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here where they think the election of
General Grant would entail the utter de
struction and ruin of our country. lam
not going to tell you something you do not
know. Perhaps you do not know, or do
not understand most of you, the feeling
and the spirit of a large portion of the Re
publican party at the North. I assure
you, my friends, they have no unkind
ness, no hatred, and no desire to injure or
abuse the people of the South. There is
as much kindness, as much good feeling,
and as much devotion to the Constitution
in a majority, in a large part of the Re
publican party, as there is in any of the
people of the laud. You may believe this
for it is even so. Now, the election of
General Grant is not necessarily going to
deprive the people of the South of the
right to vote, or any of the privileges
which they still have. You will still have
the same opportunity, the same right, and
the same chance to vindicate your rights
and to obtain your reasonable privileges
that you had before. I am an opponent
of General Grant, but I would speak kind
ly of him, and I do believe that he is an
upright, honorable man, who will try, if
elected, to do his best, not for a party
only, but for the whole people of the coun
try. [Cheers.]
As I said before, I am not going to make
a political speech. I do not desire any
applause. lam merely talking honestly
and fairly, and telling you, as Southern
people, what I believe to be your chances.
I, therefore, say to you, Southerners, I
think you are unwise. I think you are
Wicked if you are determined to pledge
yourselves to the skirts of any political
party whatever. You are prisoners of
war; you have no right to go and say to
any one, here or there, that unless this or
that happens you will do so and so. Be
cause you know perfectly well, if these
things do happen, you cannot do anything.
I ask you to look at it. Suppose General
Grant is elected, and you don’t like it ? I
asked some ot my friends the other day
what they would do. General Hampton
said the policy of the South is peace. The
policy of the South is peace, and you can
not avoid it. What are you going to do ?
Suppose you don’t like it ? (Mark you, I
don’t want General Grant elected.) Will
you rise again and begin another war?
[Voices, No! no!] How are you going to
begin? When you begun the last war
you had some chance. Then you had
taken a greater portion of the munitions
of war of the United States, and trans
ferred them to your arsenals down here.
You had something to begin on. If you
were to start now, where would you get a
battery? Suppose you were to start to
morrow ? Suppose this old city were to
do as she did some five years ago, and
rebel? A few United States ships would
steam up into your harbor, and there
would be an end of it.
Once for all, if it ever entered into the
head of any of you, put it out at once.
[A voice—it never did.]
Mr. Adams—l believe it!
Now let us see what will be the worst or
best of it. The best and the worst will de
pend very much upon the feeling of the
moderate portion of the Republican party.
I say the moderate portion, my friends,
for there is a wide distinction between one
wing of the Republican party and the
other, as there was between myself and
General Hampton during the war. Just
the same distinction. Here is a large por
tion of the Republican party in the North
who believe certain things about your
people which I want to tell you frankly
and ask you what you think. I have trav
eled in the Northern part of this State, and
I have asked a great many men this ques
tion, and have never heard but one an
swer. I want to ask you is this crowd in
favor of the re-establishment of slavery or
not? [Cries, no ! no! We would not
have it.] I believe it is a unanimous vote.
I was told there one man in the
United States who would take it back. I
thought possibly I might find that man
here. Your answer confirms me in the
position which I have always taken in the
State of Massachusetts, that slavery was
dead, and could not, by any possible
means, be restored. You cannot believe
how many people there are who are hon
estly deluded with the idea that if Mr.
Seymour is elected slavery will be re-es
tablished in some form or other. I want
you to tell me what you think. Could
slavery by any possibility be restored ?
[Repeated cries of no! no! no!] lam
perfectly satisfied.
Well, there is another thing they say of
you. They say that no man can come
down here and speak freely and honestly,
and without reserve, what he thinks about
this question of slavery and some other
questions. They say you would not en
dure free speech, that you are intolerant,
and they are going to elect General Grant.
Therefore, I come down to speak to you
about this thing; also I want to know if
there are any intentions in this city or
State to shut up any man’s mouth from
what he may reasonably say, so that it
does not incite anybody against the rights
and property of the citizens ; I say I want
to know if a man can speak what he
wishes to say, and whether you intend
that the right of free speech shall be main
tained here or not? [Cries of yes, yes.]
You all say yes, and you laugh as if that
had been a thing that had always been
acknowledged here. I read in a paper in
Massachusetts, several days ago, that there
was a class of people—l speak of them
with great kindness, because they are bet
ter than I am in one respect —they can
come here and vote, and I could not do it
because I could not swear to your Consti
tution. [Laughter.
