The Confederate States of America
The eleven Confederate states may have appeared small and weak in comparison to the far more industrial Union states, but what they lacked in size and population they more than made up with guts and willpower. Together, the states had a total population of about 9 million people — a figure that included 4 million slaves, who certainly could not be expected to fight on the South's behalf should war break out. Because its economy was almost entirely based on agriculture — primarily cotton — the South had only 20,000 factories employing an estimated 100,000 workers. The South's railroad system was also underdeveloped compared to the North's; it was comprised of less than 9,000 miles of track.
The Formation of the Confederate States of America
As the Southern states began to secede, their leaders in the U.S. Congress resigned their positions and headed home, both eager and anxious. Their home states had done a mighty and wondrous thing, but the chore of government was only just beginning.
During the first week of February 1861, delegates from six of the original seceded states (the delegates from Texas were still in transit) met in Montgomery, Alabama, to discuss the formation of a new republic and the form of government to lead it. Montgomery was an odd choice for a provisional capital; it was little more than a tiny backwater town with unpaved streets and a population of just 8,000. By May the capital would be moved to Richmond, Virginia.
In mountainous western Virginia, farming, mining, and manufacturing were more important than large plantations. By June 1861, the people of this region were well organized and enthusiastically embraced by the Lincoln administration. A constitutional convention was held the following January, and four months later, West Virginia formally requested statehood. West Virginia officially joined the Union on June 20, 1863.
On February 8, the convention announced the establishment of the Confederate States of America and made itself the provisional Congress. With that, the delegates faced a bizarre paradox — establishing a centralized government for a collection of states that had pulled away from the Union because of their distaste for federal authority. It was a difficult job, but the delegates worked quickly. They unanimously selected Jefferson Davis as the Confederacy's provisional president and Alexander Hamilton Stephens of Georgia as its vice president.
Governing the CSA
The constitution of the CSA, approved on March 11, sounded quite a bit like the one the states had just abandoned but with some very important differences. Cabinet members were allowed to participate in legislative debates, and the president was limited to a single six-year term and given power to disapprove specific appropriations in any bill he signed. The “sovereign and independent character” of each state was made clear; the new constitution prevented the federal government from levying protective tariffs, making internal improvements, or overruling state court decisions.
The individual states were also free to create their own armies and could enter into separate agreements with each other if they so desired. While it remained illegal to import slaves from outside the nation, the central government was constitutionally prohibited from passing any laws denying the right to own slaves. Thus it was hoped that the leadership of the Confederate States of America would avoid the issues and problems that had forced them to secede from the Union in the first place.
Southerners owed Northerners $300 million when secession took place. Northerners could not collect this money and their economy suffered for it. But as the war effort continued, the government spent a huge amount of money to keep its war machine marching, and Northern industry and businesses benefited greatly.
Jefferson Davis seemed to be a good choice for president in that he was generally regarded as a moderate on most issues, a fact that made him appealing to a variety of diverse voices. William Lowndes Yancey, a vocal champion of secession, introduced Davis to the cheering throngs with the words, “The man and the hour have met. Prosperity, honor, and victory await his administration.” Davis's inauguration was cause for celebration, and the event turned into a huge party with thunderous applause, clanging church bells, cannon fire, and countless renditions of “Dixie,” which quickly became the new nation's unofficial anthem. Actress Maggie Smith demonstrated what the South thought of the North by dancing on an American flag, an act that outraged Northern Unionists.
Problems for the CSA
While secession and the formation of a new republic may have been what the majority of Southerners wanted, neither issue was put to a popular vote in the Southern states. Their withdrawal from the Union was decided at state conventions by a total of 854 men selected by their legislatures. Of that number, 157 voted against secession. In fact, Tennessee left the Union by an act of its governor, following the public defeat of a secession proposal.
Nonetheless, the act was done and the South's destiny set. The region had proved that its threat of secession was not merely a bluff, leaving a stunned North to decide how to react. Bringing the South back into the Union by whatever means necessary would be one of Abraham Lincoln's first and most important acts as president and would set the course of his administration, and indeed the entire nation, for the next four years.
Ugly Economics
Slavery, the backbone of the Southern agricultural economy, was also one of the region's greatest hindrances in its fight with the North. When fighting commenced in earnest, the Confederacy found it lacked the manufacturing power necessary to maintain an effective war effort. As the North forged ahead, the South remained pretty much the way it had been during Thomas Jefferson's time. A dependence on slavery had prevented the region from developing a class of skilled workers, and this would cost the South greatly in its struggle to maintain its independence. The Confederacy had plenty of men willing to fight, but it lacked all of the basic resources to help them. Slavery made the South, and it would help bring it down in a way no one had ever foreseen.
