"A question settled by violence, or in disregard of law,

                          must remain unsettled forever."

                                      THE LAW

When Jefferson Davis made the above statement, he did more than merely express an opinion. He planted a seed that he knew would one day take root regardless of how far into the future it might be; and that in "God's appointed time" and the right generation of Southerners, once again rise up to walk on their own has been commonly called the Bible Belt". Its official name is: "The Confederate States America!"

It is the hope of the author that this treatise will make clear, at long last, the law Jefferson Davis was referring to.

It has been over 128 years since the guns of the War for Southern Independence fell silent and the indoctrination of Southern school children with northern propaganda began; yet the TRUTH remains unchanged, the Confederate States Government and the Confederate States Constitution are STILL the lawful governing entities of the thirteen sovereign states known as the Confederate States of America.  While we all realize that the U.S. Federal Government has held power in these states for over 128 years, now, and is the de facto government, it is not the de jure or true and rightful government.  Since the burden of proof is upon the person who makes the claim I will attempt to present that proof herewith.

 To begin with, the Confederacy was NEVER surrendered.  Robert E. Lee did not surrender it.  He had no power to surrender anything other than what he had authority over, and that was the Army of Northern Virginia.  Joseph E. Johnston did not surrender it, he only had authority over the army he commanded and nothing more. The same applies to Kirby Smith of Texas. The only men with authority to surrender the Confederate States of America were those who occupied the offices of the Confederate States Government.  Most notedly President Jefferson Davis.  He did not surrender it, nor would he have ever surrendered it. Neither did anyone else within the Confederate States Government.

 The invading Yankee armies caused the C.S.A. Government to be scattered across the South and even across the world, but it was NEVER surrendered.  Nor were any treaties of any sort ever proposed or signed by the Confederacy.  No officer of the Confederate States Army was given the authority by any one in the government of the Confederacy to surrender the Confederate States of America. In short, the soils of the Confederate States of America were invaded, its citizen's rights were violated, its governments were overthrown, and the country was subjugated by an invading tyranny, performing all the usual acts associated with despotism.  Martial law was then imposed by the invaders and enforced by an occupying army of soldiers in blue. 

The condition has not changed. Aside from the fact that the South does not, now, have and occupying army on its soil, as such, it is still in subjugation to a foreign government.  The passage of time, be it 128 years or 1128 years, does not make that which is false into that which is true. To make one critical point concerning the defeated Confederate soldiers, who gave in under duress and took the oath of allegiance to the U. S. government, these men where surrendering THEMSELVES as individuals.  In no way can their decision to do so be construed as a surrender of the Confederate States of America. Any way you care to slice it, the Confederate States Government is still the lawful government of the 13 Southern States known as the Confederate States of America.

 To further present this point we must also remember that it was the lawfully empowered voters of these 13 sovereign States of the South that put the Confederate States Government in power and made the Confederate States Constitution the law of THEIR land.  It was the duly elected representatives by the lawful voters of the South who withdrew the Southern States from the Union and formed them into the Confederacy.   They did so to satisfy the sentiments of a clear majority of their constituents.   The State of Texas even called for a vote of the people themselves concerning the withdrawal of the State from the Union and the result was a landslide in favor of it.   The people of Virginia also personally cast their votes in favor of secession.

 In order to continue along these lines as established, I must now enter into the tired old debate of whether or not the South had the right to secede from the Union in the first place.  Despite all the babblings and designed logic of one not so honest Abe Lincoln, the answer is absolutely and positively YES.  Search the U.S. Constitution from front to back and you will find that nowhere in it has a State's right to secede even been mentioned much less prohibited.  The silver tongue of Lincoln, managed to persuade the unexercised minds of many that somehow the Constitution contained some mysteriously hidden and unwritten denial of a State's right to secede from the Union.  However, those men who had learned at the feet of their fathers and grandfathers who had fought and won American independence could not be fooled.

 They knew that without a state's right to secede, their freedom was in easy grasp of any tyrant (or in the case of Washington D.C., tyrants) who might wrangle control of an all-powerful central government.   The words of James Madison were well ingrained in their minds, 'it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.  We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution.  The freeman of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents.   They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle." (A Memorial and Remonstrance 1785)

 It is obvious to anyone who has truly studied the works of the founding fathers that state sovereignty and their state's rights were of paramount concern to them when formation of the federal government was taking place.  If it had been exerted that once a State had joined the Union it could never withdraw, the likelihood of any of the States joining the Union was remote and most probably none would have.

 The most compelling and obvious tact that can be brought to light to prove that the founding fathers and framers of the constitution held to a State's right to secede, is that in many of the State's constitutions they spelled out in no uncertain terms that they, the State, withheld the right to retrieve power from the federal or central government. To resume the powers delegated to the Federal Government whenever they were found to be used in an oppressive manner.  Vermont, New York, Virginia, and Texas all retained this right upon joining the Union.   Other States did likewise.