Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-02-03
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lNEMlNISCENCE,
The Albany Erening Journal, in an inter
esting sketch of scenes and incidents that &C.
Cured in the old Representatives Hall. dur
ing its thirty years occupancy by Congress,
thus describes one of the warmest and most
memorable occasions ever witnessed in that
old Hall
On the 18th of January, 1887, the House
adopted the usual rule to lay slavery Pc
tlhons on the table; this being denominated
the "hawes gag to distinguish it from the
''Patten gag. and the ''Atherton gag" On
Monday, February 9th, 1887, ME-. Adams.
having occupied an hour or 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 1
should present it to the House, would it 90
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 utmost wrath "I,et him be
expelled !" screamed a score of voices, "I,et
him be expelled" shouted Dixon Il, Lewis.
whose huge body, weighing five hundred
avolrdupois, came waddling and wheeling
towards the clerks desk The whole corps
OF Oligarchs were on their feet, screaming,
swearing, gesticulating like demons. Polk
pied his gavel aud called to order in vain,
while the spectators IN the overhanging gall
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 upon the as
sumption that he had presented a petition
from slaves for the abolition of slavery. Ere
fof rIxtb oF. Al.
offered in a modified form by Mr.. Waddy
Thompson, now demanding the severest CEN
sure rather than expulsion. Thereupon the
debate began 1t ragged violently three DAYS.
thompson, Dromgoole, Wise and Underwood,
leading oil for the sayeocracy, while Lincoln,
Gushing, Phillips, Granger, and others,
defended Adams During the height of the
tempest, the rotunda, the galleries, the passa-
ges of the Capital being filed with an excited
throng, the colleagues and friends of Mr..
Adams telt great anxiety not only for his fate
IN the House, but for his personal safety.
Meantime, the PROSECUTIONS were going through
various notifications, all tending to soften
their terms and mitigate their conclusions.
All this time the old Roman sat unmoved in
his place. the calmest man in the Chamber,
with the incendiary petition safely locked up
IN his desk. At length it began to break out
That the paper was not exactly such docu-
| ment as the shareholders in their hot haste
had imagined it to be. Whereupon, Drom-
| goole, of Virginia, still further modified the
resolutions by setting forth that the members
from Massachusetts, had 'giUen color to the
'deG that slaves had right to petition, etc.,
| phrase on which Adams roasted 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 a md ~, h.
at all, he was more likely to be found in the
palllng than in the petition and so they stopped
TO take breath. Then Mr.. Adams rose to ad-
oress the House. With great deliberation, his
voice pitched on shrll key that penetrated
to the corner Of the galleries and with a
irall DIT OF paper rustling in his aged hand,
he called the Speakers attention to the ques-
uon ne had put to him three days ago, which
srll remained unanswered, viz: whether
paper pnrporting to be petition from slaves,
would, y he a0ere TO present it, go on the table
unoer the order of the 18th of January
Looking around with mingled EXPRESSION of
sarcastic cunning and lofty scorn, which Lord
Chathem would have envied, he cried in
voice of thunder, but in a sharp kissing tone,
such as lightning might be supposed to en-
ploy II 1t spoke at all, "And an 10 be expelled
from thsS toqaGcious, ba55Iing House, for SIM
| ply asking question?" For the first time,
the thought flashed on friend and foe, that
Mr.. Adams had neither presented the paper
nor proposed to present it. Everybody looked
| queer, while some grave men looked like
lank sheep suddenly denuded of their heeces
1T had now got wind that the paper was a
forgery, the work of some stupid stakeholder
in Washington, and purporting to be signed
| by oclplo, Sambo, and other bogus negroes,
asking the House to expel Mr.. Adams from
their body.
And now "the old man eloquent took his
turn in the debate. How he demolished one
opponent after another, scourging, haying,
scalping, impaling to his hearts content-how
rank upon rank of the chivary went down
IN heaps before his trenchant blade-how he
| spltted poor Dromgoole, and roasted him be.
fore slow fire Of sarcasm, when he told him
that "giving color to an idea was not a
Northern but Southern practice, one of tho
| peculiar domestic institutions of Virginia,
with which he had no right to interfere-how
the House screamed withklaughter as Drom-
| goole essayed a grim smile in acknowledge
ment of this delicate allusion to the bleach
ing chemistry employed by the South to erad-
icate the dark tints IN their yariegated popula-
tion-how he wound up his triumphant phil
ippie, by warning his young adversaries
never again to run on an errand till they
knew whittier they were going''-snd how
the House firmly refused to lay the resolu-
tions 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