Confederate Congress

"The first Confederate Congress contained all the elements of discord and disagreement it was possible to assemble under one roof in the South at this time."

As the sessions of the Confederate Congress were closed to the public and secrecy strictly maintained as to the most of its proceedings, while no records were kept of its debates, the account of any of its activities must necessarily be based upon fragmentary sources. From these, however, it is possible to derive a fairly accurate picture of those internal dissensions between the President and Congress against which the fortunes of the Confederacy had to contend.

The Confederate Government was first set into operation by the Southern constitutional convention, which met at Montgomery, Alabama, on the 4th of February, 1861. After adopting a temporary constitution,2 the assembly elected Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stevens President and Vice-President, respectively, of the new government. In this election there seems to have been little of intrigue or political scheming. The qualifications of Davis, Cobb, and Toombs were quietly canvassed, but the differences were not so pressed as to cause delay of action or any ill feeling. Some deputies favored Cobb, some Toombs, but Davis received unanimous and cordial support.

This constitution was for the most part a copy of the Constitution of 1787. Some important changes, however, were made, the chief of which dealt with the executive department. Provision was made for a single presidential term of six years; the right of vetoing any single item in an appropriation bill without invalidating the whole was permitted; no general appropriation of funds could be made unless asked for by the head of a department, except by a two-thirds vote of each house; the President's power of removal was somewhat curtailed; and, lastly, Congress was authorized to grant a seat on the floor of either house to members of the cabinet, who then had the privilege of discussing any measure touching their departments. According to Davis this last provision, "which would have tended to obviate much delay and misunderstanding," was never put into operation because of the failure of Congress to enact the necessary legislation.

The Congress itself, probably the strongest legislative assembly in the history of the Confederacy, was characterized by Stephens as the "ablest, soberest, most intelligent and conservative body" of which he had ever been a member.7 And Davis found that the delegates were generously inclined "to yield their preconceived opinions" to his suggestions, and particularly that the absence of factional rivalries made possible the selection of a desirable cabinet without the necessity of compromise."

The removal of the seat of government from Montgomery to Richmond was the cause of much adverse comment on the part of certain members from the cotton growing states, but this was not aimed at Davis personally; and it was not until the battle of Manassas that anything like serious criticism of the President by members of Congress can be found. Other sources of criticism were not lacking. The apparent indifference on the part of the Administration to the affairs of Missouri and the failure to appoint General Price an officer in the Confederacy led to frequent complaint. While the policy pursued by Benjamin, secretary of war, and Winder, whom Davis had placed in charge of the forces in Richmond, of issuing passports through the Confederate lines and of discharging suspected prisoners on their own responsibility, was severely censured by members of Congress as well as by the hostile press. The papers most opposed to Davis were the Richmond Examiner and the Charleston Mercury. In the South at large, however, there was as yet no dissatisfaction worth recording.

Accordingly, when the election for the permanent government was held on the 6th of November, 1861, Davis and Stephens were unanimously re-elected to the offices they had held under the provisional constitution. At the same time, senators and congressmen were chosen to take the place of the delegates to the provisional congress and the regular Confederate Government began its activities.

The new Congress met for the first time on February 18, 1862. The first Congress held the following sessions: February 18 to April 21, 1862; August 18 to October 13, 1862; January 12 to May 1, 1863; December 7 to February 17, 1864. While the roll of this body bore many more names familiar to the student of national politics than did that of the House, the personnel of neither gave promise of remarkable ability; and within a few months one hostile critic was bold enough to say that in the whole Congress there were not a dozen members "with any pretensions to statesmanship."

Almost from the outset, the relations of the executive and Congress were somewhat strained because of military reverses. The opposition, while still in the minority, were becoming more united and encouraged by the hostile press, vigorously denounced the war policy of the administration. This dissatisfaction, however, was partially dispelled by the military success of the following summer.

The opposition on constitutional grounds of some of the ablest men in the South to the suspension of the writ, threw Davis more or less on the defensive, particularly as the declaration of martial law gave his opponents grounds for charging him with seeking a dictatorship. Even his baptism and confirmation in the Episcopal church were declared to be mere blinds toward a despotic end, and a comparison was drawn between his new religious professions and similar action on the part of Cromwell and Richard III.

The Impressment and Conscription Acts passed at this session of Congress were also looked upon as oppressive and unconstitutional,81 and since Davis had urgently advocated their enactment, whatever popular clamor arose naturally directed itself against him, or vented itself by denouncing Congress as wholly subservient to the President's will. In this latter charge there was a decided element of truth. For while in fact a minority element of opposition existed in both houses, it had not yet developed sufficient power to hinder materially the plans of the administration, and for the most part contented itself with striking at Benjamin and other unpopular members of the cabinet. One bill was carried, however, that evidently aimed to reduce the military power of the President and make his secretary of war a mere bureau clerk. It provided for the creation of the "office of a commanding general of the armies of the Confederate States," and assigned powers to the new official which, as Davis pointed out in his veto message, were lodged by the constitution in the hands of the President alone as commander-in-chief.82 The bill was first passed by large majorities88 both in the Senate and in the House, but when the attempt was made to carry it over the executive veto it failed by an overwhelming vote. Thus, when the session ended on April 21," Davis had met defeat on no important point, while the emergencies of war were gradually throwing more and more power into his hands, though he was careful not to assume new authority without the consent of Congress.

