On the 14th January, 1839, a petition for relief from certain legal disabilities, from colored inhabitants of Ohio, was presented to the _popular_ branch of the legislature, and its rejection was moved by George H. Flood.[101] This rejection was not a denial of the prayer, but an _expulsion of the petition itself_, as an intruder into the house. "The question presented for our decision," said one of the members, "is simply this--Shall human beings, who are bound by every enactment upon our statute book, be _permitted_ to _request_ the legislature to modify or soften the laws under which they live?" To the Grand Sultan, crowded with petitions as he traverses the streets of Constantinople, such a question would seem most strange; but American democrats can exert a tyranny over _men who have no votes_, utterly unknown to Turkish despotism. Mr. Flood's motion was lost by a majority of only _four_ votes; but this triumph of humanity and republicanism was as transient as it was meagre. The _next_ day, the House, by a large majority, resolved: "That the blacks and mulattoes who may be residents within this State, have no constitutional right to present their petitions to the General Assembly for any purpose whatsoever, and that any reception of such petitions on the part of the General Assembly is a mere act of privilege or policy, and not imposed by any expressed or implied power of the Constitution." [Footnote 101: It is sometimes interesting to preserve the names of individuals who have perpetrated bold and unusual enormities.]