- Alexander H. Stephens, CONFEDERATE VICE PRESIDENT, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Governor of Georgia – A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States; Its Causes, Character, Conduct and Results. Presented in a Series of Colloquies at Liberty Hall: In Two Volumes. Presentation copy by the author by Stephens, Alexander H, Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, 1868. First Edition. Leather bound. Fair. Octavos. 2 volumes. Volume I: [2], 654 pages, [1] page advertisement. Rear end sheet removed. Volume II: [2], xii, 5-827 pages, [4] pages publisher ads, [1]. Illustrated with 7 engravings volume I and 9 engravings volume II. Marbled paper covered boards with leather corners and spines. Gilt decorations and title labels on the spines. Reddish marbled end papers. Faded marbled text edges. Covers are shelf and edge worn. Leather spines are dry, rubbed. Volume II spine is flaking. Damp stains to the title page and preliminary pages. Light toning and foxing to the text. Both copies came from the former library of Atlanta native Augusta Wylie King. Her name is written in pencil on the verso of the right front flyleaves. Alexander Stephens presentation inscription to "Mr Albert? Howell Sr presented by the author" is located on the first front blank end paper. Alexander Stephens (1812-1883) was a prominent American politician, first serving in local offices, then in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1843-1859 and 1873-1882, as Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865, and as Governor of Georgia, 1882-1883. From Wikipedia: “After serving in both houses of the Georgia General Assembly, he won election to Congress, taking his seat in 1843. He became a leading Southern Whig and strongly opposed the Mexican–American War. After the war, Stephens was a prominent supporter of the Compromise of 1850 and helped draft the Georgia Platform, which opposed secession. A proponent of the expansion of slavery into the territories, Stephens also helped pass the Kansas–Nebraska Act. As the Whig Party collapsed in the 1850s, Stephens eventually joined the Democratic Party and worked with President James Buchanan to admit Kansas as a state under the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution (which was overwhelmingly rejected by voters in a referendum in that state). Stephens declined to seek re-election in 1858 but continued to publicly advocate against secession. After Georgia and other Southern states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, Stephens was elected as the Confederate Vice President. Stephens's Cornerstone Speech of March 1861 defended slavery; enumerated contrasts between the American and Confederate foundings, ideologies, and constitutions; and laid out the Confederacy's rationale for seceding. In the course of the war, he became increasingly critical of President Jefferson Davis's policies, especially Confederate conscription and the suspension of habeas corpus. In February 1865, he was one of the commissioners who met with Abraham Lincoln at the abortive Hampton Roads Conference to discuss peace terms. After the war, Stephens was imprisoned until October 1865. The following year, the Georgia legislature elected Stephens to the U.S. Senate, but the Senate declined to seat him due to his role in the Civil War. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1873 and held that office until 1882, when he resigned from Congress to become governor of Georgia. Stephens served as governor until his death in March 1883.”