are free, we would remain in possession of what kind Providence has bestowed upon us, and remain daughters of freemen still.
"All who patronize this effort we wish to have discontinue their labor until terms of reconciliation are made.
"Resolved. That we will not go back into the mills to work unless our wages are continued to us as they have been.
"Resolved, That none of us will go back unless they receive us all as one.
"Resolved, That if any have not money enough to carry them home they shall be supplied.
"Let oppression shrug her shoulders,
And a haughty tyrant frown,
And little upstart Ignorance
In mockery look down.
Yet I value not the feeble threats,
Of Tories in disguise,
While the flag of independence,
O'er our noble nation flies."
In 1843 the girls in the cotton mills of Pittsburg, Pa., whose working hours had been from five o'clock in the morning till a quarter of seven in the evening, rebelled also, when their employers attempted to increase the time one hour each day without extra pay. Two years later they co-operated with the factory girls of New England, concurring in the proposal to "declare their independence of the oppressive manufacturing power" unless the work day was limited to ten hours.
The policy of these fighters for better conditions is outlined in the constitution of the "Lowell Female Labor Reform Association," which had been organized in 1845. Article IX says:
"The members of this association disapprove of all hostile measures, strikes and turn-outs until all pacific measures prove abortive, and then that it is the imperious duty of everyone to assert and maintain that independence which our brave ancestors bequeathed to us and sealed with their blood."
The spirit of these working women is likewise shown in the preamble adopted at the annual meeting of the association in January, 1846. It reads:
"It now only remains for us to throw off the shackles which are binding us in ignorance and servitude and which prevent us from rising to that scale of being for which God designed us. With the present system of labor it is impossible. There must be reasonable hours for manual labor and a just portion of time allowed for the cultivation of the mental and moral faculties, and no other way can the great work be
167
