| Confederate States Congress | |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Type | Bicameral |
| Houses | Senate, House of Representatives |
| Leadership | |
| President of the Senate | Alexander H. Stephens |
| President pro tempore | Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter |
| President pro tempore ad interim | William Alexander Graham |
| Speaker of the House | Thomas Stanley Bocock |
| Members | 135 26 Senators 109 Representatives |
| Meeting place | |
| Confederate Capitol Richmond, Virginia |
|
The Congress of the Confederate States was the legislative body of the Confederate States of America, existing during the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Like the United States Congress, the Confederate Congress consisted of two houses: a Senate, whose membership consisted of two senators from each state (chosen by their state legislature), and a House of Representatives, with members popularly elected by residents of the individual states.
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Deputies from the first seven states to secede from the Union, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas, met at the Provisional Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama, in two sessions in February through May 1861. They drafted and approved the Confederate States Constitution, elected Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States and designed the Confederate flag.
Following the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861, the remaining states to secede sent delegates to the Confederate Congress, which met in three additional sessions between July 1861 and February 1862 in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
Elections for the First Confederate Congress were held on November 6, 1861. While Congressional elections in the United States were held in even-numbered years, elections for Confederate Congressman occurred in odd-numbered years. The First Confederate Congress met in four sessions in Richmond.
Because of the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, only two Congressional elections were ever held; the Second Confederate Congress was selected in November 1863 but served only one year of its two-year term. The final session of the Confederate Congress adjourned on March 18, 1865. That month, one of its final acts was the passage of a law allowing for the emancipation and military induction of any slave willing to fight for the Confederacy. This measure had originally been proposed by Judah P. Benjamin a year earlier but met stiff opposition until the final months of the war, when it was endorsed by Robert E. Lee. The final sentence recorded in the proceedings of the Confederate Congress reads "The hour of 2 o'clock having arrived, / The Speaker announced that the House stood adjourned sine die." (7 J. Conf. Cong. 796 (Mar. 18, 1865)).
The Confederacy did not have political parties but the Congress was dominated by former Democrats. While the 1863 elections had a low turnout, it threw out many secessionist and pro-Davis incumbents in favor of former Whigs. This weakened the administration's ability to get their policies through Congress.
The Confederate Congress had delegations from 13 states, territories and Indian tribes. The 12th and 13th stars on the Confederate banner were for Kentucky and Missouri. These states maintained full delegations in both the U.S. and C.S. congresses throughout the war.
Except for the four states west of the Mississippi River (Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas) all Confederate states' apportionment in the U.S. Congress was going to decline into the 1860s. In the Confederate Congress, all would have larger delegations than they had from the census of 1850, except South Carolina, which was equal, and Missouri, which declined by one.
The Confederate Congress maintained representation in Virginia, Tennessee and Louisiana throughout its existence. Unlike the U.S. Congress, there was no requirement for a majority of the voters in 1860 to vote for representatives for them to be seated. From 1861-1863, Virginia (east, north and west), Tennessee and Louisiana had U.S. representation. Then, for 1863–1865, only the newly made West Virginia had U.S. representation. West Virginians living in counties not under Federal control, however, continued to participate in Confederate elections.[1] Although Tennessee was not said to be in rebellion by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, by March, it had no representation in the U.S. Congress.
| Apportionment[2] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | State | US 1850 | US 1860 | CSA | |
| 1. | Virginia** | 13 | 11 | 16 | |
| 2. | Tennessee** | 10 | 8 | 11 | |
| 3. | Georgia | 8 | 7 | 10 | |
| 3. | North Carolina | 8 | 7 | 10 | |
| 5. | Alabama | 7 | 6 | 9 | |
| 6. | Louisiana** | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 6. | Mississippi | 5 | 5 | 7 | |
| 8. | South Carolina | 6 | 4 | 6 | |
| 8. | Texas | 2 | 4 | 6 | |
| 10. | Arkansas | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 11. | Florida | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| -- | Kentucky** | 10 | 9 | 12 | |
| -- | Missouri** | 7 | 9 | 6 |