that saves that government. It is that which gives it stability in
its facility to change its administration. Ours, as it is, is a great
approximation to the right principle. * * *

Another change in the Constitution relates to the length of the tenure
of the Presidential office. In the new constitution it is six years
instead of four, and the President is rendered ineligible for a
re-election. This is certainly a decidedly conservative change. It will
remove from the incumbent all temptation to use his office or exert the
powers confided to him for any objects of personal ambition. The only
incentive to that higher ambition which should move and actuate one
holding such high trusts in his hands will be the good of the people,
the advancement, happiness, safety, honor, and true glory of the
Confederacy.

But, not to be tedious in enumerating the numerous changes for the
better, allow me to allude to one other--though last, not least. The
new constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions
relating to our peculiar institution, African slavery as it exists
amongst us, the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization.
This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.
Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this as the "rock upon which
the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him
is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great
truth upon which that rock stood and stands may be doubted. The
prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen
at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were that the
enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that
it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an
evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the