others of them filled with friendly advice, assuring me, that if I continued to present petitions similar to those I have heretofore presented in this House, my days are numbered, and I never shall survive the present session."
It was, however, on the floor of Congress, that the malignity towards him was excited to its greatest inten- sity. In a speech to bis constituents (1842), alluding to the charge against him of using harsh language, he remarked : " So far as any friend or impartial person rnay have thought me blameable in that respect, I would ask him to consider that the adversaries with whom I have had to contend face to face, have pursued me with a vio- lence and rancor unparalleled in the history of this country. That twice in the space of five years, I have for the single offence of persisting to assert the right of the people to petition, and the freedom of speech and of the press, been dragged before the House in which I was you? Representative, as a culprit to be censured or expelled ; and when, after ten days of the most unrelenting persecution, I have been barely released from its fury, I have been still denounced as the cause of the waste of time consumed by my persecutors in their struggle to accomplish my ruin. On both occasions, the fury of the whole mass of Southern slavery was concen- trated over my head, for the avowed purpose of breaking down whatever of good name I had to leave as an inhe- ritance to my children ; in order that my signal ruin might strike terror to the heart of your every other Representa- tive, and leave slavery the lord of the ascendant for all future time throughout the North American Union."
For the purpose of insult, a petition professing to be from slaves, asking for his expulsion, was sent to him by mail for presentation. On the Cth February, 1837, he informed the Speaker, that he had in his possession a pe- tition purporting to come from slaves, and inquired whether it came within the gag-rule, excluding Anti- slavery petitions ? Immediately, cries of '' expel him,"