"THE CAUSE OF THE SOUTH IS THE CAUSE OF US ALL": FIRST EDITION OF STEPHENS’ CONSTITUTIONAL VIEW OF THE CIVIL WAR

STEPHENS, Alexander. A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States. Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Atlanta; Chicago and St. Louis: National Publishing and Zeigler McCurdy, (1868-70). Two volumes. Octavo, original three-quarter polished brown calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, black morocco spine labels, marbled boards, endpapers and edges.

First edition of the “most elaborate—and best—argument for the constitutional validity of the doctrine of state sovereignty and the right of secession” (Howes), featuring 16 full-page steel engraved portraits, several facsimiles and a map of Manassas.

The former vice-president of the Confederate States, whose notorious "cornerstone speech" set forth white supremacy as the Confederacy's "great truth," Alexander Stephens after the war "urged southerners to accept the end of slavery, be conciliatory toward the North, and grant the freedmen the legal and civil rights of citizenship. But, a few months later, he insisted that the Georgia Assembly reject the Fourteenth Amendment… Then, he turned his energies to writing A Constitutional View of the Late War between the States, a two-volume apologia for the southern separatist movement. The book claimed that 'the conflict in principle arose from different and opposing ideas as to the nature of what is known as the General Government,' rival principles that he saw as 'Federation' and 'Centralism.' Slavery was merely 'the question' on which this dispute ultimately turned. The first of many constitutional explanations of the Civil War and the source of the erroneous term 'War between the States,' the book sold quite well" (ANB). The 20 plates include 16 portraits and, in Volume II, a map of Manassas and three facsimiles of autograph correspondence between the author and Abraham Lincoln. Each volume with publisher's advertisements at rear. Eicher 174. Howes S938. In Tall Cotton 173. Nicholson, 800. Work, 368. See Sabin 91279; Wright 1075.

Interior generally fresh with scattered foxing, trace of marginal dampstaining, faint soiling, reinforcement to inner hinges, expert repair to spine ends, recornering to boards. A very good copy, scarce in publisher's binding.