Alexander Hamilton

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 on February 11, 1812. His mother died shortly after his birth and his father died when Stephens was only 14. Even in childhood he was amazingly bright and his brilliant mind was noticed by many mentors who paid for him to attend college. Stephens graduated at the top of his class from Franklin College and then went on to become a lawyer. Soon after he was admitted to the bar, he entered politics and began to construct an exceedingly prominent place in Alexander Hamilton Stephens was only five feet seven inches and never weighed more than one-hundred pounds- even in adulthood. As a young man he was given the nickname Little Aleck. He was pale, odd-bodied, had lustrous eyes, and was often described as cadaverous. From the time of his birth he was sickly and puny and was continuously wrapping himself in many layers of clothes and coats to keep warm. Late in his life he defined happiness as To be warm.2 Little Aleck was voted into the state legislator in 1836 and continued to remain there until 1841 when he declined re-election. But, in 1942 he was chosen State senator. Then, in 1943 he entered the U.S. House of Representatives and served there for sixteen years. In 1859 he returned to private life by his own choice. He had been a firm advocate of the compromise measures of 1850, and having participated in the settlement of the Kansas troubles, accepted the result as an end of sectional strife During the presidential campaign of 1860, Stephens was an advocate of the election of Stephen A. Douglas. The election of Mr. Lincoln shocked him and he thought it was a disturbance of the settlement a...