H. OF R.] Election of President-Right of Petition. Strike out all after "Resolved," and insert: "That the Speaker of this House forthwith issue his official summons to the Sergeant-at-arms, commanding him to summon R. M. Whitney to appear in this hall on to-morrow morning, at 11 o'clock, to show cause why an attachment should not issue against him for a contempt of the authority of the House, in refusing to attend the select committee appointed by this House on the 17th day of January, according to a summons duly served on him." The amendment was rejected. Mr. ADAMS then asked to be excused from voting, for the following reasons, which were sent in writing to the Chair: Mr. ADAMS requested to be excused from voting upon this and every other question of privilege affecting Reuben M. Whitney-the personal relations between him and that individual having long been such as to make it the duty of Mr. ADAMs to decline acting as his judge upon any question affecting his personal rights. Mr. ADAMS asked that this statement might be entered on the journal; to which the SPEAKER replied that it would, as a matter of course, be entered on the journal. And the question was then taken on the adoption of the modified resolution of Mr. LINCOLN, and decided in the affirmative: Yeas 100, nays 85. So the preamble and resolution were adopted. Mr. LANE moved to reconsider the vote by which the first of the two resolutions in the case of Mr. ADAMS had been rejected on yesterday. Mr. BOON moved to postpone the further consideration of the motion until to-morrow; which motion prevailed: Yeas 91, nays not counted. And, on motion of Mr. RENCHER, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11. On motion of Mr. MERCER, so much of the journal was stricken out as contained the reasons assigned by Mr. ADAMS yesterday for asking to be excused from voting on any resolution involving the personal rights of Mr. Reuben M. Whitney, and which reasons had been entered on the journal. ELECTION OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Mr. THOMAS, from the joint committee appointed to wait on MARTIN VAN BUREN, of New York, and inform him that he has been duly elected President of the United States for four years, commencing with the 4th of March, 1837, reported: That the committee, in conformity with the directions of the House, had, on yesterday, waited on the President elect, and informed him that the votes for President of the United States had been counted by the two Houses of Congress, in the manner prescribed by the constitution; that he had received a majority of all the vores given, and was duly elected President of the United States for four years, commencing on the 4th day of March, 1837. Mr. VAN BUREN expressed, in reply, his grateful sense of the distinguished honor which his fellow-citizens had conferred upon him, and requested us to assure our repective Houses that they might rely on his unceasing efforts to execute the responsible trust about to devolve upon him, in a manner the most conducive to the public interest. On motion of Mr. THOMAS, the report was laid on the table, and ordered to be printed. RIGHT OF PETITION. Mr. TAYLOR asked the consent of the House to offer the following resolution; which was read: [FEB. 11, 1837. Whereas the vote of the House, taken on the 9th of February, the following resolution, viz: "Resolved, That any member who shall hereafter present to the House any petition from the slaves in this Union ought to be considered as regardless of the feelings of the House, the rights of the Southern States, and unfriendly to the Union;" may be construed into an expression of opinion upon the abstract question of the right of slaves to petition Congress; therefore, Resolved, That slaves do not possess the right of petition secured to the people of the United States by the constitution. Mr. INGERSOLL sent the following to the Clerk's table, to be read: Resolved, That the honorable JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, having inquired of the Speaker whether it would be in order for him to present a petition purporting to be from certain slaves, and the Speaker having appealed to the House for instruction Resolved, That this House cannot receive such petition without disregarding its own dignity, the rights of a large class of citizens of the South and West, and the constitution of the United States. The resolution having been read, Mr. TAYLOR accepted it as a modification of his own, and then renewed his request to the House to grant him leave to offer it. Mr. PINCKNEY rose and objected. Mr. CAMBRELENG moved a suspension of the rule. Mr. MANN, of New York, asked for the yeas and nays; which were ordered. Mr. PATTON inquired if the motion to reconsider was not first in order. The CHAIR replied that it was competent for the flouse to give precedence to another question. Mr. PATTON presumed, then, that the object of this proposition was to postpone the motion to reconsider the vote rejecting the resolution on the subject of presenting petitions from slaves. the propositions of the gentlemen from New York and Mr. CHAMBERS, of Kentucky, suggested whether Pennsylvania could be in order pending a motion to reconsider another having a direct bearing upon, if not identical