Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens : his diary kept when a prisoner at Fort Warren, Boston harbour, 1865, giving incidents and reflections of his prison life and some letters and reminiscences

Front matter

Qass.

Book.

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

Introduction

Mr. Stephens's parentage — Childhood and youth — Education — Law student and lawyer — His account of his political life to 1859 — In the Legislature — In Congress — On slavery, expansion, imperialism — Compromise of 1850 and Missouri Compromise — Dred Scott case — Retires from Congress — A summing up of his character, activities, benefactions — Advocate of progress — Father of Weather Bureau

— Personal appearance — Effect as a speaker — Social charm

— Ambition — "Union Speech" — Toombs In opposition — Correspondence with Lincoln — Stephens and Lincoln — Secession — Vice-President — Stephens and Davis — Dififerences with Confederate administration — Lincoln's administration — Stephens's peace missions — Liberty Hall — Fraternal love — The Journal — Motive and aim of his political life — In prison 3

Part II

PRISON JOURNAL OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS

Chapter I -i

Mr. Stephens is arrested — Toombs's escape — Upton's headquarters — Crawfordville — A parting scene — Davis party — The Clays — Other prisoners — A homeless black boy — Meets Mr. Davis — On the Clyde — Discusses state of country and his "Union Speech" with Federal officers — "Jeff and Jimmy"— Table etiquette and Mr. Davis — Hampton Roads — Farewell to Davis — Other partings — vi CONTENTS

With Reagan on the Tuscarora — Captain Frailey's attentions — Boston Harbour 99

Chapter II

Fort Warren — Good-by to Reagan — In a cell — Money — Ration — Newspaper misrepresentation — Letter to General Dix — Sutler's bill — Library — Davis in irons — Greeley's book — Mental agony — Lieutenant Woodman — Jackson and DuBose — Appeals again to Dix — Proclamation of Amnesty — His position — His slaves — Emancipation — Threatened with illness — Lincoln anecdote — Cannot eat ration — Opinion of Greeley's book — Will write memorial of the war — His case and Lafayette's — Comments on report of what Davis said of Lincoln's assassination . . 127

Chapter III

Lincoln's assassination — A family gathering — Fast day for Lincoln — Last Sunday at home — Last sight of Linton

— Last talk with his negroes — Departure from Richmond — Desired welfare of both sections; no prejudice against the North — Considers applying for amnesty — "Loyalty," "Disloyalty" — Oath of allegiance — Sutler's bill — Glimpses Reagan — Improved attention ? — Stared at — Expenses — Governor Joe Brown — Permitted to write home — His custom about prayer — Letter to Linton — Mails — Sunday — Inconsistencies in religious practice and profession — Dogma of equality — Golden Rule — Walk with Woodman 141

Chapter IV

Matutinal singing — Letter - writing — Court - martial in Washington — Collapse of the Confederacy; the reason for

— Lincoln and Davis — "Cornerstone Speech" — A cup of tea — No nervous dread of death — Sustained by conscience — Soldiers' and Negroes' fare — Use of liquor — Meals from sutler — Canadian mission — Davis's speech — "Mental comets" — Peeped at 163

CONTENTS vii

Chapter V

Letter from home — Curious gazers — Makes application for amnesty; no confession of guilt; reviews his course; recites his principles; never disloyal to Constitution; love for the Union; his motive; "Continental Regulator"; slavery; efforts for prisoners; accepts issues of war; would help to restore peace and order i86

Chapter VI

111 — Woodman and the surgeon — Race riot — Forebodings — Racial inequality — His Negroes — Wants fair trial for new system — Gerrit Smith — Dinner from sutler — Views Boston from bastion — First view of ocean, in 1833 — Choice of "Masters" — DuBose's letter — Surgeon's visit — Opinion of Greeley — Last advice to his servant, Harry; "Harry's bottle" — Misquoted by Botts — The only justification for secession — "Doom of Treason" — Wants trial — Can meet death, but not exile! 206

Chapter VII

His Dalton speech, i860 — Boyce's speech — Secessionists freed while he is held — The meerschaum — Ewell's humour — Health exercises — Constant fire — Geary attentive — Mitchel and O'Brien — No letters — Wonders if he is forgotten — His mercy to the unfortunate; aid to youths seeking education — Discusses Spanish history — Overthrow of constitutions cause of Spain's decline ? — James Johnson, Governor of Georgia; his classmate; incidents of graduation; estimate of Johnson — Andersonville; Confederate Government and its prisoners; his advice to Davis; why it could not be followed 218

