Podcasts about confederate congress

Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. This is Episode 58 – Texans Join The Confederate Army I'm your host and guide Hank Wilson, As always, the broadcast is brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. Remember how, I talked about how prior to the actual vote for secession Texas created what was called the Committee of Public Safety? Well, in 1861 from late February through March, they authorized the recruitment of volunteer troops, to go fight for the confederacy. This was in addition to all the troops that had been recruited by Ben McCulloch, and the regiments of cavalry that were signed up by Ben's younger brother, Henry E. McCulloch, and longtime ranger captain and explorer John S. Ford. Once the war really began with the confederates firing on Fort Sumter in April of 1861 Confederate president Jefferson Davis put out a call for volunteers. This spurred Texas authorities to begin to raise more  troops for the confederacy. Then Governor Clark initially officially divided the state into six military districts which was later raised to eleven. This was designed to help encourage recruiting efforts and also to organize all the troops requested by Confederate authorities. As 1861 drew to a close there were just about 25,000 Texans in the Confederate army. Of those, almost two-thirds of the ones who signed up served in the cavalry, which made sense due to how many Texans rode horses. In fact, it is noted that Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle of the British Coldstream Guards, who visited Texas during the war, observed this, he said, "…it was found very difficult to raise infantry in Texas, as no Texan walks a yard if he can help it." Governor Clark even noted "the predilection of Texans for cavalry service, founded as it is upon their peerless horsemanship, is so powerful that they are unwilling in many instances to engage in service of any other description unless required by actual necessity." That love of horses is still evident today, and many Texans will either ride a horse or drive a truck rather than walk. As the war expanded, Francis R. Lubbock, who became governor by defeating Clark by a narrow margin, worked closely with Confederate authorities to meet manpower needs. As it often is during any conflict, recruitment became more difficult as some of the early enthusiasm began to fade. Most historians agree that the primary driving force behind the secession movement and the desire for war was the upper economic echelon of the old south. Those were the plantation and slave owners and not the regular people, much like today, it was the rich and powerful who wanted to have their way. One of the results of this was, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, there wasn't much enthusiasm for signing up and thus in April 1862 the Confederate Congress passed a general conscription. The conscription act declared that every white male who was between the age of 18 and 35 had an obligation to serve in the military. There was still a shortage of bodies and so in September they raised the upper age limit to 45. Then again in February of 1864, they had to expand the age limits to 17 and 50. There were few exemptions, but one of the most contentious was that if a man was conscripted then he could hire someone to serve in his place. It is estimated that between 70,000 to 90,000 Texans served in the military and they were involved in every major skirmish except for First Manassas and Chancellorsville.  At least 37 Texans also served as officers, In November of 1863, then Governor Lubbock reported to the legislature that 90,000 Texans were in the Army. However, many historians doubt the accuracy of that number and deem it to be high. In fact, the 1860 federal census only listed 92,145 White males between the ages of 18 and 45 as state residents. Even if an allowance is made for a population increase during the war years, there may have been somewhere between 100,

This war has gone on long enough. Time for one quick decisive battle before the Confederate Congress meets on July 20th in Richmond.

