The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1843-11-01

|
We think that any man is justly liable to the
charge of fraud, falsehood, or hypocrisy"
who, in the face Oft these undeniable facts, seeks
10 fasten the odium OF the slave traffic exclu-
sively upon the People Of the South. His own
counlrymen undertook all the labor praetsed
all the cruelty, witnessed all the suffering mel
dent 10 the /" odious traffic. and reaped the
enormous profits of it. IL so happened that by
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 TO 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 10 be borne exclusively by the
People of the South. We have no faith in that
philanthropy, or that religion, which endeayors
10 signalize itself wholly at the expense OF 9th
ers.
Mr.. Adams, of course, does not forget the
right of pettion-the original preIext and apollo
gy for these infammatory appeals. He says
sis it possible that it should be necessary for me
to say here how inherent, how vital TO the liberty oil
the country is this right of petitions so inherent
it that in the most despotc end arbitrary Go
yernments it never has been refused There are no
Governments on earth more arbitrary and despotc
than t,use 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 made TO the blessings OF liberty TO
ourselves and dur poscrty the right OF petition is
suppressed and stranged and from this has come the
exclusion of all discussion upon the subject; II has
| limited the freedom Of speech Of the members oil
| our National Legislature and the freedom OF the
press"
The man who can put forth, serious ar
gument, the iaacy 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 despotlc. I'm
der such Governments, the right of peuIloning
is the only channel through which the grievances
OF the people can be made known. ii that
should be blocked up, revolution would be the
consequ nee. Under such Governments the
People are slaves, and pelilonng or begging is
the slaves privilege.
| Bul under our Government the People
the masters, and those who administer the Gov
eminent, their servants: and masters do not
prefer humble petitions TO their servants. In
our country there are other channels through
which the People can make known their griev-
ances far more important and etlectual than the
right OF petition. Liberty of speech is untram-
meled, aud the press affords a ready means of
| disseminating opinions and appeals Of every
ture, from one end of the country to the other
The People redress their own grievances, by
removing from office hose TO whom their grev-
ances are owing. The right of petition, there
fore, is of no use or value, except in the case Of
individual claims against the Governments; and
IN such cases no one would dream of denying it.
| The right Of petition, as contended 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
t---~-rs.s'-r's.'---s. ..s .'-s.~"-------
| 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 valueless, except for purposes of
annoyance, unless the particular prayer of the
petitioner was finally disposed of by a vote of
the House.
Now Mr.. Adams, himself, has presented pro-
badly near thousand petitions to the House of
Representatives on the subject of slavery, some
of them containing more than a thousand sigma
lures Each one of these petitioners might
claim the right of sending separate petition,
of any length he chose. One would have a.
much right as another; aud thus the whole
time of Congress might, and probably would
be occupied in listening TO fanatcal disserta-
tons on alleged evils which it is known before
hand that Congress could not constiutionay
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 mower,
with respect to abolition petitions, has been ex-
pedient or nexpedient-whether the petitioners
have suffered more, from the priyaton of the
alleged right, than the nation at large would
have suffered from their exercise Of il.
DESPOTlSM OF THE POST OFFICE DEPART
MENT.
If there s feature in the administration of the
present odious dynasty more worthy of public atten
ton than another, it is the depots,n attempted TO be
established by the present incumbent of the office of
Postmaster General