The Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States, formally the Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, was an agreement among all seven original states in the Confederate States of America that served as its first constitution. Its drafting by a committee of twelve appointed by the Provisional Congress began on February 5, 1861. The Provisional Constitution was formally adopted on February 8. Government under this constitution was superseded by the new Constitution of the Confederate States with a permanent form of government "organized on the principles of the United States" on February 22, 1862.
Background and context
On February 4, 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, deputies to a "Congress of the Sovereign and Independent States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana" met to set about creating a new form of government based on that of the United States.
Before the congress could accomplish anything, it required a set of guidelines to follow. On February 5, Christopher Memminger proposed the creation of a Committee of Thirteen to draft a provisional constitution to grant congressional power to the convention. Thomas Cobb, of Georgia, moved for the committee to be twelve, with two members from each state delegation. The Convention settled on the latter by nominating Memminger and Robert Barnwell from South Carolina, William Barry and Wiley Harris from Mississippi, James Anderson and James Owens from Florida, Richard Walker and Robert Smith from Alabama, Alexander Stephens and Eugenius Nisbet from Georgia, and John Perkins and Duncan Kenner from Louisiana to the Committee of Twelve. The committee elected Memminger, who had arrived at the convention with a draft already prepared, as their chair.
Key points and differences
thumb|upright|[[Christopher Memminger, the principal author of the Provisional Constitution]]
All committee members were well educated and had extensive legislative experience. The necessity of a constitution made them work with considerable speed and report to the convention on February 7. Copies were then made and distributed to the convention's members, who spent relatively little time on debate. The key changes to the committee's draft were an inclusion of the phrase "Invoking the favor of Almighty God" into the preamble, the addition of an executive line-item veto, a removal of a congressional restriction of 15% on import tariffs, and the combination of the circuit and district court systems into one district system in which each state comprised one district. The Provisional Constitution was then unanimously ratified around midnight on February 8, 1861. It was signed by all members present at noon on the day of Jefferson Davis's inaugural address, February 18, 1861. There were 50 signatures in all, including those of the Texas delegation who were admitted on March 2.
Since the framers of the Provisional Constitution used the U.S. Constitution as a basis for their own, there are many similarities. Large sections were copied without any change, and others had only cosmetic changes (such as replacing "United States" with "Confederate States" or "Confederacy"). There were also several noticeable differences, including the aforementioned changes, as well as a clause to allow Congress to use a two-thirds vote to declare the president unable to perform his duties. Article IV permitted Congress to amend the constitution with another two-thirds vote, and Article VI granted Congress the power to admit other states into the confederacy. In its haste, the Committee of Twelve neglected to include important features such as a ratification process and decided to omit any mention of controversial issues regarding slavery and tariffs, issues that were to be decided in the permanent constitution. Some scholars agree with Davis that the Provisional Constitution sought to clarify many of the ambiguities of the U.S. Constitution. The language of the former leads most historians to view the Provisional Constitution as emphasizing federalism over a consolidated, centralized federal government. For instance, in its preamble, "We the people" was replaced with "We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States,...." Words such as "delegated" and "expressly granted" were also used to de-emphasize the power of the federal government and to underscore that the Confederacy was a league of states rather than a single homogeneity: the sovereign power resided within a framework that was "bottom-up," not "top-down."