Congress received over 1,000 anti-slavery petitions signed by 130,000 citizens in the 1830s, exercising what the First Amendment calls the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The right traces back 800 years to the Magna Carta and England's 1689 Bill of Rights.
Colonial Americans cited King George III's refusal to address their petitions as justification for independence in 1776. Starting in 1836, the House of Representatives imposed gag rules that automatically tabled anti-slavery petitions and banned their discussion. Former president John Quincy Adams and other Representatives fought for eight years to overturn these rules in 1844, arguing they violated the constitutional right to petition.
Today, Americans use this right to submit complaints, requests, or demands to any government official or agency at the local, state, or federal level. The right protects both individual petitions and organized campaigns seeking policy changes.