to keep and bear arms.... 2 Representatives and direct taxes, apportioned according to numbers... Represesentation of a State; vacancies in, supplied until a new election by executive authority. Resolution, order, or vote, requiring the concurrence of both Houses, to undergo the formalities of bills...... Removal of certain civil officers to be reported by the President to the Senate, with his reasons therefor... Revenue bills to originate in the House of Representatives Rights of the citizen declared to be privileges of citizens of the several States.... liberty of conscience in matters of religion... freedom of speech and of the press.... 1 Am'd. 1 to assemble and petition.... 6666 1 Am'd. 1 9 2 Am'd. 1 9 2 3 2 3 shall receive embassadors and public ministers..... to be exempt from the quartering of soldiers. 2 3 2 3 22 1 6 1 6 not to be twice jeoparded for the saine offence......... not to be deprived of life, property without due process of law... liberty, or private property not to be taken for public use.... THEIR CONSTITUTION AS INTERPRETED BY THE "CONFEDERATE" VICE PRESIDENT. 1861, March 21, ALEX. H. STEPHENS delivered a speech at Savannah, in explanation and vindication of the Constitution, from which this is a well known extract: "The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutionsAfrican slavery as it exists among us-the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this as the "rock upon which the old Union would split. He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature: that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly used against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a government built upon it; when the 'storm came and the wind blew, it fell.' "Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man. That slavery-subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well, that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. "In the conflict thus far, success has been, on our side, complete throughout the length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is upon this, as I have stated, our actual fabric is firmly planted; and I cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of a full recognition of this principle throughout the civilized and enlightened world. "As I have stated, the truth of this principle may be slow in development, as all truths are, and ever have been, in the various branches of science. It was so with the principlos announced by Galileo-it was so with Adam Smith and his principles of political economy-it was so with Harvey and his theory of the circulation of the blood. It is stated that not a single one of the medical profession, living at the time of the announcement of the truths made by him, admitted them. Now they are universally acknowledged. May wo not, therefore, look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system rests. It is tho first government ever instituted upon principles of strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of certain classes; but the classes thus enslaved, were of the same race, and in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. The negro, by nature, or by the curso against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper materials, the granite: then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is lost, pot only for the superior, but for the inferior race that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposos He has made one race to differ from another, as He | has made one star to differ from another star in glory.' "The great objects of humanity are best attained when conformed to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments, as well as in all things else. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was first rejected by the first builders is become the chief stone of the corner' in our new edifice. "The progress of disintegration in the old Union may be expected to go on with almost absolute certainty. We are now the nucleus of a growing power, which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and high mission, will become the controlling power on this continent. To what extent accessions will go on in the process of time, or where it wili end, the future will determine." ADMINISTRATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Ad-| consistently with the Constitution and the laws, dress, March 4, 1861. Fellow-citizens of the United States: In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President "before he enters on the execution of his office." I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement. can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause as cheerfully to one section as to another. There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions : "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in conse quence 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 service or labor may be due." Apprehension seems to exist among the peoIt is scarcely questioned that this provision ple of the Southern States that by the accession was intended by those who made it for the reof a Republican Administration their property claiming, of what we call fugitive slaves; and and their peace and personal security are to be the intention of the law-giver is the law. All endangered. There has never been any reason-members of Congress swear their support to able cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations the whole Constitution-to this provision as much as any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves, whose cases come within the terms of this clause, "shall be delivered up," their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath? this clause should be enforced by national or There is some difference of opinion whether by State authority; but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little conse and had never recanted them. And more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, thequence to him, or to others, by which authority clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: it is done. And should any one, in any case, be content that his oath shall go unkept, on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept? Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially tho right of each State to order Again, in any law upon this subject, ought and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to the balance of not all the safeguards of liberty known in civipower on which the perfection and endurance of our polit-lized and humane jurisprudence to be introfcal fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no tter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of wh ch the case is susceptible that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming Administraton. I add, too, that all the protection which, duced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guaranties that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States ?" I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical |