Mr. Clay concurred in the same view. He thought the bill not only unnecessary, but of a dangerous tendency; that it was not directed to the alleged evil, which was the circulation, after they were taken out of the mail, of incendiary publications, and not their conveyance in it; that after they passed from the post-masters' hands, they were within the local regulations of a State; and that if such a limitation upon the mail service were authorized, a designation of the particular persons or parties entitled only to use it, might be made under the same rule. He reasoned well against the measure, which was defeated by six majority.

Simultaneously with the mail question, another kindred one concerning the right of petition for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, was considered. The Society of Friends in the State of Pennsylvania, petitioned Congress, respectfully, to enact such laws as would remove slavery and slave traffic from the seat of the National Government. Mr. Calhoun objected to the reception, by the Senate, of all such communications, not upon their merits after a reading, but beforehand, and at the instant of their presentation. He reiterated his views of the nature of the Government and of the duty of Congress to refuse a hearing to all petitions which touched the subject of negro slavery; and concluded with another threat of secession, unless the wishes of the South on this subject were respected.

It was debated at length, and the question of receiving the petition decided in the affirmative, by a large majority, but the prayer of the petition was denied.

During the pendency of this discussion in the Senate, the same subject was under consideration in the House of Representatives, where similar petitions were presented, and similar opposition to them made, under the lead of Mr. Pinckney, of South Carolina, who afterwards withdrew his motions against their reception, and substituted another for their refer

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PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE.

ence to a select committee, with instructions to report that Congress had no authority to interfere with slavery in the States, and ought not to interfere with it in the District of Columbia, which was carried. Mr. Pinckney afterwards reported, as from the committee, three resolutions; the first denying the power of Congress over slavery in the States; the second declaring that Congress ought not to interfere with it in the District of Columbia; and a third, that all subsequent petitions and papers relating to the subject be at once tabled, without any other action upon them.

When the first resolution was taken up, John Quincy Adams, who had presented most of the petitions, said, if the House would allow him five minutes' time, he would prove the resolution untrue; but his request was denied. They were consecutively adopted, by a large majority, Mr. Adams and from sixty to seventy other members voting in the negative, except on the last resolution, when Mr. Adams declined to vote at all, and sent to the Speaker's chair the following declaration: "I hold the resolution to be a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States, of the rules of this House, and of the rights of my constituents."

This disposition of the subject failed to produce any of the results which the slave power desired. Instead of quieting, it disturbed the public mind throughout all the non-slave-holding States, and largely augmented the number of such petitions to Congress. As Mr. Adams was not only the best surviving representative of Jeffersonian Republicanism then in Congress, but the most intrepid defender of the right of petition, it naturally followed that the greater proportion of subsequent memorials and petitions on that subject were forwarded to him. By general and almost universal consent he at once became the representative man in Congress, not only of the sacred right of petition, but of inflexible opposition to the extension of the local despotism beyond its existing borders.

FIRMNESS OF MR. ADAMS.

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Always patriotic, incorruptible and firm; ever, after his advent to public life, highly accomplished as a statesman; from the time of Jefferson's embargo, a consistent and inflexible Republican; and now with his country's highest civic honors and the weight of seventy years upon him, standing up in the House of Representatives, amid the frowning contumely of the representatives of the slave power, as the embodiment of a sacred principle, and in defense of the right of petition, the spectacle which Mr. Adams presented was truly sublime. And he seemed to have been reserved by Providence for this particular emergency-for the discharge of this particular duty.

He continued to present petitions. On the 6th of January, 1837, he submitted one from one hundred and fifty women, whom he stated to be the wives and daughters of his immediate constituents, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. Mr. Glasscock, of Georgia, objected to its reception. Mr. Parks, of Maine, moved that the preliminary motion on the reception of the petition be laid on the table, which was carried. Mr. Adams then gave notice that he should call up that motion for decision every day, so long as he should be permitted to do so, because he should not consider his duty discharged, so long as the petition was not received, and the House had not decided that it would not receive it.

Mr. Pinckney, of South Carolina, insisted that it was not in order for Mr. Adams to debate, when no question was before the House; and he raised the question for the decision of the Chair. The Speaker, (Mr. Polk, of Tennessee,) replied that he had understood the gentleman from Massachusetts as merely giving a notice of a motion, thereafter to be made. Mr. Adams said that so long as freedom of speech should be allowed him as a member of that body, he would call up that question from day to day, until it were decided; and whils

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INTERRUPTION AND CONFUSION.

on the floor he would have the honor of presenting to the House the petition of two hundred and twenty-eight women, the wives and daughters of his immediate constituents; and as a part of the speech which he intended to make, he would take the liberty of reading it. This met the same objection. as the former one. He then commenced the reading of the paper.

Mr. Pinckney raised a point of order on the reading, when the Speaker decided that he had a right, under the rules, to make a statement of the contents of the petition offered by him. Mr. Adams said he was reading, as a part of his speech; and he conceived that to be one of the privileges of a member-a privilege that he would exercise until he was deprived of it by some positive act. The Speaker repeated .that the gentleman from Massachusetts had a right to make a brief statement of the contents of the petition; it was not for him to decide in what language such statement should be made.

Mr. Adams then said: "that at the time his friend from South Carolina" (Here he was interrupted by the Speaker, who said he must proceed to state the contents of the petition.) Mr. Adams assured him he was doing so. The Speaker said he was not, in the opinion of the Chair. Mr. Adams said he was at this point of the petition: "Impressed with the sinfulness of slavery, and keenly aggrieved by its existence in a part of our country over which Congress possesses exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever, (Here he was interrupted with calls to order) do most earnestly petition your honorable body (Here Mr. Chambers, of Kentucky, raised a point of order) immediately to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, (Here the Speaker directed Mr. Adams to take his seat) and to declare every human being free who sets its foot upon its soil." Amid great confusion, the Speaker now decided that it was not in order for a member to read a petition, whether it was long or short.

PETITION RECEIVED.

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Mr. Adams appealed from any decision which went to establish the principle that a member of the House should not have the power to read what he chose. He had never before heard of such a thing. If this practice was to be reversed, let the decision stand upon record; and let it appear how entirely the freedom of speech was suppressed in Congress. If the reading of a paper was to be suppressed in his person, so help him God, he would only consent to it as a matter of record. He proceeded to read: "The petitioners respectfully announce their intention to present the same petition yearly before your honorable body, that it may, at least, be a memorial in the holy cause of human freedom, that they have done what they could." This petition was finally received.

Mr. Adams continued to present hundreds of similar petitions along from day to day, amid similar interruptions from other members, and adverse rulings of the Speaker, until the 7th of February, when more exciting scenes occurred. After having on that day presented several hundred petitions of that character, and as he was about resuming his seat, he took up a paper, and after glancing at it, he remarked, that he had in his possession a petition of a somewhat extraordinary character; and he wished to inquire of the Chair whether it would be in order to present it. The Speaker replied, that if he would inform the Chair as to its character, the question would be answered. Mr. Adams said it was a petition which purported to come from eleven slaves in the town of Fredericksburgh, in Virginia; that it was one of those petitions which, it occurred to him, were not what they purport to be. It was signed partly by persons who cannot write, by their marks, and partly by persons whose hand-writing manifested that they had received the education of slaves. It declared itself to be from slaves, and he was requested to present it. He sent it to the Chair.

The Speaker shrugged his shoulders, gave a nervous hitch