The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-10-17
SOUTH CAROLINA.


CHARLESTON, Oct. ia LARGE meeting was
held this evening, at which Hon. John Quincy
Adams made a speech. Mr.. Adams said he
had come here by invitation, and therefore felt
at liberty to give that most unpleasant of COM
modites, good advice. He said he had been a
free soiler, republican, voted for Lincoln, was
a supporter of the war, and an enemy of slavery.
This was his position at the close of the war,
but when the southern people laid down their
arms, and were ready to come back, be was
ready. to take them by the hand and receive
them Many of the best men of the Republican
party held the same view. Then came the 18Th
amendment aboliShing slavery, which was rat
flied by all the southern States then the 14th
amendment, containing the clause disfranchis-
ing the southern leaders. He thought the
southern people right in rejecting it. They
could do no less. He then stated that the
north had always considered the people of the
south who engaged in war as rebels and
when conquered as prisoners of war, who had
no right. They appealed to the constitution,
but it was not their constitution. They fought
against the reconstruction acts, and regarded
Southern States as foreign territory. The
chief difficulty now between the North
ern and Southern people is not difference of
opinion. They think nearly alike, but unfor-
tunatey they don't seem to understand each
other. People in Massachusetts, still hold this
idea of the Southern man, GA dirk in one
pocket pistol in the other; cigar in one side
of his mouth and a quid of tobacco in the other:
any difference of opinion" Since coming down
himself he found that newspapers had not told
the truth about the South. He had spent sew
eral days in intimate conversation with Gen.
Wade Hampton, and had learned his views of
abe future and he was now satisfied Wade
Hampton was no more of rebel than HIM
self. 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, above all
things. that whether they like it or not they
could do nothing. They coulG not go again TO
war. Where would they get ammunition or
even banners? The policy of the South is
peace The North desires assurances that
slavery will not be re-established, neither in
in its old form nor yet as punishment for
crime and there must be perfect freedom of
speech; but not until then can there be perfect
reconstruction, harmony and reunion. He
spoke words of kindness to the negroes who
were present in large numbers, assuring them
that It was to their interest to stand by their
friends whom they had known the elongest,
and not be carried away by fair promises OF
carpet-baggers, who only want their votes
When the present questions are settled as
they soon must be, the whites would stand by
the whites and the negro must 90 down I'M
less he abandons his present course. He was
opposed to universal suffrage, but was satified
that the people of the South were ready to
concede impartial suffrage to the white and
black, as is the case in the Radical State o.
Massachusetts. With the extinction of slav
cry, he said, all cause for bad feelings between
the North and South had passed away. and h
hoped that soon Massachusetts and Soutl
Carolina would again stand side by side a
brothers and friends as they had done in tn
days of the Revolution.