The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• Publisher’s Note
• Preface to the First Edition
• Preface to the Edition of 1910
• Note to Edition of 1914
• List of Presidents
• Dates of Some Remarkable Events In the History of the North American Colonies and United States
• Area, Population, and Date of Admission of the States
• Chapter 1: Introductory
• Part I: The National Government
• Chapter 2: The Nation and the States
• Chapter 3: The Origin of the Constitution
• Chapter 4: Nature of the Federal Government
• Chapter 5: The President
• Chapter 6: Presidential Powers and Duties
• Chapter 7: Observations On the Presidency
• Chapter 8: Why Great Men Are Not Chosen Presidents
• Chapter 9: The Cabinet
• Chapter 10: The Senate
• Chapter 11: The Senate As an Executive and Judicial Body
• Chapter 12: The Senate: Its Working and Influence
• Chapter 13: The House of Representatives
• Chapter 14: The House At Work
• Chapter 15: The Committees of Congress
• Chapter 16: Congressional Legislation
• Chapter 17: Congressional Finance
• Chapter 18: The Relations of the Two Houses
• Chapter 19: General Observations On Congress
• Chapter 20: The Relations of Congress to the President 1
• Chapter 21: The Legislature and the Executive
• Chapter 22: The Federal Courts
• Chapter 23: The Courts and the Constitution
• Chapter 24: The Working of the Courts
• Chapter 25: Comparison of the American and European Systems
• Chapter 26: General Observations On the Frame of National Government
• Chapter 27: The Federal System
• Chapter 28: Working Relations of the National and the State Governments
• Chapter 29: Criticism of the Federal System
• Chapter 30: Merits of the Federal System
• Chapter 31: Growth and Development of the Constitution
• Chapter 32: The Amendment of the Constitution
• Chapter 33: The Interpretation of the Constitution
• Chapter 34: The Development of the Constitution By Usage
• Chapter 35: The Results of Constitutional Development
• Part II: The State Governments
• Chapter 36: Nature of the American State
• Chapter 37: State Constitutions
• Chapter 38: The Development of State Constitutions
• Chapter 39: Direct Legislation By the People
• Chapter 40: State Governments: the Legislature
• Chapter 41: The State Executive
• Chapter 42: The State Judiciary
• Chapter 43: State Finance
• Chapter 44: The Working of State Governments
• Chapter 45: Remedies For the Faults of State Governments
• Chapter 46: State Politics
• Chapter 47: The Territories
• Chapter 48: Local Government
• Chapter 49: Observations On Local Government
• Chapter 50: The Government of Cities
• Chapter 51: The Working of City Governments
• Chapter 52: An American View of Municipal Government In the United States
• Appendix: Note to Chapter 3: On Constitutional Conventions
• Note to Chapter 4: What the Federal Constitution Owes to the Constitutions of the Several States
• Note to Chapter 10: Extracts From the Rules of the Senate
• Note (a) to Chapter 16: Private Bills
• Note (b) to Chapter 16: The Lobby
• Note (a) to Chapter 30: Constitution of the Confederate States, 1861–65
• Note (b) to Chapter 30: The Federal Constitution of Canada
• Note to Chapter 33: The Dartmouth College Case
• Articles of Confederation, 1781–88
• Constitution of the United States
• Extracts From the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma 1

Note (A) to Chapter 30

CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, 1861–65

The constitution adopted 11th March 1861 by the slave states which seceded from the Union and formed the short-lived Southern Confederacy, was a reproduction of the federal Constitution of 1788–89, with certain variations, interesting because they show the points in which the states’ rights party thought the federal Constitution defective as inadequately safeguarding the rights of the several states, and because they embody certain other changes which have often been advocated as likely to improve the working of that instrument.

The most important of these variations are the following:

• Art. I, § 2.A provision is inserted permitting the impeachment of a federal officer acting within the limits of any state by a vote of two-thirds of the legislature thereof.
• Art. I, § 6.There is added: “Congress may by law grant to the principal officer in each of the executive departments, a seat upon the floor of either House, with the privilege of discussing any measure appertaining to his department.”
• Art. I, § 7.The president is permitted to veto any particular item or items in an appropriation bill.
• Art. I, § 8.The imposition of protective duties and the granting of bounties on industry are forbidden, and the granting of money for internal improvements is strictly limited.
• Art. I, § 9.Congress is forbidden to appropriate money from the Treasury, except by a vote of two-thirds of both houses, unless it be asked by the head of a department and submitted by the president, or be for the payment of its own expenses, or of claims against the Confederacy declared by a judicial tribunal to be just.
• Art. II, § 1.The president and vice-president are to be elected for six years, and the president is not to be reeligible.
• Art. II, § 2.The president is given power to remove the highest officials at his pleasure, and others for good cause, reporting the removals to the Senate.
• Art. V.The process for amending the Constitution is to be by a convention of all the states, followed by the ratification of two-thirds of the states.

Of these changes, the third and fifth were obvious improvements; and much may be said in favour of the second, fourth, seventh, and eighth. The second was a very slight approximation towards the cabinet system of England.1

I omit the important changes relating to slavery, which was fully protected, because these have only a historical interest.

The working of the Constitution of the Confederate States cannot be fairly judged, because it was conducted under the exigencies of a war, which necessarily gave it a despotic turn. The executive practically got its way. Congress usually sat in secret and “did little beyond register laws prepared by the executive, and debate resolutions for the vigorous conduct of the war. Outside of the ordinary powers conferred by the legislature, the war powers openly or practically exercised by the executive were more sweeping and general than those assumed by President Lincoln.” —(Alexander Johnston in American Cyclopædia of Political Science, Article “Confederate States. ”)

[1] A singular combination of the presidential with the cabinet system may be found in the present Constitution of the Hawaiian kingdom, promulgated 7th July 1887, which lasted till the islands were annexed to the United States in 1898. Framed under the influence of American traditions, it kept the cabinet, which consisted of four ministers, out of the legislature but having an irresponsible hereditary monarch, it was obliged to give the legislature the power of dismissing them by a vote of want of confidence. The legislature consisted of two sets of elective members, Nobles (unpaid), and Representatives (paid), who sat and voted together. Two successive legislatures could alter the constitution by certain prescribed majorities: the constitution was therefore a rigid one.