t's House than
nullification and Texas and war with Mexico rose
again upon the surface, with eye steadily fixed
upon the Polar Star of Southern slave-dealing
supremacy in the government of the Union."]

People sometimes took advantage of his avowed principles (p. 267)
concerning freedom of petition to put him in positions which they
thought would embarrass him or render him ridiculous. Not much
success, however, attended these foolish efforts of shallow wits. It
was not easy to disconcert him or to take him at disadvantage. July
28, 1841, he presented a paper of this character coming from sundry
Virginians and praying that all the free colored population should be
sold or expelled from the country. He simply stated as he handed in
the sheet that nothing could be more abhorrent to him than this (p. 268)
prayer, and that his respect for the right of petition was his
only motive for presenting this. It was suspended under the "gag"
rule, and its promoters, unless very easily amused, must have been
sadly disappointed with the fate and effect of their joke. On March 5,
1838, he received from Rocky Mount in Virginia a letter and petition
praying that the House would arraign at its bar and forever expel John
Quincy Adams. He presented both documents, with a resolution asking
that they be referred to a committee for investigation and report. His
enemies in the House saw that he was sure to have the best of the
sport if the matter should be pursued, and succeeded in laying it on
the table. Waddy Thompson thoughtfully improved the opportunity to
mention to Mr. Adams that he also had received a petition, "numerously
signed," praying for Mr. Adams's expulsion, but had never presented
it. In the following May Mr. Adams presented another petition of like
tenor. Dromgoole said that he supposed it was a "quiz," and that he
would move to lay it on the table, "unless the gentleman from
Massachusetts wished to give it another direction." Mr. Adams said
that "the gentleman from Massachusetts cared very little about it,"
and it found the limbo of the "table."

To this same period belongs the memorable tale of Mr. Adams's (p. 269)
attempt to present a petition from slaves. On February 6, 1837, he
brought in some two hundred abolition petitions. He closed with one
against the slave-trade in the District of Columbia purporting to be
signed by "nine