If Congress may thus dispose of petitions on one subject, they may make the same disposition of petitions on any and every other subject.  Our representatives are bound by oath, not to pass any law abridging the right of petition, but if this resolution is constitutional, they may order every petition to be delivered to their door-keeper, and by him to be committed to the flames; for why preserve petitions on which no action can be had?  Had the resolution been directed to petitions for an object palpably unconstitutional, it would still have been without excuse.  The construction of the Constitution is a matter of opinion, and every citizen has a right to express that opinion in a petition, or otherwise.

But this usurpation is aggravated by the almost universal admission that Congress does possess the constitutional power to legislate on the subject of slavery in the District of Columbia and the Territories.  No wonder that a distinguished statesman refused to sanction the right of the House to pass such a resolution by even voting against it[A].  The men who perpetrated this outrage had sworn to support the Constitution, and will they hereafter plead at the bar of their Maker, that they had kept their oath, because they had abridged the right of petition by a resolution, and not by law!

[Footnote A:  Mr. J.Q.  Adams, on his name being called, refused to vote, saying, “the resolution is in direct violation of the Constitution of the United States, and the privileges of the members of this House.”]

This resolution not only violates the rights of the people, but it nullifies the privileges and obligations of their representatives.  It is an undoubted right and duty of every member of Congress to propose any measure within the limits of the Constitution, which he believes is required by the interests of his constituents and the welfare of his country.  Now mark the base surrender of this right—­the wicked dereliction of this duty.  All “resolutions and propositions” relating “in any way or to any extent whatever to the subject of slavery,” shall be laid on the table, and “no further action whatever shall be had thereon.”  What a spectacle has been presented to the American people!—­one hundred and seventeen members of Congress relinquishing their own rights, cancelling their own solemn obligations, forcibly depriving the other members of their legislative privileges, abolishing the freedom of debate, condemning the right of petition, and prohibiting present and future legislation on a most important and constitutional subject, by a rule of order!

In 1820, the New-York Legislature instructed the representatives from that state in Congress, to insist on making “the prohibition of slavery an indispensable condition of admission” of certain territories into the union.  In 1828, the Legislature of Pennsylvania instructed the Pennsylvania members of Congress, to vote for the abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia.  In vain hereafter shall a representative present the instructions of his constituents, or the injunctions of a sovereign state.  No question shall be taken, or any motion he may offer, in any way, or to any extent, relating to slavery!