Article I: Section IX.IV does indeed prohibit the
Confederate CONGRESS from interfering with slavery.
However, there is nothing to prevent any individual
Confederate STATE from abolishing slavery. So, we
are again back to "states rights"...
However, you also neglect to point out the following
parts of the Confederate constitution:
Article IV: Section II.I
The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several
States, and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in
any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other
property; and the right of property in said slaves shall
not be thereby impaired.
Article IV: Section II.III
No slave or other person held to service or labor in any
State or Territory of the Confederate States, under the
laws thereof, escaping or lawfully carried into another,
shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be
discharged from such service or labor; but shall be
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such slave
belongs, or to whom such service or labor may be due.
It seems to me that these two provisions EXPLICITLY
ANTICIPATE the possibility that INDIVIDUAL CONFEDERATE
STATES may indeed abolish slavery at some point in the
future! Otherwise, why would these two provisions exist
at all?
It seems to me that these two provisions were designed
to prevent future conflicts between those Confederate
states that had abolished slavery and those that had not
yet done so. |
