Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/640

 608 Powers of the executive. term a change also generally approved as tending to promote ad- ministrative stability and the development of a pronounced policy, and reducing the number of occasions for political excitement and consequent derangement of business due to presidential elections. The members of the Cabinet were also given nominally greater power. They were allowed a seat in either House with the right to discuss measures pertaining to their several Departments. This was a radical change from the old order, and aimed at copying the British system of a responsible ministry, which Stephens was anxious to adopt without qualification. The necessary legislation to carry out this provision of the Confederate Constitution was never passed ; and ap- parently neither the Congress nor the Cabinet was anxious to venture on the experiment. In another direction the powers of heads of Departments were greatly increased and those of the Congress corre- spondingly diminished, namely, by the provision that an appropriation could be voted only by a two-thirds majority, unless asked for by the head of a Department. Such a provision, if in force in time of peace, would radically change the character of Congressional government in the United States, possibly in the direction of economy and better fiscal good order. In time of war it had little if any effect, as the appropria- tions were voted on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury without much scrutiny, and no rival districts or sections were concerned in securing a share of them. Another constitutional provision, which aimed at improving the character of legislation, required every law to relate to but one subject, and that subject to be expressed in the title of the law a favourite device for blocking ill-advised and confused legislation, but one which was never applied in the history of the Confederate States, as all important laws covered a large variety of subjects, few of which could be expressed in their titles. The war powers of the executive as well as of the legislative branches of the government, namely, the right to declare martial law, to conscribe, to call out the State militia, and to impress goods for the use of the army, were all left unchanged by the Confederate Constitutions and as indefinite as they had been previous to the war. The rather vague provisions of the United States Constitution regarding the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus were copied verbatim. In the spring of 1862, after the disastrous fall of Forts Donelson and Henry and of New Orleans, martial law was declared in various districts. In the summer of 1864, and again toward the close of the war, the writ of habeas corpus was suspended. In each case this policy aroused bitter opposition, especially in North Carolina and Georgia, Vice-President Stephens even lending his influence toward making the opposition effective. In the above-mentioned States the local Courts put great difficulties in the way of carrying out the Confederate policy. However, in suspending the functions of civil government, the central authorities