WINNER OF THE JEFFERSON DAVIS AWARD Rising from humble origins in the middle Georgia cotton belt, Alexander H. Stephens (1812–1883) became one of the South’s leading politicians and lawyers. Thomas E. Schott has written the first scholarly biography that analyzes the interplay between the public and private Stephens and between state and national politics during his contradictory career. Stephens was a celebrated Whig, turned Democrat, who served as congressman from 1843 to 1859 and an antisecessionist who became vice-president of the Confederacy. Ignored by the Davis administration once in office, he eventually opposed most of its wartime policies. Schott argues that Stephens’ devotion to the southern cause was as genuine as his devotion to civil liberties and states’ rights. After the war, he became an elder statesman for Georgia, serving nine more years as a congress-man and the last five months of his life as governor.

Salesman's dummy, containing prospectus (p. [1]-[39], 1st group), press notices about the work (p. 1-15), and blanks for names of subscribers; sample bindings mounted inside front and back covers. LC copy has been used as scrapbook with t.p. and first few pages of text obscured by mounted newspaper clippings.

Was Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens really a "racist" Dixiecrat who believed that slavery was the "cornerstone" of the Confederacy, as pro-North writers assert? Was he actually guilty of "treason" against the U.S., an "anarchist" who should have been hanged for leading the secession of the Southern states? Of course not. And "The Quotable Alexander H. Stephens," by award-winning author and Southern historian Lochlainn Seabrook, proves it! This well-researched work, a companion to Seabrook's "The Alexander H. Stephens Reader," provides nearly 700 footnoted entries that reveal the authentic man, one completely opposite of the negative image of Stephens fabricated by enemies of the South. Known as one of America's most kindly and charitable individuals, he was a true friend of the black man, as well as a pro-Unionist who at first campaigned against Southern secession. Also a brilliant thinker, spell-binding orator, and prodigious author, he was, in fact, one of history's most extraordinary, interesting, honorable, and noble figures. Follow Stephens in his own words, as he takes us through the development of the U.S. after the American Revolution, and into the growing bitter sectionalism between the South and the North in the 1840s and 1850s. Get a you-are-there view of the entire "Civil War," from the disastrous election of big government Liberal Abraham Lincoln in November 1860, to the tragic fall of the Confederacy and Stephens' illegal imprisonment in the Spring of 1865. Follow the frail but feisty Georgia governor-who turned down offers to run for both U.S. president and C.S. president-from so-called "Reconstruction" and the rebuilding of the South (which he helped direct), through the postwar administrations of Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and Chester A. Arthur. Along the way, not only do we learn the true cause behind Lincoln's War, but Stephens also lays out the facts concerning Southern slavery and his "Cornerstone" speech, while forcefully defending the constitutional right of secession. Follow the lifelong bachelor-politician (who served in the U.S. government, in one capacity or another, from President Andrew Jackson to President Chester A. Arthur, a span of forty-seven years) as he discloses his everyday thoughts and personal opinions on everything from the weather and dogs to self-government and states' rights, in this profusely illustrated one-of-a-kind book that is sure to become a standard in Southern literature. With the publication of "The Quotable Alexander H. Stephens," the anti-South movement's vicious slander against "little Aleck," as he was lovingly known to his relatives, friends and constituents, is now powerless. Thanks to Mr. Seabrook, Alexander H. Stephens has finally been fully redeemed. Lochlainn Seabrook, a Stephens family descendant and a recipient of the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal, is a Civil War scholar, an unreconstructed Southern historian, and the author of over thirty popular books for all ages. The sixth great-grandson of the Earl of Oxford and a seventh-generation Kentuckian of Appalachian heritage, he is a cousin of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Known as the "American Robert Graves" after his celebrated English cousin, Seabrook has a thirty-year background in the War for Southern Independence and Confederate studies and biography. He is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the National Grange, and lives with his wife and family in historic Middle Tennessee, the heart of the Confederacy. Seabrook's other titles include: "Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask A Southerner!"; "Honest Jeff and Dishonest Abe: A Southern Children's Guide to the Civil War"; and "A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest."

"This book traces the curious history of the Cornerstone Speech. Alexander H. Stephens's defense of the new Confederacy, delivered on March 21, 1861, the Cornerstone Speech was an uninhibited overture to a new nation founded on white supremacy and slavery, and an instant sensation. While the speech is widely cited, no full-length treatment of the work and its legacy exists - and it is poorly understood. Hébert examines how Stephens initially considered it, then how, with the help of others, he reinterpreted it to shore up major tenets of Lost Cause ideology after the Confederacy was defeated on the battlefield. The book also shows how this reactionary interpretation would inform Neo-Confederate ideas that abide to the present day in American culture"--

Charles Dew’s Apostles of Disunion has established itself as a modern classic and an indispensable account of the Southern states’ secession from the Union. Addressing topics still hotly debated among historians and the public at large more than a century and a half after the Civil War, the book offers a compelling and clearly substantiated argument that slavery and race were at the heart of our great national crisis. The fifteen years since the original publication of Apostles of Disunion have seen an intensification of debates surrounding the Confederate flag and Civil War monuments. In a powerful new afterword to this anniversary edition, Dew situates the book in relation to these recent controversies and factors in the role of vast financial interests tied to the internal slave trade in pushing Virginia and other upper South states toward secession and war.

Excerpt from Letter to Abraham Lincoln This reprint of Mr. Manton marble's letter to the late President of the United States is made entirely Without the author's knowledge, being undertaken at the instance and expense of gentlemen, two-thirds of whom do not belong to the political party with which Mr. Marble is connected, and who do not even enjoy the pleasure of his acquaintance. As a frank, fearless and manly protest against a gross act of tyranny, it deserves to be read by the descendants of those men who forced a king of England to respect the rights and liberties of his people; as a calm, forcible and logical argument against oppression, it is worthy to be placed side by side with Mr. John Stuart Mill's essay on liberty; as a model of English composition, it is fit to be studied by all those who wish to use their native language courteously, but yet with the vigor which a righteous cause is so well calculated to give. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Our One Common Country explores the most critical meeting of the Civil War. Given short shrift or overlooked by many historians, the Hampton Roads Conference of 1865 was a crucial turning point in the War between the States. In this well written and highly documented book, James B. Conroy describes in fascinating detail what happened when leaders from both sides came together to try to end the hostilities. The meeting was meant to end the fighting on peaceful terms. It failed, however, and the war dragged on for two more bloody, destructive months. Through meticulous research of both primary and secondary sources, Conroy tells the story of the doomed peace negotiations through the characters who lived it. With a fresh and immediate perspective, Our One Common Country offers a thrilling and eye-opening look into the inability of our nation’s leaders to find a peaceful solution. The failure of the Hamptons Roads Conference shaped the course of American history and the future of America’s wars to come.

This book explores the treason trial of President Jefferson Davis, where the question of secession's constitutionality was debated.