Historians have long viewed President John Tyler as one of the nation's least effective heads of state. In President without a Party―the first full­-scale biography of Tyler in more than fifty years and the first new academic study of him in eight decades―Christopher J. Leahy explores the life of the tenth chief executive of the United States.Born in the Virginia Tidewater into an elite family sympathetic to the ideals of the American Revolution, Tyler, like his father, worked as an attorney before entering politics. Leahy uses a wealth of primary source materials to chart Tyler's early political path, from his election to the Virginia legislature in 1811, through his stints as a congressman and senator, to his vice­-presidential nomination on the Whig ticket for the campaign of 1840. When William Henry Harrison died unexpectedly a mere month after assuming the presidency, Tyler became the first vice president to become president because of the death of the incumbent. Leahy traces Tyler's ascent to the highest office in the land and unpacks the fraught dynamics between Tyler and his fellow Whigs, who ultimately banished the beleaguered president from their ranks and stymied his election bid three years later.Leahy also examines the president's personal life, especially his relationships with his wives and children. In the end, Leahy suggests, politics fulfilled Tyler the most, often to the detriment of his family. Such was true even after his presidency, when Virginians elected him to the Confederate Congress in 1861, and northerners and Unionists branded him a “traitor president.”The most complete accounting of Tyler's life and career, Leahy's biography makes an original contribution to the fields of politics, family life, and slavery in the antebellum South. Moving beyond the standard, often shortsighted studies that describe Tyler as simply a defender of the Old South's dominant ideology of states' rights and strict construction of the Constitution, Leahy offers a nuanced portrayal of a president who favored a middle-­of-­the­-road, bipartisan approach to the nation's problems. This strategy did not make Tyler popular with either the Whigs or the opposition Democrats while he was in office, or with historians and biographers ever since. Moreover, his most significant achievement as president―the annexation of Texas―exacerbated sectional tensions and put the United States on the road to civil war.-Dr. Leahy, who began teaching at Keuka College in August 2007, earned his bachelor's degree from Washington and Jefferson College, his master's degree from Virginia Tech, and his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.

Historians have long viewed President John Tyler as one of the nation’s least effective heads of state. In President without a Party—the first full- scale biography of Tyler in more than fifty years and the first new academic study of him in eight decades—Christopher J. Leahy explores the life of the tenth chief executive of the United States. Born in the Virginia Tidewater into an elite family sympathetic to the ideals of the American Revolution, Tyler, like his father, worked as an attorney before entering politics. Leahy uses a wealth of primary source materials to chart Tyler’s early political path, from his election to the Virginia legislature in 1811, through his stints as a congressman and senator, to his vice- presidential nomination on the Whig ticket for the campaign of 1840. When William Henry Harrison died unexpectedly a mere month after assuming the presidency, Tyler became the first vice president to become president because of the death of the incumbent. Leahy traces Tyler’s ascent to the highest office in the land and unpacks the fraught dynamics between Tyler and his fellow Whigs, who ultimately banished the beleaguered president from their ranks and stymied his election bid three years later. Leahy also examines the president’s personal life, especially his relationships with his wives and children. In the end, Leahy suggests, politics fulfilled Tyler the most, often to the detriment of his family. Such was true even after his presidency, when Virginians elected him to the Confederate Congress in 1861, and northerners and Unionists branded him a “traitor president.” The most complete accounting of Tyler’s life and career, Leahy’s biography makes an original contribution to the fields of politics, family life, and slavery in the antebellum South. Moving beyond the standard, often shortsighted studies that describe Tyler as simply a defender of the Old South’s dominant ideology of states’ rights and strict construction of the Constitution, Leahy offers a nuanced portrayal of a president who favored a middle- of- the- road, bipartisan approach to the nation’s problems. This strategy did not make Tyler popular with either the Whigs or the opposition Democrats while he was in office, or with historians and biographers ever since. Moreover, his most significant achievement as president—the annexation of Texas—exacerbated sectional tensions and put the United States on the road to civil war. Christopher J. Leahy is professor of history at Keuka College in New York --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/steve-richards/support

Date: Apr. 22, 1958 Speaker: Bell I. Wiley Topic: The Confederate Congress Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

In this episode I look at the problems that the Confederate Government faced. These problems came from the poor leadership of the Confederate Congress and President Jefferson Davis. The episode also discusses how there was some industry growth which is examined.

On January 12, 1865, the Charleston Mercury gave its pronouncement upon plans in the Confederate Congress to enlist Black southerners into the Confederate Army in exchange for their emancipation: By the compact we made with Virginia and the other States of this Confederacy, South Carolina will stand to the bitter end of destruction. By that […]

On January 12, 1865, the Charleston Mercury gave its pronouncement upon plans in the Confederate Congress to enlist Black southerners into the Confederate Army in exchange for their emancipation: By the compact we made with Virginia and the other States of this Confederacy, South Carolina will stand to the bitter end of destruction. By that … Episode 129: Who Fought for the South, or, the Myth of Black Confederates Read More » The post Episode 129: Who Fought for the South, or, the Myth of Black Confederates first appeared on Historically Thinking.

