The WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS LIBRARY University of Michigan Gift of Norton Strange Townshend Fund EO PETER Travel innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn AN el LEO STITUTIUITATUNIT 1 LUULLIVAILABLE DICATO UNA SOM DITT CE NE Kallo l Lecce LIR VOISI O AO Tani TIMO om me cm ITHIN W [1 plum! lum S P [IIIIII IIIIII ] - TTTTTTTY LLLLLLLL SETT I GHETTITIE Etiam EL EAINED. HABERL Insane Asylum, Jacksonville, Illinois. General Jail Delivery! Cured by the passage of “The Personal Liberty Bill!” See Vol. II. Page 218. mu BHITHI ustitie HAMBERUNSAS Dr. Andrew McFarland, Formerly Superintendent of Insane Asylum, Jacksonville, Illinois. MODERN PERSECUTION, OR Insane Asylums lnveiled. AS DEMONSTRATED BY THE Report of the Investigating Committee of the Legislature of Illinois. By Mrs. E. P. W. PACKARD " Ye Shall Know the Truth." Published by the Authoress. Vol. I. HARTFORD: CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 1874. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1873, by Mrs. E. P. W. PACKARD, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. (llustrations. PICTURE I. The Insane Asylum at Jacksonville, Illinois, PICTURE II. Dr. Andrew McFarland. PICTURE III. Kidnapping Mrs. Packard. PICTURE IV. “George, we have no Mother!” PICTURE V. “How can I Live without my Children ” PICTURE VI. Not Alienated. PICTURE VII. Popular Mode of Curing Insanity! PICTURE VIII. Enforcing the “Nonentity” principle of Common Law for Married Women. TO MY BELOVED CHILDREN IS THIS BOOK MOST AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. To you, my first-born son, THEOPHILUS PACKARD, JR., born March 17, 1842: and you, my second child, ISAAC WARE PACKARD, born June 24, 1844; and you, my third child, SAMUEL WARE PACKARD, born November 29, 1847; and you, my only daughter, ELIZABETH WARE PACKARD, born May 10, 1850; and you, my fifth child, GEORGE HASTINGS PACKARD, born July 18, 1853 ; and you, my sixth child, ARTHUR DWIGHT PACKARD, born December 18, 1858;—I dedicate this Book, or a record of your mother's persecuted life—of that life of which you are the sun, moon and stars. Yes, it is for you, my jewels, I have lived—it is for you I have suffered the agonies of Gethsemane's Garden—it is for you I have hung on this cross of crucifixion; and been entombed three years in a living cemetery; and oh! it is for your sakes I hope to rise again, to find my maternal joys immortalized. Children dear, when all the world forsook me and fled, you stood firm for right, firm for truth, firm for duty; you, and you alone, were true to the mother who bore you, for you knew she was true to man, and true to God. Yes, your tender, lov- ing hearts have writhed in secret agony over your mother's sorrows—but you have been denied the boon of human sym- pathy for yourselves; and, what is harder still, you have not been allowed to bestow it upon your persecuted mother, even, while her lacerated heart was panting to receive it from you. DEDICATION. Yes, you, my first-born son, Theophilus, have been threat- ened with disinheritance from our family and home, because you loved your kind-hearted mother so well, that you sought to visit her in her prison-home in defiance of your father's edict. Oh, my son! Thy Father, God, will not disinherit thee for loving thy mother, even when the world forsook her. Four times has thy hard-earned wages, my filial Theophilus, been cheerfully expended to visit your mother in her dreary cell. And you, my Isaac, I have consented to lay upon the altar of my country—a living sacrifice for its sin. God has accepted the sacrifice and spared my Isaac! In the army you toiled early and late to accumulate a treasure, with which you could visit your mother. God 'succeeded you—you paid me one clandestine visit in my prison. Your two clandestine letters are all the letters from my children I have been permitted to receive. But oh! I needed no such proofs of your true love to assure me it was not dead within you. No, death and a living tomb cannot separate us. We are one in Christ. Oh, my children! Every earthly love has died within me—but oh! the death agonies of the maternal love well nigh rent soul and body asunder. Yes, the mother has died! But she has risen again—the mother of her country- and her sons and daughters are—The American Republic. Children, it is for the service of your country your mother has dedicated you, one and all. May you, my sons, be fitted to adorn the garden of American freedom, as plants,” grown up in your youth, from the rocky but luxuriant soil of family persecution. And may you, my daughter, be as a “corner- stone,” in our new temple of American freedom-" polished after the similitude of a palace.” CONTENTS. ..... 39 ..... 64 73 PAGE. Introduction .. ........ 13 CHAPTER 1. The Bible Class.. CHAPTER II. Evil Forebodings... CHAPTER III. My Abduction.... CHAPTER IV. My Journey.. CHAPTER V. My Reception. CHAPTER VI. My First Day of Prison Life. CHAPTER VII. The Parting Scene... CHAPTER VIII. Disappointed Hopes... CHAPTER IX. Sunny Side of my Prison Life... CHAPTER X. Letters to my Husband and Children..... CHAPTER XI. My Transition.. CHAPTER XII. My Removal from the Best Ward to the Worst...... CHAPTER XIII. My Reproof to Dr. McFarland for his Abuse of his Patients......... CHAPTER XIV. My Occupation... 84 88 96 104 .. 110 114 120 138 vlii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. PAGE. Evidences of My Insanity... 144 152 -156 158 164 168 171 The Attendant who Abused Me....... CHAPTER XVII. “Let Dr. McFarland Bear his own Sins!”. CHAPTER XVIII. Attempted Reconciliation with Mr. Packard.. CHAPTER XIX. Letter to My Children sent to the Wash-tub. CHAPTER XX. How I Obtained my first Writing Paper... CHAPTER XXI. The Modern Mode of Subjugating Married Women.... CHAPTER XXII. My Life Imperilled....... CHAPTER XXIII. Self-Defense-Clandestine Letters. CHAPTER XXIV. “You should Return to your Husband” CHAPTER XXV. Miss Mary Tomlin-A Model Attendant........ CHAPTER XXVI. Mrs. McFarland–The Matron............ CHAPTER XXVII. The Sane kept for the Doctor's Benefit.. 176 191 195 .. 200 204 209 Record of a Day..... CHAPTER XXIX. How I Bought and Retained some Paper......... ......... 213 CHAPTER Xxx. How Mr. Packard gave me Paper, and how Dr. McFarland Stole it...... 219 CHAPTER XXXI. My Family Relatives....... 222 CONTENTS. is 231 ...... 240 244 254 . 263 CHAPTER XXXII. PAGE. Old Mrs. Timmons Deserted by Her Children......... ......... 227 CHAPTER XXXIII. Mrs. Cheneworth's Suicide--Medical Abuse.... CHAPTER XXXIV. Changes and how brought about......... CHAPTER XXXV. My Battle with Despotism-No Surrender.... CHAPTER XXXVI. Reading Books and Papers..... 250 CHAPTER XXXVII. Abusing Mrs. Stanley....... CHAPTER XXXVIII. Subduing a New Prisoner. ....... 258 CHAPTER XXXIX. Treatment of the Sick.... CHAPTER XL. Mrs. Leonard's Visit to her Mother....... 266 CHAPTER XLI. Mrs. Emeline Bridgman--or Nature's Laws Broken..... 271 CHAPTER XLII. Sick Patients Driven off from their Beds....... .......... 279 CHAPTER XLIII. Interview with Mr. Wells, of Chicago-A Victim of Homesickness....... 284 CHAPTER XLIV. An Asylum Sabbath.. 291 CHAPTER XLV. An Attendant put under My Charge.. 293 CHAPTER XLVI. A Scene in the Fifth Ward... ........... 296 CHAPTER XLVII. Mrs. Olsen's Fifth Ward Experiences...... 300 CHAPTER XLVIII. Mrs. Olsen's Eighth Ward Experience........ 317 CONTENTS. 357 CHAPTER XLIX. PAGE. “Wives and Husbands There Must Part ”...... 327 CHAPTER L. How to make Incurables...... 330 CHAPTER LI. I was Punished for Telling the Truth. 338 CHAPTER LII. The Prisoner who called Himself “Jesus Christ !"...... 344 CHAPTER LIII. My First Opportunity for Self-Defense......... 349 CHAPTER LIV. My Exposure of Calvinism and Defense of Christianity.. CHAPTER LV. The Dawning of a New Dispensation......... 364 CHAPTER LVI. The Moral Barometer Indicates a Storm-A Hurricane... CHAPTER LVII. The Clouds Disperse..... . 377 CHAPTER LVIII. My Oldest Son Obtains My Discharge........ CHAPTER LIX. The Trustees Force me into the Hands of Mr. Packard... CHAPTER LX. An Appeal to the Government to Protect the Inmates of Insane Asylums by Law........ .......... 397 306 ....... 383 386 PREFACE. Providence hinges mighty events on pivots exceedingly small. What men call accidents, are God's appointed inci- dents. We are traitors to any truth when we suppress the utterance of it, and allow the opposite error to go unrebuked. High principles must be advanced as real laws. A desire to elevate all mankind to the nobleness for which they are de- signed, should manifest the depth and purity of our moral convictions. We should meet evil with mildness, yet with unfaltering firmness. We should aim to bring out a noble spirit into daily intercourse, believing that a holy life is a more precious offering to truth, than retired speculations and writ- ings; for he who leaves a holy life behind him, bequeaths to the world a richer legacy than any book. The want of moral courage to carry out great principles, and to act upon them at all risks, is fatal to originality, because the faculties slumber within, being weighed down by the chains of custom. This habit of reliance upon principle should give us a buoy- ant consciousness of superiority to every outward influence. A far higher anticipation of great results from worthy deeds, should make us strenuous in action, and fill us with a cheerful trust. We must be palsied by no fear to offend, no desire to please, no dependence upon the judgment of others. The con- sciousness of self-subsistence, of disinterested conformity to high principles, will command an open freedom to our utter- ances, and will summon into our service a spiritual force that will resist and overcome all obstacles. VADUOM. xii PREFACE. Under the inspiration of such sentiments have I penned the following narrative of my experiences, beneath a dark cloud of adverse events, whose silver lining is yet to be discovered to my physical vision. As the dyer uses mordants to set his colors, so my Heav- enly Father has employed the mordant of adversity to individ- ualize my sentiments of morality and virtuous action. And, by my experiences, it would seem that my Father intended to so capacitate me that I should be daunted and discouraged by nothing, that true loyalty might be burned into my heart. This loyalty demands that individual reason and conscience, enlightened by revealed truth, be the guide of human actions. It allows no oligarchy of creeds, sects, or customs to be a standard, which ignores the individual as a sovereign over himself. The God within is the monarch of this realm of human freedom. Mrs. E. P. W. PACKARD. CHICAGO, ILLs., January, 1873. (1496 Prairie Avenue. ) INTRODUCTION. As an introduction to the dramatic tale contained in this volume, I shall give my readers a full delineation of my most radical opinions in the language in which I gave them to the Bible-class in Manteno, Kankakee county, Illinois, since upon these opinions, there expressed, rests the foundation of the whole subsequent drama. These opinions were given to the class in writing so as to prevent misrepresentation. At the time I was kidnapped these Bible-class papers were stolen from me, and were persistently retained by my husband, Mr. Packard, until sometime after my liberation, when I got possession of them in the following manner: Mr. Packard had for some time been trying to induce me to sign a deed, so that he could sell some real estate, and I had objected, unless he should give me some equivalent for what he had already unjustly taken from me. This he would not do. He therefore went to Esquire La Brie, and took an oath that his wife was insane, so that he could sell the property without my signature. Finding my refusal was not going to save my right of dower, or prevent his selling the property, I proposed to him that I would sign the deed on condition that he would restore to me my papers. He accordingly called in Esquire La Brie to witness my signature, and in his presence he gave me my papers, as I had proposed. This signature was acknowledged as valid, although two days before Mr. Packard had taken an oath on the Bible, that I was insane, and thereby incompetent to sign a deed! By means of this perjury, on his part, my papers were restored to me. xiy INTRODUCTION. FREE DISCUSSION OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF. Free discussion implies that both sides of a subject can be investigated, and allows full liberty to each individual to ex- press his honestly cherished opinions, and also give his reasons in support of them. My classmates, we have nothing to fear in applying the scales of free discussion to our religious belief, for truth will sustain itself; the scales of free discussion, in- telligently used, always preponderate on the side of the truth- that is, the weightiest reasons always bear upon that side, and indicate a balance in its favor. For instance, should we wish to test the existence of a God in the scales of free discussion, what have we to fear in the use of the scales on this point ? If we are not prepared to support His existence by such arguments as will make the scales preponderate right, is it not best for us to bestow study on that point sufficient to defend it with intelligent reason, since this is confidently assumed to be a truth in our creed? Then we shall be prepared to defend as well as assert our belief. It is not respectful for us to say to our opponents on this or any other point, “I know your side is the wrong one, and you ought to take our positive assertion as authority suffi- cient to condemn you as a heretic, simply because you believe contrary to my honestly cherished opinions.” No, my classmates, the religion of authority has had its day; a reasonable religion, such as will bear the infallible tests of truth, based on arguments drawn from God's word and works, is the religion for us. Truth should be indorsed by us through our reasoning faculties alone, and therefore should not conflict with our common sense and enlightened reason. And it is my opinion, that the religion God sent to man, is so peculiarly adapted to man's nature, as not to conflict with the common- INTRODUCTION. XV sense views of the common mass of minds. And ere the bright millennial day dawns upon us, I believe that theologically sectarian views will give place to the common-sense views of mankind, and that this is to be the way there is to be “but one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Now, what can be the harm, dear classmates, in our trying to hasten this day, by bringing our educated belief to this test, by kindly using the scales of free discussion ? For myself, I feel willing to have all my opinions tested by these scales, and I am willing to yield any point of belief to a weightier invin- cible argument in the opposite scale—that is, those views which seem best supported by sound argument and candid reasoning I willingly indorse, although they may conflict with some of my preconceived ideas, or my educated belief, or even with our sectarian creeds. For it is not impossible but that some simple moral truth may have become perverted by educational influ- ences. And candor and honesty, it seems to me, compel us to admit that there is a mixture of truth and error in the creeds of all denominations of Christians, not even excepting the creed of the Presbyterian church; and what can be the harm in thus testing these views, and thereby separating the precious from the vile, rather than by trying to defend our sectarian creeds by arguments and reasons which are not based in truth for their support, thus perpetuating falsehood or errors. It is my desire, dear classmates, that this social Bible-class be employed as a means to fit us to become valiant defenders of our faith—that we here capacitate ourselves to defend all points of our belief by rational and intelligent reasons, that we may be able to meet the common enemy of our holy religion with arguments “ such as he cannot gainsay or resist.” The truth never suffers by agitation and free discussion. It is error alone that fears the light and shrinks before the scales. Let us dare to judge for ourselves what is right, and let us know what xvi INTRODUCTION. right and truth are, by bringing our religious belief to this test of reason and common sense. Let us throw off the blinding influence of prejudice and sectarian zeal, and come up upon the nobler, higher platform of being simple, sincere, charitable, honest seekers after the real, simple, naked truth. Having obtained permission from our teacher, Deacon Smith, to read the above article pefore the class, I commenced read- ing; but finding it to be a defense of what he had determined to stop-free discussion-he interrupted me, by forbidding my reading any farther. Of course I quietly submitted to this mandate with unanswering obedience. RIGHTS OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. I profess to be no theologian, or to have adopted the creed of any sect or denomination of Christians as infallible. But I do profess to take the works and word of God, or facts and re- velation as our only infallible guide in our search for truth, and a “ thus saith the Lord,” as a settling of all controversy. But since I know it to be a fact that equally sincere and honest Christians put a very different construction upon the same event of Providence, and the same text of Scripture, I feel that we are compelled to assume the responsibility of private judgment. And in so doing, I believe we are obeying Christ's directions in the fifty-seventh verse of the twelfth chapter of Luke, viz.: “And why, even of yourselves, judge ye not what is right ?” I regard this Bible-class as having reached that state of de- velopment where God holds us individually responsible for our belief. I therefore esteem it a great privilege to be in a Bible- class where our opinions are called for, rather than the opin- ions of commentators. Not that I wish to disregard the opinions of commentators or learned theologians in my search for Bible truth; for I do think that their opinions are entitled INTRODUCTION, xvii to great deference and respect. While I at the same time believe that a Bible is a book so peculiar in its nature, that learning and talent are not indispensable to a correct inter- pretation of it, any more than experience and education are indispensably necessary to our judging correctly of the wants of nature. For instance, because an adult may choose strong drink to allay his thirst, and the child prefer cold water, I do not think we are justified in concluding that strong drink is the best adapted to meet the wants of nature, simply because a mature man chooses it; for this adult may have perverted his natural appetite, so that his choice may not be so much in accordance with nature as the instincts of the child. As in our physical, so in our moral nature, there may be a liability that a simple moral truth may have been perverted by educational influences. Therefore, I do not think that because a talented and learned theologian advances an opinion, that he is cer- tainly correct; neither because an illiterate layman holds a different opinion, do I think he is certainly wrong. But in both cases we should judge of the opinion upon its own intrin- sic merits, independent of the source or medium through which it comes to us. Now, dear classmates, conscious that I am alone and per- sonally responsible to God for my religious belief, I do not want to embrace an error. Therefore I will be very thankful to be shown wherein my opinions are unsound, or my reason- ing inconclusive. Just consider my views, not as those of a theologian, but as one who is searching for truth on the same common plane with yourselves; and I ask you to give my opinions no more credence than you think truth entitles them to as you view it. For it is the common sense of common men and common women that I so much covet as my tribunal of judgment, rather than learned commentators, or popular theologians, or venerable doctors of divinity. xviii INTRODUCTION. 66 TOTAL DEPRAVITY." It is the authority of creeds, echoed by the theologians and ministers of the Presbyterian pulpit, not excepting our own pastor, that human nature is necessarily a sinful nature. Now, I ask the privilege of presenting to our class this question “If human nature is necessarily a sinful nature, how could Christ take upon himself human nature, and know no sin?” This question was referred to their pastor for an answer. Mr. Packard gave it as his opinion that a “Holy God might make a holy human nature for Christ, and a sinful nature for the rest of the human family.” Upon this, one of the class inquired,“ Can a holy God make sin ?” These questions troubled both our teacher, Deacon Smith, and their pastor. They could not answer them satisfactorily to themselves or the class; and it was to extricate themselves from this unpleasant dilemma that they at once agreed that this question was the result of a diseased brain, from whence it had emanated, and therefore it was unworthy of their con- sideration! Thus their reputation for intelligence and ability was placed beyond question, and the infallibility of their creed remained inviolate! And their poor afflicted Christian sister" must be kindly cared for within the massive walls of a prison, lest her diseased brain communicate its contagion to other brains, and then what will become of our creed ! for we cannot afford to follow the example of this “ Man of God," and sacri- fice our wives and mothers to save our creed ! INTRODUCTION. xix SPARE THE CREED! Though the mother's heart do bleed, Spare! O, spare our trembling creed ! Though her tender infants cry, Though they pine, and droop, and die, Though her daily care they need, Spare! O, spare our trembling creed ! Force the mother from her home! That once pure and peaceful dome; Bind her fast with maniacs, where None will heed her yearning prayer; Let cold bars and bolts and keys Fetter mothers such as these ! Iron manacles we need To protect our darling creed. What are homes or children's claims? What a doting mother's aims? What were life, love, liberty, If our creed imperilled be! Nothing in this world we heed, Like our dear endangered creed. Thus State power august hath wrought Fetters for too daring thought ! Souls thus bold Asylums need, To protect our precious creed. |--Mrs. S. N. B. O. This was the pivot on which my reputation for sanity was suspended; for I could not be made to confess that God made a bad or sinful article when He made human nature; but on the contrary, I claimed that all which God made was “good” —that is, was just as He intended it to be; and I furthermore argued, that to be natural was to be just as God had made me to be—that to be unnatural, was to be wrong or sinful. I XX MODERN PERSECUTION. claimed that God's work, as He made it, was perfect-it needed no regeneration to make it right—that regeneration was necessary only when we had become unnatural or different from what God had made us. I willingly acknowledged that our natures in their present state were perverted or depraved, in many instances to a painful degree; but that none are entirely lost to all traces of the divine image. For example, the drunkard is depraved in his appetite for drink, and the regeneration he needs is not a new appetite, but a restoration of it to its natural, original, unperverted state. Then he would have only a natur- al appetite for food and drink, which is in itself no sin; but the sin consists in his abuse of a natural instinct, not in the natural use of it. So that the natural exercise of our faculties, as God has made them, is not wrong, but only the unnatural or abusive use of them is wrong or sinful. THE UNLIMITED ATONEMENT. The professedly orthodox pulpit says, that “God intended all mankind for a life of purity, virtue and happiness.” Now I wish to ask if God's intentions can be thwarted? If they cannot be thwarted, and God intended all mankind for happi- ness, will not all men be saved ? If God intended it, and does not accomplish it, is He omnipotent? I believe God is omni- potent—that He intends nothing but good—and He will carry out all his intentions. I believe the devil is not omnipotent- that he intends nothing but evil—and he will ultimately fail in all his intentions. Therefore, God's intention in sending His Son into the world to redeem and save it, cannot be defeated; and when He as- sures us in His word, that He would that all men be saved," I believe that He is sincere, and thereby intends to bring all men ultimately to repentance and faith in Christ. And when INTRODUCTION. xxi He assures us that “death and hell shall be destroyed,” I believe it. And therefore there must ultimately be a time when sin and punishment must cease to be; and as sin and punishment had a beginning, they must have an end. But as God never had a beginning, so will He never have an end, but is destined, ultimately, to be the mighty conqueror and head over all. GOD'S IMMUTABILITY. While Deacon Smith was our teacher, I once asked him this question, viz. : “Did God change His purpose towards Nineveh, when he said He would destroy Nineveh and afterward saved it, as Jonah seemed to think He did, and expostulated with him to this effect ?" Deacon Smith replied, " He did not. God never changes His purposes.” This I considered as a correct answer; but his attempt to reconcile the two facts, viz. : His attribute of un- changeableness, and His change toward Nineveh, was not satisfactory. He simply remarked, “ God was not obliged to explain His plans and operations of government to Jonah's satisfaction.” This reason seemed to my mind to reflect a degree of dishonor upon the perfect character of our God. I believe we have a right to inquire, like Jonah, into a knowl- edge of his ways concerning us, and that we can, and ought, so to interpret His providences as not to reflect dishonor upon His character for justice and veracity, either in word or action; and I believe He is willing thus to manifest Himself to us, and thereby convict us of our unreasonable complaints against His • providences toward us. I say this suggestion from Deacon Smith did not satisfy me, but the suggestion of Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Dixon did fully satisfy me. They said, “ The Ninevites repented, as a reason why God's actions toward them changed.” Here was the key which un- xxii INTRODUCTION. locked all the mystery. It is we that change—not God. He has unchangeably decreed that sin and sinners shall be punish- ed. And He has unchangeably decreed to extend pardon and forgiveness to the repentant sinner. These two eternal pur- poses are His unchangeable decrees thus to act in all future time. The Ninevites knew it was so, and therefore they resorted to the only possible way they could resort to and be saved. They repented_God's immutable purpose stood un- changed. They were forgiven, and thus saved. WHAT IS IT TO BE A CHRISTIAN? It is not to cease to be a sinner. “No man liveth and sin- neth not.” All come short of perfect obedience to God's laws. To be a Christian is to be like Christ—that is, to live in accord- spiritual; but as our knowledge of these laws is limited, we are liable to transgress ignorantly; but the Christian is willing to put on Christ's righteousness, by repenting of his wrong doing, and thus living like him. By obeying God's laws, he becomes like Christ, and thus puts on his righteousness. It is one part of my Christianity, as I view it, to obey tho laws of health, and thus live a healthy, natural life, believing that is the best foundation on which to build up my spiritual nature. I cannot conceive of a symmetrical spiritual body without a healthy natural body to sustain it, any more than I can expect to build a cupola without a house to rest it upon. 66 First the natural, then the spiritual," seems to be the order God has established to develop human beings and make them like Christ. The human nature must be sublimated into the divine nature; or in other words, the lower, animal propensi- faculties, instead of being their masters as they now are, in their present depraved or unnatural condition. INTRODUCTION. xxiii FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE. Conscience is God's vicegerent in the soul. To heed the voice of conscience is to heed the voice of God. I never dare to do what I conscientiously believe to be wrong; neither will I be deterred from doing what I conscientiously believe to be right, impossibilities of course excepted, for God never re- quires of us impossibilities. I regard my conscience as a safe guide for myself, therefore I allow it so to others; while at the same time I believe it is only safe when it is based upon truth; and to me, the truth must be based upon God's revealed will, as I view it in God's word and works, and is thereby identified with the Bible. But I do not regard my views of truth as a standard for any other human being but myself; therefore I do not feel at liberty to judge any other's conscience than my own. I cheerfully as- sume the entire responsibility of my own actions, viewed from my own standpoint; but I am not willing to take the respon- sibility of any other's actions, viewed from their standpoint. We must all stand or fall for ourselves in judgment. There- fore, I claim Freedom of Conscience for all the human family equally with myself. SPIRITUAL GIFTS. The following article was prepared for the class, but was refused a hearing lest it be found to favor Spiritualism: I differ from Deacon Merrick in the opinion that those spiritual gifts mentioned in the 12th chapter of 1st Corin- thians-viz. : “the gifts of healing, working of miracles, pro- phecying, discerning of spirits, interpretation of tongues, the word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge,” etc., were con- fined to the apostolic age. But it is my opinion that they are the legitimate fruits of pure Christianity, and attendant upon xxiv INTRODUCTION. it to the end of time. Christ says, “ these signs shall follow them that believe.” Faith is evidently the stock on which these gifts are grafted, and I believe this is a kind of faith which it is our duty to cultivate and exercise to the same degree that the apostles did. And my reasons for this belief are supported by facts and revelation, as I view it. FIRST.— The Bible supports this opinion. Christ instructed us to exercise a kind of faith, which he compares in power to that of “removing mountains,” and also, “if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed ye might say to this sycamore tree, be thou plucked up by the roots, and be thou cast into the sea, and it shall obey you.” Now these illustrations evidently seem to teach that in the exercise of this faith we may expect effects to be produced beyond what our reason alone would justify us in expecting. Again, in James it is said “the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” And again, “ all things whatso- ever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Now will it be uncharitable in me to suggest that the faith of the orthodox churches of the present day may be like unto the faith of the woman who was told she could have whatever she asked for, believing she should have it. Shortly after she wanted something very much, and so prayed for it to get it; but it did not come. Chagrined at her failure, she remarked indignantly, “I knew it would not come when I asked for it!” Now, may not Christians ask like this woman, disbelieving, instead of believing they shall have them ? SECOND.—The proof of facts that this faith was not confined to the apostles—first, the Bible fact. James directs the churches to call for the elders of the church“ to come and anoint the sick man with oil, and to pray over him, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” These elders who had this power were not the apostles. And Joel prophesies of the last day, “your sons and daughters shall prophesy.” From this it seems there is to be a time in the future when pure, simple Christianity, INTRODUCTION. XXV like that which the apostles taught, is to prevail again upon the earth, and then these gifts are to follow as the fruits of this simple faith; thus showing that this faith was not to be con- fined to the apostles, but was intended to be the natural her- itage of the church whenever she became pure enough to produce this vigorous growth of faith required to ensure these manifestations. This faith was taught by Christ and exem- plified by himself and the apostles. Again, all the Christian fathers, certainly down to the end of the third century, affirm the continuation of these gifts; and they maintain their assertion by well authenticated facts in church history. But in succeeding ages, when the mass of Christians had become corrupted by worldly materialism and carnal-mindedness, these gifts became more and more rarely manifested, and were mostly confined to the humble few who adhered more tenaciously to the primitive faith and practice. Yetinstances have occurred among some distinguished teach- ers of Christianity. So late as the year 1821 Rev. Prince Hohenlohe, of Wurtenberg, Germany, a distinguished divine, after preaching to immense crowds, commenced to perform mir- acles. To the astonishment of the populace, he made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the paralytics to be cured; and in a short time no less than thirty-six persons were restored to health, from a state of hopeless infirmity. This he did by his prayers and a firm confidence in God's power. Another fact nearer home. About twenty years since I heard of a woman in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, who ex- hibited the power of discerning spirits, by telling at first sight the true character of entire strangers, as correctly as if she had always known them. But to come still nearer home. Have we not seen those who could instinctively read persons at first sight ? and others who have a kind of prevision of what is xxvi INTRODUCTION. about to take place, and they even act upon it with a kind of certainty that it would take place, for their experience had assured them that it could be relied upon as prophetic. I once heard of a physician who had this foresight to such a degree as enabled him, in many instances, to save life, by acting in accordance with it. For instance, he once, while riding home, felt an impression that he was needed in a certain street; and following the impression, he went directly there, and found a man who had just been thrown from his horse, and in such a situation that unless surgical help were immediately applied, he must have died. And many times he had left his bed at midnight to visit his patients, guided only by these impressions, and thus saved the lives of many of his patients. This kind of discernment is a gift higher than reason; and may it not be possible that they are of the nature of these spiritual gifts, and are but the incipient developments of a law of our spiritual nature as yet undeveloped, on which these gifts are founded, which is to be the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy ? OBJECTION FIRST.-Mrs. Dixon objected that since the power of working miracles is included among these gifts, she con- cluded they must be confined to the apostolic age, since the day of miracles is past. I reply, if the term miracle must mean only a suspension of a law of nature, or contrary to nature, I think with her, that the day is past for such manifestations. But, if it may bear the interpretation which men of talent and ability put upon it-viz: that a miracle signifies, and implies a supernatural power, meaning a power acting in harmony with a higher than natural law, I think they may, and still do con- tinue. The law by which these supernatural events take place is unknown to us, and may be beyond our present ability to comprehend. For example, had we never seen or known that a caterpillar could be changed into a butterfly, we should call INTRODUCTION. xxvii it a miracle. The facts occurring daily on the telegraphic wires would have been considered miracles to past generations. So of eclipses, which were regarded as miracles, until the law of eclipses was discovered. And I think it will continue to be a fact, that supernatural events will continue to take place, be- cause they are the result of laws on a plane of which we are as yet ignorant. I believe these spiritual gifts are all controlled by established laws of our spiritual existence, of which we are at present comparatively ignorant. I fully believe God never acts except in harmony with established laws, and is never compelled to break these laws to bring about his purposes. OBJECTION SECOND.-Deacon Merrick objected, thatif this was the true view, all who believe must have this power; and since none do have it as he thought, therefore there can be no true Christianity in the church. I reply, that I do not think this a legitimate conclusion- that because all do not have this power, therefore none do. Would Deacon Merrick say that because all the blossoms of the apple-tree do not perfect into perfect, sound, ripe apples, there- fore none do; or that there are no apples at all? Or would he rather say, that each blossom has in it the germ of the mature, sound apple, which will naturally be developed into fruit, un- less some accident occurs to prevent it? So all who have any degree of saving faith, have that in them which will ultimately perfect into this vigorous faith, and bring forth some of these perfected fruits or spiritual gifts. This faith is the natural outgrowth of human nature—that is, it has that universal principle of human nature, viz: trust or confidence, for its foundation to rest upon. We can no more get faith without this principle of human nature to build it upon, than we can get apples without soil to support the tree; and no more is the soil a sinful article because it is natural, than is human nature sinful because it is natural. Both the nature, and the precious xxviii INTRODUCTION. germinated spiritual fruits upon it, are part of God's well done work, and therefore are both equally good in their places. But for lack of proper cultivation this kind of fruit is rarely brought to perfection in this life. Another illustration. I once heard the Rev. Joseph Cooper, a Congregational minister, of Salem, Iowa, relate the follow- ing fact, which took place when he served on board a vessel, on the coast of Norway. His captain found himself utterly unable to navigate the ship through a very dangerous channel between an island and the main land. A pilot on board see- ing the very dangerous condition they were in, volunteered his services to the captain, assuring him he could take the ship safely through. The captain accepted the offer, although not without some misgivings as to the ability of this stranger pilot. But confident he could not guide it himself, he felt compelled to accept the offer. Consequently he resigned his ship entirely to this pilot's control, and directed his men to follow all this new pilot's directions. The pilot accepted his charge, and commenced by reversing all the captain's orders, and headed the ship towards the break- ers on shore. This aroused the captain's fears. Still he could do nothing but submit. But very soon his fears became so much aroused, in view of their approach towards the breakers, that he ventured to tell his pilot that they were going into the breakers. "I know it!” was his only reply, and still ap- proached the breakers. The captain expostulated with him three times, and each time received the same answer, “I know it!” For a time the captain paced the deck in agony, wring- ing his hands, until at length becoming desperate, he deter- mined to take the ship into his own hands, confident that his professed pilot was unworthy of confidence, and was just in the act of doing so, when, behold! the pilot turned the ship about, and soon brought it out of all danger. INTRODUCTION. xxix He afterwards found that the pilot had turned the ship at just the point, and the only point, where it could be done with- out being wrecked, for there was a narrow channel of rocks beneath, which the pilot knew how to follow ; but the least deviation from that course would have been destruction to the ship, and an attempt to turn before the right point was reached would have been not only impossible, but certain destruction. Now this captain had only just faith enough in his pilot to save him. He did not have that degree of faith needed to raise him entirely above his fears, in view of dangers so ap- parent to his reason. This degree of faith demanded the exercise of even a higher faculty than his reason, for it appar- ently conflicted with reason. But gospel faith, in its highest exercise, never conflicts with reason, although it sometimes transcends reason. But the different gradations of faith, from the mere saving faith to that all-conquering faith, which al- lays all anxiety and solicitude, under the most adverse circum- stances, depends upon the different organizations and sur- roundings which determine its development and growth. And all these manifold variations and gradations are ultimately to perfect into that sound and vigorous faith which Christ incul- cated, and is the stock upon which all these spiritual gifts germinate into natural fruit. QUESTIONS FOR THE CLASS. The following are some of the questions I proposed to the class for discussion, some of which were allowed to be dis- cussed, and many were not: 1. Do true Christians ever die with unrepented sins upon them? 2. Does death, which is merely a natural law of the body, XXX INTRODUCTION. affect the spirit; or does the extinction of merely animal life produce any change in our spiritual life? 3. Is it not the spirit that repents ? 4. Why then cannot the spirit repent when disconnected from the body? 5. Does the truth ever change? 6. Can people have a difference of opinion on the same sub- ject, and yet all be correct? 7. What causes this diversity of belief? 8. Will all equally good people see the truth in just the same light? 9. How ought we to treat those who we think teach error ? 10. Should we accede to the errorist the same right of opinion we do the advocates of truth? 11. Are we to expect new moral truths to be developed at the present day, since the canon of scripture is complete ? 12. Does progress in knowledge necessarily imply a change of views ? 13. Is not the platform of common sense the platform for a common religion to stand upon ? 14. Are bigotry and intolerance confined to any one church, or is this “ Great Beast” found in all churches ? 15. Can there be “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” with- out a mutual yielding of sectarian views among all denomina- tions of Christians ? 16. Have we any reason to expect that a Christian farmer, as a Christian, will be any more successful in his farming op- erations than an impenitent sinner? or, in other words, does the motive with which we prosecute our secular business, have anything to do with the pecuniary results? And if not, how is godliness profitable ? If any of my readers would like to see my answer to the sixteenth question, I could refer them to my second volume, INTRODUCTION. xxxi where they will find it in connection with a full account of my jury trial before Judge Starr, of Kankakee city, where my sanity was vindicated ; and my persecution is there demon- strated to be the triumph of bigotry over the republican prin- ciples of free religious toleration. This trial was not allowed me until after an imprisonment of three years, when, by the decision of the court, it was found that I had not been insane, and thereby had been falsely im- prisoned all this time. The way in which my incarceration was secured will be found in the following narrative of facts. The First Volume delineates the facts of this Persecution from the time I was kidnapped—through the period of my incarceration—until I was returned an involuntary victim into the hands of my husband, with the prospect of being again imprisoned for life in an Asylum in Massachusetts. It may be a satisfaction to the readers of this volume to know, that the facts herein stated have been authenticated and corroborated by the Illinois Investigating Committee, ap- pointed by the Legislature of 1867, to investigate and report the result to the Governor; which they did on the 2d of De- cember following. In this Report, the writer, with others, were acknowledged as competent witnesses in the following language, viz. : “The Committee have entire confidence in the belief, that all these witnesses had a clear understanding, and compre- hended, when examined, the obligations of the oath adminis- tered to them; and in an unusually intelligent manner testi- fied to matters within their recollection, and were prudent and entirely honest, and testified to facts as they believed them to exist. Neither of them exhibited any appearance of a disor- dered intellect, moral obliquity, or defective memory; and, xxxii INTRODUCTION, therefore, to reject their testimony, appeared to the Commit- tee as calculated to defeat an investigation after the truth, and possibly subvert the ends of public justice.” The object of the First Volume is to delineate the internal management of Insane Asylums on their present basis, for the purpose of educating the public mind into the imperative ne- cessity of a radical change in the treatment of the insane. And this effort is to be followed by an appeal to the State Legisla- tures for laws to meet and remedy the evils herein portrayed. The Second Volume continues this narrative of events, by detailing my imprisonment at my own house—my escape by the application of the Habeas Corpus-my loss of home, prop- erty and children—my attempts to defend my own rights- the success of my struggle in getting the laws of those States so changed that the personal liberty, property and children of married women are now protected by law in Massachusetts, Illinois and Iowa—the nine years work of getting my child- ren—the re-united family-bringing the narrative down to the present time, when the family are again dispersed, leaving me free to prosecute the work of securing such laws in all the States as will protect the inmates of Insane Asylums, and Married Women from the abuse of autocratic power. This entire narrative affords a striking illustration of the legal disabilities of the insane and married women, both of which are caused by the legalized use of an autocratic power. They therefore both require the same remedy, which is— legislation—such as will hold the Husband and Superintendent both amenable to the laws of this Republic in the exercise of their legal power over the wife and the insane patient. Let the Government but remove this legalized usurpation of human rights, and the great cause of Modern Persecution, as delineated in the subsequent narrative, will be effectually removed. MODERN PERSECUTION. CHAPTER I. The Bible-Class. I am a native of Massachusetts, the only daughter of an orthodox clergyman of the congregational denomination, and the wife of a congregational clergyman, who was preaching to a Presbyterian church in Manteno, Kankakee County, Illinois, at the time my legal prosecution commenced. At this time my husband's name became enrolled among the Chicago Pres- bytery as a Presbyterian clergyman. My maiden name was Elizabeth Parsons Ware, born Decem- ber 28, 1816, at Ware, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. My husband, Rev. Theophilus Packard, born February 1,1802, at Shelburne, Franklin County, Massachusetts. We were married May 21, 1839. At the time I was kidnapped I had lived with my husband twenty-one years. We had six children, five of whom were boys, and one girl. Our oldest child, Theophilus, was at this time eighteen years of age, and our youngest, Arthur, an infant of eighteen months. All of the children, except the oldest, were living at home at the time their mother was kidnapped. I have been educated a Calvinist after the strictest sect; but as my reasoning faculties have been developed by a thorough scientific education, I have been led, by the simple exercise of my own reason and common sense, to endorse theological views in conflict with my educated belief. and the creed of the church with which I am connected. In short, from my present standpoint, I cannot but believe 2* 34 MODERN PERSECUTION. that the doctrine of total depravity conflicts with the dictates of reason, common sense and the Bible. And the only offence my persecutors claim I have committed, is, that I have dared to be true to these my honest convictions, and to give utter- ance to these views in a Bible-class in Manteno, Kankakee County, Illinois. But their popular endorsement by this class, and the com- munity generally, led my husband and his calvinistic church to fear lest their church creed might suffer serious detriment by this license of private judgment and free inquiry; and as these liberal views emanated from his own family, and he, de- clining to meet me upon the open arena of argument and free discussion, chose rather to use the marital power which the common law of marriage licenses him to use over my identity, and under a very unjust statute law in Illinois, then in force, he got me imprisoned in Jacksonville Insane Asylum without evidence of insanity and without any trial, hoping, as he told me, that by this means he could destroy my moral influence and thereby defend the cause of Christ as he felt bound to do. About four months previous to my incarceration for religious belief, I received a most cordial invitation from Deacon Dole, the teacher of this Bible-class, that I join his class and present my views for their consideration; for, said he: “I find it impossible to awaken any interest in the study of the Bible; and since you, Sister Packard, have some views a little different from our own, I wish you would bring them forward, and see if we can't get up an interest in our class.” As Mr. Packard was present, I referred this request to him for a reply, and he remarked, “I think you had better go, wife, and see if you can help him--I will take care of the babe during the intermission, so you can be free to go.” I accordingly consented, and the next Sabbath I was found among his pupils, who then numbered only six men in all. I THE BIBLE-CLASS. 35 had not the least suspicion of danger or harm arising in any way, either to myself or others, from thus complying with his wishes, and thus uttering some of my honestly cherished opinions. I regarded the principle of religious toleration as the vital principle on which our government was based, and I, in my ignorance, supposed this right was protected to all American citizens, even to the wives of clergymen. But, alas! my own sad experience has taught me the danger of believing a lie on so vital a question. Mr. Dole allowed his pupils to be regarded as mutual teach- ers, so that all were allowed to ask questions and offer sugges- tions. Availing myself of this license, others were encouraged to follow my example, so that our class soon became the place of animating discussions, and as our tolerant teacher allowed both sides of a question to be discussed I found it became to me a great source of pleasure and profit. Indeed, I never can recollect a time when my mind grew into a knowledge of religious truths faster, than under the influence of these free and animated discussions. The effect of these debates was felt throughout the whole community, so that our class of seven soon increased to forty- six, including the most influential members of the community. About this time a latent suspicion seemed to be aroused, lest the church creed be endangered by this license of free inquiry and fair discussion; and a meeting of some of the leading church members was called, wherein this Bible-class was represented as being a dangerous influence, involving the ex- posure of the creed to the charge of fallibility. To prevent this, it was agreed that the tolerant Deacon Dole must be exchanged for the intolerant Deacon Smith, in order that free discussion might be effectually put down. And Deacon Smith suggested, that the way to put down free discussion was, to put down Mrs. Packard ! 36 MODERN PERSECUTION. This he engaged to do, in case they would install him as teacher. This being done, the battle commenced, and I found our license had expired with our kind teacher's resignation. Ignorant as I was of this conspiracy against the right of pri- vate opinions, I continued to use this God-given right, as my judgment and conscience dictated, until I found, by open op- position, that it was the express object of the change, to abolish all expression of any views which did not harmonize with the Presbyterian Church creed. I knew and felt that it was their determination to fetter me, and bring me into un- questioning acknowledgment of their doctrines, as the sum total of all important truths. Of course I could not do this, and be honest to myself; but from this point, I had the precaution to put into a written form, every idea I uttered in conflict with what Deacon Smith thought orthodox views, so as to avoid being misrepresented ; and I almost uniformly read these papers to Mr. Packard, before presenting them to the class, and secured from him his consent to my reading them. This digested form of presenting my ideas, tended to in- crease rather than diminish the interest in favor of my new views, so that finally after Mr. Packard had given his consent to my reading my articles, Mr. Smith would refuse to have them read. Up to this point, Mr. Packard acted the man, and the Christian, in his treatment of me. But now came the fatal crisis when evil influences overcame him ! One afternoon Deacon Smith visited him in his study, and held a secret interview with him of two hours length, when he left him a different man. That evening just before retiring to rest, he remarked in a very pleasant tone: 66 Wife, I want to talk with you a little while, come here !” I went into his extended arms, and sat upon his lap, and THE BIBLE CLASS. 37 encircled his neck with my arm, when he remarked in a very mild tone of voice : “Now, wife, hadn't you better give up these Bible-class discussions ? Deacon Smith thinks you had better, and so do some others, and I think you had better too.” 6 Husband, I should be very glad to get rid of the responsi- bility if I can do so honorably, but I do not like to yield a natural right to the dictation of bigotry and intolerance, as Deacon Smith demands; but I am willing to say to the class that as Deacon Smith, and Mr. Packard, and others, have expressed a wish that I withdraw my discussions from the class, I do so, at their request, not from any desire to shrink from investigation on my part, but for the sake of peace, as they view it.” “ No, wife, that won't do—you must resign yourself.” 6 Won't that be resigning, and that too on a truthful basis ?” "No, you must tell them it is your choice to give them up." “ But, dear, it is not my choice!” “But you can make it so, under the circumstances.” “Yes, I can make it so, by stating the truth; but I can't by telling a lie.” 66 Well, you must do it!” 60 husband ! how can you yield to such an evil influence ? Only think! Here you have pledged before God and man that you will be my protector, until death part us, and now you are tempted to become my persecutor! Do be a man, and go to the class, in defiance of Deacon Smith, and say to the class : 6 My wife has just as good a right to her opinions as you have to yours, and I shall protect her in that right. You need not believe her opinions unless you choose; but she has a right to defend her honest opinions as well as yourselves. I shall not suffer her to be molested in this right. “ Then you will be a man—a protector of your wife—and you 98 MODERN PERSECUTION. will deserve honor, and you will have it. But if you become my persecutor and go against me, as Deacon Smith desires, you will deserve dishonor, and you will surely get it. Don't fall into this fatal snare, which the evil one has surely laid for you.” He construed my earnestness into anger, and thrust me from him, determining to risk this result at all hazards. From that fatal time, all good influences seemed to have forsaken him, and he left to pursue his downward way, with no power to resist evil or flee from the tempter. Reason, con- science, judgment, prudence, consistency and affection, all, all directly sunk into the fatal sleep of stupidity or death. From that point, I have never had a protector in my hus- band. He has only been my persecutor ! In a few weeks from that time, he forcibly entombed me within the massive walls of Jacksonville Asylum prison, to rise no more, if he could prevent it. He told me he did this, to give the impression that I was insane, so that my opinions need not be believed, for, said he, “I must protect the cause of Christ !” CHAPTER II. Evil Forebodings. About three weeks before my incarceration, Mr. Packaru came to my room and made me a proposition for withdrawing from the class. Said he : “ Wife, wouldn't you like to visit your brother in Batavia ?”! “I should like it very well, if it is not running from my post of duty.” “ You have not only a perfect right to go, but I think it is your duty to go and get recruited.” “Very well, then, I will go with the greatest pleasure. But how long do you think I had better make my visit ?” 66 Three months.” 6 Three months! Can you get along without me three months ? and what will the children do for their summer clothes without me to make them ?” “I will see to that matter; you must stay three months, or not go at all.” “Well, I am sure I can stand it to rest that length of time, if you can stand it without my services. So I will go. But I must take my baby and daughter with me, as they have not fully recovered from their influenzas, and I should not dare to trust them away from me.” “Yes, you may take them.” “ I will then prepare myself and them to go just as soon as you see fit to send us. Another thing, husband. I shall want ten dollars of my patrimoney money to take with me for spending money.” 40 MODERN PERSECUTION. 66 That you can't have.” “Why not? I shall need as much as that, to be absent three months with two sick children. I may need to call a doctor to them; and besides, my brother is poor, and I am rich, comparatively, and I'might need some extra food, such as a beefsteak, or something of the kind, and I should not like to ask him for it. And besides, I have your written promise that I may have my own money whenever I want it, and I do want ten dollars of it now; and I think it is no unreasonable amount to take with me.” "I don't think it is best to let you have any. I shan't trust you with money.” 6 Shan't trust me with money! Why not? Have I ever abused this trust? Do not I always give you an exact account of every cent I spend ? And I will this time do so; and besides, if you cannot trust me, I will put it into brother's hands as soon as I get there, and not spend a cent but by his permission.” “No, I shall not consent to that.” 6 One thing more I will suggest. You know the Batavia people owe you twelve dollars for preaching one Sabbath, and you can't get your pay. Now, supposing brother duns' and gets it, may I use this money if I should chance to need it in an emergency ? and if I should not need any, I won't use a cent of it. Or, I will write home to you and ask permission of you before spending a dollar of it.” “ No, you shall neither have any money, nor have the con- trol of any, for I can't trust you with any." “ Well, husband, if I can't be trusted with ten dollars of my own money under these circumstances, I should not think I was capable of being trusted with two sick children three months away from home, wholly dependent on a poor brother's charities. Indeed I had rather stay at home and not go at all, than go under such circumstances.” EVIL FOREBODINGS. 41 66 You shall not go at all!” replied he, in a most excited, angry tone of voice. "You shall go into an asylum.” 6 Why, husband, I did not suspect such an alternative. I had rather go to him penniless and clotheless even, than go into an asylum !” “You have lost your last chance. You shall go into an asylum!" Knowing the inflexibility of purpose which characterized my husband, I knew there was no refuge for me in an appeal to his humanity, his reason or his affection, for a commutation of my sentence. I therefore laid my case before our kind neighbor, Mr. Comstock, who professed to be a kind of lawyer, and sought his counsel and advice. Said he: “Mrs. Packard, you have nothing to fear. It is impossible for your husband to get you into any insane asylum ; for before he can do this, you must have a jury trial; and 1 can assure you there is no jury in the country who would pro- nounce you to be an insane person, for you give every evidence of intelligence that any person can give.” As this Mr. Comstock had been a constant attendant at our Bible-class for some time past, and had thereby heard and seen all the evidence which could be brought against me; and as he professed to understand the law on this point, this un- qualified and positive assertion served to quiet my fears and anxious forebodings to a considerable degree. But had Mr. Comstock known the law as it then was, he could not have made this assertion. He probably took it for granted that the common principles of justice characterized the Illinois statute laws, viz: that all its citizens should be allowed a trial before imprisonment; but being mistaken on this point, he blindly led me astray from the truth. Had I known what Mr. Packard knew, of the legal power which the law gave the husband to control the identity of the wife, I should not have been thus deceived. I did not then 42 MODERN PERSECUTION. know what I now do, that married women and infants were excepted in the application of this principle of common justice. This class were not only allowed to be imprisoned by their husbands or guardians without any trial, or without any chance at self-defence whatever, but were also expressly licensed to imprison them in an insane asylum without evidence of insanity! Not knowing that Illinois had legalized this mode of kid- napping the married women of their State, I had no idea that my personal liberty depended entirely upon the will or wishes of my husband. I therefore returned home with a feeling of comparative security, trusting and supposing that upon the principles of our free government of religious toleration, my rights of conscience, and rights of opinion were respected and pro- tected by law, in common with those of other American citizens. Still, believing that a most strenuous effort would be made to fasten the stigma of insanity upon me, by my opponents in religious belief, I now began to consider what my plea of self-defence must be when arraigned for trial on insanity, based upon what they regarded as heresy. But while my mind was cogitating my plea, and my hands were busily employed in my domestic duties, I could not help noticing many singular manifestations in Mr. Packard's con- duct towards me. One was from the time my sentence was pronounced, Mr. Packard left my bed without giving me any reason for this singular act, and he seemed peculiarly determined to evade all, and every inquiry into his reasons for so doing. Still I in- sisted upon knowing whether it was because of anything I had done which led him thus to forsake me. He assured me it was not-adding: 66 You have always been kind, and true and faithful to me.” EVIL FOREBODINGS. 43 While this truthful acknowledgment afforded a kind of relief to my feelings, it only served to increase the mystery of the affair still more, and even to this day this mystery has never been solved in my mind. The only reason he ever gave me was, “I think it is best!” Another thing, he removed my medicine box containing our family herbs and cordials, from my nursery into his sleeping apartment, and when I found it necessary one night to give my little Georgie some lobelia to relieve him from spasmodic croup, I was obliged to seek for it, and finding it under his bed instead of its accustomed place, I inquired why he had made that arrangement, and received the same mysterious reply, “I think it is best !” Another thing, he seemed unaccountably considerate of my health, insisting upon it that I should have a hired girl to help me. This arrangement surprised me, all the more, because I had so often been refused this favor, when I had asked for it at times when I thought I needed it within a few past years. I however found it very easy and pleasant to concur with this arrangement, which afforded me more uninterrupted time and thought to devote to my plea. But there was one thing about it which I did not like, and that was, to dismiss my girl, just when I had got her well learned how to do my work, without giving any reason what- ever, either to me or my girl, for this strange conduct. But I afterwards found out the reason for dismissing her was, because she had remarked to a neighbor of ours that: “I can't see what Mr. Packard does mean by calling his wife insane; for she is the kindest and best woman I ever saw . I never worked for so kind a mistress.” But his summary manner of disposing of my good, kind, faithful French Catholic girl, and supplying her place with one of his own church members, an opponent to me in argument, 44 MODERN PERSECUTION. and she the eldest daughter of the most aristocratic family in the place, was very peculiar. This aristocratic Miss Sarah Rumsey, was introduced into my family as a dinner guest, on whom I bestowed all the at- tention of the hostess until after dinner, when my girl came to the parlor to bid me “good bye,” saying with tears: 6 Mr. Packard has dismissed me.” 66 Dismissed you ! For what?” " I don't know—he simply told me to get my things and leave, that my services were no longer wanted in his family.” While I was trying to comfort her under this uncivil dis- charge, Miss Rumsey stepped up and volunteered her services as “ my help.” “My help! have you come here to be my hired girl ?” said I, in amazement. “Yes, I am willing to help you.” C But I wish to understand you-has Mr. Packard secured your services as my hired servant ?” “Yes, Mrs. Packard, I have come for that purpose.” “Very well, then, I will set you to work, and you may look to him for your wages.” She then followed me into the kitchen, where I gave her my instructions, and then I retired to my parlor, leaving her to take her first lesson in practical service in her beloved pastor's kitchen. During her term of service, which lasted until I was kid- napped, about one week from this time, I frequently caught Mr. Packard and Miss Rumsey and Mrs. Sybil Dole, his sister, in most earnest conversation, which was always carried on in a whisper whenever I was within hearing distance, and my pre- sence seemed always to evoke manifestations of guilt on their part. I think the theme of conversation at these clandestine interviews was, my abduction and how it should be secured. My children now became almost my only companions and EVIL FOREBODINGS. 45 counselors. The three youngest slept with me, so that I had their company both night as well as day. I expressed to them my fears that I might yet be forced away from them, always assuring them that no power but force should separate me from them. They always responded “they will have to break my arms to get them loose from their grasp upon you, Mother, if they try to steal our dear mamma from us!” Fidelity to the truth requires me to state, however, that Mr. Packard did succeed in gaining a temporary influence over the mind of my son, Samuel, of thirteen years, so far as to induce him to go against me-taking his own confession as proof- for his conduct towards me, and mine towards him, remained unchanged. At this age, his impulses rather than his reason controlled his actions. He was a very impulsive, and still a very affectionate child, of a very nervous and excitable temper- ament. The heart of this dear child, at this age, was at times the chosen battlefield for severe contests between the extremes of good and evil influences. Thus was he sadly exposed to be- come victimized by the great psychological power of his father. Three times during the last few weeks preceding my kid- napping were my slumbers disturbed, by this darling child coming in his night-clothes to my bedside, about midnight, and, while pressing his tearful cheek against my own, with his arms encircling my neck, amid his sobbing and tears, would whisper in the softest tones : “Mother, won't you forgive me? I have been doing wrong -I have been telling lies about you—and I can't sleep till you forgive me.” “Why did you do so, my child ?” “Because father hired me to say so—and he said it was not wrong—but when I think of it alone, I know it is wrong- and I can't sleep until you kiss me, and say you forgive me.” “Yes, darling, mother will forgive you, most cheerfully, for 46 MODERN PERSECUTION. I see you are sorry, and are willing to promise me you won't do so any more, are you not ?” “Yes, mother, I will promise I won't do so any more.” “Now, darling, dry up your tears—and quiet your little feelings—and go to sleep, with mother's blessing.” With a light heart would he then imprint his good-night kiss upon my cheek, and with an elastic step would he grope his way back up stairs to his bed-chamber to sleep the calm, quiet sleep of the penitent child, now that his conscience was relieved of its heavy burden. When he came the third time, I asked him why he had broken his promise again. He replied, “father paid me more money to-day; and made me think it was not wrong to do as he told me to do." “ What did he tell you to do ?” “ To tell lies about you, mother." The mother is thankful that the truth will allow her to add, that, as the moral faculties of Samuel developed his individu- ality of character, the good influences secured an almost un- disputed possession of the citadel of his fond heart, and he has long since become the noble champion of his mother's cause. But the filial influence Mr. Packard most feared to cope with, was my second son, Isaac, then sixteen years old. My oldest son, Theophilus, was then at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Isaac com- municated to Theophilus the dangers he feared impending over his mother. Theophilus responded, pledging himself that should his dear mother ever be put into an Insane Asylum, he should never rest until he had liberated her. Isaac agreed to this same pledge of untiring devotion to his dear mother's welfare. During these ominous days of solicitude and painful fore- bodings, this tender hearted and devoted son would never leave for his work in Mr. Comstock’s store, without first com- ing to my room, and, as he would imprint a most loving kiss upon my lips, he would whisper : EVIL FORE BO DINGS. 47 6 Don't feel bad, mother! keep up good courage—I shall do all I can for you." And he did do all he could to stem the rising current, by rallying influences in my defence. Quite a number of volun- teers gave him their pledge that his mother never should leave that depot for an Insane Asylum ; but unfortunately, his father became acquainted with this fact, and to prevent any co-op- eration with his mother in the execution of any of his plans for my deliverance, he issued his mandate that Isaac should not speak to his mother for one week. Not knowing that such an injunction had been laid upon him, I accosted him from my window on his return from his store, and as usual, inquired after his health. He had been my patient for some weeks past, having spit blood several times during this time, and of course I felt a deep solicitude for his health; and now when he answered me only by the press- ure of his fore-finger upon his closed lips, and a significant shake of his head, I became alarmed, and anxiously inquired: 6 Can't you speak?” A shake of the head was his only response. I rushed to the door to meet him, to ascertain what had happened, where we met my only darling daughter of ten years, whom we all called “ Sister,” to whom he said : “ Sister, I want you should tell mother that father has for- bid my speaking to her for one week, and that is the reason I can't answer her questions." “But how is your breast, my son ?” “Sister, I want you should tell mother it is worse; I have spit more blood to-day. In this manner, with my daughter for our medium, I ad- ministered to his physical wants and spiritual comfort for one week, which term expired one day before my abduction. Dur- this time he never failed to come to my room or to the win- dow, before leaving, to bestow upon my lips his loving kiss of silent, undying affection. 48 MODERN PERSECUTION. A few days previous to my seizure, Mrs. Dole and Mr. Packard tried to prevail upon me to let her take my darling babe home with her for a few days, to rest me from my night watches with my sick children, to which I foolishly consented, supposing this offer was only dictated by affection and sym- pathy for me. I soon became impatient for my babe, and Mr. Packard allowed me to go to Mr. Dole's with him to see Ar- thur, but would not allow me to bring him home with me. They must keep him a day or two longer! I must consent to take a few more nights of good sound sleep before I could embrace my darling babe once more! Alas! this was the final parting with my precious darling infant, weaned from the breast but three months before. His little arms could hardly be unclasped from my neck, to which he seemed to cling instinctively; with the tender- est affection he would press his soft cheek against mine, and say: 6 Dear mamma! Dear mamma!” These were the only words he could articulate. O! little did I suspect this was a treacherous act of false affection, to steal from me my darling babe. But so it proved to be! This was Saturday. On Sabbath they stole from me my only daughter, by a similar act of nypocrisy. After meeting Sabbath evening, the Rumsey carriage called at our door and claimed the privilege of taking my daughter home with them to visit her intimate friend and school-mate, the youngest Rumsey. They plead that her health needed a change, and she could come home any day I chose ; and in answer to my inquiry: “ Has this anything to do with my being taken off ?” They all with united voices, insisted that it had not, adding: 66 This is not our most distant thought.” I at length reluctantly consented to her going, and we too, EVIL FOREBODINGS. 49 parted for the last time before my abduction, little suspecting it to be so. But as we were embracing each other for the last time, she whispered in my ear: “ Mother, if there are any signs of taking you away, you will let me know, won't you?” “Certainly I will, my daughter, you may rely upon your mother's promise in this thing. So set your heart at rest, and enjoy yourself as best you can.” And we parted! That night I had no one to caress but my darling Georgie, of seven years, who was now nearly recovered from his lung fever. But from some unknown cause, sleep was not easily courted that night. Usually my sleep was sound, quiet and refreshing. Sleepless, wakeful nights were unknown to me. But now some evil forebodings assured me all was not right. About midnight I arose and silently sought Mr. Packard's room, to see if I could make any discoveries as to the aspect of things. Here instead of being in his bed, I found him noiselessly searching through all my trunks and bandboxes. What could this mean? Without his observing me, I went back to my bed, there to consider this question. Before morning my suspicions assumed a tangible form. I summoned Isaac, early to my bedside, to tell him I was sure arrangements were being made to carry me off somewhere, and therefore I wished him without delay to go and get " Sister” home, as I promised to send for her in case of any appear- ances of this kind. He replied, “ Mother, I will do so; but I must first go of an errand on to the prairie for Mr. Comstock, and then I will return to the house and take you to ride with me to Mr. Rum- sey's and get Sister.” “Yes, that will do: we will go by brother Dole's too, and get my baby. I will be all ready when you return, to go with you.” 50 MODERN PERSECUTION. “One thing more, my son, Imay need your assistance in pre- serving my Bible-class papers. Last night I put them into a small box, and hid them in the wardrobe of my room, where they now are. Now, my son, these papers may be your mother's only means of self-defence, and unless we can evade Mr. Packard's search, he may deprive your mother of this last and only means of vindicating her sanity. If, my son, I am ever kidnapped and you cannot defend me, be sure that you protect these papers, for they are next to defending me, so far as my reputation for sanity is concerned. I intend to-day to put a pocket into my underskirt and carry them about my person.” “I will certainly regard your request and protect your papers.” Saying this, he kissed me and left, reassuring me he would soon be back and take me to ride to Mr. Rumsey's. This was our parting! Little George, ever ready to serve me, ran out into the dewy grass and picked a saucer of ripe strawberries and brought them to my room, saying as he handed them to me: “I have picked some strawberries for your breakfast, mother;” and he had hardly time to receive his mother's thanks, when his father called him out to the door, and with extended hand said: “ Come, George, won't you go with father to the store and get some sugar-plums?” Glad as any boy of his age to get sugar-plums, he, of course, readily went with his father to get his plums, and also to get a ride too with his brother off on the prairie! This was our parting scene! Thus had my children been abducted, to prepare the way for the mother's abduction. And now the fatal hour had come that I must be transported into my living tomb. CHAPTER III. My Abduction. Early on the morning of the 18th of June, 1860, as I arose from my bed, preparing to take my morning bath, I saw my husband approaching my door with our two physicians, both members of his church and our Bible-class—and a stranger gentleman, Sheriff Burgess. Fearing exposure, I hastily locked my door, and proceeded with the greatest despatch to dress myself. But before I had hardly commenced, my husband forced an entrance into my room through the window with an axe! And I, for shelter and protection against an exposure in a state of entire nudity, sprang into bed, just in time to receive my unexpected guests. The trio approached my bed, and each doctor felt my pulse, and without asking a single question both pronounced me insane! Of course, my pulse was bounding at the time from excessive fright; and I ask, what lady of refinement and fine and tender sensibilities would not have a quickened pulse by such an untimely, unexpected, unmanly, and even outrageous entrance into her private sleeping room? I say it would be impossible for any woman, unless she was either insane or in- sensible to her surroundings, not to be agitated under such circumstances. This was the only medical examination I had. This was the only trial of any kind I was allowed to have, to prove the charge of insanity brought against me by my husband to be a false charge. I had no chance for self-defence whatever. My husband then informed me that the “ forms of law” were all complied with, and he now wished me to dress for a ride to Jacksonville insane asylum ! 52 MODERN PERSECUTION. I then asked the privilege of having my room vacated so that I might bathe myself, as usual, before dressing; intending to then secure about my person, secretly, my Bible-class documents, as all I had said in defence of my opinions was in writing, lest I be misrepresented. I therefore regarded these documents as my only means of defence, and had resorted to this innocent stratagem to secure them; that is, I did not tell Mr. Packard that I had any other reason for being left alone in my room than the one I gave him. But he refused me this request, saying: "I do not think it is best to leave you alone in your room." He doubtless had the same documents in veiw, intending thus to keep me from getting them, for he ordered Miss Rumsey to be my lady's maid, as a spy upon my actions. I dared not attempt to get them with her eye upon me lest she take them from me, or report me to Mr. Packard, and thus not only defeat my attempt, but also by revealing their place of concealment, would prevent Isaac from securing them for me, as he had promised to do in case I should be kidnapped. I resolved upon one more strategy as my last and only hope, and this was, to ask to be left alone long enough to pray in my own room once more before being forced from it into my prison. When, therefore, I was all dressed, ready to be kid- napped, I asked to see my dear little ones to bestow upon them my parting kiss. But he denied me this favor also. " Then,” said I, can I bear such trials as these without God's help? May I not be allowed, husband, to ask this favor of God alone in my room before being thus exiled from it?” 66 No," said he, “ I don't think it is best to let you be alone in your room.” 60! husband,” said I, “ you have allowed me no chance for my secret devotions this morning; can't I be allowed this one last request ?” MY ABDUCTION. 53 “No; I do not think it is best. But you may pray with your door open.” I asked the Sheriff if I might not be alone in my room a few minutes. He replied, “I do not think it is best.” I then kneeled down in my room, with my bonnet and shawl on, and in the presence and the hearing of the sheriff and the conspirators, I offered up my petition in an audible voice, wherein I laid my burdens before my sympathizing Saviour, as I would have done in secret. Miss Rumsey reports that the burden of my prayer was for Mr. Packard's forgiveness. In fact, if I know anything of my own heart, I do know that it did not cherish a single feeling of resent- ment towards him. But my soul was burdened with a sense of his guilt, and only desired his pardon and forgiveness. My husband then ordered two of his church members to take me up in their arms and carry me to the wagon, and thence to the cars, in spite of my lady-like protests, and regardless of all my entreaties for some sort of trial before commitment. I made no physical resistance to this order, but told my hus- band I should not go voluntarily into an asylum, and leave my six children, and my precious babe, without some kind of trial. He replied, “I am doing as the laws of Illinois allow me to do. You have no protection in law but myself, and I am protecting you now! It is for your good I am doing this; I want to save your soul! You don't believe in total depravity, and I want to make you right.” “ Husband, have I not a right to my opinion?” “ Yes ; you have a right to your opinions if you think right.” “But does not the Constitution defend the right of private judgment to all American citizens?" “Yes, to all citizens it does defend this right. But you are not a citizen; while a married woman, you are a legal 54 MODERN PERSECUTION. nonentity, without even a soul in law. In short, you are dead as to any legal existence, while a married woman, and there- fore have no legal protection as a married woman." I could not then credit this statement, but now know it to be too sadly true, for the statute of Illinois expressly states that a man may put his wife into an insane asylum without evidence of insanity. The law now stands on 96th page, section 10, of Illinois statute-book, under the general head of " Charities !” It was passed Feb. 15th, 1851, and reads thus : “ Married women and infants, who, in the judgment of the medical superintendent (meaning the Superintendent of the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane) are evidently insane or distracted, may be entered or detained in the hospital on the request of the husband of the woman or the guardian of the infant, without the evidence of insanity required in other cases.” Hon. S. S. Jones, of St. Charles, Illinois, thus remarks upon this Act : “ Thus we see a corrupt husband, with money enough to corrupt a Superintendent, can get rid of a wife as effectually as was ever done in a more barbarous age. The Superintendent may be corrupted either with money or influence, that he thinks will give him position, place or emol- uments. Is not this a pretty statute to be incorporated into our laws no more than thirteen years ago? Why not confine the husband at the instance of the wife, as well as the wife at the instance of the husband? The wife evidently had no voice in making the law. 66 Who, being a man, and seeing this section in the Statute Book of Illinois, under the general head of Charities,' does not blush and hang his head for very shame at legislative perversion of so holy a term? I have no doubt, if the truth of the matter were known, this act was passed at the special instance of the Superintendent. A desire for power. I do not know why it has not been noted by me and others before. 6 And we would also venture to inquire, what is a married MY ABDUCTION. 55 woman's protection under such a Statute law? Is she not al- lowed counter testimony from a physician of her own choice, or can she not demand a trial of some kind, to show whether the charge of insanity brought against her is true or false ? “Nay, verily. The statute expressly states that the judgment of the medical Superintendent, to whom the husband's request is made, is all that is required for him to incarcerate his wife for any indefinite period of time. Neither she, her children, nor her relatives have any voice at all in the matter. Her im- prisonment may be life-long, for anything she or her friends can do for her to prevent it. If the husband has money or influence enough to corrupt the officials, he can carry out his single wishes concerning her life-destiny. “ Are not the "Divorce Laws' of Illinois made a necessity, to meet the demands of the wife, as her only refuge from this ex- posure to 'false imprisonment' for life in an insane asylum ?” This statute law thus coinciding with the nonentity princi- ple of the common law, demonstrates the truth of Mr. Pack- ard's statement. Thus I learned my first lesson in that chapter of common law, which denies to married women a legal right to her own identity or individuality. The scenes transpiring at the parsonage, were circulated like wild-fire throughout the village of Manteno, and crowds of men and boys were rapidly congregating at the depot, about one hundred rods distant from our house, not only to witness the scene, but fully determined to stand by their pledge to my son Isaac, that his mother should never leave Manteno depot for an insane asylum. The long two-horse lumber wagon in which I was conveyed from my house to the depot, was filled with strong men as my body guard, including Mr. Packard, his deacons, and Sheriff Burgess, of Kankakee city, among their number. When our team arrived at the depot, Mr. Packard said to me: 56 MODERN PERSECUTION. “Now, wife, you will get out of the wagon yourself, won't you? You won't compel us to lift you out before such a large crowd, will you ?” “ No, Mr. Packard, I shall not help myself into an asylum. It is you who are putting me there. I do not go willingly, nor with my own consent-I am being forced into it against my protests to the contrary. Therefore, I shall let you show yourself to this crowd, just as you are—my persecutor, instead of my protector. I shall make no resistance to your brute force claims upon my personal liberty-I shall simply remain a passive victim, helpless in your power.” He then ordered his men to transport me from the wagon to the depot in their arms. Before this order was executed, I addressed the sheriff in these words: “Mr. Burgess, won't you please have the kindness to see that my person is handled gently, for I am easily hurt, and also see that my clothing is so adjusted as not to expose me immod- estly, which with my hoops I fear you will find some difficulty in doing.” “I will heed your requests, Mrs. Packard,” he kindly re- plied. He then ordered two men into the wagon, to lift me from the board seat, which was placed across the top of the wagon, and hand me over the wheel, gently down into the arms of two men, who stood with outstretched arms below to receive me, and transport me into the “Ladies'-Room” at the depot. This order was executed in as gentle and gentlemanly a manner as it could be done, while the faithful sheriff carefully adjusted my clothing as best he could, and I was landed upon a seat in the “ Ladies’-Room.?! I then thanked Mr. Burgess and my carriers for the kind manner in which they had executed my husband's order; and they left me, alone! to join the crowd on the platform. I then arose, adjusted my dress and walked to the window, MY ABDUCTION. 57 to sco who were there assembled. I saw they were my friends and foes both, about equally divided, the countenances of all equally indicating great earnestness and deep emotion. Soon Mr. Packard came alone into the room, and I resumed my seat when, bending over me, he addressed me in tones the most bland and gentle, as follows: “Now, wife, my dear! you will not make us earry you into the cars, will you? Do please just walk into them when they come, won't you, to please me! Do now, please me this once; won't you?” Looking him full in the face, I said: “ Mr. Packard, I shall not. It is your own chosen work you are doing. I shall not help you do it. If I am put into the cars, it will not be my act that puts me there.” He then left me, and soon returned with Mr Comstock at his side, when he said: “Now, wife, Mr. Comstock thinks you had better walk into the cars, and you know you think a good deal of him; you will follow his advice, won't you ?” “Mr. Comstock is too much of a man to advise me to leave my dear little children, to go and be locked up in a prison with- out any trial. I know he would not advise any such thing." Mr. Comstock then, without having spoken one word, left the room. While these scenes in the Ladies'-room were being enacted, Deacon Dole. was acting his part on the platform outside. Finding the crowd had assembled to defend me, and that they were determined I should never be forced into the cars, his conscience allowed him to be the bearer of a lie from Mr. Packard to the company, on the plea that the interests of his beloved pastor and the cause of the church required it as an act of self-defence. He therefore positively told them that Mr. Packard was pursuing a legal course in putting his wife into an Asylum—that the sheriff had legal papers with him to 3* 58 • MODERN PERSECUTION. defend the proceeding, and if they resisted the sheriff, they would be liable to imprisonment themselves. The crowd did not know that Deacon Dole was lying to them, when he said the sheriff had legal papers, for he had none at all, as the sheriff afterwards confessed-adding: “ I went to the Probate Court to take out my legal papers, and they would not give me any, because I could not bring forward any proof of insanity which could satisfy them that Mrs. Packard was insane. Therefore, I ventured to carry out Mr. Packard's wishes without any papers!” Thus the “ majesty of the law,” added to the sacred dig- nity of the pulpit, so over-awed this feeling of manliness in these Mantenoites, that they dared not make a single effort in defence of me. Therefore, when the engine whistle was heard, Deacon Dole found no obstacle in the way of taking me up in his arms, with the help of another man, and carrying me from the depot to my seat in the cars, except the difficulty of knowing how to take hold of me in a modest and gentlemanly manner. I, however, soon solved this difficulty for him, by suggesting that two men make a “ saddle-seat” with their four hands so united, that I could sit erect and easily upon it, between them both. This, with my assistance, they promptly did, and I quietly seated myself, while Mr. Burgess kindly arranged my wardrobe for me. While borne along on this human vehicle, by my manly (!) body guard, my elevated position afforded me a fine view of the sea of heads below me, and- 66 What did I see?” · Ah! there was one little boy of thirteen years, with his straw hat drawn down over his face, as if to hide this spectacle from his sight, and with both hands to his face, crying piteously: “Oh! Mother! Mother! do forgive me!” It was my darling Samuel, the only one of my precious group whom his father was not compelled to abduct, to pre- vent his physical resistance in kidnapping his mother. MY ABDUCTION. 59 And while I imploringly and silently looked towards this crowd for that protection and help they had so confidently volunteered should be extended to me if needed, I looked in vain! “No man cared for my soul!” Although Mrs. Blessing was walking the platform, wringing her hands in agony at the spectacle I presented, and in a loud voice, while the tears were streaming down her cheeks, she was imploring them to extend to me the help I needed, in these expressive words: “Is there no man in this crowd to protect this woman? Will you let this mother be torn from her children and thrust into a prison in this style, with none to help her ? O! is there no man among you? If I were a man, I would seize hold upon her!” Mrs. Blessing's Lament. One, one alone, stood by my side, With pleading hands and voice she cried, “Is there no help? Can no one here Aid now our suffering sister dear? Breathes there not here one mother's son Who dares to aid this injured one? Must she from her own sons be torn, Her darling children left to mourn ? Crying in vain for mother dear To wipe away the scalding tear. Are love and honor both, all dead ? Oh neighbors ! has your reason fled ? Can you look on and see her go To the dark maniac's house of woe? Yet raise no voice, no hand, no eye, To stay that dread calamity! Throbs here no heart of sympathy? Can no one say she shall be free? Oh! in the sacred name of love, Of liberty, of God above, By all the tender ties of life, Spare! spare ! that deeply suffering wife, Recording Angel! can't thou see A blacker shade of cruelty ?”-MRS. S. N. B. 0. 60 MODERN PERSECUTION. As soon as I was landed in the cars, the car door was quickly locked, to guard against any possible reaction of the public, manly pulse, in my defence. Mr. Packard, Deacon Dole, and Sheriff Burgess seated themselves near me, and the cars quietly moved on towards my prison tomb, leaving behind me, child- ren, home, liberty and an untarnished reputation. In short, all, all, which had rendered life desirable, or tolerable. Up to this point, I had not shed a tear. All my nervous energy was needed to enable me to maintain that dignified self-possession, which was indispensably necessary for a sensi- tive womanly nature like my own, to carry me becomingly through scenes, such as I have described. But now that these scenes were past, my hitherto pent up maternal feelings burst their confines, and with a deep gush of emotion, I exclaimed : “O! what will become of my dear chileren !” I rested my head upon the back of the seat in front of me, and deliberately yielded myself up to a shower of tears. 0! thought I, “ What will my dear little ones do, when they return to their desolate home, to find no mother there! 0! their tender, loving hearts will die of grief, at the story of their mother's wrongs !” Yes, it did well nigh rend, each heart in twain, when the fact was announced to them, that they were motherless! My sons Isaac and George were just about this time return- ing from their prairie errand, and this fact was now being communicated to them, by a gentleman whom they met return- ing from the depot. When within speaking distance, the first salutation they heard was: “ Well, your mother has gone." 6 What!” said Isaac, thinking he had misunderstood. “ Your mother has gone!” Supposing this was only an old rumor revived, he carelessly replied: 6 No she isn't, she is at home, where I just left her, and I am now on the way there to take her to ride with me.” MY ABDUCTION. 61 “But she has gone-I just came from the depot, and saw her start.” Now, for the first time, the terrible truth flashed upon his mind, that this is the reason George and I have been sent off on this errand, and this accounts also, for the attentions so lavishly bestowed upon us this morning by my groom, by my father, and by Mr. Comstock. Yes, this awful fact at last found a lodgment in his sensitive heart, when he, amid his choking and tears could just articulate: “George! We have no mother! Now, George, too, knew why he had been so generously treated to sugar-plums that morning, and he too burst into loud crying, exclaiming : “ They shall not carry off my mother!” “But they have carried her off! We have no mother!" Here they both lifted up their voices and wept aloud, and as the team entered the village all eyes were upon them, and others wept to see them weep, and to listen to their plaintive exclamations : “We have no mother! We have no mother!” As they drew near the front of Mr. Comstock's store, see- ing the crowd settling there, Isaac felt his indignation welling up within him, as he espied among this crowd some of his volunteer soldiers in his mother's defence, and having learned from his informant that no one had taken his dear mother's part, he reproachfully exclaimed, as he leaped from his wagon- “ And this is the protection you promised my mother! What is your gas worth to me!” They felt the reproaches of a guilty conscience, and dared not attempt to console him. Mr. Comstock was the only one who ventured a response in words. He said : “You must excuse me, Isaac, for I did what I thought would be best for you. I knew your father was determined, 62 MODERN PERSECUTION. and he would put her in at any rate; and I knew too, that your opposition would do no good, and would only torment you to witness the scene. So I had you go for your good!” “For my good !” thought he, “ I think I should like to be my own judge in that matter!” He spoke not one reproachful word in reply; but true to his promise to protect his mother's papers, he quickly sought her room to get the box. But lo! it was gone! and never was he allowed to know who took these papers, nor where they were hidden. Among them was my will and a note of six hundred dollars, which Mr. Packard had given me for that amount of my patrimony which my father had sent me a few years before. This note I have never seen, nor have I ever had one cent of the money it secured to me. But George, knowing the direction the cars went with his mother, ran on the track after them, determined he never would return until he could return with his mother rescued hearing, and almost out of sight-he only looked like a small speck on the distant track. . They followed after him; but he most persistently refused to return, crying: “I will get my dear mamma out of prison! My mamma shan't be locked up in a prison! I will not go home without my mother!” He was of course forced back, but not to stay-only until he could make another escape. They finally had to imprison him—my little manly boy of seven years—to keep him from running two hundred miles on the track to Jacksonville, to liberate his imprisoned mother! But 0, my daughter! no pen can delineate thy sorrow, to find thy mother gone! perhaps, forever gone! from thy com- panionship, counsel, care and sympathy! She wept both could be heard at quite a distance from home. MY ABDUCTION. 63 “O! mother! mother! mother!” was her almost constant, unceasing call. Her sorrow almost cost her her reason and her life. And so it was with Isaac. He grieved himself into a settled fever, which he did but just survive; and during its height, he moaned incessantly for his mother, not knowing what he said. His reason for a time was lost in delirium. But my babe, thank God! was too young to realize his loss. For him, I suffered enough for two human beings. Here we leave these scenes of human anguish, to speak one word of comfort for the wives and mothers of Illinois. Conscious that there had already been innocent victims enough offered in sacrifice on this altar of injustice, in conse- quence of these cruel laws of Illinois against my own sex, I determined to appeal, single-handed and alone, if necessary, to their Legislature, to have them repealed, and thereby have the personal liberty of married women protected by law, as well as by the marital power. This effort was a complete success, and is fully detailed in the second volume. CHAPTER IV. My Journey. Sheriff Burgess left our company at Kankakee City, twelve miles distant from Manteno, where he then resided. Not knowing at that time but that he had the legal papers Deacon Dole claimed for him, I thanked him, on taking leave, for the kind and gentlemanly manner he had discharged his duties as a sheriff in this transaction, adding: “You have only discharged your duty as a sheriff, therefore, as a man, I shall claim you as a friend." And six months from this date, when he called upon me in my Asylum prison, and inquired so kindly and tenderly after my comfort and surroundings, I felt confirmed in my opinion that I had not misjudged him. Not long after he died, but not until after he had frankly confessed his breach of trust, as a public officer, in this trans- action. As my wounded heart still sought the relief of tears, I con- tinued to weepon and at length I ventured to express my sincere, deep anxiety, lest my children would not be able to survive their bereavement. Mr. Packard and Mr. Dole then both tried to console me, by assuring me they were left with kind friends who would take good care of them; and Mr. Packard said he had left a written document for each of them, which he thought would satisfy them, so that they would “soon get over it.” 660," thought I, “ soon get over it! what consolation! to be told that your children would soon forget you!" Nay, verily I am too indelibly united to their heart's tender- est, deepest affections, to suffer an easy or rapid alienation. And so it proved—for three years this cruel wound in their sensitive hearts remained unhealed—they instinctively and pez. No. 1. No. 2. dar ANTO mi TOUTES IMIN CHAMBERLIN, ENG.MY BEALE, DESCHICAGO Kidnapping Mrs. Packard. "Is there no man in this crowd to protect this woman!” See page 59. No. 1.—“And this is the protection | No. 2.—"I will get my dear Mamma you promised my Mother! What is your out of prison! My Mamma shan't be gas worth to me!" See page 61. locked up in a prison !" See page 62. MY JOURNEY. 65 sistently spurned the mollient he offered to heal it, viz: “their mother was insane, and therefore must be locked up for her good!” I have been told they would give expression to their feelings in language like the following, and it being so characteristic of their natures, I have no doubt of its truth. “No," Georgie would say, “ mother is good enough now! and havn't I a right to my mother?” “No," Elizabeth would say, “ mother is not crazy, and you know she is not! I do think father is possessed with a devil, to treat our good, dear, kind mother as he does. We know our dear mother is good, for she has never done anything wrong- she is kind to you, and she is kind to everybody.” The natural, unsophisticated natures of my children, ren- dered it very difficult for them to see the necessity of locking up a person, while they were doing good, and had never done anything wrong! The philosophy of that kind of insanity, which requires this to be done, was beyond their comprehension. And even the maturer minds of my oldest sons, Theophilus, then eighteen, and Isaac, sixteen, were equally slow in discovering this neces- sity. In fact, three years was too short a time for their father to convince these children of this painful necessity. At length, wearied with these fruitless efforts to get my children to sanction his course, he finally resorted to the author- ity of the father to silence them into acquiescence to his views. He therefore forbade their talking upon the subject, and made it an act of disobedience on their part to talk about their mother. This taught them to use hypocrisy and deceit, for Isaac and Elizabeth would watch their opportunity, in the absence of their father, to talk upon their favorite theme; and when Eliza- beth and Georgie could not evade this order by day, they would take the hours of sleep and talk in a whisper about me, after they had retired to bed. 66 MODERN PERSECUTION. Another agency he employed to wean them from me, was, he would not allow me to be spoken of in their presence, except as an insane person, and in terms of derision, ridicule or con- tempt. But notwithstanding all these combined agencies, he could not wean them from me, or lessen their confidence in me, according to his own statement, which he made to Mrs. Page on one of his yearly visits to the Asylum. 5I never saw children so attached to a mother, as Mrs. Packard's are to her-I cannot by any means wean them from her, nor lead them to disregard her authority in the least thing, even now. I cannot even induce them to eat anything which they think she would disapprove of. She seems by some means to hold them in obedience to her wishes, just as much in her absence as in her presence. This influence or power is more than I can understand.” Yes, I knew full well that Mr. Packard did not understand the nature and disposition of my children, and therefore I felt unwilling to trust them with him. 5 But how could I avert this fate? In no way. I had not chosen this separation—God's providence had permitted it against my wishes, and regardless of my prayers to the con- trary. “Now, what shall I do? Shall I murmur and complain at what I cannot help, and when I know it will do no good ? or, must I silently submit to this inevitable fate, and trust to the future developments of providence to unravel this great mys- tery? 6 Yes, I must submit. I must not complain, while at the same time, I have a right to use all suitable means for a res- toration to my family and duties.” Therefore, as the result of this soliloquy, I concluded to avail myself of the advice given me by my Manteno friends at the depot, viz: MY JOURNEY. 67 6. Be sure, Mrs. Packard, and tell every one you see that you are on your way to the Insane Asylum—and for what-for pos- sibly by this means you may come in contact with some influ ence that may rescue you.” Knowing that duties were mine and events God's, I deter- mined to dry up my tears and address myself to this duty. I announced this determination to Deacon Dole in these words: “Mr. Dole, I am not going to cry any more. Crying is not going to help me. I am going to put on a cheerful counten. ance, and cultivate the acquaintance of my fellow travelers, and enjoy my ride the best I can. I may as well laugh as cry, for I have as good a right to be happy as any other person.” “ That is right, Sister Packard ; you have as good a right to be happy as any one, and I am glad to see you smile again.” After changing a few remarks respecting the beauty of the country through which we were passing, and the delightfully calm and clear atmosphere, so tranquilizing in its influence over one's disturbed feelings, I looked about to see who were my companions, when I met the eye of a young lady, a stranger to me, whose eyes seemed to fasten upon me with such a penetra- ting look, that I could hardly withdraw my own without be- stowing upon her a smile of recognition. Upon this she bent forward and extended her hand, saying: “I am very sorry for you. I see they are carrying you to the Insane Asylum, and you do not wish to go.” “Yes, that is so, and I thank you for your sympathy; but I have concluded not to weep any more about it, as I shall need all my nervous energies to meet my fate with dignity and self- possession.” “ But you are not insane! why do they put you there?” “No, I am not insane, but my husband is trying to put this brand upon me, to destroy my moral influence.” “But why does he wish to destroy your influence ?” 68 MODERN PERSECUTION. “ Because I have defended some opinions in a Bible-class where he is the minister, which he cannot overthrow by argu- ment, and now he tells me he is going to make the world be- lieve that I am insane, so that my opinions need not be believed, for he says he must protect the cause of Christ.?” “Don't he think it his duty to protect his wife?” " He thinks it his duty to protect her from injuring the cause of Christ, by locking her up in a prison !” “I heard you speak of your children; how many have you?” “Six-five boys and one girl.” “Six children! and he, their father, taking from them their mother, simply because you differ from him in opinion ! O, 'tis too bad! How I pity you!” At this point, she burst into tears, and resting her head upon the back of my seat, she cried and sobbed, until she had com- pletely drenched her pocket-handkerchief, when I handed her one of my own, and she drenched that also. “0,” she said, “you must not go! You are too good a woman to be locked up in an Insane Asylum.” I tried to console her, by telling her I felt it would all come out right at last—that all I had to do was, to be patient and do right. She then put her arm around my neck and kissed me, saying: “ How I wish I could help you! I will do all I can for you.” She then left her seat and brought back another lady, whom she introduced as one who wished to talk with me. From her I learned that the sympathy of the passengers was with me—that some had thought of volunteering in my de- fence, and this feeling was now gaining strength by the influence of my first friend's conversation among them. I saw groups of gentlemen evidently talking together about me—some con- versed with me, and I had my hopes somewhat raised that something would be done to restore me to my children, and by the time the cars reached Tolona, I felt that I was amongst friends, instead of strangers. MY JOURNEY. 69 Mr. Packard could not but see that the tide was against him, for he sat by my side and listened most attentively to every word, and when opportunity presented, he aimed by self-vin- dication to counteract every hopeful influence from taking possession of my mind, by such remarks as these : “You say, wife, that the Lord prospers those whose ways please him ; now, judging by this test, who is prospered in their plans, you or I? You see I succeed in all I undertake, while all your efforts are defeated. Now, isn't the Lord on my side?” “ The time hasn't come to decide that question by this test; this is only the beginning not the end of this sad drama. You may be prospered by having your way for a time, only to make your defeat all the more signal. I do not think it is certain the Lord is not on my side, simply because I am not now delivered out of your power. God has a plan to be accomplished, which requires all this to take place in order to its ultimate success. But I can't see what that plan is, nor why my sufferings are necessary to its accomplishment. But God does, and that faith or trust in the rectitude of his plans, keeps my mind in peace even now. Neither do I think it is certain the Lord is on your side, because you have been permitted to have your own way in getting me imprisoned. The end will settle this question." Another attempt at self-vindication appeared in the follow- ing conversation. Said he : “You think a great deal of your father, and that what he does is right; now, I want to show you that he upholds me in doing as I now am, and approves of the course I am now pur- suing, and here is a letter from your own dear father, con- firming all I have said.” As he said this, he handed me an open letter in my father's own hand-writing, saying: “Read for yourself, and see what your father says about it.” “No," said I, shaking my head, "I do not wish to read such 70 MODERN PERSECUTION. a letter from my father, for it would be a libel upon his revered memory. I know, too, that if he has written such a letter as you represent, he has had a false view of the case presented to him. My father would nover approve of the course you are pursuing, if he knew what the truth is respecting it. You have told him lies about me, or you never would have had his approval in putting me into an asylum.” Still he persistently urged me to read the letter, so I could judge for myself. But I would not. This was the only kind of consolation he attempted to offer me. We dined at Tolona, where I had the good fortune to be seated by the side of a very intelligent gentleman, at the head of the table, whom I afterwards found to be the general freight agent, who boarded there at that time. He sat at the end of the table, I sat next him on the side, and Mr. Packard next to me. This gentleman, in a polite, gentlemanly manner, drew me into a free and easy conversation with himself, wherein I freely avowed some of my obnoxious views and my progressive reform principles, respecting the law of health, physical development, etc. He expressed his high appreciation of my views and princi- ples, and remarked : “ These have been exactly my views for a long time, and now I am happy to find one woman who is willing to endorse and defend them, and who can do so with so much ability.” The entire attention of our table guests seemed centred upon our conversation, for all appeared to be silent listeners, and none seemed to be in any haste to withdraw—the cars giving us ample time for a full and leisurely taken meal. I noticed one of the female waiters, a very intelligent-look- ing lady, seemed almost to forget her duties, so eager was she to listen to every word of our conversation. After retiring with my husband to the sitting-room, I recol- lected the instructions given me to tell all where I was going MY JOURNEY. had been disregarded at the table, where I ought to have re- plied to the gentleman's compliment, by saying: “I am happy to have your approval, sir, for it is for avow- ing these views and principles that I am called insane, and am now on my way to Jacksonville, to be entered as an inmate, to suffer the penalty of indefinite imprisonment for this daring act; and this, sir, is my husband, Rev. Theophilus Packard, of Manteno, who is now attending me there.” This thought did flit across my mind at the table, but the habitual practice I had acquired of shielding, instead of ex- posing my husband, led me to resist this suggestion of self- defence and wise counsel. I saw now my error in yielding thus foolishly, to this feminine weakness, and I, like Peter, went out not “to weep bitterly,” but to seek to make the best atonement I could for this sin. de I sought and found that listening female waiter, and asked her who that gentleman was with whom I held my conversa- tion at the table. She told me. “Will you please deliver this message to him? Tell him the lady with whom he conversed at the table is Mrs. Packard, and that the gentleman by her side was her husband, a minis- ter, who is taking her to Jacksonville, to imprison her for advancing such ideas as he had so publicly endorsed and ap- proved at the table.” The woman looked at me in amazement, and exclaimed: “You are not going into the asylum !” “Yes, I am. This very night I shall be a prisoner there." “But you must not go! You shall not go! Come and con- sult the landlady—she may hide you.” As she said this, she took me by the hand, and led me to an open door, where, from the threshold she introduced me to a very kind-looking lady, in these words: “ This is the lady I told you about, and her husband is tak- ing her to the insane asylum ; can't you help her ?” 72 MODERN PERSECUTION. Looking at me for a moment in amazement, she said: “ Yes, I will. Come with me and I will hide you." “No, my kind friend, it will be of no avail. My husband has the law on his side, and you cannot protect me.” “But I will try. You must not go into an insane asylum. Come! and I will shield you." As she said this, she extended to me her hand, while the tears of real sympathy were coursing down her cheek. I replied: “O! sister, I thank you for your kindness and sympathy. But don't distress yourself for me. I shall be sustained. I feel that God's providence overrules all, and I know God will take care of me and my children.” Just as I finished this sentence, Mr. Packard stood by my side, and he with a most respectful bow said: 6 Wife, will you go with me to the parlor ?" I quietly took his arm and bowing to my would-be-protector, walked with him to the parlor, where I remained seated by his side until the train arrived. On the cars I met again my valiant female defender, who informed me that her advisers had decided that there was.no way to rescue me from my husband's hands; but that it was certain that a lady like myself would be retained at the asylum but a very short time, and would soon be restored to my children and liberty again. After thanking her most cordially for her help and sympa- thy, we kissed and parted, never to meet again, unless in the unknown future. Now my last hope died within me, and as the gloomy walls of my prison could be but indistinctly defined by the gray twi- light of a summer evening, I held on to my husband's arm, as he guided my footsteps up the massive stone steps, into my dreary prison, where by gas-light he introduced me to Dr. Tenny, the Assistant Superintendent, to be conducted by him to my lonely, solitary cell. CHAPTER V. My Reception. Yes, here within these prison walls, my husband and I parted, as companions, forever. He was escorted to the “guest chamber,” while I, his constant companion for twenty-one years, was entrusted to the hands of my prison keeper to be led by him to find my bed and lodging, he knew not where, and to be subject to insults, he knew not what. While he was resting on his wide, capacious, soft, luxurious bed, in the stately airy apartment of the Asylum guests, he did not know that the only place of repose provided for his weary wife was a hard narrow settee, with no soft pillows to rest her weary head upon. But he did know I had no darling babe at my side, but, sol- itary and alone, I must compose myself to sleep, not knowing at what hour of the night my room might be entered, nor by whom, or for what purpose—for the key of my room was no longer in my own, nor my husband's hands, but in the hands of stranger men, and his wife entirely at their mercy. Yes, this is all the protection I got from the one, for whom I left all to love, cherish and make happy, in return for his prom- ised protection. With all the trusting confidence of woman, I never doubted but he would protect my virtue and my innocence. Yes, I trusted too he would be the protector of my right of maternity also, for the dear children I had borne him. 0,could I sleep amid these turbid waters, whose surging bil- lows so mercilessly swept over my soul thoughts such as these! But one thought there was, more dreadful to my sensitive feelings than all others—now these dear children, these dear fragments of myself, must be exposed to bear the dismal, dread- ful taint of hereditary insanity, for their mother now lodges amid the hated walls of an Insane Asylum, as an inmate ! 74 JIODERN PERSECUTION. And oh! to whom can their mother now look for protection ? To whom shall I make complaint if insulted ? Oh, to whom? I cannot write a letter unless it is inspected by my men keepers. Why is this? Is it because they intend to insult me and deprive me of my post-office rights to shield and hide their own guilt ? But can I not hand a letter clandestinely to the trustees, as they pass through ? If I could do such a thing, and entered a charge against their superintendent, would this be heeded ? Would not this superintendent deny the truth, and defend his lie by the plea, that his accuser is insane, and this is only one of the fancies of her diseased brain. Yes, yes, there is no man, woman, or child, or law, who now can care for my soul, or protect my virtue ! And yet, while I am an American citizen, I am excluded, without trial, from society, and then denied any protection by law of one of my inalienable rights. I am not only outlawed, but I am absolutely denied all and every means of self-defence, no matter how criminal, nor how aggravated the offence may be. My womanly nature does call for, and need some refuge to flee to, either to the law, or to man. But here, I have neither. Should my keeper chance to be a bad man, I have no refuge but my God to flee to—therefore into Thy hands do I commit my body for safe keeping this night. My spirit, and the future of my earthly destiny, I have long since committed to Thy care, and now protect my body from harm, and give me the sleep my tired nature so much needs, and thus prepare me. to bear the trials of to-morrow, as well as I have those of to-day, and Thou shalt have the honor of delivering me from the power of my adversaries. May no sin be ever suffered to have dominion over me. With these thoughts, I fell into a quiet sleep, from which I awoke not until the morning of my first day in the Asylum dawned upon me. CHAPTER VI. My First Day of Prison Life. At an early hour, I arose from my settee-bed, first kneeled before it, and thanked my kind Father in Heaven for the re- freshing sleep I had enjoyed, and asked for sustaining grace for the duties of the day. To prepare myself for these duties I took my sponge bath, as usual, since Mrs. De La Hay, my attendant, had, at my request, furnished me a bowl from her own room, towels, etc., so that I could take my bath in my room, as this had long been a habit I very much wished to re- tain while there. I soon found that she had especially favored me in granting this request, since it is the general custom there, to have all the ladies perform their morning ablutions in the bath-room, and I could not learn that any, except my attendant, approved of washing all over, daily in cold water, as I did. And, as a general thing, their toilet had to be pre- pared before the same common mirror in the bath-room. Therefore I requested Mr. Packard to furnish my room with a bowl and pitcher, and a mirror, which he accordingly did, and before another night, I had a bed prepared like the other prisoners, which was a comfortable, narrow mattress bed, on a narrow bedstead. Mrs. De La Hay had done the best she could the night before, to accommodate me, since the beds in the seventh ward were all occupied when I arrived. After finishing my toilet in my room, with the aid of my own brushes and combs and small mirror, which my traveling basket contained, I was invited out to my breakfast with the other prisoners. At my request my attendants introduced me to my com- panions, most of whom returned my salutation with lady-like civility. Our fare was plain and coarse, consisting almost entirely 76 MODERN PERSECUTION. of bolted bread and meat, and tea and coffee. But as I drank neither tea nor coffee, I found it rather dry without any kind of vegetables, not even potatoes, and sauce or fruits of any kind. As my diet had consisted of Graham bread, fruits and vegetables, to a great extent, I felt quite apprehensive lest my health would materially suffer from so great a change. Mr. Packard did not, however, now seem to care any more what his wife had to eat, than where she had to sleep, for so long as he stayed at the Asylum he was the guest of Dr. Mc- Farland, whose table was always spread with the most tempt- ing viands and luxuries the season or the markets could afford. Mr. Packard did not even allow me the honor of an invitation to sit with him at this table; although the night before, a special meal had to be ordered for us both, he took his at the Doctor's table, while I had to be sent to the ward, to eat my warm biscuits and butter there alone. I felt these indignities, these neglects, these inattentions, just as any other affectionate, sensitive wife would naturally feel under such circumstances. But, for twenty-one years I had been schooling myself to keep under subjection to my reason and conscience, the manifestation of those indignant emotions which are the natural, spontaneous feelings which such actions must inevitably germinate in a true, confiding wife. Therefore, I made no manifestation of them under these provocations. At a very early period in my married life, had I learned the sad truth that it was impossible for Mr. Packard to appre- ciate or understand my womanly nature; therefore I had habituated myself to the exercise of charitable feelings towards him in my interpretation of such manifestations. I had tried to school myself to believe that his heart was not so much at fault as his education, and, therefore, I could sincerely pray the Lord to forgive him, for he knows not what he does—he does not know how to treat a woman. MY FIRST DAY OF PRISON LIFE. 77 I knew that the least manifestation of these indignant emotions would be misconstrued by him into feelings of anger, instead of a natural, praiseworthy resentment of wrong doing. And the laudable manifestation of these feelings under such circumstances, would tend to lessen, instead of increasing my self-respect. He held me in such relation towards himself as my father did towards himself, so that any resistance of his authority was attended with the same feeling of guilt which I would have felt in resisting my father's authority. And I, like a natural child, had always felt an almost reverential respect for my father's authority, and nothing to me seemed a greater sin than an act of disobedience to his commands; my conscience even demanded that I yield unquestioning submission to even the denial of my most fondly cherished hopes and anticipations. Mr. Packard had been introduced into our family when I was but ten years old, and he had been my father's ministerial companion for eleven years, and when I married him he had been my lover or suitor for only a few months. Previous to this time I had only looked upon him as my father's com- panion and guest, but never as even a social companion of his daughter, who had always been taught to be a silent listener to her father's social guests. This parental training of reverential feeling towards my father's ministerial guests, had capacitated me to become an unresisting victim to Mr. Packard's marital power or author- ity. And as Mr. Packard's education had led him to feel that this marital authority was the foundation stone of the marriage union, he, of course, conscientiously claimed, what I was too willing to grant, viz.: subjection to his will and wishes. But undeveloped as I then was, my true nature instinctively revolted at this principle as wrong ; but wherein, it was then difficult for me to demonstrate, even to my own satisfaction. But I can now see that my nature was only claiming its just 78 MODERN PERSECUTION. rights, by this instinctive resistance to this marital authority. It was the protection of my identity or individuality which I was thus claiming from my husband, instead of its subjection, as he claimed. The parental authority, I admit, has a sub- jective claim, to a degree ; but the marital has only the authority of protection. I believe that the moment a husband begins to subject his wife, that moment the fundamental law of the marriage union is violated. Both parties are injured by this act—the husband has taken the first step towards tyranny, and the injured wife has inevitably taken her first step towards losing her natural feeling of reverence towards her husband. Slavish fear is con- jugal love's antagonistic foe—the purest and most devoted woman's love vanishes before it, as surely as the gentle dew vanishes before the sun's burning rays. Fortify this love ever so strongly, this principle of slavish subjection will undermine and overthrow the most impenetrable fortresses, and take the victim captive at its will. So had my conjugal love been led into a most unwilling captivity by my husband's tyranny, and all the charitable framework which woman's forgiving nature could throw around it, could not prevent this captivity, nor redeem the precious captive, so long as the tyranny of subjection claimed its victim! But to the triumph of God's grace I can say it, that during these twenty-one years of spiritual captivity, I do not know that I ever spoke a disrespectful word to my husband. I endured the soul agonies of this blighting, love strangling process silently, and for the most part uncomplainingly. I could, and cheerfully did do my duty to this usurper, as I would have done to a husband. But these duties had to be done from the dictates of settled principle, rather than from the impulse of true conjugal love. I hope my impulsive readers will now be prepared to under- stand that it is not because I did not feel these insults that MY FIRST DAY OF PRISON LIFE. 79 I did not resent them; but I had not then reached that stage of womanly development where I had the moral courage to de- fend myself by asserting my own rights. This stage of growth was indeed just dawning upon me; but O! the dense clouds attending this dawning of my individual existence! I had indeed practically asserted one of these inalienable rights, by not yielding my conscience and opinion to the dic- tates of creeds or church tyranny. Yes, I had maintained my rights of conscience in defiance of the marital power also. And this, too, had been the very hinge on which my reputation for sanity had been suspended. As Mr. Packard expressed himself: “Never before had Elizabeth persistently resisted his will or wishes—a few kind words and a little coaxing would always before set her right; but now she seems strangely determined to have her own way, and it must be she is insane." Thus, in my first struggle after my independence, I lost my personal liberty. Sad beginning! Had it not been better for me to submit to oppression and spiritual bondage, rather than have attempted to break the fetters of marital and religious despotism? No, I cannot feel that I have done either myself or others the least wrong, in the course I have thus far taken; there- fore, I have no recantations to make, and can give no pledges of future subjection to either of these powers, where their claims demand the surrender of my conscience to their dictation. And this is what they call my insanity, and for which I was sent to the asylum to be cured. I think it will be a long time before this cure will be effected. God grant me the quietude of patient endurance, come what will, in the stand I have taken. While these and similar reflections were passing through my mind, the door of my cell was opened by a fine-looking gentle- man in company with Mr. Packard, to whom he introduced me as Dr. McFarland, the Superintendent. He had but just re- 80 MODERN PERSECUTION. turned from a journey east, so that Dr. Tenny, the Assistant, received me. Dr. McFarland politely invited me to accompany them to the “reception-room.” I gladly accepted this invitation to be restored to the civili- ties of civilization, even temporarily. I seated myself upon the sofa by Mr. Packard's side, and the Doctor took the big rocking-chair directly in front of us, and opened a pleasant and interesting conversation, by narrating incidents of his eastern journey. In a very easy and polite manner, he led on the conversation to other points and topics of interest at the present day, and finally to the progressive ideas of the age, even to religion and politics. He very gal- lantly allowed me a full share of the time to express my own thoughts, while Mr. Packard sat entirely speechless. As the tone and spirit of the conversation rendered it proper, I recollect I made a remark something like this: “I don't know why it is, Doctor, it may be merely a foolish pride which prompts the feeling, but I can't help feeling an in- stinctive aversion to being called insane. There seems to be a kind of disparagement of intellect attending this idea, which seems to stain the purity and darken the lustre of the reputation forever after.” “ No, Mrs. Packard, this is not necessarily so; even some of the most renowned and gifted minds in the world have been insane, and their reputation and character are still revered and respected, such as Cowper and Tasso, the greatest poets in the world, and many others.” I made no plea of defence in favor of my sanity, and particu- larly avoided any disparaging or criminating remarks respect- ing Mr. Packard, but simply let the conversation take the di- rection the Doctor dictated. But, as I then thought fortu- nately for me, he introduced no topic where I felt at any loss what to say, to keep up an intelligent interchange of thought JIY FIRST DAY OF PRISON LIFE. 81 and expression. In short, this interview of an hour or more, was to me a feast of reason and a flow of soul, and it seemed to be equally so to the Doctor, unless my womanly instincts very much deceived me. When I was returned to my ward, and behind the fatal dead lock, dining with the insane, I must confess I did feel more out of my proper place, than I did while in the reception room of refined society. After noticing the manner in which the institution was con- ducted for the three succeeding years, I found that the inter- view I had had with the Doctor was a most uncommon occur- rence. Indeed, I never knew of a single instance where any other patient ever had so fair an opportunity of self-represen- tation, by a personal interview upon their reception into the Asylum, as he had thus allowed me. They are usually taken, forthwith, from their friends in the reception-room, and led directly into the ward, as Dr. Tenny had done by me the night before. But unlike my case afterwards, there they were left to remain indefinitely, so far as an interview with the Doctor was concerned. Many patients were received and discharged, while I was there, who never had five minutes conversation with the Doctors while in the Asylum. Often the new arrival would come to me and inquire : “When am I to have an examination ?” I would reply, “You never have an examination after you get here, for the Doctor receives you on the representation of those who want you should stay here.”. “But I never had any examination before I came, and even did not know where I was being brought, until I got here, and then my friends told me I should have an examination after I arrived." “I believe you are speaking the truth; for public sentiment seems to allow, that one whom we wish to regard as insane, 82 MODERN PERSECUTION. may be deceived and lied to to any extent with impunity; and besides the blinded public generally suppose that the in- mates do all have to pass an examination here before they are received, which is not the fact. They take it for granted that all are of course insane, or they would not be brought here, as Dr. Tenny said of me to Mrs. Waldo, in reply to her, inquiry: “Dr. Tenny, do you call Mrs. Packard an insane person ? " 66 Of course I do, or she would not be brought here," was his reply. And then the outsiders say, “Of course they are insane, or they would not have been received.” Thus our insanity is demonstrated beyond a question ! After dinner I saw from the grated window of my cell, the Asylum carriage drive up in front of the steps, when Mr. Packard was politely handed in, and the carriage drove off. Upon inquiry, I found he had gone to ride, to see the beauties of the scenery about Jacksonville, and the public buildings and handsome residences. 66 Oh,” thought I, “why could he not have invited me to ride with him? And how could he seek comfort for himself, while he left his wife amid scenes of such wretchedness ?” Not long after, my attendant came to my room and invited me to take a walk. I most gladly accepted the invitation, struggling and panting as my spirit was, for freedom; and I found that the pure air alone exerted an exhilarating influence over my feelings, and I with another prisoner, proposed to walk about the buildings, to see the grounds, etc. But we soon found ourselves followed by our watchful attendant, to see if we were not trying to run off! “Oh,” said I, “is this the vigilance that I am subjected to ? Is there no more freedom outside of our bolts and bars, than within them? Are we not allowed to be paroled like prisoners?” “No, no. No parole of honor is allowed these prisoners, for not one moment are we allowed to be out of sight and hearing of our vigilant attendant. And these are the walks and cir. MY FIRST DAY OF PRISON LIFE. 83 cumscribed limits Mr. Packard has assigned his wife, while he can roam where he pleases, with none to molest or make him afraid." It is my opinion that this institution receives and retains many sane persons, of whose sanity Dr. McFarland is as well assured as he was of my own. I do believe that he became fully convinced in his heart that I was not insane, before our interview terminated, for he once plainly intimated he never should have received me had be been at home. But since I had been already received by his assistant, he did not like to revoke his decision so abruptly as to return me directly into my husband's hands; neither did he wish to disappoint the wishes nor thwart the plans of a very respectable and popular minister of high standing in the Presbyterian church, for by this act he might possibly alienate some popular influences from his support; and one other thought may have had some influence over this decision (and will not my reader pardon my vanity if I mention it ?) namely, I think the intelligent Doctor thought he would like to become better acquainted with me. By thus retaining me for a few days, he felt that I could then be returned to the satisfaction of all parties. His subsequent polite attentions, and the remark he made to me at one of these interviews, viz.: “Mrs. Packard, you will not remain here many days,” in connection with a remark he made Mrs. Judge Thomas, of Jacksonville, respecting me, has led me to feel that I did not then misjudge him. The re- mark was this: “Mrs. Thomas, we have a very remarkable patient now in our Asylum. It is a Mrs. Packard, a clergyman's wife, from Massachusetts. She has a high order of talent, has a very su- perior education, is polished and refined in her manners, having ever moved in the best society, and is the most intelligent lady Iever saw. I think you would like to make her acquaintance.” CHAPTER VII. The Parting Scene. The next day I had a brief interview with the Doctor alone in my room, which was very pleasant and satisfactory to me- that is, I thought he could not think I was an insane person, therefore I had a little ray of hope to cling to, as Mr. Packard had not yet left. Dr. McFarland did not exchange a word with me upon this subject. But this dying hope was destined very soon to go out in utter darkness. About three o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Packard came the second time to my room, and as he had allowed me to be in his company only during the interview I had with the Doctor, during the two days and nights he had been in the Asylum, I felt it to be a privilege to accept of his invitation to go to the reception-room and have a talk with him there. I accordingly took his arm, without its being offered, and walked out of the hall. As we passed on, I heard some one remark: 66 See! that lady is not alienated from her husband. See how kindly she takes her husband's arm.” I seated myself by his side on the sofa, when ne said : “I am going to leave for Manteno in about one hour, and I did not know but that you would like to have a talk with me before I left.” « Then you are determined to leave your wife in an Insane Asylum! Oh, husband ! how can you do so ?” I then burst into tears. “I hoped we should have a pleasant interview before we parted.” - Pleasant! How could it be pleasant to leave me in such a place? And do you think it will be pleasant for me to be left? Only think of those dear motherless children!” No. 1. No.2. we BEALE. DEL No. 3. CHAM BERLIN-SC. N.Y No. 4. "How can I Live without my Children !” See page 85. No. 1.—Abducting my Babe. See p. 48. No. 2.—Abducting my Daughter. See No. 3.—My Isaac's parting kiss. See page 40. page 50. No. 4.--Abducting my George. See p. 50. THE PARTING SCENE. 85 “I shall see that they are well taken care of.” 66 But you cannot give them a mother's care. Oh how can my children live without their mother! And how can I live without my children !” As this strong maternal feeling of my nature came welling up into such a high pitch of intensity, it seemed as if my heart would burst with anguish, at this hitherto unaccepted thought. I arose, and, with my handkerchief to my face, I walked the room back and forth, at the same time begging and pleading in the most plaintive, expressive terms, that he would com- mute my sentence of banishment, so far as not to separate me from my children. “Oh, do be entreated in some way, to allow me this one favor, and my grateful, thankful heart will bless you forever. Oh, it will kill me to be separated from those dear ones! My babe! Oh, what will become of him! and what will become of me without my babe ? Oh, husband, do! do! let me return with you to my children! You know I have always been a kind and faithful mother and wife, too, and now, how can you treat me SO?” For some time I walked the room, giving utterance to such and similar expressions, without raising my eyes, or noticing the effect my plea was having upon him; but after a long pause, and vainly watching for his reply for some time, I looked up to see why he did not speak to me, when lo! what did I see? My husband sound asleep on the sofa, nodding his head! In astonishment, I indignantly exclaimed: “Oh husband! Are you asleep? Can you sleep when your wife is in such agony ?” The emphatic tones of my voice brought him back to con- sciousness, when he raised his head, and opening his eyes, replied: “I can't keep awake; I have been broken of my rest.” 86 MODERN PERSECUTION. 6"I see it is of no use to say anything more—it will avail nothing. We may as well part now as ever.” Saying this, I walked up to him and extended to him my hand, and as I did so, I said: 6 Farewell, husband, forever! May our next meeting be in the spirit land ; and if there you find yourself in need of help to rise to a higher plane, remember there is one spirit in the universe, who is willing to descend to any depth of misery, to help you on to a higher plane, if this can be done—and this spirit is your Elizabeth. Farewell, husband, forever!” . “I am sorry to hear you talk so; I hoped we should have a pleasant parting.” This was our parting scene! Now, let me introduce to my reader a scene in the Doctor's office, which succeeded this. Leaving me in the reception room, he repaired to the office, to take his leave of the Doctor. Now, it was his turn to cry! Availing himself of this right, he now burst into a flood of tears, which so choked his utterance, it was some minutes be- fore he could articulate at all, when he at length exclaimed: “How I pity my wife! How hard it is to leave her here ! Oh, if I only were not obliged to do so, how gladly I would take her home! She is such a good wife, how can I part with her ? But I must do so, hard as it is, for her good.” Thus he went on, acting this part of the drama to perfec- tion. Indeed, so well, and adroitly did he act the husband, that the intelligent Dr. McFarland himself was deluded into the belief that he was sincere, and that these were the tears of true sorrow and affection. Alluding to this scene months afterwards, he remarked : “I never saw a man so deeply afflicted, and even heart- broken, as Mr. Packard was at parting with you. He was the most heart-broken man I ever saw. If ever a man manifested true affection for his wife, it was Mr. Packard.” THE PARTING SCENE. Yes, he so completely psychologized the Doctor into the feeling that he loved me most devotedly, and was compelled, in spite of himself, to incarcerate me, that the Doctor felt certain there had been, a justifiable cause for my having been brought there. Satisfied that his work was now well done, he took his leave of the Doctor, and his tears at the same time! and with a light heart and quick step, passed out on to the porch, where he stopped to give me one look of satisfied delight, that he had finally completely triumphed, in getting me imprisoned beyond all hope of deliverance. Never had I seen his face more radiant with joy, than when he looked up to me, as I stood before the open window of the reception room and threw me his kisses from the ends of his fingers, and bowed to me his happy adieu. Yes, happy that his conspiracy against my personal liberty had so completely triumphed over all opposition. Having secured the entombment of the mother, he had now naught to do but to teach her children to despise their mother, and treat her name and memory with contempt and derision. CHAPTER VIII. Disappointed Hopes. Mr. Packard has gone! My last hope of deliverance through him, has now sunk into a rayless night of despair. Yes, utter despair of ever being liberated and reinstated in my family again. He has not so much as even uttered one syllable on which I could build such a hope. I never have heard him even say, he hoped I should ever get better, so as to be with him once more. What can this mean? Has he buried me for life? Yes, so his conduct speaks, and no word or act contradicts it. Hopeless imprisonment! Oh, may my reader never know what these terms signify. I know what it is to endure endless torment, and hopeless bondage! And it is a terrible doom. I did try to build a faint hope upon the fact that he had brought only a small satchel of things with me, and these could not last me long; but before he left, he dashed this hope to the ground by telling me he should send me my trunk, after he got home. In about three weeks, there did arrive a monstrous sized trunk directed to Mrs. Packard, which led the patients to exclaim: “Is Mr. Packard going to keep his wife here for life ?" And how did my sad heart echo this fearful question. But even amid this gloom, one ray of comfort gleamed forth at the thought, now I shall hear from my dear children. They surely will send some token of love and affection to their im- prisoned mother. And to enjoy this comfort to its fullest extent, I asked the Doctor to allow me to unpack it in my own room, with the door locked. He kindly locked me in himself, seemingly rejoicing in my anticipated joy. My first surprise on opening it, was to see so few articles of clothing, and these of the very poorest kind, and in a state of the most tangled confusion, with rotten lemons and cans of DISAPPOINTED HOPES. 89 fruit scattered amongst them to their detriment, poor as they were. The whole contents would not fill one-third of the trunk, and this caused the confusion. And why he should send so large a trunk to carry so few articles, has always been an unsolved mystery to me. But this feeling was soon lost in the bright thought of soon finding my children's love tokens. Each and every article was most carefully searched, to find what would be next to finding my child, for his own fingers must have held it and kissed it for his mother. But ah! must I utter the sad truth, that no token, no letter could be found, on which my fond heart could rest its loving impulses? Yes, so it was; and being alone, I wept in deepest anguish at this disappointed hope. My sons afterwards told me that they all expressed a wish to send me a letter and many tokens, but their father had refused to let them do so unless he should dictate the letters. Isaac said he knew that to get such a letter as his father would dictate, would pain me more than it would to get none at all. And so it would have been, for on a narrow strip of paper, four inches long and two wide, I found penciled : “We are glad to hear you are getting better; hope you will soon get well. Your daughter Elizabeth.” This her father made her write to make me feel that she believed me insane; and he knew nothing would torment me so much as this thought from her. Indeed, I found that what Isaac had said was too true. I was more pained to get this line from my daughter than I would have been to get none at all; for not knowing the truth, I did fear she was coming under the influence of this delusion. I think the Doctor pitied me under this trial, for the next day, when, in reply to his questions, I told him I found no letters, or love tokens, or messages from my children, be seemed astonished, and said: 90 MODERN PERSECUTION. did not write to their mother.” Another disappointment. I had especially requested Mr. Packard that my nice black silk dress and white crape shawl be sent, so that I could go to church decently dressed. But not only these, but all my other good articles of clothing were kept from me, not only while I was in the asylum, but long after I was liberated; and then he was forced to give them up upon my father's authority. Now my only hope of deliverance lay in the Mantenoites fulfilling their promise to get me out in a few days. Every carriage and man was watched, hoping to find in him my de- liverer. But none came, until several weeks, when I was called from Mrs. McFarland's parlor into the reception-room, to see Mr. and Mrs. Blessing, from Manteno, and a stranger, to whom they introduced me as Dr. Shirley, of Jacksonville. Dr. Shirley took the lead in the conversation, and I was de- lighted at the compliment he paid me in introducing subjects such as required intelligence and scientific knowledge to con verse upon. Our pleasure in sustaining such an interchange of thoughts seemed to be mutually reciprocated, and I think we both parted feeling that we were wiser than when we met. In reply to their inquiry: 6 Is she insane?” “ She is the sanest person I ever saw. I wish the world was full of such women.” Now that my sanity was established beyond question, the Mantenoites resolved to liberate me, and therefore appointed a public indignation meeting for this purpose, to see what could be done to effect it. Mr. Packard hearing of this proposed meeting to liberate his imprisoned wife, sent to Chicago and obtained Rev. A. D. Eddy, D.D., and Mr. Cooley, of the firm of Cooley & Farwell, to come to Manteno and help him to withstand and defeat this DISAPPOINTED HOPES. 91 philanthropic plan. They both came and did their work up thoroughly and successfully, in that they browbeat the Man- tenoites, and silenced them into submission to the dictates of this ministerial and church influence. Thus this plan was defeated, and I was destined to another disappointment. Mr. Blessing told me clandestinely, he had come to effect my liberation if possible. But these Mantenoites determined that their defeat should not be a failure, and therefore they determined to try the habeas corpus act, and thus secure me a fair trial at least. But to their surprise, they found it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to extend this act to a legal “nonentity,” un- less by the consent of Mr. Packard, who stood for me in law, and of course he would not consent to any step which would allow me any chance at self-defence. Therefore, with the encouragement and assistance of his brother ministers, and the church, he learned how to ward off this attempt successfully. Again the Mantenoites assembled, and by their generous contributions raised a liberal purse of money, to be used in my defence. They sent a delegation to the asylum, to inform me of this fact, which they did, by carefully noting the time the Doctor's back was turned, to inform me as they walked through the prison halls. Said they : “Any amount of money you can have, if money can help you. Send to your son, Theophilus, to take you out.” I simply had time to reply, “I can't send letters out." This was all we could say clandestinely. Although I could see no hope of deliverance through this source, yet the thought that I was being cared for by any one outside my prison, was a great consolation to me. Through the influence of friends, my oldest son, Theophilus, visited the asylum, and obtained an interview with me. 92 MODERN PERSECUTION. When I was incarcerated in my prison, Theophilus was in the post-office in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, as clerk, and had not seen me for two years. His regard for me was excessive. He had been uniformly filial, and very kind to me, and therefore when he learned that his loving mother was a prisoner in a lunatic asylum, he felt an unconquerable desire to see me, and judge for himself, whether I was really insane, or whether I was the victim of his father's despotism. His father, aware of this feeling, and fearing he might ascertain the truth respecting me by some means, sent him a asylum, and by no means visit her there, adding, if he did so, he should disinherit him! Theophilus was now eighteen years of age, and, as yet, had never known what it was to disobey either his father's or moth- er's express commands. But now his love for his mother led him to question the justice of this seemingly arbitrary com- mand, and he, fearful of trusting to his own judgment in this matter, sought advice from those who had once been Mr. Packard's church members and deacons in Mount Pleasant, and from all he got the same opinion strongly defended, that he had a right to disobey such a command. He therefore ventured to visit his mother in her lonely prison home in defiance of his father's edict. I was called from my ward to meet my darling first-born son in the reception-room, when I had been in my prison about two months. After embracing and kissing me with all the fondness of a most loving child, and while shedding our mu- tual tears of ecstasy at being allowed to meet once more on earth, he remarked: “ Mother, I don't know as I have done right in coming to see you as I have, for father has forbidden my coming, and you have always taught me never to disobey my father.” DISAPPOINTED HOPES. 93 you it was a sin to disobey him, and I do fear you have done wrong, if you have come to see me in defiance of your father's command. You know we can never claim God's blessing in doing wrong, and I fear our interview will not be a blessing to either of us, if it has been secured at the price of disobe- dience to your father's command.” Here his tears began to flow anew, while he exclaimed: “I was afraid it would prove so! I was afraid you would not approve of my coming! But, mother, I could not bear to, feel that you had become insane, and I could not believe it, and would not, until I had seen you myself; and now I see it is just as I expected, you are not insane, but are the same kind mother as ever. But I am sorry if I have done wrong by coming.” I wept—he wept-I could not bear to blame my darling boy. “And must I?” was the great question to be settled. “My son, let us ask God to settle this question for us,” and down we both kneeled by the sofa, and with my arm around my darling boy, I asked God if I should blame him for coming to see me in defiance of his father's order. While asking for heavenly wisdom to guide us in the right way, the thought came to me, “ go and ask Dr. McFarland.”, I accordingly went to the Doctor's parlor, where I found him alone, reading his paper. I said to him :. “Doctor, I have a question of conscience to settle, and I have sought your help in settling it, namely, has my son done wrong to visit me, when his father has forbidden his coming, and has threatened to disinherit him if he did ? He has the letter with him showing this to be the case.” After thinking a moment, the Doctor simply replied : “Your son has a right to visit his mother!” Oh, the joy I felt at this announcement! It seemed as if a mountain had been lifted from me, so relieved was I of my burden. With a light heart I sought my sobbing boy, and encircling my arms about his neck, exclaimed: 94 MODERN PERSECUTION. “Cheer up! my dear child, you had a right to visit your mother! so says the Doctor.” Why was this struggle with our consciences ? Was it not that we had trained them to respect paternal authority ? At this interview, Dr. McFarland fairly promised to co-ope- rate with my son, in doing all in his power to get me out, and afterwards refused to do the least thing towards it, not even to send my letters to my son, nor would he deliver his to me. I know he received letters from him, for shortly after I saw one on his office table from him, directed to me, and I took it up to read it, and he took it from me, refusing to let me know its contents. Now I found I was destined to another disappointment, for the Doctor had not only refused to co-operate, but was evi- dently defeating my son's filial attempts to rescue his mother. The agony of this disappointment was increased by the fact that the Doctor had deceived us both, in this transaction, therefore his word could no longer be trusted. I was very sorry to be obliged to come to this conclusion, for until this development I had regarded him as a man of honor, whose word could be trusted. Another effort my friends made was to go the Governor on my behalf, but he replied: “I cannot repeal laws, nor enact laws, I can only execute laws, and if there is no law by which she can have a trial, or be liberated, I do not know of anything that I can do for her. It is her husband's business to take her out, and if he refuses, there is no law to force him, so long as Dr. McFarland claims she is insane." After all these sore disappointments, I found that my per- sonal liberty, and personal identity, were entirely at the mercy of Mr. Packard and Dr. McFarland ; that no law of the Insti- tution or of the State, recognized my identity while a married woman; therefore, no protection, not even the criminal's right DISAPPOINTED HOPES. 95 of self-defence, could be extended to me; and therefore I must intelligently yield up all hopes of my personal liberty, so long . as Mr. Packard and Dr. McFarland lived and agreed in keep- ing me imprisoned ! With such an institution in every State what is there now to prevent any kind of persecution a depraved nature may in- stigate against the innocent and unsuspecting ? especially against a married woman, who, upon the principle of common law, has no legal protection whatever, if her husband chooses to use the power the law gives him to prevent it! Had I lived in the sixteenth instead of the nineteenth cen- tury my husband would have used the laws of that day to punish me as a heretic for this departure from the established creed-while under the influence of the same intolerant spirit, he now uses this autocratic institution as a means of torture to bring about the same result_namely: a recantation of my faith. In other words, instead of calling me by the obsolete title of heretic he modernizes his phrase by substituting insanity instead of heresy as the crime for which I am now sentenced to endless imprisonment in one of our Modern Inquisitions. Much that is now called insanity will be looked upon by future ages, with a feeling similar to what we feel towards those who suffered as witches, in Salem, Massachusetts. That persecution went so far, that the government was obliged to make a law, that all who accused others of witchcraft, must themselves suffer the punishment they had designed to secure to the witch. This law and its execution put a speedy stop to these false accusations. Possibly, our government will be obliged to put a stop to these false accusations of insanity, in the same manner. If all those who falsely accused another of insanity, were com- pelled to be treated as insane themselves, I think the number of those brought before a jury for trial, on the charge of in- sanity, would be greatly lessened. CHAPTER IX. Sunny Side of My Prison Life. For the first four months of my prison life, Dr. McFarland treated me himself, and caused me to be treated, with all the respect of a hotel boarder, so far as lay in his power. As to medical treatment, I received none at all, either from himself, or his subordinates. And the same may be said with equal truth, of all the inmates. This is the general rule; those few cases where they receive any kind of medical treatment, are the exceptions. A little ale occasionally, is the principal part of the medical treatment which these patients receive, unless his medical treatment consists in the “laying on of hands,” for this treat- ment is almost universally bestowed. But the manner in which this was practised, varied very much in different cases. For the first four months the Doctor “laid his hands” very gently upon me, except that the pressure of my hand in his was sometimes quite perceptible, and sometimes, as I thought, longer continued than this healing process demanded! Still, as I was then quite a novice in this mode of cure, I different manner, and as I then thought and still do think, far too violently. There was no mistaking the character of these grips—no duplicity after this period, rendered this modern mode of treatment of doubtful interpretation to me. To Dr. McFarland's credit I must say, that if shaking hands with his patients is his mode of medical treatment, I must give him the credit of paying no respect of persons in administering it. For indeed there was seldom an occupant of the seventh ward who did not daily feel the grip of the Superintendent's hand. SUNNY SIDE OF MY PRISON LIFE. 97 And I have no doubt but that this mode of imparting mag- netism was in many instances beneficial to the patient. So far as its influence upon me was concerned, I cheerfully admit that I considered myself benefited by it. My nervous system had been severely taxed, my sympathies had been stifled, and these heavy draughts on the vital forces of my nature had left me in a condition to be easily strengthened and benefited by the magnetic influence of a strong and sympa- thizing man. The affectionate pressure of his great hand seemed to impart a kind of vitality to my nervous system, which did help me bear my spiritual tortures with greater for- titude and composure. Up to this date I had reason to believe that he did pity me, and really wished to be a true friend to me and my interests. Many thanks are due to Dr. McFarland for the courteous, manly treatment I received from him during this favored period. I did not then think, neither do I now cherish the thought, that Dr. McFarland intended to manifest himself towards me in any manner inconsistent with the principles of a high-toned, manly gentleman. Only one impulsive act of this kind did he allow himself to commit during my entire prison life, which I think his reason would not approve, so far as his personal treatment of me was concerned. One day I was entrusted with the care of some of the Seventh ward patients, to recreate ourselves in the court-yard. Avail- ing myself of the sources of amusement there furnished, I seated myself upon a swing, and also politely accepted the offer of a gentleman, who was reclining upon the grass under the shady tree to swing me. After allowing him to do so for a while, I asked him to allow me to get off and let another take my place. But instead of receiving their thanks for this offer, Mrs. Gassaway, one of the prisoners, a wife, and mother of several children, bestowed upon me a most severe reprimand, 98 MODERN PERSECUTION. not only for swinging myself, but also for allowing a “male patient,” as she called my gallant, to swing me. Instead, therefore, of accepting this offer herself, or allow- ing any other one to accept it, she started with a quick step towards the ward, to report my misdemeanors to Miss Eagle, our attendant, as she threatened to do. I, of course, followed with my paroled prisoners after her, as I had been instructed to keep an eye upon them all; but instead of following them into the ward, I went alone into the Doctor's office to report my misdemeanors at head quarters. I found Dr. McFarland standing at his writing desk, alone in his office. I rushed up in front of him, and in a very en- thusiastic, amusing manner, made a frank and full confession of what Mrs. Gassaway termed my“ great improprieties!” With his eyes upon me, the Doctor listened with the most profound attention to my confessions and plea for pardon, and as I finished by inquiring : “ What shall I say to Miss Eagle in extenuation of Mrs. Gassaway's charge against me ? “ Say nothing; I will see that you are protected !” And as he made this remark, he stooped and bestowed a kiss upon my forehead. Although I regarded this as a mere impulsive act, dictated by no corrupt motives, yet as I afterwards told him, I con- sidered it an indiscreet act for a man in his position : “For, Dr. McFarland, men do not send their wives, nor fathers their daughters here, expecting that you will manifest your regard for them in this manner, and by doing so, you render yourself liable to just censure from the patrons of this Institution.” The Doctor listened with silent attention to this reproof, and only remarked : “ It was only a kiss of charity.” Here I will venture the remark, that had I been discharged SUNNY SIDE OF MY PRISON LIFE. 99 at any time during these four months, I should doubtless have identified myself with that class of discharged prisoners who represent Dr. McFarland as no other than an honorable gentleman. And I am prepared to believe there are many whose experience would lead them to thus represent him, for, from their standpoint, he had been only the gentlemanly Superintendent. The greatest fault I could see in the Doctor's conduct during this period was, his receiving so many who were not insane, and in retaining those who had recovered their sanity so long after they were able to be at home. I saw several such sink back into a state of hopeless imbecility from this cause alone. Hope too long deferred made them so sick of life that they yielded themselves up to desperation as a natural, inevitable result." It was a matter of great surprise to me to find so many in the Seventh ward, who, like myself, had never shown any in- sanity while there, and these were almost uniformly married women, who were put there either by strategy or by force. None of these unfortunate sane prisoners had had any trial or any chance for self-defence. And I could not force myself to believe that so sensible a man as the Doctor, could really believe they were insane, without a shadow of evidence in their own conduct. But sadly foolish and weak as it was, he professed to believe they were, on simple hearsay testimony, in defiance of positive, tangible proof to the contrary. I once asked the Doctor how long he had to keep a person imprisoned, to determine whether they were insane or not. His reply was, “ Sometimes six months, and sometimes a year!” Another fact I noticed, that he invariably kept these sane wives until they begged to be sent home. This led me to sus- pect that there was a secret understanding between the hus- band and the Doctor; that the subjection of the wife was the 100 MODERN PERSECUTION. cure the husband was seeking to effect under the specious plea of insanity; and when they began to express a wish to go home, the Doctor would encourage these tyrannical hus- bands that they were “improving." Time after time have I seen these defenceless women sent home only to be sent back again and again, for the sole pur- pose of making them the unresisting willing slaves of their cruel husbands. I do not blame Dr. McFarland for the sins of these un- natural husbands, but I do blame him for letting the institu- tion be used by them as a place of punishment to married women—as a prison, where they could appeal to none for help or deliverance—but to themselves. • These husbands, like Mr. Packard, knew that no law could protect the wife from their despotic power, and they knew too, that the simple word of Dr. McFarland, that they were insane, would legally entitle them to the use of this State's Prison as a calaboose, where their wives could be subjected to their hus- bands' will! I think that Dr. McFarland, even while he treated these subjected women with decent, gentlemanly respect, was at the same time, inflicting upon them a most cruel wrong, in keeping them imprisoned, when he knew they were not insane. This is the only wrong I complain of from him, during those four months. He ought to have had the moral counage to say to Mr. Packard : “ Your wife is not insane, and I see no reason why her per- sonal liberty should be taken from her. Therefore, I shall discharge her upon my own responsibility, to take care of herself unless you choose to do so. I am sure she is capable of assuming a self-reliant position, and therefore ought not to be imprisoned.” But he dared not do right and justice by me, or my associates, in this particular, but chose the cowardly course of comprom- ising with this mean man; and thus he trampled the highest, SUNNY SIDE OF MY PRISON LIFE. 101 noblest instincts of his manly nature in the dust. By thus oppressing the weak, instead of protecting them, he ruined himself-his manliness suffered strangulation under this pro- cess,-as the sequel will demonstrate. But with this exception, no Superintendent could have treated a prisoner with more consideration than he did me. I was allowed to go into the parlor and visit with his wife or her guests, when I pleased. I was occasionally invited to eat at the Doctor's table. He instructed my attendants to let me go out whenever I pleased. He allowed my room to be furnished with the toilet comforts of any good boarding house. He allowed me to have a trunk in my room, and all the articles of my wardrobe that I needed. I was allowed my gold watch and gold spectacles, my three bladed pocket knife and scissors; in fact, everything a hotel boarder could desire. He furnished me books and papers to read. I could read, knit and sew, ride or walk, when I pleased, and to add to the feeling of trust and confidence he reposed in me, he gave me the entire charge of a carriage load of patients, and gave also the reins of the horse into my hands, to ride as far as I pleased, and return when I pleased. This he did fourteen times, with no one to care for the horse or the patients, but myself. He gave me money to go to the city and trade for myself, and his wife has sent me to trade for her, and for the house. His wife has employed me for weeks in succession, to cut and make dresses for herself and daughters, and the matron em- ployed me to cut and plan work for the house. I cut and made twelve comforts for the house, and tied them myself, in my room, made pants and vests and cut twelve dresses for the patients. Indeed, there was always something to do, for the comfort of others, and my own amusement. I was allowed to visit with most of the guests of the house, 102 MODERN PERSECUTION. In short, but for the grated windows, and bolted doors of prison life, I should hardly have known but I was a boarder, whose identity and capacities were recognized, in common with other intelligent guests. My companions in the Seventh ward, were a very pleasant source of social enjoyment. Among them, I found some of the most original thinkers I ever saw; and among this class, some of the best teachers I had ever had. Some of them were Spiritualists, and they taught me many new ideas, and set me on to a new track of exploration. They told me their visions, and trances and prophecies, many of which have been already fulfilled, in the events of the war. One lady had a prevision of the war, and was sent to the same, under different imagery, and she had to lose her personal liberty for telling of it. Both of these prophetesses, Mrs. Neff and Mrs. Clarke, have lived to see the exact fulfillment of their visions, and like Jeremiah, they both had to be imprisoned for foretelling future events. And sad as is the fact, these inspired women were compelled tion, to either be false to these true inspirations, or “ Hide their light under a bushel,” in order to obtain their personal liberty. Both of them told me, they were obliged to stop talking about it, before any one would admit they were getting over their insanity. But they had to endure the horrors of a Lunatic Asylum for months, and even years, before they could be induced to love the defence of the truth, less than their personal liberty. But neither of these prophetesses ever did, to my knowledge, deny the truth of these visions, nor would they own it to be insanity. They merely yielded to be gagged, on condition that they could be liberated by so doing. Such manifestations as these, are what the Asylum calls SUNNY SIDE OF MY PRISON LIFE. 103 very insane cases, so they had to be subjected to very severe punishments, and tortures, to bring them into this condition! They both said to me clandestinely, the night before they left: “My views are not changed at all, in regard to these pro- phetic truths, yet I dare not own it aloud, lest Dr. McFarland hear of it, and I be thereby doomed to endless torment within these prison walls. If my attendants should know that I have uttered these views to you, they will report me to the Doctor, and he will order my friends to leave to-morrow without me, as he will tell them I am not fit to go, for my insanity has re- turned. Therefore be entreated Mrs. Packard, not to betray me by reporting this conversation, until I am safely away from this horrid Inquisition.” Of course I did not report them to their tormentors, but I consider it to be my duty, to report this inquisition to the American people, and thus appeal to their intelligence, to de- stroy these Inquisitions, which they are now blindly sustaining, under the popular name of charitable, humanitarian institu- tions. If the truth were known, I believe that much that is called insanity at the present day, is only a higher development of Christianity than the perverted theology of the pulpit is willing to recognize. CHAPTER X. Letters to My Husband and Children. Jacksonville, July 14th, 1860, Sabbath, P. M. My Dear Husband and Children: Your letter of July eleventh arrived yesterday. It was the third I have received from home, and, indeed, is all I have re- ceived from any source since I came to the Asylum. And the one you received from me is all I have sent from here. I thank you for writing so often. I shall be happy to answer all letters from you, if you desire it, as I see you do, by your last. I like anything to relieve the monotny of my daily routine. * * * Dr. McFarland told me, after I had been here one week,"I do not think you will remain but a few days longer.” I suspect he found me an unfit subject, upon a personal acquaintance. Still, unfit as I consider myself, to be numbered amongst the insane, I am so numbered at my husband's request. And for his sake, I must, until my death, carry about with me, “ This thorn in the flesh—this messenger of Satan to buffet me," and probably, to keep me humble, and in my proper place. God grant it may be a sanctified affliction to me! I do try • to bear it, uncomplainingly, and submissively. But, Oh! 