Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-11-25
John Quincy Adams ON Disloyalty ant
Rebel OutTages.

John Quincy Adams ON DtsloyaIty ana
Rebel Outrages.
From O recent speech delivered by this
gentleman, we extract as follows
What is their favorite charge against ali
ZovaL % What is that ? Well, will tell
you. Loyalty is word derived from old
feudal time, and expresses the relation of
the slave to his master, the subsection of
the serf to his lord, the regard of the vas
sal for his king. The citizen is free. the
subject is loyal. Loyalty is no new thing.
It was rampant here before the battle of
Bunker's Hill. Then. as now, tho rich
aid high were most "loyal." The loyal
ist, however, disliked the climate after the
Declaration" They ore remembered as
nam were "rebels about the same time.
Let the negro, if he likes, be loyal to his
CARPET Dagger, and the office-holder to his
patron, and the Radical politician to his
government, but as for US we will be content
with the old fashioned ways of our fathers,
and swear with them ''to the best OF our
ability to preserve, protect and defend the
constitution of the United States" These
are not my notions, gentlemen, they are
the notions of Thomas Jefferson. Accord
ing TO him, each man has q right-limited
onlv by his neighbours equal rights-to
his liberty, and to pursue his own happl-
ness in his own way. These were rights
which he maintained to be inherent, in
alienable, and not derivative or held by
any service. All that governments can do
is to see that these rights are not inter
fered with, or the mans innocent, free ac-
ton hampered. The best government is
that which governs least. The best gov
ernments are those who govern them
selves. My friends, exactly that is our
notion to-day. All that is necessary to
dispose of all these questions that the
eternal meddling and managing of the
party of all the morals has raised, is to ap-
ply the simple Democratic test to them,
and mark the result. Do you ask me how
to deal with the South ?
The Democratic doctrine is contained in
queer, old, rusty, forgotten pamphlet.
Let me read it to you: ''The people OF this
Commonw wealth have the sole and exclu-
sive right of governing themselves as q
free, sovereign and independent State; and
do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise
and enjoy every power, Jurisdiction. and
right which is not or may not hereafter be
by them expressly delegated to the United
States of America in Congress assembled. y
| And if that is treasOn-as 1 suppose 1t
is now-a-days-why, it is high time that
| the book which contains it be burned
by the common hangman. It is entitled,
/ ga declaration of the rights of oil the in
habitants of the Commonwealth OF Massa'
chusetts." That, gentlemen, is pure dis
| loyal Democracy. and nothing else, and
we stick to it STILL But, then, a colored
gentleman, the other night at Faneul Hall,
told us that there were '' outrages at the
| South. Well, should think it very pro
bable. I only wonder there are not more.
| It must be mean spirited people who
would not get outrageous under suoh treat
ment. I am sure Massachusetts people
we're rough enough when similar attempt
was made to reconstruct them il 1861
For an infringement of their liberties, no.
one hundreth part as gross as that perpe-
trated on Georgia, they burnt down the
house of Governor Hutchinson. and plum
dered, rif1ed and robbed the houses of the
| Register of tho Admiralty and of the
Comptroller of the Customs in the city Of
Boston. And, my friends. am very much
afraid they would do it again, loyal al
they are, in q like case. 1t is always so il
such cases. Ireland is full OF " outrages,
and Hungary was so outrageous that Aus
tria has been compelled to restore her con
stitutional rights to her in order to stol
the " outrages" OF course there are OHt
RACES in the subject States. know of on
myself, gross outrage; indeed, very near
ly as infamous an outrage as ever was com
mitted upon free people. the great, orr
ginal supreme outrage reconstruction.