SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT COPY -
September 25, 2005
New Constitution of
the Confederate States of America
We, the sovereign and independent People of the Sovereign
States of North America, each State, Nation, Commonwealth and
Republic, acting in its sovereign and independent character,
in order to form a federal government, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity--invoking divine favor
and guidance--do ordain and establish this Constitution for
the Confederate States of America.
This Constitution of the Confederate States recognizes the
continuance of the Confederate States of America as a lawful
nation, a Constitutional Republic, existing since 1861 A. D.,
with a people, a flag, a history, and a heritage; that the
Confederate States are an inheritor of the government of the
founders of the United States that rebelled against imperial
rule; that the Confederate States were unlawfully warred
against, occupied and conquered; that since the unlawful
occupation of the Confederate States, other States,
Commonwealths, Nations and Republics not existant at the time
of the occupation may seek admittance into the Confederacy,
and that certain guarantees of individual rights and freedoms
not heretofore considered need inclusion in a Constitution
designed to bind Government from abuses against the People.
Government has no inherent rights or powers, neither
implicit nor explicit. This Constitution assigns certain
functions to the artificial entities called governments
created by this Constitution and authorizes those artificial
entities to take certain actions necessary to accomplish the
assigned functions, but at no time shall a government demand
service of its people, nor shall the supreme and sovereign
right of the individual be infringed. All powers which the
federal government shall have shall be enumerated in this
Constitution, and there shall be no unenumerated powers.
ARTICLE I.
Section I. Territory
The territory of the Confederate States of America
shall consist of the territory of three or more
States, Commonwealths, Nations, or Republics who
shall have ratified this Constitution when it shall
come to pass that it shall be ratified.
The Confederate States shall be open for inclusion
to all jurisdictions and territories who may petition
to become a part of the Confederate States, and who
by their regional convention, election, or plebecite,
agree to ratify this Constitution.
The States and Provinces to which the Confederate
States of America shall automatically offer statehood
to are: the thirteen original States of the
Confederacy and its territories, the States of the
Northwest Ordinance, the States of California and
Oregon, the State of Maryland, and the Canadian
provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan,
and Manitoba, as well as the Yukon Territory, and all
states of the United States which had not been
admitted to the United States prior to 1860 A. D.
These States, Commonwealths, Nations, Republics,
Provinces and Territories shall be offered statehood
in the Confederate States at such time as they, in
whole or in part, ratify this Constitution, and upon
ratification, the Confederate States shall agree to
preserve, protect and defend their borders from
hostile invasion and subversion.
No jurisdiction may be admitted to the Confederate
States as a State which shall not be comprised either
of at least 800,000 sovereign freemen, or of
territory exceeding 4800 square miles.
Section II. Freemanship
The original inhabitants of the United States
were not called citizens, which denotes a term of ownership
and compulsion by the state, but were called freemen and
freeholders. And it shall be the practice of the Confederate
States, in acknowldeging the sovereignty of the individual
person, to refer to what other countries would call citizens,
as sovereign freemen. The status of sovereign freeman in the
Confederate States of America shall at the current time, be
open to those legally and lawfully residing in the original
Thirteeen States of the Confederacy and its territories or
Maryland, as of January 1, 2000, to those legally and
lawfully residing in a State, Commonwealth, Nation, Republic,
Province or Territory at the time of its ratification of this
Constitution according to the entity's boundaries at
admission, those having descent or lineage from the original
Thirteen States of the Confederacy and its territories or
Maryland, those born within the territory of a State,
Commonwealth, Nation, Republic, Province or Territory which
shall ratify this Constitution, and those swearing an oath to
the Confederate States or one of the several states. A single
Confederate state may not deny sovereign freemanship to a
resident sovereign freeman of the Confederate States, but
every state may grant state freemanship to persons who are
not Confederate citizens as they shall so by law include;
except that no person having waged war against the
Confederate States shall be eligible for Confederate States
sovereign freemanship.
Section III. Secession and
Ratification
A. States of the First Category:
the original Confederacy
It is recognized that the original
Thirteen States of the Confederacy were never voluntarily
and lawfully dissolved. Therefore, the original Thirteen
States of the Confederacy are a lawfully constituted
government.
It shall be recognized that ratification
of this Constitution by one of the original Thirteen
States of the Confederacy will reaffirm their intent to
continue as a Sovereign State of the Confederate States.
A State in the First Category shall have
been considered to have ratified this Constitution, when,
a majority of its counties shall have agreed to ratify
this Constitution, by either, the majority of the popular
vote of its citizens or residents, or the majority of a
county convention wherein a quorom of its citizens or
residents have met; or when a majority of one branch of
the State's legislature shall ratify this Constitution,
or when a majority of the statewide popular vote shall
elect to ratify this Consitution, and each county may
choose the manner in which they choose to ratify this
Constitution, and all counties do not have to ratify this
Constitution in the same manner.
The whole of such States shall be
reaffirmed into the Confederate States, excepting such
counties which shall elect, by a majority of the popular
vote of its citizens or residents, or the majority of a
county convention, to refuse to be admitted to, or to
officially secede from, both the Confederate States and
the State which has ratified the Constitution of the
Confederate States, and no state of this category shall
exclude any territory within its borders not having so
formally elected, excepting that the states of Arizona
and New Mexico, and the states of Viriginia and West
Virginia, may apply for inclusion either in their current
configuration or together in their historical
configuration as Arizona Territory and the Commonwealth
of Virginia respectively.
If a state of the first category shall
fail to ratify this Constitution, the residents of such a
state may elect to apply for ratification again in a
configuration of their choosing, electing to exclude
certain lands, territories, cities, or counties from
their application, as they will.
Because Maryland was denied the
opportunity by force of arms to have joined the
Confederate States, when they had a vote prepared to do
so, Maryland shall be recognized as a State of the First
Category.
