Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-11-04

mangled bodiesof the maniac and hil
victim were taken out that night. 9.
John Quincy Adams at Home.
I WHAT He sA1Dlro His FRIENDS AM 4
"a. NE1euBoRs ABOUT THE SOUTH. :
The Hon. John Quincy Adams made
an n,address to his friends and neighbors
at Weymouth, Mass, on Thursday last
in the course of which he said:,
AS you all know have made little
| trip to the. South. I wished to see what
/ a reconstructed State was, and l went
to South Carolina for that purpose. "a
have come back with this convictions
though I do not know how he.othel
Conservative citizens of the Union may
feel about it. / never intend to stop
to relax for one moment in the heartiest,
most earnest and -mostshonest efforts ]
can make to remove all such blessings
as reconstruction from the. neclzs Of
every one Of ny fellow citizens Loud
applause. The issue in this campaign
to me is simply this, and nothing more.
Reconstruction, as you know. is the
Radical constitution. It is. the. only
constitution now in ten States of the
Union and what iso it? 1t is simply
this-the rule of the military an7 moth
ing else. In order that it may not jar
too much upon the nerves Of a republ-
can people to see, ht-millions Of fvtheir
fellow-citizens held down.by the bayo-
net, they have brought in a greatsmass
of. three or four millions Of pooz, ssigno-
rant, degraded, black men, and setthem
up in a, row as it were, acrossthe South
ern States, and because they think you
cannot see the bayonet behind them,
they say, "-That is a republican form Of
government. How republican? What
is this, republican form, of government i?
Why look at the condition Of those
States. Suppose that almost all the
voters in this Commonwealth should
suddenlybe deprived of. the franchise,
and Z in their place it was bestowed upon
set of men whowe entirely ignorant
of the value and responsibility of the
voting power-who knew nothing about
any of the principles in regard to which
they were voting. Suppose such class
of men were to be put over you, of
course YOU would not like it-you
would feel uncomfortable and disagree,
and you would not suffer their rule if
you could helpit. Yet this is precisely
the condition In which South Carolina
il t6=da isl
men who if the people were left to
themselves, would have no more chance
of holding the Offices of your govern
ment they now hold, than l should of
being elected King Of Great Britain. in
place of Queen Victoria. if l were to
go to England tomorrow. Laughter
And these officials having no hold upon
the esteem of the people, as they call
them down there IN their expressive,
though =. slightly inelegant language
escaIawags " and carpet -baggers, y can
not command any of their respect and
confidence: The consequence Of this is
that they have to Be supported in their
places by the bayonets Of the United
States soldiers. And as there are not
United States soldiers enough at the
South to keep the people entirely :" con-
tented, Ss,.non enough to make the goE
ernment thoroughly Democratic..S SO.
everyday or,two they are calling for
more soldiersin order'tos support these
thoroughly Democratic and "Repubz
lican's governments ;sand that is recon-
strnction4 My Southern Democratic
friends down there grcetedme III way
which h,Ishall lnevcr forget to my dying
day. The kindness, thea warmth, the
consideration, the order which they
showed in welcoming any 'Northerner,
especially from Massachpsetts.l. who
would go down there and. say to them
a kind word, who would not treat them
like boys. and call them,rebels traitors
miserable rascals, or villains, went deep
to my heart. They, asked>me tossays to
my fellow-citizens at the North that
they fought yourin the, war; stbeysbe-
lieved that they were right; !; that they
fought you as hard assthey could, and
when the war was done they frankly
abandoned what they had fought for.
They said we had whipped them; Iwe
had conquered what we demanded sdu-
ring the war, and. they were ready
to give it. up. They would fight no
longer, and all they asked was friend
ship and kindness What they deserved
from us at the North was mercy, the
hand of kindness, good fellowship and
brotherly love-. Loud applause. They
want no more contest, no more ill.bloo1;
they want merely to shake hands, say
ing, we fought, and now, the fight is
done, let US be friends. That is. the
feeling Of the mass of the whole people
met at the South. saw no unl1nd=
ness, no sort of feeling Indicating un-
kindness toward any of the people at
the North. That they may be treated
in decency and kindness, they do ask,
and that is what is what I pray of every
one of you to labor for. Applause. Il
is the thing, it seems to me, that we
fneed here at the North as much as they
need5it at the South. All that they
ask, and all that the Democratic party
at the North seek to accomplish, is that
we maybe allowed to come together
once more in peace and amity that
this incubus Of reconstruction may be
taken off the people; that these soldiers
may be taken away from between us