Memorial
to the
"Gentlemen,--I respectfully ask to
present this Memorial, believing that the cause, which actuates to and
sanctions so unusual a movement, presents no equivocal claim to public
consideration and sympathy...
I come to present the strong claims of
suffering humanity. I come to place before the Legislature of Massachusetts the
condition of the miserable, the desolate, the outcast. I come as the advocate
of helpless, forgotten, insane, and idiotic men and women; of beings sunk to a
condition from which the most unconcerned would start with real horror; of
beings wretched in our prisons, and more wretched in our almshouses...
If my pictures are displeasing, coarse, and
severe, my subjects, it must be recollected, offer no tranquil, refined, or
composing features. The condition of human beings, reduced to the extremest
states of degradation and misery cannot be exhibited in softened language, or
adorn a polished page.
I proceed, gentlemen, briefly to call your
attention to the present state of insane persons confined within this
Commonwealth, in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten
with rods, and lashed into obedience...
Become the benefactors of your race, the just
guardians of the solemn rights you hold in trust. Raise up the fallen, succor
the desolate, restore the outcast, defend the helpless, and for your eternal
and great reward receive the benediction, "Well done, good and faithful
servants, become rulers over many things!"
...Gentlemen, I commit to you this sacred
cause. Your action upon this subject will affect the present and future condition
of hundreds and of thousands. In this legislation, as in all things, may you
exercise that "wisdom which is the breath of the power of God."
Respectfully Submitted, D. L. Dix
Source:
Dix, Memorial to the Legislature of