“Progress of the war.”

still dreaming? (Library of Congress)

The Confederacy was in crisis, but Congress had apparently been content to finish up its legislative session and head home. President Davis asked them to stay, and 150 years ago today he laid out the important matters that Congress needed to address. Civil War Daily Gazette has covered the act to enlist slaves. In general, President Davis requested that Congress be less deliberative and more decisive given that their nation was in extremis.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch May 15, 1865:

Message of the President.

The following message was transmitted to Congress on Monday:

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America:

When informed on Thursday last that it was the intention of Congress to adjourn sine die on the ensuing Saturday, I deemed it my duty to request a postponement of the adjournment, in order that I might submit, for your consideration, certain matters of public interest, which are now laid before you. When that request was made, the most important measures that had occupied your attention during the session had not been so far advanced as to be submitted for executive action, and the state of the country had been so materially affected by the events of the last four months as to evince the necessity of further and more energetic legislation than was contemplated in November last.

Our country is now environed with perils which it is our duty calmly to contemplate. Thus alone can the measures necessary to avert threatened calamities be wisely devised and efficiently enforced.

captured seaport (“Charleston, S.C. View of ruined buildings through porch of the Circular Church (150 Meeting Street)” 1865 Library of Congress)

Progress of the war.

Recent military operations of the enemy have been successful in the capture of some of our seaports, in interrupting some of our lines of communication, and in devastating large districts of our country. These events have had the natural effect of encouraging our foes and dispiriting many of our people. The capital of the Confederate States is now threatened, and is in greater danger than it has heretofore been during the war.–The fact is stated without reserve or concealment as due to the people whose servants we are, and in whose courage and constancy entire trust is reposed; as due to you, in whose [ wisdow ] [wisdom] and resolute spirit the people have confided for the adoption of the measures required to guard them from threatened perils.

While stating to you that our country is in danger, I desire also to state my deliberate conviction that it is within our power to avert the calamities which menace us, and to secure the triumph of the sacred cause for which so much sacrifice has been made, so much suffering endured, so many precious lives been lost. This result is to be obtained by fortitude, by courage, by constancy in enduring the sacrifices still needed; in a word, by the prompt and resolute devotion of the whole resources of men and money in the Confederacy to the achievement of our liberties and independence.

The measures now required, to be successful, should be prompt. Long deliberation and protracted debate over important measures are not only natural, but laudable in representative assemblies under ordinary circumstances; but in moments of danger, when action becomes urgent, the delay thus caused is itself a new source of peril. Thus it has unfortunately happened that some of the measures passed by you in pursuance of the recommendations contained in my message of November last have been so retarded as to lose much of their value, or have, for the same reason, been abandoned after being matured, because no longer applicable to our altered condition; and others have not been brought under examination.–In making these remarks, it is far from my intention to attribute the loss of time to any other causes than those inherent in deliberative assemblies, but only urgently to recommend prompt action upon the measures now submitted.

We need, for carrying on the war successfully, men and the army. We have both with sufficient to attain. …

The exemption bill.

The measures passed by Congress during the session for recruiting the army and supplying the additional force needed for the public defence have been, in my judgment, insufficient, and I am impelled by a profound conviction of duty, and stimulated by a sense of the perils which surround our country, to urge upon you additional legislation on this subject.

The bill for employing negroes as soldiers has not yet reached me, though the printed journals of your proceedings inform me of its passage. Much benefit is anticipated from this measure, though far less than would have resulted from its adoption at an earlier date, so as to afford time for their organization and instruction during the winter months.

The bill for diminishing the number of exempts has just been made the subject of a special message, and its provisions are such as would add no strength to the army. The recommendation to abolish all class exemptions has not met your favor, although still deemed by me a valuable and important measure; and the number of men exempted by a new clause in the act just passed is believed to be quite equal to that of those whose exemption is revoked. A law of a few lines repealing all class exemptions would not only strengthen the forces in the field, but be still more beneficial by abating the natural discontent and jealousy created in the army by the existence of classes privileged by law to remain in places of safety while their fellow-citizens are exposed in the trenches and the field.

“Confederate White House, home of Jefferson Davis in Richmond” ca. 1904 (Library of Congress)

The militia.

The measure most needed, however, at the present time, for affording an effective increase to our military strength, is a general militia law, such as the Constitution authorizes Congress to pass …

Thus united in a common and holy cause, rising above all selfish considerations, rendering all our means and faculties tributary to the country’s welfare, let us bow submissively to the Divine will, and reverently invoke the blessing of our Heavenly Father, that as He protected and guided our sires when struggling in a similar cause, so He will enable us to guard safely our altars and our firesides, and maintain inviolate the political rights which we inherited.

Jefferson Davis.

Richmond, March13, 1865.

So, in Jefferson’s Davis’ view the Exemption Law that just passed was a wash – no more white men would be liable to service.

You can read the Black Soldiers Act at the Freedmen & Southern Society Project