Actuated solely by the desire to preserve our own rights, and promote our own welfare, the separation by the Confederate States has been marked by no aggression upon others, and followed by no domestic convulsion. Our industrial pursuits have received no check, the cultivation of our fields has progressed as heretofore, and, even should we be involved in war, there would be no considerable diminution in the production of the staples which have constituted our exports, and in which the commercial world has an interest scarcely less than our own. This common interest of the producer and consumer can only be interrupted by exterior force which would obstruct the transmission of our staples to foreign markets—a course of conduct which would be as unjust, as it would be detrimental, to manufacturing and commercial interest abroad.
Should reason guide the action of the Government from which we have separated, a policy so detrimental to the civilized world, the Northern States included, could not be dictated by even the strongest desire to inflict injury upon us; but, if the contrary should prove true, a terrible responsibility will rest upon it, and the suffering of millions will bear testimony to the folly and wickedness of our aggressors. In the meantime there will remain to us, besides the ordinary means before suggested, the well-known resources for retaliation upon the commerce of an enemy.
Experience in public stations, of subordinate grade to this which your kindness has conferred, has taught me that toil and care and disappointment are the price of official elevation. You will see many errors to forgive, many deficiencies to tolerate; but you shall not find in me either want of zeal or fidelity to the cause that is to me the highest in hope, and of most enduring affection. Your generosity has bestowed upon me an undeserved distinction, one which I neither sought nor desired. Upon the continuance of that sentiment, and upon your wisdom and patriotism, I rely to direct and support me in the performance of the duties required at my hands.
We have changed the constituent parts, but not the system of government. The Constitution framed by our fathers is that of these Confederate States. In their exposition of it, and in the judicial construction it has received, we have a light which reveals its true meaning.
Thus instructed as to the true meaning and just interpretation of that instrument, and ever remembering that all offices are but trusts held for the people, and that powers delegated are to be strictly construed, I will hope by due diligence in the performance of my duties, though I may disappoint your expectations, yet to retain, when retiring, something of the good will and confidence which welcome my entrance into office.
It is joyous in the midst of perilous times to look around upon a people united in heart, where one purpose of high resolve animates and actuates the whole; where the sacrifices to be made are not weighed in the balance against honor and right and liberty and equality. Obstacles may retard, but they cannot long prevent, the progress of a movement sanctified by its justice and sustained by a virtuous people. Reverently let us invoke the God of our fathers to guide and protect us in our efforts to perpetuate the principles which by his blessing they were able to vindicate, establish, and transmit to their posterity. With the continuance of his favor ever gratefully acknowledged, we may hopefully look forward to success, to peace, and to prosperity.
ADDENDUM IV
President Davis’ Second Inaugural Address
President Davis delivered the following address when the permanent government of the Confederate States of America was moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia.
Notice that he speaks of the South fighting for the principles of the revolutionary fathers. He states that the United States government had been taken over by the numerical majority of the North.
Also note that in the third paragraph he announces to the world that even though the Southern nation was at war and suffering from invasion, still the rights and liberties of Southerners were secure. No doubt he was attempting to draw a distinction between his government’s policy and the flagrant violation of the civil liberties of Northerners who opposed the Lincoln administration.
President Davis’ Inaugural Address
Permanent Government
February 22, 1862
Richmond, Virginia
Fellow-Citizens: On this the birthday of the man most identified with the establishment of American independence, and beneath the monument erected to commemorate his heroic virtues and those of his compatriots, we have assembled to usher into existence the Permanent Government of the Confederate States. Through this instrumentality, under the favor of Divine Providence, we hope to perpetuate the principles of our revolutionary fathers. The day, the memory, and the purpose seem fitly associated.
It is with mingled feelings of humility and pride that I appear to take, in the presence of the people and before high Heaven, the oath prescribed as a qualification for the exalted station to which the unanimous voice of the people has called me. Deeply sensible of all that is implied by this manifestation of the people’s confidence, I am yet more profoundly impressed by the vast responsibility of the office, and humbly feel my own unworthiness.
In return for their kindness I can offer assurance of the gratitude with which it is received; and can but pledge a zealous devotion of every faculty to the service of those who have chosen me as their Chief Magistrate. … For proof of the sincerity of our purpose to maintain our ancient institutions, we may point to the Constitution of the Confederacy and the laws enacted under it, as well as to the fact that through all the necessities of an unequal struggle there has been no act on our part to impair personal liberty or the freedom of speech, of thought or of the press. The courts have been open, the judicial functions fully executed, and every right of the peaceful citizen maintained as securely as if a war of invasion had not disturbed the land.