B. States and Provinces of the
Second Category
It is recognized that all other invited
States, Commonwealths, Nations, Republics, and Provinces
into the Confederate States may apply for admission into
the Confederate States either as they are currently
configured, or in a configuration in which the residents
of the counties and lower jurisdictions of those states
may choose to apply for admission.
It shall be recognized that ratification
of this Constitution by one of the States, Commonwealths,
Nations, Republics or Provinces of the Second Category
will affirm their intent to become a Sovereign State of
the Confederate States, and such states are to be
automatically admitted into the Confederate States upon
such affirmation.
A State in this category shall have been
considered to have ratified this Constitution, when, a
majority of its counties shall have agreed to ratify this
Constitution, by either, the majority of the popular vote
of its citizens or residents, or the majority of county
conventions wherein a quorom of its citizens or residents
have met; or when a majority of one branch of the State
or Province's legislature, shall vote to ratify this
Constitution, or a majority of the statewide popular vote
shall elect to ratify this Consitution, and each county
may choose the manner in which they choose to ratify this
Constitution, and all counties do not have to ratify this
Constitution in the same manner.
The People of a State or Province of the
Second Category may elect via one of these processes to
exclude certain territories within their states and not
require them to vote for secession or ratification, and
such territories shall not be admitted into the
Confederate States unless and until such territories
apply for admission under the provisions for territiories
of the Third Category, or until such territories become
part of a currently admitted Confederate State. A State
or Province of the Second Category may make the election
as to whether to include territories within their borders
having not ratified this Constitution. However, by a
majority of the popular vote of its citizens or
residents, or the majority of county conventions, a
county or territory so included may refuse to be admitted
to, or officially secede from, both the Confederate
States and the State or Province which has ratified the
Constitution of the Confederate States.
C. Territories of the Third
Category
Other States may be admitted into this
Confederacy by a vote of two-thirds of the whole House of
Representatives and two-thirds of the Senate, the Senate
voting by States; but no new State shall be formed or erected
within the jurisdiction of any other Confederate State, nor
any State be formed by the junction of two or more
Confederate States, or parts of Confederate States, without
the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned, as
well as of the Congress; but no Indian Nation or
Confederation of Indian Nations shall require such
legislative and congressional consent. No jurisdiction may be
admitted to the Confederate States as a State which shall not
be comprised either of at least 800,000 sovereign freemen, or
of territory exceeding 4800 square miles.
D. States may acquire territory
Any state within the Confederate States may
acquire additional territory not then a part of the
Confederate States by annexation, purchase, plebecite or
other means, and such territory shall be consdered part of
the Confederate States within the territory of the acquiring
state.
E. Intervention to Halt
Secession
If any State or Province, county or
administrative unit shall be forcibly prevented from holding
a popular vote, legislative vote, or convention for the
purpose of ratifying or affirming this Constitution, or
seceding from the United States and Canada, the Confederate
States may elect to regard such entity as having ratified
this Constitution, and having seceded successfully, until
such time as that entity is free to make its own
determination, and are authorized to defend and liberate such
territories from all enemies.
Section IV: Federal Property of
the United States and Canada
Any property within the borders of
States admitted into the Confederate States, or
ratifying this Constitution, belonging to the federal
governments of the United States, Canada, or any
other nation, excepting lands reserved as Indian
reservations and military bases, and property held to
enable the operation of the government of the
Confederate States, shall upon the admission of said
State into the Confederate States, immediately revert
in ownership to the new State in which the property
lay, and the States shall reserve what property they
need for their administration, and auction the
remainder to individual citizens of the State in a
fair and equitable manner to be determined by the
legislature thereof. But States may retain and
administer up to 5% of such federal lands as parks,
monuments, and wilderness preserves.
Any property within the borders of
States admitted into the Confederate States, or
ratifying this Constitution, being held by any
Government as an Indian Reservation on behalf of
Native Tribes, shall upon the admission of said State
into the Confederate States, immediately revert to
the full ownership of the Tribe for which it is held.
Such Tribes may, upon a vote of all its members,
continue under the jurisdiction of the State in which
they lay, or vote to petition the Confederate States
to be admitted as a separate State should their
territory or population be sufficient, join with
other Tribes to unite for admission as a separate
State, or vote to be a nation independent from the
Confederate States and be a separate Sovereign Nation
not subject to the jurisdiction or laws of the
Confederate States, and Tribes may combine their
adjacent lands for the purpose of qualifying as a
State under this Constitution.
All current federally owned lands
which can be determined by deed or by treaty to have
belonged to an Indian Nation prior to its acquisition
by the federal government, other than land used as a
military base or property held to enable the
operation of the government of the Confederate
States, shall be considered as a part of an Indian
Reservation, and shall revert to the last Tribe to
possess it.
The Confederate States and the
several States shall honor lease agreements made by
the governments of the United States and Canada so
long as national security is not compromised by such
agreements.
Section V: Agencies of the
United States and Canada
Any agency under the United States and
Canada, operating within the borders of States admitted into
the Confederate States, or ratifying this Constitution, shall
upon the admission of said State into the Confederate States,
be immediately assumed by the Confederate States should the
agency be conducting enumerated duties under the Confederate
Constitution, but if the agencies are not conducting
enumerated duties under the Confederate Constitution, they
shall be dissolved, and the Confederate States shall not
assume any of the debts or obligations of the United States
or Canada.
ARTICLE II.
Section I. Legislative
Powers
All legislative powers herein delegated shall be vested in
a Congress of the Confederate States, which shall consist of
a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section II. The House of
Representatives
- The House of Representatives shall be composed of members
chosen every second year by the people of the several
States in a primary ballot regardless of party, and a
secondary ballot between the two greatest votegetters
regardless of party should no candidate receive a
majority; and the electors in each State shall be
sovereign freemen of the Confederate States or of the
single State, and have the qualifications requisite for
electors of the most numerous branch of the State
Legislature; but no person of foreign birth, not a
sovereign freeman of the Confederate States of America or
of the single State, shall be allowed to vote for any
officer, civil or political, State or Federal.
