suppose that, if he should be
brought to the bar of the House, he should be "struck mute by the (p. 273)
previous question" before he should have been given an opportunity to
"say a word or two" in his own defence. As to the facts: "I did not
present the petition," he said, "and I appeal to the Speaker to say
that I did not.... I intended to take the decision of the Speaker
before I went one step towards presenting or offering to present that
petition." The contents of the petition, should the House ever choose
to read it, he continued, would render necessary some amendments at
least in the last resolution, since the prayer was that slavery should
_not_ be abolished!" The gentleman from Alabama may perchance find,
that the object of this petition is precisely what he desires to
accomplish; and that these slaves who have sent this paper to me are
his auxiliaries instead of being his opponents."

These remarks caused some discomfiture among the Southern members, who
were glad to have time for deliberation given them by a maundering
speech from Mr. Mann, of New York, who talked about "the deplorable
spectacle shown off every petition day by the honorable member from
Massachusetts in presenting the abolition petitions of his infatuated
friends and constituents," charged Mr. Adams with running counter to
the sense of the whole country with a "violence paralleled only (p. 274)
by the revolutionary madness of desperation," and twitted him with his
political friendlessness, with his age, and with the insinuation of
waning faculties and judgment. This little phial having been emptied,
Mr. Thompson arose and angrily assailed Mr. Adams for contemptuously
trifling with the House, which charge he based upon the entirely
unproved assumption that the petition was not a genuine document. He
concluded by presenting new resolutions better adapted to the recent
development of the case:--

"1. That the Hon. John Quincy Adams, by an effort to present a
petition from slaves, has committed a gross contempt of this
House.

"2. That the member from Massachusetts above-named, by creating
the impression and leaving the House under such impression, that
the said petition was for the abolition of slavery, when he knew
that it was not, has trifled with the House.

"3. That the Hon. John Quincy Adams receive the censure of the
House for his conduct referred to in the preceding resolutions."

Mr.