"It is impossible, in my mind, to distinguish between the refusal to receive a petition, or its summary rejection by some general order, and the denial of the right of petition"
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Cushing’s line is a lawyerly scalpel aimed at a favorite trick of power: honoring a right in theory while strangling it in procedure. He’s not debating whether citizens may petition; he’s insisting that gatekeeping is itself a form of censorship. If the state can refuse to accept a petition, or pre-reject it through a blanket “general order,” then the right survives only as a decorative phrase. The genius of the sentence is how it collapses bureaucratic distinctions. “Refusal to receive” and “summary rejection” sound like mere administrative choices, but Cushing treats them as constitutional equivalents of outright denial. He’s stripping officials of plausible deniability.
The subtext is a warning about how democracies erode: not with dramatic proclamations, but with quiet workflow decisions. A petition is political speech with a destination; intercept it and you don’t just disagree, you sever the channel between governed and government. Cushing’s “in my mind” reads modest, but it’s also strategic: he frames the argument as common sense, not radicalism, inviting readers to see the moral arithmetic for themselves.
Context matters. In the antebellum United States, fights over the right of petition exploded around abolitionist petitions and the infamous “gag rules” in Congress that tabled or refused to consider anti-slavery submissions. Cushing, a diplomat and seasoned institutional operator, is speaking from inside the machinery: he knows the state can smother dissent without ever admitting it. The sentence is a demand that rights be measured by access and process, not by lofty declarations.
The subtext is a warning about how democracies erode: not with dramatic proclamations, but with quiet workflow decisions. A petition is political speech with a destination; intercept it and you don’t just disagree, you sever the channel between governed and government. Cushing’s “in my mind” reads modest, but it’s also strategic: he frames the argument as common sense, not radicalism, inviting readers to see the moral arithmetic for themselves.
Context matters. In the antebellum United States, fights over the right of petition exploded around abolitionist petitions and the infamous “gag rules” in Congress that tabled or refused to consider anti-slavery submissions. Cushing, a diplomat and seasoned institutional operator, is speaking from inside the machinery: he knows the state can smother dissent without ever admitting it. The sentence is a demand that rights be measured by access and process, not by lofty declarations.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
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