Editing Confederate States of America (section)

===Constitution===
{{Main|Constitution of the Confederate States}}
{{Wikisource|Constitution of the Confederate States of America}}

In February, 1861, Southern leaders met in Montgomery, Alabama to adopt their first constitution, establishing a [[confederation]] of "sovereign and independent states", guaranteeing states the right to a republican form of government. Prior to adopting to the first Confederate constitution, the independent states were sovereign republics.<ref name="wwgaunt"/><ref name="dunbarrowland"/>

A second Confederate constitution was written in March, 1861, which sought to replace the confederation with a federal government; much of this constitution replicated the United States Constitution verbatim, but contained several explicit protections of the institution of slavery including provisions for the recognition and protection of slavery in any territory of the Confederacy. It maintained the [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves|ban on international slave-trading]], though it made the ban's application explicit to "Negroes of the African race" in contrast to the U.S. Constitution's reference to "such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit". It protected the [[Slavery in the United States#Internal slave trade|existing internal trade]] of slaves among slaveholding states.

In certain areas, the second Confederate Constitution gave greater powers to the states (or curtailed the powers of the central government more) than the U.S. Constitution of the time did, but in other areas, the states lost rights they had under the U.S. Constitution. Although the Confederate Constitution, like the U.S. Constitution, contained a [[commerce clause]], the Confederate version prohibited the central government from using revenues collected in one state for funding [[internal improvement]]s in another state. The Confederate Constitution's equivalent to the U.S. Constitution's [[General Welfare clause|general welfare clause]] prohibited [[protective tariff]]s (but allowed tariffs for providing domestic revenue). State legislatures had the power to [[impeachment|impeach]] officials of the Confederate government in some cases. On the other hand, the Confederate Constitution contained a [[Necessary and Proper Clause]] and a [[Supremacy Clause]] that essentially duplicated the respective clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The Confederate Constitution also incorporated each of the 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution that had been ratified up to that point.

The second Confederate Constitution was adopted on February 22, 1862, one year into the American Civil War, and did not specifically include a provision allowing states to secede; the Preamble spoke of each state "acting in its sovereign and independent character" but also of the formation of a "permanent [[Federalism|federal government]]". During the debates on drafting the Confederate Constitution, one proposal would have allowed states to secede from the Confederacy. The proposal was tabled with only the South Carolina delegates voting in favor of considering the motion.<ref>Davis p. 248.</ref> The Confederate Constitution also explicitly denied States the power to bar slaveholders from other parts of the Confederacy from bringing their slaves into any state of the Confederacy or to interfere with the property rights of slave owners traveling between different parts of the Confederacy. In contrast with the secular language of the United States Constitution, the Confederate Constitution overtly asked God's blessing ("... invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God ...").

Some historians have referred to the Confederacy as a form of [[Herrenvolk democracy]].<ref name="Dal Lago2018">{{Cite book|last=Dal Lago|first=Enrico|title=Civil War and Agrarian Unrest: The Confederate South and Southern Italy|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2018|isbn=978-1108340625|pages=79|quote=[T]he slaveholding elites' project of Confederate nation building—very likely believing the idea that the Confederacy was a 'herrenvolk democracy' or 'democracy of the white race'....}}</ref><ref name="McPherson1997">{{Cite book|last=M. McPherson|first=James|title=For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War|title-link=For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1997|isbn=978-0195124996|location=[[New York City]]|pages=106, 109|quote=Confederate soldiers from slaveholding families expressed no feelings of embarrassment or inconsistency in fighting for their own liberty while holding other people in slavery. Indeed, white supremacy and the right of property in slaves were at the core of the ideology for which Confederate soldiers fought.... Herrenvolk democracy—the equality of all who belonged to the master race—was a powerful motivator for many Confederate soldiers.|author-link=James M. McPherson}}</ref>