'tis hard—'tis very hard. May you never know what it is to be numbered with the insane, within the walls of an asylum, not knowing your friends will ever regard you as a fit companion or associate for them again. Oh! the bitter, bitter cup, I have been called to drink, even to its very dregs, just because I choose to obey God rather than man! But, as my Saviour said, “ the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” Oh! yes, for thy sake, kind LETTERS TO MY HUSBAND AND CHILDREN. 105 Saviour, I rejoice, that I am counted worthy to suffer the loss of all things. And thou hast made me worthy, by thine own iree and sovereign grace. Yes, dear Jesus, I am trying to learn the lesson thou art teaching me, that “in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Yes, content, to sit at a table with twenty-four maniacs, three times a day, and eat my bread and meat, and drink my milk and water, while I remember, almost each time, how many vegetables and berries are upon my own dear table at home, and I not allowed to taste, because my husband counts me un- worthy, or unfit, or unsafe, to be an inmate at his fireside and table. I eat, and retire, and pray God to keep me from com- plaining. My fare does not agree with my health, and so I have begged of our kind attendants, to furnish me some poor, shriveled wheat, to eat raw, in order to promote digestion. This morning, after asking a blessing at the table, I retired to my own room, to eat my raw, hard wheat alone, with my pine-apple to soften it, or rather to moisten it going down. Yes, the berries I toiled so very hard to get for our health and comfort, I only must be deprived of them at my husband's appointment. The past-Oh! the sad past! together with the present, and the unknown future! Let oblivion cover the past—let no record of my wrongs be ever made, for posterity to see, for your sake, my own lawful husband. Oh! my dear precious children! how I pity you! My heart aches for you. But I can do nothing for you. I am your father's victim, and cannot escape from my prison to help you, even you—my own flesh and blood—my heart's treasure, my jewels, my honor and rejoicing. For I do believe you remain true to the mother who loves you so tenderly, that she would die to save you from the dis- grace your father has brought upon your fair names, by being stigmatised as the children of an insane mother, whom he 5* 106 MODERN PERSECUTION. said he regarded as unsafe, as an inmate of your own quiet home, and, therefore, has confined me within these awful en- closures! May you never know what it is to go to sleep within the hearing of such unearthly sounds as can be heard here almost at any hour of the night! I can sleep in the hearing of it, for “ so he giveth his beloved sleep.” Children dear, do not be discouraged at my sad fate, for well doing; but be assured that, although you may suffer in this world for it, you may be sure your reward will come in the next. “ For, if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.” Do commit your souls to him in well-doing for my sake, if you dare not for your own sake, for I do entreat you to let me be with you in heaven, if your father prevents it on earth. I may not have much longer to suffer here on earth. Several in our ward are now sick in bed, and I give them more of my fruit than I eat myself, hoping that, when my turn comes to be sick, some one may thus serve me. But if not, I can bear it, perhaps better than they can, to be without any solace or comfort in sickness here, such as a friend needs. Do be kind to your father, and make him as happy as possi- ble. Yes, honor your father, if he has brought such dishonor upon your name and reputation. I will devote my energies to these distressed objects around me, instead of attending to your wants, as a mother should be allowed to do, at least, so long as she could do so, as well as I could, and did, when I was taken from you. I know I could not, for lack of physical strength, do as much for you as I once could, still I was willing, and did do all I could for you. Indeed, I find I am almost worn out by my sufferings. I am very weak and feeble. Still I make no complaints, for I am so much better off than many others here. Do bring my poor lifeless body home when my spirit has LETTERS TO MY HUSBAND AND CHILDREN. 107 fled to Jesus' arms for protection, and lay me by my asparagus bed, so you can visit my grave and weep over my sad fate in this world. I do not wish to be buried in Shelburne, but let me rise where I suffered so much for Christ's sake. Oh! do not, do not, be weary in well-doing, for, did I not hope to meet you in heaven, it seems as though my heart would break! I am useful here, I hope. Some of our patients say, it is a paradise here now, compared with what it was before I came. The authorities assure me, that I am doing a great work for the institution. When I had the prospect of returning home in a few days, as I told you, I begged with tears not to send me, as my husband would have the same reason for sending me back as he had for bringing me here. For the will of God is still my law and guide, so I cannot do wrong, and until I become insane, I can take no other guide for my conduct. Here I can exercise my rights of conscience, without offending any one. Yes, I am getting friends, from high and low, rich and poor. I am loved and respected here by all that know me. I am their confidant, their counsellor, their bosom friend. Oh! how I love this new circle of friends! There are several patients here who are no more insane than I am; but are put here, like me, to get rid of them. But here we can work for God, and here die for him. Love to all my children, and yourself also. I thank you for the fruit and mirror. It came safe. I had bought one before. I am at rest—and my mind enjoys that peace the world can- not give or take away. When I am gone to rest, rejoice for me. Weep not for me, I am, and must be forever happy in God's love. The questions are often asked me. “Why were you sent here? you are not insane. Did you 108 MODERN PERSECUTION. injure any one ? Did you give up, and neglect your duties? Did you tear your clothes, and destroy your things ? What did you do that made your friends treat such a good woman so?" Let silence be my only reply, for your sake, my husband. Now, my husband, do repent, and secure forgiveness from God, and me, before it is too late. Indeed, I pity you; my soul weeps on your account. But God is merciful, and his mercies are great above the heavens. Therefore, do not despair; by speedy repentance secure gospel peace to your tempest-tossed soul. So prays your loving wife, ELIZABETH. Extract from Another Letter. My Dear Husband : I thank you kindly for writing, and thus relieving my burdened heart, by assuring me that my dear children are alive and well. I have been sadly burdened at the thought of what they are called to suffer on their mother's account. Yes, the mother's heart has wept for them every moment; yet my heart has rejoiced in God my Saviour, for to suffer as well as to do his holy will, is my highest delight, my chief joy. Yes, my dear husband, I can say in all sincerity and honesty, 66 The will of the Lord be done.” I can still by this abundant grace utter the true emotions of my full heart, in the words of my favorite verse, which you all know has been my solace in times of doubt, perplexity and trial. It is this: “With cheerful feet thy path of duty run, God nothing does, nor suffers to be done, But what thou wouldst thyself, couldst thou but see, Through all events of things as well as He.” LETTERS TO MY HUSBAND AND CHILDREN. 109 Oh! the consolation the tempest-tossed spirit feels in the thought that our Father is at the helm, and that no real harm can befall us with such a pilot to direct our course. And let me assure you all for your encouragement, that my own experience bears honest, practical testimony that great peace they have who make God their shield, their trust, their refuge; and I can even add that this insane asylum has been to me the gate to Heaven. * * By Dr. McFarland's leave, I have established family wor- ship in our hall; and we never have less than twelve, and sometimes eighteen or more, quite quiet and orderly, while I read and explain a chapter—then join in singing a hymn- then kneeling down, I offer a prayer, as long as I usually did at our own family altàr. I also implore the blessing of God at the table at every meal, while twenty-nine maniacs, as we are called, silently join with me. Our conversation, for the most part, is intelligent, and to me most instructive. At first, quite a spirit of discord seemed to pervade our circle. But now it is quiet and even cheerful. I find that we as individuals hold the happiness of others to a great degree in our own keeping, and that “A merry heart doeth good like medicine.” If God so permit, I should rejoice to join the dear circle at home, and serve them to the best of my ability. “Neverthe- less, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." I thank you, husband, for your kindness, both past and prospective. Do forgive me, wherein I have ever wronged you, or needlessly injured your feelings, and believe me your ELIZABETH. P.S.-Tell the dear children to trust God, by doing right. CHAPTER XI. My Transition. During the sunny days of my prison life I was allowed to have the free and unrestricted use of my pen, with all the paper and stationery I wished. My right to my letters, jour- nal and private papers, was as freely acceded to me as any other inalienable right of an American citizen. And Dr. McFarland even respected my post-office right so much as not to read my letters to my husband, nor do I think he read his to me. This, I found, was an almost unexampled practical acknowl- edgement of this sacred right of an American citizen, while under the locks and keys of one of its humanitarian institu- tions. Before I entered an insane asylum and learned its hidden life from the standpoint of a patient, I had not supposed that the inmates were outlaws, in the sense that the law did not protect them in any of their inalienable rights. I had igno- rantly supposed that their right to “ life, liberty, and the pur- suit of happiness," was recognized and respected as human beings. But now I have learned it is not the case; but on the con- trary, the law and society have so regulated this principle, that the insane are permitted to be treated and regarded as having no rights that any one is bound to respect—no, not even so much as the slaves are, for they have the rights of their master's selfish interests to shield their own rights. But the rights of the insane are not even shielded by the principle of selfishness. What does the keeper of this class care for the rights of the menials beneath him? Nothing. His salary is secured by law, whether there be few or many under the roof which shelters him. Unlike the MY TRANSITION. 111 slaveholder, he can torment and abuse unto death, and his in- terests are not impaired by this wreck of human faculties and human life. Indeed this wreck is oftentimes made a necessity to the Su- perintendent, to prevent the exposure of his criminal acts. And since there is no law to shield the insane person, he is, protected in his despotism, no matter how severe and rigorous he may become.. the rights of its citizens, it seems to me that the insane have rights which the government ought to respect, acknowledge, and protect. And one of these human rights is to write letters to whom and when they please, as this would serve to restrain, in some degree, the absolute despotism which rules supreme behind the curtain. So long as the superintendent was upright, and acted accord- ing to his highest sense of right, he would not care what his patients said or wrote about him. But when selfishness and wicked policy controlled his actions, he would fear his wicked- ness would be exposed if the patients were allowed to write what they pleased. I think it is because the deeds of dark- ness and cruelty are so common, instead of deeds of kindness, forbearance and justice, that render the superintendents so harmonious in the opinion that it is best to deprive their pa- tients of their post-office rights, when they are deprived of their personal liberty. In my own experience I find this principle demonstrated, as the sequel will show. While I was treated with propriety, there were no strictures put upon my correspondence; but as soon as he began to pass on to the plane of injustice, he became jealous at once of the use I made of this right. 112 MODERN PERSECUTION. I do not think any letters I wrote during these sunny days would have excited his jealousy if he did read them all; but there was one document I wrote which did arouse all the evil influences of his nature into energetic action against me, and this was a written reproof I gave him. It may be a matter of surprise to my readers that I should deem it my duty to reprove one who was acting so gentlemanly a part towards me. It was a surprise to myself, almost, that I should dare to risk myself in such an encounter, knowing as I did, that all my favors, rights and privileges, were suspended entirely upon the will of the superintendent, and therefore, subject to his dictation. But motives higher than those of self-interest act- uated me, or I could not have done it. I know that I was a rare exception in the respectful treatment he was bestowing upon me; no other prisoner had been so much favored before me, if the testimony of his employees could be relied upon, and my eligible position had become the great topic of discus- sion among the prisoners and employees. But by the omnipotent power of God's grace I was inspired with moral courage sufficient to espouse the cause of the op- pressed and the defenceless, even at the risk of becoming one of their number by so doing. I plainly saw and felt that on the part of their oppressors there was power, but that they had no comforter. I felt con- scious that I held an influence and power over Dr. McFarland, and I deliberately determined this influence should be felt in their behalf. And, like Queen Esther, I felt willing to cast in my lot with these despised captives, if necessary, to be their deliverer. I therefore depicted their wrongs, oppression and received cruelties, in the most expressive terms I could command, and on this statement of awful facts I based an appeal to his intel- ligence, his humanity, and his conscience, to become their protector and deliverer. MY TRANSITION. 113 I furthermore added, that unless he did treat them with more justice, I should expose his criminal conduct publicly, when I got out; but if he would repent of these sins against humanity, he would have nothing to fear, for we would all forgive the past if he would repent now, and do us justice in the future. This document cast the die for my future destiny. The transition time had fully come, when comfort, attention, respect, privilege; all, all, were in the dead past, and discom- fort, inattention, disrespect, contempt, wrong and deprivation are to mark the future of my prison life. It was for others' interests I plead—it was of others' wrongs and woes I complained. It was for them and their sakes I deliberately laid down my position as the asylum favorite, and became henceforth the asylum prisoner. From this time, for two years and eight months, was I made a close prisoner, and never after, with but one exception, allowed to step my foot outside the asylum walls, and I fully believe it was the Doctor's purpose to make a maniac of me, by the skillful use of the asylum tortures. But, thank God! the mouths of the Asylum Lions were kept shut, so that they could not hurt me, and like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the Lord brought me out of this fiery furnace without the taint of insanity upon me. I did not fear to trust the Lord in the line of my duty-he did not forsake me in my captivity. Although henceforth I became one with my fellow captives in suffering, yet never for one moment have I regretted the step I then took in their defence, nor the transition it assigned me. CHAPTER XII. My Removal from the Best Ward to the Worst. One Saturday evening, after chapel prayers, Dr. McFarland took me by the arm and led me from the chapel into the eighth ward, and as he left me behind the dead lock, said: “ You may occupy this ward, Mrs. Packard.” This was the first manifestation of the change in the Doctor's feelings towards me. As he left, I said to my attendant: “ Miss Tenny, what does this mean?” " I don't know; all he said to me was, “I wish you not to allow Mrs. Packard to leave the ward, and give her a dor- mitory bed, and treat her as you do the maniacs."" "I don't know what it means either, he has never reproved me for anything, neither have I broken any rules that I know of. I wonder if my reproof' has not offended him?” “I presume it has; I have heard there was quite a stir about it.” I found it was generally known that I was preparing a document in defence of the prisoners' rights, and several had heard me read it; and although they insisted upon its truth in every particular, yet they all seemed to think I had no idea of the Doctor's power over us, or I should not dare to utter the truth so plainly to him. Some said, “We have often told him the same thing, but he takes no notice of it whatever, unless he gets mad about it, then he will send us to some bad ward to be punished for it." Others would say, “Mrs. Packard, you had better not give the Doctor that document, unless you wish to be sent to a dungeon, where you could never see daylight again!” MY REMOVAL TO THE WORST WARD. 115 Another would say, “I will stand by you, Mrs. Packard, if you will give him that document, if he kills me for doing so! for it is the truth.” Fearing some of these predictions might prove true, I took the precaution to take an exact copy of the document, and sewed it up in a cloth, and hid it between the glass and the board back of my mirror, where it remained, undisturbed and unknown, to any one except myself, until I took it out after I was liberated. I did this, thinking that if I should be killed there, it might some time be found, and tell the cause of my sudden or mysterious death ; or if ever I should be liberated, it might be a vindication of my sanity, and explain the reason for my being retained so long. Since my liberation I have printed and sold several thousand copies of this reproof. I also put every article of my wardrobe in perfect order, before going to chapel prayers that night, feeling a kind of presentiment of coming evil. I also told my friends in this seventh ward, that I hoped they would save my things from destruction, if they could not help me, in case of an encounter with the Doctor. As it proved, I went to the chapel as well prepared for the event as I could have been, had I known what was to happen. My attendant, Miss Eagle, of the seventh ward, told me that the Doctor came directly to my room after he had disposed of me, and shut himself in there alone, a long time, while he searched my things all over to find every manuscript I had in my possession, which he took from me. Knowing that I had a duplicate of my reproof, he determined to find and destroy it. But in this attempted robbery he failed. He then ordered Miss Eagle to send all my things to the trunk room, and not allow me to take my bowl and pitcher and mirror, although they were my own. He ordered my new attendant, Miss Tenny, to treat me just as she did the maniacs, who were now my sole companions—to 116 MODERN PERSECUTION. let me have nothing to amuse myself with, by way of sewing, reading, or writing. My associates in this ward occupied themselves in screaming, fighting, running, hallooing, sitting on the floor when they sat at all in their own rooms, as chairs were not allowed in this ward. There was scarcely a patient in the whole ward who could ask or answer a question in a rational manner. This ward was then considered the worst in the house, inasmuch as it then contained some of the most dangerous class of patients, even worse than the fifth in this respect, and in respect to filth and pollution it surpassed the fifth at that time. It is not possible for me to conceive of a more fetid smell, than the atmosphere of this hall exhaled. An occupant of this hall, would inevitably become so completely saturated with this most offensive effluvia, that the odor of the eighth ward patients could be distinctly recognised at a great dis- tance, even in the open air. I could, in a few moments after the Doctor put me in among them, even taste this most fetid scent at the pit of my stomach. Even our food and drink were so contaminated with it, we could taste nothing else, sometimes. It at first seemed to me, I must soon become nothing less than a heap of putre- faction. But I have found out that I can live, move, breathe, and have a being, where I once thought I could not! This awful scent was owing to neglect in the management of the Institution. This was not the visitor's ward. Seldom any, but the asylum occupants, found their entrance into this sink of human pollution. The patients were never washed all over, although they were the lowest, filthiest class of prisoners. They could not wait upon themselves any more than an infant, in many instances, and none took the trouble to wait upon them. The accumula- tion of this defilement about their persons, their beds, their rooms, and the unfragrant puddles of water through which MY REMOVAL TO THE WORST WARD. 117 they would delight to wade and wallow, rendered the exhala- tions in every part of the hall almost intolerable. To endure this contamination, I felt certain my daily cold water bath must be continued; but how could it be done, with only one tin wash basin for eighteen persons ? I found that we all could hardly find time to wash even our hands and face, before breakfast, in this single dish, much less could it be spared long enough for one to take a full bath. My attendant tried to get my bowl and pitcher from the Seventh ward, to accommodate me, but the Doctor forbid it. I asked him for it. He refused me. I then claimed the right to take a new chamber vessel, that was brought into the ward for another purpose, and tied a scarlet string around the handle to distinguish it, and kept it under my bed for my washbowl. By this means I was able to continue my daily bath, although I found my feelings of deli- cacy revolted from the gaze of from four to six room-mates, who occupied the same dormitory with myself. The Doctor expressly forbid my having a room by myself, but compelled me to sleep in this dormitory for one year, where, each night, my life was exposed, by the violent hands of these maniacs. I have been obliged to call up my attend- ant, some nights, to save being killed by them. Still the Doctor would not let her, give me a room by myself. I have sometimes thought the Doctor put me there for the very purpose of getting me killed by these maniacs. I have been nearly killed several times, and I have appealed most earnestly to Dr. McFarland to save my life, but he would simply turn speechless away from me! I have also asked him to remove some of the most dangerous ones for my safety, and the only response would be, to bring in a more dangerous one! I made no complaints, never expostulated with him, nor spoke a disrespectful or reproachful word to him, in vindica- tion of my own rights. I never made any confession to him 118 MODERN PERSECUTION: of wrong doing on my part, nor presented any plea for pardon or forgiveness. Neither did he ever utter one word of explanation to me, why he was pursuing this course of treatment towards me. Neither could any one about the building ever get him to give them any reason for this change towards me, except: “ It is all for her good.” But to the credit of my attendants, the two sisters, Misses Tenny, and Mrs. Waldo, the matron, I am happy to add, they did not feel bound to co-operate in all the Doctor's plans to abuse and torment me. Indeed, the oldest Miss Tenny, openly and boldly refused to treat me as she did the maniacs. In her own language I can vindicate her, for her conduct correspond- ed with her words. One day, after sympathizing with me in my privations, she said: “Mrs. Packard, I shall not treat you as I do the other patients, notwithstanding the Doctor has ordered me to. I shall use my own judgment, and treat you as I think you de- serve to be treated.” And indeed, she did treat me like a sister. I do not now see how she could have done better by me than she did; and to her kindness, and tender sympathy, do I owe much under God, for being able to escape the many dangers and trials which enveloped me, and come out from among them un- harmed. The two Misses Tenny deserve much credit also, for the reasonable and judicious treatment they bestowed upon the other patients in this ward. In fact, they were the first truly kind attendants I had then seen in the Asylum. They were the first I had found, who seemed to fear God more than they did Dr. McFarland. Even the day following the Doctor's order to not let me leave the ward on any account, she took me to the trunk room MY REMOVAL TO THE WORST WARD. 119 herself, and asked me to select any articles from my wardrobe I wished, and let me take my sewing box, containing my knife, scissors, and spectacles, etc., and gave me a drawer in the dor- mitory table to keep them in, and put the key of it into my own pocket. This was a marked act of confidence on her part, be allowed in the ward, even in the hands of the attendants. Mrs. Waldo, our matron, extended to me her practical sym- pathy, by doing many things for my comfort, which the Doctor forbid. She allowed me to use a covered box with a cushioned seat upon it, as a substitute for my trunk, and she bought me a metallic wash bowl after a while, which I used for nearly two years, for myself alone, and by a little strategy, she and Miss Tenny secured my mirror for our dormitory, as there was no mirror of any kind in the ward. But this dauntless act well nigh cost me my document, for we had hardly got it hung on to its nail, when one of the wild rushing up to the table beneath it, took article after article upon the table, and threw against it with almost incredible rapidity; but just before she had time to hurl the tumbler and pitcher against it, one of my room-mates seized the mirror from the nail, and rushed with it into another room, while the fragments of the tumbler and pitcher were flying in all directions, and the table upset with terrible violence. After this, I kept my mirror hid between my beds, except when I wished to use it, or let others use it. But I occasion- ally found some of the maniacs had taken it from its hiding place, and were using it as they pleased; but by the most gentle and adroit coaxing, I got it back again, safely. I once recollect of getting one to give it to me in exchange for an apple. But this mirror, like myself, seemed destined to elude all attacks upon its destruction. The document within it, and the spirit within me, seemed alike invulnerable ! CHAPTER XIII. My Reproof to Dr. McFarland for his Abuse of his Patients. Dr. MCFARLAND: From the effect of my former document (my defence*), I plainly see that my work here is not yet done. The office of a Reprover is put upon me; and this to me, the hardest of all crosses, I bear for Christ's sake. Christ is now my only Master, and his will, not my own, is now my only choice. Oh! my Master, help me to do this duty under thy special guidance and dictation. In Christ's own expressive language, I say, “ Come let us reason together.” I do not approve of publishing your faults to the world until you have had an opportunity first, to amend your ways and your doings, by being faithfully, candidly and honestly in- formed of the true position in which you stand as Superin- tendent of this institution. Dr. McFarland, it is my honest opinion that the principles upon which you treat the inmates of this institution, are con- trary to reason, to justice, to humanity. They are treated in a very insane manner—in a manner the best calculated to make maniacs that human ingenuity could devise. No human being can be subjected to the process to which you subject them here, without being in great danger of becoming insane; especially, if their physical or mental constitution is in the least degree impaired. Your discipline is invariably calculated to increase their dif- ficulties, and make them worse rather than better. And even a * A document I had previously given him in defence of my sanity, with the request that I be discharged as a sane person. MY REPROOF TO DR. MCFARLAND. 121 person with a sound mind, and a sound body, could hardly pass through a course here and come out unharmed, without faith, and such faith as is needed to sustain the soul in passing through its deepest earthly trials. Indeed put your wives or your daughters through such a discipline as you put others' wives and daughters through here, and I believe they could not come out unharmed. Again, you are constantly breaking the insane laws of the State, by the course you are pursuing; and it would not re- quire a person of more than a common share of intelligence to make this apparent to the Legislature. It is even a self- evident proposition. Again, a person is very apt to become what they are taken to be. You may take the sanest person in the world, and tell him he is insane and treat him as you do here, it is the most trying ordeal a person can pass through, and not really become insane. You seem to regard insanity as a crime -a capital crime ! --to be punished with death, by slow torture. And I really think the world ought to know of the fact by a public notice that: “Those guilty of the crime of insanity should be sent to Jocksonville, Asylum, under the care of Dr. McFarland, and his ally Dr. Tenny. Here it will be sure to receive its con- dign punishment.” The only way a person can secure, or have the least reason to expect decent treatment here, is one who has been educated to observe with the utmost strictness, all the proprieties of conduct expected from the most genteel society—and be such a Christian, as can bear abuse silently and meekly-must be entirely non-resistant. In short must have a perfect symmetry of development in the manifestation of his organization, however unfortunately unbalanced by nature ; and they must say they are insane when 122 MODERN PERSECUTION. they know they are not; and they must believe that others are better judges of their motives and intentions than themselves. In short, they must give up their identity to the Superinten- dent, for him to judge whether they are fit to live free to serve God according to the dictates of their own conscience, or not. With each and even all these qualifications, he must expect that the exhibition of practical godliness, in the form of com- passion for the suffering, or pity for the sick or unfortunate, is to be regarded as insanity, and attributed to a religious monomania. Indeed it seems to me that the age has become degenerate to that degree, that a person cannot live a true natural life without being regarded as insane. And I do believe that much of what is called insanity at the present age, is only a speci- men of true, pure, simple Christianity, such as the present cor- rupt age fails to recognize—so different is it from the educated Christianity of creeds, sects, and denominational religion. I believe that many in this asylum are such specimens of martyrdom for Christ and principle as the age produces, and that they are yet to be some of the brightest purest, noblest saints and angels around God's throne in heaven. I fully believe that some of those whom you have placed on the lowest plane in this asylum, God will exalt to the highest among His sons and daughters in His Kingdom. Yes, there is strong reason to believe that the first in this institution s shall be last and the last first.” Yea, in our insane asylums may be found the only real sane beings in the world, who, like the righteous of Sodom, are to become the world's saviours. Dr. McFarland, compassion and its natural manifestation, is not insanity—it is Christianity. Sympathy is not insanity -it is Christianity. Humanity is not insanity—it is Chris- tianity. Rational, reasonable conduct is not insanity—it is Christianity. The true instincts of human nature, in man or MY REPROOF TO DR. MCFARLAND. 123 woman are not insanity—they are Christian developments. Neither is an unbalanced organization insanity. Physical agony and its natural expression, are not insanity. But, sir, each and all these, you treat as insanity, and you also treat them as a crime, deserving death, if you cannot subdue the patient without or short of death! I fully believe there are martyrs, whom you have murdered here, whose souls from under God's altar are now crying to God to avenge on you their wrongs. I have heard one of your favorite attendants say to, and of, a patient : “You deserve to die if you wont stop crying !” and, “it would have been only good enough for her if I had killed her!!” I have proof from a personal observation of your own actions, and I am not afraid to meet the charge before any jury in the world, in 1860, that you, sir, have exhibited more evidence of insanity on your part, than I have seen on any person since I entered this institution! and I think your insanity deserves, and merits, imprisonment for life, in a state of extreme torture; and unless you do speedily repent, I believe that you like Nebuchadnezzar will really become insane—that is, devoid of reason like the beasts, and you will receive the same punish- ment for it that you have inflicted upon your helpless victims. You have merited the reputation of a Nero, and that repu- tation you will yet have, unless you repent. You must receive according to our deeds, like all God's other accountable agents. I feel called of God, and I shall obey this call, to expose your character by exposing your actions, to the light of 1861, unless you repent. I have ability—I have influence—I have friends- I have money-I have God's promised aid, on which I rely more confidently than on each and all other instrumentalities combined to aid me in doing this. I have powerful friends of freedom who will help me to break the chains, with which you 124 MODERN PERSECUTION. bind your slaves here in a slavery, worse than Southern slavery. I cannot believe that there is any class of convicts or crimi- nals in our land, who are not treated with more humanity- with more decency-with less of utter contempt and abuse, than you treat your insane patients here. Most criminals have some sort of a trial before they are punished; but here, all that is required, is the misrepresentation of an angry at- tendant, who thus secures to her helpless victim the punish- ment, which her own conduct justly merits upon herself. And besides, if one of their number—the criminals—has the moral courage to carry out the humane instincts of her God-given nature, by espousing the cause of the innocent victim of their cruelties, she must expect to do so at the ex- pense of receiving the like punishment inflicted upon herself, for this desperate act of insanity on her part! Horrible! But true—true as facts—numberless facts— can make it. And what is worse for you, sir, is the fact that this is known —and known by those who are determined, by God's help, to have your character exposed and your insanity punished, as it should be, and will be unless you repent, and that speedily- for, “ The end is near and hasteth greatly.” The sword of God Almighty is already unsheathed. The work of destruction has commenced and “ a quick work will the Lord make on the earth.” Justice, humanity, and truth, will reign on the earth, henceforth; and whoever and what- ever opposes these principles will be overthrown and destroy- ed; or they will repent by doing right, by acting as well as speaking honestly, truthfully; or, in other words, by doing unto others as they would wish to be done by. You seem determined not to do so. If you carry out this determination, you will meet as you deserve to receive, Pha- raoh's destruction. You can, like him, try to ease your troubled conscience by MY REPROOF TO DR. MCFARLAND 125 the sophism—these are only the ravings of insanity. But, sir, they are not. They are the words of “ truth and soberness," such as you will have to meet at God’s bar; and I shall there witness against you, that I did faithfully warn you of your coming certain doom. If I felt there was any hope, by appealing to your humanity, I might plead that, if you could be so reckless to your own interests, as to disregard this appeal, could you not, out of pity to your humane wife, and your innocent children, spare them the disgrace of your own iniquities being visited upon them. Repentance—dealing justly-returning to their friends, the many, many individuals here, whom you unjustly, illegally re- tain, years and years, when you have no right to them a sin- gle day, is your only refuge. Oh! the agonies of bereavement, hopeless—which you are alone responsible for in God's sight, and will soon be found to be in man's sight also! Your prison-bound captives, now objects of your contempt and utter criminal indifference, you are destined to see rising and applauded as the world's reformers—while you are des- tined to sink into oblivion, and your name to rot, unless you repent. The little stone of truth, cut out of the mountain without hands, and wielded by one, whom you may try to stigmatize as insane, will cause your overthrow, unless you repent. I defy all your attempts to make me out an insane person. You cannot do it. My life is hid with Christ in God, where neither you nor devils can harm it. It is absolutely beyond your power to harm me. And all your attempts to do so, will be only working out your more speedy destruction. Dr. Samington, the Methodist minister, in Manteno, is not the only person who will decide upon your qualifications for your position, by your decision respecting me. As he inti- mated, the man who would call me an insane person was not 126 MODERN PERSECUTION. fit for his place. Perhaps it was for this very thing I was sent here, to let the State see that Dr. McFarland has yet to learn the very alphabet of his profession. To let the fact appear, that you are so insane yourself, that you cannot tell a sane from an insane person! Now just test your transcendental machinery and power to make out a case of insanity, of so occult a nature, that no being in the universe has ever had any evidence of its exist- ence on any plane whatever, either physical, mental, moral or spiritual. I make my boast of a sound mind, in as nearly as sound a physical organization, as the civilized world can produce. I am a monument for the age, that a healthy organization can be maintained, by a strict conformity to the laws of nature. I am also a monument for the age—a standing miracle, almost-of the power of faith to shield one from insanity, by having come out unharmed, through a series of trials, such as would crush into a level with the beasts, I may say, any one, who did not freely use this antidote. Besides, Dr. McFarland, there are others in this institution, that have now become alike invulnerable. They are protected by a spiritual power that is invincible, and all your skillfully worked machinery for making maniacs, cannot make maniacs of them. As your friend, I advise you to beware! There be more for us, than there are against us. You are the weak party. You had better make us your friends, by deserving our friendship. There is an influence indicated by the “ wrath of the Lamb,” which is dreadful to cope with. Let pure spiritual woman become exasperated beyond her powers of endurance, yea, until forbearance ceases to be a virtue, and I pity her adversary then. We are merciful and forgiving in our natures ; but, Dr. McFarland, there is a point beyond which our forgiveness is impossible. Then is the time for you to fear her artillery. Let the prayer of the righteous be offered, that God will verify MY REPROOF TO DR. MCFARLAND 127 his promise contained in these words, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” and woe then to that power, which has Omnipo- tence for its adversary! Dr. McFarland, you may think I am severe. But they are only the “ wounds of a friend." I do want to respect and love you. But I cannot, unless you will exhibit some human- ity. I cannot love an inhuman man. I do not think you are, now, altogether inhuman. But I do think you are fast becom- ing so, by restraining all manifestations of sympathy and humanity towards your patients: You not only seem to feel that it is wrong to treat is with the least degree of humanity, but even unreasonable, irra- tional, unnatural, and even the most uncivil conduct seems to you, as the most likely course to awaken the opposite virtue, in us. It appears to us, that the more unnatural, the more perverted, the more insane treatment you can secure to us, the more reason we have to expect to become sane and rea sonable ourselves. The principle has just flashed upon my mind by which you expect to cure insanity, and this principle is faithfully applied to your patients, viz. : “Evil of the like kind must be used to correct an evil,” that is, you act as though the more insane the treatment bestowed, the more likely to effect a cure of insanity! You seem entirely averse to even meeting us on the plane of rationality. I cannot hold converse with any one who will not manifest more rationality and common sense than you do in these wards. For example, last Saturday night, I could not talk with you in response to those “beats of your hand!” I do not know how to meet you on so low a plane of rationality or intellect as you come about us with, and seem to expect our response as insane as your introduction; and there is not one in our hall (if I except Mrs. Fisher, and even she expresses more 128 MODERN PERSECUTION. when she does speak) but shows more intelligence in their in- tercourse with me, than you do, in our wards. Even when I, in as lady-like a manner as I possibly could do it, went to your parlor, Sabbath afternoon, and asked you if you did not pity us, for our disappointment in not having chapel service; your only response was : “Oh! you must read to them.” But, at the same time, must have nothing to read ! Indeed, this is a more insane act than I know how to per- form for your patients. But, by pressing my suit, I did get some old papers to read, plainly saying: “Good enough for insane beings.” And, if I attempt to manifest even intelligence enough to express a preference for the news as found in the late papers, I must only expect some renewed expression of insult and indignity, derision and scorn. Again, when I told you, in as lady-like manner as I could, that my room was so cold that a cloth would freeze in it, and I was obliged to go to bed to keep sufficiently warm, not to expose my health; you simply turned speechless away, as much as to say: “ Insane people don't know whether they are cold 'or hot, neither do I care!” No wonder, Dr. McFarland, that I do not seek you as a comforter, a friend, a brother. I do avoid you, out of respect to my feelings as a human being. Oh! Dr. McFarland, it is hard for me, with my intellect and my Christianity, to put up with such treatment, from a human being, who has a form like God. I can't understand you, I can't see what you can mean to treat me so. I used, at first, when I heard complaints of wrongs, to tell the patients "Go with them to Dr. McFarland, he is our friend, we can confide in him.” TIP Beate ? “George, we have no Mother!” See page 61. 11 Y REPROOF TO DR. MCFARLAND. 129 But they would reply, “it is of no use, he will turn from us in disdain, speechless!” And now I know, from both sad experience and observation, that it is too true, you are not our friend. You are our tor- mentor, and we avoid you to save our feelings. What is it that causes such a wail of horror to pervade this house, at the intelligence of a new arrival ? And what causes the thrill of joy at the discharge of a patient, when they leave exclaiming : “I am thankful to get away from this place with my life?” What means the oft repeated expression on the part of both the patients and the employees: “If there is any hell in the universe, I believe it is here?” “ It is almost impossible to do right here—no encouragement whatever.” “If it is possible to do right in hell, we can do right here,” &c., &c. Oh! Dr. McFarland, can you cause such a state of things and not be an insane man ? I really fear that Nebuchadnezzar's punishment has already so far been felt, by you, that you are past the power of reason to move you. I have even now tried this, my last appeal upon you, in defiance of the oft repeated instruction: “It is of no use you cannot affect the doctor-he is ada- mant itself.” Yes, your own wife has told me: “Writing will be of no use, whatever.” “But it will be of usc—it will clear my skirts of the guilt of your own lost soul—lost, in spite of warning and rebuke. And I shall receive from my Saviour the plaudit, “ she hath done what she could” for suffering humanity under Dr. Mc- Farland's charge. And, although I speak no more to you upon the subject, I shall not relinquish my purpose, until both the Trustees and 6* 130 MODERN PERSECUTION. the Legislature are importuned, by facts, to trust no more human beings under your care, until you have been disciplined in an insane asylum, yourself, until you can claim to give evidence of being a sane man, by your own actions. You need not sneer at this. I have hundreds on my side, already; such men as the one who told me himself, that he believed this Asylum was conducted more like a penitentiary than an insane asylum. He has had a wife here for years, and made no better by your punishments. Many men have had wives and daughters here, whose testi- mony is credited in spite of your calling it “their insanity." The world are no longer to give more credit to testimony than to their own observation. Those that you call insane, others do not. You have stood upon your position, now you must stand upon your own acts. And of one thing you may rest assured, the time for down. trodden and oppressed women to have their rights, has come. Her voice and her pen are going to move the world; and if you wish to be popular, despise her not! Listen to your wife's instinctive teachings of humanity and kindness. Her character is being appreciated here, because her actions show, she pities us, and seems to think, how would I like to have my Hatty treated as other Hatties are ? You cannot stop her. She has begun the Christ-like work of ameliorating the condition of your patients, and God is with her, and her work will prosper. If you oppose it, all the worse for you: for it is of God, and you cannot overthrow it. She is destined to rule this Hospital, and to rule it with kindness and sympathy. Her well begun work will end gloriously. I say again, gain woman's friendship if you want to be popu- lar now. But if you will not, God will dispose of you. We will leave you, for some more hopeful field on which to bestow our labors of kindness and love. We have nothing to do to our enemies but to do them good, and God does our avenging for us. MY REPROOF TO DR. MCFARLAND. 131 This message is a kind act from a kind friend and sister. She longs to have the act appreciated; for your manly nature cannot understand the effort it has cost my feelings, to write this message to you. For I know it must cost you mental agony, if you are not past hope. And Oh! it is hard for woman to see or know that another heart suffers. Her nature is sensi- tive to the highest degree to suffering, especially in others. I really believe some women had rather suffer themselves, than see others suffer. But I am forgetting my office—the office of a Reprover- my nature tempts me astray. Oh! Dr. McFarland, you are really losing the manifestation of your reason, if you are not losing it entirely. And, as for your humanity, I have no hope, since you propose sending me back to my tyrannical, brutal husband. Indeed, I tell my fellow captives, I will stay with them, and cast in my lot with them, and I will spare no pains, until I work their deliverance out of your hands. For you are inca- pacitated for your office, and I shall so make it appear to the world, unless I see some reason for changing my purpose. I will not suffer humanity to be so abused, as you do here, without lifting my voice against it—and it will be heard ! There are men of influence in the world who believe me to be a true woman, as well as a Christian, and all the transcendental powers you may choose to employ to make me out insane, will not be believed, in face of myself-my own words and acts. And you are not always to be allowed to hold me as your prisoner. My days are numbered nere, and you cannot add one to that number. I shall soon be free—free to serve God according to the dictates of my own conscience, with none to make me afraid any more. The lions about me are all chained ; they cannot go beyond their chains. The highway upon which I tread is beyond their reach longer to worry or deter me from duty. 132 MODERN PERSECUTION. I came here a sane person-I shall leave a sane person—I shall make a sane report of my sane observations here, since it now seems my duty, from appearances, to present. Remember, Dr. McFarland, “ The earth helped the woman.” I shall be protected in exposing your character to the world, by publishing the volume of facts I have already collected from competent legal testimony. You just imprison me another three months, and I engage to transfer the records of the adamantine pen, with the steel pen, for the iron pen of the press of 1861. It shall be a volume prefaced by both this and my former document, and it shall contain a record of truths, such as I am willing to meet at the bar of final judgment, and such as will place you, where you deserve to be placed, on a level with the beasts. I express no opinions, especially on paper, but what I can support by sound argument. The opinions herein expressed, I stand ready to prove, if proof is called for, from facts-stub- born facts. Dr. McFarland, you have employees here, in this building, who have given such testimony as the following. It is ready for use, viz:- “Dr. McFarland keeps persons here, that are not insane to my certain knowledge.” “ He keeps them after they are able to go home, for months and years, and in some cases, insanity is caused, by hope too long deferred for nature to endure.” 16 I never was in a place so inhuman in all my life.” “A person might work here until they drop down dead, and no one cares." “ Dr. McFarland seems to require more of insane persons than he would expect from sane ones.” “ The patients are so badly treated here, that I could never think of having a friend of mine ever come here for treatment.” MY REPROOF TO DR. MCFARLAND. 133 “I have seen patients choked nearly to death, so that their faces were black and their tongues hung out of their mouths.” “If it were not for losing my place here, I would expose Dr. McFarland to the world, for the cruelty he practices upon his patients. This is but a specimen of the kind of testimony I have on hand, in sad abundance, and which, with my own eye and ear, witness testimony would make a ponderous volume. How would you like to see such facts as these in print ? A lady of refinement—of pure and virtuous character-of kind and nobly generous sympathies and of a nature remark- ably true to the instincts of a true woman, before being here thirty-six hours, was stripped of all her clothing, except a torn chemise, and laid upon her back on the floor, while Dr. Tenny sat astride her naked body to hold her down, while your attend- ants could strap their sister, under these circumstances, as if she were a tiger!! .. Must not a person possess an uncommon elasticity of tem- perament, ever to rise above the degrading influence of such an outrage upon her womanly nature ? From whom is repentance and forgiveness demanded-from you, her tormentor-or from her, your innocent victim ? Again, would you like to have it known, that this same lady was subjected to the torture of the straps one whole night, for simply insisting that the request of a dying woman should be granted, viz., that a cat should not be locked up in her room all night with her alone, lest she would gnaw her ema- ciated limbs before life was extinct ? Because she saved the disgrace of having such a stigma brought upon the State, of a patient being eaten alive by a cat, she must be strapped as her punishment!! Another aggravation of your guilt is this—that you put acts, and claim for yourself the humanity, by compelling them 134 MODERN PERSECUTION. to do, what you, in your boasted humanity, in words, claim the privilege of undoing. They must be called to hear the dis- grace of locking the straps, while you claim the credit of un- locking them, to show your humanity to your patients !! Dr. McFarland, your patients are too sane for you to shield your true character from them by such subterfuges. And, how can you expect, that a heart-searching God will not see through this covert of lies, and not bring you to justice ? He does !—He will !- Dr. McFarland, Bell Norton is no more insane than Peter was, when he cursed and swore and denied his Master. Satan entered into him, tempted by the barbarity of the soldier's treatment of his loving Master. Satan enters Bell Norton, tempted by your barbarous treatment of her and her kindred associates. Did Christ, your pattern, torture Peter with straps to punish him, because he, true to the noble impulses of his generous, self-sacrificing impulsive nature, threatened and even tried to kill in self-defence of his own and others' rights? No. He “looked upon him," a look of compassion-of pity. It subdued him. Straps never would have done it. Straps and torture of the most savage kind can never subdue Bell Norton. But sympathy will, and that alone. Yes, Bell has, through this influence alone, like Peter, wept bitterly, and she has with Peter, an equal claim to the Lord's forgiveness; for she has like him, manifested her repentance in the same manner which Peter did ; and it is not for me to judge whether her repentance is not equal to Peter's in sincerity. How can you be so insane as to act as though you expected to make a new organization of Bell by torture ? You may and have already done enough of this kind of busi- ness to kill or make insane for life, any ordinary individual. MY REPROOF TO DR. Mc FARLAND. 135 But she, I am satisfied, is proof against your demoniacal powers. God, himself, has fitted her to cope with this devil in human form, and she has, through his power alone, come off conqueror. Yes, the victor's crown awaits her, for she has won it. She has maintained her right to her own instinctive nature, inviolate, in spite of your vain attempts to wrest them from her. Yes, Bell is the same “woman of nature” which God made her to be, as a model for the age. You may yet vainly regret what you have made Bell suffer on your account, by seeing your lovely Hattie subjected to a similar process to make her organization like Bell Norton's. But Hattie's tormentors will find, like Bell's tormentors, that Hattie can only be the being God has made her, as Bell can be only Bell. But these, their tormentors, will find to their sorrow, that an indignant God is their adversary, for their trying to mar his image by striving to undo his own well done works. Why are you not willing that Bell should be just the true woman of nature which God has, for his own benevolent pur- pose sent to our world, at a time when a true woman is such an anomaly, that she is hardly recognized or owned as a sane person, so insane and perverted has the character of woman become ? Dr. McFarland, if you see many more years on this earth, I fully believe that you would be proud to see your Hattie just such a simple, natural, true woman as Bell is. Dr. McFarland, my work for you is nearly done. I there- fore, here present you my bill of five dollars, for services performed for your family, viz. : for twelve days' work of cutting, fitting and making dresses for your wife and daughters, at forty-two cents a day, I charge you five dollars as a just debt. I claim it as a debt of honor. If you do not choose to meet the claim on this ground, you may expect to see it presented as a legal claim—such as will collect it. 136 MODERN PERSECUTION. And let me assure you, this is not the only claim on your purse, which your patients are yet to demand, in behalf of the State, for retaining us illegally here, when we ought to be supporting ourselves. And, I assure you, this draft upon your finances will not be a light one. You will need your eight dollars a day to meet all our claims, and your family may suffer for want of the eight dollar a day stream with which your garden is now watered. This eight dollar stream is to be dried up, and your garden to wither in consequence. And so is your great oak of popularity to become leafless without affording you a protection. Your high-sounding words of honor are mere empty bubbles without the acts of honor. Honorable acts, not honorable words merely, is all than can now save you. Your faithful Eva's unrequited services are not your only out- standing debts. You have had, and still have, many, many faithful, unappreciated, unrequited services performed for you, while their hearts are almost bursting with indignation at your selfish indifference to their interests. Again, Dr. McFarland, there was an eye-witness to that kiss which you bestowed upon me in your office, when you thought we were alone! Your true friend, E. P. W. Packard, now takes her final leave of you in your present detestable character. Men and women are henceforth to be my chosen associates. And when all traces of humanity are obliterated from a human form, I shall regard that form only as a personified demon, whom I am in duty bound to avoid, by holding no fellowship whatever with him afterwards. Farewell, Dr. McFarland, Your true friend, Jacksonville, Nov. 12, 1860. E. P. W. PACKARD. MY REPROOF TO DR. MCFARLAND. 137 P. S.-There are those in this ward, who have given me their own voluntary pledge, in view of this document in these words, viz: “ Mrs. Packard, I will stand by you in defence of that doc- ument if it costs me my life.” “I will back that up, Mrs. Packard, if I die in doing it.” If there is a hole or a dungeon in this building where Dr. McFarland can put you as a punishment for your writing that document, I will go with you and there die with you, before I will recant one word of all you have said there, for it is the truth, just as true as truth can make it.” Dr. McFarland, I say to you, beware! The use of our God-given rights of opinion and rights of speech are now to be protected to us by our only protector- our Master-our Husband. And we are not afraid of this Husband proving recreant to His high, noble office of protect- ing His spouse, as the weaker vessel, who claims such protec- tion. You, our boasted protectors, have proved yourselves despots, whom we can only despise. Remember, Dr. McFarland, this is your last chance. The fatal dyke is but a few moments ahead of you. Repentance or exposure ! E. P. W. P. CHAPTER XIV. My Occupation. As my readers now find me located in my new position, they may, perhaps, like to know how I occupied myself. As it was in consequence of my defence of others' rights and privileges that I had lost my own, I now felt impelled by the same spirit, to make others' wants my care, rather than care for myself, by neglecting them. Indeed, I have found that the exercise of this spirit, is, in reality, the best antidote I can find for an oppressed spirit. Paradoxical as it may seem, I think the best way to train ourselves to bear heavy burdens, is to bear the burdens of others. It now seems to me, that unless I had known how to prac- tically apply this principle, I must have inevitably sunk under my burdens; but the elasticity of spirit which benevolent acts alone inspire, capacitates the spirit to rebound, where it would otherwise be crushed by the pressure put upon it And moreover, I summoned the will-power also to my rescue. I determined not to be crushed, neither would I submit to see others crushed. In other language, I determined to be a liv- ing reprover of the evils existing here. I did not intend to defend one line of conduct with my tongue and pen, and endorse a different line by my actions. I knew that preaching godliness had far less potency for good, than practical godliness." My sermon had already been preached; now, all that I had to do, was to put its principles into practice. I had asked Dr. McFarland to ameliorate the condition of his patients; and now determined to aid him in this good work, to the fullest extent of my ability. Therefore, for months and years from this date, I worked for this object almost exclusively. MY OCCUPATION. 139 The attendants were very negligent in their duties; still, I did not feel disposed to blame or reprove them for these neglects. Feeling that this duty fell on the Superintendent, and having already given him the reproof which was his due, I felt that I had no right to teach his attendants, only by the silent influence of example. In short, I tried to fill up on my part the defects of theirs. I commenced this line of conduct on the Sabbath morning succeeding my removal. As I have said, the patients were in an exceedingly filthy condition, and therefore their personal cleanliness was plainly my first most obvious duty. This morning I commenced by coaxing as many of the pa- tients as I could, to allow me to wash their face, neck and hands in a bowl of warm, clean, soft suds; and then sham- pooed as many of their filthy “live” heads as I could find time to do before chapel service. When the Doctor visited the ward that morning, I cannot forget the look of surprise he cast upon the row of clean faces and combed hair he witnessed on the side seats of the hall. Simply this process alone so changed their personal appear- ance, that it is no wonder he had to gaze upon them to recog- nize them. Their rough, tangled, flying and streaming hair looked, when I began, as if a comb had never touched them. He simply bowed to me and said: “Good morning, Mrs. Packard !” And then seated himself upon one of these seats, and si- lently watched my movements while I pursued this my own chosen calling. Without even alluding to the losses he had subjected me to, I simply remarked : “Doctor, I find there is always something that can be done for the benefit of others, and you have now assigned me quite a missionary field to cultivate!” “Yes," was his only response. 140 MODERN PERSECUTION. He did not so much as ask me how I liked my new room, or my new associates! but after seeing me shampoo one or two of his patients, he arose and left the hall, speechless. The next day, Monday morning, I commenced the slow work of reconstruction and recuperation of the human faculties in sober earnest. I first obtained from my accommodating at- tendant, a bowl of warm saleratus water and a quantity of castile soap, a soft cloth and two towels, and a bowl of clear soft water. I then took one patient at a time into her room alone, and there gently stripped her and gave her a thorough sponge bath of this saleratus and water and soap, and then rinsed her well off with the pure water. I then laid aside all her wet, filthy, saturated and offensive garments, and put clean ones on in their place. After combing her hair, I would introduce her into the ward as a neat, clean, tidy lady, who was going to be an example in these virtues to all others! being careful, however, to prove the truth of these compliments by tending upon her as I would my cleanly dressed infant. By vigilance on my part, her clothes might be kept comparatively clean and dry for two or three days, before another change would be necessary. Having thus cleaned the occupant of a room, I then cleaned the room in the same manner, with the aid of a pail of strong saleratus and water and scrubbing brush I would at length succeed in finding the coat of paint I was seeking for, which had to be done by dint of patient perseverance equal to that It is no exaggeration to say that I never before saw human beings whose skins were so deeply embedded beneath so many so strikingly with the part not cleaned, that it would be diffi- cult to believe they belonged to the same race, if on different individuals. But the scrubbing of the walls and the floor was not the only MY OCCUPATION. 141 portion of the room to be cleaned, by any means. It was no insignificant task to put the bedstead and the bed into a suit- able condition for a human being to occupy. In many in- stances, the husk mattress I found completely rotted through with constantly repeated showers upon it, and this rot had in most instances become a black as soot, and retained an effluvia most difficult to tolerate. With the aid of the Misses Tenny I had all these rotten beds removed and emptied, and the ticks washed; then I cut out the mouldied part, and supplied its place with new cloth, and had it filled again with fresh straw or husks, which completed this part of the business. The sheets and blankets the passed through the cleaning process; but the white counterpanes which covered up these filthy nets did not need cleaning. They were kept white and clean, by being folded up every nights and laid upon the seats in the hall, and in the day time they were displayed upon the beds to advertise the neatness and comfort of the house and beds! But if a sick patient should chance to lie down upon one of these advertisers of neatness, the white spreads, she was liable to receive some of the severest punishments of this inquisitorial prison, for this great offence against the “display of the house.” The cleaning of one patient and one room, together with the waiting upon those I had cleaned, took one day's labor. And this I continued, day after day, for about three weeks, before I got these eighteen patients and their rooms all cleaned ; and by this time the process needed to be repeated. This I continued to do for nearly one year, until others began to wake up to the necessity of doing likewise in their wards, as ours was by this time reported to be the neatest and best kept ward in the whole house ; even the odor of which could not be surpassed in purity. This contagion for amelioration extended even to the Trustees, and as the result, at Dr. McFarland's suggestion, 142 MODERN PERSECUTION. each ward was subsequently furnished with a nice bathing tub, which the Trustees designed only for the comfort of the patients, as the Doctor urged the need now of the weekly bathing of all the patients. But I am sorry to add, this great luxul , Like we institution itself, has degenerated into the greatest torment to the patient. The bath-room is regarded by the prisoners there as the 5 calaboose" used to be by the slaves at the South. The Doctor visited this ward almost every day, but never je ameliorate my condition, or that of any other prisoner, so far as I could see. He would see the great drops of sweat rolling off from my face, from the excessive exercise this scrubbing and mopping afforded me, but I do not recollect that he ever advised me to desist. But Miss Tenny has told me that he had said to her: “You must not let Mrs. Packard work too hard, for I am afraid her husband won't like it.” I do not think the Doctor cared for this ameliorated condi- tion of his prisoners; but he dared not oppose it directly, since the filthiness of the Eighth ward had become so prover- bial, it became a source of apprehension lest these mephitic exhalations might breed a pestilence in the Hospital. The typhoid fever had raged there during the summer months preceding this expurgating process. During this sickness, the Doctor had assigned to my care some of these typhoid patients, whom I nursed and tended night and day. I made the shroud for Mrs. Hart, from Chicago, who died of this epidemic there. Mrs. Hart had been a most unwilling prisoner for seven long years, and from all I can learn, sincerely believe she has been a victim of marital cruelty, and never was insane. Her husband put her in without trial, and the Doc- tor took her on his testimony, and kept her to please him, all the while knowing, as I believe, that she was not insane. This is only one of many of those innocent victims who MY OCCUPATION. 143 have been falsely imprisoned for life, under that most barbar- ous law of Illinois, which suspends the personal liberty of mar- ried women, entirely upon the capricious will of her husband. I saw Mr. Hart, her husband, who came simply for appear- ance, as it seemed to me, to see her during her last sickness, but who became so very impatient for her death, that he could not stay to see her die, although it was almost certain she could not live two days longer, when he left. Thus, his wife, whom his will alone had deprived of her children, home, and liberty for seven years, could not have her dying request granted, that he stay by her to close her eyes, but left, and cooly ordered her body to be sent home to Chi- cago, by express, in a decent coffin when she did die. I helped to dress the corpse of the unfortunate victim. I saw her passed into the hands of four stranger men in the dead of night, and carried mournerless, and alone, to the depot, to be sent to her children and husband, at Chicago. Oh! what reckless sundering of human ties are caused by this Insane Asylum system! These children are taught to regard their mother as a worth- less being, because she had the cruel brand of insanity placed upon her by her husband, signed and sealed by a corrupt pub- lic servant, whom a blinded public were regarding as an almost infallible man. Thus have the holiest ties of nature been most ruthlessly sundered by the perfidy of this perverted Institution. As I witnessed the sum of all our social evils culminating in this most corrupt Institution, I resolved that henceforth, and for ever, my occupation should be, to eradicate, expose, and destroy this sum of all human abominations--the Insane Asylum system, on its present basis. CHAPTER XV. Evidences of My Insanity. When a person is once accused of being insane, the reflective mind naturally inquires, how is their insanity manifested? This question was often put to Mr. Packard, and knowing all would not be satisfied by his simple assertion, he was obliged to manufacture his proof or evidence to satisfy this class. One evidence on which he placed great reliance was, “ that his wife invited Universalist ministers to his house for enter- tainment during a convention.” Yes, I do plead guilty to this charge. I did offer the hos- pitalities of our house to ministers of this class under these circumstances. It was at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, that this convention met and dedicated a new church, located a few rods from our house. To my great surprise Mr. Packard proposed to attend this dedication, which he did, and I accompanied him, and listened to a sermon of high literary merit, and to me, a morally sound and logical argument was for the first time presented to my mind, that God's infinite love and wisdom were sure guarantees of the world's redemption. The position was this: “Where there is both will and power to cure, no evil can endure.” The church was crowded to overflowing, and the conven- tion being larger in numbers than their own people could con- veniently accommodate, the chairman of the committee of arrangements presented this fact to the congregation, and very kindly solicited their neighbors and friends, who could do so, to take them into their families, and all such were asked to leave their names at the stand as they passed out. Since but a short time previous, the Congregationalist society had so large an association they had been obliged to EVIDENCES OF MY INSANIT 145 solicit the hospitalities of other denominations, and as I had called upon our Universalist neighbors to accommodate us, I instinctively felt that it was only a just acknowledgment of civility, to extend to ministers of their denomination the same hospitality Therefore, as I passed down the aisle by my husband's side I whispered to him that I could accommodate two. “ Shall I give in our names for two ?” He paid no attention to me or my inquiry, but passed on by the stand without speaking to any one. Seeing it devolved upon me to make the offer, if made at all, I stepped up and gave in my name for two and passed on and overtook Mr. Packard a few steps from the door, and taking his arm said: “I have offered to take two, and I must now hasten home and prepare for them.” He made no reply whatever, but his silence said: “I don't approve of it.” Therefore I reasoned in defence of the act as one of justice, etc.; and besides, as all the labor of serving the tables, as well as the services of the maid of all work devolved upon me, I felt that if I was willing to do all this extra work, no one could reasonably object. But fortunately for me, I had hardly commenced my prepa- rations when the chairman called and informed me that their friends were all provided for, so that my services were not needed ; and after kindly thanking me for my hospitable offer he left me, with the feeling on my part of having done my duty, and here the subject was dropped. But years after, to my surprise and horror, Mr. Packard brought this act up as evidence of my insanity! and his argu- ment against me was, that if they had come, he might, in courtesy,have been obliged to have asked a Universalist minister to ask a blessing at his table, or even to lead in family prayers! 146 MODERN PERSECUTION. and, only think! this too, in the presence of his children! Another evidence of insanity, as he claims is, that I asked for a letter of dismission from our church, and recommenda- tion to the Methodist church in Manteno. As our church refused me a letter, my request for admis- sion into the Methodist church was granted, by receiving me as a candidate on six months probation. Within two weeks from this time I was kidnapped, and as my six months proba- tion expired during my incarceration, I, of course, could not be received into full fellowship while there. And when after three years I returned to Manteno and found my family dispersed, and satisfied it was to be no longer a home for me, I decided not to present myself to the Methodist church as a probationary candidate, and having never been dismissed from my own church, remained, of course, still a member of the Congregational church. The church in Manteno was Congregational when I joined it, and became Presbyterian after I left it. Therefore I claim to be a member of the Congregational church at the present time, since to my knowledge my membership has never been suspended or removed. Another evidence of insanity he alleged against me, was, that I gave a dollar towards building a Catholic church in Manteno. I plead guilty to this charge also. We had a very kind Christian neighbor in Mr. La Brie, who was a Catholic from principle, in the same sense that Mr. Packard was a Presbyte- rian from principle; that is, both had been educated to feel that their own was the true church, and therefore both were conscientious in sustaining them. Mr. Packard was trying to build up Presbyterianism by his efforts, and he, of course, ex- pected to be paid for doing this work; but the society was new and feeble, and therefore in their struggles to raise his salary, the collector, Deacon Smith, called on Mr. La Brie to EVIDENCES OF MY INSANITY. . 147 help them, and he with true Christian charity, contributed yearly to Mr. Packard's support. One evening I called on Mr. La Brie, to ask his opinion re- specting my article on “ Spiritual Gifts,” which our Bible-class had refused to hear, and he very patiently listened and com- mented upon it. He expressed his opinion that it was a sound, logical, and invincible argument in favor of what the Catholics had always considered the true view. This assertion very much surprised me, as I had always been taught to believe that the Catholics were a deluded people, be- lieving nothing but absurdities ; but now, when I found that I had alone studied out a view of truth which they had always endorsed, and one to which our church would not so much as listen, lest it might be found to be heretical, I began to ask where religious toleration is to be found, in the Presby- terian or the Catholic church ? I had here found the Chris- tian spirit of charity and religious toleration manifested to a far higher degree in Mr. La Brie, the Catholic, than in Deacon Smith, the Presbyterian. I therefore came to the conclusion that there were not only truths in the Catholic church, but good Christians also. As the scales of bigotry thus fell from my own eyes, I could see that the Catholics were just as conscientious in sustaining their church, as we were in sustaining ours; and finding what struggles they were making to pay their debts, I felt moved to manifest my new feeling of toleration, by giving him one dollar towards helping them liquidate their debt. And now, for this act of toleration I am called insane! for Mr. Packard argues that I should not thus be building up this “mother of all abominations,” this « seat of bigotry and intolerance," unless I had lost my reason. The reason which remains in exercise in my organization teaches me that there are truths and errors in all denomina- tions and parties, and our reason is only normally exercised, 148. MODERN PERSECUTION. in my opinion, when we use it in separating the good and true, from the evil and false. Again, he says I call him the “son of perdition.” I shall not plead guilty to this charge, for it is not strictly true. I have oftentimes tried to convince Mr. Packard that he was not a “ totally depraved ” man. But all in vain. He seems strangely determined to cling to this crowning virtue of his Christian character, with a death-like grapple! It. seems that all his hopes of heaven are built upon this founda- tion stone! In his creed, there can be no real virtue without it. So tenaciously does he cling to this position as the only redeeming trait of his character, that I have sometimes been tempted to say: “Well, Mr. Packard, I do not know but that you are what you claim to be, a totally depraved man, or the son of per- dition,' for whom there is not found a ransom." When I come to admit his own position, and express an agreement of opinion with him, on this point, then he uses this concession as a weapon against me, as though I had accused him of being the “ son of perdition.” Again, he accuses me of punishing the children for obeying their father. This is not true. I never did punish a child for obeying their father, but I have sometimes been compelled to enforce obedience to their father's authority, by interposing my own. Indeed, I think my children could never have reverenced their father's authority, without the maternal influence to inspire it, by requiring subjection to it; for the fitful, unstable, and arbi- trary government he exercised over them, was only fitted, naturally, to inspire contempt, rather than reverence. But Mr. Packard has tried to undermine my authority, by telling the children they need not obey their mother, and I EVIDENCES OF MY INSANITY. 149 have been obliged to counteract this influence, by enforcing obedience, sometimes, where he has interposed and forbid their obeying me. This is what he calls punishing the children, for obeying their father, whereas, it is only requiring them to obey their mother. Another evidence, and one which his sister, Mrs. Dole, pre- sented to the jury on my trial, was, that I once made biscuit for dinner, when I had unexpected company call, and had not bread enough for the table. The reason why this was mentioned, was because the coun- sel insisted on evidence being produced from my own actions, independent of opinions that I was insane, and she having been more intimate in our family than any other person, was com- pelled, under oath, to state what she saw. Being unwilling to own she had seen nothing insane in my conduct, and being bound to speak only the truth, she told this circumstance as the greatest act of insanity she had noticed. But I trust my readers will be satisfied with this array of evidence which my persecutors brought against me, if I only add the sum total of proof as produced by Dr. Brown, an M. D. of Kankakee city, whom Mr. Packard bought to say I was in- sane, for the purpose of getting me incarcerated again for life in Northampton Asylum, Mass. This Doctor had left the wheelwright business and studied just long enough to ex- perience the sophomorical feeling that his opinion would be entitled to infallibility, especially if given in the high-flown language of an expert; therefore, the last of fifteen reasons why he considered me insane, was in these words, as taken down by the reporter at the time, viz: “I have founded my opinion that she is insane, from her viewing the subject of religion from the osteric standpoint of Christian exegetical analysis, and agglutinating the polsyn- thetical ectoblasts of homogeneous asceticism !” 150 MODERN PERSECUTION. The basis on which Dr. McFarland's argument rests can be best given in his own language, as given to members of the Legislature when called upon “to prove Mrs. Packard's in- sanity.” Said he,“ in the first place, everybody is insane—the degrees are as various as the individuals of the human family. But in Mrs. Packard's case, the variation from sanity to insanity is so very slight, it can only be discerned by a thoroughly educated expert! There is not one in a thousand who can possibly detect it. In fact, the variation in her case is the slightest there can possibly be. Nevertheless, the slighter the variation the more hopeless the case!” Thus, according to the opinion of this celebrated expert, I am the sanest of all human beings, since it is impossible for any one to be less insane than the 6 slightest there can possibly be!” If I am the “slightest,” of course, every other human being is more so. And the sanest person in the world is the most hopeless case of Insanity! The age would do well to immortalize Dr. Brown and Dr. McFarland, for their profound logic and sound common sense! However, charity to this poor sinner compels me to add the testimony of one of the most intelligent employers in that in- stitution, as a true index of Dr. McFarland's honest convictions on this subject, viz: “Mrs. Packard, I can assure you, that there is not a single individual in this house who believes you are an insane person; and as for Dr. McFarland he knows you are not ?". Another gentleman in Jacksonville, after having become per- sonally. acquainted with me, remarked to another, “ that man who will call Mrs. Packard an insane person, is not fit to live.” It is a great satisfaction to me to believe that all who knew me personally in the Asylum, have entire confidence in my sanity, not even excepting Dr. McFarland. And I fully believe that Miss Mary Lynch, the supervisoress, expressed this heart- feeling of them all, when she said to me: EVIDENCES OF MY INSANITY. 151 “Mrs. Packard, I believe you to be in the full exercise of all your mental faculties, with a sound mind, and no single act of yours have I ever known to contradict or invalidate this testi- mony." In addition to this I will only add the testimony of Mrs. Hosmer, the sewing-room directress, as given to Rev. A. D. Eddy, D. D., in reply to his question: “How is Mrs. Packard at times ? 6 You have seen Mrs. Packard once you have seen her always." CHAPTER XVI. The Attendant who Abused Me. Mrs. De La Hay, wife of Dr. De La Hay, of Jacksonville, was the only one of all the employees at the Asylum whom the Doctor could influence to treat me like an insane person. She has threatened me with the screen-room, and this threat has been accompanied with the flourish of the butcher knife over my head, for simply passing a piece of Johnny cake through a crevice under my door, to a hungry patient who was locked in her room to suffer starvation, as her discipline for her insanity." Besides threatening me with the screen-room, she threatened to jacket me for speaking at the table. I will here describe a screen-room and a straight-jacket. A screen-room is simply one of the ordinary sleeping rooms or cells, with an inside blind or screen, made of perforated tin, covering the window, which can be opened or closed by, a key, to keep fractious patients from breaking it. ... A straight-jacket is a strong closely fitting waist, with sleeves coming below the hand and sewed up, with a loop-hole through which can be passed a strong cord. Their arms are then crossed in front with their hands tied tightly behind them, thus depriving them of all use of their arms or hands. One day, after she had been treating her patients with great injustice and cruelty, I addressed Mrs. McKonkey, who sat next to me at the table, and in an undertone remarked: “I am thankful there is a recording angel present, noting what is going on in these wards.” When Mrs. De La Hay, overhearing my remark, exclaimed, in a very angry tone: THE ATTENDANT WHO ABUSED.ME. 153 6 Mrs. Packard, stop your voice! if you speak another word at the table I shall put a straight-jacket on you!” Mrs. Lovel, one of the prisoners, replied : 6 Mrs. De La Hay, did you ever have a straight-jacket on yourself?” “No, my position protects me! But I would as soon put one on Mrs. Packard as any other patient, 'recording angel' or no recording angel !' And Dr. McFarland will protect me in doing so, too.” On another occasion, hearing the sound of conflict in our ward, I opened my door, and saw Mrs. De La Hay seize Miss Mary Rollins, a patient, by her throat, and Mary pulled the hair of Mrs. De La Hay with as firm a grip as she held on to her victim's throat. I, fearing the result, rallied help and parted them, when I found poor Mary's throat bleeding from an opening Mrs. De La Hay had made in it with her finger nails. I took a piece of my own linen, and bound it up, wet in cold water; and this cloth I still retain, red with the blood of this innocent girl, as proof of this kind of abuse in Jackson- ville Insane Asylum. It was my defence of the patients from Mrs. De La Hay's unreasonable abuse which led her to treat me as she did. It was not long after this defence of Mary Rollins, that I heard loud screams and groans issuing from a dormitory, when I and my associates rushed into the room to see what was the matter. There we found one of the patients lying upon her back, with Mrs. De La Hay over her, trying to put on a straight-jacket. The lady was screaming from physical agony, on account of an injury Mrs. De La Hay had inflicted upon her a few. days before, when she burst a blood vessel on her lungs, by strangling her under the water. The plunging she had in- flicted as her punishment for not obeying her when she told 7* 154 MODERN PERSECUTION. her to stop talking. And now this wounded spot on her lungs had become so inflamed, that the pressure of Mrs. De La Hay's hands upon it, together with the stricture of the straight- jacket, caused her to scream from agony. I inquired : “What is the matter? Why are you putting the straight- jacket on that woman?” Without answering my question, she exclaimed in a loud voice : 6 Mrs. Packard, Leave this room !” I backed out over the threshold, still looking towards her victim and repeated my question : “ Why are you putting her into the straight-jacket? What has she done?” This time, she left her victim, and came at me in a great rage, and seizing my arm she said : “ Go to your room !” As she was leading me unresistingly along, one of the patients took hold of her arm, and exclaimed: 6 Mrs. De La Hay, do you know what you are about ? Do you know that it is Mrs. Packard you are locking up ?” 6 Yes, I do, and I am obeying Dr. McFarland in what I am doing. He tells me not to let Mrs. Packard interfere with the management of the patients." She led me to my room, where I was locked up until the next morning. While there, I heard the Doctor's footsteps in the hall, and heard Mrs. De La Hay tell him why she had locked me up, and he sanctioned the act by leaving me locked up, without coming to my room at all. : The next day I ascertained, that she was disciplining this dormitory patient with the straight-jacket, because she had found her upon her bed, trying to rest herself from the pain this rupture on her lungs was causing her. So far as Mrs. De La Hay's treatment of me was concerned, I did not consider her so much to blame, as Dr. McFarland THE ATTENDANT WHO ABUSED ME. 155 was. Unlike my other attendants, she was too weak to resist the Doctor's influence, and therefore carried out his wishes. while the others would not. Had the other attendants carried out his wishes, my asylum discipline would have been as severe as that of the other prisoners. It was a very noticeable fact, that the very means Mrs. De La Hay used to secure and retain the Doctor's favor, by abus ing me, was the very excuse the Doctor made for discharging her; and the boast that her position” protected her from the straight-jacket, did not prove a very defensive armor, for in a few months from the time she uttered it, she became in- sane and a tenant of the Jacksonville Poor-House ! CHAPTER XVII. “Let. Dr. McFarland Bear his own Sins !” One day while in my room, I heard an uncommon noise in our ward, when, on suddenly opening the door, I saw nearly opposite, Dr. McFarland just as he had released his grasp of Bridget's throat, who had been struggling for her life, to avoid strangulation from his grasp. I did not see the Doctor's hand upon her throat, but I did see what she said were the marks of his thumb on one side of her throat, and of his fin- gers upon the other, and Bridget had a sore neck for some days afterwards, in consequence of it. Bridget's, the patient, account of the matter is this: 6 The Doctor entered the ward just after a patient had broken a chair, and the pieces were still lying upon the floor. I stood by while Mrs. De La Hay explained the case to the Doctor, simply as a listener. I had had nothing to do with breaking the chair. Mrs. DeLaHay also stood by, waiting the Doctor's orders. The Doctor turned to me and said: Pick up those pieces, Bridget! “I shan't do it! I didn't come here to work. It is your attendant's business to do the work. He then, without saying a word, seized me by the throat, and the noise you heard was my struggle for deliverance.” 166 Why, Bridget! How dare you speak so to the Doctor? Why didn't you obey him ?” (I wouldn't have done it if he had killed me! I didn't come here to do his work, and I wont do it!” This was Bridget's account, and it was confirmed, not only by all the witnessing patients, but also by Mrs. De La Hay nerself. Bridget was a quiet, inoffensive patient. I never saw her LET DR. MCFARLAND BEAR HIS OWN SINS. 157 evince anything but reasonable conduct, when she was reason- ably dealt by, and she was one of my dormitory companions for many months. She was always obedient to reasonable commands; but, like human beings generally, she felt that she had rights of her own which ought to be respected. Bridget has immortalized herself in my memory, by the lesson in theology she taught me the first night I occupied the room with her. It was under these circumstances. As was my uniform practice, I kneeled in front of my bed that night, before I got into it, to offer my silent prayer for protection and help, when Bridget, from the opposite bed, exclaimed: “Pray aloud !” I obeyed. This being the first night of my consignment to this loath- some place, I had to struggle mentally, against the indulgence of revengeful feelings towards the Doctor, for the injustice of the act; therefore, to crush them out, I tried to pray for his forgiveness, and in doing so I made use of the expression: “Lord, I am willing to even bear his punishment for him, if, by this means he can be forgiven for this act of injustice towards me.” Just at this point, Bridget interrupted me by exclaiming with great vehemence : “Let Dr. McFarland bear his own sins!” I am now of Bridget's mind entirely. Her sermon con- verted me from the theological error of vicarious suffering. I have never since asked my Father to let me bear the punish- ment of any other brother or sister, due them for their own sins; neither have I asked any other intelligence to bear the punishment due me for my own sins. CHAPTER XVIII. Attempted Reconciliation with Mr. Packard. The last letter I wrote to Mr. Packard, I told him plainly on what conditions I would return to him. But it seems Dr. McFarland was not willing we should be reconciled on such a basis, for he would not send the letter although Mr. Packard was calling most persistently for letters from me. But he called in vain, as I said in this letter, I should never answer any more of his letters, nor write to him again until this letter was answered. He begged of the Superintendent to get me to write, and he would show me these letters, when I would tell him: " When I get a reply to my last letter I will write, but not before, and if you, Doctor, ever wish me to write to him again, send that letter first!” But like the deaf adder, he heard as though he heard not, and that ever repeated question would come: “Why don't you write to Mr. Packard ?” “ If you cannot understand my reason, and will not report it to Mr. Packard, he must ever remain in ignorance of the reason I do not write to him.” But it seems he never communicated these messages, nor would he send the letter, but simply told him: “I cannot persuade her to write to you.” Finally, Dr. Sturtevant informed me, that Mr. Packard had wished him to try to persuade me to write to him, and he asked me why I could not grant his request. I told him I had writ- ten, and the Doctor had the letter but he would not send it, and just as soon as that letter was satisfactorily answered, I would open a free correspondence with him. ATTEMPTED RECONCILIATION. Whether the Doctor allowed him to report my only true reason I know not, but after that, the Doctor told me he had burned my letter because he considered it's worthless." I know not whether this was the letter he thus disposed of, or some of my many others I had given him to send to other friends. This fact I do know, that so long as my letters were sent through this post-office, my friends never received them, with one or two exceptions. My journal contains copies of all these letters, which I have shown to those family friends to whom they were written, and they tell me they never re- ceived them. Now here is a branch of the United States mail established within this public Institution, and the mail carrier transports it regularly, protected by lock and key, and yet I could not get a letter into it, nor get one from it, although directed directly to me. Indeed, I felt most keenly the truth of the remark the mail carrier made me, when I once met him and inquired if he had any letters for me. Said he, “ Mrs. Packard, you have just as good a right to your mail as any other citizen of the United States." “Why then is not this right granted me?” Because one man chooses to say: “I will superintend this inalienable right, and usurp it when I please, and no one can harm me in so doing.” I ask this Republican Government, is this protecting the post-office rights of all its citizens ? Who has a right to say, while I am not a criminal: "You shall be restricted in this right. You shall have this right usurped and ignored to any extent, as a punishment for being numbered among the most afflicted class of American citizens!” These terrible despotisms would be a far less dangerous in- stitution, were the boarders allowed their post-office rights. 160 MODERN PERSECUTION. If this right had not been usurped, in my case, it might have saved one family from the wreck of disunion. But Dr. McFarland would not allow a reasonable basis of reconcilia- tion to be even presented for his consideration. Why was this? Was he unwilling there should be a recon- ciliation? Why should he wish to stand between me and my husband ? These questions I leave my readers to answer. He talked as though he wished I would go to my husband, but he acted as though he had determined to make an im- passable gulf between us. Well, if my husband will voluntarily resign his right to be the protector of his own wife, exclusively into the hands of a stranger man, can he blame this man for misusing this irresponsible trust ? This voluntary resignation of the marital right into the absolute, irresponsible control of another, is an unnatural act, and therefore must be deleterious in its consequence. Dr. McFarland had become an adept in this nefarious work, and Therefore he found ways and means of disbanding this hitherto happy family, forever. Although Mr. Packard is not responsible for Dr. McFarland's sins, yet, like the drunkard, he is responsible for allowing this exposure to exist. He should have exercised some sort of supervision over his own wife's destiny, so far, at least, as to retain his own rights unmolested. So should the State exercise such a supervision over their own institution as not to allow their own State rights to be trampled under foot by it, as it now does, in thus suffering the dearest of all human rights to be utterly ignored. The following are the terms I tried to send to my husband as the basis of a just union--the only kind of union that would ever receive my sanction again. “1st. Mr. Packard must make the confession as public as he ATTEMPTED RECONCILIATION. 161 had made the offence, that his wife has never given him any cause for regarding, or treating her as an insane person. “2d. He must allow me the unmolested exercise of my own rights of opinion, and conscience, and post-office rights. “3d. He must allow me to hold my own property in my own name, and subject to my own control. 64th. He must allow me to control my own children with a mother's authority, so far as the mother's province extends. 65th. He must allow me to be the head of my own house- hold duties, and the mistress of my own hired girl. “6th. The attempted usurpation of either of these inalien- able rights of a married woman, shall be considered as a dissolution of the Union.” I know such stipulations serve rather to ignore a husband's protection, as indeed they do; but where neither love nor reason will hold a man to be the protector of these, his wife's rights, what can the wife of such a man do, without some such stipulation, or laws, by which her identity, as a woman, can be maintained ? The first is only virtually acknowledging my identity or accountability; that is, I am not a chattel, or an insane per- son, but a being, after I am married, as well as before ; and unless a man can hold me upon a higher plane than the prin- ciple of common law places me upon, I am not willing to enter the marriage union. The law says I am a non-existent being after marriage, but God says I am an existent and accountable one still; therefore I claim the recognition of this higher law principle, or I com- promise with this injustice by this act of disloyalty to myself. The conclusion of my last letter to Mr. Packard, dated April 28, 1861, ends thus : “And ere we finally part, allow me to call to your recollec- tion that most important period of your life, when, at the altar of your God, in the presence of your fellow witnesses, you sol- 162 MODERN PERSECUTION. emnly vowed to love your wife, to comfort her, to honor her, and keep her in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, in poverty and riches, and forsaking all others, to keep thou only unto her, so long as both should live. Let me ask you, have you kept this solemn vow? Your lost Elizabeth.” About this time I had a letter from Mr. Packard, wherein he lays his plans before me, and asks my advice! His plans were to break up the family and put out the children, and asks me to whom he shall give my babe, and to whom he shall give my daughter to bring up, and such like questions ! But not a single intimation is expressed that the mother would ever be allowed the right to rear her own offspring. No, not even a wish that he hoped I might ever be able or capable of doing so; yet he could ask the counsel and advice of this non compos on these most important matters of vital interest! He then portrays the present condition of my family in facts like these. He says: “ Elizabeth has had a fall and hurt her side, so that it pains her most of the time, and yet does all the work for the family, except when her Aunt Dole comes and helps a day occasionally.” Poor child! how her mother songs to embrace her, and sympathize with her as she used to in my sorrows. How can a father put upon this child of eleven years, the cares of a woman—the care of a babe, in addition to the care of a family, while she needs to attend school! Oh! how much inconvenience some men will almost cheer- fully endure, to crush a married woman into that position of nonentity, which the common law of marriage assigns her. Isaac too is feeling almost discouraged. He is so gentle in his disposition, he can not live without his mother's sympathy. Oh! my darling boy, be patient. God's time to help us is not ATTEMPTED RECONCILIATION. 163 vet come. I know it is hard for thy tender heart to wait so long. I can hardly bear it myself. Patient waiting is the hardest virtue for me to exercise. I had much rather work and toil than wait. But I will sur- mount all obstacles, and conquer all my impulsive feelings, by schooling them into entire submission to all God's appoint- ments. If we could see all God's plans as God sees them, we should be satisfied. While these reflections were passing through my mind, Dr. McFarland called at my room and remarked : “Well, Mrs. Packard, what of the Manteno letter ?." “ The family are all going to destruction; and his plan is to present such a view to my mind, as will induce me, for my children's sake, to plead to go home. He is trying to make me say: “Oh! husband do take me home! if you only will, I will think, speak and act just as you please to have me, and will never venture to think for myself again!” But this plan fails entirely. I shall never give him a chance to put me off a second time.” Then came his usual inquiry : “ Have you a letter to send ?” I then told him : “Sir, do you think I shall submit to be thus trifled with ? you know you will not send the letter I want you to send ? CHAPTER XIX. Letter to my Children sent to the Wash-tub. Among my asylum papers I find a copy of a letter I wrote to my children on some cotton underwaists, which I tried to send by Miss Wilson, of Kankakee city. As all communica- tion with my children was cut off by the authority of Dr. McFarland, I was led to resort to strategy to secure this end. Therefore I procured some nicely dressed bleached cotton, and embroidered for my daughter some double underwaists, on which I could easily and legibly pencil a long communica- tion, such as my feelings prompted, hoping thus to bring myself to their recollection, so that I might not become an object of indifference to them. The Doctor knew that I was making these waists for her, and it seems he suspected the plan which might thus open some kind of communication between us. Therefore as Miss Wilson was leaving, as a discharged patient, for her home in Kankakee, he, knowing that my Manteno home was only twelve miles from there, took her aside and asked her if she had any letter from me with her. She replied that she had no letter. “ Have you anything from Mrs. Packard to her children?" “Yes, I have some waists for her daughter, which I promised to take to her.” 6 Let me see them!” She then took them from wer bosom, where she had placed them for concealment, and handed them to the doctor. He unfolded them and saw the penciling on the inside, and after reading it, ordered them to the laundry to be washed and ironed before they could be sent! thus thinking he had swept the letter into oblivion. LETTER SENT TO THE WASHTUB. 165 But his sagacity was outwitted by his prisoner this time, for if the exultant Doctor felt that all traces of my intelli- gence and sanity had been obliterated by the destruction of my letters, he will now see he was mistaken, when he sees this printed copy was preserved to be my passport to the world, of the state of this prisoner's mind while behind his dead-locks, and numbered among his “hopelessly insane maniacs.” INSANE ASYLUM, June 20, 1861. MY BELOVED CHILDREN :—So long as we are sure we have conscience and God on our side, we have nothing to fear, al- though we are maligned by those who deny that conscience is designed as our guide. Let these who dare to disregard this silent monitor do so; but you, my children, will with me, dare to “serve the Lord,” won't you? For it is only fidelity to its dictates which the Lord requires as his service. You are in danger of losing your souls by contact with those who encourage you to set aside conscience as your guide to heavenly happiness. In this net of false doctrines, Satan is ensnaring guileless souls, and leading them unawares into captivity to himself. Do, children, be warned, and escape this snare before it is too late. But, children, since we cannot secure the safety of any soul in opposition to their freedom, I rejoice that God does not hold us absolutely responsible for any soul but our own. To save ourselves depends upon ourselves; and he who is fully determined to 66 work out his own salvation with fear and trembling,” is the only one who will experience this salvation. Children, do right in everything whether you are praised or blamed, and you will certainly secure a crown of righte- ousness, and so long as you continue to do right, no one can take it from you. But one sin, one wrong act, may forfeit it forever; as only a small stream may drown one if he lies prostrate in it. 166 MODERN PERSECUTION. Oh! beware of little sins, little deviations from rectitude, truth, honesty, uprightness, from kindness, from forbearance, from patience, from forgiveness, from charity. Encourage the very incipient beginnings of repentance on the part of offenders, by showing that your heart yearns and longs to meet it with forgiveness, with God-like forgiveness, bestowed on the gospel ground of repentance. But, children, I fear you will think mother is preaching you a sermon instead of writing a letter. Pardon me, if I have burdened you thus, for you know this is not your mother's way to teach you Christ's religion. Her way has been to practice godliness, and thus endeavor to be a " living epistle known and read of all men.” But being absent, I am under the necessity of taking this method of instructing you. Your mother is doing here as she did at home, trying to secure her happiness in doing right; although by so doing, I often offend others by becoming thus a 6 terror to the evil doer, as well as a praise of them that do well.” I cannot express how much I regret the course your father has taken in separating me from your society and sympathy. But he is alone responsible for a great wrong by so doing. Oh ! how I do rejoice now that I never wronged that man! I beg of you to do the same. Keep clear of guilt, however much he may tempt you. Re- member, that to be angry, is but to punish yourself for another's fault. Love yourselves too well to do it, for you cannot be really happy if you sin in the least thing. I do feel deeply sorry you have so desolate a home. But be patient, and all will be right some time. Never do the least thing but what you would be willing the whole world should know of it, for even your motives will all be revealed and exposed, either to your shame or glory. This fact rejoices my heart; for could the world see my heart as it is, as God sees it, naught but love and good will to LETTER SENT TO THE WASHTUB. 167 all mankind, to every individual, could be found there. Time will develop that even my persecutors cannot find a truer friend to them than I am-none more ready and impatient to forgive them, if they will but repent. Don't be discouraged or disheartened, although the dark- ness which envelopes us is so dense as to be felt, for these “Behind a frowning Providence he hides a smiling face.” Do your routine of duties faithfully, as you used to do when I was your guardian, and God will take care of our destiny. I do fully believe he is now working for us in the best possible manner. When we do meet, shan't we have enough to talk about? Won't we have “ good talking times” as you used to say, when you sat in a circle about me, to hear me tell you true stories about my childhood ? But good by, for the present. Your Loving Mother, E. P. W. P. CHAPTER XX. How I Obtained my first Writing Paper. On March 9th, 1861, I was allowed to pack the trunk of one of my most intimate associates in our Ward, Mrs. Betsey Clarke, who was to leave the next morning with her son, who had come for her. While packing it I had the good fortune to find four sheets of letter paper which had escaped the supervisor's notice. My good friend readily consented to let me have it in ex-. change for some articles of my wardrobe which she needed, and thus I, an asylum prisoner, became the honest owner of four sheets of paper! A prize almost invaluable to me. Hitherto all my efforts to obtain a sheet of paper had been futile, since the Doctor had given a general order to all the employees not to let me have paper or stationery of any kind after he had consigned me to this maniac's hall. I had written before this time on tissue paper, margin of newspapers, cotton cloth, or brown paper and such like, and had handed clandestinely letters written on these materials to the trustees and Dr. Sturtevant, our chaplain, and retained copies of the same on the materials where I now find them. With these helps I had kept a private journal, too, from which the facts of this book are compiled. Now, with these three sheets, I felt, under the circumstances, richer than any fortune could have made me. With a very fine pencil, I was enabled to write two or three times the number of lines that were ruled, so that I put a wonderful amount of matter on a very small surface. Mrs. Hosmer, the sewing room directress, knowing how eagerly I watched her sewing room to get such writing ma- terials, ventured to try an experiment to gratify this wish on MY FIRST WRITING PAPER. 169 my part. Being a strict observer of all the rules of the house, she could not aid me in this desire without the Doctor's consent. She therefore bought a pocket diary, and asked Dr. McFar- land's permission to make me a present of iton “New Year's.” He consented, and I thus came into possession of another treasure of inestimable value. I used this most faithfully for one entire year, and had just written my final entry for the last day of December, and was just returning it into my bosom, its safe hiding place for one whole year, when lo! my door was suddenly and unexpectedly pushed open by the Doctor in his velvet slippers; he thus caught me, before my treasure was out of sight. He sprang towards me and seized it forcibly from my hand, before I could get it into my bosom, and sitting down began to read aloud from it, in spite of my protests against his seeing my private meditations. He made fun of some portions; others he tore spitefully from the book, saying as he did so, “ that is a lie !” I begged that he would return it without tearing it. But he heeded nothing I said, either in defence of its truth, or of my claim to it, as by his consent I had obtained it. But instead, put it into his vest pocket, and walked off with it. This is the last I ever saw of this part of my asylum diary. My journal covering this period is complete. It may be gratifying to my readers to know how I preserved my journal and private papers. The greatest part of my asylum journal, up to this date, I secured by hiding it behind a false lining in my band-box. One day I found a piece of wall paper, and I clandestinely sewed this into my band-box for a lining, behind which and around the box I concealed my papers. Some of them I hid between the black cloth and the board 170 MODERN PERSECUTION. on the bottom of my satchel. I cut open the edge and scaled it off with a case-knife, and after filling the pocket thus made, I sewed it up, where they were kept undiscovered. Some I placed between the millinet crown and the outside covering of my traveling bonnet. I encircled this crown with so many thicknesses of paper that it sometimes caused the exclamation, “How heavy this bonnet is !” I never told until I got out of the asylum in what the weight consisted ! The balance, accumulated after this date, which was the largest part of the whole, passed through the Doctor's fingers twice when in search of it, but he knew it not, as will be seen in its proper place. CHAPTER XXI. The Modern Mode of Subjugating • Married Women. Mrs. Sullivan, a sane woman, was put in here by her drunken husband, on the plea of insanity. She was brought handcuffed, and half of the hair pulled out of her head. Of course the husband's testimony must be credited, for who could desire more to protect a woman than he ? Yes, Mr. Sullivan, the warm-hearted Irishman, showed his regard for his wife in the same manner that Mr. Packard, and many other husbands do, by legally committing her to Dr. McFarland's protection, who, so far as my knowledge extends, has never yet been true to this sacred trust. This quick-tempered Irishman had a quarrel with his wife, because she asserted her inalienable right to a pair of new shoes, and he being the stronger of the two in physical force, got her handcuffed, and pulled out the hair from half her head with his own hand, and forced her in here as soon as the “ forms of law” could be gone through with. And what could Mrs. Sullivan do in self-defence ? All her representations would be listened to as the ravings of a maniac! What is her testimony worth after the “ forms of law" have been gone through with, proving her insanity ? Mrs. Sullivan is legally entered as an insane person, on legal testimony; and now the Doctor is shielded in doing what he pleases with her, for what is an insane person's testimony worth? Nothing ! Thus shielded, he applies his instruments of torture to this oppressed, bleeding heart, for the benevolent purpose of making 172 MODERN PERSECUTION. her willing to return to her husband, and yield unanswering obedience to this marital subjection! Yes, his benevolent plan is at length achieved, and he soon succeeds in making her so much more wretched and forlorn than before, that her former woes and wrongs sink into obliv- ion in comparison, and she begins to cry and beg to go home. 66 Oh, take me back to my children and husband, and I will bless you forever.” Now his patient is recovering! Oh, what an astonishing cure ! “How much that great Dr. McFarland knows more than any other man, the secret of curing the insane wife!” But the cure must be sure and permanent, before her case is represented as fit for removal. She has not yet performed her share of unrequited labor for the State of Illinois, as its slave; and if she is a good and efficient workman, there may be weeks, months, years of imprisonment yet before her, ere her cure is complete! Now the Doctor is the only competent one to report her case to her friends or husband. No attendant's report can be relied upon, much less the prisoner herself. All communication is cut off, and the slave has naught to do but to work and suffer in silent, mute submission to her prison keepers. She dare not utter a complaint, lest the tortures be again resumed. Her children may sicken and die, but she must know nothing about them. Indeed, she must be dead as to earth life, until her share of slave toil is completed. And if very useful as a slave, she may possibly get the diploma of " hopelessly insane” attached to her name as an offset for these many years of slavery ! And then the friends solace themselves, that the very best means of cure have been used, since none so skillful as the learned Dr. McFarland can be found anywhere. And although they deplore the fate of an all-wise Providence, yet, to Dr. SUBJUGATING MARRIED WOMEN. 173 McFarland their heartfelt gratitude will be most signally due, for the kind, humane treatment he bestowed upon her, by hav- ing done all that human ingenuity could devise, to cure her! A true and faithful picture of many a real case in this Asylum. But how did Mrs. Sullivan's case come out ? After a time, the thought of her poor, defenceless, unpro- tected children, with none but a drunken father to care for them, pressed so fearfully upon her maternal sympathies, that she ventured to plead to go back to them again. But in vain ! No plea can compassionate the heart of her present pro- tector. Her tears, her sighs, her entreaties, her arguments, fall unheeded and apparently unheard upon his ear, for he will not stop to hear a patient's story, however rational or con- sistent-yea, the more rational the more unheeded, apparently. She is then sent to the wash-room or ironing-room, and sewing-room, and compelled to work to drown her sorrow or stifle its utterance. But what if her children do need her services more than the State ? What does Dr. McFarland care for her children, or for the fate of a mother who has been cast off by her husband ? Nothing ! He cares for his own selfish interests, and nothing else. If to his view his advantage is gained, he will send her home; if not, he will keep her at work for the State; for the laws of his own suggesting protect him from all harm, no matter how much he harms the prisoners. After months of faithful labor, he found the tide of the house was setting against him, by keeping this sane woman so long from her family, and when he dared not resist this influ- ence longer, he sent to her husband to take her home; but he would not come for her. 174 MODERN PERSECUTION. And now comes one honorable act on the part of the Doc- tor. He lent her money and sent her home alone. A few days after, I ventured to congratulate the Doctor on doing so noble a deed, adding: “ If what I have been told is true, you have represented her in the discharge as one who has been falsely represented as insane." This creditable part of the representation he indignantly denied, saying : 6 No, she came here insane—was cured—and sent home!” 66 No, Dr. McFarland, she did not come here insane; she came here an abused woman—shamefully abused by a drunken husband. She needed protection but not punishment, such as you have bestowed upon her.” But no, the “ lords of creation" must be protected! or op- pressed woman will rise and assert her rights, and man then will fail to keep her down. What will men do, when this Government protect the mar- ried women in their right to themselves ? Oh, when this great Woman Subjector, Dr. McFarland, is exposed, where will these men send their wives to get them 66 broke in?” Oh! where? I came here in defence of the same principle that Mrs. Sul- livan did, with this difference; she used her right of self-de- fence in a different manner from what I did. She used physi- cal force in resisting usurpation; I did not. I never did, nor never will quarrel with any one. I have followed Christ's directions, “ If thy brother smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also.” Mrs. Sullivan pursued a different mode of self-defence, but the issue is just the same in both cases. Our husbands both succeeded in getting us entered here on the plea of insanity, and I, although so perfectly harmless in my mode of self- defence, am required to stay three or four times her term of SUBJUGATING MARRIED WOMEN. 175 imprisonment! But, Oh, for woman's sake I suffer it. I will try to continue to suffer on, patiently and uncomplainingly, confidently hoping that my case will lead community to in- vestigate for themselves, and see why it is, that so many sane women are thus persecuted at this period of the Christian era. The sad truth that man has fallen from his noble position of woman's protector, and become her subjector, when appre- hended, may lead our government to give protection to the identity of the married woman, so that she can be as sure of legal protection, where she does not receive the marital, as if she were single. When, therefore, she needs legal protection from marital usurpation, she can obtain it directly from her government, as other citizens now can. This period of subjection through which woman is passing, is developing her self-reliant character, by compelling her to defend herself, in order to secure the safety of her own soul. That class of men who wish to rule woman, seem intent on destroying her reason, to secure her subjection. If they can not really put out this light in her, which so much annoys them, they will credit this work as done, by falsely accusing her of insanity, and when once branded by Dr. McFarland's diploma of " hopelessly insane,” they fondly think they can keep her under their feet. And this has actually been done in many instances, by the help of the Illinois Insane Asylum. Yes, the modern mode of subjugating married women, is, to send her off to an insane asylum and get her publicly branded as “hopelessly insane.” Thus, instead of the hus- band whipping his own wife with a “ stick as large round as his little finger,” as the old common law allowed him to do, he sends her off to an insane asylum to get the officials of that institution to whip her for him! CHAPTER XXII.' My Life Imperilled. My life was almost daily and hourly endangered. For ex- ample: “I was one morning sitting in a side room by myself, for the purpose of enjoying my secret devotions undisturbed, which privilege the matron had kindly granted, as my own dormitory had too many occupants to allow me any opportu- nity of praying in secret, and being compelled, however, by Dr. McFarland's special order, to have the door of this closet wide open, while I occupied it for this purpose, I was compelled to submit to any such intruders as might chance to walk in. Miss Jenny Haslett was one of the two maniacs who came in this morning, and seated herself on a low stool at my feet. I was always obliged to carry my chair and footstool with me wherever I sat down, and by this arrangement I had my asylum writing-table, my lap, always with me, and at these times I made my entries into my journal and diary. The other maniac sat on the floor under the window. I quietly read my chapter, while Jenny amused herself play- ing with the trimming on the front of my morning dress. I closed my Bible, and resting my eyes upon her, reflected upon the sad condition of this human wreck of existence before me. She was a handsome delicate girl of eighteen years, who was made insane by disappointed affection, and although generally harmless, yet at times, liable to sudden frenzies, from causes unknown. I could often hear her crying in the dead of night for : 66 Willie, oh! my dear Willie! do, do, come back to me- oh! Willie! Willie! I do love you!” It may be that I aroused some antagonistic feeling, and dis- MY LIFE IMPERILLED. 177 turbed some pleasant reverie of hers, when I bent forward and with my hands parted the short hair which fell over her fine forehead, and then bestowed upon it a gentle kiss of tender pity. In an instant the response came, in a blow from her clenched fist upon my left temple, of such stunning force, that for a moment I was lost to consciousness; for the blow seemed more like the kick of a horse, than the hand of a human being. My spectacles were thrown across the room by the blow, but I was not thrown from my seat. As soon as I realized what had happened, I returned her fiendish gaze with a look of pity, and exclaimed: “Why Jenny, you have struck me!” “Yes, and I am going to knock your brains out!” said she, with furious emphasis, and clenched fists. Without speaking again, I quietly and calmly withdrew into the hall, where I found my kind attendant, Miss Minerva Tenny, whose quick perception read the tale, and without my speaking a word, she exclaimed: “Oh! Mrs. Packard, what a wound you have got upon your temple! What has happened ?" “Jenny has struck me. Please get me some cold water to bathe it in.” “You will need something more than water, it is a terrible blow! I will go for Dr. Tenny.” After bringing me the water, she went for him, and he, like a tender brother, came and pitied me, and while I rested my throbbing head against his strong manly arm, I wept for joy at the comfort his words of pity brought with them to my for- saken heart. “Dr. Tenny, can you protect my life ?” “Mrs. Packard, I would protect you if I could, but, like you, I am a subordinate—my power is limited.” “Will not the State be held responsible for these exposures 8* 178 MODERN PERSECUTION. of my life, to which Dr. McFarland subjects me? I think this appeal ought to be made.” Without answering this question he assured me he would do all he could to help and protect me. And he did do so. I think Dr. McFarland was restrained by his manly interfer- ence. Still, the citadel of his heart was not reached either by Dr. Tenny's or my son's appeals, to remove me to some safer ward. And never shall I forget the heartless response he made, as the next day, when for the first time, he beheld my swollen face and throbbing temples, as I lay in agony upon my bed, from the effects of this injury, after I had told him all the cir- cumstances, how I simply bestowed upon her forehead a loving kiss as the only provocation, he simply remarked, as he turned away : “ It is no uncommon thing to receive a blow for a kiss!" These were the only words either of sympathy.or regret I got from the Doctor, although the wound was then in such a state of great inflammation that Mrs. McFarland expressed herself: “ You may consider yourself fortunate, Mrs. Packard, if you do not now lose your eye as the result.” For weeks I carried the marks of this blow, by a deep black temple and eyes, so that a stranger would hardly have recog- nized me during this period. But instead of shielding me better after this, he not only let Jenny remain in the ward, but he afterwards brought up Mrs. Triplet from the Fifth ward, and from this time she, the most dangerous patient in the whole female wards, was seated by my side at the table. I seldom seated myself at the table after this, without hearing the threat from Mrs. Triplet: 66 I shall kill you!” And I considered myself very fortunate if I left the table without being spit upon by her, or by having her tea, or coffee, or gravy, or sauce thrown upon my dress. MY LIFE IMPERILLED. 179 At one time my right hand companion was suddenly aroused to the attitude of self-defence, by having a knife hurled at her temples or eyes, by one of our insane companions opposite. This aroused others to seize their knives and forks and chairs, in self-defence, and there is no knowing what a scene might have ensued, had not our attendants been on hand to confine the infuriated ones. There is no knowing at what instant these scenes may occur, for I have often seen them, without the least apparent provo- cation, suddenly seize the tumblers, salt cellars, plates, bowls, and pitchers, and hurl them about in demoniacal frenzy, so that the broken glass and china would fly about our face and eyes like hail stones. The defence which maniacs resort to, is, rendering evil for evil, abuse for abuse, so that at the beginning of a scene among twenty-five or thirty of them it is impossible to tell what the end may be. And yet this institution receives such, and puts them all into one room, while the family plead that one is too dangerous to trust in a family! What would they think to have twenty-five in one family? For more than two years has Dr. McFarland imperilled my life, by compelling me to occupy a ward among twenty-five of this class, not kncwing at what moment my life might be taken away, or I receive some distressing injury. Many times have I made the most touching appeals to him to save my life; but even before I could finish my sentence, he would turn and walk indifferently away, without uttering one syllable. Once alone do I find recorded, that he deigned a reply, which was under these circumstances. Lena, a stage actress, who had become insane from a fall through the stage platform, had been dragging me around the 180 MODERN PERSECUTION. ward by the hair of my head, and unless the attendant had been near to aid me, I might not have been able to extricate myself from her grasp at all. Lena had, like Jenny, always seemed pleased to have me notice and caress her, as was my habit with them all who would allow it, until this time, when she turned upon me and treated me as I have described. After stating these facts, I added : 66 Now, Doctor, I think a sane person is more in danger than the maniacs, for they will fight back, while I will not.” 5 Supposing,” said he, “ a person should enter your room with a loaded pistol and aim it at you, and you had one near which, by your using first, could save your own life, would you not shoot to save yourself ?” “No, Doctor, I would not; because my nature does not prompt me to defend myself in this manner. I have such an instinctive dread of taking the life of another, that I would rather die myself than kill another."' “I should, and I think every one would do the same in self- defence.” “I presume you would, and so would most men, for they were made to be the protectors and defenders of the weaker sex, and the man who would not do it in defence of a defence- less woman, is less than a man.” However, I could not convince the Superintendent that he was under any obligation to defend my life, and unless I had strength and courage enough to defend it myself, I must die; for so far as convincing him that he had any responsibility about the case, it was impossible to make him comprehend it. In view of such facts I should not be at all surprised, if, when the thoughts of the heart are revealed, it will then be manifest that he placed my life thus in jeopardy among mani- acs, hoping they might kill me!! CHAPTER XXIII. Self-defence.-Clandestine Letters. The oppressor's guilt renders him peculiarly sensitive to any action on the part of the injured one, by way of self-defence. Therefore, in order to practice this duty, we are always compelled to use what some would regard as unjustifiable means. And yet, in exchange of circumstances, these com- plainers would feel no scruple in doing the same thing of which they complain. Here I am literally entombed alive by fraudulent means, for a wicked purpose. The walls of my sepulcher are the walls of this asylum. I am allowed no communication with the outside world. No one inside these walls can aid me in doing so, without proving recreant to his trust as an employee. And no visitor is allowed to take out a letter from a patient in a public institution, without the Superintendent's knowl- edge or consent. Now what shall I do? Shall I quietly submit to these unjust laws, framed for the very purpose of perpetuating an absolute despotism ? I am a law defender; I do not like to be a law breaker, and God is never compelled to violate law to bring about His purposes, neither does He allow us to transgress any moral or natural law, to accomplish our own purposes, however desirable.- When we see no way of getting out of a sad dilemma, except that of wrong doing, we are directed to “ Wait, wait on the Lord,” that is, wait until Providence opens a way for us. As the traveler, in pursuing his onward course, coming in contact with the moving train, has nothing to do but to stop and wait until it passes by ; so Providence clears His track without any law being broken. 182 MODERN PERSECUTION. Therefore, however desirable it may seem to me, to be free to care for, and communicate with my precious children, yet, although this vision tarries long, I must wait until the train, however long, passes by, before I can possibly behold this prospect. Again, I must not murmur nor complain, although i am most keenly sensitive to the humiliation of my circumstances. But I will not bow down to wickedness. I do as well as I know how, and will continue to do so, knowing that im- possibilities are not required of me by my righteous Judge, for I know that every good act is an investment in the bank of faith, and its dividends never fall short. I believe, too, that God requires me not only to pray that wrong doing be stopped, but also to act in concert with this prayer, and the wrong doing, which it is my duty to stop, are the sins against myself. I must begin at home, being unable to defend others until I can defend myself; for how can a mother defend her children, unless she can defend herself? I must defend myself not only for their sake, but also for the sake of society where I belong. I have already tried the force of argument, reason, and entreaty, to induce Dr. McFarland to allow me some chance for self-defence, but all in vain. I cannot get his consent in this matter, therefore, the act being right in itself, and a duty also, I must act not only without his consent, but without his knowledge. Therefore, under the circumstances, a clandestine act of self-defence is not a sinful act because of its secrecy. But to whom shall I apply? And how? are the next questions to be settled. I will first appeal to the Trustees, as they are the power to whom my earthly destiny is now committed, and they have the first right to superintend Dr. McFarland's actions, in regard to the prisoners under his charge; and I feel morally bound to try CLANDESTINE LETTERS. 183 to get the Trustees to compel their Superintendent to act justly towards me. Under the influence of such feelings I wrote the subjoined letter to the Trustees, on a piece of tissue paper, which when folded compactly, occupied a space no larger than a silver quarter. I knew they were to hold a session at the asylum in March next, 1861, and it was to be my business to get this letter to them at this meeting. But here was the difficulty. Since hiding me among the maniacs, the Doctor had evinced a peculiar sensitiveness at my being seen there, which was never manifested while I was an occupant of the seventh ward. And he had even led the Trustees past this ward, without even allowing them to enter it, since he had con- signed me to it. Now how could I give them my letter, either openly or secretly? No employee would do it for me, lest Dr. McFarland's displeasure be incurred, and then, of course, a “ discharge” awaited them. Still watching and praying constantly, while they were in the house, I carried my little note in my pocket, hoping by some good fortune, I might yet get it into their hands. At length my name was announced as wanted in the dining-room. I gladly responded to the call, where I found Mrs. McFarland and Mrs. Miner waiting to receive me to hold an interview with me. Finding it too dangerous to take my callers into the hall which I now occupied, I was then allowed the exposure of my own life to be suspended long enough to entertain them in the dining-room. Happy beyond measure to find myself in the presence of a trustee's wife, my whole mental powers were centered upon knowing how to employ her as the confidential medium of my letter to the Trustees. But the fact was self-evident to me, that Mrs. McFarland had come as a spy upon me, lest I should, in some manner, either by word or look or letter, communicate 104 MODERN PERSECUTION. to her some intimation of the injustice I was experiencing at her husband's hands. And so complete was the espionage she exercised, that I began to fear that this hope must expire in its bud. When they arose to leave, and as Mrs. McFarland's back was towards us as she opened the dining-room door, I watched my chance and buried this little note in the palm of Mrs. Miner's hand, and closing her hand upon it, I gave it a significant pressure, as much as to say: “Don't betray me—but do your duty.” And at the same time kissing her, so that the transfer seemed a perfect and satisfactory success; that is, I felt sure she understood my meaning, and was willing to aid me. in doing anything right and consistent. Of course, she could and would read the open note before assuming any further responsibility. And from the impression I received of her feelings, I was satisfied that she would do right about it. But whether I then misjudged her, I cannot tell, or whether her husband kept the letter himself, or com- municated it to the Trustees, I know not. But this I do know, I never heard from the note, or from its influence. That seed, though thus buried for eleven long years, now rises to a tangible influence, and by its mute appeal to the law- makers who read this letter, it may lead them to see the neces- sity of demanding fidelity in their public officers, to whom they have entrusted the sacred right of their personal liberty. To the Trustees of Jacksonville Insane Asylum, in session at their March meeting, 1861: GENTLEMEN:—Here under your inspection, a Christian mother, and an Illinois citizen, has been imprisoned nearly nine months for simply exercising the God-given rights of opinion and conscience; and this, too, in only a lady-like and Christian manner. Nothing else! CLANDESTINE LETTERS. 185 Now, can you be guiltless and let this persecution go on under your jurisdiction ? Do remember, and be warned by God's unchangeable law, viz: “With what measure ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.” Do allow me to live a natural life in America, so long as my own actions allow me a claim to my own freedom. Do deliver me out of the hands of Dr. McFarland, for he has claimed to be better than God to me, in that he says to me that his judg- ment is a safer guide for me than my own conscience! And yet I am in the absolute power of such a man. Do, I beg of you, deliver me from this fear of evil! Do but give me the opportunity, and I will give you my pledge, if necessary, that America need no longer be burdened with me, as a citizen, than until I can get under the protection of the English crown, where I can hope to enjoy my rights of opinion and conscience unmolested. 0! America ! My country, when will you erase the stigma 'you now carry, of having imprisoned an unprotected minister's wife, for simply obeying God, by trying to live a life of practi- cal godliness? Shall a woman of America, when she consents to become a wife, and to her sorrow finds that the man whom she chose to be her protector, has instead, become the subjector of her womanly rights, be compelled to leave her offspring mother- less, and be entombed alive, in an Insane Asylum, simply be- cause there is no power in the laws of the land to protect her against the despotic will of her husband ? When will my countrymen fear God, more than they do the oppressor ? Gentlemen, action, investigation, is demanded of you, by this appeal, in order that your souls may be found guiltless in this matter. Dare to do your duty, and God will bless you. Your Suffering Sister, E. P. W. PACKARD 186 MODERN PERSECUTION. After receiving the above letter, I think a failure to inves- tigate into the merits of the case was in itself a criminal act. Ignorance of the state of my mental faculties could no longer shield them, for the letter contains a sufficient degree of intel- ligence to arouse an investigation to see if what I claimed was true or false. ponement of a difficult crisis only renders a settlement more difficult, and the evil consequences more inevitable and un- avoidably certain. Guilt was daily accumulating by each added day of most wearisome imprisonment, and that tender babe was being thus deprived of its right to its mother's care, and that little flock of tender lambs were daily and hourly in suffering need of a mother's care and sympathy. Yes, the quicker the settlement, the easier and the better, both for them and the injured victims of this most cruel con- spiracy. Now, they cannot clear themselves of guilt, if, Pilate like, they do try to throw the responsibility off themselves upon Dr. McFarland. For they know that for his act they will be held justly responsible, in the same sense that the Superintendent is held responsible for the acts of his employees. For my aggravated and enhanced sufferings from this time, I hold the Trustees responsible; for it seemed that the Doctor's story was heeded and mine rejected, thus delegating an in- creased power to the Doctor to abuse me, just as his uphold- ing Lizzy Bonner in her barbarities, only enhanced her power to harm still more. Indeed, I suffered so much from his tyranny, for nine months from this time, that even the sight of the man, or the sound or sight of his name, was instinctively and inseparably associ- ated with horror in my mind. CLANDESTINE LETTERS. 187 But the details of this period of purgatorial mental anguish, as I find it delineated in my journal, it will be impossible for me to give within the limits of this volume. I did propose when I projected the plan of this book, to give the history of these wrongs in detail to the world; but I shrink from the task. The record of the adamantine pen God himself will give in - his own way and time in complete detail. This record can never be obliterated, except by repentance on Dr. McFarland's part for the wrongs I have suffered at his hands. I am determined, by God's help, now to write my own his- tory in chapters indelible and indestructible in my own honest deeds. The following letter to Dr. Shirley, of Jacksonville, written during these days of anguish, on some cloth, or tissue tea- paper which I obtained from the sewing-room, I handed to Dr. Sturtevant after chapel service in a manner similar to what I did my note to Mrs. Miner, except that I confined my saluta- tion to a shake of his hand as I slipped the note into it. But I am sorry to say I have more reason to think he be- trayed me to the Doctor, than I have that Mrs. Miner did, for the Doctor told me himself that he had destroyed a "worthless letter” Dr. Sturtevant had given him from me. I doubt not he spoke a truth in making that confession to me, and I think it was uttered under the influence of an exul- tant feeling which said: “So you see, Mrs. Packard, I can head you anywhere! You are my helpless victim.” “Never mind, Dr. McFarland, you did then hold me, and the letter too, in your power, but now I hold that letter in my power, to publish to the world, that my readers may see in what its “ worthlessness” consisted ; and I now hold myself and you too, where the verdict of public sentiment will compel us both to stand just where our own actions will place us." 188 MODERN PERSECUTION. And Dr. Shirley can also see in what estimate I then held him. This opinion I based upon an interview I had with him in the Doctor's parlor, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Blessing, and as I was personally acquainted with no other man in Jacksonville, of course, made application to him as a dernier resort. INSANE ASYLUM, March 20, 1861. DR. SHIRLEY-KIND SIR: Constrained by the law of self- preservation, I feel compelled to make an appeal to your humanity for help. Yes, help for me, a helpless victim of severe persecution. I am sick, and need some human helper, for on the side of my oppressors there is power; yes, power to harm too, yet I have no protection save Omnipotence. My heart turns instinctively to you, kind Sir, hoping and trusting that the God-like principle of manhood has not be- come extinct in you, and therefore, I have a foundation on which to make my appeal. Dr. Shirley, I am indeed an injured woman, and my case ought to arouse and command an investigation ; at least, so far as to grant me some kind of trial, before perpetuating my imprisonment any longer. Can you not do something to secure me one ? I do beg and entreat, with all the power of woman's elo- quence, that you do deliver me out of Dr. McFarland's hands. He is my oppressor, my unjust and cruel persecutor. He claims that his judgment is a safer guide for me than my conscience.” These are his own words; and I am in the absolute power of such a man. What protection have I under a man who ignores the con- science of his victim ? Do deliver me from this fear of evil, and my soul shall bless you forever. And I have given this usurper my written pledge, that I CLANDESTINE LETTERS. 189 shall expose him to the world whenever I get out, unless he repents of his inhumanities to the patients. And he knows, too, that I am a truthful woman, and can never break this pledge. Ask wisdom-do your duty—and do not yield to the temp tation to fear to cope with the great Dr. McFarland in defence of the injured. Omnipotence will shield you in doing your duty. My heart is full, but by means of communication are entirely cut off, so far as the Doctor can prevent it. If possible, come to me, and I will tell you what I cannot, and dare not write. Do let a God-fearing humanity, not a man-fearing despotism, control your actions, and I trust Heaven will protect you. In the name of justice, humanity, and of the State, I have requested a meeting of the trustees on my account. But Dr. McFarland's reply leaves me nothing to hope for in that direction. Still, duties are mine, and events God's. I know my life is worth preserving, for the sake of my six children, if for no other purpose, and “For me to live is Christ, and to die, gain.” Still all lawful means I feel bound to use, to preserve life, and then I can say, God's will be done. Your humble, earnest petitioner, E. P. W. PACKARD. INSANE ASYLUM, May 10, 1862. TO THE TRUSTEES.- Gentlemen: Dr. McFarland has in- formed me that the State, not my husband, supports me here. I deem it my duty to protest against this act of injustice. Although I fully appreciate your intended kindness to me and mine, by placing me on the charity list; yet it is the in- justice of the act against which my nature instinctively revolts. My children have no claim upon the charities of this State for their education. God has provided them with ways and 190 MODERN PERSECUTION. means of being educated far superior to many children of the poor tax payers. If these indigent tax payers choose, voluntarily to deprive their own children of the means of education, for the benefit of my more favored ones, there would be no injustice in my receiving their gifts in this way. But to claim it of them, without their consent or knowledge, simply as a legal right, is unjust; for it plainly conflicts with the dictates of the moral law, which is, doing to others as I would wish them to do to me. I am not required to love my neighbor's interests better than my own. My own children have a prior claim to my regard than my neighbor's. Still I have no right to seek their inter- ests at my neighbor's expense, without his knowledge or con- sent. Since my husband has broken his marriage covenant, and failed to protect me in my duties as a wife and mother, de- priving me not only of my marriage rights, but also of all my rights as an American citizen, thereby depriving his children of their natural guardian and instructor, I feel that he has no right to seek to make pecuniary profits from the specious plea thus formed for educating his children. You know not what you are doing, in supporting this man in his wicked plan of wronging the innocent without cause. God grant that your eyes may be opened to see your guilt in thus doing, so that you may repent this life, where you can be forgiven, on the ground of making due restitution for the multiplied wrongs you have inflicted upon me and mine. Respectfully yours, MRS. E. P. W. PACKARD. CHAPTER XXIV. “You Should Return to Your Husband.” One day in my extreme distress, and finding every refuge for deliverance failing me, in a state of desperation almost, I concluded as a dernier resort, to make one direct appeal to the doctor himself, as a professed follower of Christ, in the Pres- byterian Church, hoping even against hope, that some sort of relief might possibly reach me through this avenue. When, therefore, he called at my room, I said to him, “ Doc- tor, I am suffering a temptation from the powers of darkness to swerve from my purpose of holy obedience to God's revealed will. Is there no help for me in my deep affliction ?” 6 What do you mean by your temptation ?” “I feel tempted to complain of my lot, and to impatiently wish to be delivered out of the power of my persecutors. Doctor, I do so want my freedom! But I am not tempted to desire it at the expense of my conscience, that is, I am not tempted in the least by a desire to return to my husband, nor could any influence tempt me to do this deed, since for me it would be a sin against God to do so.” “Well, what can I do for you?” “Do right; by letting me have my liberty to support myself, as other wives do who cannot live with their husbands.” “The only right course for you is to return to your husband and do as a true woman should do; be to him a true and lov- ing wife, as you promised to be by your marriage vow, unto death, and until you do consent to do so, there is no prospect of your getting out of this place! For until you will give up this insane, unreasonable notion of your duty forbidding it, I consider this institution the proper place for you to spend your days in, for you must be maintained somewhere, by charity, if 192 MODERN PERSECUTION. it is not true, as you pretend, that you have helpers Outside who promise you pecuniary aid, but give neither you nor me a guarantee to that effect.” 6 I do not feel that I am an object of charity so long as I have health and abilities to render me self-reliant; although I know my situation is a very unpleasant one for a woman, re- ported to be lost to reason, to contend with. For who will desire or employ an insane person as housekeeper, cook, nurse or teacher; still I could try, and if I did not succeed I could drop into a poor-house, such as the laws of the State provide for the indigent to die in.” " What poor-house ?” 66 Jacksonville, if I could get no further." “No, you have no claim there." 66 Manteno, then.” “ No, you are not a woman who can be trusted, for your own conduct here has proved you to be entirely unworthy of trust or confidence. You have abused the trust I have re- posed in you, and betrayed me in every possible way by mis- representation and abuse. You have proved to me that you are all that your husband represents you to be, that he is an in- jured and abused man, and you are a worthless woman, for it is impossible for your husband to be such a man as you re- present him to be and sustain the spotless character, as a minister, which he does and always has.” “Don't I know, Doctor, a little more of his private charac- ter, as a husband, than any other one ? and is it not possible for one to assume a false character abroad? Has not the fall of many good man, reported above censure, proved that it is sometimes the case ?” “No, I think it is impossible for your account of him to ne a true one, and I regard this institution as the only fit place for you, so long as you are not willing to return to him.” “Is it right, here in America to coerce a woman's conscience, No. 1. No. 2 UIT inanun BEEEEEEEEEEE MWV Juni min 2 SELLED CHAM BERLIN, ENGN.!! Not Alienated. "See! That lady is not alienated from her husband! See how kindly she takes his arm!” See page 84 No. 1.-Mr. Packard taking leave No. 2.—Mr. Packard throwing kiss- of Dr. McFarland! See page 86. es to his wife! See page 87 “RETURN TO YOUR HUSBAND." compelling her to do what she believes to be wrong? My views of my personal duty are the rule for me, as your views are for you. I regard it as persecuting Christianity thus to treat me, and that the cloak of insanity is the only legalized popular mode of doing it at the present day.” “No, Mrs. Packard, you are talking unreasonably, in an insane manner, and all reasonable people will call it so, for you to so represent duty; and so long as you hold on to these views, there is no hope for a change that I can see.” “Now I understand you. Now I am satisfied—for the reality, however painful, is far less unbearable than suspense. I now know what Mrs. Hosmer told me is true, although I was loth to believe you were so entirely lost to justice and honor. She said there was no hope of my getting out of this institution so long as you superintended it.” “Did Mrs. Hosmer say so ?” “She did.” He then tried to qualify what he had said. He did not seem to like to have me cherish that view exactly, but how he meant to qualify it I could not understand. I know that the utterance of simple unqualified truth is the hardest language which can be employed. But on this simple weapon of naked truth I intend to rely for my own defence and protection. The world may credit or discredit my state- ments, just as they please; my responsibility is done with the utterance of the simple truth. The superintendence of another's conscience is not my work. God forbid that I ever put forth my hand, Uzzah like, to steady the conscience of another, since I know that God alone claims the right to protect his own sacred ark. I in- tend no man or woman shall ever steady my own. This is God's exclusive work. My journal, two weeks after, says: “I have been in bed for a few days to rest my brain by sleep 194 MODERN PERSECUTION. and sitz-baths. The means have been blessed and I am better. For about two weeks I have been afflicted with a headache most of the time. This is something new for me. I scarcely ever had a head- ache in all my life. Indeed I hardly know what pain of body is, I am so blessed with such sound and vigorous health. But when the doctor told me I must return to my husband or die here, it cost me a mental struggle which has prostrated me upon this sick bed. It is these spiritual wrongs which cause woman so much feeble health, and break down the strongest constitutions. Knowing this, I must try to fortify nature in every possible manner within my reach, so that the citadel of my health need not suffer detriment; for if that should fail, I fear my courage would fail with it. The degree of faith, trust and confidence I am able to sum- mon into this field of action, depends much upon the health- ful vigor and nervous energy I can command. Therefore to keep my faith strong, I must keep my health good.” CHAPTER XXV. Miss Mary Tomlin-A Model Attendant. I never saw Miss Mary Tomlin abuse a patient, and she was my attendant for nearly one year. She, unlike most attendants, did not seem to become callous and indifferent towards them, because she would not allow herself to do the first unkind act. It is very noticeable here that the beginning of wrong doing is like the letting out of water, over the edge of a fountain. When the first few drops have trickled over, there is apt to be a few more, and a few more, until a deep and broad channel is soon formed through which the waters of human kindness are allowed to pass into a state of annihilation. When this groove was once made, it was never closed up under the Asylum influence. The only security an employee or boarder could have of maintaining their integrity, lay in their not doing the first wrong act. This was the secret of her triumph over the con- tagion of that most corrupt house. She was entered in my ward, and although initiated under our most unexemplary attendant, Mrs. De La Hay, she seemed to have moral courage enough to allow her own principles to control her. Miss Tomlin exercised the utmost forbearance and kind en- durance of the patient's weakness and frailties, such as I think was never surpassed by any attendant. She may justly be called a model attendant, so far as the treatment of the par tients was concerned. Should asylums secure such, and only such attendants, they might justly be called asylums, so far as the attendants' duties are concerned. I never feared for the fate of a patient when Miss Tomlin 196 MODERN PERSECUTION. was in sight; even Miss Bonner's fierce spirit seemed subdued by her silent, gentle, but irresistible magnetism of kindness and tenderness. I recollect once how I pitied her when she called me to see the condition of Miss Sallie Low, a filthy patient, occupying a screen-room at the time, while passing through one of her 6 spells” of excessive fury, where she had divested herself of all her clothing, and was standing nude when I saw her, with her hands both raised, with all her fingers spread, with her mouth wide open in laughter, and her large black eyes show- ing the white on the upper side in wildness—her short, heavy, curly black hair standing all about her head in bristles, from the salve with which she had anointed both it and herself com- pletely over, so that her flesh was about the color of a monkey. Besides, she had written her marks upon the wall, as high as her fingers could reach. My kind attendant instead of being angry at her exulting patient, in view of the labor she had caused in cleaning her and her room, only laughed in re- turn, as she exclaimed: “ Did you ever see a human being so much resemble a mon- key!” With the help of another attendant she took her to the bath- room, and after patiently soaking her for a while in the bath- tub of warm water, she finally cleaned and dressed her, and introduced her into our dormitory as a woman who deserved our pity, instead of our censure, for- 6 She is not to blame for causing me this trouble, and this is what I came here to do, to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves.” .“ Even her bath was administered in such a gentle manner that Miss Low, instead of offering resistance, enjoyed the fun first-rate and came from it refreshed and invigorated, instead of being exhausted from death struggles such as Miss Bonner and such like attendants administered. A MODEL ATTENDANT. 197 In contrast to Miss Tomlin's method of administering the bath, I will here give Mrs. J. C. Coe's* description of one which Miss Jane Smith gave Mrs. Commonsforth, as a speci- men of what is common there. She says: “Even modesty as well as sympathy and all the other Christian virtues are punished as insanity. For example, Mrs. Commonsforth, who had so far recovered her natural state as to feel a reluctance at being stripped naked in the presence of her attendant, Miss Jane Smith, ventured to ask her to let her take her bath alone. “ But instead of gratifying her, she became enraged at this request of her patient, and not only denied her wish, but com- menced immediately to use violence in stripping her, and even got her down upon her back upon the floor, and literally tore her clothes from off her, with her own hands. “ Then, as if to punish her for trying to resist this brute force, she made the bath scalding hot, and forced her into it and held her down under the water with the back of her neck over where the hot water came bubbling up, so that it was literally scalded so deep as to leave a raw sore for weeks after- wards. “And, as if to punish her for feeling pain by this applica- tion of scalding water, she ordered her to go naked to a screen- room where she locked her in and kept her in that condition in the depth of winter for more than a whole day, without a mouthful of food to eat and nothing to wrap about her body except a piece of an old comfort. “The next day as Dr. McFarland came round on his daily visits, she heard Miss Smith say to him: Mrs. Commonsforth has had a very exciting time, and has torn all her clothes from off her, so she has nothing to wear, and therefore I keep her locked up!” “The Doctor believes the statements of his attendants and * The Cook's Wife. 198 MODERN PERSECUTION. without question or investigation acts upon them. Of course, he would not look in upon a naked woman and thus her scalds would escape his notice. When Mrs. Commonsforth after- wards was telling me these facts, I asked her: 666 Why did you not halloo to the Doctor and tell him she was lying about you?' 666If I did, I knew I should have to suffer for it when he was out of hearing, and the Doctor would not be likely to take any notice of what I said.'” It does seem as if the State ought to attach a penalty to this perversion of the bath-tub in this prison house. Only let the law-makers take but one bath here, under the hands of these furies, and I think they would vote for some penalty to their tormentors. Miss Tomlin told me of one act of her's which reflects much credit upon her moral courage and integrity. On Sunday morning the Doctor ordered Miss Goodrich from off her bed, as he passed through, and when out of hearing, Miss Tomlin ordered her back again, for she felt that she knew better than he did what her health demanded. She said she had concluded to pursue this independent course, without talking much about it, hoping thus to evade the rule without opposition. If she was complained of, she said, she would then give her reasons, and she thought any intelligent person would be satisfied. I assured her this was the right course: still, I was sure it would awaken decided opposition, for the more reasonable, the more virulent the opposition it would arouse. And so it proved. Instead of promoting her, as she de- served to be, they willingly allowed her to resign her trusts to others far less fitted to honor them. And in defence of this course, I heard one of the authorities say: 66 Miss Tomlin is insane, in some respects, like Mrs. Pack- ard!” A MODEL ATTENDANT. 199 Her insanity, like my own, consisted in her immovable de- fence of the principles of uniform kindness to the unfortunate. Another most kind and faithful employee, Mrs. Hosmer, was accused of this same charge of insanity, for the same reason. Indeed, one of these authorities remarked: “If we could but get Mrs. Hosmer into the wards as a patient, we would treat her as we do the maniacs !” This is doubtless true, for her persistent regard for the patients' interests, was a constant reproof to their own in- difference, and aroused the same antagonistic feelings towards her, which my course has elicited towards me; and the posi- tion of a patient here affords a noble opportunity for seeking their revenge in full measure. I will close this chapter by inserting here a beautiful para- phrase on a passage in Psalms, which Miss Tomlin wrote her- self, and handed me for my solace. " I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.” In this dreary vale of sorrow, Oft my heart is sick and sore, Waiting for a brighter morrow, Waiting, waiting evermore. Hope deferred my heart is breaking, And I long to be at rest- Aye! the sleep that knows no waking, Would be welcome to this breast. Did I say, “that knows no waking?” Nay, I would not have it so, Better far to bear this aching, Than to sleep forevermore. But I would awake like Jesus- Like unto the crucified- When I'm fashioned in His image, Then shall I be satisfied. Affectionately your friend, M. TOMLIN. CHAPTER XXVI. Mrs. McFarland-The Matron. It is due Mrs. McFarland to say, that after I gave my writ- ten reproof to her husband, she seemed to be induced by its influence, to see the debased condition the prisoners were in, and expressed this feeling in these words: “Mrs. Packard, I never realized, until I read your Reproof, what a condition we were in. It has led me to determine to do what I can to reform some of the many evils which I can now see do exist here. We had so insensibly sunk into this condition, that we did not realize it until you showed it to us in your Reproof.”. To Mrs. McFarland's credit it should be stated, that she did try to alleviate the dreådful condition of the patients as much as possible. After Mrs. Waldo left, she became matron, and filled this office as well as she was capacitated for. Her kind and gen- erous sympathies rendered her a general favorite amongst the patients, and atoned greatly for the undeveloped woman in some other respects. She sympathized with me in many ways, and tried to favor me, even in defiance of her husband's known wishes to the contrary. One day the Doctor found a carpet upon my floor, and as he stood upon the threshold of my room, looking at it for the first time, he exclaimed: “Who has been putting a carpet on Mrs. Packard's room?" My attendant, Miss Tomlin, standing by, replied in her very mild tone: “ I believe it is your wife's work.” He said nothing more, but the carpet remained on the floor until I left. THE MATRON. 201 It was through her influence that I was allowed to have a room by myself, after one year's confinement to the dormitory. I had sent a written request to the Doctor to let me have a wash bowl and pitcher, but he did not notice it so much as to refuse it. But Mrs. McFarland contrived to get one, and gave me, also, a nice curtain for my window, and a chair for my room—a great, but rare privilege in the Eighth ward. There was one time that the Doctor tried to so torment my feelings, that I felt self-defence required me to withdraw all communication of thought with him, to save them. Therefore, for months, I would not speak to him, not even so much as to answer the most common question. Mrs. McFarland approved of this course, by saying to me: “Well, Mrs. Packard, I would not speak to him if I were in your place. If a man treated me as he has you, I would let him alone.” And she told my attendants not to treat me as they did the other patients. I will here give an extract from a letter I wrote to her about April 30, 1862; “Mrs. McFarland, I have almost unbounded confidence in your womanly nature; I believe its instincts are a safe guide in dictating your duty so far as it goes; yet, I do Will you therefore allow me to make a suggestion, when I assure you it is made with the purest motives, and the kindest feelings. I am prompted to do this, from the assurance I feel that you will allow the suggestion all the influence which truth, reason and common sense, urge in its support.” * * * With regard to the suggestion I then made, together with many others, I will only say that Mrs. McFarland almost always heeded them, and often consulted me, in relation to her family matters and the interests of the institution. 9* 202 MODERN PERSECUTION. The reform thus inaugurated, through her agency, led to the expression often made during these better days of prison life: “ This house is a paradise compared with what it has been." Dr. McFarland seemed to be the last and the hardest one to move in this direction; but satisfied he could not stop the wheel of revolution by opposing it, he after a while, allowed himself to simply hang as a dead weight upon it, until the aristocratic ladies from Jacksonville insulted and ridiculed me in my room, when all at once a new spirit seemed to hold him, for a time, to be our co-worker, instead of an antagonist. There seemed to be something in his wife's increasing popularity which convinced him that it would not be policy to oppose her openly, for if he did, she told me she should do as I had done, “ appeal to the Trustees” to sustain her! Finally, from the influence of the outside pressure in favor of reform, the Doctor himself thanked me for giving him the reproof, and freely acknowledged that I intended it for his good. Through Mrs. McFarland, as the principal agent of this re- form, the tide of popular influence seemed to undergo an entire change. Instead of its being popular to abuse the patients, it became more popular to treat them with respect and even kindness. And finally, by a change of some bad attendants for good ones, I began to feel that the evils were becoming greatly lessened. And so it did appear for awhile. But I was everywhere told: “ There will be a relapse if you ever leave this house, for the Doctor is afraid of you, as the only reason why he is making this spasmodic attempt to co-operate with his wife.” From the Committee's report, and that of my personal friends I left in the Asylum, I have too much reason to fear that so it proved. My friends have assured me that the “ reign THE MATRON. 203 of terror” commenced anew when I left, so that abuse and cruelty again became the rule of the house, to a greater degree even than ever before. Now I am fully convinced that this temporary reform, so far as Dr. McFarland was concerned, was merely the effect of policy, rather than principle—that he assumed this appearance merely to satisfy me he had repented, so that I might be induced to represent him to the public as worthy of confidence, on that ground; for he knew full well, that my conscience would not allow me to expose a penitent man's sins, however great the magnitude of his previous guilt. I find, therefore, in my journal, from the time I began to hope he was treating the patients on the principles of justice, I have been exceedingly careful not to “Break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax;" that is, I encouraged every hopeful manifestation to the highest and fullest extent, consis- tency and truth would permit. Many blamed me on this ground, that I was too charitable to the poor sinner; but dictated as I was by the promptings of my own forgiving nature, I was thus inclined to cover more sins with this mantle of charity, than some would have thought proper or allowable. I never can find it in my heart to blame, where there is the least possible chance for encouragement. I aim to “ Overcome evil with good," instead of attacking evil with evil, where there is any possible opportunity of doing so. But there are cases where it is a mercy to be just to the sin- ner. Nothing but ruin will save them from ruin. That is, they never will repent until they are first punished; and the just punishment, which I tried so long and effectually to have him ward off, was the public exposure of his hidden iniquities. But persistency in his sins, has forced me to do, what for a time, I hoped I could be excused from doing. CHAPTER XXVII. The Sane kept for the Doctor's Benefit. The remark Miss C. L. English, a good attendant, from Chandlerville, Cass Co., Ill., made, conveys an important truth which the tax payers ought to know—viz: “ It is plainly to be seen, the Doctor keeps sane people here from choice, to serve his private interests, knowing that the un- requited labor he gets out of them he can turn to his aggran- dizement—in his report of the finances of the institution.” Yes, all this slave labor turns to his advantage as he reports it, thus buying their patronage, as it were, to secure his salary. This salary is thus earned for him by his slaves. His own ac- tion, or rather his inaction, shows that he is almost totally indifferent to the interests of his prisoners, only so far as his interests can be promoted by an assumed regard for theirs. He does not seem to care how many hearts he breaks with anguish, nor how many choice spirits he crushes into annihilation, if he can only rise on their downfall. The faithful hard working Kate has well earned her two or three dollars a week, if any female attendant earns that amount by her work. She has been as sane a worker as any attendant in the house ever since I knew her, and I am told she had been just as competent and useful for many months before. And Kate is only one of scores of others of like type. And if they are ever discharged after these years of unre- quited labor either their friends or the county will be required to pay the institution, in addition to all this unrequited toil, all that their clothing has cost them, beside the bill charged for making it, even if the patient has cut and made every stitch of it herself! How much more profitable to the pecuniary in terests of the State is this robbing of its citizens, than it would THE SANE KEPT. 205 be to pay their just debts! If it were not for this slave labor the State would be compelled to have double the number of attendants to do all this work, which it now gets as a gratuity out of its prisoners. Dr. McFarland is a good financier for the State in this par- ticular, but a miserable one for the interests of the State's prisoners under his care. If the State wish the interests of its unfortunates cared for, they must get some other person than Dr. McFarland to do this for them, or it never will be done. He knows that the pecuniary interests of the State demand munificent pecuniary resources to meet the immense de- struction of State property which is constantly going on, through his stolid indifference. Could the State but be allowed to know the management as it really is, not as the Doctor reports it to be, they would be horror struck at the extravagant, unnecessary and unreason- able amount. of property destroyed merely as the legitimate result of this insane management. The rules as they are practically carried out are unreasonable and unjust in the extreme. Much property is oftentimes wan- tonly destroyed as the legitimate result of this cruel injustice. There is no other manner in which they can express their just indignation of the power which is thus oppressing them. The amount of property thus unnecessarily destroyed which is daily going on, might relieve the wants of thousands who stand in perishing need of the comforts it might furnish for them. Just consider how unjustly I am treated here. Here my good, firm health is suffering from my close confinement; and in duty to myself I reported my state to Dr. McFarland, and asked if I could not be allowed fifteen minutes exercise in the open air daily, without an attendant, and he denied my request. I then concluded I would avail myself of the laws of the 206 MODERN PERSECUTION. house, and go to the wash-house or ironing-rooms, and there work for the State, that I might thus secure the exercise and fresh air my health demanded. But lo! here I am met with Dr. McFarland's strict command not to let me out for this purpose, while other prisoners can go at their option. I have not done anything to forfeit my right to this privi- lege, guaranteed by law to the prisoners, to my knowledge, or to the knowledge of any other one. And yet Dr. McFarland has just as good a reason for denying me this right, as he had for removing me from the best ward to the worst. Neither I nor any other one in the house have ever known his reasons for thus treating me; but on the contrary, we know that he had no right or excuse for doing so. Nothing but sovereign, arbitrary rule dictates his course of treatment towards me. Yes, he is ruling me with a rod of iron, and I, in my deeply sensitive nature, am suffering protracted mar- tyrdom at his hands. At the request of Mrs. McFarland, the Doctor finally con- sented to my going into the sewing-room for the half of each day, while other prisoners can go all day, if they choose. Thus, by sewing for the State, as its imprisoned slave, I can buy the privilege of exchanging the putrid, loathsome air of the ward, for the more wholesome, purer atmosphere of the sewing-room for half a day. But instead of this being a relief, it seems to be only an aggravation of the evil, for the air of the hall seems doubly grievous and unendurable by contrast, and the incessant noise and uproar of the maniacs, seems heightened every time I return to the roar of the tempest after a short calm. I think I can well pay my way, by making a vest or pair of pants daily, to swell the aggregate of Dr. McFarland's report of the pecuniary profits arising solely from this slave labor. This is my only alternative to get better air for my health! If I were a male prisoner, I might perhaps be allowed, under THE SANE KEPT. 207 a watchful keeper, to go on to the Doctor's great farm, and hoe his corn and potatoes, with his sixty other day laborers, which this house furnishes, without cost to himself, for his exclusive benefit. And thus, by Dr. McFarland's granting me the right to breathe the fresh air of heaven, I might help fill his coffers, by my unpaid labor. I might thus help Dr. McFarland to publish his benevolent deeds to the world, that he gives to the poor around him yearly, a bushel of potatoes from his own farm! Or it might help to buy some of the costly wines, and cigars, and confectioneries with which the asylum feast tables are loaded, at the State's expense, to the credit of Dr. McFarland's great hospitality! Yes, it may pay for the intoxicating drinks the company of soldiers to which his eldest son belonged, used on that memora- ble occasion, when they, after this drunken debauch, stalked through our halls, headed by their drunken leader, to see us, the boarders of the house, put off with nothing but bread and molasses to eat, and nothing but a single saucer left to eat it from; for we were deprived of every cup, spoon, knife and fork, and chair, to supply the table of Dr. McFarland's guests. If we could have had one raisin, or cake, or candy, or apple, or any thing, left in the shape of fragments from that groaning table of luxuries, in exchange for the vegetables, strawberries, butter, sugar, and tea, they took from our table, we should have felt better satisfied. I could not help sympathizing with the remark made by our kind attendant, Miss Tomlin, on that well-remembered occasion—as we stood around our table, dipping our bread into our black molasses. The Doctor seemed inclined to shut this scene from the soldiers' view who followed after ; but Miss Tomlin, instead of granting this wish, said, as she opened the door : 208 MODERN PERSECUTION. « No, let them see us as we are. Let them see how our table comforts compare with their own!” It may help too, to pay for the costly wine which Mrs. Coe told me she had seen carried, by the pail full, into the cham- ber of his eldest son, to treat his companions with, taken from the asylum storehouse of luxuries, charged for the “good of the patients.” Seldom, very seldom, did a drop of these wines ever pass the lips of a patient, for his “good” or evil either. Dr. McFarland's mode of “ impressing” free citizens of these United States into his service is truly profitable, if not novel, in that it pays him well, as a public financier. CHAPTER XXVIII. Record of a Day. The record of one day is a record of all, since I came to this ward. I rise with the breakfast bell, which rings about fifteen minutes before we are called to the table. I first drop upon my knees and offer a short prayer for protection and guidance, and then drink a tumbler of rain water, which, in connection with my other health regimen, proves effectual in producing good digestion, which habit is so indispensably necessary to perfect health and mental vigor. I wet my head in soft water, and wash my hands and face and dress myself as quickly as possible. I then throw off my bed clothes, article by article, giving each a shaking to air it, and stir up the husks of my mattress, and then leave them all airing while I eat my breakfast. I sleep with my window wide open, both summer and winter. After breakfast. I finish making my bed, sweep and dust my room, and then invite the ladies of our hall to my room, to prayers, leaving each entirely free to come or not just as they choose. There is but one chapel service daily, and that is at night. Sometimes one, sometimes three, and oftentimes no one re- sponds to my invitation by coming to prayers. After reading and praying I commence my studies, by first writing in my diary and journal. I pursue a systematic course of studying the Bible and writing out my conclusions, and then read some scientific book requiring thought and close attention, until eleven o'clock. I then take a full bath of cold water, and follow it with vigorous friction, accompanied with gymnastic exercises, adap- ted to the expansion of the chest and muscles of the system. I 210 MODERN PERSECUTION. pursue this vigorous exercise before my open window until I find it a sweet relief to sit down and comb my hair thoroughly. I then complete my toilet for the day, all of which occupies nearly one hour's time. I am then in a condition to relish my dinner, after which, I read some light literature, or the daily paper, over which, I often drop to sleep in my chair, and thus take a short nap. I then take my embroidery and do a certain amount, while at the same time committing to memory certain passages, which I have marked in my reading as worthy of particular note; or, while sewing, meet my attendants, Miss Tomlin and Miss McKelva, in the large dormitory, and there listen to readings from Shakespeare's plays which we mutually agree to do for our individual improvement. This occupies my mind completely until the horn blows for supper, when the farm hands are all summoned in from their work in the fields, about five o'clock. I take no supper, finding that two meals are all my present habits render necessary for the unimpeded and health- ful operations of nature. I noticed that while taking suppers my sleep was not so quiet and refreshing as it ought to be—that I awoke with a bad taste in my mouth, and had but little appetite for my breakfast. I felt rather averse to effort. Aware that I was over-feeding instead of refreshing nature, I dispensed with my suppers entirely, and all these symptoms and indiffer- ent feelings subsided, and I felt well, that is, had no special reason for considering that I had a body to care for, so quiet and unimpeded were its functions carried on. The body thus cared for instead of being an incumbrance to the mind, became only its faithful servant. My sleep is now really a luxury, even amid this den of how- ling maniacs, and my breakfasts and dinners are peculiarly well relished-have not a pain or uneasy sensation whatever in RECORD OF A DAY. 211 my physical system to which to call the mind's attention. How thankful am I for my practical knowledge of the laws of my physical nature; for I do believe that godliness, or living according to God's laws, is profitable in every respect; and ungodliness, or trespasing on nature's laws, cannot be done with impunity. After supper I lay aside my work, and devote myself to amusing the patients, by dancing and playing with them until after chapel service, when they are locked up for the night. I go through my gymnastics again at night in my room, and drink my tumbler of soft water, and pray, and go joyfully to bed to sleep and pleasant dreams. I often feel when rising, as much relieved and rested from my troubles, as if I had really been absent from my prison, on a pleasant visit to loved friends. It sometimes takes me some minutes to realize where I am, on awaking from such pleasant dreams. I often think this hell is not so unmitigated in its torments as the hell of lost spirits is represented to be, by their resting not, day nor night. Could not these prison torments be sus- pended by sleep, they must soon become too intolerable for physical nature to sustain. God grant me deliverance from endless, unmitigated torment! The discipline of this hell has had one influence over my moral feelings which is certainly conducive to inward peace of mind, and that is, I am becoming comparatively indifferent to the “speech of people,” which is really one of the greatest bug- bears in the universe. I now think it is much better to do as we please, or rather as we think it right, promptly, and independently, than to square our conclusions by other peo- ple's estimates. Blessed be independence and moral courage! for by these alone can we secure the approbation of a good conscience. Let me get above 6 folks,” where I can breath a pure 212 MODERN PERSECUTION. atmosphere and live. The idea of suffocating and choking to death down in the vitiating atmosphere of a meddlesome and gossiping world, is very disagreeable. The record of every day's experience here of this doleful prison life, carries me farther and farther above this groveling atmosphere, so that my mind finds peace amid tumult and noisy strife. For the benefit of others who may be called to endure similar trials, I will add, that I find it an invaluable habit to be able to secure good sleep, and plenty of it, to fortify one invincibly against the attacks of “low spirits.” To be a “good sleeper" is as indispensable to a happy, vigor- ous state of the intellect, as being a “good eater” is to a good physical condition. And my signal triumph over low or depressed spirits, which never for one entire day disturbed my inward peace of mind, during all my imprisonment, is greatly owing to my constant practice of sleeping soundly from ten to eleven hours out of the twenty-four. The need of this habit was presented first to my mind by my scientific reading in the Asylum, where it was shown that whenever the brain had unusual burdens to carry, either in the form of trials or of deep study, a greater amount of sleep was indispensable to sustaining it unharmed. CHAPTER XXIX. How I Bought and Retained some Paper. Before narrating the incidents concerning the paper, I will state a few facts incidentally bearing upon the subject. As I have before stated, orders were expressly given on my removal to the eighth ward, that I be not allowed to go out of it at all except to chapel service. These orders were strictly enforced for about five months, when orders were received that I might be allowed to ride and walk out with the patients. I have reason to think myself indebted to Miss Lynch for this privilege, as she was the first who bore to me the message in these words: “ Mrs. Packard, the Doctor has given me permission to take you to ride to-day in company with his daughter Hattie.” Availing myself of this privilege, I took with me the only capital I owned in the whole world, viz.—a silver dime- which Dr. McFarland had given me, and which by an unac- countable combination of circumstances, he supposed was justly my due, determining if possible to invest this capital in paper-now the great want of my existence. At my request, Miss Lynch left me at Dr. Shirley's office, to get some unfinished work done on my teeth, while she and Hattie rode off. While they were gone I took occasion to step out to make my investment. But recollecting that five months before, in settling up my account at the “ Philadelphia Store,” I found myself indebted five cents above what I was able to pay, and accordingly asked Mr. Woodman to trust me for it, assuring him I should pay him the first opportunity. He however gal- lantly replied, “it is of no consequence, you are welcome to it.” 214 MODERN PERSECUTION. But as I felt bound in honor to fulfill my promise, I went directly to this store, and after stating the circumstances, offered my dime to meet my obligation, secretly praying how- ever, that he would still insist upon it that it was of “no con- sequence” to him, for it was of great value to me-half my fortune! But in this I was disappointed, for it was now his clerk Woodman, the owner. So after searching his money drawer over in vain to find the five cents my due, he left me alone in the store long enough to steal half his goods had I been so thus obtained my five cents. But having no paper, as I had before offered to take it in paper, I hastened to the nearest bookstore, where I bought five cents worth of damaged foolscap, which amounted to eight sheets! Overjoyed at the success of my investment, being three ex- tra sheets above the current price, I, with the lightest heart and quickest step possible, returned to Dr. Shirley's office, lest Mary get there before me. But alas! the tardy bank was so long in changing my dime, that she drove up to the door just as I returned to be thus caught! But by carefully concealing my long roll of foolscap under my shawl as best I could, I thought I had satisfied her inquiry as to where I had been, by telling her I had been to the Philadelphia Store to pay a debt. But alas ! the long roll of foolscap would so protrude itself against my shawl as to lead her to suspect I had not told the whole truth in reporting myself. However she did not express these thoughts to me until that evening when just before chapel, she came to me with this question: 6 Mrs. Packard, did you get any paper when I took you to ride to day ?” BOUGHT AND RETAINED PAPER. 215 “Why do you ask me that question, Mary?” “ Because I thought I saw something under your shawl which you seemed to try to conceal from me.” 6 What if I did ? haven't I a right to carry things without your knowledge ?” “You have no right to carry paper without my knowledge, for the Doctor has expressly forbidden me to let you have a scrap of writing paper, and if you have used the privilege I granted you of riding out, by getting yourself paper, I must report you to the Doctor. Did you get paper, or did you not ?” “I did, Mary, get five cents' worth ?” “I must report you to the Doctor—it is my duty." "I am sorry, Mary, your conscience dictates such a course, still if it does, obey it, for I know you will favor me whenever you can conscientiously do so." As she left the hall, I as quickly as possible, took the three extra sheets from my roll and hid them about my person, leav- ing the roll in the top of an old box which I was using as a trunk to keep my things in, with one dress simply covering the roll. After chapel, when the ladies were nearly all locked up for the night in their rooms, the Doctor's steps were heard in our hall, and as he entered at one end, I left my room at the opposite end, and as we approached each other we met at about the middle of the hall, when standing directly in front of me, he remarked, with his eye fixed most intently upon me: “Mrs. Packard, did you get some paper when you went to ride with Miss Lynch, to-day ?” “Yes sir !” said I looking him also full in the eye. “Will you give me the paper if I ask you for it?” “No sir!” with emphasis, said I. “Will you give it to me if I demand it of you?” “No sir!” with greater emphasis. 216 MODERN PERSECUTION. For a moment we stood looking at each other in silent amazement, then he said: 66 Where is the paper ?” 6 With my things.” We then passed each other, he going to my room to attend to his business, and I to the opposite end of the hall to attend to mine. When I returned, I found the Doctor searching the table drawer where I kept my choice things, the key to which I carried in my own pocket; but it seemed the Doctor had opened it with some other key. I wonder if there are any locks which Dr. McFarland's keys cannot lawfully open! After watching his movements, while he stood bent over my drawer, carefully opening every box, large and small, and pocketing such articles as he chose, such as bits of pencils, and old pens, and any articles of stationery he could find, I left the room, while he was ransacking the paraphernalia of woman's toilet, remarking to my dormitory companions as I left: “Ladies, bear witness to this robbery!” Failing to find the paper he was in search of, he closed and locked the drawer, then asked the ladies if they knew of any other place where Mrs. Packard kept her things. Miss Goldsby replied, “ She keeps some in this box, I be- lieve," pointing to a cushioned covered seat near by. This box, the size of a common trunk, was full of my larger articles of wearing apparel, which he carefully searched throughout. But failing to find the roll of foolscap, because in such plain sight, near the top! he left, chagrined and mortified at his failure, and locking the door of my room as he passed out, he left me alone in the hall, while he, with a quick, anxious tread, passed speechlessly by me, out of the hall, closing the dead- lock upon me. BOUGHT AND RETAINED PAPER. 217 As I alone paced the hall, silently ruminating upon my prob- able fate, I saw the hall door open, and the Doctor entered, followed by his porter. “Now,” thought I,“ I am to be trans- ported off to some dungeon or secret cell, to suffer the penalty for telling the truth to him and my attendant.” And stepping up deliberately, in front of the porter, I daunt- lessly stood, with folded arms, ready to be unresistingly borne to my place of torture. The friendly porter, who had more than twenty times put the reins of the carriage horse into my hands, and received my thank you," as often, just gave me a smile, and a respectful bow of recognition, and passing me, followed the Doctor into my room. He soon appeared again with what the Doctor supposed was my trunk, in his hands, and followed the Doctor with it up to the trunk-room, where it was left beyond the reach of Mrs. Packard's accommodation. Thus the Doctor had the satisfaction of feeling that if Mrs. Packard has baffled him in finding the paper, he has been able to annoy her by taking her trunk! But as the event proved, the Doctor, upon a second overhauling of my things in the trunk- room, found the roll of foolscap; and being five sheets, he felt that this amount answered to the five cent's worth Miss Lynch told him I had bought, so that, after unlocking my large trunk in the trunk-room, and robbing it of all my letters, and papers, and manuscripts of every kind, he felt satisfied, that, at last, his plan to defeat his prisoner of her rights had succeeded, even in my case. But don't let the great Doctor feel too confident that he has gained the laurels of victory, after all, for he did not know that his wife furnished me with a better trunk, and more of my wardrobe than ever before, with a key to it also. . And besides, the Doctor did not know that I still kept and faithfully used, the three large sheets of foolscap, from which I 10. 218 MODERN PERSECUTION. am now copying for the public advertising of himself, through this record of his own actions ! No, neither did he know that this ungallant assault upon a defenseless woman's rights, aroused the just indignation of the house in sympathy with his victim ; so that it came to be re- garded as a part of the code of honor in that house afterwards, to evade the mandate to “keep all stationery from Mrs. Pack- ard,” so that the employees willingly followed the example which Mrs. McFarland set them, to furnish me with supplies, clandestinely, whenever they could safely do so. In this way, he, himself, furnished me with sufficient mate- rial to print a volume quadruple this size when it is all printed! Can not God cause the “ wrath of man to praise him ?” CHAPTER XXX. How Mr. Packard gave me Paper, and how Dr. McFarland stole it. Mr. Packard visited the Institution twice during the three years I was imprisoned in it. But these visits were not designed to comfort and cheer me with the hope of deliverance from my prison life at some future time, but to perpetuate it, through his influence over the Superintendent and the Trustees. He visited me in my cell-saw my companions—the howling, raving maniacs—and although he feared for his own life while among them, he expressed no fears for my own. He tried to raise his voice so much above the roar of this tempest of human passions and seething hate, as to make me understand that I was under obligations of gratitude to him for replenishing my wardrobe for a longer campaign! But he failed to make me appreciate this . obligation of gratitude due a benefactor, who was only restoring stolen prop- erty to its rightful owner. What obligation am I under to the robber who meets me in the street and robs me of all I have, my watch, and purse, and even my wearing apparel, and then comes and asks me to bestow on him my grateful thanks for presenting me my own wardrobe, as his gift. Either the tumultuous elements surrounding me, or the lack of capacity within me, or both, prevented my seeing this obli- gation due him as my benefactor! My sense of justice will not allow me to thank robbers for gifts which are already my own property; therefore, this reverend divine was obliged to leave, feeling that he was a much injured man, because his benefactions were so little appreciated by his ungrateful benefi- ciary! 220 MODERN PERSECUTION. Although the articles from my wardrobe which he brought to me in the prison, were the most inferior part of it, being in the main, clothes which I had done wearing, and had laid aside for donations to others more destitute than myself; yet, destitute as I then was, they were very acceptable, for I had ample time for making new things out of old, and thus appear in quite a respectable costume for that place. But there was one article he brought me, for which I did really feel so grateful, I could hardly control this emotion by my principles or reason. I felt so instinctively grateful for the large roll of writing paper, envelopes, and stationery, that I almost spoke my thanks, before reason had had time to give her verdict to the contrary. He saw that my joy was almost boundless, at this most un- expected possession. As soon as he left, I commenced writing a letter to my children on it, feeling no need of secrecy now. Therefore, when Dr. McFarland caught me quietly using my stationery, he, in astonishment, inquired: “ And where did you get your paper ?” “Mr. Packard gave it to me.” “How did Mr. Packard come to give you paper ??? "I don't know, sir. I suppose, however, he felt that it might be an innocent amusement for me to write here, know- ing I loved to write when I was at home.” “How much did he give you ?” “Quite a number of sheets.". “Let me see it.” I then took the roll from under my pillow and handed it to him, saying: “ Here it is.” Before this I had taken out one-half of it and hid it about my person. I did not tell him of this! He took the roll, examined it carefully and thoughtfully, for STOLEN PAPER. 221 some minutes, then putting the whole under the breast of his coat, he remarked: “I will take charge of this.” And he has been true to his word ; for I have been relieved from this charge ever since. But the matter did not stop here. The Superintendent arraigned the Minister as an intruder into his business, and authoritatively demanded of this husband why he had given paper to his wife. The husband replied, he did it for her comfort and amuse- ment. The Superintendent then, after giving the Minister a severe reprimand, finished by the threat, that if he ever attempted to interfere again with his management or discipline of his wife, he should have the liberty of taking her away, forthwith. This terrible threat silenced the Minister into unanswering submission to the superior mandates of the Superintendent, over the control of his wife's destiny. CHAPTER XXXI. My Family Relatives. Not far from this date I find a copy of a letter I sent to my own dear father in Sunderland, Mass., viz. : My Dear Father: Dr. McFarland, the Superintendent, has given me permission to write you a letter. This is the first opportunity I have had to write to you. Hitherto all commu- nication with my friends has been denied me, except through my husband. Father, I am entombed here without cause. But I am try- ing to bear my wrongs as patiently as I can. The suggestion has often been made that I write to you clandestinely, so that you might know how unjustly I am treated, and some have promised to write for me, but as yet I have thought it best to break no rule of the institution. My trust in the rectitude of a divine providence, is still un- shaken, notwithstanding the clouds and darkness in which my destiny is enveloped. Yes, my dear Father, your Elizabeth is called to tread a very thorny path. Her road to heaven is through a vast howling wilderness, where no rills of earthly comfort are allowed her, to refresh her weary fainting spirit. Not only are all the comforts and blessings of a Christian home denied me, but even my personal liberty for nearly one whole year, has al- ready been taken from me through marital usurpation. Oh, my Father! how my heart has bled and my soul grieved in agony, at being thus separated from my own flesh and blood—my precious children. My own husband has forced me from my God-given charge, and imprisoned me, with no prospect, but that it must be life-long, simply for daring to defend what I thought to be truth. MY FAMILY RELATIVES. 223 He has made out a charge of insanity on this ground alone, while in all my conduct he can allege nothing against me. I have neglected no duties, have injured no one, have always tried to do unto others as I would wish to be done by ; and yet, here in America, I am imprisoned because I could not say I believed what I did not believe. Oh, Father, can't you help me? Can't you take me to your own home for a short time, and try me, and see if I am in- sane? If you feel that you are too old to come yourself, do let brother Austin come and see me, at least, and then if he thinks this asylum is the proper place for me, I will consent to stay. But with no trial and no chance for self-defence, is it not unjust to leave your only daughter uncared for any longer ? Do, Father, do something, to get justice done to me and my precious children. Your affectionate daughter, ELIZABETH. For my father's defence, I will here add, that the Superin- tendent sent with my letter one of his own, which destroyed the influence of mine. And as the Superintendent and the husband both agreed in opinion respecting me, it is not so strange that a man nearly eighty years old, should heed their statements, rather than those of one whom he supposed insane. He had unbounded confidence in the integrity of his son-in- law, Mr. Packard, and he, of course, concluded that a man sustained by the State must be a reliable man, whose opinion demanded respect and confidence. Therefore, instead of coming to my rescue, he sent one hundred dollars to Mr. Packard, to help him in keeping my imprisonment perpetuated ! Another fact. Mr. Packard succeeded in influencing the 224 'MODERN PERSECUTION. Trustees to place me on their charity list, and then carefully concealed this fact from my father, so that he could beg the more successfully from him, the patrimony which was my due. Thus he kept my patrimony, and secured my support from the State of Illinois. My persecution reminds me of Father Chinique's experi- ence, when his friends forsook him, because he had forsaken the errors of the Catholic Church. So I, when, from the clearest convictions of conscience, for- sook and exposed the errors of our Church, and endorsed some truths found in the Methodist, the Baptist, the Unitarian, the Universalist, the Catholic, and other denominations; in short, when I endorsed the Truth, instead of Presbyterianism, for my creed, nearly all my former friends seemed to regard this extension of charity as an unpardonable offence, deserv- ing eternal punishment from them and all civilized society ! This is the penalty I am called to bear, for the crime of be- coming a self-reliant thinker, and tolerant Christian in the Presbyterian Church. This Institution, my friends, and the church, may hold me on this rack of insanity as long as they choose ; I shall hold myself in defiance of them all, an independent thinker, and a charitable Christian; and shall be all the more independent, on account of this opposition. I used to have an almost unbounded respect and reverence, for Theologians and Doctors of Divinity ; but I am happy to say, that now I have more respect for my own individuality, than for them all. To some, this may seem like an arrogant spirit; but it is not. I do not say, like these Theologians, that my opinion is the standard for any other individual; but, on the contrary, that it is not. No other individual in the whole world is to be judged by this standard of belief but myself. Therefore, it would be arrogant in me to try to get others to adopt my MY FAMILY RELATIVES. 225 standard as their own. God requires of them the same in- dividuality that he is developing in me. I am sorry to say that my father sustained this cruel con- spiracy for years, persistently resisting all light, unless it came through the medium of the conspirators. But he did this ignorantly, not wilfully; for I rejoice to add, that when he saw me, about eighteen months after my libera- tion, his paternal feeling so gained the mastery of his bigotry, (he was a minister of the same creed as Mr. Packard,) that he soon saw his mistake, and then he tried to counteract the influence he had encouraged in believing me to be insane. He now fully believed I had never been insane at all, and from that time he has been a father indeed to me. As proof of this assertion, I here give his certificate: (REV. SAMUEL WARE'S CERTIFICATE TO THE PUBLIC. “This is to certify that the certificates which have appeared in public, in relation to my daughter's sanity, were given upon the conviction that Mr. Packard's representations respecting her condition were true and were given wholly upon the au- thority of Mr. Packard's own statements. I do, therefore, hereby certify, that it is now my opinion that Mr. Packard has had no cause for treating my daughter Elizabeth as an insane person. SAMUEL WARE. Attest. Ş OLIVE WARE. * • AUSTIN WARE. SOUTH DEERFIELD, August 2, 1866." And here it may be due to my two brothers to state, that they, like my father, sustained this conspiracy for too long a time, through the misrepresentations of Mr. Packard. But like him, they did it ignorantly, not wilfully; for just as soon as they saw me, and had an opportunity to judge for themselves *My step mother. My own mother died in 1844. 10* 226 MODERN PERSECUTION. they became my valiant defenders, both publicly and privately, and have ever since seemed determined, by their extra kind- ness to me, to make all the restitution the gospel requires, as evidence of sincere repentance. Of course, I have long since most freely forgiven them, for to me, they are like what Lazarus was to his sisters, “ raised from the dead." This temporary death of their natural affec- tions seems to have been quickened into a new, higher, deeper, and tenderer love for me than ever before. But to sister Mary, my brother Samuel's wife, is due the highest compliment, for she is one of the precious few who escaped the psychological influence of this learned and popu- lar minister, my husband, in that he could never, for one mo- ment, convince her that I was an insane person. She, with my adopted sister, Mrs. Angeline Field, of Gran- ville, Illinois, both stood erect before this minister, on their version of his statements, in maintaining their own individual opinions respecting my sanity. But sister Angeline, I am happy to say, had her husband, Mr. David Field, to encourage and sustain her in defending my sanity; while sister Mary had her husband to combat, in defending me. CHAPTER XXXII. Old Mrs. Timmons Deserted by Her Children. This lady was brought to the Asylum about one year and a half before I left. For several months she occupied the same ward with me, and from the day she was entered she was my daily companion. I took pleasure in her society as she seemed perfectly sane, and sorely afflicted at the fact that her friends would not let her remain with them at home. She was above sixty years of age, but showed no signs of premature old age or ill health. The longer I saw her, the greater was my as- tonishment that she should be called insane. From her I learned the reason she was imprisoned was, that one night she got up in a somnambulic state and went to her son's bed, and inflicted two blows upon his cheek with an axe. This her friends regarded as evidence of insanity, although she had no recollection or knowledge of doing so. This son brought her to the Asylum, and the dreadful scar on his cheek authenticated her statement. She always ex- pressed the keenest sorrow and the most true penitence for having done this dreadful deed, for this was her favorite son. She was willing to do anything possible to atone for it, if she could but live at home with her dear children. She begged to be locked up nights by herself, lest she do an injury again to some one, but she could not bear to be put into this terrible place to spend her days as a criminal, when no one regretted the deed being done more than herself. The thought of having thus harmed her darling child was agony enough, as she thought, to make atonement for the deed, without suf- fering this awful penalty. Mrs. Timmons had already endured one term of nine months 228 MODERN PERSECUTION. imprisonment for this act, in an Asylum in Indianapolis, where she assured me the inmates were treated no better than at Jacksonville, and her friends knew she had much rather be buried than to be put into another such Institution. Yet, they could tell her she was not going into an Asylum, but only going to consult a physician about her health, and thus they decoyed her behind another “dead-lock," to be free no more! As I listened to her expression of hopeless agony uttered when sure the Doctor could not hear, I could not but feel that the custom of professedly barbarous nations, which allows the aged and infirm to be left in the woods to be eaten by wild beasts, was not so barbarous as this mode of disposing of un- welcome citizens, which the civilization of the nineteenth cen- tury has rendered popular; for the lingering protracted tortures of dying in this institution are far more to be dreaded than the shorter, quicker mode of being devoured by wild beasts. Indeed, I often heard this distressed woman express this preference in these words: “Oh, if I could only live under a fence, for my home, rather than here, I would rejoice in the exchange! anything or every- thing would I give for my liberty! any death would be sweet to such a life as this !”. And yet this is a Christian institution : 66 Yes, this is Modern Persecution !'" Her maternal feelings reached such a pitch of agony that it was to relieve her I consented to write the following letter for her, which I sent to her friends on my “underground express.” “INSANE ASYLUM, January 29, 1862. My Dear Children: My heart is almost broken in conse- quence of the course you have taken towards me. Do write and explain yourselves, or what would be better, come and tell me, for as I now feel, it seems to me I shall soon grieve myself to death. MRS. TIMMONS. 229 Why could you not take care of your poor afflicted mother yourselves, and not again trust me with strangers where you know I have suffered so much ? Oh, do tell me why you have treated me so! You know I told you I was willing to live in a room by myself, locked up both day and night if you were afraid of me, if you would only let me live at home and take care of me yourselves. You know too, I have always done just as you told me without objecting in the least, and now how can you put me off so again? Did not John tell me he had forgiven me for injuring him ? and have I ever attempted to injure any one else? Is it not punishing me more than I deserve to imprison me twice for the same thing, when you say I was not to • blame for doing it as I did ? You treat me worse than if I was a convict, for they do not deceive them, but tell them plainly, what they imprison them for, and for how long a time they must bear their punish- ment. But this time you did not even tell me why you imprisoned me, nor do I know that you ever intend to trust me with you again! I shall die of grief before long, unless you do some- thing to alleviate my heart sorrows. I could not treat you as you have me, and Oh, how can you punish me so severely for doing a sinless act? Oh, children! am I in danger of perpetuating my imprison- ment by revealing to you the inmost feelings of my heart? If so, what shall I do? If my own children will not relieve their agonized mother, when it is so easy for them to do so, by simply taking me home, I do not know what I shall do. The hope that you will do so as soon as you consistently can, after receiving this letter, will sustain me, till then, and when that hope is gone, it seems to me I shall die. Do not delay one day, for you cannot imagine how long 230 MODERN PERSECUTION. time seems here; one day seems like a month elsewhere. It is not that I am abused physically, for I am not. It is not this which causes my suffering, but the thought of your treating your old mother as you do that is killing me. Yes, killing me! For my sake do not let the Doctor know of my sending you this letter. Your Mother, M. A. TIMMONS. But I am sorry to say that her relatives did let the Doctor know of it, and did nothing to relieve her! The Doctor then removed her to another ward to cut off her communication with me, suspecting that I had helped, in some way, to get her letter out. I retained a copy of this letter in my journal, and now give it to the public that my readers may see what feelings the asylum discipline produces. Is it right thus to punish for a misfortune? Her children came to visit her twice while I was there, and although they found her working like a slave for the asylum and Dr. McFarland's family, and never showing the least aberration of mind, they would leave her, with the promise that just as soon as they could get a room prepared for her in the new house they were building with her own money (they were rich) they would take her home. They told her the room would be ready in about three weeks, and although six years have already elapsed, this promise remains unfulfilled! The mother who bore them and earned for them the com- forts of their own homes, is still left to pine away, a prisoner's life of rayless comfort, doing the cooking in the Doctor's kitchen. When these children become old and gray-headed, how will they like to have their children treat them as they are treating their mother?" With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” CHAPTER XXXIII. Mrs. Cheneworth's Suicide-Medical Abuse. Mrs. Cheneworth hung herself in her own room, after retiring from the dancing party, last night. Her measure of grace was not sufficient to enable her to bear the accumulated burdens of her hard fate any longer. She was driven to desperation. . I cannot blame her for deliberately preferring death, to such a life as she has been experiencing in this asylum. She has literally been driven to it by abuse. She was entered in my ward, where she remained for sev- eral weeks, when she was removed to the lowest ward, where she has been murdered by slow tortures. If this institution is not responsible for the life of Mrs. Cheneworth, then I don't know what murder is. She was evidently insane when she entered—she was not re- sponsible, although her reason was not entirely dethroned. Her moral nature was keenly sensitive; her power of self-con- trol was crushed by disease and medical maltreatment. She resisted until she evidently saw it was useless to expect justice, and was just crushed beneath this powerful despotism. She was a lovely woman, fitted both by nature and educa- tion to be an ornament to society and her family. Gentle and confiding, with a high sense of honor and self-respect, she despised all degrading associations. From her own representations, I inferred she had been the pet and pride of her parents—a kind of household goddess in her father's family. Under these benign influences her virtues were fostered, and she had the satisfaction of being loved and appreciated. 232 MODERN PERSECUTION. She had been quite a belle, and finally from her many admirers, she married one of her own, but not of her parents' choice. In him she seemed to have found everything her heart could desire. He both loved and appreciated her, as well he might. She was small, delicately and gracefully formed, and pecu- liarly lady-like in her manners. She was a most accomplished dancer, having been trained in the school of the best French dancers in the country. Her complexion white and clear, with regular features; dark but mild and tender eyes; hair long, black and glossy. In short she was a little, beautiful, fawn-like creature, when she came to this Institution. She had been here a short time once before, after the birth of her first child ; and from her account I inferred that her restoration to reason was not then attended with the grim spectre of horrors which must have inevitably accompanied this. She had left a young babe, this time, which her physician advised her to wean, since she was now in a delicate condi- tion. Thus her overtasked physical nature, abused as it was by bad medical treatment, added to the double burden she was called to endure, could not sustain the balance of her mental faculties. Her nerves were unstrung, and lost their natural tone by the influence of opium, that most deadly foe of nature, which evidently caused her insanity. The opium was expected to operate as a.quietus to her then excited nervous system; but instead of this, it only increased her nervous irritability. The amount was then increased, and this course persisted in, until her system became drunk, as it were, by its influence. The effect produced was like that of excessive drinking, when it causes delirium tremens. Thus she became a victim to that absurd practice of the medical ARS. CHENE WORTH'S SUICIDE. 233 profession, which depends upon poisons instead of nature to cure disease. It is not natural to cure disease by creating disease. To poison nature, is not the natural way to eradicate poison from the system. To load nature with additional burdens, is not the way to lighten its previous burdens. But common sense dictates that the natural way to aid na- ture in throwing off her diseases, is to strengthen the powers of healing, and thereby directly assist her in curing disease. Nature's energies are strengthened, renewed and nourished by rest, quiet, sleep, food, air, cleanliness, freedom, exercise, etc.; and medical skill consists in adapting these agencies to their peculiar functions, so that the special want of nature may be met by its natural supply. What Mrs. Cheneworth wanted, was the nourishment of her exhausted physical nature, by rest, food, air, and exercise. She did not need to have the powers of her system thrown into confusion by taxing them with poisons, which nature must either counteract and resist, or be overcome by them, and sink into death. Nature was importuning for help to bear her burdens, being already overtasked. But instead of listening to these demands, her blinded friends allowed her to be thus medically abused. After having suffered her to receive this treatment, which brought into a still worse condition-an insane state—when more than ever she needed help and the most tender, watchful care; then to be cast oft in her helplessness upon strangers, who knew nothing of her character, her habits, her propensities, her cravings, her dis- position, or her constitution ; how could they reasonably ex- pect her thus to receive the care necessary to her recovery ? They probably did expect it, and on this false basis placed her here for appropriate medical treatment. What a delusion the world is laboring under, to expect such treatment here! Did they but know the truth, they would 234 MODERN PERSECUTION. find that all the medical treatment” they get here, is that of locks and keys! . Thus having hidden them from observation, and cut them off from all communication with their friends, they then in- flict upon them what they consider condign punishment for being insane! Why cannot their friends bestow upon them this 6 medical treatment” at home, without the expense of sending them to the Lunatic Asylum ? This is the sum and substance of all the 6 treatment” they get here, which they could not get at home—that is, they could not get this treatment from reasonable friends, any where, out- side of these inquisitorial institutions. How doleful is this purgatory! thus legally upheld for the punishment of the innocent! Great God! Is this Institution located within the province of thy just government ? or is this Satan's seat, that has nct yet been subjected to thy Omnipo- tent power ? Mrs. Cheneworth is only one among many, many others which her case represents. During the few weeks she was in my ward, after she first came, she was kindly treated. Per- haps her own parents could not have done better by her, than did Miss Tomlin and Miss McKelva, so far as their limited powers extended. They could not grant her that liberty and freedom she so panted for, nor could they gratify her longings to see her own offspring, and bestow upon them the love of her maternal heart; nor could they bring to her the sympathy of her fond mother, for which she so ardently longed; neither could they summon to her side her husband—her chosen protector-who had sworn before God never to forsake her in sickness or in health, although it was her most earnest wish that he might come and see her condition for himself. No, neither of these influences could these attendants sum- MRS. CHENE WORTH'S SUICIDE. 235 mon for her relief or benefit; but so far as the ward duties extended, they did as well by her as they could. I never saw either of them get the least angry or impatient towards her, although she tried them exceedingly by her an- tics. They seemed to feel that instead of getting angry at an insane person, they were placed here to “ Bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please themselves.” I feel that they have nothing to dread in the revelations of Mrs. Cheneworth’s Asylum discipline. Of each of them I trust the Judge will say, “ she hath done what she could” for her suffering sister. These attendants are highly cultivated, well developed wo- men, who could enter into Mrs. Cheneworth's feelings, and sympathize with her in her trials. They not only knew how to treat her nature, but their principles controlled their feel- ings, so that her trials might not be increased by any injudi- cious act on their part. Neither did they seem to despise her for being so sorely afflicted, but pitied and longed to help her. Alas! for poor Mrs. Cheneworth! her days for reasonable treatment expired when she was removed to the lowest ward, and consigned to the care of Elizabeth Bonner. This attendant was a perfect contrast to her former attend- ants in character, disposition, and habits. She was a large, coarse, stout Irish woman, stronger than most men; of quick temper, very easily thrown off its balance, when, for the time being, she would be a perfect demon, lost to all traces of hu- manity. Her manners were very coarse and masculine, a loud and boisterous talker, and a great liar, with no education, and could neither read nor write. To this vile, ignorant woman was Mrs. Cheneworth entrusted, to be treated just as her own feelings dictated. Miss Bonner's first object was to “ subdue her,” that is, to break down her aspiring feelings, and bring her into a state of cringing submission to her dictation. 236 MODERN PERSECUTION. Here was a contest between her naturally refined instincts, and Miss Bonner's unrefined and coarse nature. Any mani- festation of the lady-like nature of Mrs. Cheneworth, was met by its opposite in Miss Bonner's servant-like nature and posi- tion, and she must lord it over this gentle lady. The position of the latter, as a boarder, must, at her beck, be exchanged, by her being made to feel that she was nothing but a slave and menial. If she ventured to remonstrate against this wanton usurpation of authority over her, she could only expect to receive physical abuse, such as she was poorly able to bear. And Oh! the black tale of wrongs and cruel tortures this tender woman experienced at the hand of this giant-like ty- rant, no tongue or pen can ever describe! She was choked, pounded, kicked, and plunged under water, until well nigh strangled to death. Mrs. Coe assured me this was only a specimen of the kind of treatment all were liable to receive at her hands, since she claimed that this was the way to cure them! and this she in sisted upon, was what she was put here to do. Being strong, she was peculiarly adapted to her place, since no woman or man could grapple with her successfully. This is the attendant who so often made it her boast that Dr. McFarland let her do with the patients just as she chose —that her judgment, her feelings, and her temper could be trusted in all cases ! Oh! what is there of injury and physical abuse that this institution will not have to answer for, which has not been in- flicted by brutal attendants—while Dr. McFarland has sus- tained them by knowingly approving of these things? I do not believe the trustees would knowingly sustain these brutalities. But Dr. McFarland's statements are regarded by them as infallibly correct, and as he represents the treatment here bestowed upon the patients, they doubtless feel confident MRS. CHENE WORTH'S SUICIDE. 237 that they are humanely treated. But did they know what I know, I believe they would disapprove of it, and not like Dr. McFarland, try to cover it up, lest the interests of the insti- tution be jeopardized by the investigation. The facts I have already placed before them in a written form, would of themselves arouse their interest and summon their immediate investigation, did they not so implicitly rely upon the Doctor's contradiction as proof of their fallacy ! In this way they are believing lies, and under this delusion they are not only winking at iniquities, but publicly sustaining them. It is in their power to ascertain the truth, did they feel determined to know for themselves. But this investigation would be attended with more trouble and inconvenience than it is to let it go on, and thereby these slothful servants of the public are justly held responsible for the sins of this house. Poor Mrs. Cheneworth could not await this retribution, but was driven to seek the only defence within her reach, death! yes, death—the most dreadful of all evils—was chosen rather than such a life as she was doomed to endure under the rule of this Inquisition. I cannot, no, I cannot blame her for killing herself. I do not think God will blame her. She was like one who deliber- ately rushed into the flames, to escape the barbed arrows of an invincible foe. She only chose the quicker, rather than the lingering, agonizing death, to which she seemed inevitably doomed, at the hands of Elizabeth Bonner. The last time I saw Mrs. Cheneworth was at the dance, after which she hung herself, being found suspended from the upper part of her window by the facing of her dress. I never saw a person so changed. I did not know her when Miss Bonner introduced me to her that evening. Such a hag- gard look! such despair and wretchedness as her counte- nance reflected, I have never witnessed. My feelings were touched. 238 MODERN PERSECUTION. I asked her to go with me, and putting my arm around her waist, she walked with me across the ward to the window looking South. Here we conversed confidentially, freely. She said: - Oh! Mrs. Packard, I have suffered everything but death since we were parted!” 6 But how has your face become so disfigured by sores, and what causes your eyes to be so inflamed ?” “I fainted, and fell down stairs, and they poured camphor so profusely over my face, and into my eyes and ears, that I have, in consequence, been blind and deaf for some time." I do not know whether her chin, which was red and raw, was thus caused or not. She said the fall had caused her to miscarry, and thus, thought I, you have had to bear this burden in addition to the load of sorrows already heaped upon your tender, weak person. Said I: “ Have you any hope of getting out of this place—of ever being taken to your friends ?”. “No! none at all! Hopeless, endless torment is all that is before me! Oh, if I could only get out of this place, I would walk to my father's house. It is only fourteen miles south, here," pointing out of the window, “ but Oh, these iron bars ! I cannot escape through them.” How I did pity her! But I could only say, as I do to others: “Do try to be patient as you can; for I do hope this house will not long stand, and that in its destruction, we may be de- livered out of this place of torment.” I had no other tangible hope to offer her drooping heart, already deadly sick from hope too long deferred. She said: 6 I wish I could get into the ward with you; I will ask Dr. McFarland, to-morrow, to remove me there." 66 Alas!” thought I,“ no request of yours will be heeded, as a source of relief to you; for it is not to relieve, but to torment MRS. CHENE WORTH'S SUICIDE. 239 you, that you are kept here. Could I but inform your parents of their dear daughter's sad fate, surely they would come to your rescue.” Then I thought of the letter I had sent to Mrs. Timmons' friends in her behalf, and how, like deaf adders, they would not hear, or would not believe my statements, unless endorsed by Dr. McFarland. I turned away, sick at heart, at sight of woes I could not mitigate or remove. Oh, when will the prisoner's bonds be loosed and the lawful captive be delivered ? Notwithstanding, I think I offered to intercede for her, while, at the same time, I knew it would be utterly fruitless, as I have so often tried reason, argument and entreaty, only to find it useless. “Yes, sister, I cannot but congratulate you on what I be- lieve to be your happy exchange; for I do not think you can find, in all the universe, a worse place of torment than you found here. May'st thou find that rest in death that was denied thee on earth. CHAPTER XXXIV. Changes and how brought about. After occupying the old Eighth ward about a year, we were all summarily ordered to move into the new Lighth. During the summer of 1861, this new and airy part of the building was my home, although the patients were not materially changed in character. Again, in the last of the autumn, we were all removed into the old Seventh. Now the class of patients was changed to a more quiet class, and some of them, like Mrs. Timmons, sane and intelligent. Besides, we were now taking our meals in the dining-room of the new Seventh-the class of prisoners with whom I associated the first four months. I felt that I was in the region of the intelligent world again, for part of the occupants of the new Seventh, were just as sane as most boarding school girls, or hotel boarders, generally. I seldom saw anything here, that would, outside of an Asylum, be considered insanity, or anything like it. I can assure my reader that I was fully prepared to appre- ciate a return to civilized society, and this change was, there- fore, to me a harbinger of good things. I could talk with my old associates at the other table, while at the table, and our fare and table arrangements were much alike now, which, of course, was a great improvement on our former style. I was allowed a good room by myself, and this being the first time for one year this privilege was granted, I had much to be thankful for. Another change affecting my prison life, took place about two months after Miss Lynch obtained permission to take me to ride, which occasioned the prison doors to be closed entirely upon me. CHANGES HOW BROUGHT ABOUT. 241 I felt it to be my duty to enter a protest against my imprison- ment, and in doing so, asked Dr. Sturtevant, our Chaplain, to be my witness in the reception-room. It was Sabbath, after chapel service that I went to him and asked him to meet me in the reception-room. He consented, and we parted, he going down with Dr. McFarland and Dr. Tenny one flight of stairs, while I went down the opposite. When about two-thirds of the way down, Dr. McFarland met me, and seizing my arm, ordered me back to my ward. I remained motionless. He then applied force, saying: “Have you no feet ?” “I have no feet to walk into prison with.” He then tried to drag me back. But when he saw Dr. Sturtevant looking at us, he let go his hold of my arm, and I dropped from his grasp upon the floor below. He followed, and passed me without speaking, and joined Dr. Sturtevant and Dr. Tenny, where, after a short consultation, they passed down stairs, while I still sat upon the floor. The fall had so stunned me, that for a few moments I hardly knew whether I could rise or not, but when I saw the three men who ought to be my protectors, and helpers, under such circumstances forsake me, I began to try my powers of self- dependence, and found I could not only raise myself, but could also stand alone too, without a man to lean upon! Strong in my own self-reliant strength, I hastened to meet my appointment with our chaplain in the reception-room below, þut found no one there. Nothing daunted by this failure on Dr. Sturtevant's part, I walked into the office and met the whole trio there. But for some unknown cause, Dr. McFarland seemed un- willing to face me, but, coward like, shall I say? fled out of my presence. The other two gentlemen did not run away, but looked me full 242 MODERN PERSECUTION. in the face, while I entered my protest in the following lan- guage: “I have a right to my liberty! No law in the United States holds me legally imprisoned ! I assert this right-I shall never return a voluntary prisoner to my cell!” Turning to Dr. McFarland, who now stood in the door-way, I said: “ You, Dr. McFarland, have might to put me there, but no right. I assert my rights from principle. I believe God re- quires me to take this stand. I am immovable in my purpose. You can carry me to the ward with the help of two of your men, and I have no one to defend me against this power. I shall offer no resistance to physical force. Use it if you dare ! You do so at your peril.” Then handing him a letter, I said: “I request you to stamp and mail this business letter, un- read to my son. This step is preparatory to a legal defence of my rights at the bar of my country. Then turning to Dr. Sturtevant, I said: “ Will you, Sir, stand my witness that I now assert my rights, and therefore, am henceforth an involuntary prisoner here?” He replied, “ I am your witness.” “Now, Sir, my business with you is done, unless you wish to witness my forced return to my ward.” The carriage had been some time waiting for him at the door, therefore after asking me to excuse him, he left. Dr. McFarland then said, “ Are you going to compel us to put you back into the ward ??? “ I shall never return a voluntary prisoner to my cell." “ Then I must get a porter to take you back.” And he went for his porter, and soon returned with a strong burly Irishman, Mr. Bonner, to whom he said : “I want you to take this lady up to the Eighth ward, she don't seem disposed to walk back.” CHANGES HOW BROUGHT ABOUT. 243 He then took me up in his arms, but finding my weight too much for him, I suggested that they take me on a chair, and Dr. Tenny take hold with him. This plan worked well, and I was therefore transported up two flights of stairs in this manner, preceded by the Doctor, who unlocked the prison door to receive the prisoner—and no one could ever after say that I was a voluntary prisoner in Jacksonville Insane Asylum ; for from that time I never re- turned a voluntary prisoner to my ward. I never regretted taking this step, as now I had done all I could do to get my liberty, and having entered my protest, I was thus exonerated from all responsibility, as in any way a willing accomplice in the conspiracy. There is one point in connection with this transaction, worthy of note—that is, that my falling down stairs as I did, is, in Dr. McFarland's estimation, evidence of insanity in me; and he also maintains that this is the only insane act he de- tected in me, during all my three years' imprisonment! Now, I think there was more evidence of insanity in Dr. McFarland's conduct in this transaction, than there was in mine. He ought not to have left one of his patients in my condition, until he had so much as inquired whether I could raise myself or not. He did not know but my bones were so broken that I could not get up. I think the Doctor's conduct was ungentlemanly to say the least, to treat a sane lady like myself, in this manner, and even if I had been insane, it would have been no excuse for this un- manly conduct towards one whom he claimed as his patient. The final change I experienced, was in being removed from the old Seventh to the old Eighth again, after having enjoyed the privileges of civilized society for a few weeks. This, my second consignment to the maniac's ward, was in the follow- ing manner, as I find it recorded in my journal. CHAPTER XXXV. My Battle With Despotism-No Surrender. The Doctor has to-day assigned me again to the Eighth ward, against my wishes. Since entering my protest against prison life, no rule of the house is binding upon my conscience. Still, hitherto I have thought it best to break none in open defiance of “the powers that be,” only by getting paper and pencils, when and where I could, and in sending letters by my “ Underground Express.” But this unreasonable sentence or mandate I felt conscience- bound to resist, and I have done so from settled principle. I claim the right of a reasonable being, to be influenced in and through my reason, and henceforth, throughout my whole life, am fully resolved to resist all dictation, coming in the form of despotic mandates in defiance of reason. My first battle with despotism was now to be fought in re- sistance to this unreasonable command. Had the Doctor given me one reason why he wished me returned to the maniac's ward, I would have been satisfied to obey his command, even if I did not see the propriety of his reason. But he did not, even when I asked for one. The facts were these : One day, after quietly enjoying my new surroundings for a few short weeks, the Doctor came to my room and in a very quiet, pleasant tone remarked : “Mrs. Packard, I have given your letter to Mr. Russell, and the reply will depend upon him and his decision. “ Thank you, Dr. McFarland." He then said: “Mrs. Packard, I have been making new arrangements- have fitted up the ward above you clean and nice, and I am to BATTLE WITH DESPOTISM. 245 occupy it with a quiet class of patients, with Miss Smith and Miss Baily for attendants; I have thought it best to have you go and occupy the room above yours.” That room was a screen-room. I replied: “I did request to go to the new Eighth, to my airy, corner room, that I might have the benefit of purer air, since I am now so closely confined within doors, but I do not wish to go into the ward you assign me, because Miss Smith is a cruel attendant, and I am becoming so extremely sensitive to wrong and abuse, that I cannot, and shall not witness it without interference, even if you put me into fetters for it.” “Perhaps you might benefit her-do her good.” “ Perhaps I might,I have thought of that—still, I feel that I owe a duty to myself, also.” Here he passed on, simply remarking: “I have decided to have you go.” “ And I have decided not to go! It will be merely an act of brute force on your part that puts me there. It is a requirement of despotism, and I am conscience-bound to resist it.” Mrs. Page, one of the sane prisoners, said to me when the Doctor was out of hearing: “It is your duty to yield to despotism, if it is Beelzebub himself who issues the command, if it comes in man form !” But Mrs. Page and I differ in opinion on that point. I agree to yield to reason everywhere—to despotism nowhere. The attendants from the Eight ward soon called for me. I declined going, and related the above conversation with the Doctor. Miss Smith replied : “I do not abuse the patients—the charge is a false one.” "I hope that I have been misinformed. Miss Clauson says she thinks you are trying to do as well as you know how, and I hope you have improved. Mrs. McFarland told me she disliked the way you treated the patients, and she wished you were 246 MODERN PERSECUTION.. away; but she added, she is good to the sick, and I wish to give her all the credit she deserves.' But should we be together, I can assure you, I shall be a true friend to you—I shall respect and honor your conscience—I shall defend the abused and the wronged everywhere, whether attendant or patient.” “We shall not, of course, force you to go with us." And they went to report me to the Doctor. Next, Dr. Tenny was sent, to try what influence he could have over me. I told him that: 6 I cannot see why the Doctor cannot treat me as gentle- manly as he has of late begun to treat the maniacs, in asking them civilly, whether they were willing to go to another ward; and he has, to my knowledge, left it to their own wishes to decide this question. I know this is a great progressive step for him to take in the right direction, but why should I be singled out just now as an exception to this new era of events? Despotism is making another attack for mastery over his better nature, and he ought to be restrained, for he has no moral right to rule responsible moral agents, except through their reason. For his good, as well as my own, I shall never submit to this rule over me in any other manner.” Dr. Tenny replied, “He cannot be governed by the wishes of the patients. It is my opinion you had better go." “ It is my opinion I had better not go. So we differ in opinion here." Mrs. McFarland next came, and tried to influence me to go voluntarily. I remained firm. Many of my friends about the house, and my companions in the new Seventh ward tried to induce me to give up to the Doctor, and as I gave my reasons to one Mrs. Farnside, she remarked: “Well, suffer it to be so now.” About eleven o'clock the next day, Dr. McFarland with two of his porters, entered my room while I was packing my trunk to be transported. The Doctor very politely asked: BATTLE WITH DESPOTISM. 247 66 Mrs. Packard, will you go up to the Eighth ward your- self ?" 6 No, sir! I refuse from principle. I regard your order as an act of despotism, which I cannot conscientiously coun- tenance." 6 Very well,” and turning to the porters he said : “ You take this lady up very gently, and carefully, don't hurt her, and carry her to her room.” 6. Thank you, Doctor, for your kind cautions to handle me gently, for I am not as well as usual to-day, although better than I was early this morning. Can I finish packing my trunk?” “Yes, Oh, yes, certainly. Your things shall be taken care of." At my suggestion, the porters then formed a “saddle-seat” with their hands, upon which I sat, with my hands upon their shoulders, and thus they transported me very gently and safely to the upper ward, followed by the Doctor, and preceded by Miss Gerta De La Hay. When within the limits of the ward, I said to my guard : “I can walk now—I will not burden you any further.” I then thanked them for carrying me so gently, and turn ing to Dr. McFarland I inquired : “Can these men bring up my trunk ?” “Yes, certainly, you shall have all your things.” The Doctor was true to his word—all my things were removed with me to this ward. As the Doctor left with his porter, I remarked to my attendants : “ The Doctor can do a mean thing in the most alert gentle- manly manner possible. But I was determined to be a match for him in playing the lady' as far as he did “the gentleman.' His manner reminds me of Mrs. Waldo's remark, 'do the thing in a Christian spirit, and all will be right! But I think it is 248 MODERN PERSECUTION. as impossible to do any wicked act in a Christian spirit as it would be to murder or steal with a Christian spirit. Now I am under your care, and I have not sinned in coming, for the act was not mine, but Dr. McFarland's, therefore, I hope to enjoy the smiles of an approving conscience, here as well as else- where. Will you now introduce me to my new associates ?” Miss Bailey replied, “ Mrs. Packard, I do not think there is a patient in this hall who can answer a rational question in a rational manner.” "I will not trouble you then to introduce me. Where is my room?" She then showed me the screen-room the Doctor had as- signed me. My attendants were amazed at this appointment, and insisted there must be a mistake. But I told them this was the room above mine, and I should obey his orders in taking it. But before my carpet was cleaned and brought, Miss Smith had inquired of the Doctor why he had given me a screen- room, when the astonished Doctor said he did not know it was a screen-room, and directed her to let me have my choice of all the rooms in the hall. I accordingly chose a pleasant front room, which I occupied until I was discharged. I was allowed one favor here which had before been scrupulously denied me, during my prison life, and that was to have the liberty of closing the door of my room in the day time. I was never locked in my room nights, by any attendant after I had a room by myself. This, too, was a rare favor. As the Doctor has said, he had a quiet class of patients in this hall, so that with my closed door, I had a nice quiet place to write - The Great Drama," which was written in this room. The way in which this came to be written will appear in its proper place. I am now quietly settled in my new quarters. My prospects BATTLE WITH DESPOTISM. 249 for quiet, rest and study, were never brighter. So true it is, that good comes out of seeming evil. The darkest providen- ces are often the stepping-stone to prospective good. I have indeed been crucified again. The cross upon which I have been hung, although by some is regarded with con- tempt, yet like the scars the noble soldiers receive in battles, for the defence of their country, is yet to be looked upon in its true light. I have had a battle against the rule of despotism here-I did not surrender, neither was I conquered. Though the thing aimed at was accomplished, yet the power of despotism here is weakened more by the triumph than it could have been by the defeat. Miss Mattie Shelton, one of my attendants in the old Seventh said to me: “I can't blame you for doing as you do, we are all ruled with rigor here.” “It is true that all who will submit to be trod upon, will surely be thus subjected. I shall stand upon my own self-de- fence, and so must all who stand here. I hope Dr. McFarland will never try to govern an intelligent woman with force again. Miss Johnston, attendant in the new Seventh, says: “Mrs. Packard, you are strong both in mind and body, so you can bear this crucifixion better than a weaker subject could.” “If I can help woman by suffering in her stead, I will re- joice in my sorrows.” 11* CHAPTER XXXVI. Reading Books and Papers. There is a library connected with this Institution, which the public designed for the use of the patients, and there are a large number of papers generously sent to the Institution as a free-will offering for their benefit. But it is due to the public and the patrons who bestow these gifts so kindly, that it should be known that these books and papers very seldom find their way to the prisoners in the wards. Even while I was an occupant of the Seventh ward, it was with great difficulty I could get either; and while in the Eighth, it was almost impossible for me to get one, except clandes- tinely and by strategy. And were it not for the special kind- ness of Dr. Tenny, Mr. and Mrs. Coe, and Mrs. Hosmer, I should have been left to famish from mental starvation. It was war time, too, when daily events of the most thrilling kind were occurring, and I felt it to be a great privation to be deprived of the news of the war. Among my Asylum papers I find a copy of a letter I handed to Dr. Sturtevant, one day after chapel service, wherein my feelings upon this point are portrayed as follows: DR. STURTEVANT: Dear Brother in Christ.–Entombed alive, as I am at present, I, as an intelligent being, suffer greatly from being deprived of all communication with the world outside this Asylum, so far as Dr. McFarland can prevent it; and fully believing that you, kind Brother, 6 suffer as bound with me," I venture to ask of you an expression of this sympathy, by furnishing me with the reading of the Independent, weekly, by bringing it to me, on each Sabbath, when I will exchange the previous one. READING BOOKS AND PAPERS. 251 Did you but know how I long to keep informed of what is transpiring now in my country, at this eventful crisis, I know you would pity me; and not scruple to grant so reasonable a request, of an afflicted sister in bonds. Still, I will not mur- mur if you turn me off with an excuse, rather than grant my request; for I know that God rules in the hearts of men, and “ He turneth them whithersoever He will;” and I have long schooled myself to submission to all God's appointments, as providence develops His wishes. Since I am suffering for conscience sake alone, I see no pros- pect, on the natural plane, but that it will necessarily be life long, since I never can relinquish my right to “ obey God rather than man,” when I know these mandates conflict. So long as I will not take man's judgment instead of my con- science for my guide, I must remain inprisoned in this Asylum! And yet, this is free America ! Yes, Dr. Sturtevant, I fully believe that my country will not prosper, so long as woman is suffered to be thus treated. But so far as I am concerned, “ all is well.” Nothing can harm me. God is my only trust and shield. Fear not for your sister in bonds, although her persecutions almost daily increase in intensity. By the help of your prayers and those of God's faithful ones in my behalf, I shall be ultimately delivered out of the hands of my sagacious enemies. By faith I stand. Through God I shall do valiantly. I shall trust God by doing right, and thus wait his deliverance. Your sister in bonds, E. P. W. PACKARD. To the discredit of Dr. Sturtevant, the honored President of Illinois College, and that of the sacred profession of the min- istry whom he represents, I am sorry to add that he took no notice of my requests, not even so much as to give me any excuse for not lending me his Independent to read! 252 MODERN PERSECUTION. The letter shows what confidence I then had in his Christian character, and in his manliness as being “woman's friend.” And it was a true index of my feelings towards that class, who profess to be the ministers of our holy religion, and the prac- tical followers of that Master, whose cause they pledge to de- fend as their chosen profession. Therefore, as a sister in need, I, of course, expected a Christian response to my appeal to one of this class especially. But lo! 6 ye did it not,” must certainly be said of this man, among this revered profession. This incident has taught me that it is not the profession which makes the man, but it is the manner in which its duties are performed and its high responsibilities are discharged, which is to determine the standard of merit among ministers, as well as men in other professions. In short, ministers must be judged by the same standard as other men—they must stand or fall upon their own individual actions, not upon their position or profession. Another lesson taught me by this incident and its subsequent events, was, that if we do right, we shall feel right; if we do wrong, we shall feel wrong. So long as this our 6 chaplain" treated me as a man and a Christian, he felt like a man and a Christian towards me. But just as soon as he forsook this standard of action, his feelings forsook this standard. He began to treat me unsympathizingly-he began to feel cold towards me; and the more he manifested this coldness the more unsympathizing and unfeeling he became. Thus he closed up the avenues to his warm, manly heart, by his own heartless actions, or rather inaction, which, if con- tinued sufficiently long, will inevitably ossify this noble heart, which was made to reflect Christ's own image. But Mr. J. C. Coe, finding how I was situated, very mag- nanimously took a St. Louis daily paper for the express purpose of supplying me with the news, and Mrs. Coe, his wife, daily READING BOOKS AND PAPERS. 253 brought it to me under her apron; so that it was not known at headquarters how I obtained my knowledge of passing events, any more than how I passed out my letters. Dr. Tenny also kindly brought me the Independent weekly, which he took at his own expense, and for the purpose, as he said, of accomodating some of his friends in the asylum. Mrs. Hosmer also, occasionally, brought me some of her papers, and by a special permission from Dr. McFarland, at times, some of her own books to read, on the subject of Swedenborgianism. Why the Doctor wished to deprive his prisoners of this relief and amusement, is a mystery I could never fathom. I some- times thought it was to increase their mental torment, that he thus heartlessly denied them this right the State had granted. I have heard intelligent patients beg and plead with him to bring them a paper or a book to read, while he would pass speechlessly on, seeming not to hear a word they were address- ing to him. This indifferent manner would sometimes arouse the indignation of the petitioners to such a pitch that they would heap curses upon him after he left, often affirming: “He comes to the wards for nothing else but to torment us!" But I am happy to say, that during a favored period of my prison life, he not only allowed me to read Dr. Channing's works, but I think he has exchanged the volumes for me him- self, and once he brought me one of his own volumes of Shak- speare's works. I noticed in a Chicago paper of January 14, 1868, Dr, Mc- Farland advertises for books to be sent to the institution for the benefit of the patients. I think if the public knew how indifferent he feels in rela- tion to the wants and comforts of his patients, they would not be over anxious to stock their library with books while Dr. McFarland was the State Librarian. CHAPTER XXXVII. Abusing Mrs. Stanley. My worst fears respecting the management of this ward, I am sorry to say, were fully realized. Miss Smith possessed naturally a very quick temper, and having it aroused, by ward scenes, into a most unhealthy exercise for many months, she had now become extremely irritable and cross also, so that her atmosphere was anything but salutary and pleasant to the patients under her charge. Indeed, the contrast between her management and the quiet, kind and gentle influence of Miss Tomlin, and her associate, Miss McKelva, was truly painful, and to me a return to the old system of punishment and abuse, was rendered doubly so, after so long a cessation of hostilities. Had I been removed from the asylum instead of to this ward, I should have felt confident in the pleasing hope that a reform had really been inaugurated, when I now see that it was only local and spasmodic in its extent and nature. My feelings were first hurt in witnessing Mrs. Stanley's abuse. She is a high spirited quick tempered lady, about thirty-five years of age, the mother of several children. She had been delicately reared, of aristocratic feelings, and unac- customed to labor, except that of the superintendence of her servants and nursery. Indulged and gratified herself, she had not learned how to have her wishes crossed, and maintain at the same time her equanimity. One day Miss Smith ordered her off her bed, in terms so stern and authoritative, that it aroused the invalid's temper, and she remonstrated, and claimed the need she felt of lying upon her bed on account of sickness. The argument was regarded by Miss Smith as a justifiable ABUSIMG MRS. STANLEY. 255 reason for laying violent hands upon her, and pulling her sud- denly from her bed upon the floor, when, as usual, a fight commenced, and Miss Bailey was summoned to assist Miss Smith in “subduing” Mrs. Stanley ! After fighting awhile, Mrs. Stanley constantly ordering them to let her alone, they concluded to try the cold bath” to “subdue” her. Fearing and dreading this punishment more than all others, she, in the most reasonable manner, urged the soundest logic against it, in her present state of health, and then begged and prayed that, for her health's sake, if nothing else, they would spare her this exposure. She said: “Miss Smith, I am sorry! I ask your pardon! Oh, do forgive me! pray do, I won't do so again.” Still they persisted, regardless of her entreaties, confessions and prayers. I went to the bath room, hoping my presence might restrain them, and I begged them to forgive her. But they would not. After pouring a pail of cold water on her head, Mrs. Stanley said : “Won't you now kiss me?” “No!” said Miss Smith, 6 I won't kiss those who will talk as you do.” Here I said, “ do forgive her! for you will sometime want forgiveness yourself.” She then stopped with the threat: “ If you speak another word you shall not have one mouth- ful of food all day !” Miss Smith then turned to me saying: “I am not going to take abusive language from a patient!" In a low tone I replied: “You must remember, she is insane, and you cannot ex- pect her to do as a sane person would.” 256 MODERN PERSECUTION. 66 She is not as insane, as she pretends to be—she knows how to behave better, and I will not bear abuse from her !” 66 We sane ones ought to bear more than we can expect them to bear," I replied. Another incident connected with the fight. Mrs. Kinney, a very sympathetic patient, seeing how Mrs. Stanley was being misused, interfered, and pulled Miss Smith off. Here was another severe-fight, which resulted in forcing Mrs. Kinney into a side room, and locking her up. After all the fighting was over, Miss Bailey, looking at her finger, remarked: “I don't know but my finger is broken." I thought "if you inquired if you had broken any of the patient's bones, it would be becoming.” Thus this weak, delicate woman, who was placed here to receive kind, humane treatment, as the laws direct, is thus al- lowed to be abused, her own health and nerves to suffer per- haps an irreparable injury, from those from whom it is impos- sible to escape ; and wrongs from which there is no redress, since all the witnesses are outlawed by the brand of insanity The oppressed find in this ward no comforter, except it be in defiance of the reigning powers. I have, and do still, defy them, so far as to try to comfort the broken hearted, to sym- pathize with them in their sorrows, and these are the evidences of my insanity which call for my protracted martyrdom! There is no necessity for abusing a patient. I have seen both systems tried, abuse and kindness; and kindness is by far the easiest, safest course. And besides, these patients are the boarders of the house, and the attendants are the hired servants, and this distinction ought to be recognized as an inspiring feeling of respect at- tending the patient's welfare. Kind attendants, sometimes get abuse from maniacs, but feeling required to “ bear the infirmities of the weak,” they ABUSING MRS. STANLEY. 257 never feel justified in returning abuse for abuse, “ but contra- wise blessings.” They soothe and calm, where the irritable attendant excites into the heat of passion. Under Mrs. De La Hay's reign of injustice, I have seen the forbearance and magnanimity evinced, operate to inflame her malignity, and have heard her even twit them with imbecility and weakness, thus calling these heroic virtues," their in- sanity!” When she would provoke them into a manifestation of re- sentment, she would exult, as if she was now justified in abusing to any extent, because they are insane! CHAPTER XXXVIII. Subduing a New Prisoner. One night I was aroused from my slumbers by the screams of a new patient, who was entered in my hall. The welcome she received from her keepers, Miss Smith and Miss Bailey, so frightened her, that she supposed they were going to kill her. Therefore, for screaming under these circumstances, they forced her into a screen-room and locked her up. Still fear- ing the worst, she continued to call for “ Help!” Instead of attempting to soothe and quiet her fears, they simply com- manded her to stop screaming. But failing to obey their order, they then seized her vio- lently and dragged her to the bath-room, where they plunged her into the bath-tub of cold water. This shock so convulsed her in agony that she now screamed louder than before. They then drowned her voice by strangu- lation, by holding her under the water until nearly dead. When she could speak, she plead in the most piteous tones for “Help! Help!” But all in vain. The only response was 6 Will you scream any more?” She promised she would not, but to make it a thorough “subduing,” they plunged her several times after she had made them this promise! My room was directly opposite with open ventilators over both doors, I could distinctly hear all. This is what they call giving the patient a “good bath!” But the bewildered, frightened stranger, finds it hard to see the “good” part of it. The patient was then led, wet and shivering, to her room, and ordered to bed, with the threat: “If you halloo again, we shall give you another bath." The night was very cold, and I lay under my winter's SUBDUING A NEW PRISONER. 259 amount of bed-clothes to keep me comfortable, while this shiv- ering girl was allowed only a sheet and one thin blanket to cover her. She told me next morning that she lay almost frozen all night, and complained of universal soreness for many days after. For a long time I could see black and blue spots all over her body, caused by this violent handling of her tender frame, in putting her through the process of initiation—" the subduing." The next morning I was awakened by hearing Miss Smith reprimand her most sternly for wanting her shoes, which she could not find. Instead of trying to pacify her, she forced her shoeless patient to the bath-room, and held her head under the streaming faucet! The frightened one screamed for “ Help!” For she had not yet learned the sad truth, that she was out of the reach of all human “help,” now that she had passed the fatal “ dead-lock" of a charitable State institution. She kept calling for her shoes. Miss Smith had promised them to her after she had washed. This being done, she called for her shoes. Now Miss Smith required her hair to be first combed, and having obeyed this order also, she again called for her shoes. At this point, my feelings drove me to the spot, to defend the rights of the stranger, where I found Miss Smith, with upraised hands over her victim, ordering her to “ Stop!” I whispered in Miss Smith's ear: “I would get her shoes for her.” She turned angrily upon me, and said : “I shall not be interfered with! I know what I am about I haven't seen her shoes—I know nothing about them.” I left, and went to breakfast. Soon after, Miss Smith came in with her unhappy, shoeless patient, and ordered her to sit down and eat her breakfast. The patient wanted her shoes first, but no request of hers was noticed. 260 MODERN PERSECUTION. “ You may eat or not, just as you choose,” said Miss Smith, as her only reply to her inquiry for her shoes. This was her first meal among this great crowd of strangers in this strange place. I could not help pitying this friendless one, and passing her on my return from the dining-room, put my arm around her waist, and kindly invited her to come to my room, telling her, at the same time, that I would be a friend to her, and treat her kindly. She replied, “ That is all I want.” I told her I would ask the attendants to find her shoes- that it was their duty to attend to her wants, and keep all her clothing safe for her. Her neck was cold, as her dress was very low, and she had lost her cape. I sought for it in her room, but not finding it, asked the attendants for it, but they said that they knew nothing about it. I then lent this shivering girl a sacque of my own, and invited her to sit down in my room, upon my trunk, which I had covered with a cushioned top for a seat for my guests. She seemed rejoiced to have found a friend, and clung to me as to her last hope. She would not leave me without a promise that she might return. She said her father told her she should have all she wanted when she got here, and would see a great many nice things. “But all I want is to be treated kindly.” I told her I thought the attendants would soon look for her things—that they had many to look after—that we must try to be patient. She waited several hours; again her lost shoes began to trouble her, as she wished to go out, if I would accompany her; and if she might return again to my room. I offered to lend her a pair, and had just handed them to her, when Miss Bailey came in with the missing shoes and cape. The other patients were now going to walk, and she wished to go too, but Miss Smith decidedly refused, saying: SUBDUING A NEW PRISONER. 261 “I think it is best you should not go.” I tried to relieve her disappointment, by telling her: “I presume they choose to wait a few days, to see how you behave. They may fear you will try to run away now; and besides, you have not rested from your long journey in the cars, and they think it better that you keep quiet a few days.” She seemed easily satisfied, and remarked: "I presume the bath will do me good, but I hope I shall not need another. If ever I have to take another bath, won't you be with me?” She said she thought that was baptism; she had now been twice baptized—once in a creek, and now by these two women! She often complained of being hungry. I went to Miss Bailey, and asked her if I might take her key and go to the dining-room closet, and get her some bread and butter, as the By-laws allow the patients a piece between meals, if they need it. Miss Bailey went and got some herself. This was a very rare favor. Indeed, in all of my Asylum life I never knew it done in any other instance. The truth is, these By-Laws are merely By-Lies-worse than none at all- for they delude the credulous public into the belief that human kindness must be the inevitable result of such a humane code of By-Laws. Whereas, there being no link to connect the patients with the laws of our country, their rights may be ignored to any extent with impunity. These By-Laws are sim- ply a dead letter when tested in their application to the patient's interests. I devoted the day to her comfort and amusement, and she seemed, before night, to be quite cheerful and contented. She was uniformly quiet and peaceable, and disposed to do the best in her power. I am fully satisfied that the scene in the bath-room was en- tirely owing to mismanagement on the part of the attendants. There is never any occasion for fighting a patient. The State 262 MODERN PERSECUTION. has furnished a screen-room for the restraint of the pugnacious ones, and the room should be used for only such and at such times as they need restraint. Another initiating process. Miss Smith said she thought she should be obliged to cut off her hair, since she had “creep- ers," in it. The patient did not wish to lose her fine hair, and I remonstrated against it, saying that I thought she had no right to do so without her own or her friend's consent, for they always felt bad to find it had been done, when they had recovered. Besides, the Institution furnishes ointment for the evil she deplored. I made a thorough investigation myself, and found no cause for the excuse she gave for cutting her hair. I found the reason she wished it shingled, was to save her the trouble of combing it. She yielded to my appeal, and thus was the long black hair of this young lady saved to her, by my interposition. I had given my word to this lonely one, that she should find in me a friend, not knowing what disaster to my own interests might be the result. But, since I have nothing to lose, but my life, I am willing to risk it in defence of the oppressed and down-trodden. I will simply dare to do my duty, remembering Christ's word, that if “I am ashamed of him and his words, he will be ashamed of me.” I never was in any place where Christ's principles were so ignored and contemned as in this doleful prison house. I have detailed this single case as a type of others of daily and almost hourly occurrence here, the bare mention of which would fill a volume. CHAPTER XXXIX. Treatment of the Sick. I had for my dormitory companion for more than one year, Miss Emily Goldsby, who was sadly afflicted with epileptic fits. It was for this she was sent to this Asylum for treatment, and for this purpose she consented to come. But like all other similar expectations, this hope went out in utter darkness, under her Asylum experience. Her mental faculties had already become somewhatimpaired, in consequence of these fits, and both she and her friends, fondly hoped that under the medical treatment of the far-famed Dr. McFarland, the cause of this aberration might be mitiga- ted, or removed. But she had scarcely anything done for her by way of med- ical treatment, although I often heard her intercede with the Doctor, either to do something to cure her, or send her home to her friends. But he could not be prevailed upon to do either, so that she lingered out a most wretched imprisonment of many years, uncared for and apparently forgotten. Her friends thus finding it was easier to be relieved of the care of her, than to take care of her themselves, when at last they were obliged to take her away, they cast her into a county house! She not only received no treatment for her disease, but no care even when she had her fits, except what I gave her. One night, before I could get to her bed, she fell to the floor in one of her fits, and broke her collar bone. This acci- dent caused her much suffering, and she daily appealed to the Doctor for relief; but he would turn silently away with- out seeming to hear her. I finally influenced Dr. Tenny to 264 MODERN PERSECUTION. look at it, and see for himself that she had need of medical help. He was satisfied that the bone was fractured, and sent her some liniment which relieved her pain. She had, at several different times, periods of unusual ir- regularity of conduct, so that she could not sleep for several nights in succession, nor could her room-mate sleep with her. I was her constant and only watcher and nurse during the whole year, including these periods. Once, after several sleepless nights, I said to Dr. McFarland: “I am willing to do my share of hospital nursing, but I am not willing to sacrifice my health in this cause, and therefore, I wish you would make some change for a few nights, at least, so that I may get a little sleep." But he passed on without making any reply whatever, leav- ing me to quiet my patient as best I could, and get my own sleep where I could find it, or go without it if I could not. There was another lady in our hall who needed medical treat- ment, for a weakness which caused her attendants some trouble about her bed ; and although over sixty years of age, she was punished for it as if she were a child, instead of being medi- cated as she needed. She was lady-like, intelligent, perfectly submissive, and uni- formly quiet. She was always neatly and genteelly dressed, and had I met her outside of an insane asylum, I should never have had a suspicion of her being an insane person; I never saw anything like insanity in her. This lady had to be punished daily, morning after morning, with the horrors of the plunge bath, because she caused her attendants trouble about her bed. She was not to blame for causing them this trouble, for she could not help it. She used to come to my room after these death-like stran- gulations by water and say: “Oh! Mrs. Packard, I thought they would kill me this morn- ing! I only wish I had died, for now I am only spared to go TREATMENT OF THE SICK. 265 through it again to-morrow, for I can't help it. I lie awake all the time I possibly can for fear, but sleep will overcome me, and then I am guilty of an insane act,' as they call it, for which there is no escape from this terrible punishment.” I reported her case to her married daughter who visited her. But she took no notice of this defence of her mother's rights, but left her defenceless as ever, to the tender mercy of the Superintendent, in whom she expressed the most unbounded confidence ! This daughter's visit to her mother is described in the follow- ing chapter, showing the legitimate tendency of insane asy- lums to extinguish natural affection. I present it to my readers as I find it recorded in my journal. 12 CHAPTER XL. Mrs. Leonard's Visit to her Mother. Yesterday I met Mrs. Leonard, who is here on a visit to her mother. I advised her to take her mother home, and bestow upon her a daughter's kind and dutiful care and attention, instead of leaving her to the care of strangers. She replied, "" Why, I think it looks pleasant here. Don't you enjoy staying here ?” “ No, I do not; this is a very unnatural life, compelled to live as we do. Defenceless, exposed to abuse, separated from all our friends, and cut off from all intercourse with them, shut out from the world and all the privileges of society and citizenship, and worse than all, confined for an indefinite period.” " Why, I think I could be happy here." • You may perhaps have an opportunity to test it; you may become insane, and confined here; or you may, like many others, be confined here without being insane, and thus learn by your own experience, what it is to be cast off by your own children, as you have cast off your own mother; for 'with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.' Your mother is liable to abuse here, and I am her witness that she receives, it, too." “ It seems pleasant here. I do not think they would make a false impression upon strangers." “ A stranger passing through here, knows nothing about the management of the house. When the friends visit, they are told by the employees, that their friends are well taken care of --that they are contented and happy; and if the injured ones dare to contradict these statements, they are sure to be punished for it as soon as the friends are out of sight. Besides, these visitors are instructed not to heed anything the patients MRS. LEONARD'S VISIT. 267 say, and an attendant is to keep her ear open to the conver- sation which her charge has with strangers, and is instructed to urge them on if they tarry to hear anything they wish them not to hear. The patients fearing to tell the truth, and denied an opportunity of doing so, the visitor leaves with a very false impression, and this dust which is thrown into his eyes, pre- vents his seeing anything for himself, just as is the case with you now.” “But the friends place them here, believing it is for their good.” “Yes, under this sophistical plea they take the first wrong step. The neglected and injured relative, finds a class of emotions germinating in his heart, which inevitably culmin- ates in alienation, and irreconcilable enmity frequently ensues. The wrong doers make the first infringement upon the law of love by not doing as they would be done by. Every advanced step in the wrong direction leads them into deeper and deeper darkness, until at length they become so blinded and callous that they lose all traces of humanity, and thus become entirely perverted and fallen." I could clearly discern in Mrs. Leonard, that she had become sadly indifferent to her mother's welfare. She had got rid of a burden by putting her off upon the care of others—the laws approved of her course—it was even regarded by perverted. humanity as her duty thus to treat her—the tender yearnings of her true nature were stifled, and she was left to moral judi- cial blindness. I told her she would not like to be thus cast off, if incapable of taking care of herself; instead of this, she would claim that this was just the time she most needed her friends' care and assistance. When well, and able to care for herself, she had better be then abandoned, rather than in a defenceless con- dition. If these charitable institutions would only show their real 268 MODERN PERSECUTION. character openly, as Inquisitions and Penitentiaries, of the worst kind, the danger to humanity would be mitigated to the greatest extent; for few are so lost to a desire for the esteem of others, as to do such an outrageous act openly and pro- fessedly, for the purpose of torturing their afflicted friends by sending them to the Inquisition for that purpose. But as it is, thousands are doing that very deed knowingly to themselves, but ignorantly to the world, through the specious plea of sending them to a hospital for their good.” This morning Mrs. Leonard came to the bars, and seemed de- sirous of speaking to me. I left my work, which was cleaning my bedstead, went to the bars and talked a little more with her. I told her the patients in this ward were treated like slaves and menials; that the attendants claimed to be their overseers, and ordered them to do the work which they were hired to do. This morning, Miss Smith has ordered them to wash their own bedsteads, and requires them to do it, whether they are willing or not. Some object, saying that they are not put here to work—that they have not been used to such work, and the laws do not require it of them. Still she says they shall obey her, in all she chooses to require. There is Mrs. Stanley, for instance, who has not been used to such work, having had hired help all her days, and she ob- jects, but Miss Smith told her she should have no breakfast until she had done all she had required of her. She started for breakfast; Miss Smith ordered her back, repeating her threat. I did not tarry to see how the quarrel terminated. One fact is evident, she went without her breakfast, and seemed to feel like a much injured woman. I told Mrs. Leonard that Mrs. Stanley was right in saying to Miss Smith that she had no right to speak so to her, and order her about in that style, for the laws forbid it-Miss Smith being her servant, and the laws expressly forbid involuntary servitude. MRS. LEONARD'S VISIT. 269 Yet under our present system, we are regarded and treated as their slaves, or as convicts in a Penitentiary, condemned to work or risk the penalty of disobedience. I added : This is one of the greatest systems of oppression and cruelty to human beings, the world ever witnessed.” She listened, apparently, with the indifference of a stoic, and left me abruptly without making any remark. I returned to my duties, feeling that I had done all my duty to her, to get her eyes open, to see what the rules of the house are. My hope was that the latent spark of filial feeling to- wards her afflicted mother might be revived, and she, under its natural promptings, be induced to take her home. But all my efforts to enlighten her, seemed like water spilled upon the ground. She evidently seemed to regard all my talk as the representations of an insane person, whom she considered beneath her notice or attention, except to hold me up to scorn and ridicule. She plainly made light of it! God grant that I may never be left to violate any of my ob- ligations to any human being, so as to give my testimony in favor of relations thus deserting their own kindred in the time of their greatest need. So far as my influence and example go, they shall find this testimony in favor of kindness, the most unremitted, to my afflicted kindred. I will do all that is possible to secure the same to afflicted humanity wherever found. Should even my husband become a raving maniac, I would not consent to his being put into a hospital so long as any kindred of his own could take care of him. A mother's authority, if necessary, should secure for him the personal attentions of his children in his behalf, so far as was necessary to aid my own personal efforts for his comfort and happiness. I would think of the reward which Mr. and Mrs. John Hardy, of Shelburne, Mass., have received for themselves, in taking care of their insane son, eighteen long years, so kindly, 270 MODERN PERSECUTION. invariably, and unremittingly; although they may, on enter- ing upon their reward, exclaim: " We have only done our plain duty to our child.” God, their Judge may reply : “I acknowledge it to be true, and on this ground you have proved your loyalty to my government, by obeying the pa- rental laws of the nature I have given you, and not, like my disloyal subjects, rejected its teachings, and left the unfortu- nate one to stranger hands." I should feel although weariness and painfulness might at- tend the act, yet no selfish considerations should induce me to swerve from, or remit our attentions to his comfort and his wants. This sacred promise I now make, and record, that I and my children, will be true to this pledge-So help us God! CHAPTER XLI. Mrs. Emeline Bridgman-or Nature's Laws Broken. This Mrs. Bridgman has been an inmate of this Asylum for the last ten years; has been one of the most unfortunate vic- tims to the deteriorating, debasing influences of such insti- tutions, upon the true aspiring nature which God has given us. Her nature is a specimen of a superior order of female or- ganization, very tender, sensitive feelings, exquisitely suscep- tible to emotions of a spiritual nature, feeling an insult to her self-respect and native dignity to the most highly sensitive degree, exhibited by a feeling of shame, mortification and self- distrust, which seemed so deeply stamped upon her soul as to render it impossible for her to rise above it. So long has she suffered the shame of being regarded insane, that she has become morbidly sensitive, and it seems now to have become morally impossible to overcome it. She has a superior intellect, conservative in its character, yet fully ca- pable of clearly apprehending new ideas—new views of truth -although instinctively averse to progress or change in her opinions. The Orthodox system of theology, as the conservative divines of the last century taught, is her standard of truth, and all deviations from this standard she is almost tempted to regard as a sacrilegious act. Her will is very persistent, almost inflexible ; her temper forgiving, her spirit trustful; still, fearful and doubtful as to the future. All her hopes lie buried deep in the past. No ray of hope illumes her future in this life, and her hopes for the future rest upon a belief that she was made a subject of regeneration twenty or thirty years since. On her evidences 272 MODERN PERSECUTION. then, that she had experienced a change of heart, she now rests her hope of final safety, believing that when this instantaneous change of heart has been once experienced, there is no possi- bility of a failure in receiving a heavenly inheritance. Her nervous system became deranged from some physical cause at the age of eighteen. She was then sent to the Wor- cester Hospital, Massachusetts, where she remained a short time under the treatment of Dr. Woodward, the Superintend- ent. She soon recovered, and entered upon the practical duties of life with interest and satisfaction. She was happily married, and lived eight years with her husband, when she became a childless widow. Her life has since been like the troubled sea which cannot rest.” Her nerves have become so chronically diseased, that they constantly disturb her mental repose. Her friends, at her own request, let her. enter this Asylum, hoping the result might be as favorable as it formerly had been. But they were disappointed. Instead of receiving the kind, humane, Christian treatment here as she did at Worcester, she was treated most abusively and brutally. Her sensitive feelings thus received such a shock, followed by such a feeling of degradation and shame, that it has become impossible for her to rally and recover her lost self-respect. As one specimen of the manner of treatment to which she was subjected, she told me that in taking her baths, they forced her to disregard, and tried to crush out every refined, virtuous, and elevated feeling of her nature, telling her, in most unmistakable language, that they considered this eradi- cation of modesty as the object and intent of their discipline and treatment. Of course, her God-like nature instinctively revolted at this heaven-defying sacrilege—this crushing of the divinity within her. This, added to the abuse which was inflicted upon her MRS. EMELINE BRIDGMAN. 273 tender, sensitive frame, was too much for her powers of endurance. Her nervous system, her aspiring feelings, her noble nature, could never rally, so long as this abuse continued ; and it has continued for ten long successive years. Rather than to live in this agony, she sought death; not that she made any attempts to commit suicide, but she often begged and prayed that they would kill her outright, rather than by this slow torturing process. No! so long as she exhibited any natural feelings under this torture, she was subjected to the cruel rack. Her sound logic, her entreaties, her prayers, her just and holy resent- ment, each and all, only seemed alike an occasion for inflict- ing some new form of degradation. Mrs. Bridgman was scrupulously neat in her habits; but regardless of this, she was forced into the water tub where several others had bathed, who were peculiarly filthy in their personal habits, so that the water was not only highly colored, but covered over the top with a thick scum of filth. Into this she was plunged, head and ears, to their heart's content, and held under the water! Then, as her flesh was of an uncommonly fine texture, sensitive in the extreme, she was scrubbed with a corn broom, which had been first dipped into a dish of soft soap, to lather her entirely over from head to foot, and then washed off with the thick water already so soapy as to almost con- sume the skin. Here she was rubbed and scrubbed, as if her skin was a rhinoceros's, and then locked into her room, where the cold was so intense that her hair was often frozen to her pillow. I inquired why she did not report the attendant's conduct to the Superintendent. She said she did try to, but he would not credit her state- ments, since the attendants contradicted them, assuring him 12* 274 MODERN PERSECUTION. that they had not abused her. He regarded her truthful representations as the hallucinations of a diseased mind, and the attendants' conduct was tacitly approved, as judicious and correct. Thus she found that all she had accomplished by reporting them truthfully, was to elicit an approval of their practice from the Superintendent, and a secret grudge against herself, which she would be sure to know of in her future aggravated. and increased sorrows. And now, since she has been made to become a mere wreck of her former self, as to her personal habits, and her refined manners and fashionable appearance, having become neces- sarily almost indifferent to the opinion of others, as a result of her loss of self-esteem, her earthly prospects seem to be entirely blighted, even in the meridian of life, and all the natural result of the rule of this wicked Institution. That she did not become a maniac long ago, is one of the mysteries of God's providence. Since I have known her she has not been insane. She has been one of my most esteemed associates—as an intelligent and capable woman-as com- petent to attend to the practical duties of life as ever, could she only be induced to make the effort. But all her ambition and self-esteem being prostrated by the abuse she has experienced, her case seems almost hopeless- her usefulness for this world destroyed, except so far as her case may be employed as a warning-a living memorial of the barbarous influences of the present Insane Asylum system. If it had not been for these institutions, she might have been, ere this, a useful and happy woman; and had she been cherished and cared for by her kindred, as their true hearts then prompted, instead of being consigned to the care of strangers, she might have recovered her health and spirits, and long have been a blessing to them and to the world. But alas! this willing victim has been offered a living MRS. EMELINE BRIDGMAN. 275 sacrifice to the Lunatic Asylum ! and under the specious pretence that her good might be secured ! Several of her friends have died since she has been here, but she was not allowed to know anything of the event, until she chanced to see the notice of their death in the papers! Oh, can this entombing of kindred while alive, be for their or our own good? Is it for our own good to cut off our afflicted friends, and so desert them, as to root out all traces of sympathy in them, or interest in their welfare? Is it for their good to put them where the affectionate yearnings of their fond hearts have no object to cling to, and no means allowed through which to exercise their emotions? Can a natural development of the faculties be secured by this most unnatural process ? No, no; those who have survived this machinery are the exceptions; those who are injured the almost universal rule. Mrs. Bridgman never was a fit subject for the asylum, since she never was an insane person. She is diseased in her nervous system, and instead of being treated as a criminal, she needs unusual forbearance and kindness, to inspire her with self-con- fidence and thus draw out her self-reliant feelings and efforts. All depressing, debasing influences are death-like in their influence over her already weakened powers of resistance. The only irregularity of conduct indicating a dethronement of reason, was a propensity to pick her clothes to pieces. This appearance of restless uneasiness, would seek vent from the ends of her fingers by nervous twitches upon something tangible, which effort seemed to be an almost instinctive act of self-defence from the overflowings of her pent-up mental agonies. I could not blame her any more than I could blame a drown- ing man for catching at a straw as a reliance of self-defence. Although the drowning man's act is in itself an unreason- able act of self-dependence, yet we do not call it an insane act 276 MODERN PERSECUTION. under his surrounding. So, although in reality, Mrs. Bride- man's acts of self-relief are not reasonable in themselves, yet under the anguish of her mental throes, she should be excused as innocent of an act really insane. If her sufferings cannot be assuaged by judicious kind care, she should be allowed great latitude in seeking any way of relief her instincts might prompt. She has been most wantonly and thoughtlessly punished, being innocent, so that she is almost raving, under this insult and abuse of her moral nature added to her physical sufferings. I have heard her entreat Dr. McFarland to let her out of this place ! his utter indifference to her cries only confirmed her in feeling that this is a place of hopeless torment, from which she can never escape. Nor can it be right under any circumstances, to keep a human being in such a state of involuntary suffering, or to add to this suffering state personal imprisonment. She has been allowed to visit her friends several times, within ten years, and remains with them a few weeks or months, but the memory of the asylum so haunts her, that its fear and dread are inseparable from her existence. This Institution should place an inseparable barrier to her entering, it again; her friends ought to adopt her anew into the affections of their hearts, and make her feel sure that they will never again forsake, but cherish and love her as they would wish to be, in exchange of circumstances. But from Dr. Tenny's account I fear they cherish no such intention, but like other alienated perverted kindred, will feel justified in placing her here again; thus ridding themselves of a burden upon their care and attention. Rid of a burden! What can be more humiliating to a proud, noble nature. than to feel that they are looked upon as burdens by their friends such as they are willing to resign knowingly into a state of hopeless, unmitigated sorrow. MRS. EMELINE BRIDGMAN. 277 Is there any spot in this great universe where human anguish is equal to what is experienced in Lunatic Asylums! Are we not experiencing the sum of human wretchedness? Can a woman's sufferings be greater than are Mrs. Bridg- man's ? To me she is the very personification of anguish. Oh, my heart has so ached for her that I sometimes feel that I would be willing to lay down my natural life to relieve her. I did try to comfort her by imparting genuine sympathy in deeds of kindness, and she would sometimes say that she found some comfort in my room, but none anywhere else. I have often assured her that if ever I got a home where I could do as I pleased, I would like to adopt her into it most cheerfully as my sister, and she should find in me an unfailing friend. I have studied into the cause of her disease of the nervous system, and so far as I can judge, it was caused by her disre- garding the laws of her nature, as a woman, in working extra hard at the time she was unwell. She said she suffered so much pain at such times, that she sought relief by hard work, and this exertion being unnatural, only increased the evil she designed to remedy. Her temporary relief was purchased at the price of future sufferings. A chronic disease was the result, which' has since manifested itself in untold mental agonies. If women would have resolution enough to be quiet at such times as nature and reason both dictate, they would be relieved of a vast amount of suffering, which is inseparably connected with thus trifling with this law of our nature. It is said that the Indian women who are so peculiarly ex- empt from female diseases, invariably rest one or two days at such times, and these are the only times that they lie in bed, by sickness-in consequence of which they are almost as hardy as the men. To them, the curse of the fall seems almost an- nihilated. 278 MODERN PERSECUTION. If civilized women would only learn this lesson from their uncivilized sisters, they might hope to enjoy the same immu- nity from suffering. Since I feel conscientiously bound to regard all the laws of my being as God's laws, and now recognizing this law in that light, I cannot feel exempt from its obligation. Eighteen years of obedience to this law has demonstrated the fact in my case, that civilized woman can, by so doing, be as exempt from suffering as their uncivilized sisters. Oh! that civilized women would dare to be as healthy as Indian women are, by daring to be as natural in obeying this law of woman's nature; then might we hope for progress, based on the plane of sound and vigorous constitutions in their offspring CHAPTER XLII. Sick Patients Driven off from their Beds. Mrs. Watts was most peremptorily ordered off her bed whue sick, by Miss Smith, and this distressed woman was compelled to stand leaning against her bed all day, suffering severe pain. She had no chair or seat of any kind in her room, and was not allowed to sit upon her bed, so she must stand all day or lie upon the cold uncarpeted floor, so that her bed need not be tumbled, lest company might pass through and thus prevent a good display of the house! After listening to the quarrel from my room, I went to com- fort her, and found her as I have described. I expressed my tenderest sympathy, telling her that if it was in my power I would do anything in the world to relieve her, but that I was just as helpless as herself. I kissed and left her, saying: “I will do all I can for you.” I then took Miss Bailey, the other attendant, into my room and with tears in my eyes, I plead her case and appealed to her compassion to take her part, and let her lie upon her bed, saying: “It is your right to act independently when you see the patients are wronged.” She assented to all I said, but did nothing. I then went to Mrs. Watts, and offered her my bed, assuring her I would protect her while there. She positively declined doing this, saying: “I guess I can bear it as the rest have to.”. I left her leaning against her bed, hoping some one would come in to whom I could appeal for her. But no one came. 280 MODERN PERSECUTION. After dinner I found her sitting upon the cold floor. I then brought her my chair, and insisted that she should use it. This she was willing and glad to do. At night I took it back and told Miss Smith what I had done. She seemed impressed with a feeling of guilt and apologized for having done so, and gave me encouragement to hope she would not repeat the offense. The next day I made a most earnest appeal to Dr. Tenny in behalf of the sick in our ward, to which he responded by saying: "I do think they ought to be allowed to lie upon their beds when sick.” 16 Then do use your influence at headquarters, for we cannot get a chance to tell our grievances to the Superintendent; he will no more listen to a patient's complaint, than he would defend them from abuse !” Miss Elizabeth Bonner, an Irish attendant in the lowest ward, thus caught one of her patients, Miss Mary Hodson, and ordered her most peremptorily to get off from her bed. Her tone and manner, in connection with the injustice of the act, very naturally aroused the indignant feeling of the insulted invalid, and she ventured a word in self-defence. This is enough! She, Elizabeth Bonner, is not going to bear insulting language from her patients ! She seizes her roughly and drags her from her high bed upon the floor, with extreme violence. The patient thus aroused to a higher pitch of indignation, now tries to defend herself with the same kind of force she is called upon to resist. A fight ensues. But alas! for the unfortunate victim! The laws of the house allow Miss Bonner to summon any one in the house to her assistance; while the abused one is allowed no help, and if the patients volunteer their aid as their sympathies sometimes compel them to do, they are sure to find it to their own sorrow afterwards. SICK PATIENTS. 281 Mr. and Mrs. Coe, the cooks, being near, were called in at this juncture, where, according to their testimony given under oath to the Investigating Committee, they found Miss Bonner -a large heavy woman-resting her whole weight upon the body of this small, delicate invalid, with her knees upon her stomach, and thus confined she was using the patient's head as a hammer, and her hair as a handle, and thus pounding the floor with it with the greatest violence. They exclaimed as they entered and saw this spectacle : 6 Why, Lizzy, what are you doing? Are you killing her ? “I am seeking satisfaction and I will have it ! I will not be abused by a patient! You help me jacket her so I can have satisfaction upon her!” They suggested, “ Why not put her into a screen-room, where she can hurt no one and get quiet?” “I will have satisfaction upon her! for she has got the devil in her and I mean to beat it out of her.” She then persisted in putting on the straight-jacket as well as she could, and then tied both her arms behind her back, and dragged her across the hall to the bars, where she tied each hand to the bars firmly, and tied each of her feet to the bars in the same manner, and she tied her knees together also. And thus having entirely disarmed her, she seized hold of the hair of her head again and commenced beating the back of her head against the sharp corners of the bars—each blow inflicting a deep gash into her head-so that every blow was followed with blood splashing in every direction, besmearing the floor and walls, our clothes, and a pie I had in my hand, with human gore. We again cxclaimed: “Lizzy, arc you actually going to kill her ?” “No, but I will have satisfaction upon her and teach her that I will not take abuse from a patient.” " Another time,” Mrs. Coe adds, “ happening in her ward 282 MODERN PERSECUTION. at a call of duty, I saw her seize Mrs. O'Brien--an apparently dying woman who was lying upon a hard settee, confined with a tight jacket about her, which Lizzy said was necessary to keep the clothes over her! But to all appearance she had not strength enough to put them off. The food and froth were running from her mouth and a deadly look was upon her features. She took hold of one of her arms and dragged her with violence from the settee upon the floor and dragged her across the hall to the bath-room, where with the help of her assistant, she held her face under the streaming faucet by jerking her neck back by the hair of her head! In answer to my inquiry : “What are you doing, Lizzy, with that dying woman?” she replied : “I am washing her neck and face!” “Wouldn't it be better to take off her clothes and put her into a bath-tub and give her a nice, warm bath, and then put her into a nice, clean bed?” “ You had better be attending to your own business in the kitchen, getting us something fit to eat, and not be here dic- tating to me—if you don't stop this business, I'll report you to Mrs. McFarland.” “ Mrs. McFarland has no right to prevent my coming here at the call of duty.” Mrs. O'Brien died a few days after. She said also, “I know of another case where she dislocated the arm of a patient by her treatment and she died a few days after.” She said Dr. McFarland told her not to let it be known at all abroad that she had dislocated the arm, and this was all the reproof he gave her. Miss Bonner has made her boast that Dr. McFarland once caught her abusing a patient, and he just gave her a smile of approbation and then left her to torture her poor helpless vic- SICK PATIENTS. 283 tim to the full extent her angry passions prompted her to do. Oh! if there is any place on earth where the afflicted have no comforter, it is in our insane asylums.“ Verily on the side of their oppressors there is power, but they have no com- forter,”—no protection. For there is no link to connect the inmates of insane asylums with the laws of the country. So long therefore as this link is wanting, so long is every inmate of our insane asylums liable and exposed to receive the treatment inflicted upon Miss Hodson. Often have I heard the threat expressed : “I shall prosecute you for this." And as often heard the retort: Insane people have no rights that the law respects. You prosecute! What is your testimony worth as a witness, in law ? Nothing ! You can't scare us by your threats—no law reaches you—you are wholly at the mercy of your keepers ! We are amenable to no law except the will of the, autocrat who reigns supreme within these prison walls ! ” CHAPTER XLIII. Interview with Mr. Wells, of Chicago-A Victim of Homesickness. At one of our dancing parties, I had the satisfaction of meeting Mr. Wells, of Chicago, whom I found upon acquaint- ance, to be a man of pleasing address, of fine talents, and possessing a great share of learning and intelligence. While others were engaged in dancing, we would oftentimes be con- versing on subjects of common interest respecting the man- agement of the asylum. There seemed to be a perfect coincidence in our views in relation to this subject, and we secretly agreed upon a plan of exposing it when we got out. But he became a victim of homesickness to the highest degree which caused his death. This long pent up indignation would sometimes vent itself in vehement language. For example, one night at our dance, I inquired if he had heard from his friends. He replied in a most vehement and impressive manner: “ Friends! I have no friends! I will never have a friend again! They have been the curse of my life! Curse on all the friends I ever had !” I can respond to this sentiment, as can almost all others who have been put in here by their friends. It is indeed now true, that “A man's foes are they of his own household.” And if any doubt it, I think if they were at once put in here by their friends they would then be compelled to believe it. Miss Hall, a very smart young lady who had been here for a few weeks, said: If my friends can put me into such a place as this, they can MR. WELLS' HOMESICKNESS. 285 not care anything for me; I am knocked about as if I were nothing but a dog. I am Miss Smith's mere slave or brute. It is enough to drive one's senses and intellect all away from us, to be treated as we are. Those who have established such Institutions must be criminals! What can they mean, to let that saucy, mean girl drive us about so? And there is no escape, no appeal from her impudence!' And, Mr. Wells, have you not ascertained that this is one of the most prominent features of the treatment' we are sent here to receive? They must make us feel that we are utterly deserted, with no sort of appeal, to inspire in us a reverence for the despotic will which rules supreme here.” “Despotic will! There never lived a greater despot, than now lives in that man,” pointing to Dr. McFarland, who was now approaching us. “But we must separate—the Doctor must not see us together.” Saying this, he arose and walked to another part of the hall. After the Doctor left the hall, we resumed our conversation. “Mr. Wells, have you suffered from Dr. McFarland's tyranny, personally ?” “Indeed I have; I could now show the deep ridges upon my limbs here,” placing his hands upon his lower limbs, just above his knees, “ marks of the rope with which I have been bound to the bed-rack in the lowest ward!” 6 What! you bound with ropes! what did they bind you for?” “Because I insisted upon having my little poodle dog in my room for my amusement, and his safety. I had just paid three dollars for it, intending to carry it as a present to my little son at Chicago. But being denied this solace, I contrived to evade the command to take it from me; and finding it in the coal- bin, when I was out one day, I managed to get it back, un- noticed, to my room. But alas ! this happiness soon terminated; for orders soon 286 MODERN PERSECUTION. came from headquarters, that Mr. Wells be put into the lowest ward, and confined to the bed-rack, as his penalty for this act of disobedience. I made every appeal possible to Dr. McFar- land to induce him to mitigate my sentence; but all in vain. I said, 'Doctor, you are a father, can you not sympathize with me in my desire to receive a welcome from my darling boy, and in return bestow upon him a gift which I know will delight him?' He made no reply, whatever, but turned away as if he heard not a word I said !” 6. That is just as he has treated me, although physical abuse I have not suffered ; yet, what is worse, I feel his iron grip upon my every inalienable right—all, all are at his bidding, subject wholly to his will alone. Mr. Wells, this is a State Institution; can you tell me how such a despotism could have taken root on Illinois soil ?” “Mrs. Packard, the people of Illinois know nothing about this Institution, except through the Doctor's one-sided reports. He, himself, has run the Institution into a despotism, and now it is hard to convince a blinded public of it, as he has made them feel that he is almost infallible. He is of Scotch descent, and he has stamped the monarchical feeling of his nature upon this nominally republican Institution. “But can it not be known? Can't we tell of it, when we get out?" “Yes, Mrs. Packard, I am determined upon that. I com- mand a printing press at Chicago, and I will print all you will write, and will write myself; and this shall be the first great work I shall do, after I get out of this place. I am determined in this matter. But don't let the Doctor know of this fact, for he never will let us out alive if we do.” 6 But I have already told him of my determination, and that is what he is keeping me for.” “Oh, Mrs. Packard, you will never get out then! But I will tell of your case when I get out, and help you, if I can.” MR. WELLS' HOME SICKNESS. 287 Here the party broke up, and taking his offered arm, he escor- ted me to the door of my room, where we parted forever, with these words; while bending over me, he whispered in my ear: “Mrs. Packard, my press shall be used for your benefit; but, Keep dark! Keep dark !” In one week from this time Mr. Wells was a corpse. His desire to see or hear from his wife and children in Chicago, reached such a pitch of intensity, that nature could bear no more. His large, capacious brain became convulsed under the mental agony of too long suspense—of hope of hear- ing from his wife too long deferred—and these fits continued, with but few short lucid intervals, until he died. The day he died, Mary, the Doctor's youngest daughter, came to my room, and remarked, with tears in her eyes : “It is too bad! it is too bad ! Father ought to have sent Mr. Wells' letter.” “What do you mean, Mary?” “ About one week ago Mr. Wells gave father a letter, to be mailed to his wife. In this letter he wrote how terribly home- sick he was—how he could not stand it much longer without hearing from her—that if she disappointed him this time, it would kill him. He knew it would kill him. The hope of getting a reply to this letter would keep him up until there had been time to get a reply, and then 'if I don't get one 1 shall die. Ioan't bear another disappointment and live through it.' He then asked his wife's forgiveness for all the hard things he had spoken or written about her putting him into such a place, saying, as his only excuse, 'You cannot imagine how much I am suffering. But I can, and will, forgive all, if you will now take me out, or even write and tell me you will do so. But if you do not promptly respond to this letter, in some way, farewell forever! It will be my last ! I shall die of anguish !'” “Now,” she added, “ Mr. Wells is dead, and father has that letter yet!” 288 MODERN PERSECUTION. The very day he expected a reply, and received none, he went into convulsions, which continued until he died. As Mr. Wells was so well known in Chicago, I will here add Mrs. Olsen's notice of him, as found in her “ Prison Life." Mrs. Olsen was for one year an associate with me in my Asylum life and experience. For a few months we were allow- ed to occupy the same ward and eat at the same table. The companionship and sympathy of this devoted and most intelligent Christian sister in bonds, was the brightest oasis of my prison life. Since our liberation she has written a most thrilling story of her Asylum life, which I have published, and several thou- sand copies of which are now in circulation. From this book I make the following and also several subsequent extracts: 66 One evening a ball was held in another hall to which I was invited, I observed a very dignified and intelligent looking gentleman, by whose appearance I inferred him to be one of the attendants. On being introduced to this gentleman I remarked: " I presume, Sir, you are one of the attendants ?' 66°No, I am not an attendant,' he replied with emphasis. 66. But you are not a patient here? Surely you are not deprived of your liberty ?? "They call me a patient, but I do not call myself one, as nothing is done for my health.' “ This was the late Mr. Wells, of Chicago, formerly editor and proprietor of a popular commercial paper in that city. He proceeded to speak very freely to me, while the rest were dancing 6He said he had been ill treated by a landlord, and that his indignation on the occasion had been construed into insanity, and that his wife being frightened, was influenced by others to take him to the “ Asylum” where he had remained in a con- dition of great physical discomfort, and mental suffering. MR. WELLS' HOMESICKNESS. 289 6 I asked him if he was not well treated by Dr. McFarland. “ He answered unhesitatingly in the negative, affirming that he was uniformly cold and frigid in his deportment to him. “I endeavored to console him as well as I could, referring him to those general principles of justice, which I believed would ultimately be carried out, and work emancipation to all the suffering. I said nothing disrespectful of Dr. McFar- land, as I did not wish to confirm the views of Mr. Wells, or add to his unpleasant feelings in that direction ; but said briefly all I could suggest in favor of the Doctor, reminding Mr. Wells how difficult it must be to do justice to every one, in a position involving such weighty responsibilities. “I cannot forget the look he gave me, as he turned away in apparent disgust. << If you are the apologist of McFarland and his iniquities, I don't covet your acquaintance,' he exclaimed with much emphasis. “I apologized for having inadvertently wounded his feel- ings, and quietly withdrew to another part of the hall. "In the course of the evening, we met again. Feeling reluct- ant that he should have an erroneous impression respecting my conversation, I made some bland remark about the festivity of the evening. Quite reinstated in his good humor, he replied very politely, and again we entered into conversation. “I asked him if he did not dance on these occasions. 6“I have danced sometimes, but I shall never dance in these halls again. I cannot dance-I am thinking of my lonely young wife—my little babes, thus deprived of a father's pro- tection, I am all but dying to see them.' “He spoke of his wife with the deepest tenderness; said she was ever true and forever kind to him; he did not at all blame her for his imprisonment, but severely blamed those who had been her advisers. “No,'he repeated, as he cast a rueful look again upon the 13 290 MODERN PERSECUTION. dancers, no, no; I shall never dance in these halls any more.' 6 Soon the ball was ended, I bade him good evening, and we parted. “One week later another ball was held in the same hall, to which again a few of the patients, myself included, were invited. I looked around for my friend, but looked in vain. “Upon inquiring, I was informed that Mr. Wells was very sick. His prediction proved true; he had indeed danced his last. Grief and suffering had brought on a disease, which could not be cured, at least by the cold ministrations of care- less hirelings. “ They were dancing—He was dying !” CHAPTER XLIV. An Asylum Sabbath. It was my good fortune to find the Sabbath-day here ob- served or kept in what I call a Christian manner. It was observed as a day of rest, as God's command requires. There were more tumbled beds, this day, than any other. The rule of other days, “Keep them off their beds," was in a measure suspended on this day for rest. It was very seldom that company entered the wards on this day, therefore this suspension of the rules for “ display," was no detriment to the reputation of the house. I felt that, for myself, I could better meet the demands of my conscience under the influence of this house, than I ever could outside its walls. Having all my life been connected with a minister's family, I found, of course, little time for the rest the command enjoined upon me. Besides attending to the necessary labor incident to eating and sleeping, as on other days, I was obliged not only to dress myself, but my children also, for church and Sunday school, and attend two or three public services, besides the Sunday school and teachers' meeting, perhaps, in addition ; so that when my resting hour arrived, I would usually feel more the need of rest from weariness, than any other day of the week. Now, since I have allowed my common-sense a little lati- tude in this direction, I am convinced I was then in reality breaking the Sabbath, by pursuing this course. Instead of being rested as I ought to have been, in mind and body, by the Sabbath, I so used it as to unfit myself for the renewal of weekly toil with fresh vigor. 292 MODERN PERSECUTION. I now understand that God rested from his labor on the Sabbath, and so should we. He has so constituted us, that more than six days of con- tinued, unbroken labor, without extra rest, is a detriment to our mental and physical faculties. To go to meeting too much, may be breaking the spirit of the command, as well as working too much. It is rest that we need, and it is rest we should feel bound to take on this day, as an act of obedience to a law of our nature. We should so spend the day as to find ourselves refreshed and invigorated for the active duties of our calling; otherwise we break the Sabbath. CHAPTER XLV. An Attendant put under My Charge. Miss Adelaide Tryon, a young school girl of eighteen years, was introduced into our ward, to take Miss Smith's place. To all appearances, she is a girl of weak mind, and small abilities; but time alone will test her, and develop whether she is fitted for the place or not. My first impressions of her are not good, still I intend to suspend judgment till a fair trial. My mind may be a little prejudiced, from my first interview. I went into the dining-room, after breakfast as usual, to get my ice, when I met her at her duties. Since the ice had not come up, I waited a few minutes and entered into conversation with her. She answered me rather short and abruptly, evidently try- ing to impress the idea upon my mind, that she regarded me as beneath her notice, except as her under-servant. She or- dered me to hand her the knives and forks, for her to put around the table, which I did; after which she ordered me out of the dining-room. I silently obeyed, and returned to my room to ponder over the peculiar trials to which an imprisonment among maniacs rendered our moral nature liable. While upon my knees praying for grace and patience to bear them with a Christian spirit, my devotions were suspended by the entrance of Miss Hall. She came with a full heart of grief and sorrow to pour out her complaints to me. She fin- ished by saying: “Mrs. Packard, I had rather be taken out and shot than be looked upon as an insane person, and treated as we are.”. 294 MODERN PERSECUTION. " So had I, and so would hundreds of others here, could they have their choice." Here God had sent me a remedy for my own sorrows; I must bear her burdens, to lighten my own. Like many others here, Miss Hall is suffering for the sins of her friends towards her, and now in addition, she has to bear the sins of Dr. Mc- Farland's injustice by suffering his attendants to torment her. After she left, Miss Tryon came to my room and attempted to bolt in, very unceremoniously. I arose and opened the door and introduced her in, when she, in a very abrupt man- ner, said : “I came in to see what you were doing ; what have you in your hand ? Are you fond of reading ?” · After answering her civilly, I tried to converse with her in an intelligent lady-like manner; to which she seemed heed- lessly indifferent, evidently seeming to regard what I said, as idle talk, beneath her notice. Here, this little school-girl feels at liberty to lord it over me as much as she chooses, regarding me and my society with contempt! Mean as she seems, I wish to do her good as a sister. But in order to do so, I think I must tell her that I am not her servant—that she is my servant, that I am a boarder here, and she a hired servant to wait upon the boarders. If she at- tempts to rule over me, I shall regard it as an insult, such as I shall feel morally bound to resent. But by forbearance and patience, she may be led to see her faults for herself, and avoid them in future. I have told her that I was the means of getting her here, for it was through my influence that Miss Smith was dis- charged, since I reported her to the Doctor for her abuse of the patients. She said, “ You won't report me, will you ?” 66 I don't expect to have occasion to do so, for I trust you will be kind to them.” MY CHARGE OF AN ATTENDANT. 295 It is due Miss Tryon to add that she became a reasonable and kind attendant; and so far as her subsequent treatment of me was concerned, I had no occasion to complain of her, and as Providence appointed, I was delegated by her father to be her guardian! This was a new thing in Asylum life, to have an attendant put under the care of a patient! The facts are these: Miss Tryon one day brought her father to my room, and after introducing us, as I responded to her lady-like knock, by opening the door, she left us, and I asked him into my room, when we soon found ourselves engaged in earnest and intelli- gent conversation. As he took his leave, he remarked: “Mrs. Packard, I see you are a sensible woman; now, may I not be allowed to place my daughter under your charge, since she is young and inexperienced, and needs the guardian- ship of some one like yourself?” “ Certainly, Mr. Tryon, I not only thank you for the com- pliment, but I should be happy to accept the charge, and will promise you to be to her a true friend.” Apparently pleased and satisfied with my answer, he took a respectful leave, and joined his daughter in her room, where he asked her about me, who I was, etc. To her reply that I was a patient, he expressed his astonish- ment by exclaiming: “Why, she is the most intelligent lady I ever saw! There is not the least particle of insanity about her! There must be some mistake about that.” “I think so too, for she has been just as she is now, during the three weeks I have been here, and all in the house say she has been just the same, ever since she has been here.” “There must be some mistake—there is foul play somewhere -I shall speak to Dr. McFarland about this." And he did speak; and the result was: Miss Tryon re- ceived express orders from Dr. McFarland never to let her father into the ward again! CHAPTER XLVI. A Scene in the Fifth Ward. One afternoon, Miss Tryon came to me in quite an exhausted condition, exclaiming : “I am actually weak and faint from witnessing a scene of abuse in the lowest ward. Bridget Welch, Elizabeth Bonner's assistant, has been treating one of her patients most barba- rously. I never saw a human being so basely abused. Bridget, in her passion, seemed more like a fiend than a woman. If Dr. McFarland could have seen and known how she treated her patient, and approved of it, he must be a very different man from what I had supposed.” “The Doctor does know and approve of things most horri- ble here. I could prove that Elizabeth Bonner had said the Doctor once caught her, in one of her passions, abusing her defenceless victim, and gave her a smile of approbation, leav- ing her to expend her fury to her heart's content.” She replied, that Bridget had told her that she and Elizabeth were fighting Miss Rollins, and the Doctor caught them at it, and simply passed on, exclaiming as he passed : 666 That is right—Give it to her, unless she will give up."" But, “it don't sound like Dr. McFarland.” “No, it don't sound like him in his ostensible character, but I fear it is like him in his real character; he is a very deceit- ful man. He looks well after his ostensible character, and plans very adroitly, to delude, deceive, and pervert the truth, so as to shield himself publicly from the imputation of inhu- manity. When he finds he has gone too far in encouraging abuse, and is in danger of exposure, he is careful to give the tide of feeling a new turn, by discharging the attendant for abuse, and thus reserve to himself the credit of being humane to his patients. SCENE IN THE FIFTH WARD. 297 Thus he puts upon our merciful sex, the credit of the in- humanity of his acts, and claims to himself the humanity. In reality, he instigates them to do what their nature revolts at, but what they feel compelled to do, to retain his approval; then he will add abuse to abuse by discharging them for doing as he wished them to do!” She said Bridget Connelly had refused to leave the dining- room at the request of Bridget Welch, the attendant. Instead of dealing. gently with her, to induce her to go, they used authority over her, which did not increase her readiness to obey. Then commenced a terrible scene of battle; the attendant seized Bridget by the hair, when Miss Tryon came to the res- cue. She endeavored to pacify both parties, by trying to induce Bridget Connelly to leave the hall. But her endeavors were not successful in making peace. By the help of another attendant, they undertook to secure the obedience of Bridget by brute force. Thus they succeeded in what they called “ subduing her.” "Having done this, and even after the patient had yielded, they inflicted upon her a terrible beating. Then throwing her upon the floor, they kicked, pounded, and stamped upon her with both feet. They repeatedly knocked her head upon the floor with great violence, pulled up her head by the hair, pounding it with vehemence. It seemed as if this process must have beaten all the sense out of her, which was, indeed, the case. She became almost insensible before they finished. Exhausted and overcome with suffering, her strength now entirely failed. In this condition they dragged her, as if she were a dead car- cass, from the dining-room, across the long hall, then locked her up, and left her alone to her fate. Indeed she seemed nearly dead." I said to Miss Tryon, “ The Doctor ought to know it." “I do not like to tell him, being a stranger here; and I may 13* 298 MODERN PERSECUTION. get the ill will of the attendants. Dr. McFarland often in- structs us to observe the By-laws, which say we must take the attendants' part, when called upon to do so, and I did not con- tinue to do it when I found how she was misusing her.” I felt that I could appreciate her feelings, and could not urge her to tell the Doctor; but I felt that a responsibility rested now upon me, and retired to my room to seek wisdom to know and do my duty with reference to it. While thus employed, Miss Tryon came to my door, and asked me to promise her that I would say nothing to the Doc- tor about it. I told her I would not make such a promise ; that I had the demands of my own conscience to meet, and I should do what seemed my duty. I added, however : “You have nothing to fear, Miss Tryon, from what I do; it will not harm you, for you are deserving great praise for what you have done. The stand you have taken, has shown you to be true to your nature—to the dictates of humanity—such a position cannot harm you. It will exalt you more than any course you can pursue. Don't fear to do right—to be true to your kma instinct-for this is the only true road to prefer- ment.” I again asked for light to know my duty, and concluded to report to the Doctor myself. I accordingly did so, when Dr. Tenny came to my room. I have found by observation, that Dr. Tenny possesses a heart. He has not permitted the generous, tender sympathies of his heart to ossify as Dr. McFarland has done, by turning a deaf ear to the claims upon his sympathy, which his suffering patients demanded of him. We can go to Dr. Tenny, feeling that his ear is not deaf to the dictates of reason and humanity. We find he has a heart to pity, and feel that he will do what in reason, he can for us. The prompt, vigorous response he made to my appeal, shows SCENE IN THE FIFTH WARD. 299 him to be still alive, and not “dead in trespasses and sins.” After patiently listening, and giving me opportunity to un- burden my heart to him, by telling the particulars of the case, as Miss Tryon related them to me, he sought the Doctor's office with a quick step, and there related the affair as I had told him, accompanying it with such enthusiasm and indigna- tion, that it seemed to arouse the intellect of Dr. McFarland. He saw that unless he did something, others would. He accordingly summoned Bridget and Miss Tryon to his presence, and the latter was called on to relate the story her- self. She did so, and Bridget did not deny it. The Doctor then summoned Bridget to his office, and gave her a discharge. CHAPTER XLVII. Mrs. Olsen's Fifth Ward Experiences. As the reader is now introduced into the Fifth ward, I will here add a chapter from Mrs. Olsen's experience there. She was consigned to this ward because she ventured to expostulate with Mrs. McFarland upon her refusing to grant her request for permission to write to her friends, instead of accepting the denial with unanswering submission. 66 If the inhabitants of the Twentieth century should ever have the real condition of this terrible prison described as it now exists, and be informed of the purposes to which it is ap- plied, they will regard this prison with the same feeling as we now do the Spanish Inquisition and its abettors and apologists. As, under the guidance of the ill-fated Dr. Tenny, I descend- ed the three long flights of stairs leading to this charnel house of human woe, I felt a dizzy heart-sickness which almost de- prived me of the power of articulation. Was it a prescience of those " coming events," which “ cast their shadows before," that affected me thus ?” I could not tell, but was only conscious of a faintness and weakness which nearly deprived me of the power of locomo- tion. I asked Dr. Tenny to give me a formal introduction to the attendant, having never seen her. He complied, and though her countenance had an expression of stern repulsiveness, I determined, if there was any goodness in her, to find it out. I would, by the patience and assiduous kindness of my own de- portment, awaken and develop all of goodness and humanity that might possibly be found smouldering beneath the icy sur- face of her heart. Perceiving that she was Irish, I remarked: “Oh, you are an Irish lady; I love the Irish dearly; many MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 301 of them have shown me much kindness. I know your people are kind-hearted. Well, you may be sure that I shall give you no trouble. I always obey the rules, and try to help my attendants; indeed, Miss Bonner, I think you must have much work to do here, with so many to take care of, and perhaps I may be able to assist you some in your labor.” I thus attempted to conciliate, and enlist her kind feelings. But slander and hatred had taken fearfully the start of me. She replied, as I had said I should give her no trouble: “Indeed yee'd better not make me any trouble, it won't be well fur ye if ye do.” I confess I was taken back a few miles!” She continued, “yee's no better'n the rest on em; yee'r all jist alike here, un ye needn't ixpict iny better treatment un the rest on um git. Now ye jist set down (pointing to a hard stationary bench) un mind yer business. Yer the wust un, the crazyest on em all in the hull Institution; yees a nuisance.” After this most amiable delivery, she stopped to take breath, and fearing she might again start on a fresh “heat," I imme- diately obeyed her, by sitting down in silence on the bench she had assigned me. I began to doubt my power over the insane. Here indeed I saw the insane without mistake, but I then thought, and never afterwards changed my opinion, that Lizzy Bonner was more insane than any one in her care! I did not fear them, with all their fury; but I confess I did fear her, with her much wilder fury! I had always some expedient by which I could easily disarm her very wildest maniacs, but I never could disarm or tame their far more ferocious keeper! Beside me, sitting, or rather crouching on the same bench, were a few silent and very filthy women, with their one gar- ment indecently torn, and a puddle of unfragrant water on the floor under their feet. 302 MODERN PERSECUTION. Some, in more remote parts of the hall, were screaming fear- fully, at which I did not wonder. If I had been a screamer, or at all nervous, I should doubtless have swelled the concert, so full was this pandemonium of every imaginable horror! The faces of many were frightfully blackened by blows, re- ceived partly from each other in their internecine conflicts, but mostly, I subsequently discovered, by their attendants ! One very fat old woman who could not speak English, was sitting on the floor with a perfectly idiotic expression upon her face. One pale girl sat weeping bitterly, and shivering upon a bench with very thin clothing. Several were silent and appeared to take no notice of anything. These were melancholics in nearly the last stages of despair. One, in quite the last stage as I inferred, was tied to her hard bench with her arms and chest tightly confined by a straight-jacket, and attempting to commit suicide by fiercely beating her head back against the wall. The sight of this poor young female, in her frantic attempts to rush from an obvious hell into the untried scenes of an undiscovered future, was too appalling for me to gaze upon. I turned away my eyes with a sick horror, but still heard her pounding her bruised head. No one here was working, for all capable of being made to work, were at this time engaged in some of the numerous toil- ing departments of the establishment. Some were lying on the floor, exhibiting the most indescribably indecent appearances. The windows were all open; I was shivering with cold, being at this time in the incipient stages of fever and ague. This disease was probably acquired by inhaling the mephi- tic exhalations of the Eighth ward. I drew my woolen shawl closely about my person, covering my head and eyes from these terrific sights and sounds, and sat in dumb amazement. “Is this," I silently ejaculated, “ the destiny to which I am doomed for an indefinite period ?” MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 303 Oh, the insufferable anguish of those moments of horror! Language cannot portray it; it is utterly powerless. Every faculty of mind was intensified to the utmost, in those few moments of dumb tearless agony. It seemed as if my palsied heart must cease its beating. But these contemplations were soon interrupted by the coarse voice of Bonner, screaming loudly from the opposite end of the long hall. She was obliged to scream very loud, in order to be heard above the rest of the screamers. “Miss Coalspit, come here!” Not supposing myself addressed, I did not move from my seat; she repeated: 66 Miss Coalspit, I tell ye come here!" Still I moved not, and began to wonder that neither did any one else, in obedience to this imperative mandate. Ob- serving me still motionless, she yelled out yet more furiously: 66 You woman that's a sittin there with yer shawl all over yer head, I tell ye come here this minute!” This last was a “ trumpet" with no 66 uncertain sound!” I rose immediately, walked down the hall to where she was standing, and said in a low voice : “Excuse me, Miss Bonner, I did not know you addressed me, as my name is not Miss Coalspit, but Mrs. Olsen.” “We call folks anything here, jest as happens; we don't stan about bein polite here to any on yees,” she replied in a stormy voice. “So I perceive, but for myself, you will please excuse me from following this fashion. I have no more politeness than I need, I cannot dispense with any, but must use all I have, as I perceive politeness is rather needed here; what do you wish of me, Miss Bonner ?” “I wish ye to take off that are shawl, ye don't need it here; the rest on em don't wear shawls, un you shan't.” “I am very cold-have taken the fever and ague, the chills 304 MODERN PERSECUTION. are upon me now, and I fear sitting still with the windows open, as you say I must, would in this very damp air, cause me to take cold; I should prefer to keep my shawl upon me for the present, if you please, Miss Bonner.” “I don't want any of yer talk; take it right off this minute, ur I'll save yees the trouble—folks have to mind here, I tell ye—so be quick.”. Seeing her fiercely approaching me, I immediately gave her my shawl, walked once more to my seat, and again sat down still, as she had ordered me to do. In this prison was exacted the most immediate and uncom- promising obedience to rules and requirements which a slave holder would have blushed to inflict upon his human chattels. Our own preferences were never consulted. 