Congress Adopts Gag Rule: Antislavery Petitions Tabled Without Hearing

The House of Representatives adopted a rule automatically tabling all antislavery petitions without reading or debate — effectively silencing the First Amendment rights of hundreds of thousands of Americans who had submitted petitions demanding abolition or an end to the slave trade in Washington D.C. The gag rule was renewed in each subsequent Congress until 1844, when John Quincy Adams finally succeeded in repealing it after years of resistance. Proslavery congressmen argued that even discussing abolition endangered the Union. The rule demonstrated slaveholder control of federal institutions.