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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 --SATURDAY, March 16, 1861.
OPEN SESSION.
Congress met pursuant to adjournment.
Prayer was offered by the Rev. Mr. Henderson.
The Journal of yesterday was read and approved.
Mr. Hale introduced
A bill to be entitled "An act supplemental of an act to define and fix the pay of the officers of the Congress."
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Congress having proceeded to its consideration, the bill was read a first and second time, engrossed, read a third time, and passed.
Mr. Hale offered
A resolution providing for the auditing and paying certain claims against the Congress;
which was read a first and second time, engrossed, read a third time, and adopted.
Mr. Rhett offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That as soon as the signatures of the members of this convention are placed on the enrolled Constitution of the Confederate States, the president of this convention shall cause the same to be lithographed and copies thereof to be sent to each of the Confederate States.
The resolution was adopted.
Mr. Clayton, from the Committee on Judiciary, reported
A bill to be entitled "An act to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of this Confederacy;"
which was read a first and second time and ordered to be placed on the Public Calendar.
Mr. Wilson, from the Committee on Patents, reported back sundry letters and memorials on the subject of patents; which have been referred to the committee, and ask to be discharged from further consideration of the same.
The papers were ordered to be placed on the files of the Congress.
The regular orders on the Public Calendar were postponed for the time and Congress went into secret session; and after remaining some time therein, adjourned until the second Monday of May next.
SECRET SESSION.
The Congress being in secret session,
Mr. Clayton reported a bill to prevent the importation of African negroes, etc.; which was read the first and second time and ordered to be placed on the Calendar and printed.
Mr. Wilson, from the Committee on Engrossment, reported as correctly engrossed and enrolled
A resolution to provide for the auditing and payment of certain claims against the Congress; and
An act supplemental to an act to fix the pay of the officers of the Congress.
Mr. Clayton offered the following:
A bill to amend an act entitled "An act authorizing the President alone to make certain appointments;"
which was read the first and second times.
The first section having been read as follows, viz:
That an act described in the caption hereof shall be held and construed to extend to and comprehend the appointment of all officers, civil, military or naval, not expressly required by the Constitution, or some act of Congress heretofore passed, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Congress; but any such appointments shall be submitted to the Congress when it reassembles, for its advice and consent.
Mr. Conrad moved to amend by striking out the same and inserting in lieu thereof the following:
That the act described in the caption hereof shall be held and construed to authorize the President to appoint, during the recess of Congress, all officers, civil, military, and naval, established by law: Provided, Such appointments shall be submitted to the Congress when it reassembles, for its advice and consent.
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The vote thereon, being taken by States, is as follows, viz:
Yea: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
Nay: Georgia and Texas.
The motion to amend prevailed.
The bill as amended was engrossed, read the third time, and passed.
Mr. Toombs reported
A bill to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint special agents in certain cases;
which was read the first and second times, engrossed, read a third time, and passed.
Mr. Toombs also reported
A bill to appropriate money for certain civil purposes;
which was read the first and second times, engrossed, read a third time, and passed.
Mr. Hemphill, from the Committee on Finance, reported
A bill making appropriations for the service of the Post-Office Department for the fiscal year ending the 1st of March, 1862;
which was read the first and second times, engrossed and read a third time, and passed.
Mr. Hemphill, from the same committee, also reported
A bill making additional appropriations for the support of the Army, etc.;
which was read the first and second times, engrossed, read a third time, and passed.
A message was received from the President suggesting an appropriation of $5,000 for salaries and expenses of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; which was referred to the Committee on Finance.
The following message was also received from the President:
Executive Department, March 16, 1861.
Mr. President: The President on yesterday approved and signed the following acts passed by the Congress, to wit:
Also the following resolutions, to wit:
A resolution in reference to forts, dockyards, reservations, and property ceded to the Confederate States;
A resolution to pay certain naval officers their traveling expenses; and
Resolutions in relation to the contingent fund of Congress.
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The President has this day approved and signed a resolution to provide for the auditing and payment of certain claims against the Congress.
ROBERT JOSSELYN,
Private Secretary.