6. You must do this because I want ye to," was all the rea- son given. Does the public think this a good way for lost sanity to be regained ? Alas, what has the public hitherto known about it? There is absolutely no escape from obedience here, no matter what is required. I have many times, seen even tardy or re- luctant obedience punished with fearful severity. I have seen the attendant strike and unmercifully beat her patients on the head with a bunch of heavy keys which she carried fastened by a cord around her waist; leaving their faces blackened and scarred for weeks. I have seen her twist their arms and cross them behind the back, tie them in that position, and then beat the victim till the other patients would cry out, begging her to desist. I have seen her punish them by pouring cold water into their bosoms, a pailful at the time, leaving it to dry without chang- ing their wet clothing, the remainder of the day, several hours. I have seen her strike them prostrate to the floor with great violence, then beat and kick them. MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 305 At other times I have seen Elizabeth Bonner after throwing them down, their faces to the floor, pull them back and forth by the hair, and beat the noses and faces repeatedly upon the floor. I have seen her kneel upon their bodies and strike and pound them, till by struggling and crying, they became too weak to make resistance, then drag them to their rooms and lock them up for many hours, leaving them alone. I have seen her do all this too, without any proof that they had been guilty of what she had accused them. And even when others had accused them, she was always more ready to believe the accuser than anything the accused could say in self-defence. In this way, this Jury, Judge, and Executive of her own laws, went on using the powers her position as head attendant gave her under the direction and command of Dr. Andrew McFarland! “our accomplished Superintendent!” It was not rarely and occasionally, but hourly and continu- ally, that these brutalities occurred. There was not a single day, of the twenty days I staid there, that I did not witness scenes of this character. Sometimes it appeared that I must turn away ; that I could not endure to see human beings thus abused. But the next thought was one of self-accusation for being thus tender to my own feelings. “If these sufferers can bear to feel it, I can and will bear to see it, for if I do not see these things, I cannot testify that I did. So I will even look on." But this resolution I confess did sometimes break down, for I was often so much shocked that I had to turn away my eyes, and many times I stuffed both my ears as full as possible, with locks of cotton to deaden the noise of demoniac shrieking of these victims when under torture. One day I became so indignant that I summoned courage, and told Miss Bonner that if she did not stop abusing the patients in this way, I should tell Dr. McFarland of it. 306 MODERN PERSECUTION. “Dr. McFarland knows all about it, I don't do anything here, but what he knows it all, and he tells me to manage the patients here by my own judgment, and I intend to do as he tells me. So you can mind your own business.” But I told her then that I should talk matters over with Dr. Tenny when I could get a chance to see him, and intimated that I should give him some edifying information of how mat- ters went on. Also that in due time Mrs. Packard should be informed of these affairs. " You shan't tell Mrs. Packard, she's a lady, and you're a nuisance, you ain't fit to speak to her.” “ But she loves me, if I am a nuisance; she gave me this chain," pointing to a beautifully-wrought white chain which I then wore upon my neck. “She gave me this to wear as a pledge of her attachment to me, and I shall wear it every day, for her sake.” Lizzy “looked daggers," at this discovery, and had it not been for the great popularity of Mrs. Packard there, I think she would have robbed me of this beautiful ornament, as I have seen her rob others of gold ornaments. At that moment, I was wearing garments which Mrs. Packard had lent me in the Eighth ward, as my own under garments had been stolen from me, and divided among some of the employees in the asylum. As soon as “Liz" knew I was wearing borrowed garments of Mrs. Packard, she compelled me to take them off and give them to her, to be returned to Mrs. Packard, saying that it was against the rules for one patient to borrow of another. “I wish it was against the rules to let the servants steal the clothing from the patients.” But this I said in my own heart, not vocally. The loss of these garments, added to the robbery of my shawl, caused me to shiver continually. In a few days, the fever and ague was so established that I became nearly prostrate. MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 307 When again I saw Dr. Tenny, I told him how I constantly shivered for the loss of my clothing. He ordered Lizzy to restore my shawl immediately, which she did ; my stolen garments were not returned. After this, Lizzy appeared to hate me with a bitterness that was truly appalling. She tried in many ways, to provoke me to ill temper, as I supposed, in order to frame some complaint against me, or to have some excuse for abusing me. But I determined she should have not even the semblance of justifi- cation for the wanton insults with which she first met, and almost uniformly ever afterwards treated me, especially while in the lowest prison ward. I resolutely governed my temper, persevered in obeying instantly her slightest commands, and always addressed her with tones of mildness and conciliation. She never, in the Fifth ward, used any violence with me, but assured me of her readiness to do so, in case I dared to disobey. As she saw to her sorrow, that there was some danger of Dr. Tenny's protecting me, she was obliged to refrain from actually striking me, but calmed off occasionally some small portion of her ever-boiling fury, by shaking her fists, and annoying me with all the little petty persecutions possible. In my dialogue with Lizzy Bonner, already referred to, I had given her to understand that I should lay these matters before Dr. Tenny, the first opportunity. She replied, that if I interfered, I should “ git the same treatment the rest on ’em git.” I was so closely watched, however, that no opportunity occurred for a long time, in which to tell Dr. Tenny. Dr. McFarland seldom came into the Fifth ward, and when he did, would pass directly through the hall, without ever, to my knowledge, stopping to show the least sympathy, or the least attempt to relieve the suffering so dreadfully apparent in every face. 308 MODERN PERSECUTION. We used to say that Dr. McFarland's nose was too deli- cate; he didn't seem much to enjoy the smell of the Fifth ward. We didn't blame him for that; we only blamed him for making us endure it. The room Lizzy gave me was one where the occupant, unfortunately, was much addicted to using tobacco, and would eject the superfluous perversion of the gastric juice all over the floor, and the walls of her room, with a liberality, which, to a decent woman, must be truly appalling. It certainly appalled me, when, to my utter consternation, I discovered that this room was assigned to me! In this most filthy place, I could not breathe without nearly strangling, but I was assured that the room was: “ Good enough fur yees.” Sick and enfeebled as the ague had made me, I yet felt more able to scrub and clean, than to breathe and sleep in this terrible Pandora's box as it was. I very mildly asked of my attendant the privilege of pro- curing from the wash-room a pail of hot water and soap, with which to clean this room. She granted this favor, and I was overjoyed, having feared that I was to be locked in here as it was. I began my task, proceeding gradually as my strength allowed, to scrub and make clean this filthy room, so far as I was able to reach the wall upwards. The remainder I was obliged to leave unfinished. But the floor I made quite clean, with abundance of water and soap scrubbing, so that before night the room was really quite tolerable. . One of the insane, who was allowed to go out, had the kindness to bring a nice bouquet of beautiful flowers, which I accepted gratefully, and placed in my partly darkened window. I looked upon these beautiful expressions of good-will with real pleasure,—a pleasure bestowed by the sweet ministra- tions of our gentle mother nature. MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. · 309 What a poor fool I was, to imagine for a moment that such a privilege would be allowed me! As soon as Lizzy came along, she rushed up to my flowers, jerked them out of the room in an instant, without saying a word, then giving the door a bang with her keys, vanished out of my sight. I dared make no remonstrance, “lest some worse thing might come to me.” The next day, lo, a worse thing did come! Seeing how tidy and clean I had made the room, she in- formed me she wanted that room for another patient. Before I had time even to look up in atonishment, I was jerked out of it, with as little ceremony as had been my un- fortunate flowers the previous day. Opening another door, into another horribly filthy room, she said: “This is to be your room now.” I shall not attempt to portray my feelings on this occa- sion! With much abated strength, and now rather waning hope, again I procured soap and other etceteras, and repeated the cleaning process of the previous day. I was allowed only two days to enjoy(?) this room before I was again driven into one still worse ! Those “petty persecutions "continued till the attendant saw that I had no strength left with which to scrub. Then she put me into a screen-room and there I remained the time I staid in this ward. One day I heard a dreadful noise, worse by far than any I had previously heard. It appeared that for some trifling offence, disputing with an attendant, I believe, Mrs. Hays had incurred the anger of Lizzy Bonner, who now was punishing her. She tore off, one after another, every single article of cloth- ing from her victim. She did this with so much haste, that 310 MODERN PERSECUTION. she tore the under woolen garment into several pieces, and threw the pieces about the floor. Then when perfectly nude, the attendant kicked her body till she had crowded her quite under a stationary bench, when Mrs. Hays curled herself up in a heap, so to speak. Lizzy's back was turned to me; she did not know I was “ taking notes." I stood paralyzed on witnessing these barbarities, silent and motionless, transfixed with a cold creeping horror : 66 Oh, God !” exclaimed I, “in the deep abyss of my soul, while with dumb lips I quailed.' “Is it thus that thy children must suffer? How long, Oh, Lord, how long?” The screams of the sufferer were so terrific, and the blows she received so much more terrific, that at last I turned to leave the scene, feeling that I could no longer endure to see it. But in one instant,—as if more than mortal strength come to my aid, I thought,“ if this sufferer can bear to feel them, I will train my selfish nerves to look on. Because, if I do not see these things, I can never say that I saw them, and as they do exist, I wish to be able to testify.” I silently prayed that death should come to the suffering Mrs. Hays, and relieve her from further torment. But she did not die, for her time had not yet come. Neither did I die, for my time had not yet come. After Lizzy had beaten, and pulled her hair, and kicked her, to her perfect satisfaction, she dragged her across the hall, into an empty room, and after telling her that she shouldn't have any supper," left her entirely naked, locked up alone. Mrs. Hays made no reply; she seemed evidently much weakened ; I had no idea that she could live till morning, for I did not then know how far the endurance of human suffer- ing could be carried. I said nothing to any one. A heavy cloud like the gloom of a funeral in a stormy day was upon my spirit. If MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 311 the power of human language had left me, and I quietly glided back to my screen-room. I saw at supper time while passing her door on my way to the dining hall, that two other very imsane women had now been locked up with Mrs. Hays. Their door was only half a door, the upper part being an open iron frame like a window frame, so that one on passing, could see all within. Indeed this was just like my own door at this time, so that I had no protection, not even that of a whole door to defend me from the horrid sounds, sights and smells of this truly purgatorial abode. “But why are these three dangerous women locked up to- gether?” was my query. I believe it was done so that in case the black spots which the blows of Lizzy had made upon the face of her victim should not disappear in comfortable season, their infliction might be ascribed to the two fierce patients locked up there with her! I went to my supper table sadder than I had ever felt. The terrible sights I had seen, followed my vision and de- stroyed my appetite. I managed to steal a biscuit from the table, intending to slip it through her bars to the suffering Mrs. Hays, as I passed her door on returning to my own room; but Lizzy, who I be- lieved suspected something of the kind, followed me closely, drove me into my room, and locked my door for the night. My health had now become extremely enfeebled ; I could not sleep except when utterly prostrate from long wakeful- ness; nature could hold out no longer. It was my practice to stuff cotton into my ears to deaden the sounds of the terrible shrieks which came from all direc- tions. But the cotton had not power to solace even one brief hour, for the dreadful sounds would find avenues to my ears. I thought I must either become insane from the long pressure upon my brain, caused by these influences, or must die of brain fever, so terrible was the pain in my head. 312 MODERN PERSECUTION. As a last resort, in my persistent endeavors to counteract these influences, and thus protect my sanity, I used to rise in the night, from my recumbent position, and sit up with these large wads of cotton bound tightly about my ears, at the same time vigorously pressing my head and face downwards to divert the blood from the cerebral veins. I had already begun to experience symptoms of congestion of the brain. One night while much distressed by such apprehensions, an unusual lassitude crept over me, and ere I was aware, was actually lost in the sweet unconsciousness of slumber. I was not in heaven, though, in this enviable hour of rest, I dreamed I was there, but in the midst of my rapture over the thought that such a lingering death as I had been suffer- ing, was now indeed “swallowed up in victory,” lo! a fierce and rapid succession of far other sounds than “the songs of the redeemed,” convinced my reluctantly waking eyes that I was not yet, as I had hoped, “on the other side of Jordan!”. “Oh God! Oh God! let my tormentors be swallowed up forever in the lake of fire and brimstone!” Shouted with terrific loudness, a young sufferer of about twenty years of age. Her room was but a few feet from my own. She continued with vociferations of this character, as long as she had breath. Before this song was ended, it had awakened and excited another patient opposite, who, angry to have her temporary sleep thus disturbed, screamed out: 56 Yes, I mean to send McFarland's soul to hell! There it shall be roasted and burned for thousands, millions, millions, trillions, trillion years ! ” This, too, was many times repeated, as she emphasized and prolonged the first syllable, “ M-i-1-l-ions--M-i-1-l-ions!” Thus this aged woman and the young girl, the fiercest in the hall, tortured my brain, and in the same way almost every night of my stay in this ward ; till in my iron determination MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCE. 313 not to become myself insane, I actually discovered a method of effectually fighting against Dr. McFarland's seeming decree that my sanity should become annihilated ! I relate it for the benefit of any readers who may possibly be placed in similar circumstances. Finding that sleep was out of the question, with such a jar- gon about my head, I resolved to neutralize the effect of such sounds by reversing the current of their ideas; by calling to my aid with a violent effort of will, opposite ideas. Sitting up, erect in my bed, with as loud a voice as I could possibly com- mand, to help to drown these opposite voices, I repeated passages of the most beautiful and attractive poetry I had ever learned in former years. These daily distractions, added to the intense mental exer- tions of these my midnight labors, had now perfectly pros- trated my health. One morning my attendant missing my presence at the table, called to my room, and said : “Ain't ye up yit?” “I am sick, Elizabeth, please excuse me, I cannot go to the table, and do not wish to eat." Perceiving my inability to rise, she brought me a plate of baked pork and hot biscuit ! I thanked her, but declined telling her it was impossible to eat it. She seemed angry, though my manner to her was perfectly gentle as it had ever been. She hastily responded: “The rest on 'em don't complain; its good enough for 'em they think ; un its good enough for ye too, so ye'll eat that or git nothin." I preferred to “git nothin.” I then very mildly asked her if she would bring me up a cup of weak tea without sugar, if that was not convenient, a glass of cold water. She replied: 14 314 MODERN PERSECUTION. “ If yee's to good to eat sich us the rest on 'em eat, I won't bring ye nothin more.” So shutting my half-door with a bang, she left me. But as it seems“ my time had not yet come to die." I rallied. and in two or three days, again became able to leave that bed of pain, and go out into the hall. But as neither rest nor safety was to be found there, I again went to my room. Here, being so weak, the intrusion of the noisy was more annoying than ever; being now unable to either amuse them or attract them out of my room, as I nad often done before. They would persist in pulling over everything in the room, then in the same manner, would examine my person, put their hands into my pocket, and feel of my head, making themselves, in spite of the best efforts I could make to get rid of them, most disgustingly familiar. They would overhaul the work, which even here, I still tried to do; often taking away parts of it, causing much disturbance. In other moods of mind, they fancied me their enemy, and would inflict punishments like Lizzy Bonner, on their own re- sponsibility. Sometimes they would strike me suddenly, knock me down, and often spit upon me, either in my face, or upon my hands or garments, as suited their convenience. Sometimes they annoyed me still worse by trying to pull my clothing from my person, declaring it was theirs, and I had stolen it from them. Now in my present condition of weakness, I ventured to humbly ask her to lock me up alone in my room in the day time, explaining how they annoyed me, and promising if she would comply with my request, that I would help her again about her work all I could, as soon as I was well. But she refused, saying: 6 What business had ye to be here then ? ye ain't crazy, un ye must have been ugly, or yur friends wouldn't put ye into sich a place as this, I ain't a goin tu run round ahter ye, un ye MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 315 needn't be complainin iny more to me. If they kill ye, 'tis likely ye deserve it.” So I concluded that though locks and keys were always ready to be used against me, yet never could they be used for my protection or advantage. Therefore, as now I could not defend myself from their fury: while sitting up, and feeling very sore and lame, from their blows, I felt no longer able to fight so unequal a battle, and now retired to my bed in the day time, covering myself as closely as possible, to protect my head from the danger of their blows. My attendant did not allow such indulgence long, but soon ordered me to: “Git up, and not muss up the bed in the day time.” I rose mechanically, and once more, with but half an armor, endeavored to win my desperate way. So, on and on I struggled daily, never for a moment losing sight of my original determination to learn all the mysteries of “Lunatic Asylums!”. Whenever I walked from my screen-rooom to my meals, to the wash-room, indeed anywhere, I had to “ watch there- fore” how I should step, in order to escape some of the “dangers” which, in the language of a well-known religious poet, “ stand thick o'er all the ground, to push us to the tomb." If I went too near an old lady, Mrs. Triplet, who always sat in one place by which I was obliged to pass on my way to meals, she would brandish her arms and curse and swear loudly, threatening to kill me. If, in my attempts to escape her, I came too near another on the opposite seat, (both of whom spent most of their time sitting on their seats) the latter would discharge a load of spittle, which she had previously prepared for my reception, into my face, or about my person. 316 MODERN PERSECUTION. So I was each moment obliged to study how to so adjust my steps as to escape this Scylla and Charybdis. I found it neces- sary also to appear to be careless, and to conceal from all the fact of my using such vigilance. I did literally walk in a straight and narrow way. My position here constantly reminded me of that locality, so graphically described by Bunyan, the “ Valley of Humili- ation,” where Christian, at every step encountered “gins, traps, pits and snares." . These were ever menacing my progress, and often caused me internally to exclaim: 66 Why am I made to possess months of vanity, while wea- risome nights are appointed unto me!” But there is an end to all earthly things," it is said, and I here add my testimony that there is also an end to some unearthly things.” CHAPTER XLVIII. Mrs. Olsen's Eighth Ward Experiences. “According to previous arrangements of Mrs. McFarland and Lizzy Bonner, it was now officially announced in the hall, that the latter was to take about fourteen of her patients up to the Eighth ward in a few days. This of course created a great sensation, and the query be- came general: “ Who is going? Is it I ?” So, while yet unable to sit up all day, I joyfully emerged with the rest, and in due ceremony, we were conducted to the very highest part of the building. Our ascent to the Eighth ward occurred in the morning. When the dinner hour arrived, and I again saw the tranquil beaming face of my beloved friend, Mrs. Packard, I longed to throw myself into her arms, and weep with joy upon her bosom. She was affected in the same way as were many others re- specting the abusive treatment to which the patients were sub- jected. Yet she did not see the worst forms of this cruelty. The attendants dared not in her presence perpetrate these. She honestly expressed her feelings both to them and to the officers on this subject. When her eloquent, yet intensely gen- tle and tender voice was raised in the defence of the suffering ones around her, every other voice was hushed. We all knew she was a host” in herself, and many of the "insane” possessed yet sufficient sanity to recognize in her their future deliverer. The hand of this, our dear friend, was ever ready to admin- ister acts of beneficence, so far as her restricted privilege would 318 MODERN PERSECUTION. permit-her voice to soothe, to cheer, and to sustain—to en- courage the desponding and indolent to energetic activity and self-respect, and to intellectual and moral elevation. The sick delighted to grasp her hand, when she was permitted to visit them, and deep were the murmurings when this privilege was not allowed. Such an ardent lover of truth, so heroic a defender of princi- ples—dear as her own life—I never saw outside these walls. The boldness with which she reproved tyranny and the thrilling eloquence with which she defended the cause of suffering humanity, were truly “ a terror to evil doers!” No one was so popular in the whole institution. Without ever being intrusive, she drew all eyes, all ears, in every circle. ; At balls the most ærial dancer; in labor, the most indus- trious, in all public gatherings or private circles, “ the ob- served of all observers.” The wonderful power she possessed over the minds of others drew all to her ample heart, with an irresistible magnetism. When she came into our hall, every hand, eye and heart, were open to receive her. I never saw one, who took the least notice of anything, who after having seen her once, did not wish to see her again. When we suffered any unusual abuse, it was very often said : 66 I'll tell Mrs. Packard of this.” We knew our rights would find an able advocate in our firm and gentle friend. Doctor and Mrs. McFarland were much annoyed by these demonstrations of the fact that Mrs. Packard was so much more popular than themselves; and this annoyance was un. doubtedly the reason, that shortly after the accession of the patients from the lowest prison, to her ward, the privileges of Mrs. Packard were materially abridged. The restrictions to which she was condemned, were very MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 319 severe—sufficient to exasperate the gentlest mind. Yet they could not ruffle her undaunted spirit, or change to a frown the sublime tranquility of that heaven-sustained soul. To my astonishment and joy, at dinner, the day we en- tered the Eighth ward, Lizzie Bonner said to me: “Mrs. Olsen, you can have your seat at the table next to Mrs. Packard.” I did not dare even to thank Miss Bonner, or to show any de- monstration of my joy when this most delightful decree was announced, but quietly took my seat. Here, for a few weeks, I had the privilege of eating without fear that my brains would be knocked out, or that any other episode from dinner, such as some one's upsetting my plate, or laying her hair into it, or crowding or sneezing, or anything of the kind. Mrs. Packard and myself conversed in very low tones, so as not to disturb any one, and not to permit our attendant to suspect that we were particularly happy. Our meal hours were the most pleasant hours I enjoyed, for with my sweet friend by my side, I forgot that the potatoes were always cold, the meat often tainted, and butter no longer visible. Mrs. McFarland now avoided Mrs. Packard as much as pos- sible; not only declining to show her the least sympathy, but utterly refusing to speak to her. Though the latter could never be accused of ever breaking any of the thousand and one rules of our key-holders, and yielded, no less than myself, implicit obedience to all their commands, yet, she was accused by the matron and one of the most obsequious of the attendants, of being “very trouble- some!” I believe she was “very troublesome," to some of Satan's kingdom; since she persisted so firmly, not only in giving no cause for offence, but in exhibiting, so far as the most blameless life could do so, all the 6 peaceable fruits of righteousness.” 320 MODERN PERSECUTION. But it troubled the adversary much to know that she spent nearly all her time writing in her own room, some " mischief," they had reason to fear, might come of it, “ Othello's occupa- tion” might become endangered. It had been discovered by the powers that be,” that her alliances were becoming quite too numerous for the enemies' forces. She was now securely entrenched by fortifications erected by the warm friendship of numerous partizans; and the daily accessions to her party were a signal of defeat to the enemies' forces. Indeed we all felt that we had been drawn into a regular civil war with the Institution ! All the seventy patients in the Eighth ward who took the least interest in anything, sympathised with Mrs. Packard ; and, so far as I could learn, every attendant, both male and female, in the Asylum, defended, and very highly respected Mrs. Packard. This state of affairs created increased apprehensions in the camp of the enemy. Something must be done. Our potent commander, after holding a war-council with several of his allies, the chief of whom was Bonner, the Prime Minister, now issued officially from his “sanctum," a new and startling Pro- clamation. It was this: 66 All intercourse between Mrs. Packard and the inmates of the west division of the Eighth ward, must be prohibited ex- cept under strict guard of an attendant! Mrs. Packard must not be allowed to go into the hall, except when accompanied by an attendant. She is to hold no more prayer meetings, lend no more books, and those she has lent must be imme diately returned.” This Proclamation was met in our hall with silent hisses of execration. Some, however, were far from being silent. A few swore loudly on the occasion, and prayed very loudly for a fresh instalment of curses upon the head of Dr. McFarland. MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 321 As for me, I wept more bitter tears than any I had ever shed there, knowing that now my life was to be deprived of almost its only earthly solace. In a very few days I was suddenly ordered to leave my seat at the table next to Mrs. Packard, and take a seat at another table in the same hall by the side of an old lady who was known to be the fiercest and most dangerous of all the female patients in the Asylum! She had been recently conducted from the prison below. I met this terrible order without trembling, but with a deep - and inexpressible indignation, that of course was voiceless. I left my table immediately, without a word of demurring, and took a seat, as ordered, by the side of this fierce woman. About this time all our rules were rendered much more severe than ever. We were seldom. permitted to go out of the house at all; some were never allowed to go, but were kept constantly in close confinement. These were harmless patients too. Rides were also prohibited. The balls were suspended, and only a very few were permitted to attend the chapel services. Company was also kept out of our ward for a long time. We were not allowed private conference with each other, and all who did not render instant obedience were severely punished. I often saw Lizzy Bonner pull patients into their private rooms and shut the door after them. Then I would hear her beating them, and the latter screaming, and in a choking, stifled voice, begging : “Oh, Don't kill me! Don't kill me!” I did not let the attendant know I heard this. One patient had become so disgusted with life under such circumstances, that she determined to destroy it by starvation. She had been a long time in close confinement in her own room alone. I many times knew that Lizzy was using violence upon her person, throwing her heavily upon the floor. She 14* 322 MODERN PERSECUTION. persisted in her resolve on suicide till she became emaciated almost to a skeleton; for many weeks taking neither food or drink except by force. Her resolution thus to die was at last overcome by the fierce pains of hunger. She now was glad to eat, and a terrible re- action ensued. Her long abstinence had made her so fiercely hungry that it seemed she would devour everything she could reach. After eating as much as was assigned to the rest, she would clutch the food from the other patients, and devour it with the most terrible voracity. But all were glad to see her eat, thinking she had now abandoned the idea of suicide. She now came constantly to the table with the rest, and behaved so mildly for several days that all were confirmed in the hope that she might yet live and recover. One day at dinner, she startled every one at the tables, by suddenly seizing a knife and cutting her own throat! Oh, I will not attempt to describe the terror of this scene! The wound, however, was not so deep as she intended to make it; the knife was immediately taken from her bleeding throat, and she was led to her room and again put into a straight- jacket in solitary confinement. But no one, as yet, had ever heard her speak a word in that hall. This was the first attempt at suicide I had seen at Jackson- ville. There were many others, some successful, in different parts of the house as I heard by attendants and others, but I am only describing scenes that fell under my own observa- tion. Another unfortunate actually threw herself from a high un- barred window in the work-room, four stories from the ground, and was taken up dead from the pavement. She had been there only a few days, and it appears had no knowledge of the place. I saw her when she arrived. She was mild and gentle, conversed intelligently of her MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 323 husband, and of the home she had left; expressed a strong desire to return to it again. Every thing she saw seemed so very strange to her, and the severe restrictions so mysterious to her frightened sensibilities, she thought herself in a worse house than she indeed was, if such a thing is possible. They wanted her to increase the number of gratuitous labor- ers in the work-room; took her there, and required her to go to work with the rest. She sat down and looked distressed, at last rose up suddenly, and exclaimed with a voice and look of terror: “Oh, what kind of a place have they brought me to!” Then rushed suddenly head foremost from the window, into eternity! Oh, Reign of terror! Reign of terror! Scenes of tumult and terror now so frequently succeeded each other, that no one felt that life was safe. With nothing to afford hope—no avenues to the world—no amusements to re- lieve the ever thickening horrors of such a destiny, a look of fixed discontent now sat on every countenance. At this time, one, bolder than the rest, by some means escaped, and attempted to run away. The alarm was given, and the “watch-dogs” were out. By these she was speedily overtaken, forced back to the Asylum, and condemned to soli- tary confinement as her punishment. Two others ran away not long after this scene. . One was a widow, a young and very beautiful lady of excellent talents and a very cheerful disposition. She was not insane as I could discover at the time, though much dejected by grief for the death of her brave and much loved husband who had died in the army. Soon after hearing this afflictive intelligence, she became ill with a fever, and this was probably, as is often the case, accompanied with temporary delirium. He friends, not know- ing how to treat either the fever or its consequent delirium, 324 MODERN PERSECUTION. which they thought insanity, found a convenint way of get- ting rid of their responsibility, by handing her over to the care of “our accomplished Superintendent," to receive her three hundredth share of his attentions. (There are three hundred in the Asylum.) Here it had been her destiny to remain for many months ; and feeling very anxious for the welfare of her children at home, and moreover, being indefinitely put off by the most silly excuses, and reprehensible delays, she at last assumed the responsibility of asserting those rights which nature had given her of finding and taking care of her own babes. She was accompanied by a kindred spirit, another widow, whose husband had also laid down his life upon our bleeding country's sacrificial altar. Neither was this person insane that I could discover; I believe she was several times the sub- ject of some harmless trances. But I think she did a very sane action in trying to free herself from bondage. Their plan succeeded so well, that, after traveling six miles, they were overtaken by a kind hearted teamster, who by the request of the now much wearied travelers, took them into his conveyance, and listening sympathetically to their truthful tale of distress, carried them on their way until overtaken by their remorseless pursuers. On their return, one of these was sentenced to one of the lower prison wards, and the other brought to our hall in the Eighth ward. Hers was a most courageous spirit; she even smiled on en- tering our hall, determining to disappoint her victorious captors by showing herself unrevengeful, and in no wise bowed in spirit, or humiliated! Therefore, instead of complaining that she was deprived of all her privileges in the privileged Seventh ward, and sentenced to the noisy tumults of the maniac's ward, she daily evinced the most pleasant and cheerful deportment. MRS. OLSEN'S EXPERIENCES. 325 Mrs. Davis was very beautiful and musical, and withal a decided wit; so benevolent too, so unaffectedly kind that she would often relate some amusing story, or use her most musical and enchanting voice by singing for the entertainment of the desponding, when her own heart was full of unutterable sorrow for her own griefs. If this cheerful and most noble- hearted woman was “insane," I wish every woman in the land possessed such an “insanity!” But with all her heroic attempts to throw off the benumbing influence of affliction, she did suffer most keenly in mind at her disappointment in not being permitted to see her darling children. This feeling, together with the over-exhaustion of so long a walk, soon brought on a fever. I used every morning, and many times in the day to visit her, that I might assist her if possible, and also learn from her those beautiful lessons taught by her trusting faith and hopefulness. As she lay, day after day, on her bed of suffering, surrounded by the noisy and filthy, of whose annoyances I never knew her to complain, I had never beheld a more perfect example of patience. But I burned with indignation at the ignorance of a com- munity, in the very country her husband had fought and died to protect, that his beloved young wife could not herself be protected from such shameful abuses as those she suffered here. A few weeks after her recovery, she went home. Could she have gone at the time she had started, or previously, instead of being punished in prison for thus braving danger for the love of her children, she might have escaped the fever. Our reign of terror augmented to such a degree, that I did not deem it safe to enter the dining-hall, even when the door was left open, for a glass of water for the suffering Mrs. Davis, without humbly asking liberty of Lizzy to do so! At last one of our number, a very intelligent married lady, 326 MODERN PERSECUTION. made the following proposition, namely: That we should make a general onslaught or campaign against the State's without discovery. Thus we should make apparent to our persecutor, that this most desperate movement was but the natural and legitimate result of his own extreme severity to his victims—that it was the complete desperation of our cir- cumstances which evolved this « military necessity.” Let those who may blame us for acting upon this, remember that we were fighting for our lives. Compelled as we were to inliale the poisonous gases from so many diseased bodies while sleeping so near each other, and the still deadlier exhalations arising from typhoid and other fevers, ulcerated lungs, and fetid sores, all confined in one hall; we felt, that between the above influences, and the sudden blows and violence which all keeper, that our lives were most essentially imperilled. Our liberty, even the liberty of speech and writing had all been taken away, and we wished for emancipation from this inexorable thraldom with an agony of desire that none but the victims of such a bondage can ever appreciate. We all felt ourselves hotly pursued by the enemy. Only the wild and reckless scarcely dared to breathe. They indeed, like the mad Saul of Tarsus, in his fruitless attempts to destroy Christianity, dared to “breathe out threatenings and slaughter," not against Christ, or any of his followers, but against our asylum prison-keepers, and their abettors in the unjust embodiment of State Legislation. CHAPTER XLIX. “Wives and Husbands There Must Part.” « Returning from a walk one day with others, I observed, on coming up the long flight of stairs, a scene which gave my feelings a severe shook. The attendant evidently did not wish us to see this, for she kept hurrying us along to our hall, but the circumstances were such we could not help it. A husband who that morning had made a brief visit to his wife, was then taking leave of her. She failed to recognize the propriety of being left, and wished to return to her home with her husband. She entreated him, with tears that ceased not flowing, to let her go home and see her children. “Oh husband dear, do let me go home; I don't want to stay here any longer, it don't do me any good, I must go! Oh, I must live at home with you and my children. Dear, dear husband ! Do not leave me here!” The husband hesitated, looked at her streaming tears, then at the door—he lingered—there was an evident struggle in his mind. The agitated wife perceiving his indecision, seizing the advantage, took his arm within her own, and embracing him, exclaimed again, in tones of agony: “Oh husband, I must go home with you! Do not, do not leave me here!” Several of the officials of the asylum were standing near, the husband had evidently been receiving instruction from them instead of his own conscience. Then with one violent effort, he disengaged himself from the trembling grasp of the pleading wife, left her and walked hastily down the stairs. 328 MODERN PERSECUTION. In her anguish she sank down powerless upon the floor, and was dragged by two men, still gazing after her husband's receding form, to all the horrors of locks, keys, and imprison- ments! We all returned to our hall in sadness and silence, the at- tendant left. When we found ourselves unwatched, one said: “Oh, how could that man have the heart to leave her, when she so begged to go with him ?” Another replied, that he had been befooled by the Doctor, who had told him it would not be safe to take her home.” Said a third, “What a fool a man must be, to let another man judge between himself and his wife! he ought to have known himself whether she should have gone home. If he wanted to go and attend to his affairs, he ought to have con- sidered that she had the same right, for his home duties and her own were the same." Another spoke with apparent disgust, in her turn, to the last speaker. “Do you think such husbands possess the faculty of consi- deration! I don't agree with you, it appears to me that all their own consideration, all their faculty of independent thinking, has become weakened, if not destroyed, when they give up to the stupid prejudice that another man can better guide a woman than her own husband !” Said another voice, s now they will call this poor woman noisy and excited, say it hurts her to have her friends visit her, because she cannot help crying and grieving about his leaving her; then they will put her down into a lower ward, where of course she will grow worse, and may become incurable. Yes, this is the way they do here; I wish the public knew it." “My God!” echoed yet another hitherto silent voice, “it makes me shudder to think how many splendid minds are made incurable lunatics, or worried into a sickness which ends in death, by just these barbarous means !” WIVES' AND HUSBANDS' PARTING. 329 At this stage of the colloquy, our attendant re-entered the hall. The conversation here ended, but our thoughts did not end. The stupid thoughtlessness with which a husband can commit to other hands, the wife of his bosom, when distracted or enfeebled in body or mind, is utterly unaccountable. No one would trust a valuable horse to be stabled without knowing something of the treatment he would be likely to receive. Would you, farmers, commit one to strangers of whom you knew nothing beyond the fact that they are public stable-keepers ? Would you send even a horse to a stable, and permit him to remain for months and even years without visiting, or at least sending some one to visit the animal ? Would you not fear he might be cheated out of the proper quantity of oats or other food—that he might be exposed to contagious diseases from other horses in his vicinity, or that in some way his value might be diminished ? Would it be a safe experiment thus to commit even a horse to the mercy of for. tuitous influences ? How is it then, that you give less care to your tender wife ? Did you tell her, when a lover, that you could not engage, in all future circumstances, to give her as much attention as your animals should receive ? Was it among your lover's vows, in your sacred moonlight rambles, that if she became insane, you would desert her that you would love and cherish her, and share her destiny “ till death us do part,” on condition that she would retain her youth and beauty unimpaired; but that, if these, or if health or reason should fail, you would consign her to some other man? Oh, no, such was not your sacred vow! What did you promise her? I was not there listening under the hedgerow; I did not witness your sacred vows before marriage; I only witness how you fulfill them afterwards !" CHAPTER L. How to make Incurables. “One day a patient received a letter from her aged mother, in which the latter entreated her to write, in these words: “Let me know without delay, if you are alive. I hardly know if I have a daughter, it is so long since I have heard from you.” The daughter showed this letter to me, and with overflowing tears, besought me to use my influence with the Superintendent, that she might be permitted to answer this letter. I told her I had no influence whatever with the Superintend- ent, but would try to procure the consent of Doctor Tenny to let her write. I also exhorted her to be watchful over her own conduct, and try to control the occasional vagaries of her mind; in short, to use every possible endeavor to preserve her sanity and her patience. She made the most commendable attempts to do this for several weeks, and my hopes were sanguine respecting her. I first saw her in the Fifth ward. She was walking the hall, pale, haggard, hopeless, and constantly biting the ends of her fingers. Her dress was ragged, her hair uncombed, and her whole appearance indicated a mind on the verge of despair. In this condition I first tried to open to her the avenues of hope. In the absence of our attendant, at stealthy conversa- tions, I discovered that she possessed excellent talents, was a good scholar, and had formerly moved in an elevated sphere of life. She was the only daughter of a physician ; had in early life married a man of wealth and ambition, with whom she had lived happily for several years, and who had loaded her with HOW TO MAKE INCURABLES. 331 comforts and luxuries. Subsequently, the tide of her fortune was reversed; misfortune came with swift and heavy shocks, upon her devoted head. Her affectionate father was laid in the grave. She lost her husband, to whom she was most tenderly attached, by the most terrible of all deaths, the death of his affections for herself. Won by the fascinations of another, in an evil hour, he had deserted her forever, leaving three helpless babes upon her care, with no means of support. One by one these lovely children had all been laid in their graves, and the mother was left in the terrible loneliness of the heart's deepest desolation. No wonder the energies of her mind at last gave way; that the haunting images of her heart's lost treasures were ever before her eyes. Her health sunk, she was unable longer to combat successfully the tide of her terrible calamities. In this crisis, her own brother, instead of being her com- forter, blamed her for not retaining the perfection of her energies, and turned against her in the most heartless manner. She now became unable longer to baffle adversity, and having no pecuniary resources left, was reduced to the necessity of accepting a home in a miserable county alms-house. Some time after leaving the Asylum, I went into the vicinity where these events occurred, and after diligently inquiring, found all the statements of her history she had made to me, corroborated. In my first interview with her, observing how she had lacer- ated her fingers by constantly gnawing them, in her agony of mind, I suggested : "Now let me wrap up your fingers, and I want you to prom- ise me not again to put them in your mouth. Will you solemnly promise this, and keep your word ?” She complied, and I soon procured some rags, and bound up her bleeding fingers. “Now," said she, “ I want you to make a promise to me.” 332 MODERN PERSECUTION. “ What is it? most happy should I be to do anything pos- sible to relieve your condition.' “Oh, promise me,” she entreated with earnest emphasis, " that you will never speak to me, nor take the least notice of me in the presence of Lizzie Bonner.” Why should I promise this ? you possess an intelligent mind, an immortal soul, you have been a great sufferer, and still remain so. I dislike to treat you with disrespect or neg- lect in the presence of any one.” “ If Lizzie sees you trying to make me happy, she will feel reproved because she has never done so herself. She will hate and ill treat you worse than she does now; and more than that, she will separate us, and thus deprive you of all oppor- tunity to carry out your kind intentions respecting me.” I saw in this response, so much sanity, and gratitude; so much in her mind worth cultivating, that it confirmed my de- termination to benefit this most deeply suffering woman if possible. I cannot here recount the experiments I tried to aid her in bringing back to its full triumph, her wavering reason and self-control. My success astonished myself; I felt almost cer- tain she would recover. Respecting the letter Mrs. George so earnestly wished to write to her mother; with much difficulty, I had procured a sheet of paper for my own use; this she begged of me, and wrote upon it a very sensible and affectionate letter to her mother. No fault was found with the Asylum, or with the fact of her long sufferings there, but she gave the idea that though she had been much disordered in mind, she hoped she was now improving; that she trusted she had acquired a good degree of self-control, and thought she could now return to her mother and make both happy. Doctor McFarland soon after appeared in the hall. Leading Mrs. George to him, I ventured to say, in a very respectful tone: HOW TO MAKE INCURABLES. 333 : Doctor McFarland, I am happy to believe this person now fully clothed in her right mind. She has desired me to present a request to you, in behalf of herself and her mother, but I think her better capable of stating her own request, if you will please to listen to it. I then withdrew a little. Mrs. George modestly advanced, and said in a very defer- ential tone: “Oh, Doctor dear, will you please be so very kind as to let me send this letter to my poor feeble mother, if after having read it, you think it proper. She is getting quite old, and I am afraid, may not live the coming winter through. I have caused her much grief, and if I could only be with her, I think I could do much to make her happy. Please Doctor, grant my request, and I will be grateful to you as long as I live.” The Doctor barely deigned to hear this humble supplica- tion, then turned his back, without a word, and left the hall. I had so often witnessed such replies to similar appeals, that I felt not the least surprise, but I much feared the effect of such a repulse upon the sensitive mind of his patient. She had for several weeks, been making the most energetic effort to govern her own mind. She had struggled nobly and successfully to repress the natural rising of indignation, when she had been abused by her keepers, tasked, beaten and re- proached for not being able to quite fulfill the severe exactions in the toiling drudgeries every day assigned to her. With unrepining patience, this child of grief had borne all these indignities, supported by the hope that she should again taste the sweets of liberty and affection with her beloved mother. I had watched with the greatest pleasure, the pro- gress she was making in the few hours of leisure that were allowed her in reading and needle-work. But now, a shock too great for her to sustain, was given by the Doctor's most heartless repulse. 334 MODERN PERSECUTION. A few days subsequent, a marked change for the worse came visibly over her mind and manners. She saw how fruitless were all the efforts she had been able to make for her own re- covery, and again sank into gloomy discouragement. She now laid aside her needle and her book, neglected her personal appearance, began to pace the hall in morose silence, tearing little bits of paper, and again biting her fingers. In vain I remonstrated ; in vain attempted to rally the now departing gleams of reason. She seemed to have a perfect consciousness of her own peril; indeed told me she knew she was on the road to destruction. I sought in every way I could think of to divert her mind, urged her by every possible motive to try to recall hope, and still cultivate patience. “No, no, it is all in vain,” said she, with a look of tearless despair. "You cannot raise me, so little power as you have here. They keep me working most of the time in the wash and ironing rooms, I've made up my mind now, that they mean to keep me here forever, I shall never see my mother any more; never again know the joy of liberty. Oh, I wish I were dead." Her descent was rapid ; a short time after, she tore to shreds every article of clothing upon her person. Her attendant put her at once into solitary confinement. This did not mend the matter, she broke the glass, mutila- ted the furniture, broke the crockery in her room, and with the sharp fragments attacked her attendant, and wounded her severely in the arm. Lizzy quickly locked her door and ran to me, holding up her bleeding arm, requesting me to bind it up for her. I did so, but pitied her victim more than herself. As soon as she dared, she again opened the door of Mrs. George, and called me to look at the scene. What a spectacle ! Never saw I more complete debasement! HOW TO MAKE INCURABLES 335 or more perfect abandonment of all decency in human conduct! She was shouting, swinging her arms, laughing triumphantly and horribly; swearing, dancing and screaming, alternately. She was led to the wash-room, beaten and washed, then straight-jacketed and tightly bound by cords to a stationary bench in the public hall. While sitting here upon the bare floor, she kept constantly uttering the most profane, blasphemous expressions against herself and all around her, against God and nature, heaven and the universe! The young patients stared in perfect horror at her terrible transformation. Her words rolled in perfect torrents from her mouth so long as she had power of utterance. Then she foamed at the mouth which was followed by ges- ticulations and motions so indecent, as to forbid all attempts at description. She became so intolerable, that every patient left that part of the hall, and huddled back into the remotest places, unable longer to endure her vicinity. Her room was close to my own. Her nights, like her days, were spent in raving and shouting : “Oh, curses, curses on Dr. McFarland! Oh, my mother, my mother! Oh, my ruin! my ruin ! ” These were the noises with which I was tormented all the long hours of those terrible nights! Again I feared for the continuance of my own sanity, so almost impossible was it to obtain any sleep. Every particle of decency and of humanity now seemed to have forsaken my once hopeful friend. Her countenance in its contortions had wrought out of itself almost every human feature. It was remarked by one of the patients, that she now looked more like a baboon than like a human being. In a few days, she was removed to the Fifth ward. She is doubtless now, if 336 MODERN PERSECUTION living, ranked among those who have by such a process peen manufactured into incurables. Not far from this time, one of the keys of the hall was missed. Lizzy suspected Miss Hodson, the industrious sewing girl from the Fifth ward, and questioned her. She denied having taken the key, but was not believed. Then commenced the most shocking scene of injustice I had ever beheld. Lizzy insisted that Miss Hodson was guilty of the theft, and commenced searching her room, in every nook and corner. She scattered the bed all over the floor seeking the key. It was all in vain; it was nowhere to be found. She next accused Miss Hodson of having secreted the key about her person. This was also denied. Lizzy then hastily tore off all her clothing, till the helpless victim of such diabolical indecency, feeling a just indignation, wrought up to the highest climax of rage, fought the attend- ant with most terrible desperation. Seeing the contest doubtful Lizzy shouted for reinforce- ment; her fellow attendant came instantly to the rescue. Then both seized their victim, the one holding her arms, the other actually kneeling upon her body and beating her furiously, vociferously shouted: 6 Now tell where you've hid that key ?” Lizzy then pounded her on the bowels and head, kicked her furiously, and in the progress of the battle, tore out her hair, and beat her nose heavily against the floor, raising her head up and down rapidly by the hair The sufferer now ceased all resistance; she became speech- less and as I thought, insensible. Lizzy, to extort the expected confession, then ordered the other attendant to bring a pail of water. I looked on in dumb horror as I then saw those two attendants plunge the bruised NANNANININ MININ HU Popular Mode of Curing Insanity! Lizzie Bonner punishing Miss Hodson, on suspicion of taking her key. See page 336. HOW TO MAKE INCURABLES. 337 head of that motherless orphan into the water, and hold it there till she strangled convulsively gasping for breath. She was now speechless, motionless and naked, they then applied a straight-jacket to her unresisting arms, locked her into a room, and left her! I beheld this whole scene without daring to remonstrate, having been many times punished for trying to excite pity for the victims when under these modes of torture. These injuries of Miss Hodson I think were incurable. She never, while I remained, did any more work for the Institution, but would sit or lie on the floor of her own room mostly, brooding over her unrequited wrongs, in melancholy silence. After the terrible scene I have related, she never was known to converse socially with any one. By swift degrees, she ap- peared to lose all hope ; at last she became a furious maniac. I think they have made her an incurable, if, indeed, she is living. I ought to add, that a few minutes after the perpetration of this outrage, the lost key was found in the shoe of a Mrs. McClay, a patient who had made several attempts to run away. The attendants did not give Mrs. McClay the least punish- ment. I thought it was because they were too much fatigued in fighting Miss Hodson! Justice !! I did not tell the Doctor of this scene. Why should I? I knew that he perfectly well knew that similar scenes were every day occurring in different parts of the Asylum!" Here ends my extract from “ Mrs. Olsen's Prison Life.” My own narrative is resumed in the succeeding chapter. 15 CHAPTER LI. I was Punished for Telling the Truth. The power of truth is irresistible, and disturbs this hidden nest of iniquity. I make no side thrusts through fear of the “ powers that be," knowing that they are wicked powers that cannot harm me, because held in check by the Highest. And so long as I do not prove traitor to this Highest Power, I can claim protection under it. But the first compromise with these hidden powers of evil cuts me off from all claims to the protection of the higher constitution. They try to make themselves believe that it is slander which I utter when attacking the evils of this house ; still they know them to be sad truths, which they would vainly deny, and re- proach me, the medium, as insane, hoping thus to render my testimony nugatory. Did they see I attacked only fancied evils, they would not be thus disturbed by my testimony. But since they know it is real, tangible truth, which I speak, their consciences accuse them, and in despair they are driven to seek this means of quieting them. Could they only make me act as they have made Mrs. Farnside act, they would be relieved of an intolerable burden. Then they could tell of my own actions in support of their theory of my insanity, without telling in connection with them the great provocation which elicited such a mode of defensive action. Mrs. Farnside was subjected to an ordeal which she could not sustain. She fell into a passion before this temptation, and under the influence of this temper, she lost her dignified self-possession. She descended from the plane of lady-like PUNISHED FOR TELLING THE TRUTH. 339 resentment, to their own low plane of brutality, and acted then like her tormentors. Thus she put herself in their power, so that they can now say of her that “they were afraid of her," just as she had had reason to say of them, that “she was afraid of them;" and for this very reason she had to defend herself from them. Although there is precisely the same reason for fear in both cases, yet, Mrs. Farnside bearing the brand of insanity, has to be represented as dangerous on that account, while their own insanity, although more marked, is entirely left out. So in this hidden den of iniquity, the innocent do suffer for the guilty actions of their keepers. Seeing at a glance the artful workings of this hidden mode of treatment, I determined to face the enemy in open opposi- tion to the powers that be,” assuming all the consequences to myself or others; therefore I became a staunch advocate and defender of truth and justice, being extremely careful however to be just to myself, while trying to be just to others. That is, I was careful not to put myself in their power, by coming on to their plane at all. From this higher platform of principle, I could look down. upon them on their lower plane of passion, policy, deception and brutality, and from this standpoint, command the moral courage to be their reprover, and their reporter to the world. They envied my position and determined to take my fort by strategy, since open attacks had proved so unsuccessful. Their chagrin at their hitherto signal defeats had become exceedingly embarrassing, and as their machinery had hitherto proved successful in almost every other instance, they were very loth to abandon the siege. It was for this reason I was kept so long, and made to feel the force of all the combined powers of this dark house of darkest deeds, before they would abandon the siege against this impregnable, invincible fortress of calm self-composure. 340 MODERN PERSECUTION. They feared me, not because I would fight them as Mrs. Farnside did, but because I would not fight! It was for this reason Dr. McFarland wrote to my friends, in the heat of these battles : “ Mrs. Packard has become a dangerous patient, it will not be safe to have her in any private family!” And Mr. David Field, of Granville, Illinois, wrote in reply to this information, and very respectfully inquired what evi- dence I had given in my own actions of being a “dangerous patient.” When he insolently replied, “I do not deem it my duty to answer impertinent questions!” He knew that it would be “ dangerous” to have me in any private family long, for then they would find out what he had discovered, that I was an uncompromising defender of truth and justice, and such weapons he feared, and might well call them “ dangerous” to his interests in the hands of a free woman! He knew too well, that no bribes, no threats, no punish- ments could throw me from the track upon which I had chosen to pass my earth life. And since I had baffled his skill and gigantic powers in this attempt, he was sure the only safe place for such a woman, was behind the dead-locks of an insane asylum ! Mrs. Chapman told me one night at the dance, that she had inquired of Mrs. McFarland why they did treat me so abusively, so unreasonably, so persistently evil. To which she replied, “It is because she slanders the house." I replied, “there is nothing so cutting as the truth ; they have become convinced that I am a fearless truth teller ; therefore they fear me. She is at liberty to prove my repre- sentations slanderous and false, if she can, but she is not at liberty to defame my character to disprove them.” She then added, “ I have also consulted Dr. Tenny about PUNISHED FOR TELLING THE TRUTH. 341 your case. I said to him, how can you treat Mrs. Packard as you do? it would drive me distracted and dethrone my reason entirely, to be put through such a process; and then to per- sist so long, in so abusing an innocent and injured woman, is beyond all precedent; how can you do so ?” “I am only a subordinate—I cannot help it," was his reply. I then told her, “ Mrs. McFarland has been an angel of consolation to me; when I was so exceedingly sorrowful, before Miss Smith's discharge, she actually shed tears of pity for me, and did try to raise my dying hopes, by assuring me I might hope her husband would send me home before long.” “Yes, she can talk sympathy, but why don't she do some- thing for you? Talking sympathy is not what you want ; you want to be treated as your character deserves to be treated.” “Mrs. McFarland did say she could not help my being placed among the maniacs, to be subject to their injurious treatment, but she said she would send me something occa- sionally from their own table. And she has done so. Once she brought me under her apron or in her pocket a tumbler of jelly and a teaspoon to eat it with. And another time I had a quantity of loaf-sugar and lemons and a pitcher of ice-water sent into my room from their kitchen. She also consented to Mrs. Coe's bringing me good things from their kitchen, or anything else she chose to bring, for my comfort. And Mrs. Coe has availed herself of this right, and brought me apples in abundance, raisins, oranges, and prunes, some of which she bought with her own money. She brings me strawberries and sugar, cherries and melons, which Mr. Jones, the Super- intendent of the asylum farm sends me, by permission from Mrs. McFarland, so that through her influence, I have my sorrows lessened perhaps as much as it is possible for her to do, under the circumstances. Indeed, since Mrs. Coe has been our cook, and this license given her, I have hardly been 342 MODERN PERSECUTION a day without some extra luxury, such as fruits, cakes, and confectioneries. Now I think this is “ doing something." “ Yes, it is a comfort to be thus cared for in your now for- lorn condition, but that is not restoring you to your family and society, as you ought to be." “ No, it is not, but the hope of being so, is next to the frui- 'tion, and Mrs. McFarland has held this hope before me as a solace by saying: • I can assure you the Doctor will never consent to take you into this institution again ; you may settle your mind upon that point, and I think the Doctor did very wrong to listen to Mr. Packard so much; and he ought to have sent you home long ago!' and such like rays of hope.” “But I sometimes think, Mrs. Chapman, that I have felt more impatient since she inspired this hope than before. I have been like the soldier so long trying to keep down an inordinate desire to see my children once more, a free woman, that the least probability of the closing of the campaign almost fills me with ecstacy, and each blighting of a hope of this kind seems harder and harder. Another thing I have found, Mrs. Chapman, to be indispensable to my support, is to keep myself constantly employed, that my mind does not prey upon itself. My heart is so keenly alive to emotions and impressions, that a track is necessary for me to move upon, or it might become morbidly sensitive if left to itself. I therefore conscientiously employ each hour according to a set plan for systematic employment. And in this too, I am aided by Mrs. McFarland, for she lets me buy cotton knitting yarn by the pound, and as much muslin as I want to em- broider bands and trimmings of any style I choose. And I am accumulating an immense amount of embroidery for my own and my daughter's under-clothes, expecting, as you see, to live in the world a long time yet to need it !” “Yes, the bow of hope is always to be seen in your horizon." PUNISHED FOR TELLING THE TRUTH. 343- “ Is it not well to have it so ?” 6 Yes, if you can—but were I in your situation I think I should give up in despair.” 66 What would that accomplish ? " “ Nothing, but to let them see the wreck they had caused !” However her argument failed to dispirit me. Indeed I felt stronger for her sympathy, and determined to let matters take their natural course, believing that the dark riddle would be sometime made plain to my comprehension. I was now suffering what I was put in to receive-a“ dres- sing down” for daring to speak the truth respecting the Church dogmas. And now I must not turn back, but face this new enemy I have called into the field, by boldness of speech here—and must endure my punishment for telling the truth about the insane asylum dogmas. Yes, I am being “Punished for Telling the Truth!” And God grant I may never escape from this calaboose of torture, by recanting the truth respecting creeds or asylums! CHAPTER LII. The Prisoner Who Called Himself “Jesus Christ!” One evening at our dancing parties I was introduced to a fine looking young man, with whom I held a very agreeable and intelligent conversation, wherein I failed to detect any indications of loss of reason, or mental unsoundness. Know- ing that he was a new arrival, I, of course, looked for some mental aberration, as his passport to the privileges of our in- stitution. But having signally failed, after the most searching scrutiny, to detect the slightest title to this claim, I began to fear here was another smuggled victim of some evil plot. The longer I conversed, the more confirmed was this suspicion. Determined to pursue my investigations on this point, I sought and found his attendant, and inquired what was the character of the insanity of this young man. He replied, “ I am as ignorant as you are, Mrs. Packard, on that point. I have watched him with the closest scrutiny ever since he was entered, and have entirely failed to detect the first irregularity in any respect. Indeed he is the most kind, obliging and exemplary person I ever saw, and as for sympathy and tenderness towards the patients I never saw it surpassed in any one.” “I fear we have another bogus candidate for the honors of this institution,” replied I, “for I am sure that so far as in- telligence and reason are concerned, he is a most unfit person to receive the brand of insanity.” 66 That is my opinion of his case thus far," replied his at tendant, “ and yet I may be able to detect some peculiarity THE PRISONER, "MR. JESUS CHRIST!” 345 upon a longer acquaintance; still from his appearance during the weeks he has been under my care, I should judge he was the last person who ought to be put under a lock and key." “I very much fear he is another of the many victims of unjust persecution, sent here by those who employ this Insti- tution to shield their own crimes, for there is evidently guilt somewhere in entombing such a promising young man as he is. Won't you please ascertain if you can, what are the facts in the case, and tell me at our next party? for I am making ob- servations and seeking facts for a book on this subject.” At our next party I accordingly pursued these inquiries, and found that, although he had been on the most vigilant search for facts on which his imprisonment was predicated, he had found nothing that could afford any solution to his mind of this dark mystery. He more than confirmed his previous defense of his entire sanity, by adding: “He is the most forgiving, kind, tender sympathizing person I ever saw.” “Yes,” thought I, “here is doubtless another instance where there is too much Christianity for this perverted age to recognize, and therefore he must be offered in sacrifice upon this altar of insanity. Can it be that men as well as women, are imprisoned here, because they exhibit too much of Christ's spirit? I will find out whether this brother in bonds is of this class.” With these thoughts I met my new friend, and extending my hand, said: 66 Good evening, Mr. — , I don't recollect your name.” “ My name is Jesus Christ !” “ Jesus Christ!” thought I, greatly taken aback-I knew not what to say—Oh, this is your insanity, this is your crimi- mal offense, doubtless--but how is this? I am determined never to call a person insane for the utterance of opinions, merely, no matter how absurd—but here is an opinion where, 15* 346 MODERN PERSECUTION. I fear my philosophy will be balked—my principles are not going to stand this test ! With these thoughts, I ventured to pursue my investigations, and recollecting how reasonable and sensible he had appeared, I asked him in reply to this introduction of himself: 6 But how is it, Sir, you can call yourself Jesus Christ, when he is the Son of God, and came to earth, and was here crucified for sinners ?” “Oh, I am not that Jesus Christ, but another Jesus Christ!- he is my oldest brother, and I being of the same family bear the same name, but, of course, there can be but one oldest brother in the great human family, any more than in any other family. Haven't you more than one son in your family?” 66 Yes, I have five sons, my oldest is named Theophilus, my others, Samuel, George, etc." “Well, but are they not all Packards, the Samuel as well as the Theophilus ? and is there any more impropriety in calling George the youngest, a Packard, than in calling The- ophilus, the oldest, a Packard ?” . “Why, no, not in that sense.” 66 Just so it is in God's family—all his sons are Jesus Christs as much as the first, just as soon as they become perfectly developed into his spirit. Such are Jesus Christs, whether on earth or in heaven, as much as Jesus of Nazareth was; but they are all different persons. There is but one Jesus of Nazareth, but there are as many Christs as there are true perfected men. Such are all brothers bearing the same com- mon name, after Christ is fully developed in them.” « Then you claim that the Christ is fully developed in you, do you, and that on this account you call yourself Jesus Christ?” “Yes, I do. I consider that I am now perfect in God's estimation, in the same sense that his oldest son was perfeet. This is fulfilling the command to be ye perfect in Chriši THE PRISONER, “MR. JESUS CHRIST!” 347 Jesus '-meaning, perfect in Christ Jesus' estimation. I am not perfect in the estimation of the church, or the world; but in God's estimation, I have obeyed his command, in this re- spect. Do you think God would have commanded his children to do impossibilities ? and if they could not become perfect in His estimation, he is an unreasonable being in issuing such a command.” So here my « Mr. Jesus Christ” had explained himself to simply mean that he was a perfect man. He insists that he is not the Christ, the world's Saviour, but simply a perfect person in Christ Jesus' estimation. Now, where is his insanity ? even his “hobby,” where has that gone? Just into the belief of the perfectionists, as it was defended by Dr. Finney and others of this class. Now comes the question, shall this man be locked up in an “Asylum” because he says he is a perfect man—in a style of language peculiar to himself-in order to force him to abandon his originality of expression, and become an echo of other men's forms of expression ? Yes, because he is insane on this point. Insane! because he chooses to utter an opinion respecting his own character in original language! What a dangerous person to be allowed his liberty! Won't he kill somebody? for somebody has chosen to call this peculiarity insanity, in- stead of a singular mode of expression. Still he is dangerous, for we do not know what an insane person might do, although his opinions of himself seems to be true—that is—he seems to exhibit the Christ spirit to an uncommon degree, yet he may kill somebody! therefore he must be locked up. It won't do to wait until he has killed somebody and then imprison him as we do criminals after they have committed a crime. 348 MODERN PERSECUTION. We must imprison this man not only before he has com- mitted any crime, but even before he has shown the first indi- cation that he ever intended to commit a criminal offense! Yes, he claims that he is Jesus Christ, and so long as he acts like Jesus Christ, he must be locked up to make him like other people, lest he kill somebody! Now I think if all those who call themselves " Jesus Christ," and act like Jesus Christ, ought to be locked up for fear they may kill somebody, all those who call themselves 5 totally de- praved,” and act as though they are totally depraved, ought to be locked up also, for fear they may kill somebody too! CHAPTER LIII. My First Opportunity for Self-Defence. A few days prior to the September meeting of the Trustees, 1862, in a familiar conversation I had with Dr. McFarland in my room, I remarked: 6 Doctor, I don't like to spend my days here doing nothing; why can't I fire a few guns at Calvinism, before those Trus- tees, who are to meet in a few days ? " 6 Why, Mrs. Packard, they are Calvinists, and the chair- man is a member of the Presbyterian Synod of the United States !” “I don't care for that, I should not hesitate to give my views before the Synod itself, if allowed. And besides, it is all the better for your cause that they are, for my views will be likely to be regarded by them as insane, because a difference of opinion is insanity you know-on the minority side of the question of course! Now one, alone, against so many—and that one a woman, too—what have you to fear?” This was enough. He was converted into a free and full consent that I might “ fire all the guns” I pleased at Calvin- write my views upon. “Now," thought he, “ Mrs. Packard will unmask herself, rectly in calling her insane. Yes, she'll hang herself !” The Doctor was true to his promise, and brought me paper himself, the first sheet he had ever given me, and I, true to my engagement, made out the most clear, concise, and com- prehensive view I could of the whole system of Calvinism, as I viewed it, by contrasting each principle with the Christian 350 MODERN PERSECUTION. principle, showing the system to be a doctrines of devils," instead of doctrines of Christ! The Doctor examined my document, and finding it all right he engaged to call for me the next day, in the afternoon, and take me down to the parlor, where I should then meet the Trustees. Keeping my wardrobe in order for the dancing parties, I easily found a very suitable summer costume in readiness for the occasion, which, with a tasteful head-dress to relieve the sky-blue trimmings of my white lawn dress, I made quite as good an appearance as any one need desire. Therefore with more of a queen-like feeling, than that of an imprisoned slave, I took the proffered arm of the Doctor, and was escorted by him into the parlor of these grave, dignified gentlemen, and introduced, in the most gallant manner, first to the chairman, and then to the other gentlemen, sepa- rately, after which, he led me to a most conspicuous seat by the chairman, when I withdrew my arm from his own, and sat down. Here I must notify my readers that there was one gentle- man present to whom he did not introduce me, and to whom I did not speak. But, as I afterwards learned, he did speak of me, and of the impression made on his feelings, as he saw me so politely escorted into the room by the Doctor, in these words: “ I never saw a lady look so sweet and attractive as she did!” Now I will introduce the gentleman to my readers as Rev. Mr. Packard, the husband of this lady. The chairman, Mr. Brown, then addressed me in these words: “Mrs. Packard, we have heard Mr. Packard's statements, and Dr. McFarland has informed us that you have something you would like to say to us. We will allow you ten minutes to say it in.” MY FIRST SELF DEFENCE. 351 Taking out my watch and looking at it, I remarked to the Doctor who sat opposite me: 66 Please inform me when my time is up, will you sir ? and I will stop at any moment you designate.” Nodding his consent, I commenced reading my document with a clear, calm, distinct voice, to a silently attentive audience. So profound was the silence, I could almost hear the joyous pulsations of my own heart. On, on, I went, assailing fortress after fortress of the Cal- vinistic creed, and notwithstanding the havoc and devasta- tion, thus caused by the skillful use of the weapon of truth and common-sense, still was tolerated. Neither did my time- keeper inform me that I was trespassing upon the limits assigned me, although my ten minutes were soon lost in fifty minutes before our interview terminated. Having finished my “ Exposure of Calvinism and Defence of Christianity,” I was emboldened by their toleration to ask another license, which was, permission to read another docu- ment which I had clandestinely prepared and taken with me, but which the Doctor had never seen. That this license was most cheerfully and readily granted, was indicated not only by an unanimous hand vote of the Trustees, but also by the accompanying exclamations: “Let her go on! Let us hear the whole !” In view of this generous and cheerful response, I playfully remarked : “ I should think appearances betoken that I am in the ele- ment where freedom of opinion is tolerated.” “ We don't know about women thinking as they please! We must look after them,” responded Mr. Club. He was promptly silenced, however, by the noble “woman's right’s” Miner, remarking in a very decided tone: “Go on! Mrs. Packard-Go on!” After thanking friend Miner for his generous defence, I 352 MODERN PERSECUTION. proceeded to read my unknown document to equally attentive listeners. This document exposed “ The Conspiracy of their Super- intendent and Mr. Packard against my personal liberty, in as bold and uncompromising terms as my exposure of Calvinism had been given in. Still I was tolerated! The Superintendent and the Minister listened in mute amazement to this dauntless revelation of the truth and their own guilt. Without denying one of my statements, or offering a single apology, Mr. Packard left the room at the request of the Trustees. The Superintendent soon followed. The Trustees now acted the part of cross-questioning attor- neys, while I their witness, was secretly exulting in the oppor- tunity thus afforded me, of making further revelations of the depth and magnitude of this malign conspiracy. The playful, easy style and manner in which I made my statements, seemed to dissipate the sanctimonious gravity of this august body—so that they came to seemingly regard me as one of their number, instead of a culprit under the grace of court! They manifested a willingness to do anything and everything I asked. Mr. Brown told me that he saw it was of no use for me to think of returning to my husband, assuring me he now under- stood that my incarceration had been obtained in consequence of my using my reason, instead of losing my reason! He kindly offered to send me, independently of Mr. Packard, to my children at Manteno, if I thought best to go; or, they would pay my passage to go to my father in Massachusetts ; or, they would pay my board in Jacksonville, if I chose. In short, I could have my liberty to do just as I pleased, as they were satisfied the Insane Asylum was no place for me. Of course, I thanked them most sincerely for this offer of liberty—to me the most blessed boon of my existence, adding: MY FIRST SELF DEFENCE. 353 6 Gentlemen, it is of no use for me to accept this offer at your hands, for although you acknowledge by this act that I have a right to my liberty, yet, you have no power to protect this right to me-for since I am a married woman, I have no legal protection of my person, or any of my rights, only as this pro- tection is guaranteed to me through the voluntary act of my husband. The law does not compel him to protect or support me outside of an Insane Asylum, if he only chooses to claim that I am insane. This charge from my husband, even before it is proved against me, annihilates all my rights as a human being, not even excepting the right of self-defence from this charge. But on this, his single allegation, confirmed by the signature of your Superintendent, he can lawfully imprison me for life in this, or some other Insane Asylum. No father, brother, son or friend, or even our Governor himself, has the power to protect the personal liberty of any married woman in this State, while such a law exists on Illinois' statute book. There is no protection of my personal liberty under the American flag, so long as Mr. Packard lives, therefore I may as well spend my days in this prison as in any other.” The Trustees replied, “ We pity you—it is a hard case—we never before realized how defenceless a married woman was under our laws—but what can we do for you? Is there any- thing ?” “Yes, gentlemen, there is one thing you can do, and only one that I can see, by which you can exonerate yourselves from complicity in this transaction, and at the same time confer a great favor upon me, which is, to furnish me with a key, or a pass, by which my personal liberty would be in my own hands, rather than in your hands as it now is. I might continue to stay for the present, as I have done, subject to the rules of the other prisoners, in all other respects, except that of being my own keeper. I have felt it my duty to protest against my false 354 MODERN PERSECUTION. imprisonment, and have, thereby, shut myself up more closely than the others are, for in my protest I said, 'I shall never return a voluntary prisoner into the wards,' neither can I do so, for I regard this vow as sacred. Indeed, I cannot now even return to the wards voluntarily, without a key or a pass. And if you force me back, it is you who are imprisoning me, and on you must hereafter rest the responsibility of being accomplices in this conspiracy." They did not give me a key, nor a pass, neither did they request Dr. McFarland to do so, but thus compelled the Superintendent to carry me back in his own arms, as was the case. But they did confer upon me the right to advise with the Doctor, assuring me I might do as he and myself could agree it was best to be done. Accordingly, the following day the Superintendent called upon me in my room, and introduced the subject by saying: “ Well, Mrs. Packard, the Trustees thought you hit the mark with your gun!” 66 Did they? Was that what they were shouting at, after I left the room ?” “Yes, it was; for I told them that you wished to fire a few guns at Calvinism.?” “I knew, Doctor, that I had put in a heavy charge, but I determined to risk it, and improve my chance lest I should not get another. I somewhat feared it might burst the cannon ! but it did not; for I see none of them believe me to be an insane person, after all.” “Mrs. Packard, won't you give me a copy of that document, for what is worth hearing once, is worth hearing twice.” 6 Yes, Doctor, I am perfectly willing to do so, for I should like you to have a copy, and the Trustees also, and I should like my father to have one, and my early friend and teacher, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and some others of my Orthodox MY FIRST SELF DEFENCE. 355 friends. But it is very irksome for me to copy. How would it do to get a few printed in handbill form, and send them to my friends ?” “I think it would be well to do so, and I will pay the printer. You re-write it, and add to it what was said, and I will see that it is done, forthwith.” “Do you mean to have both documents printed? The Ex- posure of the Conspiracy, also ??? “Yes, the whole ; and anything else you may choose to add.” “ Well done, for Dr. McFarland! If you are going to give me such liberty, I shall feel that I am a free woman; and this may possibly prepare the way for my liberation.” The paper was faithfully furnished by the Doctor, and I, with the most elastic feelings which this hope of deliverance inspired, went to work to prepare my document for the prin- ter. But before twenty-four hours had elapsed since this liberty license was granted to my hitherto prison bound intellect, the vision of a big book began to dawn upon my mind, accompa- nied with the most delightful feeling of satisfaction with my undertaking. The next time the Doctor called, I told him that: “ It seems to me I must write a book. The thoughts and their arrangement, are all new and origina?, until suggested to my mind by this sort of mental vision. What shall I do, Doctor ?” “ Write it out just as you see it.” He then furnished me with paper, and gave directions to the attendants to let no one disturb me, and let me do just as I pleased. I commenced writing out this mental vision, and in six weeks I penciled the substance of “ The Great Drama," which, when written out for the press, covers two thousand five hundred pages of note paper. Can I not truly say my train of thought was engineered by he “ Lightning Express ?” 356 MODERN PERSECUTION. I had no books to aid me but Webster's large Dictionary, and the Bible. It came wholly through my own reason and intel- lect, quickened into unusual activity by the perfect state of my health, from the most persistent conformity to the laws of health in eating, sleeping, and exercise, and by the inspiring hope of coming freedom. The production is a remarkable one, as well as the indicting of it, a very singular phenome- non. If, during my life-time, this “Great Drama" can be published and not imperil my personal liberty, I shall be happy to give it to the world. But until that time arrives, when an original thought can be spoken or written, without incurring the charge of insanity for such an act, my personal liberty is only safe, while this manu- script is hidden from the age in which it was written. CHAPTER LIV My Exposure of Calvinism and Defence of Christianity, as Presented to the Trustees. GENTLEMEN—I am accused of teaching my children doc- trines ruinous in their tendency, and such as alienate them from their father. I reply that my teachings and practice both are ruinous to Satan's cause, and do alienate my children from satanic influences. I teach Christianity; my husband teaches Calvin- ism. These are antagonistic systems, and uphold antagonistic authorities. Christianity upholds God's authority. Calvinism, the devil's authority. Calvinism befriends slavery. Christianity befriends liberty. The kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan can no longer exist in one and the same family or government. The time has come when the tares and the wheat must be separa- ted; for the harvest of the world is fully ripe. Calvin was a bigot-an intolerant despot—a murderer. Christ was a kind, liberal, charitable and tolerant friend and protector to all, and the Saviour of all. Calvin trespassed upon the inalienable rights of others. Christ protected the rights of all. Calvin hated with a deadly hate his Christian brother. Christ loved with saving power his enemies. Calvinism is treason to God's government. Christianity is loyalty to God's government. Calvinistic marriage requires the subjection of woman. Christian marriage requires the protection of woman. 358 MODERN PERSECUTION. The teachings of Christ and those of Calvin are antago- nistic. Christ taught there is but one God. Calvin taught there are three Gods. Christ taught that he was the Son of God. Calvin taught that he was God himself. Christ taught that the Son could not be as old as his Father. Calvin taught that they could be of the same age. Christ taught that he was a subordinate being, subject to God's authority, and that he acted with delegated power as the world's Saviour, and that when this end was fully achieved he should deliver up his delegated authority to his Father, and he himself be subject to him, and God would then be “all and in all.” Calvin taught that Christ was God himself, and acted by his own self-derived authority. Christ taught that God was the Father of all the human family, and as such, purposes and designs the best good of all his children; and he taught that he had Omnipotent power to carry out and accomplish all the benevolent purposes of his paternal nature. Calvin taught that the larger part of the human family were the children of the devil, and that he had Omnipotent power to thwart God's purposes concerning such, and could ensure to them eternal destruction in spite of God's intention and purpose to redeem the whole of the human family from destruction. Christ taught that every sin would receive its just punish- ment—that the law of justice was inexorable—that the only way to escape punishment was to escape the cause of punish- ment. Calvin taught that the favorites in God's family would be exonerated from this law, simply because they believed that Christ died for sinners. CALVINISM ANI) CHRISTIANITY. 359 Christ taught that punislıment would continue so long as transgression continued, that whenever repentance took place, pardon ensued; and that all would sometime repent, because he had purposed to save all in this way alone ; and he taught that death and hell would finally be destroyed, and, of course, if the effect ceased, the cause must have ceased. Calvin taught that the greater part of God's family would transcend God's ability to discipline into subjugation to his authority and obedience to his commands; and that failing in his ability so to do, he was determined to show his power over them by keeping them in endless, hopeless torment, and thus, fiend-like, manifest his despotic authority by forever torturing his helpless victims. Calvin taught that the day of probation terminated with the death of our natural bodies. Christ taught that there were no limits to God's mercy, that he was unchangeable, “the same yesterday, to-day, and for- ever," therefore, repentance will always remain a condition of pardon—the free-agency is an indispensable law of our moral nature, over which the death of our natural body has no in- fluence—that this natural law of our physical being has no more influence or control over the laws of our moral nature than the natural law of eating or sleeping has over them—or, that putting off our natural body has no more power to change the laws of our moral nature than a change of clothing has to change the character. Christ taught that our natures are holy—that all their God- given instincts and laws are but a type of his own nature which we cannot violate with impunity—that to disregard nature's claim, is to disregard God's claims. And he has shown us what these claims are by living a natural life himself on earth, for our example. He has shown us that sin consists in violating the laws of our God-given nature—thus depraving, or perverting it, from its original tendencies; that he came to 360 restore human nature from its present perverted condition to its original, natural state of innocence. Calvin taught that our natures are sinful, that to live a natural life is to live a sinful life. He taught that human nature is our worst foe, which we must conquer into subjec- tion to his perverted standard of faith and practice, or be lost eternally. Christ taught that to be baptized we must go down into the water and come up out of the water, as he did. Calvin taught that to be baptized we must stand up in a house and be sprinkled. Christ taught that to feel right we must first do right. Calvin taught that to do right we must feel right. Christ taught us to overcome evil with good.” Calvin taught us to overcome evil with evil—that the first and if you are too honest to say you were bad when you felt that you were not, it was the darkest sign of guilt-so that the upright, sincere soul felt driven to become bad, so that he could make an honest confession of his guilt in order to secure the confidence of his Christian brethren that he was converted. Christ taught that to clothe ourselves with his righteousness, was to do like him, be like him, by doing right in everything. Calvin taught that to clothe ourselves with Christ's right- eousness was to act contrary to the dictates of human nature and utterly repudiate obedience as a meritorious act, or as a reason why we should be acquitted and justified in God's sight, and depend wholly upon the merits of Christ, entirely independent of our own; or, in other words, to continue in an unnatural state, depending upon a soveregin act of God to appropriate the vicarious sufferings of Christ for our benefit, independent of our accountability. Calvin taught that the elect were all that would or could be saved, and that these were God's children, and all others the devil's children. CALVINISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 361 Christ taught that all were God's dear children—that all had good and evil in them, but that all the evil in them he came to destroy. And that for this purpose, he had elected some of his children and capacitated them by peculiar sufferings and trials to be co-workers with him for the good of the many. As if a father should bestow peculiar advantages upon one child, that he might be fitted to be the educator of his other children. This is “ The economy of grace.” I believe that with these, his educated company of sanctified ones, who have come out of great tribulation, such as he endured on earth, he will make such assaults upon Satan's kingdom as will ensure its entire overthrow and destruction. I believe that this reign of Christ on the earth, with his elect co-workers, is about to be inaugurated; and that these troublous times are only the day of preparation for a better state than has ever been experienced on earth. The clouds which precede this bright, millenial day, will soon be dispersed by the Sun of Righteousness; and that a kingdom is about to be established, which shall never be destroyed. Then will the great work of redeeming a lost world com- mence, with accelerated power and efficiency. Christ, with his chosen band of purified ones, will then make practical the beneficent, self-sacrificing principles of his unselfish nature, so that no inveterate foe to His government and reign—not even the stoutest Calvinist—will be able then to resist, effectually, any one of his benevolent plans to save the whole class of Calvinists from endless torment, by leading them to bow to his sceptre, and become kind and tolerant towards others, as Christ and his followers are toward them. I believe that all who have died unsanctified, will live again on the earth, where their surroundings will be so favorable, that they will be able to live natural lives, and, in this manner, take the first step to a higher spiritual life. For God says, with no exception, “ First the natural, then the spiritual.” 16 362 MODERN PERSECUTION. And the poor deluded Calvinist, who has been led to despise nature, will not be found to have committed a sin too great for his benevolent Sovereign to pardon, on the ground of late repentance. I believe that some incorrigible Calvinists may compel God to punish them one thousand years in what, to them, is endless torment, before they will be willing to renounce Calvin's crecd, and adopt Christ's creed—“ to do unto others as they would wish to be done by”-in its stead. The sum of my practical theology is contained in the fol- lowing stanza: “ With cheerful feet thy path of duty run, God nothing does, nor suffers to be done, But what thou wouldst thyself, couldst thou put see Through all events of things as well as He.” Reflections. 1. This impious, Calvinistic attempt to chain my thoughts, by calling me “insane,” for opinion's sake, and imprisoning me on this account, is a crime against the constitution of this free government, and also a crime against civilization and human progress. For who will dare to be true to the inspira- tions of the divinity within them, if the pioneers of truth are thus liable to lose their personal liberty for life, for so doing ? 2. The law by which I am imprisoned, which entirely de- prives a married woman of the primeval law of heaven—the right of self-defence—is a Calvinistic law, since it conflicts with the gospel—the golden rule. 3. This notorious family rebellion, is the legitimate fruit of the Calvinistic law of marriage, which enslaves the wife. And the only cure for it, is legal, constitutional emancipation, based upon the principles of God's government, which demand liberty to all. CALVINISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 363 4. This kidnapping intelligent moral agents of their account- ability is the climax of all human wrongs to which Calvinism gravitates. An imprisonment as a criminal does not begin to compare with it in cruelty-since a criminal is regarded as an accountable being. He is not locked up to be deprived of the Godhead within him! His capacity to become a guilty, wicked person, is allowed him—and this capacity, even with guilt at- tending it, is less to be dreaded, than a feeling of annihilation -an extinction of human capacities and being. Gentlemen, I claim ability to defend every sentiment herein advanced by sound argument, and I pledge myself ready now to do so, either in an extemporaneous defence, or a written dis- cussion. And I will engage to write a volume in their defence and have it ready for publication at your next meeting, if you will be so kind as to furnish me with paper to write it upon. It would be the greatest luxury to me, to thus be able to improve this opportunity, to advance the cause of truth and righteousness on earth, so that when called to give an account of my earthly stewardship, it may appear, that while numbered with the incapacitated, useless members of society, I did what I could for the cause most dear to my heart. Dr. McFarland, please to accept my most grateful thanks for permitting me this privilege of presenting some of my most radical views of religious truth before the Trustees. Gentlemen, Trustees of this Institution, as your friend, I advise you to follow the dictates of your individual consciences, God's secretary within you, in performing the part Providence has assigned you in this great drama. Remember, gentlemen, we are a free people, and every citizen living under this Gov- ernment has a right to form his own opinions, and having formed them, he has a right to express his individual opinions wherever he may think proper. And whosoever seeks to imprison him because he does this, is a traitor to that flag and the cause which it represents. CHAPTER LV. The Dawning of a New Dispensation. The reader will now perceive that a new dispensation has dawned upon me—that the Superintendent is regarding his prisoner in the light of a citizen, rather than a slave. And if any of my readers feel disposed to censure me for seeming so readily to forgive this great sinner, let me remind them that they may perhaps be better prepared to judge cor- rectly of my feelings if they could exchange situations with me. Ever since the Doctor had taken my part in the insult of the Jacksonville aristocrats, I had an occasional cause to feel that my happiness was not an object of such stoical indiffer- ence to him as it formerly had been. And besides, I had noticed that just in proportion as I had Dr. McFarland's approval, just in that proportion was I regarded as a terror to the evil-doer; neither was my influence over those who were doing well lessened by it. Therefore, benevolence itself would prompt me to impress” this influence into a good cause, if possible. And with me it has always been a settled purpose to train my own children and scholars to do right under the influence of encourage- ment rather than censure. I am more watchful to find out some cause for just approbation, rather than for fault-finding. This being my native or home element it is not strange that I should seize with avidity the first opening bud of promise on this barren stock of manliness, which daily passed under my observation. Yes, I did strive with all the charity and forgiveness I could command, to find every hopeful sign that possibly could be DAWNING OF A NEW DISPENSATION. 365 summoned into the exercise of encouragement to the well- doer; for my principles led me to despise the flatterer as well as the slanderer—that is, I could no more praise without cause for praise, than I could blame without cause for blame. Both being falsehoods, I could practice neither, and it was not possible for me to determine which evil of the two was the greatest, therefore, I strove to avoid both. Again, my theology teaches me that in every human being there is a soul to be redeemed. That in every rock there is a well. Could I not, therefore, hope that the drill of long and patient perseverance might yet reach this spring in this Doctor's flinty heart? Yes, I had my hope quickened into a spasmodic life that the latent spark of manliness in this hardened sinner, might yet be developed into the strength of a vigorous life, correspond- ing to his intellectual strength. It was my aim and purpose thus to develop him, by the only power in the universe ad- equate to this work, and fitted for it, and that is a woman's in- fluence.” Indeed I fully determined that in the same ratio that he had tried to crush the womanhood in me, in that same proportion would I raise the manhood in him. And although my first effort for his elevation cost me banishment from the scenes of civilization, to dwell among maniacs, yet this did not dispirit me, nor cause me to regret the effort. I know too, that God does not require one sinner to punish another sinner, for he has expressly claimed the right of pun- ishment as being his own prerogative. The Great Father of the human family has not delegated the right to one child to punish the faults of another—on the contrary, he claims the right of punishment as exclusively his own. Therefore as his child I am bound to refer to my Father, the settlement of the wrongs I receive from my brothers and sisters. All he allows me to do is, to do them good, that is to defend myself by benefiting them, not by injuring them. 366 MODERN PERSECUTION, Now the greatest good I could bestow upon Dr. McFarland was to influence him to stop sinning, by doing justice towards me forthwith. And now that he had taken the first decided step in that direction, I aimed to urge him onward by every possible influence. Again, I do not feel called upon to judge of the motives of my fellow sinners. If they act right, it is none of my business what motive prompted the act. For example, if Dr. McFarland allows me the right of self- defense, and thereby secures my personal liberty, I have a right to acknowledge the act as a good one, even if he was compelled to do so through fear of exposure or punishment, or even if selfish policy, and nothing else prompted him to do this good deed. His subsequent course has demonstrated that he had no good end in view, so far as I was concerned, in allowing me to write this book, but on the contrary he determined to use the book as the means of getting me again incarcerated. As he had allowed me to expose Calvinism before the trus- tees, for the purpose of getting their sanction in calling me an insane person ; so he now allowed me to write a book, hoping thus to secure the sanction of my readers in calling me insane. And notwithstanding the whole plot had been conceived and executed on the principles of the most conceited selfishness, yet, I have no right on that ground to call the act a wrong, or a bad act. These may have been the highest motives this hardened sinner could possibly exercise, on this low plane on which his persistent iniquities had placed him. And since my Father in Heaven does not ignore fear, as a bad motive, why should I? He says, “ the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” evidently representing this prin- ciple as the very lowest round of the ladder of human pro- gression yet being an agent employed by God for the sinner's arrest in his downward course, we should not despise it, lest, DAWNING OF A NEW DISPENSATION. 367 we thus “ quench the smoking flax or break the bruised. reed.” But the caviler may say, “what goodness can be attributed to the act of giving you what was already yours by the right of inheritance, as a human being? Your right of self-defense was not Dr. McFarland's to bestow, even if he did allow you to use this right, while others withdrew from you every op- portunity for its exercise. It was yours already. You did not seem to feel under any special obligation to Mr. Packard for giving you your old clothes on this principle.” No, I did not, for he was at this time beyond the limits of Christian fellowship. I felt conscious that the law of love required me to withdrew from him all fellowship, believing he belonged to that class whom we are commanded to treat in this manner, for their good. I had borne with him until for- bearance had ceased to be a virtue; for every act of fellowship bestowed, only encouraged him in his course of wrong doing. I had for twenty-one years pursued this uniform course of per- sistent kindness, only to be trampled under his feet, for so do- ing, and now circumstances compelled me to treat him on a plane lower even than the fear of punishment. From that class who cannot be moved even by the lowest motive in human development, I feel bound to withdraw my- self, knowing that stern justice alone can now move them in the line of repentance, and as he had denied me the least shadow of justice in the right of self-defense, it was now meet that he should experience the justice he had denied me. This was not taking justice into my own hands, it was only leaving him to his own chosen way to work out his own de- struction, unimpeded. All hope of deliverance from this in- corrigible sinner, had long since gone out in utter darkness. He had deliberately put me off upon another man's protection, by withdrawing his own entirely. And I must say that I felt a little exultant, under the 368 MODERN PERSECUTION. thought that my entrance on the Doctor's arm might possibly make him feel that I had found in the protector he had chosen for me, one that suited me better than the one of my own choice! Here let me say to my husband, that it is perfectly natural for me to love the opposite sex, it need not be a matter of surprise to him if I should come to love the only man he al- lowed me to associate with, for three years, especially if I can find in him anything worthy of my love. And failing to find the jewel I sought in this personifica- tion of a man determined to develop it, if woman's influence could do it, and now my hopes so long buried, were just ger- minating, and that they might perfect the beautiful buds of promise was to me my soul inspiring business to hasten this consummation. Under the influence of these new and most joyous emotions I pursued my delightful employment of writing my most novel book. The gallant and now gentlemanly Doctor's visits were most welcome seasons of rich and varied interchange of thoughts, so that my mind seemed stimulated into a new and healthful activity from this powerful magnetic influence. The sound of his footsteps in the hall, and his gentle knock at my door now caused my heart to bound with joy as before it had caused a throb of anguish, to know that he was on his way to my room, into which he would bolt the most uncere- moniously, without caring whether he was welcome or not. Now to be treated as a lady, in this gallant manner, by this once boorish man, was to me the inauguration of a new and delightful era of my prison life. But the brightest day has its clouds, and the finest gold its dross, as will be demonstrated in the following chapter. CHAPTER LVI. The Moral Barometer Indicates a Storm -A Hurricane. Woman's love for man is based on the principle of reverence. We can never truly love a man who has never inspired in us the feeling of fear, or reverence. A woman's nature calls for protection, as instinctively as the climbing rose calls for some- thing stronger than itself to climb upon. She can not, naturally, cling to a nature weaker than her own, any more than the vine can naturally climb without a stronger support than its own to cling to. Fear, respect, and reverence, are emotions which superiority alone can inspire. I cannot exercise the feeling of reverence towards a being whom I do not look up to, as to a superior. A child cannot reverence his parent, unless that parent can command the feeling of authority over the child. Until this fear, or authority is established, the foundation stone of the edifice of filial love is wanting. A servant cannot reverence nor love his master, unless the principle of authority is estab- lished in the master. Let the servant, or the child feel that he can rule the master, or parent, and thus hold his authority in his own hands, then the foundation for contempt or irrever- ence is established. God commands the love of all his creatures on the principle of superiority, which inspires reverence for his authority, and from this root, the purest, tenderest, most confiding love, nat- urally germinates. Woman's nature is peculiarly fitted to love such a being, feel- ing him to be the embodiment of strength and power, such as 16* 370 MODERN PERSECUTION. she wants, to meet her instinctive aspirations. God tells us he has made man in his image, and therefore, on this basis, she turns to him as her natural protector. She finds in man, this tower of strength and wisdom, which she, like the vine is in search of, that she may live a natural life. When she finds a man combining strength and wisdom su- perior to her own, she as naturally desires this power as her shield and defence, as she naturally desires food and sleep, to meet a demand of her nature. For example, my nature being endowed with the instincts of a natural woman, has ever sought for a personified deity in a man form, to reverence and love. This feeling was first exer- cised towards my father, whose authority and kindness quick- ened this latent spark into activity. His authority was the stepping-stone to God's authority. He was to my childish nature, God's representative, and just in proportion as I rever- enced my father's authority, just in that proportion did I rev- erence God's authority. As the child, in time, lost itself in the mature woman, so the filial love for my father became merged into a higher love of manhood, that of companionship, as well as protection. Un- like some children, I could not find in my father that kind of companionship my development demanded. He ruled me still, but not through my freedom, as my intelligence demanded. This, therefore, stifled this confiding spirit, because it could not act in conflict with reason. And so it was with the feelings awakened by my husband's authority; he mingled with it so much of the tyrant, at the same time denying me the protection of the man, that my higher love was never quickened into natural life under either influence. This great want of my nature, spiritual freedom, was never met or gratified, until this period, when, under the manly protection of Dr. McFarland, I was allowed to write an independent book, free from all dictation. STORM-A HURRICANE. 371 The awe of the tyrant was now settling into a reverence for a mighty power, adequate to this great emergency. As he had had almost omnipotent power to crush, so he now had this same power to raise and defend me. The power of the Husband, the power of the Trustees, the power of the State, had all been delegated to him. As to the power of protection, he was all in all to me now; and the spiritual freedom granted to me by this power was almost God-like. Dr. McFarland knew that one great object in my writing my book, was to destroy the evils of Insane Asylums, and he knew too, that in order to expose these evils, I must necessarily expose him in his abuse of power. Still, like the Trustees, he tolerated the truth, sad though it was—for example: One day he came to my room after I had just completed a delineation of himself through his own actions which pre- sented him in a most unfavorable light, and as I allowed him to see all I wrote, if he wished it, I handed him these sheets, saying: "Doctor, what will you do when such facts come to be pub- lished? Can you stand before them ?” After reading them carefully through, he remarked with a deep sigh: “If I stand at all, I must stand before it, for it is the truth!!” Could I help reverencing a power who would thus submis- sively and coolly take this severe chastisement from one whom he regarded as his dependent ? No, I could not. I felt that here was a eulogy, a compliment bestowed in a manly style, surpassing anything I had ever witnessed. It said to me: “Mrs. Packard, I can trust you, I will trust you, for you are such a truthful witness I dare not confront you.” Yes, his fortitude, his patience, his tolerance under my 372 MODERN PERSECUTION. castigation-severe as his own unvarnished actions made them—really moved my pity, and led me to exclaim: “Oh, Doctor, how could you compel me to write such a hateful record! How could you act so meanly! How I do wish I had no such sad truths to tell! Now Doctor, you must give me a chance to redeem your character as a penitent. Won't you do so ?” Yes, he did resolve to be my manly protector, by letting me write just such a book as I pleased, thus trusting his character, as it were, entirely in my hands. Oh, this trust!—This sacred trust-second to nothing but the ark of truth! Under the influence of these feelings, the legitimate offspring of such exhibitions of manliness, I prepared the first installment of 6 The Great Drama," for publication. I told him the manuscript was ready for the printer, and inquired if he held himself responsible to publish this, by the first offer he had made me. Of course there was ground for hesitation by the enhanced expense. I, therefore, offered to write to my son and get the extra amount, to meet this emergency. Still he hesitated—I thought too, I could detect the old (s policy" principle coming into life again, aiming to supplant the self-sacrificing spirit of benevolence, which seemed to be just taking root in his heart. I trembled—knowing that my all depended upon his continuance in well doing. I asked wisdom. It was impressed upon my mind to write him a letter-I did so—and as I took it to my attendant, Miss Mills, and asked her to carry it to the Doctor's office, and deliver it herself, I said, as the presentiment of the coming storm came over me: “ This may bring a storm of indignation upon me; if it does, do the best you can for me, but don't tell a lie to help me." In this note I had expressed my fears, that the fear of man A STORM-A HURRICANE. 373 was gaining the ascendency over his better nature—that in- stead of daring to trust himself where the truth would place him, as his higher nature prompted, I feared he was settling down on to the plane of selfish policy, so beneath the noble dignity of his nature, and I gently warned him of the conse- quences of such a relapse, saying: "I shall be just as much bound to expose the truth, as be- fore; but with this relapse I cannot save you with this cause of truth, as you will not then be the penitent, which is indispensable to my saving you with the ark of truth.” In short, I added, “ If you fail to keep your promise to publish my book, or help me to liberty, I shall feel bound to fulfill my promise to expose you." In about one hour from the time Miss Mills delivered the note, I heard his footsteps in the hall, and I could also almost hear my own heart palpitate with emotion as the step ap- proached my door. I responded to his rap as usual, by open- ing the door, and extending my hand, said: “Good morning, Doctor!” But my salutation was not returned, and instead of accedting my proffered hand, he sternly remarked : Step out of your room !” “Step out of my room! did you say?" 66 Yes.” I obeyed, when no sooner was I past the threshold, than he pulled my door together, and locked it against me. Then holding his key in his hand, as much as to say, “I hold your destiny by the power of this key, and I hold too, that precious book now in your room under the power of this key; it there- fore becomes you to be careful what you do!” and standing in front of me, he said: “Mrs. Packard, I consider that note you sent me as unlady- like—as containing a threat.” Pausing a moment, I replied: 374 MODERN PERSECUTION. “ Dr. McFarland, that note contained the truth, and nothing but the truth. I promised you when I had been here only four months, that I should expose you when I got out, unless you repented—I don't take it back !—I don't recant!” Without saying another word, he took hold of my arm and led me gently into a screen-room, and locked me up! This was the first time I had ever been locked in a screen- room, and now his own hand had turned the bolt of this maniac's cell upon me! Unlike screen-rooms generally, this room had a chair in it, which the patients said the Doctor carried in himself before he came to my door. Having of course here nothing to do, I took the chair and placing it before the corner of the room, I seated myself and tipped it back, and resting my head against a pillow I took from the bed, tried to compose myself to sleep, knowing that good sleep is as good an antidote to trouble, as I could then command. In this position I quietly rested with closed eyes, for two hours, thinking over the probable fate of my book. “ There is one part of my book," thought I, “which will escape this destruction, for Miss Mills had yesterday taken the first volume down to Mrs. Chapman of the Seventh ward. The Doctor won't find this in my room, thank good fortune!” But I am sorry to say this part of my soliloquy did not prove true, for the Doctor, after searching all the things in my room, even the bedding, both of the ticks, and both of the pillows, and not finding this book which he knew was ready for the press, he finally inquired of Miss Mills if she knew where one volume of Mrs. Packard's book could be found. My kind attendant, recollecting my instruction, “Don't tell a lie to help me,” felt bound to tell the truth, which she did. The Doctor, therefore went to Mrs. Chapman's room and demanded the book. She took the manuscript from between her ticks and handed it to him. “Now,” thought I, this paltry thief has got every scrap of A STORM-A HURRICANE. 375. my precious book into his own hands! besides all the other manuscripts and all the stationery of every kind, which I had in my possession that he could find.” But thanks to a good Providence, my entire journal escaped this wreck. Although the greater part of it passed through his fingers, yet he knew it not! It was all rolled up in small, separate portions, in the different articles of my wardrobe, and as the Doctor handled over each and every article of linen in my trunk, he little thought that the contents of this book then passed unobserved, through his fingers, by being wrapped up in these articles, and fastened by a pin! Had he removed one pin and thus found one roll, he would, doubtless, have removed all the pins, and thus found them all. But it seems the Doctor's curiosity was satisfied with the examination of a lady's wardrobe, without looking to see with his own eyes the style of embroidery upon her linen! After this general overhauling of my things, it seems the Doctor was not satisfied, for he then went to every female em- ployee, and in the most excited state they had ever seen their Superintendent, asked them the question he had asked Miss Mills, viz. : “Do you know of any place where Mrs. Packard keeps her papers ?” None, except Miss Mills, were able to inform him on this point, for my prudence did not allow me to make a confidant in these matters, of any person in the house, not even after the new dispensation had been opened upon me; for I knew that it is not all gold that glitters, and possibly this gold which I thought I had found in the Doctor, might not stand the smelting process to which I knew it must yet be subjected! I now saw the wisdom of granting to great sinners a “day of probation,” before taking them into “ full fellowship!” When my“ new convert,” had got through his “ backsliding 376 MODERN PERSE CUTION. business, he came in my room, and unlocking my door found his prisoner as quietly sleeping, to all appearance, while this wrath cloud of indignation was expending itself about her, as if she had no responsibility of any other person's actions resting upon her except her own. I opened my eyes, and said to the Doctor who stood in the open doorway looking at me: 66 Can I come out now?” 66 Yes.” “ Can I go to my room ?” 66 Yes, of course." He then followed me to the door of my room, and as he un- locked it and disclosed to my view the empty box upon the floor, which two hours before contained my precious book, and my bed and toilet articles presenting the appearance that my room had had a crazy occupant in it since I left it, I turned my eyes from that sad scene to his face, and simply said, in a quiet, soft tone, as I laid my hand gently upon his arm: “ Doctor, never fear!–God reigns !—This will all work right!” CHAPTER LVII. The Clouds Disperse. This sudden tempest which had just passed over the moral horizon of my earthly destiny, had in its violence left my earthly prospects a complete wreck. Nothing tangible was now to be found to rest my troubled soul upon. If it were not that my anchor had been cast within the veil, and found there a firm foundation to rest it upon, this foundering bark of my earthly destiny must have become a perfect wreck. But, thank God! this refuge of faith failed not, and thus I stood unharmed. Even my peace and composure of soul never forsook me for one hour, but on the contrary I and my friend Mrs. Olsen, seemed to be the only hopeful ones in the Asylum, as to the effect of this moral hurricane. From every part of this spacious house I could hear that the wail of pity for me was being expressed in language as various as the sources whence it came—I received many of the most tender messages of sympathy suited to the emergency. But in one particular all agreed that I should never see my book again. 6 It is lost! forever lost—as to your ever seeing it again,” was the great unquestioning fact on which their sympathy was predicated. Since I kept my own secrets in more than one particular, these sympathizers did not know on what ground I built my hope, when I assured them all : “I shall get my book again! He will return it to me! He will not burn it !” Was my prompt decided response, to their kind and generous sympathy. This was to them a mystery they could not fathom, and I 378 MODERN PERSECUTION. must add in truth to myself, that it was almost as much so to myself. But like Abraham, I felt that my darling book would in some way be saved, as was his darling Isaac. And, like him, I only knew by the assurance of faith in God's promises. I knew that whatever I lost for truth's sake would be re- stored to me fourfold. I had deliberately exposed my book to save Dr. McFarland's soul; that is, I was willing to probe deep into this sinner's corrupt heart, lest the “hurt be healed slightly," and therefore I told him plainly the consequences of backsliding, hoping thus to hedge up the way against it. But instead of this, the sunlight of truth caused these buds upon the house-top to wither and decay—the resolution of holy obedience had not yet found the good soil of firmness and moral courage to take root in, so as to make it a principle of permanent growth. But what must now be done? Must he be left as an incor- rigible sinner, past all hope of redemption ? My faith said: “No, try again.” I did try again, and when the next morning he came his usual rounds, and found me sitting in my room quietly sewing with my door wide open, and my room full of patients listen- ing to my conversation for their entertainment, I arose to meet him at the door, and as I extended to him my hand, I said, with a smile: “ Doctor, will you shake hands with me this morning ?” “Oh, yes—yes—most certainly.” And at the same time took my hand and while he held it, I remarked in an undertone, with my eyes resting upon his hands: “Doctor, the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord!” After gazing at me in amazement for a few seconds, and saying by his manner, “ of what kind of material are you composed ?" At length he said: THE CLOUDS DISPERSE. 379 6 Why, Mrs. Packard, your book is all safe.” “Of course it is safe, in your hands, Dr. McFarland!” He then passed on, considering what ground his prisoner had for reposing so much confidence in her keeper, especially after he had proved so untrue and so unmanly to her. “Is she determined to make me worthy of trust by trusting me?” Yes, so it was, and as I knew it to be a law of our nature that we are apt to become what we are taken to be. I knew the best way to make a man of this being, was to bestow upon him the trust and confidence of a woman, hoping thus to in- spire again the latent spark of manhood, which was now pass- ing under another eclipse. The next time when he found me alone in my room, I asked him to sit down and let us talk over matters a little. He did so, and I asked him the question: "Doctor, which is the most lady-like or Christian-like act; to ruin a person by exposing them without warning—or to warn them first, and thus give them a chance to escape the exposure by repentance ?” Seeing the self-condemnation the answer involved, he chose silence as the better part of valor this time. I then tried another question : “Doctor, which would be the most chivalrous act, for a man to keep his promise to a lady whom he had promised to protect -or to take a defenseless woman, and by an act of might, lock her up in a room where she could not defend herself at all, and then rob her of all her valuables? Would it be a noble, and manly act, to treat a woman who had never harmed you in this manner? Just make the case your own, Doctor; suppos- ing a man should take you from your office, and lead you into a room and lock you up, and then with secret keys should ran- sack your valuables, and all your private notes and papers of the greatest value to you, and then claim them as his own-- 380 MODERN PERSECUTION. what would you call such an act? Would you think there was much honor to boast of in that kind of use of the power, might gave him over your rights ?” Getting no replies, and choosing not to harass my con- demned culprit too much, I next remarked : be redeemed in you, and then resolve to try one more effort to secure its safety, this passage is often presented to my mind, of some have compassion, making a difference: others save with fear; pulling them out of the fire.' But Doctor, I have to go so near the fire to get hold of you, that I get burnt my- self sometimes!” At this point he threw back his head and laughed outright, seeming not to know what to say, but by his looks and man- ner he seemed to say: 66 You are an anomaly I cannot comprehend.” By a series of lectures of a similar character, this poor sin- ner was at length brought to see and realize the meanness of the act, and with a feeling of self-abhorrence and self-condem- nation, in about three weeks he sent back my papers, unasked, with an apology for not having done so before! He also withdrew his order to my attendants, to not let me to aid me in every possible way in granting me facilities for doing so. It was thus under the auspices of a cloudless sky, I again resumed the delightful work of preparing - The Great Drama” for the press, and under the benign influence of a cloudless manhood I henceforth pursued my onward way. The moral victory thus achieved, increased rather than diminished my spiritual freedom. The anxious Superintendent became satisfied that it was useless to try to comfort me in the line of my duty. He saw that no policy but that of moral rectitude could secure my THE CLOUDS DISPERSE. 381 sanction—that no fear, but the fear of sin, could conquer me into subjection to any human power, so that this final con- quest over the principles of despotic power brought his prin- ciples of selfish policy to a final end, so far as his treatment of me was concerned. I never could ask any man to treat me with more deferen- tial respect than Dr. McFarland uniformly did from this time. And here let me credit to this man the compliment, I honestly think is his due, viz. : that there are few men who are able to excel Dr. McFarland in his gentlemanly appear- ance when he feels disposed to assume the gentleman. Now every noble manly act of protection extended to me in the very respectful manner in which he bestowed it, restored to me with renewed strength, such entire trust and confidence in his manhood, that I could say, “my heart is fixed,” trusting in Dr. McFarland as my God-appointed deliverer and protector. I had no reason to feel, after these three long years of ab- solute desertion, that another man lived on earth who cared for my happiness, but Dr. McFarland. Therefore, in choosing him as my only earthly protector, I merely accepted of the destiny my friends and the State had assigned me, and in return for this boon thus forced upon me, I willingly offered him a woman's heart of grateful love in return, as the only prize left me to bestow. If any of my readers are tempted to regard this act as rash and unreasonable, let me remind them that human instincts are above human reason—that God's laws are subject to no human conventional or legislative enactments. The law of my nature instinctively extends pardon to the penitentand gratitude to a benefactor. For example: should I be struggling for life amid the waves that were engulphing me, and one who had been my worst enemy should, at the risk of his own life, rescue my own from a watery grave, would I wait to reason upon the absurdity of 382 MODERN PERSECUTION. giving my grateful heart's devotion to one who had hitherto been my enemy? “ Nay, verily all that a man hath will he give for his life.” So I as instinctively gave to the penitent Dr. McFarland, as I then regarded him, all I had to give—my forgiveness—and my grateful heart's devotion in return for his voluntary pro- mise to bestow upon me that most invaluable prize—that most blessed boon of human existence-my personal liberty. I did then, and still do regard this offering as none too costly to lay upon the altar of my personal freedom. And I say, moreover, that heart must have become ossified or dead which would not pulsate in harmony with these laws of its higher nature. And if this act was wrong or sinful, under the circumstances, then I say to God's law—the law of my nature-is the penalty justly due. CHAPTER LVIII. My Oldest Son Obtains My Discharge. Theophilus, my oldest son, had been anxiously waiting, now nearly three years, when he should be “ of age,” that he might liberate me from my confinement. He visited me four times during my incarceration, and had done all that lay in his power to do, to procure my discharge, although his father had forbidden his visiting me at all, and had threatened to disin- herit him in case he should break this command. The same threat hung over my second son, Isaac, also, but he, like his brother, chose to expose himself to be disinherited, rather than to suffer his mother to languish in her prison, without human sympathy. Cheering as it was to my fond heart to receive their true sympathy, it was saddening, also, to know that every effort they were making for my deliverance was abortive—that no possible hope of relief could be expected through them until they were twenty-one. Their father, knowing their determination to help me to liberty as soon as they attained this age, tried to guard this avenue of escape, by negotiating with an Asylum in Massa- chusetts, to take me under their lock and key, hoping thus to elude their action. But ere this plan was consummated, Mr. Packard was notified by the Trustees that he must remove me in June. Theophilus not knowing of this arrangement, made applica- tion to his father to consent to his removing me from my prison, assuring him that if he would allow him this privilege, he would cheerfully support me himself, from his own hard earnings. Knowing he could not legally remove me without his father's consent, he made this proposal to induce him to do 384 MODERN PERSECUTION. so, and his father knowing, too, that he must take me out soon, consented to let him thus assume this responsibility. Therefore, with a light heart, he sought his mother's cell for the fourth time, and was most politely introduced into my room by the Doctor as a “ new man,” just espousing the rights, privileges, and powers of an individual man, subject to no dictation but that of law and conscience; said he: “Here is a man who proposes to assume the responsibility of being your protector—he has had his father's consent to do so, and I have given him my own, and do hereby discharge you into the hands of this new man. Mrs. Packard, you are at liberty to go with your son where you please, and I do hereby discharge you into his hands.” Thanking him, as the Superintendent, for this discharge, I begged the privilege of consulting with him as our mutual friend, respecting the best course to be pursued. Said I: “You know, Doctor, that the law holds me still subject to my husband, and therefore my son has no legal power to protect my liberty only so far as his father's promise goes as its security. Now I have no confidence in that man's word or honor, and therefore I consider myself eminently exposed to be kidnapped again, and put into the Asylum, at Northampton; so that without some other guarantee of safety than his promise, I prefer to remain here until I can finish my book, which will take about six weeks, and then I can have a means of self- defense in my own hands, which I can use independent of any legal process. Now I must be boarded somewhere these six weeks ; why cannot my son pay my board here, as well as any other place, and thus let me complete my book, unmo- lested by any change until then ?? The Doctor replied, “I see no objection to your doing so if your son has none." Theophilus replied, “I wish mother to do just as she thinks best, and I am satisfied.” SON OBTAINS MY DISCHARGE 385 Accordingly it was decided, by the consent of all parties, that I should remain there until my book was finished, and that my son should pay my board during this time. I then, as a boarder, not as a prisoner, accompanied my son on foot to Jacksonville, (the Asylum being about one mile distant) where we consulted printers, respecting the terms on which they would print my first volume-bought some paper with my son's money and returned to my boarding-house—but not to a prison because I was not now an involuntary prisoner, although the bolts still confined me, with no key or pass of my own to unbolt them. In this sense, my prison life terminated four weeks before I was removed from the Asylum, and I really felt safer under the gallant protection of Dr. McFarland, than I could have then felt in any other situation. 17 CHAPTER LIX. The Trustees Force Me into the Hands of Mr. Packard. In about four weeks from the time of my discharge into the hands of my son, the Trustees counter-ordered this Superin- tendent's action, and claimed me as their prisoner still, by ordering me to be put into the custody of my husband on the 18th of June, which time completed my three years term of false imprisonment ! Although the Trustees had told me through their chairman, Mr. Brown, that I might do just as Dr. McFarland and I should think best, and although the Doctor had already discharged me, and he had agreed to the arrangements above mentioned, yet regardless of all these claims of honor and justice, they deliberately trampled my every right into the dust, and treated me as the law does, as a legal nonentity, whose rights no one is bound to respect. Yes, this is the respect which the identity of woman receives in America, by assuming the bonds of the marriage union ! When will the time arrive, when the marriage law will re- spect the identity of the woman as well as the man ? On the 17th of June, Doctor's orders were sent to my room, by Miss Sallie Summers, the Supervisoress, that: “ Mrs. Packard's trunk must be taken out of her room and packed.” Against this order I entered a protest in these words: “ In the name of Illinois and as its citizen, I claim that my right to the disposal of my own wardrobe be respected—that no hands be laid upon it without my consent. I therefore forbid you or any other person disturbing me or my things, in FORCED INTO. MR. PACKARD'S HANDS. 387 my own hired room, until I consent to such interference.” My reply was reported to the office. The next order was: If Mrs. Packard makes resistance, lock her in a screen- room !” To this order I replied: “I never offer physical resistance to the claims of might, over my inalienable rights—but I give you no license or con- sent to touch one article in this room belonging to myself.” The Doctor then, with the help of Miss Summers, searched my room, bed, toilet and drawers and took from them every thing belonging to me, and laid them into my trunk—then the porter was ordered to take my trunk into the Matron's room to be packed. This trunk now contained my entire book, journal and private papers, indeed all my treasures—even the sacred looking glass wherein my Reproof to Dr. McFarland, was con- cealed. What would be their fate, I knew not. But thanks to the Power which held my usurpers, no article of my manu- scripts were taken ! The book was, of course, seen and examined, but my private journal was passed through their fingers unnoticed; for the Matron and Supervisoress were only required to number the articles, and each article, large and small, being pinned up separately, it was not necessary to examine the center of each roll where lay a portion of this journal, which the Doctor so much dreaded. Nothing was taken except the inkstand Dr. Tenny had given me, and the package of note paper my son had bought for me. For this trespass, if not theft, I still hold the Institution re- sponsible, in addition to what had been previously taken from me wrongfully. Dr. McFarland showed the coward on this occasion, by dele- gating his orders to Dr. Tenny, and availing himself of a leave of absence just at this time. I think he had better have faced the battle! 388 MODERN PERSECUTION. However his orders were faithfully executed, even to the book, all being carefully packed, no part was missing ! Does not the Lord shut the mouth of lions so that they cannot hurt others when he pleases ? Did I not have a host fighting for me, although unseen to mortal eye? Yes, for so “the Lord encampeth about those who fear him and He delivereth them.” The next morning, Miss Summers came with the order that: “Mrs. Packard must be suitably dressed by nine o'clock to go with her husband on board the cars. To this order I replied: 6 Miss Summers, I have no objection to being dressed to-day so as to suit the requirements of this mandate, even to the ex- tent of wearing my bonnet and shawl suited to my traveling dress, and will do so with your assistance in bringing me those articles; but as to accompanying the said gentleman to the cars, I shall never consent to do this.” She accordingly exchanged my morning wrapper, for my traveling dress, and packed my wrapper in my trunk. I then put on my hat and gloves and laying my sun-shade across my lap, I sat down in my chair before the window and went to reading, as I had no other employment in consequence of the assault of the previous day. While thus employed, my door was suddenly and violently opened by Dr. Tenny, who, without knocking, or even asking leave to enter, violently pushed the door against my bedstead, which I had placed before it, as was my habitual practice, to prevent intruders, having no other means of fastening my door on the inside. I could easily move the bedstead back four inches, and thus respond to a rap almost as quickly as I could have turned a button or a bolt if I had had one, and I had done so to give the Doctor's entrance hundreds of times. But now this hasty, uncivil entrance into a lady's private OVIM VII Vehimiti Enforcing the “Nonentity” Principle of Common Law for Married Women. “I yield to reason everywhere—To despotism nowhere!” See page 245. “ Take Mrs. Packard up in your arms, and carry her to the 'bus !” See page 389. FORCED INTO MR. PACKARD'S HANDS. 389 room--by which my bedstead was pushed almost upon my feet, as it was forced diagonally across my room by the great and sudden violence of the door against it, and as it was opened I saw three stout men standing at the door, almost frightened me, and having disobeyed no order I was not a little surprised at Dr. Tenny's impetuosity on this occasion. I felt like saying to my captors as Christ did to his : “ Have you come out against me as a thief, with swords and staves for to take me?” Dr. Tenny then said: “Mrs. Packard, your husband is in the office waiting to take you to the cars in the 'bus which is now waiting at the door. We wish you to go with us for that purpose." Looking at me for a reply, I said : “ Dr. Tenny, I shall not go with you for that purpose. And here in the presence of these witnesses, I claim a right to my own identity, and in the name of the laws of my country, I claim protection against this assault upon my personal rights. I claim a right to myself, I claim a right to remain unmolested in my own hired room.” Turning to his porters, he said : “ Take Mrs. Packard up in your arms and carry her to the 'bus!” After instructing my 'new body-guard how to construct the famous “ saddle-seat” once more (an indispensable appendage to the enforcement of the “nonentity” principle of the com- mon law, in cases where intelligence claims the recognition of an identity !) I quietly seated myself upon it and after the attendants had, at my request, properly adjusted my clothing, I held myself again in readiness to be offered a sacrifice on the altar of unjust legislation to married women. My guard transported their 6 nonentity” safely down three long flights of stairs, preceded by Dr. Tenny, and followed by my female attendants, to the door of the 'bus, where the Rev. 390 MODERN PERSECUTION. Mr. Packard stood holding the door back for the reception of this living burden of non-existence. Living burden of non-existence! Married woman's legal position under a Christian government ! Think! Law-makers ! is this the way to raise woman to a companionship with yourselves ? Do you think this Reverend husband could look upon such a spectacle and feel the inspiration of reverence for a being whom the law thus placed in his absolute power ? or, would not a man of his organization more naturally feel a contempt for a worm whom he could thus crush beneath his feet ? Yes, a Worm! a Thing! not a Being-is married woman before the principles of common law. What wrongs cannot be inflicted upon woman on this principle ? And what power of self-protection can she use in case of any assault and battery upon her person or her rights ? Oh! my gallant brothers of this republic! just place your- selves in my exact position, and from this standpoint, frame such laws as would meet your own case. Then your doting daughters will never be liable to suffer a similar experience. I found other employees from the house had been appointed to accompany this Reverend gentleman to the depot, to assist him if necessary in the disposal of his “human chattel," and with these gentlemen held a conversation on our way to the depot. But with this Reverend, I did not deign to speak. I told these men I should not need their services any longer --that I should go as any other unattended person did, into the cars, as I did not recognize the claims of this legal pro- tector at all, and should ignore them entirely, by holding no sort of fellowship whatever with him. Therefore I wished they would see that I was put on board and comfortably seated, and I would excuse them from further duty. I could buy no ticket for I had no money. FORCED INTO MR. PACKARD'S HANDS. 391 I told them I knew not to what place I was bound, whether into another Asylum, a Poor-house, or a Penitentiary. No one deemed it necessary to inform a “nonentity” or a “chattel” in these matters, for this act might be an acknowledgment of a right of choice in a “chattel,” which would be absurd, you know! But from what my son had told me, I supposed he was go- ing to put me into an Insane Asylum at Northampton, Mass., for life, as a case of hopeless insanity. Indeed I knew that was his ultimate purpose concerning me, therefore it was, I did not willingly pass into the hands of this man, for this purpose. It was not that I wished for liberty with any diminished ardor or intensity that I declined the boon now offered me; but because I apprehended its value to a greater degree than ever before; and also realized that another commitment into another Asylum would greatly enhance the danger of my ever obtain- ing this inestimable prize—that is, the crisis towards which I felt myself verging must necessarily be postponed, perhaps indefinitely, by another Asylum experience. The great question with me seemed to be: “ Are you willing to be removed to another Asylum, and risk the consequences of fighting another battle for freedom; or, do you prefer to have the question settled at once, in the light of present experiences ?” By my protest, I said, “ this question shall be settled at once—the issue shall not be transferred to another battle-field.” Whether a married woman can retain her personal identity or not, was the great practical question involved in my case. My hitherto painful experience had already furnished proof sufficient, as it seemed to me, for the immediate agitation of this question, and my experience had already shown that any attempt to escape from this marital power was fruitless and im- practicable, and also that any peace, regardless of justice, would only be a treacherous sleep, whose waking would be death ! 392 MODERN PERSECUTION. “Go Willingly.” Written on the occasion of Dr. McFarland's saying that Mrs. Packard must be removed by force from the Asylum, in case she did not “go willingly.” “ Go Willingly!” to such a doom ! My God! O lay me in the tomb, Ere such a terrible decree Bind me again by lock and key. Where is the mother where the wife, Daughter or sister, who her life Would "willingly” resign to thee, Who thus would wield thy lock and key! “Go Willingly!” my future life To battle in that stormy strife, Torture my fluttering heartstring there Amid the wailings of despair ? « Go Willingly!” to waste life's hours, Its aspirations, hopes and powers, To bury my affections there, In those dim haunts of black despair? “Go Willingly!” to read my doom Thus graven on a living tomb,- Where hope or joy can never come, Till death shall call the prisoner home? I'd rather rove the world around, Chained like a criminal on ground Where God's own sun my light would be, Without the aid of lock and key! “ Go Willingly” Thyself! and find Cure of thy own “ disordered” mind! The very willingness would be Proof of a fixed insanity. Mrs. S. N. B. 0.1 FORCED INTO MR. PACKARD'S HANDS. 393 I was put into the Asylum without my choice or consent, I was thus removed without my consent, and contrary to my choice. In either case my identity was ignored, in that my right of choice was not recognized in either case. By my pro- test, I alone recognize it, and claim it, illegal as this claim is. Like the fugitive, I claim protection under the higher law, regardless of the claims of the lower law. My argument seemed to enable these gentlemen to see that my principles required me to resist the “nonentity" principle of the marriage law in this tangible manner, hoping thus to demonstrate its injustice to the comprehension of the law makers. This having now been openly done, I had nothing further to do but to be passed on as coming events should indicate. I recollect one remark made by one of these attendants, was: 66 We shall miss you Mrs. Packard, at the Asylum, for there never has been a person who has caused such universal sensation there, as you have. You will be missed at our dances also, for you are regarded as one of our best dancers !” I thanked him for the compliment, ill-deserved though it was. Before closing this chapter, I feel bound to say that the action of the Trustees in this case was far from being upright or gentlemanly. They had given me unqualified liberty to do as their Superintendent and I should agree to do. Their Su- perintendent had already discharged me. He had made a bona fide bargain, in presence of a witness, that I might use that room of the Institution as my hired room until I had finished my book. I was no longer subject to his, or the In- stitution's control, as a patient. Now to have these gentle- men ignore this business of their Superintendent in this sum- mary manner, and at my expense, seemed ungallant at least, if not unjust and illegal. 17* 394 MODERN PERSECUTION. Again, these gentlemen had in their hands, in my own hand- writing, a protest against being put into the hands of my hus- band, assuring them it would never be done by my own consent. They had also heard from my own lips my reasons for taking this stand, and Mr. Brown, the chairman, had told me himself that he saw it would be useless for me to go to my husband for protection; and yet, after all, he could issue this order to a boarder in the Asylum, that she must be forced into the hands of this her persecutor, just when the way seemed prepared for deliverance, by means of her printed book. If my readers wish to know why the Superintendent was not on hand to defend the rights of his boarder, I must refer them to him for this answer, for he has never told me his reasons for doing so. Therefore, I can only offer you my own conjectures on this point. I suspect this "young convert” was seized with an- other temptation to 6 backslide,” too powerful for his 6 weak faith” to withstand, and therefore he had tried to throw off the responsibility of my removal upon the Trustees, hoping by this means to secure Mr. Packard's co-operation in destroy- ing my book, without doing so directly himself, and wishing at the same time to retain my good will, he hoped his absence might better subserve all these ends than his presence. There- fore he made Dr. Tenny his agent in doing this mean work, by proxy. One reason for coming to this conclusion lies in the fact that, after my return home, I accidentally ascertained that the Doctor had advised Mr. Packard to burn my book and put me into another Asylum; and he had volunteered his aid in doing so! I also accidentally found a letter from Dr. McFarland wherein he says to Mr. Packard, “I have laid your request for Mrs. Packard's re-admission before the Trustees, and have used my influence to have them consent to take her. But they FORCED INTO MR. PACKARD'S HANDS. 395 decidedly refuse to do so, on the ground that the Institution is not designed for such cases." In the same letter, he advised Mr. Packard to keep the facts of this transaction from all public prints, and shun all agita- tion of the subject in any form. For said he: “The dignity of silence is the only safe course for us both to pursue.” Another evidence that he had slidden back into the old self- ish“ policy” principle is seen in the fact that a lettter was read in Court at Kankakee, from Dr. McFarland, wherein he urged that I was insane, in the form of a certificate, which Mr. Packard could use for my incarceration in another Asy- lum! This did not harmonize with the pledges he had given me in the Asylum that he would be the defender of my personal liberty. Another evidence that he has backslidden, lies in the fact when I met him in June, 1868, in Jacksonville, before the State's Investigating Committee, at the Dunlap House, he made a most strenuous effort to prove me insane, for the purpose of invalidating my testimony as a witness against the evils of that Institution. After an examination and a cross-examination occupying nearly seven hours at a single session, with the aid of his attorney and the Trustees, he failed entirely to produce this conviction on the minds of the audience, if ex-Gov. Hoffman's testimony is a representation of others present, which I have reason to think is the case; said he to me at the close of this tedious session; “Mrs. Packard, I believe you to be a perfectly sane person, and moreover, I believe you always have been.” Thanking him for the comfort this announcement gave me, I left better fortified to meet a most cruel and wanton attack Dr. McFarland then make upon my moral character, while he 396 MODERN PERSECUTION. knew, better than any other man, that my character was stainless. Looking at Dr. McFarland's character from these various standpoints, I am forced into the unwelcome conviction that he is a most unprincipled man, and on this ground is un- worthy of confidence as a man, and much less as a public servant. I have done all I knew how to do to raise this man, from the low level of selfish policy to the higher platform of Christian principle but all in vain-I now herewith pass him over into the power of that State, whose public servant he is, hoping and praying that this power may be able to do for this man's benefit what 6 woman's influence” has failed to accomplish. And if the State will not receive him, I then leave him with his own worst enemy-Himself! If any of my readers wish to know what has been my destiny from the time of this discharge, I would refer them to my Second Volume, wherein they will find this part of my expe- rience delineated, affording a fearful exhibition of the abuse of marital power, which every married woman is liable to suffer, in her present position of legal disability to defend herself. CHAPTER LX. An Appeal to the Government to Protect the Inmates of Insane Asylums by law. God's laws are above all other laws and therefore human instincts are above all human enactments. No matter what the penalty--the more atrocious and cruel, the more certain are they to be disregarded. No human power can stand a law in violation of our natural instincts. Our present Insane Asylum System ignores these principles. It says: 6 God's laws are subject to human enactments.” It tramples upon the highest and noblest instincts of our nature, and enthrones an autocrat to rule over them, instead of the rule of reason. The law of sympathy, which God has established in our natures, as one of its noblest elements, suffers strangulation under this Asylum System. Instead of developing this faculty in a normal manner, by caring for and administering to the unfortunate one, whom Providence has placed under our charge, for our own especial discipline and development, we admit the human law of Charitable Institutions to usurp this holy instinct of human sympathy, and its aspirations die out for want of their natural nutriment to perfect the vigorous growth it naturally seeks for in the human soul. Thus God's law, or our human instinct of sympathy, is supplanted by human enactments. No matter how large the compensation offered in lieu of this usurpation, nothing can compensate for the blemish our divine natures receive by this soul strangulating process. 398 MODERN PERSECUTION. The orphan, for instance, in order to receive the benefits of the Orphan Asylum, is compelled first to sever the purest and holiest affection of his nature—the love of his parent-as his necessary passport to the benefits of the Institution. The price is too dear—the equivalent received can not be commen- surate to the loss sustained to secure it. But if, instead of depriving the orphan of a mother's love—its God-given heri- tage—they should so disburse the charities of the Institution as to secure this influence to the child, as the first God-given right of his nature; then these charities would act in concert and harmony with God's law, instead of conflicting with it, as the Orphan Asylums are now compelled to do. So in the case of the insane—to sever them from the sym- pathy of their own kindred, is to deprive them of the first God-given right of their nature; and no adequate equivalent can be rendered as a compensation for this usurpation. But if the charities of our present Insane Asylum System could be appropriated so as to act in concert with this in- fluence, then would this system bless both the giver and the receiver of natural affection and human sympathy. They would then be doing right by their unfortunates, and as the result of a law of our nature, they would consequently feel right towards them. Whereas our present system compels them to act wrong towards them, by severing them from home influences; and they of course, come to feel wrong towards them, as the in- evitable result. First comes a feeling of indifference, as the result of casting off a responsibility which God had laid upon them to bear; then succeeds the feeling of alienation, as the heart gradually essifies by this extinction of human sympathy, which a neglect of our practical duties to our natural responsibilities produces. I never knew this legitimate tendency of our present system to lead to any different results, when practically applied. APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. 399 Therefore, in order to place the axe at the root of the evils of our Insane Asylum System, and other Eleemosynary Insti- tutions, there must be a recognition of this great fundamental truth, that human instincts are above human enactments. Again the despotic treatment which patients received under the present government of Insane Asylums is the only natural result of one of the fundamental laws of human nature, in its present undeveloped state; which is, that the history of our race for six thousand years demonstrates the fact, that absolute unlimited power always tends towards despotism-or an usurpation and abuse of others' rights. Superintendents have, in a practical sense, a sovereignty delegated to them, by the insane laws, almost as absolute as the marital power which the law delegates to the husband. All of the inalienable rights of their patients are as completely subject to their single will, in the practical operation of these laws, as are the rights of a married woman to the will of her husband. And these despotic Superintendents and Husbands in the exercise of this power, are no more guilty, in my opinion, than that power which licenses this deleterious element. No Re- publican Government ought to permit an absolute monarchy to be established under its jurisdiction. And where it is found to exist, it ought to be destroyed forthwith. And where this licensed power is known to have culminated into a despotism, which is crushing humanity, really and practically, that Gov- ernment is guilty in this matter, so long as it tolerates this usurpation. Therefore, while the Superintendents are guilty in abusing their power, I say that Government which sustains oppression by its laws, is the first transgressor. Undoubtedly our Insane Asylums were originally designed and established, as humane Institutions, and for a very humane and benevolent purpose; but, on their present basis, they really 400 MODERN PERSECUTION. cover and shield many wrongs, which ought to be exposed and redressed. It is the evils which cluster about these institutions, and these alone, which I am intent on bringing into public view, for the purpose of having them destroyed. All the good which inheres in these institutions and officers is just as precious as if not mixed with the alloy ; therefore, in destroying the alloy, great care should be used not to tarnish or destroy the fine gold within it. As my case demonstrates, they are now sometimes used for inquisitional purposes, which certainly is a great perversion of their original intent. That great abuses have grown up in connection with Insane Asylums, both in this country and in Europe, is a truth that has been fully established by recent revealments. Governed as they are, the Superintendent is an absolute, irresponsible autocrat. Whoever falls within his power may be most foully wronged, having no means of redress. The unfortunate has been cut off from the right of using the mails, or from communicating with friends in any way except under the eye and ear of the Superintendent, and in too many instances what the people have regarded as noble institutions of charity, have been foul prisons, where savage discipline has taken the place of kind, curative treatment. Nor are these institutions essentially different, wherever found. The trouble with them is, that the theories on which they proceed are essentially wrong, and their practice just the opposite of what it should be. Until these are changed it will be a question as to whether asylums do most good or harm. The most heinous wrong of our present system consists in the fact that the inmates of Insane Asylums are denied the primeval right of self-defence. Under our present legislation erery citizen of most of the States in this Union is constantly exposed to lose this right by APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. 401 an incarceration in an Insane Asylum, since these institutions must necessarily be based upon the principles of an autocracy, under which government the right of self-defence is annihilated. Now, simply for a misfortune to place any citizen outside the pale of justice, while inside an Insane Asylum, is not only unjust but inhuman. There should, therefore, be a superior power inaugurated by Legislatures by which this autocratic power, when abused, can be held amenable to the laws of our Republic. And since there now exists no link to connect the inmates of our Insane Asylums with the laws of our Republic—thus leaving them wholly at the mercy of an autocrat—there should be one through which this unfortunate class can secure the protection of law, when needed. A Standing Committee of Protection should be enacted by every Legislature, as the link connecting the inmates of asylums with the laws of the country. It is not assumed that Superintendents, as individual auto- crats, need to be watched any more than any other individual invested with unlimited power. But it is argued that no absolute autocracy should be created and sustained by a Republic whose fundamental principles require that every citizen shall be held amenable to the laws, and be able also to seek the protection of law, when needed, in defence of their inalienable rights. Now the insane have the same inalienable right to be treated with reason, justice and humanity as the sane ; therefore, the insane ought to have the same protection of law as the sane. But under the present rule of asylums they have none at all. No matter to what extent their right to justice is ignored, there is granted them no chance whatever for self-defence. This Protective Committee should have free and unrestricted post-office communication with every inmate of every asylum in order that they may ascertain if any individual, among all this unfortunate class, can be found who needs the protection 402 MODERN PERSECUTION. of justice, and should administer it, when found, without a question to be entitled to it. The law should give to this Committee a power superior to that of the Superintendent, by which he himself can be held amenable to the laws, in his exercise of power over his patients, through this Committee. For example, if this autocrat should be found to have been guilty of “ assault and battery, manslaughter or murder," in his realm, he could then be held accountable to the laws like any other criminal found guilty of like offence outside of an asylum, and this Committee would constitute a link between him, as the Superintendent, and justice, as they would between his patients and justice. It would be a humane law. It is a much needed law. It would be an honor to every State in this Union to pass such a law, through which she could administer to her afflicted ones the right of self-defence while confined as inmates within the prison walls of an Insane Asylum. Iowa has already immortalized herself as the banner State in this great humanitarian reform. The “ Bill ” which her Legislature of 1872 passed, securing the protection of law to the inmates of her own Insane Asylums, will be found in the Second Volume and is here commended to the candid con- sideration of every Legislature in this Union. It is fondly hoped this bright example will speedily be fol- lowed by all the States in the Union, and thus demonstrate the fact that this American Government is a Christian Government, in that she can then claim, and be entitled to the honor of protecting by its lawsthe right of self-defence -even to that most unfortunate of all classes of its citizens --the Inmates of Insane Asylums. End of Vol. I. 39430 1874 Packard, E. P. W. - (Elizabeth Parsons Ware) [NS. Townshend - 1 The WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS LIBRARY University of Michigan Gift of Norton Strange Townshend Fund MA 22.7874 Cum 3 mnm POR MAY TELEE EDU MTITITITLE OE TIRDMONUMMITOIT TIITIT UDIM EC115131779 PAKER-CO The Home from which Mrs. Packard was kidnapped in Manteno, Kankakee Co., Ill. “Stranger, please hand this letter to Mrs. Haslet !” See page 20. נייחת Lilli Will AN -IAMBERLIN. ENG. N.K! 1862 Taken from Photographs. 1872. Rev. Theophilus Packard, formerly Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Manteno, Kankakee Co., Illinois. MODERN PERSECUTION, OR Married Woman's Liabilities AS DEMONSTRATED BY THE Action of the Illinois Legislature. By Mrs. E. P. W. PACKARD. “ Ye Shall Know the Truth." Published by the Authoress. Vol. II. HARTFORD: CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 1874. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1873, by Mrs. E. P. W. PACKARD In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. INTRODUCTION. “ A wounded spirit who can bear.” Spirit wrongs are the keenest wounds that can be inflicted upon woman. Her na- ture is so sensitively organized that an injury to her feelings is felt more keenly than an injury to her person. The fortitude of her nature enables her to endure physical suffering heroically; but the wound which her spirit feels under a wanton physical abuse is far more deeply felt, and is harder to be borne than the physical abuse itself. Her very benevolent, confiding, forgiving nature, renders it a greater crime to abuse her spirit, than to abuse her person. To most men, and some women, this position may appear ab- surd, yet it is true; neither do we feel disposed to blame this class for not appreciating it, for their coarser organization in- capacitates them to understand us. When woman is brought before our man courts, and our man juries, and has no bruises, or wounds, or marks of violence upon her person to show as a ground of her complaint, it is hard for them to realize that she has any cause for appeal to them for protection ; while at the same time her whole physical system may be writhing in agony from spirit wrongs, such as can only be understood by her peers. Spiritual, sensitive women, knowing this fact, suffers on in silent anguish without appeal, until death kindly liberates her from her prison-house of unappreciated suffering. It is to delineate these spiritual wrongs of women, that I have given my narrative to the public, hoping that my more tangible experiences may draw the attention of the philanthro- pic public to a more just consideration of married woman's legal disabilities; for since the emancipation of the negro, there iv INTRODUCTION. is no class of American citizens who so much need legal pro- tection, and who receive so little, as this class. As their representative, I do not make complaint of physi- cal abuses, but it is the usurpation of our natural rights of which we complain; and it is our legal position of nonentity, which renders us so liable and exposed to suffering and per- secution from this source. In the following narrative of my experiences, the reader will therefore find the interior of a woman's life delineated through the exterior surroundings of her bitter experiences. I state facts through which the reader may look into woman's soul, as through a mirror, that her realm of suffering may be thus portrayed. . MRS. E. P. W. PACKARD. CHICAGO, ILLS., January, 1873. (1496 Prairie Avenue.) H[llustrations. PICTURE I. The Home from which Mrs. Packard was Kidnapped. PICTURE II. Rev. Theophilus Packard. PICTURE III. Senate Scene, Springfield, Illinois. PICTURE IV. Dr. McFarland Punishing One-Armed Wyant. PICTURE V. Dr. McFarland's Self-Accusation. PICTURE VI. Dr. Morrison's Interview with Governor Palmer. PICTURE VII. Governor Carpenter, of Iowa, Signing the “Bill to Protect the Insane.” PICTURE VIII. The Re-United Family-Mrs. Packard and all her Children. CONTENTS. PAUS 3 66 SI Introduction ................................. CHAPTER I. Imprisoned at Home by my Husband.. CHAPTER II. My Release on a Writ of Habeas Corpus. My Jury Trial............. 22 CHAPTER III. Mr. Packard Takes my Children and Property and Flees his Country 62 CHAPTER IV. Return to my Home-Married Woman a Slave. CHAPTER V. Defense of my Right to Property.... CHAPTER VI. An Incident....... CHAPTER VII. How to Commence Business without Capital........ CHAPTER VIII. Visit to my Father in Massachusetts-Mr. Packard Forbids my Seeing my Children... CHAPTER IX. My Successful Appeal to the Massachusetts Legislature...... CHAPTER X. My Father Becomes my Protector.... CHAPTER XI. Mr. Packard a Beggar...... CHAPTER XII. Why I do not get a Divorce...... CHAPTER XIII. The Opinions which caused this Family Rupture......... ....... CHAPTER XIV. Progression the Law of Our Being. . “Seeing Eye to Eye.”... CHAPTER XV. An Asylum Incident-A Spiritual Conquest.... CHAPTER XVI. A Dream and its Interpretations...... 96 ol 111 117 126 132 142 CONTENTS. vii .... .... 174 190 196 207 CHAPTER XVII. PAGE. A Prophecy and its Fulfillment.... . 151 CHAPTER XVIII. Can you Forgive Mr. Packard ?... ........ 156 CHAPTER XIX. Mr. Packard Condemned by the Popular Verdict.... .......... 160 CHAPTER XX. Mr. Packard's Monomania...... 163 CHAPTER XXI. Strong Language an Appropriate Drapery for Reformers........ CHAPTER XXI. Testimonials....................................... .......... 178 CHAPTER XXIIT. Dangerous to be a Married Woman in Illinois !. .......... 186 CHAPTER XXIV. Passage of the Personal Liberty Bill in Illinois Legislature.. CHAPTER XXV. Opposition to the Bill..... CHAPTER XXVI. Signing of the Bill by the Governor........ ........ CHAPTER XXVII. The Personal Liberty Bill and its Application.. 210 CHAPTER XXVIII. Appointment of the Investigating Committee.. CHAPTER XXIX. Dr. McFarland's Punishment of Mr. Wyant......... 228 CHAPTER XXX. Dr. McFarland's Infamous Proposal to Miss Julia A. Wilson..... 232 CHAPTER XXXI. Testimony Presented to the Committee by Mrs. Tirzah F. Shedd, of Aurora, Illinois.. CHAPTER XXXII. Testimony of Eight Employees Taken by Committee, Under Oath....... 245 CHAPTER XXXIII. Dr. McFarland's Self-Accusation...... ........ 258 CHAPTER XXXIV. Result of this Investigation..... 261 CHAPTER XXXV. Dr. McFarland's Exit from the Asylum.... CHAPTER XXXVI. The Death Penalty to be Annihilated.. 272 220 .......... 238 266 viii CONTENTS. 281 CHAPTER XXXVII. PAGE. The Imputation of Insanity a Barrier to Human Progress... 276 CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Guilt of Folly.......... CHAPTER XXXIX. Orthodox Heaven and Hell... CHAPTER XL. My Effort in Connecticut Legislature....... CHAPTER XLI. The Opposition of the Conspiracy..... CHAPTER XLII. Tribute to Dr. Bushnell and Dr. Hawes, of Hartford, Connecticut......... 300 CHAPTER XLIII. Passage of the Iowa Bill to Protect the Inmates of Insane Asylums....... CHAPTER XLIV. Opposition to the Enforcement of the Law.. .......... 317 CHAPTER XLV. An Act to Protect the Insane by Law... 303 326 329 CHAPTER XLVII. My Visit to the Insane Asylum, Mount Pleasant, Iowa.. ........ 333 CHAPTER XLVIII. 341 CHAPTER XLIX. Life in Bloomingdale Asylum, New York............ ......... 345 CHAPTER L. Testimony from Ward's Island, Taunton, Trenton and Brattleboro Asylums 354 CHAPTER LI. Is Man the Lord of Creation?........... ........ 