"There is an express provision of the const.i.tution that Congress shall pa.s.s no law _abridging_ the right of pet.i.tion; and here is a resolution declaring that a member ought to be considered as regardless of the feelings of the house, the rights of the South, and an enemy to the Union, _for presenting a pet.i.tion_.
"Regardless of the feelings of the house! What have the feelings of the house to do with the free agency of a member in the discharge of his duty? One of the most sacred duties of a member is to present the pet.i.tions committed to his charge; a duty which he cannot refuse or neglect to perform without violating his oath to support the const.i.tution of the United States. He is not, indeed, bound to present all pet.i.tions. If the language of the pet.i.tion be disrespectful to the house, or to any of its members,--if the prayer of the pet.i.tion be unjust, immoral, or unlawful,--if it be accompanied by any manifestation of intended violence or disorder on the part of the pet.i.tioners,--the duty of the member to present ceases, not from respect for the feelings of the house, but because those things themselves strike at the freedom of speech and action as well of the house as of its members. Neither of these can be in the least degree affected by the mere circ.u.mstance of the condition of the pet.i.tioner. Nor is there a shadow of reason why feelings of the house should be outraged by the presentation of a pet.i.tion from slaves, any more than by pet.i.tions from soldiers in the army, seamen in the navy, or from the working-women in a manufactory.
"Regardless of the rights of the South! What are the rights of the South? What is the _South_? As a component portion of this Union, the population of the South consists of masters, of slaves, and of free persons, white and colored, without slaves. Of which of these cla.s.ses would the rights be disregarded by the presentation of a pet.i.tion from slaves? Surely not those of the slaves themselves, the suffering, the laborious, the _producing_ cla.s.ses. O, no! there would be no disregard of their rights in the presentation of a pet.i.tion from them. The very essence of the crime consists in an alleged _undue_ regard for their rights; in not denying them the rights of human nature; in not cla.s.sing them with horses, and dogs, and cats. Neither could the rights of the free people without slaves, whether white, black, or colored, be disregarded by the presentation of a pet.i.tion from slaves. Their rights could not be affected by it at all. The rights of the South, then, here mean the rights of the masters of slaves, which, to describe them by an inoffensive word, I will call the rights of _mastery_. These, by the const.i.tution of the United States, are recognized, not directly, but by implication, and protection is stipulated for them, by that instrument, to a certain extent. But they are rights incompatible with the inalienable rights of all mankind, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence--incompatible with the fundamental principles of the const.i.tutions of all the free states of the Union; and therefore, when provided for in the const.i.tution of the United States, are indicated by expressions which must receive the narrowest and most restricted construction, and never be enlarged by implication. There is, I repeat, not one word, not one syllable, in the const.i.tution of the United States, which interdicts to Congress the reception of pet.i.tions from slaves; and as there is express interdiction to Congress to abridge by law the right of pet.i.tion, that right, upon every principle of fair construction, is as much the right of the South as of the North--as much the right of the slave as of the master; and the presentation of a pet.i.tion from slaves, for a legitimate object, respectful in language, and in its tone and character submissive to the decision which the house may pa.s.s upon it, far from degrading the rights of the South, is a mark of signal homage to those rights.
"An enemy to the Union for presenting a pet.i.tion!--an enemy to the Union! I have shown that the presentation of pet.i.tions is one of the most imperious duties of a member of Congress. I trust I have shown that the right of pet.i.tion, guaranteed to the people of the United States, without exception of slaves, express or implied, cannot be _abridged_ by any act of both houses, with the approbation of the President of the United States; but this resolution, by the act of one branch of the Legislature, would effect an enormous abridgment of the right of pet.i.tion, not only by denying it to full one sixth part of the whole people, but by declaring an enemy to the Union any member of the house who should present such a pet.i.tion.
"When the resolution declaring that I had trifled with the house was under consideration, one of the most prominent allegations laid to my charge was that, by asking that question, I had intended indirectly to cast ridicule upon that resolution, and upon the house for adopting it.
Nor was this entirely without foundation. I did not intend to cast ridicule upon the house, but to expose the absurdity of that resolution, against which I had protested as unconst.i.tutional and unjust. But the characteristic peculiarity of this charge against me was, that, while some of the gentlemen of the South were urging the house to pa.s.s a vote of censure upon me, for a distant and conjectural inference of my intention to deride that resolution, others of them, in the same debate, and on the same day, were showering upon the same resolution direct expressions of unqualified contempt, without even being called to order.
