Confederate States of America, 32.376097, -86.299915United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434Confederate States of America. Congress1861-03-11The original signed manuscript of the permanent constitution of the Confederate States of America, adopted on March 11, 1861. The document consists of five vellum sheets pasted together and rolled, signed by Howell Cobb, President of the Congress and delegates from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas.This manuscript was part of a wagon-load of boxes discovered at the railroad station in Chester, South Carolina in April of 1865 by Felix G. DeFontaine, a newspaper correspondent during the war. The boxes, which had been abandoned by fleeing troops, contained the records of the Confederate government, which were being sent south after the evacuation of Richmond, Virginia. Among the records DeFontaine recovered were the two Constitutions of the Confederacy, Provisional and Permanent. DeFontaine sold the Provisional Constitution at auction in New York in 1883. It is now in the American Civil War Museum in Richmond. He sold the Permanent Constitution to Mrs. George Wymberley Jones DeRenne in July 1883. The University of Georgia purchased the Constitution from the DeRenne family in 1939.image/jp2http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/Confederate States of AmericaConfederate States of America--Constitutional lawPermanent Constitution of the Confederate States of AmericaText