By Gary W. Gallagher, University of Virginia
Both the United States and the Confederacy dealt with political problems in the course of the Civil War, but did so in very different ways. The United States maintained a vigorous two-party system, even waging the heated 1864 presidential campaign in the midst of the war, while the Confederacy self-consciously shunned formal party structures throughout the conflict.
Escalating Hardships
The Civil War brought enormous dislocation to the Confederate home front. Dramatic changes affected the lives of almost all Confederates. Those in the far corners felt the war less than others, but in most of the Confederacy, the war was with people on a daily basis.
Confederates struggled to keep their armies in the field, and they watched their economy disintegrate in the process. Their political system cracked, and they suffered shortages of almost everything needed for daily life. Disaffection with the war increased, as the years of the war rolled by and tens of thousands of Confederate civilians became refugees, and as the United States armies moved ever deeper into the southern interior.
Before the principal Confederate armies surrendered in the spring of 1865, many Confederates had lost their will to resist. Despite the escalating hardships that the war brought to the southern home front, however, a large majority of the Confederates maintained quite a strong allegiance to the government, and a willingness to sacrifice in order to achieve Confederate independence.
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Confederate Politics
In terms of Confederate politics, there was a period of near-unanimity very early in the war, when politicians of all stripes believed that it was important to pull together and present a united front in this effort to establish a new nation. The Founders of the Confederacy tried to avoid party politics very self-consciously. The Confederates wanted the political efforts in the Confederacy to focus on the goal of establishing independence, rather than to pursue more selfish factional interests.
This period of ‘getting along’, if it can be called that, didn’t last very long, however. The normal fissures within the political system of the South quickly came to the fore. Areas such as east Tennessee and western Virginia showed their Unionist tendencies. The rights advocates soon arrayed themselves against those who were willing to tolerate a more powerful central government in order to win the war.
Central Power
Jefferson Davis’s government pursued a number of policies. It showed that the central government was taking to itself much more power than many antebellum southerners would have been comfortable with.
The central government levied taxes, imposed conscription, and otherwise seemed to push states’ rights into the background.
There’s a great deal of irony in the fact that in the course of the war, the Confederacy developed the most powerful—the most intrusive—central government seen in American history, until about the midpoint of the 20th century.
It was aided with the taxes and the draft, and other measures that were necessary to keep the war going, but it upset many Confederates who believed that this kind of enlargement of the central power went directly against what the Confederacy was all about.
Davis: A Good Man
The Confederate Congress proved to be a largely inept body. As for Jefferson Davis, he proved to be a very firm Confederate nationalist who was willing to do almost anything to win the war. He had a good grasp of the military needs of his nation, and overall did a creditable job, but he tried to do too much.
He proved quite rigid; he played favorites in situations that didn’t help the Confederacy and became quite detached from the Confederate people in many ways. He did not have the ability to make a connection with the people, and to explain in very accessible and moving ways what the war was about for the Confederacy.
Pro- and anti-Davis Factions
On the whole, Davis did a good job, but the Confederate notion that they could do without parties didn’t really pan out in the end. They never had named formal parties as the United States did, but what they developed were pro- and anti-Jefferson Davis factions: ‘states’ rights’ versus ‘willingness to tolerate more central power’ factions; much of it, though, centered on Davis. There was a personal element to it, with some violently against him, and some supporting him very strongly.
One of those most violently against the president was the vice president, Alexander Hamilton Stephens, who opposed Davis bitterly for most of the war, and in fact left Richmond well before the end of the war. Stephens fulminated against Davis from his home in Georgia.
Overall, the level of political leadership in the Confederacy was not of the first order, but we have to remember that these leaders were confronting a range of problems greater and more daunting than almost any other political leaders in American history have had to wrestle with.
Common Questions about the Confederacy through the American Civil War
The Confederates struggled to keep their armies in the field, and they watched their economy disintegrate in the process. Their political system cracked, and they suffered shortages of almost everything needed for daily life. Disaffection with the war increased, as the years of the war rolled by and tens of thousands of Confederate civilians became refugees.
Jefferson Davis’s government showed that the central government was taking to itself much more power than many antebellum southerners would have been comfortable with. The central government levied taxes, imposed conscription, and otherwise seemed to push states’ rights into the background.
Jefferson Davis had a good grasp of the military needs of his nation, and overall did a creditable job, but he tried to do too much. He proved quite rigid. He proved to play favorites in situations that didn’t help the Confederacy, and he became quite detached from the Confederate people in many ways. He did not have the ability to make a connection with the people, and to explain in very accessible and moving ways what the war was about for the Confederacy.
