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rematch for the Speakership. is was also the Congress which adopted the infamous Gag Rule and launched Adams's career as foremost champion of the cause of freedom in the national capital. Previously, as the Massa- chusetts representative recorded in his diary, all antislav- ery petitions presented to the House had been "turned over to the Committee on the District [of Columbia], with a Chairman and a majority of the committee slave- holders, and the House hears no more about them." 18 But a concerted signature-gathering campaign by abolitionist groups provoked Southern Members into overreaching by demanding that henceforth Congress refuse even to receive the offending documents. is demand struck their Northern counterparts as a viola- tion of the constitutionally-protected right of petition, and they rejected the proposition. Like the previous cri- sis over the tariff, this seemed like a no-win situation for the majority Democratic Party, and as on that occasion their Speaker played a pivotal role in resolving it. Hav- ing consulted with the president on a suitable compro- mise, Polk appointed a select committee to consider the matter, stacked it with safe Administration men, and then rushed their recommendations through the House without debate, over Adams's cries of "Mr. Speaker, am I gagged, or not?" e crucial resolution, thereaer known as the Gag Rule, held that "all petitions, memo- rials, resolutions, propositions, or papers relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery, or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid upon the table, and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon." 19 us, petitions subject to the new rule would still technically be received by Congress, notionally preserving the consti- tutional niceties, but would automatically be consigned to oblivion without discussion. e adoption of the Gag Rule placed Adams and Southern Members of the House, headed by Speaker Polk, in a near-perpetual state of war. e Massachu- setts congressman seized every opportunity to expose the Gag to ridicule, and his enemies "found it necessary to appoint sentinels from their party every morning, to closely watch Mr. A. that whenever he presented such papers, they were ready to move that they be laid on the table without reading." 20 On one occasion, for example, he rose to state that he held in his hand a petition "from twenty persons declaring themselves to be slaves. He wished to know whether the Speaker would consider this paper as coming under the rule of the House." 21 A witness to the scene from the public galleries writes that "the 'old man eloquent' stood erect, with placid demeanor and with calm composure, with a gentle smile on his visage" as "confusion and dismay among the friends of Slavery, became general throughout the Hall." Only aer the latter had proposed a resolution of censure did Adams add that "if gentlemen had waited when he offered his petition until he had stated its object, they would have saved themselves much painful anxi- ety," for its prayer was for nothing more than his own expulsion. "If a clap of thunder had that moment struck the dome of the Capitol," the observer recalled, "it would not have occasioned more astonishment among the members of the House and spectators and galler- ies than this announcement of the accused. Aer a few moments of profound silence, the galleries became alive Fig. 8. is satire on the gag rule, "Abolition Frowned Down" (lithograph by Henry Dacre [?], 1839), shows Adams prostrate, protecting petitions against slavery, before South Carolina Rep. Waddy ompson, Jr. THE CAPITOL DOME 22