to meet at the permanent Congress called on February 18, 1862. The Confederate Congresses and the Jefferson Davis administration were the only two national civilian administrative bodies for the Confederacy. The Confederate constitution contained a provision (Article I, Section 8, Clause 17), essentially duplicated from the United States Constitution, for the establishment of a federal district of up to one hundred square miles. It was widely assumed in the Confederacy that this district would be sited somewhere other than an existing state capital after the war was won, similar to how Washington, DC was founded, or even more optimistically that the Confederate seat of government might eventually be moved to Washington itself, provided that Maryland, a slave state with considerable pro-Confederate sympathies, were to come under Confederate control. Since none of this ever occurred, the permanent Confederate Congress continued to meet in Richmond until its dissolution. First Congress Elections for the First Confederate States Congress were held on November 6, 1861. While Congressional elections in the United States were held in even-numbered years, elections for Confederate Congressmen occurred in odd-numbered years. The First Congress met in four sessions in Richmond. In the 105 House seats and 26 Senate seats, altogether 267 men served in the Confederate Congress. About a third had served in the U.S. Congress, and others had prior experience in their state legislatures. Only twenty-seven served continuously, including House Speaker Thomas S. Bocock and Senate President pro tempore Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, William Waters Boyce and William Porcher Miles of South Carolina, Benjamin Harvey Hill of Georgia, and Louis Wigfall of Texas. There was a rapid turnover in Congressional membership, in part due to some securing an officer's commission for military service. The mercurial Vice President, Alexander H. Stephens, soon withdrew to his home state of Georgia, and Senator Hunter served as an acting Vice President and then later briefly as Secretary of State for the Davis Administration. Throughout the existence of the Confederate Congress, its sessions were held in secrecy. Both U.S Continental and Confederation Congresses had been held in secret, and the U.S. Congress did not open its galleries to newspaper reporters until 1800. Nevertheless, by summer 1862, newspapers such as the Daily Richmond Examiner began objecting to the closed sessions. First general elections On May 21, 1861, the Provisional Congress ordered elections for the First Congress under the Permanent Constitution to be held