abolition petitions. This provided that "all petitions, memorials, or papers relating in any way to slavery shall be laid on the table without any further notice." This was a very foolish policy from the standpoint of those who wished to defend slavery. It only raised a new issue, added to the excitement, and made more Abolitionists.

392. John Quincy Adams defends the Right of Petition. The right peaceably to assemble and petition the government is guaranteed in the Constitution; it was a right older than the Constitution itself, and down to this time (1834-1837) Congress had always received such petitions, heard them, and referred them to the proper committees. Not to receive or hear a petition was the same as denying all right to petition. It was the denial of this right by the effort to "gag" the antislavery men that aroused John Quincy Adams to enter the antislavery fight and to become a powerful ally of the Abolitionists. Adams was not an Abolitionist, but he was in favor of free petition and free debate, and for years he used all his great ability and eloquence in opposing the slaveholders on this new issue that they had raised. He also opposed slavery extension and the annexation of Texas. After retiring from the Presidency, Adams was elected in 1831 to the lower house of Congress, where he passed the rest of his days, till he died at his post of duty in the House in 1848, uttering his famous dying words, "This is the last of earth."

Death of Adams, 1848.

Adams's

fight against the "

rule."

gag

In these last years of his life, Adams won as great distinction as a member of the House of Representatives, championing the right of petition, as in the greater office that he had formerly filled. When the "gag rule" was proposed, Adams said, "I hold the resolution to be a direct violation of the Constitution, the rules of this house, and the rights of my constituents." And when a resolution was offered denying to Congress the right to interfere with slavery in the states, he said he could disprove it if he were allowed five minutes of time for debate. He was not allowed the five minutes in which to speak, but he continued to offer petitions day

by day and to try to have them heard. These petitions were mostly against slavery, but one was in favor of slavery, one was for the dissolution of the Union, and one was for his own expulsion from the House. It mattered not to Adams what the petition was for, he would stand for the right of his constituents to have it offered and received. When he offered a petition from a number of slaves, the representatives from the slave states were exasperated beyond measure, and when he finally informed the House that the petition was against abolition and in favor of slavery, his opponents were still so angry that they attempted to expel him for trifling with the House.

Adams

power" to

Adams kept up the fight for eight years, until the "gag policy" was abandoned, 1844. During this struggle Adams stood alone in advocating the startling doctrine that Congress, by the exercise of the war power under the claims a Constitution, had the constitutional authority to abolish "war, slavery within the states. This doctrine was after- abolish ward made use of by Congress and President Lincoln in the Civil War. The power of emancipation as a war measure was based upon the doctrine announced at this time by John Quincy Adams.1

slavery.

FACTS AND DATES

1820. The Missouri Compromise.

1831. Founding of the Liberator and beginning of Abolition Movement. 1833. American Antislavery Society Organized.

1835. Texas declared her Independence of Mexico. 1836-1838. Abolition Petitions denied by Congress. 1841-1845. Harrison and Tyler's Administration. 1842. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty.

1844. Invention of Electric Telegraph.

1 See Johnston and Woodburn's " American Orations,” Vol. I, pp. 115, 375.

CHAPTER XXVIII

TEXAS, OREGON, AND THE MEXICAN WAR

THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS

After the

393. Moses Austin made Settlements in Texas. purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803, Texas - which may be briefly described as the area between the Sabine and the Rio Grande — was in dispute between Spain and the United States. This dispute was settled in 1819 in the Florida Treaty, by which the United States recognized the Sabine as the western boundary of Louisiana. After that Texas was clearly a part of Mexico and not of the United States. So when Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821, Texas became a part of the Mexican Republic. The United States afterward tried to buy Texas, but Mexico refused to sell (1828-1829).

In 1819 Moses Austin, a Connecticut Yankee, made plans for planting an American colony in Texas. In 1821 and 1822 Austin's son, Stephen F. Austin, led American settlers into Texas, some of them with their slaves. The Mexican government abolished slavery in 1829, but the Texans disregarded this law and still continued to hold their slaves. Mexico then, in 1830, attempted to restrict American migration to Texas, there being by this time about twenty thousand colonists in Texas, most of them Americans.

The Tex

394. Texas revolts from Mexico. The Mexican government was not satisfactory to the Texans. The Mexican dictator, Santa Anna, had too much power in his own hands. ans wanted In 1835 he changed the constitution of Mexico, deprivself-gov- ing the Texans of local self-government. The Texans felt that their lives and property were not sufficiently protected. They differed from the Mexicans in race

local

ernment.