Delivery of the Cornerstone Speech
- When
- March 21, 1861
- Where
- Athenaeum
Alexander Stephens delivered the Cornerstone Speech at the Athenaeum in Savannah, Georgia, on March 21, 1861, defending slavery as the foundation of the Confederacy.
Acting Vice President of the Confederate States, Stephens gave an improvised oration at the Athenaeum in Savannah. He defended slavery as a necessary and just result of the supposed inferiority of the black race. The speech explained fundamental differences between the constitutions of the Confederate States and the United States, enumerating contrasts between Union and Confederate ideologies.
Sources
- Cornerstone Speech Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-21
- Alexander H. Stephens Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-15
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.