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 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 1
All legislative
powers herein delegated shall be vested in Congress of the
Confederate States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of
Representatives.
Section 2
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.
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.
Section 3
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 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 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 4
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 5
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 tinder
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.
Section 6
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 officers 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 7
1. 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 hit; 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 pa8h the
bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other
House, by which it shall likewise he 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 case of a bill.
Section 8
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
defense, and carry on the Government of the Confederate States; but
no bounties shall be granted from the treasury, nor shall an 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 pill-pose of furnishing lights, beacon, and buoys, and other
aids to navigation upon the coasts, and the improvement of harbors,
all 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 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 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.
Section 9
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
arid account of the receipts arid 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 estimate 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 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 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 to be taken for public use, without just
compensation.
17.
In all criminal prosecution 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; arid 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 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 10
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, 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
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 1
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 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 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 natural born citizen of the Confederate
States, or at 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:
"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
2
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 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 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
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 therefore.
4. The President shall have power to fill 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.
Section
3
1. The
President shall from time to time, give to the Congress information
of the state of the Confederacy, and recommend to their
confederation 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 4
1. 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
2
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 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.
Section 3
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 1
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 2
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 3
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 government 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 guaranty 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 1
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 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
1. The government established by this Constitution is
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 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.
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
|
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 |
Louisiana
John Perkins, Jr.
Alex de Clouet
C. M. Conrad
Duncan F. Kenner
Henry Marshall
Edward Sparrow
|
Georgia
R. Toombs
Francis S. Bartow
Martin J. Crawford
Alexander Stephens
Benjamin H. Hill
Tho. R.R. Cobb
E. A. Nisbet
Augustus R. Wright
A. H. Kenan
|
Florida
Jackson Morton
J.Patton Anderson
Jas. B. Owens
|
Texas
John Hemphill
Thomas N. Waul
John H. Reagan
Williamson S. Oldham
Louis T. Wigfall
John Gregg
William B. Ochiltree
|