Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government

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Chapter 7:

• Early acts of the Confederate Congress
-- laws of the United States continued in force -- officers of customs and revenue continued in office -- commission to the United States -- navigation of the Mississippi -- restrictions on the coasting trade removed -- appointment of commissioners to Washington.

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The legislation of the Confederate Congress furnishes the best evidence of the temper and spirit which prevailed in the organization of the Confederate government. The very first enactment, made on February 9, 1861—the day after the adoption of the provisional Constitution —was this:

That all the laws of the United States of America in force and in use in the Confederate States of America on the first day of November last, and not inconsistent with the Constitution of the Confederate States, be and the same are hereby continued in force until altered or repealed by the Congress.¹

The next act, adopted on February 14, was one continuing in office until April 1 next ensuing all officers connected with the collection of customs and the assistant treasurers entrusted with the keeping of the moneys arising therefrom, who were engaged in the performance of such duties within any of the Confederate states, with the same powers and functions which they had been exercising under the government of the United States.²

The provisional Constitution itself, in the second section of its sixth article, had ordained as follows:

The Government hereby instituted shall take immediate steps for the settlement of all matters between the States forming it and their other late confederates of the United States, in relation to the public property and public debt at the time of their withdrawal from them; these States hereby declaring it to be their wish and earnest desire to adjust everything pertaining to the common property, common liabilities, and common obligations of that Union, upon the principles of right, justice, equity, and good faith.³

In accordance with this requirement of the Constitution, the Congress, on February 15—before my arrival at Montgomery—passed a resolution declaring “that it is the sense of this Congress that a commission of three persons be appointed by the President-elect, as early as may be convenient after his inauguration, and sent to the Government of the United States ”