In the first months of the Restoration, Canovas concentrated the majority of power in his own hands. However, to legitimize his new government, he needed a constitution to regulate and guarantee the new political regime. He and his companions organized elections on the basis of male universal suffrage to form the ""cortes constituyentes"," and to write a new constitution. It was partially inspired by the Constitution of 1845 but also incorporated some elements of the Constitution of 1869, such as civil rights and liberties. The new constitution announced that: