Congress, Confederate

The Confederate Congre was practically controlied by the executive. It never met the executive face to face, but was obliged to provide for every executive need. Its make-up was fictitious and carried little weight, the need for force and executive ability being far more urgent in the field than in counsel. In both the first and second Congre es Representatives were present from Kentucky and Mi ouri, though those States did not succeed in seceding. The provisional Congre held four se ions, the first beginning February 4, 1861, the fourth ending February 17, 1862. Under tne Constitution there were two Congre es; the first (February 18, 1862—February 18, 1865) had four se ions, the second (May 2, 1864—March 18, 1865) two. They included about twenty-four Senators and a hundred Representatives, Congre , Continental, was first suggested by a letter of Benjamin Franklin to the A embly of Ma achusetts in 1773. Franklin was then agent for that colony at London. The first step was taken by the Virginia A embly in 1774, upon the news of the pa age of the Boston Port Bill. Its committee advised a Congre of all the colonies, The first Continental Congre , therefore, a embled at Philadelphia September 5, 1774, Georgia alone being unrepresented. Action was confined to a declaration of the rights and wrongs of the colonies, a recommendation of an agreement not to import British goods after December 1, 1774, and not to export goods to England after September 10, 1775, unle their wrongs were righted; and a resolution commending the people of Ma achusetts for their temperate resistance to the objectionable measures of Parliament, and a declaration that, if these acts ‘‘ shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, all America ought to support them in their opposition.” The second Continental Congre a embled May 10, 1775, at Philadelphia, was a revolutionary body, plenipotentiary in its nature, and was theoretically in perpetual se ion till March, "781. Each State had but one vote. The appointment of delegates was generally by the State Legislatures. The Congre declared independence, carried on the war, and in many respects governed the country. The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781, weakened the Congre by requiring the a ent of nine States to make valid its most important acts, and forbidding any man to be a member more than three years in succe ion, Under its provisions each State should have from two to seven delegates, but only one vote. This Congre sat at Philadelphia until December, 1776, then at Baltimore until March, 1777, then at Philadelphia again, at Lancaster, Pa., in September, 1777, at York until the ensuing June, at Philadelphia again from July, 1778, to June, 1783, then at Princeton until November, then at Anna polis until June, 1784. In November and December, 1784, it sat at Trenton. From January, 1785, until its last recorded se ion (October 21, 1788), it sat in New York. Peyton Randolph and Henry Middle ton were presidents of the first Congre ; of the rest, succe ively, Peyton Randolph, John Hancock (1775-1777), Henry Laurens (1778), John Jay (1779), Samuel Huntington (1779-1781), Thomas McKean (1781), John Hanson (1782), Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Miffin (1784), R. H. Lee (1785), John Hancock (1786), Nathaniel Gorham (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), Cyrus Griffin (1788). Charles Thompson was secretary from 1774 to 1788. 175