" expel him," were heard throughout the hall, and Mr.
Thompson from South Carohna, moved : " That the Hon.
John Quincy Adams, by the attempt just made by him to introduce a petition purporting on its face to be from slaves, has been guilty of a gross disrespect to the House, and that he be instantly brought to the bar to receive the severest censure of the Speaker." In his speech on the occasion, he observed : " If the juries of this District have, as I doubt not they have, proper inteUigence and spirit, he may yet be made amenable to another tribunal, and we may yet see an incendiary brought to condign jiun- ishment.''^ After three day's discussion, the attempt to degrade Mr. Adams for asking a question, being found impracti- cable, was abandoned.
In 1842, Mr. Adams was again insulted by a petition from Georgia, forwarded to him through the mail, asking for his removal as Chairman of the Committee of For- eign Relations, on account of his monomania. He pre- sented it to the House, and Mr. Hopkins of Virginia, im- mediately moved its reference to the committee, with in- structions to choose another Chairman. Mr. Adams claimed to be heard in his defence, declaring that the feelino- against him was " a slave-holdino-, slave-trading^, and slave breeding feeling." He was not allowed to proceed in his defence, and the motion of Mr. Hopkins was dropped. The brief calm that ensued, was but the pre- cursor of a tempest; for, three days after, Mr. Adams presented a petition, praying Congress to take measures for dissolving the Union ; and moved its reference to a committee, with instructions to report reasons why the prayer of the petition should not be granted.
The petition itself was brief, containing no allusion to slavery, and was, in fact, an exact copy of one that had some years before, been got up by certain of the South Carolina nidhfiers.* The true paternity of the