Confederate States Constitution

The Confederate States Constitution was adopted on March 11, 1861, setting the permanent framework for the government of the Confederacy. Full Text of Confederate Constitution.

In most cases, the document is a word-for-word duplicate of the United States Constitution. The major differences between them was the Confederacy's greater emphasis on the rights of individual member states, and an explicit support of slavery.

Organs

The constitution outlines a three branch government, consisting of:

• an elected House of Represenatives
• a Senate appointed by the state legislatures
• a President of the Confederate States and Vice President chosen by an electoral college
• a Supreme Court nominated by the President and approved by the Senate

Slavery

The constitution forbids the pratice of importing slaves from outside the Confederacy, but explicity states slavery as a right in the following key amendment:

No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed [by Congress]

The constitution likewise says that all subsequent territories added to the Confederacy will too become slave states (unlike the United States, which previously decided on a state-by-state basis). The legal basis for slavery in the Confederacy is largely presented as an extention of property rights.

Differences with US constitution

• The President is allowed to only be elected for one six-year term, rather than unlimited four-year terms
• The President can subject a bill to a line item veto.

Signers

The signers of the Constitution 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, 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.