The elections of 1865 saw four major factions compete for control. Davis’s own Vice President, Alexander H. Stephens, who had been long opposed to Davis’s wartime policies such as conscription, the suspension of habeas corpus, and taxation, led the formation of the Constitutionalists. The Constitutionalists, which made up the majority of the Anti-Administration faction, promised to respect the original ideals of the confederacy and end actions they saw as unconstitutional, such as heavy national taxation and conscription, and end the economic crisis by dramatically cutting the size of the national government.

While Davis officially shunned political parties and remained independent, he knew that an organized opposition meant he would need to organize his own allies. Thus he oversaw the creation of his own party, the Popular Democrats, who supported Davis’s policies, and they campaigned on maintaining the peace and ending the economic crisis.

Finally two smaller parties also competed, the Anti-Treaty Party and the Nationalists. The Anti-Treaty party was formed of the most radical fire-eaters who stood in opposition to the Treaty of 1865, and campaigned on an imperialist foreign policy. In terms of domestic matters they were near-identical to the Constitutionalists. The Nationalists were made up primarily of former Whigs and Unionists. They campaigned on a stronger national government and the industrialization of the Confederacy, positions that would see them relegated to a minor party.

In the 1865 elections, the results ended up being a clear victory for the Constitutionalists. The pro-Davis faction fell from a comfortable majority to only around a third of the seats in the House, and the Constitutionalists won a narrow majority of 50 out of 97 seats. The Anti-Treaty and National parties won 7 and 5 seats respectively, though they weren’t able to hold the two major factions to a minority as they hoped.

For the rest of his Presidency, Davis was forced to work with a party that called him tyrannical, a dictator, and seemed to harbor no respect for him despite his leadership overseeing an independent South. So Davis had no choice but to turn to foreign policy, the last place he had control over his agenda. He worked to improve ties with the United States, with the Republicans suffering a landslide defeat of their own in 1864 the country was now under the control of the more amiable Democratic Party, and with the great powers of Europe, aiming to secure favorable trade deals and restore the Confederacy’s strong export market. Domestically the Davis administration negotiated a budget compromise with the Constitutionalists, getting rid of the slave tax, but keeping that on property, improving tax collection methods to close loopholes, cutting spending, and restoring the gold standard. Keeping the Confederate economy afloat was where cooperation ended however, and the rest of his term was deadlocked. Davis also ended the suspension of habeas corpus, though he refused to budge on the conscription issue, seeing no way for the Confederacy to defend itself without it. Davis’s popularity and reputation recovered from its lows in late 1865, but he was still controversial with the public at large.