Meet Alexander Stephens

Standards of attractiveness change, of course, and politics since the age of television has been dominated too much by the visual aspect of what candidates look like. In the 19th century, it was even considered in bad taste for U.S. presidential candidates to do their own campaigning, so their appearance must have been very much a secondary (or tertiary, or even lower level) consideration. 

However.

Have you seen a photograph of what Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States of America, looked like?

Stephens was in his 50s in this picture, and he lived for about another 20 years, so the fact that he looks like death warmed over is not literally true.  

Reading his Wikipedia page, I can see that his looks had no bearing on his election within the Confederacy. But still, I can't think of a contemporary politician who rose so high while being so unattractive. There have been some members of Congress, I admit (and more power to them!), but nothing higher than that. 

He got there on his own merits.... Helping to run a slaveocracy.