====Executive====
{{Main|President of the Confederate States of America}}

The Montgomery Convention to establish the Confederacy and its executive met on February 4, 1861. Each state as a sovereignty had one vote, with the same delegation size as it held in the U.S. Congress, and generally 41 to 50 members attended.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 22. The Texas delegation had four in the U.S. Congress, seven in the Montgomery Convention.</ref> Offices were "provisional", limited to a term not to exceed one year. One name was placed in nomination for president, one for vice president. Both were elected unanimously, 6–0.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 23. While the Texas delegation was seated, and is counted in the "original seven" states of the Confederacy, its referendum to ratify secession had not taken place, so its delegates did not yet vote on instructions from their state legislature.</ref>

[[File:President-Jefferson-Davis.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.8|[[Jefferson Davis]], President of the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865]]

Jefferson Davis was elected provisional president. His U.S. Senate resignation speech greatly impressed with its clear rationale<!-- source? sounds biased, but could use further explanation. did someone say it was clear? --> for secession and his pleading for a peaceful departure from the Union to independence. Although he had made it known that he wanted to be commander-in-chief of the Confederate armies, when elected, he assumed the office of Provisional President. Three candidates for provisional Vice President were under consideration the night before the February 9 election. All were from Georgia, and the various delegations meeting in different places determined two would not do, so Alexander H. Stephens was elected unanimously provisional Vice President, though with some privately held reservations. Stephens was inaugurated February 11, Davis February 18.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 23–26.</ref>

Davis and Stephens were elected president and vice president, unopposed [[Confederate States presidential election, 1861|on November 6, 1861]]. They were inaugurated on February 22, 1862.

Coulter stated, "No president of the U.S. ever had a more difficult task." Washington was inaugurated in peacetime. Lincoln inherited an established government of long standing. The creation of the Confederacy was accomplished by men who saw themselves as fundamentally conservative. Although they referred to their "Revolution", it was in their eyes more a counter-revolution against changes away from their understanding of U.S. founding documents. In Davis' inauguration speech, he explained the Confederacy was not a French-like revolution, but a transfer of rule. The Montgomery Convention had assumed all the laws of the United States until superseded by the Confederate Congress.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 25, 27</ref>

The Permanent Constitution provided for a President of the Confederate States of America, elected to serve a six-year term but without the possibility of re-election. Unlike the United States Constitution, the Confederate Constitution gave the president the ability to subject a bill to a [[line item veto]], a power also held by some state governors.

The Confederate Congress could overturn either the general or the line item vetoes with the same two-thirds votes required in the [[Congress of the United States|U.S. Congress]]. In addition, appropriations not specifically requested by the executive branch required passage by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress. The only person to serve as president was [[Jefferson Davis]], as the Confederacy was defeated before the completion of his term.
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=====Administration and cabinet=====
{{Main|Cabinet of the Confederate States of America}}
{{Infobox cabinet members

|office1=[[President of the Confederate States of America|President]]
|name1a=[[Jefferson Davis]]
|term1a=1861–65

|office2=[[Vice President of the Confederate States of America|Vice President]]
|name2a=[[Alexander H. Stephens]]
|term2a=1861–65

|office3=[[Confederate States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]]

|name3a=[[Robert Toombs]]
|term3a=1861

|name3b=[[Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter|Robert M.T. Hunter]]
|term3b=1861–62

|name3c=[[Judah P. Benjamin]]
|term3c=1862–65

|office4=[[Confederate States of America Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]]

|name4a=[[Christopher Memminger]]
|term4a=1861–64

|name4b=[[George Trenholm]]
|term4b=1864–65

|name4c=[[John H. Reagan]]
|term4c=1865

|office5=[[Confederate States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]]

|name5a=[[Leroy Pope Walker]]
|term5a=1861

|name5b=[[Judah P. Benjamin]]
|term5b=1861–62

|name5c=[[George W. Randolph]]
|term5c=1862

|name5d=[[James Seddon]]
|term5d=1862–65

|name5e=[[John C. Breckinridge]]
|term5e=1865

|office6=[[Confederate States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]]
|name6a=[[Stephen Mallory]]
|term6a=1861–65

