r.

And this, sir, is the reason which I was not permitted to give this
morning for voting with only eight associates against the first
resolution reported by the committee on the abolition petitions; not one
word of discussion had been permitted on either of those resolutions.
When called to vote upon the first of them, I asked only five minutes of
the time of the House to prove that it was utterly unfounded, It was not
the pleasure of the House to grant me those five minutes. Sir, I must
say that, in all the proceedings of the House upon that report, from the
previous question, moved and inflexibly persisted in by a member of
the committee itself which reported the resolutions, (Mr. Owens, of
Georgia,) to the refusal of the Speaker, sustained by the majority of
the House, to permit the other gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Glascock) to
record upon the journal his reasons for asking to be excused from voting
on that same resolution, the freedom of debate has been stifled in this
House to a degree far beyond any thing that ever happened since
the existence of the Constitution of the United States; nor is it a
consolatory reflection to me how intensely we have been made to feel,
in the process of that operation, that the Speaker of this House is a
slaveholder. And, sir, as I was not then permitted to assign my reasons
for voting against that resolution before I gave the vote, I rejoice
that the reason for which I shall vote for the resolution now before the
committee is identically the same with that for which I voted against
that.

[Mr. Adams at this, and at many other passages of this speech, was
interrupted by calls to order. The Chairman of the Committee (Mr. A. H.
Shepperd, of North Carolina,) in every instance, decided that he was not
out of order, but at this passage intimated that he was approaching
very close upon its borders; upon which Mr. Adams said, "Then I am to
under-stand, sir, that I am yet within the bounds of order, but that I
may transcend them hereafter."]

* * * * *

And, now, sir, am I to be disconcerted and silenced, or admonished by
the Chair that I am approaching to irrelevant matter, which may warrant
him to arrest me in my argument, because I say that the reason for which
I shall vote for the resolution now before the committee, levying a
heavy contribution upon the property of my constituents, is identically
the same with the reason for which I voted against the resolutio