Page "John Quincy Adams" Paragraph 43

Adams took advantage of his right to defend himself in front of the members to deliver days of prepared and impromptu remarks against slavery and in favor of abolition.

He spoke against the slave trade and the ownership of slaves.

As others continued to attack him and call for his censure, Adams continued to debate the issues of slavery and the evils of slaveholding.

Adams also called into question the actions of a House that would limit its own ability to debate and resolve questions internally.

After the two week-long debate, a vote was held and he was not censured.

The whole time he delighted in the misery he was inflicting on the slaveholders he so hated.

Although any move to censure Adams over the slavery petition was ultimately abandoned, the House did address the issue of petitions from enslaved persons.

Adams rose again to argue that the right to petition was a universal right granted by God so that those in the weakest positions might always have recourse to those in the most powerful.

The gag rule was ultimately retained.

The discussion ignited by his actions and the attempts of others to quiet him raised questions of the right to petition, the right to legislative debate, and the morality of slavery.

During the censure debate, Adams said that he took delight in the fact that southerners would forever remember him as " the acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of southern slavery that ever existed ".