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To the Honorable the Senators & Representatives In the State of ME in Legislature assembled.

The undersigned Ladies of Winthrop, ask leave respectfully to represent, that the enslavement of several hundreds of females in the District of Columbia & the Territories of the United States is a grievous evil & grossly in- consistent with the inherent & inalienable rights of man, as well as the free institutions of our Country. They therefore pray you to ask the Senators & Representatives in Congress from this State to use their influence & best in- deavors to obtain from that body the removal of an evil so reproachful to an enlightened, free, Christian government, and so offensive & injurious to an unoffending class of human beings; and that they would exert themselves to have the slave trade carried on in the District of Columbia abolished.

They also pray, that they may be requested to attempt to effect the repeal of those laws under the operation of which free colored citizens of the North, who visit the Capitol of this Republic, are liable to be sold into perpetual slavery because unable to prove their right to freedom.

They would also respectfully inquire of your honorable Body, whether some further legal provision cannot consist- ently be made to prevent or suppress mobs, got up to dis- turb, annoy, & injure the property & the persons of the loyal citizens of this State, peaceably assemble to exercise the invaluable right of free discussions, & to afford them more compe- tent protection, when peaceably assembled to exercise the invaluable right of free discussion. And as in duty bound Winthrop, Feb. 18, 1837

[3 columns of signatures] Mercy Lancaster Ann M Hight Olivia M Benjamin Ruth M Mann Hannah Chandler Elizabeth H Davis Lydia L Bridgham Mary L Mitchell Eunice McCuly[?] Cynthia W. May Deborah W Chandler Nancy Perrott Alliana Stanley Sarah Dearborn Bethiah House Abigail N. Bean Sophia C Martin Sarah Prescott Martha Lovell Mary Dealy Priscilla Libby Harriet G Frost Catherine Hyland K N Milliken Elizabeth Hoyt Elizabeth Newman Amelia W Norris Lydia May Harriet A Newman Eveline Johnson Ann L Smith Elizabeth A Newman Olive L Webb Adaline C Barrell Cynthia V Dinsmore Muriel Kimbell Adaline S Barrell Risalla Brown Matilda Sewall Mary Carr Hannah W Wood Vareisse Sewall Providence Thurston L M Shaw Lydia Curtis Elizabeth Thurston Dolly Y Jacobs Sarah E Holmes