If Lincoln had not died

[Bill Richter]

Liz, thank you very much for your clarification. Now we can proceed. . . .

We have several things to think about. First, the direct reference to Almighty God--1860 people were more outspokenly religious than the Founders, although many Conservatives nowadays would challenge this statement.

Second, the Confederate Constitution was distinctly a states rights document and the states were responsible for individual rights and shielding the citizens from the transgressions of the central government; and the Confederate Constitution follows more closely the Articles of Confederation and the Treaty of Paris of 1783 in which the states were recognized as the preeminent power of government--indeed the Treaty of Paris which ends our Revolutionary war is between the King of England (Geo III) and the 13 individual nations (once colonies and now called states) by name. Read the treaty's preamble.

This all goes to the debates between Webster, Hayne and Calhoun in the 1830s, and challenges Lincoln's (Webster's and, I believe, Henry Clay"s) assumption that the nation existed before the states through the Declaration of Independence.

Third, the US Bill of Rights, as I said above, were placed in several sections (mostly Article I, Section IX and the sections referred to above in my first post) of the body of the Confed Constit, and disappear to the casual reader.