- No person shall be a Representative who shall not have
attained the age of twenty-five years, and be a sovereign
freeman of the Confederate States or of the State he
represents, and who shall not when elected, be an
inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen, and
no person shall continually be a Representaitve for
longer than three consecutive full terms.
- Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned
among the several States, which may be included within
this Confederacy, according to their respective numbers,
which shall be determined by adding to the whole number
of sovereign freemen. The actual enumeration shall be
made within three years after the first meeting of the
Congress of the Confederate States, and within every
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they
shall by law direct, and such enumeration shall be
limited to the counting of the number of sovereign
freemen and residents, and such enumeration shall be
forbidden by any government for any other purpose. The
number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every
one hundred fifty thousand, but each State shall have at
least one Representative; and until such enumeration
shall be made, the States shall have the following number
of Representatives when first admitted into the
Confederacy: Alabama 30, Alaska 4, Arizona 38, Arkansas
18, California 195, Colorado 30, Florida 87, Georgia 58,
Idaho 9, Illinois 84, Indiana 41, Kansas 18, Kentucky 27,
Louisiana 30, Michigan 67, Mississippi 19, Missouri 38,
Montana 6, Nebraska 11, Nevada 15, New Mexico 12, North
Carolina 56, North Dakota 2, Oklahoma 23, Ohio 76, Oregon
23, South Carolina 27, South Dakota 5, Tennessee 39,
Texas 130, Utah 15, Virginia 49, Washington State 41,
West Virginia 12, Wisonsin 36, Wyoming 3, British
Columbia 27, Alberta 21, Saskatchewan 6, Manitoba 7,
Yukon 1, and Virginia and West Virginia in their original
configuraton, 61, Arizona and New Mexico in their
original configuration, 50. Notwithstanding these
conditions, at no time shall a State be entitled to a
number of Representatives exceeding 150% of the number of
Representatives allocated to the next lowest populous
State. Additonal States other than these granted entrance
into the Confederate States, and portions of States
smaller than 75% of the current configuration admitted as
States, shall enter with one Representative, and their
representation shall be appropriately increased after the
next decennial census.
- When vacancies happen in the representation from any
State the Governor thereof shall issue writs of election
to fill such vacancies.
- The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker
and other officers; and shall have the sole power of
impeachment; except that any judicial or other Federal
officer, resident and acting solely within the limits of
any State, may be impeached by a vote of two-thirds of
both branches of the Legislature thereof.
Section III. The Senate
- The Senate of the Confederate States of America shall be
composed of two Senators from each State, chosen for six
years, in a manner to be determined by the Legislature
thereof, and each Senator shall have one vote.
- Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence
of the first election, they shall be divided as equally
as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators
of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of
the second year; of the second class at the expiration of
the fourth year; and of the third class at the expiration
of the sixth year; so that one-third may be chosen every
second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or
otherwise, another Senator shall be appointed by the
Governor of the State to serve until such time as another
Senator may be chosen in the manner regularly determined
by the Legislature.
- No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained
the age of thirty years, and be a sovereign freeman of
the Confederate States of America or of the State he
represents; and who shall not, when elected, be an
inhabitant of the State for which he shall be chosen, nor
shall any Senator be eligible to serve more than two
consecutive full terms.
- The Vice President of the Confederate States shall be
president of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless
they be equally divided.
- The Senate shall choose their other officers; and also a
president pro tempore in the absence of the Vice
President, or when he shall exercise the office of
President of the Confederate States.
- The Senate shall have the sole power to try all
impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall
be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the
Confederate States is tried, the Chief Justice shall
preside; and no person shall be convicted without the
concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.
- Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further
than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold
any office of honor, trust, or profit under the
Confederate States; but the party convicted shall,
nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial,
judgment, and punishment according to law.
Section IV. Choosing
and Assembling the Congress
- The times, places, and manner of holding elections for
Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each
State by the Legislature thereof, subject to the
provisions of this Constitution; but the Congress may, at
any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except
as to the times and places of choosing Senators. All
Representatives, and all Senators directly elected by the
people, shall be chosen for their regular terms at a
single and simultaneous General Election once every two
years in the following manner: the candidates shall stand
for election all at the same time, without regard to
party, and if no candidate shall receive a majority of
the vote, a secondary election between the two gretaest
votegetters shall occur not more than 35 days after the
original vote.
- The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year;
and such meeting shall be on the first Tueday after the
first Monday in January, unless they shall, by law,
appoint a different day.
Section V. Operation
of the Congress
- A majority of each House shall constitute a quorum to do
business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to
day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of
absent members, in such manner and under such penalties
as each House may provide.
- Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings,
punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the
concurrence of four-fifths of the whole number, expel a
member. However, when a Senator or Rperesentative is so
expelled, he shall be entitled to a re-election, or
re-selection, within 60 days, under the same manner in
which he became a Senator or Representative. And should
either a Senator or a Representative having been
expelled, be successful in their re-election, they may
not be removed from office on the same charges.
- Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and
from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts
as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas
and nays of the members of either House, on any question,
shall, at the desire of three or more of those present,
be entered on the journal, excepting that no votes shall
be conducted in secret or be kept in secret, and all
votes on all matters shall be published.
- Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall,
without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than
three days, nor to any other place than that in which the
two Houses shall be sitting.
