Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-03-18
Braxe Words from rIassachuEetts.

Brave Words from MASsachuEeAIs
The Hon. John Quincy Adams has neVe
spoken more wisely, or moro to the point
than at the dinner given ny the Con8tltu
tional Club in Boston on Washington
birth dav. The very name Of 'Constitu
tiCnaI Club" in that lot-bed OF ltadicaiIsn
is suggestive, and if the purpose Of lt'
members be to promote profounder rev
erence for that instrument, and to YIndl-
cate the rights of the States and the PEG
pIe under it, those who have banded them
selves together IL the prosecution Of this
noble duty will deserve we'll Of their coun-
try, whatever the result Of their efforts
may be. SIR Adams, IN the speech to
which we refer, declared omphaticaliy that
the Radicals III Congress had grossly
abused their powers that to perpetnate
their party they had lcaguod together to
destroy the Constitution. 81 mean to
say" added Mr.. Adams, " and [ say it
with 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 power,
and that is this war power"
''The old constitutional edifice OF the ia
theirs was built Of tho white marble Of the
States, which they brought together vol
unfairly as work Of love, and piled up
there one by one each in pride and de-
light, adding stone after stone to the beau
tiful and symmetrical ediice under
which we all live. [Applause. But what
is this thing which we now see there IN
Washington Is that built OF those
stones Is that put together by any such
bands as those which cemented the old
Capitol Why, gentlemen, it is built OF
the volcanic lava, hot yet from the results
of the oupouring Of the mount [applausel,
and it is clanped together by great bands
of black, rusted, iron fettere. lApplause.1
It's no such edifice at all and now we
have in the Presidential chair a man who,
when he swears to protect and defend and
preserve the Constitution, seems to think
that this is the Constitution which he
sWears to preserve"
Abiding to q proposition which was
made in the Massachusetts, Legislature,
few days before, to fro hundred guns on
Boston Common IN honor Of the passage
of the Fifteenth Amendment, Mr.. Adams
said 81 was only sorry that | was not in
the Legislature to propose an amendment
to it, that the United States be humDly
solicited to allow the State Of Massachu
sets to fire that salute from Fort Warren,
and that tho guns might be shotted, in
order TO show the process by which the
amendment had been carried"
Brave words these, and trenchant as
they are brave. But, remarks the Balti-
timore Go@e7e so long as the people con-
tinue to be apathetic, what is there to
prevent the Radicals from prosecuting to
u successful issue their schemes to estab
Iish a centralized Government? Under
that provision OF the Fifteenth Amend
mcnt which gives 20 Congress the power
to enforce it, they are already forging
fetters for tho North, a9 thoy have pre-
viousy done fox the South. Whether the
people of the North, who recognize it as
good constitutional law that the Southern
States "mar be dragoonod into amending
the Constitution Of the United States,
will put a similar Interpretation upon mill
tary interference III cases which concern
themselves, il q question which the future
only can answer.