Page:Petition from women of Brookline, Massachusetts, praying that the gag rule be rescinded.jpg

 To the Honorable the House of Representatives of the United States.

The undersigned Women of Brookline in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have learned with astonishment and alarm, that your honorable body did, on the 21st of December last, adopt a resolution in the words following, to wit:

being debated printed read or referred, & that no further action whatever shall be had thereon

Your memorialists 'consider this resolution a violation of the Constitution of the United States—of the right of the people of the United States to petition—and of the right of their Representatives to freedom of speech as members of your honorable body:' They further regard it as an assumption of authority, at once dangerous and destructive to the fundamental principles of republican government, to the rights of minorities, to the sovereignty of the People, and TO THE UNION OF THESE UNITED STATES: They therefore present this their solemn and earnest remonstrance against said resolution, and respectfully ask your honorable body to IMMEDIATELY RESCIND IT.