- The Senators and Representatives shall receive a
compensation for their services, to be ascertained by
law, and paid out of the Treasury of the Confederate
States, but no Senator or Representative may vote to
raise his own compensation for current or future terms,
nor shall a Senator or Representative be immune from the
laws by which their constituents must abide. They shall,
in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the
peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance
at the session of their respective Houses, and in going
to and returning from the same; and for any speech or
debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in
any other place. No Senator or Representative shall,
during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to
any civil office under the authority of the Confederate
States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments
whereof shall have been increased during such time; and
no person holding any office under the Confederate States
shall be a member of either House during his continuance
in office. But 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 measures appertaining to his
department.
- Judgment concerning the elections, returns, and
qualifications of House members are to be made at the
state or local level, in a manner which the the
Legislature of the State the member serves shall
designate, and if any candidate or member whose
assumption of, or continuance in office, is in jeopardy,
he shall be entitled to a speedy trial by a jury of his
peers.
Section VI. Legislation
- All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the
House of Representatives; and shall require a two-thirds
vote of each House to pass, but the Senate may propose or
concur with amendments, as on other bills.
- Every bill which shall have passed both Houses, shall,
before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of
the Confederate States; if he approve, he shall sign it;
but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to
that House in which it shall have originated, who shall
enter the objections at large on their journal, and
proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration,
two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it
shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other
House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if
approved by two-thirds of that House, it shall become a
law. But in all such cases, the votes of both Houses
shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of
the persons voting for and against the bill shall be
entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any
bill shall not be returned by the President within twelve
days after it shall have been presented to him, the same
shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it,
unless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its
return; in which case it shall not be a law.
- The President may approve any appropriation and
disapprove any other appropriation presented in the same
bill. In such case he shall, in signing the bill,
designate the appropriations disapproved; and shall
return a copy of such appropriations, with his
objections, to the House in which the bill shall have
originated; and the same proceedings shall then be had as
in case of other bills disapproved by the President.
- Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the
concurrence of both Houses may be necessary, except on a
question of adjournment, shall be presented to the
President of the Confederate States; and before the same
shall take effect, shall be approved by him; or, being
disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of
both Houses, according to the rules and limitations
prescribed in case of a bill.
Section VIII. Powers of the
Congress
The Congress shall have power:
- To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
excises for revenue, necessary to pay the debts,
provide for the common defense, and carry on the
exercise of these and only these Enumerated Powers;
but no bounties shall be granted from the Treasury;
nor shall any duties or taxes on importations from
foreign nations be laid to promote or foster any
branch of industry; and all duties, imposts, and
excises shall be uniform throughout the Confederate
States; but no taxes or other mandated payments shall
be imposed upon or extracted from wages, or upon the
income or property of individuals.
- To borrow money on the credit of the Confederate
States.
- To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among
the several States, but neither this, nor any other
clause contained in the Constitution, shall ever be
construed to delegate the power to Congress to
appropriate money for any internal improvement
intended to facilitate commerce; except for the
purpose of furnishing lights, beacons, and buoys, and
other aids to navigation upon the coasts, and the
improvement of harbors and the removing of
obstructions in river navigation; in all which cases
such duties shall be laid on the navigation
facilitated thereby as may be necessary to pay the
costs and expenses thereof.
- To establish uniform laws of naturalization, and
uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies,
throughout the Confederate States; but no law of
Congress shall discharge any debt contracted before
the passage of the same.
- To coin and print money , regulate the value thereof,
and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights
and measures.
- To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the
securities and current coin and tender of the
Confederate States.
- To establish post offices and post routes; but the
expenses of the Postal Service shall be paid out of
its own revenues.
- To promote the progress of science and useful arts,
by securing for limited times to authors and
inventors the exclusive right to their respective
writings and discoveries; except that no inventor may
continue a copyright for longer than five years of an
invention not in use.
- To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme
Court.
- To define and punish piracies and felonies committed
on the high seas, and offenses against the law of
nations.
- To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal,
and make rules concerning captures on land and water.
- To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of
money to that use shall be for a longer term than two
years.
- To provide and maintain a navy, and an air force.
- To make rules for the government and regulation of
the land, air and naval forces.
- To provide for calling forth the militia to execute
the laws of the Confederate States, suppress
insurrections, and repel invasions.
- To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining
the militia, and for governing such part of them as
may be employed in the service of the Confederate
States; reserving to the States and the People,
respectively, the appointment of the officers, and
the authority of training the militia according to
the discipline prescribed by Congress, and
- To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases
whatsoever, over such property as may become the seat
of the Government of the Confederate States; and to
exercise like authority over all places purchased by
the consent of the Legislature of the State in which
the same shall be, for the erection of forts,
magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful
buildings.
ARTICLE III.
Section I. The
Executive Branch
- The executive power shall be vested in a President of the
Confederate States of America. He and the Vice President
shall hold their offices for the term of six years; but
the President shall not be eligible to succeed himself,
unless he becomes President within a year of his
election. The President and Vice President shall be
elected as follows:
- Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the
Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors
equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives
to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but
no Senator or Representative or person holding an office
of trust or profit under the Confederate States shall be
appointed an elector.
- Electors committed to a given candidate for President and
Vice President, must cast votes for those candidates,
unless such candidates shall by written agreement
discharge their commitment, in which case the electors
are free to cast votes for whomever eligible person they
will. But if the candidate for President has died, then
electors shall be committed to vote for the candidate
they are committed to for Vice President as President,
and may cast votes for Vice President for whomever
eligible person they will.
