The Confederate Constitution sought to lay out the governance of the Confederacy through a document just like the writer's of the Constitution did decades before. However, the Confederate Constitution sought to indoctrinate certain principles and legal concepts that were different from the Constitution. The Confederate Constitution was very similar to the American Constitution, however, it gave more power and attention to states, state rights, and also to continuing the institution of slavery explicitly. The American Constitution did not reference slavery explicitly, but the Confederate Constitution did so and sought to permit its continued use.