Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government

---

“ [79] by them, will effectually provide for the same.” (In the case of this state alone nothing is said of a report to Congress. Neither North Carolina nor any other state, however, fails to make mention of the necessity of a submission of any action taken to the several states for ratification.)

The commissions issued to the representatives of South Carolina by the governor refer to an act of the legislature of that state authorizing their appointment “to meet such deputies or commissioners as may be appointed and authorized by other of the United States,” at the time and place designated, and to join with them “in devising and discussing all such alterations, clauses, articles, and provisions, as may be thought necessary to render the Federal Constitution entirely adequate to the actual situation and future good government of the Confederate States,” and to “join in reporting such an act to the United States in Congress assembled, as, when approved and agreed to by them, and duly ratified and confirmed by the several States, will effectually provide for the exigencies of the Union.” In these commissions the expression, “alterations, clauses, articles, and provisions,” clearly indicates the character of the duties which the deputies were expected to discharge.

The General Assembly of Georgia “ordained” the appointment of certain commissioners, specified by name, who were “authorized, as deputies from this State, to meet such deputies as may be appointed and authorized by other States, to assemble in convention at Philadelphia, and to join with them in devising and discussing all such alterations and further provisions as may be necessary to render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and in reporting such an act for that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as, when agreed to by them, and duly confirmed by the several States, will effectually provide for the same.”

The authority conferred upon their delegates by the Assembly of New York and the General Court of Massachusetts was in each case expressed in the exact words of the advisory resolution of Congress: they were instructed to meet the delegates of the other States “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and to the several Legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the several States, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of the Union.”

The General Assembly of Connecticut designated the delegates of that state by name, and empowered them, in conference with the delegates of other states, “to discuss upon such alterations and provisions, ”