361 CHAPTER LII. Getting my Children-A Re-united Family.. ......... 365 CHAPTER LIII. The Family Disperse.......... ........... 382 CHAPTER LIV. An Appeal to the Government to Equalize the Rights and Responsibilities of the Husband and Wife..... ......... 385 Appendix...... 393 MODERN PERSECUTION. CHAPTER I. Imprisoned at Home by My Husband. The Trustees ordered Mr. Packard to take me out of the Asylum, as no other person could legally remove me. I pro- tested against being again put into his hands without some protection, knowing as I did, that he intended to incarcerate me for life in Northampton Asylum, Mass., if he was ever compelled to remove me from this. But like as I entered the Asylum against my will, and in spite of my protest, so I was put out of it, into the absolute power of my persecutor against my will, and in spite of my protest to the contrary. Mr. Packard removed me to Granville, Putnam County, Illinois, and placed me in the family of Mr. David Field, who married my adopted sister, where my son paid my board for about four months. Mr. Packard instructed this family to prevent my ever returning home to my children, adding: “If she ever does come to see them I shall put her into another Asylum !” During this time Granville community became acquainted with me and the facts in the case. And finding how intensely I desired to see my children, and be re-instated again into the duties of the maternal relation, and seeing no reason why this natural yearning of my nature should not be gratified, they called a meeting of the citizens where this subject was fully discussed, and Sheriff Leaper was appointed to communicate to me the result. 10 MODERN PERSECUTION. Their decision was that I go home to my children, taking their voluntary pledge as my protection, that should Mr. Packard again attempt to imprison me without a trial, they would use their influence to get him imprisoned in a Peniten- tiary, where they thought the laws of this Commonwealth would place him. They also presented me thirty dollars to defray the expenses of my journey home to Manteno, and offered me the protec- tion of a Sheriff as my travelling companion, if I desired it. I declined this kind offer, fearing its effect upon Mr. Pack- ard's feelings. I preferred to come to him alone and unpro- tected, hoping thus to arouse his manliness into exercise towards me, as one wholly dependent upon him for protection and shelter. And coming alone under these circumstances, might possibly lead him to reconsider his plan for perpetua- ting my imprisonment. For since this entire community, after becoming personally acquainted with me, had combined in defense of my sanity, he might be led to fear that the popular current might interpose a barrier to his treating me as an insane person in future. My Granville friends appreciated the force of my argument, and therefore allowed me to return home unattended. It was about ten o'clock, on a cold morning in November, that I arrived at the depot in Manteno. A few inches of snow had fallen the previous night, and now this snow was melting so as to render it very wet and sloppy under foot. Without speaking to any one, I left my trunk at the depot and started to walk to my home, about one hundred yards distant. But before I had stepped from the platform I thought that my trunk, containing my valuable papers, must be carefully looked after, lest Mr. Packard get access to it and rob it of its valuables. I therefore concluded to return and request Mr. Harding, the depot master, to retain the trunk until called for by myself or my written order. IMPRISONED AT HOME. 11 But as I turned round, I saw for the first time a boy follow- ing me, and seeing how very sloppy the platform was, I asked this boy if he would please go back and tell Mr. Harding that: “Mrs. Packard requests him to please retain her trunk until she calls for it-or, simply say, Mrs. Packard wishes Mr. Harding to not let Mr. Packard take her trunk.” The boy hesitated. Said I, “an't you willing to do this favor for me? It is so wet I don't like to go back.” “I don't want to say anything against my Pa!” Raising his cap, I looked him full in the face, exclaiming : “ Who are you? Is this my little George! Didn't I know my darling boy!” As I embraced my precious child, and bestowed upon him kisses of the tenderest affection, I said : “My darling George shall have his mother again. We shall never be separated now. Kind people are going to protect me and your Pa can't take your mother from you again.” At this point he drew back from my embrace, saying: “My Pa has done right. He has not done wrong.” . “ Yes, George, your Pa has done wrong to take your mother from you and imprison her, as he has, without cause. An't you glad to see your mother?” “ Yes, mother! Yes! But—but”—and he burst into tears. Seeing the conflict between filial love and filial obedience that was going on in his little breast, I remarked : “We wont talk any more about your father,” and taking his hand, I said : .66 Go with me, George.” 66 No, mother, I can't, Pa said I must get the mail and come directly home.” “I will go with you then to the Post-office.” And as we walked on together, I said: “ Did you know me, George?” 12 MODERN PERSECUTION. 16 Yes, mother, I knew you when you got off the train ; Pa said you were coming to-day, and he told me to go to the depot and see if you came.” “How did he know I was coming ?” “He had a despatch from Chicago last night, saying you were on the way home.” While at the Post-office, I informed Mr. La Brie, the post- master, of the offer of protection the Granville community had extended to me, and asked him to see to it that my mail was not interfered with, so as not to intercept communication with them. He promised me it should not be disturbed. Noticing George in tears, I said : " What is the matter, my son!” 6 Pa said I must come directly home with the mail.” 6. You may go, then, my child, and I will come by-and-by.” And he left for his home. My arrival had now become known throughout the village, and friends met in consultation as to what course to advise me to pursue. Mr. Blessing insisted that I should dine at his hotel, and then his team would transport me and my trunk to my house. They also offered me a body-guard, not only to the house, but to remain with me in it if I chose. I declined both for the same reason I had refused my Granville guard. Mr. Blessing accordingly landed my trunk upon the portico of our house, and left me to enter in alone. Before removing my trunk from the depot, I took from it my papers and de- livered them into the hands of my friend, Mrs. Haslett. I entered the front door and passed through the reception room and opened the door into the kitchen before seeing any one. Mr. Packard sat about opposite the door near the stove, in his stuffed easy chair, holding Arthur, my babe, in his arms. He simply bowed, without rising, and said: · IMPRISONED AT HOME. 13 - Good morning, Mrs. Packard.” I went up to my babe, and taking him from his father's arms commenced caressing him, when George and Elizabeth came in from the back yard. After embracing and kissing each other, I sat down with Arthur upon my lap and told them they were now going to have a mother again—that I had come to take care of them, and hoped we should be very happy, and never be separated again, adding: “It is my desire to do you all the good I can, and promote your welfare in every possible way. My daughter, won't it be pleasant to have some one to relieve you of your cares and responsibilities?” Mr. Packard replied: 66 No, you an't wanted here! We get along better without you than with you!” Addressing my daughter, I said: “I am thankful the law protects me in my right to my own home.” Said he : 6 You have no right' here! The law does not protect you here! I am your only protector!” I exchanged no words with Mr. Packard upon this or any other subject-I knew argument was useless, and every attempt at self-vindication would only add fuel to the flame of hatred and distrust which evidently still rankled within him. I had returned with the settled determination to do my whole duty in the family, as mother and housekeeper, so far as possible, without interfering in the least with his own duties or privileges. With a sad, and yet joyful heart, I commenced to reconstruct my now desolate-looking home, by first cleaning it of its extra amount of defilement—the accumulations of three years. Before going home after my arrival, I engaged a hired girl to come the next day and assist me in cleaning my house. She came, and although Mr. Packard knew I had engaged to pay 14 MODERN PERSECUTION. her from the money Granville people had donated for my use, he ordered her out of the house, even before I had had time to welcome her in, and told her never to come to his house to assist his wife without his permission. Of course she left, as the married woman has no rights which her husband is bound to respect! I then commenced alone with my own sleeping room by removing the carpet, and being unable to lift it alone I asked one of my children to assist me. Mr. Packard forbid their helping me at all, saying: Go It is of no use to clean—it don't need it and you must not assist your mother at all in doing it.” I put some water upon the kitchen cook-stove to heat for the purpose of cleaning the paint. He took it off, saying: 66 You shall heat no water upon my stove for cleaning.” I accordingly cleaned my room with cold water. In passing through the kitchen I saw my little daughter rolling out some pie-crust. I stepped up to the table and said: “Let me show you how to make your crust, my daughter, I see you don't understand how to do it right.” Mr. Packard came up to the table, and in a loud and most authoritative tone, with his hand upraised, said: “I forbid your interference! I will attend to this business myself! Elizabeth shall make her pies as she pleases.” I thought the “ interference” was on the other side—that it was he who was interfering with my duties instead of I with his. Nevertheless, I maintained my determination, never to speak in self-defense. I sought for clean sheets for our beds, but found them locked up and the key in Mr. Packard's hands, and I could only get a change when in his judgment it was needed, not when I thought it even indispensable to health and cleanliness. I sought for my wardrobe, but this too I found was under Mr. Packard's lock and key, and not even a decent pair of IMPRISONED AT HOME. 15 winter hose would he allow me from it, because in his judg- ment a useless worn out pair was all I needed. One morning as I was doing the chamber work up stairs, I saw a bunch of keys left by the thoughtlessness of some of the children, who used them when they wished, in the closet door where our family stores and bedding and wardrobe were deposited to keep them from me ; and I took them into my custody, assuring myself that I, as my husband's partner, had some right to carry the keys part of the time at least, and I concluded now was the time to test this principle. As locks and keys were an article introduced into my family during my banishment, I ventured to leave the door so much used, un- locked, so that the keys would not be necessary to their com- fort or convenience. But when, behold! the keys were missing, suspicion at once fell upon me, and Packard ordered my person and my room to be searched; which was done most thoroughly. Now I saw the wisdom of not having my papers in my trunk, for he took an inventory of every article, and would doubtless have taken my papers had they been there, and he might have done as Dr. McFarland advised, “ Burn them!” But the search for the keys was all in vain—they were no- where to be found ! This search was not confined to my person and my room merely, but the entire house and premises were most carefully and diligently searched in every corner, nook, and crevice- even the embers of my stove were examined. Both the front and back yard were also included in Packard's “search- warrant”—every stone, leaf, and shrub were upturned to find the missing keys—but all to no purpose! He could not find them, for the simple reason he did not look in the right place! He then locked me up in my nursery so I could have no opportunity for using them. Thus was my imprisonment in my home secured, whereby 16 MODERN PERSECUTION. a writ of habeas corpus could be legally obtained. Thus, this my painful imprisonment of six weeks was the stepping-stone to my freedom. I never was allowed to eat at the table with my family afterwards. My food was sent to my room in as good order as such cooks could prepare it. My health suffered much from confined air, as my windows were nailed down so my room could not be properly ventilated. Mr. Packard cut me off from all communication with the community, and my other friends, by intercepting my mail- refused me interviews with friends who called to see me, so that he might meet with no interference in carrying out the plan he had devised to have me incarcerated again for life. During the day he allowed my four children, Samuel, Elizabeth, George, and Arthur, to occupy the room with me, as my scholars, and great was the proficiency they acquired during this their short school term of six weeks, in the knowl- edge of arithmetic, grammar, algebra, reading, spelling, writ- ing, composition, and elocution-Samuel especially being en- thusiastic over his attainments during this school term--said he: “Mother, I have learned more here this winter under your teaching, than I learned during one whole term of twelve weeks at the Academy at Kankakee.” While in my room I demanded and received from all my children the respect and obedience due me, as their teacher. But when I attempted to dictate in reference to their personal habits in relation to their bathing, toilet duties, hours of rising and retiring, and their wardrobe, Mr. Packard required them to disregard my directions, whenever they conflicted with his own plans or wishes in these matters. The door of my room was not kept locked during the day, when the front outside door was securely fastened and the back door sufficiently guarded to prevent my escape; but at night it was always locked by himself. IMPRISONED AT HOME. 17 One evening I proposed to my children that we clean and polish our cook-stove in the kitchen which Mr. Packard now used as his study, to which they readily consented. And to avoid disturbance during the time, Mr. Packard removed his stationery and papers to my room to study by himself by my warm stove. When our merry polishing party had completed their task. to their entire satisfaction, insisting upon it that “ Black Prince” looked now just as bright as he used to shine when mother was housekeeper, we cleaned ourselves and all retired to my room to warm before retiring for the night. Our en- trance was the signal for Mr. Packard's leaving, of course, and in his haste or carelessness in gathering up his papers he over- looked a package of letters, which he left behind upon my table. These I did not notice until all had dispersed and Mr. Packard had locked me up for the night. My first thought was not to examine them, as they were un- doubtedly left by mistake. But upon second thought I con- cluded it not only right to see my husband's papers, but also to avail myself of every lawful means of self-defense which lay within my reach. Accordingly I spent several hours of this night in carefully reading these letters, received during my incarceration and since my discharge. From these replies to his own letters, his platform of action, both past, present, and future, was distinctly portrayed, bearing most fearful and un- mistakable evidence that I was to be entered in a few days into Northampton Insane Asylum for life! One of these letters from Doctor Prince, Superintendent of that Asylum, assured me of this fact, in these words: “I will receive Mrs. Packard as a case of hopeless insanity, upon the certificate of Dr. McFarland that she is hopelessly? insane.” Another from Dr. McFarland, saying: With this certificate he could get me entered without any 18 MODERN PERSECUTION. sort of trial, and thus I could be disposed of without jeopard- izing their own interests, for he added: “ The dignity of silence is the only safe course for us both to pursue !" Another from his sister, Mrs. Marian Severance, of Massa- chusetts, revealed the mode in which she advised her brother to transfer me from my home prison to my Asylum prison. She advised him to let me go to New York, under the pre- tence of getting my book published, and have him follow in a train behind, assuring the conductors that I must be treated as an insane person, although I should deny the charge, as all insane persons did, and thus make sure of their aid as accom- plices in this conspiracy against my personal liberty. The conductor must be directed to switch me off at Northampton, Mass., instead of taking me to New York, and as my through ticket would indicate to me that all was right, she thought this could be done without arousing my suspicions; then en- gage a carriage to transport me to the Asylum under the pre- text of a hotel, and lock me up for life as a state's pauper! Then, said she : “ You will have her out of the way, and can do as you please with her property, her children, and even her ward- robe; don't be even responsible this time for her clothing." Mr. Packard was responsible for my wardrobe in Jackson- ville prison, but for nothing else. I was supported there three years as a state pauper. This fact, Mr. Packard most adroitly concealed from my rich father and family relatives, so that he could persuade my deluded father to place more of my patrimony in his hands, under the false pretence that he needed it to make his daughter more comfortable in the Asylum. My father sent him money for this purpose, supposing Mr. Packard was paying my board at the Asylum ; but instead of that he appropriated it all to his own exclusive use. Another letter was from Dr. McFarland, wherein I saw that IMPRISONED AT HOME. 19 Mr. Packard had made application for my re-admission there; and Dr. McFarland had consented to receive me again as an insane patient! But the Trustees put their veto upon it, and would not con- sent to his plea that I be admitted there again. Here is his own statement, which I copied from his own letter : “ Jacksonville, December 18, 1863. Rev. Mr. Packard, Dear Sir : The Secretary of the Trustees has probably before this communicated to you the result of their action in the case of Mrs. Packard. It is proper enough to state that I favored her re-admission !” Then follows his injunction to Mr. Packard to be sure not to publish anything respecting the matter. Why is this? Does an upright course seek concealment? Nay, verily: It is conscious guilt alone that seeks conceal- ment, and dreads agitation lest his crimes be exposed. Mine is only one of a large class of cases, where he has consented to re-admit a sane person, particularly the wives of men whose influence he was desirous of securing for the support of himself in his present lucrative position. Yes, many intelligent wives and mothers did I leave in that awful prison, whose only hope of liberty lies in the death of their lawful husbands, or in a change of the laws, or in a thorough ventilation of that Institution. Such a ventilation was needed, in order that justice be done to that class of miserable inmates who were then unjustly confined there. When I had read these letters over three or four times, to make it sure I had not mistaken their import, and even had taken copies of some of them, I determined upon the following expedient as my last and only resort, as a self-defensive act. There was a stranger who passed my window daily to get water from our pump. One day as he passed I beckoned to him to take a note which I had pushed down through where the windows came together, adding: 20 MODERN PERSECUTION. “ Stranger, please hand this note to Mrs. Haslet.” My windows were firmly nailed down and screwed together, so that I could not open them. efficient friend I knew of in Manteno, wherein I informed her of my imminent danger, and begged of her if possible in any way to rescue me, to do so forthwith, for in a few days I should be beyond the reach of all human help. She communicated these facts to the citizens, when mob law was suggested as the only available means of rescue which lay in their power to use, as no law existed which defended a wife from a husband's power, and no man dared to take the responsibility of protecting me against my husband. And one hint was communicated to me clandestinely that if I would only break through my window, a company was formed who would defend me when once outside our house. This rather unlady-like mode of self-defense I did not like to resort to, knowing as I did, if I should not finally succeed in this attempt, my persecutors would gain advantage over me, in that I had once injured property, as a reason why I should be locked up. As yet, none of my persecutors had the shadow of capi- tal to make out the charge of insanity upon outside of my opinions; for my conduct and deportment had uniformly been kind, lady-like, and Christian ; and even to this date, 1873, I challenge any individual to prove me guilty of one The lady-like Mrs. Haslet sympathized with me in these views; therefore she sought counsel of Judge Starr of Kanka- kee City, to know if any law could reach my case so as to give me a trial of any kind, before another incarceration. The Judge told her that if I was a prisoner in my own house, and any were willing to take oath upon it, a writ of habeas corpus might reach my case and thus secure me a trial. IMPRISONED AT HOME. 21 Witnesses were easily found who could take oath to this fact, as many had called at our house and had seen that my windows were screwed together on the outside, and our front outside door firmly fastened on the outside, and our back outside door most vigilantly guarded by day and locked at night. In a few days this writ was accordingly executed by the Sheriff of the county, and just two days before Mr. Packard was intending to start with me for Massachusetts to imprison me for life in Northampton Lunatic Asylum, he was required by this writ to bring me before the court and give his reasons to the court why he kept his wife a prisoner. The reason he gave for so doing was, that I was insane. The Judge replied, “ Prove it!” The Judge then empanelled a jury of twelve men, and the following trial ensued as the result. This trial continued five days. Thus my being made a prisoner at my own home was the only hinge on which my personal liberty for life hung, inde- pendent of mob law, as there was then no law in the State that would allow a married woman the right of a trial against the charge of insanity brought against her by her husband; and God only knows how many innocent wives and mothers my case represents, who have thus lost their liberty for life, by this arbitrary power, unchecked as it then was by no law on the Statute Book of Illinois. CHAPTER II. My Release on a Writ of “Habeas Corpus,” and my Sanity Tried by a Jury-My Sanity Fully Established. BY STEPHEN R. MOORE, ATTORNEY AT LAW. In preparing a report of this Trial, the writer has had but one object in view, namely, to present a faithful history of the case as narrated ly the witnesses upon the stand, who gave their testimony under the solemnity of an oath. The exact, language employed by the witnesses has been used, and the written testimony given in full, with the exception of a letter, written by Dr. McFarland, to Rev. Theophilus Packard, which letter was retained by Mr. Packard, and the writer was unable to obtain a copy. The substance of the letter is found in the body of the report, and has been submitted to the examination of Mr. Packard's counsel, who agree that it is correctly stated. This case was on trial before the Hon. Charles R. Starr, at Kankakee City, Illinois, from Monday, January 11th, 1864, to Tuesday the 19th, and came up on an application made by Mrs. Packard, under the Habeas Corpus Act, to be discharged from imprisonment by her husband in their own house. The case has disclosed a state of facts most wonderful and startling. Reverend Theophilus Packard came to Manteno, in Kankakee county, Illinois, seven years since, and has remained in charge of the Presbyterian Church of that place until the past two years. In the winter of 1859 and 1860, there were differences of opinion between Mr. Packard and Mrs. Packard, upon matters MY JURY TRIAL. 23 of religion, which resulted in prolonged and vigorous debate in the home circle. The heresies maintained by Mrs. Packard were carried by the husband from the fireside to the pulpit, and made a matter of inquiry by the church, and which soon resulted in open warfare; and her views and propositions were misrepresented and animadverted upon, from the pulpit, and herself made the subject of unjust criticism. In the Bible- Class and in the Sabbath School, she maintained her religious tenets, and among her kindred and friends, defended herself from the obloquy of her husband. To make the case fully understood, I will here remark, that Mr. Packard was educated in the Calvinistic faith, and for twenty-nine years has been a preacher of that creed, and would in no wise depart from the religion of his fathers. He is cold, selfish, and illiberal in his views, possessed of but little talent, and a physiognomy innocent of expression. He has large self- will, and his stubbornness is only exceeded by his bigotry. Mrs. Packard is a lady of fine mental endowments, and blest with a liberal education. She is an original, vigorous, masculine thinker, and were it not for her superior judgment, combined with native modesty, she would rank as a “strong- minded woman.” As it is, her conduct comports strictly with the sphere usually occupied by woman. She dislikes parade or show of any kind. Her confidence that Right will prevail, leads her to too tamely submit to wrongs. She was educated in the same religious belief with her husband, and during the first twenty years of married life, his labors in the parish and in the pulpit were greatly relieved by the willing hand and able intellect of his wife. Phrenologists would also say of her, that her self-will was large and her married life tended in no wise to diminish this phrenological bump. They have been married twenty-five years, and have six children, the issue of their intermarriage, the youngest of whom was eighteen months old when she was 24 MODERN PERSECUTION. kidnapped and transferred to Jacksonville. The older children have maintained a firm position against the abuse and persecu- tions of their father towards their mother, but were of too tender age to render her any material assistance. Her views of religion are more in accordance with the liberal views of the age in which we live. She scouts the Calvinistic doctrine of man's total depravity, and that God has fore- ordained some to be saved and others to be damned. She stands fully on the platform of man's free agency and account- ability to God for his actions. She believes that man, and nations, are progressive; and that in his own good time, and in accordance with His great purposes, Right will prevail over Wrong, and the oppressed will be freed from the oppressor. She believes slavery to be a national sin, and the church and the pulpit a proper place to combat this sin. These, in brief, are the points in her religious creed which were combated by Mr. Packard, and were denominated by him as “ emanations from the devil,” or “the vagaries of a crazed brain.” For maintaining such ideas as above indicated, Mr. Packard denounced her from the pulpit, denied her the privilege of family prayer in the home circle, expelled her from the Bible Class, and refused to let her be heard in the Sabbath School. He excluded her from her friends, and made her a prisoner in her own house. Her reasonings and her logic appeared to him as the ravings of a mad woman—her religion was the religion of the devil. To justify his conduct, he gave out that she was insane, and found a few willing believers, among his family connections. This case was commenced by filing a petition in the words following, to wit: MY JURY TRIAL. 25 STATE OF ILLINOIS, 2. KANKAKEE COUNTY. So To the Honorable CHARLES R. STARR, Judge of the 20th Judicial Circuit in the State of Illinois. William Haslet, Daniel Beedy, Zalmon Hanford, and Joseph Younglove, of said county, on behalf of Elizabeth P. W. Packard, wife of Theophilus Packard, of said county, respect- fully represent unto your Honor, that said Elizabeth P. W. Packard, is unlawfully restrained of her liberty, at Manteno, in the county of Kankakee, by her husband, Rev. Theophilus Packard, being forcibly confined and imprisoned in a close room of the dwelling-house of her said husband, for a long time, to wit, for the space of six weeks, her said husband re- fusing to let her visit her neighbors and refusing her neighbors to visit her; that they believe her said husband is about to forcibly convey her from out the State ; that they believe there is no just cause or ground for restraining said wife of her liberty ; that they believe that said wife is a mild and amiable woman. And they are advised and believe, that said hus- band cruelly abuses and misuses said wife, by depriving her of her winter's clothing, this cold and inclement weather, and that there is no necessity for such cruelty on the part of said husband to said wife; and they are advised and believe, that said wife desires to come to Kankakee City, to make application to your Honor for a writ of habeas corpus, to liberate herself from said confinement or imprisonment, and that said husband refused and refuses to allow said wife to come to Kankakee City for said purpose; and that these petitioners make application for a writ of habeas corpus in her behalf, at her request. These petitioners therefore pray that a writ of habeas corpus may forthwith issue, commanding said Theophilus Packard to produce the body of said wife, MODERN PERSECUTION. before your Honor, according to law, and that said wife may be discharged from said imprisonment. (Signed), WILLIAM HASLET. DANIEL BEEDY. J. W. ORR, ZALMON HANFORD. H. LORING, S Pelitioners' Attorneys. J. YOUNGLOVE. STEPHEN R. MOORE, Counsel. STATE OF ILLINOIS, KANKAKEE COUNTY. 30 William Haslet, Daniel Beedy, Zalmon Hanford, and Joseph Younglove, whose names are subscribed to the above petition, being duly sworn, severally depose and say, that the matters and facts set forth in the above petition are true in substance and fact, to the best of their knowledge and belief. WILLIAM HASLET. DANIEL DANIEL BEEDY. ZALMON HANFORD. J. YOUNGLOVE. Sworn to and subscribed before me, this? 11th day of January, A. D. 1864. I Mason B. LOOMIS, J. P. Upon the above petition, the Honorable C. R. Starr, Judge as aforesaid, issued a writ of habeas corpus, as follows: STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) KANKAKEE COUNTY, I The People of the State of Illinois, T. THEOPHILUS PACKARD: WE COMMAND YOU, That the body of Elizabeth P. W. Packard, in your custody detained and imprisoned, as it is said, together with the day and cause of caption and detention, by whatsoever name the same may be called, you safely have be- fore Charles R. Starr, Judge of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, State of Illinois, at his chambers, at Kankakee City in the said county, on the 12th instant, at one o'clock, P.M., and to do and receive all and singular those things which the said Judge MY JURY TRIAL. shall then and there consider of her in this behalf, and have you then and there this writ. Witness, Charles R. Starr, Judge aforesaid, this 11th day of January, A. D. 1864. REVENUE STAMP.] CHARLES R. STARR, [SEALT Judge of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit of the State of Illinois. Indorsed : “By the Habeas Corpus Act.” To said writ, the Rev. Theophilus Packard made the follow- ing return: The within named Theophilus Packard does hereby certify, to the within named, the Honorable Charles R. Starr, Judge of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit of the State of Illinois, that the within named Elizabeth P. W. Packard is now in my custody, before your Honor. That the said Elizabeth is the wife of the undersigned, and is and has been for more than three years past insane, and for about three years of that time was in the Insane Asylum of the State of Illinois, under treatment, as an insane person. That she was discharged from said Asylum, without being cured, and is incurably insane, on or about the 18th day of June, A. D. 1863, and that since the 23rd day of October, the undersigned has kept the said Elizabeth with him in Manteno, in this county, and while he has faithfully and anxiously watched, cared for, and guarded the said Elizabeth, yet he has not unlawfully restrained her of her liberty; and has not confined and imprisoned her in a close room, in the dwelling-house of the undersigned, or in any other place, or way, but, on the contrary, the undersigned has allowed her all the liberty compatible with her welfare and safety. That the undersigned is about to remove his residence from Manteno, in this State, to the town of Deerfield, in the county of Franklin, in the State of Massachusetts, and designs and intends to take his said wife Elizabeth with him. That the undersigned has 28 MODERN PERSECUTION. never misused or abused the said Elizabeth, by depriving her of her winter's clothing, but, on the contrary, the undersigned has always treated the said Elizabeth with kindness and affec- tion, and has provided her with a sufficient quantity of win- ter clothing and other clothing; and that the said Elizabeth has never made any request of the undersigned, for liberty to come to Kankakee City, for the purpose of suing out a writ of habeas corpus. The undersigned hereby presents a letter from Andrew McFarland, Superintendent of the Illi- nois State Hospital, at Jacksonville, in this State, showing her discharge, and reasons of discharge, from said institu- tion, which is marked “ A," and is made a part of this return. And also presents a certificate from the said Andrew McFar- land, under the seal of said hospital, marked “C,” refusing to re-admit the said Elizabeth again into said hospital, on the ground of her being incurably insane, which is also hereby made a part of this return. ** THEOPHILUS PACKARD. Dated January 12, 1864. The Court, upon its own motion, ordered an issue to be formed, as to the sanity or insanity of Mrs. E. P. W. Packard, and ordered a venire of twelve men to aid the Court in the investigation of said issue. And thereupon a venire was issued. The counsel for the respondent, Thomas P. Bonfield, Mason B. Loomis, and Hon. C. A. Lake, moved the court to quash the venire, on the ground that the court had no right to call a jury to determine the question, on an application to be dis- charged on a writ of habeas corpus. The court overruled the motion; and thereupon the following jury was selected : John Stiles, Daniel G. Bean, V. H. Young, F. G. Hutchin- son, Thomas Muncey, H. Hirshberg, Nelson Jarvais, William Hyer, George H. Andrews, J. F. Mafet, Lemuel Milk, G. M. Lyons. MY JURY TRIAL. CHRISTOPHER W. KNOTT was the first witness sworn by the respondent, to maintain the issue on his part, that she was insane ; who being sworn, deposed and said: I am a practicing physician in Kankakee City. Have been in practice fifteen years. Have seen Mrs. Packard ; saw her three or four years ago. Am not much acquainted with her. Had never seen her until I was called to see her at that time. I was called to visit her by Theophilus Packard. I thought her partially deranged on religious matters, and gave a certifi- cate to that effect. I certified that she was insane upon the subject of religion. I have never seen her since. Cross-examination.—This visit I made her was three or four years ago. I was there twice-one-half hour each time. I visited her on request of Mr. Packard, to determine if she was insane. I learned from him that he designed to convey her to the State Asylum. Do not know whether she was aware of my object or not. Her mind appeared to be excited on the subject of religion, on all other subjects she was perfectly rational. It was probably caused by overtaxing the mental faculties. She was what might be called a monomaniac. Monomania is insanity on one subject. Three-fourths of the religious com- munity are insane in the same manner, in my opinion. Her insanity was such that with a little rest she would readily have recovered from it. The female mind is more excitable than the male. I saw her perhaps one-half hour each time I visited her. I formed my judgment as to her insanity wholly from conversing with her. I could see nothing except an unusual zealousness and warmth upon religious topics. Nothing was said in my conversation with her, about disagreeing with Mr. Packard on religious topics. Mr. Packard introduced the sub- ject of religion the first time I was there; the second time, I introduced the subject. Mr. Packard and Mr. Comstock were present. The subject was pressed on her for the purpose of drawing her out. Mrs. Packard would manifest more zeal 30 MODERN PERSECUTION. than most of people upon any subject that interested her. I take her to be a lady of fine mental abilities, possessing more ability than ordinarily found. She is possessed of a nervous temperament, easily excited, and has a strong wilt. I would say that she was insane, the same as I would say Henry Ward Beecher, Spurgeon, Horace Greeley, and like persons, are in- sane. Probably three weeks intervened between the visits I made Mrs. Packard. This was in June, 1860. Re-examined. She is a woman of large, active brain, and nervous temperament. I take her to be a woman of good in- tellect. There is no subject which excites people so much as religion. Insanity produces, oftentimes, ill-feelings towards the best friends, and particularly the family, or those more nearly related to the insane person—but not so with mono- mania. She told me, in the conversation, that the Calvinistic doctrines were wrong, and that she had been compelled to with- draw from the church. She said that Mr. Packard was more insane than she was, and that people would find it out. I had no doubt that she was insane. I only considered her insane on that subject, and she was not bad at that. I could not judge whether it was hereditary. I thought if she was with- drawn from conversation and excitement, she could have got well in a short time. Confinement in any shape, or restraint, would have made her worse. I did not think it was a bad case; it only required rest. J. W. BROWN, being sworn, said: I am a physician; live in this city; have no extensive ac- quaintance with Mrs. Packard. Saw her three or four weeks ago. I examined her as to her sanity or insanity. I was re- quested to make a visit, and had an extended conference with her; I spent some three hours with her. I had no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion, in my mind, that she was in- sane. MY JURY TRIAL. 31 Cross-examination.--I visited her by request of Mr. Packard, at her house. The children were in and out of the room; no one else was present. I concealed my object in visiting her. She asked me if I was a physician, and I told her no; that I was an agent, selling sewing machines, and had come there to sell her one. The first subject we conversed about was sewing machines. She showed no sign of insanity on that subject. The next subject discussed, was the social condition of the female sex. She exhibited no special marks of insanity on that subject, although she had many ideas quite at variance with mine, on the subject. The subject of politics was introduced. She spoke of the condition of the North and the South. She illustrated her dif- ficulties with Mr. Packard, by the difficulties between the North and the South. She said the South was wrong, and was waging war for two wicked purposes : first, to overthrow a good government, and second, to establish a depotism on the inhu- man principle of human slavery. But that the North, having right on their side, would prevail. So Mr. Packard was op- posing her, to overthrow free thought in woman ; that the despotism of man may prevail over the wife ; but that she had right and truth on her side, and that she would prevail. During this conversation I did not fully conclude that she was insane. I brought up the subject of religion. We discussed that subject for a long time, and then I had not the slightest diffi- culty in concluding that she was hopelessly insane. Question. Dr., what particular idea did she advance on the subject of religion that led you to the conclusion that she was hopelessly insane? Answer. She advanced many of them. I formed my opinion not so much on any one idea advanced, as upon her whole con- versation. She then said that she was the “ Personification of the Holy Ghost.” I did not know what she meant by that. 32 MODERN PERSECUTION. Ques. Was not this the idea conveyed to you in that con- versation : That there are three attributes of the Deity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ? Now, did she not say, that the attributes of the Father were represented in mankind, in man ; that the attributes of the Holy Ghost were repre- sented in woman; and that the Son was the fruit of these two attributes of the Deity ? Ans. Well, I am not sure but that was the idea conveyed, though I did not fully get her idea at the time. Ques. Was not that a new idea to you in theology ? Ans. It was. Ques. Are you much of a theologian ? Ans. No. Ques. Then because the idea was a novel one to you, you pronounced her insane. Ans. Well, I pronounced her insane on that and other things that exhibited themselves in this conversation. Ques. Did she not show more familiarity with the subject of religion and the questions of theology, than you had with these subjects ? Ans. I do not pretend much knowledge on these subjects. Ques. What else did she say or do there, that showed marks of insanity ? Ans. She claimed to be better than her husband—that she was right-and that he was wrong--and that all she did was good, and all he did was bad—that she was farther advanced than other people, and more nearly perfection. She found fault particularly that Mr. Packard would not discuss their points of difference on religion in an open, manly way, instead of going around and denouncing her as crazy to her friends and to the church. She had a great aversion to being called insane. Before I got through the conversation she exhibited a great dislike to me, and almost treated me in a contemptuous manner. She MY JURY TRIAL. 33 appeared quite lady-like. She had a great reverence for God, and a regard for religious and pious people. Re-examined. Ques. Dr., you may now state all the rea- sons you have for pronouncing her insane. Ans. I have written down, in order, the reasons which I had, to found my opinion on, that she was insane. I will read them. 1. That she claimed to be in advance of the age thirty or forty years. 2. That she disliked to be called insane. 3. That she pronounced me a copperhead, and did not prove the fact 4. An incoherency of thought. That she failed to illumi- nate me and fill me with light. 5. Her aversion to the doctrine of the total depravity of man 6. Her claim to perfection, or nearer perfection in action and conduct. 7. Her aversion to being called insane. 8. Her feeling towards her husband. 9. Her belief that to call her insane and abuse her, was blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. 10. Her explanation of this idea. 11. Incoherency of thought and ideas. 12. Her extreme aversion to the doctrine of the total de- pravity of mankind, and in the same conversation, saying her husband was a specimen of man's total depravity. 13. The general history of the case. 14. Her belief that some calamity would befall her, owing to my being there, and her refusal to shake hands with me when I went away. 15. Her viewing the subject of religion from the osteric standpoint of Christian exegetical analysis, and agglutinating the polsynthetical ectoblasts of homogeneous asceticism. 34 MODERN PERSECUTION. The witness left the stand amid roars of laughter; and it required some moments to restore order in the court room. JOSEPH H. WAY, sworn, and said: I am a practicing physician in Kankakee City, Illinois. I made a medical examination of Mrs. Packard a few weeks since at her house; was there perhaps two hours. On most subjects she was quite sane. On the subject of religion I thought she had some ideas that are not generally entertained. At that time I thought her to be somewhat deranged or excited on that subject; since that time I have thought perhaps I was not a proper judge, for I am not much posted on disputed points in theology, and I find that other people entertain sim- ilar ideas. They are not in accordance with my views, but that is no evidence that she is insane. Cross-examined. I made this visit at her house, or his house, perhaps, at Manteno. I conversed on various subjects. She was perfectly sane on every subject except religion, and I would not swear now that she was insane. She seemed to have been laboring under an undue excitement on that subject. She has a nervous temperament, and is easily excited. She said she liked her children, and that it was hard to be torn from them. That none but a mother could feel the anguish she had suffered ; that while she was confined in the Asylum, the children had been educated by their father to call her in- sane. She said she would have them punished if they called their own mother insane, for it was not right. ABIJAH DOLE, sworn, and says: I know Mrs. Packard ; have known her twenty-five or thirty years. I am her brother-in-law. Lived in Manteno seven years. Mrs. Packard has lived there six years. I have been sent for several times by her and Mr. Packard, and found her in an excited state of mind. I was there frequently; we were 'MY JURY TRIAL. 35 very familiar. One morning early, I was sent for ; she was in the west room; she was in her night clothes. She took me by the hand and led me to the bed. Libby was lying in bed, moaning and moving her head. Mrs. Packard now spoke and said, “ How pure we are.” “I am one of the children of heaven; Libby is one of the branches.” “ The woman shall bruise the serpent's head.” She called Mr. Packard a devil. She said, Brother Dole, these are serious matters. If Brother Haslet will help me, we will crush the body. She said Christ had come into the world to save men, and that she had come to save woman. Her hair was disheveled. Her face looked wild. This was over three years ago. I was there again one morning after this. She came to me. She pitied me for marrying my wife, who is a sister to Mr. Packard ; said, I might find an agreeable companion. She said if she had cultivated amativeness, she would have made a more agreeable companion. She took me to another room and talked about going away; this was in June, before they took her to the State Hospital. She sent for me again; she was in the east room; she was very cordial. She wanted me to intercede for Theophilus, who was at Marshall, Michigan; she wanted him to stay there, and it was thought not advisa- ble for him to stay. We wished him to come away, but did not tell her the reasons. He was with a Swedenborgian. After this I was called there once in the night. She said she could not live with Mr. Packard, and she thought she had better go away. One time she was in the Bible-class. The question came up in regard to Moses smiting the Egyptian; she thought Moses had acted too hasty, but that all things worked for the glory of God. I requested her to keep quiet, and she agreed to do it. I have had no conversation with Mrs. Packard since her re- turn from the Hospital; she will not talk with me because she thinks I think she is insane. Her brother came to see 36 MODERN PERSECUTION. her; he said he had not seen her for four or five years. I tried to have Mrs. Packard talk with him, and she would not have anything to do with him because he said she was a crazy wo- man. She generally was in the kitchen when I was there, overseeing her household affairs. I was Superintendent of the Sabbath School. One Sabbath, just at the close of the school, I was behind the desk, and almost like a vision she appeared before me, and requested to deliver or read an address to the school. I was much sur- prised; I felt so bad, I did not know what to do. (At this juncture the witness became very much affected, and choked up so that he could not proceed, and cried so loud that he could be heard in any part of the court-room. When he became calm, he went on and said, I was willing to gratify her all I could, for I knew she was crazy, but I did not want to take the responsibility myself, so I put it to a vote of the school, if she should be allowed to read it. She was allowed to read it. It occupied ten or fifteen minutes in reading. I cannot state any of the particulars of that paper. It bore evidence of her insanity. She went on and condemned the church, all in all, and the individuals composing the church, because they did not agree with her. She looked very wild and very much excited. She seemed to be insane. She came to church one morning just as services commenced, and wished to have the church act upon her letter withdrawing from the church immediately. Mr. Packard was in the pulpit. She wanted to know if Brother Dole and Brother Merrick were in the church, and wanted them to have it acted upon. This was three years ago, just before she was taken away to the hospital. Cross-examined.—I supposed when I first went into the room that her influence over the child had caused the child to become deranged. The child was ten years old. I believed that she had exerted some mesmeric or other influence over the child, that caused it to moan and toss its head. The child MY JURY TRIAL. 37 had been sick with brain fever; I learned that after I got there. I suppose the mother had considerable anxiety over the child; I suppose she had been watching over the child all night, and that would tend to excite her. The child got well. It was sick several days after this; it was lying on the bed moaning and tossing its head; the mother did not appear to be alarmned. Mr. Packard was not with her; she was all alone; she did not say that Mr. Packard did not show proper care for the sick child. I suppose she thought Libby would die. Her ideas on religion did not agree with mine, nor with my view of the Bible. I knew Mr. Packard thought her insane, and did not want her to discuss these questions in the Sabbath School. I knew he had opposed her more or less. This letter to the church was for the purpose of asking for a letter from the church. Question. Was it an indication of insanity that she wanted to leave the Presbyterian Church ? Answer. I think it strange that she should ask for letters from the church. She would not leave the church unless she was insane. I am a member of the church-I believe the church is right. I believe everything the church does is right. I believe every- thing in the Bible. Ques. Do you believe literally that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, and remained in its belly three days, and was then cast up? Ans. I do. Ques. Do you believe literally that Elijah went direct up to Heaven in a chariot of fire—that the chariot had wheels, and seats, and was drawn by horses ? Ans. I do—for with God all things are possible. Quas. Do you believe Mrs. Packard was insane, and is insane? Ans. I do. 38 MODERN PERSECUTION. I never read any of Swedenborg's works. I do not deem it proper for persons to investigate new doctrines or systems of theology. Re-examined.—I became a Presbyterian eight years ago. I was formerly a Congregationalist; Mr. Packard was a Con- gregationalist. Re-cross-examination.- Ques. Was it dangerous for you to examine the doctrines or theology embraced in the Presbyte- rian Church, when you left the Congregationalist Church, and joined it? Ans. I will not answer so foolish a question. Witness discharged. JOSEPHUS B. SMITH, sworn, says: Am aged fifty years; have known Mrs. Packard seven years. I cannot tell the first appearance of any abnormal condition of her mind. I first saw it at the Sabbath School. She came in and wished to read a communication. I do not recollect everything of the communication. She did not read the let- ter, but presented it to Brother Dole. She said something about her small children, and left. She seemed to be excited. There was nothing very unusual in her appearance. Her voice was rather excited; it could be heard nearly over the house. I merely recall the circumstance, but recollect scarce anything else. It was an unusual thing for any person to come in and read an address. I do not recollect anything unusual in her manner. (At this stage of the trial, an incident occurred that for a time stopped all proceedings, and produced quite an excite- ment in the court-room; and this report would not be faith- ful if it were passed over unnoticed. Mrs. Dole, the sister of Mr. Packard, came in, leading the little daughter of Mrs. Packard, and in passing by the table occupied by Mrs. Packe ard and her counsel, the child stopped, went up to her MY JURY TRIAL. 39 mother, kissed and hugged her, and was clinging to her with all child-like fervor, when it was observed by Mrs. Dole, who snatched the child up—and bid it “come away from that woman;" adding, “ She is not fit to take care of you—I have you in my charge;" and thereupon led her away. The court- room was crowded to its utmost, and not a mother's heart there but what was touched, and scarce a dry eye was seen. Quite a stir was made, but the sheriff soon restored order.) Cross-examined.-I had charge of the Sunday School; am a member of Mr. Packard's church. I knew Mr. Packard had considered her insane ; knew they had had difficulties. I was elected Superintendent of the school in place of Brother Dole, for the special purpose of keeping Mrs. Packard straight. SYBIL. DOLE, sworn, and says- I am Mr. Packard's sister; have known her twenty-five years. Her natural disposition is very kind and sweet. Her education is very good ; her morals without a stain or blemish. I first observed a change in her after we came to Manteno. I had a conversation with her, when she talked an hour without interruption; she talked in a wild, excited manner; the sub- ject was partly religion. She spoke of her own attainments; she said she had advanced in spiritual affairs. This was two or three years before she went to the Asylum. The next time was when she was preparing to go to York State. She was weeping and sick. Her trunk was packed and ready to go, but Mr. Packard was sick. From her voice, and the manner she talked, I formed an opinion of her insanity. She talked on various points; the conversation distressed me very much; I could not sleep. She was going alone; we tried to persuade her not to go alone. She accused Mr. Packard very strangely of depriving her of her rights of conscience--that he would not allow her to think for her- self on religious questions, because they disagreed on these 40 MODERN PERSECUTION. topics. She made her visit to New York. The first time I met her after her return, her health was much improved; she appeared much better. In the course of a few weeks, she visited at my house. At another time, one of the children came up, and wanted me to go down; I did so. She was very much excited about her son remaining at Marshall. She was wild. She thought it was very wrong and tyrannical for Mr. Packard not to per- mit her son to remain there. She said very many things which seemed unnatural. Her voice, manner and ways, all showed she was insane. I was there when Mr. Baker came there, to see about Theo- philus remaining at Marshall with him. She was calmer than she was the day before. She said that she should spend the day in fasting and prayer. She said he had come in unexpect- edly, and they were not prepared to entertain strangers. She was out of bread, and had to make biscuit for dinner. (One gen- tleman in the crowd turned to his wife and said, “ Wife, were you ever out of bread, and had to make biscuit for dinner? I must put you into an Insane Asylum! No mistake !") I occupied the same room and bed with her. She went to Mr. Packard's room, and when she returned, she said, that if her son was not permitted to remain at Marshall, it would result in a divorce. She got up several times during the night. She told me how much she enjoyed the family circle. She spoke very highly of Mr. Packard's kindness to her. She spoke par- ticularly of the tenderness which had once existed between them. I did not notice anything very remarkable in her con- duct toward Mr. Packard, until just before she was sent to the Hospital. One morning afterward, I went to her house with a lady; we wanted to go in, and were admitted. She seemed much excited. She said, “You regard me insane. I will thank you to leave my room.” This was two or three months before she was sent MY JURY TRIAL. 41 to Jacksonville. Mr. Packard went out. She put her hand on my shoulder, and said she would thank me to go out too. I went out. I afterward wanted to take the baby home. One morning I went down to see her, and prepared breakfast for her. She appeared thankful, and complimented me on my kindness. She consented for me to take the child; I did so. In a short time, about ten days after, the other children came up, and said, that she wanted to take her own child. I took the child down. Her appearance was very wild. She was filled with spite toward Mr. Packard. She defied me to take the child again, and said that she would evoke the strong arm of the law to help her keep it. At another time, at the table, she was talking about religion, when Mr. Packard remonstrated with her; she became angry, and told him she would talk what and when she had a mind to. She rose up from the table, and took her tea-cup, and left the room in great violence. Cross-examined. I am a member of Mr. Packard's church, and am his sister. He and I have often consulted together about Mrs. Packard. Mr. Packard was the first to ever suggest that she was insane; after that, I would more carefully watch her actions to find out if she was insane. The religious doctrines she advanced were at variance with those entertained by our church. She was a good, neat, thrifty, and careful housekeeper. She was economical; kept the children clean and neatly dressed. She was sane on all subjects except religion. I do not think she would have entertained these ideas, if she had not been insane. I do not think she would have wanted to have withdrawn from our church, and unite with another church, if she had not been insane. She said she would wor- ship with the Methodists. They were the only other Protestant denomination that held service at Manteno at the time. I knew when she was taken to Jacksonville Hospital. She was 42 MODERN PERSECUTION. taken away in the morning. She did not want to go; we thought it advisable for her to go. SARAH RUMSEY, sworn, and says: Have lived one week in Mrs. Packard's house. I was present at the interview when Mrs. Packard ordered us to leave the room. Mrs. Packard was very pale and angry. She was in an undress, and her hair was down over her face. It was 11 o'clock in the forenoon—I staid at the house; Mrs. Packard came out to the kitchen. She was dressed then. She said she had come to reveal to me what Mr. Packard was. She talked very rapidly ; she would not talk calm. She said Mr. Packard was an arch deceiver; that he and the members of his church had made a conspiracy to put her into the Insane Asylum; she wanted me to leave the Conspirators. Soon after dinner she said, “ Come with me, I have something to tell you.” She said she had a new revelation; it would soon be here; and that she had been chosen by God for a particular mission. She said that all who decided with her, and remained true to her, would be rewarded in the millennium, and if I would side with her, that I would be a chief apostle in the millennium. She wanted to go to Batavia, but that Mr. Packard would give her no money to take her there; that Mr. Packard called her insane. She started to go out, and Mr. Packard made her return; took her into Mr. Comstock's, and Mr. Comstock made her go home. I saw her again when Libby had the brain fever. She was disturbed because the family called her insane. She and Libby were crying together; they cried together a long time. This was Tuesday. She would not let me into the room. The next morning while at breakfast Mr. La Brie passed the window and came in. He said that Georgie had been over for him, and said that they were killing his mother. She acted very strangely all the time; was wild and excited. Cross-examined.—Knew Mr. Packard two years before I went MY JURY TRIAL. 43 there to live. He was the pastor of our church. I am a mem- ber of the church. I did not attend the Bible-class. Brother Dole came to me and said somebody of the church should go there, and stay at the house, and assist in packing her clothes and getting her ready to take off to the Hospital, and stay and take care of the children. I consented to go; I heard that Brother Packard requested Brother Dole to come for me. I never worked out before. They had a French servant, before I went there; Mr. Packard turned her off when I came, the same day. I did not want to take Mrs. Packard away. I did not think she exhibited any very unusual excitement, when the men came there to take her away. Doctors Merrick and Newkirk were the physicians who came there with Sheriff Burgess. She did not manifest as much excitement, when being taken away, as I would have done under the same cir- cumstances; any person would have naturally been opposed to being carried away. The church had opposed her, in disseminating her ideas in the church ; I was opposed to her promulgating her religious ideas in the church ; I thought them wrong, and injurious. I was present at the Sabbath School when she read the paper to the school ; I thought that bore evidence of insanity. It was a refutation of what Mrs. Dixon had written; I cannot give the contents of the paper now. I was present when she read a confession of her conduct to the church; she had had her views changed partially, from a sermon preached upon the subject of the sovereignty and im- mutability of God. I did not think it strange conduct that she changed her views; and never said so. This was in the spring before the June when they took her away. • The article she read in the school was by the permission of the school. I was present when she presented a protest against the church for refusing to let her be heard; I have only an 44 MODERN PERSECUTION. indistinct recollection of it; it was a protest because they re- fused to listen to her. Mr. Dole was the only person who came to the house when she was taken away, except the men with Burgess. She said that Mr. Packard had deprived her of the liberty of conscience in charging her to be insane, when she only entertained ideas new to him. I thought it was an evidence of insanity, because she main- tained these ideas. I do not know that many people enter- tain similar ideas; I suppose a good many do not think the Calvinistic doctrine is right; they are not necessarily insane because they think so. When she found I was going to stay in the house, and that the French servant had been discharged, she ordered me into the kitchen; before that she had treated me kindly as a visitor. I thought it was an evidence of insanity for her to order me into the kitchen; she ought to have known that I was not an ordinary servant. The proper place for the servant is in the kitchen at work, and not in the parlor ; I took the place of the servant girl for a short time. She wanted the flower beds in the front yard cleaned out, and tried to get Mr. Packard to do it; he would not do it. She went and put on an old dress and went to work, and cleaned the weeds out, and worked herself into a great heat. It was a warm day; she staid out until she was almost melted down with the heat. Question. What did she do then ? Ans. She went to her room, took a bath and dressed herself, and then lay down exhausted. She did not come down to dinner. Ques. And did you think that was an evidence of insanity? Ans. I did—the way it was done. . Ques. What would you have done under similar cireum- stances? Would you have set down in the clothes you had worked in ? MY JURY TRIAL. 45 Ans. No. Ques. Probably you would have taken a bath and changed your clothes too. And so would any lady, would they not? Ans. Yes. Ques. Then would you call yourself insane? Ans. No. But she was angry and excited, and showed ill- will. She was very tidy in her habits ; liked to keep the house clean, and have her yard and flowers look well. She took considerable pains with these things. I remained there until she was taken away. I approved taking her away ; I deemed her dangerous to the church ; her ideas were contrary to the church, and were wrong. The baby was eighteen months old when she was taken away. She was very fond of her children, and treated them very kindly. Never saw her misuse them. Never heard that she had misused them. Never heard that she was dangerous to herself or to her family. Never heard that she had threatened or offered to destroy anything or injure any person. JUDGE BARTLETT was next called to the stand. Am acquainted with Mrs. Packard. Had a corversation with her on religious topics. We agreed very well in most things. She did not say she believed in the transmigration of souls; she said, some persons had expressed that idea to her, but she did not believe it. It was spoken of lightly. She did not say ever to me, that Mr. Packard's soul would go into an ox. She did not say anything about her being related to the Holy Ghost. I thought then, and said it, that religious sub- jects were her study, and that she would easily be excited on that subject. I could not see that she was insane. I would go no stronger than to say, that her mind dwelt on religious sub- jects. She could not be called insane, for thousands of people believe as she does, on religion. MRS. SYBIL DOLE, recalled. 46 MODERN PERSECUTION. At the time she got up from the table she went out. She said, “I will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. No! not so much as to eat with them.” Re-cross-examined.- Question. Did you deem that an evi- dence of Insanity? Answer. I did. Ques. She called Mr. Packard the unfruitful works of darkness ? Ans. I suppose so. Ques. Did she also include you? Ans. She might have done so. Ques. This was about the time that her husband was plotting to kidnap her, was it not ? Ans. It was just before she was removed to the Asylum. Ques. He had been charging her with insanity, had he not, at the table ? Ans. He had. The prosecution now wished to adjourn the court for ten days, to enable them to get Dr. McFarland, Superintendent of the State Hospital, who, they claimed, would testify that she was insane. Counsel stated, he had been telegraphed to come, and a reply was received, that he was in Zanesville, Ohio, and would return in about ten days. They claimed his testimony would be very important. This motion the counsel of Mrs. Packard opposed, as it was an unheard-of proceeding to con- tinue a cause after the hearing was commenced, to enable a party to hunt up testimony. The matter was discussed on each side for a considerable length of time, when the court held that the defense should go on with their testimony, and after that was heard, then the court would determine about continuing the case to get Dr. McFarland, and perhaps he could be got before the defense was through, and if so, he might be sworn; and held that the defense should go on now. MY JURY TRIKE 47 The counsel for Mrs. Packard withdrew for consultation, and in a brief time returned, and announced to the court that they would submit the case without introducing any testimony, and were willing to submit it without argument. The counsel for Mr. Packard objected to this, and renewed the motion for a continuance; which the court refused. The counsel for Mr. Packard then offered to read to the jury a letter from Dr. McFarland, dated in the month of December, 1863, written to Rev. Theophilus Packard ; and also a certifi- cate, under the seal of the State Hospital at Jacksonville, certifying that Mrs. Packard was discharged from the institu- tion in June, 1863, and was incurably insane, which certificate was signed by Dr. McFarland, the Superintendent. To the introduction of this to the jury, the counsel for Mrs. Packard objected, as being incompetent testimony, and debarred the defense of the benefit of a cross-examination. The court per- mitted the letter and certificate to be read to the jury. These documents were retained by Rev. Theophilus Packard, and the reporter has been unable to obtain copies of them. The letter is dated in December, 1863, at the State Hospital, Jacksonville, Illinois, and written to Rev. Theophilus Packard, wherein Dr. McFarland writes him that Mrs. Packard is hope- lessly insane, and that no possible good could result by hav- ing her returned to the Hospital ; that the officers of the in- stitution had done everything in their power to effect a cure, and were satisfied she could not be cured, and refused to re- ceive her into the institution. The certificate, under the seal of the Hospital, was a state- ment, dated in June, 1863, at Jacksonville, Illinois, setting forth the time (three years) that Mrs. Packard had been un- der treatment, and that she had been discharged, as beyond a possibility of being cured. The above is the import of these documents, which the re- porter regrets he cannot lay before the public in full. The prosecution now announced that they closed their case. MODERN PERSECUTION. Defense. J. L. SIMINGTON was the first witness called for the defense. Being sworn, he said: I live in Manteno; lived there since 1859, early in the spring. Knew Rev. Mr. Packard and Mrs. Packard. First became acquainted with them in 1858; I was then engaged in the ministry of the Methodist Church. I have practiced medicine eleven years. I was consulted as a family physician .by Mrs. Packard in 1860. Was quite well acquainted with Mrs. Packard, and with the family. Lived fifty or sixty rods from their house. Saw her and the family almost daily. I did not see anything unusual in her, in regard to her mind. I never saw anything I thought insanity with her. So far as I know she was a sane woman. I have seen her since she came from the Hospital; have seen nothing since to indicate she was insane. My opin- ion is, she is a sane woman. No cross-examination was made. Dr. J. D. MANN, sworn, and says: I live in Manteno; have lived there nine years. Practiced medicine there six years. I am not very intimately acquainted • with either Mr. or Mrs. Packard. Mr. Packard invited me to go to his house to have an interview with Mrs. Packard. I went at his request. He requested me to make a second ex- amination, which I did. There had been a physician there be- fore I went. The last time he wanted me to meet Dr. Brown, of this city, there. This was late in November last. He in- troduced me to Mrs. Packard. I had known her before she was taken to the Hospital, and this was the first time I had seen her since she had returned. I was there from one to two hours. I then made up my mind, as I had made up my mind from the first interview, that I could find nothing that MY JURY TRIAL. 49 indicated insanity. I did not go when Dr. Brown was there. Mr. Packard had told me she was insane, and my prejudices were, that she was insane. He wanted a certificate of her in- sanity, to take East with him. I would not give it. The witness was not cross-examined. JOSEPH E. LA BRIE, sworn, and says: Have known Mrs. Packard six years; lived fifteen or twenty rods from their house. Knew her in spring of 1860. Saw her nearly every day—sometimes two or three times a day. I belong to the Catholic Church. Have seen her since her return from Jacksonville. I have seen nothing that could make me think her insane. I always said she was a sane wo- man, and say so yet. Cross-examined. I am not a physician. I am not an ex- pert. She might be insane, but no common-sense man could find it out. Re-examined. I am a Justice of the Peace, and Notary Public. Mr. Packard requested me to go to his house, and take an acknowledgment of a deed from her. I went there, and she signed and acknowledged the deed. This was within the past two months. Re-cross-examined. I was sent for to go to the house in the spring of 1860. My wife was with me. It was about taking her to Jacksonville. Mrs. Packard would not come to the room where I was. I stayed there only about twenty min- utes. Have been there since she returned from the Hospital. The door to her room was locked on the outside. Mr. Packard said, he had made up his mind to let no one into her room. The counsel for Mrs. Packard offered to read to the jury the following paper, which had been referred to by the witnesses, as evidence of Mrs. Packard's insanity, and which Deacon Smith 50 MODERN PERSECUTION. refused to hear read. The counsel for Mr. Packard examined the paper, and admitted it was the same paper. The counsel for Mrs. Packard then requested permission of the court for Mrs. Packard to read it to the jury, which was most strenuously opposed. The court permitted Mrs. Packard to read it to the jury. 'Mrs. Packard arose, and read in a distinct tone of voice, so that every word was heard all over the court-room. How Godliness is Profitable. DEACON SMITH.— A question was proposed to this class, the last Sabbath Brother Dole taught us, and it was requested that the class consider and report the result of their investi- gations at a future session. May I now bring it up? The question was this: “Have we any reason to expect that a Christian farmer, as a Christian, will be any more successful in his farming opera- tions, than an impenitent sinner-and if not, how is it that godliness is profitable unto all things ? Or, in other words, does the motive with which one prosecutes his secular busi ness, other things being equal, make any difference in the pe- cuniary results ?” Mrs. Dixon gave it as her opinion, at the time, that the motive did affect the pecuniary results. Now the practical result to which this conclusion leads, is such as will justify us in our judging of Mrs. Dixon's true moral character, next fall, by her success in her farming op- erations this summer. My opinion differs from hers on this point; and my reasons are here given in writing, since I deem it necessary for me, under the existing state of feeling toward me, to put into a written form all I have to say, in the class, to prevent mis- representation. Should I be appropriating an unreasonable share of time, as MY JURY TRIAL. 51 a pupil, Mr. Smith, to occupy four minutes of your time in reading them? I should like very much to read them, that the class may pass their honest criticism upon them. An Answer to the Question. I think we have no intelligent reason for believing that the motives with which we prosecute our secular business, have any influence in the pecuniary results. My reasons are common sense reasons, rather than strictly Bible proofs, viz. : I regard man as existing in three distinct departments of being, viz., his physical or animal, his mental or intellectual, his moral or spiritual ; and each of these three distinct departments are under the control of laws, peculiar to itself; and these different laws do not interchange with, or affect each other's department. For instance, a very immoral man may be a very healthy, long-lived man; for, notwithstanding he violates the moral department, he may live in conformity to the physical laws of his animal nature, which secure to him his physical health—and on the other hand, a very moral man may suffer greatly from a diseased body, and be cut off in the very midst of his useful- ness by an early death, in consequence of having violated the physical laws of his animal constitution. But on the moral plane he is the gainer, and the immoral man is the loser. So our success in business depends upon our conformity to those laws on which success depends--not upon the motives which act only upon the moral plane. On this ground, the Christian farmer has no more reason to expect success in his farming operations, than the impenitent sinner. In either case, the foundation for success must depend upon the degree of fidelity with which the natural laws are applied, which cause the natural result—not upon the motives of the operator; since these moral acts receive their penalty and reward upon an entirely different plane of his being. 52 MODERN PERSECUTION. Now comes in the question, how then is it true, that “god- liness is profitable unto all things,” if godliness is no guarantee to success in business pursuits ? I reply, that the profits of godliness cannot mean, simply, pecuniary profits, because this would limit the gain of godliness to this world, alone; whereas, it is profitable not only for this life, but also for the life to come. Gain and loss, dollars and cents, are not the coins current in the spiritual world. But happiness and misery are coins which are current in both worlds. Therefore, it appears to me, that happiness is the profit attendant upon godliness, and for this reason, a practi- cally godly person, who lives in conformity to all the various laws of his entire being, may expeet to secure to himself, as a natural result, a greater amount of happiness than the ungodly person. So that, in this sense, 6 Godliness is profitable unto all things,” to every department of our being. MANTENO, March 22, 1860. E. P. W. PACKARD the class, the 15th day of the following April, and was rejected by the teacher, Deacon Smith, on the ground of its being irrelevant to the subject, since she had not confined herself to the Bible alone for proof of her position. As she took her seat a murmur of applause arose from every DANIEL BEEDY Sworn, and says: I live in Manteno. Have known Mrs. Packard six years; knew her in the spring of 1860. I lived a mile and a half from them. Have seen her very frequently since her return from Jacksonville. Had many conversations with her before she was taken away, and since her return. She always appeared to me like a sane woman. I heard she was insane, MY JURY TRIAL 53 and my wife and I went to satisfy ourselves. I went there soon after the difficulties in the Bible-class. She is not insane. We talked about religion, politics, and various matters, such as a grey-haired old farmer could talk about, and I saw nothing insane about her. Mr. BLESSING, sworn, and says: I live in Manteno; have known Mrs. Packard six years ; knew her in the spring of 1860; lived eighty rods from their house. She visited at my house. I have seen her at church. She attended the Methodist church for a while after the difficulties commenced, and then I saw her every Sunday. I never thought her insane. After the word was given out by her husband that she was insane, she claimed my particular protection, and wanted me to obtain a trial for her by the laws of the land, and such an investigation she said she was willing to stand by. She claimed Mr. Packard was insane, if any one was. She begged for a trial. I did not then do anything, because I did not like to interfere between man and wife. I never saw any- thing that indicated insanity. She was always rational. Had conversations with her since her return. She first came to my house. She claimed a right to live with her family. She considered herself more capable of taking care of her family than any other person. I saw her at Jacksonville. I took Dr. Shirley with me to test her sanity. Dr. Shirley told me she was not insane. Cross-examination waived. Mrs. BLESSING, sworn, and says: Have known Mrs. Packard seven years ; knew her in 1860. Lived near them; we visited each other as neighbors. She first came to our house when she returned from Jacksonville. I did not see anything that indicated that she was insane. I 54 MODERN PERSECUTION. saw her at Jacksonville. She had the keys, and showed me around. I heard the conversation there with Dr. Shirley; they talked about religion ; did not think she talked unnatural. When I first went in, she was at work on a dress for Dr. McFarland's wife. I saw her after she returned home last fall, quite often, until she was locked in her room. On Mon- day after she got home, I called on her; she was at work; she was cleaning up the feather beds; they needed cleaning badly. I went there afterward; her daughter let me in. On Saturday before the trial commenced, I was let into her room by Mr. Packard ; she had no fire in it; we sat there in the cold. Mr. Packard had a handful of keys, and unlocked the door and let me in. Mrs. Hanford was with me. Before this, Mrs. Hanford and myself went there to see her; he would not let us see her; he shook his hand at me, and threatened to put me out. Mrs. HASLET, sworn, and said: Know Mrs. Packard very well; have known her since they lived in Manteno; knew her in the spring of 1860; and since she returned from Jacksonville, we have been on intimate terms. I never saw any signs of insanity in her. I called often before she was kidnapped and carried to Jacksonville, and since her return. I recollect the time Miss Rumsey was there; I did not see anything that showed insanity. I called to see her in a few days after she returned from Jacksonville; she was in the yard, cleaning feather beds. I called again in a few days; she was still cleaning house. The house needed cleaning; and when I again called, it looked as if the mistress of the house was at home. She had no hired girl. I went again, and was not admitted. I conversed with her through the window ; the window was fastened down. The son refused me admission. The window was fastened with nails on the inside, and by two screws, passing through the lower part of the upper sash and MY JURY TRIAL, 55 the upper part of the lower sash, from the outside. I did not see Mr. Packard this time. Cross-examination. She talked about getting released from her imprisonment. She asked if filing a bill of complaint would lead to a divorce. She said she did not want a divorce; she only wanted protection from Mr. Packard's cruelty. I advised her to not stand it quietly, but get a divorce. Dr. DUNCANSON, sworn, and said: I live here; am a physician; have been a clergyman; have been a practicing physician twenty-one years. Have known Mrs. Packard since this trial commenced. Have known her by general report for three years and upwards. I visited her at Mr. Orr's. I was requested to go there and have a conver- sation with her and determine if she was sane or insane. Talked three hours with her, on political, religious and scien- tific subjects, and on mental and moral philosophy. I was educated at and received diplomas from the University of Glasgow, and Anderson University of Glasgow. I went there to see her, and prove or disprove her insanity. I think not only that she is sane, but the most intelligent lady I have talked with in many years. We talked religion very thoroughly. I find her an expert in both departments, Old School and New School theology. There are thousands of persons who believe just as she does. Many of her ideas and doctrines are embraced in Swedenborgianism, and many are found only in the New School theology. The best and most learned men of both Europe and this country, are advocates of these doctrines, in one shape or the other; and some bigots and men with minds of small calibre may call these great minds insane; but that does not make them insane. An insane mind is a diseased mind. These minds are the perfection of intellectual powers, healthy, strong, vigorous, and just the reverse of diseased minds, or insane. Her explanation of woman representing the Holy Ghost, and man representing the male attributes of 56 MODERN PERSECUTION the Father, and that the Son is the fruit of the Father and the Holy Ghost, is a very ancient theological dogma, and enter- tained by many of our most eminent men. With every topic I introduced, she was perfectly familiar, and discussed them with education, and a strong and vigorous mind. I did not agree with her in sentiment on many things, but I do not call people insane because they differ from me, nor from a majority, even, of people. Many persons called Swedenborg insane. That is true; but he had the largest brain of any person during the age in which he lived; and no one now dares call him insane. You might with as much propriety call Christ insane, because he taught the people many new and strange things; or who electrified the world; or Watts, or a thousand others I might name. Morse's best friends for a long time thought him mad; yet there was a magnificent mind, the embodiment of health and vigor. So with Mrs. Packard. There is wanting every indication of insanity that is laid down in the books. I pronounce her a sane woman, and wish we had a nation of such women. This witness was cross-examined at some length, which elicited nothing new, when he retired. The defense now announced to the court that they had as the case had occupied so much time, they would propose to submit it without argument. The prosecution would not consent to this arrangement. The case was argued ably and at length, by Messrs. Loomis and Bonfield for the prosecution, and by Messrs. Orr and Loring on the part of the defense. It would be impossible to give even a statement of the arguments made, and do the attorneys justice, in the space allotted to this report. MY JURY TRIAL. On the 18th day of January, 1864, at 10 o'clock, P. M., the jury retired for consultation, under the charge of the sheriff. After an absence of seven minutes, they returned into court, and gave the following verdict: SS. STATE OF ILLINOIS, KANKAKEE COUNTY. } $8. We, the undersigned, Jurors in the case of Mrs. Elizabeth P. W. Packard, alleged to be insane, having heard the evidence in the case, are satisfied that said Elizabeth P. W. Packard is SANE. JOHN STILES, Foreman. H. HIRSHBERG. DANIEL G. BEAN. NELSON JERVAIS. F. G. HUTCHINSON. WILLIAM HYER. V. H. YOUNG. GEO. H. ANDREWS. G. M. LYONS. J. F. MAFIT. THOMAS MUNCEY. LEMUEL MILK. Cheers rose from every part of the house; the ladies waved their handkerchiefs, and pressed around Mrs. Packard, and extended her their congratulations. It was sometime before the outburst of applause could be checked. When order was restored, the counsel for Mrs. Packard moved the court, that she be discharged. Thereupon the court ordered the clerk to enter the following order: STATE OF ILLINOIS, KANKAKEE COUNTY, . It is hereby ordered that Mrs. Elizabeth P. W. Packard be relieved from all restraint incompatible with her condition as a sane woman. C. R. STARR, Judge of the Twentieth Judicial District of the State of Illinois. January 18, 1864. 58 MODERN PERSECUTION. Thus ended the trial of this remarkable case. During each day of the proceedings the court-room was crowded to excess by an anxious audience of ladies and gentlemen, who are sel- dom in our courts. The verdict of the jury was received with applause, and hosts of friends crowded upon Mrs. Packard to congratulate her upon her release. During the past six weeks, Mr. Packard had locked her up in her own house, fastened the windows outside, and carried the key to the door, and made her a close prisoner. He was maturing a plan to immure her in an Asylum in Massachusetts, and for that purpose was ready to start on the Thursday be- fore the writ was sued out, when his plan was disclosed to Mrs. Packard by letters he accidentally left in her room, one of which was written by his sister in Massachusetts, telling him the route he should take, and that a carriage would be ready at the station to put her in and convey her to the Asylum. Vigorous action became necessary, and she communicated this startling intelligence through her window to some ladies who had come to see her, and were refused admission into the house. On Monday morning, and before the defense had rested their case, Mr. Packard left the State, bag and baggage, for parts unknown, having first mortgaged his property for all it is worth to his sister and other parties. We cannot do better than close this report with the following editorial from the Kankakee Gazette, of January 21, 1864: Mrs. Packard. The case of this lady, which has attracted so much attention and excited so much interest for ten days past, was decided on Monday evening last, and resulted, as almost every person thought it must, in a complete vindication of her sanity. The jury retired on Monday evening, after hearing the arguments MY JURY TRIAL. 59 of the counsel; and after a brief consultation, they brought in a verdict that Mrs. Packard is a sane woman. Thus has resulted an investigation which Mrs. Packard has long and always desired should be had, but which her cruel husband has ever sternly refused her. She has always asked and earnestly pleaded for a jury trial of her case, but her re- lentless persecutor has ever turned a deaf ear to her entreaties, and flagrantly violated all the dictates of justice and humanity. She has suffered the alienation of friends and relatives—the shock of a kidnapping by her husband and his posse when forc- ibly removed to the Asylum-has endured three years incar- ceration in that Institution—upon the general treatment in which there is severe comment in the State, and which, in her special case, was aggravatingly unpleasant and ill-favored- and when at last returning to her home found her husband's saintly blood still congealed ; a winter of perpetual frown on his face, and the sad, dull monotony of “ Insane! Insane!” escaping his lips in all his communications to and concerning her-her children, the youngest of the four at home being less than four years of age, over whose slumbers she had watched, and whose wailings she had hushed with all a mother's care and tenderness—taught to look upon her as insane, and not to respect the counsels or heed the voice of a maniac just loosed from the Asylum, doom sealed by official certificates. Soon her aberration of mind led her to seek some of her better clothing carefully kept from her by her husband, which very woman-like act was seized by him as an excuse for con- fining her in her room, and depriving her of her apparel, and excluding her lady friends. Believing that he was about to again forcibly take her to an asylum, four responsible citizens of that village made affidavit of facts which caused the inves- tigation as to her sanity or insanity. During the whole of the trial she was present, and counseled with her attorneys in the management of the case. 60 MODERN PERSECUTION. Notwithstanding the severe treatment she has received for nearly four years past, the outrages she has suffered, the wrong to her nature she has endured, she deported herself during the trial as one who is not only not insane, but as one possess- ing intellectual endowments of a high order, and an equipoise and control of mind far above the majority of human kind. The heroic motto: “ suffer and be strong," is fairly illus- trated in her case. While many would have opposed force to his force, displayed frantic emotions of displeasure at such treatment, or sat convulsed and “maddened with the passion of her part,” she meekly submitted to the tortures of her big- oted tormentor, trusting and believing in God's Providence the hour of her vindication and her release from thraldom would come. And now the fruit of her suffering and perse- cution has all the autumn glory of perfection. "One who walked From the throne's splendor to the bloody block, Said : This completes my glory' with a smile Which still illuminates men's thoughts of her.” Feeling the accusations of his guilty conscience, seeing the meshes of the net with which he had kept her surrounded were broken, and a storm-cloud of indignation about to break over his head in pitiless fury, the intolerant Packard, after encumbering their property with trust deeds, and despoiling her of her furniture and clothing, left the country. Let him wander! with the mark of infamy upon his brow, through far-off states, where distance and obscurity may diminish till the grave shall cover the wrongs it cannot heal. It is to be hoped Mrs. Packard will make immediate appli- cation for a divorce, and thereby relieve herself of a repetition of the wrongs and outrages she has suffered by him who for the past four years has only used the marriage relation to per- secute and torment her in a merciless and unfeeling manner. MY JURY TRIAL. Note to the Reader. It is but justice to myself to say, that the testimony of the two great Conspirators, Deacon Abijah Dole and Deacon Jose- phus B. Smith, ought to be taken by my readers at a discount, since those who were present during the whole trial saw the fact demonstrated, that both of these Deacons perjured them- selves openly, upon the witness stand, while giving in their manufactured testimony against my moral character. A part of the time of the five days trial was consumed in taking testimony from these two witnesses while making a most malign attack upon my moral character, by manufactured testimony, which, when tested by cross-examination, would not hold together-in fact, was so plainly contradictory and absurd, that I was strongly urged, by my friends, to enter a prosecution, at once, against them both, for perjury. This part of the trial was not reported by Mr. Moore, be- cause, as he said, this attack was entirely foreign to the ques- tion at issue. My moral character was not the question the jury were called upon to consider—but whether I was insane or not. This most wanton and cruel attack, made at Packard's dic- tation, was shown to be merely an act of desperation on their párt to save their sinking cause; but as it proved, these weapons of cruel slander and defamation were most signally turned against themselves, by forcing the conviction upon the jury, and all who heard it, that their testimony, as witnesses against my sanity, was of no account whatever. In fact the remark was often made to me: “We do not believe a word that Deacon Dole or Deacon Smith have spoken against your sanity, now that they have so plainly proved themselves to be lying witnesses against your virtue.” E. P. W. P. CHAPTER III. Mr. Packard takes My Children and Property and Flees His Country. When this trial terminated, I returned to my home in Man. teno, where five days previous I had bestowed the parting kiss upon my three youngest children, little thinking it would be the last embrace for years I should be allowed to bestow upon these dear objects of my warmest affections. But alas! so it. proved ! Mr. Packard had fled with them to Massachusetts, leaving me in the court-room a childless widow. He could not but see that the current of popular indignation was concentrating against him, as the revelations of the Court ventilated the dreadful facts of this conspiracy, and he “ fled his country," a fugitive from justice! He, however, left a letter for me which was handed me be- fore I left the Court-house, wherein he stated that he had moved to Massachusetts, and extended to me an invitation to follow him, with the promise that he would provide me a suitable home. But I did not feel much like trusting either to his humanity or judgment in providing me another home. Indeed, I did not think it safe to follow him, knowing that the laws of Mass- achusetts as well as those of Illinois then gave him the abso- lute custody of my person. He went to South Deerfield, Massachusetts, and sought shel- ter for himself and his children in the family of his sister, Mrs. Severance, his co-conspirator. Here he found willing ears to credit his tale of abuses he had suffered in this interference MR. PACKARD FLEES HIS COUNTRY. 63 with his right to do as he pleased with his lawful wife-and in representing the trial as a “mock trial,” an illegal interfer- ence with his rights as head of his own household, and a “mob triumph,”-in short, he was an innocent victim of a persecution against his legally constituted rights as a husbånd, to protect his wife in the way his own feelings of bigotry and intolerance should dictate! This was the region of his nativity and former pastorate, which he had left about eleven years previously, with an un- blemished external character, and sharing, to an uncommon degree, the entire confidence of the public as a Christian man and a minister. Nothing had occurred, to their knowledge, to disturb this confidence in his present integrity as an honest reporter, and the entire community credited his testimony as perfectly reliable, in his entire misrepresentations of the facts in the case, and the character of the trial. His view was the only view the community were allowed to hear, so far as it was in his power to prevent it. The press also lent him its aid, as his organ of communication. He met his old associates in the ministry, and by his art- fully arranged web of lies, and his cunning sophistries, he de- luded them also into a belief of his views, so that they, unan- imously, gave him their certificate of confidence and fraternal sympathy! This certificate served as a passport to the confidence of Sunderland people in Mr. Packard as a man and a minister, and procured for him a call to become their minister in holy things. He was accordingly hired, as stated supply, and paiu fifteen dollars a Sabbath for one year and a half, and was boarded by my father in his family, part of the time, free of charge. The condition in which Mr. Packard left me I will now give in the language of another, by inserting here a quotation from one of the many Chicago papers which published an account 64 MODERN PERSECUTION. of this trial with editorial remarks accompanying it. The following is a part of one of these Editorial Articles, which appeared under the caption : “A Heartless Clergyman.” Chicago, March 6, 1864. 66 We recently gave an extended account of the melancholy case of Mrs. Packard, of Manteno, Ill., and showed how she was persecuted by her husband, Rev. Theophilus Packard, a bigoted Presbyterian minister of Manteno. Mrs. Packard became liberal in her views, and as her hus- band was unable to answer her arguments, he thought he could silence her tongue, by calling her insane, and having her in- carcerated in the Insane Asylum at Jacksonville, Illinois. He finally succeeded in finding one or two orthodox physi- cians, as bigoted as himself, ready to aid him in his nefarious work, and she was confined in the asylum, under the charge (?) of Dr. McFarland, who kept her there three years. She at last succeeded in having a jury trial, and was pro- nounced sane. Previous, however, to the termination of the trial, this persecutor of his wife mortgaged his property, took away his children from the mother, and left her penniless and home- less, without a cent to buy food, or a place where to lay her head! And yet he pretended to believe that she was insane! Is this the way to treat an insane wife? Abandon her, turn her out upon the world without a morsel -- bread, and no home? Her husband calls her insane. Before the case is decided by the jury, he starts for parts unknown. Was there ever such a case of heartlessness ? If Mr. Packard believed his wife to be hopelessly insane, why did he abandon her? Is this the way to treat a compan- ion afflicted with insanity? MR. PACKARD FLEES HIS COUNTRY. 65 If he believed his own story, he should, like a devoted hus- band, have watched over her with tenderness, his heart full of love should have gone out towards the poor, afflicted wo- man, and he should have bent over her and soothed her, and spent the last penny he had, for her recovery! But instead of this, he gathers in his funds, “ packs up his duds,” and leaves his poor insane wife, as he calls her, in the court-room, without food or shelter. He abandons her, leaving her homeless, penniless and childless !” CHAPTER IV. Return to my Home-Married woman a Slave! After my acquittal from the court at Kankakee, I, of course, turned my attention and thoughts towards my dear children, whom I had left five days previous in my own dear home in Manteno. But alas! Upon arriving at the spot I once called my home, I found there was no home left for me! Mr. Packard had left the court-room on the previous Saturday evening, spent the night in removing my furniture to the house of his brother- in-law, Deacon Dole, then rented the place to Mr. Wood, who had taken possession; and taking my wardrobe, money, notes, and children, had fled, Sabbath morning, to parts unknown. Ignorant of this purpose of Mr. Packard, on my return from my trial this Saturday evening previous to my acquittal on the Monday evening following, I had fortunately arrived prior to Mr. Packard, on account of the extra fleetness of Mr. Han- ford's team to that of Mr. Dole's. Indeed, our merry sleigh- bells were soon lost in the distance as we flew past Mr. Dole's sleigh load including Mr. Packard, for we had an especial ob- ject in seeking an arrival before them, hoping thus to be able to remove my trunk without interference. At about eleven o'clock at night we arrived at the door of my house, to find it unoccupied—but locked—both doors and windows. “How shall we enter ?” was the question to be solved. “Shall my men force an entrance and thus expose themselves to a prosecution for larceny? or, shall I introduce them into my own house by opening the door myself with my own key?" RETURN TO MY HOME. 67 The latter policy prevailed, for neither Mr. Packard, nor any other person had seen fit to disturb the locality where I had chosen to place the keys two months before. Therefore, instead of directing my men, as Mr. Packard had directed his children to look where the keys were not, I simply told them to look where they were, in the right place,” for, of course, that was the only place in which to find them! And, although the snow and ice had buried them a trifle deeper than my own hands had done, under the sod beneath my window, yet, by the aid of the identical axe by which Packard had broken into my window three years and a half before, my men easily found the keys, so that we could unlock the door and enter quietly and peaceably into my own house, when I directed my men to take my trunk, already packed with my Asylum wardrobe, and remove it to their sleigh, and thus it was transported with myself to Mr. Hanford's house, where I quietly rested until Monday morning, while Mr. Packard was robbing me and my house and fleeing from justice. Thus robbed of all my life earnings, and bereaved of my children, in addition to my three years of “false imprison- ment,' as the decision of the jury proved it to have been, I now appealed to the laws for protection, as a married woman, when, alas! I found I had no laws to appeal to! My counsel assured me, that before the law, I was merely a 6 nonentity," and therefore, as I had no rights, I had no pro- tection in the law, except in a divorce. I replied, “Gentlemen, I cannot conscientiously get a di- vorce, as I am a Bible woman, and cannot claim that I have any Bible cause for a divorce. Besides, I claim the right to be a married woman, therefore I claim protection, as a mar- ried woman." My counsel replied, “ As a married woman, you have no protection in law. Your husband is the only protector you have." 68 MODERN PERSECUTION. “But he has become my persecutor! can't you protect me against my persecutor ?” 66 There is no way, but by a divorce, that we can extend to you the protection of any law to shield you from marital usurpation; for on the principle of common law, whatever is yours is his-your property is his-your earnings are his-your children are his—and you are his. Whatever you hold in common with him, in his own name, you have no more right to than any other woman, while your husband lives. But should you outlive him, you have a right of dower' in his real estate, which you have a right to use during your life- time. But while he lives, you have not a right even to the hat on your head.” “ But, Sir, I have bought and paid for my hat with my own money!” « That is of no consequence. If you did not hold this money you purchased it with in your own name, as a single woman, independent of himself, you have no more legal right to use it, as your own, than any other woman.” “I had supposed that I was his partner, in law, as I am in society.” “No indeed! there is your grand mistake. There is no such thing as a partnership relation in the marriage union. The man and wife become one, but that one is the man! for the rights of the married woman are all suspended during coverture,' while all the rights of the married man remain established and protected by law, just as they were before marriage.” “But why do you not allow married woman a right to an existence as before, also ? Can't she, as a woman, be as well protected while she is married, as he is as a man, while he is married ?" “No. For married woman is a slave! and we cannot pro- tect slaves, except through their masters.” MARRIED WOMAN A SLAVE. 69 “ Slave!” said I, “ Why, I have always been an abolition- ist, and I never before knew that I was a slave. I supposed I was the partner and companion of my husband. I never suspected or thought I was his slave !" “ You are his companion and partner socially; but legally, you are his slave.” “Why is this? Why don't our legal and social condition correspond more nearly ?” “Because married woman has never been legally emanci- pated from the slavish social position she occupied in the un- civilized state of society in the dark ages. Society then made married woman a slave to her husband, and in order to make her legal position to correspond to this her social position, the law-makers of that age inaugurated this common law as their basis of the marriage union. Thus married woman became a 'nonentity,' by a legal suspension of her rights during coverture. And a person whose rights are all sus- pended is a mere chattel before the law. Then this legal position corresponded with her social position. But now her social and legal position do not correspond; for civilization has elevated woman from this slavish social position, so that she is now the companion and partner of her husband. She is not now his slave socially, but legally she is still in the position of a slave. “ True her slavish position has been somewhat modified by statute law, still she is not yet emancipated; for her position of 'nonentity' still excludes her from becoming in law a com. panion or partner of her husband.” “But why don't you emancipate married women? You have emancipated the negro slave, and we think our claim to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' is equal, at least, to that of the colored men.” *“ 'Tis true, it ought to be done,” my counsel replied, “but as men generally protect their wives, as public sentiment, and 70 MODERN PERSECUTION. her social position both demand she should be, and as it is not generally known that married woman is a slave in law, there has been no special call for the agitation of this ques- tion. But your case demonstrates the fact that she ought to be emancipated, for since you insist upon the right to be a married woman, there is no possible way to protect even your personal liberty from this marital usurper so long as you claim a right to your individual conscience and opinions in religious matters. Certainly her present condition not only en- courages divorce or disunion of the married pair, but it makes the laws of divorce an imperative necessity. “ Besides this is only substituting one evil to supplant an- other. It is not removing any evil. The great underlying cause of the evils of our social system as yet remains unremoved and unmolested by legislation. Until this relic of barbarism is expunged from the laws of our Christian government, and woman is allowed to be an individualized partner or com- panion of her husband in law, as she now is in society, there can be no legal remedy for the constantly increasing and mo- mentous evils of our social system. So long as this legalized usurpation of human rights exists, these social evils must necessarily increase—they cannot diminish under the foster- ing influence of injustice.” From one more stand point allow me to portray married woman's legal disabilities for my readers' consideration. Finding, as I had, that my property rights—my rights of conscience and opinion—and my personal liberty-were at the mercy of my legal usurper, I inquired with the most intense anxiety how it was with my children. “Can I not have chil- dren protected to me while I am a married woman?” “No! The children are all the husband's after the tender age. You can have no legal right to your children without you get a divorce, and then the Judge will give you children and alimony.” MARRIED WOMAN A SLAVE. 66 Then your laws do protect children to the single woman, while they do not protect them to the married woman?” “Yes, the laws do respect the right of maternity in the single woman, but in the married woman this right, like all her other rights, is ignored by this suspension of rights during coverture.” Now, we married women claim that the time has fully come to have our natural rights, as women, established and protected by law, equally, at least, to those of the single woman, for by such laws as these the government is offering a premium on infidelity, and encourages divorce. Whereas, the best interests of society demand that the sacred institution of marriage be based on the principle of right and justice to both parties, so that neither party can ignore or usurp the inalien- able rights of the other. Until this is done, the children of this Republic have only half their rights, in law. They can claim a legal right to a father's training, but none to a mother's care! Inasmuch as the law of manliness did not influence my husband to respect my rights, I had no tribunal whatever to appeal to, since this law did not recognize any separate interest or identity in the married woman. The law of manliness is the only law the married woman has to depend upon for protection under the common law. This I at once recognized as an all-sufficient refuge in most cases; for doubtless this law is based upon the almost universal fact that man will defend his own wife even before he would himself. Therefore, laws for the wife's protection seem almost to ignore this principle of manhood. Yet, in such cases as my own, that is exceptional cases- where the higher law is not a sufficient guarantee for the pro- tection of the wife, there seems to be a necessity for the lower law of human enactments to enforce the dictates of the higher law. In such cases, and in these alone, there 72 MODERN PERSECUTION. does seem to be a necessity for some laws to ensure the safety of the married woman. But at that date the common law in Illinois had not been modified by statute law as it has since been. Thus Mr. Packard's course was sustained and is still sustained under common law, wherever it exists unmodified by statute law. And it is hoped that this delineation of its injustice to married woman may have its influence in securing its modifica- tion still farther, where justice to woman requires it, so that no other married woman may be compelled to go without protec- tion, for want of laws to shield her from marital injustice. Under these painful circumstances I found that Mr. Packard had only been telling me the simple truth when he said, that: . “For twenty years I have given you a home to live in- and also allowed you the privilege of taking care of my own children in it—and to me alone are you indebted for these privileges—as by law you have no legal right to my home, my property, or my children while I live!” Finding I could not prosecute my husband for doing a legal act, and also that he had put his property out of his own hands to prevent his paying any bills I might contract, I found that necessity was laid upon me to become my own protector. CHAPTER V. Defense of my Right to Property. I therefore went to Kankakee to get out“ a replevy” to get possession of my own things at Deacon Dole's, or at least, so many of them as would furnish me a room 'decently for my accommodation. But, to my sorrow, I found that a married woman could not even replevy her own stolen property—that I was literally out- lawed, so far as legal rights and self-protection were concerned, as much so as an “infant, idiot, insane or criminal." And these rights were not denied on the plea that I was an insane person, for a jury of my country had just pronounced me sane, and entitled to all the rights and privileges of a sane person ; but the right of citizenship was denied me simply, because I was a married woman, and therefore I was no lon- ger an individual before the law. With equal propriety, as it seemed to me, might I have been informed: “You have no right to eat or sleep now that you are a mar- ried woman, for you are no longer an individual before the law!" If the married woman has no right to her home, no right to her food, or property to buy food with, and no right to her children, what right has she to be hungry or to be cold, or to desire offspring, if she is a “nonenity” or a chattel, as is the case while she is a married woman, under the common law ? As the laws of my country denied me the right to my own property, as this furniture was bought with my own patri- mony, I concluded I would use the law of justice as my claim to my own things, in defiance of human enactments by which justice was denied me. 74 MODERN PERSECUTION. As my furniture was too heavy for me to lift without assist- ance, and as I had no team to transport it from Mr. Dole's to my room, a distance of about two miles, I was obliged to hire help to get it for me, and therefore engaged six men with three teams to help me, and we proceeded to Deacon Dole's for the purpose of quietly taking my own things into my own posses- sion. Upon arriving there, and finding no one in the house except his daughter, I led my men quietly into the room where I found my best furniture snugly packed, and told them to carry it to their wagons as fast as possible. Meeting no opposition except the protest of his daughter, Laura, we soon cleared that room, and I went up stairs for my bedding, when I heard Mr. Dole's voice below stairs de- manding what this meant. My men, of course, directed him to me, and we met on the stairs, while I was helping one of my men carry down one of my feather beds. He stopped us, and said: 66 What are you doing?” “ I am getting my own things.” 6 Show me your papers !” “ I did not come to show papers--I simply came to get my own things.” Adding: “Mr. Holden, carry my bed to your wagon!” Mr. Dole closed the front door against him, and locked it, and put the key into his own pocket, while Mr. Holden looked to me for directions Said I: “Mr. Holden, pass out the back-door with your load!” He did so, while I retreated to the chamber in pursuit of more articles. Finding a pile of my own bedclothes, I took them and threw them over the banister, down stairs to my men, who were there to take them, while Mr. Haslet detained Mr. Dole, by an argument in defense of their act. DEFENSE OF MY RIGHT TO PROPERTY 75 I then went into his pantry and took articles from thence which belonged to me and gave them to my men to put into their wagons. Mr. Dole headed them again, and said : 66 You shall not take them !” “Go ahead with the things, gentlemen !” said I. Which they did. I then looked overhead in his back-kitchen and saw some of my bedsteads, and said : “ Gentlemen, I must have one bedstead to sleep upon. Take down one of these bedsteads and I will not ask you to get anything more.” They tried to do so, but Mr. Dole interfered, and in the struggle one light of glass was broken in Mr. Dole’s window. I apologized to Mr. Dole, adding: “I will repair it.” And accordingly sent a glazier the next day to replace it, but Mr. Dole would not allow him to do it. After another short but lively contest about some boxes of books which Mr. Dole said did not belong to him, and which Mr. Haslet said he would therefore claim for my benefit, we left, but not until I had, in the hearing of all the witnesses, which, with Mr. Dole's hired men and his wife, in addition to my own men, now formed quite a company, distinctly stated : “I wish to say in the presence of you all, that this is my act-I, alone, assume all the responsibility of it—these men are merely my agents carrying out my orders, therefore the acts are my own acts, not theirs, and upon me rests the entire responsibility of getting this portion of my own things. Those that I have not taken I claim as my own things, and shall take them when I think proper.” We then left the premises unimpeded, but had not gone far before we were overtaken by Mr. Dole on horseback, who was going in hot haste for a Sheriff to arrest us. But he could find 76 MODERN PERSECUTION. no one, either in Manteno or Kankakee, who were willing to undertake such a prosecution ! But by his persistency in going several times, and at last with his wife to Kankakee, and threatening to prosecute the officer who should refuse to act when called upon, he succeeded in finding one, whom he almost impressed into service, who did prosecute my men for riot and trespass ! I claimed the right to be prosecuted for my own acts, and protested against prosecuting my agents instead of the one who employed them, but: “No, we can't prosecute you, for you are a married woman, and therefore are a nonentity, or nobody before the law! 6 Does not the law hold me responsible for my own acts ?” “Not in such a case-your husband is responsible for your actions, but you are not responsible for your own! You must remember, Mrs. Packard, you have no legal right to hold any kind of property, while you are a married woman, therefore you have no right to defend any kind of property. For this reason you cannot be prosecuted, while your men can be, as they are regarded as responsible individuals before the law, while you are not.” My men were prosecuted before a Justice, both for 6 riot” and “ trespass,” and bound over for trial before the court the next fall term—about six months from date. I instructed my men to be sure and not compromise in any manner, but to stand their ground like men, and I would stand between them and all harm—that I had received voluntary offers from two of the most influential lawyers in Illinois, one of whom then stood candidate for Congress, that they would defend any case of mine free of cost to me—that I wished the case to come to trial as a test case, to ventilate the laws for married women—that a trial of this kind might do more for the enlightenment of public sentiment on this subject, than any series of lectures could do. DEFENSE OF MY RIGHT TO PROPERTY. 77 I told them in addition, that before the time for the trial I hoped to get my book into print, and by its sale I should raise money to pay their costs and fines if they had any to pay, so that in the end they should suffer no harm, if they stood their ground like men. I did as I proposed, printed my book and sold enough above all my expenses to pay my three lawyers at Kankakee, in full, for their defense of my case six months previously, and was fast laying up money for these men, when to my surprise I was informed that their fears had triumphed over their courage and manliness and they had agreed to return all my furniture to Mr. Dole and pay him two hundred dollars in addition! This they did without my knowledge or consent. While I was in Boston prosecuting my business, about a year from this time, I received a letter from one of these men, stating what they had done, and that Mr. Dole, acting as Mr. Packard's agent, demanded the two hundred dollars to be paid at once. They therefore wished me to send them the money as I had agreed. Following my impressions I counted out the money and found it took every cent I then had outside of my business, and then lacked fifty cents of being two hundred dollars. I accordingly wrote a letter acknowledging the debt as being one of honor, and saying: “ Enclosed you will find a draft of two hundred dollars to meet it, &c.” And took my money and letter and went to the bank to get my draft, hoping to sell a book on the way to get the fifty cents needed. At the door of the bank I met a gentleman waiting for the door to be opened, and I improved the opportunity by intro- ducing my book to his notice, and as an inducement for him to purchase, I mentioned the pressing emergency which had brought me out in such a rainy morning and my lack of fifty cents to meet it. 78 MODERN PERSECUTION. As it proved the banks did not open on this New Year's Day, and therefore we both seemed to have leisure for quite a lengthy discussion, which finally ended with these remarks from this stranger: “Mrs. Packard, I will buy your book," adding as he handed me the fifty cents : “I think I comprehend the case. Now, will you allow me to give you a little advice! I am capable of doing so. I am a lawyer of some note in this city, and have just returned from Washington where I have been sent on official business. My advice is, that you do not send this money to these men. It is neither a debt of honor or of justice. Your men have not complied with your conditions to stand a trial, and thereby help on the cause of married woman, for which you willingly would spend your hard earnings. But without your consent, they have done just what you had forbid their doing-com- promised and thereby have defeated your purpose to ventilate the laws. By so doing, I think they have forfeited all their claims on you to stand between them and all harm, since they have broken the terms of the contract themselves. Therefore, it is not a debt of honor. “Neither is it a debt of justice. You are the injured party. This money and the goods go into the hands of your husband. You are doing yourself injustice by giving him two hundred dollars more of your own money, by your own act. And this very act he may employ as a precedent to claim the whole of your earnings, on some other false pretext. “ Again. Your men are not guilty either of riot or tres- pass. You had a just and a moral right to your own things, and no jury of our country would have convicted them of riot or trespass, for assisting you, as they did, under the cir- cumstances. You would not have had one cent of fine to pay for them, had they possessed the moral courage of men to stand the trial. But they did not. And the money they claim from you now does not help married woman's cause, nor your DEFENSE OF MY RIGHT TO PROPERTY. 79 own either. Therefore I advise you to keep it, and go directly to your boarding place and write another letter and tell them who has advised you to take this course.” I did so, and soon came a response upbraiding me seriously for allowing my own impressions of duty to be supplanted by the I then decided it was not my duty to distress or incommode myself greatly to meet this demand, bụt let the matter rest for the present. About two years after, when my earnings had so accumula- ted as to render it no inconvenience for me to part with a few hundred dollars, I concluded I would make these men a present of two hundred dollars; and as an act of self-defense against slanderous reports which were in circulation respecting my conduct in this transaction, I decided that the following cer- tificate must be signed by each before receiving this money, namely : “I do hereby certify that in the year 1864, while Mrs. Packard was absent from her home, attending her trial at Kankakee City, Mr. Abijah Dole took from her house, in the night, her household furniture without her knowledge or consent, and deposited it in his own house. “ That Mrs. Packard claims that she had bought this furni- ture with her own money. That Mrs. Packard was at this time in a penniless and defenseless condition. “That at Mrs. Packard's request, I went, with five other men, absence, quietly took a portion of this furniture, without Mr. Dole's knowledge or consent, to supply Mrs. Packard's wants and necessities. “ That Mrs. Packard voluntarily promised to stand between us and all harm in case of a prosecution, if we would stand a fair jury trial, like men. “ That Deacon Dole entered a prosecution against us, both for riot and trespass, at Rev. Mr. Packard's especial request. 80 MODERN PERSECUTION. 6 That instead of standing these trials, as Mrs. Packard wished us to, we settled with Mr. Dole, by returning all of Mrs. Packard's furniture, and paid him in addition two hun- dred dollars. 66 That we made this settlement in the absence of Mrs. Packard, and without her knowledge or consent. “That we have asked Mrs. Packard to pay us this two hundred dollars from her own earnings--and she has refused to pay it, on the ground of its not being either a debt of honor or justice. But she now presents us this amount of money as a free, voluntary gift on her part, for this act of gallantry to a dependent and defenseless woman; and as such, I accept my share of the money from her.” I sent each man a copy of the above, with the assurance that I would send him his share, in a draft, by return of the mail on condition that he return me this certificate signed and with his Post-Office address. The certificates were all returned without a single signature, and I have never sent or offered them another present. These facts are delineated, not for the purpose of injuring the feelings or reputation of any of the parties concerned, but that the public may see how exceedingly difficult it is for an outlawed person to be protected in her natural rights; hoping it may force conviction upon the hearts of law-makers that the time has fully come, to restore to married woman her right of citizenship which the common law denies her. The Government does with eminent propriety establish and protect the rights of married men, and it is equally proper that it should establish and protect the rights of married women also. As the mother produces all the men who compose this great American Government, therefore she—the mother- should be protected by that Government. These sons should shield the mother who bore them, in all her rights, as a woman, equally at least, with the father, in all his rights, as a man. CHAPTER VI. An Incident. In the winter of 1868, while on board the train from Chi- cago to Aurora, my attention was arrested by the very earnest conversation of two ministerial looking gentlemen, who sat directly opposite me, but each in a seat by himself, so they were obliged to speak in quite an elevated tone of voice to be understood. By what I overheard I soon perceived they were talking about a certain woman, with whom I was quite intimately acquainted, and thereby my curiosity became so dominant, as to draw my attention to their remarks about her, without seeming to notice them. I found the knowing gentleman on the front seat was in- structing his uninformed listener on the back seat into the details of Mrs. Packard's persecution. And I soon became satisfied that he was the defender of Mr. Packard, and there- fore clothed facts with such a fictitious drapery that the truth became too distorted to be even recognized by his listener. He seemed determined to defend the position that this lady was insane, and in making out his proof he used lies and mis- representations as his evidence. “Did I understand you she had a trial of her sanity ?”. asked the inquirer. “ Yes, she had a trial before a jury of twelve men.” “What was their decision ?” “ After hearing all the evidence in the case, strange to say! they decided she was sane.” “Indeed! What did Mr. Packard do then?” "He, for some unaccountable reason, fled his country.” " What became of his wife?” 82 MODERN PERSECUTION. 6 She returned to Manteno, made quite a fuss about his robbing her of her things, and got some men to assist her in getting them, promising them she would stand between them and all harm, and then fled, without paying them as she had promised.” 6 Indeed! then she showed herself out at last! didn't she ?" At this point my indignation could no longer be repressed - I could hear that woman slandered no longer, without rush- ing to the defense of the injured one. I arose from my seat, stepped across the car, and thus addressed them: “Gentlemen, excuse me for interrupting you, but I am too staunch a defender of truth and justice, to allow a falsehood to pass unnoticed. I know the facts in relation to the lady of whom you speak to be a little different from what you state. I think you stated she left her men without paying them as she promised—the fact is she offered each one of them the money they asked and they would not accept it.” 6. That does give a different view to the case. Are you ac- quainted with Mrs. Packard ?” inquired the listener. 6 Yes, I am somewhat acquainted, and am very familiar with the facts in the case ?” “Will you please sit down and inform us, for I have become interested in her case.” As I did so, he inquired: 66 Do you think Mrs. Packard a sane woman?” “ There is a difference of opinion on that point," I replied. 66 What do you think about it?” 66 I am inclined to think the decision of the jury was cor- rect, for had there been even any evidence of insanity I think it would have been presented to the jury. But they failed to produce the slightest evidence." Here the knowing minister remarked, for they both told me they were ministers: “I hear Dr. Sturtevant, and all the ministers in Jacksonville, are down upon her!” AN INCIDENT. 83 66 Yes, so are the Calvinists generally, as she is fearless in exposing their system as an anti-Christian one. But I don't think they have any right to call her insane for this reason alone. But they do.”. Thus he asked and I answered questions for about one-half hour about this lady they had been so long slandering, and I gave her such a good defense as led the uninformed minister to change his opinion of her, and even to express sympathy for her in these words: “I do feel some pity for that woman after all. She may have been a much injured woman!” I retraced the whole ground gone over by his informant, who now evidently quailed before the truth when divested of its false habiliments, and I think, when the cars stopped at Aurora, he did not regret to hear me say : “I stop here." But the blank look of astonishment which overspread his countenance, I shall not soon forget, as I arose to leave and introduced myself in these words: “ Gentlemen, before leaving, allow me to introduce myself as Mrs. Packard! Good morning, gentlemen!” CHAPTER VII. How to Commence Business Without Capital. The sad lesson was now learned, by my own experience, that as the laws then were, married woman could hold no le- gal right to either her own or her husband's property, while he lived, and as there was no prospect of my coming into pos- session of my “ right of dower” by becoming his widow, and as my principles forbade my seeking protection under the di- vorce laws, by alimony, I seemed driven to the alternative of either following Mr. Packard to Massachusetts, to be impris- oned by him, for life, in an Insane Asylum, or to keep out of his reach and support myself. This last I chose, inasmuch as I preferred personal liberty, on a self-supporting basis, rather than imprisonment with my food and clothing provided at public expense. “ Yes, give me liberty and want, rather than imprisonment and plenty.” “But what need is there of my suffering want in this free country, with health and education for my capital ?” « None at all!” 6 But how shall I commence a lucrative business without money?” is the question now to be solved. I left the Asylum prison with a book written, ready for pub- lication, which would cost two thousand five hundred dollars to print one thousand copies. This sum I could not, of course, borrow, neither could I get a publisher to print it, at his own risk. I therefore concluded to publish only an Introductory vol- ume, of about one hundred and fifty pages, trusting that by BUSINESS WITHOUT CAPITAL. the sale of this I might raise enough in time to print the en- tire volume. 66 But how could I print even this, without one dollar for a capital to work upon ? " This was a problem which cost me much study before I found its solution. But I did, at last, find a satisfactory solu- tion in the following devise. I found, in the judgment of Chicago publishers, it would cost me five hundred dollars to print one thousand copies; but did not close a contract until I was sure my plan to raise this money would succeed, which was, to sell tickets for the un- published book, on the promise that I would redeem these tickets in a specified time, by exchanging each ticket for a book worth the price of the ticket. A week's trial convinced me it would take just about three months to raise this money at the rate of my present sales. My tickets were printed and read thus: “The Bearer is Entitled to the first Volume of Mrs. Packard's Book, Entitled "The Great Drama, or The Millennial Harbinger.' Price fifty cents. None are genuine without my signature.” E. P. W. Packard. To cover all expenses, I found I must raise seven hundred dollars, by the sale of one thousand four hundred tickets, in three months. To sell these tickets for money was no easy task. I must first inspire in my patron sufficient confidence in my veracity, ability, and perseverance, to induce him to pay out fifty cents for a ticket, simply upon the promise of a stranger, that it should be redeemed in three months by a book as yet unprinted—and that the publication of this book must depend upon the sale of fourteen hundred tickets. I sold these mostly in country villages, on the railroads. Upon arriving, my first business would be to secure a reliable agent, who would engage to receive my books when published, and deliver them to the ticket holders, who would call there for 86 MODERN PERSECUTION. them. I would then seek for patrons, telling them that at such a time the books would be in the hands of this agent, who would give them a book on the presentation of their ticket. The Post-master, or some prominent Bookseller were usually employed as my agents. After I had canvassed one place I would go to another and pursue the same course there, and so on, until I had sold four- teen hundred tickets. My board, car fare, and all other expenses, I paid from the money realized from the sale of my tickets and small books. Never in these days of struggle did I ask for charity, neither would I receive it, by way of free car rides, or a night's lodging, or food, or money. I almost invariably stopped at hotels instead of private boarding houses. I sometimes had offers of money, as a gift, instead of buying tickets, which was always indig- nantly refused, claiming that I was not an object of charity, but was doing business on a business basis, and was, therefore, very grateful for patronage, but not for gifts, as an object of charity. I felt an invincible determination to demonstrate my self- supporting capacities by actual proof-that of stubborn facts. Encouraged by my sales, and sure of ultimate success, I re- turned to Chicago to contract for the printing of my book- but to my surprise found there had been a great and sudden inflation in the price of paper and labor, since giving their former estimates, so that it would be impossible now to get it done for much less than seven hundred dollars instead of five hundred dollars. | Finding the book would now cost me seventy-five cents in- stead of fifty cents, I was in quite a sad dilemma not knowing how to meet it, since I had promised my patrons the book for fifty cents, and could not forfeit my word. Upon inquiry, I found the next edition could be printed for about one-third the cost of this after the stereotyped plates were paid for. I therefore continued to sell my tickets for the BUSINESS WITHOUT CAPITAL 87 same price, depending upon the profits of the second edition to compensate for the losses of the first. Thus, by selling two thousand tickets I was not only free from debt, but had my capital—my stereotyped plates-paid for. Thus I redeemed every ticket and had my book paid for in three months, having raised a capital of seven hundred dollars by the sale of one thousand four hundred tickets. Besides my tickets, I sold small books of my own, from ten to twenty-five cents in value, which about covered my travel- ing expenses. Fifteen months from this date I had sold twelve thousand books. But selling these tickets and books was but a small part of the obstacles and difficulties to be overcome and surmounted in order to establish my business. Delay in commencing my book according to agreement, caused me much solicitude lest I should not meet my promise to my patrons. After three weeks delay I was therefore greatly relieved when the mail brought me my first proof-sheets at Bloomington. But upon examining them I found them so very defective and in such bad taste and in short brevier type instead of long primer, as the agreement stipulated, that I sent a message back at once to stop their work, as I should not accept such work at all, as it was not according to agreement. As soon as possible I returned to Chicago and found the business entirely suspended. Upon inquiry, I found I had engaged an incom- petent firm; they did not understand book-making, as their specialty was job and paper printing. Neither could I in- struct them, as this was not my trade, although they volun- teered to follow my directions. I accordingly sought and found a publisher at the Tribune office, who engaged to do the work in three weeks, which was the time the tickets were to be redeemed. I engaged my stereotyper, engraver, and binder, and set them all at work and left the city to sell tickets. But imperfect proofs and 88 MODERN PERSECUTION. delays would bring me often back to the city to find my work- men were waiting for some money as an assurance I should succeed, as they seemed to feel it unsafe to trust to my selling tickets for their pay. So in order to keep all these wheels running, I was often compelled to oil them with greenbacks, or they would stop running altogether.' These journeys greatly increased my expenses of travel as well as of board, as my day board at Hotels in Chicago amounted to seventeen dollars and a half a week. Yet my book would not be done unless I thus urged it on, and as I had no partner I had every department of business to attend to my- self, besides earning the money the business required. But solicitude from another source and cause outweighed all others; for energy, courage and perseverance combined could not remove this obstruction out of my onward path ; for I was constantly liable to have all my business plans thwarted by Mr. Packard's interference. As this danger is clearly eluci- dated by my interview with Mayor Sherman about this time, I will here narrate it, since it not only discloses one of the dan- gers and difficulties I had to encounter in prosecuting my en- terprise, but it also serves as another exemplification of that marital power which is legally guaranteed to the husband, leaving the wife utterly helpless and legally defenseless. I called upon him at his office in the court house, and was received with respectful, manly courtesy. After introducing myself as the Mrs. Packard whose case had recently acquired so much notoriety through the Chicago press, and after briefly recapitulating the main facts of the persecution, I said to him: “Now, Mr. Sherman, as the Mayor of this city, I appeal to you for protection, while printing my book in your city. Will you protect me here?” “Why, Mrs. Packard, what protection do you need ? What dangers do you apprehend ? 5 Sir, I am a married woman, and my husband is my perse- BUSINESS WITHOUT CAPITAL. 89 cutor, therefore I have no legal protection. The husband is, you probably know, the wife's only protector in the law, there- fore, what I want now, Sir, is protection against my protec- tor!” “ Is he in this city ?” “ No, Sir; but his agents are, and he can delegate his power to them, and authorize them what to do." “ What do you fear he will do ?” “I fear he may intercept the publication of my book; for you probably know, Sir, he can come either himself, or by proxy, and with his Sheriff, can demand my manuscript of my printer, and neither the printer, nor you, Sir, have any legal power to defend it. He can demand it, and burn it, and I am helpless in legal self-defense. For, Sir, my identity was legally lost in his, when I married him, leaving me nothing and nobody in law; and besides, all I have is his in law, and, of course, no one can prosecute him for taking his own things. My manu- script is his, and entirely at his disposal. I have no right in law even to my own thoughts, either spoken or written—he has even claimed the right to superintend my written thoughts, as well as post-office rights. I can not claim these rights—they are mine only as he grants them as his gifts to me!” “What does your printer say about it?” “ He says if the Sheriff comes to him for the book he shall tell him he must get the book where he can find it, I shall not find it for him.” I then said to my printer, “supposing he should come with money, and offer to buy the manuscript, what then?” “I say, it will take more money than there is in Chicago to buy that manuscript of us," replied my printer. “I think that sounds like protection, Mrs. Packard. I think you have nothing to fear.” “No, Mr. Sherman, I have nothing to fear from the manli- ness of my printer, for this is my sole and only protection- but as one man to whom I trusted even myself, has proved a 90 MODERN PERSECUTION. traitor to his manliness, is there not a possibility another may ? I should not object to a double guard, since the single guard of manliness has not even protected me from imprisonment!” ..“ Well, Mrs. Packard, you shall have my protection; and I can also assure you the protection of my counsel, also. If you get into trouble, apply to us, and we will give you all the help the laws will allow.” “I beg you to consider, Sir, the laws do not allow you to interfere in such a matter. Are you authorized to stop a man from doing a legal act ?” “ No, Mrs. Packard, I am not. I see you are without any legal protection. Still I think you are safe in Chicago.” “I hope it may so prove, Sir. But one thing more I wish your advice about; how can I keep the money I get for my book from Mr. Packard, the legal owner of it?” 6 Keep it about your person, so he can't get it.” 6 But, Sir; Mr. Packard has a right to my person in law, and can take it anywhere, and put it where he pleases; and if he can get my person, he can take what is on it.” " That's so--yours is a sad case, truly,—I must say, I never before knew that any one under our government was so utterly defenseless as you are. Your case ought to be known. Every soldier in our army ought to have one of your books, so as to have our laws changed.” Soldiers of our army! receive this tacit compliment from Mayor Sherman. You are henceforth to hold the reins of the American Government. And it is my candid opinion, they could not be in better or safer hands. And in your hands would I most confidently trust my sacred cause—the cause of Married Woman—for, so far as my observation extends, no class of American citizens are more manly than our soldiers. I am inclined to cherish the idea, that gallantry and patriotism are identified; at least, I find they are almost always associated in the same manly heart. CHAPTER VIII. Visit to my Father in Massachusetts, Mr. Packard Forbids my Seeing my Children. When I had sold about half of my twelve thousand books, seen me for about twelve years. I felt assured that my dear father, and brothers, and my kind step-mother, were all looking at the facts of my peršecu- tion from a wrong stand-point; and I determined to risk my exposure to Mr. Packard's persecuting power again, so far as to let my relatives see me once for themselves; hoping thus the scales might drop from their eyes, so far at least as to pro- I arrived first at my brother Austin Ware's home in South Deerfield, who then lived about two miles from Mr. Severance, where were my three youngest children, and where Mr. Pack- ard spent one day of each week. I spent two days with my brother and his new wife, who both gave me a very kind and patient hearing; and the result was, their eyes were opened to see their error in believing me to be an insane person, and expressed their decided condem- nation of the course Mr. Packard had pursued towards me. Brother became at once my gallant and manly protector, and the defender of my rights. “ Sister,” said he, “ you have a right to see your children, and you shall see them. I will send for them to-day.” He accordingly sent a team for them twice, but was twice refused by Mr. Packard, who had heard of my arrival. Still, he assured me I should see them in due time. He 92 MODERN PERSECUTION. carried me over to Sunderland, about four miles distant, to my father's house, promising me I should meet my dear children there ; feeling confident that my father's request joined with his own, would induce Mr. Packard to let me once more see my own dear offspring. As he expected, my father at once espoused my cause, and assured me I should see my children; “for,” added he: 6 Mr. Packard knows it will not do for him to refuse me." He then directed brother to go directly for them himself, and say to Mr. Packard : " Elizabeth's father requests him to let the children have an interview with their mother at his house.” But, instead of the children, came a letter from brother, saying, that Mr. Packard had refused, in the most decided terms, to let sister see her own children; or, to use his own language, he said : "I came from Illinois to Massachusetts to protect the children from their mother, and I shall do it, in spite of you, or father Ware, or any one else!” Brother adds," the mystery of this dark case is now solved, in my mind, completely. Mr. Packard is a monomaniac on this subject; there is no more reason in his treatment of sister, than in a brute.” These facts of his refusal to let me see my children, were soon in circulation in the two adjacent villages of Sunderland, and South Deerfield, and a strongly indignant feeling was manifested against Mr. Packard's defiant and unreasonable position; and he, becoming aware of the danger to his interests which a conflict with this tide of public sentiment might occa- sion, seemed forced, by this pressure of public opinion, to suc- cumb; for, on the following Monday morning, (this was on Saturday, P. M.,) he brought all my three children to my father's house, with himself and Mrs. Severance, as their body- guard, and with both as my witnesses, I was allowed to talk FORBIDDEN TO SEE MY CHILDREN. 93 with them an hour or two. He refused me an interview with them alone in my room. Of course it was a great satisfaction to me to be allowed once more to look upon these dear objects of my tenderest affections, yet his refusal to allow me to see them alone, almost paralyzed the joyful emotions their presence had inspired; and when my Arthur left my embrace for his father's lap, in obedience to his authority, I felt the utter helplessness of my position to such a degree that the joy of meeting was almost superseded by the thought of another, and, perhaps, a final parting. Since the common law of marriage deprives the married woman of her individual identity, she has therefore no chance, while her husband lives, to defend her inalienable rights from his usurpation. Even her right of self-defense on the plane of argument is denied her, for when she reasons, then she is insane! and if her reasons are wielded potently, and with irresistible logic, she is then exposed to hopeless imprisonment, as the response of her opponent. This is now her legalized penalty for using her own reason in defense of her identity! This is the modern mode of per- secuting married women! My husband has not only accepted of my identity as the law gives it to him, but he has also usurped all the minor gifts in- cluded in it. The gift from God, which I prize next to thạt of my personal identity, is my right of maternity-my right. to my own offspring—which he claims is his exclusively, by separating me entirely from them, with no ray of hope from him or the law, that I shall ever be allowed to exercise a mother's care or control over them again. Bereft of six lovely children by the will of my husband, and no one to dare defend this right for me, for the law extends protection to such kidnappers-indeed to me is a living death of hopeless bereavement! 94 MODERN PERSECUTION. Yes, any husband can kidnap all of his own children, by forcibly separating them from the mother who bore them, and the laws defend the act! The mother of the illegitimate child is protected by the law, in her right to her own offspring, while the lawfully married wife is not. Thus the only shield maternity has under the common law, is in prostitution!! Again my property is all shipwrecked, and legally claimed by this usurper. And as I did not hold it in my own name, as the statute laws now allow, I am, on the principle of com- mon law, legally robbed of every property right. The hus- band does not expose all his rights to usurpation when he marries; why should he make laws to demand this exposure to his wife and daughter? Are women in less need of pro- tection than men, simply because they are weaker, and therefore more liable to usurpation ? Nay, verily, the weakest demand the strongest protection, instead of none at all. When will man look upon woman as his partner, instead of dependent ? Oh, I do need the protection of law to shield my rights from my usurper! but I have noné at all, so long as I am a married woman. And Dr. McFarland assured me, too, that so long as I claim. my right of opinion and conscience, no church will extend fellowship to me. Therefore, my attempt to follow Christ by holding myself as a responsible moral agent, rather than an echo or a parasite, has cast me out of the protection of the law, and also out of the pale of the Christian church, if what the Doctor tells me is true. Well, be it so! I am determined to ever deserve the love, respect, confidence, and protection of my husband. And I am equally determined to secure a rightful claim to the fellowship of all Christian churches, by living a life of practical godliness. FORBIDDEN TO SEE MY CHILDREN. 95 I remained at my father's house a few days only, knowing that even in Massachusetts the laws did not protect me from another similar outrage, if Mr. Packard could procure the certificate of two physicians that I was insane; for, with these alone, without any chance for self-defense, he could force me into some of the Private Asylums here, as he did into a State Asylum in Illinois. I knew that, as I was Mr. Packard's wife, neither my brother nor father could be my legal protectors in such an event, as they could command no influence in my defense, except that of public sentiment or mob-law. CHAPTER IX. My Successful Appeal to the Massa- chusetts Legislature for Protection. I therefore felt forced to leave my father's house in self- defense, to seek some protection of the Legislature of Massa- chusetts, by petitioning them for a change in their laws on the mode of commitment into Insane Asylums. As a preparatory step, I endeavored to get up an agitation on the subject, by printing and selling about six thousand books relative to the subject; and then, trusting to this en- lightened public sentiment to back up the movement, I petitioned Massachusetts' Legislature to make the needed change in the laws. Hon. S. E. Sewall, of Boston, drafted the petition, and I. circulated it, and obtained between one and two hundred names of men of the first standing and influence in Boston, such as the Aldermen, the Common Council, the High Sheriff, and several other City Officers; besides, Judges, Lawyers, Editors, Bank Directors, Physicians and Merchants. Mr. Sewall presented this petition to the Legislature, and they referred it to a committee, who convened seven special meetings on the subject. I was invited to meet with them each time, and did so, as were also Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Denny, two ladies of Boston who had suffered a term of false imprisonment in a private institution at Sommersville, without any previous trial. Hon. S. A. Sewall and Mr. Wendell Phillips both made a plea in its behalf before this committee, who kindly allowed me a hearing of several hours time in all, besides allowing me APPEAL TO THE MASS. LEGISLATURE. 97 to present the two following bills of which they afterwards requested a copy in writing. The three Superintendents, Dr. Walker, Dr. Jarvis, and Dr. Tyler, represented the opposition. And my reply to Dr. Walker constituted the preamble to my bills. GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: I feel it my duty to say one word in defense of the peti- tioners, in reply to Dr. Walker's statement, that: 66 In my opinion, nineteen-twentieths of the petitioners did not know nor care what they petitioned for, and that they signed it out of compliment to the lady.” I differ from Dr. Walker in opinion on this point, for this reason. I obtained these names by my own individual appeals, except from most of the members of the “ Common Council,” who signed it during an evening session, by its being passed around for their names. I witnessed their signing, and saw them read it, carefully, before signing it. And I think they signed it intelligently, and from a desire for safer legislation. The others I know signed intelligently, and for this reason. And I could easily have got one thousand more names, had it been necessary; for, in selling my books, I have conversed with many thousand men on this subject, and among them all, have only found one man who defends the present mode of commitment—that of leaving it all to the physicians. I spent a day in the Custom House, and a day and a half in the Navy Yard, and these men, like all others, defend our movement. I have sold one hundred and thirty-nine books in the Navy Yard within the last day and a half, by conversing personally with gentlemen in their counting-rooms on this subject, and they are carefully watching your decision on this question. Now, from this stand-point of extensive observation, added to my own personal experience, I feel fully confident these two bills are needed to meet the public demand at this crisis. 98 MODERN PERSECUTION. BILL No. 1. No person shall be regarded or treated as an Insane person, or a Monomaniac, simply for the expression of opinions, no matter how absurd these opinions may appear to others. My Brief in Defense of the bill. 1st. This law is needed for the personal safety of Reformers. We are living in a Progressive Age. Everything is in a state of transmutation, and as our laws now are, the Reformer, the Pioneer, the Originator of any new idea is liable to be treated as a Monomaniac with imprisonment. 2d. It is a Crime against human progress to allow Re- formers to be treated as Monomaniacs; for who will dare to be true to the inspirations of the divinity within them, if the Pioneers of truth are thus liable to lose their personal liberty for life by so doing ? 3d. It is Treason against the principles of our Government to treat opinions as Insanity, and to imprison for it, as our present laws allow. 4th. There always are those in every age who are opposed to everything new, and if allowed, will persecute Reformers with the stigma of Insanity. This has been the fate of all Reformers, from the days of Christ—the Great Reformer- until the present age. 5th. Our Government, of all others, ought especially to guard, by legislation, the vital principle on which it is based, namely: individuality, which guarantees an individual right of opinion to all persons. Therefore, gentlemen, Protect your Thinkers! by a law against the charge of Monomania, and posterity shall bless our Government, as a Model Government, and Massachusetts as the Pioneer State, in thus protecting individuality as the vital principle on which the highest development of humanity rests. APPEAL TO THE MASS. LEGISLATURE. 99 BILL No. 2. No person shall be imprisoned and treated as an insane person except for irregularities of conduct, such as indicate that the individual is so lost to reason as to render him an unaccountable moral agent. My Brief in Defense of the Bill. Multitudes are now imprisoned without the least evidence that reason is dethroned, as indicated by this test. And I am a representative of this class of prisoners; for when Dr. McFarland was driven to give his reasons for regarding me as insane, on this basis, the only reason which he could name, after closely inspecting my conduct for three years, was that I once “ fell down stairs !” I do insist upon it, gentlemen, that no person should be im- prisoned without a just cause ; for personal liberty is the most blessed boon of our existence, and ought therefore to be reasonably guarded as an inalienable right. But it is not reasonably protected under our present legislation, while it allows the simple opinion of two doctors to imprison a person for life, without one proof in the conduct of the accused, that he is an unaccountable moral agent. We do not hang a per- son on the simple opinion that he is a murderer, but proof is required from the accused's own actions, that he is guilty of the charge which forfeits his life. So the charge which for- feits our personal liberty ought to be proved from the individ- ual's own conduct, before imprisonment. So long as insanity is treated as a crime, instead of a misfor- tune, as our present system practically does thus treat it, the protection of our individual liberty imperatively demands such an enactment. Many contend that every person is insane on some point. On this ground, all persons are liable to be legal- ly imprisoned, under our present system ; for intelligent physi- cians are everywhere to be found, who will not scruple to give 100 MODERN PERSECUTION. a certificate that an individual is a Monomaniac on that point where he differs from him in opinion! This Mono- mania in many instances is not insanity, but individuality, which is the highest natural development of a human being. Gentlemen, I know, and have felt, the horrors—the untold soul agonies—attendant on such a persecution. Therefore, as philanthropists, I beg of you to guard your own liberties, and those of your countrymen, by recommending the adoption of these two bills as an imperative necessity. The above bills were presented to the Committee on the Commitment of the Insane, in Boston State House, March 29, 1865. The result was, the petition triumphed, by so changing the mode of commitment, that, instead of the husband being al- lowed to enter his wife at his simple request, added to the cer- tificate of two physicians, he must now get ten of her nearest relatives to join with him in this request; and the person committed, instead of not being allowed to communicate by writing to any one outside of the Institution, except under the censorship of the Superintendent, can now send a letter to each of these ten relatives, and to any other two persons whom the person committed shall designate. This the Superintendent is required to do within two days from the time of commitment. This Law is found in Chapter 268, Section 2, of the Gen- eral Laws of Massachusetts. I regard my personal liberty in Massachusetts now as not absolutely in the power of my husband; as my family friends must now co-operate in order to make my commitment legal. And since my family relatives are now fully satisfied of my sanity, after having seen me for themselves, I feel now com- paratively safe, while in Massachusetts. CHAPTER X. My Father Becomes my Protector. I therefore returned to my father's house in Sunderland, and finding both of my dear parents feeble, and in need of some one to care for them, and finding myself in need of a season of rest and quiet, I accepted their kind invitation to make their house my home for the present. At this point my father indi- cated his true position in relation to my interests, by his self- moved efforts in my behalf, in writing and sending the follow- ing letter to Mr. Packard. 66 Sunderland, Sept. 2, 1865. “REV. SIR : I think the time has fully come for you to give up to Elizabeth her clothes. Whatever reason might have ex- isted to justify you in retaining them, has, in process of time, entirely vanished. There is not a shadow of excuse for re- taining them. It is my presumption there is not an individ- ual in this town who would justify you in retaining them a single day. Elizabeth is about to make a home at my house, and I must be her protector. She is very destitute of clothing, and greatly needs all those articles which are hers. I hope to hear from you soon, before I shall be constrained to take another step. Yours, Respectfully, Rev. T. PACKARD. SAMUEL WARE.” The result of this letter was, that in about twenty-four hours after the letter was delivered, Mr. Packard brought the greater part of my wardrobe and delivered it into the hands of my father. In a few weeks after this event, Mr. Packard's place in the pulpit in Sunderland was filled by a candidate for settlement, and he left the place. 102 MODERN PERSECUTION. The reasons why he thus left his ministerial charge in this place, cannot perhaps be more summarily given than by tran- scribing the following letter which my father requested me to write for him, in answer to Rev. Dr. Pomeroy's letter, inquir- ing of my father why Mr. Packard had left Sunderland. Sunderland, Oct. 28, 1865. Dr. POMEROY, DEAR SIR : I am sorry to say that my dear father feels too weak to reply to your kind and affectionate letter of the twenty-third instant, and therefore I cheerfully consent to reply to it myself. As to the subject of your letter, it is as you intimated. We have every reason to believe that my father's defense of me, has been the indirect cause of Mr. Packard's leaving Sunder- land; although we knew nothing of the matter until he left, and a candidate filled his place. Neither father, mother, nor I, have used any direct influence to undermine the confidence of this people in Mr. Packard. But where this simple fact, that I have been imprisoned three years, is known to have become a demonstrated truth, by the decision of a jury, after a thorough legal investigation of five days' trial, it is found to be rather an unfortunate truth for the public sentiment of the present age to grapple with. And Mr. Packard and his persecuting party may yet find I uttered no fictitious sentiment, when I remarked to Dr. Mc- Farland in the Asylum that, “I shall yet live down this slan- der of Insanity, and also live down my persécutors!” And Mr. Packard is affording me every facility for so doing, by his continuing strenuously to insist upon it, that I am now just as insane as when he incarcerated me in Jacksonville In- sane Asylum. And he still insists upon it, that an Asylum Prison is the only suitable place for me in which to spend the residue of my earth-life. But, fortunately for me, my friends judge differently upon seeing me for themselves. Especially fortunate is it for me, MY FATHER BECOMES MY PROTECTOR. 103 that my own dear father feels confident that his house is a more suitable home for me, notwithstanding the assertion of Mrs. Dickinson, the widow with whom Mr. Packard boards, that: “ It is such a pity that Mrs. Packard should come to Sun- derland, where Mr. Packard preaches!” Mr. Johnson replied, in answer to this remark, that: “I think Mrs. Packard has a right to come to her father's house for protection, and also that her father has an equal right to extend protection to his only daughter, when thrown adrift and penniless upon the cold world without a place to shelter her defenseless head.” Mr. Packard has withdrawn all intercourse with us all since he was called upon by my father to return my wardrobe to me. Would that Mr. Packard's eyes might be opened to see what he is doing, and repent, so that I might be allowed to extend to him the forgiveness my heart longs to bestow, upon this gospel condition. Thankful for all the kindness and sympathy you have be- stowed upon my father and mother, as well as myself, I sub- scribe myself your true friend, E. P. W. PACKARD. I remained six months a member of my father's family, and found this period one of the brightest oases of my existence. For during this period my dear father manifested a tenderness of feeling transcending anything he had ever before exhibited towards me. His fatherly conduct, thus manifested, said to me, more forcibly than any words could have done : “I am sorry I have been so deluded by Mr. Packard as to leave you to suffer so long, so intensely, so unjustly, without appearing in your defense, and rescuing you from your tor- mentors. But as it is, the only atonement I can possibly make shall be made ! I shall shield you from all future harm, so far as a father's love and care can extend.” 104 MODERN PERSECUTION. In speaking of my children, he once said : 6 My Daughter, you ought to have the care of your children, for you have been the best mother to them I ever knew, and were it in my power you should now have them all, and never be separated from them again. But, my Daughter, I am as helpless as you are in this matter. The strong arm of law shields Mr. Packard in his course, and I cannot remove this obstacle in the way of your taking them under your custody. You must submit to the inevitable, and try to take all the com- fort you can without them.” Another act of fatherly confidence in my sanity was, that he changed his will for my benefit, and by this change, he not only gave me a much larger portion of his property, but also gave it to me directly, instead of giving it " in trust” to my brother, as he had by the will he had before made when under the delusion of Mr. Packard, that I was insane—for, said he, to this brother: “ Elizabeth is just as capable of taking care of property as you are or any other person, therefore I shall leave her por- tion to her independent of all supervision.” He also gave to the public a certificate of my sanity, for the purpose of counteracting the influence of those he had before given in defense of Mr. Packard, at his request, thus making restitution for this wrong he had innocently done his daughter as far as lay in his power thus to do. Although this certifi- cate is given to my readers in the first volume, yet, I will here insert it again, not only as an evidence of his confidence in my sanity, but as proof of his repentance in liaving ever been induced to call it in question. “This is to certify, that the certificates which have appeared in public in relation to my daughter's sanity, were given upon the conviction that Mr. Packard's representations respecting her condition were true, and were given wholly upon the authority of Mr. Packard's own statements. I do, therefore, MY FATHER BECOMES MY PROTECTOR. 105 hereby certify, that it is now my opinion that Mr. Packard has had no cause for treating my daughter Elizabeth, as an insane person. SAMUEL WARE. South Deerfield, Aug. 2, 1866. Atteet S OLIVE WARE, Solo | AUSTIN WARE.” When this was done he felt that he could die in peace. But not before. At the expiration of this six months' sojourn with my father in Massachusetts—he died. And as I looked upon his peaceful corpse, as he lay in his coffin dressed for the tomb, I could not but exclaim: Peace to thy memory! Dear Father! Your work is done! Now, well done! for you have not only repented of the wrongs you have so innocently done your daughter, but have also made restitution, so far as lay in your power so to do in this life. Blessed be thy memory! My Honored Father! My own dear Mother had at this time been in her grave about twenty years. Had this most affectionate and devoted mother been alive during these days of my persecution, a mother's love would have surmounted and overcome every obstacle which human ingenuity could devise to effect my • deliverance from the power of this cruel conspiracy. But a wise Providence had otherwise ordered the events of this sad drama. For some purpose, hitherto unrevealed, this malign plot must have been executed just as it has been, and this dear mother could not be allowed to be where she might have intercepted its progress. But there is one mystery attending this plot which no ingenuity or skill has yet been able to fathom. It is this: A few weeks prior to my incarceration, a stranger stopped at Mr. Blessing's hotel for two days and one night. He claimed to be the “ Brother of Mrs. Packard,” that he had been sent by her mother to deliver her out of the hands of her cruel and unfeeling husband—that he had just arrived in port 106 MODERN PERSECUTION. at Boston, Mass., and had there been told to “Go to your sister at once ! for she is in most imminent peril, and there is no power to rescue her from her impending doom.” And he added : “ I have come to deliver her out of the hands of her hus- band, and I shall do so! even if I have to resort to the aid of this six-barrelled revolver to do it!” at the same time showing his pistol. Crowds collected at the Hotel to hear his strange story and the revelations he had to make of Mr. Packard's private character. Among other witnesses was my son, Isaac, then about sixteen years of age. In reporting this interview to me he said: “Mother, I never saw any one who could relate family incidents with more accuracy and in minute detail than he did, and he even narrated events which no one knew outside of our family. Indeed, had he been in our family for ten years past, he could not have described our family scenes more accurately and promptly. In detailing father's treat- ment of you, he would often burst into tears and exclaim : .