The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 33, July 1929 - April, 1930 Page: 122
344 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
the northern people and the South would gain her independence
without any trouble.47 His prophecy was not fulfilled and the
South was left to fight her own battles.
The winter and spring of 1861 and 1862 were not cheerful for
the South because the war which they had expected to be a short
one was lengthening into a long, weary struggle. The Provisional
Government gave way to the Permanent Government on February
17, 1862, and Oldham who had played his part as a secessionist
and a representative of his state entered the Confederate Senate.
He had enough training to take his place as a leader, but Wigfall,
his powerful colleague, probably overshadowed him.
In the Senate, Oldham became the champion of state rights and
every question involving the safeguard of this sacred principle
gained his support. In March, 1862, he began his first fight for
the protection of the rights of the states. A bill was introduced in
the Senate for the purpose of restricting the planting of cotton to
three acres for each laborer. It was argued by the proponents of
the bill that the planters would raise more foodstuffs, which were
needed by the army, and then there was the thought in all southern
minds that "Cotton was King" and that if England and France
could be made to suffer for cotton they would come to the aid of
the South. Oldham did not believe in restricting the acreage be-
cause this would be interference with the rights of the states to
handle their internal problems. Congress had enough power to
carry on the war without taking any power from the states, and
the letter and the spirit of the Constitution should be adhered to by
Congress. He was successful in this fight for the bill was killed in
the committee.48
The next important bill involving state rights that came before
Congress was the conscription bill. When the President's message
recommending the enrolling of all men between the ages of
eighteen and thirty-five was read in the Senate, on March 28, 1862,
Oldham objected to the idea because he did not think that Con-
gress had the right to force citizens into the army unless the
states were consulted. Oldham and Wigfall had a heated argu-
"7W. S. Oldham, to O. M. Roberts, Richmond, Virginia, December 23,
1861, Archives of the Library of the University of Texas.
4"Proceedings of the First Confederate Congress," Southern Historical
Society Papers, XLIV, 169-171; 178. Referred to after this as Southern
Historical Society Papers.122
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 33, July 1929 - April, 1930, periodical, 1930; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101090/m1/136/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.