Lisa’s Reviews > America's Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick > Status Update

In its earliest incarnations, the gag rule had to be reintroduced with the beginning of each session of Congress. This loophole, if you will, made the hours before the rules of the House were introduced and voted on an opportunity to let a few anti-slavery petitions slip by. . . . In 1840, the gag rule became a standing rule of the House.

Adams trial offered the nation a 360-degree view of American history. It looked back at the principles of the nation's founding as much as it foreshadowed the coming destruction.

after two weeks of trial, Marshall moved to table the censure resolution [against Adams], never to be taken up again. . . .

[1-24-1842}
Adams presented a petition from a man named Benjamin Emerson and 45 other 'citizens of Haverhill, in the State of Massachusetts, praying Congress immediately to adopt measures peaceably to dissolve the Union of these States' because 'no union can be . . . permanent which does not present . . . reciprocal benefits. . . .'

Set in motion purposefully, Adams dare his opponents to expel him.

[1841 and Adams is still working around the gag rule as best he can.]

Adams believed it would be more effective to attack the slavocracy not on the issue of slavery itself, but on First Amendment freedom of speech grounds as he had done since 1836. He even came up with his own pet name for the Select Committee on Slavery: the 'Committee of Friends of the Right of Petition.'

[Adams predicted that] the day of emancipation would be 'preceded by convulsions and revolutions in the moral, political, and physical world' of the United States. There could be no longer any doubt about it, the slavocracy had corrupted American democracy.

Adams found the idea of immediate emancipation something impractical for which there was no real plan to implement. . . .

Adams said although the cause they fight for is noble and just, the abolitionists are in their 'martyr age,' driven in large measure by 'religious principle.'

Adams wanted to squelch any talk of Texas annexation. All the better if he could break the gag rule in the process. . . .

Never 'a nation damned to everlasting fame by the reinstitution of that detested system of slavery, after it had once been abolished withing its borders [Mexico had abolished slavery; Texas had fought for independence from Mexico], should be admitted into union with a nation of freemen'

In the pages of his diary, it is easy to see that Adams weighed the pros and cons of getting involved. He understood there was a fine line between defender of free speech and anti-slavery activist. If he overstepped, it would not only jeopardize his own political future, but it would also be a grave setback to the movement.

If you once admit the principle that the right of petition is limited, and will not apply to slaves, the next thing will be to limit still further, by extending the limitation to free colored people . . . the next limitation will be to the question of the character of the petitioners; then the next limitation will be to inquire what side of political parties are the petitioners; . . .

Adams knew that if he was censured, he would have a right to a rebuttal of the charges against him. In doing so, he would have the ability to speak free of the gag.

Adams warned about what happens when the First Amendment right to freedom of speech is denied to the citizen who sent the petition and the congressman who offered the petition.