The Institutions of a People: From Alexander Stephens' Union Speech, November 14, 1860

The man who became the vice president of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, was against secession; however, when Georgia seceded, he cast his fortunes in with his State.

This post highlights an interesting passage from his Union Speech.

August Glen-James, editor

“The Institutions of a people, political and moral, are the matrix, in which the germ of their organic structure quickens into life, takes root, develops in form, nature and character. Our Institutions constitute the basis—the matrix—from which spring all our characteristics of development and greatness. Look at Greece! There is the same fertile soil; the same blue sky; the same inlets and harbors; the same Ægean; the same Olympus; —there is the same land, where Homer sung; where Pericles spoke; —it is, in nature, the same old Greece; but it is ‘living Greece no more!’

“Descendants of the same people inhabit the country; yet, what is the reason of this mighty difference? In the midst of present degradation, we see the glorious fragments of ancient works of art—temples, with ornaments and inscriptions that excite wonder and admiration—the remains of a once high order of civilization, which have outlived the language they spoke! Upon them all, Ichabod is written—their glory has departed! Why is this so? I answer this, their Institutions have been destroyed! These were but the fruits of their forms of Government—the matrix from which their grand development sprung. And when once the Institutions of our people shall have been destroyed, there is no earthly power that can bring back the Promethean spark, to kindle them here again, any more than in that ancient land of eloquence, poetry and song!”

Excerpt from the Union Speech by Alexander Stephens, November 14, 1860.

Source: Stephens, Alexander H. Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States. Forgotten Books, 2017. Page 8.