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? [...] 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 benefited by it, bear the burden. Stephens noted that the new country would have a clear delineation between federal and state responsibilities and took the position similar to that of South Carolina during the nullification crisis, namely that the federal government should not pay for internal improvements. Procedural The first change was apparently very important to Stephens and he would have made the constitution even closer to that of the United Kingdom's, but he felt it was still an improvement over the U.S. Constitution, saying that "cabinet ministers and heads of departments may have the privilege of seats upon the floor of the Senate and House of Representatives and may have the right to participate in the debates and discussions upon the various subjects of administration". As an example, in the U.S. Constitution the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury had no chance to explain his budget or to be held accountable except by the press. The President was to serve a single six-year term in the hope that it would "remove from the incumbent all temptation to use his office or exert the powers confided to him for any objects of personal ambition". Status The seven states that seceded, Stephens thought, were sufficient to form a successful republic, with a population of five million (including blacks) and a land area larger than that of France, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom combined. The seven states contained taxable property of $2,200,000,000 and debts of only $18,000,000 whereas the remaining United States had a debt of $174,000,000. Future The Confederate constitution allowed new states to join easily. Stephens said that surely North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas would be members in the near future and that Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri would eventually join. Stephens expected the swift evacuation of Fort Sumter, a U.S. Army stronghold in South Carolina, but what "course will be pursued toward Fort Pickens, and the other [U.S.] forts on the gulf, is not so well understood". Since the Confederacy up