Huffman 2

What factors determine who is a man and who is a slave? This was one of the questions that Alexander Stephens hoped to answer in his speech, The Cornerstone Speech, that dealt primarily with the issue of the African-American in the South during the years of 1861-1865.

The Cornerstone Speech or Cornerstone Address was given by Alexander H. Stephens on March

21, 1861, in . This was given in response to the formation of the United States of the

Confederacy and Stephens was explaining to the audience, native Georgians, what exactly the new government and constitution of the Confederacy would encompass. He explains the various rights the people will have but one of the major aspects of this address is the “cornerstone” of the

Confederacy; slavery. It should also be mentioned that this is not a word for word speech due to the fact that during the 1860’s there was no way for someone to record anything. However, this is more than likely an accurate representation of the speech that Stephens gave to the audience.

The Cornerstone Speech was given just a few weeks before the first are fired on and the Civil War began. By March 21, 1861, seven states had seceded from the Union; ,

Florida, Georgia, , , , and . The three appeals of

Aristotle; ethos, pathos, and logos, are all utilized by Alexander Stephens when he is giving his cornerstone speech to Georgia natives in 1861. He focuses heavily on pathos and ethos but that does not mean that logos are ignored in his speech.

Slavery was integrated into every aspect of southern life during the 1850’s and 1860’s.

There was nothing in their way of life that was not connected to slavery in some way. One example of this would be southern economy. The South primarily had a plantation system type of agriculture which was vastly different than that of their Northern counterparts. This system focused heavily on a labor based work system that was obtained through the use of slaves. It should also be noted that slavery was actually becoming an unusable system in the South until Huffman 3 the cash crop cotton was planted and business boomed for Southerners. The chains of slavery also bound westward expansion in the notion that if the country expanded so would slavery.

This is because during the 1840’s and 1850’s, many wanted to expand westward in hopes of new opportunities. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was one of the most important acts of the era because it would be ignoring the rules of the . With the Missouri

Compromise, new states being brought in to the Union were either free or slave and this was based on their location to the 36° 30’ line. There was an exception however, which was

Missouri hence the name of the Missouri Compromise. However, with the Kansas-Nebraska Act incoming states had “popular sovereignty” this meant that they could vote on whether or not they wanted to be a free or a slave state. Another example would be in politics of the South. In the

North there was a rise of the abolitionist movement that called for the abolishment of slavery altogether. With this increase in the movement came the rise of political parties that followed the same ideas. Some of these groups were the Liberty party, which was only really found in

New York during the 1850’s, the Free-Soil Party, and the Republican Party. Ultimately with the election of President Lincoln for the Republican Party in 1860, South Carolina seceded from the

Union because of the idea that Lincoln would destroy the institution of slavery. Lincoln would abolish slavery, only in the seceded states, in 1863, with the Emancipation Proclamation.

Methods:

The three Aristotelian appeals are ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is, as defined in

Rhetoric in Civic Life, “that which is ‘in the character of the speaker’.”1 Pathos is “that which leads the audience ‘to feel emotion’.”2 Lastly there is logos which is “that which relies on

1 Catherine Helen Palczewski, Richard Ice, and John Fritch, Rhetoric in Civic Life (State College, PA: Strata Publishing, 2016), 15. 2 Ibid. Huffman 4

‘argument itself, by showing or seeming to show something’.”3 In layman’s terms these can be defined as the rhetors credibility, their emotions, and their logic used during either a speech or just talking. For the core concepts for this analysis they will be constitutive rhetoric, hegemony, and ideograph. Constitutive rhetoric is the bringing together of a group of people while at the same time degrading another in order to obtain that closeness of the larger group. In Rhetoric and Civic Life, it is defined as “the art of constituting character, community, and culture in language.”4 Hegemony is “the dominant ideology of a society, exerting social control over people without the use of force.”5 Lastly there is ideograph, which is “an ordinary language term found in political discourse.”6 Ideographs are usually found in many political speeches, such as the Cornerstone Speech, to help assert that they are trying to connect with the people.

