Definition of Gag-rule

What does the word Gag-rule mean?

• part of speech: noun

  A rule adopted by Congress in January, 1836, on motion of John C. Calhoun. Congress had long been besieged by petitions from abolitionists all over the country. Calhoun proposed that henceforth all anti-slavery petitions be laid on the table unnoticed. This infringement upon the right of petition only increased the petition spirit in the North, and the "gag-rule" was, after a long struggle, abolished December 3, 1844. John Quincy Adams was its bitterest opponent and an ardent upholder of anti-slavery principles in Congress during ten years.