Preamble
We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its
sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent
federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity invoking
the favor and guidance of Almighty God do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the Confederate States of America.
Article I
Section I. All legislative powers herein delegated shall be
vested in a Congress of the Confederate States, which shall consist of a
Senate and House of Representatives.
Sec. 2. (I) The House of Representatives shall be composed of
members chosen every second year by the people of the several States;
and the electors in each State shall be citizens of the Confederate
States, and have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most
numerous branch of the State Legislature; but no person of foreign
birth, not a citizen of the Confederate States, shall be allowed to vote
for any officer, civil or political, State or Federal.
(2) No person shall be a Representative who shall not have
attained the age of twenty-five years, and be a citizen of the
Confederate States, and who shall not when elected, be an inhabitant of
that State in which he shall be chosen.
(3) Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among
the several States, which may be included within this Confederacy,
according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by
adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to
service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed,
three-fifths of all slaves. The actual enumeration shall be made within
three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the Confederate
States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as
they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not
exceed one for every fifty thousand, but each State shall have at least
one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State
of South Carolina shall be entitled to choose six; the State of Georgia
ten; the State of Alabama nine; the State of Florida two; the State of
Mississippi seven; the State of Louisiana six; and the State of Texas
six.
(4) When vacancies happen in the representation from any State
the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill
such vacancies.
(5) The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and
other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment; except
that any judicial or other Federal officer, resident and acting solely
within the limits of any State, may be impeached by a vote of two-thirds
of both branches of the Legislature thereof.
Sec. 3. (I) The Senate of the Confederate States shall be
composed of two Senators from each State, chosen for six years by the
Legislature thereof, at the regular session next immediately preceding
the commencement of the term of service; and each Senator shall have one
vote.
(2) Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of
the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into
three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be
vacated at the expiration of the second year; of the second class at the
expiration of the fourth year; and of the third class at the expiration
of the sixth year; so that one-third may be chosen every second year;
and if vacancies happen by resignation, or other wise, during the recess
of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make
temporary appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which
shall then fill such vacancies.
(3) No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the
age of thirty years, and be a citizen of the Confederate States; and who
shall not, then elected, be an inhabitant of the State for which he
shall be chosen.
(4) The Vice President of the Confederate States shall be
president of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally
divided.
(5) The Senate shall choose their other officers; and also a
president pro tempore in the absence of the Vice President, or when he
shall exercise the office of President of the Confederate states.
(6) The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.
When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation.
When the President of the Confederate States is tried, the Chief Justice
shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence
of two-thirds of the members present.
(7) Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further
than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of
honor, trust, or profit under the Confederate States; but the party
convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment,
trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.
Sec. 4. (I) The times, places, and manner of holding elections
for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by
the Legislature thereof, subject to the provisions of this Constitution;
but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such
regulations, except as to the times and places of choosing Senators.
(2) The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year; and
such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they
shall, by law, appoint a different day.
Sec. 5. (I) Each House shall be the judge of the elections,
returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each
shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may
adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance
of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each House
may provide.
(2) Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish
its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of
two-thirds of the whole number, expel a member.
(3) Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from
time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their
judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either
House, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those
present, be entered on the journal.
(4) Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without
the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any
other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.
Sec.
6. (I) The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation
for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the
Treasury of the Confederate States. They shall, in all cases, except
treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest
during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and
in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in
either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. No
Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the
Confederate States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments
whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person
holding any office under the Confederate States shall be a member of
either House during his continuance in office. But Congress may, by law,
grant to the principal officer in each of the Executive Departments a
seat upon the floor of either House, with the privilege of discussing
any measures appertaining to his department.
Sec. 7. (I) All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the
House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with
amendments, as on other bills.