- The electors shall meet in their respective States and
vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of
whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same
State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots
the person voted for as President, and in distinct
ballots the person voted for as Vice President, and they
shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as
President, and of all persons voted for as Vice
President, and of the number of votes for each, which
lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed,
to the seat of the Government of. the Confederate States,
directed to the President of the Senate, unless the
President of the senate shall be one of the candidates,
wherein his duties devolve upon the President pro tempore
of the Senate; the President of the Senate, or President
pro tempore if the President of the Senate shall be one
of the candidates, shall, in the presence of the Senate
and House of Representatives, open all the certificates,
and the votes shall then be counted; the person having
the greatest number of votes for President shall be the
President, if such number be a majority of the whole
number of electors appointed; and if no person have such
majority, then from the persons having the highest
numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted
for as President, the House of Representatives shall
choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in
choosing the President the votes shall be taken by
States~the representation from each State having one
vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member
or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority
of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if
the House of Representatives shall not choose a
President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve
upon them, before the 20th Day of January next following,
then the Vice President shall act as President, as in
case of the death, or other constitutional disability of
the President.
- The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice
President shall be the Vice President, if such number be
a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and
if no person have a majority, then, from the two highest
numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice
President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of
two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a
majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a
choice.
- But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office
of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President
of the Confederate States.
- The Congress may determine the time of choosing the
electors, and the day on which they shall give their
votes; which day shall be the same throughout the
Confederate States.
- No person except a natural-born sovereign freeman of the
Confederate States, or a sovereign freeman thereof at the
time of the adoption of this Constitution, or a sovereign
freeman thereof born in the United States or Canada prior
to the 1st of Janaury 2000, shall be eligible to the
office of President; neither shall any person be eligible
to that office who shall not have attained the age of
thirty-five years, and, fourteen years after the adoption
of this Constitution, been fourteen years a resident
within the limits of the Confederate States, as they may
exist at the time of his election. Except that a person
who is a sovereign freeman born at a location which
subsequently becomes part of the Confederate States is
eligible to become President. But no person having
engaged in war against the Confederate States shall be
eligible to be President.
- In case of the removal of the President from office, or
of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the
powers and duties of said office, the same shall devolve
on the Vice President; and the Congress may, by law,
provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or
inability, both of the President and Vice President,
declaring what officer shall then act as President; and
such officer shall act accordingly until the disability
be removed or a President shall be elected, and such
officer shall have to have been elected to his office.
- The President shall, at stated times, receive for his
services a compensation, which shall neither be increased
nor diminished during the period for which he shall have
been elected; and he shall not receive within that period
any other emolument from the Confederate States, or any
of them.
- Before he enters on the execution of his office he shall
take the following oath or affirmation:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will
faithfully execute the office of President of the
Confederate States, and will, to the best of my
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the
Constitution thereof."
Section II. Powers
of the President
- The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army,
Navy, and Air Force of the Confederate States, and of the
militia of the several States, when called into the
actual service of the Confederate States; he may require
the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each
of the Executive Departments, upon any subject relating
to the duties of their respective offices; and he shall
have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses
against the Confederate States and the several States,
except in cases of impeachment.
- He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate, to make treaties; provided three-fourths
of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate,
and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate
shall appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers and
consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other
officers of the Confederate States whose appointments are
not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be
established by law; but the Congress may, by law, vest
the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think
proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or
in the heads of departments.
- The principal officer in each of the Executive
Departments, and all persons connected with the
diplomatic service, may be removed from office at the
pleasure of the President. All other civil officers of
the Executive Departments may be removed at any time by
the President, or other appointing power, when their
services are unnecessary, or for dishonesty, incapacity,
inefficiency, misconduct, or neglect of duty; and when so
removed, the removal shall be reported to the Senate,
together with the reasons therefor.
- The President shall have power to fill all vacancies that
may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting
commissions which shall expire at the end of their next
session; but no person rejected by the Senate shall be
reappointed to the same office during their ensuing
recess.
- The President shall have the ability to issue a finding
that a law, or portion thereof, be found not in
conformance with the Constitution of the Confederate
States, and to take appropriate enforcement action
accordingly if necessary, but said finding shall be
immediately subject to the review of the Supreme Court
for final opinion..
- The President shall have the power to dissolve an
Executive Department, or any office in the Executive
Department not specifically enumerated in the
Constitution.
Section III. State of the
Confederacy
- The President shall, from time to time, give to the
Congress information of the state of the Confederacy, and
recommend to their consideration such measures as he
shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on
extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either
of them; and in case of disagreement between them, with
respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them
to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive
ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take
care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall
commission all the officers of the Confederate States.
Section IV. Impeachment
- The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of
the Confederate States, shall be removed from office on
impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or
other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Section V. No Confidence
- The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of
the Confederate States, as well as the Congress, may be
recalled from office in a Vote of No Confidence. A Vote
of No Confidence is called with the concurrence of
two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, or with the
concurrence of two-thirds of the votes of two-thirds of
the Confederacy's State Legislatures meeting in a joint
session of all houses of that State Legislature, or with
the valid signature petitions of ten percent of the
registered voters of two-thirds of the States. If in a
Vote of No Confidence, a majority of voters shall vote to
remove the officer, that officer shall be removed from
office.And if a majority of voters shall vote to remove
either House of Congress, then all members of that House
of Congress shall be deemed removed from office, and the
offices declared vacant.
- Once a No Confidence Vote is successful upon either the
President or Vice President, or both, or upon the
Congress, there shall be held a special election in which
the question of removal of the President, or Vice
President, or both, or of one or both houses of Congress,
shall be put to the People of the Confederate States,
such election being held not less than sixty nor more
than ninety days from the date of the No Confidence Vote.
- The President and Vice President may be recalled through
a Vote of No Confidence together as one ticket, or
separately.
- Should the President and Vice President both be removed
through a Vote of No Confidence, or should the office of
Vice President be vacant during the recall of the
President, the Speaker of the House shall serve as
President, or whomever shall be next in the order of
succession, until the next nationwide regular General
Election occuring more than 120 days after the People
have voted to remove the President and Vice President.
