' . - 
 
 - 
 
 , 
 
 .
 
 
 A
 
 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED 
 
 . Mrs. Packard's Trial, 
 
 AND 
 
 SELF-DEFENCE FROM THE CHARGE OF INSANITY; 
 
 OB 
 
 Three Years' Imprisonment for Reunions Belief, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 ARBITRARY WILL OF A HUSBAND, 
 
 WITH 
 
 Afl APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT TO SO CHANGE THE LAWS 
 AS TO AFFORD 
 
 Legal Protection to Married Women. 
 
 BY MRS. E. P. W. PACKARD. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 OLABKE & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 1 8 7'0.
 
 Introduction, ....... 3 
 
 The Great Trial of Mrs. Elizabeth P. W. Packard, who was confined 
 
 Three Years in the State Asylum of Illinois, charged by her 
 
 
 
 Husband, Rev. TheophQus Packard, with being Insane. Her 
 discharge from the Asylum, and subsequent Imprisonment at 
 her own House by her Husband. Her release on a Writ of 
 Habeas Corpus, and the question of her Sanity tried by a Jury. 
 Her Sanity fully established, . . . .13 
 
 Narrative of events continued, * . . . tt 
 
 Miscellaneous questions answered, . . . . .61 
 
 False Reports corrected, . . . . . 85 
 
 Note of thanks to my Patrons and the Press, . . . 107 
 
 Testimonials, . . . . . 117 
 
 Conclusion, . . . . . . . 126 
 
 An Appeal to the Government, * 130 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 
 
 MRS. E. P. W. PACKARD, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Connecticut
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A BRIEF narrative of the events which occasioned the following 
 Trial seems necessary aa an Introduction to it, and are here presented 
 for the kind reader's candid consideration. It was in a Bible-class in 
 Manteno, Kankakee County, Illinois, that I defended some religious 
 opinions which conflicted with the Creed of the Presbyterian Church 
 in that place, which brought upon me the charge of insanity. It 
 was at the invitation of Deacon Dole, the teacher of that Bible-class, 
 that I consented to become his pupil, and it was at his special request 
 that I brought forward my views to the consideration of the class. 
 The class numbered six when I entered it, and forty-six when I left 
 it. I was about four months a member of it I 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 re- 
 ligious tolerance 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. The result was, I was legally kidnapped and 
 imprisoned three years simply for uttering these opinions under these 
 circumstances. 
 
 I was kidnapped in the following manner. 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 of our Bible-class, 
 and a stranger gentleman, sheriff Burgess. Fearing exposure I hastily 
 locked my door, and proceeded with the greatest dispatch to dress 
 myself. But before I had hardly commenced, my husband forced 
 nn entrance into my room through the window with an axe! And 
 I, for shelter and protection against an exposure in a state of almost 
 entire nudity, sprang into bed, just in time to receive my unexpected
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 gue>t. The trio approached my bed, and each doctor felt my pulse, 
 and without asking a single question both pronounced me iusane. 
 So it seems that in the estimation of these two M. D's, Dr. Merrick 
 and Newkirk, insanity is indicated by the action of the pulse instead 
 of the mind ! Of course, my pulse was bounding at the time from 
 excessive fright ; and I a*k, what lady of refinement and fine and 
 tender sensibilities would not have a quickened pulse by such an un- 
 timely, 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 insensible 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 kijid that I was 
 allowed to have^ to prove the charge of insanity brought against me 
 by my. husband. I had no chance of self defence whatever. My 
 husband then informed me that the " forms of law " were all complied 
 with, and he therefore requested me to dress myself for a ride to 
 Jacksonville, to enter the In-sane Asylum as an inmate. I objected, 
 and protested against being imprisoned without any trial. But to no 
 purpose. My husband insisted upon it that I had no protection in 
 the law, but himself, and that he was doing by me just as the laws 
 of the State allowed him to do. I could not then credit this state~ 
 ment, but now know it to be too sadly true ; for the Statute of Illi- 
 nois expressly states that a man may put his wife into an Insane 
 Asylum without evidence of insanity.. This law now stands on the 
 26th page, section 10, of the Illinois statute book, under the general 
 head of " charities "! The law was passed February 15, 1851. 
 
 I told my husband I should not go voluntarily into the Asylum, and 
 leave my six children and my precious babe of eighteen months, 
 without some kind of trial ; and that the law of force* brute force, 
 would be the only power that should thus put me there! I then 
 begged of him to handle me gently, if he. was determined to force me, 
 as I was easily hurt, and should make no physical resistance. I was 
 soon in the hands of the sheriff, who forced me from my home by 
 ordering two men to carry me to the wagon which took me to the 
 dt'pot. Esquire Labrie, our nearest neighbor, who witnessed this 
 scene, said he was willing to testify before any court under oath, that 
 " Mrs. Packard was literally kidnapped." I was carried to the cars 
 from the depot in the arms of two strong men, whom my husband ap- 
 pointed for this purpose, amid the silent and almost speechless gae 
 of a larf e crowd of citizens who had collected for the purpose of res-
 
 INTRODUCTION it 
 
 cuing me from the hands of my persecutors. But they were pre- 
 vented from executing their purpose by the lie Deacon Dole was 
 requested by my husband to tell the excited crowd, viz : that "The 
 Sheriff has legal papers to defend this proceeding," and they well 
 knew that for them to resist the Sheriff, the laws would expose them- 
 selves to imprisonment. The Sheriff confessed afterwards to persons 
 who are now willing to testify under oath, that he told them that he 
 did not have a sign of a legal paper with him, simply because the 
 probate court refused to give him any, because, as they affirmed, he 
 had not given them one evidence of insanity in the case. Sheriff 
 Burgess died while I was incarcerated. 
 
 When once in the Asylum I was beyond the reach of all human 
 aid, except what could come through my husband, since the law 
 allows no one to take them out, except the one who put them in, or 
 by his consent ; and my husband determined never to take me out, 
 until I recanted my new opinions, claiming that I was incurably 
 insane so long as I could not return to my old standpoint of 
 religious belief. Of course, I could not believe at my option, but 
 only as light and evidence was presented to my own mind, and I was 
 too conscientious to act the hypocrite, by professing to believe what I 
 could not believe. I was therefore pronounced "hopelessly insane," 
 and in about six weeks from the date of my imprisonment, my hus- 
 band made his arrangements to have me, henceforth, legally regarded 
 as hopelessly insane. In this defenceless, deplorable condition I lay 
 closely imprisoned three years, being never allowed to step iny foot on 
 the ground after the first four months. At the expiration of three 
 year?, my oldest son, Theophilus, became of age, when he immediately 
 availed himself of his manhood, by a legal compromise with his father 
 and the trustees, wherein he volunteered to hold himself wholly re- 
 sponsible for my support for life, if bis father would only consent to 
 take me out of my prison. This proposition was accepted by Mr. 
 Packard, with this proviso: that if ever I returned to my own home 
 and children he should put me in again for life. The Trustees had 
 previously notified Mr. Packard that I must be removed, as they 
 should keep me no longer. Had not this been the case, my son's 
 proposition would doubtless have been rejected by him. 
 
 The reasons why the Trustees took this position was, because they 
 became satisfied that I was not a fit subject for that institution, in the 
 following manner: On one of their official visits to the institution, I 
 coaxed Dr. McFarland, superintendent of the Asylum, to let me go
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 before them and '' fire a few guns at Calvinism," as I expressed my- 
 self, that they might know and judge for themselves whether I de- 
 served a life-long imprisonment for indulging such opinions. Dr. Me 
 Farland replied to my request, that the Trustees were Calvinists, and 
 the chairman a member of the Presbyterian Synod of the United 
 States. 
 
