The House of Representatives formed a select committee to deal with the influx of petitions urging the end of slavery in Washington, D.C. The committee kept a log of the petitions, noting for each one the date, the member who presented it, the group who sent it, and the number of signatures.
Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives and Records Administration
Index of Petitions referred to the Select Committee to Abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia, 1836
The Gag Rule
In the 19th century, Americans vigorously exercised their First Amendment right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” An antislavery petition drive in the 1830s swamped Congress with 130,000 petitions in a single year. In response, beginning in 1836, proslavery members of the House of Representatives passed a series of gag rules to prevent discussion of such petitions. Representative and former President John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts worked for years to overturn the gag rule, which the House finally repealed in 1844.
The House of Representatives formed a select committee to deal with the influx of petitions urging the end of slavery in Washington, D.C. The committee kept a log of the petitions, noting for each one the date, the member who presented it, the group who sent it, and the number of signatures.
Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives and Records Administration