Mr. Hemphill, from the Committee on Finance, reported
A bill to be entitled "An act making appropriation for the service of the Bureau of Indian Affairs;"
which was read a first and second time, engrossed, read a third time, and passed.
The following message was received from the President, viz:
Executive Department, March 16, 1861.
Mr. President: The President has this day approved and signed the following acts passed by the Congress, to wit:
Mr. Rhett offered a resolution expressive of the high appreciation in which the Congress held the President of the Congress and thanking him for the able and impartial manner with which he presided over its deliberations.
The resolution was unanimously adopted, and the President of the Congress responded thereto as follows, viz:
Gentlemen of the Congress: Before announcing the result of the vote just taken for an adjournment, permit me to return my sincere thanks for the unusual and unexpected compliment you have just extended to me as your presiding officer. The fact that similar resolutions are unusual at the close of the first session of legislative bodies authorizes me to regard your action as no mere piece of formality. Accepting it in that spirit, I can find no words to give expression to the feelings which it has excited.
I have been associated in the legislative councils of our country for a considerable time and been familiar with our legislative bodies for many years. I can, with truth and candor, say I have never seen such a body assembled as the one over which your partiality has called me to preside. For more than six weeks you have been earnestly engaged in the discharge of your important duties; during a large portion of that time your daily sessions have extended over nine hours; your discussions have been earnest and able, upon subjects of the gravest and most exciting character, and yet during that entire period there has not been the first moment when the Chair could with propriety have called any member to order for irrelevancy in debate, nor has a word fallen from the lips of a single member calculated to mar the harmony and good feeling which have characterized your proceedings. I doubt whether any presiding officer, under such circumstances, was ever able to make a similar declaration. To have presided over such a body, engaged in such duties, I regard as the highest honor which ever has been or ever will be conferred upon me.
Having completed the great work for which we assembled--the formation of a permanent Constitution for these Confederate States--we rest for a period from our labors to receive the judgment of our constituents upon our action. Already has the proud State in which we are assembled responded in a cordial and almost unanimous voice of approval; and you will allow me to express the sincere gratification
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which the unanimous response of my own noble State has excited in my own heart, and I doubt not in the heart of every true friend of Southern independence and constitutional liberty. We may look with confidence to similar responses from all the States of the Confederacy. Whatever may be the criticism of the hour noon the Constitution we have formed, I feel confident that the judgment of our people, and indeed of the world, will, in the end, pronounce it the ablest instrument ever prepared for the government of a free people. Accepting as the basis of our action that noble legacy of our Revolutionary fathers, the Constitution of the United States, we have written down in the language of truth and simplicity the principles which an honest construction of that instrument has long pronounced its true meaning. This, with such amendments as the experience of more than a half century has shown proper and necessary, is the result we present to our countrymen for their sanction and approval. Already we have the most gratifying evidence that the judgment of our constituency will be that we have done our work and done it well.
The occasion will scarcely justify me in looking to that bright future which the principles incorporated into this Constitution, if honestly adhered to, promise for our country. Long after those who have been engaged in these labors shall have passed away, and even the memory of their names be forgotten, will this favored land, under the blessings of Providence, flourish and prosper, as the home of a free, happy, and independent people.
Again returning you the sincere thanks of a grateful heart for your kindness and partiality, I announce that the Congress stands adjourned until the second Monday in May.
Congress then adjourned until the second Monday in May next
EXECUTIVE SESSION.
The Congress having gone into executive session, the following communication was received from the President:
Executive Department, March 16, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb,
President of the Congress.
Sir: I hereby transmit for the advice and consent of the Congress the following nominations, to wit:
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nominations above communicated?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
The following communication was also received from the President:
Executive Department, March 16, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb,
President of the Congress.
Sir: I hereby transmit for the advice and consent of the Congress the nomination of Alexander B. Clitherall, of Alabama, to be Register of the Treasury, and Boiling Baker, of Georgia, to be Auditor of the Treasury, of the Confederate States of America.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nominations?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
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The following communication was also received from the President:
Executive Department, March 16, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb,
President of the Congress.
