If the Confederacy won, where would the capital district have been?

The Confederate Constitution, like the US Constitution, stated that one or more states could cede territory to create the seat of the confederate government. Does anyone know where that would have been? I imagine that Richmond wouldn't have been the permanent capital because it was too far east. I also imagine that it wouldn't have gone back to Montgomery because that was the capital of Alabama. I'm thinking the capital would have been farther up the Alabama River, on the Alabama/Georgia border.

I reckon it would have been kept at Richmond, Richmond was a symbol of the Confederacy, to move it would have been an admittance of weakness.

I think the Confederate capital probably would have remained Richmond. I'm not sure it's eastern location would have been a problem, as DC is about as east as you can get and it's stayed the US capital all this time. Just a thought.

I've always thought they should have kept the capital in Montgomery, but I have no idea what plans were in existance for it's location after the war.

Nashville would be my pick for a location.

How about Atlanta? The railhead capital of the South.

New Orleans. Great food and they know how to party.

To me, the most likely move, if Richmond is rejected, for whatever reason, would be to borrow from the example of the Founding Fathers and create a legally artificial province, like the original, the District of Columbia.
It could be located anywhere a state(or more) would agree to its formation, but logically it would have to be on the seaboard on or close to a good sea port and/or a rail net. That leaves somewhere in Va. or the Carolinas(New Orleans would be seen as too far away and, probablyy a little too foreign) But, where, exactly, would be up to the local and national politics involved in its selection.

Hm. In the classic If the South had Won the Civil War, it posits that the Confederacy would have taken Washington DC as its capital, while the USA's capital was moved to Columbus, Ohio. DC was slave territory before the war, as were both Maryland and Virginia (of course), and it would have strengthened the CSA's claim to be the true heirs of George Washington and the Revolution.

It would depend on 'how' the South won its independence. If by military conquest then of course 'to the victor, goes the spoils'. But, if by negotiation, as was the goal of Davis and his administration, then it would depend upon the sagacity and determination of the negotiating partices; in that case, I think Lincoln would have a decided advantage i8.e highly unlikely the north(or Lincoln) would have given up Md. without a lot of very hard bargaining.

KevinLuna said:

The Confederate Constitution, like the US Constitution, stated that one or more states could cede territory to create the seat of the confederate government. Does anyone know where that would have been? I imagine that Richmond wouldn't have been the permanent capital because it was too far east. I also imagine that it wouldn't have gone back to Montgomery because that was the capital of Alabama. I'm thinking the capital would have been farther up the Alabama River, on the Alabama/Georgia border.

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Don't place too much credence in what the Confederate constitution said. It also stated that there would be no protective tariffs, that the judiciary would be vested in a supreme court, and that no actions could be taken that would interfere with the right to own slaves. All of those were ignored.

The capitol would likely have remained in Richmond.

Although the constitution made provision for creating a new capital, it didn't exclude the possibility of retaining it in an existing city. Winning the war and their independence with Richmond as the capital might create a sentiment for keeping it so.

If Maryland remained with the Union, the US government would be in the curious situation of having its capital on the border, literally under the guns of its recent enemy, assuming Virginia retained all of its territory on the right bank of the Potomac; I imagine they'd take back their piece of the District of Columbia. There would be a prestige argument to keep the capital where it was, but some obvious practical ones for moving to someplace like New York or Chicago. The US "abandoning" Maryland might also encourage that state to join the Confederacy, unless the peace settlement prohibited such changes.

Whether they liked it or not, the two nations' biggest foreign policy concern would be dealing with each other, so there would be a case on both sides for keeping the capitals reasonable close. I've always thought/hoped that good relations could be restored/maintained after a separation, peaceful or otherwise.

Nations do occasionally have their capitals on their borders, especially on rivers, like Buenos Aires or Ascuncion (Paraguay). The capitals of the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (ex-Zaire) Brazzaville and Kinshasa, face each other across the Congo River.

Carronade said:

Whether they liked it or not, the two nations' biggest foreign policy concern would be dealing with each other, so there would be a case on both sides for keeping the capitals reasonable close. I've always thought/hoped that good relations could be restored/maintained after a separation, peaceful or otherwise.

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Highly doubtful. It's been 151 years and good relations haven't been restored with most of the hard core Confederate supporters around here. Had they lost what make you think the North would have been any more adult about it?

I think someplace centrally located within the Greater Confederacy- say Havana.