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Keywords

Congress, gag rule, debates

Abstract

By December 18, 1835, James Henry Hammond, freshman representative from South Carolina, had endured long enough. Hammond insisted that instead of discussing and tabling antislavery petitions, the House of Representatives should not even receive them. The result was the most intense and divisive slavery debate since the Missouri Compromise. When it became apparent that abolitionist tracts would not be allowed to penetrate the South, abolitionists brought their crusade for public opinion to the halls of Congress, claiming their constitutional right of petition. It was these petitions that drove many Southerners, especially the impulsive and fiery Hammond, to lash out and begin the gag rule controversy. The gag rule was an attempt to stifle legislative discussion on slavery by using parliamentary procedure to circumvent the petitions before they could be debated. Southerners saw it as a natural defense of their honor and sovereignty. Many in the North saw it as an affront. A few, like John Quincy Adams, saw it as an opportunity to embarrass the Slave Power and ensure liberty for whites. Whatever the motives were, the meticulously recorded debates in both the Senate and the House provide one of the best political commentaries on slavery, free speech, and abolitionism in the 1830s.

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