gag rule

gag rule - in U.S. history, any of a series of congressional resolutions that tabled, without discussion, petitions regarding slavery; passed by the House of Representatives between 1836 and 1840 and repealed in 1844. Abolition petitions, signed by more than 2,000,000 persons, had inundated Congress after the establishment of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1833). Gag rules, supported by proslavery ...

Adams, John Quincy - Adams's long second career in Congress was at least as important as his earlier career as a diplomat. Throughout, he was conspicuous as an opponent of the expansion of slavery and was at heart an abolitionist, though he never became one in the political sense of the word (see primary source document: Slavery and the Constitution). In 1839 he presented to the House of Representatives a resolution ...

Weld, Theodore Dwight - American antislavery crusader in the pre-Civil War period.

Theatre - The devastation that AIDS continued to inflict on the United States generally, and in the theatre world in particular, was reflected by the plays that dominated not only Broadway and off-Broadway but also U.S. regional theatres in 1993. Thus, the stage year was realistic and reflective, in contrast to the hyperactive, star-studded, and ultimately unproductive previous year.

Economic Affairs - In November 1996 governments and nongovernmental organizations from around the world gathered in Rome for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO's) World Food Summit. The conference identified policies needed at the national, regional, and international levels to alleviate global hunger and malnutrition. Its aim was to motivate government departments to tackle major global ...