Except that this clause shall not apply if a new
President and Vice President are already going to be
elected at the next nationwide regular General Election.
The persons elected as President and Vice President in
this election shall serve full six year terms, and the
replacement President shall be eligible.
- Should either or both Houses of Congress be removed
through a Vote of No Confidence, there shall be a special
election held not less than sixty nor more than ninety
days to fill the unexperied terms of the members of the
House of Representatives, and the Governor of each state
shall appoint a Senator to fill the unexpired term of
removed Senators until the next regular General Election.
In both cases, the representatives removed with a No
Confidence Vote shall be ineligible.
- A No Confidence Vote upon any other officer of the
Confederate States shall take place at the next regular
General Election.
ARTICLE IV.
Section I. The
Supreme Court and Federal Courts
- The judicial power of the Confederate States shall be
vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts
as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and
establish. The judges of the Supreme Court shall be
appointed by the President, subject to the approval of
the Senate, and shall hold their office not more than six
years before standing for retention by a popular vote,
after which if retained they shall stand for retention
every ten years, and shall, at stated times, receive for
their services a compensation which shall not be
diminished during their continuance in office. The judges
of the inferior courts shall be appointed by the
President, subject to the approval of the Senate, and
hold their office not more than two years before standing
for retention by a popular vote of the district of their
appointment at the next general Federal election, after
which if retained they shall stand for retention every
six years. No qualification, or public or private
membership in any organization, shall be required of any
judge of the Supreme Court or of the inferior courts.
Section II. Federal
Judicial Powers
- The judicial power shall extend to all cases arising
under this Constitution, the laws of the Confederate
States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under
their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors,
other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of
admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to
which the Confederate States shall be a party; to
controversies between two or more States; between a State
and soveregin freemen of another State, where the State
is plaintiff; between sovereign freemen claiming lands
under grants of different States; and between a State or
the sovereign freemen thereof, and foreign states,
citizens, or subjects; but no State shall be sued by a
citizen or subject of any foreign state.
- In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public
ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall
be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original
jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned,
the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction both
as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such
regulations as the Congress shall make. The Supreme Court
shall be the sole court of appeal of an Executive Branch
finding of non-constitutionality and of any executive
order issued by the Executive Branch.
- The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment,
shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the
State where the said crimes shall have been committed;
but when not committed within any State, the trial shall
be at such place or places as the Congress may by law
have directed.
Section III. Treason
- Treason against the Confederate States shall consist in
levying war against.the States and the People, or in
adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort,
or in engaging in fraud or duress undermining a fair and
free election, or in actively violating the rights of
sovereign freemen under this Constitution. No person
shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of
two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in
open court.
- The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment
of treason; but no attainder of treason shall work
corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the
life of the person attainted, and a person convicted of
Treason may be punished by the death penalty, regardless
of any other provision of this Constitution.
ARTICLE V.
Section I. Limitations
on Government
- Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the Confederate States
of America, or any place subject to their jurisdiction,
and no person shall be compelled to service in the armed
forces or any other part of Government.
- The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be
suspended.
- No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying
or impairing the right of holding property, or law taxing
the possession of property, shall be passed.
- No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless
in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before
directed to be taken.
- No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from
any of the Confederate States to another Confederate
State.
- No preference shall be given by any regulation of
commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those
of another.
- No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in
consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular
statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of
all public money shall be published from time to time,
all expenditures being public knowledge.
- Congress shall appropriate no money from the Treasury
except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses, taken by
yeas and nays, unless it be asked and estimated for by
some one of the heads of departments and submitted to
Congress by the President; or for the purpose of paying
its own expenses and contingencies; or for the payment of
claims against the Confederate States, the justice of
which shall have been judicially declared by a tribunal
for the investigation of claims against the Government,
which it is hereby made the duty of Congress to
establish.
- All bills appropriating money shall specify in Federal
currency the exact amount of each appropriation and the
purposes for which it is made; and Congress shall grant
no extra compensation to any public contractor, officer,
agent, or servant, after such contract shall have been
made or such service rendered.
- No title of nobility shall be granted by the Confederate
States; and no person holding any office of profit or
trust under them shall accept of any present, emolument,
office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king,
prince, or foreign state.
- The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of
religious belief or worship, nor shall any national or
state religion be established, nor shall the full
and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or
on any pretext, infringed, nor shall any government
prohibit the free exercise of religion; Neither shall any
government abridge the freedom of speech, or the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and
petition the Government for a redress of grievances. A
government shall never promote, control, tax, nor
interfere with any religious or philosophical
organization or activity, and shall neither restrict nor
control the free flow of ideas using any present or
future form or medium of expression.
- A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear
arms shall not be infringed. The right of the individual
to keep and bear arms, ammunition, transportation, and
weapons of war, for the purposes of defense of self,
household, community, enterprise, State, Nation, or
Republic, shall be sacrosanct, as shall the right to such
defense, and no Government, corporation, artificial
entity, or private individual shall infringe upon these
rights, nor shall any Government regulate, tax, impede,
prohibit, survey, or in any other manner interfere in the
free possession, transport, import, export, sale, or
keeping of arms, ammunition, transportation or devices or
publications involved in maintaining these rights.
- No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any
house without the consent of the owner; nor in time of
war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
- The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, vehicles, papers, communications, data, and
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but
upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation,
and particularly describing the place to be searched or
surveyed, and the persons or things to be seized or
surveyed. Government shall not invade the privacy of any
individual, nor survey him, without due process of law to
which he is entitled to be informed.
- No person shall be held to answer for a capital crime or
felony, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand
jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval
forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time
of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject
for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life
or limb by any Government once tried under one
Government; nor be compelled, in any criminal case, or in
any potential criminal matter, to be a witness against
himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law; nor shall private property be
taken for public use, without just compensation; and in
all criminal trials a presumption of innocence of the
accused shall attach, until a unanimous jury of not less
than twelve persons shall convict the defendant, and no
seizure of property not admitted as evidence shall occur,
nor permanent forfeiture of property occur without the
conviction of its owner.
