The Creation Of The Confederate States Of America

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) The Civil War, 1860–1865 The Creation Of The Confederate States Of America A new government was swiftly constituted by the seven Deep South states that had seceded. Many Southern leaders believed that the federal Constitution, which brought the states together as one, was a contract under which each state had consented to be bound. But they insisted that the states had not given up their independence and may refuse to submit to federal authority at any time. They believed that what they were doing was consistent with the principles of the American Republic's founders, including the social contract theory of government and the substance of the Constitution. These individuals would create a confederation instead of a federal union as their new country. Individual member nations of a confederation decide to cooperate under a single administration for certain functions, such defense, but to maintain their individuality in other domains of governance. States were able to defend slavery and themselves against what they saw as an intrusive federal government in this fashion. Drafted in a conference in Montgomery, Alabama, in February 1861, the Confederate States of America (CSA), often known as the Confederacy, adopted a constitution that was largely based on the 1787 Constitution. The topic of slavery was the sole actual distinction between the two treaties. According to the Confederate Constitution, the purpose of the new country was to uphold the leadership of the slaveholding elite and to maintain and extend racial slavery. Primarily, the constitution safeguarded the transstate slave trade, ensured that slavery would persist in any newly acquired Confederate territory, and, most significantly, stated in Article One, Section Nine that "No legislation compromising or depriving the property rights of African American slaves shall be enacted." The Confederate Constitution was similar to the U.S. Constitution of 1787, save from its emphasis on slavery. It permitted a six-year presidential term for the executive branch, a judicial branch, and two houses of Congress. The participants to the convention designated Alexander Stephens of Georgia as vice president and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president of the new interim administration until elections could be held in the spring and autumn of 1861. Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina were the four new states that had joined the CSA by then. Despite the fact that neither Missouri nor Kentucky had adopted an ordinance of secession, the Confederacy annexed those states as 1861 went on. Southern nationalism was strong, and the Confederacy believed that their new country would become well-known worldwide because of its strong sense of purpose. Lincoln arrived in Washington, DC, in February 1861, and the CSA was already in place. A crisis of a kind never seen before faced the new president. That month, delegates from the Southern states convened for a convention that fell short of producing a peace pledge or reuniting the Union. The newly elected president reaffirmed his stance on slavery on the day of his inauguration, March 4, 1861: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists." I don't think I'm legally allowed to do this, and I don't want to do it. Lincoln promised to prevent slavery from spreading into the new western territories, therefore his acknowledgement of slavery in the South did not appease slaveholders. Moreover, Lincoln said unequivocally in his inaugural address that he would uphold federal authority in the face of separatist efforts to undermine it. Lincoln ruled that secession was unlawful because individual states could not dissolve the Union.