In the beginning of the speech Stephens explains how “they,” him and the audience are

“passing through one of the greatest revolutions in the annals of the world.”7 Stephens is appealing to one of the Aristotelian appeals known as ethos, because again at this time Fort

Sumter had not been taken over by the Confederates and Lincoln had not called for the states to send troops to go against them. He explains that the states that had seceded from the Union had

“thrown off an old government and formed a new.” 8 Stephens was appealing to the Aristotelian appeal of ethos by stating that the old government of the Union was of no use to them and the formation of a new one was in order, which is exactly what they did when they formed the

Confederate States of America. He goes on to use the Aristotelian appeal of pathos in order to

3 Ibid. 4 Ibid., 8. 5 Ibid., 29. 6 Ibid., 49. 7 Henry Cleveland, Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private: With Letters and Speeches, Before, During, and Since the War (Philadelphia, 1866), 718. 8 Ibid. Huffman 5 persuade the audience. Stephens does this by explaining that “this revolution has been … accomplished without the loss of a single drop of blood” and in the notes of the speech it is noted that the audience erupted into applause after this statement, signifying that they indeed agreed with him.9 Due to this being taken from a reporters notes, they made sure to note which areas of the speech gained wide spread approval with the signaling of cheer or applause in the notes after a paragraph is finished. However, this also draw back to the core concept of hegemony.

Stephens is appealing to the people of Georgia by telling them what they want to hear and it is in a language that they understand. It is not fancy political jargon that only the well-off would know but it is in everyday language, language of the common man in a sense.

Stephens, a little later in the speech, starts to list off the changes they have made to the constitution that have become beneficial to them. He starts with the states’ rights and the rights of the people in general, which for many southern people then and is still a large topic of debate among southerners. This is appealing to the audiences’ pathos by explain to them that they no longer have to worry about the overpowering government of the Union. Stephens explains that the new constitution will start by “securing all our ancient rights, franchises, and liberties.”10 He also goes on to state that “no citizen is deprived of live, liberty, or property.”11 Unfortunately, this is not the same rights given to those who are bound by the chains of slavery. In 1860, there were roughly 3,950,528 slaves in the United States which account for roughly 13% of the population at the time which was 27,233,198.12 With the core concepts in mind, this clearly shows ideograph. Ideograph is, as explained by the arthurs of Rhetoric in Civic Life, “ordinary

9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 12 Census Data, accessed October 17, 2017, http://www.civil-war.net/census.asp?census=Total. Huffman 6 language term found in political discourse” and it “guides behavior and belief into channels easily recognized by a community as acceptable or laudable.”13

One of the last things that Stephens talks about with this new constitution and government is the place of the “negro.” Stephens appeals to the people with their pathos or their emotions of those they see as inferior. He states that the “peculiar institution,” commonly known as slavery, needs to be put in “the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization.”14 He states that “this was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.”15 This is appealing to the audiences’ sense of ethos by appearing above those they deem beneath them.

Stephens explains that many of the statemen from the old government and even ,

President of the Confederacy, saw “that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically.”16 He goes on to state that “those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong” and “they rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error.”17 Stephens explains that the new government under the Confederacy “is founded upon exactly the opposite idea.”18 The reason that this is known as the Cornerstone Speech is because the government of the Confederacy’s

“foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition.”19 In 1861, the total population of Georgia was 1,057,286 and roughly 44% of that

13 Catherine Helen Palczewski, Richard Ice, and John Fritch, Rhetoric in Civic Life (State College, PA: Strata Publishing, 2016), 49. 14 Alexander H. Stephens, 720. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid., 720-721. 18 Ibid., 721. 19 Ibid. Huffman 7 population or 462,198 were slaves.20 This all come back around to the idea of constitutive rhetoric. By pushing down the African-Americans of that time, the poor white man could still be considered of a higher class. At this time in Georgia only about 3,500 people were considered to be a “free colored person.”21 This is a prime example of how pushing down one group in order to raise the moral and loyalty, in a way, in the South.

Conclusion:

The Cornerstone Speech by Alexander Stephens has given historians a unique perspective on rhetoric of the 1860’s. He uses the three Aristotelian appeals; ethos, pathos, and logos, to help convey his message of racial inequality in the new Confederate States. He uses concepts such as constitutive rhetoric, hegemony, and ideograph to also help explain to the everyday man that what they are doing is right. It should be noted again that this is not a direct word for word speech by Stephens but it is a first-hand account with notes from the audience, their applause, and it gives those who are interested in the past a chance to see what it was like.

Whether Stephens knew it or not, he was using the three Aristotelian appeals and several concepts involved in rhetoric to help convey his message that those of a different color are naturally inferior to the white man.

20 American Civil War Census Data, accessed October 17, 2017, http://www.civil- war.net/census.asp?census=Georgia. 21 Ibid. Huffman 8

Bibliography

American Civil War Census Data. Accessed October 17, 2017. http://www.civil-

war.net/census.asp?census=Total.

Cleveland, Henry. Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private: With Letters and Speeches,

Before, During, and Since the War (Philadelphia, 1866), pp. 717–729.

Palczewski, Catherine Helen, Richard Ice, and John Fritch. Rhetoric in Civic Life. State College,

PA: Strata Publishing, 2016.