It is ironic how that epiphany occurred after the invention of the cotton gin allowed huge fortunes to be made from the up-land plantations. Slavery was a dying institution --- before it became so profitable.
It is more than ironic how, when the honest and lucid Stephens is cited, silence falls over the Confederate host.
Here is a notion. Stephens was also a Whig, as was Lincoln in the old days. Wonder if he was a supporter of Henry Clay? If so, what happens to the idiotic DiLorenzo thesis that Lincoln was FDR in the 19th century, since he admired Clay?
Was there a New Deal mole in the CSA Administration, too?
After all, the CSA actually instituted a draft, suspended Habeas Corpus, suppressed the press, etc., etc.,
Sounds like Nationalists to me, just pro-slavery nationalists!
Well, let all this pass ... the key thing was, and is, and ever shall be human dignity. And on that, the Democrats were, and are, and likely will be, on the wrong side.
Liberty and Union forever!
Richard F.