I gagged or am I not?
John Quincy Adams responding to the gag rule in the House of Representatives,
May 25, 1836
guarantees citizens the right "to petition the government for
a redress of grievances." Nineteenth-century Americans exercised
this right vigorously. Each session, Congress received petitions
"respectfully," but "earnestly praying" for
action. In 1834 the American Anti-Slavery Society began an antislavery
petition drive. Over the next few years the number of petitions
sent to Congress increased sharply. In 183738, for example,
abolitionists sent more than 130,000 petitions to Congress asking
for the abolition of slavery in Washington, DC. As antislavery opponents
became more insistent, Southern members of Congress were increasingly
adamant in their defense of slavery.
In May of 1836
the House passed a resolution that automatically "tabled,"
or postponed action on all petitions relating to slavery without
hearing them. Stricter versions of this gag rule passed in succeeding
Congresses. At first, only a small group of congressmen, led by
Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, opposed the rule.
Adams used a variety of parliamentary tactics to try to read slavery
petitions on the floor of the House, but each time he fell victim
to the rule. Gradually, as antislavery sentiment in the North grew,
more Northern congressmen supported Adamss argument that,
whatever ones view on slavery, stifling the right to petition
was wrong. In 1844 the House rescinded the gag rule on a motion
made by John Quincy Adams.