Ep. 190 Free speech and Abolitionism
So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast
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The Ging Rule and the War on Free Speech
In the mid 1830s Congress passes something called the gag rule, which says that these petitions will not be received by Congress. The following year in defiance of the gag rule John Quincy Adams presented the House of Representatives with a petition written by 22 enslaved people. With that, all hell broke loose. Members realized that if enslaved people possessed the right to petition, what other constitutional rights did they have? It was a line of thinking that when pondered by southern politicians led to a dangerous and society-altering conclusion.
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