Far from being a monolith with unanimous leadership loyalty to
the cause of a separate nation, the Confederacy was in reality
deeply divided over how to achieve independence. Many supposedly
loyal leaders, civilian as well as elected officials, opposed
governmental policies on the national and state levels, and their
actions ultimately influenced non-support for military policies.
Congressional differences over arming the slaves and bureaucratic
squabbles over how to conduct the war disrupted the government and
Cabinet of President Jefferson Davis. Rumors of such irreconcilable
differences spread throughout the South, contributing to an overall
decline in morale and support for the war effort and causing the
Confederacy to come apart from within.
When asked to make sacrifices, civilian leaders found themselves
caught in the dilemma of either aiding the Confederacy or losing
money through poor utilization of slave labor. To sustain profits,
the business and planter classes often traded with the enemy. Upon
consideration of arming the slaves, many members of Congress
proclaimed that the war effort was not worth the demise of slavery
and preferred instead to take their chances with the Northern
government. Cultural leaders, clergy, newspapermen, and men of
letters claimed their loyalty to the war effort, but often
criticized government policies in public. By asking for financial
support and instituting a military draft, the national government
infuriated local patriots who wanted to defend their own states
more than they desired to defeat the enemy.
General
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