The Cornerstone Speech given by Alexander Stephens, who served as vice president of the Confederate States during the Civil War. The Cornerstone Speech believed that the new government was founded on the idea that blacks were superior to whites. Stephens also believed slavery “was the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution”. In this case Stephens was wrong, because when it came to the war, both races were equal. Negro Union solders could be found fighting side by side with their white counterparts. Thomas Nast’s cartoon of the Lincoln Inaugural speech comes from two different points of view. The South and the North, the South perceived it in a very negative way. While the North perceived it in a positive way. To the South, Lincoln was seen as a destroyer, while to the North he was seen, as has peacemaker. The South’s negative perception of Abraham Lincoln was evident with his election of 1860. His election fueled the fire of many Southern politicians; with the thought of the South losing the federal government and that the government would eventually outlaw slavery.…show more content… The North and the South were divided long before the Civil War, with most of its disputes being over tariffs and their greatest issue slavery. With the election of 1860 happening and the candidate of the Republican Party being Abraham Lincoln and his campaign to stop slavery from happening in current locations and stopping it overall in America. The South saw this as a threat and on December 20, 1860, South Carolina secede from the United States, making it the first state to successfully secede. Four months later Florida, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana seceded