The Confederate President was intrusted with very large powers, including supreme control of military affairs. He was authorized to muster into the service of the central government the regiments which had been forming in the various States. A call was issued for 100,000 volunteers, and provision made for organizing a regular army. President Davis appointed a cabinet, with state, treasury, war, navy, and post-office departments. Robert Toombs, of Georgia, a rabid secessionist, became Secretary of State. March 11th the Confederate Congress adopted a permanent constitution. It reproduced that of the United States, with some important changes. State sovereignty was recognized in the preamble, which read, "We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character," etc. Slavery was called by name, and elaborate safeguards fixed for it in the States and Territories. Slave-trade from beyond the sea, or with states not in the Confederacy, was, however, prohibited. Protective tariffs were absolutely forbidden. The president and vice-president were to serve six years, and the former could not be re-elected. Some valuable features were inserted. Members of the cabinet might discuss matters pertaining to their departments in either house of congress. The president could veto one part of an appropriation bill without killing the whole, and was required to lay before the senate his reasons for the removal of any officers from the civil service. [Illustration: Portrait.] Alexander H. Stephens. By the last of April all the seceded States had ratified this constitution. The other slave States were taken in as fast as they withdrew from the Union. The Southern Confederacy, now fairly launched, set sail over strange seas upon its short but eventful voyage. At the start the hopes of those it bore rose high. Few believed that the North would dare draw sword. Even if it should, the southern heart, proud and brave, felt sure of victory. King Cotton would win Europe to their side. Peace would come soon. Visions of a glorious future dazzled the imaginative mind of the South. A vast slave empire, founded on the "great physical, philosophical, and moral truth" that slavery is the "natural condition," of the inferior black race, would spread encircling arms around the Great Gulf, swallowing up the feeble states of Mexico, and rise to a wealth and glory unparalleled in the history of nations. CHAPTER III. THE NORTH IN THE WINTER OF 1860-61 [1860-1861]