with them. The CHAIR replied that that was a matter of which the House itself was the sole judge. The motion made to suspend the rule was strictly in order. Mr. ASHLEY inquired if it would be in order at that stage to submit an amendment to the proposition. The CHAIR. It would be in order to amend the proposition after it was before the House, if the House should suspend the rule and agree to receive it. Mr. CHAMBERS, of Kentucky, suggested that it would be better to move to suspend the rule, to take up the question upon the reconsideration. The CHAIR could not entertain debate, and he bad before stated that the motion to suspend was not open to amendment. Mr. CHAMBERS had made no motion, but threw out, as a suggestion, what he thought would be the best course. Mr. LEWIS inquired, if the vote of the 9th should be reconsidered, whether the resolution rejected by that vote would be open to amendment. The CHAIR replied in the affirmative. Mr. LEWIS hoped that the question would be first taken, for it would answer the same purpose. Mr. PINCKNEY urged the gentleman from New York to withdraw his motion, and move to take up the question of reconsideration. Mr. TAYLOR would yield to the wishes of members, and accordingly assented, withdrew his motion to suspend the rule for the purpose of submitting his own resolution, and made a similar motion to take up the question of reconsideration. This motion to take up prevailed; and the question then recurring upon reconsidering the vote by which the following resolution was rejected: "Resolved, That any member who shall hereafter present to the House any petition from the slaves in this Union ought to be considered as regardless of the feelings of the House, the rights of the Southern States, and unfriendly to the Union"— Mr. LANE called for the yeas and nays; which were ordered. [H. OF R. against a construction put on its rejection, by some gentlemen, to wit: that its rejection implied the right of any member thereafter to introduce in that House a petition from slaves. Mr. A. denied the ground assumed. It was not tenable. He would be one of the last to give any vote that might directly or indirectly grant such a privilege. He was not only in favor of rejecting petitions of that character, but was also opposed to the reception of petitions from citizens of one State, proposing the abolition of slavery in another State; and in that respect he had gone as far as the farthest, as the journals of that House of the 9th and 10th of January last would show. He took the broad ground that Congress had no control over the subject, and that it was improper to agitate it there. It should be left to the States holding slaves to take such steps in reference to the abolition of slavery as their own feelings and interest might dietate; and he thought that the most effectual way of getting rid of the evil. He had another objection to the passage of the resolution referred to. He could not think the case of the gentleman from Massachusetts justified the odium that would be cast upon him by the adoption of the resolution. Nor was he (Mr. A.) willing to pre. scribe any degree of punishment for members of that House, for a contempt to, or disorderly conduct in, the House, until the case should occur. If it should become his painful duty to act on such a case, he would be found to act as promptly as any other member, and should then exercise his own judgment, according to the nature and extent of the offence, without reference to previous rules or resolutions of the House, which, although connected with the same subject, might differ materially in character and extent. Mr. A. could offer other objections to the resolution, but he would not longer detain the House. Thus far he had felt it his duty to explain his vote of the preceding day. If it should become necessary hereafter, he would say more on the subject to those to whom alone he felt accountable for his action upon it. Mr. A. was in hopes the resolution would be so modified as to bear solely on the abstract question as to the right of slaves to petition Congress. He cared not how strong it was; he would vote for it, although he regretted the subject had been introduced Mr. ASHLEY said he had voted against the resolution then under consideration, and he should be obliged to do so again, if, without modification, the question upon it should be again taken. Mr. A. was not in his seat when that unfortunate subject was first introduced into the House, but he was near at hand, and indistinctly heard the gentleman from Massachusetts when he addressed the Chair. Learning from a friend near at hand that a proposition was made to submit to the House a petition from slaves, praying the abolition of slavery, Mr. A. resumed his seat, when several resolutions were submitted, proposing to bring the gentleman [Mr. ADAMS] to the bar of the House, for an alleged contempt, for having submitted the supposed abolition petition. Not for a moment supposing there could be any misapprehension as to the purport of the petition, or as to the shape in which it was communicated to the House, Mr. A. found himself participating in what seemed to be the common feeling of its members, to support the dignity of the House; and he felt disposed to go as