Now abolitionists had been busy again, circulating petitions to Congress to prohibit the admission of new slave states, to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C., and to enact other laws unfavorable to planters’ interests. By mid-1837 Congress had been flooded with such requests, and legislative debates on slavery grew even more intemperate. Fearing sectional disruption in politics, Whig and Democratic leaders from North and South contrived a rule of procedure that prohibited all debate on antislavery petitions. When received, they had to be silently and automatically tabled.
