sition, they have supposed they had a right to appear at the bar of this House, and to ask that the seat of Government of a free nation should be inhabited by those only who are free.

Such, sir, is the condition of these petitioners; and I can never consent that they should be designated as murderers, or that their names should be mingled with those of the abolitionists.

MR. PINCKNEY considered the question settled. The Government had made a solemn covenant upon this subject with the slaveholding States; Congress might violate the Constitution; it could not, would not, violate the public faith. It was bound hand and foot. The South had nothing now to fear, except from those who are determined to continue the agitation of slavery for the purpose of excitement. Abolitionism has attained its height. It has begun to go down, and will soon disappear entirely, if we do not fan the flame ourselves and will only allow our friends in the non-slaveholding States to fight the fanatics in their own way, and not trammel them in their operations by mixing up extraneous and unnecessary questions with the subject of abolition.

CENSURE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 6-9, 1837

During the next session of Congress, on February 6, 1837, Caleb Cushing [Mass.] presented in the House various petitions from "ladies" of his State praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. These were received and laid on the table, without debate or commitment, under the resolution of the House. John Quincy Adams [Mass.] then rose and said that he presented a petition from nine "ladies" or women (which term he used became afterwards a subject of dispute) of Fredericksburg, Va. He would not name them, he said:

'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. 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, James K. Polk [of Tennessee]. 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. He [Mr. A.] wished to do nothing except in submission to the rules of the House.

The Speaker said that 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.

DIXON H. LEWIS [Ala.] 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 Massachusetts.

SEATON GRANTLAND [Ga.] 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.

JULIUS C. ALFORD [Ga.] said that, if the gentleman from Massachusetts should present this petition, that moment he [Mr. Alford] 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 burned; 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.

JOHN M. PATTON [Va.] 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 paper 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 presented 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 he recognized 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 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.

Waddy Thompson [S. C.], moved as an amendment to the motion of the honorable gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Patton] the following 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 instantly brought to the bar to receive the severe censure of the Speaker.

He said: 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. 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 censured by the Speaker.

MR. THOMPSON accepted the modification.

MR. ADAMS then rose and said: 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.

I did not present the petition. I said I had a paper purporting to be a petition from slaves. 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 toward presenting or offering to present that petition.

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 [Mr. Lewis] 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.

MR. THOMPSON was sorry to see the air of levity which it is attempted to throw over this matter. Is it a light thing, for the amusement of others, to irritate, almost to madness, the whole delegation from the slave States? It is intimated that the petition does not pray for the abolition of slavery, but a very different object. It makes not the slightest difference; it is the attempt to introduce a petition from slaves for any object; as insolent if it be for one purpose as for another.

Mr. T. then further modified his resolution by substituting the three following resolutions:

1. Resolved, That the honorable John Q. Adams, by an effort to present a petition from slaves, has committed a gross contempt of this House.

2. Resolved, That the member from Massachusetts above named, by creating the impression and leaving the House under such impression, that