- No law shall be used to indict a defendant on the basis
of his thoughts or his political or religious beliefs.
- In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury
of the State and district wherein the crime shall have
been committed, which district shall have been previously
ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and
cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the
witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for
obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the
assistance of counsel of his choosing for his defense,
and to have his counsel compensated by the court, in an
amount equivalent to the expenditures of the prosecution.
- In suits at common law, where the value in controversy
shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury
shall be preserved; and no fact so tried by a jury shall
be otherwise reexamined in any court of the Confederacy,
than according to the rules of common law.
- Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. No
bail shall be required of a defendant for the purpose of
defending himself against a charge.
- Every law, or resolution having the force of law, shall
relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in
the title.
- All political power is inherent in the People, and all
Governments exist by the will of the people. The people
of the Confederate States, the several States, and any
Government under them, retain the right of altering,
reforming, or abolishing their Government in any manner
they believe proper, at any time. Congress may not
delegate that which is reserved to the People to any part
of the Executive branch.
- Every individual has the inherent right of liberty, which
is the unrestrained exercise of free will, which shall
never be infringed provided the exercise thereof does not
violate the rights of any other individual.
- Every individual's body, life, labor, ideas, thoughts,
and possessions that the individual has lawfully created
or acquired are that individual's property. Every
individual has the inherent right of the ownership,
non-coercive acquisition, and use of property.
- All rights are retained by each individual and shall
never be denied, infringed, or violated in any way except
in the sole circumstance of conviction of a crime or tort
by due process of law, and then only as directed in the
particular case.
- No Government shall grant monopolies or perpetuities nor
in any way restrict or control the free flow of trade
within or across the geographical boundaries of the
Confederate States.
- No Government shall craft any law favoring one class of
adult sovereign freemen over another, nor provide for
punishment under the law for crimes committed against one
class of adult persons as opposed to another.
- No juror shall be tried for any decision rendered while
serving on a jury, and jurors shall be empowered to try
both the facts and the law, and in a criminal matter
before a jury, all arguments as to the law must be in the
presence of the jury.
- The right of the individual to medicate themself for
illness, malady or health, as well as the right to refuse
medication, shall not be infringed.
- No citizen shall be limited in their right to travel
within the jurisdiction of the Confederate States, the
several States, and its territories, and no jurisdiction
shall license the right of the individual to travel upon
any of its public roads and thoroughfares, nor shall a
jurisdiction compel the license of the use of the
individual's vehicles not used for commerce, nor shall
any jurisdiction be empowered to demand proof of identity
from any citizen without due process.
- No artificial entity such as a corporation or a
Government may be interpreted to have rights superior to
the rights of individuals, nor is a Government madated
under this Constitution to consider such artifical entity
equal to an individual, and when the rights of
individuals and the rights of artificial entities
conflict, the rights of individuals shall be held to be
superior to the rights of artificial entities.
- No mark, computer chip, number, enumeration, or identity
marker, nor any oath or vow of loyalty, shall be required
to buy and sell within the Confederate States.
Section II. Elections
All elections in all Governments under
the Confederate States, shall be conducted without regard
to party, and shall consist of a primary election and a
general election. In elections with single districts, the
primary election shall consist of candidates listed on
the ballot regardless of party, and if a candidate garner
more than 50 percent of the vote, he shall be declared
elected, but if no candidate garners 50 percent, the two
top votegetters from the primary, regardless of party,
shall be voted upon in a general election. In multiple
candidate districts, a similar principle shall apply: if
50% of voters choose a given candidate, they shall be
declared elected, and of any such candidates not being
voted for by 50% of the voters, there shall be chosen two
candidates times the number of such seats for a runoff,
such candidates having recieved the greatest numbers of
votes, except that any candidate having finished last
shall be eliminated.
A State or lower jurisdiction may elect
to implement a "None of these Candidates"
provision in any election, in which case, if "None
of the Candidates" garners the most votes, a new
election is called, in which the candidates on the ballot
in the current election are ineligible, and the office
shall be vacant until filled by the new election. A State
may implement a "None of these Candidates"
provision for Electors for President of the Confederate
States, but must allow for the election of independent
Electors at the same election should "None of these
Candidates" receive the greatest number of votes.
All elections under the Confederate
States shall require a paper ballot, said ballots to be
preserved for the entirety of the longest term of office
voted upon.
No person shall be required to possess
any degree of proficiency, any degree of law, any
certificate of law enforcement training, or any
membership in a bar association or any other
organization, in order to stand for election for any
office under the Confederate States: all sovereign
freemen shall be eligible for all offices, excepting for
requirements based on a minimum age, or based on
limitation of terms.
No official shall be empowered to craft,
nor shall be eligible to vote concerning, district lines
under which he shall have been elected to serve.
District lines organized after the
decennial census shall be submitted to the voters at the
next election in which the whole of the State, or the
whole of the territory of the local Government elected
body, shall vote, and if not approved by a majority of
the voters voting, such district lines shall be invalid
for the next election, and new district lines must be
drawn, and the same body who drew the lines so rejected
shall be ineligible to draw any new lines until another
decennial census has occured.
No sovereign freeman of the Confederate
States, or of a single State, shall be denied the right
to vote because of gender, race, religious affiliations,
national origin, previous conviction of or imprisonment
for any crime, or any other cause if he is of a majority
age in his State of residence, or if he is serving in the
armed forces of the Confederate States, nor shall any
person be compelled to pay a poll tax, show ownership of
property, or possess any certificate of literacy, or
possess state or national identification, in order to
vote.
