Litchfield Enquirer

Mr. Adams and the Right of Petition.-Some time ago, Julius Pratt & Co. of Meriden, Connecticut, presented to the Hon. J. Q. Adams, an ivory cane, as a mark of respect for his public services, which he (Mr. Adams.) deposited among other interesting relics, in the Patent Office at Washington, assuring the Donors that, should the right of petition become triumphant, he would cause the fact (or enjoin this duty upon his successors) to be engraven upon this cane. In a letter to Julius Pratt & Co., dated the 26th of March, 1845, after referring to the repeal of the 25th rule, on the 3d of December, 1844, Mr. Adams says:

"On that day was the 'Right of Petition Triumphant' in the House of Representatives of the United States. May it never again be suppressed or impaired. I have caused the date, 3d Dec., 1844, to be engraved under the scroll bearing the motto 'Right of Petition Triumphant' and have returned the cane to the Patent Office, to be there kept among the models, characteristic of American intellectual energy, American exquisite handicraft, and American irrepressible love of Freedom."