[148] I had no direct part in the preparation of the Confederate
Constitution. No consideration of delicacy forbids me, therefore, to
say, in closing this brief review of that instrument, that it was a
model of wise, temperate, and liberal statesmanship. Intelligent
criticism, from hostile as well as friendly sources, has been compelled
to admit its excellences, and has sustained the judgment of a popular
Northern journal which said, a few days after it was adopted and
published:
"The new Constitution is the Constitution of the United States
with various modifications and some very important and most
desirable improvements. We are free to say that the invaluable
reforms enumerated should be adopted by the United States, with
or without a reunion of the seceded States, and as soon as
possible. But why not accept them with the propositions of the
Confederate States on slavery as a basis of reunion?"[149]
[Footnote 133: See Appendix K.]
[Footnote 134: "War between the States," vol. ii, col. xix, p. 389.]
[Footnote 135: See Article II, section 1.]
[Footnote 136: Ibid., section 2, ¶ 3.]
[Footnote 137: Article I, section 6, ¶ 2.]
[Footnote 138: Article I, section 8, ¶ 1.]
[Footnote 139: Ibid.]
[Footnote 140: Ibid., section 9, ¶ 10.]
[Footnote 141: Ibid., ¶ 9.]
[Footnote 142: Ibid., section 7, ¶ 2.]
[Footnote 143: Ibid., section 2, ¶ 5.
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