Home / Full timeline / The “gag rule” is adopted in the U.S. House of Representatives as a means to completely ignore anti-slavery petitions.
The “gag rule” is adopted in the U.S. House of Representatives as a means to completely ignore anti-slavery petitions.
1836 (Feb 1)
The infamous "gag rule" was adopted in the U.S. House of Representatives. Under the act, anti-slavery petitions were simply laid on the table without any further action. This denial of the right of petition angered former president John Quincy Adams, then a congressman from Massachusetts. Adams fought vigorously against the rule, helping to rouse public opinion in the North. Anti-slavery petitions began to pour into Washington; more than 200,000 of them in a single session. In 1844, the gag rule was rescinded. Its opponents saw it as an effort to deny White men their right of freedom of petition in an attempt to keep Black men enslaved.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.