Shortly after the adjournment of Congress, the Confederacy suffered disastrous military reverses, first in the loss of New Orleans and shortly afterwards in the surrender of Norfolk and the enforced destruction of the iron-clad, Merrimac. It was a period of great discouragement throughout the South and of fear in Richmond. Davis was openly censured; and even Robert E. Lee, who was now acting as the President's military adviser, came in for a full share of criticism. With the turn of the tide, however, in the victories of Jackson and Lee over McClcllan the depression gave place to a feeling of exultation and for the time being dissatisfaction ceased.

In the midst of this era of better feeling, Congress reconvened on the 18th of August. Complaints of the lack of supplies and provisions for the army had become so numerous that the matter could no longer be overlooked. And on the first day of the session, even before the President's message had been received, a resolution was carried instructing the Committee on Military Affairs "to inquire into the expediency and necessity of enacting some effective law requiring and compelling the Commissary Department to furnish more and better food for the Army. . . ."

The third session of Congress, lasting from January 12 to May 1, 1863, may be dismissed in a few words. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had kindled afresh the fire of Southern opposition to the Northern government, and for a time internal dissensions were lost in this new burst of enthusiasm. During this period, also, no great defeat could be pointed to as an evidence of the administration's incompetency, so that Congress for the most part became merely a register of the President's will.

The following summer was especially disheartening because of Lee's failure in Pennsylvania and the fall of. Vicksburg.48 In addition the crushing burden of the war, with its impressments, conscriptions, demoralized finance, and prohibitions on trade, caused widespread dissatisfaction among all but the most loyal. As Congress was not in session, the greater part of this was concentrated against the President. He was accused of trying to make himself supreme by "denying all participation in the affairs of government to the great men who were the authors of secession." His cabinet members, particularly Benjamin. Mailory, and Memminger, together with the commissary general, Northrop, were spoken of as incompetents if not scoundrels. His military appointments were condemned as the cause of the Confederate losses and his very life was threatened by some of his enemies.

The second Congress held the following sessions: May 2 to June 14, 1864; November 7, 1864, to March 18, 1865. Forty members of the old Congress were not re-elected. The new body began its duties on May 2, 1864, in a spirit of seeming cooperation with the President. A strong majority sided with him on every important measure, and the opposition was weaker than at any other session; while there is good reason to believe that most of the bills were "dictated by the executive and written in the departments." In spite of such apparent harmony, however, criticism of the President was not entirely hushed. The congressional recess lasted nearly five months. When the members finally reconvened on November 7, their attitude toward Davis was unmistakably hostile, probably more so indeed than it had ever been before. Some members doubtless resented the charges of the press that they were but a "secret power for registering the will of the President".

Evidence of this new spirit was soon manifest. One of the chief recommendations in the President's message was for the employment of 40,000 slaves in the Confederate armies, but as soldiers only in the last extremity. It was also recommended that such negroes as were taken into government service should be emancipated at the close of the war.70 This proposition was not very cordially received. Not only did it involve great pecuniary loss to the owners of impressed slaves but seemed to strike at the very basis of the entire system, as well as to involve a serious question of constitutionality.

On December 8, 1864 the House, by a vote of 50 to 44,74 had made provision for a renewed suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; but when the hill was presented in the Senate, its opponents, after delaying action upon it until March 16, 1865 were able to defeat it by a vote of 6 to 9.78 The President's veto, which was more freely used at this session of Congress than at any other, was almost uniformly overridden by the necessary two-thirds vote in the Senate, and not infrequently in the House as well.

Many bitter attacks, likewise, were made at this session against individual members of the cabinet, and much ill feeling resulted from the President's refusal to dismiss those who had long been out cf favor with Congress. The principal assaults were made upon Benjamin and Seddon, who was now secretary of war. Nor were these denunciations confined merely to the cabinet. Davis himself was characterized on the floor of Congress as "mediocre and malicious," while the disasters of the South encouraged the most radical of the opposition in a desperate movement to place General Lee at the head of the government as dictator, and only the refusal of the latter to act against Davis prevented a counter revolution.

Additional sources of discord were the refusal of Davis to begin peace negotiations at the urgent request of the Senate;88 his removal of Johnston and stubborn unwillingness to reappoint him even at the request of a concurrent resolution of the two houses;84 his attitude toward the question of trade as it affected various states;88 the tone of his last message which a select committee of the Senate regarded as tending to destroy the "legitimate and constitutional influence" of the legislative branch "by Executive admonitions"88-all of these helped to destroy the President's influence over Congress and weaken his leadership. Yet with the people at large Davis seems to have regained some measure of his popularity toward the end. His remarkable speech in the African church at Richmond on February 6 greatly strengthened his position throughout Virginia and created a new enthusiasm for a dying cause. Congress, also, to a large extent lost popular sympathy by its continued "crimination of the President and a certain contemptible frivolity." Indeed, as late as February 22, 1865 when all of its powers should have been employed in averting threatened ruin, this body was occupied in devising a new flag.