Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-10-23

long continue to divide people who have a
Political ApOstacy-The Howard Amend
ment.
"Their first attempt the Fourteenth
Amendment which they offered you as a dose
preparatory to adjournment. But it was not
stated to be final, and there Is much controversy
at the North to the reasons for your eJectlDg it.
If YOU could not sw allow the clause requiring
YOU to disqualify your leaders, my heart tells me
You were light Hope shall never lisp Oneword of
reproach against any man who refused to go back
upon his chosen foremost man at such time''-
Hon. John Quincy Adams, at Columbia, s. c..
Congress proposed the Howard Amendment.
What is that? 1t is magnanimous t. great de-
gree. It was without precedent to a conquered
people. The provisions of the Amendment were
Just and proper.'-O. Il. Dockery, at Whining
ton, North Carolina.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS is native and resi-
dent of Massachusetts. He was an officer
fought manfully for the restoration of the
Union during the war as he is now working
for its preservation in peace. " You have,
perhaps, been told" he says in the speech
from which we have just quoted, that I
" am a grandson of one of the earliest OPP
" ponents of your peculiar institution, and
SO I will tell you that I was an ardent,
" though humble supporter of Mr.. LIN
" coin. hearty friend of his administra-
" ton, always in favor of an energetic
prosecution of the war while it lasted,
" and that hailed with gratitude the abo
/" lition of slavery" He is candidate for
Office before the Northern people.
OLIVER II. DoCKERY is native and resi-
dent of North Carolina. He was an officer
of not much distinction in the Confeder
ate army, and fought little and talked
much in favor of the dissolution of the
Union and the establishment of the South
ern Confederacy. He was an ardent oppo-
nent of Mr.. LINCOLN, hearty but harmless
enemy of his administration, always in ia
vor of an energetic prosecution Of the war
by the Confederate authorities, while it
lasted, and as energetic in denying his
voluntary participation after its cessation,
and grieved as much as any other large
stakeholder in the whole South, over the
abolition of slavery, and we are creditably
informed, moved in public meeting in his
county, Immediately after the war, that the
government be petitioned to permit the
retention Of SlaueS for fire gears. He is
candidate for Office before the Southern
people.
If both of these gentlemen arc equally
honest, equally patriotic and equally disin-
terested, it is hard to reconcile this remar-
kable difference in their views in regard to
tho rejection of the Howard Amendment
by the Southern people. Ono is a North
ern man, an ex-Federal soldier, who pro-
feses to have ardently wished and labored
for tho defeat of the South, who fought
against LEE, HAMPTON and FORREST in the
field with the same fervor with which he
courts their friendship in the work of re-
Cancellation and reconstruction. The other
is Southern man, an ex-Confederate SOL
der, who ardently wished and labored for
the defeat of the North, who fought against
GRANT, SHERIDAN and BUTLER with the
same fervor with which he now makes war
upon his own people. The former has no
wish to see the amin osities and prejudices
of the struggle perpetuated in the funda-
mental law of the land, although it is
his former enemies who are to be
proscribed-has no word of reproach
against any one who refused to go back
upon his chosen foremost man. The lat
ter regards these prescriptions as just and
proper, and desires them perpetuated for
aye in the Constitution of the country,
although the victims are his own friends
and fellow-citizens, and some of them in
Cured these responsibilities by his advice
and under his lead-and has now only
words of reproach against every one who
refuses to go back upon those men who,
in the field and in the legislature, obeyed
the will of the people.
It is sometimes hard to divine the mo-
impulses are curious things, and only He
who created can fully understand them.
But when men belle the noblest conduct
of their lives-are false to their very ma
tures-basely apologize to an inferior race
for all of their past history, for which they
have cause to be proud, and for which
their children might have had reason to
bless them, it requires no prescience to
Judge their motives. No man voluntarily
pIunges into dishonor. The thief is urged
on by motives which satisfy him of the
necessity or the advantage of his action.
The robber and murderer reconciles his
deeds with his supposed interest.
81 have heard you say,
honor and policy, like unsever'd friends,
the war do grow together: Grant that, and
In peace, what each Of them bv the other lose.
That they combine not there