“ No one can know what that kind, patient woman has suffered from him—her relentless tormentor.” The community set a guard about our honse to defend Mr. Packard's life, thus threatened, for about one week, after the disappearance of this stranger from the place. Who this stranger was—by whom sent-how he received his information about the secret incidents of our family- and whither he went, is all unknown. But to me, who can realize the intensity of my dear mother's love for her only daughter, it seems like a plot of desperation, similar to what the devoted love of a true mother might be driven to resort, rather than have the object of her tenderest love uncared for—-unpitied—and unprotected. CHAPTER XI. Mr. Packard a Beggar. Fidelity to the truth requires me to add one more melan- choly fact, in order to make this narrative of events complete, and that is, Mr. Packard has made merchandise of this stigma of Insanity with which he has branded me, and used it as a lucrative source of gain to himself, in the following manner : He has made most pathetic appeals to the sympathies of the public for their charities to be bestowed upon him, on the plea of his great misfortune in having an insane wife to support—one who is incapable of taking care of herself or her six children—and on this false premise he has based a most pathetic argument and appeal to their sympathies for pecu- niary help, in the form of boxes of clothing for himself and his destitute and defenseless children! These appeals have been most generously responded to from the American Home Missionary Society. When I returned to my home from the Asylum, I counted twelve boxes of such clothing, some of which were very large, containing the spoils he had thus purloined from this bene- volent society, by entirely false representations. My family were not destitute. But on the contrary, were plentifully supplied with a superabundant amount of such missionary gifts, which had been lavished upon us, at his request, before I was imprisoned. I had often said to him, that I and my children had already more than a supply for our wants until they were grown up. Now, what could he do with twelve more such boxes ! My son, Isaac, then in Chicago, and twenty-one years of age, 108 MODERN PERSECUTION. told me he had counted fifty new vests in one pile, and as many pants and coats, and overcoats, and almost every thing else, of men's wearing apparel, in like ratio. He said a pile of dress patterns had accumulated intended for my use from these boxes, to one yard in depth in one solid pile. And this was only one sample of all kinds of ladies' apparel which he had thus accumulated, by his cunningly- devised begging system. Still, to this very date, he is pleading want and destitution as a basis for more charities of like kind. He has even so moved the benevolent sympathies of the widow Dickinson with whom he boarded, as to make her feel that he was an honest claimant upon their charities in this line, on the ground of poverty and destitution. She accord- ingly started a subscription to procure him a suit of clothes, on the ground of his extreme destitution, and finally suc- ceeded in begging a subscription of one hundred and thirteen dollars for his benefit, and presented it to him as a token of sympathy and regard. Another fact, he has put his property out of his hands, so that he can say he has nothing. And should I sue him for my maintainance, I could get nothing. His rich brother-in-law, George Hastings, did then support the three youngest children, mostly, and as Mr. Packard had so disposed of his wife and children, as to render them entirely independent of him for their support, scarcely any claimants were left upon his own purse, except his own personal wants. And it is my honest opinion, that had the Sunderland people known of these facts in his financial matters, they would not have presented him with one hundred and thirteen dollars, as a token of their sympathy and esteem. Still, looking at the subject from their stand-point, I have no doubt they acted conscientiously in this matter. I have never deemed it my duty to enlighten them on this MARRIED WOMAN A SLAVE. 109 subject, except as the truth was sought for from me, in a few individual isolated cases. I seldom associated with the people, and had sold none of my books among them. For, self-de- fense did not require me to seek the protection of enlightened public sentiment now that the laws protected my personal liberty, while in Massachusetts. But fidelity to the cause of humanity, especially the cause of 66 Married Woman,” requires me to make public the facts of this notorious persecution, in order to have her true legal position known and fully apprehended. And since my case is a practical illustration of what the law is on this subject-showing how entirely destitute she is of any legal protection, except what the will and wishes of her husband secures her—and also demonstrates the fact, that the common-law, everywhere, in relation to married woman, not only gravitates towards an absolute despotism, but even protects and sustains and defends a despotism of the most arbitrary and absolute kind—therefore, in order to have her social position changed legally, the need of this change must first be seen and appreciated by the common people--the law- makers of this Republic. And this need or necessity for a revolution on this subject can be made to appear in no more direct manner, than by a practical case, such as my own furnishes. As the need of a revolution of the law in relation to negro servitude was made to appear, by the practical exhibition of the Slave Code in “Uncle Tom's” experience, showing that all slaves were liable to suffer to the extent he did ; so my ex- perience, although like “Uncle Tom's,” an extreme case, shows how all married women are liable to suffer to the same extent that I have. Now justice to humanity claims that such liabilities should not exist in any Christian government. The laws should be so changed that such another outrage could not possibly take 110 MODERN PERSECUTION place under the sanction of the laws of a Christian govern- ment. As Uncle Tom's case aroused the indignation of the people against the slave code, so my case, so far as it is known, arouses the same feeling of indignation against those laws which protect married servitude. Married woman needs legal emancipation from married servitude, as much as the slave needed legal emancipation from his servitude. Again, all slaves did not suffer under negro slavery, neither do all married women suffer from this legalized servitude. Still, the principle of slavery is wrong, and the principle of emancipation is right, and the laws ought so to regard it. And this married servitude exposes the wife to as great suffering as negro servitude did. It is my candid opinion, that no Southern slave ever suffered more spiritual agony than I have suffered ; as I am more de- veloped in my moral and spiritual nature than they are, there- fore more capable of suffering. I think no slave mother ever endured more keen anguish by being deprived of her own off- spring than I have in being legally separated from my own. God grant! that married woman's emancipation may quickly follow in the wake of negro emancipation! CHAPTER XII. Why I Do Not Get a Divorce. Because, in the first place, I do not want to be a divorced woman: but on the contrary, I wish to be a married woman, and have my husband for my protector; for I do not like this being divorced from my own home. I want a home to live in, and I prefer the one I have labored twenty-one years myself to procure, and furnished to my own taste and mind. Neither do I like this being divorced from my own children. I want to live with my dear children, whom I have borne and nursed, reared and educated, almost entirely by my own un- wearied, indefatigable exertions; and I love them, with all the fondness of a mother's undying love, and no place is home to me in this wide world without them. And again, I have done nothing to deserve this exclusion from the rights and privileges of my own dear home; but on the contrary, my untiring fidelity to the best interests of my family for twenty-one years of healthful, constant service, having never been sick during this time so as to require a doctor's bill to be paid for me or my six children, and having done all the housework, sewing, nursing, and so forth, for my entire family for twenty-one years, with no hired help, except for only nine months, during all this long period of constant toil and labor. I say, this self-sacrificing devotion to the best interests of my family and home, deserve and claim a right to be protected in it, at least, so long as my good con- duct continues, instead of being divorced from it, against my own will or consent. In short, what I want is, protection in my home, instead of a divorce from it. I do not wish to drive Mr. Packard from his 112 MODERN PERSECUTION. own home, and exclude him from all its rights and privileges- neither do I want he should treat me in this manner, especially so long as he himself claims that I have always been a most kind, patient, devoted wife and mother. He even claims as his justification of his course, that I am so good a woman, and he loves me so well, that he wants to save me from fatal errors ! It is my opinions—my religious opinions—and those alone, he makes an occasion for treating me as he has. He frankly owned to me, that he was putting me into an Asylum so that my reputation for being an insane person might destroy the influence of my religious opinions; and I see in one letter which he wrote to my father, he mentions this as the chief evidence of my insanity. He writes: “Her many excellences and past services I highly appreciate; but she says she has widely departed from, or progressed be- yond, her former religious views and sentiments—and I think it is too true!!” Here is all the insanity he claims, or has attempted to prove. Now comes the question: Is this a crime for which I ought to be divorced from all the comforts and privileges of my own dear home? To do this, that is to get a divorce, would it not be becoming an accomplice in crime, by doing the very deed which he is so desirous of having done, namely: banishment from the family circle for fear of the contaminating influence of my new views? Has a married woman no rights at all? Can she not even think her own thoughts, and speak her own words, unless her thoughts and expressions harmonize with those of her hus- band ? I think it is high time the merits of this question should be practically tested on a proper basis, the basis of truth-of facts. And the fact, that I have been not only practically divorced from my own home and children, but also incarcerated for three years in a prison, simply for my religious belief, by the WHY I DO NOT GET A DIVORCE 113 arbitrary will of my husband, ought to raise the question as to what are the married woman's rights, and what is her pro- tection ? And it is to this practical issue I have ever striven to force this question. And this issue I felt might be reached more directly and promptly by the public mind, by laying the ne- cessities of the case before the community, and by a direct appeal to them for personal protection, instead of getting a divorce for my protection. I know that by so doing, I have run a great risk of losing my liberty again. Still, I felt that the great cause of married woman's rights might be promoted by this agitation; and so far as my own feelings were con- cerned, I felt willing to suffer even another martyrdom in this cause, if my sisters in the bonds of marital power might be benefited thereby. I want and seek protection as a married woman, not divorce, in order to escape the abuses of marital power—that is, I want protection from the abuse of marital power, not a divorce from it. I can live in my home with my husband, if he will only let me do so; but he will not suffer it, unless I recant my religious belief. Cannot religious bigotry under such manifes- tations, receive some check under our government, which is professedly based on the very principle of religious tolerance to all ? Cannot there be laws enacted by which a married woman can stand on the same platform as a married man, that is, have an equal right, at least, to the protection of her inalien- able rights? And is not this our petition for protection founded in justice and humanity ? Is it just to leave the weakest and most defenseless of these two parties wholly without the shelter of law to shield her, while the strongest and most independent has all the aid of the legal arm to strengthen his own? Nay, verily, it is not right or manly for our man government 114 MODERN PERSECUTION. thus to usurp the whole legal power of self-protection and defense, and leave confiding, trusting woman wholly at the mercy of this gigantic power. For perverted men will use this absolute power to abuse the defenseless, rather than pro- tect them; and abuse of power inevitably leads to the con- tempt of its victim. A man who can trample on all the inalienable rights of his wife, will by so doing come to despise her as an inevitable consequence of wrong doing. Woman, too, is a more spiritual being than a man, and is therefore a more sensitive being, and a more patient sufferer than a man ; therefore she, more than any other being, needs protection, and she should find it in that government she has sacrificed so much to uphold and sustain. Again, I do not believe in the divorce principle. I say it is a “ Secession” principle. It undermines the very vital prin- ciple of our Union, and saps the very foundation of our social and civil obligations. For example. Suppose the small, weak, and comparatively feeble States in our Union were not protected by the Govern- ment in any of their State rights, while the large, strong, and powerful ones had their State rights fully guaranteed and se- cured to them. Would not this state of the Union endanger the rights of the defenseless ones? and endanger the Union also ? Could these defenseless States resort to any other means of self-defense from the usurpation of the powerful States than that of secession? But secession is death to the Union-death to the principles of love and harmony which ought to bind the parts in one sacred whole. Now, I claim that the Marriage Union, as our laws now stand, rests on just this principle. The woman has no alter- native of resort from any kind of abuse from her partner, but divorce or secession from the Marriage Union. Now the weak States have rights as well as the strong ones, WHY I DO NOT GET A DIVORCE. 115 and it is the rights of the weak which the Government are especially bound to respect and defend, to prevent usurpation and its legitimate issue-secession from the Union. What we want of our Government is to prevent this usurp- ation, by protecting us equally with our partners, so that a divorce need not become a necessity. By equality of rights, I do not mean that woman's rights and man's rights are one and the same. By no means; we do not want the man's rights, but simply our own, natural, wo- manly rights. There are man's rights and woman's rights. Both different, yet both equally inalienable. There must be a head in every firm; and the head in the Marriage Firm or Union is the man, as the Bible and nature both plainly teach. We maintain that the senior partner, the man, has rights of the greatest importance, as regards the interests of the marriage firm, which should not only be respected and pro- tected by our Government, but also enforced upon them as an obligation, if the senior is not self-moved to use his rights practically—and one of these his rights, is a right to protect his own wife and children. The junior partner also has rights of equal moment to the interests of the firm, and one of these is her right to be pro- tected by her senior partner. Not protected in a prison, but in her own home, as mistress of her own house, and as a God appointed guardian of her infant children. The Government would then be protecting the Marriage Union, while it now practically ignores it. To make this matter still plainer, suppose this government was under the control of the female instead of the male influ- ence, and suppose our female government should enact laws which required the men when they entered the Marriage Union to alienate their right to hold their own property—their right to hold their future earnings—their right to their own homes --their right to their own offspring, if they have any—their 116 MODERN PERSECUTION. right to their personal liberty—and all these rights be passed over into the hands of their wives for safe keeping, and so long as they chose to be married men, all their claims on our womanly government for protection should be abrogated en- tirely by this marriage contract. Now, I ask, how many men would venture to get married under these laws ? Would they not be tempted to ignore the marriage laws of our Woman Government altogether? Now, gentlemen, we are sorry to own it, this is the very condition in which your Man Government places us. We, women, looking from this very stand-point of sad experience, are tempted to exclaim : “ Where is the manliness of our Man Government !! Divorce, I say, then, is in itself an evil—and is only em- ployed as an evil to avoid a greater one, in many instances. Therefore, instead of being forced to choose the least of two evils, I would rather reject both evils, and choose a good thing -that of being protected in my own dear home from unmer- ited, unreasonable abuse—a restitution of my rights, instead of a continuance of this robbery, sanctioned by a divorce. In short, we desire to live under such laws as will oblige our husbands to treat us with decent respect, so long as our good conduct merits it, and then will they be made to feel a decent regard for us as their companions and partners, whom the laws protect from their abuse. CHAPTER XIII. The Opinions which caused this Family Rupture. The question is often asked, “ what are your religious opinions, Mrs. Packard, which have caused all this rupture in your once happy family ?” My first impulse prompts me to answer, pertly, it is no one's business what I think but my own, since it is to God alone I am accountable for my thoughts. Whether my thoughts are right or wrong, true or false, is no one's business but my own. It is my own God given right to superintend my own thoughts, and this right I shall never delegate to any other human being—for God himself has authorized me to “judge ye not of your own selves what is right?” Yes, I do, and shall judge for myself what is right for me to think, what is right for me to speak, and what is right for me to do—and if I do wrong, I stand amenable to the laws of society and my country; for to human tribunals I submit all my actions, as just and proper matter for criticism and control. But my thoughts, I shall never yield to any human tribunal or oligarchy, as a just and proper matter for arbitration or discipline. It is my opinion that the time has gone by for thoughts to be chained to any creeds or oligarchies; but on the contrary, these chains and restraints which have so long bound the human reason to human dictation, must be broken, for the reign of individual, spiritual freedom is about dawning upon our progressive world. Yes, I insist upon it, that it is my own individual right to 118 MODERN PERSECUTION. superintend my own thoughts; and I say farther, it is not my right to superintend the thoughts or conscience of any other developed being. It is none of my business what Mr. Packard, my father, or any other developed man or woman believe or think, for I do not hold myself responsible for their views. I believe they are as honest and sincere as myself in the views they cherish, although so antagonistic to my own; and I have no wish or desire to harass or disturb them, by urging my views upon their notice. Yea, further, I prefer to have them left entirely free and unshackled to believe just as their own developed reason dictates. And all I ask of them is, that they allow me the same privilege. My own dear father did kindly allow me this right of a developed moral agent, although we differed as essentially and materially in our views as Mr. Packard and I did. We, like two accountable moral agents, simply agree to differ, and all is peace and harmony. My individuality has been naturally developed by a life of practical godliness, so that I now know what I do believe, as is not the case with that class in society who dare not individualize themselves. This class are mere echoes or parasites, instead of individuals. They just flow on with the tide of public sentiment, whether right or wrong; whereas the individualized ones can and do stem or resist this tide, when they think it is wrong, and in this way they meet with persecution. It is my misfortune to belong to this unfortu- nate class. Therefore I am not afraid or ashamed to avow my honest opinions even in the face of a frowning world. Therefore, when duty to myself or others, or the cause of truth requires it, I willingly avow my own honest convictions. On this ground, I feel not only justified, but authorized, to give the question under consideration, a plain and candid answer, MY RELIGIOUS OPINIONS. 119 knowing that this narrative of the case would be incomplete without it. • Another thing is necessary as an introduction, and that is, I do not present my views for others to adopt or endorse as their own. They are simply my individual opinions, and it is a matter of indifference to me, whether they find an echo in any other individual's heart or not. I do not arrogate to myself any popish right or power to enforce my opinions upon the notice of any human being but myself. While at the same time, I claim that I have just as good a right to my opinions as Scott, Clark, Edwards, Barnes, or Beecher, or any other human being has to his. And fur- thermore, these theologians have no more right to dictate to me what I must think and believe, than I have to dictate to them what they must think and believe. All have an equal right to their own thoughts. And I know of no more compact form in which to give utterance to my opinions, than by inserting the following letter I wrote from my prison, to a lady friend in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and sent out on my under ground railroad.” The only tidings I ever had from this letter, was a sight of it in one of the Chicago papers, following a long and minute report of my jury trial at Kankakee. I never knew how it found its way there; I only knew it was my own identical letter, since I still retain a true copy of the original among my Asylum papers. The following is a copy of the original letter, as it now stands in my own hand-writing. The friend to whom it was written has requested me to omit those portions of the letter which refer directly to herself. In compliance with her wishes, I leave a blank for such omissions. In other respects it is a true copy. The candid reader can judge for himself, whether the cherishing of such radical opinions is a crime of sufficient 120 MODERN PERSECUTION. magnitude to justify all my wrongs and imprisonment! Is my Persecutor guiltless in this matter? Jacksonville, Ill., Oct. 23, 1861. MRS. FISHER. MY DEAR OLD FRIEND: My love and sympathy for you is undiminished. Changes do not sever our hearts. I cannot but respect your self- reliant, independent, and therefore progressive efforts to become more and more assimilated to Christ's glorious image. I rejoice whenever I find one who dares to rely upon their own organization, in the investigation of truth. In other words, one who dares to be an independent thinker. * * * Yes, you, Mrs. Fisher, in your individuality, are just what God made you to be. And. I respect every one who respects himself enough not to try to pervert his organization, by striving to remodel it, and thus defile God's image in him. To be natural, is our highest praise. To let God's image shine through our individuality, should be our highest aim. Alas, Mrs. Fisher, how few there are, who dare to be true to their God given nature ! That terrible dogma that our natures are depraved, has ruined its advocates, and led astray many a guileless, con- fiding soul. Why can we not accept of God's well done work as perfect, and instead of defiling, perverting it, let it stand in all its holy proportions, filling the place. God designed it to occupy, and adorn the temple it was fitted for? I for one, Mrs. Fisher, am determined to be a woman, true to my nature. I regard my nature as holy, and every deviation from its instinctive tendency I regard as a perversion—a sin. To live a natural, holy life, as Christ did, I regard as my highest honor, my chief glory. I know this sentiment conflicts with our educated belief our Church creeds—and the honestly cherished opinions of our relatives and friends. Still I believe a “ thus saith the Lord.” MY RELIGIOUS OPINIONS. 121 supports it. Could Christ take upon himself our nature, and yet know no sin, if our natures are necessarily sinful ? Are not God's simple, common sense teachings, sufficient author- ity for our opinions ? Indeed, Mrs. Fisher, I have become so radical, as to call in question every opinion of my educated belief, which conflicts with the dictates of reason and common sense. I even believe that God has revealed to his creatures no practical truth, which conflicts with the common instincts of our common natures. In other words, I believe that God has adapted our natures to his teachings. Truth and nature harmonize. I believe that all truth has its source in God, and is eternal. But some perceive truth before others, because some are less perverted in their natures than others, by their educational in- fluences, so that the light of the sun of righteousness finds less to obstruct its beams in some than in others. Thus they be- come lights in the world, for the benefit of others less favored. You preceded me in bursting the shackles of preconceived opinions and creeds, and have been longer basking in the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free, and have therefore longer been taught of him in things pertaining to life and godliness. Would that I had had the moral courage sooner to have imitated you, and thus have broken the fetters which bound me to dogmas and creeds. Oh, Mrs. Fisher, how trammeled and crippled our consciences have been! Oh, that we might have an open Bible, and an unshackled conscience ! And these precious boons we shall have, for God, by His providence, is securing them to us. Yes, Mrs. Fisher, the persecutions through which we are now passing is securing to us spiritual freedom, liberty, a right, a determination to call no man master, to know no teacher but the Spirit, to follow no light or guide not sanctioned by the Word of God and our conscience, to know no“ ism” or creed, but truthism, and no pattern but Christ. 122 MODERN PERSECUTION. Henceforth, I am determined to use my own reason and conscience in my investigation of truth, and in the establish- ment of my own opinions and practice I shall give my own reason and conscience the preference to all others. * * * I know, also, that I am a sincere seeker after the simple truth—not willful, but conscientious in my conduct. And notwithstanding others deny this, I know their testimony is false. The Searcher of hearts knows that I am as honest with myself as I am with others. And, although like Paul, I may appear foolish to others in so doing, yet my regard for truth transcends all other considerations. God's good work of grace in me shall never be denied by me, let others defame it and stigmatize it as insanity, as they will. They, not I, are responsible for this sacrilegious act. God himself has made me dare to be honest and truth- ful, even in defiance of this heaven-daring charge, and God's work will stand in spite of all opposition. “He always wins, who sides with God.” Dear Mrs. Fisher, I am not now afraid or ashamed to utter my honest opinions. The worst that my enemies can do to defame my character, they have done, and I fear them no more. I am now free to be true and honest, for this per- secution for opinion and conscience's sake, has so strength- ened and confirmed me in the free exercise of these inalien- able rights in future, that no opposition can overcome me. For I stand by faith in what is true and right. I feel that I am born into a new element-freedom, spiritual freedom. And although the birth throes are agonizing, yet the joyous results compensate for all. How mysterious are God's ways and plans! My persecu- tors verily thought they could compel me to yield these rights to human dictation, when they have only fortified them against human dictation. God saw that suffering for my opinions was necessary to confirm me in them. And the MY RELIGIOUS OPINIONS. 123 work is done, and well done, as all God's work always is. No fear of any human oligarchy will, henceforth, terrify me, or tempt me to succumb to it. I am not now afraid of being called insane if I avow my belief that Christ died for all mankind, and that this atone- ment will be effectual in saving all mankind from endless torment—that good will ultimately overcome all evil—that God's benevolent purposes concerning his creatures will never be thwarted—that no rebellious child of God's great family will ever transcend his ability to discipline into entire willing obedience to his will. Can I ever believe that God loves his children less than I do mine? * * * And has God less power to execute his kind plans than I have ? Yes, I do and will rejoice to utter with a trumpet tongue, the glorious truth that God is infinitely benevolent as well as infinitely wise and just. Mrs. Fisher, what can have tempted us ever to doubt this glorious truth ? And do we not practically deny it, when we endorse the revolting doctrine of endless punishment ? I cannot but feel that the Bible, literally interpreted, teaches the doctrine of endless punishment; yet, since the teachings of nature, and God's holy character and government, seem to contradict this interpretation, I conclude we must have misin- terpreted its holy teachings. For example, Jonah uses the word everlasting with a limited meaning, when he says, “ thine everlasting bars are about me.” Although to his view his punishment was everlasting, yet the issue proved that in reality there was a limit to the time he was to be in the whale's belly. So it may be in the case of the incorrigible; they may be compelled to suffer what to them is endless torment, because they see no hope for them in the future. Yet the issue will prove God's love to be infinite, in rescuing them from eternal perdition. Again, Mrs. Fisher, my determination and aim is to become 124 MODERN PERSECUTION. a perfect person in Christ's estimation, although by so doing I may be numbered among the filth and off-scouring of all perverted humanity. What consequence is it to us to be judged of man's judgment, when the cause of our being thus condemned by them as insane, is the very character which entitles us to rank among the archangels in heaven? Again, I am calling in question my right to unite myself to any Church of Christ militant on earth; fearing I shall be thereby entrammelled by some yoke of bondage—that the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free may thus be circumscribed. There is so much of the spirit of bigotry and intolerance in every denomination of Christians now on earth, that they do not allow us an open Bible and an un- shackled conscience. Or, in other words, there are some to be found in almost every church, to whom we shall become stumbling blocks or rocks of offence, if we practically use the liberty which Christ offers us. Now what shall I do? I do want to obey Christ's direct command to come out from the world and be separate, while at the same time I feel that there is more Christian liberty and charity out of the Church than in it. I am now waiting and seeking the Spirit's aid in bringing this question to a practical test and issue. And, Mrs. Fisher, I fully believe, from God's past care of me, that he will lead me to see the true and living way in which I ought to walk. I will not hide my light under a bushel, but put it upon a candlestick, that it may give light to others. I will also live out, practically, my honestly cherished opinions, believing “ that they that do his commandments shall know of the doctrine.” I also fully believe that the more fully and exclusively I live out the teachings of the Holy Spirit, the more persecution I shall experience. For they that will live godly, in Christ's estimation, “ shall suffer persecution.” Mrs. Fisher, I fully believe that Christ's coming cannot be MY RELIGIOUS OPINIONS. 125 far distant. His coming will restore all things, which we have lost for his sake. Our cause will then find an eloquent pleader in Christ himself, and through our Advocate, the Judge, Him- self, will acknowledge us to be his true, loyal subjects, and we shall enter into the full possession of our promised inheritance. With this glorious prospect in full view to the eye of faith, let us " gird up the loins of our mind.” In other words, let us dare to pursue the course of the independent thinker, and let us run with patience the race set before us. Let us carry uncomplainingly the mortifying cross which is laid upon us, so long as God suffers it to remain ; remem- bering that it is enough for the servant that he be as his Mas- ter. For 6 as they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” 66 Be of good cheer.” “I have overcome the world.” Blessed consolation! Mrs. Fisher, the only response I expect to get from this let- ter, is your silent, heart-felt sympathy in my sorrows. No utterance is allowed for my alleviation. And the only way that I am allowed to administer consolation through the pen is by stratagem. I shall employ this means so far as lies in my power, so that when the day of revelation arrives, it may be said truthfully of me, “ she hath done what she could.” Impossibilities are not required of us. Please tell Theophilus, my oft repeated attempts to send him a motherly letter have been thwarted. And he, poor perse- cuted boy ! cannot be allowed a mother's tender, heartfelt sympathy. Oh, my God, protect my precious boy! and carry him safely through this pitiless storm of cruel persecution. Do be to him a mother and a sister, and God shall bless you. Please deliver this message, charged to overflowing with a mother's undying love. Be true to Jesus. Ever believe me your true friend and sympathizing sister, E. P. W. PACKARD CHAPTER XIV. Progression the Law of our Being.- “Seeing Eye to Eye.” On the distant hill-top stanas the Observatory—the observed of all observing—Christ—“the Model Man.” Each human heart pulsates in sympathy more or less strong, to gain that eminence. At various stand-points on the hill. side, are seen the individual, the sects, the tribes, the nations of the earth, all, all moving onward,—upward. At the base stands the Conservative, the Presbyterian, the Calvinist, whom no entreaties, no prospective views, can induce to try the ascending slope. Friends urge—enemies deride- but all in vain. Immovable he stands, confident he sees, from his low stand-point, all there is to be seen of the vast land- scape of eternal truth spread out before him. Henry Ward Beecher leaps from their ranks and rises one step above his cotemporaries. He reports his views from his new stand-point to those below him. But, alas! The spring was unpropitious. “Our confidence in your firmness and inflexibility of pur- pose is shaken.” Beecher has lost the confidence of some of his former friends: but in losing old friends he has found new and un- tried ones, who gladly extend to him the welcome hand. Up- ward they all move in company; and as they rise, new and more extended views of the surrounding country break upon their pleased and excited vision. Again they report to the conservatives at the base “ Nay, verily, we will not heed thy tales of new truths. Our Bibles confidently say, there is nothing new under the sun." “SEEING EYE TO EYE.” 127 66 But come and see for yourselves.” “ No, no. We are satisfied—Trouble us not.” Onward and upward the ascending party go, until they be- hold on the right side, the Methodist creed-on the left, the Baptist creed in view. On they go in a winding course, and they see the Unitarian view. Onward they move to the Uni- versalist stand-point, and they see the Universalist view. On- ward they see the Christian view. Again, the Swedenborgian view, the Episcopalian, the Puseyite, and at length, the Cath- olic position. All and each presenting a distinctly different view of the same landscape below. The further they ascend the more friends they find in the great human family, all equally intent to reach the Observa- tory above them all. At length one man from the summit shouts out: 6 You are all right !” The Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Unitarian, the Universalist, the Christian, the Swedenborgian, the Epis- copalian, the Puseyite, the Catholic, each and all, from your own stand-point have reported correctly. He ascends to the top of the Observatory and takes the foot- prints of his Master-he and Christ “see eye to eye,” for they see from the same stand-point. One by one the travelers after holiness or likeness to Christ arrive at his stand-point upon the pinnacle of the Observatory. All see now, as Christ sees: and all “ see eye to eye.” Their charity is now God-like. It embraces all races, all sects, all men : and as they ascended through distinct paths, each being true to himself, has safely arrived at his destined goal. But no one can see just as another saw; for his angle of vision, his organization, differs from each and all others, and yet he is true to himself—and true to God. So, can we but start the conservative, we shall at length all 128 MODERN PERSECUTION. 56 see eye to eye.” But I fear some will compel us to pul them with a lasso up to a higher stand-point before we can convince them there is one! But let us try chafing them be- fore hanging them; rub their feet-give a start to the circu- lation, by tempting even a retaliatory passion, rather than let them become pillars of salt, or die of dyspepsia, for we cannot have an universal jubilee until the last tardy conservative has attained the pinnacle of the Observatory. Oh, Conservative! For the sake of the world above you, if not for your own sake, be persuaded to try one advance movement. And let not the consummate age of righteousness be longer retarded by your obstinate, inflexible determination never to know any more than you do at present ! Again—from the sunny side of this vast hill, enlightened by the sun of civilization, can be seen the cultivated farm, the verdant stream whose banks are studded with the mill, the factory—and from the peaceful, quiet village stands out in bold relief the school-house, the academy, the college, the uni- versity--and above all is seen the church-spire, pointing heavenward to the fount and source of all the blessings of cultivated life. And from the shady side, which the sun of civilization has not yet reached, is seen the unbroken forest, where the wild man roams, hunting his forest prey. And from India's vast plains may be seen the heathen temple, the car of Juggernaut, the Mahommedan paradise, bounded by the Ganges, upon whose banks may be seen the devoted conscientious mother sacrific- ing the object dearer than her own life, to the crocodile and the flood, to propitiate the favor of her deity. But as the sun of civilization moves onward in its westward course, leaving the sunny plains of civilization eclipsed by the principles of Calvinism, it is only to chase away the darkness of ignorance by which the conscience of the Pagan has been hitherto darkened and eclipsed. “ SEEING EYE TO EYE." 129 Day of judgment! Day of wonders! Again-on the side of this hill stand the different trees of God's great unbroken forest-each perfect because true to the respective functions with which God has endowed it. And being true to itself, each perfects its own appropriate fruit--the walnut, the chestnut, the butternut, the hazelnut- all perfect-yet all different; all unlike, yet all right. All good, that have life enough in the nut to sprout another like it: all bad, that have not vitality enough to rise again. But, from whence comes the mouldy, rotten, shriveled nut? From the gnarly, old, decayed, rotten and crumbling trees of Calvinism ! Let the woodman's axe level it, and prepare it for the flames. But let the fair young twigs of nature's verdant soil remain, to fill the welcome vacuums with the fragrant foliage, and spreading boughs, and teeming fruits of the perfected Christ- ianity of nature. So, in God's great family of human trees the sects, tribes, races, nations of men—each and all, have a shell, and a nut, peculiar to itself. For God has made us to differ. How shall we perfect ourselves ? Shall the butternut try to be a walnut? Shall the chestnut strive to be a hazelnut ? No. Be what God has made you to be—a good butternut, a good chestnut. Some like chestnuts best. Some like walnuts best. Be good in your sphere, and you will be sure to find some to ad mire and appreciate you. But the mongrel all rejects. It is not a ħative-born plant; nature perfects her own fruit on a self-reliant base. It is bad cultivation that makes nature’s prodigies. God made man a democrat; society makes him an aristo- crat. Let not the aristocracy of the Presbyterian Church boast of their being God's workmanship. 130 MODERN PERSECUTION. No! aristocracy is the fruit of Calvinism, not of Christianity. It is the true man, the true woman, which God makes. And those only are good men and good women who are natural- who bring forth the fruits of righteousness. “He that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him," whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free. Be a good slave, and try to wait as patiently as you can for your freedom, for it is certain God will free you before long if your government does not. Be a good slaveholder, if God's providence has made you one; but don't trust to Providence to be responsible for your con- tinuing to be one; for to be a good slaveholder now, you must and will emancipate your slaves forthwith: for God says you must do it, or he will do it for you. Be a good Catholic, if God has made you a Catholic; and to be a good Catholic you must not believe that Protestants are all heretics, for they are not all heretics. It is only the bigoted Calvinist that is a heretic—a tyrant-a despot. It is the Calvinist alone who reflects your image ; or rather, it is you who reflects his image. Be generous to your impulses. Be a free, independent thinker, standing on the self-reliant base of a whole true man. Be equally generous to others. Let them be as true to themselves as you are to yourself, and all will be harmony and peace. It is the Christians, the practical Christians, who are alike —not the creeds or sects. In every man behold a brother and a friend—one endued with equal rights and privileges with yourselves. Remember, there is a well in every rock. Moses did not well to be impatient to see the waters of humanity gush out at the first drill stroke. The drill of perseverance does won- ders in tunneling the rock. Remember, too, that iron is melted by the furnace of affliction. “SEEING EYE TO E YE.” 131 Remember, too, that God thought that one Niagara was enough for one world. But not so with the verdant rill, the babbling brook, the heavy moving stream, the pond, the lake, the sea. Each has his own office to fill, and none can fill another's. The foaming cataract is the world's wonder-but the moun- tain spring is the world's blessing. 6 One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism." CHAPTER XV. An Asylum Incident-A Spiritual Conquest. On the afternoon of October 16, 1863, as I was preparing to copy my first volume for the press, Dr. McFarland came to my room to inspect the business. I saw by the eye of my instinct, rather than by the eye of my natural vision, that he had not come alone, as usual, but brought that most unwelcome guest, the bad Dr. McFarland, or, the cold Adam," rather, with him. I knew I must now be as wise as a serpent, in dealing with the serpent, or I should be bit by it! So I put on my “charm- ing” powers to quiet his asperities and control his reason. And choosing, as I thought, the most unexceptionable manu- script, my “Dedication,” I offered to read it to him, for him to offer his criticism upon, before copying it for the press. I had read about two-thirds of it, with rather a palpitating heart, when he suddenly interrupted me by saying: “I should like to remark here, that I don't like your calling this place a prison, so much; for it isn't so. And as I'm to superintend these manuscripts for the press, I'm not willing you should call it a prison. You may call it a place of con- finement, if you choose, but not a prison. It is only a notion you have taken up, to call it a prison, by your choosing volun- tarily to confine yourself to it, as if it were a prison. But you have no occasion for so doing. I am just as willing you should have your liberty, as I am to let Mrs. Chapman have hers. And she goes about just where she pleases; and so could you, if you chose to.” Here he paused for a reply. A silence ensued. A SPIRITUAL CONQUEST. 133 I saw he was in the possession of his “evil spirit," and I dared not to contradict him, or even to assert my rights of opinion, lest, by so doing, I tempt him to commit himself still more strongly on the wrong or Calvinistic side of truth ; for I have found that opposition is apt to give the “old man” strength. But at length, with the innocent fearlessness and com- posure of truth, I took part in the discussion, hitherto so unsatisfactory to me, by remarking: “It is a prison to me, and I have based all my book upon this truth. I do not intend to exaggerate or overstep the bounds of truth in what I say, but I intend to clothe truth in its own drapery, and to call things by their true names, as I apprehend them. I profess to report no one's opinions but my own; and I do say, that Mrs. Chapman is as much a prisoner as Mrs. Packard is; and Mrs. Packard is no more a prisoner now than she was when she first came, when she used her parole of honor as Mrs. Chapman now does. When I took the patients to ride fourteen times, and took a dollar from your own hands, and went up town and expended it alone or according to my own judgment, I was as much the State's prisoner as I have been for the last eighteen months, though I have not stepped my foot out of this house, as my protest forbids my doing so. I am not your prisoner, nor the trustees' prisoner, but the State's or the Government's prisoner.” “But you will acknowledge, Mrs. Packard, that the peni- tentiary inmates are on a different plane as prisoners, from what you are?” “ As to our both being prisoners, we are on one and the same plane. The inmates in each institution are alike prisoners under keepers, who hold our personal liberty entirely under subjection to bolts, grates, bars, and keys. Those in each, whom their keepers can trust, are allowed their paroles of honor, extending from the liberty of the yard, to the 134 MODERN PERSECUTION furlough of a conditional absence upon mutual terms of agreement. But should either prisoners use their furloughs or paroles of honor as a means of escape from their place of involuntary confinement, each are alike sought as a fugitive from justice, and the laws uphold the keepers in pursuing the fugitive, and forcing his return to his place of “involuntary confinement,” which expression, according to Webster, means a prison. “In these respects we are alike, but in another respect we are unlike. The convicts are imprisoned in the penitentiary for doing wrong; the afflicted, persecuted, oppressed and innocent, are here imprisoned for doing right. “ The penitentiary is our government's place of punishing the guilty; insane asylums are our government's place of punishing the innocent—for to me it is capital punishment to be thus hopelessly imprisoned. "This general rule has its exceptions. Some innocent ones are punished there; some guilty ones are punished here. Insane Asylums are the “ Inquisitions” of the American government. My imprisonment is as hopeless as is my sinning to escape from it. “I report opinions from the stand-point of a patient-a victim of this Inquisition; and not from the stand-point of a governmental officer, appointed as guardian of this institution. It is the government, not its officers, who are responsible for the basis on which our Inquisitions are placed. “I, for one, should altogether prefer to be a penitentiary prisoner, to being an insane prisoner; for there my accounta- bility is recognized, but here it is not, by the laws of the institu- tion. It is in defiance of these laws, that you recognize it in me. And besides, my sense of justice would not be so outraged by a false imprisonment there, as here. And as to treatment, no criminals ought to be treated worse than the insane are treated here, and it would not hurt them to be treated even better! A SPIRITUAL CONQUEST. 135 “For to be lost to reason, is a greater misfortune than to be lost to virtue; and the contumely and scorn which the world attaches to the former are greater; just in proportion as the slander is more deadly to the moral influence of the injured party.” 6 You would not, in writing a dictionary, describe each as alike, would you ?" “I should say they are one and the same thing, as to being prisoners.” Another pause ensued : “ Shall I read on?” “ Yes.” I finished it, and he remarked: “ It is very good.” I responded to this opinion. On this point we agreed as strongly as we differed on the point under discussion ! The subject was not again alluded to. I felt, after he left, that something was wrong. I could not put up with this interference, or dictation of the contents of my book. But what could be done that would not make the matter worse? I knew too well, that to beg of Dr. McFarland was not the way to succeed. For he is almost as hard to be entreated as he is to be driven. Neither is it right for me to beg for my liberty to write my thoughts. It would degrade my self respect to do so. But to reprove him, and assert my rights, might so exas- perate him as to rashly lead to the destruction of my labored manuscripts. I cannot conscientiously submit to dictation—I therefore will not ! So I must either suspend my project indefinitely, or seek a settlement of the thing on the basis of justice. 136 MODERN PERSECUTION. I concluded to dare to do right, and risk the consequences to the overruling providence of God. For. I have always found this to be the only safe and expedient course. I claim that it is always expedient to do right, and always inexpe- dient to do wrong. So after having sought the moral courage and wisdom needed, for the discharge of this responsible duty, I penciled the following note and sent it to Dr. McFarland, by my attendant, Miss Trion. To the GOOD Dr. McFarland : SIR: I deem it my painful duty to report to you, my now spiritual protector, the insulting conduct I received from one of your employees, in this institution, yesterday afternoon. It was from a man, an old, and almost superannuated man; although I think he has sense enough left to be responsible for his own actions. He came, unbidden, to my room, and hav- ing seated himself, began to upbraid me about my book-my. pet-my pride, and, if you believe me, he even threatened, in spite of your proffered protection, to intercept its appearance in print, unless I heeded his suggestions in relation to it ! Now, I appeal to you to say if it is not too bad to be thus trifled with. Ought not this old, bad man (whose name looks so much like your own that I don't like to write it!) to be dis- charged, and never again to be allowed to enter my presence ? Dr. McFarland if you don't discharge him I shall report you to the trustees; and, if that don't answer, I shall report you to the synod; and if that don't answer, I shall report you up higher. I shall tell no lies to God, for you, nor about you. God is preparing to summon you to his tribunal, to settle matters with you, and I'm a sworn witness, to testify, on trust to my integrity, candor, truthfulness and loyalty. I shoot evil, whether found in friend or foe, as God's enemy. And I trust to God's providence, alone, for my protection, in fighting these his spiritual battles. A SPIRITUAL CONQUEST. 137 Dr. McFarland, have not I a right to write my own thoughts, as well as to think them, under our constitution, even if I am a woman? Has any man a right to interfere with this right? Did not you say it was my book, not our book ? It is our country, our government, but it is my book. And can I claim it as my own book unless I indorse its con- tents ? Can I indorse what, to me, are lies, and expect the blessing of God upon it? Are not my reason and my conscience to be the sole agents in dictating my book ? My conscience is God's secretary within me, and I shall not insult its dictations, by a proffered compromise with falsehood or error. My opinions and my conscience are my personal capital, which I can, by no means, consent to barter away. If I cannot be protected in these rights under your guardian- ship, I must defer the publication of my book until God raises up for me a protector, who will not dare to trample upon the sacred, inalienable rights of my God-given nature. I ask you, kind sir, will you be the protector of the inalien- able rights of my womanly nature ? Or, must I suspend my contemplated project until God's providence prepares the way for my spiritual freedom to be so secured to me that I can write a book true to God, and also true to my own truthful nature? God offers you the honor of being my protector in this act, and he longs to confer it upon you. So do I. But there is one, and only one condition, on which it can be conferred upon you; and that is, to dare to trust your inter- ests, and the interests of this institution, and the interests of the country, on the immorable principles of truth and justice. I shall venture to take my stand on the immutable rock of eternal truth, regardless of the foaming billows which dash at 138 MODERN PERSECUTION. its base, and here shall I wield the sword of truth, regardless of my own interests, and those of all others. I stand or fall with God alone. Your true friend, E. P. W. PACKARD. In about one hour after the above note was delivered, Dr. McFarland came to the door of my room, with a face radiant with smiles, and at the same time giving my hand a most per- ceptible grasp, inquired: 66 Who is that old man who has ventured to insult you so about that precious book? He shall not be tolerated here on any account. You tell me his name and he shall be discharged forthwith. The name of that old, bad, superannuated man,' you just give me, and I shall see to his insulting you any more!” “ The good, new, Dr. McFarland is always welcome to my room-most welcome! But that old, bad man, I do not want to see any more.” “No, he shan't disturb you any more. Just give me his name, and I'll see to his discharge!” “ You are doing right, Dr. McFarland! You are treating the old man' as he deserves to be treated.” Soon after, Mrs. McFarland came to my room, with a tumbler of her jelly, the second red sacrifice she had presented me, for an atonement for her husband's sins! and gave me a pleas- ant visit besides. I read to her my “Dedication,” and she very sensibly remarked : 6 It is so very strange and mysterious why your friends should have all deserted you so. I cannot understand it-how friends can treat their friends in this manner. They put them in here, and then seem to desert them, as if they were not worth caring for afterwards. I am sure I could not de- sert my friends in this manner.” 66 No, Mrs. McFarland, I don't think you could, for you are A SPIRITUAL CONQUEST 139 too true to your womanly nature to do such an unnatural act. But Mrs. McFarland, this is a perverted age. Christianity is almost totally eclipsed by Calvinism. The sun, moon and stars are all under this eclipse. Men, women and children are all more or less perverted by it. This is the culminating age of Calvinism. Its deadly principles must be exposed and aban- doned, before Christianity can exert its benign and legitimate influence over the character and destiny of the present age. Mrs. McFarland, we are now passing through the very nadir of the eclipse. It is not midnight. It is a noon-day eclipse of the world's luminary, and when this awful shadow shall have once passed across its disk, it is forever descending to its no distant tomb; while Christianity, dismantled of its false habiliments will shine out with meridian splendor, and the natural and spiritual reign of Christ will have fully com- menced. Until then, we must grope our way in darkness, not knowing at what we stumble.” Mrs. McFarland is a very kind woman; none could fill her place as our matron, better than she does. She has repeatedly remarked to me: “We should be glad to cure you all of your diseases, if we could.” But, alas! mine is one of their 6 hopeless cases !” My Christianity is incurable! And all the treatment of this American inquisition cannot induce me to abandon it for Calvinism. I told her how her husband was going to let me have my book all my own way, and how he would be rewarded if "he endures to the end” in his well begun course—that of allowing an American woman her right of opinion during this great eclipse. For he, like all others, must stand on his own actions, and if they exalt and promote him, no influence can dethrone him. And he has as good a right to plume his cap with his own, well-earned feathers, as Mrs. Packard has her bonnet; 140 MODERN PERSECUTION. for the fortitude of Honesty in enduring his chastisement so martyr-like, is as truly his rightful claim as the innocent fear- lessness of Truth in inflicting the chastisement is Mrs. Pack- ard's rightful claim. It is my private opinion, that Dr. McFarland's conscience dictated to him the fate which he assigned to the “old man of sin,” that “ Nathan's ” wife had exerted her share of influence in convincing this modern king, that the pet book of the pau- per ought not to be sacrificed to the cupidity of the rich man. It is also my fondly cherished opinion, that the good Dr. McFarland will never let the “bad man” crowd his ewe lamb again ; since he has found, that a lamb can even crowd a lion, if self-defense demands the pressure of truth upon the lion's conscience, to quicken it into healthful action! He may, too, be compelled to admit the truth, however un- welcome, of Mrs. Timmons' compliment, viz: 66 That two hard heads meet when Mrs. Packard and Dr. McFarland meet,” on the arena of discussion ; and it is by no means certain which head would be the most exposed by a collision ! I have volunteered both my manuscripts and myself to Dr. McFarland as a burnt offering, on condition that he can detect a single lie in all my manuscripts. I shrink not on this condi- tion, to be burnt alive, as God's appointed portion for the liar; for whether I choose it or not, I know it is God's invincible purpose, to make me stand on my own deserts: and if I am a liar, I know hell is my portion. I make no claim to infallibility. I am finite in knowledge and intelligence, and liable to prejudices, prepossessions, and springs of error from educational influences; yet not from an imperfect organization, since God has endowed me with a good female development; and am true to my own convictions of truth and duty-and am no “respecter of persons” in dealing with wrong, or evil, in any form. A SPIRITUAL CONQUEST. 141 God grant I may always be loyal to God's government, and disloyal to every other government which interferes with this; and the test of my loyalty is found in my being true to my conscience—God's secretary within me. My conscience is not a standard for any human being, except myself. I grant every human being an equal right to differ from me in opinion, that I have to differ from them, in rela- tion to my views of truth and duty. God is the only dictator of my inalienable rights; and whoever dares to trespass upon them, does it at their own peril, not mine. Dr. McFarland has no right guaranteed to him, from any intelligence in God's universe, to dictate to, or interfere with, the utterance of a single expression found in my book. And if he dares to attempt it, he dares to trespass on God's author- ity, not mine—and God, not I, will be his judge of the act. I am happy to add that Dr. McFarland never attempted to dictate what I should write after this. This was a complete victory over my spiritual foe—the dictator to my conscience. My rights of conscience have ever since basked in the realm of spiritual freedom. This “ Spiritual Conquest” thus obtained confirmed me in the position I had determined to maintain in reference to my efforts to promote the spiritual welfare of Dr. McFarland, for I thought there was more hope in making my appeals to his honor, as a handle by which to lead him to re- pentance, than to make him feel that I expected no good of him. In order to lead him by his honor, I must feel a degree of confidence in the efficiency of this principle, or I shall be acting a double part myself. I cannot make him feel that I have hopes of him, while I have none, without being a hypo- crite. I feel that the secret of true love lies in winning rather than in driving the soul to Christ. By patient continuance in well doing, I wait for the bright fruition of the sustaining hope that he will yet repent sincerely; that he will turn from this wickedness and live a different life. CHAPTER XVI. A Dream and its Interpretation. On the December following my incarceration, I dreamed the following dream, which with its interpretation, may serve a valuable purpose, as an illustration of several important prin- ciples. Mrs. Hosmer, who helped me to its interpretation, has su- perintended the sewing room for four years and a half there. She has one of the most striking peculiarities of temperament I ever met with—in that her eccentric nature combines the extremes of good and evil, in their most glaring features. This trait she exhibited, for about one year and a half, in being my best friend, and also, my worst enemy-in that she was the medium of some of my choicest social blessings, as well as the source of my keenest sorrows. I dreamed that it was put upon me to draw a stage coach across a bridge spanning a broad, deep river, and that in order to get the coach upon the bridge, I was compelled to draw it up five stone steps each about five inches high. I looked upon my appointment at first as an impossibility; but recollecting that “I'll try” has done wonders, I deter- mined to see what I could do by trying. The stage was prepared for me by substituting a rope, in- stead of the neap or thills, which encircled my body, so that the greatest pressure came across my breast. Thus prepared I put forth a most herculean effort, when, to my great surprise and joy, the stage came up upon the bridge. Stimulated by my seemingly miraculous success, I started at full speed across the bridge; and found, to my joy, that by the momentum acquired by the velocity, the effort to draw it along became correspondingly diminished. Thus running at the A DREAM 143 top of my speed with my head down, I found, to my surprise, that before I was aware of it, I had run off from the bridge on to a piece of slitwork about four inches wide; which was the only medium of communication between the termination of the bridge, and the opposite shore—the distance being two tiers and a half. The termination of each tier was marked by a high beam extending from the water, up many feet above the level of the string-piece across the river. The half-tier was nearest the bridge, so that the first support to lean upon was not far dis- tant from my present stand-point. I stopped and considered what was to be done. I thought that to draw the stage on to this narrow slitwork, and balance it exactly, so as to drag it over in this way, would plainly be an impossibility; and that the capsizing of the stage into the river, would necessarily drag me with it, by the rope around my body. I therefore determined to drop the rope and step out of the traces; and thus disentangled, walk on to the standing support. I did so, and then considered what to do. To return seemed impossible: for the stage presented an insuperable barrier to my getting on to the bridge. To go forward seemed too hazardous, for the two remaining reaches seemed very long, when looking at the deep river far below me; and the very narrow path I had to walk upon, ap- peared still more precarious as it neared the opposite shore- for the extreme end of the last string-piece was so raised on one side of the mortice, as to render the upper surface quite an inclined plane. On this I should not dare to expose my- self, for fear I should slip off, and besides, I saw it would be likely to slip down into the mortice by my weight upon it ; and the jar would be very likely to cause me to fall off. I looked about for help. But no one was within speaking distance. On the shore I had left, far down below the bridge, I could 144 MODERN PERSECUTION. see one man standing, solitary and alone, looking with a va- cant stare upon the broad, bridgeless, boatless stream before him. I saw distinctly it was my husband, apparently cogitat- ing his own means of crossing the fathomless deep, regardless of my perilous, exposed condition. Cold, selfish indifference marked his appearance. I knew he cared not for me, or my deliverance, or safety. I turned from this granite statue, and cast a look upon the opposite bank. My courage revived at the prospect. I could distinctly see a company of men, who seemed to be consulting what to do for me, for I could see they had a rope in their hands. Life, motion, interest the most intense, marked their energetic movements. But I considered—how can the rope be extended to me, and if it were, how could it help me in sustaining my footing, on the narrow string-piece I had to pass over upon ? To look down, my head would swim. To look up, it was clear. Still, then I could not see where to place my feet. I concluded to hold on to my standing beam, and wait awhile, thinking, there will be doubtless some amongst the by- standing witnesses whose gallantry will prompt them to even expose their own lives, to rescue a defenseless female from her hazardous position. I therefore, for a time, trusted my deliverance, with all the trustful confidence of my womanly nature, to the care of man- hood, whose God-like development instinctively volunteers help to the helpless-protection to the unprotected. But upon a reconsideration of the difficulties in the case, I found a new one, which had before escaped my notice. I saw that the river below me was covered with empty chairs-large armed office chairs—all upright, but empty! These chairs so obstructed the passage that boats could not be sent to my aid from beneath. I thought, Oh! that the public officers had not A DREAM. 145 vacated these chairs, and I would venture to drop into their arms! But no-instead of these officers being at their posts to help the helpless, their fixtures only serve as an impediment, to obstruct other sources of help. I therefore concluded, that since I was out of the reach of all human help, the only alternative left me, was to run the risk of saving myself by my own unaided exertions, by going forward, risking all the hazards of a progressive movement. I concluded my way must be to look constantly upward, and move my feet forward, with most careful, cautious steps. Having fully settled upon this course, I stooped down to remove my shoes, and drop them into the stream, so that being thus disencumbered, I might with stocking feet move forward, with less danger of slipping off. While in the act of removing my shoes, I awoke, happy to find myself in a dormitory bed in an insane asylum, instead of being a fifth of the way across the string-piece. The next day I told Mrs. Hosmer of my dream; and the interpretation she put upon it, was in her own laconic style, as follows: “Mrs. Packard, you must leave public opinion behind you, until the bridge is built. You must just go on alone. You are now called to walk through Gethsemane's garden alone, as your Master did, depending upon no human sympathy for sup- port. You may expect God's angel will be sent to sustain you, when your accumulated sorrows become too great for human fortitude to endure. Mrs. Packard, we must all pass to heaven in the same steps our Master trod—like Him, we must all pass through Gethsemane's garden—and like His, the path leading to the consummation of our sanctification is constantly narrow- ing, and attended with increasing difficulties as we approach its termination. It is then too narrow for two to go abreast. Alone! alone!! we must tread the wine-press of God's wrath, even while under the eclipse of God's countenance—for so God 146 MODERN PERSECUTION. appoints. No other road terminates in eternal day. This promise must sustain you: "If ye suffer with me, ye shall also reign with me.'” “Oh thanks! ten thousand thanks, Mrs. Hosmer, for these words of comfort to my sorrowing soul!” After being strengthened by this angel-visitant, my sinking soul could say with my Master, “ Yes, the cup which my Father hath given me, I will drink,” uncomplainingly. Yes, “ Not my will but thine, O God, be done” concerning me. Henceforth, my highest purpose shall be not to get out of this asylum to be with my precious children-not to convince the world that I am not an insane person—but it shall hence- forth be my chief purpose to become a perfect person in Christ Jesus' estimation, regardless of the estimation of perverted humanity. Yes, God is my witness that hitherto this purpose in me has not been broken. But 0! the persecution, the sorrows, the agony I have en- dured in carrying out this purpose into a practical one, God only knows. For He only knows who has been misunderstood, misrepresented, maligned and persecuted unto death, how to feel for those who are. Yes, when I think how good and kind my Saviour was to all—how innocent he was of the least trespass upon other's rights, and then think how no cruel tyrant was ever hated with a more deadly hate than was my loving Master, I feel like saying, “it is enough for the servant that he be as his master." Yes, alone! single-handed and alone, I have dared to expose and condemn as guilty, those laws and those practices which treat insanity as a crime! To imprison a person for being insane—to cut them off from all communication with outside influences that they may thus punish these helpless, innocent sufferers, with less danger of interference from abroad, thus to expose the most dependent creatures of God's government A DREAM. 147 to unmerited abuse, is a heaven-daring crime, which well merits the indignation of an incensed God, sure to follow such outrages, bestowed upon His children—upon Himself-per- sonified in human form. Alone have I stood between the laws of my country and my God, and been a single-handed defender of the Divine code, in defiance of the human code. I have dared to be thus true to Jesus, even while in the absolute power of legalized despotism, and that too, when I felt this despotic power in full force to crush me beneath its iron foot. I knew this despotic power could destroy all my earthly joys—hopes-rights-privileges-interests—my pa- persmy witnesses and my natural life! And I knew too, full well, that the Superintendent could be protected by the laws of our government in so doing! I knew too, that he had power to destroy himself—but I knew it was as certain as the decrees of God, that he could not destroy me, or the mind which dictated these papers. Therefore in my spiritual might I have moved forward with a dauntless, inflexible purpose, that Christ's cause should not suffer here, for want of one faithful advocate—one loyal witness in defense of truth and righteousness. The bloodless but terribly painful conflict has ended! The strong man, armed with all the burnished armory of the Ameri- can statutes, could not defend himself against a stronger than he-personified in the form of a legally insane female pauper! Again-My position on the string-piece illustrates another point. I have been alone in my position to never again re- turn to my husband. The advocates of my so doing have argued that the laws placed me there that no place of refuge from his legal claims upon me could be found, outside of this asylum—that here, amongst maniacs as my almost sole com- panions, I must linger out a most hopeless, wretched existence, excluded from all communication with my children, or any MODERN PERSECUTION. other earthly friends, except through the strictest censorship -that my active habits of body and mind would here be so restricted and limited, that the inevitable consequence must ultimately be loss of both health and spirits, however elastic part, to refuse to go to my husband, as the only alternative allowed me by individual or legal favor. I have felt the full force of this logic, Oh, how keenly! Still, a higher logic has prevailed over my decisions. A simple "Thus saith the Lord,” has forbidden it. My conscience dictated, with unquestioning distinctness, it is morally wrong for you to trust yourself again in the legal, absolutely despotic power of one, who has proved himself to be, to me, a most unrelenting persecutor. Self-defense forbids it. It is for me to obey conscience. It is for God to work out the conse- quences or results of obedience. Helpless and alone, I have thus moved my frail bark on the tempestuous sea of human destiny-with God alone for my pilot. My frail bark has not yet foundered, even amidst the dashing breakers of cruelly disappointed hopes, of insults heaped on abuses; by the cold and chilling gusts of ridicule, scorn, derision, contumely and contempt. No, all, all combined, have not overmatched the skill of my faithful Pilot, who has moved my frail bark safely through them all, to a haven of rest. Thanks! thanks! to Thee, alone, my Pilot, for thy superior skill and restraining power. Peacefully I now lie in this haven of rest, trustfully waiting my Captain's orders for the next voyage. Again I was alone in protesting against my illegal im- prisonment. Scarcely a single individual has given me the shadow of approval of this stand—but, instead, I have been sneered at, ridiculed, and my tyrant conscience” has been reproached as being an usurper! But after more than nine- teen long months of unsympathizing imprisonment Miss A DREAM. Y 149 Martha Mills, my intelligent and strong-minded attendant, has, within a few days, assured me that “she should have done just so herself under similar circumstances.” Oh, how grateful is such a response from a human tongue, to one whose love of approbation is so very large as my own. It is this love of approbation which has led me to suffer so cheerfully the loss of all things to secure the approval of my final Judge at last. And when I plainly saw that I must either sacrifice his approbation or that of perverted humanity; I' unhesitatingly chose to lose the latter—for I esteem it no great honor to be popular amongst perverted men and women! Again—I seemed to be alone upon the connecting link be- tween the natural and spiritual worlds. The bridge connect- ing them is nearly completed. But who dares to step out beyond the limits of popular opinion and sentiment, and let himself be cut loose from all things tangible, to gain the hidden treasures of knowledge laid up in God's vast storehouse ready for distribution to any applicant? Who dares to stand alone in his opinion, and face a frowning world? Again, how strikingly has my subsequent experience de- veloped the fact that the 6 empty office chairs”—the laws- have been the chief obstacle in the way of my deliverance. These “empty chairs," or in other words, the “dead let- ters” on the Statute Books, were the most potent influences used in perpetuating injustice to me and my children. The popular influence of public sentiment stood ready and anxious to help me. But alas! the empty office chairs ” filled the stream below me, so that no boats could be sent to my rescue. But when the bridge connecting the natural and spiritual worlds is constucted, and the few remaining tiers are built, the public will easily be transported over the river of doubt and uncertainty, which now surrounds the incipient develop- ments of a new spiritual science. In other words, the great truth underlying the agitation of the subject of Magnetism, 150 MODERN PERSECUTION. Electricity, Psychology, and Spiritualism is being developed into a spiritual science, the laws of which, future generations may be able to apply with as much certainty as to the result, as the present age depends upon steam as a locomotive power. When these remaining tiers are built, or these secret spirit laws are generally understood, the age will pass as readily into the realm of spirit forces for help, as we now pass from con- tinent to continent by the help of steam power. maksta vilab yer to you on aloited to abort nada e o oblids your bets and toonerit Bozor na ghader boot daar nga obdugo boste culina yg COMO dando todo watch Tabrica t ion De d on wlod Rondo Oak Logitartave Dotagere B so t hat EL CHAPTER XVII. A Prophecy and its Fulfillment. On my recruiting tour to my friends in New York State, about two years and a half before my incarceration, I then and there saw for the first time in my life a manifestation of modern Spiritualism. One evening, at the house of my cousin, Dr. Fordice Rice, of Cazenovia, N. Y., while sitting with his family around the table, sewing and listening to his reading, one of our party, a very intelligent minister's wife, interrupted us by suddenly dropping her needle, and with a very perceptible shiver of her whole frame, exclaiming: “There is a spirit here wishing to communicate some mes- sage!” This announcement not only astonished, but frightened me to such a degree as led me to exclaim with a trembling voice and deep emotion : “What does this mean?” My cousin, Mrs. Laura P. Rice, replied: “ There is nothing to fear, cousin Elizabeth, this is nothing new to us. I will get aunt Sophronia a pencil and paper and she will write out the message sent to us.” While getting the stationery, the table around which we were sitting, commenced tipping towards me, and in the gent- lest manner actually tipped so far as to rest lightly upon my lap. At this point my fears so triumphed, I burst into tears. The table quietly assumed its former position, when the medium wrote the following sentence: "Don't be frightened! My Daughter! We are your friends, come to communicate with you, and help you." 152 MODERN PERSECUTION. Said I, “ Please carry out your programme. I have no desire or wish to interrupt you.” A silence ensued, while the medium proceeded to write, as follows: 6 My Daughter, you did right to come this journey. You needed the rest of body and refreshment of spirit it is to im- part. I accompanied you here—was with you on your jour- ney. And I approve of your seeking council of Hon. Gerrit Smith, as is your intention to do next Saturday. Your pur- pose and spirit will be strengthened by communion with his capacious soul. And, my Daughter, you need all these helps to fit and prepare you for the great work God in his providence has assigned you. 6 You are living in a very dark, benighted community. You are to become a light to this community and a blessing to many others. “But my child, prepare for Persecution ! Persecution ! Per- secution! ! 6. For it must come. No power can prevent it. But, fear not! We stand by you. You will be sustained by these un- seen powers, who are using you as their chosen instrument for great good to humanity. Be careful to try the spirits' -Prove all things—hold fast that which is good.' LUCY STRONG PARSONS WARE.” Not a person in the room knew my mother's name, except myself, and although I recollected always seeing her signa- ture, “ Lucy S. Ware,” I could not have told what the “S”. meant. Parsons was her family name before marriage. On the following Saturday afternoon, while in conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Smith in their parlor, in Peterborough, New York, a similar interruption took place. Here another and a different medium took a pencil, and while writing her message I continued, in a very low, quiet tone of voice, to converse with Mrs. Smith, and as I made the remark, “I A PROPHECY. 153 think it unfortunate for me that the light of new truths should dawn upon my mind prior to that of Mr. Packard's, for it seems to me a reversion of God's order, for the weaker vessel to lead the stronger," the medium laughed outright, and remarked : “I have made a strange episode!” reading : 66 Weaker vessel! When you pass from this to the spirit world, then you will see which is the Weaker vessel !” otomarina Upon reading what preceded this exclamation, we found the following: “ Sister, prepare for Opposition! Opposition!! Opposition !!! for it will come. “Brother's mind is in darkness. His spirit gropes in regions where the light cannot enter. His Theology is the snare into which he has been taken captive by false doctrines. En- trenched as he is by false theories and insane dogmas he can- not extricate himself. Therefore, pity him! but fear not to expose the errors of his creed, for these false doctrines must be overthrown to prepare the way for the teachings of Christ. « Sister, you have a great work to do, but Persevere! Per- severe! Persevere!! You cannot fail, for a host are battling for you. LUCY JANE PACKARD HASTINGS.” This dear sister of Mr. Packard's had at this date been dead about three years. In her earth life she had been one of my choicest friends-one of the few who seemed to understand and appreciate me while others would misapprehend and therefore misrepresent me. These manuscripts were laid by among my choicest papers, and although seldom spoken of in conversation with others, yet, I" pondered these sayings in my heart," waiting for the light of the future in which to interpret this prophecy of the past. As the reader already has my subsequent experience to the present time, in which to trace a likeness to the original, I shall leave each one free to apply its fulfillment as their own reason dictates. 154 MODERN PERSECUTION. Another incident which struck me very forcibly as a new and strange phenomena in the realm of Spiritualism took place in the year 1866, while in Chicago. I had arrived that day in the city, whither I had come to prepare the way for the pas- sage of the “ Personal Liberty Bill.” I took board and lodg- ing with Mrs. Lull, a widow, living on the West side, hitherto an entire stranger to me. Her house being crowded with boarders, I was admitted on condition that I room with her. I retired early and had dropped into a sound sleep before she came to rest. After laying perfectly quiet a few moments she spoke and said: 6 Mrs. Packard, are you awake ?” 6 Yes, I am. What is your request ? ” “I wish to tell you, that your father is here! and he says he wishes to speak to you." “Very well, I am most happy to welcome him, and will most gladly listen to all he has to say.” Mrs. Lull then said, he sends you the following message: “I want to ask her forgiveness for not coming to her help when in the Insane Asylum. I can now see how blinded I then was. I was led by that dark spirit, Theophilus, to do this great wrong. Oh! How dark he looks! He is in outer dark- ness. There is not one ray of light about him. All I can see of him is the faintest glimmer of light in a far distant region -'tis not equal to a spark—'tis a mere glimmer! “And only think, my daughter, how I have been led by such a dark spirit to neglect you, and let you suffer so much when I ought to have gone to your rescue. I see now how I sinned in neglecting you. "Oh! can you forgive me, my daughter ? 6 How you have suffered! I suffer now correspondingly, be- cause I did not help you when I might and ought to have done so. I see heaven before me, but I cannot enter there until I have sojourned on earth long enough to atone for the sin of A PROPHECY. 155 neglecting you. I must now raise the fallen and help the op- pressed, as I ought to have done by you. I can never be happy until this atonement is thus made. “Oh, my Daughter! you are on the plane of true progres- sion. How I wish I could exchange placés with you! But vain wish! My Theology was my ruin. My life has been a failure in disseminating such false doctrines. Oh! how many souls have I thus led into darkness. The blind has led the blind. 46 You are now on so different a plane from myself, I cannot assist you as I would wish, but I shall do all I can to help you. I shall go with you to Springfield and help you to influence the minds of the Legislature in favor of your Bill. “I am glad I changed my will in your favor. I only wish I had given you more.” Saying this he left, when Mrs. Lull inquired: “Who is Theophilus ?” “My husband. Did you never know his name?” “ No; or if I ever had known it, I have forgotten it." We being entire strangers, and I knowing nothing of her being a medium, it seemed to be not only a novel event in my experience, but a remarkable one. Now, with these facts before me, I cannot but feel that it would be wrong for me to deride Spiritualism as an acknowl- edged fact. Still, in its present undeveloped state, I do not think it safe or proper to depend upon it as a guide for human conduct. The only infallible rule or guide for us is God's word, as it is interpreted to us through our individual reason and conscience, and any spirit in the body or out of the body, who attempts to dictate to the conscience of another, except through the reason of the one they wish to guide, ought to be looked upon as an enemy to their soul's highest interests. CHAPTER XVIII. Can you Forgive Mr. Packard ? Yes, I could, freely, promptly and fully forgive him on the gospel condition of practical repentance. This condition could secure it, and this alone. As I understand Christ's teachings, he does not allow me to forgive him until he does repent, and in some sense make restitution. He directs me to forgive my brother if he repent -yea, if he sins and repents seventy times seven, I must forgive as many times. But if he does not repent, I am not allowed to forgive him. And so long as he insists upon it, both by word and deed, that he has done only what was right, and that he shall do the same thing again, if he has a chance, I do not see any chance for me to bestow my forgiveness upon a penitent transgressor. Dr. McFarland asked me one day just after Mr. Packard had visited the Asylum and I had refused to speak to him: 6 Mrs. Packard, do you think it would be considered as natural, for a true woman to meet one who had been a lover and a husband, after one year's separation, even if he had abused her, without one gush of affection ?” “ Yes sir, I do say it is the dictates of the higher nature of a woman to do so in my case. He has by his own actions an- nihilated every particle of respect I have ever felt for his man- hood, and thus my higher moral nature instinctively abhors him. In doing so I have obeyed the dictates of my conscience.” “Do you feel sure yours is a right conscience ?”. “ It is one I am willing to go to God's judgment bar with." “Do you believe the Bible?” “ Indeed I do, every word of it! It is our sure word of prophecy.” CAN YOU FORGIVE ME MR. PACKARD? 157 6 Does not the Bible require forgiveness ?” 6 It does, sir, on the ground of repentance, even seventy times seven. But without it, we are not allowed to forgive. lest it harden the offender in his sins. Mr. Packard has never by word or deed intimated that he has done one unjust or wrong deed in treating me as he has done, much less that he is sorry for it, and now for me to treat him as my husband, would be saying to him: “I think you are doing all right in treating me as you do! “ Thus I should be upholding him in his sins, by thus dis- regarding God's express directions.” He feels that I am the one to ask forgiveness, for not yield- ing my opinions to his dictation, instead of causing him so much trouble in trying to bring me under subjection to his will, in this particular. He does not claim that I ever resisted his will in any other particular—and I have not felt it my duty to do so. I had rather yield than quarrel any time, where conscience is not concerned. He knows I have done so, for twenty-one years of married life. But to tell a lie, and be false to my honest convictions, by saying I believed what I did not believe, I could not be made to do. My truth-loving nature could never be subjected to falsify itself-I must and shall be honest and truthful. And although King David said in his haste, “all men are liars," I rejoice he did not say all women were, for then there would have been no chance for my vindication of myself as a truthful woman! This one thing is certain, I have been imprisoned three years because I could not tell a lie, and now I think it would be bad business for me to commence at this late hour. I cannot love oppression, wrong, or injustice under any cir- cumstances. But on the contrary, I do hate it, while at the same time I can love the sinner who thus sins, for I find it in my heart to forgive to any extent the penitent transgressor. 158 MODERN PERSECUTION. I am not conscious of feeling one particle of revengeful feeling towards Mr. Packard, while at the same time I feel the deepest kind of indignation at his abuses of me. And furthermore, I really feel that if any individual ever deserved penitentiary punishment, Mr. Packard does, for his treatment of me. Still, I would not inflict any punishment upon him--for this business of punishing my enemies I am perfectly content to leave entirely with my Heavenly Father, as he requires me to do, as I understand his directions. And my heart daily thanks God that it is not my business to punish him. One sinner has no right to punish another sinner. God, our Common Father, is the only being who holds this right to punish any of his great family of human children. All that is required of me is, to do him good, and to protect myself from his abuse as best I can. And it is not doing him good to forgive him before he repents. It is reversing God's order. It is not to criminate him that I have laid the truth before the public. Duty demands it as an act of self-defense on my part, and a defense of the rights of that oppressed class of married women which my case represents. Neither do I ask punishment for him at any human tribunal; all I ask is pro- tection for myself, and the class I represent. God commands us to “ do good to our enemies," and if I fully obey this direction, I must not only pray for him, but I must act and labor for his welfare. Judging from my own feelings, I do not see how I can really love an enemy and let him go unreproved and unwarned. But perhaps if I hated a human being I might answer the demands of my conscience by simply praying for him; but since I never knew what that feeling was by experience to hate any one, I may not be quali- fied to judge one who has. CAN YOR FORGIVE ME MR. PACKARD? 159 My nature prompts me to hate the sin and love the sinner, and my love for the sinner is so genuine and so real, that I can leave no means untried to bring him to see his sins and repent, since I know pardon from his Judge can be bestowed on no other condition. The greatest sin of my life as I now view it, lies in the fact that I have been too ready to forgive the wrong doer, and in my impatience to extend my pardon I have sometimes for- given before I ought to have done so—that is, I have forgiven the impenitent instead of the penitent, and thus encouraged the transgressor in his sins. But through the discipline of my heavenly Father I now see my sins in this respect, so that henceforth I shall aim to ex- tend to the impenitent the love message of warning and re- buke, and to the truly penitent, the love message of forgive- ness and encouragement in well doing. To extend forgiveness to the impenitent, degrades ourselves also as guilty accomplices in their iniquities. As I understand Christ's directions the next step following unheeded warning and reproof is to withdraw fellowship while the sinner still persists in his incorrigible condition. This too I have also done. I have withdrawn all fellowship from Mr. Packard in his present attitude towards me. I do not so much as speak or write to him, and this I do from the princi- ple of self-defense, and not from a spirit of revenge. I know all my words and actions are looked upon through a very dis- torted medium, and whatever I say or do, he weaves into capital with which to carry on his persecution. And I think I have Christ's example too as my defense of this course ; for when he was convinced his persecutors questioned him only for the purpose of catching him in his words, “ he was speech- less." I have said all I have to say to Mr. Packard in his present character. But when he repents, I will forgive him. CHAPTER XIX. Mr. Packard Condemned by the Popular Verdict. Where the truth is known, and as the revelations of the court-room developed the facts exactly as they were found to exist, the popular verdict is decidedly against Mr. Packard. Indeed, the tide of popular indignation rises very high among that class, who defend religious liberty and equal rights, free thought, free speech, free press. I state this as a fact which my own personal observation demonstrates. In canvassing for my book in many of the largest cities in the State of Illinois, I had ample opportunity to test this truth, and were I to transcribe a tithe of the ex- pressions of this indignant feeling which I alone have heard, it would swell this book to a mammoth size. A few specimen expressions must therefore be taken as a fair representation of this popular indignation. “ Mr. Packard cannot enter our State without being in danger of being lynched,” is an expression I have often heard made from the common people. From the soldiers I have often heard these, and similar ex- pressions : “ Mrs. Packard, if you need protection again, just let us know it and we will protect you with the bullet, if there is no other defense.” “ If he ever gets you into another Asylum, our cannon shall open its walls for your deliverance." The Bar in Illinois may be represented by the following expressions, made to me by the Judges of the Supreme Court, in Ottawa Court-House. MR. PACKARD CONDEMNED. 161 66 Mrs. Packard, this is the foulest outrage we ever heard of in real life ; we have heard of such deep laid plots in romances, but we never knew one acted out in real life before. We did not suppose such a plot could be enacted under the laws of our State. But this we will say, if ever you are molested again in our State, let us know it, and we will put Mr. Packard and his Conspiracy where they ought to be put !” • The pulpit of Illinois almost universally condemns the out- rage, as 'a crime against humanity and human rights. But the truth requires me to say that there are some exceptions. The only open defenders I ever heard for Mr. Packard, came from the church influence, and the pulpit. Yet, among all the ministers I have conversed with on this subject, I have found only two who uphold his course. One Presbyterian minister told me, he thought Mr. Packard had done right in treating me as he had : “You have no right,” said he, “ to cherish opinions which he does not approve, and he did right in putting you in an asylum for it. I would treat my wife just so, if she did so !” The name and residence of this minister I could give if I chose, but I forbear to do so, lest I expose him unnecessarily. The other clergyman was a Baptist minister. Said he, “I uphold Mr. Packard in what he has done, and I would help him in putting you in again should he attempt it!” The name and place of this minister I shall withhold unless self-defense requires the exposure. When I have added one or two more church members to those two just named, it includes the whole number I ever heard defend, in my presence, Mr. Packard's course. Still, I have no doubt but that these four represent a minority in Illinois, who are governed by the same popish principles of bigotry and intolerance as Mr. Packard is. And I think it may be said of this class, as a Chicago paper did of Mr. Packard, after giving an account of the case, viz. : 162 MODERN PERSECUTION. 66 The days of bigotry and oppression are not yet past. If three-fourths of the people of the world were of the belief of Rev. Packard and his witnesses, the other fourth would be burned at the stake.” And here I will add, that this same transmutation of public sentiment took place in New England after the facts became known, as expressed by a lawyer in Worcester, Mass., who had at first identified himself as Mr. Packard's defender, said he: « Mrs. Packard, there is not a man in Massachussetts, neither do I think there is one in the United States who would dare openly to defend Mr. Packard's course, when the facts are known as they exist.” The opinion of his own church and community in Manteno, where he preached at the time I was kidnapped, is another class whose verdict the public desire to know also. When he put me off, his church and people were well united in him, and as a whole, the church not only sustained him in his course, but were active Co-conspirators. When I returned, he preached nowhere. He was closeted in his own domicile on the Sabbath, cooking the family dinner, while his children were at church and sabbath school. His society was almost entirely broken up. I was told he preached until none would come to hear him; and his deacons gave as their reason for not sustaining him, that the trouble in his family had destroyed his influence in that community. Multitudes of his people who attended my trial, who I know defended him at the time he kidnapped me, came to me with these voluntary confessions : 66 Mrs. Packard, I always knew you were not insane." “I never believed Mr. Packard's stories.” “ I always felt that you were an abused woman," etc., etc. These facts indicated some change even in the opinion of his own allies during my absence. I leave the public to draw their own inferences from the facts above stated. CHAPTER XXL CETA PTER TY Mr. Packard's Monomania. The question is sometimes asked, “Mrs. Packard, is your husband's real reason for treating you as he has, merely a difference in your religious belief, or is there not something back of all this? It seems unaccountable to us, that mere bigotry should so annihilate all human feeling.” This is a question I have never been able hitherto to answer, satisfactorily, either to myself or others; but now I am fully prepared to answer it with satisfaction to myself, at least; that is, facts, stubborn facts, which never before came to my knowledge until my visit home, compel me to feel that my solution of this perplexing question is now based on the unchangeable truth of facts.” For I have read with my own eyes, the secret correspondence which he has kept up with my father, for about eight years past, wherein this question is answered by himself, by his own confessions, and in his own words. And as a very natural prelude to this answer, it seems to me not inappropriate to answer one other question often put to me first, namely: “Has he not some other woman in view ?” I can give my opinion now, not only with my usual prompt- ness, but with more than my usual confidence that I am cor- rect in my opinion. I say confidently, he has not any other woman in view, nor never had. And it was only because I could not fathom to the cause of this “Great Drama,” that this was ever presented to my own mind, as a question. I believe that if ever there was a man who practically 164 MODERN PERSECUTION. believed in the monogamy principle of marriage, he is the man. Yes, I believe, with only one degree of faith less than that of knowledge, that the only Bible reason for a divorce never had an existence in our case. And here, as the subject is now opened, I will take occasion to say, that as I profess to be a Bible woman both in spirit and practice, I cannot conscientiously claim a Bible right to be divorced. I never have had the first cause to doubt his fidelity to me in this respect, and he never has had the first cause to doubt my own to him. But fidelity to the truth of God's providential events compel me to give it as my candid opinion, that the only key to the solution of this mysterious problem will yet be found to be concealed in the fact, that Mr. Packard is a monomaniac on the subject of woman's rights. It was the triumph of bigotry over his manliness, which occasioned this public manifestation of this peculiar mental phenomenon. Some of the reasons for this opinion, added to the facts of this dark drama which are already before the public, lie in the following statement: In looking over the correspondence above referred to, I find the confidential” part all refers to dates and occasions wherein I can distinctly recollect we had had a warm discus- sion on the subject of woman's rights; that is, I had taken occasion from the application of his insane dogma, namely, that “ a woman has no rights that a man is bound to respect," to defend the opposite position of equal rights. I used sometimes to put my argument into a written form, hoping thus to secure for it a more calm and quiet considera- tion. I never used any other weapons in self-defense, except those paper pellets of the brain. And is not that man a coward who cannot stand before such artillery ? But not to accuse Mr. Packard of cowardice, I will say, that MR. PACKARD'S MONOMANIA. 165 instead of boldly meeting me as his antagonist on the arena of argument and discussion, and there openly defending him- self against my knock-down arguments, with his Cudgel of Insanity, I find he closed off such discussions with his secret 66 confidential” letters to my relatives and dear friends, saying: “That I have sad reason to fear my wife's mind is getting out of order; she is becoming insane on the subject of wo- man's rights; but be sure to keep this fact a profound secret -especially, never let Elizabeth hear that I ever intimated such a thing." I presume this is not the first time an opponent in argu- ment has called his conqueror insane, or lost to reason, simply because his logic was too sound for him to grapple with, and the will of the accuser was too obstinate to yield, when con- scientiously convinced. But it certainly is more honorable and manly, to accuse him of insanity to his face, than it is to thus secretly plot against him an imprisonable offence, without giving him the least chance for self-defense. Again, I visited Hon. Gerrit Smith, of Peterborough, New York, about three years before this secret plot culminated, to get light on this subject of woman's rights, as I had great con- fidence in the deductions of his noble, capacious mind; and here I found my positions were each, and all, indorsed most fully by him. Said he: “Mrs. Packard, it is high time that you assert your rights, there is no other way for you to live a Christian life with such a man.” And as I left, while he held my hand in his, he remarked: “ You may give my love to Mr. Packard, and say to him, if he is as developed a man as I consider his wife to be a woman, I should esteem it an honor to form his acquaintance." So it appears that Mr. Smith did not consider my views on this subject as in conflict either with reason or common sense. 166 MODERN PERSECUTION. Again, his physician, Dr. Fordice Rice, of Cazenovia, New York, to whom I opened my whole mind on this subject, said to me in conclusion: “I can unravel the whole secret of your family trouble. Mr. Packard is a monomaniac on the treatment of woman. I don't see how you have ever lived with so unreasonable a man.” I replied, “ Doctor, I can live with any man—for I will never quarrel with any one, especially a man, and much less with my husband. I can respect Mr. Packard enough, not- withstanding, to do him good all the days of my life, and no evil do I desire to do him; and moreover, I would not ex- change him for any man I know of, even if I could do so, sim- ply by turning over my hand; for I believe he is just the man God appointed from all eternity to be my husband. There- fore, I am content with my appointed portion and lot of con- jugal happiness.” Again. It was only about four years before I was kidnapped, that Mr. 0. S. Fowler, the great Phrenologist, examined his head, and expressed his opinion of his mental condition in nearly these words: 66 Mr. Packard, you are losing your mind—your faculties are all dwindling—your mind is fast running out in a few years you will not even know your own name, unless your tread-mill habits are broken up. Your mind now is only work- ing like an old worn out horse in a tread mill.” Thus our differences of opinion can be accounted for on scientific principles. Here we see his sluggish, conservative temperament, rejecting light, which costs any effort to obtain or use-clinging, serf-like to the old paths, as with a death grasp—while my active, radical temperament, calls for light to bear me onward and upward, never satisfied until all avail- able means are faithfully used to reach a more progressive state. Now comes the question. Is activity and progression in MR. PACKARD'S MONOMANIA. 167 knowledge and intelligence, an indication of a sane, natural condition, or is it an unnatural, insane indication ? And is a stagnant, torpid, and retrogressive state of men- tality, a natural or an unnatural condition-a sane, or an in- sane state? In our mental states we simply grew apart, instead of to- gether. He was dwindling, dying—I was living, growing, expanding. And this natural development of intellectual power in me, seemed to arouse this morbid feeling of jealousy towards me, lest I outshine him. That is, it stimulated his monomania into exercise, by determining to annihilate or crush the vic- tim in whose mental and moral magnetism he felt so uneasy and dissatisfied with himself. I have every reason to believe he ever regarded me as a model wife, and model mother and housekeeper. He often made this remark to me: "I never knew a woman who I think could equal you in womanly virtues.” While on this recruiting tour, I made it my home for sev- eral weeks at Mr. David Fields's, who married my adopted sister, then living in Lyons, New York. I made his wife my confidant of my family trials, to a fuller degree than I ever had to any other human being, little dreaming or suspecting that she was noting my every word and act, to detect if pos- sible, some insane manifestations. But to her surprise, eleven weeks observation failed to de- velop the first indication of insanity. The reason she was thus on the alert, was, that my arrival was preceded by a letter from Mr. Packard, saying his wife was insane, and urged her to regard all my representations of family matters as insane statements. Then he added : “Now, Mrs. Field, I must require of you one thing, and that is, that you burn this letter as soon as you have read it; don't 168 MODERN PERSECUTION. even let your husband see it at all, or know that you have had a letter from me, and by all means, keep this whole subject a profound secret from Elizabeth.” My sister, true to Mr. Packard's wishes, burned this letter, and buried the subject entirely in oblivion. But when she heard that I was incarcerated in an Asylum, then in view of all she did know, and in view of what she did not know, she deeply suspected there was foul play in the transaction, and felt it to be her duty to tell her husband all she knew. He fully indorsed her suspicions, and they both undertook to defend me, when she received a most insulting and abusive letter from Mr. Packard, wherein he, in the most despotic manner, tried to brow-beat her into silence. Many tears did this devoted sister shed in secret over this letter and my sad fate—as this letter revealed Mr. Packard's true character to her in an unmasked state. "Oh, how could that dear, kind woman live with such a man!” was her constant thought. Nerved and strengthened by her husband's advice, she de- termined to visit me in the Asylum, and, if possible, obtain a personal interview. She did so. She was admitted to my room. There she gave me the first tidings I ever heard of that letter. While at the Asylum, my attendants, amongst others, asked her this question: 6 Mrs. Field, can you tell us why such a lady as Mrs. Pack- ard, is shut up in this Asylum ? We have never seen the least exhibition of insanity in her.” And one in particular said, " I saw her the first day she was entered, and she was then just the same quiet, perfect lady, you see her to be to-day- now do tell us why she is here?” "It is because her husband is a villain! and if ever there was a man who deserved to be hung it is Mr. Packard! I MR. PACKARD'S MONOMANIA. 169 am not a defender of capital punishment, yet I do say Mr. Packard ought to be hung, if any one ever ought to be!” In my opinion, sister would have come nearer the truth, had she said he ought to be treated just as he is treating his wife -as a Monomaniac. And I hope I shall be pardoned, if I give utterance to brother's indignant feelings, in his own words, for the lan- guage, although strong, does not conflict with Christ's teach- ing or example. Among the pile of letters above alluded to, which Mr. Packard left accidentally in my room, was one from this Mr. Field, which seemed to be an answer to one Mr. Packard wrote to him, wherein it seemed he had been calling Mr. Field to account for having heard that he had called him a “devil,” and demanded of him satisfaction, if he had done so; for Mr. Field makes reply: “I do believe men are possessed with devils now-a-days, as much as they were in Christ's days, and I believe too that some are not only possessed with one devil, but even seven devils, and I believe you are the man!” I never heard of his denying the charge as due Mr. Field afterwards! From my own observations in an Insane Asylum, I am fully satisfied that Mr. Field is correct in his premises, and I must also allow that he has a right of opinion in its application. Looking from these various stand-points, it seems to me self-evident, that this Great Drama is a woman's-right strug- gle. From the commencement to its present stage of devel- opment, this one insane idea seems to be the backbone of the rebellion. A married woman has no rights which her husband is bound to respect! While he simply defended his insane dogma as an opinion only, no one had the least right to call him a monomaniac; 170 MODERN PERSECUTION. but when this insane idea became a practical one, then, and only till then, had we any right to call him an insane person. Now, if the course he has taken with me is not insanity- that is, an unreasonable course, I ask, what is insanity ? Now let this great practical truth be for one moment con- sidered, namely, all that renders an earth-life desirable—all the inalienable rights and privileges of one developed, moral, and accountable, sensitive being, lie wholly suspended on the arbitrary will of this intolerant man, or monomaniac. No law, no friend, no logic can defend me in the least, legally, from this despotic, cruel power; for the heart which controls this will has become, as it respects his treatment of me, “ without understanding, a covenant breaker, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.” And let another truth also be borne in mind, namely, that this one man stands now as a fit representative of all that class in society, and God grant it may be found to be a very small class ! who claim that the subjection of the wife, instead of the protection of the wife, is the true law of marriage. This marriage law of subjection has now culminated, so that it has become a demonstrated fact, that its track lies wholly in the direction of usurpation. And therefore this track, upon which so many devoted, true women, have taken a through or life ticket, is one which the American Government ought to guard and protect by legal enactments; so that such a drama as mine cannot be again legally tolerated under the flag of our protective Government. God grant! that this one mute appeal of stubborn fact, may be sufficient to nerve up the woman protectors of our manly Government to guard us, in some manner against woman's greatest foe—the women subjectors of society. It may be proper here to add the result of this recruiting tour. After being absent eleven weeks from my home, and this being the first time I had left my husband during all my MR. PACKARD'S MONOMANIA. 171 married life, longer than one week's time, I returned to my home, to receive as cordial and as loving a welcome as any wife could desire. Indeed, it seemed to me, that the home of my husband's heart had become “ empty, swept and garnished,” during my absence, and that the foul spirits of usurpation had left this citadel, as I fondly hoped, forever. Indeed, I felt that I had good reason to hope that my logic had been calmly and impassionately digested and indorsed, during my absence, so that now this merely practical recogni- tion of my womanly rights, almost instantly moved my forgiv- ing heart, not only to extend to him unasked, my full and free forgiveness for the past, but all this abuse seemed to be seek ing to find its proper place in the grave of forgetful oblivion. This radical transformation in the bearing of my husband towards me, allowing me not only the rights and privileges of a junior partner in the family firm, but also such a liberal portion of manly expressed love and sympathy, as caused my susceptible heart of affection fairly to leap for joy. Indeed, I could now say, what I could never say in truth before, I am happy in my husband's love-happy in simply being treated as a true woman deserves to be treated—with love and confidence. All the noblest, purest sensibilities of woman's sympathetic nature find in this, her native element, room for full expan- sion and growth, by stimulating them into a natural, health- ful exercise. It is one of the truths of God's providential events, that the three last years of married life were by far the happiest I ever spent with Mr. Packard. So open and bold was I in this avowal, during these three happy years, that my correspon- dence of those days is radiant with this truth. And it was not three months, and perhaps not even two months previous to my being kidnapped, that I made a verbal 172 MODERN PERSECUTION. declaration of this fact, in Mr. Packards' presence, to Deacon Dole, his sister's husband, in these words: The interests of the Bible-class had been our topic of con versation, when I had occasion to make this remark: “ Brother, don't you think Mr. Packard is remarkably toler- ant to me these days, in allowing me to bring my radical views before your class ? And don't you think he is changing as fast as we can expect, considering his conservative organi- zation? We cannot, of course, expect him to keep up with my radical temperament. I think we shall make a man of him yet!" Mr. Packard laughed outright, and replied: " Well, wife, I am glad you have so good an opinion of me. I hope I shall not disappoint your expectations ! ” But, alas! where is he now? Oh, the dreadful demon of bigotry was allowed to enter and take possession of this once garnished house, through the entreaties, and persuasions, and threats, of his Deacon Smith, and his perverted sister, Mrs. Sybil Dole. These two spirits united, were stronger than his own, and they overcame him, and took from him all his manly armor so that the demon he let in “ brought with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there” still; so that I sadly fear the last state of that man will be worse than the first.”. I saw and felt the danger of the vortex into which his sister and deacon were dragging him, and I tried to save him, with all the logic of love and pure devotion to his highest and best interests; but all in vain. Never shall I forget this fatal crisis. When just three weeks before he kidnapped me, I sat alone with him in his study, and while upon his lap, with my arms encircling his neck, and my briny cheek pressed against his own, I begged of him to be my protector, as delineated in the first volume. From this fatal evening all appeals to his reason and MR. PACKARD'S MONOMANIA. humanity have been worse than fruitless. They have only served to aggravate his maddened feelings, and goad him on to greater deeds of desperation. Like Nebuchadnezzar, his reason is taken from him on this one subject; and unrestrained, maddened resentment fills his depraved soul—his manliness is deack Is he not a Mono- maniac? CHAPTER XXI. Strong Language an Appropriate Drapery for Reformers. I acknowledge that truth is stranger than fiction, and also that strong language is the only appropriate drapery in which some truths can be clothed. For example, the only appropriate drapery to clothe a lie in, is the strong language of lie or liar; not misrepresentation, a mistake, a slip of the tongue, a deception, an unintentional error, and so forth. And for unreasonable, and inhuman, and criminal acts, the appropriate drapery is, Insane acts; and an usurpation of human rights and an abuse of power over the defenseless, is appropriately clothed by the term, Despotism. One who defends his creed or party by improper and abusive means,. is a Bigot. One who is impatient and unwilling to endure, and will not hear the utterance of opinions in conflict with his own, without persecution of his opponent, is Intolerant; and this is an appropriate word to use in describing such manifesta- tions. A person under extreme physical torture gives utterance to strong expressions, indicating extreme anguish. Have we, on this account, any reason or right to call him insane? So a person in extreme spiritual or mental agony, has a right to express his feelings in language corresponding to his condi- tion, and we have no right to call him insane for doing so. Upon a calm and candid review of these scenes, from my present stand-point, I maintain that the indignant feelings which I still cherish towards Mr. Packard, and towards Dr. DRAPERY FOR REFORMERS. 175 McFarland, for their treatment of me, are not only natural, sane feelings, but also Christian feelings. For Christ taught us, both by his teachings and example, that we ought to be angry with sin, and even hate it, with as marked a feeling as we loved good. “I, the Lord, hate evil.” And so should we. But at the same time we should not sin, by carrying this feeling so far as to desire to revenge the wrong-doer, or punish him ourselves, for then we go too far to exercise the feeling of forgiveness towards him, even if he should repent. We are not then following Christ's directions, “ Be ye angry and sin not.” Now I am not conscious of ever cherishing one revengeful feeling towards my persecutors; while, at the same time, I have prayed to God, most fervently, that he would inflict a just punishment upon them for their sins against me, if they could not be brought to repent without. For my heart has ever yearned to forgive them, from the first to the last, on this gospel condition. I think our Government has been called to exercise the same kind of indignation towards those conspirators who have done all they can do to overthrow it; and yet, they stand ready to forgive them, and restore them to their confidence, on the condition of practical repentance. And I say further, that it would have been wrong and sinful for our Government to have withheld this expression of their resentment towards them, and let them crush it out of exist- ence, without trying to defend itself. I say it did right in de- fending itself with a resistance corresponding to the attack. So I, in trying to defend myself against this conspiracy against my personal liberty, have only acted on the self- defensive principle. Neither have I ever aggressed on the rights of others in my self-defense. I have simply defended my own rights. 176 MODERN PERSECUTION. In my opinion, it would be no more unreasonable to accuse the inmates of “Libby Prison ” with insanity, because they expressed their resentment of the wrongs they were enduring in “strong language,” than it is to accuse me of insanity for doing the same thing while in my prison. For prison life is terrible under any circumstances. But to be confined amongst raving maniacs, for years in succession, is horrible in the extreme. For myself, I should not hesitate one moment which to choose, between a confinement in an insane asylum as I was, or being burned at the stake. Death, under the most aggra- vated forms of torture, would now be instantly chosen by me, rather than life in an insane asylum. And whoever is disposed to call this strong language,” I say, let them try it for themselves as I did, and then let them say whether the expressisn is any stronger than the case justifies. For until they have tried it, they can never imagine the horrors of the maniac's ward in Jacksonville Insane Asylum. And here I will add, I do not write books merely to tickle the fancy, and lull the guilty conscience into a treacherous sleep, whose waking is death. Nor do I write to secure notoriety or popularity. But I do write to defend the cause of human rights; and these rights can never be vindicated, unless these usurpations be exposed to public view, so that an appeal can be made to the public conscience, on the firm basis of unchangeable truth- the truth of facts as they do actually exist. I know there is a class, but I fondly hope they are the mi- nority, who will resist even this solid basis--who would not believe the truth should Christ himself be its medium of utter- ance and defense. But shall I on this account withhold the truth, lest such cavilers reject it, and trample it under foot, and then turn and DRAPERY FOR REFORMERS. 177 rend me with the stigma of “ Insanity,” because I told them the simple truth? By no means? For truth is not insanity; and though it may for a time be crushed to the earth, it will rise again with renovated strength and power. Neither is strong and appropriate language insanity. But on the contrary, I maintain that strong language is the only suitable and “appropriate drapery for a reformer" to clothe his thoughts in, notwithstanding the very unsuitable and inappropriate stigma of “Insanity,” which has always been the reformer's lot to bear for so doing in all past ages, as well as the present age. Even Christ himself bore this badge of a Reformer, simply because he uttered truths which conflicted with the established religion of the church of his day. And shall I repine because I am called insane for the same reason ? It was the spirit of bigotry which led the intolerant Jews to stigmatize Christ as a madman, because he expressed opinions differing from their own. And it is this same spirit of bigotry which has been thus intolerant towards me. In my opinion bigotry is the most implacable, unreasonable, unmerciful feeling that can possess the human soul. And it is my fervent. prayer that the eyes of this Govern- ment may be opened to see wherein the laws do not now protect or shield married woman from this same extreme manifestation of it, such as it has been my sad lot to endure, as the result of this legalized Persecution. CHAPTER XXII. Testimonials. That principle of self-defense, which depends wholly on certificates and testimonials, instead of the principle of right, truth and justice, is not able to survive the shock which the revelation of truth brings against it. A lie, however strongly fortified by testimonials and certifi- cates, can never be transformed into a truth. Neither can the truth, however single and isolated, and alone, be its condition, ever be transformed into a lie, nor crushed out of existence. No, the truth will stand alone and unsupported. Its own weight, simply, gives it firmness to resist all shocks brought against it, to produce its overthrow. Like the house built upon a rock, it needs no props, no certificates to sustain it. Storms of the bitterest persecution may beat piteously upon it, but they cannot overthrow it, for its foundation is the rock of eternal truth. But a lie is like the house built upon the sand. While it does stand, it needs props or certificates on all sides to sustain it. And it cannot even resist the effect of a ventilating breeze upon it, for it must and will fall, with all its accumulated props, before one searching investigation; and the more props it has so much the more devastation is caused by its over- throw. - In view of the facts and principles upon which this narrative is based, I feel sure that the array of sophisms which this con- spiracy may attempt to marshal against it, will only be like arguing the sun out of the heavens at noonday. And although my cause, being based in eternal truth, does not depend upon certificates and testimonials to sustain it, and TESTIMONIALS. 179 stands therefore in no need of them; yet, as they are some- times called for, as a confirmation of my statements, I have asked for just such testimonials as the following gentlemen felt self-moved to give me. I needed no testimonials while prosecuting my business in Illinois, for the facts of the case were so well known there by the papers reporting my trial so generally. I needed no other passport to the confidence of the public. But when I came to Boston to commence my business in Massachusetts, being an entire stranger there, I found the need of some credentials or testimonials in confirmation of my strange and novel statements. And it was right and proper, under such circumstances, that I should have them. I therefore wrote to Judge Boardman and Hon. S. S. Jones, my personal friends, in Illinois, and told them the difficulty I found in getting my story believed, and asked them to send me anything in the form of a certificate, that they in their judgment felt disposed to send me, that might help me in surmounting this obstacle. Very promptly did these gentlemen respond to my request, and sent me the following testimonials, which were soon printed in several of the Boston papers, with such editorials accompanying them, as gave them additional weight and in- fluence by securing for me the confidence of the public, in the revelations I had to make in this dark conspiracy. Judge Boardman is an old and distinguished Judge in Illinois, receiving, as he justly merits, the highest esteem and confidence of his cotemporaries, as a distinguished scholar, an eminent Judge, and a practical Christian. Mr. Jones is a middle aged man, of the same stamp as the Judge, receiving proof of the esteem in which he is held by his cotemporaries, by having been for successive years a member of the Legislature of that State. He was in that position when he sent me his certificate. 180 MODERN PERSECUTION. Judge Boardman's Testimonial, To all persons who would desire to give sympathy and en. couragement to a most worthy but persecuted woman! The undersigned, formerly from the State of Vermont, now an old resident of the State of Illinois, would most respectfully and fraternally certify and represent: That he has been formerly and for many years, associated with the legal profession in Illinois, and is well known in the north-eastern part of said State. That in the duties of his profession and in the offices he has filled, he has frequently in- vestigated, judicially, and otherwise, cases of insanity. That he has given considerable attention to medical jurisprudence, and studied some of the best authors on the subject of insanity; has paid great attention to the principles and philosophy of mind, and therefore would say, with all due modesty, that he verily believes himself qualified to give an opinion entitled to respectful consideration, on the question of the sanity or insanity of any person with whom he may be acquainted. That he is acquainted with Mrs. E. P. W. Packard, and verily believes her not only sane, but that she is a person of very superior endowments of mind and understanding, natur- ally possessing an exceedingly well-balanced organization, which, no doubt, prevented her from becoming insane, under the persecution, incarceration, and treatment she has received. That Mrs. Packard has been the victim of religious bigotry, purely so, without a single circumstance to alleviate the dark- ness of the transaction ! A case worthy of the palmiest days of the inquisition !! The question may be asked, how this could happen, especially in Northern Illinois ? To which I answer that the common law prevails here, the same as in other States, where this law has not been modified or set aside by the statute laws, which gives the legal custody TESTIMONIALS. 181 of the wife's person, into the hands of the husband, and there- fore, a wife can only be released from oppression, or even from imprisonment by her husband, by the legal complaint of her. self, or some one in her behalf, before the proper judicial au- thorities, and a hearing and decision in the case; as was finally had in Mrs. Packard's case, she having been in the first place, taken by force, by her husband, and sent to the Insane Hospital, without any opportunity to make complaint, or with- out any hearing or investigation. But how could the Superintendent of the Insane Hospital be a party to so great a wrong? Very easily answered, without necessarily impeaching his honesty, when we consider that her alleged insanity was on religious subjects; her husband a minister of good standing in his denomination, and the Superintendent sympathizing with him, in all probability, in religious doctrine and belief, sup- posed, of course, that she was insane. She was legally sent to him by the authority of her husband as insane; and Mrs. Packard had taught doctrines similar to the Unitarians and Universalists and many radical preachers; and which directly opposed the doctrine her husband taught, and the doctrine of the Church to which he and Mrs. Packard belonged; the ar- gument was, that, of course, the woman must be crazy !! And as she persisted in her liberal sentiments, the Super- intendent persisted in considering that she was insane! However, whether moral blame should attach to the Super- intendent and Trustees of the Insane Hospital, or not, in this transaction, other than prejudice and learned ignorance; it may now be seen, from recent public inquiries and sugges- tions, that it is quite certain, that the laws, perhaps in all the States in relation to the insane, and their confinement and treatment, have been much abused by the artful and cunning, who have incarcerated their relatives for the purpose of getting hold of their property; or for difference of opinion as to our 182 MODERN PERSECUTION. state and condition in the future state of existence, or reli- gious belief. The undersigned would further state: That the published account of Mrs. Packard's trial on the question of her sanity, is no doubt perfectly reliable and correct. That the judge before whom she was tried, is a man of learning and ability, and high standing in the judicial circuit in which he presides. That Mrs. Packard is a person of strict integrity and truth- fulness, whose character is above reproach. That a history of her case after the trial was published in the daily papers in Chicago, and in the newspapers generally, in the State; arousing at the time a public feeling of indig- nation against the author of her Persecution, and sympathy for her; that nothing has transpired since to overthrow or set aside the verdict of popular opinion ; that it is highly proba- ble that the proceedings in this case, so far as the officers of the State Hospital for the insane are concerned, will undergo a rigid investigation by the Legislature of the State. The undersigned understands that Mrs. Packard does not ask pecuniary charity, but that sympathy and paternal assist- ance which may aid her to obtain and make her own living, she having been left by her husband without any means or property whatever. All of which is most fraternally and confidently submitted to your kind consideration. WILLIAM A. BOARDMAN. Waukegan, Ill., Dec. 3, 1864. Hon. S. S. Jones' Testimonial. To a Kind and Sympathizing Public: “This is to certify, that I am personally acquainted with Mrs. E. P. W. Packard, late an inmate of the Insane Asylum of the State of Illinois. That Mrs. Packard was a victim of a foul and cruel conspiracy I have not a single doubt, and that she is TESTIMONIALS. and ever has been as sane as any other person, I verily believe. But I do not feel called upon to assign reasons for my opin- ion in the premises, as her case was fully investigated before an eminent Judge of our State, and after a full and careful examination she was pronounced sane, and restored to liberty. Still I repeat, but for the cruel conspiracy against her, she could not have been incarcerated as a lunatic in an asylum. convinced of the terrible conspiracy that was practiced to- wards a truly thoughtful and accomplished lady. A Con- spiracy! worthy of a demoniac spirit of ages long since passed, and such as we should be loth to believe could be practiced in this enlightened age, did not the records of our court verify its truth. To a kind and sympathizing public I commend her. The deep and cruel anguish she has had to suffer at the hands of those who should have been her protectors, will, I doubt not, endear her to you, and you will extend to her your kindest sympathy and protection. Trusting through her much suffering the public will become more enlightened, and that our noble and benevolent institu- tions—the asylums for the insane—will never become per- verted into institutions of cruelty and oppression, and that Mrs. Packard may be the last subject of such a Conspiracy as is revealed in her books, that will ever transpire in this our State of Illinois, or elsewhere. Very Respectfully, S. S. JONES." St. Charles, Ill., Dec. 16, 1864. Editorial Remarks. “Assuming, as in view of all the facts it is our duty to do, the correctness of the statements made by Mrs. Packard, two matters of vital importance demand consideration: 184 MODERN PERSECUTION. 1. What have the rulers in the church' done about the Persecution ? They have not publicly denied the statements; virtually, on the principle that under such extraordinary cir- cumstances silence gives consent, they concede their correct- ness. Is the wrong covered up? the guilty party allowed to go unchallenged lest “ the cause” suffer by exposure ? If they will explain the matter in a way to exculpate the accused, these columns shall be prompt to do the injured full and impartial justice. We are anxious to know what they have to say in the premises. If Mrs. Packard is insane be- cause she rejects Calvinism, then we are insane, liable to ar- rest, and to be placed in an insane asylum! We have a per- sonal interest in this matter. 2. Read carefully Judge Boardman's statement as to the bearing of common law” on Mrs. Pakard's case. If a bad man, hating his wife and wishing to get rid of her, is base enough to fabricate a charge of insanity, and can find two physicians “ in regular standing” foolish or wicked enough to give the legal certificate, the wife is helpless! The “ com- mon law” places her wholly at the mercy of her brutal lord. Certainly the statute should interfere. Humanity, not to say Christianity, demands that special enactments shall make impossible such atrocities as are al- leged in the case of Mrs. Packard-atrocities which, accord- ing to Judge Boardman, can be enacted in the name of “com- mon law." We trust the case now presented will have at least the effect to incite Legislative bodies to such enactments as will protect women from the possibility of outrages, which, we are led to fear, ecclesiastical bodies had rather cover up, than expose and rebuke to the prejudice of sectarian ends—the sacred cause."? As I have said, there was a successful effort made in the Massachusetts' Legislature to change the laws in reference to TESTIMONIALS. 185 the mode of commitment into Insane Asylums the winter of 1865, and as Hon. S. E. Sewall was my 6 friend and fellow laborer,” as he styles himself, in that movement, I made appli- cation to him the next winter, for such a recommend as I might use to aid me in bringing this subject before the Illinois Legislature that winter, for the purpose of getting a change in their laws also. But finding that the Illinois Legislature did not meet that year, I have had no occasion to use it, as I in- tended. Having it thus on hand, I will add this to the fore going. Hon. S. E. Sewall's Testimonial. “I have been acquainted with Mrs. E. P. W. Packard for about a year, I believe. She is a person of great religious feel- ing, high moral principle, and warm philanthropy. She is a logical thinker, a persuasive speaker, and such an agitator, that she sometimes succeeds where a man would fail. I think she will be very useful in the cause to which she has devoted her- self, I mean procuring new laws to protect married women. I give Mrs. Packard these lines of recommendation, because she has asked for them. I do not think them at all necessary, for she can recommend herself, far better than I can. S. E. SEWALL.” Boston, November 27, 1865. Said an honorable gentleman, an eminent lawyer, who thought he understood the character of my books: “Mrs. Packard, I believe your books will yet be read in our Legislative Halls and in Congress, as a specimen of the highest form of law ever sent to our world, and coming millions will read your history, and bless you as one who was afflicted for humanity's sake.” It must be acknowledged that this intelligent gentleman had some solid basis on which he could defend this extravagant opinion, namely: that God does sometimes employ " the weak things of the world to confound the mighty.". CHAPTER XXIII. Dangerous to be a Married Woman in Illinois ! One day while in the asylum, after seating himself in my room, Dr. McFarland commenced a conversation by asking this question: “ Mrs. Packard, would it not be natural for me, in order to ascertain what had been your conduct before coming here, to inquire, first of husband, then of parents, then of brothers and sisters, and on their testimony form some opinion of your state?” “ Yes, naturally you would ; but in my case, these relatives have not seen me for seven years, except brother Samuel, of Batavia, who has visited me only once during that time. And besides, opinions will not convict a criminal. Facts are needed as proof. A murderer is not convicted on opinions, but on facts." “ But insanity is not a crime, but a misfortune, and different as physicians detect disease by the irregularities of the physical organization, so they must judge of insanity by the ‘views? they take of things." “ But, Doctor, is not the conduct the index of the mind, and if these views' are not accompanied with irregularities of conduct, ought these views' alone to be treated as evidences of insanity ?” conduct." “ But have we any right to restrain the personal liberty of any one whose conduct shows no irregularities. For instance, MARRIED WOMAN'S CONDITION IN ILL. 187 should you like to be imprisoned in one of these wards on the simple opinion of some one that you had an insane idea in your head, while at the same time all your duties were being faithfully performed ?" He made no reply. After a silence of a few moments, I added : “Now, if you, Doctor, or any other individual, will bring forward one act of my own, showing lack of reason in it, I will own you have a right to call me insane." After waiting a long time, he said: 6 Was it not an insane act for you to fall down stairs, and then to be carried back to your ward ?” “That was not my act in being carried back to my ward. It was your own act, and my falling down stairs was an accident, caused too, by your ungentlemanly interference; and the object I had in view by asserting my rights, was a rational one, for I had good reasons for doing so.” “Oh, no, no, the reasons are nothing.” “Yes, they are; for unless you know the reasons which in- fluence the actions of others, many acts would appear insane, that would not, if we knew the reasons which prompted the act. I asserted my right to my liberty from principle, not from impulse, in compliance with the advice of Gerrit Smith, viz. : " When you have done all that forbearance, kindness and intelligence can do to right your wrongs, all that is left for you to do is, to ó assert your rights,' kindly, but firmly, and then leave the issue to God.” After another pause he said : “What motive, Mrs. Packard, could I have for making you out insane, if I considered you were not ? Would money prompt me to do it?" “No, Doctor, I don't think money has influenced your mind in my case; but you have so long been in the habit of receiving women on the simple verdict of the opinion of the husband, 188 MODERN PERSECUTION. without proof, that you seem to think there is no necessity of using your own judgment at all in the case. And you do not seem to apprehend the glaring truth of the present day, that woman's most subtle foe is a tyrant husband. “It is might, not right, that decides the destiny of the mar- ried woman. 66 You know I am not by any means, the only one you have thus taken in here, to please a cruel husband. You have re- ceived many since I have been here, such as Mrs. Wood, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Kenny, and many others. Indeed Doctor, this fact has become so notorious here, that our attendants echo the remark made by Elizabeth Bonne, the other day, viz.: I did once think I would get married; but since I have been here, and seen so many wives brought here by their hus- bands, when nothing ails them, I am firmly resolved never to venture to marry in Illinois ! I can take better care of myself, alone. 6 And Doctor, I agree with her in this conclusion: “ It is fatally dangerous to live in Illinois, under such laws, as thus expose the personal liberty of married women.” This kind of married slavery is worse than negro slavery, and it must be abolished before the reign of righteousness prevails. Resolution is pacific; and I am resolved to secure peace on no principle but justice, freedom and right. With resolution, firm and determined, I am resolved to fight my way through all obstacles to victory—to the Emancipation of married women! I assume that my personal identity is my God-given right, and I claim that this right shall be recognized in the settle- ment of this great woman question. None to my knowledge sustain me in my path of self-denying obedience to the cause of “ married woman's emancipation." But when the victory is achieved, there will be no lack of MARRIED WOMAN'S CONDITION IN ILLS. 189 voices to chant this triumph. If, while in the hottest of this battle, some of these plaudits could be heard, it would be a help far more needed and welcome than when we have laid off our armor. But he whom God guards is well guarded. It is the fate of many who seek to do good, to have to resist their friends, and face their foes. To be God's chosen instrument to raise woman to her proper position is a glorious office, and those who win this crown, must be willing to bear this cross. The public conscience is in motion, and the great moral force my enemies are struggling against is the gospel enforced by conscience, and every ener- getic act in us adds potency in the moral element by which it is to be moved to action. Every act of a moral agent influences the entire moral universe. Each upright act adds to the strength of goodness or right- eousness, and every evil act gives additional power to the principle of evil. It is like throwing a stone into a lake, the utmost bounds of which feels the influence of the ripple occa- sioned by its fall. As the ocean is made up of drops, so the moral universe is composed of individual moral acts. Good and evil seem now to commingle in this great ocean life promiscuously, and the current of both seem now to alternate with almost equal force. What is needed is a condensation of the good influences of the universe into one vast gulf stream, sweeping irresistibly through the great ocean of moral life, bearing down all ob- stacles which evil interposes to its progress. When this gulf stream is once formed and set in motion, its progress will be irresistible throughout the moral universe. God is now at work separating these elements, and the good is to accumulate and condense into one great engine of power for the world's benefit. CHAPTER XXIV. Passage of the Personal Liberty Bill in the Illinois Legislature. Feeling confident that public sentiment was prepared for the passage of a bill for the protection of the Personal Liberty of married women, I left Massachusetts in the winter of 1866, and came to Chicago to organize an effort for this pur- pose. With the aid of Judge Bradwell and other legal advisers, I drew up a petition for this object, and spent one week in circulating it among the most prominent and influential men in this city, who kindly allowed me a patient hearing, while demonstrating the absolute necessity of some legislation that would effectually shield the married women of this State against the riability of their suffering from the injustice of the present law as I had done. And strange as it may seem, I found but one man, among the thirty-six men who signed the petition, who knew that we had so infamous a law on their statute book to be repealed. The petition was headed by I. N. Arnold, a Congressman, and followed by the Mayor, Aldermen, Judges, Lawyers, Editors, and some members of the Board of Trade, and the Chamber of Commerce, and some of the heaviest merchants and business men of Chicago. These names represented the intelligent, popular element of this city, and were so regarded by the Legislature. Thanks are here due both to the Tribune and the Times, for a voluntary editorial which each gave in favor of the ob- ject of the petition. to! “THE PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL.” 191 The petitioners expressed the kindest wishes in behalf of the cause, and some advised me to go with it to Governor Ogelsby and get his advice as to the best mode of bringing it before the Legislature, adding with emphasis : “ Governor Ogelsby will aid you in this matter; if he don't, he isn't the man we think he is.” In accordance with this advice, on arriving in Springfield, I sought the Governor at his residence, and met him in the hall, on his way to his dining-room with his invited guests. Of course, under these circumstances, I could not detain him, and therefore, merely inquired when it would be convenient to give me one half hour for conversation and advice. He inquired : “ What is your business?” “In relation to bringing a certain bill before the Legisla- ture.” “What is the object of the bill ?” “Governor Ogelsby, I cannot explain my business in less time than half an hour: can I be allowed that time or not?”. “But I wish to know what your bill is about.” 66 ? Tis about the Asylum at Jacksonville, but I cannot ex- plain without taking you too long from your party.” “Oh, I think that is doing well enough, I am acquainted with Dr. McFarland, and esteem him very highly as my per- sonal friend." 6 But, Governor, all I wish now to know is, can I have an in- terview of half an hour at any future time you may appoint ?” And while repeating this inquiry the third time, I drew from my pocket my petition, and asked him to please just look at the names appended, and added : “These men approve of the bill, and desire its passage, and moreover, advised me to lay the subject before the Governor, adding: Governor Oglesby will approve of the bill, and aid you in getting it passed, or he isn't the man we think he is.?" As he glanced over the names and found among thom the 192 MODERN PERSECUTION. leaders of his political party, on whose influence and vote depended, perhaps, his seat in Congress, his tone and manner changed at once, and in a most civil and manly style he un- hesitatingly offered to give me the whole hour, between eleven and twelve o'clock the next day, at his office, in the State- House. Accordingly I met him there, and in the most patient and courteous manner he listened, and not only indorsed my argu- ment in defense of the bill, but also volunteered his advice and assistance to help me in every possible way. He ordered his Secretary what to write, and gave it to his porter to take with me to the door of the Representatives Hall where I remained, while he delivered the message to Mr. Baldwin, who soon appeared at the door, saying, as he looked at me: “I have a message from the Governor to meet Mrs. Packard at his office, at once.”. He accompanied me back to the Governor's office, where the Governor explained why he had summoned him, and then re- ferred him to me to explain the object as I had to him, and suggested at the same time the propriety of having several others to meet in his office at three o'clock in the afternoon, and there consult upon what would be considered the best course to be pursued to bring about the desired result. When we met at the hour appointed, the Governor ordered all present to leave the office until we had arranged matters to our mutual satisfaction. This delegation invited me to bring the subject before the members in the library room, at seven o'clock, the following Friday evening. Printed posters were put up around the State House, inde- pendent of any knowledge or agency of my own, notifying the Legislature of this appointment and inviting their atten- dance. “THE PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL.” 193 The Governor kindly offered me his office as a place where I could meet the members at any future time. I wrote out my argument and read it to a very respectable After expressing their views of the importance of the sub- ject, they advised, that I meet the Judiciary Committee and confer with them. This Committee approved of the object and advised that I draft a bill to meet the case, and meet them again to test its merits. Senator Ward, of Chicago, very kindly drafted the bill for me, which he said was incomplete, but might serve as a basis for action. After hearing it read, the Committee asked if it suited me. I told them: « Gentlemen, it does not-it is incomplete.” “ What change do you wish made ?” “It needs a penalty attached, for as it now stands 'tis They then added a penalty of fine and imprisonment for admitting a patient into the asylum without a jury trial. “Is there anything now wanting ?” “There is no time appointed for the trial of the inmates of the asylum." They specified sixty days from the passage of the bill. “Is there anything more?” “ There is no tribunal before whom they shall be tried.” 5 The State's Attorney should fill this place.” “Is there anything more?” “ No, Gentlemen, the bill suits me now." “Then we will recommend its passage as it is." This was the courteous manner in which this cause of woman was treated by this honorable body. And here it is due the cause of “ Woman's Rights” that I should just express the sentiment into which this gentlemanly 194 MODERN PERSECUTION. conduct educated me—viz. : That it is the honest intention of the Legislation of the present day to protect the rights of woman as well as their own rights. And it is not the fault of these law-makers that they find so many relics of barbar- ism to be repealed by legislation, in order to restore to mar- ried woman the legal identity which the old common law denies her. It does not seem that woman need become a legislator in order that suitable and just laws be made for her protection ; for man, being the natural protector of woman, furnishes a principle ín his nature to appeal to, in behalf of “ Woman's Rights,” which is not found in woman. And for this reason, if I had a good cause to defend in be- half of woman, I should feel more assurance of success in presenting these claims to a man legislature than to a woman legislature Woman was made to be protected by man. Therefore it would seem that the order society has already established, in making man the legislator and executor of the laws, harmonizes with nature, as God has made it. All that seems to be needed, is an appeal to the intelligence of our present law makers, by convincing arguments, showing wherein her wrongs consist, and her rights are invaded, in order to secure protection for her in her sphere, as a woman, not as a man. Again, the Government ought to be a power that can defend itself and others also. But woman can do neither. Therefore is she incapacitated by nature to be, herself, the Government, while man is thus capacitated. Again, at first view, it would seem, that women who hold property ought to have a voice in relation to the taxes imposed upon it. But here injustice is by no means the certain or inevitable result, since, in most cases, woman being the minority property holder, man votes upon her no taxes which “THE PERSONAL LIBERTY BILL.” 195 his own property is not bound for, so that he is no more unjust to her, than he is to himself in this respect. to sustain and perpetuate it, rather than to try to supplant it by one in conflict with nature, for this attempt must, ere long, prove fruitless, as nature is destined to be the final conqueror in all cases. And should this “ Woman's Rights” movement prevail so far as to secure for women the ballot, together with its respon- sibilities, it is my opinion, that the practical workings of this system would prove to be a detriment not only to woman's own interests, but also that of society at large. For there is a possibility that a class of women might be led to become so eager in their aspirations for political office, to which the ballot would render them eligible, as to lead them to regard the office of maternity as secondary in importance. Or in other words, such might be led to feel that it would be a greater honor to fill some office at Congress than it would be to fill the office of maternity. Whereas in reality there is no higher office a woman can fill than that of maternity. But with this temptation before them, this class might be induced to leave their children to the care of Bridgets while they go to Washington to make laws. And if our daughters should be induced thus to pervert these noble aspirations of womanhood, I fear future Congressmen might become even more corrupt than those of the present day, for want of a mother's judicious and effective training. CHAPTER XXV. Opposition to the Bill. Nothing good can be accomplished without opposition, and sometimes, the more sensible, reasonable and consistent, the more virulent, unreasonable, fierce and determined this opposition. Although so desirable and important as to secure the co- operation of every unbiased mind, yet, self-interest in Doctor McFarland, Superintendent of Jacksonville Asylum, prompted him to organize an opposition, whose determination it was to defeat the passage of this bill. For this purpose he used to meet the members at the hotels and boarding-houses where they congregated, and, in these secret sessions, endeavor to convince his listeners that I was an insane person, and therefore it was unsafe and foolish for them to be influenced by my logic or statements in relation to the bill. Some, whom he thus psychologized into his opinions, used their influence with others to treat my business not only with indifference, but also with open opposition in casting their votes. This opposition made lobbying on my part an imperative necessity. I therefore went round to these boarding-houses, and asked permission of the landlords to meet the members at his house, in his parlor, after tea, and also to introduce me to them. This favor being cheerfully granted, I thus had the oppor- tunity of a personal interview with many of them, which was faithfully improved, by calling their personal attention to the intrinsic merits of the bill. OPPOSITION TO THE BILL. 197 At these interviews a two-fold object was secured, viz., con- viction in their minds of my sanity, and also a secret deter- mination to uphold and vote for the bill upon its own intrinsic merits. Their manly sympathy was also enlisted in my cause by Dr. McFarland's very unjust attack upon my reputation; for it became known that Dr. McFarland had refused my request for admission into his “star chamber,” for the purpose of answer- ing personally to the charges he was there bringing against me. Over the minds of these members with whom I had these interviews, I had no further fear of Dr. McFarland's influence. And such as I could not meet, I sometimes employed some outside influence to work upon by proxy, for me. Besides this, the Chicago Tribune and the Springfield Journal and State Register, all helped me, by allowing their columns to be used in setting forth the necessity of such leg- islation, by my anonymous articles on this subject. These articles called the opposition party into this field, which was fearlessly met by a still plainer array of facts, as challenged contradiction. Their sophistry and misrepresenta- tion were so entirely exposed by the strong argument of truth and facts, that even a distinguished Judge, who undertook to defend Dr. McFarland's interests, retired ingloriously from the field, like a vanquished foe before the pursuer. This public controversy between truth and falsehood, logic and sophistry, drew public attention towards the bill, which was constantly growing in favor with the enlightened public. This rallying force of public sentiment accelerated the progress of the bill, which was still on its slow, but sure passage. In the House it passed its third reading by only six voting against it. The Senate Judiciary took it through its second reading, without hesitation, and here it lodged, and I could do nothing effectual to bring it forward to its third reading. 198 MODERN PERSECUTION. I feared for its destiny, knowing that Dr. McFarland had several strong, firm friends in that body, and there seemed to be some occult influence at work against it, such as I could not ferret out. Still I waited and watched, paying my board in Springfield during the entire term, for this sole purpose. At length, on the Monday previous to the last Thursday of the session, I was told the bill had passed the third reading in the 6 omnibus” with other bills. Rejoiced as I was at this announcement, for some unknown cause, I could not help feeling a little incredulous about this statement, and, acting upon this impression, I engaged one of She employees at the House to look and see if the bill was really passed. Soon he returned with the sad intelligence that: “The Personal Liberty Bill is missing! The number of the bill, 608, is scratched out, and the bill itself is nowhere to be found.” This was Tuesday evening, and only one day and a half re- mained of the session, in which to hunt up the bill and secure its passage; or if lost, to draft a new one in its stead, and get it through both houses again, before Thursday noon. As the case demanded the most prompt and efficient action, I deter- mined to go to work myself, directly in its behalf, and lose not one moment for my work to be done by proxy. Early Wednesday morning, I called upon Mr. Bushnell, the chairman of the Judiciary of the Senate, at the “ Leland House," and told him of the condition of the bill. He replied he was too full of business to render me any assistance in this emergency, and he feared I should find this to be the case with all the other Senators; still, he sincerely hoped I might succeed in my efforts in finding the bill and in getting it passed. I then called at the room of Lieutenant-Governor Bross, the OPPOSITION TO THE BILL. 199 Speaker of the Senate, and laid the case before him, and although he expressed an interest in the subject, and a warm sympathy for me in my troubles, yet, said he: “I can do nothing for your bill. You must go the Senators for help.” “ Yes, you can, Governor Bross. You can be a little patient when it is up and not hurry it upon the table, as you some- times seem to do with other bills in the rush of business. Now, you will favor my bill in this way, won't you ?” He smiled at my earnest persistency, and I left, with his hearty good wish that I might succeed. Finding by this time that the Senators had gone to the State-House, I accordingly followed them to the Senate cham- ber, which was soon crowded with Senators and lobbyists. The Senators were generally strangers to me, as almost all I had interviews with were House members. I therefore sought the chairman, Mr. Bushnell, and asked him to please introduce me to the member nearest him, which he kindly did. I then in as few words as possible, told him how the Mar- ried Woman's Bill was imperilled, and then appealed directly to his manliness in its behalf. Then came the usual demonstration of a willingness to help, if the rush of business did not render it impossible. But instead of leaving him, as I had the speaker, Governor Bross, with good wishes merely, I exacted a promise that he would not only vote for the bill if brought forward, but de- fend it also, if necessary. I then asked him to please introduce me to his next neigh- bor, which he did, and I labored with him in like manner, until I had secured his promise of honor that he would both vote for and defend the bill, if necessary. Then he introduced me to the next, and so on, until I had spoken to fifteen Senators, and secured a promise from each to vote for my bill, and defend it if necessary. 200 MODERN PERSECUTION. From five of these I obtained an additional promise that they each would “call up the bill,” hoping that among the five, one might possibly find an opportunity and remember so to do. But now my lobbying was abruptly terminated, by a call of order from the Speaker, to commence business. In retiring to the gallery, I was compelled to elbow my way through the crowd of lobbyists on the outside, who I saw were watching my movements on the inside among the mem- bers, with such intense curiosity, that a single glance in that direction would almost confound me, when it was accompanied with the thought: 66 They are wondering if that is a sane woman lobbying in this style among the Senators, doing what no lady was ever found doing before her!” The instantaneous response which I found myself mentally making, was: “I will not quail before your suspicions. I am engaged in a good work, and it shall be done, in spite of this bugbear of insanity in my path; for the Personal Liberty of all the Mar- ried Women in Illinois is in imminent danger, and they know it not!” The agitation my movements had aroused, caused, as it would seem, alarm in the breast of the thief, who had stolen my bill, lest his detection might be the result, for, when the bill was called up, with the inquiry as to where it was, it was found on hand, and produced by the clerk, without delay, or farther investigation. Thus in the great rush of closing up the large amount of unfinished business on hand the culprit escaped detection for the present; but his crime is chronicled upon the page of the recording angel's book to be revealed in God's appointed time to his shame and confusion. Finding the bill safe, the motion was made and carried, that OPPOSITION TO THE BILL 201 it be acted upon in its proper time when the house bills would come up for action. Hundreds of bills being on hand to dispose of before noon of the following day, the principal business of that day seemed to be, to “ kill these bills” as fast as possible, as the most summary way of disposing of them. The gallery was crowded with anxious lobbyists, who, like myself, were watching with, perhaps, equal solicitude the fate of their own bills, and as this wholesale carnage seemed to thicken and deepen with every passing hour, disappointment seemed everywhere to prevail, as those whose bills were passed, were only the rare exceptions, while the murdered ones were the rule. The agitation of my bill became so general that the after- noon session found the front gallery full of ladies, who were in sympathy with me, for the fate of the bill for the protec- tion of the personal liberty of their own sex. As the evening approached, and the “house bills" were not called for, we began to feel that if they were, we could expect nothing more than to see it share the now almost universal fate of being “killed,” like the others. As its fate became momentarily more and more doubtful, in an impatient and despairing spirit, all the ladies left, one after another, leaving me alone, with only a few gentlemen lobbyists, as their dinner hour had arrived, and the evening lamps were being lighted. At this juncture, amid the roar and confusion of battle, as it seemed to me, the “ House Bills !” were called for. Now the hungry tired Senators, more impatient than ever for despatch, pursued their murderous business upon these bills faster than ever before. Even before finishing the read- ing of the titles of some bills, the motion to “ Lay it on the table!” was made and carried. My anxiety had already become so intense that, when the 202 MODERN PERSECUTION 6 Personal Liberty Bill!” was called out, amid the din of this confused battle, my heart almost stopped its pulsations, so keenly did I realize the importance of the present moment. The confused tumult slightly abated, and instead of the monotonous response, “ Lay it on the table !” was heard : “ Read the bill!” This the clerk commenced doing, when he hesitated—and remarked : “ There is no Enacting Clause' to this bill!” Hon. Murry McConnell, of Jacksonville, Dr. McFarland's strongest ally, cried out: “Lay the bill on the table !—We have no time to attend to bills presented to us in that condition—and it is of no more use than so much white paper if it is passed as it is.” There was silence in the Senate! No one spoke-and the bill was passed to Mr. Bushnell, the chairman of the Judiciary, who, with extended hand, asked to look at it, doubtless feeling chagrined that the bill had passed through his hands, and been recommended, while in that defective condition. While he stood, looking in silent amazement at the bill, this strange, solemn silence was at last broken by Governor Bross, the Speaker, remarking: 6 Perhaps the bill could be returned to the House, from whence it originated, and the 'Enacting Clause' be inserted, and we yet pass the bill.” The motion was at once made and seconded that, the bill be returned to the House from whence it had originated, and get the 6 Enacting Clause" inserted. This motion quickly passed, and the bill was put into the hands of the proper officer to be carried to the House, and the Senate in the mean time, resumed their old business—“ Killing Bills.” The message reached the House just as the motion to adjourn was being made. OPPOSITION TO THE BILL. 203 But when this message from the Senate was read, Mr. Conkling, the chairman of the Judiciary in the House, who, like Mr. Bushnell, seemed to feel reproved by passing on so in- complete a document, at once suggested that they suspend the motion to adjourn until this business was attended to. This being carried, he motioned that the clerk be instructed to insert the "Enacting Clause," and we pass the bill. And here perhaps it is proper to state that in order that no means be left unemployed to secure the passage of the bill, I had spent the entire recess at noon in explaining to this chairman, and as many other members of the House as I could meet, how our bill had been stolen or lost. Mr. Conkling had remarked, very sympathetically: "I will do all I can for you, but I fear 'tis too late to save it now." And now lest the defeat of the Bill might be attributed to his carelessness or oversight, he became earnest and valiant in its defense. The bill again passed its first, second and third reading, and the vote was again taken by yeas and nays. This time all voted for it, including the six who before voted against it. The messenger at once returned to the Senate with the message that: “ The House have inserted the 'Enacting Clause,' and passed the bill, and recommended its passage in the Senate.” The reading of the bill was called for, and it was read entire. Now came the tug of war! Many had never heard it read before, except by its title. And now to find what a radical bill it was—what an inevitable upheaving of the Institution must be the result of a jury trial of all its inmates—and what expense and trouble must attend the enforcement of the law a jury trial in every case of subsequent committal, &c.—they were tempted to demur, in spite of their promise to stand by the bill. 204 MODERN PERSECUTION. Various questions were asked and answered satisfactorily; while, to my astonishment, I saw Senator Mac, of Kankakee, one of the fifteen who had pledged me his promise of honor to defend the bill if necessary, act, as if he meant to defeat the bill if he could, and yet, shrink from assuming this responsi. bility himself, when he was brought out by the question : “ Mac, are you in favor of the bill, or not?” Mac hesitated. Turning his eye upward to the gallery, and meeting my own looking down directly upon him, he quickly replied: 66 I am in favor of the bill, and shall vote for it!” The wave of sympathy for the bill now seemed universal, as under its influence, even Murry McConnell arose and said : “I shall not oppose the bill, but shall vote for it !” All opposition being thus overcome, the Bill was ordered into the omnibus to be passed with others that were sustained without opposition. Here a motion for adjournment was introduced, and was quickly laid aside by the motion to pass the omnibus before they adjourned, which was carried. The omnibus was then passed, including my bill, by a vote of yeas and nays, and every one voted for it. Thus the bill finally passed by a unanimous vote of both houses. breathless suspense, and when a gentleman sitting by me exclaimed: “Mrs. Packard, your bill is safe!” I felt such a relief, accompanied with an indescribable emotion of joy and thankfulness, even surpassing as it seemed to me, the feeling of grateful joy experienced when the ver- dict of the jury at Kankakee proclaimed my own personal liberty ; for in that decision, only the interests of one individ- liberty of hundreds was suspended. 