Confederate States Congress | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| Houses | Senate House of Representatives |
| History | |
| Founded | February 18, 1862 |
| Disbanded | March 18, 1865 (de facto) |
| Preceded by | Provisional Congress of the Confederate States |
| Leadership | |
President pro tempore ad interim | |
| Seats | 135 26 Senators 109 Representatives |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Virginia State Capitol Richmond, Virginia Confederate States of America | |
| Constitution | |
| Constitution of the Confederate States | |
The Confederate States Congress was both the provisional and permanent legislative assembly / legislature of the Confederate States of America that existed from February 1861 to April / June 1865, during the American Civil War. Its actions were, for the most part, concerned with measures to establish a new national government for the Southern proto-state in the current Southern United States region, and to prosecute a war that had to be sustained throughout the existence of the Confederacy. At first, it met as a provisional congress both in the first capital city of Montgomery, Alabama, and the second in Richmond, Virginia. As was the case for the provisional Congress after it moved northeast to Richmond, the permanent Congress met in the existing Virginia State Capitol, a building which it also shared with the secessionist Virginia General Assembly (state legislature).
The precursor to the permanent Congressional legislature was the temporary Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, which helped establish the Confederacy as a state / nation with an organized government. Following elections held in individual states, refugee colonies, and army camps in November 1861, the 1st Confederate States Congress met in four sessions. The 1863 midterm elections led to many former Democrats losing to former Whigs, the political parties of the recent 1850s in the United States in which they had formerly participated. The 2nd Confederate Congress met in two sessions following an intersession during the military campaign season beginning November 7, 1864, and ending on March 18, 1865, shortly before the conclusion of the Civil War and the downfall of the Confederacy.
All legislative considerations of the Confederate Congress were secondary to winning the American Civil War. These included debates whether to pass President Jefferson Davis's war measures and deliberations on alternatives to administration proposals, both of which were often denounced as discordant, regardless of the outcome. Congress was often held in low regard regardless of what it did. Amidst early battlefield victories, few sacrifices were asked of those who resided in the Confederacy, and the Confederate Congress and Davis were in essential agreement.[1]
During the second half of the war, the Davis administration's program became more demanding, and the Confederate Congress responded by becoming more assertive in the law-making process even before the 1863 elections. It began to modify administration proposals, substitute its own measures, and sometimes it refused to act at all. While it initiated few major policies, it often concerned itself with details of executive administration. Despite its devotion to Confederate independence, it was criticized by supporters of Davis for occasional independence, and censured in the dissenting press for not asserting itself more often.[1]
- ^ a b Yearns, Wilfred Buck. The Confederate Congress, (1935, 2010) ISBN 978-0-820-33476-9, p. vii-viii.