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* CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 268 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. zation and of preparation for conflict, by an effort at peaceable adjustment. In response to a call of the Virginia Legislature, a peace conven- tion met at Washington in February, 1801, and delegates from seven slave-holding States, in- cluding Tyler and Itives of Virginia, Caruthers nf Tennessee, and Clay of Kentucky, took part in its futile proceedings. During the following month there were active at Washington three formally appointed commissioners of the Confed- erate Congress — ilessrs, Crawford of Georgia, Forsyth of Alabama, and Eoman of Louisiana — who endeavored, largely through the mediation 01 Justice Campbell of the Supreme Court, to secure recognition and to arrange some reason- able basis of at least a temporary settlement, pending more formal negotiations. This effort also proved abortive through a misimderstand- ing, involving charges of breach of faith, as to the relief of l''ort Sumter. With the withdrawal of these commissioners from Washington and the disappearance of any possibility of voluntary recognition by the Northern Government, the position of the Confederacy was more clearly defined. Its strength, moreover, was increased by the secession of Virginia on April 17, of North Carolina on May 20, and of Tennessee on June 8, so that there were eleven States in the new union when its Congress met for its third session on .July 20, at the new capital of the Con- federacy, Richmond, Va. Upon the 6th of No- vember were held the first general elections under the permanent constitution, resulting in the choice by a unanimous electoral vote of Davis as President, and Stephens as Vice-Presi- dent. The fourth and last session of the Provi- sional Congress closed on February 18. 1862, when the new Senate and House assembled, in- cluding in their membership such men as Clay and Yancey of Alabama, Hunter of Vir- ginia, and Wigfall of Texas. Upon the 22d Davis was formally inaugurated as Presi- dent for a term of six j-ears, but the re- maining years of his service were distin- guished not so much by his administrative ser- vices as by the conflict between the civil and military elements, and by such controversies as that over the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the whole situation gradually becoming more and more abnormal, and being to some ex- tent typified by the studied omission to provide for the creation of a supreme court. The course of the President in his official career provoked at the time much severe criticism, and later occa- sioned a variety of comment. Of his election one recent writer says that "the choice was the best that could have been made," while another equally competent critic describes the situation as follows : "The strongest and most self-assertive spirit of the senatorial clique, having been chosen President, at once began to quarrel with his as- sociates, and to drive them from his coimsels; there was no popular strength in the Provisional Congress to resist him ; and even before the in- auguration of the permanent government, the Confederacy had become a militarv despotism of the executive." Such a tendency was increased by the custom of holding secret sessions of Con- gress and by the practice of Cabinet officers ex- ercising their right to sit in Congress, as well as by the gradual lowering of the political morale and independence of that body. This unfortu- nate condition of affairs was further complicated by personal controversies among officials, both civil and military, in the highest stations, so that the later months of the administration of the Confederacy were such as to indicate the approach either of internal crisis or of complete dissolution, and such as to maJce the collapse of the Government, on the fall of its capital, a nat- ural and inevitable event. The first Congress under the permanent constitution had held four sessions, and the second Congress had held two sessions, the final adjournment of the body hav- ing been taken on Jlarch 18, 1865. The Cabinet officials who sen-ed the Confederacy were as fol- lows: Secretarv of State. Robert Toombs, of Georgia, February 21, 1861; R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, July'SO, 1861; Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, February 7, 1862. Secretary of the Treasury. Charles G. ilemminger, of South Car- olina, February 21, 1861; George A. Trenholm, of South Carolina. June 13, 1864. Secretary of War, L. P. Walker, of Alabam.i, February 21, 1861; Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana. No- vember 10, 18(il; G. W. Randolph, of Virginia, March 17, 1802; James A. Seddon. of Virginia, March 22, 1862; .John C. Breckenridge, of Ken- tucky. February lo. 186,5. Secretarv of the Navy, Stephen R. Mallory. of Florida. .Vlarch 4. 1861. Attorney-general, .judah P. Benjamin, of Louisi- ana, February 21, 1861; Thomas H. Watts, of Alabama. Se])tember 10, 1861 ; George Davis of North Carolina. November 10, 1803. Postmaster- Cieneral. .John H. Reagan, of Texas, March 6, 1861, WHiile the political organization of the South- ern Confederacy was thus almost identical with that prevailing at the North, the outbreak of the war served to accentuate in important re- spects the marked difference between the two sections, particularly in those features which were of especial importance in time of war. Not only did the population of the L'nion States ex- ceed that of the seceding States in the propor- tion of five to two, but the discrepancy was even greater in material resources. In general wealth, in foreign commerce, in internal im- provements, and in manufactures, especially of fabrics and of materiel of war, the North was vastly superior to the South, Tlius, the value of the improved lands of the seceding States was estimated at less than two billion dollars, while the value of those in the Union States was nearly five billion dollars. In the South were 150 fab- ric factories, with a product valued at eight million dollars, while in the North there were 900 such factories, with a product valued at one hundred and fifteen million dollars. In the South some two thousand persons were em- ployed in the manufacture of clothing, while in the North one hundred thousand persons were so engaged. Dviring the year 1860 the imports of the South were valued "at .$31,000,000, and those of the North at $331,000,000. It was thus ap- parent that the South was "dependent on Eu- rope and on the North for everything but bread and meat." The South, indeed, seemed fairly supplied with foodstuffs, but the mismanagement seems to have been sxich that at the end of 1864 there was a "general distress for food," and "an actual prospect," as a leading Southerner stated it, "of starving the Confederacy into submis- sion." In addition to these serious obstacles to success, the South was seriously embarrassed by the lack of powder-mills and of suitable iron- works. Only one plant, the Tredegar Iron-