Today's guest is Bryan Cutsinger of George Mason University, discussing his paper, "Seigniorage in the Civil War South." During the U.S. Civil War, the Confederate Congress adopted three currency reforms that were intended to reduce the quantity of Treasury notes in circulation by inducing the money-holding public to exchange their notes for long-term bonds. In this paper, we examine the political factors that influenced the adoption of the reforms and their effect on the flow of seigniorage - revenue that the government derived by using the newly-printed Treasury notes to purchase the goods and services it required. We argue that the bifurcation of the Confederate Congress into two groups – those legislators that represented the Confederacy's interior and those from areas no longer under Confederate control – contributed to the adoption of the reforms. Our findings indicate that representing an area outside of the rebel government's control increased the likelihood that a legislator would support efforts to reform the currency by over 90 percent. In addition, our results indicate that the rate of monetary expansion in the South was below that which would have maximized the revenue from seigniorage. We find that the reforms reduced the flow of seigniorage by approximately 57 percent, depriving the Confederate government of much-needed revenue.  

It was Thomas Jefferson who lamented that slavery would ultimately be the “rock upon which the old Union would split." Now the hammer had come down, and it came down hard. Already six states, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Georgia, declared themselves to be free and sovereign states, separating themselves from the Union. Even as pamphlets with titles like “The South Alone Should Govern the South” circulated radical elements wove their way through Southern society to take hold, rejecting any form of compromise. Despite the efforts of its Governor, Sam Houston, a Constitutional Unionist, the Legislature reaffirmed the Texas Secessionist Convention. Voting with the six states that had already left, all that was needed now were the results of a referendum later that month. Yet none who left, or who were looking to leave had any intention of standing alone. Even before Abraham Lincoln would be sworn in as the 16th President of the United States, they would have a Republic of their own, one that would not be dominated by free states, one that would preserve for them the institution and foundations of their prosperity: slavery. On February 4th, 1861 that new union would take form as delegates met in the small, unpaved frontier town of Montgomery, Alabama with the express “purpose of consulting with each other as to the most effectual mode of securing concerted and harmonious action in whatever measures may be deemed most desirable for our common peace and security.” Six states, with the advice of Texas, which soon would become the seventh, would form the provisional government of the Confederate States of America. Within five short days former United States Secretary of War and Senator from Mississippi, Jefferson Davies would be elected as their first, and ultimately only, President, though only Provisionally at this point, as ‘The Orator of Secession’ William Yancey handed the reigns of the new Revolution to him, declaring, “The man and the hour have met. We now hope that prosperity, honor, and victory await his administration.” Yet, for whatever might have been said as they perhaps convinced themselves that they were Patriots, no different than George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or James Madison, seeking to protect what was theirs from an overbearing, far distant Government that sought to rob from them their power and their property in the Union Alexander Stephens perhaps offered the strongest view of what this new government was founded upon. A man who had been considered a moderate voice, and who sought to remind the South that though the Republicans controlled the White House Congress was controlled by the Democrats, he would be elected to the Confederate Congress before being selected as the first Vice President of the C.S.A. Contending that Thomas Jefferson was wrong in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote “ that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” he would inform an audience in Savannah, Georgia not even a month later, “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science.” Whatever the cause or the case might have been to meet it, to rise to it they took the democratic tradition of the peaceful transition of power that had been a hallmark of the American Republic since the first election and destroyed it. They did so for the sole reason that they did not approve of the results of the election a few months prior. They would not wait and see, they would not seek compromise, they would not give this new President even a moments reprieve, fearing what he might do with his new Executive Power. Instead, they would fire on Federal troops, the would chase vessels carrying supplies to military facilities, but even louder than that they would proclaim they were no longer bound by the Constitution of the United States. By mid April the Confederates would begin their bombardment of Fort Sumter. Three days later President Lincoln would call-up troops in response as the cry for war sounded through the streets of the North and the South. The Civil War, that long and bloodied struggle that would claim the lives of more 650,000 Americans, would be upon us.   

