* The fall of prices was attributed by others to a funding act,
--one of several passed by the Confederate Congress--which, in
March, 1863, aimed by various devices to contract the volume of
the currency. It was very generally condemned, and it anticipated
the yet more drastic measure, the Funding Act of 1864, which will
be described later.


Had these two measures been the whole program of the Government,
the congressional session of the spring of 1863 would have had a
different significance in Confederate history. But there was a
third measure that provoked a new attack on the Government. The
gracious words of the Mercury on the tax in kind came as an
interlude in the midst of a bitter controversy. An editorial of
the 12th of March headed "A Despotism over the Confederate States
Proposed in Congress" amounted to a declaration of war. From this
time forward the opposition and the Government drew steadily
further and further apart and their antagonism grew steadily more
relentless.

What caused this irrevocable breach was a bill introduced into
the House by Ethelbert Barksdale of Mississippi, an old friend of
President Davis. This bill would have invested the President with
authority to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus
in any part of the Confederacy, whenever in his judgment such
suspension was desirable. The first act suspending the privilege
of habeas corpus had long since expired and applied only to such
regions as were threatened with invasion. It had served usefully
under martial law in cleansing Richmond of its rogues, and also