this suggestion Congress was ripe,
and the first Conscription Act of the Confederacy was signed by the
President on the 16th of April. The age of eligibility was fixed as
Davis had advised; the term of service was to be three years; every one
then in service was to be retained in service during three years from
the date of his original enlistment.

This statute may be thought of as a great victory on the part of the
Administration. It was the climax of a policy of centralization in the
military establishment to which Davis had committed himself by the veto,
in January, of "A bill to authorize the Secretary of War to receive into
the service of the Confederate States a regiment of volunteers for the
protection of the frontier of Texas." This regiment was to be under the
control of the Governor of the State. In refusing to accept such troops,
Davis laid down the main proposition upon which he stood as military
executive to the end of the war, a proposition which immediately set
debate raging: "Unity and cooperation by the troops of all the States
are indispensable to success, and I must view with regret this as well
as all other indications of a purpose to divide the power of States
by dividing the means to be employed in efforts to carry on separate
operations."

In these military measures of the early months of 1862 Davis's purpose
became clear. He was bent upon instituting a strong government, able to
push the war through, and careless of the niceties of constitutional law
or of the exact prerogatives of the States. His position was expressed
in the course of the year by a Virginia newspaper: "It will be time
enough to distract the councils of the State about imaginary violations
of constitutional law by the supreme government when our independence is
achieved, established, and acknowledged. It will not be until then that
the sovereignty of the States will be a reality." But there were many
Southerners who could not accept this point of view. The Mercury was
sharply critical of the veto of the Texas Regiment Bill. In the interval
between the Texas veto and the passing of the Conscription Act, the
state convention of North Carolina demanded the return of North Carolina
volunteers for the defense of their own State. No sooner was the
Conscription Act passed than its constitutionality was attacked. As
the Confederacy had no Supreme Court, the question came up before state
courts. One after another, several state supreme