s could permit it, and the Congress was expressly "required"
to enforce the prohibition. The only discretion in the matter intrusted
to the Congress was, whether or not to permit the introduction of slaves
from any of the United States or their Territories.

Mr. Lincoln, in his inaugural address, had said: "I have no purpose,
directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in
the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so,
and I have no inclination to do so." Now, if there was no purpose on the
part of the Government of the United States to interfere with the
institution of slavery within its already existing limits--a proposition
which permitted its propagation within those limits by natural
increase--and inasmuch as the Confederate Constitution precluded any
other than the same natural increase, we may plainly perceive the
disingenuousness and absurdity of the pretension by which a factitious
sympathy has been obtained in certain quarters for the war upon the
South, on the ground that it was a war in behalf of freedom against
slavery.[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,