States-and the same be ratified by the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, or by Conventions in two-thirds thereof-as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the general Convention— they shall thenceforward form a part of this Constitution. But no State shall, without its consent, be deprived of its equal Representation in the Senate.

ARTICLE VI.

1. The Government established by this Constitution is the successor of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, and all the laws passed by the latter shall continue in force until the same shall be repealed or modified; and all the officers appointed by the same shall remain in office until their successors are appointed and qualified, or the offices abolished.

2. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the Confederate States under this Constitution as under the Provisional Government.

3. This Constitution, and the laws of the Confederate States made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the Confederate States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 4. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State Legislatures, and all Executive and Judicial officers, both of the Confederate States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the Confederate States.

5. The enumeration, in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people of the several States.

6. The powers not delegated to the Confederate States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people thereof.

ARTICLE VII.

1. The Ratification of the Conventions of five States shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.

2. When five States shall have ratified this Constitution, in the manner before specified, the Congress under the Provisional Constitution shall prescribe the time for holding the election of President and Vice President, and for the meeting of the Electoral College, and for counting the votes, and inaugurating the President. They shall also prescribe the time for holding the first election of members of Congress under this Constitution, and the time for assembling the same.

Until

the assembling of such Congress, the Congress under the Provisional Constitution shall continue to exercise the Legislative powers granted them; not extending beyond the time limited by the Constitution of the Provisional Government.

EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE CONGRESS. CONGRESS, March 11, 1861.

On the question of the adoption of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, the vote was taken by Yeas and Nays; and the Constitution was unanimously adopted, as follows:

Those who voted in the affirmative being Messrs. Walker, Smith, Curry, Hale, McRae, Shorter, and Fearn, of Alabama, (Messrs. Chilton and Lewis being absent;) Messrs. Morton, Anderson, and Owens, of Florida; Messrs. Toombs, Howell Cobb, Bartow, Nisbet, Hill, Wright, Thomas R. R. Cobb, and Stephens, of Georgia, (Messrs. Crawford and Kenan being absent;) Messrs. Perkins, de Clouét, Conrad, Kenner, Sparrow, and Marshall, of Louisiana; Messrs. Harris, Brooke, Wilson, Clayton, Barry, and Harrison, of Mississippi, (Mr. Campbell being absent;) Messrs. Rhett, Barnwell, Keitt, Chesnut, Memminger, Miles, Withers, and Boyce, of South Carolina; Messrs. Reagan, Hemphill, Waul, Gregg, Oldham, and Ochiltree, of Texas, (Mr. Wigfall being absent.)

A true copy:

J. J. HOOPER,
Secretary of the Congress.

CONGRESS, March 11, 1861.

I do hereby certify that the foregoing are, respectively, true and correct copies of "The Constitution of the Confederate States of America,” unanimously adopted this day, and of the Yeas and Nays on the question of the adoption thereof.

HOWELL COBB,
President of the Congress.

I.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS AND MR. SECRETARY SEWARD, WITH JUDGE CAMPBELL'S LETTERS UPON THE SUBJECT.

WASHINGTON CITY, March 12, 1861.

HON. WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State of the United States:

Sir:-The undersigned have been duly accredited by the Government of the Confederate States of America, as Commissioners to the Government of the United States, and in pursuance of their instructions have now the honor to acquaint you with that fact, and to make known,

through you, to the President of the United States, the objects of their presence in this Capital.

Seven States of the late Federal Union, having in the exercise of the inherent right of every free people to change or reform their Political Institutions, and through Conventions of their people, withdrawn from the United States and re-assumed the attributes of Sovereign Power delegated to it, have formed a Government of their own. The Confederate States constitute an Independent Nation, de facto and de jure, and possess a Government perfect in all its parts and endowed with all the means of self-support.

With a view to a speedy adjustment of all questions growing out of this political separation, upon such terms of amity and good-will as the respective interests, geographical contiguity, and future welfare of the two Nations may render necessary, the undersigned are instructed to make to the Government of the United States overtures for the opening of negotiations, assuring the Government of the United States that the President, Congress, and people of the Confederate States, earnestly desire a peaceful solution of these great questions; that it is neither their interest, nor their wish to make any demand which is not founded in strictest justice, nor do any act to injure their late Confederates.

The undersigned have now the honor in obedience to the instructions of their Government, to request you to appoint as early a day as possible, in order that they may present to the President of the United States, the Credentials which they bear and the objects of the mission with which they are charged.

We are, very respectfully, your obedient servants,
JOHN FORSYTH,

Mr. John Forsyth, of the State of Alabama, and Mr. Martin J. Crawford, of the State of Georgia, on the 11th inst., through the kind offices of a distinguished Senator, submitted to the Secretary of State, their desire for an un-official interview. This request was, on the 12th inst., upon exclusively public considerations, respectfully declined.