(2) Every bill which shall have passed both Houses, shall, before
it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the Confederate
States; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it,
with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated,
who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to
reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House
shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the
objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be
reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that House, it shall
become a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both Houses shall be
determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and
against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House
respective}y. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within
ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him,
the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless
the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it
shall not be a law. The President may approve any appropriation and
disapprove any other appropriation in the same bill. In such case he
shall, in signing the bill, designate the appropriations disapproved;
and shall return a copy of such appropriations, with his objections, to
the House in which the bill shall have originated; and the same
proceedings shall then be had as in case of other bills disapproved by
the President.
(3) Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of
both Houses may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment)
shall be presented to the President of the Confederate States; and
before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him; or, being
disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of both Houses,
according to the rules and limitations prescribed in case of a bill.
Sec. 8. The Congress shall have power-
(I) To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
excises for revenue, necessary to pay the debts, provide for the common
defense, and carry on the Government of the Confederate States; but no
bounties shall be granted from the Treasury; nor shall any duties or
taxes on importations from foreign nations be laid to promote or foster
any branch of industry; and all duties, imposts, and excises shall be
uniform throughout the Confederate States.
(2) To borrow money on the credit of the Confederate States.
(3) To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the
several States, and with the Indian tribes; but neither this, nor any
other clause contained in the Constitution, shall ever be construed to
delegate the power to Congress to appropriate money for any internal
improvement intended to facilitate commerce; except for the purpose of
furnishing lights, beacons, and buoys, and other aids to navigation upon
the coasts, and the improvement of harbors and the removing of
obstructions in river navigation; in all which cases such duties shall
be laid on the navigation facilitated thereby as may be necessary to pay
the costs and expenses thereof.
(4) To establish uniform laws of naturalization, and uniform laws
on the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the Confederate States; but
no law of Congress shall discharge any debt contracted before the
passage of the same.
(5) To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.
(6) To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the Confederate States.
(7) To establish post offices and post routes; but the expenses
of the Post Office Department, after the Ist day of March in the year of
our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be paid out of its own
revenues.
(8) To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by
securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right
to their respective writings and discoveries.
(9) To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court.
(10) To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations.
(11) To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.
(12) To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years.
(13) To provide and maintain a navy.
(14) To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.
(15) To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws
of the Confederate States, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.
(16) To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the
service of the Confederate States; reserving to the States,
respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of
training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.
(17) To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever,
over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession
of one or more States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of
the Government of the Confederate States; and to exercise like
authority over all places purchased by the consent of the Legislature of
the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts,
magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings; and
(18) To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for
carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers
vested by this Constitution in the Government of the Confederate States,
or in any department or officer thereof.
Sec. 9. (I) The importation of negroes of the African race from
any foreign country other than the slaveholding States or Territories of
the United States of America, is hereby forbidden; and Congress is
required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same.
(2) Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction
of slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not belonging to,
this Confederacy.
(3) The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be
suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public
safety may require it.
(4) No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or
impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.
(5) No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in
proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be
taken.
(6) No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State, except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses.
(7) No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another.
(8) No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence
of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of
the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published
from time to time.
(9) Congress shall appropriate no money from the Treasury except
by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses, taken by yeas and nays, unless
it be asked and estimated for by some one of the heads of departments
and submitted to Congress by the President; or for the purpose of paying
its own expenses and contingencies; or for the payment of claims
against the Confederate States, the justice of which shall have been
judicially declared by a tribunal for the investigation of claims
against the Government, which it is hereby made the duty of Congress to
establish.
(10) All bills appropriating money shall specify in Federal
currency the exact amount of each appropriation and the purposes for
which it is made; and Congress shall grant no extra compensation to any
public contractor, officer, agent, or servant, after such contract shall
have been made or such service rendered.
(11) No title of nobility shall be granted by the Confederate
States; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them
shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present,
emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince,
or foreign state.
(12) Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
(13) A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be
infringed.
(14) No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any
house without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a
manner to be prescribed by law.
(15) The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable
cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the
place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
(16) No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury,
except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia,
when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any
person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of
life or limb; nor be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness
against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without
due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use,
without just compensation.