111111111 TU III BE INRUILO TER man Senate Scene in Springfield, Illinois. “Mrs. Packard, your Bill is safe!” See page 204. OPPOSITION TO THE BILL. 205 As we dispersed I met them at the door, and grasped the hand of as many as was convenient, and thanked them for standing so nobly by the bill. But there was one, and one only, of those whose hand I grasped, who evidently did not reciprocate my joyful emotion; and this was Senator Mac, of Kankakee. I could not help noticing an evident misgiving in the manner he responded to my thankful congratulations, which impressed this sentiment upon my heart, viz. : “No thanks are due me, Mrs. Packard, for the triumph of your bill, for it was my intention to prove traitor to my promise, and defeat the bill; but dared not risk such an attempt, under the circumstances !” And when I thanked Governor Bross for his patience, and timely interference just at the crisis between its life and “Yes, Mrs. Packard, your bill had a very narrow escape- it was but just saved.” But saved it was! in spite of all the evil machinations not only in this State but throughout the country, since Illinois is now regarded as having the best law on committals into Insane Asylums of any state in the Union. Here I would pause for a moment and note the overruling Providence of God in this transaction. It is as yet an unsolved mystery how this Enacting Clause happened to be omitted. If any of the Engrossing Clerks had been hired to omit it, in transcribing the bill, with the inten- tion of thus defeating it, this “counsel of Ahithopel was brought to naught,” by a second attempt to defeat it, by withdrawing it from the omnibus, for thereby this omissior was detected and rectified. I have been told that quite a large sum of money was paid to a certain clerk to induce him to steal the bill from the 206 MODERN PERSECUTION. omnibus, trusting to the shortness of the time, and the pres- sure of business, as his means of escape from detection until it was too late, at least, to repair the injury. But as it proved this attempt to defeat the bill was the very means of saving it from defeat. For had it been allowed to remain in the omnibus it would not have been known that this defect existed, until it would have been too late to have remedied it, and thus the bill would have been lost. So this attempt to defeat the bill was the very means of saving the bill from defeat. And if Dr. McFarland did pay this clerk for stealing the bill, to Dr. McFarland must be ascribed the credit of getting the bill through! His money was well appropriated to save such a bill from annihilation. Thus the “ wise are taken in their own craftiness," and the Lord overrules their own evil purposes to promote His good ones. CHAPTER XXVI. Signing of the Bill by the Governor. Having been so long too familiar with the subtle devices of this arch enemy of the bill, I dared not leave Springfield until the bill had been signed by the Governor. But as it would take two weeks more for my bill to come before the Governor in its natural order, being among the very last that had been passed, I ventured to make an effort to get it signed, as a special favor, forthwith. I therefore sought the Secretary of State, Mr. Tyndal, as my helper in this matter, and asked him if he would be so kind as to ask the Governor to sign it at once. Said he : “I will do this as a favor for you, although I never did such a thing before for any one, for I know how exceedingly vigilant and watchful you have been during all this long session. I feel disposed to help you through, if I can!” He went to the Senate engrossing clerks to get the bill, and they told him it had been sent to the Governor's office. He went there for it, and was told it had never been sent in, and returned with the most unwelcome intelligence that he could not find the bill ! I then followed in his tracks in search of the bill, but no traces of it could be found anywhere! I began to be suspicious that the enemy was again on my track, and had stolen the bill. But upon pursuing my in- vestigations, I found that the engrossing clerks of the House Bills were in a hall across the street. Thither I went in search of the lost bill, where to my great relief and joy, I found that one of these clerks had copied Bill 608, as his record showed, and it had been sent over to the State-House the previous day, to a Committee in the Representatives room. 208 MODERN PERSECUTION. Thither I went at once, not satisfied until I had actually seen the bill. Here I found it—but was informed it could not be sent to the Governor until the Speaker of both Houses had first signed it. The House Speaker, Mr. Corwin, then and there signed it; but Speaker Bross, of the Senate, had gone to Chicago and was not expected to return until the next week. I waited until his return, and went for my bill, and was in- formed it had been sent in to the Governor, and taking my informant's advice, to go with it, myself, to the Governor for his signature, instead of getting Secretary Tyndal to go for me, I went into the Governor's ante-office, and here Mr. Har. lan informed me, the bill was in his possession. He looked for it, but could not find it! He looked again and again and could not find it! During this three-quarters of an hour he spent looking in vain for it, I had another mental conflict with doubt, suspense and suspicion. But relief came at last, as Mr. Harlan ex- claimed: 6. I have found the Personal Liberty Bill! and if you wish it, I will take it in and ask the Governor to sign it.” Most gratefully did I accept this kind offer; and after about one hour more of solicitude, lest he should not sign it, I at last heard his private secretary reading aloud my bill. Then I heard him exclaim, with emphasis: 6 That is a good bill!” “Yes, it is first-rate!” responded the Governor. Hope revived, and in a few minutes Governor Oglesby came into the room, with the bill in his hand, which he handed me, saying: 6 Mrs. Packard, your bill is signed !” I then took his hand and said: “In the name of the married women of Illinois, I thank you SIGNING THE BILL. 209 for this act. Please now, Governor Oglesby, accept one of my books.” “ Thank you, Mrs. Packard, I and my wife will be glad to read it.” “ The bill is now complete as it is, I conclude.” “No, the Secretary of State must also sign it.” I started for the door with my bill to take to the Secretary, when I was told: “None but the appointed messenger can be the bearer of the bill.” I handed it to the messenger, and followed him into the office of the Secretary, and saw Mr. Tyndal sign his name and affix the seal of the State, by which it was made a law, to take effect in sixty days from date. Mr. Tyndal very kindly gave me a certified copy of the bill in his own hand-writing, free of charge. This was only one of the many favors I received at the hands of this, one of the best of nature's noblemen. yönet e n This copy I still retain as a memento of this noble philan- thropist, and also as a record of my first attempt to serve the State of Illinois, as a member of the “ Third House.” My only apology for giving so full and detailed an account of this winter's campaign is, that other novices in this work may learn something of the complicated machinery of legisla- tion, before entering, ignorantly, as I did, upon the work of reforming the laws under which we live.be And if any other victim of bad laws is goaded on to under- take to remove this liability from others, as was the experience of the writer, they may hope that as their day is so shall their strength be. CHAPTER XXVII. The Personal Liberty Bill and its Application. The following Act for the protection of Personal Liberty, was passed by the Illinois Legislature of 1867, and approved by the Governor, March 5, 1867. SECTION 1.–Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illi- nois, represented in the General Assembly : That no superintendent, medical director, agent or other person, having the management, supervision or control of the Insane Hospital at Jacksonville, or of any hospital or asylum for insane and distracted persons in this State, shall receive, detain or keep in custody at such asylum or hospital any per- dict of a jury and the order of a court, as provided by an act of the General Assembly of this State, approved Feb. 16, 1865. SECTION 2.—Any person having charge of, or the manage- ment or control of any hospital for the insane, or of any asy- lum for the insane in this State, who shall receive, keep or detain any person in such asylum or hospital, against the wishes of such person, without the record or proper certificate of the trial required by the said act of 1865, shall be deemed conviction be fined not more than one thousand dollars, nor less than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned not exceeding one year, nor less than three months, or both, in the discre- tion of the court before which such conviction is had; provided, that one-half of such fine shall be paid to the informant, and the balance shall go to the benefit of the hospital or asylum in which said person was detained. THE BILL AND ITS APPLICATION. 211 SECTION 3.—Any person now confined in any insane hospi- tal or asylum, and all persons now confined in the hospital for the insane at Jacksonville, who have not been tried and found insane or distracted by the verdict of a jury, as provided in and contemplated by said act of the General Assembly of 1865, shall be permitted to have such trial. All such persons shall be informed by the trustees of said hospital or asylum, in their discretion, of the provisions of this act and of the said act of 1865, and on their request, such person shall be entitled to such trial within a reasonable time thereafter; provided, that such trial may be had in the county where such person is confined or detained, unless such person, his or her friends, shall, within thirty days after any such person may demand a trial under the provisions of said act of 1865, provide for the transportation of such person to, and demand a trial in the county where such insane person resided previous to said de- tention, in which case such trial shall take place in said last mentioned county. SECTION 4.—All persons confined as aforesaid, if not found insane or distracted by a trial and the verdict of a jury as above, and in the said act of 1865 provided, within two months after the passage of this act, shall be set at liberty and discharged. SECTION 5.-It shall be the duty of the State's attorneys for the several counties to prosecute any suit arising under the provisions of this act. SECTION 6.—This act shall be deemed a public act, and take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved March 5th, 1867. Thus the public may see that under the humane provisions of this act, all the inmates of every insane asylum in the State of Illinois, whether public or private, who have been in- carcerated without the verdict of a jury that they are insane, are now entitled to a jury trial, and unless this trial is granted 212 MODERN PERSECUTION. them within sixty days from the 5th of March, 1867, they are discharged, and can never be incarcerated again without the verdict of a jury that they are insane. No person can be detained there after sixty days, who has not been declared insane by a jury. Thus it was that the barbarities of the law of 1851 were wiped out by this act of legislative justice. Now all married women and infants who had been imprisoned “without evi- dence of insanity,” as this unjust law allowed, and who were still living victims of this cruel law, would now be liberated from their false imprisonment. And the great question, who shall be retained as fit subjects for the insane asylum, must hereafter depend in all cases, upon the decision of the jury. The Law of 1865 Providing a Jury Trial. SECTION 1.-Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly: That the cir- cuit judges of this State are hereby vested with power to act under and execute the provisions of the act passed on the 12th of February, 1853, entitled “An act to amend an act entitled an act to establish the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane,"” in force March 1st, 1847, in so far as those provisions confer power upon judges of county courts; and no trial shall be had of the question of sanity or insanity before any judge or court, without the presence or in the absence of the person alleged to be insane. And jurors shall be freeholders and heads of families. Sec. 2. Whenever application is made to a circuit or county judge, under the provisions of this act and the act to which this is an amendment, for proceedings to inquire into and as- certain the insanity or sanity of any person alleged to be in- sane, the judge shall order the clerk of the court of which he is judge to issue a writ, requiring the person alleged to be THE BILL AND ITS APPLICATION. 213 insane to be brought before him, at the time and place appointed for the hearing of the matter, which writ may be directed to the sheriff or any constable of the county, or the person having the custody or charge of the person alleged to be insane, and shall be executed and returned, and the person alleged to be insane brought before the said judge before any jury is sworn to inquire into the truth of the matters alleged in the petition on which said writ was issued. SEC. 3. Persons with reference to whom proceedings may be instituted for the purpose of deciding the question of sanity or insanity, shall have the right to process for witnesses, and to have witnesses examined before the jury; they shall also have the right to employ counsel or any friend to appear in their behalf, so that a fair trial may be had in the premises; and no resident of the State shall hereafter be admitted into the hos- pital for the insane, except upon the order of a court or judge, or of the production of a warrant issued according to the pro- visions of the act to which this is an amendment. SEC. 4. The accounts of said institution shall be so kept and reported to the general assembly, as to show the kind, quantity and cost of any articles purchased for use; and upon quarterly settlements with the auditor, a list of the accounts paid shall be filed, and also the original vouchers, as now required. Sec. 5. All former laws conflicting with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed, and this act shall take effect on its passage. Approved February 16, 1865. Two years practice under this law developed its inability to remove the evils it was designed to remedy. This law, having no penalty to enforce it, was found to be violated in many in- stances, as it was ascertained to be a fact that Dr. McFarland was constantly receiving patients under the old law of 1851, which this law had nominally repealed. For this reason, 214 MODERN PERSECUTION. therefore, the petition was sent to the Legislature of 1867, that " The Personal Liberty Bill” be passed, in order to en- force the wise provisions of this law of 1865. But knowing the determined hostility of Dr. McFarland to the enforcement of this law, and seeing the arrogant spirit exhibited toward the Legislature who passed this bill, in his biennial report of 1866, I felt it my duty to present him in his own drapery to the scrutiny of the Legislature of 1867, by lay- ing upon the desk of each member my review of this part of his report, which was published in the Chicago Tribune. Dr. McFarland's Report Opposed to Jury Trials. In Dr. McFarland's tenth biennial report of 1866, he utters severe criticisms on an act passed by the Legislature of 1865, and complains of the injustice of such legislation as allows persons accused of insanity to have a fair trial before im- prisonment. The act which he thus ignores, provides, as Dr. McFarland says: “Any person whose condition requires his or her being sent to the hospital, shall be personally present in the court while the examination goes on, being served with notice, stimulated by counsel, invited to cross-examine witnesses, and placed, in all instances, and in every respect as the active defendant in the case. This act is so cruel in its effect upon those for whose interest it must be presumed to have been introduced, that silence is impossible, until attention is called to it. And his voice would be for the summary repeal of the act in question, to protest against the existence of which is the plain duty of this report. What antagonisms of the most painful kind are wantonly engendered; what violations of delicacy, and often of decency, what outrages upon mental and physical suffering THE BILL AND ITS APPLICATION. 215 must be the result while this enactment exists. And these are only slight specimens of the wrongs of which this act will be the prolific stock.” We wish to ask any candid person a few simple, common- place questions in reference to the above extract: Which course would be the most likely to engender antago- nisms—the consignment of a relative to an indefinite term of imprisonment, without allowing them any hearing or any chance at self-defense—or, by allowing them a fair trial and opportunity of self-defense before imprisonment ? Which would be the most probable “prolific stock” of wrongs to humanity—the imprisonment of an individual on the decision of twelve impartial men, after a fair hearing of both parties—or, on the decision of one interested man, on the simple testimony of others, without proof? Is it not more probable that one man may possibly be cor- rupted by motives of interest and policy to make an unjust decision, than that twelve men could be thus corrupted ? Dr. McFarland asserts that “ a wrong under the old law, under which nine-tenths of all the patients have been received, is as nearly a moral impossibility as can well exist." Is it a moral impossibility to get a sane person into that institution, while a statute exists, which expressly permits a certain class of persons to be there imprisoned without evidence of insanity, and without any trial—which statute suspends the personal liberty of this class of citizens wholly upon the decision of one fallible man ? And “is it as nearly a moral impossibility as can well exist,” that this one man may possibly err in judgment ? It is our candid opinion that there have been some awful mistakes in the lawful exercise of this one-man power within the last ten years of its existence; and the public sentiment of Illinois now demands of their Legislature of 1867 to repair the injury done to its citizens by this unjust law, by allowing 216 MODERN PERSECUTION. those now in the asylum who have never had a jury trial, either to be discharged from their place of involuntary con- finement, or be allowed to have a jury trial, before perpetu- ating their imprisonment any longer. Again, Dr. McFarland says: “From what supposed necessity such an act originated, it is not easy to conceive, for in nearly three thousand admissions here, a question was never seriously raised in a single instance!” Has the Doctor forgotten that the question has been once, at least, seriously raised by the court at Kankakee City, in the case of one whom that court decided had been falsely impris- oned for three years at that Hospital ? For, after a full and fair examination of all the evidence in the case, it was decided that Mrs. Packard was sane. We are of the opinion that Mrs. Packard's case is a type of many other cases of false imprisonment, now there; and the simplest claims of justice and humanity demand that this Legislature extend to such, a fair trial. A LOVER OF JUSTICE. Springfield, Jan. 21, 1867. The Barbarous Law of 1831. Under which so many had lost their personal liberty, dur- ing the sixteen years of its existence, reads thus: 6 Married women and infants who, in the judgment of the medical superintendent (meaning the Superintendent of the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane,) are evidently insane or distracted, may be entered or detained in the hospital on the request of the husband of the woman, or the guardian of the infant, without the evidence of insanity required in other cases." The sixty days of grace which Dr. McFarland was allowed by this law to prepare for these trials, were faithfully improved THE BILL AND ITS APPLICATION. 217 by him. He sent off hosts of sane patients, who had been unjustly confined there, under the specious plea that they were suddenly cured! Indeed, the “ Personal Liberty Bill ” became a universal panacea for the sudden cure of these, his sane patients! For this knowing Superintendent understood full well that in case he retained these sane patients until the verdict of a jury liberated them, it might not only reflect upon his intel- ligence and veracity as a Superintendent, but also give this host of witnesses a passport to the confidence of the public in their testimony against him. The verdict of one jury at Kankakee, on Mrs. Packard's case, was all he chose to grapple with in the present state of public sentiment towards him! Therefore, these oppressed ones were sent into the world, without being allowed even the privilege of having his brand of insanity first obliterated from them, by the much coveted verdict of sanity from an intelligent jury of their country. And again, if this host of injured ones were found by the jury to be sane, while their personal liberty was suspended on the single testimony of this one man, the public would at once conclude either that Dr. McFarland did not know a sane from an insane person, or had been criminally indifferent on this momentous point, or he had been perversely wicked in allow- ing sane persons to be imprisoned for sinister purposes, while he was growing rich with the money the oppressors of these victims were lavishly bestowing upon him to induce him to conceal their crimes under his lying testimony that they were insane persons when he knew they were not insane. And when it is once known that a public officer can bo hired to tell a lie, under such circumstances, his ruin must be inevitable, by the verdict of the people. Such quick destruction Dr. McFarland knew must be his unavoidable doom, if he allowed the investigation these, his 10 218 MODERN PERSECUTION. victims, desired, and being so used to treating his patients with injustice he could add this act to this long list without scruple, mentally pleading self-defense as his justification. But to procure his own self-defense at the expense of his injured victims' right to this same privilege, must be recorded as a crime in that book whose records recognize no respect of persons in judgment. This politic plan of this artful sinner proved a success so far as to suspend, for the time being, the verdict of the people against him ; for when it was found by the verdict of the jury that no sane patients were found in the institution sixty days from the passage of the bill, the natural conclusion would be that no sane persons were allowed in the asylum as patients. But the subsequent report of the Investigating Committee unravelled this mystery, by showing that there had been double the number of discharged patients on the plea of recovered during this period than other previous periods. And another most striking fact was developed by the report of this Investigating Committee, showing that this “ Personal Liberty Bill ” was an imperative necessity, as an protection against false commitments, which fact is expressed in their own report as follows: “From a careful examination of the papers on file, it did appear that since 1865 there had been one hundred and forty- eight admitted without the proper legal evidence of insanity, and the security required by law! That there should be so large a proportion of the admissions in violation of law, shows a carelessness without excuse and deserving of censure. Now if one hundred and forty-eight were found on record as admitted during these two years alone, and this too in vio- lation of the law, how many must then have been admitted during the fourteen previous years, when the law for the ad- mission of married women and infants expressly stated, that such might be admitted without evidence of insanity! THE BILL AND ITS APPLICATION 219 Who, who is to be held responsible at God's bar, for the false imprisonment of this host of innocent victims of this barbarous law ? Who does not see that the law for admission should have a penalty attached to enforce it, since the law of 1865 required a trial, but as there was no penalty to enforce it until the “ Personal Liberty Bill ” was passed, it was merely a dead letter in practice. The judges of the State decided that it was a good law and ought to be enforced. Rumors of false committals can now be tested, and the penalty of fine and imprisonment can be enforced if the Superintendent is found guilty of receiving any patient in defiance of this wholesome law. otettore newsletter RE CH CHAPTER XVIII. Appointment of the Investigating Committee. Among the agencies employed for the enlightenment of the legislature of 1867, in order to ensure a thorough ventilation of Jacksonville Insane Asylum, the State Register very kindly allowed me the use of their columns to portray facts of the most startling character for the perusal of the members, and among others of a similar character, the following article was published, and every member was furnished with a copy of the paper containing it, viz.: Insanity a Crime! It is a fact too little known and appreciated by the public, that insanity is treated as a crime, instead of a misfortune, at the State Institution of Jacksonville, Illinois. The inmates now there are being treated as criminals rather than unfor- tunates. This being the case, the Legislature who hold the control of that institution, ought to know of it, so as to inter- pose to prevent this perversion of the intent of its founders. Facts in abundance are already within the reach of this Legislature, now in session. But, lest this truth be concealed under the favorable reports of committees appointed to visit that institution, we would solicit this honorable body to read the following fragment of a letter, and then consider whether their duty is done towards the inmates of that institution. Let them consider while reading it, that possibly they or some of their family may, ere another meeting of this body, be in- mates there, and thus learn by bitter experience the sad truths this letter delineates. The writer of this letter, Mrs. S. A. Kain, now at Taylorville, INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 221 Christian County, Illinois, holds herself in readiness to sub- stantiate the truth of the statements she makes, and is ready to give under oath, any amount of similar testimony, if de- sired. She wrote this letter, intending it for the Governor, with the promise from the employees in that institution that they would sign it also. She was an attendant there at the time it was written, but left soon after, because she could not carry out the inhuman rule of the house. leb JACKSONVILLE, January, 1866. TE To his Excellency, the Governor of Illinois : SIR-It is with profound respect and a deep feeling of rever- ence for its laws that permits the weakest of its subjects to appeal direct to the ear of the Executive, without passing through a barrier of nobility or the parade of parliamentary rules, when simply asking for justice for an imprisoned and suffering community. I speak of the Insane Asylum at Jacksonville. I have had an opportunity of witnessing scenes in this institution so brutal and heart-rending that I shrink with horror from it. Here are females incarcerated in this disgusting prison, subject to every indignity, whose finer feelings are outraged every day, addressed with abusive language, insulted, debased like the negro; and the majority fully sensible of it, insane though many of them may be. A great many of them are no more insane than the writer, and I believe the imputation has never been cast upon me, but placed there by friends. By friends did I say? No, by those who have the power, some for pecuniary motives, some that they may marry again, or carry on a life of licentiousness, and some to hide their own shame. And there is one whom I have every reason to believe stands at the head of that institution, ready to take any one who is 222 MODERN PERSECUTION. presented, provided sufficient bribe is paid, but which is re- ceived so secretly that it cannot be proved against him. But who can go through that institution, and see its secret work- ings as I have done, without its becoming a self-evident fact, that there are cases there which nothing but heavy bribes would induce him to receive or retain, as the law would not recognize the right. Perhaps you may ask, where are the trustees? And what are they about? What do the trustees or any other stranger know to come in once in three months, and stay in some wards two or three minutes, the best wards perhaps fifteen minutes, when every jacket is taken off, every strap hid, and the patient com- pelled by fair or foul means, generally the latter, to keep their seats, or by threats of the screen-room or cold bath to act as decorous as their poor crazy brains will allow. Word is always sent to the attendants from fifteen to thirty minutes ahead of the Trustees that they have arrived and are coming, and all things must be in order when they come. I know not as they have any knowledge of the institution, except by what they see, and this is nothing, and through the Super- intendent, and he tells them what he pleases, and no more. He keeps only his tools about him, who do his bidding with- out any question, and should he get any by chance that he cannot make tools of, he soon discharges them. He keeps everything as secret as he can. It reminds one of the old inquisitorial prisons. Even a letter cannot pass through the office to or from a patient without inspection by himself or his satellite, the assistant physician, and it is im- mediately destroyed if it unfortunately contains anything which he disapproves of. I have referred to the screen-rooms and cold baths. I will describe them. A screen-room is where there is a close iron screen covering the window to keep fractious patients from breaking the window, and is a very good place to secure them INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 223 until their excitement or “spell," as it is usually called, passes over. But it is often perverted to a different use. The patient is usually jacketed, that is, a strong, closely fitting waist, with sleeves coming below the hand and sewed up, with a loop-hole through which can be passed a strong cord. Their arms are then crossed in front with their hands drawn tightly behind them, and when thus tightly and firmly secured, they are thrown upon the floor of the screen-room, their faces down- ward, their clothing removed or turned back, and then beaten until their flesh is often but a jelly, while their screams might be heard at a great distance, but for thick walls and closely fitting doors. The cold bath, 0, my God! it makes me shudder to think of it. The patient, often for a small offense, perhaps, for striking in excitement an attendant, or another patient, is taken to the bath-room and made to strip; the water is then let into the bath- tub, sometimes hot, but usually very cold, and after being tied hand and foot, plunged into it, and held there under it until almost dead, and then drawn out only long enough to catch their breath and then plunged in again, and so on. S. A. KAIN. So notorious had the evils of the asylum now become, that the legislature of 1867 were driven to the conclusion that the honor of the State demanded a thorough investigation into the charges and current evil reports to ascertain whether they were true or false. They therefore appointed a committee of five-three from the House and two from the Senate to visit the hospital for the insane, after the adjournment of the legislature, with power to send for persons and papers, and to examine witnesses on oath. They were to ascertain whether any of the inmates were im- properly detained in the hospitals, or unjustly placed there, and whether the inmates are humanely and kindly treated, and 224 MODERN PERSECUTION. to confer with the Trustees of said hospital in regard to the speedy correction of any abuses found to exist and to report to the Governor from time to time at their discretion. The names of this committee were: Hon. E. BALDWIN, Farm Ridge, La Salle County. Hon. T. B. WAKEMAN, Howard, McHenry County. Hon. J. B. RICKS, Taylorville, Christian County. . On the part of the House of Representatives. Hon. C. A. FULLER, Belvidere, Boone County. Hon. A. J. HUNTER, Paris, Edgar County. On the part of the Senate. The committee first met at the Dunlap House, in Jackson- ville, on the 14th of May, and after taking the testimony of a few witnesses found the need of a thorough investigation more and more important. They therefore advertised in the Chicago papers asking all who had any testimony they desired to present to the com- mittee, to meet them in Jacksonville on the 4th of June. This meeting lasted till the 10th ; July 10 and 11 they met at Chicago. On the 17th they met again at Jacksonville, and continued in session until the 26th of July. On the 20th, 21st and 22d of August, they met again at Chicago. On the 26th and 27th of September they met at Springfield. On the 12th of November they met at Bloomington. And on the 29th of November met at Jacksonville again, where they ad- journed on the 3d of December, sine die. At these meetings testimony concerning the mal-treatment of the patients increased to such a volume, and the conclu- sions arrived at were so unanimous, as left no doubt in the minds of the committee of the existence of crimes—heinous crimes on the part of the Superintendent, as well as outrages and abuses of the most cruel kind on the part of the attend: ants. The committee say: INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 225 “It plainly appears in the evidence they had presented them, that sixty patients had been abused by the attendants, and about twenty-five attendants had been guilty of these abuses.” It is the honest opinion of the writer that if this number were quadrupled it would not then cover the number of ac- tually abused patients, since the abused patients was the rule at that hospital, while those justly and kindly treated were the exceptions.wav So overwhelming was the testimony of mal-treatment and mismanagement that the senior man on that Committee, Mr. Balawin, most forcibly and frankly remarked: “I have come to the conclusion that our Insane Asylums are grand failures! That their entire destruction, on their present basis, would be a blessing to the world!” This Committee very justly remarked : “ Dr. McFarland's government of his patients is believed too severe, and his discipline of attendants too mild." He was found also to be very neglectful of his sick patients. They found also that he had not only admitted sane patients and kept them for years, but he often kept the patients there after they had fully recovered, so long, that they had been made incurably insane by allowing them no hope of ever being liberated. This class were compelled to work constantly for his benefit. But the records of the house were so artfully kept that it was almost impossible to detect this mode of purloining pub- lic treasure, talent and labor. The women worked in the sewing and dining-rooms, the wash-rooms and ironing-rooms and kitchen, and the men on the Doctor's great farm, which was entirely carried on by this slave labor-slave labor in the sense that the laborers were never allowed to be paid one dime for all this toil for the Su- perintendent's pecuniary benefit. But as an atonement for this sin of extortion from his own 226 MODERN PERSECUTION. patients, Doctor McFarland would often have it lauded to his generosity that he had donated, from his own farm, potatoes for the poor in Jacksonville ! Yes, 'tis true. This noted Dr. McFarland was, indeed, the most benevolent man, in his way, I think, that ever lived. He never abused patients but it was for 6 their good ! " He never kept the sane at work for him years after they were fit to go home but for “ their good!” He never robbed his pa- tients of their better clothing and exchanged it for very inferior clothing unless it was for “ their good!” He never wrote to their friends the intelligence that these his sane patients were not fit to be with sane people, and therefore should not be re- moved, but for their good!” He never denied them the right of corresponding with their friends except for their good!” He never sent his sick or convalescent patients to the wash- room to do the day's work of a well one, but for “ their good ! ” He would refuse the request of friends to see their relatives in his wards for their good!” He would brand as incurable his sane patients who dared to tell him they should expose him when liberated for their good!” He would not allow his sick or tired patients to lie upon their beds in the day time for “ their good!” He would deny their request for papers and books to read for their good!” He would turn a deaf ear to his patients' complaints for “their good!” He would not credit the testimony of his patients for their good!” In short, this benevolent man never did anything from a self- ish motive—but always for “ the good” of some one besides himself! Indeed, Benevolence was one of his largest phrenological developments; but the truth must be told, his benevolence was perverted to mere selfish ends and selfish purposes. That is- he would carry on his selfish and nefarious schemes under the ostensible plea of the good of his patients," while, in reality, no injustice to them was too great for him to perpetrate if he INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 227 saw his selfish interests required it, or could be promoted thereby. The above seems a sad picture of the character and actions of a public servant, whose character had so long been regarded as above suspicion, and this ostensible plea of benevolence, or regard for others, had been the bait with which their confi- dence had been secured. But for the truth of this picture, I would refer my readers to that massive volume of testimony now in the archives of the Library Room in the State House at Springfield, collected by this Committee, as a standing monument of the corruption and guilt of that public servant who is held responsible for the revolting details it contains of perverted public trusts and public confidence. The writer, who has been allowed the unrestricted privilege, as is the right of all citizens of Illinois, of examining these manuscripts to her entire satisfaction, is prepared to state that all the charges I have ever brought against Dr. McFarland are there fully corroborated by the most reliable testimony; such testimony as left no doubt in the minds of these faithful and patient investigators of the truth of all the charges I had brought against him. CHAPTER XXIX. Dr. McFarland's Punishment of Mr. Wyant. Since the public are so very unwilling to believe that insan- ity is treated as a crime rather than a misfortune, in our pub- lic hospitals, and as the writer knows this to be a fact, she has therefore introduced one fact, found in these records, de- monstrating her position. And this is by no means an isolated case, but is only one of many, which might be mentioned, showing that punishment is the chief and almost the only treatment patients receive in Jacksonville, as a cure for their insanity. The case mentioned is that of a Mr. Wyant, a gay, sprightly, sensitive young man, who had placed his ardent affections upon a beautiful young lady, who unfortunately was beloved by another young man of like passions with himself. These rival lovers agreed to settle the question, as to who should win this contested prize, by a duel, which was fought as agreed. Mr. Wyant's shot proved fatal to his antagonist, and his antagonist shot off Wyant's arm above the elbow. This duel occurring in the Northern States instead of the Southern States, Wyant was tried for murder, and Dr. McFar- land was called to testify to the charge of insanity, instituted in his defense. This expert, of course, found him insane, as is his uniform practice in all such cases. Thus Wyant's sentence of death was commuted to impris- onment in an Insane Asylum, as an incurable! A doom far worse than death. Yes, could I have my choice between death on the gallows, or life in an Insane Asylum, I would choose PUNISHMENT OF MR. WYANT. 229 death without a moment's hesitation, now that I know, by experience, what life is in an Insane Asylum ! But poor Wyant! was allowed no such choice; for by the verdict of Dr. McFarland, he was made his helpless prisoner; and although as sane as any duelist, he was compelled to be treated as a lunatic.bestoden But in being put upon that plane practically, his aspiring, sensitive, manly nature rebelled. He claimed his right to be treated as a human being, not as a brute. But this right was denied him. Agar And when his attendant, a young man of about his own age, would insist upon bestowing upon him this contemptible abuse, and would make no distinction between his treatment and that which he bestowed upon the maniacs in his ward, he could not suppress his indignant feelings as they would instinctively rebel against it. But for poor, defenseless, one-armed Wyant there was no redress for grievances—no tribunal of justice to appeal to- no opportunity for self-defense, and no hope of there ever being a termination of his woes. One day while he was walking out with his attendant and other patients he found the handle of a hatchet, which he slyly concealed in the armless sleeve of his coat, and took it to his ward, without the knowledge of his attendant. One day, soon after, his attendant provoked him, as usual, beyond his power of endurance, when his long pent up indig- nation found vent in the energetic use of his hatchet handle upon the head of Dr. Bell, who so often had thus insulted him beyond his power of endurance. A single blow cut a gash into the forehead of Dr. Bell; when he was instantly disarmed, and the power was again all on the side of his attendant, and the weakness and dependence all on Mr. Wyant's side. For, as a matter of course, if a patient hurts an attendant, 'tis a crime in Jacksonville Asylum, deserving the severest 230 MODERN PERSECUTION. tortures the institution can inflict: but if an attendant hurts, maims for life, or even kills a helpless patient, 'tis no crime at all, not even a misdemeanor, so long as it can be concealed from outside knowledge, under the covert of lies and misrep- resentation ! Mr. Wyant was, of course, reported to headquarters for punishment, where he was sure of getting it; for in the government of Jacksonville Asylum there is no such thing as mercy or pardon, however penitent the culprit, or however aggravated was the temptation to resist tyranny by the instinct of self-defense. The mode in which Mr. Wyant was punished for this act I give in the words of the witness, as found in the report of the Investigating Committee. The witness, Mrs. Graff, formerly Mrs. P. L. Hosmer, was a directress in the sewing-room for four years and a half, and she testified that she had frequently known of cruel punish- ments inflicted upon patients; that the cases were so numerous she did not pretend to remember them all. Mrs. Graff says: 66 That in the spring before she left the institution, the spring of 1861, the Doctor inflicted a terrible punishment upon a one-armed patient, who had been sent to the hospital after a trial for murder ; that the punishment was for striking an attendant, Dr. Bell—that the attendant was struck in the morning, and as she was going at night for water she met the engineer and porter going up stairs with chains and buckets of water--that soon after she heard the voice of the patient, away up in the upper part of the wing, in the further corner, crying : Oh, Doctor! Oh, Doctor! Oh, Doctor!'" She says she knows he was chained and punished with a shower bath, because she saw the engineer going up with chains, and that the patient afterwards had the chains upon him while she remained there—and though she did not follow MAWIAVIN W = == | ADHINA - N |um|mnu | iuit பப்பாம் TD SSSS Dr. McFarland punishing One-Armed Wyant. 'O Doctor! O Doctor! O Doctor!" See page 230. PUNISHMENT OF MR WYANT. 231 the porter and others, who had pails of water when they went up, she is well satisfied he was put into a shower bath. And she knows the Doctor directed it, because she went to the Doctor that night and asked him to pay her and let her go. He replied, " perhaps you do not understand the case. I have saved that man from the gallows; and I witnessed the punishment myself.” Dr. Bell, the attendant who was struck, testifies to the same thing, being an eye-witness, and that he begged the Doctor to desist from such severity. The Committee remark, “ that the water and chains were applied there cannot be a doubt. The whole circumstances of the case appear revolting. And the justification interposed, that he might be thus punished because his life had been saved by the Doctor's testimony, is almost too shocking to be believed, and shows that the will which directed the punish- ment must belong to a man of iron, and the mind which could entertain such claims of gratitude must be fatally bent on mischief.” CHAPTER Xxx Dr. McFarland's Infamous Proposal to Miss Julia A. Wilson. In the Report of this Investigating Committee is found, and corroborated by most responsible testimony, the following infamous proposal of Dr. McFarland to Miss Wilson. Miss Wilson, from Buffalo, N. Y., visited the institution at the time the Investigating Committee were there in session taking testimony, for the purpose of visiting her sister, Mrs. Brown, who had been a patient there since 1861, and if pos- sible procure her discharge. From the acquaintance she had made with the Doctor dur- ing this time, she had formed the most exalted opinion of his character as a gentleman and as a superintendent. And dur- ing her interview with the Doctor on this occasion, she frankly avowed this esteem for, and confidence in, his judgment and integrity, in response to his expression of solicitude as to the termination of this investigation. She told him she was confi- dent there was no ground for his solicitude, fully believing, as she and the public generally did, that his unblemished character could stand the test of the closest scrutiny. These kind words of womanly sympathy seemed to be most highly appreciated by this afflicted Doctor, and being fascinated by her good looks and attractive manners, as it would seem, he invited her to become their guest at the asylum for a week, at least, until arrangements could be satisfactorily made for the removal of her sister. But, said he : “I am compelled to ask you to defer this visit until this Committee leaves, as we cannot give you so comfortable accommodations as we would like until then.” THE DOCTOR'S INFAMOUS PROPOSAL. 233 He urged as a reason for this visit that it would afford her an opportunity to see how to manage her sister in case she should remove her, as he did not consider her as a restored patient. This plausible argument induced her to accept his invitation, and as she had some purchases to make for her sister's ward- robe, she said she would stop with her friend, Mrs. Dr. Grant, of Jacksonville, until their guests had left. The Committee left Friday noon, and Miss Wilson returned to the Asylum Saturday afternoon, at about five o'clock. She met the Doctor in the reception-room, when he immediately showed her up to the guest-chamber which she was to occupy, and talked with her about the condition of her sister. He said she was not in a condition to be removed, that she was not fit to live among sane people, but that she had better re- main awhile and she could see for herself. This unexpected intelligence affected her to tears, and she asked the Doctor to let her see her sister immediately, and said she had hoped she could occupy the same room with her, as she had clothes to fit and make for her before her removal. Examining the windows he said: “ They are not safe!” This alarmed her, and she decided not to have her sister remain with her over night. The Doctor left her and soon returned, and after a short time her sister was ushered into the room by an attendant. He then left again, but soon returned and took a seat, and after talking a few moments, handed her an envelope, saying, as he did so: “I wish you to examine this—the key of Mrs. Brown's ward is there.” And went out. But as Miss Wilson supposed it contained some directions respecting her sister's room or treatment, she did not open the envelope for sometime but sat and talked with her sister. 234 MODERN PERSECUTION. Her tears seemed to annoy her sister, and she asked what she was crying for. She told her because the Doctor had convinced her of the impracticability of taking her home with her. She took her sister to the door of her ward and gave her to an attendant, and returned to her room and opened the en- velope, which contained an infamous proposal, which was ex- pressed in these words: “An appreciative friend, who deeply sympathizes with you in your troubles, wishes to know if his company will be agreeable after retiring hours.” Signed “A. M. F.” as she thinks, but is not positive, for under the impulse of instantaneous indignation she tore the infamous note to pieces, and scattered it upon the floor. But the contents were so indelibly impressed upon her heart and memory that she does not hesitate to take her oath upon it that these were the exact words of the note. This astounding revelation of the Doctor's character, which before she regarded as above suspicion, so rebounded upon her feelings and judgment as led her to the firm determination that she should take her sister away, and stay with her until she could do so. Her unshaken confidence in the integrity of the Doctor being thus summarily overthrown, her mind was left open to see his faults, to which she was before en- tirely blind. Upon further acquaintance with her sister she found he had entirely misrepresented her condition; that instead of being wild, furious, or unsafe, she was calm, quiet and perfectly safe for her companion, both night and day, as she was ever after her room-mate during her stay at the Asylum. She also found to her astonishment that her sister's state- ments of physical abuse she had received from the Doctor were all true—that she had been the victim of cruel, unreasonable. and inhuman treatment, and now that the bandage had been THE DOCTOR'S INFAMOUS PROPOSAL. 235 removed from her own eyes, she could see the artful policy and cruel deception and misrepresentation which had been palmed off upon herself and the public, instead of the truth. The scenes she this week witnessed behind the curtain, de- monstrated to her mind the necessity of a most thorough in- vestigation, and also that the charges of neglect of his patients and his cruelty towards them were all true. So satisfied did she become from what she saw, independent of testimony, during this week, that when I met her just about as she was leaving Jacksonville, she gave me her hand as her pledge before God, that she would carry out the vow she had made to expose Dr. McFarland's true character to the world. Ik While witnessing this solemn consecration to be the de- fender of the truth, I could not but believe God had in his Providence raised up a witness to co-operate with me in my own determination to fulfill this same vow which I had many times before made. Miss Wilson wrote an indignant reply to this note, as she felt that she could not look at him, accusing him of cruelty to her, informing him he had misjudged her, and saying, if she was compelled to remain on her sister's account she demanded a situation while she did remain. She felt it unsafe for her to express the full extent of her indignation, lest the Doctor might thwart her purpose in regard to her sister's removal. But the next day after the insult she wrote to her brother- in-law in Chicago, concerning it, and also informed Mrs. Dr. Grant, of Jacksonville, and others, including the writer, and advised with them concerning her duty. Mrs. Grant invited her to stay with them until her sister was ready to leave; but she feared if she left without her sis- ter she could never get her again, and as her sister stayed in the same room with her, she had no fear of being again in- sulted by the Doctor. 236 MODERN PERSECUTION. She adhered to her purpose, and as her reward for her per- sistent determination she succeeded in seeing her sister safely reach home and enjoy comparative health and happiness. When the Doctor returned after she had torn up the note, he noticed the pieces and said: 66 What is this?” esantion des will be 6 It is that infamous note!” She asked him what it was in her appearance that induced him so to offend her, when he said : “Oh, nothing-I merely took it at a venture!” But, alas! What a 5 venture !” Just at this important crisis of his reputation! The Investigating Committee had only left the hospital the day before, while he, whose character was being thus sus- pended before the public upon his own actions, could“ venture” to present to a visitor at this public hospital, such a request, in his own handwriting and over his own initials !” Such a verbal request would have been hazardous even, but to put it in writing was doubly dangerous as a witness against him. APE L LID Now the natural inference seems to be, if a man under such circumstances, should dare to run such a risk or “venture," we might infer he was no novice in this kind of business; for even common prudence would have deterred any but the most hardened, callous sinner, from committing such a sui- cidal act. This being true, what husband or father could trust his helpless wife or daughter to the care of such a public servant, and then too, cut off from all communication with their nat- ural protectors, except through the censorship of this man. If the victims of his lust and power could only write to their relatives and friends without these letters being read by the Superintendent, from whom they need protection, and of whose insults they make complaint, their exposure would be far less, THE DOCTOR'S INFAMOUS PROPOSAL. 237 and their appeal for protection would be more likely to be sent to the post-office than into the fire, as is the case at present. The writer has often sent bills to our legislatures allowing an unrestricted correspondence by the removal of this cen- sorship, as she knows the need of her defenseless sex there, for want of these means of protecting them from insult and outrage. But the Superintendent and his party are sure, if possible, to defeat such bills. On the 16th and 17th of October, 1867, Dr. McFarland and Mr. Dummer, his attorney, and the chairman of the Commit- tee, took the depositions of Miss Wilson, and her mother, Mrs. Julia A. Wilson, and J. D. H. Chamberlain, Esq., before James S. Gills, Esq., in the City of Buffalo. The testimony shows that the character of Miss Wilson was irreproachable at home, and she has challenged investiga- tion of it in Jacksonville. In closing up their report of Miss Wilson's case the Com- mittee say: 6 This testimony the Committee fully believe. And in the opinion of the Committee, testimony of the moral character of Dr. McFarland cannot prevail against such unquestionable proof of facts; and however painful and humiliating it may be to us, as citizens, to believe a man who occupies such a position should be guilty of such grave improprieties, it is nevertheless our plain duty to express the opinion of his guilt, which the evidence clearly shows." SA L oad CHAPTER XXXI. Testimony Presented to the Committee by Mrs. Tirzah F. Shedd, of Aurora, Illinois. It is for the benefit of those now in Jacksonville Insane Asylum that I give the following testimony to the public, hoping it may stimulate the people to provide some remedy for existing evils. This is to certify, that I, Mrs. T. F. Shedd, was incarcerated in this Asylum on the 7th of July, 1865. I was imprisoned there fourteen weeks. My baby was five months and a half old, when I was taken from her, and my two other little girls, and forced entirely against my will and protest, into this prison- house, for an indefinite length of time, on the charge of mono- mania on spiritualism, brought against me by my husband. True I had a mock jury trial at Geneva court-house, as the statute law of 1865 requires, still I felt that justice could not be done me before such a tribunal of prejudice as existed against me on the ground of my spiritualism. And so it proved. My case was not fairly tried before an impartial tribunal, and therefore, I was condemned as insane on the subject of spiritualism. This decision therefore placed my personal liberty entirely in the hands of my husband who was fully determined to use this legal power to subject my views to his will and wishes. I, of course, resisted this claim, and assured him I should never yield my right to my personal liberty to him or any other power; for so long as he could bring nothing against me but what I regarded as my religion, I claimed the protection of my personal liberty under the flag of religious toleration. MRS. SHEDD'S TESTIMONY. 239 Notwithsanding all my arguments, my entreaties, my prayers, my protests and my vigorous resistance, by fighting single-handed and alone my six strong men captors, for forty- five minutes, I was finally taken from my sick bed, bruised and sore from this brutal assault, and carried in my undress to the cars, with the handcuffs dangling at my side, leaving my little girls screaming in agony at this unnatural bereave- ment of their tender, loving mother. And yet this is a land of religious freedom! It may be a land of freedom for the men, but I am sure it is not for the married women! And although entirely sane, the heartless Dr. McFarland did receive me, when my last hope of liberty died within me, and I found myself entirely in the power of a man, whom I had sad reasons to fear was not worthy of the unbounded trust and confidence he was then receiving from the people of Illinois. After I was discharged, I expressed this same opinion to him in a letter as follows: basd DE “Dr. McFarland, I gathered facts from every department of the Asylum—and your private conduct towards me which I well understood at the time—enough to ruin you!” I have no confidence in that man's honesty. His policy is stronger than his principles; and I told him this opinion too, in my letter to him in these words: “ You took my husband by the hand and when alone said to him, “Mr. Shedd, this woman, meaning me, is not crazy, nor ever has been. Excited she may have been from various causes, but temporary derangement is not possible with such an organization, although I shall pronounce her hopelessly insane, because she will not say she has changed her mind!"" Is not this decision that I am insane, the dictation of his selfish policy, instead of his honest conviction? It seems to me that he is willing to belie his own judgment to shield himself and my persecutors from harm. And the written ad- vice he gave my husband, strengthens this conviction, viz. 240 MODERN PERSECUTION. “ Mr. Shedd, you must not tyrannize over her, but flatter her with presents, and let her have her own way as much as you can.” Why is this? Is he not afraid I shall become exasperated toward this party including himself, and expose them in consequence? It seems so to me, for he says it is impossible for me to become insane, and this advice did not seem to be needed for my protection or good. I think Dr. McFarland is not fit for his place, and as I view it, the safest course for him to pursue now is to resign; and I advised him to do so in my letter, viz. : “ All that I now ask is that you give up that position which you confessed to me you were sick of five years ago, and re- lease those women you hold there as prisoners, under the will of cruel husbands, and others who call themselves friends.”' This letter from which these extracts are made, was sent back to my husband with this single sentence added to it: “ Is Mrs. Shedd becoming more insane? A. M.” There were a great many spiritualists there, whom he called insane like myself, for this reason alone, seeming to fear them as witnesses against him, unless they carried his diploma of “hopeless insanity” upon them. He has been obliged to liberate many such of late, by the enforcement of the law for the Protection of Personal Liberty," and he was very careful too to send this class of " hopelessly insane" (?) prisoners before the time appointed by the Legislature for their jury trial, so that by this policy they were denied the opportunity of a jury trial, in vindication of their sanity. And had the jury's decision contradicted the Doctor's opinion, as it did in Mrs. Packard's case, he might have had more reason to fear their influence. One day after I had cut and made me a neat and becoming white dress, the Doctor seeing me in it remarked: 6. I don't see how a man could put a lady like you from her home.” MRS. SHEDD'S TESTIMONY. 241 At another time, he remarked : “If you were my wife, I should want you at home.” Would he want an insane wife at the head of his family? I enjoyed many privileges there which others did not, and I might have used these liberties to escape; but I chose rather to remain until all my prison keepers had had a fair opportu- nity to see that I was not insane. I also wished to look into the secret workings of this prison, but in order to do this I knew I must first secure their entire confidence, and any attempt to escape I knew would at once circumscribe my limits of observation. By the course I have pursued the Doc- tor has had a fair opportunity for arriving at the candid con- viction he expressed to my husband of my sanity, viz: “Mrs. Shedd is not crazy nor can she be with her organiza- tion.” The confidence my keepers had in my sanity was expressed in various ways. One was by their allowing me to have my own pen-knife and scissors during all my incarceration, which act is strictly forbidden by the by-laws; and, of course, it would be necessary to keep these articles from insane people. Another fact I found out through them was, that this house is used as the headquarters for the Masons to get their bounti- ful feasts in; and yet the prisoners have heard the Doctor deny that he was a Mason, himself! But feasting the Masons is not the only feast the Doctor is in the habit of bestowing at the State's expense, and at the sacrifice too of the much needed table comforts of the invalid prisoners, such as fruits, berries, melons, butter, cream, milk, wines, vegetables and such like. I know the State has a heavy wine bill to pay yearly, charged for the good of the patients;” but judging from both of the Doctors' appearance at times, I should think they made free use of it themselves, and I am sure they and their guests use far more of it than the patients do. 11 242 MODERN PERSECUTION. The prisoners are kept uniformly on the plainest and coarsest kind of fare, far better suited to a class of working men, than sick women. Even butter is not always furnished, and when it is, it is often so very poor that it is not fit to eat, and I have known meat sent to the wards so very foul that the attendants would not put it upon the table, and the boarders would have nothing left them to eat but molasses and lread. Only once a week are we allowed any kind of sauce or relish of any kind to eat with our butterless bread. It is true the prisoners have the privilege of looking through the iron grates of their prison windows at the twenty-five nice fat cows, “ headed by the buffalo," on their way to and from their rich pasture; but it would afford us far more solid satisfaction to have been allowed to use some of their new milk and sweet butter, for our health and comfort. It does seem that with all the money the State expends on this Institution that its boarders ought to be decently fed. But they are not. Great injustice is done the prisoners in respect to their cloth- ing, by losing much of it, which the Doctor accounts for on the false plea, oftentimes, that “the patients tear their own clothes.” Some of the prisoners do tear their own clothes, but most of their losses in clothing, are the result of wrong con- duct on the part of the employees. I once saw Miss Conkling held under the water, until almost dead, and I feared she would never get her breath again. I saw Mrs. Comb held by the hair of her head under a streaming faucet, and handfuls of hair were pulled from her head, by their rough handling, simply because she would not eat when she was not hungry. I have seen the attendants strike the hands of the patients with their keys, so as to leave black and blue spots for days. I have seen them pinch their ears and arms and shoulders, MRS. SHEDD'S TESTIMONY. 243 and shake them, when they felt that they could not eat; and were thus forced to eat when their stomachs were so rejecting it as to be retching at the time. There is one married woman there who has been imprisoned seven times by her husband, and yet she is intelligent and entirely sane? When will married woman be safe from her husband's power? And yet, she must assert her own rights, for the government does not protect her rights, as it does her husband's, and then run the risk of being called insane for so doing! I do not think the men who make the laws for us, would be willing to ex- change places with us. This house seems to me to be more a place of punishment, than a place of cure. I have often heard the patients say: “This is a wholesale slaughter-house!” And there is more truth than the people ought to allow in this remark. They bury the dead in the night, and with no more religious ceremony than the brute has. We can hear the dead cart go round the house in the night to bury those pris- oners who have been killed by abuse; and their next door room-mates would not know, sometimes for months, what had become of them, because they were told they had gone home, when they had gone to their silent graves ! I have heard of one case where the patient had been dead one year, before the Doctor informed the friends of the death of their relative! The prisoners are not allowed to write to their friends what kind of treatment they are receiving, and an attempt to do so clandestinely, is punished as an offense. The punishment for this offense is, they must have their term of imprisonment lengthened for it. I once knew the Doctor to threaten to keep one prisoner longer even for aiding another in getting a letter to her friends. 244 MODERN PERSECUTION. The indefinite time for which they are imprisoned renders this prison all the more dismal. If the prisoner could but know for how long a time he must suffer this incarceration, it would be a wonderful relief. Then the Superintendent could not perpetuate it at his own option, as he now can and does. These prisoners are much more at the mercy of their keepers than the penitentiary convicts. As it is now conducted I should choose the place of the convict in the penitentiary, rather than the place of a patient in Jacksonville Insane Asylum. And yet there is not one in a hundred probably, of the patients who is treated as well as I was during the four- teen weeks I was imprisoned there. The above statement, I stand responsible for as the truth as it was when I was there; and I now challenge the people of Illinois to bring forward proof, if it can be found to refute it. Indeed I court and invite the most rigid investigation, know- ing that the result will only be a confirmation of this state- ment. TIRZAH F. SHEDD. Aurora, May, 1867. CHAPTER XXXII. Testimony of Eight Employees Taken by the Committee Under Oath. The following is only a specimen of what the Investigating Committee received in great abundance from a large number of reliable witnesses, the whole of which is found in detail in the archives of the Library Room at the State-House, Spring- field, Illinois, the mere abstract of which would make a pon- derous volume. Within the limits of this book therefore I can only give a mere sample of what those faithful investigators collected for the perusal of future ages, showing that the pres- ent age had imperative reason for agitating the subject of Asylum Reform. Testimony of Miss Kain, an Attendant. Miss Kain testified, that she was forty-four years old, resided in Christian County, and was an attendant in hospital from about the middle of August, 1865, until the latter part of December, of the same year. When she went there Dr. McFarland told her he wanted her to assist in taking charge of a ward, then in charge of an attendant who, although not officially reported to him, yet he knew to be cruel to patients. He told her she would hear a great many hard stories about the institution, but she must not believe a word of them. A Mrs. Dorcas Ritter was the co-attendant of witness, in the new Eighth Ward ; and the first thing witness noticed was the cruelty of this Mrs. Ritter to the patients. Mrs. Ritter would not let them sit down, and if she found them so sitting, she 246 MODERN PERSECUTION. would take them by the hair of the head and lift them on the seat, and if they resisted she would often shove them back against the wall and choke them, or compel them in some harsh way to comply. The benches in the ward were straight backed and hard to sit upon; and Mrs. Ritter told witness, that if she allowed the patients to sit upon the floor and rest them, that Dr. McFarland would be mad, and which witness subsequently found to be true. This Mrs. Ritter, for a slight offense upon the part of the patients, would give them what was called a cold bath, which punishment consisted in putting the patients in a bath-tub, half or two-thirds filled with cold water, their hands and feet tied, and if they resisted, a straight jacket was placed upon them, their heads plunged under the water as long as it was safe to leave them, then lifted out for a few moments to allow them to breathe and cast the water from their stomach, and the same process continued as long as the patient was thought able to bear it. Witness further swore, that this Mrs. Ritter told her she came near killing a patient named Miss D. Haven, and that Dr. Dutton, who chanced to be passing shortly after, observed that the patient looked sick, and on being informed that Mrs. Ritter had been giving her a bath, the Doctor told her how long it was safe to keep them under water, and if they kept them in until they vomited, there was danger of their dying. Witness further stated that in giving patients these baths they were generally plunged three or four times, until quite prostrate and unable to resist. Miss Kain stated that this Mrs. Ritter remained in the in- stitution about three or four weeks after Miss Kain went there, but that before Mrs. Ritter left, she administered these baths three or four times to different patients; and that Mrs. Ritter told her that the attendants were not allowed to administer TESTIMONY OF EIGHT EMPLOYEES. 247 these baths, without instructions from the Doctor, but that they sometimes did do it without such instructions, and the Doctor knew it; and that the Doctor and Miss Belle Bailey and Mrs. Haskett set them the example of giving the patients these baths, and breaking them in," as they called it. Miss Kain swears that the patients were sick for several days, and sometimes two weeks, after receiving these baths. Witness also swore that her ward was the new Fifth, and was made up of some of the hardest and most obstinate cases from the other wards; that she saw this Mrs. Ritter frequently jacket and beat patients; that at one time, during witness' stay in the institution, eleven patients were sick with flux in her ward, and that they were not furnished with medicines, nor she with any extra help or nurses, and that four of them. died ; that she, witness, made no complaints to Dr. McFarland of these abuses, because it was understood in the institution that such complaints would receive no attention. Witness also mentioned another case of a Mrs. Magin, who was indecently treated by Mrs. Haskett. Soon after she entered the institution, Mrs. McFarland, who from the evi- dence, appears to have been a most kind and sympathetic lady, told witness that the patients were not being kindly treated, and that there must be a change, as the matter was getting out and would damage the institution. Testimony of Mrs. Graff, Directress of the Sewing Room. Mrs. Graff, formerly Mrs. P. L. Hosmer, testified that she resided near Jacksonville; was fifty-two years old ; had been directress in the sewing-room about four and a half years. Mrs. Graff swears to the punishment of a Miss Jane Barack- man, by shower-bath, for improper conduct to an attendant. The patient had been taken out of the water, and was just 248 MODERN PERSECUTION. able to speak. At another time this same patient was strapped with her hands behind her back, in the morning, and the straps kept on until the next morning, and her groans during the night kept the witness from sleeping; and the witness further states, that she had known instances where the straps had been drawn so tightly as to cut through the skin, and into the flesh. Another instance named was a new patient, on the night after arrival, whom the witness thought, from the sound of the voice, was being choked by two attendants. She told Mrs. McFarland of it, who informed the Doctor. The Doctor went into the room where the patient was, and after staying some time, came out but did not speak to witness. The next morn- ing she asked the Doctor if what she said about choking the patient was a lie, and he said “no,” but it was best to say nothing about it, as one of the attendants was going away, and it would hurt the institution to have it go out. Another case was that of Mrs. Boyce. This was a very emaciated patient," and her stomach all crushed in as it were.” She was a wild patient, and would tear up and take off her clothes, but witness could always manage her better than others. Witness had seen her sitting day after day with her feet tied; and on one occasion she and Mrs. McFarland found her in the screen-room, laying on her back on a hard pallet of straw, with her feet tied, and her hands tied behind her back with a large bed-cord, and just alive. She had a straight- jacket on, and the jacket was laced up with ropes as large as a bed-cord. The witness held the light, and Mrs. McFarland manifesting her grief in groans, untied the patient. Witness afterwards showed the jacket to Miss Dix, when she was there, and the pattern of the jackets was afterwards changed, and softer cords used in lacing the jackets. TESTIMONY OF EIGHT EMPLOYEES. 249 Testimony of Miss Jenny Kee, an Attendant. Miss Jenny Kee, who is twenty-four years old, resides in Jacksonville, and was an attendant from the spring of 1861 to 1862, about fourteen months. Swears to a case of cruelty about one month after she went there to a patient named Anna Myers, by an attendant named Elizabeth Bonner. The attendant took the patient, who was a very insane and idiotic patient, by the hair of the head and pounded the floor with it. She saw this punishment inflicted several times. Also knew of same attendant punishing a Mrs. Thompson, by taking her by the hand and twisting her arm; and a Miss Kate Daly, by striking her hands with keys, leaving marks. Also a Mrs. Loop, by same attendant, by pulling her and putting her wrist out of joint. The Committee says: “This Elizabeth Bonner, who appears from the testimony of several witnesses, to have been a merciless and brutal wretch, was in the Institution as an attendant when this witness went there and when she left.” Testimony of Mrs. Sarah Bland, an Attendant. Mrs. Sarah Bland, aged 39 years, and a resident of Jack- sonville, was attendant from March, 1863, to October, 1865, a part of the time was in sewing-room, and had opportunities of knowing the general treatment of patients. This witness inentions the abuse of Miss Eames, who was a very stupid, quiet and delicate looking patient. In the spring of 1865, the witness heard screams in the bath-room. A Miss Kate Snow came out of the room and inquired for the Doctor, and said that Miss Lawrence, the attendant, had Miss Eames in the bath-room and was beating her brutally. Witness went into the wash-room, and, on coming out, heard the blows, and then went into the ward, when Miss Lawrence came out of the bath-room and locked the door, and said witness could not 250 MODERN PERSECUTION. have any patients out of that ward. In the evening witness saw Miss Eames in bed, and told witness, her eyes filling with tears at the time, that Miss Lawrence had almost killed her, and asked to look at her back, which witness was prevented from doing by Miss Lawrence, who came in and told witness to go out of the ward—that she should not come in and excite the patients. Witness had three patients to go out of the ward into the sewing-room; and Miss Lawrence took them by the back and pushed them violently into the ward. The patient died one week after the morning she was pounded. The next was in the spring of 1865. A Mrs. Sutton, who was not a violent patient and seemed to be in good health, was punished very badly by two attendants-Mrs. Lydia Riggs and Miss Bell Bailey—and was confined to her room for two weeks after her punishment; at the expiration of which time the witness saw her, when the patient's face was a dark green color, without any natural flesh except around the mouth. This Miss Bailey is still retained, and is supervisoress in the hospital, and denies that punishments are ever inflicted in the hospital, or that she ever, intentionally, injured a patient! The next case mentioned by this witness was that of Maggie Rowland, in the summer of 1865. The witness heard a strugle in the bath-room and attempted to go in, but was prevented by Miss Bailey who was in the room, and put her foot against the door and shut it. The witness stayed near by for some time, and heard brutal blows administered to patient. The pa- tient was kept in the bath-room for some time after. In the evening witness saw her, and her face was badly beaten up; and on being spoken to by witness, the patient cried and looked as though she had no friends. This patient, who was lame, was a talkative, noisy person, who did not appear to be violent. The witness says that the reason she did not tell the Doctor was, that she was afraid of getting into a scrape if she told, for the Doctor had, before this, told her he did not wish to have TESTIMONY OF EIGHT EMPLOYEES. 251 her make any mischief by getting up excitement among the patients she was with. She says she afterwards, however, did report a case to the Doctor, and he told her to mind her own business, and she after this did not report other cases to the Doctor because of this conversation. The last case which this witness mentions was that of a Mrs. Clark, who had been sick sometime in bed, and as the attendants were dragging her to the bath-room, she asked them not to take her there, but to let her die where she was. As they raised the patient to put her in the bath-tub, she dropped down dead. The names of these attendants are Miss Mary Rice and Miss Mary Smith. Testimony of Mrs. Mary Cassell, Assistant Matron. Mrs. Mary Cassell is twenty-four years of age, and has lived in Jacksonville eight years; was employed in the hospital from April, 1860, to May, 1861, as assistant matron, and filled the place now called supervisoress. Does not personally know of any case of abuse which she saw administered. Remembers the case of Mrs. Farenside, a patient who appeared one morning at the breakfast table in fifth ward, the worst, after having been removed from the seventh, the best, with a black eye. Inquired the cause, and patient and Elizabeth Bonner said that Dr. McFarland struck her. One eye was black, and one side of her face was very much bruised and blackened for several days. After these bruises were inflicted, the patient was taken from the best ward, the seventh, to the new fifth, which was unoccupied, and confined in a room by herself. Never knew the patient to be boisterous, and think if she had been unmanageable she would not have been in the best ward. Patient and Elizabeth Bon- ner both told witness that Dr. McFarland kicked her. 252 MODERN PERSECUTION. Witness then testified that she thought the patients ought to be more kindly treated generally; that many times, when they were sick and feeble, they were prevented from taking proper rest during the day on their beds—it was the practice of the house not to allow them to lie down during the day-time, and the idea advanced was that the patients did not know when they needed rest—that they were inclined to lie down more than was good for them; and it was a most universal com- plaint in the female wards, on the part of those who were too feeble and weak to sit up, that they were not allowed to lie down in the day-time-remembered one particular case where the patient was ill and wanted to lie down, and her attendant, Miss Eagle, said no, the Doctor did not allow it, and the face of the patient, witness well remembered. Testimony of J. C. Edmundson, Assistant Engineer. John C. Edmundson, aged thirty-five years, was assistant engineer in hospital from April, 1861, to October 2d, 1865. Testified that before he had been there a week he saw a patient knocked down by Joseph Tinker, an attendant, with a stick, because he absent-mindedly picked a thread out of his coat. Witness proposed to report the case to Dr. McFarland, but Eastman, the principal engineer, who had been there three years, told witness he had better not report it if he wanted to stay in the institution. The patient on being knocked down seemed perfectly dead; was not able to get up; had no government over himself, and was taken away and put in the screen-room. The next case mentioned by this witness was George Rich- ards, a patient of Jacksonville, who was kept in the screen-room entirely naked, in the cold winter; and when witness came to TESTIMONY OF EIGHT EMPLOYEES. 253 work in the morning, to raise steam, at one, two or three o'clock, patient would beg for warmth. It was about fifty feet from screen-room to bath-tub, and the attendants would take the patient by the heels and drag him over the floor. One day, as they were about to bathe this patient, witness says, they had drawn the tub full of hot water and had him up in their arms ready to plunge him in the tub, when another patient, by the name of Cooper, jumped in and saved him. Witness says this patient was kept in the screen-room the most of the winter of 1863–4; that the room had nothing in it, except sometimes a little straw, a straw tick or blanket, which he would tear up and wrap around him for warmth. This patient died the summer or fall after this confinement. Mr. Haitt, of Chicago, was also kept in a screen-room almost constantly, and beat and bruised until his limbs were swollen. He was jerked and jammed until his legs were almost a per- fect jelly. He went home and came back. Witness heard him speak very kindly of Mrs. McFarland for doctoring his limbs after they were bruised. The two attendants in the ward who abused this patient were Germans. Patient complained that these attendants would not give him anything; and if he asked for anything they would beat and kick him; and witness has given him water, put through the window. When patient left the institution the second time, he said, it he ever came across the attendant who abused him so, he would kill him, if they hung him for it. The witness gave the names of the German attendants who abused the patients, as Pepen- bring and Smultz, and said they both resided in Jacksonville. This witness said that he did not believe Dr. McFarland ap- proved of these abuses, and that the reason he did not report them was that he was afraid if he did he would lose his place. 254 MODERN PERSECUTION. When he talked with the Doctor about business, he got a very short answer, or a nod of the head; and he came to the conclu- sion there was not much satisfaction. He left the institution because he got tired of it—requested to be relieved several months before he left, but the Doctor requested him to stay. Testimony of George Merrick, Attendant. George Merrick, aged forty-five years, and residing in Jack- sonville, was an attendant in hospital from February to June, 1866. He testifies to the abuse of Jacob Myers, a young patient, by the supervisor, Mr: Doane, who, without provocation, caught him by the ankles when he was undressing and threw him on the floor and injured him severely. Also David Ayres, a very docile man, and consumptive and sick and feeble, who, the witness states, was neglected by Dr. Dutton and refused medical treatment, and soon after died. Also, David Smith, about twenty-six years of age, a patient who was very bad and crazy. One day witness heard a loud noise in the ward where Smith was, and looking into the ward he saw the attendant, William Roy, jamming his head against the ceiling. Smith made no resistance, but his nose bled and his eye was black. Also a patient by the name of Creighton, who was a small Irishman about twenty-five years old. Witness one day saw him on a bench, and he was wholly speechless—could not move his head; was swollen and was badly bruised. Akers, the at- tendant, told witness that the patient was a bad man, and they had a hell of a time with him. That night witness helped the patient to bed on the floor, and the next night he died. Witness says that he did not know of any medical attend- ance or medicines furnished him, and he should have probably known it if they had. TESTIMONY OF EIGHT EMPLOYEES. 255 Witness assisted in laying out the patient, whose head and face were very much swollen; was black under the eyes and on the cheek bones; there were bruises about his arms and shoulders and other parts of his body, and had a wound on the face. The patients informed witness that a few days before this, James Akers, Thomas Kearney, John Doan, supervisor, John Roy and William Roy, employees of the institution, had beat the patient. Another case was a wild young patient by the name of Veach, who escaped. Was retaken, and on arriving at the again making his escape. On being taken he was handcuffed; his feet shackled ; put in a crib and put up in one of the bed- rooms of the third ward, where he was kept about three months. The crib was made of strips of plank about three and a half inches wide and two and a half inches apart, and was about two feet high, five and a half feet long, and two and a half feet wide. The witness says the patient could not be in any other posi- tion in the crib but on his back; and there was some bedding in the crib, and he thinks, a pillow under his head. This witness says he had difficulty with Akers and Doan about their abusing the patients cruelly, and he supposes he was discharged on that account. When inquired of by Dr. McFarland if he had not been taking liquor the evening of the difficulty with Doan and Akers, he said he had not; that he was not in the habit of drinking liquor, and resented any such imputation; that he was sometimes, by permission, absent Saturday evenings at the choir meetings, and on Sunday and Wednesday evenings at the well known in the community. 256 MODERN PERSECUTION. Testimony of John Henry, Steward of the Asylum. Witness John Henry, who has resided in Jacksonville about forty years, and was a member of the State Senate when the act of incorporation was passed, in 1847, and afterwards steward of the hospital, about one year, from 1848 to 1849. His situation made him acquainted with the general treat- ment of patients; and knew of cases of cruelty and inhuman treatment to them. . One case was an Englishman, whose name he does not re- member. Said he had, on one occasion, returned from down town, and was standing outside of the building, and heard a distressing voice in the second ward, and went into the build- ing and found the patient in the hands of two men holding him on his back, and the third man standing on the bathing tub and pouring water in his face and nose from a pail. The patient was struggling and strangling for breath. The witness rescued the patient, and drove the attendants from the room, and reported the case to Dr. McFarland. He subsequently called the Doctor's attention to the case, with the view of having it investigated, and had a Mr. Crandley do the same. Being satisfied that the case was not investigated, he re- ported it to Mr. Stephenson, the President of the Board, and told him if such things occurred again he would make com- plaint to the grand jury. He says he frequently heard of other cases of cruelty, from persons employed about the building. Witness thinks Dr. McFarland is destitute of common sym- pathy to the patients, and did not listen to their complaints with kindness; nor give that personal attention to the conduct of the attendants which was necessary to a personal knowledge of their treatment; and appeared indifferent when complaints of cruelty were made to him. TESTIMONY OF EIGHT EMPLOYEES. 257 The Committee say :-“ These eight witnesses, in their testimony specially above referred to, have described particu- lar and atrocious abuses, by attendants, to over twenty different patients, whose names are given; and the most of the cases are mentioned by them with circumstantial minute- ness. The names of eighteen different attendants are men- tioned by them as being engaged in these cruelties. The most of them are of comparatively recent date; and they are within the recollection of witnesses now living and accessible.” And for Mia CHAPTER XXXIII. Dr. McFarland's Self-Accusation. Guilt is its own accuser-So with Dr. McFarland. When he found the “ Personal Liberty Bill ” had actually passed into a law, and the “Investigating Committee” were also appointed, it seemed to him as if his day of judgment had come, such fear and terror possessed him. I have been told by a relative of his sister, who lives in Zanesville, Ohio, and she received this information from his sister's own lips that when her brother found the investigation was decided upon by the legislature, and the Committee appointed for this purpose, that he left his family without their knowledge, and without even knowing himself where he should go, with only a small satchel of clothing with him. He arrived at her house in the evening and, meeting him at her door, in response to his knock, was accosted with this strange inquiry : 6 Can you lodge a poor fellow here to-night?” 66 Why, Brother Andrew, how do you do? To be sure we can. What do you mean? Come in.” He entered, and in reply to her inquiry said: 66 Sister, I am ruined! I am a ruined man!” “ Brother, what ails you? What is the matter?” asked his astonished sister. 6. That woman has ruined me! She has got a Committee of the legislature appointed to investigate the asylum. And I am ruined !” . What lady has ruined you?” 66 Mrs. Packard—I kept her in the asylum at her husband's request, and now she has exposed me, and I am ruined.” TITUTII TITTITUUTLITETIT TULLLILIITTITETIT DI LUM KOLE JU Wie llllllllll WWW Wh WIU Winner CHAMBERLIN, SIMILE Dr. McFarland's Self-accusation. “I am ruined! I am ruined! Mrs. Packard has ruined me!" See page 259. DR. MCFARLAND'S SELF-ACCUSATION. 259 “ Brother, no woman can ruin you. You need not fear her influence. Your character is too well established to be ruined by slander.” 6 But, Sister, the Committee are appointed—and they are to investigate. And I am ruined! I do not know what to do. I left my family in Jacksonville, without telling them where I was going—I did not know myself.” This panic-stricken sinner's fears could not be allayed by all the reason and argument and entreaties his friends could urge in his behalf. His monotonous response would invariably be : “I am ruined! Mrs. Packard has ruined me!” His friends thought he was insane, that trouble had de- throned his reason and driven him mad, as insanity was hereditary in his family. They accordingly telegraphed to his wife that they so re- garded him—that they would detain him until he became more calm, and would not let him wander farther, unattended. She need not fear, as they should not let him leave their house until he had got over his intense excitement. At night they visited his room, and instead of finding him in bed, he was walking his room ringing his hands in agony, exclaiming: “I am ruined ! I am ruined! Mrs. Packard has ruined me !" Now, is it not true, as the Committee express it: « That a fair and impartial investigation never injures the innocent, but is frequently the means of their vindication, and a restoration of public confidence, where that confidence has been causelessly impaired.” Why, therefore, did Dr. McFarland so dread this investi- gation if he was innocent, and had conscious rectitude to stand upon ? In such a case he would have nothing to fear, but every- thing to hope for, from an impartial investigation. 260 MODERN PERSECUTION. But did he fear his evil deeds would be exposed, and he be brought to justice by an incensed public? So it seems, from his fleeing when no one was pursuing him. No pursuer !—did I say? Yes. He was pursued by a guilty conscience, from which he found it impossible to escape. It is the wicked or guilty “ who flee when no man pursueth;" but the righteous or innocent are “bold as a lion,” because they have no reason to fear evil results from conscious rectitude. CHAPTER XXXIV. Result of the Investigation. As seen in the foregoing pages, the Committee found Dr. McFarland a guilty man-guilty of all the charges brought against him—and therefore unworthy the confidence the public had been reposing in him, and these conscientious, faithful investigators had the moral courage to place this public servant just where his own actions placed him. They had no power delegated to them to depose him. Their instruction from the Legislature was : “ To confer with the trustees for the correction of abuses, and to report to the Governor at their discretion.” This they did ; but they found the trustees determined to defend the Doctor in spite of all this overwhelming testimony of his guilt. Therefore to confer with them was useless, so far as correc- tion of abuses was concerned, since they were so blind they would not even see that these abuses did exist. All that remained now for them to do, was, “ to report to the Governor," which they did, Dec. 1st, 1867. This report was published in the Tribune and Times, and the verdict of the people plainly coincided with that of the Committee, viz.: That the present incumbent, Dr. McFarland ought to be re- moved at once. But the laws governing the institution admit that no other method of removing the incumbent, except through the trus- tees who appointed him. The Committee were powerless to act in that direction, while the trustees sustained the Superintendent. All they had power 262 MODERN PERSECUTION. to do to get him removed they did do, by reporting to the Gov- ernor, and if he did not call a special meeting of the Legisla- ture to attend to this business, they must wait until a year from that time, as the Legislature met only once in two years. But when they did meet in 1869 they reported to that body and their report was accepted and adopted. The following is copied from this report. The Committee say that in entering upon their duties : “ They had well hoped that, although there might be mis takes or even neglect on the part of the Superintendent nothing involving his character as a humane man and gentle- man, would be shown to exist. 6. In this, however, the Committee have been grievously dis- appointed. Familiarity with suffering and sorrow has appar- ently to some extent, deadened his sensibilities and sym- pathies; and long accustomed to govern, he has become about the hospital a kind of supreme law, and the rule of force has too often usurped the law of love. 6 And the classification of patients in their wards does seem, in many cases, fundamentally wrong. The refined and culti- vated are found many times placed where they are annoyed by the vulgar and profane, and often perfectly quiet patients are placed with the noisy, excited, violent and dangerous ones. “ As to restraints,' it appears that those in use in the hos- pital, are the screen-room, the straight-jacket or camisole, the wristers, the crib-bedsteads and the bath-tub, all of which, when properly used, as means of restraining or controlling patients in their paroxysms, seem proper and necessary; but when used as instruments of torture by inhuman angry atten- dants, as the testimony shows they have been, is reprehen- sible. The ordinary bath-tub has also been so used in this hospital by the attendants, as a means of punishment, that the threat of a bath has more terrors attached to it than a straight- jacket. RESULT OF THE INVESTIGATION. 263 66 Again, his police regulations are bad, and fatal to his government. He assumes that insane patients are never to be believed, and therefore does not listen with favor to their complaints. “ He substantially denies the right of petition and investi- gation, and like all public officers who do this, he finds him- self, too late, surrounded with difficulties, and imposed upon. “ He does not require or encourage attendants to report to him each other's delinquencies, and for this reason he is ignor- ant of a large portion of the abuses. His government of patients is believed too severe, and his discipline of attendants too mild. 6 The Committee, throughout the investigation, have endeav- ored to jealously guard the true interests of the institution- to neither shield the guilty nor magnify their faults—but to carefully ascertain as far as possible, the truth, and when ascertained, to fearlessly declare it. “ They have believed, and still believe, that in view of a late public distrust in its management, justice to all persons offi- cially connected with it, as well as the patients, demanded a thorough investigation, to the end that it complaints so com- monly made were without foundation, the officers might be vindicated, and if true, they might be dismissed. “ And the Committee do not at all sympathize with the feelings, very naturally entertained by many persons residing in the vicinity of our State institutions, that they who listen to complaints or promptly investigate them, are enemies to the institution. Such are its true friends. “ The testimony was finally closed on the 30th ultimo, and after hearing the argument of the counsel, and carefully review- ing and considering the evidence, the Committee unanimously resolved that it seemed their imperative duty to recommend: “ An immediate change in the office of Superintendent, and the correction of abuses shown to exist.” 264 MODERN PERSECUTION. Signed by the Committee : ALLEN C. FULLER, ANDREW J. HUNTER, ELMER BALDWIN, T. B. WAKEMAN, JOHN B. RICKS. December 2d, 1867. Action of the Legislature. REPORT OF JOINT COMMITTEE. The foregoing reports and evidence and papers relating thereto, having been referred to the Committee on State In- stitutions of the House, said Committee would respectfully report that the evidence relates solely to the management of the Hospital for the insane, and that the report of the Com- mittee of Investigation contains a fair and substantial abstract of so much of said evidence as appears necessary to an under- standing of the subject of the Investigation. From an examination of said reports and evidence, we are satisfied that the investigation was thorough and impar- tial, and adopt the conclusions arrived at by the Investigating Committee. February 20, 1869. H. C. CHILDS, Chairman. SAMUEL WILEY, GEO. GAYLORD, CHARLES G. READE, E. H. TALBOT, C. W. MARSH, GEO. W. PARKER, A. KINYON, N. R. CASEY, JOHN W. Ross, S. R. SALTONSTALL, Jos. COOPER. Committee on State Institutions of the House. RESULT OF THIS INVESTIGATION 265 The undersigned, Committee on State Institutions of the Senate, in compliance with a joint resolution of this General Assembly, directing them to report an abstract of the testi- mony taken by the Committee, appointed by the General As- sembly, to investigate the affairs of the insane, and other In- stitutions, respectfully report: That they have adopted the abstract of the evidence as found in the report of said Investigating Committee, to his Excel- lency, the Governor, and have caused the said report to be printed in full ; and herewith submit the same for the consid- eration of the Senate. JOHN McNuLTA, Chairman. JOHN H. ADDAMS, WILLIAM PATTON, J. D. WARD, T. A. BOYD, J: L. TINCHER, S. R. CHRITTENDEN, Jas. M. EPLER, J.J. R. TURNEY, Committee on State Institutions of Senate. 12 CHAPTER XXXV. Dr. McFarland's Exit from the Asylum. The Investigating Committee finding Dr. McFarland guilty of all the charges brought against him, recommended his im- mediate removal from the Asylum. The Legislature endorsed the conclusions arrived at by their Committee. Governor Palmer fully coincided with the decision of the Legislature, that he be removed, and acted in accordance with his convictions in the course he took to accomplish his imme- diate exit from the Asylum, as the writer heard from the Gov- ernor's own lips. Said he: “ Since the Legislature have recommended the removal of Dr. McFarland, and feeling disposed to act in harmony with them, I therefore made this point a specialty in the appoint- ment of the Trustees, for by the laws governing this matter, the trustees are the only power that can remove the Superin- tendent; and determined to appoint no one on this board who would not pledge himself to remove Dr. McFarland at once.” “Did you carry out this purpose, Governor Palmer ?” “I did, in this manner. Mr. Morrison, one of the trustees, came to me and said he had been appointed by the board to confer with me as to their re-appointment. He said it was self-evident the action of the Legislature required the removal of the Doctor; that if they were displaced at the same time the verdict of public condemnation would rest upon themselves also. Therefore, to avoid this identification with the Superin- tendent's fall, they respectfully asked the Governor to re-elect them, saying: In the name of the Trustees we give you our pledge that we will remove Dr. McFarland at the earliest possible date. · Mr. Morrison's Interview with Governor Palmer. In the name of the Trustees, we give you our pledge that we will remov" Dr. McFarland at the earliest possible date !" See page 266. DR. MCFARLAND'S EXIT. 267 6 Believing them to be honorable men whose veracity could be trusted in the fulfillment of this, their voluntary pledge of honor, I re-appointed them for another term, fully expecting that at their next meeting, in about two weeks from date, they would do as they had promised to do, viz. : Remove the Su- perintendent and appoint another in his place. “But lo! instead of redeeming their promise, by accepting Dr. McFarland's resignation, they reinstated the Doctor and resigned themselves!” Thus by a resort to deceit, and artfully wicked chicanery, these trustees—men whom the Governor and the people had trusted as the guardians of their institution—dared to set at naught their honor and honesty and recklessly disregard the known wishes of the Governor—the Committee-the Legisla- ture—and the people of Illinois—who had every reason to be- lieve they would do their duty, and carry out the wishes of their constituents by removing this, their unprincipled public servant, in the manner prescribed by law. This persistent determination on the part of the Trustees to sustain the Doctor in defiance of public sentiment, of truth, honor or justice, demonstrated the fact that policy not princi- ple influenced their action in this matter; thus proving with- out a question, that they deserve the same condemnation the Superintendent receives from the verdict of the people. The names of these Trustees are: E. G. MINER, President. FERNANDO JONES, JOSEPH T. ECCLES, FRANCIS A. HOFFMAN, RICHARD C. DUNN, Isaac L. MORRISON. It had been only about two weeks since this board had been re-appointed, and now, after breaking their solemn promise 268 MODERN PERSECUTION. to the Governor to do the special work for which he had re- elected them, they resigned, leaving it incumbent on Governor Palmer to appoint a new board, which he did. This board did not deem it their duty to undo the work of their predecessors, but only to take the institution as they found it, and discharge its appropriate duties. As the Legislature would not meet again for two years, he would have, in the mean time, an opportunity to show to the world that he was not discharged as the result of the investi- gation, but as he remained in his office the natural inference would be that his character was vindicated ! But it was not. The unmistakable voice of the people uttered its condemna- tion too distinctly to venture another expression of its wishes through the coming Legislature. To avoid this, he therefore resigned before the meeting of the next Legislature, and his resignation was accepted and another appointed and installed in his place. Dr. McFarland still resides in Jacksonville, in a house which he has built upon his large farm, which he has so long culti- vated by the unpaid labor of Illinois State prisoners, who have been falsely represented as Dr. McFarland's patients, when in reality they were his slaves. From the avails of this labor, thus purloined, he has re- ceived a remunerative income, by which, added to the other robberies he has made upon the State's appropriated funds for One of this Investigating Committee remarked to me in view of the deceit and chicanery developed by the investigation: “I never saw such an exhibition of artifice, deceit and double dealing and robbery and purloining of public treasure in any department of society as was developed by the prac- tices of this corrupt Superintendent." DR. MCFARLAND'S EXIT. 269 Rumor says, that Dr. McFarland is intending to convert his house into a private asylum, hoping the public will still patro- nize him as an expert in the cure of insanity! But if the number he has cured by his treatment were bal- anced by the number he has killed and made hopelessly in- sane, it is my opinion the scales would indicate a decided balance in favor of those he has murdered and made insane maniacs, over the number he has cured. And besides those he claims as his cured patients, are in a majority of cases those who were cured in spite of his treat- ment rather than in consequence of it. Like the infants thrown into the Ganges, those who are devoured and drowned are the rule, while those who escape this fate are the excep- tions. As far as treatment is concerned, the most indifferent nurse could do more towards curing an insane person than I ever knew Dr. McFarland to do, either directly or indirectly. For what one physician said of his treatment at Utica Asylum, New York, might with truth be said of many of the patients in Jacksonville Asylum while I was there, namely: He said in consequence of loss of property and failure in business he became melancholy and partially insane and his friends advised that he go to the asylum at Utica, N. Y., for treatment. He went, and while riding over the country which intervened between his home and the asylum, a distance of several days' ride in a private vehicle, his mind became so diverted by the scenery of the country through which he passed, and the varied and new surroundings of asylum life, that before he had been in the asylum twenty-four hours he became entirely sane. Now comes in the “ treatment” he received. For three years after his reception for “ treatment," the doctor never even so much as spoke to him, much less treated him medically! He was kept a close prisoner five years, when he succeeded 270 MODERN PERSECUTION. in making his escape, and has since been a successful practi- tioner of medicine. He asserts that he was just as sane all these five years as he is at present, and would have been there still had he been dependent upon the Superintendent for his discharge. Now we would inquire, what medical knowledge does a Superintendent or medical physician need in an Insane Asylum? Judging of his application of his knowledge to the patients he needs none at all! Any one who can turn a bolt with the key of the State is capacitated for a medical Superintendent of our present Insane Asylum system, conducted as that was by Dr. Andrew McFarland at Jacksonville. The Investigating Committee reported that they found just, and abundant occasion for complaint of criminal indifference on the part of the Snperintendent towards the interests of his patients. I have been told, neither do I doubt the fact, that patients have been known to have been dead and buried one year in the asylum burial grounds before the Superintendent had even informed their friends of their death! Such cases have doubtless been the victims of foul usage, whose corpses would have testified against him, had they been suffered to be examined by their friends, in a reasonable time after their decease. And the heathenish usage of insane asylums generally, of burying their patients secretly, and regardless of any Christian obsequies or ceremonies, affords these murderers a rare opportunity for escaping detection of their crimes, which, under other circumstances, would convict a man of a capital criminal offense. At Jacksonville Asylum the patients are buried in the dead of night by lamp-light-without the least recognition of their humanity by any kind of burial service. But mournerless and DR. MCFARLAND'S EXIT. 271 palless the rough box containing the corpse is transported upon an ox-cart to the unenclosed and unadorned burial ground of the asylum, near by, where the hirelings bury them as they would a beast! and leave no monument to designate the spot where they lie, except a humble wooden slab at the head of the grave. I will close this chapter, with an extract from “Mrs. Olsen's Prison Life," who has in her book given a graphic description of an asylum burial in these words, viz. : “I wish here to mention that the deaths are kept as secret as possible. The body is carried away in the night, with no funeral, and either sent home or buried in the asylum cemetery. “ In one of my walks, I counted eighty-seven graves in that little enclosure, which, on inquiry, I found had been dug in less than four years—though I have reason to believe that the great majority of those who die are not buried there, but con- veyed to their former homes in their coffins. “How many go there to find their cure' in death is more, I imagine, than is for the interest of Dr. McFarland to make public. “ Then hurry on some cheap shroud-hustle them into a cheap coffin-don't stop for a funeral—where are the mourn- ers take them from their .cells to the dead-room-step quickly, but carefully-make no noise-go out in twilight when no one sees—throw up the turf with hasty spade—and then by the trembling moon-beams aid, or “the lantern dimly burning, bury them darkly at dead of night!” No minister—no weeping—no matter—they are insane!” “Rattle their bones over the stones, They are lunatics ! that no one but Jesus owns.'” CH CHAPTER XXXVI. The Death Penalty to be Annihilated. Dr. McFarland says he does not believe in annihilating the death penalty for murder—that he has not progressed so far as that—for he says: 66 Did not God command life to be taken for life? Did He not command Agag to be hewn in pieces as his punishment ?" I replied, “ Yes, He did, but I do not therefore infer that we have a right so to do, for He himself was the law-maker and executive of the Jewish code. Of course every law was just and right, being wisely adapted to the infant state in which the race of men then existed.” 6 Do you think the race is in any better condition now than it was then?” “I consider they are in a more developed state ; good and evil are both stronger and more vigorous, because their capaci- ties have increased. In consequence of this growth or develop- ment, a different kind of training is required to adapt itself to man's higher nature. For example, you would not feel justi- fied in using the same kind of discipline over your developed son of twenty-one years, as with your son of three or five years. To attempt to compel him with penalties and restraints as you do your child, would be trifling with his manhood, in- sulting his manly feelings, and would justly bring you and your authority into derision. So God having himself con- trolled the race in its childhood, and as their father until they were of age, when they must require a different kind of train- ing, He then abrogated the Jewish code, and instituted in its place, the Christian dispensation, of which Christ was the ex- pounder. Now, instead of returning “an eye for an eye, and PENALTY TO BE ANNIHILATED 273 a tooth for a tooth," we must return good for evil, and leave judgment and vengeance for our wrongs, to Him who judgeth righteous judgment. For he says, “ Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” I do not think it is right for one sinner to punish another sinner. None but a righteous person is capable of inflicting a righteous punishment. God knowing this, instructs us to leave this matter entirely to Himself. He may rise up and qualify a class of capacitated judges from the human race, to whom this power of judgment may be delegated. But I think this will never be the case, so long as God's image in man is so defaced. The lost image of the godhead must be restored in man, before he can be fitted to be God's representative on the earth as judge of his fellow men. I think the time is not far distant when righteousness shall be established on the earth; when Christ-like men will rule supreme over fallen perverted humanity. Then the demon, Penalty, will give place to the law of love and kindness, by means of which the transgressor will be reformed and restored to virtue, instead of being crushed down and debased by pen- alties as he now is. His God-like nature is now trampled in the dust, and no effort to rise are encouraged, but rather smothered by attempts to degrade him to the level of a beast. Punishments of a corporal kind are only adapted to man as an animal, in the earlier stages of his existence; their in- fluence can never be salutary after he has become a reasonable and accountable moral agent. He then sins through his rea- son and his intelligence, and he must be punished through his moral faculties as God has ordained. Shame and contrition must be awakened through the influence of respectful kind- ness to the wrong-doer; not by trying to degrade the noble faculties of his nature to a state of insensibility to moral in- fluences by punishments. The more man becomes developed as a reasonable being, the 274 MODERN PERSECUTION. more sensitive he becomes to those penal enactments whose legitimate tendencies are to obstruct, limit and destroy the natural aspirations of a moral agent. The age of penalties seems now to have culminated in this horrible civil war, wherein the developed reason of man is fiendishly employed in inventing means of destroying one an- other in the most barbarous manner. This crisis once passed, I believe the reign of peace will be inaugurated, wherein virtue will be protected, and cultivated by the influence of love and kindness, entirely independent of penalties and restraints. Now I claim, that these principles of punishment are ap- plicable to these asylum systems, and also of reforming Dr. McFarland, and other great sinners. Some of the moral forces of the universe have already ripened into vigorous manhood, and through their combined influence, evil is becoming timid, and seeks concealment, which is one step towards its annihilation. Like the concealing of the gallows from public observation into the prison yard, within the prison walls, indicating that the death penalty is to be destroyed, and is now on its way to destruction—this may be what is meant by death and hell being destroyed—that the death penalty and punishment both are to be annihilated in that community where moral power has acquired its manhood strength, and can stand alone, self- reliant, independent of penalties for its existence, just as a child naturally outgrows his educational influences, and with them, the penalties of disobedience, which in his infancy and childhood are necessary helps to his virtues. But when these have acquired manly strength, he no longer needs restraint and penalties, but can be trusted to take care of himself inde- pendent of dictation or control from others. In his own heart he has the only monitor he needs for virtuous action, viz: the dictates of an enlightened conscience. I believe the time has come when this hard-hearted man PENALTY TO BE ANNIHILATED. 275 must be punished for his iniquities. For a long time he has sustained the responsibilities of his position with honors not deserved. He has for a long time been trying to cover up the barbarities of his treatment of the prisoners, and has succeeded in making it appear otherwise. He has so deluded the mind of the Trustees and Legislature, by his sophistry and deep, cunning artifice, as to secure such laws as protect him in doing his nefarious work thus long undetected and unmolested. But the “searcher of hearts” can not be deceived or de- luded. He cannot be controlled by misrepresentations and a covert of lies. Lo! God, himself, by his providence, is now bringing him to justice; for after his long forbearance towards him, by giving him opportunities and space for repentance, he persists in clinging to his sins, instead of repenting of them. And now, Pharaoh like, he has sinned away his day of grace, so that repentance cannot now be accepted and pardon se- cured; but on the contrary, he must suffer the punishment due for his transgressions. The curse which his own conduct has secured, must come upon him, and no human power can prevent it. I do believe Dr. McFarland is now, like Pharaoh, undergo- ing that hardening of heart process which God calls his work; that is, God will not let him repent until he has been pun- ished. In other words, justice, stern justice, has taken the place which mercy before occupied. And when God hardens the heart no man can soften it. Inevitable destruction in- variably follows God's hardening process. This hardening process of the heart, such as God claims as his work, is only the developing of the real character, which character we have previously acquired by our own voluntary acts, while we have the liberty to choose for ourselves either the good or evil. But when we have reached a certain point, the ability to choose good is taken from us, so that we can then only clioose evil. God is then in his way hardening the heart. CHAPTER XXXVII. The Imputation of Insanity a Barrier to Human Progress. At one time I was made to feel exceedingly sad and sorrow- ful by a conversation I had with a lady who called upon me. I conversed freely and frankly with her, as usual, avowing my views and sentiments, and giving my reasons for the course I was pursuing. In her undeveloped condition she failed to comprehend them fully, and therefore, since the brand of insanity was upon me, she concluded these points which she could not readily com- prehend, were products of my insanity! This, from her standpoint, being an inevitable conclusion, her mind would necessarily be barred against any convictions of truth which I might present to her reason or intelligence. These goggles of insanity through which she now looks, dis- turb all her mental vision, so that she can no more apprehend a new truth through me, as its medium, than the scales of bigotry will admit any light through those who war with its dogmas. Now, supposing this position should be generally adopted, viz. : that what we cannot readily apprehend, is insanity; what encouragement have we to make progress, or become the bene- factors of our age, knowing that just as soon as we advance to any point of intelligence beyond another, we must be re- garded and treated as insane, and thus expose ourselves to a life-long imprisonment unless we recant? Is not the imputation of insanity the devil's barrier to human progress ? I feel that we ought to be very careful not to condemn what INSANITY A BARRIER TO PROGRESS. 277 we do not understand, for in Christ's case, his persecutors were condemned as guilty of “blasphemy,” for doing this very thing. The blinded Jews, who were wedded to their creed with as firm a tenacity as the Orthodox Church of the present day is to their own, could not therefore apprehend the principles of the new dispensation, which Christ came to introduce, because it conflicted with their church creed; therefore they accused this innovator with madness or insanity for promulgating such new and strange doctrines. Like the same class at the present age, they did not wait to see evidence of his insanity in his evil actions, before they condemned him; but merely for his expression or utterance of opinions, he was condemned as a madman. Now I think his accusers acted more like madmen than he did, when we come to take actions as evidence of insanity, in- stead of the expression of opinions. And even if we take their own basis of evidence, I think the Jewish dogmas which their church defended were as great an evidence of insanity in them, as the opinions which Christ taught in opposition to their standard of morals, were evidence of insanity in him. But I do not think that the utterance of opinions in either case, is any evidence of insanity. The Jews believed they had received their dispensation from God, and, of course, they were tenacious in its defense, and could not readily see that the time had come for the old to give place to the new. So it is in all ages, some are slower than others to see that the time for the inauguration of any new truth has fully come, and therefore they oppose it with the same intolerant spirit which the Jewish ministers did. But so far as the question of insanity goes, they show the greatest proof of being insane, who oppose this inauguration with vile slander, and ruinous scandal, and false imprisonment, 278 MODERN PERSECUTION. and death, rather than those who calmly stand by the truth, and defend it with sound and invincible logic. It was this very inoffensiveness in Christ which so exas- perated them against him, plainly showing that it was they who had the devil of bigotry in them, not him. It was they, the Jewish ministers, who were the blasphemers, instead of him whom they accused of blasphemy. The views and theories taught by Christ, were all humani- tarian in their character; yet this did not shield him from the assaults of slander and the charge of insanity; neither will this armor prove a defense at the present age, even under the American flag of free religious toleration, so long as reformers are allowed to be publicly branded by these insane asylums. Whoever has the diploma of this institution forced upon him, must submit henceforth to fight his way through fire and blood to carry out his benevolent purposes to humanity; for at every inch of progress, he is compelled to face the barbed arrow of insanity hurled at him by the intolerant and bigoted of his age. If by any possible means, the imputation of in- sanity can be removed from the track of the reformer, the wheel of human progress will be greatly accelerated. Again my persecutors are guilty of the same act of unchar- itableness in calling the natural developments of womanhood evil, or insanity, in me. This undeveloped sister insists that it is impossible for me to be what I profess to be, a true woman, and not have over- come the evil in my husband; since goodness is omnipotent. I acknowledge the potency of goodness, while I, at the same time add, that I do not believe that she or any other woman could have borne more patiently with a husband's faults, or have labored more kindly and indefatigably to overcome them than I have done. I regard such a man as a most subtle foe to conquer, and that ultimately, Christ may, through my in- strumentality, conquer him. But the time has not yet come. INSANITY A BARRIER TO PROGRESS. 279 It is said of Christ, “ Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet," as I believe, for the purpose of raising them to a state of happiness and purity. Christ conquers not to punish, but to bless his foes. I believe my twenty-one years of subjection to my husband's will, is not designed as a punishment to me, but as a blessed means of bringing me to lose all my natural loves in the love of God's will. Thus am I called to die to live again—to die naturally, to live spiritually. I hope this new life has begun in me. May it be developed into maturity! Another point she could not understand in me is, that I call it a reproach to be called insane, when she says it is not a reproach to be insane. I do not regard an insane person as an object of reproach or contempt, by any means. They are objects of pity and com- passion; for I regard insanity as the greatest misfortune which can befall a human being in this life. But to be regarded as an insane person, when I am not, is to me a reproach, which I find is a severe cross for me to bear; such as for example, to be reported to be a bankrupt,when I am not, is a reproach, because it is a cruel slander. But how much more malevolent and cruel is the slander, to be reported as lost to reason when we are not. I think the sensitive feelings of Christ led him to feel it to be a reproach to have his age say of him : “He hath a devil and is mad, why hear ye him?” As much as to say, “ Why will you listen to what this babbler' says ? he is not worth noticing, for he is merely an insane person, who don't know what he is about.”' Now, since he expressly says it is a blasphemy, in that they said he hath a devil ;” and since blasphemy is the blackest sin which can be committed against Christ, have we not rea- son to fear it is of the same type of magnitude when commit- ted against his followers ? 280 MODERN PERSECUTION. But so far as I am concerned, I can forgive this injury which this sister has thus inflicted upon my sensitive feelings, although Christ says, blasphemy is a sin which cannot be for- given, “ either in this life, or the life to come.” I do pray that she may never know from her own sad experience, how deeply she has wounded my feelings ; and never, until she is called to bear this same reproach, can she know how ponder- ous is the burden. CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Guilt of Folly. There are some crimes, the charging of which, falsely, is worse than the crimes themselves. So with my husband's false accusation of insanity in me, he commits a greater crime against me, than it would be in him to really become insane. The false accusation is a crime, whereas the thing charged is no crime. Neither is he guiltless in treating me as insane, when this delusion of his is only the result of misapprehension, for he is to blame for getting into this deluded state. He has resisted known light, and a persistence in his folly has so blinded him that now he cannot see correctly. At the same time, he is to blame, because he ought not to have got into this state. Like the drunkard, who unconsciously harms another, is guilty, for he ought not to have got into this unconscious state. The good of society requires that folly, as well as rascality, should be responsible for their own actions. Again, this state of folly can only be controlled by brute force or fear, since while in it, they are dead to all influences of a higher kind. And the just punishment of this folly is de- manded as a warning to others to avoid such a státe. These victims of folly must be held in check, by force, until con- sciousness so far returns as to lead them to see the wrong they have done ; and this time has not come, until they feel sorry for their trespass upon others' rights. My husband must see that there is no hope of help for him, until he can see that he has done wrong ; then he will be in a suitable state to receive his pardon from me. Until that time comes, he cannot 282 MODERN PERSECUTION. D. appreciate forgiveness if it should be offered. It is my duty to hold him there until he does. Again, this accusation is a crime of great magnitude, because there is no chance of a termination of my imprison- ment while on this basis. Real insanity may possibly be cured, and thus hope lies for the insane in the future; but the case of the falsely accused is hopeless-for if unchanged, he is treated as insane, and if he becomes insane, his case is hopeless. There were certainly some of the most reasonable persons in the world imprisoned there, apparently hopelessly, simply because some individual has chosen to represent them so, and they justify themselves in this accusation, on the plea that they have a right to their opinions. So they have the same right to their opinion that a traitor has to justify himself, on the ground that it is his opinion that the government ought to be overthrown! Traitors have a right to their opinions as traitors, and they also have a right to the penalty which the law attaches to such opinions when practically expressed. The defamer pleads that he has a right to destroy the char- acter of one whom he regards as an errorist, since he claims these errors injure society, and therefore a benevolent regard to community demands the slander. Now we never have a right to do wrong, and no evil can be justified on the ground that good requires it. Goodness is never dependent upon sin for its maintenance or support. Right and justice are some- times demanded by goodness, but never does it demand wrong or wickedness for its defense. It is the highest treason to our Heavenly Father's govern- ment, to try to destroy the moral influence of a member of his family in order to promote their own selfish purposes. It is an attempt to overthrow God's government, in the indi- vidual, to represent him as insane when he is not, for it is his accountability he is thus trying to destroy. THE GUILT OF FOLLY. 283 That it is a crime to call a sane person an insane one ap- pears too, in the mental torture this charge brings with it. It is very embarassing to a sensitive person to be looked upon in all they say or do, as an insane person. The least mistake, a slip of the tongue, a look, a gesture, are all liable to be inter- preted as insanity, and the least difference of opinion, however reasonable or plausible, is liable to share the same reproach. So that an advocate for any new truth, or any progressive science which must necessarily dethrone human dogmas, while under this charge, is under a paralyzing influence. But let any other person who is not thus branded, advance the same ideas, they would be regarded as evidence of intel- ligence of a superior order. And although truth is not changed by the medium through which it passes, yet, as the world now is, in its undeveloped state, it more readily listens to a new truth coming through a medium of acknowledged sanity, than when it comes through one who has the diploma of insanity attached to his name. But still the medium is not the truth, neither is the truth enhanced or disminished by the medium who utters it. Again, it is a crime because hundreds are kept there to whom an imprisonment is as much of an outrage as slavery is to the bondman. Because some insane persons are some- times dangerous, it is thought right to keep all who are called insane, prisoners! Thus, the most sensible people on earth, are exposed to suffer a life-long imprisonment, from the folly of some undeveloped misguided person. And the tendency of imprisonment itself, is sadly detri- mental to a person who has intelligence enough to realize that he is held under lock and key. To persist in treating them as though they were unable to take care of themselves, as to undermine self-reliance and self- respect. In short, it tends to destroy all that which is noble and aspiring in humanity, more directly, and more surely than 284 MODERN PERSECUTION. any course the great enemy of the race has hitherto devised. To subject a human being to the legitimate influence of this insane asylum system, is like the Hindoos throwing their children into the Ganges, most of whom are drowned, of course, but the few who do escape are those who retain life with peculiar vigor and tenacity. Yes, I am sure that any one who can go through there and come out unharmed may well be considered as insanity proof. God's grace must work in them, to will and to do right in all things, or no security is granted them; and these few cases of successful resistance are like the pure gold, the hotter the fire, the purer it becomes. The Christian graces which are there called into exercise, are thus strengthened, purified, concentrated, intensified, so that the minor temptations and onsets of the powers of darkness are now looked upon as mere skirmishes, compared with the fierce, deadly battles of this asylum life. Is not the slander of insanity the most cruel kind of defa- mation that can be instigated against another ? From what right does it not exclude us, except that of eating and sleep. ing like animals? Nothing more or less. And can this highest of all wrongs and insults to a human being, be looked upon with any degree of allowance, by him who bestowed these moral natures upon man ?-the very god- head thus crushed out of a human being, and he be made to believe that he is only a brute beast, with no claims upon his fellow creatures, higher than theirs—to put a high toned, sensitive, developed human soul upon this level, by base design, for base purposes, by the basest of malicious lies ? Is it not a sin of the deepest dye? Can there be any greater blasphemy against God, or against the Holy Ghost ? I know, by tasting this cup to its bitterest dregs, what it is THE GUILT OF FOLLY. 285 to feel this deepest wrong—the kidnapping of the soul-de- priving a human being of his God-bestowed accountability. To kidnap a human being, and treat him as a slave, is a terri- ble outrage upon human nature; but this is not to be compared with the still blacker crime of kidnapping their accountability, and making them nothing but brutes. Slaves are allowed to exert their abilities to work, and thus feel that somebody is benefited by them; but the insane are considered below them. They are not allowed to feel that they are capable of being of any manner of service to the world, but degraded as useless burdens, which others must carry through life-as paupers, whose only satisfaction to themselves and others, is the fact that they can die, and thus rid the world of a useless animal! This is the “ treatment” for which Dr. McFarland endeav- ors to awaken gratitude in me, for having been permitted to enjoy here freely so long! But I cannot manifest my grati- tude for this great privilege, by thanking him for thus making me the recipient of so much misery. Could I be guiltless in God's sight, and allow another to suffer what I have, for fear of any consequences attending myself? I could never meet my Judge in peace, unless I had given a truthful representation of this institution ! A few may have left here without realizing the nature and tendency of the Asylum System. Either they were too insane to detect and judge correctly of it, or too unsympathizing to feel for others. Others there were, who saw and fully appreciated these things, but who were so overjoyed at their deliverance, that they seemed to forget their former impressions. Others, remembering them with most vivid distinctness, were heard to avow their resolution, never to speak of these things, outside the institution, lest it revive these impressions. 286 MODERN PERSECUTION. They looked upon them as a kind of horrid nightmare, which they wished to banish, as soon as possible, from their recollec- tion. Again, the guilt attending this folly is great when we con- template how very difficult it is to get out of this prison at all. I find this idea illustrated in my journal in the following manner : “I have just been noticing the struggles of a fly, lying upon my window-sill. It vainly strives to regain its natural position, and every collateral influence only increases its fruitless struggles; but when I placed my finger directly over so its feet could clasp it, immediately it assumed its upright position by a perfectly natural motion. All its previous efforts unaided, were not only fruitless, but exhausting to its energies, so that when help came, it was weak from this exertion. “ So I have been long striving to deliver myself, unaided, but all in vain. But when my efforts have attracted the attention of some competent influence directed by a power from above, I shall experience all needed help to rise to the position God has designed me to fill. Now, since my deliverance depends wholly upon the influence of a power above me, I must learn to trust it by faith, and like the fly, lie quietly prostrate, waiting patiently until help comes to my rescue.” Again, the guilt attending the folly of imprisoning sane people, or those who have never forfeited their right to their personal liberty by their own insane or criminal actions, is seen in the expense it incurs to keep them at Jacksonville Insane Asylum. It gives the tax payers a just cause to com- plain of enormously unjust taxes, while it costs the State of Illinois one thousand dollars a year to keep each of their prisoners at that institution. If the statement made before the Senate in the winter of 1867, by Senator Ward of Chicago, who was appointed by that body to investigate the manage- ment of that institution, is true-viz.: that as the institution THE GUILT OF FOLLY. 287 is now conducted, it cost Cook County one thousand dollars a year for each occupant from that county; and he added: “I will engage to take care of them at that price myself !” Now, if the people would but exercise their own good com- mon sense in this matter, they would find that their own afflicted friends could be far better cared for in their own homes, than they are now cared for at this institution, and that the expense attending it would be materially lessened, by a return to the simple principles of natural humanity and common sense in the treatment of this unfortunate class. Until this is the case, the guilt attending the folly of our pre- sent system must be needlessly enhanced by the enormous taxes demanded in support of these institutions on their pre- sent corrupt basis. This principle was illustrated in my asylum life by the folly of my attendant, Mrs. De La Hay, leaving the gas at night so as to escape so freely as to endanger the lives of twenty help- less prisoners. I happened to hear complaints of an uncommon character in our dormitory, when I was so disturbed as to awake. Finding the cause, I succeeded, by persistent calling, in arousing our attendant to come to our rescue from death by suffocation. Had I failed to awaken her, we might all have been corpses before morning. Now her carelessness was criminal folly in thus exposing our lives, still I could not succeed in leading the Superintendent to see the criminality of this careless act, for she did not intend to harm us. Yet, had we all died from her foolish neglect, what would have been the difference to us whether she had intended it or not? Our lives would have paid the forfeit of her carelessness, and yet she was not criminal ! So our suffering false imprisonment for others' mistakes or follies is a crime, as was her careless act under the circum- stances, and society ought so to be educated into this principle. CHAPTER XXXIX. Orthodox Heaven and Hell. If Insane Asylums are not the Presbyterian heaven and hell combined, so long preached by Mr. Packard, I do not know what is! Endless torment, inflicted by a heartless despot, from whom it is impossible to escape, and whom it is as impossible to move to pity or compassionate his helpless victims, is but the symbol of this Pandemonium. If hope once reaches here, it is in despite of him and his power and influence. This is also their heaven; since we here have hard " seats” to sit upon, and nothing to do or amuse, except to sit and sing, in presence of the writhing of lost spirits! Rest and sing ! What rest can a benevolent sympathizing nature experience, while knowing another soul is in torment! There is no rest for active benevolence. So long as one soul is unredeemed from Satan's power, I must work for that soul's deliverance before I can sing: 66 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to redeem mankind.” The confident assurance that it will be redeemed, is the only ground upon which I can rely for peace and quiet in the mean time. Attractive as are the hard seats of heaven for “rest”. to the idler, to me they have no attraction. All my god-like powers thirst for action, and use. Inert, stupid indifference to others' interests, is, to my social sympathetic nature, a moral impossibility; and I heartily pray God to deliver me from a mansion in such a heaven, in company with such spirits. My experience of it here in this asylum, has been enough · ORTHODOX HEAVEN AND HELL. 289 for me. If this is the character of heaven, for which we have borne the discipline of our earth life, I wish my earth life never to terminate, for such a heaven of“ rest” is hell to me. Again, can hell be a worse institution than this, while it punishes the best citizens for the offenses of the worst? There have been hundreds imprisoned in it whose only offense is being true to the promptings of the spirit of God within them. • They are more natural, more god-like than their cotempo- raries, and the laws are so insane in their application, that The dictatorial dogmatist contrives with the sagacity which the “old serpent” imparts to him, to so misrepresent and vilify the honest self-sacrificing Christian, who is striving to live out the dictates of an enlightened conscience, that he is either compelled to compromise with iniquity, or, if steadfast for the right, he is made to endure the false charge of insanity. Henceforth he must be regarded as an incompetent being, incapable of self-government, and thus subject to all the abuses and insults which can be heaped upon him. Like his Master, he is now called to pass through Gethsemane's garden alone, with none to listen to his sorrows, or alleviate his anguish, with wakeful, generous sympathy. Even his own familiar his heel against him, and now no one dares to comfort or de- fend him against this accuser. Thus forsaken, deserted, desolate, he finds no refuge left him, except the tower of faith, whose dome of love shelters his lonely heart. If that tower is so strongly fortified as to prove invulnerable, he is safe. If not, he is left refugeless, with no home or shelter on earth or in heaven. He is now the ready prey for the roaring lion, who delights in his ruin. He then becomes insane, made so by the indefatigable efforts of his friends, aided by the evil influences of this Inquisition. 13 290 MODERN PERSECUTION. His high and noble nature is driven to desperation by these combined forces, and his reason becomes lost in frenzied im- pulse! Why, Oh, why, is it that such institutions are permitted to get a foothold upon the free soil of our republicanism? Why cannot our natures, made in God's image here, be allowed free scope for a natural development ? Why cannot the intel- lectual and spiritual nature of man here have free scope to run to perfection? Is it because the spiritual nature of man can only become perfected by opposition, by restraint, by overcoming obstacles? Can its strength and power of self-reliance be only thus ac- quired ? Oh, if the blood of martyrs must be the seed of this Spir- itual Church, as it has been of the Christian Church, cannot the long list of martyrs which this institution has furnished, be sufficient for this age of spiritual development ? or, must every stage of spiritual progress be thus marked by the sable robes of martyrdom ? Is not the time at hand when man may be free to obey the impulses of his spiritual nature, without being called insane? These holy influences I cannot, will not, resist, defenseless as I am. The inner law of my own mind shall never yield to human dictation, encouraged by the conviction that the end of this American Inquisition cannot be far distant. CHAPTER XL. My Effort in Connecticut Legislature. After selling five hundred books in the city of New Haven, and conversing with twice that number of the most intelli- gent men of the city, the way, as they intimated, seemed pre- pared for the passage of a bill to remove some of the legal disabilities of married women. Taking council, therefore, of some of the most prominent members of the bar in this city, and also Mr. Francis Fellowes, of Hartford, I drew up a Petition and circulated it among some of these patrons, asking the Legislature to ameliorate their condition, in the following terms, viz. : To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened : “We, the undersigned citizens of Connecticut, respectfully represent that the Common law in relation to the social con- dition of married women, deprives her of any legal existence, and legal protection as a married woman, thus wholly exclud- ing her while a married woman, from the protection in law of any of her natural rights, such as a right to herself, a right to her children, a right to her home—thus leaving the protec- tion of all her natural rights, wholly at the will or mercy of her husband ; that this unlimited power is liable to, and has become an oppressive power; that the law of divorce is one of the great evils which her present legal position necessarily entails upon society. And further, while this licensed oppression reflects only the spirit of the common law of the dark ages, when the married woman was the mere slave of the husband; we now under the light of progressive civilization, assign her the place of com- 292 MODERN PERSECUTION. panion of her husband and joint partner with him in his fam- ily interests. Therefore, we, the undersigned, respectfully petition that your honorable body will take into consideration the present legal position of married women, and inquire, by committee or otherwise, whether this slavish principle of common law, viz.: the legal nonentity of the wife, cannot justly and profit- ably be either abolished, or so far modified, as to protect her against the abuse of this absolute power of her husband, by granting her legally the same protection in government, which the enlightened public sentiment of the present age grants her in her social position in society.” Two hundred and fifty men of the highest standing in New Haven signed the above petition, and it was presented to the Legislature, convened in New Haven, in May, 1866; was re- ferred to the Judiciary Committee, and I was called upon to defend it. But at the first interview, owing to the absence of some members, and limited time, it was agreed that I meet them one week from date, and that a notice be given to the Legis- lature that other members might be present. In accordance with this arrangement, I went as appointed, and found to my surprise, that at Governor Hawley's sugges- tion, all the Committees had been advised to suspend their business at that hour for the purpose of listening to my defense. As the result, a great crowd assembled in and about the room of the Judiciary Committee at the hour appointed. But as this room could not accommodate half this number it was snggested that we adjourn to the senate chamber. A voice from outside cried out: « The senate chamber can't accommodate half the number present!” The chairman then inquired if I was willing to go to the legislative hall and make my defense. MY EFFORT IN CT. LEGISLATURE. 293 I told him I was willing to go anywhere they thought best. I accordingly followed this crowd to the legislative hall, and took my stand at the table below the speaker's stand, when a voice cried out: « Go upon the speaker's stand! We can't see the lady." Thither I went at the committee's request, and read my de fense to a room full of attentive listeners. Besides the members, there were many patrons present, in cluding some clergymen, and Judge Dutton, the teacher of the law school, his pupils, and members of the bar and some ladies. This was the first time I ever stood before an audience as a public speaker, and this position I did not seek or even an- ticipate when I prepared my address; however, as I had been a teacher and accustomed to speak from the platform of a large school-room, I found no difficulty in making my present audience understand my argument, as indicated by their silence while I spoke, and the burst of applause as I descended from the stand. The chairman then inquired if there were any objections to this bill being passed.. No one spoke. He repeated his question a second and third time. Still no one ventured to bring forward the least kind of opposition. The chairman smilingly remarked: “There seems to be but one side to this question." And after extending to me a very complimentary vote of thanks, with a request that the address be published, they ad- journed. It was printed in the New Haven Journal, and may be found in the appendix to this volume. As an evidence that the true legal position of married woman was properly and truthfully delineated, I will venture to quote Judge Dutton's remark to me upon this subject : 294 MODERN PERSECUTION. 6 Mrs. Packard, you have given the true view of law through- out the whole civilized world. On the common law basis married woman is legally a slave.” And another eminent lawyer in that city also said to me: 66 There is not a lawyer in Connecticut who could have given so correct an elucidation of the law as you have done.” But I regret to add, that the subsequent action of this com- mittee demonstrated the fact that their silence did not indicate consent in this matter, for the petition was adversely reported upon. Mr. Wait, the worthy chairman of the committee, stated that: “ They had listened to Mrs. Packard's eloquent appeal, and though they could not grant her petition, yet they deeply sympathized with her and her cause. They deemed it inex- pedient to make such radical changes at the present time, but in the revision of the statutes soon to be made, this petition they hoped would be embraced in those laws. The petitioners were granted leave to withdraw.” I am happy to add that the subsequent action of the Con- necticut Legislature has in part verified the wish expressed by the worthy chairman. From a letter I have recently received from Mr. Francis Fellowes, of Hartford, in reply to my own, wherein I asked him for information upon this subject, I have reason to believe that Connecticut is not now an exception to her sister States in her modification of the common law for married woman's benefit. The leaven of truth has at last penetrated the conservative element of Connecticut statesmen, and they also are verging towards that not far distant period, as we hope, when not only the married women of Connecticut but of all the States of this Union shall have legally granted to them the same protec- tion in government which the enlightened public sentiment of the present age grants her in her social position in society CHAPTER XLI. The Opposition of the Conspiracy. The history of my Connecticut campaign would be incom- plete, did I fail to notice the opposition the conspiracy sent into the field as a terrible antagonist for me to encounter. Although it had been my constant aim to prosecute this work with as little notoriety as possible, yet, it seemed the enemy kept track of my movements, and in the most unexpected and unguarded moment made an attack upon me through the columns of the New Haven Journal, who sold them the right to publish a column of the most cruel and vile slanders against my moral character, which it would seem possible for the com- bined ability of Mr. Packard and Dr. McFarland to manufac- ture against me. So notoriously cruel and false were the insinuations there cast upon my stainless character and reputation, that an emi- nent Judge, then acting as an attorney at law, seriously ad- vised me to enter a prosecution, at once, against Dr. McFarland for defamation, and to bring in my damages at not less than one hundred thousand dollars, adding: 66 And you will get it! and I should like to act as your attorney in this prosecution.” So far as I was concerned in this matter, as an individual, it mattered little to me, knowing that false accusation cannot in the end harm my character or reputation, still, for the cause I represented, I did feel deeply hurt to have this avalanche of scandal descend upon this community, whose entire confidence I seemed to have hitherto secured, just at that most important crisis, when the committee were about to take action upon this subject. 296 MODERN PERSECUTION.. I know not what influence this scandalous article had upon their decision, yet, I do know, from their own confession, that some of my warmest friends were taken aback by it, and for a time held their favorable judgment of me and my work in abeyance. Yet in a short time the reaction came, and their confidence and sympathy became more than ever a souce of gratification and solace to my wounded feelings. But before this point was attained the evil was done by the committee reporting adversely upon my petition. One man very graphically and truthfully described the in- fluence of this article to be like that experienced when the cry of “ Gunpowder!” is uttered to a crowd in a tone of warning to escape danger. The crowd would instinctively fall back and scatter under the influence of this panic even without stopping to inquire whether the alarm is a false or real one; and if it really was merely a fictitious alarm, it would neces- sarily take a little time to rally after such a panic, even when it was proved to be a false alarm. So the legislature acting under the influence of this panic, perhaps, acted differently from what they might have acted, had they waited for an investigation, or had acted before this panic and independent of it. Taking this view of the case, I felt it to be one of the severest strokes I had ever received from this cruel conspiracy, and I felt like saying: “ Could you not have so planned your plot as to have wreaked your venomous spirit upon me alone, without en- dangering or jeopardizing my precious cause also ?” Thus all the pecuniary sacrifices I had made for this cause, by presenting each member of the Legislature with a copy of my book, amounting alone to over three hundred dollars, in addition to all the expenses attending a six months' campaign, added to my most indefatigable labors in Connecticut to bring about this most desirable change in the laws, that of removing OPPOSITION TO THE CONSPIRACY. 297 some of the legal disabilities of married women, seemed, by this fell stroke, to be a dead failure, or in other words, “A Bull-run defeat!” Another most formidable foe which I had to encounter in this field was “ clandestine letters, sent to individual members, asking them to circulate them secretly, without letting me know of this fact or the infamous character of these letters. Besides these members, I have been told that Dr. Bacon and Dr. Abbott and other clergymen in the city had copies of these same letters sent them, accompanied with most earnest appeals to use all their influence in trying to defeat my efforts in the Legislature! donde From one who read these letters I was informed they were very derogatory to me and my character, even more scandalous if possible, than the published article. Knowing nothing of this occult influence at work against me, I could not help feeling surprised and hurt, when meeting upon the street, the morning of the appearance of these scan- dalous articles, some members of my personal acquaintances, instead of giving me their usual polite salutation, accompanied by a tip of the beaver, evidently avoided me, by crossing over to the opposite side of the street, or passing by apparently unconscious of my presence. And it was in consequence of my speaking of this fact to one of my patrons, which led him to make me the above revelation, as an explanation of the cause of this neglect and coldness thus manifested. Said I: " Why could not this ministerial influence Mr. Packard has thus rallied as an antagonism to defeat the reform I am trying to inaugurate, have met me in an open field of fair discussion instead of thus secretly attacking the moral char- acter of its defender ?” "Because they could not afford to do this openly, as this movement has already received the popular voice in its favor, and this brutal assault upon the character of a woman, so 298 MODERN PERSECUTION. utterly defenseless and so self-dependent also, might react upon themselves, and thus endanger their popularity.” “ But, sir, it would not be so reprehensible an act in itself?” “No, Mrs. Packard, but it might bring an unenviable notoriety upon themselves, as deserving public censure, while this secret attack might defeat this reform, and at the same time, shield them from detection as opposers to humanitarian reforms." “But ministers of Christ have no license to act unmanly any more than any other class.” 6 Certainly they have not, still their mistakes are often times allowed to pass unnoticed lest “ the cause " suffer by their actions being subjected to criticism in common with others—in other words, their position shields them.” “ But, sir, I think this is wrong, for the ministerial office does not insure men against the commission of sins of the darkest hue, for the ministry is composed of men, who are subject to like frailties and passions with other men. And ministers, like all other men, must stand just where their own actions place them, not where their position ought always to find them. They ought to be men whose characters should be unimpeachable. But they are not all so. “Neither are all other men what they should be in their position. “It is as much the duty of the minister to be true to him- self-true to the instincts of his God-given nature, as it is of other men. And any deviation from the path of rectitude which would not be tolerated in any other man, ought not to be tolerated in a minister. 6 In short, ministers must stand on a common level with the rest of the human race in judgment. That is, they, like others, must stand just where their own conduct and actions place them. If their conduct entitles them to respect, we should respect them. OPPOSITION TO THE CONSPIRACY. 299 66 But if their conduct makes them unworthy of our respect and confidence, it is a sin to bestow it upon them, for this very respect which we give them under such circumstances, only countenances their sins and encourages them in iniquity, and thus puts their own souls in jeopardy, as well as reflects guilt on those who thus helped them to work out their own destruction, when they ought to have helped them work out their own repentance for evil doing.” But even in spite of this array of powerful influence against the petition, and their ostensible triumph for a time, I have reason to think the good seed did take root, and although thus buried, for a time, beneath the sod of ignorance and prejudice, yet, the sun-light of truth and righteousness can and will permeate these elements and not only cause the good seed to germinate, but also to mature it into perfected fruit, and thus ensure the blessings of spiritual freedom to mothers of future generations, as their rightful heritage. CHAPTER XLII. Tribute to Dr. Bushnell and Dr. Hawes, of Hartford, Connecticut. It is with the most unfeigned and grateful pleasure that I am permitted here to chronicle the manly acts of two ministers in Connecticut, who I fondly believe represent the majority of Christian ministers in that as well as other States. These two, who have embalmed the memory of their God- like deeds upon the tablets of my heart, are Rev. Horace Bushnell and Rev. Joel Hawes, of Hartford, both of whom were my efficient helpers and co-workers in prosecuting my business in that city, and their certificates I now have as proof of what I say, and were it not that such testimonials might be considered as immodestly abundant already in my book, I would here give them. As it is, I will simply state a few facts respecting each, corroborating this statement. I called upon Dr. Bushnell at his residence in Hartford, and after patiently listening to my statements, illustrating the reform that is needed by a recital of my own experiences, he seemed at once to comprehend the whole subject, and paying me for my book, he retired to his study leaving me with Mrs. Bushnell, and soon returned with his voluntary certificate, which ke handed to me, saying: 6 This may aid you in getting patrons in this city.” And it did give me a ready passport to the confidence of that community, and was the direct means of securing me many patrons. He then said: " Mrs. Packard, this outrage ought not to go unnoticed by TRIBUTE TO DRS. BUSHNELL & HAWES. 301 our courts. You ought to enter a prosecution against this Conspiracy in the name of the commonwealth, and were I a lawyer I would gladly take the case through myself. But as I am not, I will recommend you to Mr. Francis Fellowes, as your counsel in this matter-I will give you a letter of intro- duction to him, and wish you to state the case as you have to me, and I will meet him this evening at seven o'clock at the vestry of our church where we will confer together upon the subject, and report to you the result." “ Thank you, Dr. Bushnell, for your generous espousal of my cause. But permit me to say, I think there is no way to prosecute parties for doing legal acts.” 66 Legal act! It is not a legal act to imprison an American citizen for religious belief, and I believe it can be prosecuted, if conducted by one who understands the subject. And Mr. Fellowes does. I am willing to abide by his judgment in this matter." I accordingly went to Mr. Fellowes; made my statement, and delivered his message, and the result was, Mr. Fellowes said: 66 I will take the subject under consideration, and examine the laws on this subject.” And he did so, and as the final result, he came to the con- clusion there was no legal redress for me under the statute laws of Illinois, and so reported to Dr. Bushnell, where the matter was dropped. But the act showed where Dr. Bushnell stood on the subject of religious toleration, and also proved him to be a noble and firm advocate and defender of the American principle of free religious toleration. And my interview with Dr. Hawes, although different in its character, yet was equally characteristic of the man, and the Christian. His great sympathizing heart was actually moved to tears at the recital of my case, and after expressing his manly sym- pathy in words of true comfort and encouragement, I left him 302 MODERN PERSECUTION. with the promise that I would accept his invitation to call again after he had read my book, which he bought most promptly and cheerfully. I accordingly did so, and took tea with his happy family. As we conversed, I inquired : 6 Doctor, how do you like my book ?” “Before answering that question, I wish to ask you one question. Do you believe in future punishments ?” 6 Indeed I do! There can be no true government without justice—but , nishments under a just government must be reformatory n t vindictive.” “I am satis ied—I endorse your book-I believe you are taught by the spirit, and are living up to your highest convic- tions. I think your books are going to do great good in the world. Could your principles of reform be sustained by our this would be a great blessing to society. I am exceedingly well pleased with your book. I would recommend it to my people as a book worthy the perusal of every family.” Again was his great heart moved at a recital of some events not given in the book, and while the tears of true sympathy “Well, Mrs. Packard, if you can live through all you have had to suffer and maintain a Christian spirit, you deserve heaven!” 6 Yes, I say again, if you can maintain a Christian spirit through all your terrible experiences, I say you deserve heaven!” Thus I saw that in this instance both his theology and his intellect had been taken captive by his great sympathizing, Christ-like heart of pity for others' woes. CHAPTER XLIII. Passage of the Bill in Iowa Legislature, to Protect the Inmates of Insane Asylums by Law. During the Session of the Iowa Legislature of 1872, I sent to Mr. J. Vanderventer, a member of the House, a “ Bill to Protect the Insane,” with a request that he see that it be pre- sented, and report to me its progress; and if in his judgment any effort of mine could facilitate its passage, I stood ready to meet such an emergency. On the 13th of March Mr. Vanderventer thus replied: “ The Bill sent to me was presented by Mr. Merrill on the 16th of February and referred to the Committee on Insane Asylums. No report has been made by the Committee, and I am informed the bill is not favorably regarded. Without wishing to influence your action in any way, Ideem it no more than right to say that I do not believe the bill would be considered favorably by the General Assembly, and the expense you could have to incur, while waiting action on the bill, would necessarily be large. Very truly yours, J. VANDERVENTER.” “Rather dubious prospect!” thought I. “Nevertheless Mr. Vanderventer is only one, and possibly represents the minority in his private opinion; therefore I will write to the Chairman of the Committee to whom my bill is referred and test his opinion on this subject.” I accordingly did so, and received the following reply: “ Yours of the 17th is received and considered, and in answer I would say that the bill to which you refer is reported back 304 MODERN PERSECUTION. to the House with the unanimous recommendation that it be indefinitely postponed! Respectfully yours, J. M. HOVEY." 6 Worse and worse!” thought I, “ 'Tis even now past re- demption, I fear, since the Legislature seldom acts contrary to the recommendation of their Committee.” “ But shall the claims of this defenseless class be thus summarily ignored, with none to plead for them ?” 6 Nay, verily, I will do what I can to bring their claims to the notice of the Legislature, the only power that can help them.” I therefore sent to Mr. Hovey the following “brief” in defense of the bill, and asked him to show it to the other members of the Committee, viz.: one prata medono Defense of a bill to protect the rights of the Insane. The main feature of this bill is to remove the censorship from the correspondence of the patients, as one means of pro- tecting them in their right to be treated kindly and justly by their keepers. My reasons are these: 1st. A free and unrestricted correspondence will be a re- restraint upon the exercise of tyranny. 2d. It will afford them an innocent gratification. 3d. It will cultivate their affection for their relatives, which under the present censorship, is most cruelly shaken, if not destroyed. 4th. It will mitigate their mental torture by allowing it a natural vent or expression. 5th. As this censorship is regarded by them as an outrage upon their rights, its removal will help to reinstate in their minds the principle of justice. 6th. It will give their friends a test of their mental con- dition. PASSAGE OF THE IOWA BILL. 305 7th. They now have no opportunity for self-defense, and this would afford them this reasonable right. 8th. It might prevent the culmination of evils developed by the Investigating Committee of Illinois State Asylum, by affording each case a chance for settlement when the charges were reported. 9th. If the complaints of abuse are delusive it could hurt no one--if true, they could be corrected without public ex- posure. I followed this effort with editorials which I got written upon this subject, one of which I give my readers as a type of the others. This was written by the able editor and pro- prietor of the Davenport Gazette of Iowa. It was published March 19, 1872. ONE Rights of the Insane. 