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 tranquility, 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.
SECTION II.
1. 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.
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.
SECTION III.
1. 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, 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 otherwise, 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, when 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 and enjoy 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.
SECTION IV.
1. 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.
SECTION V.
1. 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 may be sitting.
SECTION VI.
1. 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.
2. 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.
SECTION VII.
1. All bids 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
respectively. 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 re-passed by two-thirds of both Houses, according
to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.
SECTION VIII.
The Congress shall have power—
1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises,
for revenue necessary to pay the debts, provide for the common defence 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-roads; but the
expenses of the Post-Office Department, after the first 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 offences 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 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.
SECTION IX.
1. 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 hereinbefore 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 Department 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
atribunal 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
cur~ rency, 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 con~ tract shall have been
made, or such service rendered.
11. No title of nobility shall be granted by the Confederate
States; and no person holdinor 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 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 warrant 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 offence 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 bylaw, and to be in— formed of the nature and cause
of the accusation; to be confronted with the witness against him; to have
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the
assistance of counsel for his defence.
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 re-examined in any court of the
Confederacy than according to the rules of the 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.
SECTION X.
1. 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, 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 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 imposts 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 sea-going 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.
1. 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. 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 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 fourth 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
twentieth 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 be neither 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:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully
execute the office of President of the Confederate States, and will, to the best
of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution thereof.”
SECTION II.
1. 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 the power to grant reprieves and pardons for
offences 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 here in 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 Department, 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 re-appointed to the same office during their ensuing recess.
SECTION III.
1. 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.
SECTION IV.
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 1.
1. 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.
SECTION II.
1. 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
citizen 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 place as the Congress may by law have directed.
SECTION III.
1. 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 attainted.
ARTICLE IV.
SECTION I.
1. 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.
SECTION II.
1. 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.
SECTION III.
1. 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 States, 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 by 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.
1. 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 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.
SECTION 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.
SECTION II.
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.
SECTION III.
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. .
SECTION IV.
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.
SECTION V.
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.
SECTION VI.
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.
1. 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, in the City of Montgomery, Alabama,
on the Eleventh day of March in the year Eighteen Hundred and Sixty one.
Howell Cobb
President of the
Congress.
1 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
2 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
3 Florida:
Jackson Morton, J. Patton Anderson, Jas. B. Owens
4 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
5 Mississippi:
Alex. M. Clayton, James T. Harrison, William S. Barry, W. S.
Wilson, Walker Brooke, W. P. Harris, J. A. P. Campbell
6 Louisiana:
John Perkins Jr., Alex. de Clouet, C. M. Conrad, Duncan F.
Kenner, Henry Marshall, Edward Sparrow
7 Texas:
John Hemphill, Thomas N. Waul, John H. Reagan, Williamson S.
Oldham, Louis T. Wigfall, John Gregg, William Beck Ochiltree
SOURCES:
Permanent
Constitution of the Confederate States of America, ms1512, Hargrett Rare Book
and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries, https://dlg.usg.edu/record/guan_civilwar_const#item;
Constitution of the Confederate
States of America, March 11, 1861, printed in Austin, 1861.
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