Like the saints in Hudibras,--
"The saints may do the same thing by The Spirit in sincerity, Which other men are prompted to, And at the devil"s instance do; And yet the actions be contrary, Just as the saints and wicked vary,"--
so it was with the gentlemen of the South. While Mr. Pickens could openly call the resolution of the 18th of January a miserable and contemptible resolution,--while Mr. Thompson could say it was only fit to be burnt by the hands of the hangman, without rebuke or reproof,--I was to be censured by the house for casting ridicule upon them by asking the question whether the resolution included pet.i.tions from slaves."
About this time Mr. Adams received an invitation to attend a public meeting at New York during the session of Congress. He replied: "I do not hold myself at liberty to absent myself from the house a single day.
Such is my estimate of representative duty, confirmed by a positive rule of the house itself, not the less obligatory for being little observed."
In December, 1835, President Jackson transmitted to Congress a message relative to the bequest of four hundred thousand dollars, from James Smithson, of London, to the United States, for the purpose of establishing at Washington an inst.i.tution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men;" and submitted the subject to Congress for its consideration. A question was immediately raised whether Congress had power, in its legislative capacity, to accept such a bequest; and also whether, having the power, its acceptance was expedient. The message of the President was referred to a committee, of which Mr. Adams was appointed chairman. No subject could be better adapted to excite into action his public spirit than the hopes awakened for his country by the amount of this bequest, and the wisdom of the objects for which it was appropriated. The general tenor of the testator"s will excited numerous private interests and pa.s.sions with regard to the application of the fund. Mr. Adams immediately brought the whole strength and energy of his mind to give it a proper direction.
Although some of his recommendations were slighted, and an object near his heart, an astronomical observatory, was resisted by party spirit, his zeal and perseverance effectually prevented the bequest from being diverted to local and temporary objects, and his general views relative to Mr. Smithson"s design ultimately prevailed.
In January, 1836, Mr. Adams, as chairman of the committee, made a report, declaring that Congress was competent to accept the bequest, and that its acceptance was enjoined by considerations of the most imperious obligations, and suggesting some interesting reflections on the subject.
The testator, he said, was a descendant in blood from the Percys and the Seymours,--two of the most ill.u.s.trious names of the British islands;--the brother of the Duke of Northumberland, who, by the name of Percy, was known at the sanguinary opening scenes of our Revolutionary War, and fought as a British officer at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and was the bearer of the despatches, from the commander of the British forces to his government, announcing the event of that memorable day.
"The suggestions which present themselves to the mind," Mr. Adams adds, "by the a.s.sociation of these historical recollections with the condition of the testator, derive additional interest from the nature of the bequest, the devotion of a large estate to an inst.i.tution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."" The n.o.ble design of Mr.
Smithson Mr. Adams thus proceeds to ill.u.s.trate:
"Of all the foundations of establishments for pious or charitable uses, which ever signalized the spirit of the age, or the comprehensive beneficence of the founder, none can be named more deserving of the approbation of mankind than this. Should it be faithfully carried into effect, with an earnestness and sagacity of application, and a steady perseverance of pursuit, proportioned to the means furnished by the will of the founder, and to the greatness and simplicity of his design, as by himself declared, "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men," it is no extravagance of antic.i.p.ation to declare that his name will be hereafter enrolled among the eminent benefactors of mankind.
"The attainment of knowledge is the high and exclusive attribute of man, among the numberless myriads of animated beings, inhabitants of the terrestrial globe. On him alone is bestowed, by the bounty of the Creator of the universe, the power and the capacity of acquiring knowledge. Knowledge is the attribute of his nature which at once enables him to improve his condition upon earth, and to prepare him for the enjoyment of a happier existence hereafter. It is by this attribute that man discovers his own nature as the link between earth and heaven; as the partaker of an immortal spirit; as created for higher and more durable ends than the countless tribes of beings which people the earth, the ocean, and the air, alternately instinct with life, and melting into vapor, or mouldering into dust.
"To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is, therefore, the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself, and enlarges the sphere of existence. The earth was given to man for cultivation--to the improvement of his own condition. Whoever increases his knowledge multiplies the uses to which he is enabled to turn the gift of his Creator to his own benefit, and partakes in some degree of that goodness which is the highest attribute of Omnipotence itself."
