In establishing a new government, the South?

Question

A) totally rejected all existing federal laws.
B) was handicapped by its states' rights philosophy.
C) fired all former federal officials because of doubts about their loyalty.
D) ignored federal precedents and administrative machinery.

Answer 1

I'd go with B. The lack of a unified government is what ended up being Davis' demise - he could not get keep his states and army coordinated. Everyone wanted to do their own thing, on a state level.

Answer 2

The focus of the South was on the Constitution. That is, the Constitution of the True Intent of the Founders and not bend version of the as applied by the federal government of the Union. The Constitution of the Confederacy was a near copy of the Founders’ Constitution and certainly legislative acts of the Union’s federal government were rejected as were the acts of the federal court. This can be most easily seen in that Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion in McCulloch v. Maryland [1819] were he rewrote the Constitution by opining that in Article I, Section 8, Clause 18 the words ‘necessary’ and ‘proper’ meant the same thing. This was not true legally or historically or in English Grammar. Both James Madison and Thomas Jefferson spoke out against this decision because it changed the power of the Congress to do whatever it wanted to do.

The Confederacy also accepted both the Virginia Resolution (written by James Madison) and the Kentucky Resolution (written by Thomas Jefferson). Within these documents both the power of Sovereign States to secede from the Union and the power of the Sovereign States to nullify federal congressional acts as extra-constitutional were part of the Confederacy’s view of State Sovereignty.

While the ensuing power of State’s Sovereign Rights within the Confederacy was more correct relative to Founder True Intent and the Constitution, such would make complex the ability of the Confederate general government to fight the invasion of the North into the sovereign territory of the Confederacy.

After secession anything connected with the federal government of the Union would obviously be suspect. Therefore federal precedents and administrative machinery became meaningless. The same thing cannot be said about those who held federal jobs. Probably a majority of such individuals were Southern and by far the majority of them were true and loyal sons of their Sovereign (Confederate member) States. Although they would no longer work for the Union government, many would be doing the same work for the Confederacy. An example would be the employees of the federal (now Confederate) mint in New Orleans.

So the answer is a qualified yes to all four.

Answer 3

B because they wouldnt stay together politically,