Sir: I hereby transmit for the advice and consent of the Congress the nomination of James Sorley, of Texas, to be collector of the customs at Galveston.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nomination?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
The following communication was also received from the President:
Executive Department, March 16, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb,
President of the Congress.
Sir: I hereby transmit for the advice and consent of the Congress the nomination of David Hubbard, of Alabama, to be Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nomination?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
The following communication was also received from the President:
Montgomery, Ala., March 16, 1861.
To the President of the Congress, Confederate States of America:
I nominate for appointment in the Army the persons named in the accompanying list, as recommended by the Secretary of War.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Confederate States of America, War Department,
Montgomery, Ala., March 15, 1861.
Sir: I have the honor to recommend the following nominations for appointments in the Army of the Confederate States of America:
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Respectfully submitted.
L. P. WALKER,
Secretary of War.
To the President.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nominations above communicated?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
The following communication was also received from the President:
To the President of the Congress of the Confederate States:
I nominate Lawrence Rousseau, of Louisiana, late a captain in the Navy of the United States, to be a captain in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Josiah Tattnall, of Georgia, late a captain in the Navy of the United States, to be a captain in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Victor M. Randolph, of Alabama, late a captain in the Navy of the United States, to be a captain in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Duncan N. Ingraham, of South Carolina, late a captain in the Navy of the United States, to be a captain in the Navy of the Confederate States.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nominations above communicated?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
The following communication was also received from the President:
To the President of the Congress of the Confederate States:
I nominate Ebenezer Farrand, of Florida, late a commander in the Navy of the United States, to be a commander in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Thomas W. Brent, of Florida, late a commander in the Navy of the United States, to be a commander in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Raphael Semmes, of Alabama, late a commander in the Navy of the United States, to be a commander in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Henry J. Hartstene, of South Carolina, late a commander in the Navy of the United States, to be a commander in the Navy of the Confederate States.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nominations above communicated?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
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The following communication was also received from the President:
March 16, 1861.
To the President of the Congress of the Confederate States:
I nominate W. A. W. Spotswood, of Virginia, late a surgeon in the United States Navy, to be a surgeon in the Navy of the Confederate States.
William F. Carrington, of Virginia, late a passed assistant surgeon in the Navy of the United States, to be a surgeon in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Arthur M. Lynch, of South Carolina, late a passed assistant surgeon in the Navy of the United States, to be a surgeon in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Charles E. Lining, of South Carolina, late an assistant surgeon in the Navy of the United States, to be an assistant surgeon in the Navy of the Confederate States.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nominations above communicated?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
The following communication was also received from the President:
March 16, 1861.
To the President of the Congress of the Confederate States:
I nominate William W. J. Kelly, of Florida, late a paymaster in the Navy of the United States, to be a paymaster in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Henry Myers, of Georgia, late a paymaster in the Navy of the United States, to be a paymaster in the Navy of the Confederate States.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nominations above communicated?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
The following communication was also received from the President:
March 16, 1861.
To the President of the Congress of the Confederate States:
I nominate Felix Senac, of Florida, late a paymaster in the Navy of the United States, to be a paymaster in the Navy of the Confederate States.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nomination above communicated?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
The following communication was also received from the President:
March 16, 1861.
To the President of the Congress of the Confederate States:
I nominate Francis B. Renshaw, of Pennsylvania, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
James H. North, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Thomas B. Huger, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
John Rutledge, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
C. M. Morris, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
A. F. Warley, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
John Kell, of Georgia, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Joseph Fry, of Florida, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
John R. Hamilton, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
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John R. Eggleston, of Mississippi, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
R. T. Chapman, of Alabama, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Thomas P. Pelot, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
William G. Dozier, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the United States Navy, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
John M. Stribling, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Philip Porcher, of South Carolina, late a lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
Hamilton H. Dalton, of Mississippi, late a master in the line of promotion in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
William E. Evans, of South Carolina, late a master in the line of promotion in the Navy of the United States, to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Confederate States.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
And the question being,
Will the Congress advise and consent to the nominations above communicated?
It was unanimously decided in the affirmative.
There being no further executive business, Congress resumed the consideration of the business upon the Calendar.
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