far as any other member to effect that object, even to the expulsion of the member offering the supposed indignity, should the circumstances of the case, on a full investigation, justify that extreme. But, Mr. Speaker, (said Mr. A.,) you may well imagine my surprise when, after the House having consumed almost the whole day in an effort to bring the matter to issue, the paper in question was ascertained not to be a petition from slaves for the abolition of slavery, but a paper purporting to be a petition from twenty-two slaves of the District of Columbia, praying the expulsion of the gentleman from Massachusetts from the House of Representatives; a hoax, no doubt, practised upon the gentleman by some wag of the city, in consequence of the gentleman's zeal in behalf of abolition petitions. Sir, (said Mr. A.,) I was surprised and no less mortified to find myself en-lution, did not recur with it. gaged in such a farce, if I can be permitted to give it that name. Yes, sir, I have called it a farce, and I would admonish my friends from the South, as well as those of the North, not to change its title and character by their over-zeal; that is to say, not to proceed on this allimportant and delicate subject so as at length to entitle it to another name-a deep and direful tragedy. Mr. A. said, the facts of the case having been disclosed to the House, he was of opinion the several propositions then upon the Speaker's table, touching the matter in question, should have been swept from it, leaving the gentleman from Massachusetts in possession of his paper or petition, to dispose of the same on his responsibility, without any further action of the House on the subject, unless the course of that or some other member, in reference to the petition, should require it. But, sir, (said Mr. A.,) it was otherwise determined by the House. A vote was taken on the passage of the resolution; and, without giving him an opportunity of presenting his views on the subject, the previous question interposing and cutting off all further debate, he was obliged to vote against it. Mr. A's object in then occupying the floor was to say, in part, what he wished to have said previous to the vote of the preceding day, on the resolution, and to protest at all. Mr. PARKER raised the point of order whether, as the question of reconsideration recurred, the demand for the previous question, originally moved on the reso The CHAIR decided otherwise, and that the motion to reconsider stood alone, without any reference to the previous question. Mr. UNDERWOOD gave his reasons, at length, why he had voted against the resolution which it was now proposed to reconsider. He had voted against it because he would have considered the adoption of it a denunciation on that floor of those who conceived it to be their duty to present all petitions, let them come from whomsoever they might; the adoption of it would have been denouncing all persons entertaining such opinions, however mistaken they might be, as inimical to the Union. And another reason why he had voted against it was, that he considered it as violating the spirit of the constitution of the country, which provided that no one should be held amenable for any thing said on that floor. He disclaimed all intention, by his vote against this resolution, of admitting the right of slaves to petition Congress, and said he had endeavored to get the floor to explain, before the vote was taken, but was prevented by the operation of the rules of the House. He intended, if he had obtained the floor, to offer a resolution declaring it as the sense of the House, that slaves had not the constitutional right to petition Congress. Mr. GIDEON LEE said, believing that members per fectly understood the simple question of reconsideration, and that they would have a better opportunity of discussing the question which would immediately follow the question of reconsideration, he therefore moved the previous question. Mr. ADAMS appealed to the gentleman to withdraw the motion. Mr. LEE had made up his mind, and could not withdraw the motion. The previous question was seconded by the House: Yeas 108, nays not counted; and the main question was ordered to be put. The yeas and nays, having been ordered on the main question, which was on reconsidering the vote by which the resolution was rejected, were: Yeas 159, nays 45. as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Alford, C. Allan, Anthony, Ashley, Barton, Bean, Bell, Black, Bockee, Boon, Bouldin, Bovee, Boyd, Burns, Bynum, J. Calhoon, Cambreleng, Campbell, Carr, Carter, Casey, J. Chambers, Chaney, Chapman, Chapin, N. H. Claiborne, J. F. H. Claiborne, Cleveland, Coles, Connor, Cramer, Crane, Crary, Cushman, Dawson, Deberry, Doubleday, Dromgoole, Efner, Elmore, Fairfield, Farlin, Forester, Fowler, French, Fry, Galbraith, J. Garland, R. Garland, Gholson, Gillet, Glascock, Graham, Grantland, Graves, Griffin, Haley, J. Hall, Hamer, Harlan, S. S. Harrison, A. G. Harrison, Hawkins, Haynes, Holsey, Holt, Hopkins, Howard, Howell, Hubley, Hunt, Huntington, Huntsman, Ing. ham, Jarvis, Jenifer, J. Johnson, C. Johnson, H. Johnson, J. W. Jones, Kennon, Kilgore, Klingensmith, Lane, Lansing, Laporte, Lawler, G. Lee, J. Lee, T. Lee, L. Lea, Lewis, Logan, Loyall, Lucas, Lyon, A. Mann, Martin, W. Mason, M. Mason, S. Mason, Maury, McComas, McKay, McKeon, McKim, McLene, Mercer, Miller, Montgomery, Moore, Morgan, Muhlenberg, Owens, Page, Parks, Patterson, Patton, F. Pierce, D. J. Pearce, J. A. Pearce, Pearson, Pettigrew, Peyton, Phelps, Pinckney, John