A Rhetorical Analysis Of Alexander H. Stephens Cornerstone Speech

As exampled in Alexander H. Stephens Cornerstone Speech which he gave on March 21, 1861 to an audience in Savannah, Georgia; the concept of equality between the races was lost to the Southern mind. God, he explained, “had made [African Americans] unequal” and it was the Anti-Slavery fighters of the North who were wrong in their thinking. Furthermore, as portrayed in Thomas Nast’s political cartoon Abraham Lincoln, the very man who embodied this idea of racial equality and the end of slavery, was not well received in the South. In contrast to the almost angelic representation of Lincoln as perceived by the North, his demeanor has taken a complete 360 as he calls for war and steps on his fellow man. It is through these views that the South believed they were fighting the just end of a war, stable and true as the North stood on their “sandy foundation” and backward beliefs. …show more content…
While he admits that the Constitution was written with the concept of freedom he notes their neglect to take race into consideration and thus, as he explains, the South maintains the right to own slaves. It is in understanding these thoughts that one begins to realize that war was inevitable. The South saw the North as imposing on their rights and forcing “things equal which the Creator had made unequal.” Stephen’s speech proves as holding great historical significance in comprehending the reasons for which the South fought for secession and their regard of African