"If, then, the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, under the smile of an approving Providence, and by the faithful and permanent application of the means furnished by its founder to the purpose for which he has bestowed them, should prove effective to their promotion,--if they should contribute essentially _to the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men_,--to what higher or n.o.bler object could this generous and splendid donation have been devoted?"
After further ill.u.s.trating the renown of the name of Percy from the historical annals of England, Mr. Adams proceeds to urge other considerations, from among which we make the following extracts:
"It is, then, a high and solemn trust which the testator has committed to the United States of America; and its execution devolves upon their representatives in Congress duties of no ordinary importance. In adverting to the character of the trustee selected by the testator for the fulfilment of his intentions, it is deemed no indulgence of unreasonable pride to mark it as a signal manifestation of the moral effect of our political inst.i.tutions upon the opinions and the consequent action of the wise and good of other regions and of distant climes, even upon that nation from whom we generally boast our descent."
The report continues:
"In the commission of every trust there is an implied tribute to the integrity and intelligence of the trustee, and there is also an implied call for the faithful exercise of those properties to the fulfilment of the purposes of the trust. The tribute and the call acquire additional force and energy when the trust is committed for performance after the decease of him by whom it is granted; when he no longer lives to constrain the effective fulfilment of his design.
The magnitude of the trust, and the extent of confidence bestowed in the committal of it, do but enlarge and aggravate the pressure of the obligation which it carries with it. The weight of duty imposed is proportioned to the honor conferred by confidence without reserve. Your committee are fully persuaded, therefore, that, with a grateful sense of the honor conferred by the testator upon the political inst.i.tutions of this Union, the Congress of the United States, in accepting the bequest, will feel, in all its power and plenitude, the obligation of responding to the confidence reposed by him, with all the fidelity, disinterestedness, and perseverance of exertion, which may carry into effective execution the n.o.ble purpose of an endowment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."
The report concludes with recommending a bill, which pa.s.sed in both branches, vesting authority in the President to take measures to prosecute, in the court of chancery in England, the right of the United States to this bequest.
CHAPTER X.
MARTIN VAN BUREN PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.--MR. ADAMS" SPEECH ON THE CLAIMS OF THE DEPOSIT BANKS.--HIS LETTER ON BOOKS FOR UNIVERSAL READING.--ORATION AT NEWBURYPORT.--SPEECH ON THE RIGHT OF PEt.i.tION.-- LETTER TO THE Ma.s.sACHUSETTS ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.--ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF HIS DISTRICT.--HIS VIEWS AS TO THE APPLICATION OF THE SMITHSONIAN FUND.--HIS INTEREST IN THE SCIENCE OF ASTRONOMY.--LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE ON AN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY.--LETTER ON THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.--RESOLUTIONS FOR THE LIMITING OF HEREDITARY SLAVERY.--DISCOURSE BEFORE THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY.--ADDRESS ON THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION.--REMARKS ON PHRENOLOGY.--ON THE LICENSE LAW OF Ma.s.sACHUSETTS.--HE ORGANIZES THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
On the 4th of March, 1837, Martin Van Buren succeeded to the Presidency of the United States. The undeviating zeal with which he had supported all the plans of Andrew Jackson, especially those for dismembering Mexico and annexing Texas to the Union as a slave state, had proved, to the satisfaction of the slaveholders, that reliance might be placed on a Northern man to carry into effect Southern policy.
On the 14th of October ensuing Mr. Adams delivered a speech, in the House of Representatives, on a bill for "adjusting the remaining claims upon the late deposit banks." When this bill was in discussion in a committee of the whole house, Mr. Adams asked the author of it (Mr.
Cambreling, of New York) to what banks certain words, which he stated, were intended to apply. Cambreling replied that Mr. Adams could answer his own interrogatory by reading the bill himself. Mr. Adams then proceeded to state several other objections to the terms of the bill, and confessed that his faculties of comprehension did not permit him to understand its phraseology. Mr. Cambreling rose quickly, and remarked that, at so late a period of the session, the last working night, he could not waste his time in discussing nouns, p.r.o.nouns, verbs, and adverbs, with the gentleman from Ma.s.sachusetts. Mr. Adams replied: "Well, sir, as language is composed of nouns and p.r.o.nouns, verbs and adverbs, when they are put together to const.i.tute the law of the land the _meaning_ of them may surely be demanded of the legislator, and those parts of speech may well be used for such a purpose. But, if such explanation be impossible, it certainly ought not to be expected that this house will consent to pa.s.s a law, composed of nouns and p.r.o.nouns, verbs and adverbs, which the author of it himself does not understand."[1]
[1] _Niles" Weekly Register_, New Series, vol. III., pp. 167, 168.