Chapter VIII

A vigil; thoughts of home — Report that Seward has his application — Summer solstice and Mr. Davis's prophecy — The President flooded with appeals for Amnesty ■ — Ximenes's viii CONTENTS

mop — An incident — Geary " like home folks" — Pardon and exile — Watch-mender's kindness — Bostonian offers aid — Chain-gang — News of Confederate leaders — Mrs. Seward's death — Heartsick — Writes an imaginary interview with himself: South's darkest hour; a talk with Bishop Elliott recalled; slavery; Radical policy of equality; his imprisonment; amnesty; South should conform to new order; faith in the people; progress and war; the country's future J . 237

Chapter IX

A mile-walk — Flood of tears — Dreams — Man a triune being — Spiritual communications — Ominous press statement — Linton and Cambridge — 111 — Kindnesses — Cicero's "true religion" — A Mexican sage — Hampton Roads Conference — Guards on the beat — Reconstruction — Negro suffrage; his plan — Omens — Asks Major Allen to publish a correction — Letter to Linton; outlines remarkable plan for representative government — The Conference again; misstatements — Perplexed about application — New moon — Unlucky — Examination for college .... 258

Chapter X

Imaginary interview; why he did not publish statement of Peace Conference at the time; why he allied himself with the Confederacy — Medical Inspector's visit — News from home

— Withdraws application — " O that I were as in times past!"

— Reminiscence of school-days — Judge Bingham's argument no answer to Reverdy Johnson's; the Constitution made for war as well as for peace; "life and soul of the Nation" — Geary refuses draft 281

Chapter XI

Reading Cicero and Job — Cicero's love for Quintus and his love for Linton compared — "Fancy" interview; discipline of himself; humour; the Government's inconsistency; his application — Huzzaing; "mustered out" — Raspberry tea 295

CONTENTS ix

Chapter XII

Fourth of July — Incongruity between celebration and facts — McKinley Anecdote — A Biblical analogy — St. Paul's defence — A charade — Stared at — Farragut and Anderson — Elder Lincoln — Reverend Jacob Manning's speech — Preachers as jurors — Defect in priestly character — Naturalization : State and United States citizenship — A habeascorpus case — His home and servants — St. Paul and athletics — Letter from Linton! — Balloon ascension — Jackson released 304

Chapter XIII

Simday at Fort — Rights without securities — Negroes tortured — Redfield-Saxe anecdote — Exchanges bows with Reagan — A soldier's courtesy — Water-carriers — Pauline Epistles — Advises Linton concerning visit — Aristotle on slaves — Fears serious illness — Bewails physical frailty — Inequality of his situation with his services to mankind — The Golden Circle — Misquoted again 318

Chapter XIV

His estimate of Jefferson Davis — Truth about Southern Cause — Southern people led to believe secession the only way to save the Constitution; loyal to principles of 1776; Davis at first at head of united people; sympathy of enemies — Lincoln's usurpations — Davis's — Effects — Southern leaders — South's degradation — " Falling from grace" — Toombs's secession speech — A Cabinet decision — Stephens writes Governor Johnson of Georgia — Incorrect versions of his speeches — Lincoln and a Cabinet position — Linton and secession . 326

Chapter XV

Dream visits — Pauline Epistles — "Garbled extracts" from Bible — Suggestion for preachers — Ideas about dreams — Friendship — Judge Collamer's story — Woodman leaves soon — Mr. Stephens saddened — More distortion of his speeches — Charlotte speech a warning — General Lee's movement into Pennsylvania; Morgan's invasion of Ohio —

X CONTENTS

"Reconstruction" — Peace mission of 1863 — Cotton Loan

— Opinion of Joe Brown — Andrew Johnson's speech in 1861 — Strange spectacle: brother fighting brother for same object 345

Chapter XVI

Letter from Linton — Solitary confinement — Ewell and aide released — Seward's reported remark — First hand-shake in prison — "Fancy" interview — Grows weaker — Held for "political speculation" — Peculiarity of apostolic letters — Reminiscence : admission to the bar — Talk with Woodman

— Breaks down, weeping — Seaverns's hospitality; Mrs. Seaverns and little Annie — The Dictator — Grief at Woodman's impending departure — Letter to Seward; pleads feebleness, former acquaintance; requests interview; etc.; Hampton Roads Conference — Writes triviahties to preserve sanity — Flowers through the bars 355

