Confederate States Constitution


The Confederate States Constitution, formally the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, was the supreme law of the Confederate States, as adopted on March 11, 1861, and in effect from February 22, 1862, through the conclusion of the American Civil War. The Confederacy also operated under a Provisional Constitution from February 8, 1861, to February 22, 1862. The original Provisional Constitution is currently located at the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia, and differs slightly from the version later adopted. The final, hand-written document is currently located in the University of Georgia archives at Athens, Georgia. Most of its provisions are word-for-word duplicates from the United States Constitution; however, there are crucial differences between the two documents, in tone and legal content, primarily regarding slavery.

Comparing constitutions

The Confederate Constitution followed the U.S. Constitution for the most part in the main body of the text with some changes.

Article I differences


  • Amended Article I Section 7 to provide the President of the Confederate States of America with a line item veto but also required any bill which the president used the veto in to be resubmitted to both houses for a possible override vote by 2/3 of both houses.
  • In an attempt to prevent the Confederate Congress from protecting industry the framers add to Article I Section 8.




Article I Section 8 adds quite a bit to the U.S. Constitution in an attempt to block the Confederate Congress from passing laws to "facilitate commerce" with some exceptions allowing for safety and improvement to waterways.




  • There are changes and additions to Article 1 Section 9 Clauses,, and ' that are covered in the Slavery section below.
  • The first twelve amendments to the U.S. Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, were directly incorporated into the Confederate Constitution. This was done primarily in Article I Section 9 of the Confederate Constitution with the first eight amendments to the U.S. Constitution becoming clauses ' to .
  • In addition to these there are three altogether new clauses in the Confederate Constitution for Article I Section 9.
  • Article I, Section 9


  • Article I, Section 9


  • Amendments I through VIII are contained, in the same order, in Article I, Section 9 through Article I, Section 9.
  • Article I, Section 9 was added to limit new bills to contain only one subject when presented.


Then in Section 10:
  • Article I Section 10: Confederate States do not have the ability to tax ships and negotiate treaties concerning waterways with other States without the consent of Congress. This clause limits the Confederate States in their ability to keep troops or engage in war as well, though they would have the ability to enter compacts for the improvement of shared rivers.

Article II

  • The President of the Confederate States of America is to be elected by electors, chosen by the individual states, for a single six-year term, rather than an unlimited number of four-year terms. Article 2 Section 1 reads as: "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 re-eligible."
  • Amendment XII of the U.S. Constitution is added here as Article II Section 1,, and '
  • Article II Section 1 of the Confederate Constitution requires candidates for the President of the Confederacy to have resided "within the limits of the Confederate States" for 14 years.
Changes to Article III
  • Article III Section 2 of the Confederate Constitution combines the first clause of Article III Section 1 in the U.S. Constitution with Amendment XI. The phrase "citizens of the same state" is left out and "and foreign states, citizens or subjects; but no state shall be sued by a citizen or subject of any foreign state" is added in the Confederate Constitution.
Changes to Article IV
  • There are changes and additions to Article IV Section 2 and Article IV Section 3 that are covered in the Slavery section below.
  • Article IV Section 3 makes a 2/3 vote necessary for a new State to join the Confederacy.

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.

Changes to Article V
  • The Confederate Congress, unlike in the U.S. Constitution, could not propose amendments. Instead amendments were to be proposed by constitutional conventions in at least three States. The Confederate Constitution also clarified an ambiguity in the Union's Article V, declaring that a national convention could only propose amendments suggested by those State conventions as opposed to having the authority to amend the entire Constitution. The process of amendment became easier as it required only two-thirds of the States to ratify rather than three-fourths.
Changes to Article VI
  • The Confederate Constitution adds a clause to aid with the transition from the provisional government.

Article VI Section 1
  • Amendments IX and X of the U.S. Constitution are added here as Article VI Section 1, and '
Changes to Article VII
  • Article VII Section 1 is instructions for electing permanent officials after the ratification of the Confederate Constitution are added.
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.

Differences by subject

Slavery

There are several major differences between the U.S. and Confederate constitutions concerning slavery.
  • Whereas the original U.S. Constitution did not use the word "slavery" or the term "Negro Slaves", but used instead "Person held to Service or Labor" which included whites in indentured servitude, the Confederate Constitution addresses the legality of slavery directly and by name.
  • Though Article I Section 9 of both constitutions are quite similar in banning the importation of slaves from foreign nations, the Confederate Constitution permits the C.S. to import slaves from the United States and specifies the "African race" as the subject. The importation of slaves into the United States, including the South, had already been illegal since 1808.




