The New International Encyclopædia/Gag rules
GAG RULES. In American history, the name
applied to certain rules passed by the National
Congress in disregard of the First Amendment to
the Federal Constitution, for the abridgment of
the right of petition with reference to the
abolition or restriction of slavery. After the beginning
of the earnest agitation of the Northern
abolitionists against the institution of slavery
about 1831, petitions of various kinds poured
into the House and the Senate, praying for the
abolition or the restriction of that institution.
These were generally presented by John Quincy
Adams, who as a member of Congress identified
himself particularly with the struggle against
any Congressional abridgment of the right of
petition. In May, 1835, the House passed the
so-called ‘Pinckney Resolutions,’ substantially
renewed in January, 1837, which provided that
all petitions relating to slavery should virtually
be disregarded, should not be printed or referred,
and should be laid on the table without action.
The resolutions also asserted that Congress
should not interfere with slavery in the District
of Columbia, and that that body had no power,
according to the Constitution, to take action with
regard to slavery in the individual States.
Adams's attempts to introduce petitions in
disregard of these resolutions provoked animated
debates, in which, on some occasions, considerable
feeling was aroused between Northern and Southern
members. In December, 1837, the House
passed the so-called ‘Patton Resolutions,’ introduced
by J. M. Patton, of Virginia, which
declared against the reading, referring, debating, or
printing of any petition praying for the
interference of the National Government with the

institution of slavery in any part of the United
States, including the Territories and the District
of Columbia. In December of the following year
the House passed the so-called ‘Atherton Gag,’
covering much the same ground as the ‘Patton
Resolutions,’ and in January, 1840, passed the
famous Twenty-first Rule to the same general
effect. Adams continued to offer petitions,
however, and at the opening of each new Congress
endeavored to have the objectionable rule
omitted. The majority against him progressively
decreased, and in December, 1844, the rule was
rescinded. Consult: Adams's Memoirs (12 vols.,
Philadelphia, 1874-77); Benton's Abridgment of
the Debates of Congress, 1789-1856 (16 vols., New
York, 1857-61); id., Thirty Years' View (2
vols., New York, 1854-56); and Wilson, Rise and
Fall of the Slave Power in America, vol. i. (3
vols., Boston, 1872-77).