Hi George and David,

The difference between Lincoln and Stephens is quite pronounced.

Alexander Stephens rejected the notion that "all men are created equal." Stephens says: "Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew." The Confederacy was built on the opposite idea, its very "cornerstone" rested on the belief that the races were inherently inequal.

Conversely, Lincoln gives his views at Gettysburg:

He says America was founded in 1776 when "our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ``all men are created equal''

In this respect, the Civil War was a contest to decide how we interpret Thomas Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence." Alexander Stephens says all (white men) are created equal, but blacks are inferior and should be slaves.

At Gettysburg, Lincoln calls on the Union to "stay the course," keep fighting and prevail so the nation "shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

To say that Lincoln shared Alexander Stephens/Confederacy's ideology is simply incorrect.

Best,
Sam.