Chapter XVII

" Row with bedbugs" — More bad luck — Smoking amenities — Cicero on "slaves" — Glad to see Woodman — Dave Holt's "dripping moon" — "Bucket Letters" — Meets hospital steward — Turning-points in life — Cicero and Paley as moralists — Polite lies — Lawyers and the truth — His own rule — A lawyer's office and duty — Solomon and immortality — Mr. Davis's freedom enlarged — Solomon's Song — Changes at the Fort — Major Appleton — No news from Seaverns's appeal 378

Chapter XVIII

Release from close confinement — Visits — Library and librarian — Major Allen's congratulations — Flowers from Mrs. Appleton — Notable anniversary — Code of Jesus — A Boston friend — A mouse — Curious gazers — Grant at Faneuil Hall — Opinion of Grant — Had Lincoln Hved — Christ's genealogy — Atlantic cable — Visit from Woodman

— Letters and flowers — Noon on the ramparts — Friendship — Major Appleton's visit — Social life on the bastions

— Captain Livermore — The sentry — Alone? . . 394

CONTENTS xi

i CHAPTER XIX

Confiscations — A child visitor — President ill — Noon signal — Reminiscence; with Linton at the woodwright's — Financial statement — Newspaper bill — A bitter journal

— Bedbugs; and observant guard — No letters; "in prison, soon forgot" — A walk outside the Fort — A Georgian's grave — Longing for home — Woodman's attentions — Mrs. Salter's — Annie Seaverns's — More gazers — Mr. Baskerville

— Mr. Parrott's visit — At the Appletons' . . . 407

CHAPTER XX In Captain Baldwin's parlour — A visitor — Leaves money

— A Fort fog — "The Cavalier Dismounted" — Southern aristocracy; Cavalier and Puritan; efiect of slavery; outside agitation vs. internal reform — Georgia "self-made" — Toombs's ancestry — St. John's Gospel — Hampton Roads Conference — Little Charles Nutler — The Major's quarters — Christ's incarnation — His view of Toombs; an exposition — Presentiment — Atlantic cable — Failing eyesight and whitening hair — Anguish — Walk with Major Appleton . 417

Chapter XXI

A luxury — Letter from Linton — Mabel Appleton — Noon signal and the workmen — A pleasure party; Mr. Stephens wounded — Strange whisperings — An Irish greeting

— Rawhide shoes and armed overseers — Gun-works — Rule for testing accuracy — Mrs. Appleton's note — Discusses with Mr. Burlingame, Anderson ville; defends Davis; his own efforts for prisoners — Commissary rooms — " Pope's " Universal Prayer" — Mail-carrier story — Purchased release not desired — Walk around the Fort — Thermometer and guard

— Prisoner and servitor; a melon — An old Congress friend

— Farewells — A gracious visitor . . . .432

Chapter XXII

Sabbath at Liberty Hall in mind-picture — Prison conditions — Senator Wilson calls — Permission to see Reagan

— A pathetic meeting — Harrington's good-will — Fort music xii CONTENTS

— The messes — When Atlanta "was a forest" — Dred Scott case — Davis's flight — Reagan's letter to Texas — The Livermores — Copper works — "Fancy" interview; negro question; Republic needs repose; patriot's duty — Governor Cumming — The cable — Fears for Liberty Hall — Asks President for interview — Dr. Willis — Letter from Linton 454

CHAPTER XXIII Hoping Linton may come — Reagan applies for amnesty

— Reagan's Memoirs — Swedenborg — Stephens's idea of God; of man — Last stroll perhaps with Woodman — Baldwin's hospitality — "Last Judgment" — Bedbugs and mouse

— Better quarters promised 468

Chapter XXIV

New quarters — Robertson's Sermons — Courtesies to Woodman — Wonders why Linton figures so little in his dreams

— A curtain — A little boy — Dreams of Linton — News from home — At the pump — Woodman's farewell call — Linton in Washington — Opinion of Greeley — Reagan's enlargement — Linton and Governor Brown — Midway community

— Advises Geary 476

Chapter XXV

Report that Davis denounces him — Reagan messes with him — " Smutty stories" — Matthew Arnold — Anxiety about Linton — Offers to teach Geary Latin — "Dog and Wolf" story — Mrs. Livermore — Old Congress days — Letter from Linton — General Denver's visit — Washington gossip — Greeley's letter — Seward vindictive ? — Newspaper news — Soldiers disciplined . , , . . . ^^ . 491