 " Never mind," said I, " I dont care if they are, I am not afraid to 
 defend my opinions even before the Synod itsel I dont want to be 
 locked up here all my lifetime without doing something. But if they 
 are Calvinists," I added, " you may be sure they will call me insane, 
 and then you will have them to back you up in your opinion and po- 
 sition respecting me." This argument secured his consent to let me 
 go before them. He also let me have two sheets of paper to write my 
 opinions upon. "With my document prepared, " or gun loaded," as I 
 called it, and examined by the Doctor to see that all .was right, that 
 is, that it contained no exposures of himself, I entered the Trustees' 
 room, arm in arm with the Doctor, dressed in as attractive and taste- 
 ful a style as my own wardrobe and that of my attendant's would per- 
 mit. Mr. Packard was present, and he said to my friends afterwards 
 that he never saw his wife look so " sweet and attractive " as I then 
 did. After being politely and formally introduced to the Trustees, in- 
 dividually, I was seated by the chairman, to receive his permission 
 to speak, in the following words : " Mrs. Packard, we have heard Mr. 
 Packard's statement, and the Doctor said you would like to speak for. 
 yourself. We will allow you ten minutes for that purpose." 
 
 I then took out my gold watch, (which was my constant companion 
 in my prison,) and looking at it, said to the Doctor, " please tell me 
 if I overgo my limits, will you ? " And then commenced reading my 
 document in a quiet, calm, clear, tone of voice. It commenced with 
 these words : " Gentlemen, I am accused of teaching my children 
 doctrines ruinous in their tendency, and such as alienate them from 
 their father. I reply, that my teachings and practice both, are ruin- 
 ous to Satan's cause, and do alienate my children from Satanic in- 
 fluences. I teach Christianity, my husband teaches Calvinism. They 
 are antagonistic systems and uphold antagonistic authorities. Chris- 
 tianity upholds God's authority; Calvinism the devil's authority ," 
 &c., &c. 
 
 Thus I went on, most dauntlessly and fearlessly contrasting the 
 two systems, as I viewed them, until my entire document was read, 
 without being interrupted, although my time had more than expired.
 
 iHTRODUCflOS. 7 
 
 Confident I had secured their interest as well as attention, I ventured 
 to ask if I might be allowed to read another document I held in my 
 hand, which the Doctor had not seen. The request was voted upon 
 and met not only with an unanimous response in the affirmative, but sev- 
 eral cried out : " Let her go on ! Let us hear the whole ! " This doc- 
 ument bore heavily upon Mr. Packard and the Doctor both. Still 
 I was tolerated. The room was so still I could have heard a clock 
 tick. When I had finished, instead of then dismissing me, they com- 
 menced questioning me, and I only rejoiced to answer their questions, 
 being careful however not to let slip any chance I found to expose 
 the darkest parts of this foul conspiracy, wherein Mr. Packard and 
 their Superintendent were the chief actors. Packard and McFarland 
 both sat silent and speechless, while I fearlessly exposed their wicked 
 plot against my personal liberty and my rights. They did not deny 
 or contradict one statement I made, although so very hard upon them 
 both. 
 
 Thus nearly one hour was passed, when Mr. Packard was re- 
 quested to leave the room. The Doctor left also, leaving me alone 
 with the Trustees. These intelligent men at once endorsed my state- 
 ment?, and became my friends. They offered me my liberty at 
 once, and said that anything I wanted they stood ready to do for me. 
 Mr. Brown, the Chairman, said he saw it was of no use for me to go 
 to my husband ; but said they would send me to my children if I 
 wished to go, or to my father in Massachusetts, or they would board 
 me up in Jacksonville. I thanked them for their kind and generous 
 offers ; " but," said I, " it is of no use for me to accept of any one 
 of them, for I am still Mr. Packard's wife, and there is no law in 
 America to protect a wife from her husband. I am not safe from him 
 outside these walls, on this continent, unless I flee to Canada ; and 
 there, I don't know as a fugitive wife is safe from her husband. The 
 truth is, he is determined to keep me in an Asylum prison as long as 
 I live, if it can be done ; and since no law prevents his doing so, I 
 see no way for me but to live and die in this prison. I may as well 
 die here as in any other prison." 
 
 These manly gentlemen apprehended my sad condition and ex- 
 pressed their real sympathy for me, but did not know what to advise 
 me to do. Therefore they left it to me and the Doctor to do as we 
 might think best I suggested to the Doctor that I write a book, and 
 in this manner lay my case before the People the government of the 
 United States and ask for the protection of the laws. The Doctor
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fell in with this suggestion, and I accordingly wrote my great book 
 of seven hundred pages r entitled " The Great Drama, An Alle- 
 gory," the first installment of which is already in print and six thous- 
 and copies in circulation. This occupied me nine months, which com- 
 pleted my three years of prison life. 
 
 The Trustees now ordered Mr. Packard to take me away, as no 
 one else could legally remove me. I protested against being put into 
 his hands without some protection, knowing, as I did, that he intended 
 to incarcerate me for life in Northampton Asylum, if he ever re- 
 moved 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 abso- 
 lute power of my persecutor again, against my will, and in spite of my 
 protest to the contrary. 
 
 I was accordingly removed to Granville, Putnam County, Illinois, 
 and placed in the family of Mr. David Field, who married my adopted 
 sister, where my son paid my board for about four months. During 
 this time, Granville community became acquainted with me and the 
 facts in the case, and after holding a meeting of the citizens on the 
 subject the result was, that Sheriff Leaper was appointed to commu- 
 nicate to me their decision, which was, that I go home to my cliildren 
 taking their Toluntary pledge as my protection; that, should Mr. 
 Packard again attempt to imprison me "without a trial, that they would 
 use their influence to get him imprisoned in a penitentiary, where they 
 thought the laws of this Commonwealth would place him. They 
 presented me thirty dollars also to defray the expenses of my journey 
 home to Manteno. I returned to my husband and little ones, only 
 to be, again treated as a lunatic. He cut me off from communication 
 with this community, and my other friends, by intercepting my mail ; 
 made me a close prisoner in my own house ; 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 get me incar- 
 cerated again for life. This plan was providentially disclosed to me, 
 by some letters he accidentally left in my room one night, wherein I 
 saw that I was to be entered, hi a few day.*, into Northampton Insane 
 Asylum for life ; as one of these letters from Doctor Prince, Super- 
 intendent of that Asylum, assured me of this fact. Another from his 
 sister, Mrs. Marian Severance, of Massachusetts, 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 pretence of getting my book published, and have him fol-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 low 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 accomplices in this 
 conspiracy against my personal liberty. The conductor must be 
 directed to switch me off to 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 engage a carriage to transport me to the Asylum under the pre- 
 text of a hotel, and then 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 wardrobe ; don't, 
 says she, be even responsible this time for her clothing. (Mr. Pack- 
 ard was responsible for my body clothing in Jacksonville 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 pretense 
 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.) 
 
 Another letter was from Dr. McFarland, -wherein I saw that Mr. 
 Packard had made application for my readmission there, and Dr. Me 
 Farland had consented to receive me again as an insane patient ! 
 But the Trustees put their veto upon it, and would not consent 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 ac- 
 tion in the case of Mrs. Packard. It is proper enough to state that I 
 favored her readmission " ! Then follows his injunction to Mr. Pack- 
 ard to be sure not to publish any thing respecting the matter. Why 
 is this ? Does an upright course seek or desire concealment ? Nay, 
 verily: It is conscious guilt alone that seeks concealment, and 
 dreads agitation lest his crimes be exposed. Mine is only one of a 
 large class of cases, where he has consented to readmit 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
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 husbands, or in a change of the laws, or in a thorough ventilation 
 of that institution. Such a ventilation is needed, in order that jus- 
 tice be done to that class of miserable inmates who are now 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 took 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 man 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 
 come together, (my windows were firmly nailed down and screwed 
 together, so that I could not open them,) directed to Mrs. A. C. Has- 
 lett, the most efficient friend I knew of in Manteno, wherein I in- 
 formed her of my imminent danger, and begged of her if it was pos- 
 sible 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 defence 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 not 
 the shadow of capital to make out the charge of insanity upon,outside 
 of my opinions j for my conduct and deportment had uniformly been 
 kind, lady-like and Christian ; and even to thin date, January, 1866. I 
 challenge any individual to prove me guilty of one unreasonable or 
 insane act. The lady-like Mrs. Haslett sympathized with me in 
 these views ; therefore she sought council of Judge Starr of Kanka- 
 kee City, to know if any law could reach my case so as to give me 
 the justice of 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. Witnesses were easily found 
 who could take oath to this fact, as many had called at our house to
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 see 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 by 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 empannelled 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, independent of mob 
 law, as there is no law in the State that will 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 is by no law on the Statute 
 book of Illinois.
 
