Page:Memorial from the ladies of Steubenville, Ohio, protesting Indian removal.jpg



Respectfully Sheweth:

your memorialists are deeply impressed with the belief that the present crisis in the affairs of the Indian nations, calls loudly on all who can feel for the woes of humanity, to solicit with earnestness, your honorable body, to bestow on this subject, involving as it does the prosperity and happiness of more than fifty thousand of our fellow christians; the immediate consideration, demanded by its interesting nature and pressing importance.

It is readily acknowledged, that the wise and venerated founders of our country's free institutions, have committed the powers of government to those whom nature and reason declare the best fitted to exercise them; and your memorialists would sincerely deprecate any presumptuous interference on the part of their own sex, with the ordinary political affairs of the country, as wholly unbecoming the character of American Females. Even in private life we may not presume to direct the general conduct, or control the acts of those who stand in the near and guardian relations of husbands and brothers, yet all admit that there are times when duty and affection call on us to advise and persuade, as well as to cheer or to console. And if we approach the public representatives of our husbands and brothers, only in the humble character of suppliants in the cause of mercy and humanity, may we not hope that even the small voice of female sympathy will be heard?

Compared with the estimate placed on Woman, and the attention paid to her in other nations, the generous and refined deference shown by all ranks and classes of men, in this country, to our sex, forms a striking contrast; and as an honorable and distinguishing trait in the American character, has often excited the admiration of intelligent foreigners. Nor is this general kindness lightly regarded or coldly appreciated, but with warm feelings of affectionate pride, and hearts swelling with gratitude, the mothers and daughters of America bear testimony to the generous nature of their countrymen.

When, therefore, injury and oppression threaten to crush a hapless people within our borders, we, the feeblest of the feeble, appeal with confidence to those who should be the representatives of national virtues as they are the depositories of national powers, and implore them to succor the weak & unfortunate.—In despite of the undoubted natural right, which the Indians have, to the land of their forefathers, and in the face of solemn treaties, pledging the faith of the nation for their secure possession of those lands, it is intended, we are told, to force them from their native soil, and to compel them to seek new homes in a distant and dreary wilderness. To you then, as the constitutional protectors of the Indians within our territory and as the peculiar guardians of our national character, and our country's welfare, we solemnly and earnestly appeal to save this remnant of a much injured people from annihilation, to shield our country from the curses denounced on the cruel and ungrateful, and to shelter the American character from lasting dishonor.

And your petitioners will ever pray.

Frances Norton

Catharine Norton

Mary A. Norton

M J Nage

Emily N Page

Rachel Mason

E. Anderson

S. Osburn

A. Wilson

S. J. Walker

E. J. Porter

A. Cushener

M. J. Kelly

Frances P. Wilson

Eliza M. Rogers

Ann Eliza Wilson

Sarah Moudrey

Mary Jenkinson

Jane Wilson

Eartha Weirs

Mary Weirs

Nancy Gusthorn

Sarah Hoghland

Nancy Larimore

Nancy Wilson

Elizabeth Sheppard

Mary I. Green

Anna Woods

Anna Dike

Margarita Woods

Margaret Larimore

Marie E. Larimore

Sarah S. Larimore

Martha E. Leslie

Catharine Hacke

H. D. Andrews

P. Lord

Eliza S. Wilson

Sarah Wells

Rebecca R. Morse

Hetty E. Beatty

Caroline S. Craig

Elizabeth Steenrod

Elloisa Leffler

Lucy Whipple

N. Kilgore

C Colwell

E Brown

M Patterson

R Craig

J McKillan

Betsy Tappan

Margaret M. Andrews

Sarah Spencer

Mary Buchanan Ohio state

Ellen J Buchanan do

Rebecca J Buchanan do

Hetty Collier

Eunice Collier

Elizabeth Beatty

Jane Beatty

Sarah Means

Elizabeth Sage