The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-10-17
Another Speech from John Quincy
Adams.

CHARLESTON, s. c., October ia large
meeting was held this evening to hear John
Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts,. MIR.
Adams said he had come here by invita-
ton, and therefore felt at liberty to give
that most unpleasant of commodities, good
advice. He had been free-soiler, then 8
Republican, voted for Lincoln, supported
the war, and been an enemy to slavery,
and that was his position at the close Of the
war. But when the southern people had
laid down their arms, and were ready to
come back, he was ready to take them by
the hand and receive them. Many of the
best men of the Republican party were of
the same view. He thought the southern
people right to reject the fourteenth amend
ment, DISTINGUISHING their leaders. They
could have done no less. The North had
always considered the southern people who
fought in the war as rebels, who had
no rights when conquered, and not
entitled to appeal to Constitution
which they had fought against, and
the reconstruction acts still regard the
southern States as foreign territory. The
chief difficulty now between the northern
and southern people is not difference Of
opinion-they think nearly alike; but, un-
fortunately, they do not seem to under
stand each other. The people of Massa-
chusetts still had the traditional idea Of
southern mana dirk in one pocket and
pistol in the other, cigar in one side OF his
mouth and quid of tobacco in the other
INDECENT and domineering, and intolerant of
any difference of opinion.
Since coming down South himself, the
speaker said he found that the news
papers have not told the truth about the
South. He had spent several days in init
mate converse with General Wade Hampton
and was satisfied that he WAS no more a
rebel than himself. He said the people of
the South must not expect much from any
political party. If Grant is elected it will
not be as bad for the South as many here
appear to think. They should remember,
however, above all things, that whether
they like it or not they could do nothing.
They cannot again 60 to war. Where would
they get munitions from, or even banners ?
The policy Of the South is peace. The
North desires assurances that slavery will
not be reestablished, neither in its old form
nor yet as punishment for crime, and
there must be perfect freedom of speech.
Then, and not till then, will there be perfect
reconstruction, harmony, and retinion.
He spoke words of kindness to the ne
groes, who were present in large numbers,
assuring them that it was to their interest
to stand by the friends whom they had
known longest, and not be carried away by
the fair promises of carpet-baggers, who
only want their votes. When the present
questions are settled, which they soon will
be, the whites would stand by the whites,
and the blacks would 60 down unless the
negroes abandoned their present course.
He was opposed to universal suffrage,
but was satisfied that the whites of the
South were ready to concede impartial suf-
frage to whites and blacks, as is the case in
the Radical State of Massachusetts. With
the extinction Of slavery he thought all
cause for bad feeling between the North
and South had passed away, and he hoped
that soon Massachusetts and South Carolina
would stand side by side as brothers and
friends, as they had done in the days of the
Revolution.