Chapter XXVI

Linton and H. V. Johnson come — No release — Reagan's children — Linton and the diary — A dinner party — The charade — Visits from Mr. Myers and others — Writes Grant and the President — Seward's reason — Letter to Seward —

CONTENTS xlii

Georgia news — A friendly cat — Indignation — A libellous tract — Beecher on the negro — The President's policy — H. V. Johnson advised; negro education — Cards and a story — Writes Seward — A sea monster — Efforts for release

— Garrison to be mustered out — Seward's note — Letter to Mrs. Appleton — Reagan's good news — Mrs. Salter and daughters — Harry's letter — President's policy — Letter from Grant's aide — Letter to Miss Van Lew; forged speeches — Home news — Newton's letter — Gifts . . . 500

CHAPTER XXVII Free again! — At home — Last entry at Fort — Partings

— In Boston — Callers — Visits Mr. Pierce — People glad at his release — Hillard's message to the President — In Washington — Private interview with the President; Stephens's views on negro suffrage; Johnson's on the negro question — At Lynchburg; warned — An aged traveller' — Waste and desolation — Liberty Hall 531

Conclusion

Elected to the Senate — Letter to President Johnson — At Grant's Reception — Denied his seat in the Senate — Letters on the political situation; Reconstruction; the race question — Literary labours — Grant-Greeley campaign — In Congress — On Lincoln — Family ties — Linton's marriage — Linton's death — Letters to John Stephens — On lobbying — Governor of Georgia — His death . • . 543

RECOLLECTIONS OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS

INTRODUCTION

3l LEXANDER STEPHENS, a British lad, after /■^ fighting for Charles Stuart at Culloden, sought sanctuary from English vengeance in Pennsylvania. Here he married Catherine, daughter of James Baskins, a wealthy gentleman, who disinherited her for her choice. But her soldier of fortune fought in the French and Indian wars under Washington, and came out of the Revolution a captain. In 1784 he moved to Georgia, and on his rented farm on historic Kettle Creek, Catherine died and was buried. His older children scattered, and the old captain, ever a better hand at war than money-making, found his mainstay in Andrew Baskins, his youngest, a youth of unusual qualities. Andrew, with earnings made as a teacher while in his teens, bought a farm, nucleus of that "old homestead" which Mr. Stephens loved so well, settled thereon his father and sister and presently brought thither a fair wife, Margaret Grier. Margaret came of folk who had a Hking for books, and a turn for law, war, and meteorology. Her brother Aaron was an Indian fighter and general of militia; her brother Robert was founder of Grier' s Almanac; her cousin Robert became Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Her father was said to have "the largest library in all that part of the country" of mid-eastern Georgia where he lived. In her son's character was a marked blending of parental traits. He was thrifty, generous, progressive; one of the best lawyers m the land; a reader and collector of books; a close observer of the weather, and father of the Weather Bureau of the United States. He preached against war, but was quick to resent an insult by a challenge to a duel, his promptness in this respect being doubtless due to a disposition to show that he could give and take, and asked no quarter of strong men.

Margaret died in 1812, leaving him a month old, and so feeble an infant that it was a miracle he lived, bereft of her bosom and her care. In 18 14, Andrew married Matilda, an excellent lady, daughter of Colonel John Lindsay, or ''Old Silverfist," whose arm wore a silver cap in lieu of a hand lost in the Revolution.

Making a living was pioneer work for the Stephens family; all its members toiled, the head setting energetic example. Little Alex's devotion to his father stimulated his naturally industrious disposition. Like David, he tended sheep; he minded cattle, hoed the garden, gathered vegetables, picked up chips; was millboy and errand-boy; handed threads for his stepmother's loom; nursed her children; at ten, was a champion corn-dropper on his father's farm; at twelve, a regular ploughhand. Of this period he has left this pastoral: *

My duty in childhood was to tend the sheep. One evening, after a snowy day, I went to call them up, fold and feed them. I found all but one — a ewe. I called for some time but she did not come. The following evening she was still missing. Next morning, my father went with me. He did not see the ewe, and asked how long she had been missing. I told him. "Why did you say nothing of it before?" he asked sternly. I

*In several letters and in the memory of friends and relatives to whom he loved to talk of his childhood days. An extended statement of this and much else here given may be found in Johnston and Browne's "Life of Stephens."

could say nothing, for the true reason had been fear lest I be sent back in the dark and the snow. I had supposed she would come up in a day or two. We set out to search for the ewe, and found her dead, with a lamb she had borne dead beside her. It was a painful thought to me for a long time that ''Mottle-face," as we called the ewe, had suffered and died through my neglect. No darkness, cold, or snow could have kept me from hunting her up if I had thought of her being in such a condition.