No sovereign freeman of the Confederate
States, or of a single State, shall be restricted in his
ability to speak openly about candidates, or publish
opinion or factual information about them, for any
election under the Confederate States.
No filing period for any election under
the Confederate States shall close earlier than 120 days
prior to the scheduled election.
All bodies of Government under the
Confederate States must be headed either by a single
elected Executive, or by an elected Board of Executives,
or both, and no Chief Executive of any Government body on
a State level or lower may be appointed.
All vacancies in any Government office
under the Confederate States must be filled by special or
regular election.
Section III. Judicial and Law
Enforcement Elections
In all States, the offices of Attorney
General, District Attorney, County Attorney, and City or
Township Attorneys, must be filled by election.
In all States, the offices of County
Sheriff, Chief of Police, Commissioner of Police, and the
Chief Executive of any State Police agency, must be
filled by election.
In all States, all Judges, Justices of
the Peace, Magistrates, and Justices of the Supreme
Court, must be filled by election.
Every jurisdiction which shall prosecute
individuals for crimes shall provide for a Grand Jury to
be elected annually, except for federal Grand Jurors, who
shall be elected biannually. All Grand Jurors must be
elected, and no Grand Juror may succeed himself in
office. Vacancies for Grand Jurors must be provided for
by special elections.
Section IV. Treaties and Taxes
- No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin
money; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in
payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, or ex post
facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts;
or grant any title of nobility.
- No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay
any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what
may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection
laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid
by any State on imports, or exports, shall be for the use
of the Treasury of the Confederate States; and all such
laws shall be subject to the revision and control of
Congress.
- No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any
duty on tonnage, except on seagoing vessels, for the
improvement of its rivers and harbors navigated by the
said vessels; but such duties shall not conflict with any
treaties of the Confederate States with foreign nations;
and any surplus revenue thus derived shall, after making
such improvement, be paid into the common treasury. Nor
shall any State keep troops or ships of war in time of
peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another
State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless
actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not
admit of delay. But when any river divides or flows
through two or more States they may enter into compacts
with each other to improve the navigation thereof.
- No State shall be compelled to enact any law by the
Confederate States, or by any foreign state or nation, or
by any international body or tribunal, and any such laws
passed under duress of any sort shall be considered null,
void, and no officer of any jurisdiction shall attempt to
enforce it.
Section V. Full
Faith and Credit
- Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the
public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every
other State; and the Congress may, by general laws,
prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and
proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
Section VI. Travel
and Extradition
- The sovereign freemen of each State shall be entitled to
all the privileges and immunities of sovereign freemen in
the several States; and shall have the right of transit
and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their
property; and the right of possesion of their property
shall not be thereby impaired.
- A person charged in any State with treason or a felony
against the laws of such State, who shall flee from
justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand
of the executive authority of the State from which he
fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having
jurisdiction of the crime.
- Government shall never infringe the right of the free
movement of sovereign freemen within or across the
geographical boundaries of the Confederate States.
Section VII. Territorial
Matters
- The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all
needful rules and regulations concerning the property of
the Confederate States, including the lands thereof.
- The Confederate States, as well as the several States,
may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power
to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants
of all territory belonging to the Confederate States,
lying without the limits of the several States; and may
permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may
by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the
Confederacy, and territory acquired by a Sovereign State
shall be immediately considered to be part of the
Confederate States.
- The Confederate States shall guarantee to every State
that now is, or hereafter may become, a member of this
Confederacy, a republican form of government and a common
law judiciary; and shall protect each of them against
invasion; and on application of the Legislature or of the
Executive when the Legislature is not in session, against
domestic violence.
ARTICLE VI.
Section I. Constitutional
Conventions
Upon the demand of any three States, legally assembled in
their several conventions, the Congress shall summon a
convention of all the States, to take into consideration such
amendments to the Constitution as the said States shall
concur in suggesting at the time when the said demand is
made; and should any of the proposed amendments to the
Constitution be agreed on by the said convention~voting by
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 VII.
Section I. Succession
from the Provisional Government
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, unless they are contrary to this Constitution; and
all the officers appointed by the same shall remain in office
until their successors are appointed and qualified, or the
offices abolished.
Section II. Debts
of the Provisional Government
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.
Section III. Supreme
Law of the Land
- 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.
- No Government under the Confederate States shall ever
impose emergency powers nor suspend any part of this
Constitution, neither in time of war nor for any other
reason.
- No Government under this Constitution shall suspend any
election under its laws except in case of divine act or
act of war, but no suspension of elections shall exceed a
period of two weeks, and no term of service of any
elected official may be extended for any cause
whatsoever.
Section IV. Oaths
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.
Section V. Rights
Not to be Denied
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.
Section VI. Reservation
of Powers
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.
Section VII. Verbiage of Gender
All uses of the pronoun "he" are implied to
include all persons male and female under the Constitution,
and neither this Constitution nor any law of any Government
shall be construed to exclude either males or females.
ARTICLE VIII.
- The ratification of the conventions of three States shall
be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution
between the States so ratifying the same.
- When three 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.
Respectfully submitted, this 29th Day of June, 2005 Anno
Domini,
with information and influence by the Texas Convention 2000,
and the original authors of the Confederate Constitution,
and the United States Constitution, and the Constitution of
California
A. Elizabeth Michael,
Provisional Adminstrator of the Confederate States Provisional
Government,
Humble citizen of the Confederate States of America,
through heritage and parentage from the Sovereign State of North
Carolina
and residence in the applicant State of the Republic of Arizona
in the Confederate territory of Arizona
If you wish to publicly endorse the New
Confederate Constitution, click here:
Endorsing the New Confederate Constitution does
not in any way bind you or prevent you from pursuing the
liberation of the Confederate States under the 1861 constitution,
under other constitutions, or by other means.
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