“Be changed? Change the laws of the United States? Tamper with the glorious Constitution that our 4 fathers left us—an immortal, sacred legacy?”
He jumped right up on his feet, in his surprise, and kinder shook, as if he was skairt most to death, and tremblin' with borrow. He did it to skair me, I knew; and I wuz most skaird, I confess, he acted so horrowfied. But I knew I meant well towards the Constitution, and our old 4 fathers; and my principles stiddied me, and held me middlin' firm and serene. And when he asked me agin in tones full of awe and horrow,—
“Can it be that I heard my ear aright? or did you speak of changing the unalterable laws of the United States—tampering with the Constitution?”
Says I, “Yes, that is what I said.”
Oh, how his body kinder shook, and how sort o' wild he looked out of his eyes at me!
Says I, “Hain't they never been changed?”
He dropped that skairful look in a minute, and put on a firm, judicial one. He gin up; he could not skair me to death: and says he,—
“Oh, yes! they have been changed in cases of necessity.”
Says I, “For instance, durin' the late war, it was changed to make Northern men cheap blood-hounds and hunters.”
“Yes,” he said. “It seemed to be a case of necessity and econimy.”