Well now I say that there are those gen
tlemen down here, and I only know them
by the name of carpet-baggers, but I be
lieve them to be gentlemen, who came
down here and mostly represent you in
your departments, legislative, judicial and
executive, and I have no doubt they
must be some of your best men. That be
ing so, I have heard it said that these
men could not speak, or rather were not
allowed, or not encouraged, or that some
sort of slur was cast upon them. Perhaps
it was a question whether it was right and
proper to allow these interlopers to come
in and discuss political questions, I did
not believe where there were so many
good political speakers that you wanted to
listen to or run after these carpet-baggers,
but what was my amazement on reading
in the newspapers that there was to be a
public discussion to-morrow, and not only
a discussion, but one in a Church or Chap
el were two or three of native growth and
two or three of foreign importation were
to discuss political questions, and that
further, that I was to be admitted to the
privilege of debating the question with
them. That seems to me to be free speech
with a vengeance. Not only do you allow
two carpet-baggers, but you let in a third.
Now there are a great many people here
to whom not only from tradition, but from
inate kindness, I have the most affection
ate feeling—l mean the colored people.
There are a great many colored people in
the crowd here. Well, it is represented to
us in the North, that the colored people
are the only loyal portion of the popula
tion, which means, 1 suppose, that the rest
are traitors. However that may be, 1
want to say a few words to the black peo
ple. You are, my friends, in a very pain
ful and difficult position. I appreciate it
as much as you do. I have thought a good
deal as to how you could extricate your
selves from it with profit, and without loss
to yourselves, for you must remember,
that you are in a very small minority in
the nation. You may be in the majority
down here, but you are a very insignifi
cant minority in the whole nation. lie
sides that, most of you are uneducated,
and have had no opportunity for acquir
ing property. You have always been sub
jected to slavery and not from any fault of
your own, or from any fault of the present
generations, of fathers or grandfathers.
You have been subjected to the barbarous
state of slavery. 1 admit all that. I don’t
ask for your votes, I only want to ask you
what is the be9t thing you can do. [From
the colored people, cries of Grant.] Well
you can vote for Grant if you want to; a
great many white people will vote for
Grant.
But what I Was going to say, was as to the
best thing you could do upon the whole.
There are a great many men who come
down here, who, in order to get your
votes, endeavor to sow dissensions between
you and those whom you formerly looked
up to a9 your leaders and masters. [Cries
of “no! no!”] Well, I have been told
that a great many have been endeavoring
to instil into you feelings of distrust and
unkindness towards the white people of
the State. lam very glad to hear you say
it is not eo. Your Governor and your
Legislature I have not seen. But I only
wish to a9k, do you, when you go to the
polls, honestly endeavor to find out who is
the best man ; the man best fitted for the
position ; the man best fitted for carrying
into effect the laws of the State, without
respect to color or any particular party,
and whether any of you, by any chance,
are being led away into the formation of a
party, which says you must vote for the
black man, or the nominee of the black
man, or you shall be entirely thrown out
or driven away. I have heard that some
of your Loyal Leagues have taken that
ground in regard to that matter. [Cries
of no, no, from negroes.] Is it not true
that one man who tried to make a Demo
cratic speech at New Orleans was hunted
through the streets and nearly killed ?
[Silence.] Ido not say that it happened
here, but if you black people allow a few
to say that the blacks must herd together,
and that the former slaveholders are the
enemies of the blacks, and that the black
must be the enemies of the white people,
you will bring on a state of things which
will not be felt by the white people of the
nation, because you will always be in a
minority, but which will descend with a
terrible weight upon the head of the black
man. It’s all very well now. Here is a
great political excitement going on ; you
are settling a great election, and it so hap
pens that you are in the majority here.
But will this be so long? Suppose all
your people are banded together, and the
white people also banded together what
will be the result; what will be your
condition when in such an insignificant
majority? [A negro’s voice—“Go home.”]
But I am very glad to hear that it is not
the intention of the colored people to force
any colored voter who chooses to vote the
Democratic ticket.