At fifteen, his schooling, a few months at a time as he could be spared irom work, made a total of about two years in ''old field schools." He writes:

I studied with intense interest by the light of blazing pine knots, the only Hght in our house for readers in those days. My stepmother had a candle in her room by which she sewed, patched, darned, and performed other domestic tasks. By the fire I read long after the whole household was asleep, and that after a hard day's work.

Of a May day in 1826 he said, years after:

Right along here I was ploughing when I was sent for to go to the house. Father was worse. It was the day before he died. Just up there I took out my horse, not dreaming it was for the last time.

In a week his stepmother died. Her children, John, Catherine, and Linton, were sent to her kin; Margaret's, Aaron Grier and Alexander, to their mother's brother, General Aaron Grier, near Raytown, Warren County. In Mr. Stephens's letters is this silhouette of his aunt, Betsy Grier:

Uncle Grier's sister, who lived with him, was a woman of unusually strong mind, and what in those days might have been called well read. She had a good library and made good use of it [his grandfather Grier's legacy].

At his Uncle Grier's, Alexander wrote his first letter.

It was, I think, the second Sunday after I went to our new home upon the breaking up of our little family circle on the death of father and ma. It was to Uncle James Stephens, of Pennsylvania, giving an account of our affliction. Uncle Aaron had gone to meeting. Brother Aaron Grier and I were both writing. We had a table in the middle of the big room. It was some time before we could get a pen apiece. At that time, no such thing as a pen of any kind but a goosequill was ever heard of, in those parts at least. Our inkstand was a little leather-covered vial Uncle Aaron used to take when he went from home; in it was some cotton that held the ink, and the pen was filled by pressing it against the cotton. I was all day at that letter. When Uncle Aaron came home, he looked over both letters, made some corrections, and then we had to write them over again. This, my first letter, was the utterance of the bitterest grief.

A Rev. Mr. Williams, wishing to start a Union Sunday School in Raytown, laid his plans before Miss Grier. Alexander helped to organize this school and taught in it. His renown as a Bible student quickly spread.

Of his first start to Sunday School by his father, he has said :

It was an epoch in my life. Then I first took a taste for reading. I was a little over twelve. All my reading had been limited to the spelling-book and the New Testament. I was put into a class beginning with Genesis. It was no task for me to get the lesson, though I had no other time for it but Sunday mornings and evenings, or at night by light of a pine-knot fire. My entrance into this school gave me a taste for reading, history, and chronology.

Comparing this with other epochs in his life:

One of the first that I remember was ''dropping the sHps" — a frock such as girls wear — and putting on breeches, an event giving me entirely new notions of myself. Starting to school was another. But I no more thought of this the morning my father gave me the beautiful new spelling-book with its rich blue cover, and told me to go to school and be a good boy, than I thought several years after that I was turning another point when he started me with a Bible to Powder Creek meeting-house.

After the first year at their uncle's, Aaron worKCv^ on the farm for wages. Alexander, to whom the same chance was offered, requested to continue his studies at Locust Grove Academy, where he and Aaron had been in faithful attendance as farmwork permitted. Of the close of the 1827 term, he writes:

I well remember my feelings the last evening; how I gathered up all my things — books, papers, slate-pencils and ink — put some in my basket and some under my arm, and then bade all good-bye. I reflected, as I walked the homeward path, that this was the last time I should ever tread its beaten track, and the last day I should ever go to school. The next week I was to go to Crawfordville to seek employment in a store. Next Sunday I went to Sunday School. Mr. Mills inquired how I was coming on at the Academy. I told him my term was out, and what I was going to do. He asked how I would like to go to Washington, Ga., and study Latin. I said I would like it very well, but had not the means. He proposed to send me. I said I would consult my uncle and aunt. •

Aunt Betsy advised that the better his education the better he could repay Mr. Mills; she got his clothes ready and started him off. July 28, 1827, he was at Mr. Webster's academy and in Adam's Latin Grammar; August 18, he was reading Histories S acres in a class of a year's standing. His grammar had been his teacher's ; in it he wrote, under "Alexander Hamilton Webster," ''Alexander Hamilton Stephens," paying the donor the one tribute in his power by adopting the same middle name. He was troubled when told of a desire to educate him for the ministry: "Whether I should be fit to preach when I should grow up, I could not know. I could give no answer until I had consulted my aunt, my mentor." Mr. Webster and Aunt Betsy decided that he should complete his course under the Presbyterian Education Society, leaving the question of vocation in abeyance. August 6, 1828, he writes from the State University at Athens a letter to Aaron which quaintly reflects his own character and the turmoil of the day over the Tariff :

