he
series of resolutions adopted by the Legislature of North Carolina,
setting forth that, as the State was a member of the Federal Union, it
could not accept the invitation of Alabama but should send delegates
for the purpose of persuading the South to effect a readjustment on the
basis of the Crittenden Compromise as modified by the Legislature of
Virginia. The commissioners were sent, were graciously received, were
accorded seats in the Congress, but they exerted no influence on the
course of its action.

The Congress speedily organized a provisional Government for the
Confederate States of America. The Constitution of the United States,
rather hastily reconsidered, became with a few inevitable alterations
the Constitution of the Confederacy. * Davis was unanimously elected
President; Stephens, Vice-President. Provision was made for raising an
army. Commissioners were dispatched to Washington to negotiate a treaty
with the United States; other commissioners were sent to Virginia to
attempt to withdraw that great commonwealth from the Union.

* To the observer of a later age this document appears a
thing of haste. Like the framers of the Constitution of
1787, who omitted from their document some principles which
they took for granted, the framers of 1861 left unstated
their most distinctive views. The basal idea upon which the
revolution proceeded, the right of secession, is not to be
found in the new Constitution. Though the preamble declares
that the States are acting in their sovereign and
independent character, the new Confederation is declared
"permanent." In the body of the document are provisions
similar to those in the Federal Constitution enabling a
majority of two-thirds of the States to amend at their
pleasure, thus imposing their will upon the minority. With
three notable exceptions the new Constitution, subsequent to
the preamble, does little more than restate the Constitution
of 1787 rearranged so as to include those basal principles
of the English law added to the earlier Constitution by the
first eight amendments. The three exceptions are the
prohibitions (1) of the payment of bounties, (2) of the
levying of duties to promote any one form of industry, and
(3) of appropriations for internal improvements. Here was a
monument to the battle over these matters in the Federal
Congress. As