eason!" screamed a half dozen other members. "Expel the old
scoundrel; put him out; do not let him disgrace the House any longer!"

"Get up a resolution to meet the case," exclaimed a member from North
Carolina.

Mr. George C. Dromgoole, who had acquired a very favorable reputation as
a parliamentarian, was selected as the very man who, of all others, was
most capable of drawing up a resolution that would meet and cover the
emergency. He produced a resolution with a preamble, in which it was
stated, substantially, that, whereas the Hon. John Quincy Adams, a
representative from Massachusetts, had presented to the House of
Representatives a petition signed by negro slaves, thus "giving color to
an idea" that bondmen were capable of exercising the right of petition, it
was "Resolved, That he be taken to the bar of the House, and be censured
by the Speaker thereof."

Mr. Haynes said, the true motion, in his judgment, would be to move that
the petition be rejected.

Mr. Lewis hoped that no motion of that kind would come from any gentleman
from a slaveholding section of the country.

Mr. Haynes said he would cheerfully withdraw his motion.

Mr. Lewis was glad the motion was withdrawn. He believed that the House
should punish severely such an infraction of its decorum and its rules;
and he called on the members from the slaveholding States to come forward
now and demand of the House the punishment of the gentleman from
Massachusetts.

Mr. Grantland, of Georgia, would second the motion, and go all lengths in
support of it.

Mr. Lewis said, that if the House would inflict no punishment for such
flagrant violations of its dignity as this, it would be better for the
Representatives from the slaveholding Slates to go home at once.

Mr. Alford said, if the gentleman from Massachusetts intended to present
this petition, the moment it was presented he should move, as an act of
justice to the South, which he in part represented, and which he conceived
had been treated with indignity, that it be taken from the House and
burnt; and he hoped that every man who was a friend to the constitution,
would support him. There must be an end to this constant attempt to raise
excitement, or the Union could not exist much longer. The moment any man
should disgrace the Government under which he lived, by presenting a
petition from slaves, praying for emancipation, he hoped that petition
would, by order of the House, be committed to the flam