The speech from A. Stephens as the CSA contemplated suspending the habeas corpus for a spell:
" the right of personal security against illegal arrests, was wrested from the Crown by the Parliament, and established by Magna Charta, the bill of rights, the abolition of the star chamber, and the grant of the writ of habeas corpus, which is the means of redress against violations of law, and other wrongs against rights secured and acknowledged."Apparently the Southerners could understand their copy of the Constitution just fine. They knew only Congress could suspend the habeas corpus, and a good number of them thought that was a bad idea.- Alexander Stephens - The Great Speech, 16 March, 1864
They might as well accept it. What recourse did they have if they disagreed and what control was there on the government that did suspend it? In Ex Parte Milligan the U.S. Supreme Court pointed out that the suspension of habeas corpus did not convey absolute power to the government. The power was limited and could not be invoked at the expense of existing judicial system if that system was operating freely and openly. The Davis regime was under no such control. Without a supreme court to offer any sort of check to his power and with an administration that had no respect for the courts to begin with then there was no limit to what Davis could do under the authority given him by the confederate congress and who he could do it to. Maybe that's why people such as Stephens and Toombs thought it was such a bad idea?