Reynolds, Joseph Reynolds, Richardson, Robertson, Rogers, Schenck, Seymour, W. B. Shepard, A. H. Shepperd, Shields, Shinn, Spangler, Standefer, Steele, Storer, Taliaferro, Taylor, J. Thomson, W. Thompson, Toucey, Turrill, Underwood, Vanderpoel, Wagener, Ward, Webster, Weeks, White, T. T. Whittlesey, L. Williams, S. Williams, Wise, Yell-159. NAY-Messrs. Adams, H. Allen, Bailey, Beaumont, Bond, Borden, Briggs, Buchanan, W. B. Calhoun, G. Chambers, Clark, Cushing, Darlington, Denny, Evans, Everett, Granger, Grennell, H. Hall, Hard, Harper, Hazeltine, Henderson, Hoar, Ingersoll, W. Jackson, Janes, Lawrence, Lay, Lincoln, Love, Job Mann, McCarty, McKennan, Milligan, Parker, Phillips, Potts, Reed, Russell, Slade, Sloane, Vinton, Elisha Whittlesey, Young-45. So the vote was reconsidered. When the roll had been called through, Mr. CRAIG rose in his place, and stated that he was out of his seat at the moment when his name was called, though he returned to it the instant thereafter; and he asked leave to record his vote in the affirmative, but it was objected to. The resolution being then before the House, Mr. TAYLOR moved to amend it by striking out all after the word "Resolved," and inserting the following: "That slaves do not possess the right of petition secured to the people of the United States by the constitution." Mr. PICKENS, said it was not his intention to enter now minutely into any argument touching the great and delicate questions involved in the subjects before the House, but he rose merely to put himself right before the country. He had refused to vote [FEB. 11, 1837. on the motion for reconsideration, and would now refuse to vote on all the propositions made. He did so under a solemn and profound conviction that, as a representative from a slaveholding people, he could not and would not compromise their rights or stain their honor by participating in proceedings, where, by the rejection of the first resolution, they had received a deep wound, and which were now calculated to mislead and deceive his country. Those who had rejected the first resolution the day before yesterday had thereby created, politically speaking, a negative pregnant, and indirectly declared that slaves had a right to petition this House. And this right was openly maintained in the debate by the leading speakers who opposed the resolution. They had taken the responsibility of committing a wound upon the constitution and the Union, and had done so by a deliberate vote; and he (Mr. P.) was for letting them now take the responsibility of healing that wound themselves. As long as that resolution remained negatived, he felt it to be an outrage and insult to his constituents; and he, as their representative, had refused to vote for reconsidering, as he asked no favors and begged no mercy. He called upon gentlemen from the slaveholding race to beware how they moved in this matter. It involved consequences of the deepest and most delicate importance. We stand upon a precipice at whose base the waves of anarchy and discord dash their foaming surges. Let no man be deceived. If blood is to come of these transactions, I desire to clear my skirts of it. The substitutes proposed are calculated to delude and to lull into false security the South. They change the issue made upon the odious and offensive resolution now proposed to be reconsidered. They are calculated to produce a false impression. Many claim the right for slaves to petition as a natural inherent right, above the constitution; and will vote the substitutes, not because slaves have no right to petition, but because they have no right as "secured to the people of the United States by the constitution." Let the original cdious resolution which is now reconsidered be directly voted upon, and, if gentlemen have changed their opinions, let it be adopted. If you intend to save the country, come up to the mark like men. We profess to be outraged by the rejection of that resolution, and we should be satisfied with nothing less now than its adoption. This is due to us; it is the issue you have made. No, sir; you cannot adopt that resolution. I believe the votes then given to be the deliberate sentiments of this House. And if gentlemen, like fawns, now tremble at their own shadows in the brook; if, under party discipline and under party screws, they come forward and pretend to give justice, let them do it openly. But let no man expect me to aid him in support of substitutes by which my country shall be deceived and deluded on the vital questions involved. I desire my constituents to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If I stand on a volcano, I desire to know it, by looking on the smoke. I believe the recorded vote on the rejected resolution to be the sentiment of a majority of this House; and I believe that they represented their constituents; that that vote is a correct exponent of the sentiment of the non-slaveholding States in this confederacy. If this be not true, and I am