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80 Chapter 16 Georgia in the Civil War
Section 1 Georgia Goes to War Skills Practice
Georgia’s Decision to Secede
Directions: e decision for Georgia to secede was not automatic. Many politicians sensed that there could be tragic
consequences for our state. Soon after Lincoln’s election, Alexander Stephens argued that Georgia should not secede.
Evaluate the excerpt from Stephens’s speech and summarize its impact.
e first question that presents itself is, shall the people of Georgia secede from the Union in consequence of the elec-
tion of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States? My countrymen, I tell you frankly, candidly, and earnestly,
that I do not think that they ought. In my judgment, the election of no man, constitutionally chosen to that high office,
is sufficient cause to justify any State to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by and aid still in maintaining the
Constitution of the country. To make a point of resistance to the Government, to withdraw from it because any man
has been elected, would put us in the wrong. We are pledged to maintain the Constitution. Many of us have sworn to
support it. Can we, therefore, for the mere election of any man to the Presidency, and that, too, in accordance with the
prescribed forms of the Constitution, make a point of resistance to the Government, without becoming the breakers of
that sacred instrument ourselves, by withdrawing ourselves from it? Would we not be in the wrong? Whatever fate is
to befall this country, let it never be laid to the charge of the people of the South, and especially the people of Georgia,
that we were untrue to our national engagements. Let the fault and the wrong rest upon others. If all our hopes are to be
blasted, if the Republic is to go down, let us be found to the last moment standing on the deck with the Constitution of
the United States waving over our heads. (Applause.) Let the fanatics of the North break the Constitution, if such is their
fell purpose. Let the responsibility be upon them. I shall speak presently more of their acts; but let not the South, let us
not be the ones to commit the aggression. We went into the election with this people. e result was different from what
we wished; but the election has been constitutionally held. Were we to make a point of resistance to the Government
and go out of the Union merely on that account, the record would be made up hereafter against us.
Source: A.D. Candler, comp., Confederate Records of the State of Georgia (1909), vol 1, pp. 183-205.
Your summary of Stephens’s argument:
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NOTE: After secession, Alexander Stephens served as vice president of the Confederate States of America.
