Gag Rule Motion, 1837 | Records of Rights

Resolved, that all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatsoever, to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid on the table and . . . no further action whatever shall be had thereon.

Gag Rule Motion 1837

This motion is for one of a series of House resolutions that automatically tabled antislavery petitions. In 1839 the House passed a stricter rule—forbidding reading, debate, or even mention of antislavery petitions.

National Archives, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives