Of course this rule must be readopted at the beginning of each session, and a debate upon the readoption might be thus precipitated, but, so long as a majority supported the rule, the previous question could be voted after giving a reasonable opportunity to discuss the question of readoption, and such discussion was then not likely to be renewed during the session. It was possible also for petitions to be {262} presented, at the beginning of the session, before the readoption of the rule, and these could be disposed of only by a special vote in each case to lay upon the table. There were thus still opportunities for the Abolitionists to cause the House to resolve itself into something more like a bear-garden than an assembly of Witan, as was evident from the scenes which were enacted on February 6th, 1837, when Mr. Adams came into the House with a petition in regard to slavery signed by some twenty slaves, and asked the Speaker if it came under the rule for laying such petitions on the table. Everybody supposed that the petition contained the usual prayer for the abolition of slavery, and that the Abolitionists had incited the slaves to the act. Mr. Adams allowed the excitement produced by this supposition to rage for a time, and then coolly and derisively informed the House that the prayer of the petition was not for abolition but against it. The members now felt that Mr. Adams was playing with the peace, order, and dignity of the House in a scandalous way, and for several days the question of censuring him was considered, but the matter was finally disposed of by a resolution declaring: "That slaves do not possess the right of petition secured to the people of the United States by the Constitution." At the beginning of the next session, that of 1837-38, Mr. Slade seized the opportunity to present an abolition petition before the re-enactment of the Pinckney rule, and to provoke a debate on the subject of slavery. He was substantially foiled, however, by a vote to adjourn, and, upon reassembly, by a suspension of the rules and a re-enactment of the resolution to lay everything in reference to slavery on the table. This rule covered all matters relating to slavery in the Territories as well as in the Commonwealths and the District. {263} [Sidenote: The increase of petitions, and the denunciation of the Pinckney rule.] The more the House did to discourage the petitions the more they increased. In two years from the adoption of the Pinckney resolutions the number of petitioners was tenfold greater than it was before their enactment. At the same time the legislatures of the New England Commonwealths were passing resolutions declaring the rule of the House of Representatives in regard to the abolition petitions to be a violation of the people's constitutional right, and also declaring that Congress possessed the power to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.