Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Remarks of Mr. Ely Moore, of New York, in the House of Representatives, February 4, 1839, on Presenting a Remonstrance From Citizens of the District of Columbia Against the Reception of Abolition Petitions, &C
And, sir, permit me to say, that I am not altogether confident the American people do not attach undue importance to the "right of petition." when understood in a broad and political sense - in that sense, I mean, in which it has ever been regarded in England. When I hear gentlemen on this floor declaim with so much warmth and energy on what they are pleased to call the "blessed, sacred, and inestimable right of the people to assemble and to petition for redress of grievances," I am sometimes inclined to believe that their zeal is not exactly according to knowledge, and that they have not duly considered the character and genius of our free institutions.
It is true, and to my mind it is as strange as it is true, that the Congress of 1789 deemed proper to propose an amendment to the constitution, recognising "the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The statesmen of that day, as Well as those of the present, were too much in the habit of looking to England, not only for precedents, but for political principles and practices. And from that source did they derive their ideas concerning the sanctity and importance of the right of the people to assemble and petition their Government. That the right of petition has ever been held dear and sacred by the oppressed and down trodden subjects of Great Britain, is not to be marvelled at. Nothing could be more natural than that a people, whose political franchises had been wrenched from them by the iron hand of despotic power, should esteem it a boon to be graciously permitted to assemble, and make known their wrongs, and to petition, to supplicate for redress. It was the only avenue to the throne which tyranny had left them; the only mode to obtain, or rather to solicit, redress, which the sovereign had vouchsafed to them. The grievances complained of by British subjects - I speak particularly in reference to by-gone times - were mostly general in their effects, and political in their character, and originated with Government. And the only general or political remedy, if remedy it could be called, which the subjects were permitted to apply, was to assemble and petition the Crown relative thereto. Hence, ever associated with the "right of petition" is the idea of an expression of the public sentiment, or of the public will. But with what propriety this identical idea has been transferred to the American constitution, I confess I am at a loss to determine.
In England, especially in the reign of King John, of "Magna Charta" memory, and of the first three Henrys, the people loudly and earnestly clamored for the right of petition, because their voice could only reach the throne through the medium of supplication - of petition.
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