(17) In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State
and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district
shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of
the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the
witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining
witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his
defense.
(18) In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved;
and no fact so tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any
court of the Confederacy, than according to the rules of common law.
(19) Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
(20) Every law, or resolution having the force of law, shall
relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.
Sec. 10. (I) No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; make
anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any
bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, or law impairing the
obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.
(2)
No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or
duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary
for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and
imposts, laid by any State on imports, or exports, shall be for the use
of the Treasury of the Confederate States; and all such laws shall be
subject to the revision and control of Congress.
(3) No State
shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty on tonnage, except
on seagoing vessels, for the improvement of its rivers and harbors
navigated by the said vessels; but such duties shall not conflict with
any treaties of the Confederate States with foreign nations; and any
surplus revenue thus derived shall, after making such improvement, be
paid into the common treasury. Nor shall any State keep troops or ships
of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with
another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless
actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
But when any river divides or flows through two or more States they may
enter into compacts with each other to improve the navigation thereof.
ARTICLE II
Section I. (I) The executive power shall be vested in a President
of the Confederate States of America. He and the Vice President shall
hold their offices for the term of six years; but the President shall
not be reeligible. The President and Vice President shall be elected as
follows:
(2) Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature
thereof may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of
Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the
Congress; but no Senator or Representative or person holding an office
of trust or profit under the Confederate States shall be appointed an
elector.
(3) The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote
by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall
not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name
in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct
ballots the person voted for as Vice President, and they shall make
distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons
voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which
lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of
the Government of. the Confederate States, directed to the President of
the Senate; the President of the Senate shall,in the presence of the
Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the
votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of
votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority
of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such
majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not
exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House
of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.
But in choosing the President the votes shall be taken by States, the
representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the
States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice.
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President,
whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 4th day
of March next following, then the Vice President shall act as
President, as in case of the death, or other constitutional disability
of the President.
(4) The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice
President shall be the Vice President, if
such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and
if no person have a majority, then, from the two highest numbers on the
list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President; a quorum for the
purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and
a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.
(5) But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of
President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the Confederate
States.
(6) The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors,
and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be
the same throughout the Confederate States.
(7) No person except a natural-born citizen of the Confederate;
States, or a citizen thereof at the time of the adoption of this
Constitution, or a citizen thereof born in the United States prior to
the 20th of December, 1860, shall be eligible to the office of
President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall
not have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years
a resident within the limits of the Confederate States, as they may
exist at the time of his election.
(8) In case of the removal of the President from office, or of
his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties
of said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President; and the
Congress may, by law, provide for the case of removal, death,
resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice President,
declaring what officer shall then act as President; and such officer
shall act accordingly until the disability be removed or a President
shall be elected.
(9) The President shall, at stated times, receive for his
services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished
during the period for which he shall have been elected; and he shall
not receive within that period any other emolument from the Confederate
States, or any of them.
(10) Before he enters on the execution of his office he shall take the following oath or affirmation:
Sec. 2. (I) The President shall be
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States, and
of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual
service of the Confederate States; he may require the opinion, in
writing, of the principal officer in each of the Executive Departments,
upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices; and
he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against
the Confederate States, except in cases of impeachment.
(2) He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of
the Senate, to make treaties; provided two-thirds of the Senators
present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers
and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the
Confederate States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided
for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may, by
law, vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think
proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of
departments.
(3) The principal officer in each of the Executive Departments,
and all persons connected with the diplomatic service, may be removed
from office at the pleasure of the President. All other civil officers
of the Executive Departments may be removed at any time by the
President, or other appointing power, when their services are
unnecessary, or for dishonesty, incapacity. inefficiency, misconduct, or
neglect of duty; and when so removed, the removal shall be reported to
the Senate, together with the reasons therefor.
(4) The
President shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen during
the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at
the end of their next session; but no person rejected by the Senate
shall be reappointed to the same office during their ensuing recess.
