CHAPTER III

THE RIGHT OF PETITION

[DEBATES ON THE RECEPTION OF PETITIONS FOR ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA]

The Colonization Society-It Requests Aid of the Government-Debate in the Senate on the Request: in Favor, Ezekiel Chambers [Md.]; Opposed, Robert Y. Hayne [S. C.]; Memorial Laid on the Table-The American Anti-Slavery Society Is Formed-Agitation Is Directed Against Slavery in the District of Columbia-Petition Against It Is Introduced and Supported by Representative Charles Miner [Pa.]-Plan of Southern Congressmen to "Gag" Such Petitions-Debate on a Resolution in the House of Representatives to Lay on the Table All Anti-Slavery Petitions: in Favor, Leonard Jarvis [Me.], Henry L. Pinckney [S. C.], Franklin Pierce [N. H.], Waddy Thompson [S. C.]; Opposed, John Quincy Adams [Mass.], Francis Granger [N. Y.]; Motion Is Carried, Henry A. Wise [Va.] Refusing to Vote on Constitutional GroundsCaleb Cushing [Mass.] and Mr. Adams Present Anti-Slavery Petitions Which Are Laid on the Table-Mr. Adams Questions the Chair About the Admissibility of a Petition He Holds from Slaves-Dixon H. Lewis [Ala.], Seconded by Seaton Grantland [Ga.] Moves to Censure Mr. Adams for Violating the Dignity of the House-Various Modifications of the Motion by John M. Patton [Va.], Mr. Thompson, and George C. Dromgoole [Va.]-Motion Is Negatived After Debate, in Which These Movers, and Julius C. Alford [Ga.], Francis W. Pickens [S. C.], Mr. Pinckney and Richard French [Ky.] Defend Resolution, and Mr. Adams, Churchill C. Cambreleng [N. Y.], and Mr. Cushing Oppose It-President Jackson Recommends Legislation to Prevent Circulation in the Mails of Abolition Publications-Senator Thomas H. Benton [Mo.] Submits a Specimen of an "Incendiary" Cartoon-Bill Introduced in Senate by Special Committee to Penalize Postmasters Accepting Such MailMinority Report of John C. Calhoun [S. C.] on the Subject: "Abolition and Disunion"-John P. King [Ga.], of the Majority, Opposes the Report-Reply by Calhoun: "Slavery Paramount to Federal Laws'-Reply to Calhoun by Daniel Webster [Mass]: "Freedom of the Mails"Bill Is Lost-President Martin Van Buren's Position on AbolitionWilliam Slade [Vt.] Makes an Abolition Speech in the House-Hopkins Halsey [Ga.] and R. Barnwell Rhett [S. C.] Call on Southern Repre

sentatives to Withdraw for Conference-Rhett Proposes Secession; It is Negatived by the Conference, and a Proposal of a "Gag Law" by John M. Patton [Va.] Is Endorsed; It is Adopted by the House.

T

HE question of the abolition of slavery in places where it already prevailed by law in distinction to the restriction of the institution to its existing legal limits began to be systematically agitated soon after the Missouri Compromise.

The leader in this movement was Benjamin Lundy, editor of The Genius of Universal Emancipation. In 1829 he was joined by William Lloyd Garrison, who afterwards (January 1, 1831) established The Liberator.

Lundy and other men who became prominent in the abolition movement, such as James G. Birney and Gerrit Smith, had originally been members of the Colonization Society, and to understand the progress of the antislavery movement it will be well at this point to discuss briefly the origin and character of the less radical organization.

As early as 1801 President Jefferson and James Madison, then Governor of Virginia, had considerable correspondence on the subject of colonizing free negroes out of the country as a step forward in solving the slavery question. A number of philanthropists early in the century also began to agitate the project, and in 1816 a Colonization Society was organized in Princeton, N. J. A few years afterwards it was reorganized at Washington, D. C., as the "National Colonization Society." Bushrod Washington, a nephew of George Washington, and an Associate-Justice of the Supreme Court, was made its president, and The African Repository was established as its organ.

The society grew rapidly, and by 1827 it had branches in almost every State, and was supported by distinguished people of every political complexion, including James Madison and Henry Clay, as well as Benjamin Lundy and other abolitionists.

In 1821 a region on the east coast of Africa at Cape Mesurado was purchased and named Liberia, its chief town being called Monrovia for President Monroe. On

February 7, 1827, the society, through Senator Ezekiel Chambers [Md.], presented a memorial to the Senate asking Government aid to send free negroes to Liberia. The memorial was opposed by Senator Robert Y. Hayne [S. C.]. It was laid on the table.

