Profiles in Character #16 - John Quincy Adams Defends the Right of Petition
On February 9, 1837, Congressman John Quincy Adams rose to confront his accusers in the House. For four days he had listened to proposals to censure and even expel him. His purported “crime” was that on February 6th he had asked the opinion of the Speaker as to whether he could present a petition from a group of slaves. The previous year, angry at hundreds of petitions it had been receiving about slavery, the House adopted a “gag rule” that immediately tabled all such petitions without allowing debate. Yet Adams was not asking for consideration of the petition. He wanted to know only if he could present it; he knew it would be tabled. But that was enough to ignite the wrath of the Southern delegation in Congress.
Adams was no small-minded rabble-rouser out to make a name for himself. The son of John and Abigail Adams, he had already served as Minister to Great Britain and Russia, helped negotiate the end of the War of 1812, been a Senator, Secretary of State under James Monroe and served one term as President of the United States. His anger was directed not at slavery (which he abhorred) but at what he considered the House’s defiance of the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment which guaranteed “the right of the people . . . to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
What enraged his opponents was that the petition had come from slaves, who they charged had no right to petition the government. As Adams pointed out in his defense, “There was nothing in that [gag] order excluding petitions from slaves. There is not a word in the Constitution of the United States excluding petitions from slaves.”
The right of petition, he said, “God gave to the whole human race . . . My argument is that this right belongs to humanity . . . not depending on the condition of the petitioner.” Further, “The right of petition contests no power; it admits no power. It is supplication; it is prayer; it is the cry of distress, asking for relief.” Further, he warned his colleagues: “When you begin to limit that right, where shall it stop? . . . The next step will be that the character, and not the claims, of petitioners will be the matter to be discussed.”
Adams would go on to fight against slavery the rest of his life, yet in this case the petition itself was actually a request from slaves that did not ask to abolish slavery, and that content further infuriated his accusers when they learned of it. Always concerned about the long-term health of republican government, Adams knew it would falter if we set the precedent of shutting government off from hearing public pleas, which is exactly what the gag rule did.
At the end of the debate, all the censure motions were defeated, none gathering more than 22 votes out of the 242 Members. Undeterred with the attempted wrist-slapping and always intent on eliminating the gag rule itself, Adams would campaign seven more years, offering petitions against slavery, fueling not only debate about the gag rule but about freedom to speak in the House and the evils of enslaving African-Americans. In 1844, he finally succeeding in having the gag rule overturned by a vote of the House.
His fight against slavery would take place in the courtroom as well. In 1841, he argued successfully in front of the Supreme Court for the freedom of slaves taken from Africa who had revolted and seized their Spanish ship, La Amistad, as it approached the New World. The slaves were again taken prisoner after the ship’s two remaining navigators tricked their captors and sailed to Long Island instead of back to Africa.
Adams was the only ex-President to be elected to serve in the House of Representatives, gaining his Massachusetts seat in 1830, just one year after leaving office as president. He viewed it as another important way to serve his country, which he then did for nine terms.
His last public appearance was at an August 1846 Boston gathering to support a protest to the return of fugitive slaves to their slave masters. He continued to appear in Congress, however, even after a stroke later that year. On February 21, 1848, Adams arrived in Congress about noon. While rising to vote “no” on a proposal to recognize heroes of the Mexican War, which he had strongly opposed, Adams grabbed onto his desk and began to fall. He passed away two days later, serving his country to the very end.
John Quincy Adams’s life, marked by both marvelous achievement and sometimes stinging criticism for bucking his party and popular opinion, was testimony to the importance of putting country above the desire for power and popularity. “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone,” he said, “and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”
Photo Credit: Smithsonian Institution