|office7=[[Postage stamps and postal history of the Confederate States#Confederate Post Office|Postmaster General]]
|name7a=[[John H. Reagan]]
|term7a=1861–65

|office8=[[Confederate States Attorney General|Attorney General]]

|name8a=[[Judah P. Benjamin]]
|term8a=1861

|name8b=[[Thomas Bragg]]
|term8b=1861–62

|name8c=[[Thomas H. Watts]]
|term8c=1862–63

|name8d=[[George Davis (Confederate States politician)|George Davis]]
|term8d=1864–65
}}
[[File:Confederate Cabinet.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|Davis's cabinet in 1861, Montgomery, Alabama<br />Front row, left to right: [[Judah P. Benjamin]], [[Stephen Mallory]], [[Alexander H. Stephens]], [[Jefferson Davis]], [[John Henninger Reagan]], and [[Robert Toombs]]<br />Back row, standing left to right: [[Christopher Memminger]] and [[LeRoy Pope Walker]]<br />Illustration printed in ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'']]
{{Clear}}

====Legislative====
{{Main|Provisional Confederate States Congress|Confederate States Congress}}
[[File:Confederate congress.jpg|thumb|'''[[Provisional Confederate Congress|Provisional Congress]]''', Montgomery, Alabama]]

The only two "formal, national, functioning, civilian administrative bodies" in the Civil War South were the Jefferson Davis administration and the Confederate Congresses. The Confederacy was begun by the Provisional Congress in Convention at Montgomery, Alabama on February 28, 1861. The Provisional Confederate Congress was a unicameral assembly; each state received one vote.<ref name="Martis-1994">{{cite book| last=Martis |first=Kenneth C. |title=The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America: 1861–1865 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=1994 |isbn=0-13-389115-1 |page=1}}</ref>

The Permanent Confederate Congress was elected and began its first session February 18, 1862. The Permanent Congress for the Confederacy followed the United States forms with a bicameral legislature. The Senate had two per state, twenty-six Senators. The House numbered 106 representatives apportioned by free and slave populations within each state. Two Congresses sat in six sessions until March 18, 1865.<ref name="Martis-1994"/>

The political influences of the civilian, soldier vote and appointed representatives reflected divisions of political geography of a diverse South. These in turn changed over time relative to Union occupation and disruption, the war impact on the local economy, and the course of the war. Without political parties, key candidate identification related to adopting secession before or after Lincoln's call for volunteers to retake Federal property. Previous party affiliation played a part in voter selection, predominantly secessionist Democrat or unionist Whig.<ref>Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', pp. 72–73</ref>

The absence of political parties made individual roll call voting all the more important, as the Confederate "freedom of roll-call voting [was] unprecedented in American legislative history."<ref>Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', p. 3</ref> Key issues throughout the life of the Confederacy related to (1) suspension of habeas corpus, (2) military concerns such as control of state militia, conscription and exemption, (3) economic and fiscal policy including impressment of slaves, goods and scorched earth, and (4) support of the Jefferson Davis administration in its foreign affairs and negotiating peace.<ref>Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', pp. 90–91</ref>

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;Provisional Congress
For the first year, the unicameral [[Provisional Confederate Congress]] functioned as the Confederacy's legislative branch.

