcoat, and that if no turned side,
ways he would be invisible.
When he was a boy, starting to
Athens, Ga, to be examined for
the freshman class, he was too poor
to ride in the stage, and walked
the ffty-odd miles, carrying his
change of clothing on his back,
swung to stick. A family then