"On which," said Mr. Adams, "I took the floor, and, in a speech of upwards of two hours, exposed the true character of the bill, and of that to which it is a supplement, in all their iniquity and fraud. I made free use of the computations I had drawn from the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, and minutely scrutinized the bill in all its parts, and denounced the bargain made in the face of the house by Cambreling and the members of the debtor states, procuring their votes for the postponement of the bill by promising them increased indulgence for their banks. Cambreling, who could not answer me, kept up a continual succession of interruptions and calls to order, in despite of which I went through, with constant attention from the house, and not a mark of impatience, except from Cambreling. When I finished, he moved to lay the bill aside, and take up the appropriation bill, which was done."
On this subject the editor of the _National Register_ remarks: "Mr.
Adams" speech upon nouns, p.r.o.nouns, verbs, and adverbs, displays a degree of patient labor and research, which must convince both political friends and foes that neither time nor circ.u.mstances have impaired the strength or acuteness of his mind, or his zeal in behalf of what he deems to be the interests of the people. Familiar as we have been, for a series of years, with minute calculations and statistical details, the most powerful but least prized modes of exhibiting results, we have been surprised and delighted at the clearness and force with which every point is ill.u.s.trated, and most warmly commend the speech to all who wish to understand the questions on which it treats."[2]
[2] _Niles" Weekly Register_, New Series, vol. III., p. 161.
The name thus given, of "A Speech on Nouns and p.r.o.nouns, Verbs and Adverbs," was a.s.sumed by Mr. Adams, and adopted as its t.i.tle.
On the 22d of June, 1838, Mr. Adams addressed a letter to certain young men of Baltimore, who had written to him a very respectful letter, asking his advice concerning the books or authors he would recommend.
After a general expression of his sense of their confidence, and regret of his inability fully to recommend any list of books or authors worthy of the attention of all, he proceeds to speak of the _Bible_ as almost the only book deserving such universal recommendation, and as the book, of all others, to be read at all ages and in all conditions of human life--to be read in small portions, one or two chapters every day, never to be intermitted unless by some overruling necessity. He then enters at large into the advantages of such a practice, and into the mode of conducting it, and proceeds to suggest other subsidiary studies in history, biography, and poetry, concluding with the advice of the serving-man to a young student, in Shakspeare--"Study what you most affect."[3]
[3] _Niles" Weekly Register_, New Series, vol. V., p. 219.
On the 4th of July, 1837, Mr. Adams delivered at Newburyport, at the request of its inhabitants, an oration on the Declaration of Independence, the spirit of which may be discerned in the following extract:
"Our government is a complicated machine. We have twenty-six states, with governments administered by separate legislatures and executive chiefs, and represented by equal numbers in the general Senate of the nation. This organization is an anomaly in the history of the world. It is that which distinguishes us from all other nations, ancient and modern: from the simple monarchies and republics of Europe, and from the confederacies which have figured in any age upon the face of the globe. The seeds of this complicated machine were all sown in the Declaration of Independence; and their fruits can never be eradicated but by the dissolution of the Union. The calculators of the value of the Union, who would palm upon you, in the place of this sublime invention, a mere cl.u.s.ter of sovereign, confederated states, do but sow the wind to reap the whirlwind.
"One lamentable evidence of deep degeneracy from the spirit of the Declaration of Independence is the countenance which has been occasionally given, in various parts of the Union, to this doctrine; but it is consolatory to know that, whenever it has been distinctly disclosed to the people, it has been rejected by them with pointed reprobation. It has, indeed, presented itself in its most malignant form in that portion of the Union the civil inst.i.tutions of which are most infected by the gangrene of slavery.
