Description:

John Quincy Adams
Washington, DC, December 1841
John Q. Adams Right After "Amistad" - Official Notes as Member of Congress on Texas, Slavery, Haiti, Captive Americans, & More. Unique!
ADS

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Autograph Document Signed, Leaf from 27th Congress, 2nd session with notes on legislation, December 1841. 2 pp., 7.75" x 12.5". General toning; attached at top by tape to separate sheet with printed description.

Former President John Quincy Adams takes notes on pending legislation in the House of Representatives during the 2nd session of the 27th Congress. He signed his last name twice in the text of approximately 147 words he wrote on this document. On one side are his notes from his membership in the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In addition to Adams, the committee consisted of Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts, Horace Everett of Vermont, William Cost Johnson of Maryland, Francis Granger of New York, Thomas W. Gilmer of Virginia, R. M. T. Hunter of Virginia, R. Barnwell Rhett of South Carolina, and George H. Proffit of Indiana. This page includes Adams's notes from the December 14 and 21 meetings of the committee. On December 21, the committee considered the petition of Anne E. Bronaugh (1785-1868), the widow of John W. Bronaugh (1772-1834) of Stafford County, Virginia. She petitioned Congress for the balance due to her late husband as a contractor in 1827 for the delivery of timber.

On the verso are Adams's notes on actions of Congress on December 14, 1841, including his presentation of a petition by "Caroline Wilkie, and one hundred and nine other women of South Wilbraham, in the State of Massachusetts, praying that the customary diplomatic and commercial relations be entered into between this country and the republic of Hayti." Although not a direct plea to end slavery, this petition to recognize the first independent black republic served as a signal that former enslaved persons could govern themselves and could be citizens of a republic like the United States of America. The United States did not recognize Haiti until 1862.

Democrat Fernando Wood of New York introduced two petitions "praying that the President may be directed to bring the condition of certain citizens of the United States, now held as prisoners by the British Government at Van Dieman's Land, to the notice of that Government, and to ask their liberation." Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) was the primary penal colony in Australia. In addition to British convicts, a group of 93 North American political prisoners were sent to Van Diemen's Land for their involvement in the 1838 Canadian rebellions. Congress referred the petition to President John Tyler, who asked Secretary of State Daniel Webster to investigate the issue of these "Captive Patriots." In July, Webster reported to the President, who submitted his report to Congress. Webster reported that there was no correspondence in his office suggesting that any U.S. citizens were prisoners in Van Diemen's Land.

Daniel D. Barnard of New York introduced a "remonstrance of citizens of Albany, in the State of New York, against the admission of Texas into the Union." Like petitions for the recognition of Haiti, those against the admission of Texas provided an opportunity for citizens to express their opposition to slavery without directly asking for its abolition and thus invoking the "Gag Rule." Opponents of the admission of Texas feared that the large territory would be divided into as many as five new slave states, tipping the balance in Congress in favor of the slave-holding states.

The House referred all of these petitions to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. From Adams's notes, it appears that on June 14, 1842, the Committee on Foreign Affairs laid over several of these petitions to the next Congress.

Excerpts
"Members of the Committee
"Adams, Cushing, Everett W. C. Johnson, Granger, Gilman, Hunter, Rhett, and Proffit-all present except Mr Proffit
"Resolved that the Stated meetings of the Committee shall be weekly on Tuesday Mornings at 10 O'Clock. The names of the members present at each meeting to be entered on the minutes. Chairman directed to move in the House the reference of the Messages of P. U.S. of the last session to the Committee.
"Consideration of the Letter from Sec of State of 14 Decr and enclosures postponed.
"Adjourned to next Tuesday morning 10 A.M."

"Tuesday 21 Decr
"Present Adams, Everett, W. C. Johnson, Granger, Gilmer Hunter, Rhett, and Proffit.
"Petition of Ann C. Bronaugh read.
"To ask that the Committee be discharged, and the petition and documents referred to the Judiciary Committee"

[verso:]
"1841. Dec. 14…Mr. Wood…New York. Inhabts of in behalf of Captive Patriots."

"Mr. Adams...Massachusetts—Women of South Wilbraham in favor of recognition of Hayti...14 June lain over"

"Barnard…New York. Inhabts of vs. the admission of Texas into the Union...14 June passed over"

Historical Background
John Quincy Adams is the only person to reenter Congress after serving as President. He served as president from 1825 to 1829 and then served in the House of Representatives from 1831 until he died of a stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives in 1848.

This leaf comes from the 2nd session of the 27th Congress, which met from December 6, 1841, to August 31, 1842. On the first day of the session, a representative from Maryland made a motion that the House adopt all of the rules for its government from the previous session. Adams offered an amendment to adopt all of the rules except the 21st rule. That rule prohibited the House from considering any petition related to slavery. The amendment offered by Adams lost by a vote of 84 for the amendment to 87 against it. The "gag rule" governed the proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1836 to 1844.

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was born in Massachusetts, the son of future President John Adams. He accompanied his father on several diplomatic missions in the 1770s and 1780s and graduated from Harvard College in 1787. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1791. Adams served successively as minister to the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and Britain, from 1794 to 1801 and from 1809 to 1817. He met Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775-1852), the daughter of a poor American merchant, while in Europe, and they married in 1797 in London. He began his career as a moderate Federalist but switched to the Jeffersonian Republican Party around the year 1807. He helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, and was a brilliant Secretary of State (1817-1825), taking the lead role in formulating the Monroe Doctrine. He won the election of 1824, which was decided in the House of Representatives because no candidate won a majority in the Electoral College. Adams's "deal" with House Speaker Henry Clay, whom he named Secretary of State, helped spark the formation of an opposition party around Andrew Jackson. John Quincy Adams served one largely frustrating term as president and lost in the election of 1828 to Andrew Jackson. In the early 1830s, Adams joined the Anti-Masonic Party before becoming a member of the Whig Party. Surprising most observers, Adams stood for election to the House of Representatives in 1831 and served seventeen memorable years, becoming a bulwark for civil liberties and a voice in the emerging anti-slavery movement. He defended the Amistad slaves before the Supreme Court in 1841 and died of a stroke on the floor of the House in 1848.

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