President, not re-eligible... who shall act in case of vacancy...... shall take an oath of office... may be removed by impeachment.... may require the written opinions of may reprieve and pardon.. may make treaties with consent of may appoint to office with consent of shall fill vacancies happening during shall give information to Congress may adjourn them in case of disa- 2 3 2 3 to be secure from 2 2 2 2 2 Rights of the citizen declared to be priv- 4 2 4 2 liberty of conscience in matters of freedom of speech and of the press.... to keep and bear arms..... to be exempt from the quartering of searches and seizures.. to be free from answering for a not to be twice jeoparded for the unreasonable not to be deprived of life, liberty, or private property not to be taken for in criminal prosecutions shall have 8. granting letters of marque.............. coining money.... emitting bills of credit.... making anything a tender but gold and silver...... passing bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, or laws impairing contracts... granting titles of nobility. laying duties on imports and exports laying duties on tonnage.... may lay tonnage duty on sea-going Vessels for the improvement of rivers, &c....... keeping troops or ships of war in time of peace........................................ Catering into any agreement or compact with another State or foreign Power..... may enter into compact for improvement of certain rivers.......... engaging in war..... States, new, may be admitted into the Union (or Confederacy).. new, may be admitted upon twothirds vote of both Houses, the Senate voting by States...... may be formed within the jurisdiction of others, or by the junction of two or more, with the consent of Congress and the Legislatures of the States concerned......... State judges bound to consider treaties, the Constitution, and the laws under it, as supreme....... State, every, guarantied a republican form of government, protected by the United (or Confederate) States Supreme Court (See Court and Judi ciary.) 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 Suits at Common Law, proceedings in... 7 Am'd. 1 2 1 1 9 1 9 1 9 1 10 31 6 Title from foreign State prohibited....... 1 Treason, defined...... two witnesses, or confession, necessary for conviction.. punishment of, may be prescribed by Congress.... Treasury, money drawn from only by appropriation..................... Treaties, how made........... the supreme law................................. States cannot make.. √.. Vacancies happening during the re 1 93 3 3 3 1201 6 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. 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.' The "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 generationstill clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at 9 the North who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. "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 principles 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 we not, therefore, look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system rests. It is the 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 best, not 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 purposes 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 will end, the future will determine." ADMINISTRATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural dress, March 4, 1861. Ad-consistently with the Constitution and the laws, 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. Fellow-citizens of the United States: In compliance with a custom as old as the Govern- | ment 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. 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 the whole Constitution to this provision as most ample evidence to the contrary has all the much as any other. while existed and been open to their inspec- that slaves, whose cases come within the terms To the proposition, then, tion. It is found in nearly all the published of this clause, " shall be delivered up," their speeches of him who now addresses you. I do oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would but quote from one of those speeches when I make the effort in good temper, could they not, declare that "I have no purpose, directly or with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe law by means of which to keep good that 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, 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, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: unanimous oath? this clause should be enforced by national or "Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the 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 introical fabric depend, and wo denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter 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 which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming Administration. 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 |