Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1858-02-17
CONGRESSIONAL "REMINISCENCES.


its thirty years. occupancy by Congress, thus
describes one of the warmest and most memoir
able occasions ever witnessed in that old Hall !:
son the 18th of January, 1887, the House
| adopted the usual rule to lay Anti-Slavery Pc
! titions on the table; this being denominated
the ''Hawes Gag" to distinguish 1t from the
ssPatten Gag" and the oAtherton Gag.'' On
Monday ,the 9th of February, 1887, Mr.. Adams
| having occupied an hour more in exhaust
| ing his pile of Anti-Slavery memorials, paused,
and looking significantly at Mr.. Speaker Polk,
said, 81 hold in my hand paper purporting
to be petition from certain slaves. If
should present it to the House, would it go
on the table under the order of the 18th of
January ?'' The Speaker seemed bewildered,
| and had just time to stammer out something
about the gravity of the question, when the
entire Pro-Slavery side of the Chamber ex-
ploded with the most intense wrath. "Let
him be expelled !" screamed score of voice.
s'Let him be expelled 70 shouted Dixon ii.
Lewis, Snose huge body, weighing five hun
dred ayoirdupois, came waddling and wheez-
ing towards the clerk s desk. The whole corps
OF oligarchs were on their feet screaming,
swearing, gesticulating like demons. Polk
piled his gayei and called to order in vain,
while the spectators in the ovcrhanging gal
leries, caught the spirit of the scene, and were
going wild with excitement. Quick as thought,
| resolutions were prepared for the expulsion of
Mr.. Adams, based on the assumption that he
had presented q petition from slaves for the
abolition of slavery. Ere they were fairly be-
fore the House, they were offered in Il mod-
fed form by Mr.. Waddy Thompson now de-
manding the severest censure rather than ex-
pulsion. There upon the debate began, and
ragged violently for three days, Thompson,
Dromgoole, Wise and Underwood leading off
for the Slaveocracy, while Lincoln, Gushing.
Phillips, Granger and others, defended Adams.
During the height of the tempest, the rotunda,
the galleries, and the passages of the Capitol
being filed with excited throng, the col
leagues and friends of Mr.. Adams felt great
| anxiety not only for his fate in the House, but
for his personal safety. Meantime, the reso-
lutions were going through various modifica-
tions, all tending to soften their terms and
mitigate their conclusions. All this time, the
old Roman sat unmoved in his place, the calm
est man in the Chambe with the incendiary
petition safely locked up in his desk. At
length it began to leak out that the paper was
not exactly such document as the sIavehold-
ers in their hot haste had imagined it to be.
Whereupon, Drumgooe of Virginia, still fur
| ther modified the resolutions by setting forth
that the me mber from Massachusetts, had s'giv-
en- color to the idea that slaves had right to
petition,' ETC., phrase on whichAdams roast
ed him alive. Finally, the Pro Slavery side
of the House began to suspect that they were
pursuing the negro in the wrong direction;
that if there was colored individual in the
case at all, he was more likely to be found in
the paling than in the petition, and so they
stopped TO take breath. Then Mr.. Adams rose
to address the House. With great delibera-
tion, his voice pitched on a shril key that pen
etrated to the corner of the galleries, and with
n irail bit of paper Iustling in his aged hand,
he called the Speakers attention to the ques
tion he had put to him three days ago, which
still remained unanswered, viz -ssWhether
paper purporting to be petition from slaves,
would, if he toere TO present IL, go on the table
| under the order of the 18th of January 20
Looking around with mingled expression of
sarcastic cunning and lofty scorn, which Lord
Chatham would have envied, he cried in d
voice of thunder, but in sharp kissing tone
such as lightning might be supposed to en-
pioy, if it spoke at all, ss.4rd TO be erpelE
| ed from this loquacious, babbiing House, for
simply asking @ question ?" For the first time,
the thought flashed friend and foe, that
| Mr.. Adams had neither presented the paper
| nor proposed to present it. Everybody felt
| queer, while some grave men looked like la1k
| sheep suddenly denuded of their feeces. 1t
| had now got wind that the paper was forgery,
| the work of some stupid stakeholder in Wash
| ington, and purporting to be signed by Scipio,
| Sambo and other bogus negroes, asking the
House to expel Mr.. Adams from their body.
And now ssthc old man eloquent took his
| turn in the debate. How he demolished one
! opponent after another, scourging, tapping,
scalplng, impaling to his hearts content-how
rank upon rank of chiyalry went down in heaps
before his trenchant blade-how he spitted
poor Dromgoole, and roasted him before slow
| fire of sarcasm, when he told him that s:giving
! color to an idea'' was not Northern but a
| Southern practice, ,one Of the peculiar domestic
! institutions OF Virginia with which he had no
| desire to interlere-how the House screamed
with laughter Dromgoole essayed grim
smile in acknowledgement of this delicate al
| iusIon to the bleaching chemistry employed by
the South to eradicate the dark tints in their
variegated population-how he wound up his
triumphant philippe by warning his young ad-
| versaries ''neyer again to run on an errand till
| they knew whittier they were going and
| how the House firmly refused to lay the reso-
| luton on the table, but brought their authors
to direct vote, and finally trampled them
| down by decided majority. Are not all
these things written in the chronicles of the
old Hall of the House of Representatives
In January, 1912, another attempt was made
to cxpel or disgrace Mr.. Adams for his prac-
teal defence of the right of petition. Among
the numerous memorials forwarded to him
was one from Hayerhil, Massachusetts,, asking
Congress to take initiatory steps for the dis
solution of the Union. He presented the pc
tition on the Oath of January, at the same
time remarking that he was opposed to grant
ing its prayer. AS in the previous outbreak
of 1887, the pro-slavery side of the Chamber,
which had been threatening dissolution OF
the Union every day for the last dozen years,
now threw itself in foaming rage at the pare
suggestion of taking it at its word. Tom Mar
SHALL the eloquent, but eccentric, memDei
from Kentucky, grayely proposed 10 linpeacl
MI. Adams for treason; Henry A. w Use, even
vet famous for his absurd heresies, demanded
his expulsion from the House while mildel
members only called for severe censure. Mr.
, Adams demanded trial. OF the thrilling IN
cidents of that controversy, which extended
through twelve bitter days, there is no time