 THE GREAT TRIAL 
 
 OF 
 
 MRS. ELIZABETH P. W. PACKARD, 
 
 WHO WAS CONFINED FOR THREE YEARS IN THE STATE ASYLUM, OF ILLINOIS, 
 OHARSEB BY HER HUSBAND, REV. THEOPHILUS PACKARD, WITH BEING 
 INSANE. HER DISCHARGE FROM THE ASYLUM, AND SUBSE- 
 QUENT IMPRISONMENT AT HER OWTC HOUSE BY HER 
 HUSBAND. HER RELEASE ON A WRIT OF 
 
 Habeas Corpus, AND TUB QUESTION 
 
 OF HEB SANITY TRIED 
 
 BY A JURY. 
 HER SANITY FULLY ESTABLISHED. 
 
 .. 
 
 A FULL REPORT OP THE TRIAL, INCIDENTS, ETC. 
 BY STEPHEN B. 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 by 
 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 ex- 
 ception of a letter, written by Dr. McFarland, to Rev. Theophilua 
 Packard, which letter was retained by Mr. Packard, and the writer waa 
 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 llth, 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 Preabyte- 
 rian Church of that place until the past two years. 
 
 In the winter of 1859 and 1860, there were differences of opinion
 
 TRIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. 13 
 
 between Mr. Packard and Mrs. Packard, upon matters of leligicm, 
 which resulted in prolonged and vigorous debate La 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, 
 aud which soon resulted in open warfare; and her views and propo- 
 sitions 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. Pack- 
 ard was educated in the Calvinistic faith, and for twenty-nine years hn3 
 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 hia views, 
 possessed of but little talent, and a physiognomy innocent of expres- 
 sion. 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 mod* 
 esty, 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 befref 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 
 lier 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 kidnapped and transferred to Jackson ville. J 
 The older children have maintained a firm position against the abuse 
 and persecutions of their father toward 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 cota* depravity, and that God has foreordained some to be saved 
 and others to be damned. She stands fully on the platform of man 8 
 free agency and accountability to God for his actions. She belie vea
 
 11 MARITAL POWEB EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 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 tliis sin. These, in brief, are the points in her 
 religious creed which were combatted by Mr. Packard, and were de- 
 nominated 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 be- 
 lievers, among his family connections, 
 
 This case was commenced by filing a petition in the words following, 
 to wit: 
 
 BTATB OP ILLINOIS, I 
 
 IASKAKBE COUHTY. J 
 
 To the Honorable CHABLES R. STABB, Judge of the 2Qth 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, respectfully 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 hus- 
 band, 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 four weeks, her said husband refusing 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 husband 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
 
 TRIAL OP MRS. PACKARD. 15 
 
 wife ; and they are advised and believe, that said wife desires to come 
 w> Knnkakee City, to make application to your Honor for a writ of 
 habeas corpus, to liberate herself from said confinement or imprison' 
 ment, and that said husband refused and refuses to allow said wife to 
 come to Kankakee City for eaid 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 pro- 
 duce the body of said wife, before your Honor, according to law, 
 and that said wife may be discharged from said imprisonment. 
 
 (Signed) WILLIAM HASLET. 
 
 DANIEL BEEDY. 
 
 J. W. OBE, f ZALMON HANFOBD. 
 
 H.LOWNG, \ p * aners '' -Aitorney. J. YOUNGLOVE. 
 
 STEPHEN R. MOOBE, Counsel 
 STATE OF ILLINOIS, I 
 
 KANKAKEE COUNTY. } 
 
 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 BEEDY 
 ZALMON HANFOKO. 
 J. YOUNGLOVE. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, this ) 
 llth day of January, A. D. 1864. J 
 
 MASON B. Looms, J. P. 
 
 Upon the above petition, the Honorable C, R. Starr, Judge as afore- 
 said, issued a writ of habeas corpus, as follows: 
 
 STATE OF ILLINOIS, I 
 
 KANKAKEK COUNTY. f 
 
 The People of the State of Illinois, To THEOPHILDS PAOKABD 
 
 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 before Charles R. Starr, Judge 
 01* the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, State of Illinois, at his chambers, at 
 K.Lnkakoe City in the said county, on the 12th instant, at one o'clock,
 
 16 MARITAL POWER EXHMi'LIFllID. 
 
 r. M., and to do and receive all and singular those things which the 
 said Judge shall then and there consider of her in this behalf, aud have 
 you then and there this writ. 
 
 Wihness, Charles R. Starr, Judge aforesaid, this llth day of January, 
 A. D. 1864. 
 
 CHARLES R. STARR, [SEAL.] 
 [Bmenue Stamp.] Judge of the ZQlh Judicial Circuit of the State of Miitah. 
 
 Indorsed: "By the Habeas Corpus Act" 
 
 To said writ, the Rev. Theophilus Packard made the following 
 return : 
 
 The within named Theophilus Packard does hereby certify, to the 
 within named, the Honorable Charles R. Starr, Judge of the 20th 
 Judicial Circuit of the State of Illinois, that the within named Eliza- 
 beth P. W. Packard is n^w in my custody, before your Honor. That the 
 aid 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 treat- 
 ment, 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 Massa- 
 chusetts, and designs and intends to take his said wife Elizabeth with 
 bim. That the undersigned has never misued or abused the said Eliza- 
 beth, by depriving her of her winter's clothing, but, on the contrary, 
 the undersigned has always treated the said Elizabeth with kindness 
 and affection, and has provided her with a sufficient quantity of winter 
 clothing and other clothing ; and that the said Elizabeth has never 
 made any request of the undersigned, for liberty to come to Kankakea 
 City, for the purpose of suing out a writ of habeas corpus. The under- 
 signed hereby presents a letter from Andrew McFarlnnd. Superin- 
 tendent of the Illinois State Hospital, at Jacksonville, in this Suite,
 
 TRIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. 17 
 
 showing her discharge, and reasons of discharge, from said institution, 
 which is marked " A," and is made a part of this return. And also 
 presents a certificate from the said Andrew McFarland, 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 discharged 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. Hutchinson, 
 Thomas Muncey, H. Hirshberg, Nelson Jarvais, "William Hyer, Geo. 
 H. Andrews, J. F. Mafet, Lemuel Milk, G. M. Lyons. 
 
 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 prac- 
 tice 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 certificate 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 
 2
 
 18 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 IB insanity on one subject. Three-fourths of the religious community 
 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 per- 
 haps 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 disagree- 
 ' ing with Mr. Packard on religious topics. Mr. Packard introduced the 
 subject of religion the first time I was there : the second time, I intro- 
 duced 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 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 pos- 
 sessed of a nervous temperament, easily excited, and has a strong will. 
 I would say that she was insane, the same as I would say Henry 
 "Ward Beecher, Spurgeon, Horace Greely, and like persons, are insane. 
 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 intellect. There is 
 no subject which excites people so much as religion. Insanity pro- 
 duces, oftentimes, ill-feelings towards the best friends, and particularly 
 the family, or those more nearly related to the insane person but not 
 so with monomania. She told me, in the conversation, that the Calvin- 
 istic 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 withdrawn 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. BBOWN, being sworn, said : 
 
 I am a physician ; live in this city ; have no extensive acquaintance 
 with Mrs. Packard. Saw her three or four weeks ago. ' I examined her 
 as to her sanity or insanity. I was requested to make a visit, and had 
 an extended conference with her : I spent some three hours with her.
 
 TRIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. 19 
 
 I had no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion, in my mind, that she 
 WHS insane. 
 
 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 signs 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 difficulties 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 despotism on the inhuman principle of human slavery. But 
 that the North, having right on their side, would prevail. So Mr. 
 Packard was opposing 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 difficulty 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 conversation. 
 She then said that she was the " Personification of the Holy Ghost." 
 I did not know what she meant by that. 
 
