Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-03-05

sttution 1t is frivolous to tell us that the change
! has been made through the forms of the COnsttu-
ton This is to add insult to injury. What signify
! forms when the substance is gone? OF what value
| il tie shell when the kernel is EXTRACTED? Rjghtg
are things, and not words; and when the things are
taken from u.s. it no time to be nibbng at phrases
| II witness under oath designedly gives testimony
which, though literally true, conveys false impress
sion is he not guilty of perjury! Is not his truth
LEY Tempres kept the letter of his promise to the
garrison Of Sebasta, that if they would surr ender,
no blood should be shed, but did that save hln from
the scandal of treachery in burying them alive No
man objects to the legality of the process of Mr..
Lineoln's election The objection is to the legality
of that so which he ID elected He has been chosen,
not to administer, but to revolutonize. the Govern
ment. The very moment he goes into office, the
Constitution OF the United States as touching the
| great question between the North and South, is
| dead The oath which makes him President, makes
| a new Union. The import of secession is simply the
refusal on the part of the South, to be parties to
| any such Unian She has not renowned, aud If II
lad been permitted to stand, she meyer would have
| reneuneed the Constitution which our fatherg
| framed. She would haye stood by it for ever. But
as the North have substantially abolished it, and,
| taxing advantage Of their numbers have substituted
another in It's place which dooms to the South perdi-
ton surely she has right to say she will enter ato
| no such conspiracy. The Government to which she
! consented was Government under which she might
hope to live The new one presented In its place s
one under which she can only die. Under these
question either the righteousness or the necessity of
secession. The South is shut up to the duty of re-
| iecting these new terms of Union. Ne people on
GARTH without judicial inlstuatioR aan organize
Government to destroy them It is too much to ask
| man TO sign his own death-warrant
H. We wish to say few words as to the policy
of the sayeholding States in the present emergency
| We know it to be the fixed determination of them
all not to acqulespe IN the principles which have
brought Mr. Lincoln into power. several of them,
however. have hestated-and it is a sign of The
scrupulous integrity of the South in maintaining
her faith--whether the mere fact OF his election.
apart from any overt act of the Government, is
itself cqsus bei and sufficient reason tor extreme
measures of resistance. These States have, also.
chung to the hope that there would yet be . return
ing sense of Justice at the North, which shall give
them satisfactory guarantees for the preSerYation
of their rights, and restore peace withoqtthe neees
sity of schism. We respect the motives which have
produced this hesitation. We have no sympathy
with any haunting reflections upon the courage,
magnanimlty, public spirit or patriotism of such a
commonwealth as Virginia The mother of Wash
iugton is aot 10 lie insuited if, like heP great hero
she takes counsel of moderation and prudence. We
honor too the sentiment which makes it hard to give
up the Union. It was a painful struggle TO our
lives there were precious memories and hallowed
ASSOCIATIONS, connected with glorious history, to
which TIE hesFt cannot gid farewell without pang
Few men, in all the South, brought themselves to
pronounce the word psuniOD, without sadness of
heart. Some States have not yet been able to pro-
nounoe it. But the tendency of events is rresisti
ble 1t is becoming every day clearer that the
people of the North hate slavery more than they
love the Union and they are developing this spirit
in form which must soon bring every slaveholdng
State with the ranks of secession. The evil day may
be put off but it must come. The country must be
divided into two people, and the point which we
wish now to press upon the whole South il, the i'm