Customer Reviews

The Constitution of the Confederate States (Little Books of Wisdom)

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I had feared that this book would appeal only to students of the Civil War or unreconstructed Confederates, but I couldn't have been more wrong. IMHO this book would appeal to anyone with an interest in constitutions and constitutional law.

That's because it turns out that the Confederate Constitution was a very serious effort on the part of the drafters to deal with what they considered to be (and what we today might also consider to be) defects in the original, besides the expected explicit protection of slavery. It is for the most part an exact copy of the then current US Constitution, but among its more interesting changes IMHO were a line item veto, the prohibition of "Christmas Tree" bills and the slipping in of unrelated appropriations ("Earmarks"), a six year presidential one term limit, a prohibition against paying for any cost overruns on government contracts, and a number of limitations on what tax dollars could be spent upon.

A definite eye opener that merits study even today.

Uniform editions of its predecessors: The Articles of Confederation and The Constitution of the United States are available from Applewood Books, as is a Spanish language edition of the latter Constitucion de Los Estados Unidos.

Note: Applewood Books has produced a nice looking inexpensive series of sturdy pocket-sized reprints of important American books, documents, speeches, pamphlets, and poems, the Little Books of Wisdom, uniform with this volume, that are ideal for gifting to doctors, lawyers, teachers, business professionals, and students of same: The Way to Wealth, George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, On the Art of Teaching, The Poems of Abraham Lincoln, The Strenuous Life, The Bill of Rights with Writings That Formed Its Foundation, The Path of the Law, The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, A Message to Garcia, A Declaration of Sentiments, Robert's Rules of Order, Good Citizenship, On Being Human, A Discourse Upon the Duties of a Physician, The Declaration of Independence with Short Biographies of Its Signers, Teamwork, Stick-To-Itiveness, Opportunity, & You, The Wants of Man, George Washington's Farewell Address, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Speech of Chief Seattle, Common Sense, The Articles of Confederation, The Emancipation Proclamation, and The Gospel of Wealth.

Some selected volumes are also available in boxed sets: Books of American Wisdom Boxed Set, CEO's Gift Box of Wisdom, Doctor's Gift Box of Wisdom, Lawyer's Gift Box of Wisdom, New Citizen's Gift Box of Wisdom, and Teacher's Gift Box of Wisdom.

And one other has been published in Spanish: Un Mensaje a Garcia.

This is a fascinating piece of history often used to argue in defense of states' rights but it didn't guarantee a state the right to NOT have slaves if they were part of the Confederate States. Really interesting to read through.