Confederate States Form: South Declares Independence

Delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana convened in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1861, and within five days had written a provisional constitution, elected Jefferson Davis as president, and established the Confederate States of America as a functioning government. The speed was deliberate: the secessionists wanted to present the incoming Lincoln administration with an accomplished fact. The Confederate constitution closely mirrored the US Constitution but included explicit protections for slavery, prohibited protective tariffs, and limited the president to a single six-year term. The new government immediately seized federal forts, arsenals, and customs houses across the South. Texas joined within weeks, followed by Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina after Fort Sumter. The Confederacy's rapid organization demonstrated that secession was not an impulsive reaction but a carefully planned political operation years in the making.