mistaken, (in which I hope most sincerely I may be,) then let those gentlemen reverse the vote then given, as they can do, if they choose. But I will not aid them in producing a false result before the country. I cannot, after the proceedings of the last few days, and particularly on the day before yesterday, partake in any course by which I may be drawn under the majority of this House, and forced into a position which I cannot control, and which may mislead and de ceive the South as to the real feelings that exist in other portions of the Union towards them and their institutions. Mr. Speaker, I may be mistaken, but this course is from a solemn sense of my duty. I trust, on this subject at least, I have no factious feelings towards any man or set of men; but I feel pained and deeply wounded at the foreboding state of things. I have seen enough in the last few days to force upon me the melancholy conviction that there is not spirit or courage enough in the country to save our rights and our institutions. I have said that I believe the vote upon the original resolution to be a correct exponent of the feeling and the sentiments of the non-slaveholding States of this confederacy. Look at Pennsylvania; and while we are discussing these topics and witnessing these scenes in this House, what do we see there? A State convention of two hundred delegates, from different parts of the State, assembled at Harrisburg to devise ways and means by which to abolish slavery throughout this land. They appeal to the laborers of the North against slave labor, on the ground that it comes into competition with them. Look at their Governor, appealing to them to put down "the dark spirit of slavery," in his public message to the Legislature. Do you suppose that the Pennsylvania Representatives did not represent the sentiments of their State on the resolution rejected? Sir, it is a vast mistake. They knew well what they were doing. Look to a recent letter, published from a distinguished divine, distinguished for his extensive influence over the intellect and learning of his country; and what do you see? You see him soiling the mantle of Christian charity, by wrapping under its broad folds those who are loathsome from their leprosy, and whose foul embrace is death. You see him holding up to the world these men as the peculiar and chosen defenders of the liberty of speech, of writing, and of thinking. He has the effrontery to say that he is not even sure that he would have the privilege he then enjoyed, of writing at his desk, if it were not for the abolitionists." Sir, it is such men as Dr. Channing who are now moving down upon public Sentiment, and make the ground upon which your Northern fanatics are to fight their battles. Tell us not the miserable stuff that we give them ground by making issues here. We must make the issues you choose to tender, or give up our country to plunder and murder. Charge not us with these things. We are false to our people if we remain here silent, and beg mercy and forbearance at your hands. Do you suppose that the Representatives from Massachusetts did not vote as their constituents would have done if they had been here? If you intend to produce any such impression upon the Country by now changing the issues through substitutes, it will be delusion and falsehood. No, sir; we have seen the lightning flash, and let us not close our eyes from its glare. When I came on, at the first of this session, I inquired of a gentleman, a member of this House, in whose veracity and judgment I have the highest confidence, as to the state of public feeling then existing at the North on the subject of abolition. He informed me that he thought it was running out, and in all probability, from what he then could see, that in a few years it would be lost. This was his deliberate opinion at that time. It made an impression upon me, and I began to think that things were exaggerated. I was silent, and said but little connected with this subject until within the last few days. But, sir, yesterday morning, after the decided vote on the rejection of that resolution, which created such intense excitement, the same gentleman came to me, and said, with much anxiety, that he felt bound to explain to me what he communicated at the first of the session: he says now he was mistaken entirely as to the strength of the abolitionists, and was afraid VOL. XIII.-108. [H. of R. he had led me into some error on that point. He was now satisfied there was more excitement than he had any idea of at first; that he had just received twelve petitions on that subject, signed by more than a thousand of the most active and influential citizens of his district, who were men, not women, (as most of the signers usually are,) and that he believed their cause was increasing and powerful. This was from the State of New York. And, in justice to the gentleman, I will say that he communicated these facts because he thought he ought to do so, as he had made a different impression upon me at the first of the session, when I inquired of him on the subject, for information. These are the facts which we all know to be passing before our eyes every day, and it is treason in us to cry "all's well." Mr. Speaker, we must meet these things. I cannot say what