was contended by
Southern men that Congress had a right not to receive petitions,
especially if produced to create excitement, and wound the feelings
of Southern members. Mr. Adams advocated the right of petition. If
the language was disrespectful, that objection might be stated on the
journal. He knew that it was difficult to use language on this subject
which slaveholders would not deem disrespectful. Congress had declared
the slave-trade, when carried on out of the United States, _piracy_. He
was opposed to that act, because he did not think it proper that this
traffic without our boundaries should be called piracy, while there was
no constitutional right to interdict it within our borders. It was
carried on in sight of the windows of the capitol. He deemed it a
fundamental principle that Congress had no right to take away or
abridge the constitutional right of petition.

The petition was received, its commitment refused by the house, and it
was laid on the table.

About this time Mr. Adams remarked: "There is something extraordinary in
the present condition of parties throughout the Union. Slavery and
democracy--especially a democracy founded, as ours is, on the rights of
man--would seem to be incompatible with each other; and yet, at this
time, the democracy of the country is supported chiefly, if not
entirely, by slavery. There is a small, enthusiastic party preaching the
abolition of slavery upon the principles of extreme democracy. But the
democratic spirit and the popular feeling are everywhere against them."

In August, 1835, Mr. Adams was invited to deliver an address before the
American Institute of New York. After expressing his good wishes for the
prosperity of the institution, and of their cause, he stated, in reply,
that the general considerations which dictated the policy of sustaining
and cherishing the manufacturing interests were obvious, and had been
presented by Judge Baldwin, Mr. J. P. Kennedy, and Mr. Everett, with
eloquence and ability, in addresses on three preceding years. If he
should deliver the address requested, it would be expected that he would
present the subject under new and different views. His own opinion was
that one great difficulty under which the manufacturing interest of the
country labors is a political combination of the South and the West
against it. The slaveholders of the South have bought the cooeperation of
the Western country by the bribe of the Western lands, abando