Now, on the other hand, it is charged,
and I have no doubt it has lost thousands
of votes to the Democratic cause at the
North, that a great many largeemployers
of colored labor here at the South, in this
State perhaps, in many cases have said to
the colored voters in their employ, “If
you do not vote the Democratic ticket we
will turn you off.” If they do that they
do just as great wrong to the principles of
Republican Government as the loyal
leagues would do in the other case. The
one works just a9 bad as the other, and I
pray the employers, if there are any such
within the hearing of my voice, who have
these men, who wantjhonestly to vote the
Republican ticket, for God’s sake let them
vote it. What is the good of voting at all,
if done under compulsion. Supposing at
home, where I employ a hundred men, I
call them up, and tell them I am a candi
date fora position, I am running for Gov
ernor, on the Democratic ticket, and I
expected every one of them to vote that
ticket, if not off they go. What would be
the result? I might find out that some
did not vote for me. Probably some might
say they voted for me who did not. That
is probably what a portion of the black
people would do. I’ll tell you what I do,
what I advise. I never spoke a word of
politics to any man on my farm during
my life. I was a Republican for years.
The Irishmen of the North, we know,
are mostly Democrats. I treated them
well in my employ, and when election day
came around, and I was a candidate, they
invariably plumped in a ticket for me,
and I was then a Republican. A few years
after that I became a Democrat. I did
not say a word to the men, except that I
made a public speech. On election day I
saw these men voting, and every man of
them voted the Democratic ticket.
Now I say to you, white people of the
South, if you want to control these votes,
do not tell these men they shall do so and
so, do not tell them that unless they do
this or that, you will drive them away,
but show them that your way is the right
way, and the way to accomplish the great
est good is)to act together. Treat them as if
they were human beings. I would not be
going around and begging any man, or
asking any man for his vote. I would
speak fairly and squarely, and advise
them to shun those people who only come
and try to delude them. In the North if
we cannot go among our people and per
suade them, aud show them that our way
is the right way, theu we ought not to
win. If any one of you in South Carolina
can come up in my native town and per
suade my people to go away from me, why
come and do it. I say that is the true
policy of the South, that is the true policy to
be pursued by the men who were formerly
slaveholders.
The question of universal suffrage is the
real question upon which this whole mat
ter will turn. If you white men here of
the South, if the great mass of your
people who have lived here, been brought
up here, been educated with these black
people, if you cannot by your own power,
by your own chance, supposing your disa
bilities removed, if you caunot theu on
fair terms, meet with any people coming
from any part of the world, all I can say,
is you deserve to be beaten. This is plain
talk. Ido not believe this system of re
construction can ever stand. It is entire
ly contrary to the whole theory of our
Constitution.
From top to bottom it is wrong. It is
placing by force one class not fitted to rule
above another class of people that is fitted
to rule. That is the whole fact of the mat
ter. It cannot stand. It is clear to me
and clear to every unprejudiced mind.
The country canuot and never will be re
constructed on that principle.
Look at those men who are disfranchised
and kept out of power. What is the ob
ject of keeping them out of power? Do
they exercise any the less influence ? Do
you suppose that General Lee, where he
is, does not exercise greater influence upon
the people of the South, than any other
living being? Do you think that, in Co
lumbia, General Hampton does not exer
cise greater influence upon the people of
South Carolina than any other man in it?
Then what good does it do to exclude
them from power ? Let them all enjoy
the same privilege, and let them discuss
the same questions together on the same
platform, and then let us settle, by the
vote of the whole people, who is the better
man. That is true Republicanism and
nothing else.
In regard to this matter of voting, I am
a-little heretical. Ido not believe in uni
versal suffrage. I do not apply it to any one
race in particular. ’I do not think the
Chinese in California, who cannot speak
our tongue, or never heard a word of our
language, ought to be allowed to vote. I
do not believe the poor black people up
here on our plantations, who had scarcely
anything to wear, ought to be allowed to
vote. We do not allow it in Massachu
setts* I believe the principle we have to
come to is this, and I’ll tell you what we
ask in Massachusetts.
We ask that a man shall reside at least
six mouths in a certain place, that he shall
pay a certain tax, and be able to read a
sentence in the Constitution and write his .
own name. We think that little enough
to entitle any man to come up to the ballot
box and deposit his ballot. I believe the
mass of the people in the South are com
ing right. They will jtf>on be ready to get
upon that platform. They will be ready
to concede to the black man, upon proof
that he is entitled to the right of suffrage,
as we do in Massachusetts, and further
than that they ought not to be allowed
that right.
Massachusetts is a Radical State, and in
a very vulgar way I have heard it said she
was a “negro loving State.” That is not
the fact. She is not a “negro loving State,”
not a white loving State, but she is a State
which loves equal rights to all men before
the law. [Cheers.] These rights, in my
opinion, you the people of South Carolina
have got to concede to the people of your
State as freely as we concede th em to the
people of our State, before .cordiality be
tween the States can again be restored.
Well, I’ll tell you what I have seen in
the South. The first thing I asked, as I
said before: “Do you want slavery back?”
