Year: 1868




On arriving at his home in Massachu-
sets, Mr.. Adams made few remarks to
his neighbors, as follows:


My FRIENDS AND NEIGHBoRs: You
must not expect me to make speech,
for | have none to make-ln fact l have
got none made--but as | look around me
and see many friendly and familiar faces,
il occurs to me that after all should
like to say a few words in an off hand
aud friendly WHY, as one Deigbbor talks
to another about the experience | have
had in the course OF the last two or three
weeks. As you all know have made a
little trip to the South during that time.
/ wished to see what reconstructed
State was, aud / went to South Carolina
for that purpose. | have come back with
this conviction, though l do not know
how the other conservative citizens OF
the Union may feel about it. never in
tend to stop, to relax for one moment In
the beartiest, most earnest and most hon.
est efforts can make to remove all such
BLESSINGS as reconstruction from the
necks of every one of my felew-citizens
Loud applause The issue in this cam
paign to me is simply this and nothing
more. Reconstruction, as you know, is
the Radical constitution. 1t is the only
constitution now in ten States of the
Union, and what is it2 1t is simply this
the rule of the military and nothing
else. In order that it may not jar too
much upon the nerves of a republic
can people to see eight millions of
their felow-citizens held down by the
, bsyonet, they have brought IN great
J mass of three or four millions OF poor,
ignorant, degraded black men, and set
J them up in row, as it were, across the
! Southern States, and because they think
you cannot see the bayonets behind
them, they say, That is republican
form of government" How republican ?
What is this republican form of govern
ment2 Why look at the condition of
those States. Suppose that almost all
the voters in this Commonwealth should
suddenly be deprived OF the franchise,
and in their place it was bestowed upon
a set of men who we're entirely Ignorant
of the value and responsibility OF the
voting power, who knew nothing about
any of the principles in regard to which
they were voting. Suppose such class
of men were to be put over you, of course
YOU would not like it; you would feel
uncomfortable and dsagreeable, and you
would not suffer their rule If you could
help it. Yet this is precisely the condl-
ton in which South Carolina is to-day.
She is governed by set of men who,
if the people were left to themselves,
would have no more chance of holding
the offices of your government they
now hold than / should of being
elected King of Great Britain in place of
Queen Victoria, if | were to go to Eng-
land tomorrow. Laughter And these
officials having no hold upon he esteem
of the people, as they call them down
there in their expressive, though slightly
inelegant language, "scallawags and
carpet-baggers cannot command any
of their respect and confidence. The
consequence of this is that they have to
be supported in their places by the bayo-
nets Of United States soldiers And as
there are not United States soldiers
enough at the South to keep the people
entirely contented nor enough to
make the government thoroughly. dem
ocratic," so every day or two. they are
calling for more soldiers in order to sup
port these thoroughly democratic"
and Republican governments, and that
is reconstruction My Southern Demo
cratic friends down there greeted me in
a way which shall never forget to my
diving day. The kindness, warmth, con-
sideration and order which they showed
in welcoming any Northerner, especially
from Massachusetts,, who would go down
there and say to them one kind word
who would not treat them like boys, and
call them rebels, traitors, miserable ras-
Gals or yillains--went to my heart. They
asked me to say to my fellow-citizeus at
the North that they fought you in the
war they believed that they were right;
that they fought you as hard as they
could; and when the war was done they
frankly abandoned that they had fought
for. They said we had whipped them;
we had conquered what we demanded |
during the war, and they were ready to
give it up. They would fight no longer,
and all they asked was friendship and |
kindness. What they deserved from Us |
at the North vss mercy, the hand of 1
kindness, good fellowship and brotherly !
love. loud applause They want no /
mere contest, no more iIl-blood; they
want merely to shake hands. saying
We fought, and now the fight is done lei
US be friends. That is the feeliIa Of the
mass of the whole people met a. the
South. saw 90 unkindness, no sort of
feeling indicating unkindness toward any
OF the people at the North. That they
may be treated in decency and kindness
they do ask, aud that is what | pray Of
every one Of you 10 labor for. Zap
plause Il is the thing, il seems 70 me,
that We need here at the North as much
as they need Il at the South. All that
they ask and al that the Democratic
party at the North seek to accomplish Is
that We may be allowed to come together
once more in peace and amiJ that this
incubus Of reconsuucfion may be taken
eff she pecRle; tksi these soldiers msS
be taken away from between us. and that
we-all Of us-once more may feel
North as well ss South, white man as
well as black mantle benefits Of union
under The old system Of government


Mr.. Adams retired amid the greatest
and most tumuituous cheera