Sir, it is ... well known that, from the time I entered this house, down to the present day, I have felt it a sacred duty to present any petition, couched in respectful language, from any citizen of the United States, be its object what it may,—­be the prayer of it that in which I could concur, or that to which I was utterly opposed.  I adhere to the right of petition; and let me say here that, let the petition be, as the gentleman from Virginia has stated, from free negroes, prostitutes, as he supposes,—­for he says there is one put on this paper, and he infers that the rest are of the same description,—­that has not altered my opinion at all.  Where is your law that says that the mean, the low, and the degraded, shall be deprived of the right of petition, if their moral character is not good?  Where, in the land of free-men, was the right of petition ever placed on the exclusive basis of morality and virtue?  Petition is supplication—­it is entreaty—­it is prayer!  And where is the degree of vice or immorality which shall deprive the citizen of the right to supplicate for a boon, or to pray for mercy?  Where is such a law to be found?  It does not belong to the most abject despotism.  There is no absolute monarch on earth who is not compelled, by the constitution of his country, to receive the petitions of his people, whosoever they may be.  The Sultan of Constantinople cannot walk the streets and refuse to receive petitions from the meanest and vilest in the land.  This is the law even of despotism; and what does your law say?  Does it say, that, before presenting a petition, you shall look into it and see whether it comes from the virtuous, and the great, and the mighty?  No, sir; it says no such thing.  The right of petition belongs to all; and so far from refusing to present a petition because it might come from those low in the estimation of the world, it would be an additional incentive, if such an incentive were wanting.

NULLIFICATION

From his Fourth of July Oration at Quincy, 1831

Nullification is the provocation to that brutal and foul contest of force, which has hitherto baffled all the efforts of the European and Southern American nations, to introduce among them constitutional governments of liberty and order.  It strips us of that peculiar and unimitated characteristic of all our legislation—­free debate; it makes the bayonet the arbiter of law; it has no argument but the thunderbolt.  It were senseless to imagine that twenty-three States of the Union would suffer their laws to be trampled upon by the despotic mandate of one.  The act of nullification would itself be null and void.  Force must be called in to execute the law of the Union.  Force must be applied by the nullifying State to resist its execution—­

         “Ate, hot from Hell,
     Cries Havoc! and lets slip the dogs of war.”