John Quincy Adams, won a seat in Congress at age 64 (note the present Liberal lie that older people are useless), where he became an ardent anti-slavery opponent. He presented legal petition after petition for this cause.
In 1836, slave holding interests (Democrats) in Congress passed the Gag Rule, forbidding all such petitions.
[Note which party was pro slavery and that prohibited freedom of speech and petition?]
However the US Constition guaranteed the right to petition, so Adams, much like Wilberforce, challenged the rule at every opportunity in a long, lonely, and humiliating struggle.
Finally eight years later, in 1844, the motion to rescind the now infamous Gag Rule carried.
In his diary he wrote: “Blessed, forever blessed, be the name of God!” And to his dumbfoundment, he found he had become a national hero…..