Final answer:
Jefferson Davis opposed Cleburne's proposal to enlist African Americans into the Confederate army as it was viewed as a challenge to the institution of slavery.
Step-by-step explanation:
Historian James Robertson maintains that "no blacks were officially accepted into Confederate military service." His reason for saying this is that if there had been black units this would have inevitably surfaced in the voluminous military records of the war. He points out, however, that in the last months of the war, when troops were in short supply, the Confederate Congress authorized the recruitment of black soldiers. Only about three dozen men answered the call, and they never saw military action, nor were they allowed to carry weapons.
Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America, reacted to Cleburne's proposal to enlist African Americans into the Confederate army by opposing it. Howell Cobb of Georgia commented on the issue of receiving blacks into military service, emphasizing that it would contradict the South's theory of slavery. Enlisting black soldiers was seen as a threat to the institution of slavery itself.