The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-03-02

save the Country.
Boston, Feb. %, 1870.
The Constitutional Club, last evening, |
celebrated its sixth anniversary, at the
United States Hotel, and seldom, if ever,
has there been in Boston better banquet |
or four hours of keener enjoyment. Over
hundred members were present, inclu-
ding John Quincy Adams, Henry NJ. Lunt,
John Whitney, Rev. Dr. Bolls and J. S.
Fay. Speeches We're delivered by John
Quincy Adams, George Lunt and Mayor
Shurtlif. The following is the
SPEECH OF HON. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
With the war of secession, gentlemen,
we have no occasion to deal. It has pass
ed into history But there is one result
of it with which it is pre- eminently nee
essary that we should deal At that time,
when the cannon were fired at Fort Sum
ter, the people of the North, "as one
man" focked to the. capitol to defend the
| Constitution and the Union. That was
| the impulse which carried them through
in the first place They focked into the
Capitol forgetting for a time all constitu-
tional rights, all the original purposes for
which the building had been erected; not
unnaturally, gentlemen, they turned 1t
| into the purpose of a fortress and a de-
fence. They called upon the war power
of the Constitution and said, so long as
! this insurrection exists we will use the
| Constitution, we will use the Capitol as
fortress, and from it shall issue the great
prerogative Of government until this thing
has passed away from us" After the
| arms had been laid down, long after the
angry and warlike people who took up
arms had surrendered, had agreed that
they were beaten, had said there should
be no more war, the politicians of a party
| III this country took paasAssieE4 of that cit
adel of our freedom, and have abused it
from that day to this, not as a defence of
the constitution but as simple emolu-
ment for their own advantages What
has been the result? Where do we stand
to day? I mean to say, and l say it with
a sense of responsibility, that to day
there is nothing of the old Constitution Of
our fathers left to US except what was al
ways understood and believed by Them to
be mere incident of constitutional pow
er, and that Is this war power. (Applause.)
That is what we are living under That
is the thing under which the present Con-
stitution of the United States has been
built, for do not imagine for a moment
when I speak of the Constitution of the
, United States, that design to be under
stood as speaking of the Constitution our
fathers left to us-by no manner of means.
The old constitutional edifice of the faith
, ers was built of the white marble of the
, States, which they brought together vol
: unfairly as a work of love, and piled up
there one by one each in pride and delight
adding stone after stone to the beautiful
} and symmetrical edifce under which we
> all live. (Applause.) But what Is this
: thing which We now see there IN Wash
f ington2 Is that built Of those stones p
Is that put together by any such bands as
E those which cemented the old Capitol P
t Why, gentlemen, it is built of the yolcan-
ic lava, hot yet from the results of the
r outpouring of the mount (applanse,) anc
e is clamped together by great bands o
s black, rusted iron fetters. (ApPlause.( y
n And now we have in the Presidential chail
a man who, when he swears TO protec
and defend and preserve the Constitution
seems to think that this is the ConstItu
ton which he swears to preserve. Now
70 my friends, what is the course for us t.
- pursue? What are we to do IN the fac
- of the fact that we see despatch comin
over the wires from the State of GeorgiG
= which, even under Radical ideas, has bee
:. long ago In the Union, saying that tn
- Legislature has met, and that certain gen
- tlemen have been out of their seats fc
,if disability, others for being illegally elet
- ted, and others for other things too nj
h merous to mention? Why, gentlemel
= why? Because the people Of the State
,y Georgia believe they ought not to be ther
% Why, gentlemen, you are old fashioned
IL You are going back to the early days
~, ~, the republic No. Because Alfred j. TIE
~ ry, Major General, says they shan't
ON into the Legislature. (Applause.) Ths
- gentlemen, is. the Constitution und
ne which we hive What, as I said, befol
is the policy to be pursued? 1t seems
IF me, l confess, there Is but one. dol
~ know what the other gentlemen m
~ think, but after carefully covering t
N whole ground as well as l could, l {
,n5 persuaded that there IS no hope in
NJ men who have done these things, no he
On whatever. They have actually broug
- | things to such pass that 1t is now GO
~ constitutional law that a State may
~ dragooned in amending the Constitute ION
-, the United States A State may be
onb quired by the force of the bayonet, or
- such other forces as they may please
9 IN exert, to give its free consent. (Laught
Gentlemen, the other day, there wa
proposition made in our Legislature b
aD- very admirable gentleman, a colored g
zoe tleman by the name of Rufian, to fiji
.-f hundred guns on the Common in homo
,int the passage of the fifteenth amendmt
fbat The fifteenth amendment is about to
vio- proclaimed by the President of the Uni
ucb States as a part of its Constitution.
only sorry that l was not in the Legi
ture TO propose as an amendment tC
ton that the United States be humbly sohci
de- to allow the State of Massachusetts
b to fire that salute from Ft. Warren, and
the the guns might be shotted in order
the show the process by which the anne
say ment had been carried. loud and {
d of tinued applause) 1t has occurred to
pub having no confidence that the domir
here party will ever amend their ways,
tents there is but one way out of our diff
eech ties We are not in the positions of And
not Jackson and Daniel Webster. We have
him to reinstate the Constitution of the Un
ions, States. (Applause.) And, gentlemen
uage haue no bold leader like Andrew Jack
N of we have no gigantic pleader like DE-
lssics Webster to lead us III these days.
from can rely only upon ourselves, the
ator, and fila, the men who are here before
is re- and Others like them. You remembe
e for great and beloved General Banks,
Or let when he swayed, as he did once,
place know, the sceptTe of the old Conn
q i'm wealth of Massachusetts,, among his
2 his er benefcent and happy actsjS made
nable humble Individual who addresses W
b or trial Justice for the County Of Nol
n and Iaughter) One of my first acts
d the trial Justice was to issue a warrant, {
} it in sat one day, with judicial impati
,o,,,. ,--o;+iv,Cr III q o,,1 1rri+ H vroc brO1,0