Essay: Confederate States of America
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AN ESSAY FROM 19TH CENTURY U.S. NEWSPAPERS DATABASE Confederate States of America Eric Tscheschlok, Auburn University The Confederate States of America came into existence on articulated by John C. Calhoun a generation earlier. Due 4 February 1861, when delegates from the six Deep South in part to the moderating influence of Cobb, the conven- states that had departed the federal Union by that date tion’s president, the final instrument was largely patterned (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, after the U.S. Constitution, although it contained signifi- and Louisiana) assembled in Montgomery, Alabama, to cant concessions to the Rhett faction. The preamble, for form a southern confederacy. Within days Texas also joined example, enshrined states’ rights and certified the sovereign the Montgomery proceedings. The rebel delegates moved character of the constituent states. Likewise it omitted the anxiously to expedite the process of nation building, which general welfare clause of the U.S. Constitution, which had they essentially completed in less than two months. During been construed to augment the power of the central gov- this time the Montgomery convention accomplished a great ernment during the antebellum period. On the other hand deal. The delegates wrote a provisional constitution and as- the fire- eaters were disappointed that the new constitution signed themselves the dual functions of both a provisional remained silent on the issue of nullification and that it cre- congress and a constituent assembly charged with framing ated a “permanent federal government,” thereby implying a permanent constitution. They also elected a president, rather hypocritically that the states did not possess a right Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, from a pool of prominent of secession. aspirants that included the Alabama fire-eater William The Confederate constitution incorporated verbatim large L. Yancey and the Georgia triumvirate of Howell Cobb, segments of the U.S. Constitution, including its first twelve Robert Toombs, and Alexander H. Stephens, who was amendments. Nevertheless, the Confederate document chos n vice president. Further, by mid-March the fledgling departed substantially from its predecessor in regard to Confederate government had confirmed several cabinet the relationships among government branches and the re- posts, provided for the circulation of its own currency, au- lationship between the central government and the states. thorized the recruitment of an army, adopted a legal code The constitution vested all legislative power in the bicam- composed of all U.S. laws except those deemed hostile to eral Confederate Congress, which was practically identical slavery, and finalized a constitution for the Confederate to the U.S. version. However, in enumerating the powers republic. of Congress, the Confederate charter expressly forbade In drafting a permanent constitution for their new nation, the national legislature from enacting protective tariffs or the founders of the Confederate republic borrowed heavily funding internal improvements. Naturally the constitution from the U.S. Constitution. The Montgomery government also protected the South’s peculiar institution, prohibiting took up the business of constitution making in the first two Congress from passing any “law denying or impairing the weeks of March 1861. During this span the Provisional right of property in negro slaves” (Article I, section 9). Congress conducted affairs of state by day and assembled Through these provisions the constitution addressed the as a constitutional convention in the evenings. Two fac- three cardinal points on which Southern states’ rightists tions emerged in convention. One of these, led by Stephens, believed the antebellum U.S. government had overstepped looked to fashion a virtual replica of the U.S. Constitution its bounds. with a few key proslavery measures added. The other more In creating an executive branch, the Confederate constitu- radical faction, led by the fire-eating South Carolinian tion made only slight modifications to Article II of the U.S. Robert Barnwell Rhett, advocated a more extreme states’ Constitution, but these changes were significant. At once Gale Digital Collections rights compact grounded in the theories of state sovereignty www.gale.com/DigitalCollections Confederate States of America the Confederate constitution provided for a chief executive remained operative until February 1862. A unicameral as- with more power than his U.S. counterpart while impos- sembly, the Provisional Congress was not an elective body. ing novel limits on presidential tenure. For example, the Rather, the delegates were the appointees of the secession Confederate president had line-item veto power and discre- conventions of their respective states. From the outset the tionary authority to dismiss civil officers yet was limited to radical fire- eaters, whose militant Southern nationalism in- a single six-year term. spired the initial formation of the Confederacy, were shunt- The Confederate constitution outlined a national judicial ed aside by more moderate statesmen who took the reins of structure that mirrored precisely the federal judiciary of government. After April 1861 congressional membership the United States. It vested all judicial power in a supreme swelled with the addition of representatives from the four court and in other inferior national courts created by the Upper South states (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Congress. However, the Confederate judiciary operated and Arkansas) that seceded following the bombardment of much differently in practice. The Confederate Congress did Fort Sumter. Extralegal secessionist councils in the Unionist establish a system of federal district courts, but these “low- border states of Kentucky and Missouri also sent delegates er” courts functioned as the only extant arm of the national to the Confederate Congress, which explains why the na- judiciary. The Confederate supreme court never came into tional flag displayed thirteen stars when only eleven states being because the Congress purposely neglected to pass en- seceded. In July 1861, Richmond, Virginia, superseded abling legislation to create that tribunal. Sensitive to poten- Montgomery as the capital of the Confede acy. tial federal inroads upon state prerogatives, Confederate The nature of congressional legislation was determined lawmakers worried that a supreme court might become a by the course of the war. Unlike future congresses, the vehicle for consolidation. Southern states’ rightists pointed Provisional Congress cooperated fairly well with President to the example of the U.S. Supreme Court under the chief Davis, endorsing most of his emergency war measures. justice John Marshall, whose judicial nationalism expanded After Abraham Lincoln called for U.S. volunteers to sup- the scope of central power at the expense of local authori- press the Southern rebellion in April 1861, the Confederate ties, particularly in e ercising federal appellate jurisdiction government faced the urgent tasks of raising an army, over state court rulings. To preempt such judicial usurpa- mobilizing the home front for war, and funding military tion in their own republic, Confederate legislators chose to operations. To these ends President Davis requested and ignore their constitution and declined to erect a national the Provisional Congress approved a program of three-year high court. enlistments, the suspension of habeas corpus, and various The Confederate constitution was no revolutionary in- war appropriations. strument. It was a conservative document, designed by its The Provisional Congress created six executive departments: framers to perpetuate the world of the Old South, including State, Treasury, War, Navy, Justice, and Post Office. These slavery and a racial hierarchy based on white supremacy. mimicked the cabinet structure of the old Union except in As vice president, Stephens affirmed in March 1861 that two instances. First, the Confederacy omitted a department slavery formed the “cornerstone” of the Southern nation, of the interior. Second, it enlarged the office of attorney gen- which was founded “upon the great truth that the negro eral by creating a Department of Justice under his direction, is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordina- a step the U.S. government would not emulate until 1870. tion to the superior race, is his natural and moral condi- Chronic turnover of department heads gave Davis’s cabinet tion” (Durden, pp. 7, 8). Such a social order, assumed the far less stability than Lincoln’s. In all, fourteen secretaries Confederate framers, was best safeguarded in a republic and three ad interim appointees held cabinet posts during anchored upon the principles of states’ rights. In this case, the life of the Confederacy. Personality clashes with Davis however, states’ rights proved to be the cure that killed. led to some cabinet resignations, while other officers left to Political decentralization greatly hampered the Confederate accept military commissions or alternate political appoint- war effort and provided the basis for the crippling opposi- ments or to escape unrelenting congressional criticism. Only tion to President Davis’s wartime administration. In this the navy secretary Stephen R. Mallory and postmaster gen- sense the Confederate constitution sowed the seeds of de- eral John H. Reagan held their assignments for the duration struction for the nation it intended to bring to life.