Hey, you forgot the most important one of all: Constitution of the Confederate States of America
Preamble: We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America.
Sec. 9. (I) The importation of negroes of the African race from any foreign country other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United States of America, is hereby forbidden; and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same.
(2) Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not belonging to, this Confederacy.
(3) The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.
(4) No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.
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Don’t forget Article IV
Sec. 2.
(I) The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.
(3) No slave or other person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the Confederate States, under the laws thereof, escaping or lawfully carried into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such slave belongs,. or to whom such service or labor may be due.
Sec. 3
(3) The Confederate 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 Sates; 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. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.
But it wasn’t about slavery, they hated slavery. It was forced on the south by evil Yankees.
Oh yeah…thanks. God did indeed bless America.
What I can’t figure out is if you have something against God in general or just the audacity of a cultural group to call upon the aid of the deity that simply fits that groups world view, no matter how problematic it might be.
To link the CSA specifically to the constitutions of the individual states on the basis of the mention of God is a sad attempt to degrade a petition for aid in way akin to that larger theological intent.
Hi Richard, — Thanks for the comment. That said, I’m not quite sure what it might mean to “have something against God” or what you mean by the “audacity of a cultural group.” I guess I am slightly amused by the ways in which we appeal to God to lend legitimacy or as a “petition for aid.” Thanks.
So i wasn’t about slavery, yet they did everything to protect not only the institution of slavery but the value of their slaves.