Establishment of the Confederate States of America

Date February 8, 1861

The secession of eleven southern states and the formation of the Confederacy set the United States on an irreversible path toward a devastating civil war.

Also known as The Confederacy

Locale Mobile, Alabama

Key Figures

• Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), president-elect of the United States
• Howell Cobb (1815–1868), president of the convention called to create a southern republic
• Jefferson Davis (1808–1889), former U.S. secretary of war who became president of the Confederacy
• Robert Barnwell Rhett (1800–1876), leader of South Carolina’s secessionist movement
• Alexander H. Stephens (1812–1883), former Georgia congressman who became vice president of the Confederacy
• Robert A. Toombs (1810–1885), former Georgia senator who became the Confederate secretary of state

Summary of Event

On December 20, 1860, the delegates of the Convention of the People of South Carolina voted 160 to 0 to adopt an ordinance of secession dissolving the "union now subsisting between South Carolina and the other States under the name of 'United States of America.'" Wishing to maintain their radical leadership of the South, the South Carolinians had moved quickly to take the initiative in the secession movement. News of Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency of the United States had reached South Carolina on November 7, and on November 13, the state legislature authorized the calling of a state convention. Delegates were quickly chosen in special elections, and the convention met on December 17. Three days later, South Carolina announced its secession from the union.

Secession was justified, according to members of the South Carolina convention, under the ancient “compact theory” of states’ rights. According to this concept, individual states were sovereign. They had voluntarily entered into the union, and they could leave lawfully whenever they chose or whenever they believed the terms of the compact or agreement under which they were united were violated. This action could be taken by a specially elected state convention representing the sovereign power of a state.

Most white southerners believed that their liberty and their property, particularly their slaves, were threatened by the electoral victory of a political party composed almost exclusively of northerners. The western territories would, southerners assumed, become free states, and the political imbalance in the nation would be perpetuated and increased.

The other states of the Deep South shared South Carolina’s view that to remain in the union would be intolerable. In fact, Mississippi was prepared to take the initiative had South Carolina delayed. Starting on January 9, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama seceded on successive days. In Georgia, Alexander H. Stephens , among others, urged a wait-and-see policy, because the newly elected Republican government of the United States had not yet taken office. However, other powerful Georgians, such as Robert A. Toombs and Howell Cobb , called for separation, and the Georgia convention voted for secession on January 19. Louisiana, where there was strong pro-Union sentiment, adopted an ordinance of secession on January 26. In Texas, the secessionists were opposed by Governor Sam Houston , but a state convention voted to secede on February 1, subject to a popular referendum, which accepted secession three weeks later. Texas became the last of the seven states to secede before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861.

Although Robert Barnwell Rhett was a “fire-eater” secessionist, he saw the necessity of forming a new national government for the southern states. He introduced a resolution at the South Carolina convention calling for another convention to be held in Montgomery, Alabama, for the purpose of forming a southern republic. Delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia met in the Alabama state capital on February 4, 1861; the Texas delegation arrived later. Cobb, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and secretary of the Treasury, was elected president of the convention. A committee quickly drafted a provisional constitution , which was adopted on February 8, and the Confederate States of America was born.

The provisional constitution provided for the creation of an interim government for one year or until a permanent government should be established. The members of the convention became the provisional congress and elected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as provisional president and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia as provisional vice president. On February 18, 1861, Davis and Stephens were inaugurated, and Davis moved quickly to form a cabinet.

On March 11, the convention unanimously adopted a permanent constitution . It was similar to the U.S. Constitution in that it provided for three branches of the central government, further dividing power between the state governments and the central government. However, there also were important differences, reflecting both the states’ rights principles and the interests of southern agriculture. State sovereignty was expressly recognized; the president and vice president were elected for six-year terms, with one-term limitations. The president was allowed to veto individual items in appropriations bills. Slavery and the interests of the slaveholders were specifically upheld, including the right to transport slaves from state to state. Slavery was established in the territories, but participation in the international slave trade was outlawed, as a concession to Great Britain and France. Protective tariffs were forbidden, in recognition of the South’s primary economic role as an exporter of agricultural goods and an importer of manufactured goods. Confederate expenditures for internal improvements were prohibited, and a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Confederate congress was required to pass important appropriations bills.

The new government had hoped that its states would be permitted to depart from the United States in peace. However, after Confederate artillery units fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter , on April 12–13, 1861, all hopes for voluntary recognition by the northern government vanished. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was followed by Lincoln’s call for troops from the various states, including those of the upper South. Those states were forced to join the Confederacy or participate in the coercion of the states of the Deep South. Although in each state of the upper South there was strong Union sentiment, Virginia , North Carolina , Tennessee , and Arkansas nevertheless joined the Confederacy in April and May. Missouri and Kentucky were divided and were claimed by both the Union and the Confederacy. Maryland and Delaware, the remaining slave states, did not join the Confederacy.

The Confederate congress welcomed Virginia into the Confederacy by moving its capital to Richmond on July 20, 1861. On November 6, 1861, the first general elections were held under the permanent constitution . Davis and Stephens were then elected president and vice president of the “permanent” Confederacy. The fourth and last sessions of the provisional congress closed in February of 1862, when the new senate and house assembled. On February 22, 1862, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated president for a term of six years. The first congress under the permanent constitution of the Confederacy held four sessions and the second congress held two sessions, with the final adjournment of the body taking place in March, 1865.

Significance

The formation of the Confederate States of America and the Confederate assault on Fort Sumter made it evident that no peaceful settlement between the North and the South would be possible. Under the strong leadership of President Abraham Lincoln, the North resolved to preserve the union, and the only way that goal could be achieved would be through an armed conquest of the South, and that could only be effected through an all-out civil war. On July 21, 1861—only one day after the capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond—the first great battle of the war was fought at Bull Run Creek in Virginia.

The legacy of the Confederacy is formally remembered in several southern states through official or unofficial holiday observances. Confederate Memorial Day, dedicated to the Confederate casualties of the war, is celebrated on various days throughout the south. Some state and local governments and heritage groups have attempted to expand such observances into a Confederate History Month, most commonly designated as the month of April.

Bibliography

Cooper, William J., Jr. Jefferson Davis: American. New York: Knopf, 2000. Print.

Davis, William C. A Government of Our Own: The Making of the Confederacy. New York: Free, 1994. Print.

Davis, William C. The Union That Shaped the Confederacy: Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens. Lawrence: U P of Kansas, 2001. Print.

Gienapp, William E. Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography. New York: Oxford U P, 2002. Print.

Hathaway, Herman, and Richard E. Beringer. Jefferson Davis: Confederate President. Lawrence: U P of Kansas, 2002. Print.

Roland, Charles P. The Confederacy. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1960. Print.

Thomas, Emory M. The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 1991. Print.

Yearns, Wilfred B. The Confederate Congress. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1960. Print.