The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1858-01-16


the agitation Of this subject! Il xas Offer
the opening OF the session of 18S4J. John
Dickson, q Ontario county, New York, IN
January 835-just after The reception Of
the Utica memorial presented petition
for the abolition Of Slavery in the District
Of Columbia. He advocated its prayer in
an abls speech. This was the first gentle
zephyr Of that approaching storm which ul-
timately swelled into a Tempest that ragged
in the House with1 anabated fury for many
years. The earliest defenders Of the right
Of petition were Messrs. Dickson, Of New
York; Phillips and Jackson, Of Massachu-
sets, and Slade, Of Vermont. Resort was
still bad to tho Gag Rule, which, ~ the
food of memorials began to increase in vol
ume, was finally Incorporated among the
standing rules Of the House. MI, -.
These tyranical measures aroused the ire
of John Quincy Adams, who soon became
the leading Champion Of the Right Of Petit
ton. His great age, his eminent service, his
persistent courage, his skill in debate, at
once elevated the controversy to command
ing position before the country. During the
sessions of lS36-7-8 and 9, his desk was
loaded with heaps Of ::Anti- Slavery memori-
ais from all the Free States. Every petit
tion-day Witnessed graphic scene, - the
old man deliberately presented one memoirs
al after another, taking most provoking
pains to make q brief statement Of the con-
tents of each as he handed it over to the
little page, to be ultimately consigned BY the
clerk to come dark cell in the vaults Of the
Capital. hss3 #,5n .sr,-...r.. J,.a ..ar.- la,
On the 18th Of January, 1887, the House
adopted the usual rule to lay Anti Slavery
petitions on the table; this being denomina-
ted the ssHawes Gag" to distinguish it from
the ssPatent Gag" and tho " Atherton Gag. !"
On Monday, the 9th Of February, 1887, Mr..
Adams, having occupied an hour or more
in exhausting his pile of Anti. Slavery me-
MORALS, paused, and looking Significantly at
Mr.. Speaker Polk, said, 81 hold in my hand
q paper purporting to be . petition from
certain Slaves. If I should present it to the
House, would it 90 on the table under the
order Of the l8tho january" The Speak
or 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 exploded with the most
intense wrath. "Let him be expelledp'
screamed a score of voices. -HExpei the
traitor!' shouted Dixon II. Lewis, whose
huge body, weighing FIVE hundred ayordu-
pois, camo waddling and wheeling down the
aisle towards the Clerks desk. The whole
corps of oligarchs were on their fee, scream
ing, swearing, gestieulating like demons.-
Polk piled his gayel and called to order in
vain, while the spectators in the overhang-
ing galleries caught the spirit Of the scene
and were gong wild with excitement. Quick
as thought resolutions were prepared for
the expulsion Of Mr.. Adams, based on the
assumption that he had presented a petition
from Slaves for the abolition of Slavery.
Ere they were fairly before the House,
they were offered in modified form by Mr..
Waddy Thompson, now demanding the Sc
verest censure rather than expulsion
Thereupon the debate began. 1t ragged vio-
lently three days. Thompson, Dromgoole,
Wise, Underwood, leading of for the Slave
ocracy, while Lincoln, Gushing, Phillips,
Granger and others defended Adams. Du-
ring the height Of the tempest, the rotunda,
the galleries, the passages Of the Capital be-
ing filed with an 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
resolutions were going on through various
notifications, all tending to soften their
terms and mitigate their. conclusions. All
this time the old Roman sat unmoved in bis
place, the calmest man in the Chamber, with
the incendiary petition safely locked up in
his desk. At length it began to leak out
that the paper was not exactly such docu-
ment rs the Shareholders in their hot haste
imagined it to be. Whereupon, Dromgoole,
of Virginia, still further modified the reso-
buttons by setting forth that the member
from Massachusetts had 'sgiren color to the
idea that Slaves had a right to Petition"
ETC., a phrase on which Adams afterwards
roasted him alive. Finally, the Pro-Slavery
side of the House began to suspect that they
were pursuing the negro in the wrong direc-
ton; 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 elaboration, his voice pitched
on shrill key that penetrated to the remot-
est corner Of the galleries, and with frail
bit of paper rustling in his aged hand, he
called the Speakers attention to the ques-
ton he had put to him three days ago, which
still remained unanswered, viz: Whether q
paper purportiDg to be petition from Slaves
would, II he vere to present it, 60 on the
table under the order Of the 18th Of January?
Looking around him with a mingled express
ion of sarcastic cunning and lofty scorn,
which Lord Chatham would have cnvied, he |
cried in q voice, not of thunder, but in
sharp, kissing tone such rs lightning might
be supposed to employ if it spoke at all,
Sand AN TO BE EXPELLED FROM THIS Lo-
BABBLiNG House FOR SIMPLY ASK
ING A eCHsTIoN?" For the FIRST time the |
thought flashed on friend and foe, that Mr..
Adams had neither presented the paper, nor
to present it. Everybody felt
queer, while some grave men looked like
lank sheep suddenly denuded of their aeeces.
It had now got wind that the paper was .
forgery, tho work Of some stupid slsvehold-
er in Washington, and purporting to be
signed by Scipio, Sambo and other bogus
negroes, asking the House to expel Mr.. ,Ad-
ans from that body. . ~ d. y, ia
And now "the old man eloquent took |
his turn in the debate. How he demolished
one opponent after another, scourging, fay |
ing, scalping, impaling to his hearts content
now rank upon rank Of the chiyalry went |
down in heaps before his trenchant blade
how he spitted poor Dromgoole, and roast
ed him before o slow fire of sarcasm, when
he told him that ssgiving color to an idea,"
was not a Northern but Southern practice,
one Of the peculiar domestic institutions Of
Virginia with which he had no desire to in
terfere-how the House screamed with
laughter as Dromgoole essayed grim smile
IN acknowledgement of his delicate allusion
to the bleaching chemistry employed by the
South to eradicate the dark tints in their
population-how he wound up his
philippe by warning his young |
never again to ssrun on an err
rand till they knew whittier they are going"
land how the House firmly refused to lay
the resolutions on the table, but brought
their authors to direct vote and finally |
trampled them down by decided majority.
Are not oil these things written in the chron-
lcles OF the Old Hall Of the House Of Repre- |
Ientatives? III
~Lieut: Beale, in charge Of the expedi.
lion to establish a. wagon-road from Fort
defiance to the Colorado River, has announ-
ced to the War Departments his arrival in |
CALIFORNIA;, and the establishment Of 6ne
road over the whole distance. The success |
OF the eXnedition hns heon avnn3;trxa = /.