The inconsistency of the inst.i.tution of domestic slavery with the principles of the Declaration of Independence was seen and lamented by all the Southern patriots of the Revolution; by no one with deeper and more unalterable conviction than by the author of the Declaration himself. No insincerity or hypocrisy can fairly be laid to their charge. Never, from _their_ lips, was heard one syllable of attempt to justify the inst.i.tution of slavery. They universally considered it as a reproach fastened upon them by the unnatural step-mother country; and they saw that, before the principles of the Declaration of Independence, slavery, in common with every other mode of oppression, was destined sooner or later to be banished from the earth. Such was the undoubting conviction of Jefferson to his dying day. In the memoir of his life, written at the age of seventy-seven, he gave to his countrymen the solemn and emphatic warning that the day was not distant when they _must_ hear and adopt the general emanc.i.p.ation of their slaves. "Nothing is more certainly written," said he, "in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free." My countrymen! it is written in a better volume than the book of fate; it is written in the laws of Nature and of Nature"s G.o.d.
"We are told, indeed, by the learned doctors of the nullification school, that color operates as a forfeiture of the rights of human nature: that a dark skin turns a man into a chattel; that crispy hair transforms a human being into a four-footed beast. The master-priest informs you that slavery is consecrated and sanctified by the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament: that Ham was the father of Canaan, and all his posterity were doomed, by his own father, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water to the descendants of Shem and j.a.phet: that the native Americans of African descent are the children of Ham, with the curse of Noah still fastened upon them; and the native Americans of European descent are children of j.a.phet, pure Anglo-Saxon blood, born to command, and to live by the sweat of another"s brow. The master-philosopher teaches you that slavery is no curse, but a blessing! that Providence--Providence!--has so ordered it that this country should be inhabited by two races of men,--one born to wield the scourge, and the other to bear the record of its stripes upon his back; one to earn, through a toilsome life, the other"s bread, and to feed him on a bed of roses; that slavery is the guardian and promoter of wisdom and virtue; that the slave, by laboring for another"s enjoyment, learns disinterestedness and humility; that the master, nurtured, clothed, and sheltered, by another"s toils, learns to be generous and grateful to the slave, and sometimes to feel for him as a father for his child; that, released from the necessity of supplying his own wants, he acquires opportunity of leisure to improve his mind, to purify his heart, to cultivate his taste; that he has time on his hands to plunge into the depths of philosophy, and to soar to the clear empyrean of seraphic morality. The master-statesman--ay, the statesman in the land of the Declaration of Independence, in the halls of national legislation, with the muse of history recording his words as they drop from his lips, with the colossal figure of American Liberty leaning on a column entwined with the emblem of eternity over his head, with the forms of Washington and Lafayette speaking to him from the canvas--turns to the image of the father of his country, and, forgetting that the last act of his life was to emanc.i.p.ate his slaves, to bolster up the cause of slavery says, "_That_ man was a slaveholder."
"My countrymen! these are the tenets of the modern nullification school. Can you wonder that they shrink from the light of free discussion--that they skulk from the grasp of freedom and of truth?
Is there among you one who hears me, solicitous above all things for the preservation of the Union so truly dear to us--of that Union proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence--of that Union never to be divided by any act whatever--and who dreads that the discussion of the merits of slavery will endanger the continuance of the Union? Let him discard his terrors, and be a.s.sured that they are no other than the phantom fears of nullification; that, while doctrines like these are taught in her schools of philosophy, preached in her pulpits, and avowed in her legislative councils, the free, unrestrained discussion of the rights and wrongs of slavery, far from endangering the Union of these states, is the only condition upon which that Union can be preserved and perpetuated.
What! are you to be told, with one breath, that the transcendent glory of this day consists in the proclamation that all lawful government is founded on the inalienable rights of man, and, with the next breath, that you must not whisper this truth to the winds, lest they should taint the atmosphere with freedom, and kindle the flame of insurrection? Are you to bless the earth beneath your feet because she spurns the footsteps of a slave, and then to choke the utterance of your voice lest the sound of liberty should be reechoed from the palmetto-groves, mingled with the discordant notes of disunion? No! no! Freedom of speech is the only safety-valve which, under the high pressure of slavery, can preserve your political boiler from a fearful and fatal explosion. Let it be admitted that slavery is an inst.i.tution of internal police, exclusively subject to the separate jurisdiction of the states where it is cherished as a blessing, or tolerated as an evil as yet irremediable. But let that slavery which intrenches herself within the walls of her own impregnable fortress not sally forth to conquest over the domain of freedom. Intrude not beyond the hallowed bounds of oppression; but, if you have by solemn compact doomed your ears to hear the distant clanking of the chain, let not the fetters of the slave be forged afresh upon your own soil; far less permit them to be riveted upon your own feet. Quench not the spirit of freedom. Let it go forth, not in panoply of fleshly wisdom, but with the promise of peace, and the voice of persuasion, clad in the whole armor of truth, conquering and to conquer."
