The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1843-11-02

destiny, or by peculiarly Of climate and soil
their own section of country has escaped what
ever of temporal evil there may be in slave
holding and now their descendants are endea-
voring 10 minister TO their spiritual welfare, and
lay their troubled spirits, by urging an atone
ment and sacrifice Of which all the troubles and
difficulties are TO be borne exclusively by the
People of the.South. We have no faith in that
philanthropy, or that religion, which endeayors
TO signalize itself wholly at the expense Of 9th
ers.
Mr.. Adams, of course, does not forget the
right OF pe'ilion-he original pretext and apollo
gy for these nfiammalory appeals. He says:
SIS it possible that it should be necessary for
to say here how inherent, how vital to the liberty OF
the country is this right of petition' So inherent
is It that in the most despotic end arbitrary Go
vernments it never has been refused. There no
Governments on earth more arbitrary and despotic
than those Of China and Turkey, but even there the
right OF the subject to petition has never been con-
tested. And here, under Constitution which we
are told was made to the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our poserity, the right of petition
suppressed and sranged, and from this has come the
exclusion OF all discussion upon the subject it has
limited the freedom OF speech of the members OF
Prcss.'
The man who can put forth, as serious ar
gument, the fallacy contained in these remarks,
either does not possess the extraordinary men
tai powers attributed to him, or they are wonder
fully impaired BY his prejudice. The very rea-
son that the right Of petition has never been re-
fused under arbitrary and despotic Governments
is because they are arbitrary and despo,c. I'M
der such Governments, the right Of pellioning
is the only channel through which the grievances
of the people can be made known. If that
should be blocked up, a revolution would be the
consequsn nee. Under such Governments the
People are slaves, and pe,itoning or begging is
the slaves privilege.
But under our Government The People are
the masters, and those who administer the Gov
eminent, their servants: and masters do not
prefer humble petitions to their servants. In
our couDtry there are other channels through
which the People can make known their grev-
ancts far more important and etfectual than the
right OF petition. Liberty of speech is untram
melled, aud the press affords ready means o.
disseminating opinions and appeals Of every ma
ture, from one end of the county TO the other
The People redress their own grievances, by
removing from office those to whom their griev-
ances are owing. The righ' of petition, there
fore, is OF no use or value, except 10 the ca& OF
individual claims against the Governments and
in such cases 10 one would dream of denying it,.
The right Of petition, as conlended for by Mr..
Adams, is not only of no practical use or value,
but the exercise OF il, 10 the extent claimed,
would be incompatible with the discharge of
the proper functions of the National Legsla-
ture.
The usual course adopted with respect to
petition to Congress is this it is presented, re-
ceived, read, referred TO committee, reported
on by the committee, perhaps debated, and f.
nally disposed of by vote Of the House. Each
step Of this process consumes time, the voting
alone sometimes occupying neal half an hour +;
and the whole process is necessary to full ex-
ercise OF the right of petition. The right would
be perfectly valuelcss. except for purposes of
annoyance, unless the particular prayer of the
petitioner was finally disposed of by vote of
the House.
Now Mr.. Adams, himself, ha, presented pro-
baby near thousand petitions to the House of
Representatives on the subject of slavery, some
Of them containing more than thousand sigma
lures Each one Of these petitioners might
claim the right of sending separate petition,
of any length he chose. One would have as
much right as another: and thus the whole
time of Congress might, and probably would,
be occupied in listening 10 fanatical disserta-
tons on alleged evils which il is known before
hand that Congress could not constitutionaly
undertake to remedy.
1t is evident, therefore, that Congress must
have some power under the Constitution TO re-
strict the right of petition and the only ques-
ton is whether their exercise of that power,
with respect TO abolition petitions, has been ex-
pedenl or nexpedient-whether the petitioners
have suffered more, from the priyation of the
alleged right, than the nation at large would
have suffered from their exercise of IT,