the people of the entire slaveholding region will do. I am not authorized to speak for them; and, knowing what I do, I tremble for the future. But there is one State that I feel in some sort justified in speaking for; a State with whose people it is my pride to have the name I bear identified to the third and fourth generation; a people for whose honor and whose liberties the blood of my ancestors has been shed over every battle field from the seacoast to the mountains. I know not what course other people will pursue, but the people of that State, which I have the honor in part to represent, I know are ready, if need be, to sleep in an intrenched encampment; they are ready to kindle their beacon fires over a thousand hills; and, if the worst is to be forced upon them, they can, in the last resort, throw around themselves a rampart, beneath whose battle. ments many a gallant son can find at least a soldier's grave, and transmit to posterity the rich inheritance of a glorious name. Sir, I desire to trammel no individual; and I now de. clare, on this trying occasion, that I utter the instinctive feelings of my own heart, without concert or consultation with any man. I work in no party ties or party trammels, for the personal aggrandizement of any human being living. I look not beyond the confines of my own State. I have no earthly ambition but to be identified with her interests and her honor. As long as the vote on the original resolution remains unreversed, I feel bound, from the most solemn convictions of my judgment, to refrain from participation in proceedings which I fear are too well calculated to delude the country. Let those who have insulted us, and wounded the constitution, now withdraw the insult, and heal the wound. I shall refuse to vote either for or against the substitutes. I feel bound to do so, and shall wait in silence your decision-a decision upon which the future fate of this country depends. Upon this subject I can never make a compromise. In what I have said, I desire to offend no man. I attribute no improper motives to any gentleman. Others may differ from me. I allude to no individual. I have uttered what I felt on this painful occasion. I leave others to pursue their own course, and the responsibili ty be with them. Strike Mr. INGERSOLL submitted the following amend ment to the substitute offered by Mr. TAYLOR: out all after the word "That," and insert the following: "the honorable JOHN QUINCY ADAMS having inquired of the Speaker whether it would be in order for him to present a petition purporting to be from certain slaves, and the Speaker having appealed to the House for instructions "Resolved, That this House cannot receive such petition without disregarding its own dignity, the rights of a large class of citizens of the South and West, and the constitution of the United States." Mr. INGERSOLL said: The amendment proposed, We Mr. Speaker, is offered in a spirit of tranquillity and peace. Next to the desire which should influence every member of this House to give his vote according to the dictates of a conscientious judgment, is that of giving it with the hope of reconciling conflicting sentiments, and reproducing harmony when it has been disturbed. are informed of angry feelings, of agitated and excited minds. It is our duty, if we can, to prevent, if possi ble, their further aggravation in this House, and the extension of it throughout the country. How is this best to be effected? By meeting the evil at its source; by counteracting the principal and primary mischief. To ascertain where that is, we need only look to the history of the last week. A discussion has been going on which has done no good. It might have been obviated in a moment by a prompt reply to the inquiry of the gentleman from Massachusetts. That reply would now terminate what at the beginning it would have prevented. We have reached a practical crisis. It is a practical evil that we wish to correct. There are many propositions which are not acceptable, and are not adopted, and yet the rejection of them does not imply a negative of all or any of the propositions contained in them. There are truisms which are not rendered the stronger by being legislated on affirmatively, or the weaker by a negative vote. If, for example, it should be proposed to resolve that a republican form of government is the best; that this Union ought to be preserved; that it is hoped this Capitol will stand; that we desire to be a free, happy, and united people, no one will question the soundness of the propositions, yet not a member of the House would feel disposed to vote for any of them. They are not practical, and for that rearon they are not useful. The question now at issue is mainly between theory and practice. We must meet the inquiry which has been made sooner or later, and I propose to meet it in the form which the substitute I have offered presents. The petition cannot be received, whether it be a jest or otherwise, without compromising the dignity of the House. It aims at no useful end. It attempts the correction of no grievance. It cannot be received, because it would interfere with the righ's of those to whom service and labor are due by the individuals who have forwarded it, and declared themselves to stand in