The people of the States now confederated became convinced that the Government of the United States had fallen into the hands of a sectional majority, who would pervert that most sacred of all trusts to the destruction of the rights which it was pledged to protect. They believed that to remain longer in the Union would subject them to continuance of a disparaging discrimination, submission to which would be inconsistent with their welfare, and intolerable to a proud people. They therefore determined to sever its bounds and established a new Confederacy for themselves.
The experiment instituted by our revolutionary fathers, of a voluntary Union of sovereign States for purpose specified in a solemn compact, had been perverted by those who, feeling power and forgetting right, were determined to respect no law but their own will. The Government had ceased to answer the ends for which it was ordained and established. To save ourselves from a revolution which, in its silent but rapid progress, was about to place us under the despotism of numbers, and to preserve in spirit, as well as in form, a system of government we believed to be peculiarly fitted to our condition, and full of promise for mankind, we determined to make a new association, composed of States homogeneous in interest, in policy, and in feeling. True to our traditions of peace and our love of justice, we sent commissioners to the United States to propose a fair and amicable settlement of all questions of public debt or property which might be in dispute. But the Government at Washington, denying our right to self-government, refused even to listen to any proposals for peaceful separation. Nothing was then left to do but to prepare for war. …
Fellow-citizens, after the struggle of ages had consecrated the right of the Englishman to constitutional representative government, our colonial ancestors were forced to vindicate that birthright by an appeal to arms. Success crowned their efforts, and they provided for their posterity a peaceful remedy against future aggression.
The tyranny of the unbridled majority, the most odious and least responsible form of despotism, has denied us both the right and the remedy. Therefore we are in arms to renew such sacrifices as our fathers made to the holy cause of constitutional liberty. At the darkest hour of our struggle the Provisional gives place to the Permanent Government. After
a series of successes and victories, which covered our arms with glory, we have recently met with serious disasters. But in the heart of a people resolved to be free these disasters tend but to stimulate to increased resistance.
With confidence in the wisdom and virtue of those who will share with me the responsibility and aid me in the conduct of public affairs; securely relying on the patriotism and courage of the people, of which the present war has furnished so many examples, I deeply feel the weight of the responsibilities I now, with unaffected diffidence, am about to assume; and, fully realizing the inequality of human power to guide and to sustain, my hope is reverently fixed on Him whose favor is ever vouchsafed to the cause which is just. With humble gratitude and adoration, acknowledging the Providence which has so visibly protected the Confederacy during its brief but eventful career, to thee, O God, I trustingly commit myself, and prayerfully invoke thy blessing on my country and its cause.
(Speech published in “The General John T. Morgan Newsletter,” Sons of Confederate Veterans, Camp #361, Anniston, Alabama, Vol. IV, No. 07, July 1992)
ADDENDUM V
Law Against Slave Trade Upheld
A VETO MESSAGE
Not only did the Constitution of the Confederate States of America outlaw the importation of slaves from Africa into the South, but the very first veto issued by President Jefferson Davis was on a bill that he deemed to be in conflict with that part of the Confederate Constitution that prohibited the importation of African slaves.
In the body of his veto message, President Davis declares the reason he felt justified in refusing to sign the bill. His recommendation that the bill not be passed was upheld by the Confederate Congress.
You will notice that in President Davis’ message he notes how the bill in question would be in conflict with Article I, Section VII, of the Constitution. This is in reference to that portion of the Provisional Constitution, which was superseded on February 22,1862, by the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. The portion of the constitution of the Confederacy that deals with the importation of African slaves is found in Article I, Section IX. The effect of the law was the same whether one is looking at the Provisional Constitution or the Constitution of the Confederate States of America.
This message along with that portion of the constitution of the Confederacy that prohibits the future importation of African slaves makes a clear challenge to those who assert that the Southern Confederacy was trying to promote slavery. Those who believe in the myth of the “Slaveholders Confederacy” will have a hard time understanding why the president of the Southern Confederacy and the very constitution of that Confederacy were both opposed to the importation of African slaves. But cultural bigots have never allowed truth to stand in the way of their prejudice.
