A little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man just concluded the very best speech of an hours length I ever heard. So said Congressman Abraham Lincoln about Alexander Hamilton Stephens.1 Stephens was born near Crawfordsville, Georgia His mother died shortly after hisbirth and his father died when Stephens was only 14. Evenin childhood he was amazingly bright and his brilliant mindwas noticed by many mentors who paid for him to attendcollege. Stephens graduated at the top of his class fromFranklin College and then went on to become a lawyer. Soonafter he was admitted to the bar, he entered politics andbegan to construct an exceedingly prominent place inAmerican history. Alexander Hamilton Stephens was only five feet seveninches and never weighed more than one-hundred pounds- evenin adulthood. As a young man he was given the nicknameLittle Aleck. He was pale, odd-bodied, had lustrous eyes,and was often described as cadaverous. From the time of hisbirth he was sickly and puny and was continuously wrappinghimself in many layers of clothes and coats to keep warm. Late in his life he defined happiness as To be warm.2Little Aleck was voted into the state legislator in1836 and continued to remain there until 1841 when hedeclined re-election. But, in 1942 he was chosen Statesenator. Then, in 1943 he entered the U.S. House ofRepresentatives and served there for sixteen years. In 1859he returned to private life by his own choice. He had beena firm advocate of the compromise measures of 1850, andhaving participated in the settlement of the Kansastroubles, accepted the result as an end of sectional strifeas far as the South was concerned. During the presidential campaign of 1860, Stephens wasan advocate of the election of Stephen A. Douglas. Theelection of Mr. Lincoln shocked him and he thought it was adisturbance of the settlement and a menace to the Union. But with his impassioned devotion to the republic of Statesunder the Constitut...
