Social studies help?

Question

Who wrote the confederate constitution? Before the Civil War.

Answer 1

It was written much the same way the Constitution of the United States was written--by various delegates of the southern Congress. It was not written by one person any more than the US Constitution was written by one person. Looking at those who signed it will give you an idea of those involved in the writing. Here is a list of all the signees:

HOWELL COBB, President of the Congress.

South Carolina: R. Barnwell Rhett, C. G. Memminger, Wm. Porcher Miles, James Chesnut, Jr., R. W. Barnwell, William W. Boyce, Lawrence M. Keitt, T. J. Withers.

Georgia: Francis S. Bartow, Martin J. Crawford, Benjamin H. Hill, Thos. R. R. Cobb.

Florida: Jackson Morton, J. Patton Anderson, Jas. B. Owens.

Alabama: Richard W. Walker, Robt. H. Smith, Colin J. McRae, William P. Chilton, Stephen F. Hale, David P. Lewis, Tho. Fearn, Jno. Gill Shorter, J. L. M. Curry.

Mississippi: Alex. M. Clayton, James T. Harrison, William S. Barry, W. S. Wilson, Walker Brooke, W. P. Harris, J. A. P. Campbell.

Louisiana: Alex. de Clouet, C. M. Conrad, Duncan F. Kenner, Henry Marshall.

Texas: John Hemphill, Thomas N. Waul, John H. Reagan, Williamson S. Oldham, Louis T. Wigfall, John Gregg, William Beck Ochiltree.

And there you have it.

Ta-Da!

Answer 2

The men already listed were those who originally SIGNED it. For more on the individual members, there is a copy of this list with LINKS to articles on about half of them at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_Constitution

But it is very misleading to say thesemen were all equally involved in its writing. There was, in fact, a committee of twelve charged with drafting the document
The committee was chaired by Robert Barowell Rhett, Sr. of South Carolina

Other important members of the committee:
Thomas R. R. Cobb and Robert Toombs of Georgia;
James Chestnut, Jr., of South Carolina;
Wiley Harris, of Mississippi.

(There are wikipedia links to three of these men in wikipedia article above, except for Toombs and Wiley Harris.
For Toombs see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Toombs)

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But, in fact, it is almost silly to say ANY of the lists above were 'the writers of the CSA Constitution. Because, if fact, MOST of that document was simply taken verbatim, or with minor verbal changes from the U.S. Constitution and its first 10 amendments!

As committee member T.R.R Cobb states in his personal notes on the making of the document:
"The Committee took the old Constitution as a model, making such substitutions and amendments as they thought necessary and wise. "
p. 286 of Publications of the Southern Historical Society, IX, 5 (1905), "MAKING OF CONFEDERATE CONSTITUTION" by A. L. Hull - http://fax.libs.uga.edu/F206xS727xv9/1f/making_of_confederate_constitution.pdf

The article just mentioned actually contains many details of the committee's work -- such as telling who proposed which changes and why.

For a nice chart of what was the same and what was added or changed, with some explanatory notes on the changes, see:
http://www.filibustercartoons.com/CSA.htm

For much more on the writing and contents of this document, see:
http://americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/civwar/confed2.html

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So, if you REALLY want to know details about the drafting and wording of MOST of the document, you have to go back to see who it was that was most responsible for the wording of that original

Now the U.S. Constitution was also the work of all involved. BUT here art the two committees including the ten men that played an especially important part in drafting the basic content, and shaping the style.

The Committee of Detail
(Proposed July 23, members appointed July 24, 1787 to create a constitution containing all issues agreed to by the convention)
* Oliver Ellsworth
* Nathaniel Gorham
* Edmund Randolph
* John Rutledge
* James Wilson

The Committee of Style and Arrangement
(Proposed and appointed September 8, to revise the style and arrangement of the Constitution)
* Alexander Hamilton
* William Johnson
* Rufus King
* James Madison
* Gouverneur Morris

http://www.usconstitution.net/constcmte.html

Of these men the one who had the most influence on the actual wording was Gouverneur Morris (of Pennsylvania). He is, in particular, given credit for writing the Preamble on his own.

For more on this man, see the link below and the book by Richard Brookhiser , Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris

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One of the interesting changes from the U.S. Constitution was that the Bill of Rights is incorporated directly into the document instead of tacked on at the end. This is, in fact, what James Madison originally proposed. (Also note that the specific form of these amendments was above all the work of Madison who collected them from various submissions and reworked them. So you can credit HIM for those parts.)
And, as with so many of the founding documents, Madison drew heavily for his content on British precedents. The first eight amendments echo the English Bill of Rights of 1689, which you can read here - http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/england.htm

Here's more on the writing of this part http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights#Drafmbers, there is a copy of this list with LINKS to articles on about half of them at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_Constitution