Sec. 3. (I) The President shall, from time to time, give to the
Congress information of the state of the Confederacy, and recommend to
their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and
expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or
either of them; and in case of disagreement between them, with respect
to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall
think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers;
he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall
commission all the officers of the Confederate States.
Sec. 4. (I) The President, Vice President, and all civil officers
of the Confederate States, shall be removed from office on impeachment
for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors.
ARTICLE III
Section I. (I) The judicial power of the Confederate States
shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the
Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. The judges, both
of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during
good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a
compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in
office.
Sec. 2. (I) The judicial power shall extend to all cases arising
under this Constitution, the laws of the Confederate States, and
treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all
cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all
cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which
the Confederate States shall be a party; to controversies between two or
more States; between a State and citizens of another State, where the
State is plaintiff; between citizens claiming lands under grants of
different States; and between a State or the citizens thereof, and
foreign states, citizens, or subjects; but no State shall be sued by a
citizen or subject of any foreign state.
(2) In all cases
affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in
which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original
jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court
shall have appellate jurisdiction both as to law and fact, with such
exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.
(3) The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment,
shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the State where the
said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any
State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may
by law have directed.
Sec. 3. (I) Treason against the Confederate States shall consist
only in levying war against.them, or in adhering to their enemies,
giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason
unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on
confession in open court.
(2) The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of
treason; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or
forfeiture, except during the life of the person attained.
ARTICLE IV
Section I. (I) Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to
the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State;
and the Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which
such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect
thereof.
Sec. 2. (I) The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all
the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and
shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this
Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of
property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.
(2) A
person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime against
the laws of such State, who shall flee from justice, and be found in
another State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State
from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having
jurisdiction of the crime.
(3) No slave or other person held to service or labor in any
State or Territory of the Confederate
States, under the laws thereof, escaping or lawfully carried into
another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be
discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on
claim of the party to whom such slave belongs,. or to whom such service
or labor may be due.
Sec. 3. (I) Other States may be admitted into this Confederacy by
a vote of two-thirds of the whole House of Representatives and
two-thirds of the Senate, the Senate voting by States; but no new State
shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State,
nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts
of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States
concerned, as well as of the Congress.
(2) The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make
all needful rules and regulations concerning the property of the
Confederate States, including the lands thereof.
(3) The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and
Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the
inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying
without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such
times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be
admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of
negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be
recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government;
and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories
shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held
by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.
(4) The Confederate States shall guarantee to every State that
now is, or hereafter may become, a member of this Confederacy, a
republican form of government; and shall protect each of them against
invasion; and on application of the Legislature or of the Executive when
the Legislature is not in session) against domestic violence.
ARTICLE V
Section I. (I) Upon the demand of any three States, legally assembled
in their several conventions, the Congress shall summon a convention of
all the States, to take into consideration such amendments to the
Constitution as the said States shall concur in suggesting at the time
when the said demand is made; and should any of the proposed amendments
to the Constitution be agreed on by the said convention, voting by
States, and the same be ratified by the Legislatures of two- thirds of
the several States, or by conventions in two-thirds thereof, as the one
or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the general
convention, they shall thenceforward form a part of this Constitution.
But no State shall, without its consent, be deprived of its equal
representation in the Senate.
ARTICLE VI
I. The Government established by this Constitution is the successor
of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, and
all the laws passed by the latter shall continue in force until the same
shall be repealed or modified; and all the officers appointed by the
same shall remain in office until their successors are appointed and
qualified, or the offices abolished.
2. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the
adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the Confederate
States under this Constitution, as under the Provisional Government.
3. This Constitution, and the laws of the Confederate States
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be
made, under the authority of the Confederate States, shall be the
supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound
thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the
contrary notwithstanding.
4. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the
members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and
judicial officers, both of the Confederate States and of the several
States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this
Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a
qualification to any office or public trust under the Confederate
States.
5. The enumeration, in the Constitution, of certain rights shall
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people of
the several States.