 Ques. "Was not this the idea conveyed to you in that conversation : 
 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 oi 
 the Holy Ghost were* represented in woman ; and that the Son waa 
 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.
 
 20 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 tyues. Was not that a new idea to you in theology r 
 
 Ans. It was. 
 
 Ques. Are you much of a theologian? 
 
 Ans. No. 
 
 Ques. Then because the idea was a novel one to you, you pro 
 nounced her insane. 
 
 Ans. Well, I pronounced her insane on that and other things thai 
 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 aa 
 crazy to her friends and to the church. 
 
 She had a great aversion to being called insane. JJefore I gt through 
 the conversation she exhibited a great dislike to me, and almost treated 
 me in a contemptuous manner. She 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 reasons 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 illuminate ra 
 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 feelings towards her husband. 
 
 9. Her belief that to call her insane and abuse her, was blasphemy 
 against the Holy Ghost.
 
 TRIAL OTT MRS. PACKARD. 21 
 
 10. Her explanation of this idea. 
 
 11. Incoherency of thought and ideas. 
 
 12. Her extreme aversion to the doctrine of the total depravity 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 stand- 
 point of Christian exegetical analysis, and agglutinating the polsyn- 
 thetical ectoblasts of homogeneous asceticism. 
 
 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 similar ideas. They are not in accord- 
 ance with my views, but that is no evidence that she is insane. 
 
 Cross-examined. I made this visit at her house, or his house, per- 
 haps, at Manteno. I conversed on various subjects. She was per- 
 fectly 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 insane. 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.
 
 : , : 
 
 22 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 Packard has lived there six years. I have been sent for several 
 times by her and Mr. Packard, and found her in an exoited state 
 of mind. I was there frequently ; we were 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 mo 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 wo- 
 man shall, bruise the serpent's head." She called Mr. Packard & 
 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 ama- 
 tiveness, she would have made a more agreeable companion. She took 
 me to another room and talked about going away ; this was in June before 
 taey 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 advisable 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 thpught 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 return from 
 the Hospital ; she will not talk with me because she thinks I think she 
 is insane. Her brother came to see 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 woman. 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
 
 TRIAL (.F MRS. PACKARD. 23 
 
 the school. I was much surprised ; 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*i 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 com- 
 menced, 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 nine years old. I believed that she had exerted some 
 1 mesmeric or other influence over the child, that caused it to moan and'toss 
 its head. The child 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 alarmed. 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 
 ner 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 ?
 
 24 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 Answer. I think it strange that she should ask for letters from 
 the church. She would not leave the church unless she was 
 insane. 
 
 lam a member of the church I believe the church is right. 1 
 believe everything the church does is right. I believe everything 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. 
 
 Ques. Do you believe Mrs. Packard was insane, and is insane ? 
 
 Ans. I do. 
 
 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 waa 
 formerly a Congregatioualist ; Mr. Packard was a Congregationalist. 
 
 Re-cross-examination. Ques. Was it dangerous for you to examine 
 the doctrines or theology embraced in the Presbyterian Church, when 
 you left the Congregational 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. Paakard 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 letter, 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 
 rtopped all proceedings, and produced quite an excitement in the 
 jom t-room ; and this report would not be faithful if it were passed 
 ovei unnoticed. Mrs. Dole, the sister of Mr. Packard, came in, leading
 
 TRIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. 25 
 
 the little daughter ol Mrs. Packard, and in passing by the table 
 occupied by Mrs. Packard and her counsel, the child stopped, went 
 up to her 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 ita 
 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 t<venty-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 subject 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 herself on 
 religious questions, because they disagreed on these 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 remain- 
 ing at Marshall. She was wild. She thought it was very wrong and 
 tyrannical for Mr. Packard not to permit her son to remain there. She
 
 26 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 / 
 
 eaid 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 Theophilus 
 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 came in unexpectedly, and they were not 
 prepared to entertain strangers. She was out of bread, and had to 
 make biscuit for dinner. (One gentleman in the crowd turned to hia 
 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 1 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 
 t kindness to her. She spoke particularly of the tenderness which had 
 / once existed between them. I did not notice anything very remarkable 
 in her conduct 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 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 thank- 
 ful, and complimented me on my kindness. She consented for m'e 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
 
 TKIAL OF MRS.' PACKARD. 27 
 
 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 ai:d 
 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 with- 
 diawn from our church, and unite with another church, if she had not 
 been insane. She said she would worship 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 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 li ved 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 1 1 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. Pack- 
 ard 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 by 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. Labrie 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.
 
 28 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 Cross-examined. Knew Mr. Packard two years before I went '.here 
 to live. He was the pastor of our church. I am a member 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 
 here 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 circumstances ; 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 tc*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 immutability 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 indistinct recollection of it ; 
 it was a protest because they refused 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 con- 
 science in charging her to be insane, when she only entertained ideas 
 new to him. 
 
 I thought it was an evidence of insanity, because she maintained 
 these ideas. I do not know that many people entertain similar ideas 
 I suppose a good many do not think the Calvinistic doctrine is right , 
 they are not necessarily insane because they think so.
 
 TKIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. 21? 
 
 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 ser- 
 vant. 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? 
 
 Answer. She went to her room and 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 circumstances? 
 "Would you have set down in the clothes you had worked in ? 
 
 Ans. No. 
 
 Ques. Probably you would have taken a bath and chang- J 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 oons^uerable pains 
 with these things. 
 
 I remained there until she was takwi away; I approved taking fter 
 away ; I deemed her dangerous to the church ; h^r ideas were c-onjrary 
 to the church, and w.ere wrong. 
 
 The baby was eighteen monti^s old when she was taken awav. She 
 was very fond of her children, and treated them very kindly. Never 
 saw her misuse them. Nvjver 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. 
 
 JrooE BABTLETT was next called to the stand. 
 
 Am f .-quainted with Mrs. Packard. Had a conversation witli heron 
 religioui :.opics. "We agreed very well in most things. She did not say
 
 SO MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 she believed in the transmigration of souls ; she said, some persoiiA 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 subjects 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 subjects. She could not 'be called insane, for 
 thousands of people believe as she does, on religion. 
 
 MRS. SYBIL DOLE, recalled. 
 
 At the time she got up from the table she went out. She said, ",1 
 will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works o( darkness. No ! 
 not so much as to eat with them." 
 
 He-cross-examined. Question. Did you deem that an evidence 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. Coun- 
 sel 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 proceed- 
 ing to continue 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 theii 
 testimony, and after that was heard, then the court would determine 
 about continuing the case to get Dr. McFarland, and perhaps he could
 
 TRIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. 31 
 
 be got before the defense was through, and if so, he might le sworn; 
 and held that the defense should go on now. 
 
 The counsel of 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 certificate, under the seal of 
 the State Hospital at Jacksonville, certifying that Mrs. Packard waa 
 discharged from the institution in June, 1863, and was incurably 
 insane, which certificate was signed by Dr. McFarland, the Superin- 
 tendent. 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 permitted 
 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 hopelessly insane, and that no possible good 
 could result by having her returned to the Hospital ; that the officers 
 of the institution had done everything in their power to effect a cure, 
 and were satisfied she could not be cured, and refused to receive her into 
 the institution. 
 
 The certificate, under the seal of the Hospital, was a statement, 
 dated in. June, 1863, at Jacksonville, Illinois, setting forth the tune 
 (three years) that Mrs. Packard had been under treatment, and that 
 she had been discharged, as beyond a possibility of being cured. 
 
 The above is the import of these documents, which the reporter 
 regrets he cannot lay before the public in fuL 
 
 The prosecution now announced that they closed their case. 
 
 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 hi the spring. 
 Knew Rev. Mr. Packard and Mrs. Packard. First became acquainted
 
 32 MARITAL PPWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 with them in 1858 ; I was then engaged in the ministry of the Metho 
 dist 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 
 opinion 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 medi- 
 cine there six years. I am not very ultimately 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 examination, which I did. There had 
 been a physician there before I went. The last time, he wanted me 
 t meet Dr. Brown, of this city, there. This was late in November 
 last. He introduced 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 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 insanity, to take East with him. I would not give it 
 
 The witness was not cross-examined. 
 
