The Confederate Congress approved several pieces of legislation this month. Although many of these new laws violated the key Confederate principle of states’ rights, they were considered vital to the fledgling war effort. President Jefferson Davis therefore approved all these measures.
The Luxury Goods Ban
In response to public pressure, this law prohibited the importation of “non-essential,” or luxury, goods. Blockade runners had tended to import items such as gold and jewelry instead of goods needed for the war because luxury items were more profitable. Not only did the new law ban this practice, but it required exporters of staples such as cotton or tobacco to obtain permission from the president to do so. Davis added to this by ordering the government to seize half the cotton, tobacco, sugar, molasses, and rice leaving Confederate ports.
These new regulations created widespread protest and resentment. Many complained that this amounted to full government control over Confederate commerce, which violated not only states’ rights but the principles of free trade as well. Since the Confederate government had few resources to enforce the legislation, it went largely ignored by blockade runners.
The Partisan Ranger Repeal
This law ended the system allowing private citizens to create independent military companies. Guerrilla warfare conducted by these partisan companies had been escalating, which was increasing lawlessness. Moreover, southerners often joined partisan units to avoid regular military service, which was where they were most needed.
General Robert E. Lee supported the repeal, telling Secretary of War James A. Seddon, “The evils resulting from their (the partisans’) organization more than counterbalance the good they accomplish. I recommend that the law authorizing these partisan corps be abolished.”
Seddon reserved the right to offer exemptions, and companies under John S. Mosby and Hanse McNeill were allowed to continue operations. But since the Confederate government had no means to enforce the repeal, most other guerrilla raiders generally continued operations without authorization.
The Conscription Amendments
The Conscription Act was amended to require all able-bodied white men between the ages of 17 and 50 to serve in the military for the war’s duration. All men between 18 and 45 currently serving would continue doing so for the war’s duration as well. A draft was to be held for all men between 17 and 18, and 45 and 50, with those men forming a reserve for state defense.
The draft process would not be a “lottery” system as conducted in the North; instead, draft agents simply listed all white men between 17 and 50 as either eligible or exempt. All draft exemptions based on industrial occupations were removed. This caused an uproar among newspaper publishers out of fear that their printers would now be eligible for the draft.
The exemption for overseers of 20 or more slaves was reduced to 15. In addition, plantation owners with exempt status were now required to sell 200 pounds of meat per slave to the government, ostensibly to feed soldiers and their families. The exemption would now require a decree from a civil magistrate in the presence of two witnesses testifying that the overseer could not be spared for the war effort.
All free black men were also eligible to be drafted into the army to build fortifications, manufacture war materiel, or serve in military hospitals. The secretary of war was given authority to draft a maximum of 20,000 slaves to serve alongside the free black men.
General Lee strongly supported these amendments to the conscription law and urged the government to impose as few exemptions as possible.
This new law theoretically gave the Confederate government complete power over the southern economy through the ability to determine whether a man was worth more in the military or laboring on the home front. However, manpower was already severely exhausted by this time, and less than 16,000 men were actually drafted into military service in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, the Conscript Bureau continued issuing exemptions that ultimately amounted to more men staying at home than going into the military.
The Tax Bill
Several major revisions were made to the Confederate tax code, which essentially amounted to more sacrifice demanded of the Confederate people. The tax-in-kind that required farmers to give portions of their agricultural goods to the government was lessened somewhat by the provisions that they could deduct this from a new 5-percent tax on arable property.
In response to complaints that hungry Confederate troops were seizing foodstuffs on farms in exchange for worthless or forged government vouchers, the commissary general warned citizens not to give up their goods to anyone except licensed government agents. Despite the mass resentment, the tax-in-kind ultimately proved invaluable to the Confederate war effort, with two-thirds of the goods collected coming from North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.
The Currency Bill
The Confederate economy was in a state of rampant inflation, and Confederate Treasury Secretary Christopher Memminger warned that something needed to be done to contract the currency. Congress responded by passing what became known as the “Compulsory Funding Measure.”
This new law funded all Treasury notes greater than $5 with 20-year, four-percent bonds. Also, all paper bills less than $100 could be exchanged for new bills at a rate of $3 of the old turned into $2 of the new. Issuance of Treasury notes after April 1 was prohibited. If sufficient exchanges were not made, the old currency was to be taxed out of existence. This amounted to an admission that the government would go bankrupt if it did not win independence.
In addition, an issuance of $500 million in six-year bonds was authorized to fund government expenses. Import and export customs duties, to be paid in specie, would fund the interest. President Davis had recommended passage of this type of act in December, with a tax imposed on currency circulation.
Other Acts of Congress
Congress approved a secret measure appropriating $5 million to finance sabotage operations against the U.S. from Canada. Davis assigned Captain Thomas C. Hines to organize escaped Confederate prisoners of war in Canada and conduct “appropriate enterprises of war against our enemies.” This included meeting “with the leading persons friendly or attached to the cause of the Confederacy, or who may be advocates of peace, and do all in your power to induce our friends to organize and prepare themselves to render such aid as circumstances may allow.”
Congress approved a joint resolution giving thanks to Lieutenant-General James Longstreet “and the officers and men of his command, for their patriotic services and brilliant achievements in the present war, sharing as they have the arduous fatigues and privations of many campaigns in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Tennessee, and participating in nearly every great battle fought in those States, the commanding general ever displaying great ability, skill, and prudence in command, and the officers and men the most heroic bravery, fortitude, and energy, in every duty they have been called upon to perform.”
With that the fourth session of the First Confederate Congress adjourned, leaving many legislators dissatisfied with the session’s results, the Davis administration, and the war’s prospects.
Bibliography
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