This, he maintained, was the best way to avoid disturbing debate on the subject of slavery.He quoted his own previous experience;he had made known his opposition to the purposes of the petitioners; their memorials were duly referred to a committee and there they slept the sleep of death.At that time only one voice had been raised in the House in support of the abolition petitioners, that of John Dickson of New York, who had delivered a speech of two hours in length advocating their cause; but not a voice was raised in reply.Mr.Adams mentioned this incident with approval.The way to forestall disturbing debate in Congress, he said, was scrupulously to concede all constitutional rights and then simply to refrain from speaking on the subject.
This sound advice was not followed.For several months a considerable part of the time of the House was occupied with the question of handling abolition petitions.And finally, in May, 1836, the following resolution passed the House: "Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers relating in any way or to any extent whatever to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid on the table, and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon." This is commonly known as the "gag resolution." During four successive years it was reenacted in one form or another and was not repealed by direct vote until 1844.
When the name of Mr.Adams was called in the vote upon the passage of the above resolution, instead of answering in the ordinary way, he said: "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 was the beginning of the duel between the "old man eloquent" and a determined majority in the House of Representatives.Adams developed undreamed-of resources as a debater and parliamentarian.He made it his special business to break down the barrier against the right of petition.Abolitionists cooperated with zeal in the effort.Their champion was abundantly supplied with petitions.The gag resolution was designed to prevent all debate on the subject of slavery.Its effect in the hands of the shrewd parliamentarian was to foment debate.On one occasion, with great apparent innocence, after presenting the usual abolition petitions, Adams called the attention of the Speaker to one which purported to be signed by twenty-two slaves and asked whether such a petition should be presented to the House, since he was himself in doubt as to the rules applicable in such a case.This led to a furious outbreak in the House which lasted for three days.Adams was threatened with censure at the bar of the House, with expulsion, with the grand jury, with the penitentiary; and it is believed that only his great age and national repute shielded him from personal violence.After numerous passionate speeches had been delivered, Adams injected a few important corrections into the debate.He reminded the House that he had not presented a petition purporting to emanate from slaves; on the contrary, he had expressly declined to present it until the Speaker had decided whether a petition from slaves was covered by the rule.Moreover, the petition was not against slavery but in favor of slavery.He was then charged with the crime of trifling with the sensibilities of the House; and finally the champion of the right of petition took the floor in his own defense.His language cut to the quick.His calumniators were made to feel the force of his biting sarcasm.They were convicted of injustice, and all their resolutions of censure were withdrawn.The victory was complete.
After the year 1838 John Quincy Adams had the effective support of Joshua R.Giddings from the Western Reserve, Ohio--who also fought a pitched battle of his own which illustrates another phase of the crusade against liberty.The ship Creole had sailed from Baltimore to New Orleans in 1841 with a cargo of slaves.The negroes mutinied on the high seas, slew one man, gained possession of the vessel, sailed to Nassau, and were there set free by the British Government.Prolonged diplomatic negotiations followed in which our Government held that, as slaves were property in the United States, they continued to be such on the high seas.In the midst of the controversy, Giddings introduced a resolution into the House, declaring that slavery, being an abridgment of liberty, could exist only under local rules, and that on the high seas there can be no slavery.For this act Giddings was arraigned and censured by the House.He at once resigned, but was reelected with instructions to continue the fight for freedom of debate in the House.
In the campaign against the rights of freemen mob violence was first employed, but in the South the weapon of repressive legislation was soon substituted, and this was powerfully supplemented by social and religious ostracism.Except in a few districts in the border States, these measures were successful.
Public profession of abolitionism was suppressed.The violence of the mob was of much longer duration in the North and reached its height in the years 1834 and 1835.But Northern mobs only quickened the zeal of the abolitionists and made converts to their cause.The attempt to substitute repressive state legislation had the same effect, and the use of church authority for making an end of the agitation for human liberty was only temporarily influential.
As early as 1838 the Presbyterian Church was divided over questions of doctrine into Old School and New School Presbyterians.This served to forestall the impending division on the slavery question.The Old School in the South became pro-slavery and the New School in the North became anti-slavery.
At the same time the Methodist Church of the entire country was beset by a division on the main question.In 1844 Southern Methodist Episcopalian conferences resolved upon separation and committed themselves to the defense of slavery.The division in the Methodist Church was completed in 1846.A corresponding division took place in the Baptist Church in 1845.The controversy was dividing the country into a free North and an enslaved South, and Southern white men as well as negroes were threatened with subjection to the demands of the dominant institution.