  • The Confederate Constitution then adds a clause that the C.S. Congress has the power to prohibit the importation of slaves from any state that is a non-Confederate state.




  • The U.S. Constitution states in Article IV Section 2 that "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." The Confederate Constitution adds that a state government cannot prohibit the rights of a slave owner traveling or visiting from a different state with his or her slaves.


  • The Confederate Constitution added a clause about the question of slavery in the territories by explicitly stating that slavery is legally protected in the territories.

States' rights

The Confederate Constitution's Preamble including the phrase "each State acting in its sovereign and independent character" focuses the new Constitution on the rights of the individual States.
  • The Preamble to the Confederate Constitution begins : "We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character..."
The Confederate States gain several rights that the U.S. states did not have. For example, they gained the right to impeach federal judges and other federal officers if they worked or lived solely in their state.


  • The Confederate Constitution omits the phrase "emit Bills of Credit" from Article 1 Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution, granting the Confederate States the right to issue such bills of credit.




  • The Confederate States gain the ability to tax ships by omitting the phrase from the U.S. Constitution that prohibits it.






  • Also in Article I Section 10 the Confederate States would have the power to make treaties between each other concerning waterways.


The Confederate States lose a few rights that the U.S. states retained.
  • States lose the right to determine if foreigners can vote in their States: Article I Section 2 as mentioned above.
  • Confederate States also lose the ability to restrict the rights of traveling and sojourning slave owners. : Article IV Section 2 as mentioned above.
  • The ability for the Confederate Congress to determine taxes between States.


  • The C.S. Constitution contained many of the phrases and clauses which had led to disagreement among the states in the original Union, including a Supremacy Clause, a Commerce Clause, and a Necessary and Proper Clause. The Supremacy Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause are nearly identical in both Constitutions.
  • *The Commerce Clause differs as follows in that the Confederate Congress is prevented from passing laws to "facilitate commerce", as shown above.

    Signers

The signers and the states they represented were:
  • 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, Laurence Keitt, T. J. Withers
  • Georgia: R. Toombs, Francis S. Bartow, Martin J. Crawford, Alexander H. Stephens, Benjamin H. Hill, Thos. R. R. Cobb, E. A. Nisbet, Augustus R. Wright, A. H. Kenan
  • 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: John Perkins Jr., Alex. de Clouet, C. M. Conrad, Duncan F. Kenner, Henry Marshall, Edward Sparrow
  • Texas: John Hemphill, Thomas N. Waul, John H. Reagan, Williamson S. Oldham, Louis T. Wigfall, John Gregg, William Beck Ochiltree

    Ratification

Congress began to move for ratification of the Confederate States Constitution on March 11, 1861:

Judicial review

Although the Confederate States Supreme Court was never constituted, the supreme courts of the various Confederate states issued numerous decisions interpreting the Confederate Constitution. Unsurprisingly, given that the Confederate Constitution was based on the United States Constitution, the Confederate State Supreme Courts often used United States Supreme Court precedents. The jurisprudence of the Marshall Court thus influenced the interpretation of the Confederate Constitution. The state courts repeatedly upheld robust powers of the Confederate Congress, especially on matters of military necessity.

Analysis

Contemporary historians overwhelmingly agree that secession was motivated by slavery. There were numerous causes for secession, but preservation and expansion of slavery was easily the most important of them. The confusion may come from blending the causes of secession with the causes of the war—which are separate but related issues. According to historian Kenneth M. Stampp, each side supported states' rights or federal power only when it was convenient to do so. Stampp also cited Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens's A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States as an example of a Southern leader who said that slavery was the "cornerstone of the Confederacy" when the war began and then said that the war was not about slavery but states' rights after Southern defeat.
According to an 1861 speech delivered by Alabama politician Robert Hardy Smith, the State of Alabama declared its secession from the U.S. in order to preserve and perpetuate the practice of slavery, the debate over which he referred to as the "Negro quarrel". In the speech, Smith praised the Confederate constitution for its un-euphemistic and succinct protections of the right to own "Negro" slaves:
Georgia Democrat Alexander H. Stephens, who would become the Confederacy's vice president, stated within his Cornerstone Speech that the Confederate constitution was "decidedly better than" the American one, as it "put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution. African slavery as it exists amongst us; the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the 'rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was right."

Relevant literature