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no power to legislate upon that which will be the destruction of the whole foundation upon which its authority rests.
I recollect, a good many years ago, that the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. John Davis], who addressed the Senate this morning, very pointedly described the right of petition as a very humble right—as the mere right to beg. This is my own view.
The right peaceably to assemble, I hold as the right which it was intended to grant to the people; that was the only right which had ever been denied in our colonial condition.
The right of petition had never been denied by Parliament.
It was intended only to secure to the people, I say, the right peaceably to assemble, whenever they choose to do so, with intent to petition for a redress of grievances.
But, sir, the right of petition, though but a poor right—the mere right to beg—may yet be carried to such an extent that we are bound to abate it as a nuisance.
If the avenues to the Capitol were to be obstructed, so that members would find themselves unable to reach the halls of legislation, because hordes of beggars presented themselves in the way calling for relief, it would be a nuisance that would require to be abated, and Congress, in self-defense, would be compelled to remove them.
But such a collection of beggars would not be half so great an evil as the petitions presented here on the subject of slavery.
They disturb the peace of the country; they impede and pervert legislation by the excitement they create; they do more to prevent rational investigation and proper action in this body than any, if not all, other causes.
Good, if ever designed, has never resulted, and it would be difficult to suppose that good is expected ever to flow from them.
Why, then, should we be bound to receive such petitions to the detriment of the public business; or, rather, why are they presented?
I am not of those who believe we should be turned from the path of duty by out-of-door clamor, or that the evil can be removed by partial concession.
To receive is to give cause for further demands, and our direct and safe course is rejection.
Yes, sir, their reception would serve only to embarrass Congress, to disturb the tranquillity of the country, and to peril the Union of the States.
By every obligation, therefore, that rests upon us under the Constitution, upon every great principle upon which the Constitution is founded, we are bound to abate this as a great and growing evil.
This petition, sir, was well described by the Senator from Pennsylvania as being spurious; and I have been assured of the fact, from other sources of information, that petitions are sent round in reference to other subjects —of temperance, generally—and, after a long list of names has been obtained, the caption is cut off, and the list of signatures attached to an abolition caption and sent here to excite one section of the Union against the other, to disturb the country, and distract the legislation of Congress, to execute which we have our seats in this Chamber.
For the reasons first stated, I voted to receive the resolutions that were presented by the Senator from North Carolina, and for the reasons I have just given shall vote to reject this petition.
Conclusion of speech of
Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi in the Senate of the United States, on the resolutions of
Clay, relative to slavery in the territories, etc., February 13 and 14, 1850.
. . . Sir, it has been asked on several occasions during the present session,
What ground of complaint has the South?
Is this agitation in the two halls of