On the 13th inst., while the Secretary was pre-occupied, Mr. A. D. Banks, of Virginia, called at this Department, and was received by the Assistant-Secretary, to whom he delivered a sealed communication, which he had been charged by Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, ta present to the Secretary in person.

In that communication Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford inform the Secretary of State that they have been duly accredited by the Government of the Confederate States of America as Commissioners to the

Government of the United States, and they set forth the objects of their attendance at Washington. They observe that seven States of the American Union, in the exercise of a right inherent in every free people, have withdrawn, through Conventions of their people, from the United States, re-assumed the attributes of Sovereign Power, and formed a Government of their own, and that those Confederate States now constitute an Independent Nation, de facto and de jure, and possess a Government perfect in all its parts, and fully endowed with all the means of self-support. Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, in their aforesaid communication, thereupon proceeded to inform the Secretary that, with a view to a speedy adjustment of all questions growing out of the political separation thus assumed, upon such terms of amity and good-will as the respective interests, geographical contiguity, and the future welfare of the supposed two Nations might render necessary, they are instructed to make to the Government of the United States overtures for the opening of negotiations, assuring this Government that the President, Congress and the people of the Confederate States earnestly desire a peaceful solution of these great questions, and that it is neither their interest nor their wish to make any demand which is not founded in the strictest justice, nor do any act to injure their late Confederates.

After making these statements, Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford close their communication, as they say, in obedience to the instructions of their Government, by requesting the Secretary of State to appoint as early a day as possible, in order that they may present to the President of the United States the credentials which they bear and the objects of the mission with which they are charged.

The Secretary of State frankly confesses that he understands the events which have recently occurred, and the condition of political affairs which actually exists in the part of the Union to which his attention has thus been directed, very differently from the aspect in which they are presented by Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford. He sees in them, not a rightful and accomplished revolution and an independent Nation, with an established Government, but rather a perversion of a temporary and partisan excitement to the inconsiderate purposes of an unjustifiable and unconstitutional aggression upon the rights and the authority vested in the Federal Government, and hitherto benignly exercised, as from their very nature they always must so be exercised, for the maintenance of the Union, the preservation of liberty, and the security, peace, welfare, happiness, and aggrandizement of the American people. The Secretary of State, therefore, avows to Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford that he looks patiently but confidently for the cure of evils which have resulted from proceedings so unnecessary, so unwise, so unusual, and so unnatural, not to irregular negotiations, having in view new and untried relations with agencies unknown to and acting in derogation of the Constitution and laws, but to regular and

considerate action of the people of those States, in co-operation with their brethren in the other States, through the Congress of the United States, and such extraordinary Conventions, if there shall be need thereof, as the Federal Constitution contemplates and authorizes to be assembled. It is, however, the purpose of the Secretary of State, on this occasion, not to invite or engage in any discussion of these subjects, but simply to set forth his reasons for declining to comply with the request of Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford.

On the 4th of March inst., the then newly elected President of the United States, in view of all the facts bearing on the present question, assumed the Executive Administration of the Government, first delivering, in accordance with an early, honored custom, an Inaugural Address to the people of the United States. The Secretary of State respectfully submits a copy of this address to Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford.

A simple reference to it will be sufficient to satisfy these gentlemen that the Secretary of State, guided by the principles therein announced, is prevented altogether from admitting or assuming that the States referred to by them have, in law or in fact, withdrawn from the Federal Union, or that they could do so in the manner described by Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, or in any other manner than with the consent and concert of the people of the United States, to be given through a National Convention, to be assembled in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution of the United States. Of course the Secretary of State cannot act upon the assumption, or in any way admit that the socalled Confederate States constitute a foreign Power, with whom diplomatic relations ought to be established.

Under these circumstances, the Secretary of State, whose official duties are confined, subject to the direction of the President, to the conducting of the foreign relations of the country, and do not at all embrace domestic questions, or questions arising between the several States and the Federal Government, is unable to comply with the request of Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, to appoint a day on which they may present the evidences of their authority and the objects of their visit to the President of the United States. On the contrary, he is obliged to state to Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, that he has no authority, nor is he at liberty, to recognize them as diplomatic agents, or hold correspondence or other communication with them.

Finally, the Secretary of State would observe that, although he has supposed that he might safely and with propriety have adopted these conclusions, without making any reference of the subject to the Executive, yet, so strong has been his desire to practise entire directness, and to act in a spirit of perfect respect and candor towards Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, and that portion of the people of the Union, in whose name they present themselves before him, that he has cheerfully submitted this paper to the President, who coincides generally in the views