plished without the loss of a single drop of blood. (Applause.) This new constitution, or form of government, constitutes the subject to which your attention will be partly invited.

In reference to it, I make this first general remark: It amply secures all our ancient rights, franchises, and privileges. All the great principles of Magna Charta are retained in it. No citizen is deprived of life, liberty, or property but by the judgment of his peers, under the laws of the land. The great principle of religious liberty, which was the honor and pride of the old Constitution, is still maintained and secured. All the essentials of the old Constitution, which have endeared it to the hearts of the American people, have been preserved and perpetuated. (Applause.) Some changes have been made; of these I shall speak presently. Some of these I should have preferred not to have been made, but these perhaps meet the cordial approbation of a majority of this audience, if not an overwhelming majority of the people of the Confederacy. Of them, therefore, I will not speak. But other important changes do meet my cordial approbation. They form great improvements on the old Constitution. So, taking the whole new Constitution, I have no hesitancy in giving it as my judgment, that it is decidedly better than the old. (Applause.)

Allow me briefly to allude to some of these improvements. The question of building up class interests, or fostering one branch of industry to the prejudice of another, under the exercise of the revenue power, which gave us so much trouble under the old Constitution, is put at rest forever under the new. We allow the imposition of no duty with a view of giving advantages to one class of persons, in any trade or business, over those of another. All, under our system, stand upon the same broad principles of perfect equality. Honest labor and enterprise are left free and unrestricted in whatever pursuit they may be engaged. This subject came well nigh causing a rupture of the old Union, under the lead of the gallant Palmetto State, which lies on our border, in 1833.

This old thorn of the tariff, which occasioned the cause of so much irritation in the old body politic, is removed forever from from the new. (Applause.) Again, the subject of internal improvements, under the power of Congress to regulate commerce, is put at rest under our system. The power claimed by construction under the old Constitution was, at least, a doubtful one-it rested solely upon construction. We, of the South, generally apart from considerations of constitutional principles, opposed its exercise upon grounds of expediency and justice. Notwith

standing this opposition, millions of money in the common treasury had been drawn for such purposes. Our opposition sprung from no hostily to commerce, or all necessary aids for facilitating it. With us it was simply a question upon whom the burden should fall. In Georgia, for instance, we had done as much for the cause of internal improvements as any other portion of the country, according to population and means. We have stretched out lines of railroads from the seaboard to the mountains; dug down the hills and filled up the valleys at a cost of not less. than $25,000,000. All this was done to open up an outlet for our products of the interior, and those to the west of us, to reach the marts of the world. No State was in greater need of such facilities than Georgia, but we had not asked that these works should be made by appropriations out of the common Treasury. The cost of the grading, the superstructure and equipments of our roads was borne by those who entered upon the enterprise. Nay, more, not only the cost of the iron, no small item in the aggregate cost, was borne in the same way, but we were compelled to pay into the common Treasury several millions of dollars for the privilege of importing the iron, after the price was paid for it abroad. What justice was there in taking this money, which our people paid into the common Treasury on the

importation of our iron, and applying it to the improvement of rivers and harbors elsewhere?

The true principle is, to subject commerce of every locality to whatever burdens may be necessary to facilitate it. If Charleston harbor needs improvement, let the commerce of Charleston bear the burden. If the mouth of the Savannah River has to be cleared out, let the sea-going navigation which is benefitted by it bear the burden. So with the mouths of the Alabama and Mississippi rivers. Just as the products of the interior, our cotton, wheat, corn, and other articles have to bear the necessary rates of frieght over our railroads to reach the seas. This is again the broad principle of perfect equality and justice. (Applause.) And it is specially held forth and established in our new Constitution.

Another feature to which I will allude is, that the new Constitution provides that cabinet ministers and heads of departments shall have the privilege of seats upon the floor of the Senate and House of Representatives-shall have the right to participate in the debates and discussions upon the various subjects of administration. I should have preferred that this provision should have gone further, and allowed the President to select his constitutional advisers from the Senate and House of Representatives. That would have conformed entirely to the practice in the

British Parliament, which, in my judgment, is one of the wisest provisions in the British Parliament. It is the only feature 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.

Under the old Constitution a Secretary of the Treasury, for instance, had no opportunity, save by his annual reports, of presenting any scheme or plan of finance or other matter. He had no opportunity of explaining, expounding, enforcing, or defending his views of policy; his only resort was through the medium of an organ. In the British Parliament the premier brings in his budget, and stands before the nation responsible for its every item. If it is indefensible, he falis before the attacks upon it, as he ought to. This will now be the case, to a limited extent, under our system. Our heads of departments can speak for themselves and the administration, in behalf of its entire policy, without resorting to the indirect and highly objectionable medium of a newspaper. It is to be greatly hoped that under our system we shall never have what is known as a government organ. (Rapturous applause.)

[A noise again arose from the clamor of the crowd outside, who wished to hear Mr. Stephens, and for some moments interrupted him. The Mayor