<Tr> <Th> Alma mater </Th> <Td> University of Georgia </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Signature </Th> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <P> Alexander Hamilton Stephens (born February 11, 1812--March 4, 1883) was an American politician who served as the 50th Governor of Georgia from 1882 until his death in 1883 . He also served as the only Vice President of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865 . A member of the Democratic Party, Stephens represented the state of Georgia in the United States House of Representatives prior to becoming governor . </P> <P> Stephens attended Franklin College and established a legal practice in his home town of Crawfordville, Georgia . After serving in both houses of the Georgia General Assembly, he won election to Congress, taking his seat in 1843 . He became a leading Southern Whig and strongly opposed the Mexican--American War . After the war, Stephens was a prominent supporter of the Compromise of 1850 and helped draft the Georgia Platform, which opposed secession . A proponent of the expansion of slavery into the territories, Stephens also helped pass the Kansas--Nebraska Act . As the Whig Party collapsed in the 1850s, Stephens eventually joined the Democratic Party and worked with President James Buchanan to admit Kansas as a state under the Lecompton Constitution . </P>

Vice president of the confederacy during the civil war