They  came  only  as  commissioners  fi:om  a  "etate
yet  in  the  Union,"  instrncted  to  effect  an  "  hon-
orable and  amicable  adjustment  of  all  the  diffi-
culties that  distract  the  country,  upon  the  basis
of  the  Ci'ittenden  Compromise  (which  see),  mod-
ified by  the  Virginia  Legislature."  Their  mis-
sion was  fruitless,  for  that  "congress"  was  op-
posed to  any  form  of  conciliation. On  the  7th
a  resolution  from  the  Legislature  of  Alabama,
offering  the  "Provisional  Government  of  the
Confederacy  of  Seceding  States  the  sum  of
$500,000  as  a  loan,"  was  accepted. On  the  same
day  Meraniiuger,  chairman  of  the  committee  of
thirteen,  presented  a  plan  of  government. It
was  discussed  in  secret  session,  when  the  Con-
stitution of  the  United  States,  with  some  impor-
tant modiiications,  was  adopted  as  the  form  of
government  of  the  new  Confederacy. (See  Con-
federate States  of  America.)  This  provisional
Constitution  received  the  unanimous  vote  of
the  conveutiou;  yet  the  violent  Rhett  fulmi-
nated, throngh  the  Charleston  Mercury,  anathe-
mas against  it,  especially  on  account  of  a  tariff
clause,  the  prohibition  of  the  African  slave-trade,
and  the  adoptiou  of  the  three-fifths  rule  of  rep-
resentation for  slaves,  as  in  the  National  Con-
stitution. "  Let  your  people,"  he  said,  "  prepare
their  minds  for  a  failure  in  the  future  permanent
Southern  Constitution,  for  South  Carolina  is
about  to  be  saddled  with  almost  every  griev-
ance, except  abolition,  against  which  she  so  long
struggled,  and  has  just  withdrawn  from  the
United  States  Government."  On  the  9th  of
February  the  president  of  the  conveutiou  and
all  the  members  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to
the  provisional  Constitution,  and  at  noon  the
doors  of  the  hall  were  thrown  open  to  the  pub-
lic, and  the  convention  proceeded  to  the  elec-
tion of  a  President  and  Vice-President  of  the


Confederacy. Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi,
was  chosen  President  by  unanimous  vot«;  and
by  a  like  vote  Alexander  H. Stephens,  of  Georgia,
was  chosen  Vice-President. (See  Inauguration
of  Jefferson  Davis.)  The  chairman  of  the  con-
vention appointed  committees  on  foreign  rela-
tions, postal  affairs,  finance,  couuiierce,  military
and  naval  affairs,  judiciary,  patents  and  copy-
rights, and  printiug. All  the  laws  of  the  Unite<l
States  not  incompatible  with  the  new  order  of
things  were  continued  in  force  temporarily. A
committee  was  appointe<l  to  report  a  constitu-
tion of  permanent  government  for  the  Confetl-
eracy. 