Five workers in the federal navy yard in Philadelphia wrote this petition to Andrew Jackson to ask that their work day be limited to ten hours. Addressed to Jackson at the Hermitage in Tennessee, the letter recounts the workers' frustrations and appeals to Jackson’s concern for his place in history: ... frequent appeals have been made for the establishment of a system requiring but ten hours labour in our national yard. The commandant has been solicited. The board of navy commissioners have been solicited. The Secretary of the Navy declines interference. Congress at last session was petitioned, but none of these have availed. And therefore as a last resort the committee have been appointed to solicit the fountain head of government … It will also be a gratification … to reflect that one of the last acts of your presidential career was to give comparative freedom to millions of your countrymen and to know that the honest blessings of the labourer will be awarded to your memory when you shall [have] passed to that bourne from whence no traveler returns. Two days after the date of the petition's postmark, Jackson ordered ten-hour days to be granted in the Philadelphia shipyard as of September 3rd. The petition is signed by John Crossin, Wm. Thompson, Joshua L. Fletcher, Joseph D. Miller, and Edward McDonald.