 JOSEPH E. LABEIE, 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 woman, and say so yet. 
 
 Cross-examined. I am not a physician. I am not an expert. 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 acknowledg
 
 TRIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. 33 
 
 Kent of a deed from her. I went there, and she signed and acknowl- 
 edged 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 18(50. My wife was with me. It was about taking her to Jack- 
 sonville. Mrs. Packard would not come to the room where I was. I 
 etayed there only about twenty minutes. 
 
 Have been there since she returned from the Hospital. The door 
 t 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 follow- 
 ing paper, which had been referred to by the witnesses, as evidence of 
 Mrs. Packard's insanity, and which Deacon Smith 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!. 
 
 DEACOS SMITE A question was proposed to this class, the last Sabbath 
 Brother Dolo taught us, and it was requested that the class consider and report 
 the result of their investigations at a future session. May I now bring it up t 
 The question was tliis : 
 
 " Have wo any reason to expect that a Christian farmer, as a Christian, will 
 be any more successful in his farming operations, than an impenitent sinner 
 and if not, how is it that godlinoss is profitable unto all things ? Or, in other 
 words, docs the motive with which one prosecutes his secular business, other 
 ttnngs being equal, make any difference in the pecuniary 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 
 na in our judging of Mrs. Dixon's true moral character, next fall, by her succeat 
 In her farming operations this summer. 
 
 My opinion differs from hers on this point ; and my reasons are hero 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, hi the class, to prevent 
 cr.isreprcsentation. 
 
 Should I be appropriating an unreasonable share of time, as a pupi). Mr. 
 
 9
 
 34 MAKITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 Smith, to occupy four minutes of your time in reading them ? I should like 
 rery muck to read them, that the class may pass their honest criticisms upon 
 them. 
 
 AX ANSWER TO THE QUESTION. 
 
 I think we have no intelligent reason for believing that the motives with which 
 TTQ prosecute our secular business, have any influence in the pecuniary results. 
 
 My reasons are common sense reasons, rather than strictly Bible proofs, viz. : 
 f regard man as existing in three distinct departments of being, viz., hi 
 physical or animal, his mental or intellectual, his moral or spiritual ; and eaci 
 of these three distinct departments are under the control of laws, peculiar t 
 ifeelf ; and these different laws do not interchange with, or affect each other' 
 Jepartment. 
 
 For instance, a very immoral man may be a very healthy, long -lived man ; for, 
 notwitlistanding he violates the moral department, he may live in conformity tc 
 the physical laws of his animal nature, which secure to him his physical health. 
 A.nd, -on the other hand, a very moral man may suffer greatly from a diseased 
 cody, and be cut off in the very midst of his usefulness 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 on the moral plane. 
 
 On Otis ground, the Christian farmer has no more reason to expect success in 
 his farming operations, than the impenitent sinner. In either case, the founda- 
 tion for success must depend upon the degree of fiddiiy 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 on an entirely 
 different plane of his being. 
 
 Now comes in the question, how then is it true, that ' ' godliness is profitable unto 
 afl tlungs, ' ' 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 Oiis 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 boGi worlds. There- 
 fore, it appears to me, that happiness is the profit attendant upon godliness, 
 and for this reason, a practically godly person, who lives in conformity to all 
 the various laws of his entire being, may expect to secure to himself, as a 
 natural result, a greater amount of happiness than the ungodly person. 
 
 So that, in this sense, l ' Godliness is profitable unto all things," to every 
 department of our being. 
 
 MAXTEXO, Mwish 22, 1860. E. P W. PACKARD.
 
 TRIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. 35 
 
 Mrs. Packard then stated that the above was presented to the class, 
 the 15th day of tho following April, and was rejected by the teacner 
 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 uer 
 position. 
 
 As she took her seat, a murmur of applause arose from every par*, 
 of the room, which was promptly suppressed by the sheriff. 
 
 DANIEL BEEDY, sworn, and says: 
 
 I live in Manteno. Have known Mrs. Packard six years ; knew 
 her in the spring of I860. 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 uer 
 return. She always appeared to me like a sane woman. I heard sbe 
 was insane, 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, aud 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 anything 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 car-e of her family than any otbt" 
 person. 
 
 I saw her at Jacksonville. I took Dr. Shirley with me to test L 
 insanity. Dr. Shirley told me she was not insane 
 
 Cross-examination waived.
 
 36 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 Mrs. BLESSING, sworn, and says : 
 
 Have known Mrs. Packard seven years; knew her in 1860. Lived 
 near tnem ; we visited each other as neighbors. She first came to our 
 house waen she returned from Jacksonville. I did not see anything 
 that indicated that she was insane. I saw her at Jacksonville. She 
 had the keys, and showed me around. I heard the conversation there 
 with LT. 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. 
 MeFarland's wife. I saw her after she returned home last fall, quite 
 often, until she was locked in' her room. On Monday after she got 
 home, L called on her ; she was at work ; she was cleaning up the 
 feather t>eds ; 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 m 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 ; ne 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 with her. I called often before she was kidnapped and car- 
 ried 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 re- 
 "turned from Jacksonville; she was in the yard, cleaning feather beda. 
 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 \Y;>> fastened with nails on the inside, and by two screws, 
 passing iii!-i>ugU the lower part of the upper sash and the upper part of 
 the lower sjisli, 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 
 divu^tj. She said she did not want a divorce ; she only wanted pro- 
 tection from Mr. Packard's cruelty. I advised her to not stand it 
 ouietly, but get a divorce.
 
 TKIAL OF MRS. TACKAKD. 37 
 
 Dr. DUXCAXSON, 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 ^.is 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 conversation with her and determine if she was 
 sane or insane. Talked three hours with her, on political, religious 
 and scientific 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 ha 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 Svvedenborgianism, 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 thest 
 great minds insane ; but that does not make them insane. An insane 
 mind is a diseased mind. These minds are the perfection of intellectua. 
 powers, healthy, strong, vigorous, and just the reverse of diseased 
 minds, or insane. Her explanation of woman representing the Hojy 
 Ghost, and man representing the male attributes of the Father, ana 
 that the Son is the fruit of the Father and the Holy Ghost, is a very 
 ancient theological dogma, and entertained by many of our most emi- 
 nent men. On every topic I introduced, sir was perfectly familiar, 
 aud discussed them with an intelligence thac at once showed she was 
 possessed of a good education, and a strong and vigorous mind. I did 
 not agree with her hi 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 rrvght 
 with as much propriety call Christ insane, because he taught the people 
 many new and strange things ; or Galileo ; or Newton ; or Lutner . 
 or Robert Fulton; or Morse, who electrified the world; or Watts 
 or a thousand others I might name. Morse's best friends for a jong 
 time thought him mad ; yet there was a magnificent nuau, tuv em- 
 bodiment of health and vigor. 
 
 So with Mrs. Packard ; there is wanting every indication of insanity
 
 38 MARITAL POWGR EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 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 closed all 
 the testimony they wished to introduce, and inasmuch as the case had 
 occupied so much time, they would propose to submit it without argu- 
 ment. 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. 
 
 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 ab- 
 sence of seven minutes, they returned into court, and gave the follow- 
 ing verdict: 
 
 STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) 
 
 KANKAKEE COUNTY, j 
 
 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. HIRSHBERO, 
 
 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 thei* 
 handkerchiefs, and pressed around Mrs. Packard, and extended her 
 their congratulations. It was sometime before the oxitburst of applause 
 couM V checked. When order was restored, the counsel for Mrs 
 PacKard n><wed the court, that she be discharged. Thereuoon th- 
 o>-dTe<J ti* clerk to enter the Allowing order :
 
 TRIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. T . 39 
 
 STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) 
 
 KANKAKEE COUNTY, f ' 
 
 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 10th Judicial Circuit of the State of Illinois 
 
 January 18, 1864. 
 
 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 seldom 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 two months, 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 before the writ was sued out, when 
 his plan was disclosed to Mrs. Packard by a letter he accidentally 
 dropped in her room, 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 start- 
 lin* intelligence through her window to some ladies who had come 
 
 o o o 
 
 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 edito- 
 rial 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 nearing the arguments of the counsel : and after a brief con 
 sultation, they brought in a verdict that MIT. Packard is a sane woman.
 
