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Confederate Politics

Confederate politics were dominated by the tension between states' rights and the military needs of the Confederacy.

Learning Objective

  • Examine the tensions between Confederate state leaders and President Jefferson Davis


Key Points

    • States' rights continually caused tension between state leaders and President Jefferson Davis.
    • Powerful state governors used states'-rights arguments to withhold militia units from national service.
    • North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance frequently opposed Davis over the issue of states' rights.
    • Conscription, put into law by the Confederate Congress in April 1862, was a particularly unpopular practice within the Confederacy.
    • Davis also feuded bitterly with Vice President Alexander Stephens.
    • The lack of a two-party political system prevented the emergence of alternatives to the way in which war was conducted by the Davis administration.

Terms

  • Alexander Stephens

    (February 11, 1812–March 4, 1883) An American politician from Georgia. He was Vice President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He also served as a U.S. Representative from Georgia (both before the Civil War and after Reconstruction) and as the 50th Governor of Georgia from 1882 until his death in 1883.

  • Zebulon B. Vance

    (May 13, 1830–April 14, 1894) Confederate military officer in the American Civil War, the 37th and 43rd Governor of North Carolina, and U.S. Senator. A prodigious writer, Vance became one of the most influential Southern leaders of the Civil War and postbellum periods.

  • conscription

    Involuntary labor, especially military service, demanded by some established authority or government.


Full Text

States' rights, one of the primary platforms for secession, was an enduring issue in Confederate politics that caused tension between state leaders and President Jefferson Davis.

Illustration of Confederate cabinet, Harper's Weekly, 1861

Front row, left to right: Judah P. Benjamin, Stephen Mallory, Alexander Stephens, Jefferson Davis, John Henninger Reagan, and Robert Toombs. Back row, standing left to right: Christopher Memminger and LeRoy Pope Walker.

Davis clashed with powerful state governors who used states'-rights arguments to hamper mobilization plans. Governors and state legislatures, fearing that Richmond would encroach on the rights of the states, withheld soldiers and funds from the war effort. The first conscription act in North America authorizing Davis to draft soldiers was viewed as the, "essence of military despotism."

Governor Zebulon B. Vance of North Carolina, a powerful advocate of states' rights, frequently opposed Davis. Vance was particularly opposed to conscription efforts in North Carolina, limiting recruitment success in that state. Vance's work to mitigate harsh Confederate conscription practices inspired his nickname, “War Governor of the South.” North Carolina was also the only state to observe the right of habeas corpus during the war. Vance insisted that a portion of supplies smuggled into North Carolina by blockade runners be given to the state, despite need elsewhere. Georgia's governor Joseph Brown also spoke out against attempts by Davis to expand the rights of the Confederate central government.

Davis also feuded bitterly with his vice president. Vice President Alexander Stephens was a strong proponent of states' rights, placing this principle above military considerations. Throughout the war, Stephens denounced many of the President's policies, including conscription, suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, impressment, various financial and taxation policies, and Davis' military strategy.

Despite political differences, no political parties were formed within the Confederacy. Without a two-party system, electoral protests tended to be narrowly state-based. The 1863 midterm elections became mere expressions of futile and frustrated dissatisfaction. The lack of a functioning two-party system prevented the formulation of any effective alternatives to the conduct of the war by the Davis administration.

Zebulon Baird Vance, ca. 1870s

Zebulon Vance, Governor of North Carolina, challenged the central Confederate government.

Portrait of Zebulon Baird Vance
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