Essay 10-A: The People’s Right to Petition and Fight Against The Gag

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner

John Quincy Adams cared deeply about the success of the United States and preserving the idea that men could govern themselves. Slavery posed a unique threat to America. Anti-slavery abolitionists used the constitutionally protected right of petition to advocate for an end to slavery. Once Adams joined the fight, pro-slavery forces attacked him, overstepped, and Adams emerged victorious. The fight against slavery would continue along the path forged by Adams at this critical juncture—in the open.

As the son of Founding Father and President John Adams, John Quincy Adams had been reading, thinking, and applying the principles of self-government for his entire life. This included long stints as a diplomat in Europe, shaping American diplomacy as Secretary of State under President Monroe. He also held elective office in the Massachusetts Senate and the US Senate before finally becoming the 6th President of the United States. But his finest moments were yet to come.

He came to see slavery as a horror—eventually. Although hostile to slavery in theory, serving overseas kept the issue of slavery distant from his everyday concerns. That changed once he returned home. The political fight and resulting compromise that allowed Missouri to become a state in 1820 aroused his ire. The torture of a black boy by a mob over a misunderstanding made him boil with anger. His conversations with John C. Calhoun—a man Adams once admired—convinced him that slavery was “the great and foul stain upon the North American union.” He came to regret his support for the Missouri Compromise once he saw how it twisted American law into knots. When the South Carolina legislature passed the Negro Seaman’s Act, requiring black sailors to be imprisoned while at port, he was livid. Quiet moments of contemplation about anti-slavery and self-government followed meetings with abolitionists, conversations with his wife, and stirring sermons. These incidents, memories, and relationships prepared him for his fight in Congress over the Gag Rule and sustained him once the fight was underway.

The right to petition the government has a long history in English law. Well before the Bill of Rights enshrined the right to petition in the American Constitution in 1791, the practice dated back almost half of a millennium to the reign of Edward I. After the American Revolution, several states included the right to petition in their own state constitutions and its inclusion in the First Amendment was not controversial. Most importantly, the right of petition gave the people a voice and was foundational for self-government. But, legislators treated petitions about slavery differently.

In 1836 pro-slavery congressmen argued that Congress had to receive the petitions, but did not have to read them or act upon them. Americans opposed to slavery sent hundreds of thousands of petitions to Congress. Both houses of Congress rejected anti-slavery petitions, but John Quincy Adams fought for them.

Adams rose in opposition to roars of approval and condemnation: “I hold this resolution to be a violation of the Constitution of the United States, of the rules of this House, and of the rights of my constituents.” Congress voted him down and he received threats from the south. One man from Alabama wrote to Adams promising that, “on the first Day of May next I promise to cut your throat from ear to ear.” Clearly, passions were high. The fight was joined, but slow, hard work remained.

Adams worked patiently and diligently. Abolitionists inundated Congress with anti- slavery petitions. In every session, Adams used every parliamentary trick he could find to get them into the congressional record. But the key was to never give up the fight. Every year, Adams introduced resolutions to end the Gag Rule. Every year he was defeated. Then finally, on December 3, 1844, Congress relented and the Gag Rule was dead.

We can learn so many wonderful and eternal lessons from John Quincy Adams and his fight against the Gag Rule. He understood the meaning of the founding, yet he spent a lifetime working through the implications of what it meant to liberate mankind from violence and arbitrary power. Achieving these worthy goals required sacrifice and work. He loved America desperately and fully, but agonized over the issue of slavery–always suspecting that he could have done more and better. Undoubtedly, he was right. We could always do more. We could always do better. But John Quincy Adams also pointed the abolitionist cause toward the solution that ultimately ended slavery: American patriotism. Love of America is a love of freedom and a dedication to equality and opportunity for all. We can study our past and do not need to be afraid of what we will find. As was true for John Quincy Adams fighting the ancient injustice of slavery so it still must be said, the injustices of this world are no match for the ideals of the founding.

Stephen Tootle is Professor of History at the College of Sequoias in Visalia California and Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty at Ashland University. His reviews, articles, and essays have appeared in National Review, the Claremont Review of Books, Presidential Studies Quarterly, the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, and his hometown newspaper. He hosts a weekly podcast/webcast called “Tootle Talk.”

Click here to receive our Daily 90-Day Study Essay emailed directly to your inbox.

Click here for the essay schedule with today’s essay and previously published essays hyperlinked.

PRINT ARTICLE