a progressive tradition

The people of Hallowell, Maine have spearheaded progressive movements from the earliest days since before incorporating as a city in 1852.

The Right to Speak

62 women of Hallowell signed the first ever petition by women sent to the US government.

On January 18, 1830, Charlotte Cheever, her daughter Elizabeth, Hannah Dole and 58 other women of Hallowell, Maine, signed and submitted a petition to Congress protesting the Indian Removal Act, signed by President Andrew Jackson—the federal government’s forcible removal of over 60,000 Native Americans from their lands in the south, the governmental ethnic cleansing of the south, what became known as the Trail of Tears.

These women asked for the right to speak on the matter, stating:

“There is one consideration, connected with this subject, which adds much interest, and gives us, as we think, a right to speak on the subject.”

Over the next 2 years over 1500 women from around the country petitioned the government on the subject of the removal of Native Americans from their homelands.

We do therefore repeat our prayer, that they may be permitted to abide by the graves of their Fathers and enjoy the sweets and endearments of home.

Hannah Dole

The woman in the white bonnet in front of the Right to Speak placard is Hannah Dole #50, wife of Hallowell abolitionist Ebenezer Dole. She was one of the 62 signatories on the petition.

I included Hannah Dole in the mural as she was the only woman who signed the 1830 Petition of whom I could find a portrait. The other two women in similar period clothing with her are Kate Tremblay and Libby Thompson from today. They both worked at Vaughan Homestead researching the 1830 Petition.

artist, Chris Cart

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (May 16, 1804 – January 3, 1894), sister of Sarah Hawthorne, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s wife, was a progressive educator brought to Hallowell by Benjamin Vaughan to teach his daughters and sons. Many who signed this petition were members of the women’s group Peabody dubbed the Blue Stocking Club, after the English Blue Stocking Society.

Text of 1830 Petition

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled,

we the undersigned, feeling deeply interested in the honor, integrity, and virtue of our country, and considering the question soon to be presented before you, in relation to several tribes of Indians in the western States, as affecting all these, we do most humbly and ardently unite our prayers with those of ten thousands in our lands, that your determination may be favorable to these devoted, persecuted and interesting people.

We have said this question affects our honour, our virtue and our faith – for what faith will be kept by subjects when rulers regard not the most solemn treaties – when they trample on the rights, the heaven descended rights of those who look to them for protection.

There is one consideration connected with this subject, which adds much interest and gives us, as we think, a right to speak on the subject. We refer to exertions made by the pious and benevolent to enlighten and Christianize this long neglected people; – and we say it – without any desire of glory, that these efforts have been sustained chiefly by the charity of our own sex – by the two mites of the widow and the penury of the poor. We are unwilling that these truly benevolent exertions should, by the strong men of government, be prostrated at a blow.

We are unwilling that the church, the school, and domestic altar should be thrown down before the avaricious god of power, and those groves dear to the heart of the Indian and which now echo the hymns of Jehovah, should be again the resort of the hunter, the wild man and the savage. We would not ordinarily interfere in the affairs of governance, but we must speak on this subject. We are aware that we owe to Christianity – all that is sacred to virtue – our elevation in the scale of beings; and we are anxious that others that the wandering Choctaw, Creek and Cherokee should participate in these privileges.

We do therefore repeat our prayer, that they may be permitted to abide by the graves of their Fathers and enjoy the sweets and endearments of home.

Petition signatories

Joanna Gage, Sophia Bond,Lucy Emerson, Hannah Alden, M C Ladd, Sarah Dummer, Mary M Palmer, Mary G. Morse, Nancy Dole, A or H Getchell, S or L Masters, M Perley, O. Getchell, Mary G Gillett, Ann E Gillett, Lydia F. Shepard, Pamela L Fuller, Lydia Page, Lucretia T Bond, Caroline T Bement, Lucretia P Bond, Susan C Moody, Abigail Page, Caroline ? Stickney, Julia A Page, Harriet Page, Hannah Dole, Anna Lakeman, Hannah Sewall, Martha H Page, Sarah C Howard, Sarah Cutler, C. _, Sarah W Page, Adelaide W Page, Mary C Wingate, L M Goodale, Elizabeth Goodale, Elizabeth S Goodale, Mary Gow, Pamela E Gow, Lucy __Gow, Sybil P Lovejoy, L Stickney, P E Stickney, Mary A P Wells, Sally H Agry, Abigail Gow, L__ren Parsons, Sarah E. Moody, Catherine Gardner, Mary Dole, Susan Gardner, Mary Gardner, M__ Gardner, Charlotte Cheever, Elizabeth B. Cheever, Caroline Ladd, Susan Vinall ?, Lucy G Gilman, F C Page

On outside of folded petition:

Wm. Sprague
21 Cong (Congress)
1 Sess (Session)
Memorial of sundry ladies of Hallowell, Maine, praying that certain Indian tribes may not be removed from their present places of abode.
1830 January 18. referred to committee on Indian Affairs March 29 report ______.