Adams waged a lonely war against slavery. In 1836, the slaveholding states had successfully imposed a gag rule (the origin of that term) in the House, which essentially prohibited mentioning slavery. Adams rebelled against the rule as much as against slavery itself. On behalf of some constituents in 1842, he submitted a petition to dissolve the “Union of these States” over southern slavery. Harlow Giles Unger tells the story of the ensuing parliamentary conflict in his biography of the younger Adams:57
