Editing Gag rule (United States) (section)

==Pinckney Resolutions (1836)==
{{Events leading to US Civil War}}
The House of Representatives passed the Pinckney Resolutions, authored by [[Henry L. Pinckney]] of South Carolina, on May 26, 1836. The first stated that Congress had no constitutional authority to interfere with slavery in the states, and the second that it "ought not" to interfere with [[slavery in the District of Columbia]]. The third was known from the beginning as the "gag rule", and passed with a vote of 117 to 68:<ref>{{Cite book
|url=https://archive.org/details/constitutionala01holsgoog/page/n252/mode/2up
|first=H.
|last=von Holst
|authorlink=Hermann Eduard von Holst
|title=The Constitutional and Political History of the United States
|volume=2
|location=Chicago
|publisher=[[Callaghan and Company]]
|year=1879
|page=245 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|All petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatsoever, to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid on the table and...no further action whatever shall be had thereon.{{cn|date=August 2022}}
}}

From the inception of the gag resolutions, Adams was a central figure in the opposition to them. He argued that they were a direct violation of the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". A majority of Northern [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] supported him. Rather than suppress anti-slavery petitions, however, the gag rules only served to outrage Americans from Northern states, contributing to the country's growing polarization over slavery.<ref name=Miller>{{cite book
|last=Miller
|first=William Lee
|author-link=William Lee Miller
|title=Arguing About Slavery: The Great Battle in the United States Congress
|publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]]
|location=New York |year=1995 |isbn=0-394-56922-9 
|url=https://archive.org/details/arguingaboutslav00mill }}</ref>{{rp|112}} The growing objection to the gag rule, as well as the [[Panic of 1837]], may have contributed to the Whig majority in the [[27th United States Congress|27th Congress]], the party's first such majority.

Since the original gag was a resolution, not a standing House Rule, it had to be renewed every session, and Adams and others had free rein at the beginning of each session until this was done. In January 1837, the Pinckney Resolutions were substantially renewed, more than a month into the session. The pro-gag forces gradually succeeded in shortening the debate at the beginning of each session, and tightening the gag.