Confederate States Constitution

The Constitution of the Confederate States shall lay down the political constitution of the Könfoderierten States of America. It was decided by it on 11 March 1861, and thus replaced a adopted on February 8, 1861 provisional constitution. Valid remained the Constitution from March 1861 until the defeat of the Confederacy in the American Civil War in 1865.

The text of the Constitution is largely a duplicate of the Constitution of the United States, including the twelve decided before 1861 additional items that have been incorporated into the main text of the Constitution. Important differences between the two constitutional texts exist with regard to the conception of slavery, the rights of Member States and the parliamentary budget and taxation control.

Slavery was explicitly subject to control by the central government and left to the individual states to regulate; only the importation of new slaves from abroad continued to be banned as it had been the case in the United States since 1808, as the associated forays into Africa and the many dead no longer had many supporters on the transport ships in the South. Upon resumption of slave transports and countermeasures of Britain and France would have been fear. A proposed provision, which had to allow slavery any State failed just because you held out hopes, some northern states could join for economic reasons at some point of the Confederacy. However, the existence of slavery in any state of all its territories and in all future newly formed states was guaranteed by the Constitution, as well as the return of slaves who fled into slave- free states. While the slaves " other persons " (other people) had been circumscribed in the U.S. Constitution still euphemistically as they are now called the Constitution of the Confederate States expressly " slaves ".

Forces

The Confederate Constitution provides for a tripartite division of state power before: The Legislature formed the Congress of the Confederate States of America. This bicameral legislature was divided into the Confederate House of Representatives, in which each state sent delegates on the population, and the Confederate Senate, where each state was uniformly represented by two Senators. These were as usual for a term of two and six years selected. Elections were held in contrast to the Northern states in odd-numbered years; only two were actually held in the years 1861 and 1863, as the scheduled election date in 1865 the Confederacy already no longer existed. Another important difference to the north in the constitutional practice was that in the Confederacy during its existence no political parties and the candidates were out so all competed as individuals. But even the U.S. Constitution nowhere expressly mentioned parties to this day. In contrast to the U.S. Constitution omnibus laws were prohibited, any law could only relate to a matter.

The President of the Confederate States, and his vice president were elected by electors, but at six instead of four years and in the Union. On the other hand, the re-election was excluded. Only a presidential election actually took place; the presidential candidate Jefferson Davis and his running mate Alexander Stephens acquired in 1861, all the electoral votes and held office until the collapse of the Confederacy. The president could veto it not only violates laws as a whole, but also against some of the provisions. Together with the prohibition of omnibus legislation meant an abolition of the existing under the U.S. Constitution possibility of the President for signature to an undesired by him necessary to determine, by grouping them in a desired of him, and thought to be important law to another Thread is inserted.

As the highest authority of the judiciary, a Supreme Court provided for in the Constitution. For this but no judges were appointed during the existence of the Confederacy, as the political leaders of the southern states feared a Judikativlastigkeit of the state.

Constitutional amendments

Constitutional amendments were possible, in contrast to the U.S. Constitution not by decision of the Congress by a two -thirds majority, but only by the convening of a new Constituent Assembly at the request of at least three states. The proposed changes there majority decided then had to be endorsed by two thirds of the several States (instead of three-quarters in the Union), before they could take effect. During the existence of the Confederacy, there was no constitutional amendment.