South or the North. And whilst I entreat of individual members of
the House to regard this question in calmness, and conclude it in
judgment, as they would any lesser question, I warn and adjure the
House itself, as a constituent branch of this government, to beware
lest, in deciding this general question of the right of petition, it
overleap the bounds prescribed to it by the Constitution.

Men of Virginia, countrymen of Washington, of Patrick Henry, of
Jefferson, and of Madison, will ye be true to your constitutional
faith? Men of New York, will ye ride over the principles of the
democracy ye profess? Men of the West, can ye prove recreant to the
spirit of sturdy independence, which carried you beyond the
mountains? Men of New England, I hold you to the doctrines of
liberty which ye inherit from your Puritan forefathers. And if this
House is to be scared, by whatever influences, from its duty, to
receive and hear the petitions of the People, then I shall send my
voice beyond the walls of this Capitol for redress. To the People I
say, Your liberties are in danger; they, whom you have chosen to be
your representatives, are untrue to their trust; come ye to the
rescue; for the vindication of your right of petition, to you I
appeal; to you, the People who sent us here, whose agents we are, to
whom we shall return to render a reckoning of our stewardship, and
who are the true and only sovereigns in this Republic.