2014年英语四级听力的练习：VOA慢速4.16_大学英语听力

2014年英语四级听力的练习：VOA慢速4.16

　　At the time, Adams was a congressman, not an abolitionist. But he led a campaign against an 1836 rule restricting anti-slavery petitions. Adams said the rule was a violation of the constitutional right to petition Congress. Historian Julie Jeffrey says the 1836 gag rule, as it was called, helped the abolitionists cause.

　　It became partly a freedom of speech issue, not just about slavery, but about the rights of citizens to speak out and to be heard by their representatives in Congress.

　　Yet John Quincy Adams was not excited about arguing the Amistad case. He was 72-years-old, nearly blind, and very busy. But the issue of the Amistad Africans troubled him. Howard Jones says Adams believed capturing people and enslaving them was immoral especially in a country like the United States. In the end, Adams agreed to defend the Africans.

　　And he makes the argument in the court case that we have the Declaration of Independence right there on that wall and that says that life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness... It doesnt say for white people only, or anything like that. He was arguing, trying to argue, that its something thats available for everyone, its part of the justice system.

　　Chief Justice Joseph Story did not totally accept Adams argument, or suggest that any kind of slavery was wrong. But he did agree with the district court that these Africans had been taken illegally from their homes. They were not and had never been slaves, Justice Story said. They were free people and should be returned home.