Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-09-16
THE SPEECH OF JOHN QUINCY
ADAMS

~ - A4AAAA VI 49,
ADAMS.
We publish in an another column an ex-
tract comprising the main portions Of truly
able and philosophical speech on public a.
fairs-such an one as is rarely delivered in
these degenerate times-from JOHN QUIScY
ADAMS the End, son Of CHARLES FRANCIS
ADAMS a grandson Of President JoHN
Quincy ADAMS, and great grandson of
President JoHE ADAMS. san intellectual
effort il is worthy Of the illustrious lineage
from which the speaker sprung, and as an
appeal in behalf Of unselfsh patriotism, and
an undivided country underline Constitution,
il has the spirit which moved the great
grandsire on the floor Of the Continental
Congress, when urging union of the colonies
in the struggle for American Independence.
Il is mastery dissection Of the questions at
issue between conservatism and radicalism,
and full Of wisdom the likeO which Faneuil
Hall has been a stranger TO for ten years past
Pronounced in such a place, and by one
with such antecedents and surroundings as
attach TO Mr.. ADAMS, il is healthful and
significant omen for good, and gives promise
that wiser views are gaining a hold among
the influential men Of that section. It is
personally and specially significant from the
fact that Il is understood that this speech
expresses the views Of the authors father,
the present Minister to England, and per
haps the most cultivated statesman in the
Republican party, and one of its founders
and chief supporters.
Mr. ADAMS avows himself member of
the Republican party, but in the same sen
tence AYERS his determination, after careful
reflection upon his duty as citizen and a
patriot, to yield his support to the princi-
piles and objects announUed by the Phila-
delphia Convention of August 14th-and
these he declares to be "fealty and allegi-
ance TO the sacred Constitution Of our IA
the.s." He alludes to the regret he has
felt at being forced, in the step he has TAKEN
TO sunder his former political relations, but
in noble terms he asserts his conscientious
duty to DE public course in obedience to
to the convictions of his Judgment, and his
respect for the Constitution and laws, and
that he cannot forego the latter in defer
ence to party claims or sectional objects. He
analyses the revolutionary attitude in which
radicalism has placed the present Congress;
and with great cogeney and power, shows
that the party which administered the gov
eminent during the war, and mainly conduct
ed it, is now arrayed In direct opposition to
the objects sought to be attained by the war
the preservation of the Union, and the
maintenance Of the Constitution as the only
true standard and bond of unity for us as a
people He says truly that the principle
which now seeks to exclude States from full
and equal rights in the Federal Government
is identical with that which sought to take
them out'of the Union by secession, and by
armed resistance to the execution of Federal
laws; that the "evil spirit of secession has
gone out from the South and entered the
breasts Of tine Radical leaders in Congress. In
thishe draws a striking parallel between the
reasoning on which the Southern people
justified their proposal to withdraw from the
Union, and that on which the Radical party
attempts to justify its efforts 10 force them
out and justly argues that if it was wrong,
in violation Of the Constitution, and indie
fensibls in principle to do the one, it is
equally in violation Of the principles of re-
publican government and of the express
language of the organic law to do the other.
At this point in his argument, IA portion
which we are compelled to omit, Mr.. ADAMS
traces the origin and inevitable tendency of
the theory on which Radicalism assumes to
hold ten States as dependencies but not
members of the Union, and govern their
people by laws which they had no part
in establishing. He lodges it in the
overweening ambition of parties, which
does not hesitate TO break through
the barriers of written Constitutions, when
to save their power it becomes necessary TO
do so; and he predicts as a certain result,
decrease Of respect for constitutions and laws,
and condition Of things in which order
and good government will be sacrificed amid
the strifes of contending factions and aInbi-
tious leaders. After exhaustiug this portion
of the subject, the speech directly charges
that the Radical party of the North is not
warning against the return Of the Southern
States out Of solicitude for the future of the
nation, but for the base purpose Of presery-
ing the power it holds as a political organ
ization, and Frustrating the Government at
its feet; and this charge he clearly estab-
fishes. II is that party that he has felt bound
TO abandon, and take his stand among the
true and real friends Of the Constitution and
the Union.
We bespeak for this speech general and
studious reading.