The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1861-05-23

dents that occurred In the old Repre-
sentative's Hall, during its thirty year.
occupancy by Congress, thus describes
one of the warmest and most memora
bic occasions ever witnessed in that old
Hall: ..,s afr ,.-.,-s -,.r ..ss.
On the 18th of January, 1887, the
House adopted the usual rule to lay
antl-slavery petitions on the table this
being denominated the "Hawes Gag"
to distinguish it from the "sPatent
Gag" and the sAtherton Gag.'' On
Monday, the 9Th Of February, 1887,
Mr.. Adams having occupied an hour
or more in exhausting his pile of anti.
slavery memorials, paused, and looking
significantly at Mr.. Speaker Polk, said,
II hold in my hand a paper purporting
to be a petition from certain slaves. II
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 en-
tire pro-slavery side of the Chamber
exploded with the intense wrath. s'Let
him be expelled!' % screamed a score of
voices. ''Let him be expelled % shout
ed Dixon III. Lewis, whose huge body,
weighing five hundred avoirdupois,
came waddling and wheeling toward
the clerks desk. The whole corps OF
oligarch were on their feet, screaming,
swearing, gesticulating like demons.
Polk piled his gavel and called or
der in vain, while the spectators in the
overhanging galleries caught the spirit
of the scene, and were going wild with
excitement. Quick as thought resolu
tons were prepared for the expulsion
of Mr.. Adams, based on the assumption
that he had presented 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 severest censure rather than expul-
sion. Thereupon1 the debate began.
1t ragged violently three days. Thomp-
son, 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, the passages of the capi-
tol being filled with an excited throng,
the colleagues of Mr.. Adams felt great
anxiety not only for his fate in the
House, but for his personal safety.
Meantime, the resolutions were going
through various notifications, all tend
ing to soften their terms and mitigate
their conclusions. All this time, the
old Roman sat unmoved in his place,
the coolest man in the Chamber, with
the incendiary petition safely locked up
in his desk. Atlength it began to leak
out that the paper was not exactly such
document as the shareholders in their
hot haste had imagined it to be.
Whereupon, Dromgoole, of Virginia,
still further modified the resolutions by
setting forth that the member from
Massachusetts had "given color to the
idea that slaves had a right to petition,' %
ETC., aphrase 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 was a
colored individual in the case at all, be
was more likely to be found in the pal
ing than in the petition, and SO they
stopped to take breath. Then Mr..
Adams rose to address the House.
With great deliberation, his voice
pitched on a shrill key that penetrated
the corner of the galleries, and with a
frail bit of paper rustling in his aged
hand, he called the speakers attention
to the question he had put to him three
days ago, which still remained unan-
swered: Whethera paper purporting
to be petition from slaves, would, IF
he were to present it, 60 on the table
under the order of the 18th of January ?
Looking around with mingled express
sion of sarcastic cunning and lofty
scorn which Lord Chatham would have
envied he cried in a voice of thunder,
but in sharp kissing tone such as
tightening might be supposed to employ
if it spoke at all, sand am I to be er-
PEELED from this loquacious babbli'ag
House for simply asking a question 9''
For the first time, the thought flashed
on friend and foe, that Mr.. Adams had
neither presented the paper nor pro-
posed to present it. Everybody felt
queer, while some grave men looked
like lank sheep suddenly demanded of
their fleeces. 1t had now got wind
that the paper was forgery, the work
of some stupid STAKEHOLDER in Washing
ton and purported to be signed by
Scipio, Sambo, and other bogus me-
groes, asking the House to expel Mr..
Adams from their body. en.5feL
And now, 4" the old man eloquent"
took his turn in the debate. Now he
demolished one opponent after another,
scourging, fiaying, scalping, impaling
to his hearts content-how rank upon
rank of the chivalry went down in
heaps before the trenchant blade
how he spitted poor Dromgoole, and
roasted him before slow fire of sar-
casm, when he told him that g giving
color to idea" was not Northern but
a Southern practice, one of the peeu-
liar domestic institutions of Virginia
with which he had no desire to inter.
lfere-how the House screamed with
laughter as Dromgoole essayed grim
smile in acknowledgment of this deli.