 40 * MARITAL PO-\V::R EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 Tims 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 relentless 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 forcibly removed 
 to the Asylum; has endured three years incarceration in that Asylum 
 upon the general treatment in which there is severe comment in the 
 State, and which hi her special case was aggravatingly unpleasant and 
 ill-favored ; returning to her home she found her husband's saintly 
 blood still congealed, a winter of perpetual frown on his face, and the 
 sad doii monotony of " insane, insane," escaping his lips in all his com- 
 munications to and concerning her ; her young family, the youngest 
 of the four at home being less than four years of age, these children 
 over whose slumbers she had watched, and whose wailings she had 
 hushed with all a mother's care and tenderness had been taught to 
 look upon her as insane, and they were not to respect the counsels or 
 heed the voice of a maniac just loosed from the Asylum, doom scaled 
 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 confining her in her room, 
 *nd 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 investigation 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. 
 
 Notwithstanding the severe treatment she has received for nearly 
 four years past, the outrages she has suffered, the wrong to her nature 
 *he has endured, she deported herself during the trial as one who is 
 not only not insane, but as one possessing intellectual endowments of a 
 high order, and an equipoise and control of mind far above the majority 
 of human kind. Let the sapient Dr. Brown, who gave a certificate 
 of insanity after a short conversation with her, and which certificate 
 was to be used in aid of her incarceration for life suffer as she has 
 Buffered, endure what she has endured, and the world would be deprived 
 of future clinical revealings from his gigantic m'nd upon the subject 
 of the spleen, and he would, to a still greater extent than in the past,
 
 TRIAL OF MRS. PACKARD. 41 
 
 "fail to illuminate" the public as to the virtues and glories of the 
 martyr who is "watching and waiting" in Canada. 
 
 The heroic motto: "suffer and be strong," is fairly illustrated 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, ' sne meekly submitted to 
 the tortures of her bigoted 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 persecution ha.- 
 all the autumn glory of perfection 
 
 11 One who walked 
 
 From the throne's splendor to the bloody blocs, 
 Said: ' This completes my glory' with a srniie 
 "Which still illuminates men's thoughts of her.' 
 
 Feeling the accusations of his guilty conscience, seeing the meshea 
 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 application 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 persecute and torment her in a mereesi 
 vnd unfeeling manner.
 
 NARRATIVE OF EVENTS CONTINUED. 
 
 WHEN this Trial terminated, I returned to my home in Manteno, 
 where five days previous I had bestowed the parting kiss upon my 
 three youngest children, little thinking it would be the last embrace 
 I should be allowed to bestow upon these dear objects of my warmest 
 affections. But alas ! so it proved to be. Mr. Packard had fled 
 with them to Massachusetts, leaving me in the court room a childless 
 widow. He could not but see that the tide of popular indignation 
 was concentrating against him, as the revelations of the court venti- 
 lated 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 before I left the Court-house, wherein he stated that he 
 had moved to Massachusetts, and extended to me an invitation to fol- 
 low 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 providingme another home. Indeed, I did not think it safe to follow 
 him, knowing that Massachusetts' laws gave him the absolute custody 
 of my person as well as Illinois' laws. He went to South Deerfield, 
 Massachusetts, and sought shelter for himself and his children in the 
 family of his sister, Mrs. Severance, one of his co-conspirators. Here 
 he found willing ears to credit his tale of abuses he had suffered in 
 this interference of his rights to do as he pleased with his lawful 
 wife and in representing the trial as a " mock trial," an illegal in- 
 terference with his rights as head of his own- household, and a " mob 
 triumph," and in short, he was an innocent victim of a persecution 
 against his legally constituted rights as a husband, to protect his wife 
 ii\ the way his own feelings of bigotry and intolerance should 
 dictate ! 
 
 This was the region of his nativity and former pastorate, Avhich he 
 had left about eleven years previously, with an unblemished external 
 character, and sharing, to an uncommon degree, the entire confidence 
 of the public as a Cliristian man and a minister. Nothing had oc-
 
 NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 43 
 
 cnrml. to their knowledge, to disturb this confidence in his present in- 
 tegrity 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 also his old associates in the min- 
 istry, and by his artfully arranged web of lies, and his cunning soph- 
 istries, he deluded them also into a belief of his views, sp that they, 
 unanimously, gave him their certificate of confidence and fraternal 
 sympathy. Yea, even my own father and brothers became victims t 
 also of his sophisms and misrepresentations, so that they honestly be- 
 lieved me to be insane, and that the Westerners had really interfered 
 with Mr. Packard's rights and kind intents towards his wife, in inter- 
 cepting as they had, his plans to keep her incarcerated for life. 
 
 Thus this one-sided view of the facts in the case so moulded public 
 sentiment in this conservative part of New England, that he even ob- 
 tained a certificate from my own dear father, a retired orthodox cler- j 
 gyman in Sunderland, Massachusetts, that, so far as he knew, he had I 
 treated his daughter generally with propriety ! ! 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 be- 
 come their minister in holy things. He was accordingly hired, a* 
 stated supply, and paid 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 
 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. 
 
 " We recently gave an extended account of the melancholy case of 
 Mrs. Packard, of Manteno, 111., 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, in fact, avowed 
 Universalist sentiments ; and as her husband was unable to answer her 
 arguments, he thought he could silence her tongue, by calling her insane,
 
 44 MAIUTAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 and having her incarcerated 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. Me 
 Farland, who kept her there three years. She at last succeeded in 
 having a jury trial, and was pronounced 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 homeless, without a cent to buy food, or a place where 
 to lay her head ! And yet he pretended to be,lieve that she was 
 insane-! Is this the way to treat an insane wife ! Abandon her, 
 turn her out upon the world without a morsel of 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 ? If he believed his own story, he should, 
 like a devoted husband, 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 
 tier, leaving her penniless, homeless and childless ! 
 
 " Mrs. Packard is now residing with Mr. Z. Handford, of Manteno, 
 who writes to the Kankakee Gazette as follows : 
 
 " In the first place, Mrs. Packard is now penniless. After having 
 aided her husband for twenty-one years, by her most indefatigable 
 exertions, to secure for themselves a home, with all its clustering 
 comforts, he, with no cause, except a difference in religious opinions, 
 exiled her from her home, by forcing her into Jacksonville Insane 
 Asylum, where he hoped to immure her for life, or until she would 
 abandon what lie calls her ' insane notions.' 
 
 "But in the overruling providence of a just God, her case has 
 been ventilated, at last, by a jury trial, the account of which is 
 already before the public. 
 
 "From the time of her banishment into exile, now more than 
 three and a half years, he has not allowed her the control of one 
 dollar of their personal property. And she has had nothing to do 
 with their real estate, within that time, excepting to sign one deed
 
 NARRATIVE OP EVENTS. 45 
 
 for the transfer of some of their real estate in Mount Pleasant, t 
 Iowa, which she did at her husband's earnest solicitations, and his \ 
 promise to let her have her ' defense,' long enough to copy, which 
 document he had robbed her of three years before, by means of Dr. 
 McFarland as agent. Her signature, thus obtained, was acknowl- 
 edged as a valid act, and the deed was presented to the purchaser as 
 a valid instrument, even after Mr. Packard had just before taken an 
 oath that his wife was an insane woman ! 
 
 "He has robbed her of all her patrimony, including not only her 
 furniture, but her valuable clothing also, and a note of six hundred 
 dollars on interest, which he gave her seven years before, as an equiva- 
 lent for this amount of patrimony which her father, Rev. Samuel Ware, 
 of Sunderland, Massachusetts, sent Mrs. Packard for her special 
 benefit, and to be used for her and her children as her own judgment 
 should dictate. He has taken her furniture and clothing, or the avails 
 of them, with him to Massachusetts, without allowing her a single 
 article of furniture for her own individual comfort and use. Thus he 
 has left her without a single penny of their common property to pro- 
 cure for herself the necessaries of life. , .*,;'... 
 
 " He has left her homeless. Before the court closed, Mr. Packard t 
 left this scene of revelations, and mortgaged and rented their home in 
 Manteno, and dispossessed it by night of its furniture, so that when 
 the court closed, Mrs. Packard had no sort of home to return to, the 
 new renter having claimed possession of her home, and claiming a 
 legal right to all its privileges, excluding her from its use entirely as 
 a home, without leaving her the least legal claim to any of the avails 
 of the rent or sales for the supply of her present necessities. 
 
 " Again, she is childless. Her cruel husband, not satisfied with 
 robbing his wife of all her rightful property, has actually kidnapped | 
 all her dear children who lived at home, taking them with him, clan- 
 destinely, to Massachusetts, leaving her a ' childless widow,' entirely 
 dependent for her living, either upon her own exertions, or the char- 
 ities of the public. We will not attempt to describe the desolation 
 of her maternal heart, when she returned to her deserted home, to 
 find it despoiled of all her dearest earthly treasures ; with no sweet 
 cherub, with its smi-ling, joyous face to extend to her the happy, wel- 
 come kiss of a mother's return. 
 
 " But one short week previous, Mrs, Packard had bestowed the 
 parting kiss upon her three youngest children, little dreaming it 
 would be the last embrace the mother would ever be allowed to be-
 
 46 MARITAL POAVEU EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 stow upon her dear offspring, in their own dear home. But now, 
 alas! where is her only daughter, Elizabeth, of thirteen years, and 
 her George Hastings, of ten years, and her darling baby, Arthur 
 Dwight, of five years ? Gone ! gone ! never to return, while the 
 mandate of their father's iron will usurps supreme control of this 
 household ! 
 
 "Yes, the mother's home and heart are both desolate, for her heart-' 
 treasures her dear children are no more to be found. At length, 
 rumor reaches her that her babe, Arthur, is at their brother Dole's. 
 The anxious mother hastens to seek for it there. But all in vain. 
 The family, faithful to their brother's wishes, keep the babe carefully 
 hid from the mother, so that she cannot p,et even one glimpse of her 
 sweet, darling boy. Her cruel husbanJ, fearing her attempts to se- 
 cure the child might prove successful, has sent for it to be brought to 
 him in Massachusetts, where he now is fairly out of the mother's 
 reach.'" Z. HAXFORD. 
 
 I made various attempts to recover my furniture, which I found 
 was stored at Deacon Doles' house, a brother-in-law of Mr. Packard's, 
 under the pretense, that he had bought it, although he could never 
 show one paper as proof of property transferred. I took counsel of 
 the Judge and lawyers j'.t Kankakee, to see if I could in any way 
 recover my stolen furniture, which I had bought with my own patri- 
 mony. " Can I rcplevy it as stolen property ?" said I. "No," said my 
 advisers, " you cannot replevy anything, for you are a married wo- 
 man, and a married woman has no legal existence, unless she holds 
 property independent of her husband. As this is not your case, you 
 are nothing and nobody in law. Your husband has a legal right to all 
 your common property you have not even a right to the hat on 
 your head ! " " Why ? " said I, " I have bought and' paid for it with 
 my own money." " That is of no consequence you can hold noth- 
 ing, as you are nothing and nobody in law ! You have a moral right 
 to your own things, and your own children, but no legal right at all ; 
 therefore you, a married woman, cannot replevy, although any one 
 else could under like circumstances." " Is this so ? Has a married 
 woman no identity in Statute Book of Illinois ? " " It is so. Her 
 interests are all lost in those of her husband, and he has the absolute 
 control of her home, her property, her children, and her personal 
 liberty." 
 
 Yes, all this is but too true, as my own sad experience fully de-
 
 NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. . 47 
 
 monstrates. Now I can realize the sad truths so often iterated, reite- 
 rated to me by my husband, namely : " You have no riylit tc your 
 home, I have let you live with me twenty-one years in my home as a 
 favor to you. You have no right to your children. I let you train 
 them, as far as I think it is proper to trust your judgment this priv- 
 ilege of training and educating your own children is a favor bestowed 
 upon you by me, which I can withold or grant at my own option. 
 You have no right to your money patrimony after you intrusted it to 
 my care, and I gave you a note for it on interest which I can either 
 pay you or not at my own option. You have no right to. your personal 
 liberty if I feel disposed to christen your opinions insane opinions, for 
 I can then treat you as an insane person or not, just at my own op- 
 tion." Yes, Mr. Packard has only treated me as he said the laws 
 of Illinois allowed him to do, and how can he be blamed then ? Did 
 not " wise men " make the laws, as he often used to assert they did ? 
 And can one be prosecuted for doing a legal act ? Nay verily no 
 law can reach him ; even his kidnapping me as he did is legalized in 
 Illinois Statute Book, as the following article which was published in 
 several Boston papers in the winter of 1865, demonstrates, namely; 
 
 "LEGAL KIDNAPPING," OR PROVISION FOR A SANE PERSON'S IM- 
 PRISONMENT. 
 
 " From the ' Disclosures ' of Mrs. Packard's book, it appears a 
 self-evident fact that one State of our Union has an express provision 
 for the imprisonment of married women who are not insane. And 
 this process of legal kidnapping is most strikingly illustrated in the 
 facts developed in Mrs. Packard's own experience, as delineated in 
 her book entitled ' The Great Drama.' 
 
 " The following is a copy of the Law, as it now stands on the Illi- 
 nois Statute Book : 
 
 "AMENDATORY ACT." 
 "Session Laws 15, 1851. Page 96." 
 
 " SEC. 10. 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 dis- 
 tracted, may be entered or detained in the Hospital on the request 
 of the husband, or the woman or guardian of the infants, without the 
 evidence of insanity required in other cases."
 
 48 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 " 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 emoluments. 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 in- 
 stance of the husband? The wife evidently had no voice in making 
 the law. 
 
 " 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 de- 
 sire for power. I do not know why it has not been noted by me and 
 others before." 
 
 " And we would also venture to inquire, what is the married wo- 
 man's' protection under such a Statute law? Is she not allowed 
 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 ex- 
 pressly 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 mat- 
 ter. Her imprisonment 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 carrv out his single 
 wishes concerning his wife's life-destiny. 
 
 " Are not the ' Divorce Laws ' of Illinois made a necessity, o 
 meet the demands of the wife,* as her only refuge from this exposure 
 to a ' false imprisonment ' for life in an Insane Asylum ? 
 
 " We hope our readers will be able to read Mrs. Packard's book 
 for themselves ; especially her ' Self-defence from the charge of In- 
 sanity,' wherein the barbarities of this statute are made to appear in 
 their true light, as being merely a provision for ' Legal Kidnapping.' '' 
 
 BOSTON, Feb. 24, 18G5.
 
 NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 49 
 
 Satisfied as I was that there was no legal redress for me in the 
 laws, and no hope in appealing to Mr. Packard's mercy or manliness, 
 I determined to do what I could to obtain a self-reliant position, by 
 securing if possible the protection of greenbacks, confident that this 
 kind of protection is better than none at all. I concluded, therefore, 
 to publish the first installment of " The Great Drama," an allegorical 
 book I wrote while in the Asylum, consisting of twelve parts. But 
 how could this be done in my penniless condition ? was the great 
 question to be practically settled. I accordingly borrowed ten dollars 
 of Mr. Z. Hanford, of Manteno, a noble, kind hearted man, who 
 offered me a home at his house after the trial, and went to Chicago to 
 consult the printers in reference to the expense of printing one thous- 
 and copies of this book, and get it stereotyped. I found it would cost 
 me five hundred dollars. I then procured a few thousand tickets on 
 which was printed " The bearer is entitled to the first volume of 
 Mrs. Packard's book, entitled the Great Drama. None are genuine 
 without my signature. Mrs. E. P. W. Packard." And commenced 
 canvassing for my unborn book, by selling these tickets for fifty cents 
 each, assuring the purchaser I would redeem the ticket in three 
 month's time, by giving them a book worth fifty cents. When I had 
 sold about eight or nine hundred tickets, I went to Chicago to set my 
 printers and stereotypers, engravers and binders, at work on my book. 
 But I now met with a new and unlocked for difficulty, in the sudden 
 inflation of prices in labor and material. My book could not now be 
 printed for less than seven hundred dollars ; so that my first edition 
 would not pay for itself into two hundred dollars. As the case now 
 was, instead of paying for my book by selling one thousand tickets, I 
 must sell fourteen hundred, besides superintending the various work- 
 men on the different departments of my book. Nothing daunted by 
 this reverse, instead of raising the price of my tickets to seventy-five 
 cents to meet this unfortunate turn in my finances, I found I must 
 fall back upon the only sure guarantee of success, namely : patient 
 perseverance. By the practical use of this great backbone of success, 
 perseverance, I did finally succeed in printing my book, and paying 
 the whole seven hundred dollars for it in three months' time, by sell- 
 ing four hundred tickets in advance on another edition. I sold and 
 prin'ed, and then printed and sold, and so on, until I have printed 
 and sold in all, twelve thousand books in fifteen months' time. In- 
 cluded in this twelve thousand are several editions of smaller pam- 
 phlets, varying in price from five to twenty-five cents each. 
 4
 
 50 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 f 
 
 INTERVIEW WITH MAYOR SHERMAN. 
 
