[104] Originally the twenty-first, adopted January 28, 1840 (26th Cong. 1st Sess.), by Yeas 114, Nays 108; rescinded, on motion of John Quincy Adams, December 3, 1844 (28th Cong. 2d Sess.), by Yeas 108, Nays 80. It will be observed that the vote of the opponents of the rule was precisely the same (108) on its adoption as on its abrogation. Obviously many of the original supporters or their successors withheld their votes on the latter occasion. The rule in question was in these words: "No petition, memorial, resolution, or other paper, praying the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or any State or Territory, or the slave-trade between the States or Territories of the United States in which it now exists, shall be received by this House, or entertained in any way whatever." [105] Milton, Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing: Prose Works, ed. Symmons, Vol. I. p. 325. But, Sir, this effort is impotent as tyrannical. Convictions of the heart cannot be repressed. Utterances of conscience must be heard. They break forth with irrepressible might. As well attempt to check the tides of Ocean, the currents of the Mississippi, or the rushing waters of Niagara. The discussion of Slavery will proceed, wherever two or three are gathered together,--by the fireside, on the highway, at the public meeting, in the church. The movement against Slavery is from the Everlasting Arm. Even now it is gathering its forces, soon to be confessed everywhere. It may not be felt yet in the high places of office and power, but all who can put their ears humbly to the ground will hear and comprehend its incessant and advancing tread. The relations of the National Government to Slavery, though plain and obvious, are constantly misunderstood. A popular belief at this moment makes Slavery a national institution, and of course renders its support a national duty. The extravagance of this error can hardly be surpassed. An institution which our fathers most carefully omitted to name in the Constitution, which, according to the debates in the Convention, they refused to cover with any "sanction," and which, at the original organization of the Government, was merely _sectional_, existing nowhere on the _national_ territory, is now, above all other things, blazoned as national. Its supporters pride themselves as national. The old political parties, while upholding it, claim to be national. A National Whig is simply a Slavery Whig, and a National Democrat is simply a Slavery Democrat, in contradistinction to all who regard Slavery as a sectional institution, within the exclusive control of the States, and with which the nation has nothing to do.