as was pretended, it had been deferred too long already.  The advocates of slavery had committed a fatal error.  They had abolished freedom of speech and freedom of petition to save an obnoxious institution.  As soon as the panic should subside, the people would demand the restoration of those precious rights, and would scrutinize with fearless fidelity the cause for which they had been suppressed.  He offered petition after petition, each bolder and more importunate than the last.  He debated questions, kindred to those which were forbidden, with the firmness and fervor of his noble nature.  For age

  Had not quenched the open truth
  And fiery vehemence of youth.

Soon he gained upon his adversaries.  District after district sent champions to his side.  States reconsidered, and resolved in his behalf.  He saw the tide was turning, and then struck one bold blow, not now for freedom of petition and debate, but a stroke of bold and retaliating warfare.  He offered a resolution declaring that the following amendments of the constitution of the United States be submitted to the people of the several States for their adoption: 

From and after the fourth day of July, 1842, there shall be, throughout the United States, no hereditary slavery, but on and after that day every child born within the United States shall be free.

With the exception of the Territory of Florida, there shall, henceforth, never be admitted into this Union, any state the constitution of which shall tolerate within the same the existence of slavery.

In 1845, the obnoxious rule of the House of Representatives was rescinded.  The freedom of debate and petition was restored, and the unrestrained and irrepressible discussion of slavery by the press and political parties began.  For the rest, the work of emancipation abides the action, whether it be slow or fast, of the moral sense of the American people.  It depends not on the zeal and firmness only of the reformers, but on their wisdom and moderation also.  Stoicism, that had no charity for error, never converted any human society to virtue; Christianity, that remembers the true nature of man, has encompassed a large portion of the globe.  How long emancipation may be delayed, is among the things concealed from our knowledge, but not so the certain result.  The perils of the enterprize are already passed—­its difficulties have already been removed—­when it shall have been accomplished it will be justly regarded as the last noble effort which rendered the Republic imperishable.

Then the merit of the great achievement will be awarded to John Quincy Adams; and by none more gratefully than by the communities on whom the institution of slavery has brought the calamity of premature and consumptive decline, in the midst of free, vigorous, and expanding States.