that relation. It cannot be received, because in this interference it strikes at all those parts of the constitution which recognise the system of slavery in the several States of the Union where it exists according to their chosen polity. Mr. JOHNSON, of Louisiana, could not believe that a majority of the members who had voted to reject the resolution offered by the gentleman from Virginia the other day intended to express the opinion that slaves had the right to petition; but there seemed to be a great contrariety of opinion on the subject, and a number of gentlemen thought that, by implication, the rejection of that resolution went to affirm that slaves had the right to petition. He had never entered into a discussion on this subject, because he did not believe that it could lead to any good result; but, on the contrary, would do a great deal of evil. He did consider, however, that if the House recognised the right of slaves to petition, the Union was virtually dissolved; and when that day came, he should feel it to be his duty to leave that House, and go home to his constituents. Entertaining these views, he would ask the gentleman from Pennsylvania to accept as a part of his resolution, to come in at the end thereof, the words "and endangering this Union." Mr. ANTHONY hoped his colleague would not accept of this modification, because they had heard too much about endangering the Union. Mr. INGERSOLL said he could not accept of the modification. [FEB. 11, 1837. Mr. PATTON then addressed the House at some length, in support of his original propositions. Mr. INGERSOLL modified his amendment, by omitting the name of Mr. ADAMS, and inserting "an honorable member from Massachusetts." "An inquiry having been made, by an honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, whether a paper, which he held in his hand, purporting to be a petition from certain slaves, and declaring themselves slaves, came within the order of the House of the 18th of January, and the said paper not having been received by the Speaker, he stated that, in a case so extraordinary and novel, he would take the advice and counsel of the House: "Resolved, That this House cannot receive the said petition without disregarding its own dignity, the rights of a large class of citizens of the South and West, and the constitution of the United States." Mr. SUTHERLAND spoke at some length in explanation of the vote he had given. He had voted against this resolution; but, because of his doing so, it did not follow that he was in favor of receiving petitions from slaves. He had voted against it because the resolution involved a question of censure on the gentleman from Massachusetts; and he put it to gentlemen whether it would not be the better means of getting a large vote on this subject to take it on the bare question presented by the gentleman from Massachusetts, on the reception of the petition purporting to be from slaves. If that question was met, he doubted not they would obtain very nearly a unanimous vote against the reception of the petition. That was the question which ought_to_be met, and he was sorry to see gentlemen running off after a new question. Mr. BYNUM did not rise to make a speech on this occasion, but merely to inform the House that at this time the individual who had been ordered to be brought before the House by the Sergeant-at-arms was now in attendance, prepared to be heard; and he hoped gentlemen would bring this debate to a close at as early a period as practicable, so that a citizen might not be kept in custody longer than was actually necessary. Mr. B. then made a few remarks in reply to the gentleman from New York, [Mr. VANDERPOEL, ] and read an extract from a Southern paper, stating that a committee of the Legislature of Louisiana had reported in favor of calling a Southern convention, to take some measures to counteract the efforts of the abolitionists. Mr. BOULDIN said: I have a desire to say something, though not a great deal, on the momentous and awful subject now before the House. I have a personal interest in the issue to be determined here, not very inconsiderable to myself, but falling into utter insignificance when compared with the consequences which may and must follow the decision now to be made. I have said, and have acted upon that opinion and belief, that there was no considerable number of the members of this House willing to take any steps or measures, direct or indirect, against the slaveholding people, through the power or authority of the House, going to destroy the right of property in negro slaves, or to endanger the slave or slave owner on that account in that regard. I said it at the last session, and reiterated it again on Monday last, when this question arose. I said so from my entire conviction of its truth, and from the bottom of my heart. I knew there were societies and private associations, and private opinions and wishes, on both sides of the Potomac, of a different character, but I did not believe that they had attained an official and legislative form and substance, until the vote which is now the sub. ject of reconsideration. I did say upon that vote would depend the question whether my faith would be confirmed, impaired, or entirely annihilated. I know that |