6. Experience proves that the best instrumentalities are lia- ble to abuse, and that institutions based upon philanthropy and having their sanction in the noblest promptings of the popular heart, are oftentimes turned into engines of oppres- sion and cruelty. Lunatic Asylums were founded in the interest of humanity, for the purpose of relieving the victims of mental delusion from the barbarities to which they had been formerly subjected by confinement in barns and sheds, jails and poor-houses, and bringing them under such restraint as should be necessary, while giving them the benefit of enlightened medical treatment. Yet, exposures which have been made within a few years, have developed the fact that these palatial structures, built and supported at the public expense, have been converted into prison houses of persons not insane, especially married wo- men, that oftentimes great cruelties and outrages were prac- ticed within their walls, and that owing to the internal regu- lations adopted, concerning correspondence and intercourse 306 MODERN PERSECUTION. with the outside world, these practices have been for a long time covered from the public eye. In these cases the Superintendent, possessing powers well nigh autocratic, has been enabled to stifle the voice of com- plaint, and to defeat any investigation of the most glaring abuses. Judging from the testimony which we have seen and heard on this subject, we have no doubt that some have been made insane, and that the insanity of others has been aggra- vated by asylum treatment; and that in many institutions there is scarcely a pretence of scientific effort for the cure of the mental malady. Within a few years several interesting works have been published by those familiar with the interior of asylum life, which have led, and are leading to important reforms in the management of these institutions. In Jacksonville, Ill., a few years ago, there was a general jail delivery of married women from the Asylum in that place, who had been emancipated by the passage of a law requiring an inquiry into the reason of their detention! The mental torture and anguish suffered by these innocent women, im- prisoned on the pretence of insanity, the imagination can hardly conceive, and no pen can fully describe. But while the forcible capture and detention of sane persons is not now as feasible as it has been, anywhere, and certainly is not legal, as it was in Illinois in the case of married women, yet it is quite clear that other reforms in asylum management are demanded. One of these, and perhaps the most important, is the re- moval of the censorship from the correspondence of the pa- tients. A bill for this purpose is now before the Legislature of Iowa, and trust it will meet with favorable consideration and action. At first blush it might seem a dangerous innovation upon the rules of a Lunatic Asylum to allow the inmates to write PASSAGE OF THE IOWA BILL. 307 when and what they pleased to their families and friends. It might occasion some annoyance to keepers and superintend- ents to have their conduct freely criticised by the people in all stages of insanity. But experience shows that the en- forced silence of the victims has been the bulwark of all the abuses that have crept into these institutions. The inconvenience, therefore, which the officials might suffer from unfounded complaints would be trifling compared to the benefits that will flow from the abolition of the censorship. Unrestricted correspondence will tend to keep the manage- ment wholesome and economical. It will insure the inmates kind and considerate treatment, and restrain keepers and phy- sicians from acts of tyranny and violence. It will tend to alleviate the mental malady by affording an innocent gratifi- cation ; by cultivating affection for relatives, and by giving the mind a rational theme for reflection. It will give their friends a test of the condition of their minds, and show the prospects of recovery or otherwise. In short it will operate wholly in the interests of the class for whom asylums are es- tablished, and of the public whose munificence supports them. It is a reform that is needed, and we trust Iowa will not be slow in adopting it.” I accompanied these editorials with the inquiry, cannot the bill be rescued from the vortex into which you have cast it, and it be yet considered ? In reply came this cheering intelligence: “I must say that your perseverance and devotion to the cause you have espoused, challenges my admiration. And your appeal shall not pass unheeded, for my warmest sympa- thies are enlisted in behalf of the insane. The bill you speak of has not passed beyond the control of the House, and I will have steps taken to have it re-referred to Committee so that you can be heard before them towards the last of this week. 308 MODERN PERSECUTION. You can notify myself or Newbold or Keables or Stewart at the State-House, and you will receive an early hearing. Yours respectfully, J. M. HOVEY.” Elated with this prospect, I immediately left my home in Chicago and started for Des Moines. Upon arrival, I engaged board at the Pacific House, and early the next morning I went to the State-House in pursuit of some of the parties referred to. Being an entire stranger in the city, and having no one on whom to rely for introduction to the members, alone I sought and found the Legislative Hall, when I was directed by the door-keeper to the side seats occupied by strangers and lobbyists. Soon my correspondent, Mr. Hovey, came and introduced himself, and extended to me a cordial welcome, and so did several other members of this Committee to whom he intro- duced me. After consultation, it was agreed I should have as early a hearing as possible in the Library-Room, before a committee of both houses. During the three days which intervened, I formed the ac- quaintance of Governor Carpenter and the State Officers, and as many of the members and employees about the house as possible. Governor Carpenter gave me his most hearty approval of the bill, and from his first acquaintance he became my private counselor in all matters relating to the fate of the bill. And of him it may truly be said no State ever had the honor of having a more worthy, humane and Christian governor than Iowa now has. In this noble man the unfortunate and op- pressed will ever find a true friend and efficient helper, as his enforcement of the law will doubtless demonstrate. The Committee allowed me two hearings in the Library- Room of about one-half hour each time. At the last meeting a large number of the legislative body were present besides the Committee on Public Institutions of both Houses. PASSAGE OF THE IOWA BILL. 509 My defense of the bill led the committee to look at the subject from an entirely different standpoint from what Dr. Ranney, Superintendent of Mount Pleasant Asylum, had pre- sented. Previous to the committee's recommendation to in- definitely postpone the bill, Dr. Ranney had been notified of the character of the bill, and his request to be heard in reference to it had been cheerfully granted, by allowing him a patient hearing of one hour and a half. Upon which, the committee unanimously decided to give the subject no further attention. From one who heard him, I was told that the chief point he made against the bill was, that if the inmates were allowed to write to their friends it would render the task of “ subduing his patients” more difficult, and perhaps a hopeless one. “ Subduing his Patients !” They were not placed under his care to be subdued, like criminals—but to be treated as un- fortunates, with kindness and suitable medical treatment. Thus I used the Doctor's argument against the bill as the most potent one in its defense-viz. : If he does treat them as criminals, as he thus acknowledges, there is all the more need of some mode of self-defense on the part of his patients—and this bill affords just the kind of protection they need. In short, my argument led the committee to reverse the decision Dr. Ranney's argument had led them to make, and now unanimously recommended that the bill be passed. They advised me to lobby for the bill with the members until a vote of the House should be taken upon the subject. The bill was ordered to be printed and laid upon the table of each member, and I commenced lobbying for it. Nearly three weeks of indefatigable labor I spent with the members at the legislative hall, and at their boarding places. So very constant and unremitted were my efforts during this time—not allowing even a single day, however stormy, to pass, 310 MODERN PERSECUTION. without filling my seat among the lobbyists at the State-House, that the remark was sometimes elicited from the members : “Well, Mrs. Packard, you are faithful to your constituents!” “Yes, gentlemen, I am like the importunate widow, who was determined she would not be put off with the denial of her request. Now, gentlemen, when you pass my bill you can get rid of me, but not before !” My first effort in the lobbying department commenced on the evening of my arrival at the Pacific House, where I met about twenty members in the reception room, to whom the kind-hearted landlord introduced me at my request. For about one hour I held their attention to the object of my mis- sion, hoping by this elucidation of the subject to secure their intelligent co-operation. And as they left one by one, remarking: “ Mrs. Packard, you may rely upon me as a helper," I felt that I had made a propitious beginning in the unique business of female lobbying. At my first call at the Savery House as a lobbyist, I asked for an introduction to the “ hardest case” they could produce, for me to convert into a defender of my bill. Hon. Mr. Claussen of the Senate, was then introduced to me in the public parlor, as “just the man,” where we conversed for about one hour. This Mr. Claussen was a most avowed anti-Woman's Right man, and it was mainly through his influence that the bill for woman's right to the ballot in Iowa had been killed " in the Senate, the day after my arrival. So fearlessly and powerfully did he carry his magnetic force against the bill in a long speech he made in the Senate, that he was ever afterwards regarded as woman's greatest foe, by those who claim for her the right to the ballot. Ignorant of these facts of his thus avowed committal against woman's cause, in my usual way, I dauntlessly defended her as PASSAGE OF THE IOWA BILL. 311 the partner of her husband, who needed to be protected, as such. He patiently and silently listened until his manliness became so quickened into action as led him to exclaim : “Well, Mrs. Packard, you have aroused a feeling of pity for woman. I do think you have been the victim of great injus- tice. What can I do to help prevent another such outrage against woman?” “To please defend the merits of this bill, in the manner your own good judgment dictates; for you see we women are entirely dependent on your manliness for the enactment of laws for our protection.” “Yes, Mrs. Packard, I will gladly do so, for I never felt so much sympathy for woman's cause before. Have you any books on this subject ?” 66 Yes, Mr. Claussen, here is a history of my persecution, written by myself.” And handing him my book he took it, and paid me for it, saying: “ I shall read this book with the greatest pleasure.” From this date, I found in Mr. Claussen not only a firm friend, but also an able and efficient co-worker and advocate of my cause. Through his influence other members called for my books, and thus their silent influence was at work in connec- tion with my own personal efforts in defense of our cause. But the most unpropitious prospect I had to encounter in this line of lobbying business was presented on the evening of the day I changed my boarding place for one nearer the State- House, where I found two Senators and two House members boarding. These members, like many others, I found had been “ bored,” as they termed it, by the female 66 Woman Rights” lobbyists, with their lectures on the subject of “ Woman's Rights” so long and so persistently, that the subject had become a hackneyed one; and now to have a new recruit arrive, just as they had supposed they had finished their 312 MODERN PERSECUTION. woman campaign for that season, by the death of the Woman's Rights Bill the previous day, they could not but feel too great a degree of impatience and indignation at this prospect of another attack, to prevent its manifestation in a hasty and premature condemnation of my cause! Therefore, upon a partial announcement of my mission, they interrupted me, and took the laboring oar entirely out of my hands, and did the talking themselves. I concluded quietly and patiently to “ bide my time,” and let them have a fair opportunity to let off their superabundant steam so concentrated against the cause of woman. Now, when I had reason to think they had fired off all their own artillery, and thus exhausted their own ammunition, I asked for the floor, by saying: “ Gentlemen, I have listened to you without interrupting you, now will you please allow me to talk a little also ?” “Oh, yes, certainly, we will now allow you the floor!” I then defined my mission as I had before attempted to do, and this time was not interrupted. Therefore, I had a fair opportunity to make myself understood. This being done, these combatants began to apologize for their rudeness in ranking me with the “ Woman's Rights” defenders, and for this reason mistreating me as they had, by saying: “It is of no use for you to attempt anything with this body, for we have been button-holed already by the women longer than our patience can bear. There is no chance for you to succeed at all. It is a dead-lock for this session. Certainly no woman can introduce a reform so radical, with the least chance of succeeding!” Among them, was one physician, who had been a Trustee of an Insane Asylum in Wisconsin, and he was especially down upon me, assuring me that Dr. Ranney would defeat such a bill summarily, and he would do so himself were he in his PASSAGE OF THE IOWA BILL. 313 place. That no intelligent body would think of passing such a bill! But now, after hearing my defense of the bill, he, together with the others, changed their tone of remark by saying: “We see, you, Mrs. Packard, are not of this offensive class. You are reasonable and sensible on the subject of "Woman's Rights. Coming with such views as yours, there is more hope, at least, of your making it a success. Still, we think the op- position will be more than you can withstand, for the asylum influences will be concentrated against you.” Yes, they certainly were concentrated against me, and so also was the influence of these four members that evening secured as a concentrated force, with which to meet and repel it! Yes, this very physician became one of the ablest de- fenders I had, in the help he rendered me by suggesting some very important features in the bill to adapt it to meet the emergencies of the case. And another learned Judge of this party, who, I noticed was moved to tears before I had finished my appeal, volun- teered his very important assistance in helping me put my bill into a suitable legal form for action. Thus these, at first, apparently antagonistic powers were thus impressed into most important service for the cause, the proof of which they that evening gave, by each laying upon the table before me the price of my book, which I gave them in exchange. After about three weeks of this kind of lobbying in connec- tion with that done at the State House, before and after session hours, I felt fully confident that the popular current was in favor of the bill, when it was taken up, discussed, and the vote taken upon it. The House vote was seventy-eight in its favor and one against it. But in the Senate it had a hard contested battle. Dr. Ran- ney had determined the bill should be defeated if possible, 14 314 MODERN PERSECUTION. and had therefore engaged his agents to work for him in the Senate. They did strive most strenuously to “kill the bill,” but it could not be done. The intrinsic merits of the bill secured for it a triumphant passage in defiance of this persistent op- position. The vote in the Senate was thirty-two in its favor and six- teen against it-being two to one. The congratulations I received at this important crisis of the bill from the state officers, members, and others of distin- guished influence in the community almost compensated me for all the toil and expense I had incurred in working for this issue. Meeting the Speaker of the House on the street on my re- turn from the State-House, after hearing the result of this fierce battle in the Senate against it, he actually took off his hat, and while holding my hand in his, remarked : 6 Permit me to congratulate you, Mrs. Packard, upon the triumph of your bill, for, that bill never would have been passed if you had not been here to work for it. It may truly be styled your bill.” Ex-Governor Merrill remarked: “I congratulate you, Mrs. Packard, on the achievement of a great good, by the passage of your bill. It is a wonder no one has taken up this subject before. It has been an oversight in modern legislation which has excluded this class of Ameri- can citizens from the protection of law for so long a time. While I was Governor, I often visited the institution at Mount Pleasant at irregular times for the express purpose of detecting evils if they did exist. But I found that this was no way to look into its secret workings. But your bill not only detects the evils but also applies the remedy of the laws to meet them. I wonder I never thought of this plan myself, for it is simply the dictates of common philanthropy to protect the inmates of PASSAGE OF THE IOWA BILL. 315 Insane Asylums by law. I do hope you will succeed in your avowed purpose of getting such a law through every Legisla- ture in the United States. And I will buy your book not only because I would like to read it, but also to encourage you in your good work.” From several of the members I heard this remark: “Mrs. Packard, I as much believe you are raised up by Providence for this special work as I believe Lincoln was raised up for his work of emancipating the slaves ! for I do not think any other person could have got this bill through our legisla- ture but yourself.” And I remember one compliment which flattered my vanity so much that I do not easily forget it, when I think with what misgivings I commenced lobbying with the members after that noted evening when female influence was acknowledged as being at so low an ebb in Iowa Legislature as that in which the “ Woman's Rights" defenders left it. Said he: “Mrs. Packard, your work has been prosecuted in our body in a very lady-like manner. You have neither bored' us, nor intruded upon our time or attention, and we hope you may be equally successful with other legislators.” “ Thank you, gentlemen, for your good wish, for it is my intention to get this same law through every legislature in this Union before I die, if my life is spared a few years longer.” But the consideration which in my mind rose paramount to all others was the glorious thought that the reign of terror is now ended in asylums in Iowa, with the enforcement of this law, and the reign of justice commenced, which really caused my heart to thrill with joy. But here as in Connecticut, the conspiracy followed me, when I supposed they had lost track of my programme, having remained quiet so long with my children in Chicago. But lo! the morning after the bill had passed the Senate, I heard the members at my boarding-house disputing at the breakfast 316 MODERN PERSECUTION. table about who was the author of certain clandestine letters which were being circulated among the Senators, when I plainly saw the enemy was in the camp! but fortunately, had arrived one day too late to do the injury they had been com- missioned to do. Speaking with one of these gentlemen upon this subject, he remarked, for my comfort, as he saw me affected to tears under the influence of this sudden and unexpected attack upon my character. “Mrs. Packard, never mind! The bill is safe! They were a little too late this time to harm your cause!” “Yes, Doctor, this is indeed my only consolation, for of what consequence is it now to me to be held in esteem by your honorable body, when my cause has been so valiantly sus- tained by them? I only desire to stand in their estimation just where my own actions will place me, instead of where these lying scandals may tempt them to put me.” BE an SESUADA Muntinin HAS Il - ht ". 110110 limi lowiny Governor Carpenter signs the Bill to protect the Insane. “Mrs. Packard, your Bill is all right!” See page 317. “The Reign of Terror is ended !—The Reign of Justice is begun!” See page 317. CHAPTER XLIV. Opposition to the Enforcement of the Law. Of course, the Governor's signature was promptly obtained, so also was my request for a certified copy of the bill most kindly granted by Mr. E. Wright, the worthy Secretary of State, who, like Secretary Tyndal, of Illinois, made me a present of it, not only as a token of respect from him, but as a testimo- nial of the success of my work in that State. When this elegant certified manuscript copy was handed me, with the great seal of the State of Iowa upon it, after thanking Secre- tary Wright, I hastened with it to the Governor's office, to show to him this elegant memento of my Iowa campaign, when he, after examining it carefully and seeing his own name suitably transcribed, handed it back, saying: “Yes, Mrs. Packard, your bill is all right-and I rejoice with you in the success attending your effort in our State. I think it is a much needed law, and I shall do all in my power to have all its provisions enforced.” 6 Thank you, Governor Carpenter, I now feel that the highest honor I covet is that of posting the names of the Committee you appoint upon the Asylum walls, myself, for it would be virtually proclaiming to the imprisoned captives there confined : "The Reign of Terror is ended !—The Reign of Justice is be- gun!” The Visiting Committee were appointed by the Governor, as the law required, and in compliance with his wishes I repaired to Mount Pleasant to meet this Committee at their first meet- ing, to instruct them into the importance of the law, said he: “I wish you to present to them the same argument for the 318 MODERN PERSECUTION. enforcement of the law which you have used with me and the Legislature for its enactment.” But lo! Here, too, Dr. Ranney had superseded me and this appointment of the Governor! I saw at once that the opposition from the Legislature was but a small part of the opposition to be overcome. When Dr. Ranney found the bill had actually passed into a law, thereby opening a direct communication between his patients and the outside world, he became alarmed lest the public know what is done behind the curtain in Mount Pleas- ant Asylum. The Trustees were therefore instructed to regard this law as an innovation, which the good of the patients demanded should be most strenuously opposed ! A meeting of the Trustees was called at the time of the first meeting of the Visiting Committee to educate them into the folly of such an enactment, and to influence them to re- gard its provisions as worse than useless in their application to the interests of the patients ! And, I am very sorry to add, this artful policy of Dr. Ranney, manifested through the Trustees, prevailed in forcing upon this Committee the conviction, that the law had better be regarded as a dead letter until subsequent legislation should repeal it! As evidence of this determination, the Committee avoided me at their first meeting, when they knew I was then in Mount Pleasant, waiting there at the Governor's request, for the ex- press purpose of educating them into the importance and need of the law being enforced. At their second appointment I met Mrs. Darwin alone, whose conduct and words more than confirmed the fact that the law was regarded by them as not only a useless enactment, but as one they did not hesitate to openly ridicule and deride. To shield Dr. Ranney seemed their settled purpose and firm determination! But to shield his patients from his arbitrary OPPOSITION TO THE LAW 319 power was no part of their programme up to this date. In Mrs. Darwin I failed entirely to awaken one feeling of sym- pathy in favor of the law, or that unfortunate class the law was designed to shield from harm. At this crisis I wrote to Judge R. Lowe, of Keokuk, Ex Governor of Iowa, who was chairman of this Committee, the following letter: MOUNT PLEASANT, June, 27, 1872. JUDGE LOWE—Sir, I learn from Mrs. Darwin that your adjourned meeting of the 25th is deferred until July 2d. It was the Governor's wish that I meet this Committee in Mount Pleasant, and present for their consideration the same argu- ment and appeal for the enforcement of the law, which I had used before him and the Legislature for its enactment, adding: 6 I had never before realized its importance, and the com- mittee may be equally ignorant on this subject.” To comply with his wishes, I accordingly suspended my business at a sacrifice of four hundred dollars already, and have been waiting here eight weeks to present the Governor's letter of introduction to this Committee. I have offered to pay this Committee three thousand dollars of my own hard earnings, if necessary, to secure men who were capacitated for this important trust. I have the names of four thousand men of the first standing in Iowa, who stand as my backers in enacting and enforcing this law, and this number is constantly increasing. I have also a petition sent me from others, praying this Committee to enforce the law in every particular and begging me also to be their representative to defend their wishes to this Committee. My object in writing to you, Sir, is to express my earnest de- sire to discharge these obligations, by meeting with you, July 2d, if agreeable on your part. I do not deem it my duty to in- trude upon you an unwelcome elucidation of this subject. If, 320 MODERN PERSECUTION. however, you desire light such as I can impart, I shall be happy to meet this appointment of the Governor and citizens of Iowa. It will take me one hour at least to do justice to this subject, and shall hold myself in readiness to meet this appointment at any hour after six o'clock, A. M., July 2d, at my son's house in Mount Pleasant, T. Packard, the third house north of Asbury Church in this city. Very respectfully yours, for the oppressed, E. P. W. P. Judge Lowe called upon me on July 2d, and allowed an in- terview of four hours and a half in all, and left, as I have reason to believe, a different man so far as his views of the need of the law were concerned. He now, like the Legislature, saw both sides, and therefore like them he changed from a derider of the law to its defender. Said he: 66 This law shall be enforced! I have taken my oath to do it, and it shall be done!” In coming to this determination he considered the following petition, from Iowa citizens, representing the wishes of the people, viz.: Petition. - To the Visiting Committee appointed to carry out the pro- visions of the law to “ Protect the Insane.” Approved, April 23, 1872. “We, the undersigned, fully satisfied that the law to Pro- tect the Insane' is reasonable, just, humane, and much needed, do hereby petition you, the executors of the law, to thoroughly enforce it, in every particular, and thereby carry out the wishes of the people of Iowa to extend to this unfortunate class the protection of law while confined in their Insane Asylums.” He also considered an array of testimony of which the following is a type, showing Mount Pleasant Institution to be like others, in a corrupt condition, needing ventilation and reform, viz. : OPPOSITION TO THE LAW. 321 A gentleman and lady living in this city, are willing to tes- tify, under oath, that their daughter-in-law was taken from the asylum in a condition indicating both neglect and abuse. She had been there only two weeks, but her health and mental and physical condition were far more deplorable than when she was entered. From her shoulders down both her arms were completely covered with black and blue spots. One side of her head was badly swollen, indicating violent usage, which was confirmed by a physician extracting a stick of wood from her head, one or two inches in length. The same party testify of one man who had an eye gouged out so that it hung upon his cheek, done by his attendant. Another man had his ribs broken from a kick given him by his attendant, when laying upon the floor. Another jumped upon his stomach, etc. Another gentleman and lady of this city stand ready to testify that their son who was there three months, was taken out in an almost starved condition, and with many unmistak- able marks of violence and torture inflicted upon him. He was so nearly starved to death, that a few days more of like treatment would have killed him. His entire body was covered with black and blue spots, and some wounds in a state of corruption. Ridges both upon his arms and legs showed he had had circulation so long impeded by confinement in the “crib” as to cause these marks to become indelible. He was suffering from chronic diarrhoea in its last stages, with no treatment to check it. His food was entirely inappropriate to his condition—so unfit for human beings as to have poisoned his system so that all his finger and toe nails came off, hav- ing previously received their first serious injury from his rash attendants, by shutting them under the heavy crib, as they forced him into it, and shut it suddenly down upon him, while his fingers and toes were thus caught under it. These parents assert that they believe there is no worse 322 MODERN PERSECUTION. place in the universe where human beings can be placed than our insane asylums under their present management, with no law to protect the patients. A man in Des Moines, who has been a clerk in the Asylum for two years, asserts: There is no place in the world, in his opinion ,where criminals are treated with greater cruelty than in Mt. Pleasant Asylum. He testifies he saw a young man suspended in the air, with his hands tied to a rope, and then whipped until the blood flowed from his body. Another, who had been for years an attendant there, says, the attendants treat the patients very roughly, but the Doctor knows but little about it. He once saw an attendant knock a patient down with a chair. He says what I say in my book of the treatment at Jacksonville is true of Mt. Pleasant Asylum. I hear almost universal complaint of the increased unwil- lingness of the Doctor to allow the friends to see their rela- tives, while in the asylum, and also complaints of want of food and false imprisonments. The above facts of cruel treatment I gave him in substanee over the names of the witnesses, accompanied by the follow- ing letter: MOUNT PLEASANT, July 4, 1872. JUDGE LOWE-DEAR SIR—I send herewith the testimony I promised you. These witnesses are competent and are ready and willing to be used in any manner you may desire for your great and arduous work. Mr. Walters is a Quaker min- ister, and the peace principles under which his son was edu- cated at home conflicted sadly with the discipline of the asylum, which is punishment for exhibitions of insanity! Judge Lowe, 'tis a fact, patients in our insane asylums are treated as criminals, not as unfortunates. But, sir, every obstacle which it is possible to interpose to prevent your knowing this fact will be thrown in your way. The By-Laws of the institution will deny it. But in their OP POSITION TO THE LAW. 323 application to practice they are “ By-Lies," designed to deceive and blind the inquisitive public. The physicians and keepers will deny it in words, but own it in practice. These “ honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from him," as a God of truth. It is to prevent this being known as the asylum treatment that the patients are not allowed to converse with visitors- that they have not been allowed to write to their friends that friends are so reluctantly admitted to converse with their friends in the wards—that the employees are instructed not to tell outside of the asylum what passes within its walls. Now, Judge Lowe, it stands to reason that if the patients were treated with reason, justice and humanity, they would not be so extremely anxious to conceal it. But it is because they are not treated reasonably that they are so afraid to have it known how they are treated. Certainly these pad-locks ought to be removed from the lips of both patients and employees so that the public can know how the inmates are treated, and every attempt at concealment ought to be regarded as a suspicious omen, that there is some- thing going on which ought not to be. Good deeds and good acts court the light. It is only the evil which seek darkness. And we may be almost always sure that deeds of darkness or concealment are evil deeds. Legislators and trustees have hitherto let superintendents have things their own way almost entirely in the laws con- trolling them. Therefore this innovation of recognizing inmates of insane asylums as beings possessing human rights in common with other citizens, is a kind of new dispensation inaugurated, by restoring to them their long usurped Post- Office rights. And you, sir, are the man on whom the eyes of this republic are fastened to see that this single right is in no case ignored, and thereby the right of free communication be established between the patients and the outside world. 324 MODERN PERSECUTION. This law well enforced, must necessarily terminate the reign of terror and despotism and introduce the reign of justice and rectitude. I do hope before the next meeting of your Board a concert of action will be instituted, and the law be put into working order, thorough and efficient. Respectfully yours, for the oppressed, E. P. W. P. After making a faithful report to the Governor of the dis- position the Committee had shown to shirk the responsi- bilities of the law, and Judge Lowe's subsequent verbal com- mittal in its favor, I received the following reply: DES MOINES, July 23, 1872. Mrs. E. P. W. PACKARD, No. 1496, Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. RESPECTED MADAME—The Governor was away from the capital and at Mt. Pleasant, when your letter of July 14th, with enclosures, was received. Upon his return it was laid before him. In reply he directs me to say that your state- ments will receive due and full consideration. The Governor hopes however that your first impressions of the Visiting Committee, or at least one of its members, you will find to be incorrect, and that their official course will be such as to deserve and receive the highest approval. Nevertheless, the Governor is determined to the extent of his power and information to secure an enforcement of the Legislative will, as expressed in the “ Act to Protect the In- sane.” Your articles have been handed to Mr. Clarkson for inser- tion in the Register, as requested by you. Very respectfully, WM. H. FLEMING, Private Secretary. OPPOSITION TO THE LAW. 325 While superintending the publication of my book in New York city, I wrote to Governor Carpenter for his picture, to form a part of one of my illustrations, and in reply received the following letter, the perusal of which affords me the cheering gratification of finding that the mode of conducting my campaign in Iowa Legislature receives the approval of this most highly-esteemed and worthy man and Governor. STATE OF IOWA--EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, ) DES MOINES, November 9, 1872. Mrs. E. P. W. PACKARD, 211 Skillman Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. DEAR MADAME-I enclose you, in compliance with your request, a photograph of myself. I think you give me entirely too much credit in reference to my connection with the passage of the “ Act to Protect the Insane.” The success of that measure was entirely due to your persistent advocacy, and the good judgment with which you presented its merits to the members of the General Assembly. I regret not sending this photograph sooner, as your letter of October 7th would imply some haste, but absence from home, and the fact that I had no photograph at hand, is my apology. Very truly, yours, C. C. CARPENTER. CHAPTER XLV. An Act to Protect the Insane by Law. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa : That there shall be a Visiting Committee of three, appointed by the Governor, to visit the Insane Asylums of the State at their discretion, with power to send for persons and papers, and to examine witnesses on oath, to ascertain whether any of the inmates are improperly detained in the hospital, or unjustly placed there, and whether the inmates are humanely and kindly treated, with full power to correct any abuses found to exist; and any injury inflicted upon the insane shall be treated as an offense, misdemeanor, or crime, as the like offense would be regarded when inflicted upon any other citizen outside of the Insane Asylums. They shall have power to discharge any attendant or employee, who is found to have been guilty of misdemeanor, meriting such discharge ; and in all their trials for misdemeanor, offense, or crime, the testimony of patients shall be taken and considered for what it is worth, and no employee at the Asylum shall be allowed to sit upon any jury before whom these cases are tried. Said committee shall make an annual report to the Governor of the State. SEC. 2. The names of this Visiting Committee, and their post-office address shall be kept posted in every ward in the asylum, and every inmate in the asylum shall be allowed to write, when and what they please to this committee, and to any other person they may choose. Provided, The Superintendent may, if he thinks proper, send letters addressed to other par- ties, to the Visiting Committee for inspection, before forward- ing to the individual addressed. And any member of the AN ACT TO PROTECT THE INSANE. 327 committee who shall neglect to heed the calls of the patient to him for protection, when proved to have been needed, shall be deemed unfit for his office and shall be discharged by the Governor. SEC. 3. Each and every person confined in any Insane Asylum within the State of Iowa, shall be furnished by the superintendent or party having charge of such person, at least once in each week while so confined, with suitable materials for writing, enclosing, sealing, and mailing letters. Provided, they request the same, unless otherwise ordered by the Visiting Committee, which order shall continue in force until counter- manded by said committee. SEC. 4. It is hereby made the duty of the Superintendent, or party having charge of any person under confinement to receive, if requested to do so by the person so confined, at least one letter in each week, without opening or reading the same, and without delay to deposit it in the post-office, for trans- mittal by mails, with a proper postage stamp affixed thereto. SEC. 5. It is hereby made the duty of the Superintendent, or party having charge of any person confined on account of insanity, to deliver to said person any letter or writing to him or her directed, without opening or reading the same; Pro- vided, This letter has been forwarded by the Visiting Com- mittee. Sec. 6. In the event of the sudden and mysterious death of any person so confined, a coroner's inquest shall be held as provided for by law in other cases. Sec. 7. Any person neglecting to comply with, or willfully and knowingly violating any of the provisions of this act, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished for a term not ex- ceeding three (3) years, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand (1,000) dollars, or by both fine and imprisonment, in the discre- tion of the court, and by ineligibility for this office in future, and upon trial had for such offense, the testimony of any 328 MODERN PERSECUTION. person, whether insane or otherwise, shall be taken and con- sidered for what it is worth. Sec. 8. At least one member of said committee shall visit the asylum for the insane every month. Sec. 9. That there shall be allowed as salary of such Visiting Committee the sum of five dollars per day for the time taken in visiting such insane asylums, and the same mileage as is now by law allowed members of the General Assembly. And the disbursing officer of such insane asylum shall pay the per diem and mileage allowed such Visiting Committee under the provisions of this act, and each member of such Visiting Committee shall certify under oath to such disbursing officer, the number of days he has served and the number of miles traveled. SEC. 10. This act being deemed of immediate importance, shall take effect and be in force from and after two weeks publication in Daily Iowa State Register and Leader, news- papers published in Des Moines. Approved, April 23d, 1872. CHAPTER XLVI. Educating the People. The surest guarantee for the enforcement of any law is the voice of the people in its defense. Although confident the influence of the four thousand books which I had sold in Iowa, would be in the support of the new law, yet, since the terri- tory thus canvassed was but a moiety of the entire State, I deemed it important to enlist the agency of the Press of the State in its behalf. After the Committee had refused me a hearing at their first meeting, and while I was waiting at Mount Pleasant to make a second attempt to present the Governor's letter of introduc- tion at their second meeting, the editors of Iowa held a mass- meeting of two days in that city, during which time they allowed me a hearing of ten minutes in defense of the law. Thus I hoped to secure their aid in educating the masses into the importance of the new law. Several, I am happy to say, volunteered me the use of their columns in helping on this reform. The Mount Pleasant Journal had hitherto been committed to the interests of Dr. Ranney, regarding the law as an un- necessary act of legislation. I prepared an article in defense of the law, and sought the advice of some of the leading and most influential men in Mount Pleasant, who were my patrons, as to its publication. They assured me it was of no use to try to get any article of that kind into the Journal, for said they : “ The Journal is governed by a ring, and therefore 'tis of no use to try ; but the Press is governed by principle, and will therefore publish your article.” 330 MODERN PERSECUTION. I accordingly went to the Press and read my article, and asked them if they would publish it. They refused, saying : “ We have just refused an article from the Trustees con- demning the law, and now it will not do to publish yours in favor of it. Perhaps at some future time we may open our columns to a discussion of both sides, but at present we must decline.” I told them they would disappoint some of their patrons to refuse, for they have told me: “ You were governed by principle, and would therefore publish it, while the Journal was governed by a ring and therefore they would not." Still they refused. I then took the article to the Journal office and said: “ I have been told by leading men in this city that you were governed by a ring and therefore would not publish my article ; but that the Press was governed by principle and therefore would. I have asked them to publish it, but they cannot be prevailed upon to do so; and now I wish to test these papers to see which is governed by a ring, and which by principle!” I then read them my article and said: 66 Will you publish this article or not?” 6. Yes, we will publish it!” They did so, and also afterwards published “My Visit to Mount Pleasant Asylum," and several papers in Iowa reprinted these articles, as their editors had volunteered to do. Thus the Mount Pleasant Journal, by daring to take the lead in this reform, has not only secured many additional subscribers, but has also by so doing paralyzed the efforts of its opponents to scandalize it. And the Press has lost some who would otherwise have become its subscribers, and has brought the suspicion upon it that it has too much policy, and too little principle to secure for it a sure passport to the confi- dence of the people. EDUCATING THE PEOPLE. 331 The following is the article which the Press refused and the Journal published: Self-Defense an Inalienable Right. C. C. Carpenter, the present humane Governor of Iowa, in his defense of the Bill to Protect the Rights of the Insane, remarked : “I want the right of self-defense myself, and I also want every citizen of Iowa to have this right; but under our pres- ent legislation every citizen of our State is constantly exposed to lose this right by an incarceration in an insane asylum, since these institutions must necessarily be based upon the principles of an autocracy, under which government the right of self-defense is annihilated. “Now, simply for a misfortune to place any citizen outside the pale of justice, while inside an insane asylum is not only unjust but inhuman. “There should, therefore, be a superior power inaugurated, by this Legislature, by which this autocratic power can be held amenable to the laws of our Republic, when abused.” And the Senate of Iowa argued in defense of this bill as follows: “ Since there now exists no link to connect the inmates of our Insane Asylums with the laws of our Republic—thus leaving them wholly at the mercy of an autocrat—there should be one, and the committee this bill creates forms just such a link; and we can well afford to pay our committee for fidelity to this important trust—that of extending to this un- fortunate class the protection of the law, when needed.” It was argued that no absolute autocracy should be created and sustained by a Republic whose foundation principles re- quire that every citizen shall be held amenable to the laws, and be able also to seek the protection of law, when needed, in defense of their inalienable rights. 332 MODERN PERSECUTION. Now the insane have the same inalienable right to be treated with reason, justice and humanity as the sane; therefore the insane ought to have the same protection of law as the sane. But under the present rule of Asylums they have none at all. No matter to what extent their right to justice is ignored, there is granted them no chance whatever of self-defense. The single and only object of this committee is to ascertain if any individual, among all this unfortunate class, can be found who needs the protection of justice, and to administer it, when found without a question to be entitled to it. This law gives to the committee a power superior to that of the superintendent, in that he himself is now held amena- ble to the laws, in his exercise of power over his patients, through this committee. For example, if this autocrat should be found to have been guilty of “ assault and battery, man- slaughter or murder," in his realm, he can now be held ac- countable to the laws like any other criminal found guilty of like offense outside of an Asylum, and this committee consti- tute the only link between him, as the superintendent and justice, as they do between his patients and justice. It is a humane law. It is a much needed law. It is an honor to the State of Iowa to have passed such a law, for it places Iowa where she deserves to be placed, as the banner State in humanitarian reforms. She has thus immortalized herself as the pioneer State, in thus administering to her afflicted ones the right of self-defense while confined outside the pale of justice. It is fondly hoped this bright example will speedily be fol- lowed by all the States in the Union, thus demonstrating the fact that this American Government is a Christian government, in that she can then claim, and be entitled to the honor of protecting by its laws, the right of self-defense, even to that most unfortunate of all classes of its citizens—the inmates of Insane Asylums. THE PRISONER'S FRIEND. Mt. Pleasant, June 20th, 1872. CHAPTER XLVII. My Visit to the Insane Asylum, Mount Pleasant, Iowa. On the 25th of June, I accepted the invitation of Mrs. M. A. P. Darwin, of Burlington, one of the visiting committee, to meet her at the depot of Mount Pleasant, where I showed her my letter of introduction from Governor Carpenter, and we there engaged a 'bus to take us to the Insane Asylum. Supposing her, of course, true to the cause she had come to defend—the enforcement of the law to protect the insane-to which the Governor's appointment required her oath of alle- giance, I was both surprised and grieved to hear her not only criticise, but openly ridicule and deride the law in the presence of the depot and ’bus passengers. Extremely cordial, bland and courteous was Dr. Ranney's welcome of Mrs. Darwin to the asylum, which he assured her was always ready and open for her inspection, as an official visitor. And Mrs. Darwin's introduction of me, as an in- truder rather than an associate, evidently increased the obse- quious attentions of Dr. Ranney to render himself agreeable to her by bestowing upon her his undivided attention. Their pleasure seemed reciprocal as they interchanged thoughts upon the character of “our noble institutions for the insane." Dr. Ranney spoke of the Legislature as being so strangely infatuated as to reject light from those who are qualified to impart it, and to receive it from others. He accused them also of passing bills relative to asylums which he had not even recommended! But neither of them showed the least disposition to elicit any opinions of my own, upon this, or any other subject they 334 MODERN PERSECUTION. discussed. Indeed, the only word he addressed to me during the entire interview was a most indifferent: 6 How do you do?” as Mrs. Darwin introduced me in these words: - This is Mrs. Packard, whom I found at the depot, and she came along with me.” In a few moments after Dr. Ranney retired, Mrs. Ranney came in and took Mrs. Darwin directly into another room, leaving me entirely alone. In about fifteen or twenty minutes Dr. Ranney returned, and standing directly in front of me demanded, with the look and tone of a tyrant: 66 Mrs. Packard, do you wish to see me?” “ No sir, I did not come for that purpose, I came to see the patients, and I should like to accompany Mrs. Darwin in her visits to the patients in their wards, as I have a letter of in- troduction from the Governor to this committee." In the most peremptory manner, and authoritative tone, he replied: 6 You can not accompany Mrs. Darwin to the wards! I forbid it! She has an official right to do so; you have no right at all, except that of a common visitor, and I shall grant you only that right. If you wish, my assistant will accompany you to such wards as are open on Tuesday and Friday from two to four o'clock, to visitors generally. But as to going into any others--I forbid it!” I replied, “I will accept your offer to show me what you please.” The assistant soon came and took me into a female ward, where the first lady I saw ran up to me and grasped my hand with the utmost cordiality, and commenced talking, when I was informed by my guide: “It is against the rules for a visitor to speak to a patient." As I passed on many shook my hand and seemed evidently to desire to talk with their visitor. MY VISIT TO MT. PLEASANT ASYLUM. 335 I could not but mentally inquire, why are the social rights of society denied this class ? Who has the right to deny these afflicted ones the right of free speech? Are they criminals? Why, then, should they be treated as such, in this particular ? Can it be for the benefit of the patients that this right of free speech is annihilated in these wards? In this silent manner I passed through the wards open to visitors, as I would through a menagerie, communicating no intelligence and receiving none. I saw nothing to criticise, but much to admire in the extreme neatness, quiet and order which everywhere prevailed. I might have seen one hundred patients in all who looked comfortably and well cared for. But how is it with the four hundred whom visitors cannot see? Are they as comfortable as is consistent with their con- dition ? This we are not allowed to know. We must trust this portion of humanity to the unlimited power of one, who could be the tyrant to one of his parlor guests, and the polished sycophant to another! Will we trust a valuable horse to the absolute power of one man without ever seeing or knowing how the animal is treated ? No, our property is too sacred to be thus exposed. Shall we then trust our mother, father, wife, child or hus- band where we would not our property ? No! Iowa Legislature says emphatically, No! in its recent law " to protect the insane.” And one of the committee this law creates, was then in these wards visiting these inmates, accompanied by Dr. Ranney, in whose presence the inmates fear to complain, lest they receive their threatened punishment after she leaves ! Is this enforcing the law ? Nay, verily, it is merely making a wicked farce of it. 336 MODERN PERSECUTION. Let the people of Iowa watch this committee while they watch the internal machinery of their insane asylums. They are not sent to shield Doctor Ranney, but they are sent to shield his patients from his arbitrary power. The people of Iowa are determined to look behind the cur- tain of their own institution, and if they cannot see these scenes through the eyes of their present committee, they will through some other agency. The people of Iowa have a right to know how every inmate in this institution is treated. And they have just the same right to place Doctor Ranney just where his own actions will place him that they have to apply this test to any of their other public servants. If he can stand upon this record of his own actions—Let him stand! If he cannot-Let him fall! It Doctor Ranney is innocent, he will court investigation. If he is guilty, he will seek to avoid it. E. P. W. PACKARD. Mount Pleasant, July 10, 1872. Additional Facts Respecting My Visit. Since the above articles elicited no reply, I concluded Dr. Ranney was of the opinion expressed by Dr. McFarland under similar circumstances, viz.: “ The dignity of silence is the only safe course to pursue.” I therefore give my readers the few additional facts I had reserved for a future article, such as I had expected I should have an opportunity to give to the public in a rejoinder to his reply. But since he declines meeting my artillery in open combat, I preserve it in this form until called for. After visiting the wards I returned to the reception-room, where Mrs. Ranney entertained me until called to their luuch. . MY VISIT TO MT. PLEASANT ASYLUM. 337 She then politely inquired: “Won't you, Mrs. Packard, take lunch with us?” “ Yes, Mrs. Ranney, I should be happy to do so.” At the same time commencing to take off my bonnet. See- ing this, she remarked: “There is no neccessity for removing your bonnet, Mrs. Pack- ard. Can't you eat with it on?” “Yes, I can eat with it on without the least inconvenience, as I often do at hotels, as our present style of bonnets is little more than simply a head-dress.” When I had become seated by her side at the table, and caught one glimpse of the cold, forbidding frown of her hus- band, seated opposite her, I thought I could then account for this act, as well as the extreme nervous agitation which caused her hands to tremble so very perceptibly. She knew she had incurred her husband's displeasure in even allowing me to come to the table at all. Still she could not wholly approve of her husband's course towards me, fear- ing it might be impolitic to treat me thus rudely. The Doctor, however, firmly persisted in his uncourteous conduct-helping Mrs. Darwin, who sat at the other side of Mrs. Ranney, most politely and attentively to everything upon the table, but offered me nothing. He became so deeply ab- sorbed in conversation with Mrs. Darwin that he seemed ob- livious to everything, but to bestow upon her a “feast of rea- son and flow of soul,” as well as a feast of table luxuries. Mrs. Ranney carried out her programme also by passing everything to me which her husband offered to Mrs. Darwin, although still with a very trembling hand. The Doctor, however, directed the eyes of four young gen- tlemen, who sat at the table and to whom Mrs. Ranney had given me an introduction, to me with a smile, as he finished one sentence in a very significant tone showing unmistakably for whom it was meant: 15 338 MODERN PERSECUTION. 66 The Legislature will reject these wise judicious bills, and pass others !" The last three words were uttered in such a quick, cross, snappish tone that he for once forgot the gentleman and let his angry feelings boil over. I returned their smiles, as much as to say: “I understand who that expression is meant for." Doctor and Mrs. Ranney, Mrs. Darwin and myself all met in the rotunda as we left the table, where I, addressing Mrs. Darwin, said: 6. How shall we get back to the village—the 'bus has gone back, and we cannot walk so far?” Dr. Ranney replied, “ I will take you back, Mrs. Darwin, in the asylum carriage.” 66 But how shall I get back?” I repeated, still looking at Mrs. Darwin, “I cannot walk so far this extremely hot day.” No response of any kind, from either of the trio, was made to this inquiry, and after a short silence. Doctor Ranney walked off. I broke this silence by saying : 66 Mrs. Ranney will you please excuse me while I take Mrs. Darwin into the reception-room for a private interview ?" And we passed on. As we seated ourselves upon the lounge, Mrs. Darwin remarked, “ I told the Doctor I should have a great many questions asked me.” 66 But the Doctor is a very bland and courteous gentleman, isn't he ?” said I. “Yes, he is—I never saw him treat any one ungentlemanly and uncourteously until I saw him treat you so.” “In what condition did you find the patients ? " 6 All very nice and comfortable !” “Did you go alone ?” “ No, Doctor Ranney insisted upon accompanying me!” “Don't you know, Mrs. Darwin, that this is no way to find out how the patients are treated ?” MY VISIT TO MT. PLEASANT ASYLUM. 339 “Yes, I know it is not, for one of the ladies said to me as Doctor Ranney stood by her, I can't tell you what I would like to, for the Doctor would have me punished when you leave, if I did!” Finding no way suggested, but for me to walk back in the burning noon-day sun of one of the hottest days of summer, I left her at the Asylum, promising to meet her at the depot in the evening, and stårted on my pedestrian tour. Following the winding road through the spacious Asylum grounds, with nothing to shade it from the scorching sun, before nearly reaching the gate I felt myself in danger of being sunstruck, and therefore sought the grateful shade of a large tree, under which reclined a number of male patients with their attendant, temporarily resting from their farm work. Accepting a chair offered me, and some of their cold water to drink from their tin pail, I commenced talking with them upon the mode the new law was enforced in their wards. Their answers and remarks were evidently modified by the presence of their attendant, and as I arose to leave one of the intelligent ones, a sane man, started in the same direction, saying: "I will fill my pipe.” We met at the gate, where the gate-house concealed us from the view of those we left under the tree, when he said: “I wish to tell you, I have sent four letters to my wife, and I get no reply. I don't know as they are intercepted, but I think I should have had a reply if they were sent. And another thing,” said he, in an undertone, “ I want to tell you some- thing more, may I ?” “ Certainly, tell me anything you like.” “I am almost afraid it is wrong, but I want to," and the big tears stood in his eyes. “Oh, sir, you need not be afraid tell me! tell me all!” “I will then.” 340. MODERN PERSECUTION. And just as he had uttered these words, his attendant called out: 56 Jim!” “ Yes, I am here filling my pipe,” at the same time crowd- ing some tobacco into a hollow corn-cob with his fingers. The attendant was now at his side, and taking hold of his arm led him back to his companions under the tree. This incident led me to recommend to the Committee the Belgium mode of collecting the mail from inmates of insane asylums, as seen in the following pages. When once I had reached the public road I found no diffi- culty, in hiring a passing team to carry me back to the village depot, where I again met Mrs. Darwin, conveyed there in the asylum carriage, accompanied by Mrs. Ranney. I then presented her one of my books on condition she would read it, which she promised to do, and without a 6 thank you," she turned from me and took a seat upon the opposite side of the depot. " How did you find the patients after I left?” “O, all nice and very comfortable. I like the appearance of things at the asylum even better than I did at my former visit!” “Did you see all the patients ?” 66 Yes, all the female patients." “Did Dr. Ranney accompany you this afternoon?” “ Yes, he was with me all the time.” The public should know that Mrs. Darwin is the chosen secretary of the Board of Visiting Committee. But unless she changes her programme materially, the expense attending getting up this Committee's report of the treatment of the patients in Mount Pleasant Asylum will be a useless expendi- ture, since this knowledge can be equally well obtained from Dr. Ranney's own reports. CHAPTER XLVIII. The Belgium Mode of Collecting the Mail from Inmates of Insane Asylums. A cotemporary has informed me through the New York Tribune that, “the Belgium government has recently or- dered securely locked letter boxes, easily accessible to all the inmates to be placed in every Lunatic Asylum, public or pri- vate, in that country. No officer of the institution has any means of reaching the contents of these boxes, and the letters in them are collected weekly and are taken to the Procureur du Roi of the district for examination. “If he thinks any complaint well founded, he at once insti- tutes an inquiry into it, and takes steps to have the person released, if examination by impartial experts establishes his sanity. “ This certainly is a step in the right direction. All persons confined in Lunatic Asylums are thus placed in a direct com- munication with an officer of the law, who is sworn to see jus- tice done them as far as possible. As we have said before, this letter-box system should be introduced by law into our own Asylums." Another extract from the New York Tribune goes to con- firm the statement that such a system is needed in our country. “ It requires,” says this writer, “a very plain statement of facts to arouse public attention to the conduct of our Lunatic Asy- lums. Such a plain statement is put forward to-day and sup- ported by the affidavits of the principal parties concerned, a gentleman who has been confined for some time in Blooming- dale Asylum upon what he insists—and with apparent reason- 342 MODERN PERSECUTION. is a false charge of insanity, and two former employees of that Asylum. 6. The statements of these three persons, amount to charges of the grossest cruelty, vindictiveness, and carelessness on the part of the officials of the prison, and these charges we are glad to see will be thoroughly sifted by able and determined men. The thought that we have at our doors a system of cruelty practiced upon those who can neither defend themselves, nor make their grievances known, is harrowing. “Many of us are apt to think the powerful pictures of Charles Reade's “ Hard Cash" overdrawn and exaggerated by the art of the novelist; but if the disclosures of Bloomingdale, coming close upon those of Vermont, should prove to be true, we may find the novel outdone in the strength of its coloring by his- tory, and local history, too. “ An admirable suggestion has been adopted by the Belgium government which might be acted upon wisely by our own. The great fact of which the sane and insane of asylums com- plain, is, the utter, want of means of communication with the outside world. It must be conceded that Lunatic Asylums are intended to be means of cure, and not alone places of safety, and that in many cases the means of communicating with friends would tend to the alleviation of mental and physical derangement. “ If the examination about to be made by the lawyers of J. T. Van Vleck, the gentleman who has been for a long time confined in Bloomingdale Asylum, upon what he asserts is a false charge, shall bring about so easy and still so important a reform as the letter-box system, it will have done one good thing by directing public attention to an important and ever increasing question.” Since this important feature of reform has now become already inaugurated in substance in Iowa, and regarding the Belgium mode of collecting the mail as superior to any plan COLLECTING MAILS IN BELGIUM. 343 our Committee had devised for this purpose, I cut out the above articles, and enclosed them in the following letter to the chair- man of this Committee recommending its immediate adoption. CHICAGO, August 12, 1872. JUDGE LOWE—I am preparing a full and detailed account of my effort in Iowa Legislature and Mount Pleasant, to be published in my forthcoming book, and part of which is my last two letters I wrote to you, thus giving Judge Lowe, Ex- Governor of Iowa, and Chairman of the Visiting Committee, a very prominent place in this narrative. Now, it is my desire to immortalize your name as the great pioneer of this now well inaugurated humanitarian reform. For this purpose I send you the enclosed practice of the Bel- gium government for you to adopt as the best devised mode of collecting the mail from the inmates of your insane asylums, and then report to me that it is done, or, how you do secure the enforcement of the legislative will of Iowa, so I can add this most commendable act as a new laurel to your crown of honor, in thus establishing a precedent worthy of imitation by every State in the United States. Oh! how I should delight to say to other Legislators and Committees : 66 Judge Lowe, of Iowa, the worthy chairman of the first Committee of the kind ever created in America, has stab- lished the best and most invulnerable system of communica- tion with the outside world ever before adopted in America.” And this I could honestly say, by your adopting the Belgium practice of collecting the mail, free from any possibility of interference from interested parties. None but an authorized agent of the U. S. Mail should be allowed to hold the key to these mail-boxes. Oh! Sir, do give to these unfortunates a sure guarantee, that their mail matter shall never again be interfered with by the 344 MODERN PERSECUTION. asylum officials, and your passport to the gratitude of an appreciative Republic will be complete and unquestioned. The good leaven is working in other States, since Iowa has taken her invincible stand to defend, by law, their unfortunate. I am now in correspondence with Governor Hoffman of New York on this subject, and he is looking to the operation of this humane law in Iowa for light to guide his actions. Yes, Judge Lowe, “ Your light is now set upon a hill where alding the millennial sun. As ever, yours for the oppressed, E. P. W. PACKARD. In reply to the above, Judge Lowe wrote that, he saw no objection to adopting the Belgium mode of collecting the mail from the inmates of Insane Asylums in Iowa, and would re- commend this course to the Committee at their next meeting, about the middle of September. If the Committee do adopt this course, and secure the faith- ful enforcement of the law to protect the Insane," Iowa can then make her boast of being the pioneer State in America in protecting the unfortunate inmates of Insane Asylums by the same laws by which other citizens of their State are protected. CHAPTER XLIX. Life in Bloomingdale Asylum, New York. At a meeting of the Commissioners appointed by Governor Hoffman, convened Oct. 21st, 1872, at 118 East Thirtieth Street, New York, I listened to the following testimony, taken under oath before these commissioners, from a lady who had recently been confined three months at Bloomingdale Asylum, wherein she details the treatment there to be of the same barbarous character as the Committee of Illinois found it to be at their Asylum at Jacksonville. She said she went of her own accord for treatment for epileptic fits, which she had been informed could be cured there. She was not insane, and did not go as an insane person, but as a boarder. She paid three hundred dollars upon entering, the sum required for three months, with a special contract that she should have all the medical care, treatment and attention her case required. The physician under whose care she had placed herself saw her only three times during the whole time. She took something four times a day, which she thinks was nothing but calomel, as she feels to this day such evil effects in her system as calomel produces. The first night her attendant ordered her early to bed, without her supper. She declined going so early, and without a light, and asked for her supper. They refused her a mouthful of food and told her if she did not go immediately they should send her to the “ Lodge.” She sent for the Doctor. He came, and told her she must not have any supper, and must do as the attendants requested. 346 MODERN PERSECUTION. Still she told them she would not go until she pleased to do so. Then they pushed her into her room and stripped off her clothing and tore it into ribbons before they left her. They pinched and pounded her until her arms were covered with black and blue spots and also her entire body above her waist. They kept her in a straight-jacket part of the time and told her if she made any complaint they should send her down to the “ lodge.” Her food was not only very scanty, but so poor that it was more suitable food for dogs and cats than human beings; and if they refused to eat this it was forced down their throats with the fingers of the attendants. She had seen a feeble patient, while in a straight-jacket, pulled from her bed by the hair of her head, and then dragged to the shower-bath and there held under it so long as they chose. And this was done to torture her, and not for hydro- pathic treatment. And such cases were not of rare occurrence but daily practiced there. Her clothes were all taken from her and have never been returned. She often tried to get away, and often begged of the Doctor to send her off, but he would not. She showed her black and blue arms to the commissioners when they passed through, and one remarked as he beheld them : 66 'Tis shameful!” There was always extra scrubbing and cleaning about the house and premises, whenever the commissioners were ex- pected. At other times neglect and disorder sometimes pre- vailed to a reprehensible degree. The patients, the boarders of the house, were required to do all their own chamber-work, and most of the ward work, and the Irish servant girls would sit and sew while they compelled LIFE IN BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM. 347 the patients to do the work for which they, as attendants, were paid for doing. Whether sick or well, she adds : “We were required to make our own beds, empty our slops and clean our own rooms, and when I made complaint to the Doctor of this injustice, telling him I was not able to do this work, the only reply he made was: “It is good exercise for you! “ We were sometimes allowed to walk out, but within very circumscribed limits, and never without the watch and scrutiny of these contemptible and often very insolent attendants. In fact, I often refused to go at all, to avoid the petty persecu- tions and contemptible authority they loved to exercise over us. - “In all their treatment of the patients they endeavored to impress the feeling upon the mind of every boarder : 666 You are merely our under-servants, subject wholly to our rule and dictation, as your keepers, while you are our pris- oners.' “ In fact, the patients in Bloomingdale Asylum are treated more like brutes than human beings. 6 I did not often make complaints to the Doctors of our attendants' ill-treatment of the patients, because I found the remark the Doctor once made to me, in reply to my report of mistreatment, to be too true, viz. : 666 Mrs. —, we must take the statements of our attendants to be true rather than the counter-statements of the patients.' " And it was the habitual practice of the attendants to deny the charges brought against them by the patients, no matter how abundant and consistent the testimony in support of these charges; and besides, the attendants would threaten us with the straight-jacket and a consignment to the “ lodge” if we did report them to the Doctor. “ Bad as it was, the treatment I received would have been much more cruel, had my friends failed to visit the asylum as often as they did. 348 MODERN PERSECUTION. “ This manifested solicitude on their part was a great re- straint upon them, for my friends would not be put off with their excuses, but would insist upon seeing me when they came. “I wrote many letters which I gave to my attendants to mail for me, but not a single one of the whole number thus en- trusted ever reached the friend to whom it was directed. “I am very sure that had my imprisonment been continued two months longer, I should have become a raving maniac. “But at the expiration of my term of three months, my friends insisted upon taking me out, and thus I was saved from this impending fate, which has already befallen many an inmate now confined in Bloomingdale Asylum." | At the request of the Commissioners and the witness herself, I withhold her name. She is a married woman and a resident of New York city, of good and respectable standing. Testimony of a Gentleman's Experience of Life in Bloomingdale Asylum. The following statement was given to the public, August 8, 1872, through the columns of the New York Tribune : “One gentleman, for twenty years a prosperous merchant of this city, had an opportunity, not long ago, of giving a few months study to the internal workings of the Asylum at Bloomingdale. “ The question of his sanity had never been raised, to his knowledge, until in the course of conversation he betrayed a knowledge of some painful domestic matters in the family of a relative. « On the following morning he was taken to a police station, and thence to a police court, where, on the testimony of two physicians who had never seen him until that day, he was committed to the Bloomingdale Asylum, his brother appearing as prime mover in the matter. LIFE IN BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM. 349 He remained a prisoner about three months, when, some friends having learned of his situation through letters which he was enabled to smuggle out of the asylum, a writ of habeas corpus was issued in his case, whereupon he was at once re- leased by Dr. Brown. Although he did not intentionally take advantage of the release, it was adjudged that he had techni- cally done so, having left the grounds and returned volun- tarily; and his purpose of obtaining legal redress was thus thwarted. In conversation with a New York Tribune reporter, this gentleman gave a minute account of the management of the asylum during the period when he was an inmate. A prominent cause of complaint was that the establishment seemed to him to be run as a money-making institution, with little reference to the comfort or recovery of the patients. There was nothing to interest them—no books, papers, or magazines except a few old copies of some British reviews. There were no sources of amusement except a billiard-table, and the inmates could do nothing but sit in straight-backed wooden chairs and walk in the halls. The attendants were rough and ignorant men, who could be hired on the most moderate terms. Foul and profane lan- guage was frequently addressed by them to the patients, and he had seen personal violence used at times. A man by the name of Bissel was subject to epileptic fits, but was not insane ; frequently he had been dragged by an arm or leg into his room, and there flung violently upon the floor. Bissel was placed at one time in the “lodge,” a quar- ter reserved for the most violent lunatics. Dr. Brown, in this gentleman's opinion, is an indolent man, who fails to oversee the institution personally, and his depu- ties and attendants take advantage of this fact to neglect their duties. Thirty or forty patients were lodged in the rooms leading 350 MODERN PERSECUTION. into each hall, and the night watchmen were frequently ab- sent from these halls until a late hour. The doors of the rooms were not locked, and the inmates were thus left for long periods at the mercy of the most violent of their number. He had been locked into his room on several occasions at his own request as a precautionary measure. The bath-rooms and water-closets were arranged without the slightest attempt at comfort or even decency. They were insufficient in number and filthy in the extreme. The patients were treated rather as servants than as gentle- man; he was expected to take care of his own room and to make his own bed. In fact, in his opinion, the whole course of treatment to which the inmate of the Bloomingdale Asylum is subjected is of a nature to intensify rather than alleviate any symptoms of insanity which he may manifest, and to make a sane man mad. During the short time that he was there he was able to find no occupation, and could amuse himself only by walking back- ward and forward in the hall-an exercise which his keepers regarded as a conclusive proof of his unsoundness of mind !” The name of this informant is withheld for the present, as its publication might interfere with the legal proceedings which he proposes to begin. Mr. Chambers' Testimony. . A very unique and sensible method of ventilating this asylum, has recently been adopted by the New York Tribune company, by sending one of their most reliable reporters to that institution under the guise of a patient, under which as- sumed character, he made investigations of the most impor- tant and reprehensible character, both in reference to the present mode of committal, and also the mode of treatment which the patients receive at Bloomingdale Asylum. LIFE IN BLOOMING DALE ASYLUM. 351 This energetic and capable young man, Mr. Chambers, the reporter, has immortalized himself in the hearts of the human. itarians, not only of his own but all future ages, by the good this effort has secured to this department of humanitarian reform. His testimony with regard to his admission, and the treat- ment he received as a patient while there, are most graphi- cally and fully reported by himself, and have already been given to the public through the columns of the New York Tribune, of August 30th and 31st, 1872, proving without a question that all the charges of the above witnesses are founded truth; that they are not either exaggerated or overdrawn pictures in any particular. The summing up of this reporter's mission, I can give in no better language than is given in the editorial of the Tribune, containing his report, viz. : “ The narrative now published establishes, beyond any sort of doubt, that greater facilities are offered for getting a sane man into an insane asylum than out of it. The whole medi- cal profession is at the beck and call of all who can pay to aid in the commitment. The same man, once committed, has only the medical skill of a single physician to call to his suc- cor; and that physician was already prejudiced against him for divers reasons. It is his interest—to put the baser motive first and dismiss it soonest—to keep the paying boarder as long as his friends pay his keeping. Then the endorsement of his infirmity by two reputable professional brethren leads the asylum physicians to hesitate at reversing their sworn decision. It is not merely a thing that seems to lack profes- sional courtesy, but a delicate one; if a mistake be made it is damaging to the reputation of himself or associates, and in any event is derogatory to a profession in which the members take unusual pride. Thus prejudiced, it is natural that there should be hesitation on part of the asylum physicians, and a 352 MODERN PERSECUTION. disposition to torture a patient's protest of sanity and appeals for release into evidences of idiocy, confirmatory of the certi- ficate of commitment. No perfect or proper asylum or hospital for the treatment of special diseases, and particularly of insanity, can exist without strict adherence to a well considered system of classi- fication. The report which we publish to-day is conclusive proof that there is no such system pursued at Bloomingdale. The proof is not in the assertions of the writer; it lies in the fact that he, feigning nothing, appearing a quict person, without even eccentricities, daily visited by an “expert” physician, and constantly watched by “professional” keepers, was kept four days in the excited wards, surrounded by dan- gerous maniacs, without suggestion of removal. And during all this time the ward was never once visited by the Chief Physician or Superintendent, Dr. Brown. The Bloomingdale Asylum is a private institution, owned and conducted by personal enterprise. It is evident, also, that it is a speculative institution, and is maintained at a pro- fit at the expense and abuse of the unfortunate boarders. The lowest rate per week charged is twenty dollars. Now it is evident from the plain, brief, and careful state- ments of the reporter, that the accommodations are not better than can be had in any second-class boarding-house in this city for seven dollars a week, room and meals included. As for the other conditions, the food is not particularly nutritious, the supply of the costlier materials is small and grudgingly given, the food is not clean, nor is it well cooked, and the attendance at table is simply beastly. The conversation of the keepers while serving at table is not fairly reported, but it is because their disgusting language can- not be expressed in print, and it is impossible to describe it. Uttered in a public bar-room, some of the words reported to us LIFE IN BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM 353 by the reporter as repeatedly spoken by the attendants while serving at table in the asylum, would have subjected the speaker to summary and violent ejection at the hands of the most besotted of proprietors. The constant punishment of an imbecile youth by forcing him to perform the duties of a menial—the violent hurling of a harmless idiot half across a room for the offense of not know- ing which way to turn--the brutal beating of an old and blind idiot for protesting against rude treatment—the toasting of a poor boy naked in the sun while confined in what is nothing other than an iron cage—these are among the instances of cruelty which the reporter cites as having been witnessed by himself. Others are also named, but none are of such a painful nature as those enumerated above. We have vainly endeavored to imagine a plausible excuse for these acts of violence which we have not the heart to recite in detail. They appear to have been wanton acts done in moments of passion by the keepers, and were not necessary apparently to the maintenance of any system of discipline, for discipline and classification alike seem to have no part in the Bloomingdale, management." CHAPTER L. Testimony from Ward's Island, Taunton, Trenton, and Brattleboro Asylums. Death and Burial of Louis C. Samuels, Victim of Ward's Island Asylum, New York. In the New York Sun, of November 4th, 1872, appeared the following: “On Saturday Coroner Herrman held an inquest over the remains of Louis C. Samuels, the lunatic alleged to have died at the city Insane Asylum at Ward's Island last Monday night, from the effects of mal-treatment at the hands of the keeper, James McDonald. The first witness examined was Dr. Joseph Cushman, who testified that the result of a post-mortem ex- amination, made by him, was to show that Samuels was laboring under no acute complaint likely to have caused death, which, he thought, was brought about by exhaustion, the body being very much emaciated. Dr. Gonzales Echeverria, resident physician of the asylum, testified that Samuels was admitted into the asylum last August. He was a person of some mental ability as far as he could judge. In September he was suffering from acute mania, but wholly inoffensive. He was also troubled with diarrhoea, from which he did not fully recover until about two weeks ago, when his mental condition also improved. He frequently complained of being starved and mal-treated by the attendants in the ward, and especially by McDonald, who, he said, was greatly addicted to drinking. Witness was not at first disposed to place much credence in his statements, TESTIMONY FROM WARD'S ISLAND. 355 but a careful investigation satisfied him that the charge of inebriety at least was true. On the morning of October 26th he found another patient, named Patrick Cassidy, in the ward with Samuels, with his face and shirt stained with blood, and on inquiry ascertained that McDonald had broken his nose. As this fact was admit- ted by the keeper, witness, considering him an unsafe man to have charge of insane patients, reported the fact to the Commissioners of Charities and Correction, and the following morning, on visiting the asylum, he was again appealed to by Samuels, who was evidently suffering severely, and who com- plained that McDonald had forced him to take a cold bath as a punishment. He was at this time so emaciated that, according to witness, nothing but skin and bone were left. Seeing that he was suffering from lack of sufficient nourishment, the doctor ordered him some invigorating food. The next morning Samuels was in a still feebler condition, and complained that McDonald had again maltreated him, kicking him in the stomach with his knee on this occasion. He wished to write to his brother concerning his treatment, but witness assured him he would present the case to the proper authorities. He accordingly wrote a letter to the President of the Commis- sioners of Charities and Correction. Witness here cited several instances of brutality which had occurred in the asylum within the past six weeks, one of which had resulted in the death of one Herman Eilers. On the night of Monday, October 28, Samuels died, and, in his opinion, his death was attributable solely to the cruelty of McDonald. After the examination of other witnesses the case was adjourned. On Saturday the body of Samuels was taken to Bellevue Hospital, and yesterday the members of . Olympic Lodge assembled at 193 Bowery to pay the last tribute of respect to their deceased brother. 356 MODERN PERSECUTION. Despite the inclemency of the weather nearly every lodge in the city was represented. Brother Lipenan delivered an eloquent address, and resolutions were adopted concerning the inhuman treatment to which Brother Samuels had been sub- jected. A long procession marched to Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn." Death of James Parks, Victim of Taunton Asylum, Massachusetts. 66 A coroner's jury has this week investigated the last days and death of James Parks, who died at the Taunton Lunatic Asylum on March 3d. He was a truckman in Cambridge, and during Thursday, February 26th, was observed to act strangely about his work. In the evening he went to an Irish wake in Charlestown and acted on his return homeward with a boisterous turbulence, apparently resulting from intoxication, sometimes on horse- back and sometimes off. Two policeman, after a severe struggle in which they several times struck him with a billy on the head, arrested him and took him to a station house. In the morning he was adjudged insane, and after several days of detention in the station house, was sent to the Taunton hospital. Here he became very violent, and one of the attend- ants, in defending himself against Park's maniacal fury, threw him down and kneeled on his chest in order to keep him under. Thereafter Parks lost his vigorous strength, and the next day died. Post-mortem examination showed some heavy scalp wounds, bruises in various parts of his body, and fourteen broken ribs, a fracture of the breast bone, and the right lung per- forated in several places. The doctors of the asylum en- deavored to lay the blame of death upon the previous I'ESTIMONY FROM TAUNTON AND TRENTON. 357 struggle, and for that purpose tried to prove that maniacal ex- citement could mask severe physical injuries. The weight of testimony was inexorable against their hypothesis, and the verdict attributed his death to the fierce fight in the hospital. No blame was cast upon the men who thus became his unin- tentional murderers! But it is evident that constant familiarity with such cases leads to a criminally reckless handling of human life; and it is unlikely that three stalwart men should have been unable in any other way to master this one man with- out recourse to crushing breath and blood from his body.” Mr. Bischoffsberger, Victim of Trenton Asylum, New Jersey. 6 In Newark, a Mrs. Bischoffsberger, wife of a well-to-do grocer, and her brother-in-law, Simon Stentz, were taken into custody upon a charge of unlawfully depriving Mr. Bischoffs- berger of his liberty and attempting to defraud him of his property. Mr. Bischoffsberger's friends claim that his wife, in order to get possession of the property, induced a physician to give a certificate that he was insane. In this project, as alleged, the wife was assisted by Stentz. Upon the above mentioned certificate, it is further alleged, Mr. Bischoffsberger was hurried to the Lunatic Asylum at Trenton, where no care- ful examination of his case was made. Mr. Bischoffsberger protested that he was perfectly sane, and that his incarceration was the result of a base conspiracy. The wife paid six months board in advance for the patient.” Once rid of the old man, the wife commenced measures to get possession of the property, which is valued at forty thousand dollars. In the meantime some of Mr. Bischoffsberger's friends became suspicious of the stories that had been given 358 MODERN PERSECUTION. G out relative to his whereabouts and instituted a search. They were aided by the Doctor above alluded to, who had fallen out with Mrs. Bischoffsberger, because she would not pay him his promised fee. Having discovered the old man's whereabouts, steps were at once taken to secure his release. The Superintendent of the asylum suddenly discovered that Mr. Bischoffsberger was not insane, and wrote to his wife informing her of the fact, and ordering her to come and take her husband away. Mrs. Bischoffsberger, who had not yet succeeded in her schemes of getting possession of the prop- erty, refused to do this, and sent money to the asylum au- thorities for three months' more board. Mr. Bischoffsber- ger's friends still persevered, and at length succeeded in secur- ing his liberation. The “ patient” is now in Newark, apparently as sane as any one. Mrs. Bischoffsberger and Stentz, as above stated, have been arrested and committed to the City Prison, in default of bail, to await trial. There is a sensation ahead for Newark.” Brattleboro Asylum Horrors. This terrible Asylum, so long notorious for its cruelties to the inmates, is now undergoing a thorough ventilation, and when the forty witnesses who are now summoned to meet at Montpelier, come forward before the public with their testi- mony, it will doubtless more than confirm the present reputa- tion it has acquired of being one of the most cruel of all these American bastiles. It will doubtlessly show that the remark of a victim who suffered one years' torture there to be no exaggeration of the truth. Said he: “If ever my friends decide to return me again, as a patient, TESTIMON Y FROM BRATTLEBORO. 359 into that institution, there is one request I have to make, which I beg of them with all sincerity to comply with, which is, that before they put me there, to begin at my toes and with pinch- ers pick off all the flesh from my entire body, and it will be a mercy to me to have them thus do, before they send me to Brattleboro asylum again!” Another case is that of a lady, whom the Doctor decided to subdue by the starvation “ treatment,” which process was so long continued that the smell of food even drove her almost frantic, so that she would risk almost any exposure to get it. To prevent this they jacketed her, so that with her arms thus pinioned they could better restrain her efforts to help herself when in the dining-room. One day as she entered the dining-hall in this straight- jacket, the sight and smell of food so stimulated her appetite in her now emaciated and nearly deathly condition from so long a deprivation of food sufficient for nature's demands, that in her agony she bent. her head towards the table and was just in the act of clutching a mouthful of food between her teeth, when her attendant saw her and seized her to drag her away, when she, instead of securing the food she aimed at, caught the table-cloth between her teeth in its place, and by the violent and sudden act of her attendant in dragging her off, she dragged off with her patient the table-cloth, and with sult. Now the starved patient was taken off to receive her condign punishment for breaking the asylum crockery, which she was part of her “treatment”-starvation—from the decree of the same despot. She was stripped, pinioned, and whipped until the blood flowed from her body so profusely as to stand in puddles about her feet! 360 MODERN PERSECUTION. And this is the “ treatment” our Christian Government has legalized as the cure for insanity! Knowing, as I do, that this is true, and liable to occur in every asylum in our country, whether public or private, shall aloud and spare not, until every inmate within the pale of these despotic institutions has access to the strong arm of law to protect them from such violence and injustice ? Nay, if I were silent under these circumstances, well might I expect, under the government of a just God, to receive myself, sooner or later, these same punishments inflicted upon myself, which I had not tried to ward off from my unfortunate brothers and sisters in God's great family. Indeed, I verily believe, that if the truth were known, there would be found in every asylum on this continent cases of just as false imprisonment in each of them, as mine was in Jacksonville. not from my labors until they are all thoroughly ventilated. CHAPTER LI. Is Man the Lord of Creation? The response I received to the congratulation I gave Doctor McFarland, one day, on his return from his Chicago trip, pained me a little. His wife standing by, I said : 66 We welcome your return; still, we congratulate you on being able to leave the superintendence of the house in so good hands as your wife’s, in your absence. We feel that kindness rules her actions towards the patients.” “Your words are always so sweet and honied !” “No more so than my feelings. They are correct reporters of my heart.” “Would that some of these sweet and honied words could be bestowed upon the husband you promised to love and honor!” “ He has had them in more abundance than any other man, but he shall never have another, until he repents. “Oh, how determined you men are to break down the con- science of woman, and thus annihilate her identity. Only let her be your echo or parasite and she is all right! “ Doctor, there should be no individual sovereignty in oppo- sition to God's government. Therefore, no husband should require the subjection of his wife's conscience to his will, when it opposes what she regards as God's will. God grant, that the time may never wear away in me this spirit of resist- ance to such oppression.” “But Mrs. Packard, these principles would be subversive of all family government; for, the government of the family is vested entirely in the husband, the wife has no right to her identity; she must live, move and have her being in him alone.” 16 362 MODERN PERSECUTION. “I admit that the recognition of her identity will endanger the overthrow of a family despotism, because the marital power will then be so limited as to compel a respectful regard to the inalienable rights of the wife; for, on this principle, the husband must have the power to ignore all her rights, or he cannot be 'lord over all' in his family! “I claim that every family established on such a basis ought to be overthrown, as well as all other despotisms; and it is this principle which is at the present day sending devastation throughout the whole social fabric of society. « Despotism cannot live on freedom's soil. 66 Divorce and disunion are demonstrating this fact, and they will continue to demonstrate and remonstrate too, against family despotism, until this government will extend the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to the wives of the government as well as the husbands. “Married woman has as good a right to her moral account- ability as a married man ; and God is her sovereign as well as he is man's sovereign. Man has no more right to interfere with her allegiance to Christ's government, than she has to interfere with his. Both must be judged independently before this highest tribunal, therefore each should be morally free to live up to their highest convictions of right.” “Mrs. Packard, what is meant by Wives, obey your hus- bands?'" 6. It means to obey them in what is right, and not in what is wrong.” 66 What is meant by the husband being the head of the wife?'" 66 It means that he is the head, or the senior partner of the firm, and the wife the junior partner, or companion. He has this headship assigned to him instead of the wife, because he is the best fitted in nature to defend and protect the wife and children. He is the head, to protect, but not to subject the IS MAN THE LORD OF CREATION? 363 rights of the other members of the household. This headship gives him no more right to become the despot, than the junior position of the wife allows her to become his slave. Being as- sociated as partners, does not confer on either the right of usurpation.” “But what shall be done, when, on a point of common in- terest, they cannot agree?” 6. The junior must yield her views to the senior's.” “But supposing the wife feels that the husband's plans will bring disaster upon the family interests ?” “ It is her duty to yield, notwithstanding, after she has urged all her strong reasons against it, for unless she does, she trespasses on his right as a “ head of the firm. The risk must be assumed by some one, and as the 'head' is compelled to bear this responsibility, he ought to be allowed to act in accordance with his own judgment, after the opinions of his junior partner have been candidly weighed. Then, if disaster follows, she has no right to complain, for this is one of the indispensable liabilities of a co-partnership relation. Under- standing this principle when she entered the firm, she would be domineering over an inalienable right of her partner to do otherwise. Unless this principle of justice can be peaceably conceded, there is no alternative but a peaceable dissolution, or a civil war.” It is with a kind of patriotic pride that I can at this age chronicle one State as having already engrafted this just prin- ciple of legislation into their laws, and also add, that its ap- plication is pacific in its influence upon the social fabric. Finding that Iowa was in advance of all the other States in this Union in removing the legal disabilities of common law in relation to married woman, and that she lacked only one more provision to render all the rights and responsibilities of the husband and wife equal before the law, I therefore, during my nine months labors in Iowa, in 1871-2, made a specialty 364 MODERN PERSECUTION. of this defect, by obtaining thirty-six hundred names of pat- rons who consented to have their names used with their Leg- islature as those who wished to have this defect remedied. Therefore, in the winter of 1872, I sent to the Legislature the following Bill, together with these thirty-six hundred names as patrons in its support, viz. : 66 Where the parents of children live separate and apart from each other, without fault of the wife, whether divorced or not, the Circuit-Court sitting as a court of Chancery shall have jurisdiction to regulate the custody and maintenance of the children, and determine with which of the parents the child or children shall remain, and who shall be entitled to the earn- ings, and liable for the support of the same—and the rights of the parents, in the absence of misconduct, shall be equal.” In reply came the intelligence that there had been a com- mittee appointed to revise the statutes of Iowa and that they had reported that they would recommend to the Legislature to adopt this principle into their laws, for this reason, that as in all other respects the rights of the husband and wife were equal, they saw no reason why in relation to parentage they should not be equal also. While at work, however, for my 'Bill to Protect the Insane, in the Legislature of 1872, I also lobbied for this bill, and had every reason to think the recommendation of this Revising Committee would be adopted by the Legislature without op- position. But the sudden and rather premature adjournment of the Legislature left this part of their business unfinished, to be acted upon at their next Session. When this bill is actually passed into a law, Iowa can then be justly entitled to the honor of not only being the pioneer State in protecting the inmates of insane asylums, but also in extending the same protection of law to the married women of their State which they do to the married men. CHAPTER LII. Getting my Children-A Re-united Family. Finding as I had, that my property rights—my rights of conscience and opinion and my personal liberty were all at the mercy of my legal usurper, I inquired of my counsel with the most intense anxiety : “How is it with my children ? Can I not have children protected to me while I am a married woman?” "No, the children are all the husband's after the tender age. You can have no legal right to your own children, unless you get a divorce, and then the Judge will give you your children and alimony." “ Then your laws do protect children to the single woman, while they do not protect them to the married woman?” 6 Yes, the laws do respect the right of maternity in the single woman, but in the married woman this right, like ail her other rights, is ignored by this suspension of rights during coverture." “Now, we married women claim that the time has fully come to have our maternal rights established and protected by law, equally at least to those of the single woman, for by such laws a premium is offered on infidelity and encourages divorce; whereas, the best interests of society demand that the sacred institution of marriage be based on the principle of right and justice to both parties so that neither party can ignore or usurp the inalienable rights of the other. 66 Until this is done, the children of this Republic have only half their rights, in law. They can claim a legal right to a father's training, but none to a mother's care." 366 MODERN PERSECUTION. The obstacles in the way of getting my children seemed at first view almost insurmountable. The battle I was called upon to fight seemed to require more courage, fortitude and perseverance, than I could command, when I looked simply upon the obstacles. But when my loving heart looked upon the end to be attained—the care of my own dear children-doubt, despon: dency and fear fled apace before the determined will and purpose to succeed, in spite of the mighty barriers to be overcome. The laws of two States must first be changed, and my pov- erty be supplanted by plenty, before I could reasonably hope to succeed in getting the custody of my three minor children. Fully determined, however, to face tl.es: foes and conquer them all before giving the field to the enemy, I commenced writing and selling my own books, as heretofore delineated, and persevered in this business until I had sold enough to purchase a nice little cottage and lot in Chicago, free from all encumbrance. But as the laws of Illinois then were, all my earnings my husband's control, and thereby liable any day to be taken protection drove me to seek a change in the laws of Illinois, to secure to me a safe title to the ownership of this property. As a preparatory step, as soon as the legislature for 1869 was chosen, I mailed to each member of that body a copy of my book, the postage alone of which cost me forty dollars. I considered this as throwing light across their path, in season for them to consider the subject impartially and calmly before being called upon to act, trusting that all that was needed was simply to inform them of the necessity of such legislation as would render impossible another such outrage. In addition to this I suspended all other business, and paid THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN. 367 my board in Springfield another entire session, trying to so bring the subject before the members, that its claims might not be forgotten or disregarded. I wrote anonymous articles for the Chicago Tribune and the Springfield State Journal upon the subject of my bill, which I had the honor to hear credited to Mrs. Livermore of Chicago. But this compliment, flattering as it was, did not supersede the need of direct The bill which I had prepared had for its object—“ To equalize the rights and responsibilities of the husband and wife.” It covered the whole ground of married woman's legal dis- abilities, the passage of which would not only entitle her to the rights of an individual property owner, the same as her husband, but also to the right of co-partnership with her husband in the use and control of the property acquired during coverture, and also the right of co-partnership with her husband in the guardianship, custody and control of the children, and also an equal right with her husband, as surviving partner, to the administration of the estate and guardianship of the children. The two following are a specimen of the kind of articles to which I called the attention of the legislature through the columns of the public press. The Rights of Children. Every child has a right to a mother as well as a father. Neither should these rights be ignored by the laws of a Christian Government. But as the law now is, the mother's legal right to the custody and control of the children, after the tender age,” is annihilated by the common law basis of marriage. After 6 the tender age,” this right of the mother is entirely 368 MODERN PERSECUTION. subject to the will or wishes of the father. He may allow the mother the privilege of rearing her own children, or he may pleases, regardless of her entreaties or protests to the con- trary, and she is helpless in legal self-defense of this right of the child. True, a court of chancery may award this right to the mother, if her claim to competency can be sustained ; still the common law secures to the father the right to usurp this sacred right which God has given the mother to be the natural guardian of the child. Supposing the reverse was true, and men had to be subject to such laws as these, which women had made for them. Would they not cry out against the inhumanity of these laws of their woman government, so long as it allowed the father's right thus to be trampled into the dust by such unjust legislation ? But supposing the woman government should claim, in defense of these one-sided laws, that, 66 It will not do to allow the father to have equal rights with the mother, lest our own rights be imperiled thereby. “ No, we must retain the full power to usurp the rights of the defenseless father, for there is no way under the laws of our woman government to protect the rights of the weak against the usurpations of the strong, except to grant the full power of usurpation and protection to the strong party alone! “ Yes, we will not only retain the law-making power as our own exclusive right, but we will also compel you to be subject to these laws of our one-sided legislation. This is our way of protecting the rights of men, for all our rights are forever gone just as soon as our right to usurp the rights of men is limited!” “Oh! man's inhumanity to woman in such kind of legisla- tion “ makes countless millions mourn!” Yes, under our man government it is the unmarried woman THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN. 369 alone who has any legal right to rear her own offspring, while the father is required to provide for it. Illegitimate children are allowed a legal right to a mother's training and guardianship, while the legitimate offspring of the married woman have no legal right to the care and train- ing of their own mothers! Now we claim that the law should protect the rights of the married woman's children to a mother's care, equally at least with those of the single woman. But it does not do so. Therefore this Christian government thus offers a premium on infidelity, and encourages divorce or separation, as this is now the only way a married woman can get the legal custody of her own children. Woman must either have her children in a single state, or be divorced from the marriage relation in order to be possessed of the legal right to the custody or con- trol of her children! We do not want that the father's right to the control and custody of the children should be extirpated; we only want the mother's right to be established on the same basis. The child has a right to a father, and therefore it is eminently proper that the law should establish and protect this right. And so also has the child a right to a mother, and, therefore, we claim that it is equally proper that this right also should be established and protected by law. It is earnestly hoped that the Twenty-six General Assembly of Illinois will be magnanimous enough to boldly face these disgraceful facts, and dare to be the pioneer State in this Union in establishing and protecting the right of the children of this republic to the guardianship and training of the married mother, as well as the father, by passing the bill for an act to equalize the rights and responsibilities of the husband and wife.” In behalf of the children of Illinois, Chicago, February 2d. 1869 A MOTHER. 370 MODERN PERSECUTION. The Mother's Legal Rights. There is a bill before the Illinois Legislature calling for the legal recognition of the maternal rights of married women. The provisions of the bill grant to the mother the same legal protection in law, which the enlightened public sentiment of the present age grants her in her social position in society. We would most cheerfully admit that married woman's social position under the American flag is the best in the world, and if her legal position could but be made to correspond with it, ours would be the model government for woman. By this bill the mother becomes legally a joint partner with the father, as the guardian of her children, and is equally entitled with him to the custody, control and earnings of the children, as long as they shall continue to be husband and wife. But in case of separation the children must be disposed of as the present statute law directs, in case of divorce, at the discre- tion of the judges before whom each party makes their claim. As the law now is, all the natural rights of married women are annihilated by that principle of the non-existence of the wife, thus leaving all her rights wholly subject to the will of her husband. As the right of the mother to rear her own children is one of married woman's natural rignts, which the common law of marriage entirely ignores, the manliness of the legislators of the present age should, by statute law so modify this unjust principle, as to recognize in married woman a legal right to be the guardian of her own offspring. Another provision of the bill is, that as the mother has a right to rear her own offspring, she has therefore a right to a home to rear them in; and, as she assumes equal respon- sibilities with the father in the training of the children, she must therefore become a joint owner with him in their com- mon property, thus allowing the mother means for discharging her responsibilities equal to those of the father THE MOTHER'S LEGAL RIGHTS. 371 But some object that woman is not prepared to assume these important trusts and responsibilities. But how is she to become prepared ? By perpetuating her dependence, or by lifting her up on this plane of responsibility, and thus educating her for her high duties? It was once argued that the negro slave must first be fitted for freedom before he could be trusted with it; but the more enlightened claimed that the very best way to fit him for free- dom was to elevate him to the position of a free man. Responsibility does elevate, and therefore the most sure and effectual metnod of capacitating married woman for these trusts is to lift her out of her dependent condition, and entrust her with those high and noble duties and responsibilities which cluster around the mother's heaven-assigned sphere. Only once let our legislators try the experiment and test us by endowing married woman with her natural rights as a woman, they need not be surprised if her clamor for the rights of men should cease. But so long as the law-makers will stifle her cry to them for the protection of this, the first right of woman's nature, they must still expect to hear that most unwelcome cry for 6 the right to be their own protectors !” Mothers of Illinois ! let us suspend our condemnation of our man legislation until we see what action they take upon this bill, wherein we make our appeal to them for the protection of our maternal rights, trusting that they may yet be induced to give to married woman as sure a guarantee of her rights as a mother, as they provide for themselves as fathers. In behalf of the mothers of Illinois, Chicago, January 29th, 1869. A FEMALE PARENT. To secure the passage of this bill, I met the Judiciary Com- mittee of the House to whom the bill had been referred, at the 372 MODERN PERSECUTION. Leland House, by appointment, and there presented my de- fense of the bill to a crowded audience in the committee's room. But I am sorry to add, it did not seem to be appreciated or favorably regarded. The chairman told me they would like to see many of the provisions of the bill introduced into the statute laws of Illi- nois, but did not consider it expedient to recommend a bill including so many radical changes at once—but would report it back without their recommendation, and leave it to the action of the House to accept or reject it independent of their opinion, if it was my wish for them so to do. He told me it was his candid opinion the House would reject it by a large ma- jority, if presented as it was, for there were too many changes, although good in themselves, to introduce at one time. I therefore concluded not to urge the bill any farther in its present comprehensive character, but wrote at once to Judge Bradwell, of Chicago, to know if his business would render it possible for him to visit Springfield, and allow me his advice and assistance in this matter. He came, and I met him with Mrs. Bradwell at the Leland House, where, after thoroughly canvassing the subject, he ad- vised that, instead of mutilating my bill, which in his judg- ment was admirable, to lay it by for this session, and present one which simply included a married woman's right to hold and use her own earnings, independent of the interference of her husband. To this I consented and also accepted his kind offer to draft the bill, which he promptly did, and reads thus on the statute book of Illinois, viz: 6 A married woman shall be entitled to receive, use, and possess her own earnings, and sue for the same in her own name, free from the interference of her husband or his credi- tors.” THE MOTHER'S LEGAL RIGHTS. 373 The bill was presented, referred to the Judiciary, recom- mended, and passed without opposition; and thereby, I, in common with other married women in Illinois, am now protected by law in my right to my home, bought with my own earnings. I sent on the “ Bill to equalize the rights and responsibilities of husband and wife,” to the next legislature of 1871, and it was presented by Senator Dore of Chicago, and freely discussed on the floor of the Senate, and through the columns of the papers, and before the Session closed, I received a letter from Senator Dore, stating that the main features of the Bill had passed into a law, so that now a married woman is equally with the husband entitled to the custody, control and earnings of the children, and can administer upon the estate, and is equally with the husband the natural and legal guardian of the chil- dren on the death of her partner, and her right to her own property is protected equally with that of her husband. Thus I felt that the good seed so prayerfully sown in tears was at length quickened into life, and had arisen to be a power and a blessing to the mothers of all future time in Illinois. And here a mother's pride prompts me to pay a passing tri- bute to my son, Samuel, now a lawyer of good standing in Chi- cago, for to this, now filial son, am I indebted more than to any other one person for the assistance I received in the draft- ing of this Bill. This dear child worked with a hearty good will in this noble cause, since his developed manhood has led him to see and feel the need of legal protection to his oppressed mother, in suffer. ing the highest love in her nature—the maternal—to be thus ruthlessly strangled and crucified, not only to her anguish, but also the detriment of the children. This son, in common with almost every other member of the bar with whom I have con- versed upon this subject, has often expressed his surprise at finding the statutes so defective on this subject. He once said: 374 MODERN PERSECUTION. 6 Mother, I do not think there is one lawyer in ten who knows how absolutely helpless married woman is under the common law, nor how defective our statutes have been in re- gard to the legal protection of married women. I never fully realized it until my attention was called to it by your experi- ences. I will gladly do anything in my power to aid you in bringing about this most needed change. If you wish I will go to Springfield myself to help you in this matter, if necessary, to get this important bill through.” Thus I found that this dear son, who once in his childish ignorance sustained his father in his wicked course, had now become his mother's real and efficient defender and protector, and no restitution he can now make is regarded by him as too great, such as his more developed and now enlightened man- hood prompts him to make, as a free-will offering upon the altar of filial love for his esteemed and honored mother. My next step was to get possession of my children, then in Massachusetts. But as the laws were, when Mr. Packard fled with them to that State, he was solely entitled to the custody, control and earnings of the children, while the mother had no rights at all. But in the meantime I had sent a bill to Hon. S. E. Sewall, of Boston, requesting him to present it to the Massachusetts Legislature and defend it before the Committee, if necessary, in order to secure its passage. In response to this came the most welcome intelligence, in the Spring of 1869, that the laws of Massachusetts had been so changed that a mother had now an equal right before the law to the custody and control of the children, with that of the father, and that in case of separation, the Court must deter- mine, by the merits of each individual case, with which of the parents the children should remain. I therefore decided to go directly to Boston to petition the Court for the custody of my children. THE MOTHER'S LEGAL RIGHTS. 375 To prepare myself for this campaign I obtained some cer- tificates from my friends in Chicago relative to my capacities my children. And also certificates from real estate agents in relation to the value and amount of the property which I held in my own right. And in addition to these I took the volun- tary certificates of my two oldest sons, then doing business in Chicago, with me to Boston to use, if necessary, instead of their going themselves with me to the Court, as witnesses, which, however, they both volunteered to do if I needed them to help me in any manner, to secure the custody of their sister and two younger brothers. Some of these certificates I will here give to my readers for mation I was held in the community where I had made my home since my sanity had been vindicated by the court at Kankakee. And the other is to show the evidence that these dear sons ever stood the noble defenders of their mother's sanity and her rights; for among other false charges brought against me, by this Conspiracy, is, that most cruel charge, that these dear sons have been disloyal to their mother! Therefore it is a plain duty I owe these devoted sons, as their mother, to defend their characters against this most unjust charge, by allowing them to speak for themselves, in their own words as found in their own certificates, viz.: CHICAGO, ILL., April 20, 1869. To Whom it may Concern : This is to certify, that I, Theophilus Packard, am the oldest son of Theophilus and Elizabeth P. W. Packard; that I am twenty-seven years of age; that the first sixteen years of my life I spent under my mother's care and supervision, and nearly fitted for college under her teachings. 376 MODERN PERSECUTION. That from my own judgment and knowledge, without ex- traneous influence, I solemnly believe that my mother is the only proper person who has both the will and ability to take charge of and maintain her infant children. That she is my mother in every sense of the term, and her councils I may rely upon; that her loving care and disregard of self to minister to our best interests, merits our most filial regard. I do not consider her as ever having been insane. By her indefatigable efforts she has bought and paid for a nice little house and lot in Chicago, to which she has a good title, free from all incumbrance. It is my earnest and sincere desire that she may obtain pos- session and control of the minor children, in which case I intend to live in her family. THEOPHILUS PACKARD, JR. CHICAGO, ILL., April 12, 1869. To Whom it may Concern: This is to certify, that I am the second son of Mrs. E. P. W. Packard and Rev. Theophilus Packard. That l am twenty-four years of age. I can say that my mother is every way able and competent to take charge of my younger broth- ers, who are now under age, educate and bring them up. From my early youth until I was sixteen, I have been reared under her influence. She has always been a kind and affec- tionate mother, and all of her children always respected and loved her so long as she was permitted to live with them. She was separated from them contrary to her wishes. I consider the charge of insanity against her wholly un- founded. THE MOTHER'S LEGAL RIGHTS. 377 She is a most excellent mother, her judgment good, and her moral character without a stain. The tribulations and sufferings she has undergone in the past, I feel can be but partially atoned for, by unremitting filial love and the care and custody of her minor children. She has a house and lot in this city worth thirty-five hun- dred dollars, unincumbered. It is my wish and desire that she may take charge of my two brothers, George H. and Arthur D. Packard, for it is my opinion they would be better brought up under her care than under the care of any one else. Should this desire of her heart be realized, I intend to make my home in her family. I. W. PACKARD. CHICAGO, ILL., April 12, 1869. To all whom it may concern : I hereby certify, that I have been acquainted with Mrs. E. P. W. Packard since 1861. That I have often met and con- versed with her upon various general subjects, as well as rela- tive to business matters. That she has at all times exhibited a high order of mind upon all subjects touched upon. That her character for morality and sterling integrity is, and during the whole period of my acquaintance with her has been, wholly beyond reproach. That she has ever exhibited the most kindly feelings, and when speaking of her children, great affection for them. I have no hesitancy in saying that she is in every way emi- nently qualified to have the care, custody, control, and edu- cation of all her minor children. J. H. KNOWLTON, Counsellor at Law, and ex-Judge. 378 MODERN PERSECUTION. CHICAGO, ILL., April 12, 1869. To all whom it may concern: This is to certify, that I have known Mrs. Elizabeth P. W. Packard for many years. That she is a lady of wonderful business capacity. Is comfortable in her circumstances, the owner of real and personal estate to quite an amount. Is an able and ready writer, an energetic, capable, and worthy woman and mother. As a mother she is not only able and capable of bringing up her minor children in a proper manner, but I would add, that I know of few, if any ladies, that would excel her in tak- ing care of and educating children. She is a very superior lady, and in my opinion should have the aid of all good citizens in getting the care of her own children. JAMES B. BRADWELL, Judge of the Court of Cook County. CHICAGO, ILL., April 12, 1869. To whom it may concern : This is to certify that I have known Mrs. E. P. W. Packard personally for above five years. That I have transacted busi- ness with her as publisher and printer-printing several thousand copies of her work—and have invariably found her prompt to meet business engagements, and accurate in the details of business affairs. W. H. RAND, Of Chicago Tribune Co. The above are a mere specimen of the character of the cer- tificates I took from my acquaintances, found among the most respectable and renowned citizens of Chicago, which, with winna WWWNY UWA CHAMBERLIN-ENGE EEATO NOT The Re-united Family. Mrs. Packard and all her Children. See page 379. THE MOTHER'S LEGAL RIGHTS. 379 their silent influence, aided my Boston lawyers so to present my case to the Court as to secure my object, without the need of either child or any other witness going with me before the Court in my defense. Hon. S. E. Sewall and T. Currier, lawyers of Boston, act- ing as my attorneys, the case was formally presented, and met with all the favor from the Court we could desire. Mr. Packard seeing there was no chance of his retaining the children, by opposition, took the advice of his attorney Mr. Griswold, of Greenfield Mass., then a member of the Mass. Legislature, and superseded the Court's decision, by giving up the children to me, as his own voluntary act-voluntary-in the sense that he chose to give them up in this manner, rather than have me come into possession of them by the Court's decision, which seemed to be inevitably certain, if he did not. I objected to taking them in this manner, lest I might by thus getting them leave it optional with Mr. Packard whether I retain them or not. But my counsel said, it was of no material advantage to me to get them by a decree of the court of Massachusetts, since her laws were not binding upon Illinois citizens, and therefore counselled me to take them from his hands, rather than in- sist upon taking them by the Court's decree. I accordingly yielded my judgment to theirs and took them with me, without opposition, to Chicago, Illinois, in June, 1869, where I have since lived with them in my own house at 1496 Prairie Avenue. My three oldest boys in their majority, doing business in Chicago, boarded with me and my three minor children, thus obtained, constituting - The Re-united Family” of seven, liv- ing in peace and harmony. Thus the mother's battle was fought, and the victory won! It has been a nine years' battle with despotism—three of which were spent within the gloomy walls of the most terrible 380 MODERN PERSECUTION. prison which could be found on this continent, and six in most excessive toil and labor to provide a home for my dear children. As the sum of these six years toil, I wrote seven different books and published them myself, without either begging or borrowing money to aid me in so doing; and also sold twenty- eight thousand of these books myself, by single sales, besides doing the arduous and expensive work of lobbying for my four bills, during four different legislative sessions. The only capital I had to commence with was health, edu- cation, and energy, and this capital is still entire and complete as when first invested. There have been no perceptible drafts upon the principal, but, on the contrary, have been adding annual interest to the principal continually! From this experience I am prepared to infer, that vigorous, active, energetic, persevering exercise of both body and mind is a healthy, and, as I think, a natural condition, favorable to both intellectual and spiritual growth. And that maternal love is the most potent element in the universe to lighten toil and render wearisome exertion a pleasure instead of a burden. And here, too, the law of compensation and retribution is too evident to be passed unnoticed. Six years previous to this triumph Mr. Parkard turned me out upon the cold world homeless, penniless and childless. He had the home, property and the children. Now he is homeless, penniless, and childless; while I have a home of my own, property, and the children. Yes, God has been at work through the immutable laws he has established in his government in rewarding honest toil with a competency; while idleness has brought poverty and shame and a tendency to mental imbecility as its natural result. Since 1866 he has had no ministerial charge, and been dependent for support upon the charity of others. THE MOTHER'S LEGAL RIGHTS. 381 Since in the author's opinion maternal duties are paramount to all others, I have most cheerfully laid aside all public duties, except the sale of books sufficient to support my family com- fortably, which took me from them about three months in a year. The remaining nine months I have devoted almost exclu- sively to my family, refusing all the calls of social life and its varied responsibilities, that I might devote all my energies in moulding and shaping the characters of my long neglected children. To my mind the claims of the public are secondary at least to those of maternity. Never primary when her children's training is at stake. Could I have prevented it my children would never have been separated from their mother. CHAPTER LIII. The Family Disperse. In the order God has established the period in which an entire family live an unbroken unit, is usually a limited one. Ours was no exception to this law of our earthly existence. Indeed, the memorable 3d of July, 1869, was the first day our family had ever met, an entire unit. The oldest and the youngest, then eleven years, had never before met in the same family circle. My oldest son was attending school at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, when our youngest was born, and before he returned home his mother was kidnapped ! and this was the first day the father, mother, and all the children ever met un- der the same roof. And the first and the only time we all ever worshiped God in his sanctuary together, was this memorable Sabbath even- ing when we all went in one solemn company to a Methodist church service in the vicinity of my home. When I took the children from Mr. Packard in Massachu- setts and brought them to Chicago, Illinois, he followed us, and has since lived in Manteno, Kankakee county, Illinois, in the family of his brother-in-law, Deacon Dole. While in Chi- cago, on his way to his final destination, he called upon his children to see them cozily living in their mother's home. My filial son, Theophilus, now standing as the guardian and pro- tector of my family, told his father as he met him at the door: “Father, you know this is mother's home. You have no right here. Our mother shall never be molested in her own home.” “ Yes, I know it is—I acknowledge I have no right here- I shall not trouble your mother.” THE FAMILY DISPERSE. 383 Acting upon the principle of doing unto others as we would wish to be done by, I have never denied Mr. Packard the priv- ilege of seeing his children at my house whenever he chose, or their writing to him when and what they pleased, and also allowed them to visit him occasionally. But from me he has never received anything but the re- spectful treatment of a stranger gentleman in my family. For I never have had the least occasion for believing he has ever repented in the slightest degree of the course he has pursued towards me. Therefore, as I claim to be a follower of Christ, I am not allowed to extend to him forgiveness, except upon the gospel terms of repentance. And since he does not repent he will not allow me to forgive him. For nine years subsequent to my incarceration I withdrew all fellowship from him, not even so much as to speak or write to him: but when he restored the children to my guard- ianship and care, although it was a mere act of compulsion on his part, since he saw it was certain the court would give them to me if he did not, yet, as I told him: “I am happy I can regard this act in the light of an act of restitution on your part so far, as to allow me to treat you henceforth as a gentleman.” From that time I have felt justified in simply speaking to him as I would to any stranger gentleman. Within three years from this date my two oldest sons both married, and removed to Iowa where they still live. My third son, Samuel, has been obliged to sojourn for a time, in a Southern climate to recuperate his health. And my fourth son, George, thought it best to suspend, for a time at least, his educational course at the High School at Chicago, where he stood in the highest rank, both in deport- ment and scholarship, and accept an offer from his uncle in New York city to go into business with him as his bookkeeper. 384 MODERN PERSECUTIO.V. I consented to this arrangement and he is now in New York city with his uncle. My dear daughter, Elizabeth, is teaching school. Arthur, my youngest son, is at work on a farm in the country. This disposition of Arthur was secured by his father, in opposition to my will and wishes. It was my intention to give him and George both a superior education, and I made them each this offer, and in George's case this offer is still a stand- ing one. But in Arthur's case, since his father has taken him from my guardianship, care and custody, without my con- sent, I consider myself as henceforth exonerated from all my previous offers for his support and education. Although so far as Arthur's welfare is concerned, I regret this arrangement. Yet, for myself, I feel greatly relieved of a heavy responsibility ; for by the great fire in Chicago my busi- ness capital was all burned up, so that from that date I have had no income to depend upon for my own or my children's support, except the rent of part of my house. And until I can earn a new capital to start business again with, it would have been quite a burden upon me to furnish means for their support and education. Looking therefore upon these circumstances as only parts of the wise plan of an unerring Providence, I cannot but feel that God has thus emancipated me from all family cares and re- sponsibilities, so that I can now devote my undivided energies to the great work, I seem peculiarly capacitated by my expe- riences, to perform. Indeed, I cannot but regard myself as one of God's agents to do the especial work He has assigned me to do. He has kindly gratified the great desire of my maternal heart—the care and custody of my own children, for a time -and now He seems to say to me: “ Will you trust your children with me, and go work in my vineyard?” My heart responds, “I will.” CHAPTER LIV. An Appeal to the Government to Equal- ize the Rights and Responsibilities of the Husband and Wife. As my case now stands delineated by the foregoing narrative, all the States on this Continent can see just where the common law places all married women. And no one can help saying, that any law that can be used in support of such a Persecution, is a disgrace to any government-Christian or Heathen. It is not only a disgrace—a blot on such a government—but it is a crime against God and humanity, to let confiding, trusting woman, be so unprotected in law, from such outrageous abuses. Mr. Packard has never impeached my conduct in a single instance, that I know of; neither has he ever charged me guilty of one insane act—except that of teaching my children doctrines which I believed, and he did not! This is all he ever alleges against me. He himself confirms the testimony of all my friends, that I always did discharge my household duties in a very orderly, systematic, kind, and faithful manner. In short, they main- tain that I, during all my married life, have been a very self- sacrificing wife and mother, as well as an active and exem- plary co-worker with him in his ministerial duties. Now I have mentioned these facts, not for self-glorification, but for this reason, that it may be seen that good conduct, even the best and most praiseworthy, does not protect a married woman from the most flagrant wrongs, and wrongs, too, for which she has no redress in the present laws. If a man had suffered a tithe of the wrongs which I have suffered, the laws stand ready to give him redress, and thus 17 386 MODERN PERSECUTION. shield him from a repetition of them. But not so with me. I must suffer not only this tithe, with no chance of redress, but ten times this amount, and no redress then. I even now stand exposed to a life-long imprisonment in States where committals on certificates are legal, so long as my husband lives, while I not only have never committed any crime, but on the contrary, have ever lived a life of self- sacrificing benevolence, ever toiling for the best interests of humanity. Think again! After this life of faithful service for others, I am thrown adrift, at fifty years of age, upon the cold world, with no place on earth I can call home, and not a penny to supply my wants with, except what my own exertion secures to me. Why is this? Because he who should have been my protector, has been my robber, and has stolen all my life-long earnings. And yet the law does not call this stealing, because the husband is legally authorized to steal from the wife without leave or license from her! Now, I say it is a poor rule that don't work both ways. Why can't the wife steal all the husband has ? I am sure she can't support herself as well as he can, and the right of justice seems to be on our side, in our view. But this is not what we want; we don't wish to rob our husbands, we only want they should be stopped from robbing us. We just ask for the reasonable right to use our own property as if it were our own, that is, just as we please, just according to the dictates of our own judgment. And when we insist upon this right, we don't want our husbands to have power to imprison us for so doing, as my husband did me. It was simply that I insisted upon my right to my property, when this fatal issue resulted therefrom as seen in the foregoing narrative. Now, I ask any developed man, who holds property which is rightfully his own, and no one's else, how he would like to APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. 387 exchange places with me, and be treated just as I have bcen treated ? Now, I say it is only fair that the law makers should be subject to their own laws. That is, they should not make laws for others, that they would not be willing to submit to themselves in exchange of circumstances. Just put the case to yourselves, and ask how would you like to be imprisoned without any sort of trial, or any chance for law which women made for your good (!) as your God- appointed protectors ? Oh, my Government–the men of these United States do bear with me long enough to just make our case your own for Won't you please stop this robbery of our inalienable right to our own property, by some law, dictated by some of your noble, manly hearts? Do let us have a right to our own home —a right to our own earnings—a right to our own patrimony. A right, I mean, as partners in the family firm. We do not ask for a separate interest. We want an identi- fication of interests, and then be allowed a legal right to this common fund as the junior partners of this company interest. We most cheerfully allow you the rights of a senior partner; .but we do not want you to be senior, junior, and all, leaving us no rights at all, in a common interest. Again, we true, natural women, want our own children too -We can't live without them. We had rather die than have them torn from us as your laws allow them to be. Only consider for one moment, what your laws are, in rela- tion to our own flesh and blood. The husband has all the children of the married woman secured to himself, to do with them just as he pleases, regardless of her protests, or wishes, or entreaties to the contrary ; while the children of the single women are all given to her as her right by nature ! Here the maternal nature of the single woman is respected 388 MODERN PERSECUTION. and protected, as it should be; while the nature of the married woman is ignored and set at naught, and the holiest instinct of woman is trampled in the dust of an utter despotism. In other words, the legitimate offspring of the wife are not protected to her, but given to the husband, while the illegiti- mate offspring of the unmarried women are protected to her. So that the only way to be sure of having our maternity respected, and our offspring legally protected to us, is to have our children in the single instead of the married state ! With shame I ask the question, does not our Government here offer a premium on infidelity ? And yet this is a Christian Government ! Why can't the inalienable rights of the lawful wife be as much respected as those of the open prostitute ? I ask, why? Is it because a woman has no individuality, after she is joined to a man? Are her conscience, and her reason, and her thoughts, all lost in him? So my case demonstrates the law to be, when practically tested. And does not this legalized despotism put our souls in jeopardy, as well as our bodies, and our children? It verily does! It was to secure the interests of my immortal soul, that I have suffered all I have in testing these despotic laws. I would have succumbed long ago, and said I believe what I did not believe, had it not been that I cared more for the safety of my own soul, than I did the temporal welfare of my own dear offspring. I could not be true to God, and also true to the mandates of a will in opposition to God. And whose will was to be my guide, my husband's will, or God's will? I deliberately chose to obey God rather than man, and in that choice I made shipwreck of all my earthly good things. And one good thing I sorely disliked to lose, was my fair, APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. 389 untarnished reputation and influence. This has been sub- merged under the Insane elements of this cruel persecution. But my character is not lost, thank God! nor is it tarnished by this persecution. For my character stands above the reach of slander to harm. Nothing can harm this treasure but my own actions, and these I intend in future shall all be guided and controlled by Him, for whose cause I have suffered so much. Yes, to God's grace alone, I can say it, that from the first to the last of all my persecutions, I have had the comforting con- sciousness of duty performed, and an humble confidence in the approval of Heaven. Strong only in the justice of my cause, and in faith in God, I have stood alone, and defied the powers of darkness to cast me down to any destruction which ex- tended beyond this life. And this desperate treason against manliness which has sought to overwhelm me, may yet be the occasion of the speedier triumph of my spiritual freedom, and that also of my sisters in like bondage with myself. The laws of our Government most significantly require us “ to work out our own salvation with much fear and trembling," lest the iron will which would hold us in subjection, should take from us all our earthly enjoyments, if we dare to be true to the God-principle within us. So bitter has been my cup of spiritual suffering, while passing through this crucible of married servitude, that it seems like a miracle almost, that I have not been driven by it into insanity, or at least into mis- anthropy. But a happy elasticity of temperament, combined with an inward consciousness of rectitude, and disinterested- ness, has enabled me to withstand these fiery darts of the ad- versary, as few women could. And I cherish such a reverence for my nature, as God has made it, that I cannot be transformed into a “man-hater.” I thank God, I was made, and still continue to be a “man-lover.” 390. MODERN PERSECUTION. Indeed, my native respect for the manhood almost approaches to the feeling of reverence, when I consider that man is God's representative to me—that he is endowed with the very same attributes and feelings towards woman that God has—a pro- tector of the weak, not a subjector of them. It is the exceptions, not the masses of the men, who have perverted or depraved their God-like natures into the subjectors of the dependent. The characteristic mark of this depraved class is a “woman-hater," instead of a “woman-lover," as God by nature made him. This depraved class of men find their counterpart in those women, who have perverted their natures from “men-lovers," into “ men-haters.” And man, with a man-hating wife, may need laws to protect his rights, as much as a woman, with a woman-hater for her husband. Laws should take cognizance of improper actions, regardless of sex or position. All we ask of our Government is, to let us stand just where our actions would place us, without giving us either the right or power to harm any one, not even our own husbands. At least, give us the power to defend ourselves, legally, against our husband's abuses, since you have licensed him with almost almighty power to abuse us. And it will be taking from these women-haters no right to take from them the right to abuse us. It may, on the con- trary, do them good, to be compelled to treat us with justice, just as you claim that it will do the slave-holder good to com- pel him to treat his slave with justice. It is oppression and abuse alone we ask you to protect us against, and this we are confident you will do, as soon as you are convinced that there is a need or necessity for so doing. In summing up this argument, based on this dark chapter of a married woman's bitter experience of the evils growing out of the law of married servitude, I would close with a peti- tion to the legislatures of all the States of this Union, that APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. 391 they would so revolutionize their statute laws, as to expunge them entirely from that most cruel and degrading kind of despotism, which identifies high, noble woman as its victim. Let the magnanimity of your holy, God-like natures, be re- flected from your statute books, in the women protective laws which emanate from them. And may God grant that in each and all of these codes may soon be found such laws as guarantee to married woman a right to her own home, and a right to be mistress of her own house- hold, and a right to the guardianship of her own minor children. Let the interests of the maternity be as much respected, at least, as those of the paternity; and thus surround the hal- lowed place of the wife's and mother's sphere of action, with a fortress so strong and invincible that the single will of a perverted man cannot overthrow it. For home is woman's proper sphere or orbit, where, in my opinion, God designed she should be the sovereign and su- preme; and also designed that man should see that this sphere of woman's sovereignty should be unmolested and shielded from any invasions, either foreign or internal. In other words, the husband is the God-appointed agent to guard and protect woman in her God-appointed orbit. Just as the moon is sovereign and supreme in her minor orbit, being guarded and protected there by the sovereign power of the sun, revolv- ing in his mighty orbit. The appropriate sphere of woman being the home sphere, she should have a legal right here, secured to her by statute laws, so that in case the man who swore to protect his wife's rights here, perjures himself by an usurpation of her inalien- able rights, she can have redress, and thus secure that pro- tection in the law which is denied her by her husband. In short, woman needs legal protection as a married woman. She has a right to be a married woman, therefore she has a right to be protected as a married woman. If she cannot have 392 MODERN PERSECUTION. protection as a married woman, it is not safe for her to marry, for my case demonstrates the fact, that the good conduct of the wife is no guarantee of protection to her; neither are the most promising developments of manhood, proof against de- pravity of nature, approximating very near to the point of “total depravity," and then woe to that wife and mother who has no protection except that of a totally depraved man! But, some may argue, that woman is already recognized in several of the states as an individual property owner, and as one who can do business on a capital of her own, independent of her husband. Yes, we do most gratefully acknowledge this as the day-star of hope to us, that the tide has even now set in the right direction. But allow me to say, this does not reach the main point we are aiming to establish, which is, that the woman should be a legal partner in the family firm, not a mere append- age to it. We want an equality of rights, so far as co-partners are concerned. Then, and only till then, is she his companion on an equal- ity, in legal standing, with her husband, and sharing with him the protection of that Government which she has done so much to sustain; which Government is based on the great fundamental principle of God's Government, namely, an equality of rights to all accountable moral agents. Our Gov- ernment can never echo this heavenly principle, until it de- fends “equal rights," independent of sex or color. APPENDIX. My Plea for Married Woman's Emancipation made before Connecticut Legislature in New Haven State House, June, 1866. Gentlemen of the Judiciary Committee : In compliance with the kind invitation your gallantry has prompted you to extend to me, to meet you here in session, to consider the merits of the “ Petition for the Protection of the Rights of Married Women," which the General Assembly has respectfully referred for your consideration, I have come to plead in its defense. And here, gentlemen of the Judiciary Committee, allow me first to extend to you my thanks, for allowing me the high honor and privilege of defending so noble a cause as woman —and to defend it, too, in the presence of intelligent, manly gentlemen, whose God-like natures predispose and capacitate you to view this subject from this most favorable stand-point. Indeed, gentlemen, just consider for one moment the noble position you now occupy. Here are the names of two hund- red and fifty men, citizens of the first character and standing in this city, who have sent up a petition in behalf of the rights of married women and ask you, the law-makers of this Re- public, to consider, and, if possible, to so ameliorate married woman's legal position, as to remove some of her many legal disabilities. Really is not this fact of itself, a speaking proof of the principle, that man is woman's protector? And does he not ever esteem it his highest honor thus to identify himself with this most God-like principle? And have not we, women, 394 MODERN PERSECUTION. everything to hope for, from this instinctive uprising of the manly element in our defense ? We do not desire, nor ask, for the privilege of defending ourselves. No, neither do our petitioners give us any occasion for so doing; for they have anticipated us, in thus proposing to ameliorate our legal position, without even waiting for us to ask them to do so. Again, men are not only our petitioners, but they have asked the men, not us, to devise how this can be done. They do not ask us to frame their laws for our protection, but have even volunteered to do it for us. All that they have thus left us to do, is, to fulfill woman's appointed mission—to bless and sanctify home, by her refined influence, and leave it wholly to the men to protect us, in this our hallowed sphere. · Is it not an honor, much to be coveted, in us natural women, to live in Connecticut, where the manliness of our protectors not only allows us the high privilege of fulfilling the duties of our heaven-appointed sphere, but also proposes to protect us in this sphere, so long as our good conduct deserves such protection? Yes, for one, I rejoice that man is the law maker of this Republic, fully satisfied as I am that woman's cause could not be in better or safer hands, were she allowed to be her own protector. Nature and the Bible, both harmonize with this most manly feature of Connecticut's espousal of woman's cause, and thus being in the track of Nature, we are sanguine of ultimate success. Yes, sanguine, that Connecticut is to secure to herself the high honor of being the van of this great American Republic, by being the pioneer State in woman's Emancipation. Woman's Emancipation! What! Is woman a slave in Con- necticut ? Have we not emancipated all our slaves long ago? APPENDIX. 395 Yes, thank heaven ! Connecticut was one of the pioneer states in negro emancipation, and she now intends to secure to herself the highest kind of honor, as a State, in being the honored pioneer in emancipating woman from the chains of married servitude ! “ Chains of married servitude! Are our women, in Con- necticut, in chains ? “ Away with such an idea! Our wives are our companions, our partners, the best part of ourselves, how then is it, Mrs. Packard, that you can call them our slaves ?” Bear with me, my gallant brothers, and I will tell you, for your ignorance is a sure passport to your gallantry, in that you have never used your power, as a master, over your slave. They are, socially, as you say, your companions, your part- it is to break their fetters, to legally emancipate woman, that your petitioners have sent up this petition. Let us test this question. What is a slave ? A slave is a dependent, one mancipated to a master, one in the power of another, one who has lost the power of resist- ance; and married woman, being legally a “nonentity,” on the principle of “ common law,” throughout the United States, is therefore an American slave, while she is a married woman, in that she loses all power of resistance when she becomes, legally, a wife ; for henceforth, she is wholly at the mercy and will of one man, with no sort of legal power to resist this has the same legal power to subject his wife, that the master has to subject his slave. And now, since America has emancipated the negro slave from bondage to a one man power, we married slaves fondly hope that our emancipation draws near-yea, may quickly follow in the wake of negro emancipation ! But, gentlemen, in securing our emancipation you will have 396 MODERN PERSECUTION. to encounter the same pro-slavery arguments and spirit, as their emancipators did, viz. : That the slaves are better off as they now are—that they are taken better care of by their masters than they could take of themselves—that the interest of the master demands the good treatment of his slave—that public sentiment is a suffi- cient law of protection to the slave's interest—that the subjec- tion of the wife is the Bible law of marriage and besides, there is not one married woman in a thousand who even knows that she is a slave. Blissful ignorance! Would that there were no exceptions! But alas! the exceptions are fast becoming the rule, looking from the stand-point of applications for a divorce. Indeed, gentlemen, there is a cause for this terrible upheav- ing of the social element. Our divorce laws are destroying the very structures of civilized society. Yes, the monogamic principle of Christianity and civilization is being rapidly sup- planted by the polygamic principles of barbarism. And you know, gentlemen, that it is an infallible principle of ethics, that all effects have a cause, somewhere. And now I wish to present this one great question to you—the law- makers of this Republic—for your candid, calm consideration, viz.: Does not the radical cause for these divorces lie in the non- entity principle of the wife ? that is—in your holding her legally, as a slave, with no power of resistance to this “ one man power,” and no protection from its abuse, except the law of divorce ? And, besides, since the principle of slavery is wrong, and the principle of freedom is right, is it not right in itself, that woman should be legally emancipated ? The only right I came here to claim for woman is her right to be protected by our man government. Not protected as a slave, wholly dependent upon the will of one man: but protected as a APPENDIX. 397 woman, as a companion of her husband, as one who has rights, as a woman equally dear and sacred to her, as man has rights, as a man equally dear and sacred to himself. Our rights are not man's rights, neither are man's rights woman's rights. Both are different, yet both are inalienable, and both equally sacred. Man has rights as the head of the family which the wife has not. Even nature and the Bible both teach, that man is the head of the marriage firm. As I view the subject, the different spheres of man and woman are definitely defined in the Bible. It seems to me to be the appointment of God, that man should bear the toil, and woman bear the children. Now, if man is made the responsible head of the family so far as providing for its pecuniary interests are concerned, it seems to me he should be the head of finance, in the family realm, and every woman should consider it beneath the dignity of her nature to dictate to her husband in this department, in any such sense as to trammel his own reason and judgment in this matter. The man's reason should dictate his business, not his wife, and the manhood of that man's God-like nature, is yet in an undeveloped state, where he will consent to be dictated to, by his wife, in defiance of his own reason and judgment. I say dictated—not influenced by his wife—for, I say further, that a man is less than a man who will not be influenced by his wife through his affection and reason, if her reasons are sound and logical, and her affections pure and chaste. A being, in the form of a man, who will despise a sound argument—a truth—merely because a woman was its medium to him, is a being fit only to be despised ; and deserves to be ranked among the woman haters of society. But, thank God! this perverted class of human kind, are the exceptions, not the rule—for, in most cases, the manliness of his nature will prompt him to consult his wife's feelings 398 MODERN PERSECUTION. and wishes as his better half_his junior partner even, in his family interests; but, the ultimate decision in this department must, and should be left with the husband—the senior partner of the firm, as the responsible head of the financial department. And it should be the first and paramount duty of this re- sponsible senior, to provide a suitable home for his dependent family, and so secure it to them, that any financial failure on his part, would not endanger the family home. Then the wife could safely trust her fortune, where she could herself, know- ing that her department of the finance-her home-is safe, and beyond the reach of his financial misfortunes to alienate. And here, in this family home, made secure to her by the Government, she should be the legally constituted mistress, in this, her heaven-appointed sphere. And here too, she should be the legally appointed head of her own special department- viz-rearing the children. Here the Government should pro- tect the mother as the natural guardian of her own children. And the paternal power should be enforced as the natural protective power which the mother seeks as her own right by nature. And should any degree of depravity tempt him to betray this most manly of all trusts, the protection of the maternity to his own wife, let the Government enforce it, as an obligation. Again, no man should be allowed to lord it over and dictate to his wife in this, her God-assigned sphere, any more than the wife should be allowed to dictate to her husband, in his God- appointed sphere. But the true woman, like the true man, will naturally consult the wishes and feelings of her husband, in this matter, as he does hers, in his department. But the ultimate decision in this department, must be left to the wife. In other words the wife should be the legally constituted Queen at home, in the same sense in which the husband is the King abroad. Again, the husband is the “head of the wife;" for God says, APPENDIX. 399 6 he shall rule over.” Now this husband's rule over the wife is, as I view it, the rule of protection and love—not the rule of subjection and hate. For the practice of subjection in this con- jugal sphere, is as inseparably connected with the feeling of hate, toward the one he has subjected, as the feeling of love is identified with the practice of protection towards the wife. Our feelings grow out of our actions. If we act wrong, we shall feel wrong—if we act right, we shall feel right. And there is no other way to develop the feeling but by action. For example, the only possible way for one to have a liar's feelings is to tell a lie, and then he will be sure of feeling like a liar-let him steal, and he can't help feeling like a thief. So also to know what it is to have a good, kind, generous, benev- olent feeling, let him perform some good, kind, generous, benevolent deeds; these correspondent feelings are the inev- itable result of his good actions. So if this rule of the husband over the wife is confined to the rule of protection, his feelings will be confined to the love sphere. But if he can, and does subject his wife, his feelings pass directly on the opposite sphere of hate, and no power can prevent it; for God's laws are immutable. So the only possible way to insure love and harmony in the marriage union, is to secure the natural order God has estab- lished, as its only inflexible, enduring basis. The Government then, whose chief intent and purpose is, to protect the weak against the usurpation of the strong, should not allow the husband to rule over the wife in any other sense than that of protection. This protection of her interests should be like that exercised by the sun, in his protecting his moon in her orbit. He should not be allowed to so exercise his compripetal power, as to draw the moon entirely out of her God-appointed orbit, and so com- pletely absorb her into himself, as to leave her no orbit at all. No, he should be satisfied to be the King of the day, and let 4 contrichetal 400 MODERN PERSECUTION. her remain the Queen of the night, ruling with her soft and gentle influences, the mighty train of brilliant stars which God has assigned her, as her own most fitting companions and associates. In short, all that we ask for woman is, that her natural rights, as a woman, such as a right to herself, a right to her children, a right to be the mistress of her own house, be as well protected, by law, after she is married, as they are when she is single, with this difference, only, viz: that after she is married, this protection come to her through her husband, the natural protector of his wife, instead of directly from the Government, as before marriage. And in case the husband fails in his obligations to his wife as her protector, let the Government hold him responsible for the discharge of these obligations, as his duty. Then let two equally protected identities form one union, which neither can have cause for dissolving, without an illegal trespass upon each others' rights. As the case now stands, the husband, being the only legally protected partner in the union, can legally usurp all the rights of the wife, leaving her no chance for self-defense, except that of leaving the union, by secession or divorce. What we want is, protection in the union, not a separation or a divorce from it. Or in other words, we want protection from the cause of divorce. No lady wants to be a divorced woman, but she wants to be a married woman, and protected as a married woman. So long as her good conduct deserves it, she wants protection for her- self, and her children, in the home their joint interests have provided for them. She don't want to be driven into a divorced state in order to secure the protection of her natural rights, against the usurping power of her husband. Now, gentlemen, I am sorry to own it, this seems to be the tendency of the legislation of the present day, in respect to the APPENDIX. 401 marriage union. And it seems to me to be very unjust legis- lation. For, as woman's case now stands, good conduct, even the best, is no sort of guarantee of protection for her, while in the marriage union; since you have licensed her husband with almost almighty power to oppress her, without giving her the least chance for self-defense from this power, while in the union. Gentlemen—representatives of our manly Government-we would not upbraid you for placing us in this legal position. Indeed, it is not you who have done it, it is the antiquarians of by-gone days, who subjected woman as the mere slave of her husband, who have assigned us our present legal position. And since the law of love protects the wife in most instances, our Government may have felt that no modification of the non- entity principle of the wife, was needed, as a self-defensive measure. They have doubtless considered the husband as the only protection which the married woman needed, since the God-like principle of manliness would prompt a true man to protect his wife, even sooner than he would himself. And so it is, and we most cheerfully admit, that it is only for the exceptional cases, that the legal identity of the wife is needed, as a means of self-defense. But as you do in other cases, make laws for the exceptional cases; laws for criminals for example, do not imply that all need such a restraint, but some cases do need them, therefore they are made for the exceptional cases. So in the exercise of this marital power, the cases where it is abused demand some restraint to protect the oppressed wife. And it certainly is very manly in our Government, to protect confiding woman against this form of oppression, as well as any other form of abuse. Again, it is anti-Christian legislation. As we view it, there is but one law of divorce permitted by the Great Founder of the Christian dispensation; and so, in cases where this cause 402 MODERN PERSECUTION. does not exist, there seems to be no Bible license for a divorce. Thus the conscientious, Christian wife is compelled to do violence to her conscience, in consenting to be divorced, con- trary to the principles of the divine law. And where human and divine laws conflict, what can she do ? Is she not compelled, either to do violence to her enlightened conscience, by getting a divorce; or continue to suffer that oppression and abuse which is, to her, a lingering, living death? Gentlemen, the legal protectors of my sex, will you not furnish these worthy, confiding dependants upon your mag- nanimity, with some safe refuge, which can save both their consciences and themselves from violence ? To illustrate and enforce my argument, gentlemen, may I not be allowed to cite my own case, egotistical as it may seem to be? Gentlemen, I have exercised the dauntless courage of true woman, in daring to assert my right to my individuality, in defiance of the nonentity principle of this American legisla- tion. I have simply claimed the right to my own thoughts. And what has been the result ? Gentlemen, I have had to make shipwreck of all the most sacred, dearest rights of womanhood. A right to my hus- band—a right to my children—a right to my person—a right to my furniture—a right to my money—a right to my ward- robe—a right to my home—a right to my liberty. And, as an equivalent for all this mighty sacrifice, I retain only the legal right of being imprisoned for life, as a State pauper in a State Lunatic Asylum ! Yes, 'tis true, this is the only right my legally appointed guardian allows me. And no man, woman, or child, has any right to say it shall not be so. I am legally helpless in the absolute power of this one man tyrant. My God-like brothers, can you deliver me? Can you befriend me? APPENDIX. 403 If so, you can deliver, you can befriend all the dear sister- hood whom I represent. Brothers, I need your protection! I need emancipation! All my life-earnings, yea ! myself, is in the absolute power of this unjust and cruel man. I have naught that I once possessed, save my stainless character, my education, and my health. On this capital alone have I staked my liberty, my emancipation. With this battery I am battling for my free- dom, for justice, for right. And, Oh, my God! sustain Thou me in this terrible conflict. And, if it is possible, spare, Oh! spare ! my earthly father, till the victory is achieved ! for he is the only protector of whom my persecutor stands in any fear. Oh, my Connecticut brothers, let him fear your laws—let him fear your legislation—and then your sisters will be delivered from liabilities like my own. And will you not do it? Can you consent to pass off the stage of action, and leave your darling daughter, your beloved sister, yea, even your better-half, legally exposed and liable to suffer all I have suffered, from this abuse of marital power? Will you not, for their sakes, cast your vote into the scales of woman's emancipation, and thus enter your God-like protest against married servitude ? Gentlemen, my case, although an extreme one, may not be so rare an exception as you may strive to fondly imagine it to be. No, God only knows how many a sainted wife and mother has been ground down and trampled into the very dust, crushed by the arbitrary power of perverted manhood. My brothers, 'tis true, many a nobly endowed woman has been crushed, subjected to a tyrant's control, and has been led to desire death, rather than such a life of cruel bondage. 404 MODERN PERSECUTION. Yea, God only knows how long is that train of living mar- tyrs who have gone up to God's throne and God's tribunal to get their wrongs avenged on earth, because they had no pro- tection, no claims for justice at their country's tribunal. Have they appealed to this higher court in vain ? No. The Judge of all the earth will do right. And will not the claims of this host of martyred married slaves be exacted from that government which would not protect their identity from the usurpation of perverted manhood ? Yes, 'tis true, this Government has a long account to settle for protecting, by its laws, that most guilty of all oppressors, an oppressive husband. Gentlemen of the Judiciary Committee, on you now rests the responsibility of continuing to shelter these oppressors, under such laws, as obliterate the personal identity of the largest and best part of our American citizens. Henceforth, may we not fondly hope that married woman's inalienable rights will be protected by the laws of Connecticut, so that on this great American continent there may be found one State where the married slave can find as safe a refuge from her oppressor as the negro slave once found in Canada? Let the brave sons of Connecticut send forth their pro- clamation of freedom to woman! Then shall Connecticut's envied territory henceforth be the home of the free, as well as the brave. Again, I am still in danger of another kidnapping, and thereby our noble cause is jeopardized. Yes, the same wicked spirit which has been, and still is, my persecutor, is now following this dear cause of woman's emancipation, and is seeking its overthrow. Gentlemen, have you not seen what a mighty avalanche of scandalous insinuations, and bare-faced lies, has just now been palmed off upon this credulous public, for the sole purpose of undermining my character as a sane person, knowing that just APPENDIX. 405 as soon as this public confidence in my sanity is destroyed, I shall be altogether helpless again, in the absolute power of me for life in some lunatic asylum. And since no laws defend me, this may yet be done. Should public sentiment—the only law of self-defense I have—endorse the statements of this terrible conspiracy, against the personal liberty and stainless character of an in- nocent woman, I may be yet again entombed to die a martyr for the Christian principle of the identity of a married woman. Three long years of false imprisonment does not satisfy this lust for power to oppress the helpless ! No-nothing but a life-long entombment can satisfy the selfhood of my only legal protector! Brothers, should the credulous public suffer me thus to die a martyr for woman's cause, don't let this precious cause be decision of public sentiment, if you can afford me no other protection. Public sentiment! What protection does that ensure to me ? Do you not see in our very midst, how very unstable is the verdict it renders me? Does it not one day cry, Hosannah! and the next, Crucify! Oh! I do want laws to defend me; and as an American citizen, I not only ask, but I demand as my right, that my personal liberty shall depend upon the decision of a jury- not upon the verdict of public sentiment, or forged certificates either. And here, I beg leave to enter my most solemn protest against the injustice of that legislation which suspends the personal liberty of any American citizen upon the certificate of any person, class, or oligarchy. Again I say, my gallant brothers, be true to my cause, if 406 MODERN PERSECUTION. false to me. Be true to woman ! defend her, as your weak confiding sister, and heaven shall reward you. This untimely bursting in upon our almost triumphant cause, of the spirit of this cruel conspiracy is designed by the woman-hating spirit which prompted it, to defeat the first progressive step of this new rallying army, in defense of woman's emancipation. But, my brothers—my dauntless brothers! be not afraid of this wicked host which is encamped against us. Be valiant for woman! God is on her side, and “he always wins who sides with God.” Gentlemen of Connecticut Legislature, go forward! Eman- cipate woman! and put to flight this wicked host who have encamped against us. Fear not! Fear nothing so much as the sin of simply not doing your duty. Maintain your death grapple in defense of the heaven-born principles of liberty and justice to all human kind—especially to woman. For above this cross hangs suspended a crown, of which, even our martyred Lincoln's crown of negro emancipation is but a mere type and shadow, in brilliancy. And God grant ! that this immortal crown of unfading honor may be the right- ful heritage, the well earned reward, of Connecticut's manly sons, as embodied in their Legislature of 1866, by the passage of the following bill, viz. : “ Any woman entering the marriage relation, shall retain the same legal existence which she possessed before marriage, and shall receive the same legal protection of her rights as a woman, which her husband does as a man. Should the hus- band's power over the wife become an oppressive power, by any unjust usurpation of her natural rights, she shall have the same right to appeal to the Government for redress and pro- tection that the husband has.” End of Vol. II. 117 East 36 st. New York 23 Nico Mary Bureus Cal Packard, E. P. W. Pa (Elizabeth Parsons Ware) [N. S. Townshend] 39230 1.2