Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850Benton, Thomas Hart
History
Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850
Benton, Thomas Hart
United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861
The question which occupied the Senate was as to the most judicious
mode of treating these memorials, with a view to prevent their
evil effects: and that was entirely a question of policy, on which
senators disagreed who concurred in the main object. Some deemed
it most advisable to receive and consider the petitions--to refer
them to a committee--and subject them to the adverse report which
they would be sure to receive; as had been done with the Quakers'
petitions at the beginning of the government. Others deemed it
preferable to refuse to receive them. The objection urged to this
latter course was, that it would mix up a new question with the
slavery agitation which would enlist the sympathies of many who did
not co-operate with the Abolitionists--the question of the right
of petition; and that this new question, mixing with the other,
might swell the number of petitioners, keep up the applications
to Congress, and perpetuate an agitation which would otherwise
soon die out. Mr. CLAY, and many others were of this opinion; Mr.
CALHOUN and his friends thought otherwise; and the result was, so
far as it concerned the petitions of individuals and societies, what
it had previously been--a half-way measure between reception and
rejection--a motion to lay the question of reception on the table.
This motion, precluding all discussion, got rid of the petitions
quietly, and kept debate out of the Senate. In the case of the
memorial from the State of Vermont, the proceeding was slightly
different in form, but the same in substance. As the act of a
State, the memorial was received; but after reception was laid on
the table. Thus all the memorials and petitions were disposed of
by the Senate in a way to accomplish the two-fold object, first,
of avoiding discussion; and, next, condemning the object of the
petitioners. It was accomplishing all that the South asked; and
if the subject had rested at that point, there would have been
nothing in the history of this session, on the slavery agitation,
to distinguish it from other sessions about that period: but the
subject was revived; and in a way to force discussion, and to
constitute a point for the retrospect of history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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