Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/303

Rh of the political aggression was made under cover of the sacred right of petition, secured by a special clause of the Constitution and regarded by the people as an in alienable right which should not be abridged. With this instrument in hand the agitators placed before Congress and the country their views of slavery in an insulting form, accompanied by hinted threats should their petitions be denied. Such petitions began with the preamble, &quot;Whereas, Slavery is an abomination and slave holders accursed before God and man * * * your petitioners respectfully entreat, etc. &quot; Calhoun declared that such petitions were libels on himself, his State and his country, and demanded that they should be rejected on account of their insulting terms. Jackson agreed with Calhoun. Congress saw the injustice thus attempted through the exercise of the right of petition and passed a series of resolutions virtually condemning the introduction of petitions of that nature. But the agitators seized upon the popular reverence for the &quot;right of petition,&quot; and, denouncing the action of the House as &quot;gagging resolutions,&quot; fired New England afresh in opposition to what was called the arrogance of the Slave-holding Oligarchy.

The agitation of the slavery question under the auspices of the anti-slavery societies and the Liberal party met with little favor throughout the North, although it served an end in producing irritation in the South. In 1848 the Free Soil candidate for the presidency polled less than 7,000 votes, and the purposes of the agitators were very bitterly denounced. The annexation of Texas, advocated by Calhoun, opposed by Clay and hesitatingly objected to by Van Buren, was bitterly assailed by the Free Soilers because the acquisition of the Republic would increase largely the area of the slave-holding South. Yet with all the power of this special objection pressed upon the Northern States, the total strength of the fanatics shown in 1844 in thirteen States, all North, was less than 60,000 votes,