South Carolina – Confederate Constitution of 1861

On March 11,1861, the Confederate Constitution was adopted unanimously by the Congress of the Confederate States. It is almost identical to the United States constitution, with a few differences:

• In the preamble, it omits the general welfare clause, and adds that each ratifying state is acting "in its sovereign and independent character."

• It explicitly guarantees slavery in both states and territories but bans the international slave trade.

• It prohibits protective tariffs and Congressional appropriations for internal improvements.

• The Confederate constitution limits the president to one six-year term, but it gives him a line item veto.

DeFontaine sold the manuscript copy of the Provisional Constitution at auction in New York in 1883. It is now in the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. He sold the manuscript copy of the Permanent Constitution to Mrs. George Wymberley Jones DeRenne on July 4, 1883. The University of Georgia purchased the Constitution from the DeRenne family in 1939.