In July, 1838, Mr. Adams published a speech "on the right of the people, men and women, to pet.i.tion; on the freedom of speech and debate in the House of Representatives of the United States; on the resolutions of seven State Legislatures, and on the pet.i.tions of more than one hundred thousand pet.i.tioners, relative to the annexation of Texas to this Union;" the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs on these subjects being under the consideration of the House. In this publication he states and a.n.a.lyzes the course of that "conspiracy for the dismemberment of Mexico, the renst.i.tution of slavery in the dismembered portion of that republic, and the acquisition, by purchase or by conquest, of the territory, to sustain, spread, and perpetuate, the _moral and religious blessing_ of slavery in this Union;" and which he declares to be in the full tide of successful experiment. But a few only of the topics ill.u.s.trated in this publication, which expanded into a pamphlet of one hundred and thirty octavo pages, can here be touched.
It is, in fact, a history of the disgraceful proceedings by which that conspiracy effected its purpose.
Mr. Adams inquired of the committee whether they had given as much as five minutes" consideration to the resolutions of the Legislatures, and the very numerous pet.i.tions of individuals, which had been referred to them. One of the committee, Hugh S. Legare, of South Carolina, answered, he had not read the papers, nor looked into one of them. Mr. Adams exclaimed, "I denounce, in the face of the country, the proceeding of the committee, in reporting upon papers referred to them, without looking into any one of them, as utterly incorrect. I a.s.sert, as a great general principle, that when resolutions from Legislatures of states, and pet.i.tions from a vast mult.i.tude of our fellow-citizens, on a subject of deep, vital importance to the country, are referred to a committee of this house, if that committee make up an opinion without looking into such resolutions and memorials, the committee betray their trust to their const.i.tuents and this house. I give this out to the nation."
A long and exciting debate, lasting from the 16th of June to the 7th of July, on the report of the committee relative to the annexation of Texas, ensued; the heat and violence of which were chiefly directed upon Mr. Adams.
One of the topics agitated during this debate arose upon a speech of Mr. Howard, of Maryland. Among the pet.i.tions against the annexation of Texas were many signed by women. On these Mr. Howard said, he always felt a regret when pet.i.tions thus signed were presented to the house, relating to political subjects. He thought these females could have a sufficient field for the exercise of their influence in the discharge of their duties to their fathers, their husbands, or their children, cheering the domestic circle, and shedding over it the mild radiance of the social virtues, instead of rushing into the fierce struggles of political life. He considered it _discreditable_, not only to their particular section of country, but also to the national character.
Mr. Adams immediately entered into a long and animated defence of the right of pet.i.tion by women; in the course of which he asked "whether women, by pet.i.tioning this house in favor of suffering and distress, perform an office "discreditable" to themselves, to the section of the country where they reside, and to this nation. The gentleman says that women have no right to pet.i.tion Congress on political subjects. Why?
Sir, what does the gentleman understand by "political subjects"?
Everything in which the house has an agency--everything which relates to peace and relates to war, or to any other of the great interests of society. Are women to have no opinions or actions on subjects relating to the general welfare? Where did the gentleman get this principle? Did he find it in sacred history--in the language of Miriam the prophetess, in one of the n.o.blest and most sublime songs of triumph that ever met the human eye or ear? Did the gentleman never hear of Deborah, to whom the children of Israel came up for judgment? Has he forgotten the deed of Jael, who slew the dreaded enemy of her country? Has he forgotten Esther, who, by HER PEt.i.tION, saved her people and her country? Sir, I might go through the whole of the sacred history of the Jews to the advent of our Saviour, and find innumerable examples of women, who not only took an active part in the politics of their times, but who are held up with honor to posterity for doing so Our Saviour himself, while on earth, performed that most stupendous miracle, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, at _the pet.i.tion of a woman_! To go from sacred history to profane, does the gentleman there find it "discreditable"