Veto Message
Executive Department, February 28, 1861
Gentlemen of Congress: With sincere deference to the judgement of Congress, I have carefully considered the bill in relation to the slave trade, and to punish persons offending therein, but have not been able to approve it, and therefore do return it with a statement of my objections. The Constitution (section 7, article I.) provides that the importation of African negroes from any foreign country other than slave-holding States of the United States is hereby forbidden, and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same. The rule herein given is emphatic, and distinctly directs the legislation which shall effectually prevent the importation of African negroes. The bill before me denounces as high misdemeanor the importation of African negroes or other persons of color, either to be sold as slaves or to be held to service or labor, affixing heavy, degrading penalties on the act, if done with such intent. To that extent it accords with the requirements of the Constitution, but in the sixth section of the bill provision is made for the transfer of persons who may have been illegally imported into the Confederate States to the custody of foreign States or societies, upon condition of deportation and future freedom, and if the proposition thus to surrender them shall not be accepted, it is then made the duty of the President to cause said negroes to be sold at public outcry to the highest bidder in any one of the States where such sale shall not be inconsistent with the laws thereof. This provision seems to me to be in opposition to the policy declared in the Constitution—the prohibition of the importation of African negroes—and in derogation of its mandate to legislate for the effectuation of that object. Wherefore the bill is returned to you for your further consideration, and together with objections, most respectfully submitted.
Jeff’n Davis.
ADDENDUM VI
The Constitution of the Confederate States of America
This addendum contains an overview of the Confederate States (C.S.) Constitution, a comparison between it and the original United States (U.S.) Constitution, and is followed by the text of the Confederate States Constitution.
The Constitution of
The
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
The history of the Confederate States has been studied in just about every area of its existence; the one exception is the study of the Confederate (C.S.) Constitution. In the following pages we will provide a limited comparative review of the Confederate Constitution and the United States Constitution. The authors are indebted to the Honorable Devereaux D. Cannon, Jr., as much of the information for this overview is from the body of a speech given by Mr. Cannon at the annual convention of the Louisiana Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, in Monroe, Louisiana, in 1990. Mr. Cannon is the author of The Flags of the Confederacy and chairman of the Confederate Heritage Committee of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The complete text of the constitution of the Confederate States is provided at the end of this article.
The War for Southern Independence was the culmination of the struggle between the forces of a strong centralized federal government and the forces of a limited central government (i.e., State’s Rights). With the adoption of the United States Constitution, American republicanism (limited government with delegated central authority and the remainder of rights in the control of the states) was born. With the advent of the Lincolnite revolution, the government was changed from that of American republicanism to that of American imperialism. No longer a federal republic of sovereign states and limited central government, this country became a nation of unlimited federal authority with states existing as no more than mere geographical entities. This was the real beginning of the American empire, which mirrored the growth of European imperialism.
On a national level, there have been three distinct constitutional conventions held in America. The first, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, adopted the Articles of Confederation in 1781. The second, also held in Philadelphia, produced the Constitution of the United States in 1787. The third was held in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1861, and formulated the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. There are some similarities between the two latter conventions:
1. Both sought to remodel the nature of the government of which they had been a member. One (U.S.) was trying to increase the power of a weak federal government, and the other (C.S.) was trying to place more limits on a federal government grown too powerful.
2. Both were secession movements. One (U.S.) would build a union from only those states that would ratify the new Constitution. When the 1787 (U.S.) Constitution went into effect, only nine of the thirteen original states adopted it, which meant that the remaining four states were still members of the old union under the Articles of Confederation. They existed as a foreign power in relation to the new union. For example, Rhode Island did not become a member of the new union for a year and a half after all the other states had joined the new union, during which time she remained an independent state.’ The states of the Confederate constitutional convention would also secede from an old union to form a new union.
There were also some major differences between these two constitutional conventions. The s
tates that seceded from the old (Articles of Confederation) union did so after they had written their constitution and while they were still members of the old union. This was done even though their commission was to reform the Articles of Confederation, not to write a new constitution.2 Also, they seceded from a union under the Articles of Confederation despite the fact that the preamble of these Articles stated that the union formed by the Articles was to be perpetual. The Confederate convention was held by states that had already seceded from the union in 1861 when they wrote a new constitution and submitted it to the states for approval.
The South Was Right Page 38