The Van Buren press., 1868-11-24


WEYMOUTH, Oct 22, IS.
The Democratic and conservative citi.
zens OF Weymouth and the adjoining
town held a most enthusiastic and sue.
cessful meeting in the Town Hall this
evening.
SPEECH OF MR.. ADAMS.
Mr. President, my Friends and Neigh.
bors: You must not expect me to make
speech, for | have none to make, Elm
fact | have got none made,-but as look
around me and see many friendly and a
miliar faces, it occurs to me that after'all
1 should like to say few words in an
OF hand and friendly way, as one neigh
Dor talks to another, about the exp.
rlence have had in the course of The
last two or three weeks. As you all know
l have made little trip to the South
during that time. wished to see what
a reconstructed State was, and went 10
South Carolina for that purpose. Ihave
come back with this conviction, though
do not know how the other conservative
citizens of the Union may feel about it.
| 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 necks of every one of nv fel.
low7citizcns. Loud applause The is.
sue IN this campaign to me is simply this
and nothing more. Reconstruction, as
you know, is the Radical Constitution.
1t 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 nothing else. In order that it may
not jar too much upon the nerves of a re-
publican people to see eight millions of
their fellow-c citizens held down by the
bayonet, they have brought in great
mass of three or four millions Of poor,
Ignorant black men, and set them up in
row, as it were, across the Southern
States, and because they think you can
not see the bayonet behind them, they
say, THAT is a republican form Of Coy.
eminent" How Republican. What is
this Republican form of government?
Why look at the condition of those States
Suppose that almost all tle voter. in this
Commonwealth should suddenly be de-
prived OF the franchise AMI in their places
it was bestowed upon a set 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. Sup
pose such a class of men were to be nut
over you, of course you would not like it
you would feel uncomfortable and disa.
gree, and you would not suffer their rule
ifyon could help it. Yet this is precise
ly the condition in which South Carolina
is to-day. She is governed by set Of
men who, il the people were left to them.
selves, would have no more chance of
holding the offices of your government
they now hold than | should of being
elected King of Great Britain in place of
Queen Victoria, if l were to 60 to Eng.
land 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, scalawags" and
carpet baggers," cannot command any
of their respect and confidence. The con-
sequence of this is that they have to be
supported in their places by the bayonets
of L. 5. soldiers. And as there are not
U. s. soldiers enough at the South to
keep the people entirely contented, nor
enough to make the government thor
oughly Democratic so every day or
two they are calling for more soldiers in
order to support these thoroughly Y" Dem
ocratic' and " Republican" governments,
and that is reconstruction My Southern
Democratic friends down there greeted
me in way which / shall never forget to
my dying day. The kindness, the warmth,
the consideration, the order which they
showed in welcoming any Northerner, e.
specially from Massachusetts,, who would
go down there and say to them kind
worldwide would not treat them like
boys, and call them rebels, traitors, mis-
cradle rascals or villains--went to my
heart. They asked me to say to my fei.
low citizens at the North that they fought
you in the war; they believed that they
were right; that they fought you as hard
as they could; and when the war was
done they frankly abandoned that they
had fought for They said we had whip
ped them; We had conquered what we de.
manded during the war, and they were
ready to give itup. They would fight no
longer, and all they asked was friendship
and kindness. What they desired from
us at the North was mercy, the hand of
goo fellowship and brothcrly
love. loud applausc.) They want no
more contest, no more i'll blood; they
want merely to shake hands, saying 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 70 unkindness. no sort of
feeling indicating unkindness towards any
of the people at the North. That they
may be treated in decency and Kindness
they do ask, and that is what pray Of
every one Of you to labor for. CAP
plause. II is the thing, it seems to me,
that we need here at the North as much
as they do at the South, All that they
ask and all that the Democratic party at
the North seek to accomplish is that wo
may be allowed to come together once
mhre in peace and amity; that this iucu
bus Of reconstruction may be taken or
by the people; that these soldiers may be
taken away from between us, and that we
all of us once more may feel--North
as well as South. white man as well AS
hlack mnu-tbo honoGt NJ n Union undor