Annotated and Abridged Artifact
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Dix Memorial Questioned
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Abridged Text | ||
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| 1 | Miss Dix's Memorial to the Legislature, [1 »] respecting the condition of the Insane Paupers in the Commonwealth, so far as it respects the town of Danvers, is contradicted by the Overseers of the Poor [2 »] of that town in a counter memorial. A statement has also appeared in the Greenfield Gazette, from an official source in the town of Shelbourne, [3 »] so far contradictory of Miss Dix's statements, as to throw suspicion on the whole of the memorial. Indeed, before we saw the reply of the Danvers Overseers, published some time ago in the Salem Gazette, we had no doubt that Miss Dix's narratives ought to be received with some qualifications. The statement subsequently made by Dr. Howe [4 »] and Mr Waterston, respecting the Danvers case, almost persuaded us that lady had not been so extravagant as we had supposed; [5 »] but the Memorial and the Greenfield statement revive our suspicions. On the whole, we think the public will be quite liberal if they receive her facts at a discount of about fifty percent. | |
Annotations
1. Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts.
2. Overseers of the Poor were in charge of a town’s indigent residents, either by managing an almshouse or by farming out indigent individuals to more prosperous residents.
3. Dix Accused of Slander.
4. Samuel Gridley Howe was a famous advocate for the blind and the mentally ill. He helped to found what became the Perkins School for the Blind in 1832. Married to Julia Ward Howe, he was also active in the antislavery movement.
5. By “extravagant,” the editorialist means the charge that Dix exaggerated the conditions she saw.
