There is an express provision of the constitution that Congress shall pass no law abridging the right of petition; and here is a resolution declaring that a member ought to be considered as regardless of the feelings of the house, the rights of the South, and an enemy to the Union, for presenting a petition.
Quincy argues against a resolution that he believes undermines the constitutional right to petition, highlighting the conflict between individual rights and societal pressures.
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More from Josiah Quincy
In what language of composure or of decency can I say to you that there is in this bitter and venomous charge not one single word of truth; that it is from beginning to end grossly, glaringly, wilfully false?--false even in the name of the…
The argument for the annexation, or reännexation, of Texas is as gross an imposture as ever was palmed upon the credulity of an honest people.
They have transmitted that freedom to you; and upon you now devolves the duty of transmitting it unimpaired to your posterity.
Though conscious, being then in his seventy-eighth year, that he stood on the threshold of human life, he sought no relaxation from duty, no exemption from its performance.
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