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Alabama Constitutions: Alabama Constitution 1861

Alabama Constitutions and Constitutional Conventions

The Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1861 took place in Montgomery, Alabama and started on February 04, 1861. At this time, the State of Alabama, as well as other Southern states, was seceding from the Union. The Confederate Convention was also taking place in Montgomery, Alabama, in which many Southern states came together to discuss how to go about seceding from the Union and what laws would make up the new government. Due to this, constitutional reform in Alabama was secondary in importance to the Ordinance of Secession being discussed at the Confederate Convention. However, change in Alabama's Constitution quickly became one of their top priorities. 

To start with, on January 24, 1861, before the Confederate Convention began, certain change were already being made to Alabama's Constitution. For example, the words "United States" were removed from the state constitution of 1819. Changes concerning the legislative branch also took place. These changes limited the powers of the legislature. However, very few changes to the executive or judicial branch occurred. 

There were some changes made to the Alabama Constitution regarding slavery. For example, the committee report on slavery forbade emancipation under any circumstances. However, the Alabama Constitution did keep the clauses protecting the lives of slaves, guaranteeing them to a trial by jury, and makin g it a crime to dismember or kill a slave as a free white person. The convention, in which North Alabama had a larger representation than in the committee, was more liberal on the issue than the committee. Due to this, and the conditions under which the convention occurred, it is surprising that harsher conditions on the issue of slavery were not written into the state constitution. 

Originally, the committee writing the new Alabama Constitution consisted of nine members. However, the delegates at the convention decided they really only needed three committee members to write the final version of the state constitution. Therefore, the president of the convention chose John Tyler Morgan, John Cochran, and John D. Webb for this committee. The convention added further restrictions to banking regulations by providing that if any bank suspended specie payments, the charter of the bank would be forfeited unless the following legislature voted to legalize the suspension. Just as with the Alabama Constitution of 1819, the convention refused to submit the new state constitution to a vote of the people. The Alabama Constitution of 1861 was adopted on March 20, 1861 and the convention adjourned on March 21, 1861.