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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875

Journal of the Confederate Congress --TUESDAY, March 12, 1861.

Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865 [Volume I]
TUESDAY, March 12, 1861.

OPEN SESSION.

Congress met pursuant to adjournment.

Prayer was offered up by the Rev. Mr. Cobbs.

The Journal of yesterday was read and approved.

Mr. Wright laid before Congress a memorial from the New Mexican Railway Company; which was referred to the Committee on Territories.

Mr. Withers offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That when the printers of Congress shall have prepared an edition of the laws and resolutions directed to be published, the Secretary of Congress do transmit one copy of the same to each member of this body;
which was agreed to.

The regular order on the Public Calendar was postponed for the time and Congress went into secret session; and after remaining some time therein, adjourned till 10 o'clock to-morrow.

SECRET SESSION.

Congress having gone into secret session,

The Journal of yesterday was read and approved.

The unfinished business was postponed for the time, and

Mr. Toombs, from the Committee on Finance, reported

A bill to be entitled "An act to regulate foreign coins in the Confederate States;"
which was ordered to lie on the table for the present.

The unfinished business was then taken up, it being

A bill to be entitled "An act to establish the judicial courts of the Confederate States of America."

The bill was considered by sections.

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The second section being as follows:

• Sec. 2. That each of the Confederate States shall constitute one district, in which there shall be a court called a district court, to consist of one judge, who shall reside in the State for which he is appointed, and shall received a salary of three thousand dollars a year, payable quarterly.

Mr. Waul moved to amend the same by striking out the word "three," where it occurs, and inserting in lieu thereof the word "five."

Mr. Harris demanded the question; which was seconded, and the motion was lost, the States voting:

Yea: Louisiana and Texas, 2.

Nay: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina, 5.

Mr. Sparrow moved to amend the same by striking out the words "of three thousand dollars a year, payable quarterly," and inserting in lieu thereof the following words: "equal to that paid to a judge of the court of the highest jurisdiction in the State where he resides."

Mr. Memminger offered the following as a substitute for the proposition offered by Mr. Sparrow, viz:
Each of the judges shall receive a salary of four thousand dollars, except the judge for the district of Louisiana, who shall receive the same amount of salary as is paid to the highest judicial officer under the State government of Louisiana.

Mr. Ochiltree demanded the question on the substitute; which was seconded, and the motion was lost, the States voting as follows:

Yea: Louisiana, Texas.

Nay: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi.

Divided: South Carolina.

The question recurring on the motion of Mr. Sparrow, Mr. Toombs demanded thereon the question; which was seconded, and the motion prevailed.

The section as amended is as follows:

• Sec. 2. That each of the Confederate States shall constitute one district, in which there shall be a court called a district court, to consist of one judge, who shall reside in the State for which he is appointed, and shall receive a salary equal to that paid to a judge of the court of the highest jurisdiction in the State where he resides.

The fourth section being as follows:

• Sec. 4. Each of the district judges shall appoint a clerk and a marshal for his court, who shall hold their offices during the Provisional Government, subject to removal by the said judge. They shall each take the oath or affirmation prescribed in the Constitution, and for the faithful discharge of the duties of their respective offices. They shall each give bond with sureties, to be approved by the judge, for the faithful discharge of their respective duties, in the penalty and for the amount which may be prescribed by the judge; but that of the marshal in no instance shall be less than twenty thousand dollars. The marshal may appoint as many deputies as may be necessary, for whose acts he and his sureties shall be bound as for his own.

Mr. Sparrow moved to strike out the words where they first occur, viz: "and a marshal;" which was agreed to.

Mr. Clayton moved to strike out "a," where it first occurs, and insert in lieu thereof the words "one or more;" which was agreed to.

Mr. Memminger moved to amend the section by striking therefrom the first sentence and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

There shall be a marshal and one or more clerks appointed for each court--the marshal by the President of the Confederate States and the clerks by the judge of such court;
which was agreed to.

The eighth section was postponed for the time.

