Civil War
1861
Provisional
Confederate Congress convenes
On this day in 1861, the
Confederacy is open for business when the Provisional Confederate Congress
convenes in Montgomery, Alabama.
The official record read:
“Be it remembered that on the fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord,
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the Capitol of the State of
Alabama, in the city of Montgomery, at the hour of noon, there assembled
certain deputies and delegates from the several independent South States of
North America…”
The first order of
business was drafting a constitution. The congress used the U.S. Constitution
as a model, taking most of it verbatim. In just four days, a tentative document
to govern the new nation was hammered out. The president was limited to one
six-year term. Unlike the U.S. Constitution, the word “slave” was used and the
institution protected in all states and any territories to be added later.
Importation of slaves was prohibited, as this would alienate European nations
and would detract from the profitable “internal slave trade” in the South.
Other components of the constitution were designed to enhance the power of the
states–governmental money for internal improvements were banned and the
president was given a line-item veto on appropriations bills.
The congress then turned
its attention to selecting a president, with delegates settling on Jefferson
Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. senator from Mississippi who served
as the U.S. secretary of war in the 1850s.
Courtesy: HISTORY.com
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