The question was, “Do you want any
thing resembling slavery.” These were
hints thrown out at the North, that
though slavery might be abolished, there
was some kind of a way that they could
take anybody who goes out of doors in the
night or morning, who was of the dark or
colored skin, and sell him. I asked and
found out that this was a fact. That there
had been certain laws called “vagrant”
laws, which provided that under them
black men could be sold into a kind of
slavery. Once for all, that idea must be
abandoned. It will not do. We are not
going to have slavery in any of its details
or results. That is the permanent idea of
the people of the North, and it is the fixed
indelible idea, I think, of the Southern
people.
The next thing I asked wa3 in regard to
the matter of settling. It has been said at
the North that no man can come down
here with Northern opinions and settle.
A man comes down with Northern opin
ions to settle—buys a farm next to a seces
sionist who is perhaps a furious fighter.
They sit down side by side and get along
very well, when some day the Northern
man says “slavery was killed and he is
very glad of it,” whereupou the Southern
man turns around and shoots him. That
i9 the idea in the North. They want it
understood that a man can come down
and express any proper language, any
proper sentiment, any sentiment he
choses, whether proper or improper, and
not be subjected to that last
the pistol. We do not beleive^ Urneil t-
North, and the sooner you I?'* M th.
better. s ’ UIU °fit t £
These are many, if not most nrt,
ters we have had to talk over r
believe honestly that there j 9 ’ 1 Hot j
difference of opinion, or even an Qy
sary divergance of faith between ti neces - ■
pie of South Carolina and the n epe °* I
Massachusetts to-day. But I t of I
there is this. I think they do nnt° I
stand each other. I think they i Ull(ler * I
more idea of. each other than them* 8
the moon has of either, I feel nersnM I
this. I have never before seen th of I
pie of the South so intimately j I
yet saw the black people on the |
never have seen the nature of their Jr I
never known the nature of the white 1
pie ; never had seen them in their field 60 ' ft
in their houses. We had a sort of t ■ I
tional idea about them, only formed f 1
what has been read before us year ? I
year, by the newspapers of our seen ' 1
aud we cannot help reading what issl' Ik
lished before us year after year, ] eavi ,
strong impression that a rough,’ I
looking man with his dirk in one pock ; I
a revolver in another, a segar in o ■
of his mouth and a quid of tobacco ia. I
other, was, after all, a pretty fair repre- fl
tative of the Southern man. r
The thing we want is to have ourp- f 1
pie of all sections understand oneanotf’ I
I believe after all there is no
happiness unless we abandon all met!c\ f
of force or slave driving of men, and t
killing method of war, by which a fe'ta'
Government is kept up by military force I
and one portion of a community incapi- I
ble, are put to govern the other‘towhoiu i|
belongs the right to govern. It was never 1
thought of. I will say if the fatherso f I
the Republic; if Washington, Jefferso
Adams and Franklin, could to-nightii* B
in their graves and understand what
golugon in their names, under the Unit, 1
States Government, they would stair
aghast that such a horrible monstrositr I
had been perpetrated in their name. Its j
not the United States Government; itj. J!
not the Government of the Consitutk J
and the Union.
I came down here to-night after hearis; 1
what you had to say, to utter a worth’ f
kindness from Massachusetts to Soutfc i
Carolina. I came here not, to be sure, t
representing a very large section of the 1
people of Massachusetts, but still I believe |
I can say I represent almost the eutire |
body of the people of that State in extend Li
iug words of cheer to you, aud I take the |
liberty of saying in their name, my friends, 1
hold fast to these new opinions spreading 1
among you. Remember that slavery, the I
old reason for animosity between the IS
States, has passed away, and I would say 1
in the name of Heaven let all unkintai I
cease. Let us befriends once more;let
us be brothers once more, as our ancestor* I
were in the glorious old days of the Revo
lution. Let us go on, each of us, try mi |
to get nearer the conceptions and percej
tions of the other, until the time shal
come, which must come and come soon j
when Massachusetts shall stand here in 1
this very street, and we can each take the I
other by the hand, and say once morewt
have anew Union under the Constitution
At the conclusion of the speech of Mr.
Adams Col. Robert W. Seymour, thel)eni
ocratic candidate for Congress, was vocif
erously called for, and responded in a fe*
appropriate remarks, after which theva
assembly quietly dispersed.
Subsequently Mr. Adams was entertain 1
ed at 2kpetit souper given at the Charleston ■
Hotel, the Committee of Arrangement; 1
and several Invited guests being present
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«No. 60 Second 31 [