Congress of the Confederate States the Confederate government. The permanent Confederate Constitution served for the duration of the government with only one Amendment on May 21, 1861, when Congress was given the right to draw multiple federal judicial districts in the large states. The reservations of the South Carolina secession convention ratification were never taken up by any other state legislatures. Sitting as the Provisional Congress, the gathering elected Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States of America on February 9, the day after the Provisional Constitution had been adopted and five days after initially convening in Montgomery. On February 21, a week before it
Confederate States of America enthusiastic in 1861–62, seem to have lost faith in the future of the Confederacy by 1864, and instead looked to protect their homes and communities. As Rable explains, "This contraction of civic vision was more than a crabbed libertarianism; it represented an increasingly widespread disillusionment with the Confederate experiment." The American Civil War broke out in April 1861 with a Confederate victory at the Battle of Fort Sumter in Charleston. In January, President James Buchanan had attempted to resupply the garrison with the steamship, "Star of the West", but Confederate artillery drove it away. In March, President Lincoln notified South