provided; but if, upon such examination of said poll-books, it shall appear that a majority of the legal votes cast at said election be in favor of the "Constitution with no slavery," then the article providing for slavery shall be stricken from this constitution by the president of this convention, and slavery shall no longer exist in the State of Kansas, except that the right of property in slaves now in this Territory shall in no manner be interferred with, and shall have transmitted the constitution, so ratified, (to Congress the constitution, so ratified,) to the Congress of the United States, as hereinbefore provided. No. 115. South Carolina Ordinance of Secession December 20, 1860 It was clear that the success of the Republicans in the election of 1860 would mean the exclusion of slavery from the Territories. The legislature of South Carolina met Nov. 4 to choose presidential electors, and remained in session until it was known that Lincoln had been elected. On the 7th an act was passed calling a State convention, to meet at Columbia Dec. 17, to consider the question of withdrawing from the Union. The convention met at the time and place appointed, but adjourned to Charleston because of an epidemic of small-pox in Columbia. On the 20th an ordinance of secession was unanimously adopted by the one hundred and sixty-nine delegates present, and the president of the convention proclaimed South Carolina to be "an independent Commonwealth." On the 21st the Representatives of the State in Congress announced their withdrawal from the House. A "Declaration of the immediate causes which induce and justify the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union" was adopted on the 24th. REFERENCES. Text in War of the Rebellion, Official Records, Series I., vol. I., p. 110. For the proceedings of the convention, see Amer. Annual Cyclopædia, 1861, pp. 646-657; Moore's Rebellion Record, I., Doc, 2. The declaration of causes, and ordinances of secession passed by the other Southern States, are collected in Amer. Hist. Leaflets, No. 12. On the steps preliminary to secession, see Pike's First Blows of the Civil War. Buchanan defended his official conduct during 1860-61 in The Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion (London, 1865); a later defence is in Curtis's Buchanan, II., chap. 15. AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and the other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America": We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in convention on . . . [May 23, 1788] . . ., whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the general assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved. No. 116. Constitution of the Confederate States of America March 11, 1861 THE secession of South Carolina was followed, Jan. 9, 1861, by similar action in Mississippi. Ordinances of secession were adopted by Florida Jan. 10, Alabama Jan. 11, Georgia Jan. 19, and Louisiana Jan. 26. A resolution of the legislature of Mississippi, Jan. 19, in favor of a congress of representatives from the seceded States to form a provisional government, was endorsed by the other States, and Feb. 8 a congress at Montgomery, Ala., adopted a provisional constitution. A permanent constitution was adopted March 11, and signed by delegates from each of the States above named, and by those of Texas, which had passed an ordinance of secession Feb. 1. The constitution was ratified by conventions in the several States. The first election under the permanent constitution was held Nov. 6, 1861. The congress under the permanent constitution met Feb. 18, 1862, superseding the provisional congress. The Confederate States of America were accorded belligerent rights by England and France through proclamations of neutrality, but were never formally recognized as a government, either by the United States or by any foreign power. The permanent constitution was modelled after the Constitution of the United States, and is in the main a reproduction of that instrument, with verbal or minor changes necessary to adapt it to the style of the new confederacy. All the sections embodying other than verbal or formal changes are given in the extracts following, with references to facilitate comparison between the two documents. REFERENCES. — Text in Conf. Stat. at Large (Richmond, 1864, ed. Mat thews), 11-22, where is also the provisional constitution. A convenient reprint, with the texts of the Confederate constitution and the Constitution of the United States in parallel columns, is in Davis's Confederate Government, I., 648-673. The archives of the Confederate government are in the possession of the War Department. The official acts of the Confederacy are best followed in the Journal of the Congress (Sen. Docs., 58th Cong., 2d Sess., vols. 25-31), and Richardson's Messages and Papers of the Confederacy; see also Moore's Rebellion Record; Amer. Annual Cyclopædia, 1861-65; McPherson's Hist. of the Rebellion. 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.1 ARTICLE I. * SECTION 2. 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 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 1 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.1 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.2 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.3 * SECTION 6. 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.* 1 [Cf. Const. U. S., Art. I., Sec. 2, Par. 3.] 2 [Cf. Const. U. S., Art. I., Sec. 2, Par. 5.1 3 [Cf. Const. U. S., Art. I., Sec. 3, Par. 1.] 2... SECTION 7. 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.1 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 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 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: 3 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: 4 1[Cf. Const. U. S., Art. I., Sec. 7, Par. 2.] |