Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/317

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tin Conieder.ite States, just published in the Military History ol the Confedi-rate States,, -..mains a serious error. It prints the third arti- B8 'the judicial power of the Confederate States shall be vested in one superior conn." iVc., Volume XII, paye 311.

The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, at its first on. held at Montgomery, on March 16, 1861, proceeded to or- gani/e the indicia! power as provided for in the Constitution.

By chapter I. XI. An act to establish the judicial courts of the Confederate States of America " the Congress of the Confederate States <>f America do enact that tin Supreme Court of the Confed- erate States shall hold annually, at the seat of government, one ses- sion, commencing the first Monday of January, and continuing until the business of said court is disposed of. The second section pro- vides for district courts for each State. There was no provision for circuit courts. The act is an elaborate provision of fifty-four sec- tions, prescribing the jurisdiction and mode of procedure ot the courts. The Constitution provided that the President should, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint the judges of the Supreme Court, but the law did not fix the number of the judges, and the court could not be organized until such number was fixed by Congress. At the third session of the Provisional Congress, held at Richmond, by chapter III, passed July 31, 1861, entitled "an act further to amend an act entitled an act to establish the judicial courts of the Confederate States of America, ' ' provides ' ' the Congress of the Confederate States do enact that so much of the act approved March 16, 1861, entitled an act to establish the judicial courts of the Confed- erate States of America, as directs the holding of a session of the Supreme Court of the Confederate States in January next, be, and the same is hereby, repealed, and no session of the Supreme Court shall be held until that court shall be organized under the provisions of the permanent Constitution of the Confederate States, and the laws passed in pursuance thereof."

How a session of a court could be held before there was a court, I do not understand. But that was the law as passed. That was the end of the attempt to organize a Supreme Court of the Confed- erate States. The reasons for the failure to proceed further have not been recorded as far as I know. Neither President Davis, in his "fttse and J-'a/l of the Confederate Government," nor Mr. Stephens, in his " War Between the States," anywhere mention the subject, and the only light which can now be shed on the question are the