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Debate emerges over constitution

The only known final copy of the Confederate Constitution is displayed one time each year, and you can count on an interesting scene when the fading 12-foot-long manuscript is unfurled.

A heated debate emerged Monday, just inches from the fragile document, between a sandal-clad yoga instructor from California wearing a peace shirt and a lifetime Sons of Confederate Veterans member who had proudly placed a rebel flag pin in the middle of his gray tie.

The Confederate Constitution is displayed only once a year around Confederate Memorial Day so that more exposure doesn't further fade the flowing handwritten cursive. But perhaps there's another reason: Avoiding a perpetual debate over the Civil War.

Jim Stockton, who was at the University of Georgia on a road trip from Berkeley, Calif., was trying to keep his voice down as he argued the Confederate movement - and by extension, the document - has contributed to a legacy of hate.

"And it's a legacy that's still being repeated today," he says.

John Maxey, who said his great-great-grandfather died during a Civil War battle in Virginia, was arguing that the Confederacy's motives should be reviewed without the "emotional" context of slavery.

"I wouldn't defend slavery for a minute," he says, giving an impromptu course on states' rights.

The document, bought by the university's library 70 years ago, is brought out from the archive on Georgia's Confederate Memorial Day.

The constitution, made from five vellum sheets pasted together, was buried in a box dumped by retreating Confederate soldiers in a railroad station in Chester, S.C. It was recovered by a printer, Felix DeFontaine, who was looking for blank sheets of paper.

In 1883, DeFontaine sold the permanent constitution to a Georgia family, which sold it to the university in 1939 for $20,000.

Allen Crawford, a history major from Knoxville, Tenn., says a Civil War class he is taking inspired him to visit the exhibit.

"This is a piece of living history," Crawford says. "And it's a great chance to learn about it. I don't really get caught up in the emotions."

And that's the library's goal, says Graham.

"Different people can have different feelings about the constitution," he says. "Our objective as a library is to archive the raw material of history so people can make their own choices."

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