Provenance of the Confederate Constitution

The Congress of Delegates from the seceding Southern States convened at Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1861. They quickly adopted a provisional Constitution, and in less than a month, devised and approved a permanent Constitution, which was adopted March 11, 1861.

The original signed manuscript consists of five vellum sheets pasted together into a roll 148 1/2 inches long. This manuscript was part of a wagon load of boxes rescued from the railroad station in Chester, S.C. in April of 1865 by Felix G. DeFontaine, a newspaper correspondent during the war. The boxes, which had been abandoned by fleeing troops, contained the records of the Confederate government, which were being sent south after the evacuation of Richmond. The prizes among the records which DeFontaine recovered were the two Constitutions of the Confederacy, Provisional and Permanent.

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.

Signers of the Confederate Constitution

South Carolina

• R. Barnwell Rhett 
  
• C. G. Memminger
  
• Wm Porcher Miles 
  
• James Chesnut, Jr.
  
• R. W. Barnwell 
  
• William W. Boyce
  
• Lawrence M. Keitt 
  
• T. J. Withers
  

Georgia

• R. Toombs 
  
• Francis S. Bartow
  
• Martin J. Crawford 
  
• Alexander Stephens
  
• Benjamin H. Hill 
  
• Tho. R. R. Cobb
  
• E. A. Nisbet 
  
• Augustus R. Wright
  
• A. H. Kenan 

Florida

• Jackson Morton 
  
• J. Patton Anderson
  
• Jas. B. Owens 

Alabama

• Richard W. Walker 
  
• Robt. H. Smith
  
• Colin J. McRae 
  
• William P. Chilton
  
• Stephen F. Hale 
  
• David P. Lewis
  
• Tho. Fearn 
  
• Jno Gill Shorter
  
• J. L. M. Curry 

Mississippi

• Alex M. Clayton 
  
• James T. Harrison
  
• William S. Barry 
  
• W. S. Wilson
  
• Walker Brooke 
  
• W. P. Harris
  
• J. A. P Campbell 

Louisiana

• John Perkins, Jr. 
  
• Alex de Clouet
  
• C. M. Conrad 
  
• Duncan F. Kenner
  
• Henry Marshall 
  
• Edward Sparrow

Texas

• John Hemphill 
  
• Thomas N. Waul
  
• John H. Reagan 
  
• Williamson S. Oldham
  
• Louis T. Wigfall 
  
• John Gregg
  
• William B. Ochiltree 

Lincoln's Letter to Stephens

This letter, signed by Abraham Lincoln, is of the utmost rarity. It resulted from the meeting of Lincoln and Alexander Stephens at the secret Hampton Roads Conference held on a boat in Virginia the night of 3 February 1865, to discuss terms of a possible peace settlement. Lincoln and Stephens were old friends, having served together as Whigs in the U.S. Congress. Although peace terms were not agreed to, a lesser matter was addressed. Stephens had a nephew who was a prisoner at Johnson's Island, and the family had lost all communication with him. He entreated Lincoln to supply information about his nephew. Upon returning to Washington, Lincoln telegraphed the commanding officer at Johnson's Island ordering that a Lieutenant John A. Stephens, prisoner of war, be paroled and "report to me here in person, and send him to me...". Lincoln met with the young Stephens and gave him this letter, telling him it was for his uncle. He took a carte-de visit of himself, signed it A. Lincoln, and suggested he take it as well, noting that there were probably very few of them down South.

(source: University of Georgia Libraries, Hargrett Library, http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/selections/confed/letter.html)