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The Constitution of the Southern `` Confederation '' differed from that of the Federal Union only in two important respects: It openly, defiantly, recognized slavery -- an institution which the Southerners of 1787, even though they continued it, found so impossible to reconcile with freedom that they carefully avoided mentioning the word in the Federal Constitution.

They recognized that slavery was a moral issue and not merely an economic interest, and that to recognize it explicitly in their Constitution would be in explosive contradiction to the concept of sovereignty they had set forth in the Declaration of 1776 that `` all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

'' The other important difference between the two Constitutions was that the President of the Confederacy held office for six ( instead of four ) years, and was limited to one term.