Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-11-04
John Quincy Adams at HOme.e

WHAT He sA1DlTo HIS FRIENDS AMI
NE1GHBoRs ABOUT THE SOUTH.
The Hon. John Quincy Adams made
anaddress to his friends and neighbor'
at Weymouth, Mass, on Thursday last
in the course Of which he said:.
AS you all know l have made little
trip to the South. I wished to see what
reconstructed State was, and went
to South Carolina for that purpose. i
have come back with this conviction,
though ! do not know how the ,othe,
Conservative citizens Of the Union may
feel about it. I never intend to stop
to relax for one moment in the heartiest
most earnest and most honest efforts
can make to remove all such blessings
as reconstruction from the neclls Of
every one of my 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 is. it? 1t is simply
this-the rule of the military and moth
ing else. In order that it may not jar
too much upon the nerves Of a republi-
can people to see. eight t-millions Of their
fellow-citizens held down by the bayo-
net, they have broughtin great mass
of three OF four millions of poor, igno-
rant, degraded black men, and setthem
up in row as it were, across the 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 (?
Why look at the condition of those
States. Suppose that almost all the
voters in this Commonwealth should
be deprived OF. the franchise,
and their place it was bestowed upon
a set of men who were 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
Is to-day. -Sho il ignXnrned s
men who, if tile 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 | were to
90 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
e scalawags" and carpet t-baggers, can
not command any of their respect and
confidence The consequence Of this is
that thcy 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 tile
South to keep the people entirely +" con-
tented" norenough to make the gov
thoroughly ]" Democraticl, Z SO.
every day or two they are calling for
more soldiers in order to support these
thoroughly Democratic and "Repub@
lican" governments and that is recon-
My Southern Democratic
friends down there greeted'me i'll away
which L shall never forget to my dying
day. The kindness, the warmth, the
consideration, the order which they
showed in welcoming any Northcrner,
from Massachusetts,, 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 askedme to say to
my iellow-citizens at the North that
they fought you in the war; ethey.be-
lieved that they were right; that they
fought you as hard as they could, and
when the war was done. they frankly
abandoned what they had fought for.
They said we had whipped them; we
had conquered what we demanded du7
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.sW 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, nomore lllblood; !;
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
I met at the South. I saw no unllnd=
ness, no sort of feeling indicating un-
kindness toward any Of the people at
the North. That they may be treated
in deccncy and kindness, they do ask,
and that is what is what pray of every
one of you to labor for. Applause. It
is the thing it seems to me, that we
need here at the North as much as they
need it: 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,
and that we-all of us-once more may
feel, North as we'll as South, white man
as we'll as black man-the benefits of g
Union under the old system of govern
ment.