STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H. (1812-83)

Confederate Vice President - Georgia

Despite his unionist stance as congressman from Georgia, Stephens followed his native state to the Confederacy, becoming a representative in the Provisional Congress, a position he retained even after assuming the Vice Presidency. After the war, he returned to the U.S. House of Representatives from 1873 through 1882.

Signed as Confederate Commissioner the Day Before Meeting with Lincoln at the Hampton Roads Peace Conference

Civil War-Date Signature, on a light 1 ¾” x 3 ¼” card, as Confederate Commissioner to the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. Requesting a meeting with President Lincoln to discuss a possible termination of the war, Confederate Vice President Stephens and the two other representatives were passed through the Federal lines at Petersburg by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant on January 30, 1865. They awaited instruction from Lincoln at Grant’s City Point, Virginia headquarters, and it is undoubtedly while there that Stephens signed this card.

“Alexander H. Stephens, Con[federate] States Com[missione]r, City Point, V[irgini]a. 2 Feb. 1865.”

On February 3, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward met with the Confederate commissioners, Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, Senator R.M.T. Hunter, and Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell, on a steamer in Hampton Roads, Virginia to discuss the prospects of a negotiated peace. The Confederacy’s insistence on independence, dismissed outright by Lincoln, and disagreement over emancipation of the slaves doomed the conference to failure. All three commissioners were arrested by Federal authorities and imprisoned for several months after the war.

While Stephens manuscripts from both before and after the Civil War are common, autographs as Confederate Vice President during the war period are only occasionally seen. This card, from the historic peace conference near the war’s end, is the only such example I’ve encountered.

The card bears light, even toning, along with minor glue staining at the edges, from its being affixed to a slightly larger card.