Another conflict over slavery in 1835 ensued when abolitionists sent the U.S. House of Representatives petitions to end the slave trade and slavery in Washington, D.C. These petitions infuriated pro-slavery Southerners, who attempted to prevent acknowledgement or discussion of the petitions. Northern Whigs objected that anti-slavery petitions were constitutional and should not be forbidden. South Carolina Representative Henry L. Pinckney introduced a resolution that denounced the petitions as 'sickly sentimentality', declared that Congress had no right to interfere with slavery, and tabled all further anti-slavery petitions. Southerners in Congress, including many of Jackson's supporters, favored the measure (the 21st Rule, commonly called the 'gag rule'), which was passed quickly and without any debate, thus temporarily suppressing abolitionist activities in Congress.