re: First Battle of Civil War was Battle of Blackjack b/t Missouri & Kansas Forces

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so you saying that confederates fought for something other than slavery? Oh my...

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The Cornerstone Speech, also known as the Cornerstone Address, was delivered extemporaneously by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens in Savannah, Georgia on March 21, 1861. The speech explained what the differences were between the constitution of the Confederate Republic and that of the United States, laid out the Confederate causes for the American Civil War, and defended slavery. The 'Cornerstone Speech' became so known for Stephens' asserting,


Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone 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.[1]

The speech was given weeks after the secession of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and then Texas and less than three weeks after the inauguration of U.S. President Lincoln. Hostilities between the two sides had not yet begun.


1. Schott, Thomas E. Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia: A Biography.1996, page 334