When the Texas War of Independence ended on April 21st, 1836 there were many in the newly formed Southern Republic that believed it would be openly welcomed into the United States as a part of the Union. Yet, there was more to consider than just territorial expansion. President Andrew Jackson had remained neutral on the issue during the Revolution that begun in his final year in office, believing that Texas wouldn’t be able to stand alone or maintain its independence against the newly formed Centralist Republic of Mexico. As the slavery question raged on he didn’t want to give an issue to the anti-slavery candidates by recognizing the large slaveholding nation that, in his opinion, was doomed to failure. Martin Van Buren, his successor, would recognize Texas as free and independent in 1837 but he was unwilling to welcome a new state that would ultimately shift the equilibrium struck with the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which established the balance of free versus slave states in the Union. At any rate Mexico refused to recognize the legitimacy of the newly seceded nation. To welcome it into the United States would be to welcome hostilities with that southern neighbor, hostilities that could very easily escalate into war. Still, less than a decade after Texas first won its independence, a series of events would occur that would see the Lone Star Republic being welcomed as the 28th State in the Union on December 29th, 1845. When William Henry Harrison was elected President few people perhaps foresaw him dying within 32 days of his inauguration and Vice President John Tyler ascending to the highest office of the land. With 8 men having served before Harrison none had failed to serve the full tenure of the office. Yet as pneumonia made the now 68-year-old Harrison’s Presidency the shortest in history, Tyler had to take the reins. Soon it would begin to crumble. His opponents would refuse to recognize his legitimacy referring to him as the Acting President or as the Vice President, the majority of Cabinet would resign, finding him impossible to work with, he would be expelled from the Whig Party and forced to remain as an independent. The Senate would hold up or reject his cabinet appointments, which had, until that point, been practically unheard of, and by 1842 the House, outraged by his use of a veto on the Tariff Bills the Whigs favored, was seeking to bring articles of impeachment against him, something that had, until that point had been more constitutional theory than anything else. Though it ultimately was tabled, Tyler was dying a slow political death. Yet if there was a path to saving his Presidency Tyler believed it laid through Texas, it could even, in his mind, secure his re-election in 1844. Yet it would not be soon enough and the hopes he had of securing his own mandate faded even as treaties were signed. As he faced tough opposition in the House and Senate, and setbacks, he looked to another path. A Democrat before he joined the Whig Party that saw his election on the Harrison ticket, as he shifted towards the Democratic Party once more, they were not yet willing to welcome him back to the fold, and as James Polk was nominated by the Democrats, Tyler formed his own new Democratic-Republican Party, styled in the form of the late Thomas Jefferson under the slogan “Tyler and Texas”. Ultimately his goal wouldn’t be win, the chances of that had slipped through his grasp. It was to appear as a potential spoiler and to strike a deal with Polk to force him into an annexation position. Polk and Tyler would enter a secret pact at the encouragement of Andrew Jackson, a supporter of annexation, where Tyler encouraged his supporters to back the Democratic nominee having been assured that Polk would push annexation. In the end the Democrats would win the Presidency by a narrow margin, 49.5 to 48.1% in the popular vote, 170 to 101 seats in the Electoral College. Texas would be one of Polk’s first orders of business. Tyler’s legacy would not be safe, despite believing that Texas’ admittance in the Union would vindicate him. For him, the saving grace was that he would go from being considered one of the worst Presidents in history to the obscure. Still, he would perhaps be best remembered not for Texas but for being the only former President to side with the Confederacy during the Civil War, serving not only in the Virginia Secession Convention but the Confederate Congress before his death in 1862.