The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1876-10-13


Charles Francis Adams blow from
which the latter can never recover.
Mr.. Blaine said:
observe that some political lei.
tiers Of Charles Francis Adams. the
Democratic candidate for Governor
of Massachusetts, are being dissem-
mated through the associated press
and circulated as campaign tracts
by his brother Democrats of the
west. In these letters Mr.. Adams
goes out OF his way quite gratuiL-
ously TO speak OF myself In q tone
that is personally offensive. 1 have
neither the time nor the desire to
exchange personalities with any one
in this campaign, but there is very
important chapter IN the political
life of Mr.. Adams which, at this
time, should be recalled. COM
mend the facts which l am about to
set forth to those voters who may
be led by the sound of Mr.. Adams
name to give heed to his counsel. /
shall speak from the record and by
the record. After the Republican
victory of 1860. which resulted in
the election Of Abraham Lincoln to
the Presidency, Mr.. Adams, then a
Representative in Congress from
Massachusetts, sought, with all his
influence, to deprive the country OF
everything that had been gained in
the struggle. II anything had been
settled by that election, IL was that
slavery should be IN the course of
extinction by the prohibition of it's
introduction into free territory, and
yet, as soon as the southern Demo-
Gratis In Congress began their threats
OF disunion, Mr.. Adams knees
smote with fear and bis tongue be-
came palsied for any utterance ex-
cept in support of slavery. His
whole course during the closing ses-
sion of the Thirty-sixth Congress,
intervening between Mr.. Lincoln's
election and his inauguration, was
one of treason to the cause of liber-
tv and desertion from the cause of
Union. He offered every humilia-
ting concession to the South, agreed
to abandon the prohibition of sla-
very In the territories, and, as the
climax of degrading and dishonor-
ing conditions he offered to amend
the Constitution of the United
States, 80 as to render the abolition
of slavery impossible SO long as q
single slave State should object.
The amendment so warmly urged
by Mr.. Adams declared, In effect,
that no amendment to the Constitu-
ton in any way interfering with
slavery in the States should ever be
even 80 much as proposed, except
by one of the slave States, and
should not be adopted except with
the consent Of every slave State.
When, in 1886, Arkansas applied for
admission into the Union with q
constitution which forever prohibit
ted the legislature from touching
slavery, except with the consent of
the shareholders, John Francis Ad-
ans declared such q provision to be
Infamous beyond the power of ex-
preston, and yet Charles Francis
Adams, in 1861, offered, and urged,
and entreated, and pleaded for an
amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, which applied to
the whole country q far more infa-
nous principle than was contained
In the Arkansas constitution of
1886. Every Franchise you enjoy
under the Constitution of the Uni
ted States-your right to vote, your
freedom of religious opinion, your
trial by jury, your right even to
representation-we left open to
change by the ordinary process OF
amending the Constitution, but Mr..
Adams proposed to give slavery a
far moro sacred guarantee than had
ever been given to liberty, and to
enshrine it as something of superior
right, placing it beyond the power
ninety-nine hundredths of the peo-
pie of the United States to abolish
it, unless q slave State should pro-
pose 1T, and every other slave State
vote for it. There is no parallel to
this in history. No ukase of Rus
sian despotism in the darkest days
of Roman tyranny ever so bound
its own hands, and placed it beyond
its own power to do mercy and
work righteousness in the future, as
Mr.. Adams proposed, to bind the
hands of the United States and de-
prive our own government, for all
time, of the power to emancipate a
single slave SO long as one slave
State should object.
And Mr.. Adams has never forgiv-
en- Abraham Lincoln for defeating
this atrocious measure. Fortu.
nately, by Mr.. Lincoln's silent In
fuence, exerted from his Illinois
home, through Owen, LoVejoy,
Elihu, Washburne and other Rep
resentative friends in Congress, the
odious proposition was strangled
without ever coming to q direct
vote, but not until Mr.. Adams had
made an elaborate plea for it, aud
years after Mr.. Lincoln had gone
TO q martyrs grave, grave bedewe6
with the tears OF millions, inclu.
ding those emancipated negroes
whom Mr.. Adams had sought te
keep in eternal bondage. Mr.. AID
ans took occasion, in an eulogy OF
little and dishonor the grandes
chair since George Washington
Mr.. Adams, in this petty and pal
try course, was seeking an ignoblC
revenge over the dead patriot who
when living, could never refer &c
the Constitutional amendment
which Mr.. Adams advocated with.
out q chill of horror. Mr.. Lincoln
indeed, often declared that no cri-
sis of the war was so terrible, and
no possible issue of it SO destruc-
tive as the proposition of Mr.. Ad.
ans to found the continuance of the
Union on the remorseless and hope.
less and endless servitude of an en-
tire race of men. Mr.. Lincoln did
not believe that God would permit
the perpetuity of q Union founded
on such atrocious wrong and crime,
In view of Mr.. Adams course to-
wards Mr.. LINCOLN in his grave,
the friends of Gov. Hayes will es'
innate his criticism of that honor.
ed leader and true man at precisely
its just value, but for the honor Of
New England / desire to say that
of all her representatives Mr.. Ad.
ans stood alone, I think, in sup
porting that infamous proposition.
Every other Massachusetts repre-
sentative was opposed to il, inclu.
ding Hon. Alexander II. Rice, the
present Republican Governor Of
tn It State and candidate for re-elec.
tiou against Mr.. Adams. Indeed
from all New England, as have al.