بحث درباره برده‌داری: نبرد بزرگ در کنگره ایالات متحده

A blow-by-blow re-creation of the battle royal that raged in Congress in the 1830s, when a small band of representatives, led by President John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, employed intricate stratagems to outwit the Southern (and Southern-sympathizing) sponsors of the successive "gag" rules that had long blocked debate on the subject of slavery. Here Is The United States Congress In The 1830s, Grappling (or Trying Unsuccessfully To Avoid Grappling) With The Gravest Moral Dilemma Inherited From The Framers Of The Constitution. Here Is The Concept (and Reality) Of The Ownership Of Human Beings Confronting Three Of The Most Powerful Ideas Of The Time: American Republicanism, American Civil Liberties, American Representative Government. This Book Re-creates An Episode In Our Past, Now Forgotten, That Once Stirred And Engrossed The Nation: The Congressional Fight Over Petitions Against Slavery. The Action Takes Place In The House Of Representatives. Beginning In 1835, A New Flood Of Abolitionist Petitions Pours Into The House. The Powers-that-be Respond With A Gag Rule As Their Means Of Keeping These Appeals Off The House Floor And Excluding Them From National Discussion.^ A Small Band Of Congressmen, Led By Former President John Quincy Adams, Battles Against Successive Versions Of The Gag And Introduces Petitions In Spite Of It. Then, In February 1837, Adams Raises The Stakes By Forcing The House To Cope With What He Calls The Most Important Question To Come Before This House Since Its First Origin: Do Slaves Have The Right Of Petition? When The Whigs Take Over In 1841, Some Expect The Gag Rule To Be Repudiated, But Instead It Is Made Permanent. A Small Insurgent Group Of Whigs, Collaborating With Adams, Opposes Party Policy And Makes Opposition To Slavery Their Top Priority. They Constitute The Seedbed For The Formation Of The Republican Party Which Will Be, In The Next Decade, The Beginning Of The End Of Slavery. Congressional Leaders Try To Censure Adams, And His Well-publicized Trial In The House Brings The Entire Matter To The Nation's Attention.^ The Anti-adams Effort Fails, And Finally, After Nine Years Of Persistent Support Of The Right Of Petition, Adams Succeeds In Defeating The Gag Rule. Throughout, One Can See The Gradual Assembling Not Only Of The Political But Also Of The Moral And Intellectual Elements For The Ultimate Assault On American Slavery. When John Quincy Adams Dies, Virtually On The House Floor, The Young Congressman Abraham Lincoln Is Sitting In The Chamber. Introductions -- Immediate Representatives -- The Fiends And Their Work -- Shut The Door In Their Face -- The First Son Of The Republic -- The Tedium And Sublimity Of Republican Government -- The Most Important Question Ever To Come Before The House -- Welcome To The Twenty-fifth Congress Of The United States -- The Great Moral Monument -- The Tribulation Of The Whigs -- The Trials -- Endings -- Epilogues. William Lee Miller. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [545]-553) And Index. Contents......Page 8 PART I: INTRODUCTIONS......Page 12 6/FIENDS OF HELL, EAST......Page 76 PART II: IMMEDIATE REPRESENTATIVES......Page 36 PART III: THE FIENDS AND THEIR WORK......Page 74 PART IV: SHUT THE DOOR IN THEIR FACE......Page 124 PART V: THE FIRST SON OF THE REPUBLIC......Page 162 PART VI: THE TEDIUM AND SUBLIMITY OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT......Page 206 PART VII: THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION EVER TO COME BEFORE THE HOUSE......Page 234 PART VIII: WELCOME TO THE TWENTY-FIFTH CONGRESS OF THE UNITED ST ATES......Page 286 PART IX: THE GREAT MORAL MONUMENT......Page 310 PART X: THE TRIBULATION OF THE WHIGS......Page 348 PART XI: THE TRIALS......Page 408 PART XII: ENDINGS......Page 466 PART XIII: EPILOGUES......Page 500 Appendix......Page 526 Notes......Page 532 Sources......Page 552 Bibliography of Works Consulted......Page 556 Acknowledgments......Page 566 Index......Page 568 ON DECEMBER 16, 1835, an otherwise undistinguished thirty-eight-year-old congressman named John Fairfield, from York County, Maine, rose upon his legs in the United States House of Representatives to present the first of session's petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.