ingular (p. 280)
manifestation of this feeling was made when Mr. Adams himself
presented a petition from Georgia praying for his removal from this
Chairmanship. Upon this he requested to be heard in his own behalf.
The Southern party, not sanguine of any advantage from debating the
matter, tried to lay it on the table. The petition was alleged by
Habersham, of Georgia, to be undoubtedly another hoax. But Mr. Adams,
loath to lose a good opportunity, still claimed to be heard on the
charges made against him by the "infamous slave-holders." Mr. Smith,
of Virginia, said that the House had lately given Mr. Adams leave to
defend himself against the charge of monomania, and asked whether he
was doing so. Some members cried "Yes! Yes!"; others shouted "No! he
is establishing the fact." The wrangling was at last brought to an end
by the Speaker's declaration, that the petition must lie over for the
present. But the scene had been only the prelude to one much longer,
fiercer, and more exciting. No sooner was the document thus
temporarily disposed of than Mr. Adams rose and presented the petition
of forty-five citizens of Haverhill, Massachusetts, praying the House
"immediately to adopt measures peaceably to dissolve the union of
these States," for the alleged cause of the incompatibility (p. 281)
between free and slave-holding communities. He moved "its reference to
a select committee, with instructions to report an answer to the
petitioners showing the reasons why the prayer of it ought not to be
granted."

In a moment the House was aflame with excitement. The numerous members
who hated Mr. Adams thought that at last he was experiencing the
divinely sent madness which foreruns destruction. Those who sought his
political annihilation felt that the appointed and glorious hour of
extinction had come; those who had writhed beneath the castigation of
his invective exulted in the near revenge. While one said that the
petition should never have been brought within the walls of the House,
and another wished to burn it in the presence of the members, Mr.
Gilmer, of Virginia, offered a resolution, that in presenting the
petition Mr. Adams "had justly incurred the censure of the House."
Some objection was made to this resolution as not being in order; but
Mr. Adams said that he hoped that it would be received and debated and
that an opportunity would be given him to speak in his own defence;
"especially as the gentleman