ion, he attempted to avoid secession, byproposing to fight the Republican administration inside theUnion. He was elected a member of the Georgia convention in1861, and after a strenuous effort to delay State secession,and when the act was passed he gave his support to his stateand the Confederacy. His objections were to theappropriateness of immediate secession and not to the rightof his State to secede. When the Confederate Congress met in February 1861 hewas chief contender for the presidency. But, JeffersonDavis won and Alexander Hamilton Stephens was quickly madevice president- an office which also made him the Presidentof the Confederate Senate. His talents and commandinginfluence throughout the South caused his services to be putto immediate use, not only in assisting in the organizationof the Confederate government, but in the general effort toinduce all Southern States to join those which had alreadyseceded. He was commissioned to consult with Virginia onbehalf of the Confederacy and succeeded in gaining Virginiabefore its ordinance of secession had been formally ratifiedby the people. His statesmanship and profound experiences with theprinciples of government were of great value in theformation of the Confederation Constitution. Theconstitution was an improvement, in his opinion, on theConstitution of the United States. He said of it, "Thewhole document utterly negatives the idea which so many havebeen active in endeavoring to put in the enduring form ofhistory, that the convention at Montgomery was nothing but aset of 'conspirators' whose object was the overthrow of theprinciples of the Constitution of the United States, and theerection of a great ' slave oligarchy' instead of the freeinstitutions thereby secured and guaranteed. This work ofthe Montgomery convention, with that of the Constitution fora provisional government, will ever remain not only as amonument of the wisdom, foresight and statesmanship of themen who co...
