A number of amendments to the constitution were offered this session,[218] but only four mustered sufficient strength to pass both houses. The most noted were the one which removed the governor’s ineligibility for a second term[219] and the amendment to Article 99, which removed the last restriction on the ex-rebels. It had been offered in the Assembly, both in 1868 and 1869, and the governor had urged it in his annual message in the latter year.[220] It stands out in pleasing relief to most of the partisan legislation of that period, inasmuch as it was introduced, we are told in debate, by one of the most bitter opponents of the Democrats,[221] aroused very little debate, and passed almost unanimously in both houses at a single sitting.[222] Several speeches, all in favor, were made by negroes to give, as one of them innocently said, “a little coloring to the matter.”[223] A third amendment was intended to secure the safety of the public funds,[224] and the fourth was a most important restriction on the public debt, namely, that prior to January 1, 1890, it could not be increased beyond $25,000,000.[225] But certain bills were of such transcendent importance that they all but effaced the consciousness of other legislation, at least in the mind of the public. These were the four great bills, the election, registration, constabulary, and militia bills, which, together with the constitutional amendment which removed ineligibility for a second gubernatorial term, made it possible for Governor Warmoth to determine the personnel of all offices practically at will, and, but for the stumbling-block of the nominating convention, to continue himself indefinitely at the head of affairs. Whatever may have been the distrust of the governor in the State at large--and complaints were not wanting from the first in Democratic circles--confidence in their young leader was unshaken in the men who constituted this Assembly. Even when opposing individual bills, members were careful to express confidence in Warmoth[226] in some such terms as follows: “Not that I have anything against the governor himself, but I think it improper to give such extraordinary power to any man, were he an apostle.”[227]