CONSTITUTION OF 1861

PREAMBLE

Revised by order of the Convention of the People, assembled at Montgomery on the Seventh Day of January, A. D., 1861.

We the People of the State of Alabama, having separated ourselves from the Government known as the United States of America, and being now by our representatives in Convention assembled, and acting in our sovereign and independent character; in order to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity - invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God - do ordain and establish the following Constitution and form of Government for the State of Alabama: And the boundaries of this State are established to be: Beginning where the thirty-first degree of North latitude crosses the Perdido river; thence East, to the boundary line of the State of Georgia; thence along said line to the Southern boundary of the State of Tennessee; thence West, along the Southern boundary line of the State of Tennessee, crossing the Tennessee river, and on to the intersection of said river by said line; thence up said river to the mouth of Big Bear creek; thence by a direct line to the North-west corner of Washington county in this State, as originally formed; thence Southerly along the line of Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico; thence Eastwardly, including all Islands within six leagues of the shore, to the Perdido river; and thence up the same to the beginning.