6. The powers not delegated to the Confederate States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States, respectively, or to the people thereof.
ARTICLE VII
I. The ratification of the conventions of five States shall be
sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States
so ratifying the same.
2. When five States shall have ratified this Constitution, in the
manner before specified, the Congress under the Provisional
Constitution shall prescribe the time for holding the election of
President and Vice President; and for the meeting of the Electoral
College; and for counting the votes, and inaugurating the President.
They shall, also, prescribe the time for holding the first election of
members of Congress under this Constitution, and the time for assembling
the same. Until the assembling of such Congress, the Congress under the
Provisional Constitution shall continue to exercise the legislative
powers granted them; not extending beyond the time limited by the
Constitution of the Provisional Government.
Adopted unanimously by the Congress of the Confederate States of
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Texas, sitting in convention at the capitol, the city of Montgomery,
Ala., on the eleventh day of March, in the year eighteen hundred and
Sixty-one.
HOWELL COBB, President of the Congress.
South Carolina: R. Barnwell Rhett, C. G. Memminger, Wm.
Porcher Miles, James Chesnut, Jr., R. W. Barnwell, William W. Boyce,
Lawrence M. Keitt, T. J. Withers.
Georgia: Francis S. Bartow, Martin J. Crawford, Benjamin H. Hill, Thos. R. R. Cobb.
Florida: Jackson Morton, J. Patton Anderson, Jas. B. Owens.
Alabama: Richard W. Walker, Robt. H. Smith, Colin J.
McRae, William P. Chilton, Stephen F. Hale, David P. Lewis, Tho. Fearn,
Jno. Gill Shorter, J. L. M. Curry.
Mississippi: Alex. M. Clayton, James T. Harrison, William S. Barry, W. S. Wilson, Walker Brooke, W. P. Harris, J. A. P. Campbell.
Louisiana: Alex. de Clouet, C. M. Conrad, Duncan F. Kenner, Henry Marshall.
Texas: John Hemphill, Thomas N. Waul, John H. Reagan, Williamson S. Oldham, Louis T. Wigfall, John Gregg, William Beck Ochiltree.
Sources for this article: The Avalon Project - Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library.
The
document was based on the Constitution of the United States of America and was so
similar to it that one can actually read large portions of both side-by-side and
see virtually no difference between the two.
But there are several stark differences between the two.
The Confederate Constitution gives more power to the several States rather than the federal central government.
The Confederate President could only serve for one single six-year term.
Congressmen
were elected to three year terms. Thus cutting down on election cycles
and it matched the President somewhat as well as Senators who were still
six years.
When signing appropriation bills into law, the President had the right to exercise a line item veto.
Taxes
could only be imposed to collect "revenue necessary" to carry on the
limited functions of government, no taxes or import fees were to be
enacted to "promote or foster" American industry and all monetary bills
submitted were required to specify the exact amount of money asked for
and the purpose of the said funds; in other words, no more crony
capitalism and less chance for "pork barrel spending" to occur.
The
document forbids the importation of foreign slaves (save only from
slaveholding U.S. States) and although it does recognize the "property
rights" of slave owners in all Confederate States and Territories, it
also does expressly not
stop any state from abolishing slavery within it's own boundaries and
it doesn't stop "free-states" from being admitted into the Confederacy.
It
also did not provide for a Supreme Court, only appellate courts. If an
issue was appealed at the appellate court level, it was then sent to the
Congress to provide for a people's decision. So it kept the courts from
legislating from the bench.
And finally, the preamble to the Confederate Constitution includes an invocation for the "favor and guidance of Almighty God." The U.S. Constitution, being a somewhat more secular document, does not mention God at all.
Although
ratified in March of 1861, the permanent Constitution of the
Confederate States of America officially went into effect as the
"supreme law" of the land on Saturday, February 22, 1862.
The
following are the dates to which each Southern State ratified the
Confederate Constitution, or were admitted to the Confederate States of
America. The seven founding States that ratified the constitution are
listed in red:
