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up, in presenting all his petitions. He hoped, therefore, the House would not hold him responsible for the consumption of time. Mr. A. thereupon presented sundry other petitions.

Mr. A. said he presented the petition of nine ladies of Fredericksburg, in the State of Virginia. He would not name them, because, from the disposition which at present prevailed in the country, he did not know what might happen to them if he did name them. It was not a petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, but it was a petition praying Congress to put a stop to the slave trade in the District of Columbia. This was one of those petitions which had seemed so strange to him when he received it, that he did not feel a perfect security that it was genuine, and to which he had alluded when he first began the presentation of his petitions. It was sent to him, purporting to be the petition of nine ladies, not one of whom should be named by him. Whether it was genuine or not, it was not for him to determine.

The petition was ordered to lie on the table, under the resolution.

Mr. ADAMS said he held in his hand a paper on which, before it was presented, he desired to have the decision of the Speaker. It was a petition from twentytwo persons, declaring themselves to be slaves. He wished to know whether the Speaker considered such a petition as coming within the order of the House.

The SPEAKER said he could not tell until he had the contents of the petition in his possession.

Mr. ADAMS said that if the paper was sent to the Clerk's table it would be in possession of the House, and if sent to the Speaker he would see what were its contents. Now, he (Mr. A.) wished to do nothing except in submission to the rules of the House. This paper purported to come from slaves, and it was one of those petitions which had occurred to his mind as not being what it purported to be. It was signed partly by persons who could not write, by making their marks, and partly by persons whose handwriting would manifest that they had received the education of slaves; and the petition declared itself to be from slaves, and he was requested to present it. He would send it to the Chair. Mr. LAWLER objected to its going to the Chair. The SPEAKER said that the circumstances of the case were so extraordinary, that he would take the sense of the House on the course to be pursued.

Mr. LAWLER wished it to appear on the journal that he had objected to the paper going to the Chair,

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The SPEAKER said the gentleman from Massachusetts had stated that the petition came from slaves; but it had not been sent to the Clerk's table. It was the first time, in the recollection of the Chair, that persons not free had presented a petition to this House. The Chair wished to take the sense of the House, which he had a right to do.

Mr. HAYNES said he felt astonished at the course which had been pursued by the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, not only to-day, but every day for some time time pas, whenever petitions were presented; but his astonishment reached to a height which he felt it impossible to express, when he saw the gentleman rise in his place on this floor, and offer to present such a paper as this had been described to be. Mr. H. could hot tell in what manner he would meet a proposition of this kind. It might be giving it more attention than it deserved, if he (Mr. H.) were to object to receiving it. He had risen mainly to express, so far as language could express, his unfeigned surprise that the gentleman from Massachusetts, or any other gentleman, should ever have made a question on a paper of this kind.

Mr. ADAMS called the gentleman from Georgia to order, on the ground that he was making personal reflections.

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[FEB. 6, 1837.

Mr. PINCKNEY said he was opposed to a protracted discussion on the subject, which could only lead to useless excitement and confusion, the matter before the House being a subject for action, not for debate. He hoped the House would act promptly and decisively. Mr. HAYNES inquired of the Chair if he did not still hold the floor.

The SPEAKER said the gentleman from Georgia held the floor, but it was not in order to make personal allusions.

Mr. HAYNES said the Speaker was aware that he was one of the last men to violate the rules adopted for the order and government of the House. It was well known that, from the commencement of these discussions, at an early day in the last session of Congress up to this moment, his lips had been closed on the subject in every form; because he had thought that the members from his section of the country should be among the last to seek or promote discussion upon it. But he would not trust his feelings to pursue the subject further under its present aspect, extraordinary as it was. The true motion, in his judgment, would be to move that the petition be rejected, subject, however, to its withdrawal, if the House should become further enlightened as to its contents.

Mr. LEWIS hoped that no motion of that kind would come from any gentleman from a slaveholding section of the country. Mr. HAYNES said he would cheerfully withdraw his

motion.

Mr. LEWIS said he was glad the motion was withdrawn. He believed that the House should punish severely such an infraction of its decorum and its rules; and he called on the members from the slaveholding States to come forward now, and demand from the House the punishment of the gentleman from Massachu

setts.

Mr. GRANTLAND would second the motion, and go all lengths in support of it.

Mr. LEWIS said that, if the House would inflict no punishment for such flagrant violations of its dignity as this, it would be better for the Representatives from the slaveholding States to go home at once.

Mr. ALFORD inquired if the gentleman from Massachusetts had certainly proposed to introduce this petition.

The SPEAKER said the member from Massachusetts had risen, and stated that he had a petition coming from slaves, and had inquired of the Chair whether it would come under the order adopted by the House in reference to all petitions and papers on the subject of slavery.

The Clerk having been directed to read the minutes which he had taken at the time, read as follows:

"Mr. ADAMS presented the petition of twenty-two persons, declaring themselves to be slaves, and wished to know whether it came within the order of the House."

Mr. ALFORD said that, if the gentleman from Massachusetts intended to present this petition, he, (Mr. ALFORD,) the moment it was presented, should move, as an act of justice to the South, which he in part represented, and which he conceived had been treated with indignity, that it be taken from the House and burnt; and he hoped that every man who was a friend to the constitution would support him. There must be an end to this constant attempt to raise excitement, or the Union could not exist much longer. The moment any man should disgrace the Government under which he lived, by presenting a petition from slaves praying for emancipation, he hoped that petition would, by order of the House, be committed to the flames.

Mr. PATTON moved to suspend the rule to enable him to submit a motion to take from the table, to be hereafter disposed of as the House may decide, the pa

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per already presented by the gentleman from Massachusetts, and which had been laid on the table under the resolution of the House; he alluded to the paper pre sented as a petition from nine ladies of Fredericksburg. He (Mr. P.) would state in his place, and on his responsibility, that the name of no lady was attached to that paper. He did not believe there was a single one of them of decent respectability. He believed the signatures to be genuine, and be recognised only one name which he had known before, and that was the name of a free mulatto woman of the worst fame and reputation. He had been raised in Fredericksburg, and believed he was acquainted with all persons of respectability residing there, and he could say there was not one respectable name attached to this paper.

[H. of R.

proceedings of the House. He was willing the resolution and wish of his colleague should prevail, and that the paper should be returned to the venerable gentleman from Massachusetts, to make what mischief he could or he chose from it, in or out of this House.

But the gentleman from Massachusetts had offered in the House the memorial of those who, on the face of it, appeared to be slaves, and had announced to the Chair and to the House that such was the paper.

Mr. B. said he did not care a rush whether the paper went to the Chair or not. Nothing that that gentleman could say or do in relation to it could add to, or detract from, the impression that the statement of the propo sition to the Chair by him had made. He (Mr. B.) wished now, without interruption of any other business, to progress with this matter until he saw and understood what countenance the gentleman from Massachusetts should

Mr. W. THOMPSON asked that the petition might be read, so as to render the gentleman from Massachusetts amenable to the resolution which he (Mr. T.) pro-receive from the House. posed to offer.

The SPEAKER said it was not in order at this time. Mr. ROBERTSON called for the yeas and nays on the motion to suspend; which were ordered, and, being taken, were: Yeas 131, nays 50.

So the rule was suspended.

Mr. PATTON said he was disposed to pursue as kind and respectful a course to the gentleman from Massachusetts as the circumstances of the case would admit, so far as related to the particular question before the House.

Mr. B. said he had at the last session gone further with and for the North, on a matter nearly identical with this, than any other man from the South. He alluded to the admission of Michigan and Arkansas into the Union. On that occasion he had said, and said undoubt ingly and from his heart, that there was no serious intention or wish, in any considerable number of the members of this House, to assail the interests, the rights, or the safety, of the South, or to throw any obstacles in the way of Arkansas on account of negro slavery. On the yote he found it so. He believed it then, and believes it now. But the countenance and support that the gentleman from Massachusetts may receive from the House in propounding to the Chair his question whether slaves can petition under the rule of the House, or in any way, will either confirm this belief, or weaken or entirely annihilate it.

The gentleman from Massachusetts, before presenting this petition, had stated that he did not know who these individuals were; be did not know their claims to the consideration of this House, or to his own agency in presenting the petition. Mr. P. thought it was to be regretted that the gentleman from Massachusetts had not thought proper, but, on the contrary, had refused, to Upon this issue would depend with him the question permit him, (Mr. P.,) coming from the town from which of concurrence in the feeling expressed (though not this paper purported to come, on a subject which the fully, owing to the rules of the House preventing him gentleman knew the people whom he (Mr. P.) repre- from proceeding at that time) by the gallant and exsented, as well as himself, felt a deep and exciting inter-perienced member from Louisiana, that the time had arest, to see the paper before it had been presented. He rived when it was the business of Southern members to (Mr. P.) could not permit himself to believe that, after go home. stating to him, as he (Mr. P.) would have stated privately, what he had since stated publicly, the gentleman from Massachusetts would have persisted in being the organ through whom such a petition should be present ed. He (Mr. P.) would again state, on his honor and veracity as a man, that he did not believe that there was the signature of any decently respectable individual in Fredericksburg attached to this paper; that the only name he recognised was that of a mulatto free woman of infamous character; and he believed that the names of others were the names of free negroes, all of whom he believed to be bad. He therefore moved that the paper which had been received and laid on the table should be taken from the table and returned to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. BOULDIN said that, as he had just voted against saspending the rules on the motion of his colleague, [Mr. PATTON,] and had found himself voting with those whe, from their local situation, might be supposed not to feel with him on the very delicate and vital subject now before the House, and as his name had not been recorded with the names of those with whom he knew he did feel and act substantially in every important matter peculiar to the South, and especially in regard to the subject-matter now before the House, it became him to give the reason for his vote. It was this: He wished to dispose of the first branch of the subject, and then he would be willing to suspend the rules for his colleague, and would be willing to go with him in any vote to take from our files the paper he wished withdrawn, and which was well calculated to throw disgrace and contempt on the

Mr. B. wished not to be kept in suspense upon this point. He wished to know whether he was right in believing that he was surrounded by brothers, sitting in consultation upon the interest, the prosperity, happiness, and glory, of their common family and country, or whether a portion, a considerable portion, were willing to countenance a proposition of this kind-a proposition that could admit of no interpretation milder than that of a direct insult to the feelings of the South; the most natural import, à direct attack upon the interest, the property, and the safety, of the slaveholding portion of the Union.

Mr. W. THOMPSON said he had risen to move, as an amendment to the motion of the honorable gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. PATTON,] the folowing resolution:

Resolved, That the honorable JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, by the attempt just made by him to introduce a petition purporting on its face to be from slaves, has been guilty of a gross disrespect to this House, and that he be in stantly brought to the bar to receive the severe censure of the Speaker.

Mr. THOMPSON, of South Carolina, said he had always forborne, as far as he could control his feelings, from taking any part in the discussions on this subject. He now felt infinite pain in being forced, by an imperious sense of duty, to present the resolution which he had sent to the Chair. He was aware of the advantages over him which the gentleman's age and the stations which he had filled gave him. But, sir, there is a point at which forbearance ceases to be proper. The sanctu

II. OF R.]

Abolition of Slavery.

ary of age is not lightly to be violated; but when that sanctuary is used to throw poisoned arrows, it ceases to be sacred. The gentleman from Massachusetts offered to present a petition from slaves, and so purporting to be on its face, in open and wilful violation of what he knew to be the rules of this House, and insulting to a large portion of its members. Does the gentleman, even in the latitude which he gives to the right of petition, think that it includes slaves? If he does not, he has wilfully violated the rules of the House and the feelings of its members. Does that gentleman know that there are laws in all the slave States, and here, for the punishment of those who excite insurrection? I can tell him that there are such things as grand juries; and if, sir, the juries of this District have, as I doubt not they have, proper intelligence and spirit, he may yet be made amenable to another tribunal, and we may yet see an incendiary brought to condign punishment. Mr. T. said that, when he first took his seat here, and heard daily denunciations of the people whom he represented, and every vile epithet heaped upon them-a people for whom he claimed, to say the very least, the proudest equality-he was excited almost to the point of frenzy. Now he found himself sitting quietly under these things, when he saw his new colleagues, not more excitable than he was, in the same state of feeling in which he was at the last session. Sir, it is a most instructive commentary upon the gradual wear and tear of feeling, and the cooling of that just indignation which every Southern man should feel. Sir, if I desired the breaking up of this Government, I should thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for his course on this subject. All we desire, sir, is an issue, a fair and distinct issue. If gentlemen think slavery an abomination, and that they have a right to abolish it, why not come up to the point, and say so? I will forgive them for all the past if they will do it. We shall then, sir, soon, very soon, settle this question forever,

Mr. HAYNES said that, believing the object of the gentleman from South Carolina might be more readily obtained by a resolution in a different form, he would send to the table the following amendment:

Strike out all after "Resolved," and insert"That JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, a Representative from the State of Massachusetts, has rendered himself justly liable to the severest censure of this House, and is censured accordingly, for having attempted to present to the House the petition of slaves."

Mr. GRANGER said this was a question of extreme delicacy, and one which he hoped would not be closed by the previous question. His honorable friend from Massachusetts [Mr. ADAMS] knew that no man in this House had more sincerely stood by him on the right of petition than he (Mr. G.) had. But he (Mr. G.) must express his surprise that, with papers in his hand from sources of which he was ignorant, and of the genuineness of which he has expressed a doubt, be [Mr. ADAMS] should have assumed the responsibility he had this day assumed. He (Mr. G.) was surprised that that gentleman, holding the right of petition as one of the most sacred rights granted to this people, should ever have cheapened the value of that right by presenting indiscriminately papers enclosed to him, [Mr. ADAMS,] when he was himself ignorant of the names, condition, or characters, of those who forwarded them. He was the more surprised that a paper from this immediate vicinity, and purporting to bear the signatures of those who are represented by a gentleman [Mr. PATTON] sitting on the left of the gentleman from Massachusetts, and with whom that gentleman was on intimate terms, should have been presented to this House without some inquiry having been made as to the character of those whose names were attached to the petition, or without the gentleman

[FEB. 6, 1837.

[Mr. ADAMS] being possessed of, or having guarded himself by, the requisite information in relation to the petition he was about to present. It was well known that no man here deprecated more than he (Mr. G.) did the decision of the Chair in tying down members of the House under the resolution of the last and the present year. It was due to the gentleman whom he had in his eye [Mr. W. THOMPSON] to say that he believed he [Mr. T.] had invariably voted against it.

[Mr. THOMPSON explained that he had voted against the resolution, because he thought that the petition should not be received, but instantly rejected]

Mr. G. resumed. What was the position in which we are now placed by the adoption of that resolution? It was that all papers, in advance, having reference, immediately or remotely, to the subject of slavery, no matter how offensive in its object, or disreputable in its terms, or how respectful, were carried to the Speaker's table. Instead of securing to the people of this country the sacred right of petition, with every paper to be passed upon, if not by the judgment of the person presenting it, at least by the judgment of the House, this stifling resolution had been the vehicle of carrying on to the records of the House documents that should never have been placed there, and of excluding those which were entitled to its consideration. It had probably placed on the table papers which never ought to have been admitted, and it had shut out from the people of this country the full and free right of having their petitions presented here, and of being heard upon them.

Mr. G. said he had regretted as much as the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. THOMPSON] or the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. PATTON] that this paper should have been presented. As a member of this House, he (Mr. G.) considered the right of petition sa cred; but he also considered himself bound, in the exercise of that right, to guaranty to the House that the paper he offered was one the responsibility of which, so far as presenting it was concerned, rested on his shou!ders. It did not follow that he approved or disapproved the object of the petition because he presented it; but it was due to the House, in presenting it, to say that he believed it to be such a paper as a member had a right, and was bound, to present to an American Congress; and he could not think that the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts could strengthen the right of petition by presenting a paper in the manner in which this had been offered..

This question, as now presented, was one of deep interest. He felt bound to say that a certain class of the community were too ready to change their ground, and to hide their opinions on the abolition of slavery under the denial of the right of petition. He had in his mind men, not ordinary men, who, feeling that this right bas been unjustly abridged, have enlisted themselves in a cause in which they would never otherwise have engaged; men who, only one year ago, were as much opposed to the abolition of slavery as any man in this House, but who are now found within its ranks. These, he had said, were not ordinary citizens, but those who stood forth to the community in that enviable relief which talent gives to virtue. It was not to be disguised, and he felt bound to declare, that, if the House wished to forward the cause of abolition, they would pass these hasty resolutions. No man in this nation held the right of petition under the constitution more sacred than he did; but it was due to himself to repeat, what he had heretofore stated, that so long as the States of Maryland and Virginia should continue their present policy, he did not believe that Congress had any just power to interfere in this question, nor that either philanthropy or patriotism demanded it; that in his opinion, at the time of the cession of this District, it was no more con

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templated that slavery should be abolished here before it was in the surrounding country, than that this terri tory should continue in its present position after the adjoining States by which it had been ceded should have changed theirs. But he would say to the gentlemen from South Carolina [Mг. THOMPSON] and from Georgia [Mr. HAYNES] that, if this resolution was pushed to a vote of censure, its effect on the community would be most serious.

What was the position of the gentleman from Massachusetts? He [Mr. ADAMS] had requested instructions, had asked the decision of the Chair as to his right to present the petition, and whether it came within the resolution of the House to which he had referred. Before the decision of the Chair had been announced, and whilst the House remained in ignorance even of the gentleman's own opinions as to the propriety of presenting it, a resolution was introduced, which, in effect, went to censure bim for asking the decision of the Chair, and which decision had not yet been announced. If these proceedings must be carried on, for pity's sake, at least, let the opinion of the person presenting it be known; let him at least declare in his place that he claimed the right to present the petition. It will then be time enough to act upon these resolutions, and then be matter of sufficient doubt whether they should be passed, or whether any member should be censured for what he considered an honest discharge of his duty.

He could not conclude without expressing his regret at the occurrence of this morning, and his firm conviction that the course of the gentleman from Massachusetts, so far from rendering the right of petition more sacred, was calculated to render it a mere bauble, to be played with; and he objected to having the right of petition, inalienable in his constituents, tried by any such issue as could be made upon the papers which the venerable gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. ADAMS] had last presented.

Mr. LEWIS offered the following amendment, which he suggested to his friend from South Carolina [Mr. THOMPSON] to accept as a modification:

Resolved, That JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, a member from the State of Massachusetts, by his attempt to introduce into this House a petition from slaves, for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, committed an outrage on the rights and feelings of a large portion of the people of this Union; a flagrant contempt on the dignity of this House; and, by extending to slaves a privilege only belonging to freemen, directly invites the slave population to insurrection; and that the said member be forthwith called to the bar of the House, and be cen. sured by the Speaker.

Mr. W. THOMPSON accepted the modification.

Mr. LEWIS said that, as a member, from the South, he was not disposed to argue this question here. He wished to see whether there was the power or the will to discountenance such proceedings as these. If not, the members from the South had better go home and prepare to protect themselves.

Mr. PATTON said he thought the House was proceeding rather harshly in this matter. The resolution, in the form in which it now stood, asserted two facts, of which he would desire to be certified before he gave his vote upon it. He knew nothing of the character of the paper, for the gentleman, from Massachusetts [Mr. ADAMS] had preserved towards him the same silence as on the other paper, purporting to come from Fredericksburg.

But the resolution asserted two facts: First, that the paper was a petition by slaves for the abolition of slavery. Was that the fact? Was any gentleman bere authorized to state that this was a paper for the abolition of slavery? It was essentially important, before the House was call

[H. OF R.

ed on to act, that they should know whether this was the fact or not. The resolution asserted also another fact: that the gentleman from Massachusetts attempted to offer this petition. He (Mr. P.) understood that this was not the fact. He thought he should be disposed to go as far as those who would go farthest in adopting any proper course for arresting these attempts to procure the action of the House in relation to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or any where else. He should be ready to go to the utmost extent of his constitutional powers to arrest that action, either by the legislative intervention of the House, in its ordinary course, or by refusing to receive the petitions, or by inflicting censure on members transgressing the, bounds of their duty to keep up an excitement on the subject. But let us know (said Mr. P.) what we are doing. Suppose that this petition was a quiz; and that, so far from being a petition for the abolition of slavery, it was a petition for a very different thing. Mr. P. would object as much to the one proposition being presented here as the other. But let the House, before it involved itself in this solemn proceeding, before it took this decided and hazardous step of bringing to the bar of the House a member of its body, as having violated its rights, know on what grounds they were proceeding.

Were the facts as they were stated to be? Had any such petition been presented or offered by a member of the House? He regretted to be involved in this excitement on grounds which might turn out to be more of a farce than a tragedy. He expected it would be found that neither the one fact nor the other, assumed in the resolution, was true.

Mr. ADAMS then rose and said he did not know under what rule of the House the several resolutions which had been presented in relation to himself had taken the place of the resolution or motion submitted by his friend from Virginia, [Mr. PATTON,] nor how it had happened that this matter had come under the copsideration of the House, whilst a question was pending whether a paper previously presented by him (Mr. A.) should be taken from the Speaker's table and returned to him. The Speaker, he presumed, knew how this had come about.

The SPEAKER explained that this had been effected under the operation of that well-established parliamentary law, which gave precedence to questions of privilege over all other business.

Mr. ADAMS. Well, sir, I am satisfied,

In regard to the resolutions now before the House, as they all concur in-naming me, and in charging me with high crimes and misdemeanors, and in calling me to the bar of the House to answer for my crimes, I have thought it was my duty to remain silent until it should be the pleasure of the House to act either on one or other of these resolutions. I suppose that, if I shall be brought to the bar of the House, I shall not be struck mute by the previous question, before I have an opportunity to say a word or two in my own defence.

But, sir, gentlemen are really consuming the time of the House in such a manner, that I think the obligation rests upon me to ask them to modify their resolution. It may be as severe as they propose; but I ask them to change the matter of fact a little, so that when I come to the bar, I may not, in one single word, put an end to their resolution.

The gentlemen, who have such a laudable zeal for the slaveholding portion of this confederacy, and I do not censure them for that zeal, charge upon me, first, that I attempted to present a petition from slaves; and, secondly, that that petition was for their emancipation from slavery. I did not present the petition, and I appeal to the Speaker to say that I did not. I said I had a paper, purporting to be a petition from slaves; I did not say what the prayer of the petition was; I said it was a paper pur

H. OF R.]

Abolition of Slavery.

porting to be a petition from slaves, signed partly by crosses for signatures, and partly by letters, scarcely legible, purporting to be names. I asked the Speaker whether he considered such a paper as included within the general order of the House, that all petitions, memorials, resolutions, and papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery, should be laid on the table. I intended to take the decision of the Speaker before I went one step towards presenting, or offering to present, that petition. I stated distinctly to the Speaker that I should not send the paper to the table until the question was decided, whether a paper from persons declaring themselves slaves was included within the order of the House. This is the fact.

Now, as to the fact what the petition was for. I simply state to the gentleman from Alabama, [Mr. LEWIS,] who has sent to the table a resolution assuming that this petition was for the abolition of slavery; I state to him that he is mistaken. He must amend his resolution; for, if the House should choose to read the petition, I can state to them they would find it something very much the reverse of that which the resolution states it to be; and if the gentleman from Alabama still shall choose to bring me to the bar of the House, he must amend his resolution in a very important particular; for he probably may have to put into it, that my crime has been for attempting to introduce the petition of slaves that slavery should not be abolished. This is possible, sir. I say, then, the gentleman must amend his resolution; and I take it for granted that he and the House will be under the necessity of seeing what that petition is, and that they must not take it even from my representation. This representation I am perfectly willing to make, if the House shall think fit that the petition should be received and considered; and I shall be willing to do almost any thing, except to grant the prayer of the petition; for the gentleman from Alabama may, perchance, find that the object of the petition is precisely that which he desires to accomplish; and that these slaves, who have sent this paper to me, are his auxiliaries, instead of being his opponents. I state these facts for the consideration of the House. I shall not present the petition until the decision of the House has been announced; and I am disposed to be perfectly submissive to that decision, whatever it may be.

Whilst I am up, Mr. Speaker, I feel it necessary to say one word in reply to the observations of a gentleman for whom I entertain a profound respect, and who, on this occasion, has not felt as those gentlemen who have en. tirely misunderstood the course I was pursuing, and the nature of the paper on which I asked the direction of the Speaker. I allude to the gentleman from New York, [Mr. GRANGER,] who has expressed his regret at the course I have this day adopted.

Sir, it is well known to all the members of this House, it is certainly well known to all petitioners for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, that from the day I entered this House down to the present moment, I have invariably here, and invariably elsewhere, declared my opinions to be adverse to the prayer of peti tions which call for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. But, sir, it is equally well known that, from the time I entered this House down to the present day, I have felt it a sacred duty to present any petition, couched in respectful language, from any citizen of the United States, be its object what it may; be the prayer of it that in which I could concur, or that to which I was utterly opposed. It is for the sacredness of the right of petition that I have adopted this course; and when my friend from New York [Mr. GRANGER] intima. ted his opinion-not directly expressed, but yet the necessary inference of his remarks-that, before presenting a paper purporting to be a petition from certain la

[FEB. 6, 1837.

dies of Fredericksburg, I ought to have shown it to my friend and neighbor here, [Mr. PATTON,] and to have followed the advice which he would have given, I reply to the gentleman [Mr. GRANGER] that such is not my opinion in regard to the right of petition. I did avoid show. ing my friend the petition, because I had every reason to believe that, if I did, he would exercise his influence over my mind-and that influence is great in every thing in which my duty does not interpose a barrier against its exercise-and that his advice would have been that I should not present the petition. I did not choose to place myself in this position. I adhered to the right of petition; and let me say here that, let the petition be, as the gentleman from Virginia has stated, from free negroes-prostitutes, as he supposes, for he says there is one such on the paper, and he infers that the rest are of the same description-that had not altered my opinion at all. Where is your law which says that the mean, and the low, and the degraded, shall be deprived of the right of petition, if their moral character is not good? Where, in the land of freemen, was the right of petition ever placed on the exclusive basis of morality and virtue?. Petition is supplication-it is entreaty-it is prayer! And where is the degree of vice or immorality which shall deprive the citizen of the right to supplicate for a boon, or to pray for mercy? Where is such a law to be found? It does not belong to the most abject despotism. There is no absolute monarch on earth who is not compelled by the constitution of his country to receive the petitions of his people, whosoever they may be. The Sultan of Constantinople cannot walk the streets and refuse to receive petitions from the meanest and the vilest in the land. This is the law even of despotism. And what does your law say? Does it say that, before presenting a petition, you shall look into it, and see whether it comes from the virtuous, and the great, and the mighty? No, sir, it says no such thing; the right of petition belongs to all. And, so far from refusing to present a petition because it might come from those low in the estimation of the world, it would be an additional incentive, if such incentive were wanting. This I say to my friend from Virginia, [Mr. PATTON.]

But I must admit that when color comes into the question, there may be other considerations. It is possible that this House, which seems to consider it so great a crime to attempt to offer a petition from slaves, may, for aught I know, say that freemen, if not of the carnation, shall be deprived of the right of petition, in the sense of the House.. It is possible, sir, that had I known the petition from Fredericksburg to have been from colored people, I might have taken into my consideration the question, not whether I ought to present the petition to the House, but whether, in the temper of this House, it would be prudent for me to present it. Sir, I did not know that these were colored women. The petition was sent without any indication of the color or condition of those who sent it. At all events, it did not purport to come from slaves; and when the paper which 1 last held in my hand came to me as a petition from persons declaring themselves to be slaves, I did not present it, but I asked the Speaker if it came within the general order of the House. I am still waiting for that decision; and if it should be the decision of the Speaker that the petition cannot be received, because it comes from slaves, I shall submit to the determination of the House. If the House think proper to receive the petition, I shall present it.

Mr. MANN, of New York, obtained the floor, and said that the future historian, when arriving at the transactions of the twenty-fourth Congress, would find it requisite to pause and contemplate the spectacle now be fore us and the American people. He will be at fault to discover the cause for the scenes now presented; and,

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