GOVERNMENT AID TO COLONIZE NEGROES

SENATE, FEBRUARY 7-9, 1827

SENATOR CHAMBERS.-I know no question not immediately involving the very existence of the Government which ought to excite so deeply the anxious reflection of every patriot. That part of the population of the States which it is the object of the society to remove is a degraded, miserable race of beings. They are not, cannot be, citizens of your country-they do not add to your physical energies-they do not effect the legitimate object of any one appropriate class of a well-organized community-they are anything but a laboring class. It were well did they only present a negative character, but your free blacks exert the most deleterious influence. The corrupting poison of their example and their habits has infected our slaves and made them indolent and immoral.

You are advised by intelligent and discreet men whose lives have been devoted to the consideration of this subject that the plan now proposed will probably remove, certainly lessen, these evils. You are advised that the means of accomplishing the plan are in the power and under the legal control of Congress. If authority be required to sanction such opinions, you have it in the deliberate and formal decisions of the legislatures of a large proportion of the States of this Union-States in which slavery is allowed, and States in which it is not allowed. The States of Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee have each made a legislative declaration of their views upon this subject. Georgia has so far expressed an opinion, in that she has directed the captive Africans, who, by former laws of Congress, were placed at the disposal of the State, to be delivered to this Colonization Society to be sent to Africa.

SENATOR HAYNE.-The gentleman from Maryland has vindicated the object of the society. He insists that it is not the wish or intention of the society to interfere with or in any way disturb the policy of the Southern States. So say the society. But, sir, facts speak stronger than professions. And what are the facts? Are not the members and agents of this society

everywhere (even while disclaiming all such intentions) making proclamations that the end of their scheme is universal emancipation? Have we not heard their orators, at their meetings here, openly held under the eyes of Congress, asking whether, when all the free people of color are transported, we are to stop there; and answering their question by the avowal that the great work will be but then begun? Sir, let any man examine the whole scope and tendency of the reports and speeches made to this society, nay, of this very manifesto, published by their authority, and he must be dull of apprehension if he does not perceive that the spirit which lurks beneath their fair professions is hostile to the peace and best interests of the Southern States; and not the less so because it comes clothed in the garb of friendship and with professions of peace and good will. Besides, sir, does not every Southern man know that, wherever the Colonization Society has invaded our country, a spirit of hostility to our institutions has instantly sprung up?

Passing over the indirect evils of this society, what would be the direct tendency and effect of the adoption of its policy by the Federal Government? The national funds are to be appropriated for the purpose of transporting such slaves as their owners may consent to emancipate for that purpose. If this be taken up as a national object; if we have the power and the inclination, and should resolve to appropriate the public money to this object, of course we would be at liberty to offer any temptation we please to induce the owners of slaves to consent. It is useless to disguise the truth-if this policy should ever be adopted by this Government, the members of the society will go directly into the market as the purchasers of our slaves, for the purpose of emancipation and transportation. Now, I will ask gentlemen to contemplate dispassionately the effect that is to be produced on the Southern States, by this Government being notoriously in the market, with its treasury of $20,000,000 or $30,000,000, as the purchasers of our slaves for the purpose of emancipation. Can you touch this mass of a now contented, happy, and useful class of beings without disquieting their minds, creating dissatisfaction, destroying their usefulness, and bringing ruin on the whole community? Much has been already done to destroy the confidence and impair the mutual affection which have hitherto so happily subsisted between the master and his slave; but adopt this policy and they will be destroyed forever. Besides, sir, once bring this Government into the market as purchasers and they will fix their own terms. Once admit the principle, and, in its application, it

must inevitably lead to divesting us of our property on such terms as Congress may choose to prescribe; the insidious movements of colonization and abolition societies, the distribution of political tracts, and a few incendiary resolutions introduced into Congress and the State legislatures (events which have, in part; occurred even in our own time) will reduce the value of our property to any standard this Government chooses to prescribe. So it has been in the West Indies, and so it will be here. I am informed by a gentleman who has lived many years in the West Indies that, by the perpetual agitation of this question in Great Britain, in and out of Parliament, lands in that country have been reduced to less than half their value; and slaves to ten pounds per head; and should the British Government choose to purchase them it will be the easiest thing in nature so to shake the public confidence in that species of property as to reduce their value to nothing.

In this view of the subject, can any man be so blind as not to see and feel the dangerous tendency of the measures recommended to us by this society? Sir, the truth cannot be disguised-it must be told. The only safety of the Southern States is to be found in the want of power on the part of the Federal Government to touch the subject at all. Thank God, the Constitution gives them no power to engage in the work of colonization, or to interfere with our institutions, either for good or for evil. This is the very "Ark of the Covenant," in which alone we will find safety.

In December, 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed in Philadelphia, with Beriah Green as president and Lewis Tappan and John G. Whittier as secretaries.

SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

The first attempts to secure the abolition of slavery were directed upon the District of Columbia as the point of easiest attack, since Congress had sole power over the "Federal District," limited only by conditions of the grants of the territory from Maryland and Virginia, and by the general restrictions of its powers in the Constitution.

During the session of 1828-29 a petition was presented to Congress signed by over 1,000 citizens of the