Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/638

 606 The Confederate Constitutions. [i86i- Constitutions ; and great stress was laid upon the delegation of powers to the central government by the " Sovereign and Independent States " composing the Confederation. For instance, a Confederate official acting within a State could be impeached by a two-thirds majority of the particular State legislature a provision quite unknown to the United States Constitution. Moreover, in the provisional Constitution the State officials were not bound by oath to support the Confederate Constitution. The framers of the Confederate Constitutions, unlike the men of 1787, felt no scruples about the use of the word "slave," and, in addition to recognising distinctly the legitimate existence of slavery, they explicitly forbade the Confederate, State, and Territorial legislatures to enact laws impairing or denying the right of property in negro slaves. The Constitutions took similar ground against protective tariff legislation, under which the South had in previous years been an unwilling sufferer. It was provided that no bounties should be paid, and no taxes levied, for the benefit of any branch of industry. In compliance with this principle the Congress drew up a tariff on the lines of those of 1846 and 1857, which had been framed by Democratic Congresses, and in marked contrast with the Morrill Tariff of 1861, framed by and in the interest of the North. The rates of duty were avowedly devoid of any protective motive, though in the case of sugar, a product of the South, the comparatively high duty of 20 per cent, suggests some leaning in that direction. Indeed, the constitutional prohibition of protective legisla- tion did not prevent the South from developing a strong protectionist sentiment a result common to most wars. The blockade came to be looked upon by some as a blessing in disguise, in that it roused the South to the necessity of fostering its own industrial resources. In fact, just as happened in New England during the war of 1812, manufacturing concerns of various kinds were established in the South during the Civil War; and resentment of the South's industrial rather than of its political dependence upon the North was very general. Memminger planned to raise 25 millions of dollars during the first fiscal year from import duties averaging 12 J per cent. No such revenue was obtained; in fact, during the four years of the war only about one million in specie was collected in this way. This source of revenue was cut off by the efficiency of the Federal blockading fleet. Owing to the same cause export duties yielded a quite insignificant sum. The Constitutions allowed the imposition of such a tax; and great things were expected from the cotton export duty of one eighth of a cent per Ib. But so little cotton escaped the vigilance of the blockading fleet that during the period 1861-5 not much more than $6000 in specie were collected by means of this tax. With a view to preventing legislation favourable to one section at the expense of another, the Constitutions forbade the appropriation