MARIE, Jane. The Case of Jane Marie, exhibiting the Cruelty and Barbarous Conduct of James Ross, to a Defenceless Woman. Written and Published by the object of his cruelty and vengeance and addressed to the Public of Philadelphia and the Whole of Pennsylvania. [Philadelphia: Duane], Sept. 1808. 8vo. 28pp. Printing flaw to page 3. Disbound.

Scarce narrative accusing a politician of attacking a Pittsburgh woman.

The 1808 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election pitted Democratic-Republican Simon Snyder against Federalist James Ross (famous for conducting the negotiations which ended the Whiskey Rebellion). In an attempt to discredit Ross in favor of Snyder, partisan publisher and newspaperman William Duane published the present pamphlet which accused Ross of horribly mistreating a woman named Jane Marie from Pittsburgh. Marie's French husband, prior to leaving her to return to France, had apparently sold their home on Grant's Hill to Ross, who in turn had Marie forcibly removed. The pamphlet includes her account of the eviction: I tremble while I attempt to convey a feint idea of the cruelty -- the blows inflicted on my person, the manner in which I was seized by the hair of the head, dragged by the legs down my own stairs by a gang of ruffians, beaten with sticks and whips, and ... without any other garment than a shift and a single petticoat on my person, and even these were brutally torn, and such scandalous acts of brutal indelicacy as I cannot -- as are too horrible for me to describe (pp. 17-18). Ross denied the allegations, but lost the election.

Sabin 44560.