leston, seized antislavery tracts and pamphlets going through the
mails, and the people burned them. In New York city such matter was
taken from the mails and destroyed by the postmaster. When these
outrages were reported to Amos Kendall, the Postmaster-General, he
approved of them; and when Congress met, Jackson asked for a law that
would prohibit the circulation "in the Southern States, through the
mails, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to
insurrection." From the legislatures of five Southern states came
resolutions calling on the people of the North to suppress the
abolitionists.[1] Congress and the legislatures of New York and Rhode
Island responded; but the bills introduced did not pass.[2]

[Footnote 1: South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, and
Georgia.]

[Footnote 2: _James G. Birney and his Times_, pp. 184-194.]

This attempt having failed, the mobs again took up the work, and began
to smash and destroy the presses of antislavery newspapers. One paper,
twice treated in this manner in 1836, was the _Philanthropist_ published
at Cincinnati by James Gillespie Birney. Another was the _Observer_,
published at Alton by Elijah Lovejoy, who was murdered in defending his
property.[1] The _Pennsylvania Freeman_ was a third.

[Footnote 1: Wilson's _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, Vol.
II., Chap. 27; _James G. Birney and his Times_, pp. 204-219, 241-255.]

%350. The Gag Rule%.--Not content with attacking the liberty of the
press, the proslavery men attacked the right of petition. The
Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging ...
the right of the people ... to petition the government for a redress of
grievances." Under this right the antislavery people had long been
petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and
the petitions had been received; but of course not granted. Now, in
1836, when John Quincy Adams presented one to the House of
Representatives, a member moved that it be not received. A fierce debate
followed, and out of it grew a rule which forbade any petition,
resolution, or paper relating in any way to slavery, or the abolition of
slavery, to be received. This famous "Gag Rule" was adopted by Congress
after Congress until 1844.[1]

[Footnote 1: Morse's _Life of John Quincy Adams, _pp. 249-253, 306-308.]

%351. The Liberty Party formed%.--The effect of these extreme
measures was greatly to increase th