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The Biggest Changes The Confederacy Made To The US Constitution
Can we learn anything, good or bad?
The Confederate States of America rapidly came into existence after the election of President Abraham Lincoln. At the time, the Southerners saw themselves as the inheritors of the legacy of the American Revolution. In that spirit, they set about creating a whole new government from scratch. However, unlike the Revolutionaries of times past, they did not have weeks or months to sit around and postulate about the best and purest form of government. They were up against a deadline, fearing that Lincoln would wage war against the South.
In order to speed up the process of forging a new government, the Confederacy took the US Constitution and simply tweaked it to their liking. The Confederate Constitution was nearly a carbon copy of the US Constitution in 1860 with some notable differences.
The changes made to the constitution by the Confederacy show where its priorities lay and what grievances had driven them to secede from the Union in the first place. If given the chance to rewrite the Constitution today, carte blanche, what changes would we make? Can anything be learned from the Confederate constitution, or is the whole thing a rag covered in drivel?
