Future vice president off the Confederacy Alexander Stephens was campaigning for re-election to the U. S. House of Representatives when he met Judge Francis Cone outside the Thompson Hotel in downtown Atlanta. A previous feud over the Clayton Compromise, which Stephens supported, had Cone calling Stephens a traitor. Following a heated discussion, which may have included Stephens trying to hit Cone with his walking stick, Cone assaulted Stephens, stabbing him six times, including once in his chest.