Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-12-21
Mr.. John Quincy Adams Latest
Letter.

iects assure Us, is gentleman of in
finite jest and most excellent fancy.
His correspondence with Buncombe
Is large, and there is probably nobody
in the country who enjoys it more
than he. But even humor has its
! limits, and even the constituency of
Buncombe has some common sense.
/ In his last letter Mr.. Adams remarks
] that "a mere majority, even If it
could be mustered, would not be per-
mitted TO elect a Democrat for next
President. Nothing, then, remains
but civil war or submission to the
usurper; and it is difficult to decide
which alternative will inflict more
irreparable injury upon the habit Of
free government" Isn't this rather
an extravaganza Of Mr.. Adams hui
NOR? OF course we expect to hear
from an opposition party in hope
less minority that the Constitution is
violated and thecountry ruined until
it gets into power. But when q
Massachusetts, politician, just defeat
ed in his own town as candidate
for the Legislature, airily talks Of
civil war as remedy for the unfa-
vorable result Of an election, he
should be reminded that he is merely
echoing the secessionists of 1860, and
his profession Of regard for liberty
and constitutional rights becomes as
contemplate as theirs.
Mr.. Adams says that the Demo
cratic party is "powerIess alone to
relieve u.s." And why? Simply
because the spirit Of his letter is be-
lieved to animate that party. The
people Of the United States, who
understand both what liberty and
constitutional methods and duties
are, will have no more Of this bloody
threat Of civil war from disappointed
and defeated party leaders. Civil
war has been tried, and it has failed
to battle the lawfully expressed will
Of the people. The rebellion was an
instruction against the lawful ma
jority. Messrs. Toombs, and Davis,
and Mason, and Slidell, and Wigfall,
and Benjamin said, as Mr.. Adams
says now, Nothing, then, remains
but civil war or submission to the
usurper;" and they chose the war,
which Mr.. Adams now says is not
worse than submission.
The rebels leaders called President
Lincoln gorilla and baboon; Mr..
John Quincy Adams calls President
Grant IAN ign0ble incubus The
rebels called President Lincoln a
bloody tyrant; Mr.. John Quincy
Adams calls President Grant "a
usurper." How is he usurper?
lie was elected by an. actual andlaw-
full majority of the votes cast, and
that Notwithstanding the frauds OF
Mr.. Adams party friends the Tam
many Ring, and the coercion Of the
colored vote in some of the Southern
States by Mr.. Adams political allies
the ku Klux. Mr.. John Quincy
Adams ut the end of the war, and in
the protecting presence of Mr.. Mont
gomery Blair, in Faneuil Hall, went
over to the party of Copperheads and
ex-rebels, and now remarks that Il
Republican administration blunts
"the keen sensibilitiesof popular lib
erty;" and joining the author of the
Plaquemine fraudsa and the Tammany
repeaters and ballot box suffers, de-
clares that "if the votes of any Of the
States lately in rebellion were neces-
sary to elect a Democratic candidate,
they would be thrown out in the
counting"
Mr.. Adams mistakes himself. lie
is a humOrist, not a statesman nor a
political leader. He is unable to see
that no party can hope for success in
this country whose policy in defeat
is the Mexican policy Of armed re-
volt, or whose fidelity to liberty and
equal rights is so uncertain AS that Of
the party which he has joined. He
is a gentleman of education and in
telligence, and from his tongue or
pen aspersions upon the President as
intending an armed maintenance of
his position against the popular will,
which might be eXcusable from Ku
KluX orators in remote Southern dis
tricts, are disgraceful. The people
of the country will observe that Mr..
Adams, rs an ex-Republican and the
newest Of the Democratic letter-writ-
ers, is deemed to be one of the most
reasonable and advanced men of his
party. Yet he does not hesitate to
speak Of the probable result Of the