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The tenth section being as follows:

• Sec. 10. The district courts shall have jurisdiction, concurrent with the courts of the several States, of all civil suits at common law or in equity where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeds the sum or value of five thousand dollars, and where the character of the parties is such as by the constitution to authorize said court to entertain jurisdiction. But no person shall be arrested in any such suit in one district for trial in another; and no civil suit shall be brought before any of said courts against an inhabitant of the Confederate States by any original process in any other district than that of which he is an inhabitant, or in which he shall be found at the time of suing the writ; nor shall any district court have cognizance of any suit to recover the contents of any promissory note, or other chose in action, in favor of an assignee, unless a suit might have been prosecuted in such court to recover such contents if no assignment had been made, except in cases of foreign bills of exchange.

Mr. Clayton moved to amend the same by inserting after the word "arrested," where it first occurs, the words "or summoned," and to further amend so as to make the sentence read: "But no person shall be arrested or summoned in any such suit in one division of a district for trial in another," etc.;
which was agreed to.

On motion of Mr. Clayton, the section was further amended by striking out as they occur the words, to wit: "or in which he shall be found at the time of suing the writ."

Mr. Waul moved to amend the section by inserting after the word "assignee," where it last occurs, the words "or transferee," and to insert after the word "assignment," where it last occurs, the words "or transfer;" which was agreed to, the States voting as follows:

Yea: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

Nay: Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

Mr. Smith moved to amend the same section by striking out the words "five thousand dollars," where they occur, and inserting in lieu thereof the words "five hundred dollars."

Mr. Toombs demanded the question; which was seconded, and the motion was lost.

The section as amended is as follows:

• Sec. 10. The district courts shall have jurisdiction, concurrent with the courts of the several States, of all civil suits at common law or in equity where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeds the sum or value of five thousand dollars, and where the character of the parties is such as by the constitution to authorize said court to entertain jurisdiction. But no person shall be arrested or summoned in any such suit in one division of a district for trial in another; and no civil suit shall be brought before any of said courts against an inhabitant of the Confederate States by any original process in any other district than that of which he is an inhabitant; nor shall any district court have cognizance of any suit to recover the contents of any promissory note, or other chose in action, in favor of an assignee or transferee, unless a suit might have been prosecuted in such court to recover such contents if no assignment or transfer had been made, except in cases of foreign bills of exchange.

Section twelfth was postponed for the time.

On motion of Mr. Miles, the further consideration of the bill was postponed for the time, and Congress took up

A bill amendatory of an act for the organization of the staff departments of the Army, and an act for the establishment and organization of the Army of the Confederate States of America.

On motion of Mr. Miles, the fourth section was stricken out and the following inserted in lieu thereof, to wit:

• Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That in all cases of officers who have left, or who may within six months tender their resignations from the Army of the United States,

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  and who have been or may be appointed to original vacancies in the Army of the Confederate States, the commissions issued shall bear one and the same date, so that the relative rank of officers of each grade shall be determined by their former commissions in the United States Army, held anterior to the secession of these Confederate States from the United States.

The bill as amended was then engrossed, read a third time, and passed.

Congress then proceeded to the consideration of

A bill to regulate foreign coins in the Confederate States.

The bill was taken up by sections, was ordered to be engrossed; which having been done, was read a third time and passed.

Mr. Barnwell moved that Congress take a recess till 7.30 o'clock; which was lost, the States voting as follows:

Yea: Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Nay: Alabama, Florida, and Texas.

South Carolina divided.

Mr. Ochiltree offered the following resolution:
A resolution to authorize the employment of a special messenger to Texas to carry a copy of the Constitution.

Resolved, That the President of this Congress do forthwith employ a special messenger, by whom he shall transmit to the president of the convention of the people of the State of Texas, in session at Austin, in said State, a certified copy of the Constitution of the Confederate States, and that said messenger, upon the certificate of the president of said convention in Texas of the faithful discharge of his duty, shall be entitled to receive the sum of one hundred dollars, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated;
which was read a first and second time, engrossed, read a third time, and passed.

Mr. Sparrow moved to take up for consideration the resolution on the table relative to the adjournment of Congress.

The motion was lost.

A message was received from the President that he had approved and signed

An act making appropriations to carry out the provisions of an act to provide for the public defense; also

A resolution providing for a digest of laws.

On motion of Mr. Withers,

Congress adjourned till 10 o'clock to-morrow.

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