Dear Brother and Friend: I have now an opportunity of informing you of my situation. Early this morning, after you left me, I left Washington for Athens in a crowded stage ; but we had a delightful journey, having good company and pleasant weather. About 5, we arrived in Athens. Thursday and Friday, I was engaged in nothing particular but walking about the streets, etc. Saturday my examination came off. After all my pains in reviewing at home, I was not examined on a single thing I had reviewed, but as good luck would have it, I missed none, and was admitted to the Freshman class. [Describes Commencement, etc.] The finest crops I have seen are between here and Washington.

Athens, I discover, is a very popular retreat for great people, especially about Commencement. To-day there is an innumerable number of people, horses, carriages, gigs, sulkies, wagons, cake-and-cider carts, etc. The Tariff is carried to a high degree here. It is sufficient for me to say that some of the people are so incensed against the Tariff that they wear their broadcloth every day and their homespun Sunday. Mr. McDuffie came to Athens last Sunday; he himself was dressed in homespun and his boy [Negro servant] in broadcloth. You can form an idea from the foregoing how the Tariff stands in the minds of the people here. The Colleges were illuminated last night, a candle to every pane of glass. I board at Mrs. Church's, and am much pleased both with Athens and the people. I must conclude, as I have nothing of importance and I have a very sore finger. So fare you well at the present.

And I ever remain your Friend,

A. H. Stephens

To all my friends Who now do live

My compliments I in love do give.

"Mr. McDuffie" was the Congressman who afterward became Governor of South Carolina. In 1828 the "Tariff of Abominations" was passed and the South, Carolina leading, protested violently. "Mrs. Church" was wife of Dr. Church, the later College President.

"My college days were my happiest days," Mr. Stephens has said. He was a favourite with faculty and students. His room was popular, a place of clean joviality, where wit and repartee and story-telling were cultivated, and refreshments, barring liquor and tobacco, were always on hand: "Boys met there who never met elsewhere — ■ the most dissipated and the most ascetically pious" — "most were wealthy." Of his poverty he "seldom thought; no distinctions were there but of merit." In two years, deciding that the ministry was not his vocalo INTRODUCTION

tion, he repaid the Education Society's advances with funds borrowed from Aaron; and on his patrimony of about $400, completed his course. He then taught school in Madison for "four months of misery." He missed his college associations. And an experience which should have brought him Kfe's joy brought him but sorrow. He loved. But he kept silent because of his poverty and ill health. So sacred he held this experience that only once or twice in after life did he mention it. All that tradition preserves of the object of his attachment is that she was lovely in person and character; was his pupil, and learned rapidly; and she had "dark eyes and curls and rosy cheeks." Years after, when in Congress, he loved again; the lady, a woman of beauty and distinction, was not indifferent to him; but again he kept silent; a woman's due, he thought, was a husband on whom she could lean and not an invalid whom she must nurse. From Madison he went to Dr. Le Conte's, Liberty County, as tutor to a few select pupils, among them John and Joseph Le Conte, the later eminent scientists. He was again a valued member of a scholarly and cultured circle, and life grew brighter, but he felt that he was not fulfilling his mission. Declining $1,500 for another year's stay, he began to study law at Crawfordville. Here he boarded with his stepmother's brother-in-law, the Rev. Williamson Bird, in the house which is now historic as Liberty Hall, this being the name Mr. Stephens gave to the property when he bought it, in 1845, on the death of Mr. Bird.

In his Prison Journal, he describes his admission to the bar. His first essay at "riding the circuit" was to Washington, twenty miles distant. He had no horse.

INTRODUCTION ii

With saddlebags on his shoulders, he set out at dusk of a hot July day, walked to his uncle Aaron's, which was halfway; and next day, rode to court, clad in a neat white suit which he had retired to the woods to don just before entering town. At this court he met Robert Toombs, and their lifelong intimacy, second only to that between himself and his brother Linton, began. A partnership in Columbus at $1,500 or more a year was offered him by Swepston Jeffries, a leading lawyer, but he preferred Crawfordville and no prospects because nearby was the old homestead, over which he loved to roam, and which, in fulfilment of a cherished purpose, he bought in 1838. From his diary of 1834, the following condensed excerpts are taken :