eader in opposing the admission of the
petitions. He maintained that any discussion in Congress of such a topic
was injurious and incendiary; he voiced the new sentiment of the South
that all agitation of slavery was an invasion of its rights. "Hands
off!" was the cry. The question was settled in 1836, after long debates,
by another compromise, proposed by James Buchanan of Pennsylvania; the
petitions were given a formal reception, but instantly rejected without
debate.

Another burning question was the circulation of anti-slavery documents
through the Southern mails. In 1835 a mob in Charleston broke open the
post-office, and made a bonfire of all such matter they could find. The
social leaders and the clergy of the city applauded. The
postmaster-general under Jackson, Amos Kendall, wrote to the local
postmaster who had connived at the act: "I cannot sanction and will not
condemn the step you have taken." Jackson asked Congress to pass a law
excluding anti-slavery literature from the mails. Even this was not
enough for Calhoun; he claimed that every State had a right to pass such
legislation for itself, with paramount authority over any act of
Congress. But the South would not support him in this claim; and indeed
he was habitually in advance of his section, which followed him
generally at an interval of a few years. Congress refused to pass any
law on the subject. But the end was reached without law; Southern
postmasters systematically refused to transmit anti-slavery
documents--even of so moderate character as the New York _Tribune_--and
this was their practice until the Civil War. "A gross infraction of law
and right!" said the North. "But," said the South, "would you allow
papers to circulate in your postoffices tending directly to breed revolt
and civil war? If the mails cannot be used in the service of gambling
and lotteries, with far more reason may we shut out incitements to
insurrection like Nat Turner's."

On a similar plea all freedom of speech in Southern communities on the
question of slavery was practically denied. Anti-slavery men were driven
from their homes. In Kentucky, one man stood out defiantly and
successfully. Cassius M. Clay opposed slavery, advocated its compensated
abolition, and was as ready to defend himself with pistols as with
arguments. He stood his ground to the end, and in 1853 he settled Rev.
John G. Fee at Berea, who established a group of anti-slavery churches
and schools, which wa