The Confederate Congress
The convention of delegates from the seceding States met at Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1861. On February 9, it adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States and on the same date elected Jefferson Davis, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Provisional Government. The convention then styled itself the Provisional Congress. The Provisional Congress had four sessions: February 4, 1861, to March 16, 1861; April 29, 1861, to May 22, 1861 (at Montgomery): and July 20, 1861, to August 22, 1861; November 18, 1861, to February 17, 1862 (at Richmond).
The regular Congress of the Confederate States was elected in November, 1861; at the same time Davis and Stephens were elected regular President and Vice-President for a term of six years, beginning February 22, 1862. There were four sessions of the First Congress: February 18, 1862, to April 22, 1862; August 12, 1862, to October 13, 1862; January 12, 1863, to May 8, 1863; December 7, 1863, to February 18, 1864. The Second Congress, elected in November, 1863, had two sessions and came to an end with the fall of Richmond.
The present publication begins the proceedings of the First Congress. The journal and acts of this Congress, as of the other Confederate Congresses, have been printed; but this forms but a skeleton. The Southern Historical Society now publishes what are full abstracts of the debates, compiled from the newspapers. The Richmond Examiner is the newspaper mainly used, but other papers have been consulted to remedy deficiencies in the files of the Examiner and to serve as a check. As might be expected, the proceedings in the House of Representatives are fuller than in those of the Senate. It is believed that very little that was said in the Confederate Congress is omitted from this publication, which will probably continue until all the sessions of the regular Congress have been covered.
