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| history of slavery in the united states | |
| history of the united states congress | |
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ANTI-SLAVERY PETITIONS TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS IN 1831-1844 From the founding of the United States , there were many episodes in the struggle between pro- and anti- Slavery forces, from the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 , through the banning of the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1808 , the Missouri Compromise in 1820 , the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 , and the Dred Scott Decision in 1857 and other occasions, until its final resolution in the Civil War in 1861 - 1865 . One of these episodes was the gagging of anti-slavery petitions to Congress in 1831 - 1844 . Pro-slavery forces had prevented any discussion of slavery in Congress, so anti-slavery forces, starting in about 1831 , had submitted petitions for the abolition of slavery, believing that since there was a right to petition the government as guaranteed in the First Amendment of the Constitution , such petitions, and thus slavery itself, would have to be discussed. The pro-slavery forces responded with a series of gag rules, whereby all such petitions were automatically "tabled" (not read or discussed). In the House in May 1835 , the Pinckney Resolutions were passed to achieve this end. In January, 1837 , the Pinckney Resolutions were substantially renewed. In December, 1837 , the Congress passed the Patton Resolutions, introduced by J. M. Patton of Virginia. In December, 1838 the Congress passed the Atherton Gag, which had been composed by Democratic States-Rights Congressman Atherton of New Hampshire . In January, 1840 , the House of Representatives passed the Twenty-first Rule. It was rescinded in December, 1844 . A famous opponent of these gag rules was Representative (and former President) John Quincy Adams . The enactment of gag rules by the United States lawgivers increased and prolonged slavery. Gag rules effectively destroyed Article X of the Treaty Of Ghent which specified that Americans would work to end slavery. The makers of those laws of 1835-44 kept Negro es in the United States instead of sending them out of the United States. In the Senate in 1836, John C. Calhoun attempted to introduce a gag rule. The Senate rejected this proposal, but agreed a method which, while technically not violating the right to petition, would achieve the same effect. If an anti-slavery petition was presented, the Senate would vote not on whether to accept the petition but on whether to consider the question of receiving the petition. MEXICO CITY POLICY, ALSO CALLED THE "GLOBAL GAG RULE", IN 1984 The Mexico City Policy , named for the place of the population conference where it was announced, was instituted by United States President Ronald Reagan in 1984 to make silence on the issue of Abortion a condition for providing funds from the US foreign aid agency USAID . EXTERNAL LINKS
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