agency of a member in the discharge of his
duty? One of the most sacred duties of a member is to present the
petitions committed to his charge; a duty which he cannot refuse or
neglect to perform without violating his oath to support the
constitution of the United States. He is not, indeed, bound to present
all petitions. If the language of the petition be disrespectful to the
house, or to any of its members,--if the prayer of the petition be
unjust, immoral, or unlawful,--if it be accompanied by any manifestation
of intended violence or disorder on the part of the petitioners,--the
duty of the member to present ceases, not from respect for the feelings
of the house, but because those things themselves strike at the freedom
of speech and action as well of the house as of its members. Neither of
these can be in the least degree affected by the mere circumstance of
the condition of the petitioner. Nor is there a shadow of reason why
feelings of the house should be outraged by the presentation of a
petition from slaves, any more than by petitions from soldiers in the
army, seamen in the navy, or from the working-women in a manufactory.

"Regardless of the rights of the South! What are the rights of the
South? What is the _South_? As a component portion of this Union, the
population of the South consists of masters, of slaves, and of free
persons, white and colored, without slaves. Of which of these classes
would the rights be disregarded by the presentation of a petition from
slaves? Surely not those of the slaves themselves, the suffering, the
laborious, the _producing_ classes. O, no! there would be no disregard
of their rights in the presentation of a petition from them. The very
essence of the crime consists in an alleged _undue_ regard for their
rights; in not denying them the rights of human nature; in not classing
them with horses, and dogs, and cats. Neither could the rights of the
free people without slaves, whether white, black, or colored, be
disregarded by the presentation of a petition from slaves. Their rights
could not be affected by it at all. The rights of the South, then, here
mean the rights of the masters of slaves, which, to describe them by an
inoffensive word, I will call the rights of _mastery_. These, by the
constitution of the United States, are recognized, not directly, but by
implication, and protection is stipulated for them, by that instrument,
to a certain extent. But they are rights incompat