;President of the Provisional Congress
* [[Howell Cobb|Howell Cobb, Sr.]] of Georgia, February 4, 1861 – February 17, 1862

;Presidents pro tempore of the Provisional Congress
* [[Robert Woodward Barnwell]] of South Carolina, February 4, 1861
* [[Thomas Stanhope Bocock]] of Virginia, December 10–21, 1861 and January 7–8, 1862
* [[Josiah Abigail Patterson Campbell]] of Mississippi, December 23–24, 1861 and January 6, 1862
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;Sessions of the Confederate Congress
* [[Provisional Congress of the Confederate States|Provisional Congress]]
* [[1st Confederate States Congress|1st Congress]]
* [[2nd Confederate States Congress|2nd Congress]]

;Tribal Representatives to Confederate Congress
* [[Elias Cornelius Boudinot]] 1862–65, [[Cherokee]]
* [[Samuel Benton Callahan]] Unknown years, [[Creek (people)|Creek]], [[Seminole]]
* [[Burton Allen Holder]] 1864–65, [[Chickasaw]]
* [[Robert McDonald Jones]] 1863–65, [[Choctaw]]
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====Judicial====
<gallery style="float:right; text-align:center" perrow="2">
Jesse Finley - Brady-Handy.jpg|[[Jesse J. Finley]]<br />Florida District
HenryRootesJackson.jpg|[[Henry R. Jackson]]<br />Georgia District
NC-Congress-AsaBiggs.jpg|[[Asa Biggs]]<br />North Carolina District
Andrew Gordon Magrath.jpg|[[Andrew Gordon Magrath|Andrew Magrath]]<br />South Carolina District
</gallery>

The Confederate Constitution outlined a judicial branch of the government, but the ongoing war and resistance from states-rights advocates, particularly on the question of whether it would have appellate jurisdiction over the state courts, prevented the creation or seating of the "Supreme Court of the Confederate States". Thus, the state courts generally continued to operate as they had done, simply recognizing the Confederate States as the national government.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.albanylaw.edu/sub.php?navigation_id=821 |title="Legal Materials on the Confederate States of America in the Schaffer Law Library", Albany Law School |publisher=Albanylaw.edu |access-date=August 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071103033519/http://www.albanylaw.edu/sub.php?navigation_id=821 |archive-date=November 3, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Confederate district courts were authorized by Article III, Section 1, of the Confederate Constitution,<ref name="ReferenceJud"><span class="plainlinks">[[s:Constitution of the Confederate States of America#a3-s1|Constitution of the Confederate States of America – Wikisource, the free online library]]</span>. Retrieved July 6, 2018.</ref> and President Davis appointed judges within the individual states of the Confederate States of America.<ref name="Moise, E. Warren 2003">[Moise, E. Warren, Rebellion in the Temple of Justice (iUniverse 2003)]</ref> In many cases, the same US Federal District Judges were appointed as Confederate States District Judges. Confederate district courts began reopening in early 1861, handling many of the same type cases as had been done before. Prize cases, in which Union ships were captured by the Confederate Navy or raiders and sold through court proceedings, were heard until the blockade of southern ports made this impossible. After a Sequestration Act was passed by the Confederate Congress, the Confederate district courts heard many cases in which enemy aliens (typically Northern absentee landlords owning property in the South) had their property sequestered (seized) by Confederate Receivers.<ref name="Moise, E. Warren 2003" />

'''Supreme Court''' – not established.

'''District Courts''' – judges
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* Alabama [[William Giles Jones]] 1861–1865
* Arkansas [[Daniel Ringo]] 1861–1865
* Florida [[Jesse J. Finley]] 1861–1862
* Georgia [[Henry R. Jackson]] 1861, Edward J. Harden 1861–1865
* Louisiana [[Edwin Warren Moise]] 1861–1865
* Mississippi [[Alexander Mosby Clayton]] 1861–1865
* North Carolina [[Asa Biggs]] 1861–1865
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* South Carolina [[Andrew G. Magrath]] 1861–1864, [[Benjamin F. Perry]] 1865
* Tennessee [[West H. Humphreys]] 1861–1865
* Texas-East William Pinckney Hill 1861–1865
* Texas-West Thomas J. Devine 1861–1865
* Virginia-East [[James D. Halyburton]] 1861–1865
* Virginia-West [[John W. Brockenbrough]] 1861–1865
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