Arguing about Slavery

Miller's book is a good overview of the history of the gag rule, a story with complex parliamentary maneuvering that Miller tells with patience and good humor. He has mastered the intricacies that John Quincy Adams used to press the issue and those that Adams's opponents used to suppress the same. The book features many lengthy quotations to give a sense of the proceedings (and get a sense of Adams's acerbic wit), but the citation format will be frustrating to the serious researcher attempting to locate the materials.