From the Richmond Enquirer
The House of Representatives of Massachusetts have passed resolutions, asserting the unqualified right to petition, and recognizing the right of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, by a vote of 378 to 16. This is absolute infatuation – we had almost said, fanaticism. What right has Congress to act upon petitions which touch our own households? — What right have they to disturb the subject of slavery in the District, when the public faith is, to all intents and purposes, pledged to respect it? ……….Suppose the Legislature of Virginia were to pass resolutions, asserting the right to petition Congress on the hours of work and on the modes of treatment for the apprentices out of the North, would not Massachusetts be the first to rebuke us for the impertinent interference? …..Her blood would immediately warm upon the question — Why , then, does she not allow for our Southern feelings and Southern interests?
(Liberator, April 14, 1837, pg 3)