 At this stage of my Narrative it may not be inappropriate to nar- 
 rate my interview with Mayor Sherman, of Chicago, since it not only 
 discloses one of the dangers and the difficulties I had to encounter, in 
 prosecuting my enterprise, but also serves as another exemplification 
 of that marital power which is legally guaranteed to the husband, 
 leaving the wife utterly helpless, and legally defenceless. 
 
 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 pro- 
 tect me here?" 
 
 " Why, Mrs. Packard, what protection do you need ? What dan- 
 gers do you apprehend ? " 
 
 " Sir, I am a married woman, and- my husband is my persecutor, 
 therefore I have no legal protection. The husband is, you probably 
 know, the wife's only protector in the law, therefore, what I want 
 now, Sir, is protection against my protector ! " 
 
 " 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 mannscript of my printer, and 
 the printer, nor you, Sir, have no legal power to defend it. He 
 can demand it, and burn it, and I am helpless in legal self-de- 
 fense. 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 manuscript 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 me them as his gifts to me." 
 
 " What does your printer say about it ? "
 
 NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 51 
 
 " 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 ; /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 manu- 
 script 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 manliness of 
 my printer, for this is my sole and only protection but as one man 
 to whom I trusted even myself, has proved a traitor to his manli- 
 ness, 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." 
 
 " 1 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?" 
 
 " Keep it about your person, so he can't get it." 
 " 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 you are in a bad case, truly I must say, I never be- 
 fore knew that any one under our government was so utterly defence- 
 less 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 bet- 
 ter or safer hands. And in your hands would I most confidently 
 trust my sacred cause the cause of Married Woman; for, so far as
 
 i)'2 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 my observation extends, no class of American citizens are more 
 manly, than our soldiers. I am inclined to cherish the idea, that gal- 
 lantry and patriotism are identified ; at least, I find they are almost 
 always associated together in the same manly heart. 
 
 When I had sold about half of my twelve thousand books, I resolved 
 to visit my relatives in Massachusetts, who had not 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 persecution 
 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 protect me from another kidnapping 
 from Mr. Packard 
 
 I arrived first at my brother Austin Ware's house in South Deer- 
 field, who lives about two miles from Mr. Severance, where were my 
 three youngest children, and where Mr. Packard spent one day of 
 each week. I spent two nights with him 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 condemnation 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 carried me over to Sunderland, about four miles dis- 
 tant, 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 see once more my own 
 dear offspring. As he expected, my father at once espoused my 
 cau.-e, and assured me I should see my children; " for," added he, 
 " 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 has 
 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 Massa- 
 chusets to protect the children from their mother, and I shall do it, in
 
 NARATIVE OF EVENTS. 53 
 
 spite of you, or father Ware, or any one else ! " Brother add?, " 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 rea- 
 son in his treatment of sister, than in a brute." 
 
 These facts of his refusal to let me see my children, were soon in cir- 
 culation 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 dan- 
 ger to his interests which a conflict with this tide of public sentiment 
 might occasion, 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 of my three children to my father's house, with him- 
 self and Mrs. Severance, as their body-guard, and with both as my wit- 
 nesses, I was allowed to talk with them an hour or two. He refused 
 me an interview with them alone in my room. 
 
 I remained at my father's house a few days only, knewing that 
 even in Massachusetts the laws did not protect me from another sim- 
 ilar outrage, if Mr. Packard could procure the certificate of two phy- 
 sicians that I was insane ; for, with these alone, without any chance 
 at 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. I therefore felt forced to leave my father's house in 
 self-defence, to seek some protection of the Legislature of Massachu- 
 setts, by petitioning them for a change in their laws on the mode 
 of commitment into Insane Asylums. As a preparatory step, I en- 
 deavored to get up an agitation on the subject, by printing and sell- 
 ing about six thousand books relative to the subject ; and then, trust- 
 ing to this enlightened 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 Alder- 
 men, the Common Council, the High Sheriff, and several other City 
 Officers; and besides, Judges, Lawyers, Editors, Bank Directors, 
 Physicians, &c. Mr. Sewall presented this petition to the Legisla- 
 ture, and they referred it to a committee, and this committee had 
 seven special meetings on the subject. I was invited to meet with
 
 54 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 thorn each time, and did so, as were also Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. 
 Denny, two ladies of Boston who had suffered a term of false impris- 
 onment in a private institution at Sommersville, without any previous 
 trial. Hon. S. E. Sewall and Mr. Wendell Phillips both made a plea in 
 its behalf before this committee, and the gallantry and manliness of this 
 committee allowed me a hearing of several hour's time in all, besides 
 allowing me to present the two following Bills, which they afterwards 
 requested a copy of 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. 
 
 MRS. PACKARD'S BILLS. 
 
 PREAMBLE. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Committee : 
 
 I feel it my duty to say one word in defence of the Petitioners, in 
 reply to Dr. Walker's statement, that, "in his opinion, nineteen 
 twentieths of the petitioners did not know nor care what they peti- 
 tioned 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 sign- 
 ing 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 gelling my books, I have conversed with 
 many thousand men on this subject, and among them all, I have only 
 found one man who defends the present mode of commitment, by 
 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 gentle- 
 men hi 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.
 
 NARRATIVE OF EVFNTS. 55 
 
 BILL No. 1. 
 
 No person shall be regarded or treated as an Insane person, or a 
 Monomaniac, simply for the expression f>f opinions, no matter how 
 absurd these opinions may appear to others. 
 
 REASONS. 
 
 1st This Law is needed for the personal safety of Reformers. "We 
 are living in a Progressive Age. Everything is in a state of trans- 
 mutation, 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 Grime against human progress to allow Reformers to be 
 treated as Monomaniacs ; 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 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 every 
 thing 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 : indi- 
 viduality, 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 de- 
 velopment of humanity rests. 
 
 BILL No. 2. 
 
 No person shall be imprisoned, and treated as an insane person, 
 except for irregularities of conduct, such as indicate that the indi- 
 vidual is so lost to reason, as to render him an unaccountable moral 
 agent. 
 
 REASONS. 
 
 Multitudes are now imprisoned, without the least evidence that 
 reason is dethroned, as indicated by this test. And I am a repre-
 
 56 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 santative of this class of prisoners ; for, when Dr. McFarland was 
 driven to give his reasons for regarding me as insane, on this ba^is, 
 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 impris- 
 oned 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 person 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 forfeits our personal lib- 
 erty ought to be proved from the individual's own conduct, before im- 
 prisonment. 
 
 So long as insanity is treated as a crime, instead of a misfortune, as 
 o ir present system practically does so 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, 
 ail persons are liable to be legally imprisoned, under our present 
 system ; for intelligent physicians are everywhere to be found, who 
 will not scruple to give a certificate that an individual is a Monoma- 
 niac on that point where he differs from him in opinion! This Mo- 
 nomania 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 Philanthrox 
 pists, 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 Commit- 
 ment of the Insane, in Boston State House, March 29, 1865, by 
 
 MRS. E. P. W. PACKARD. 
 
 The result was, the petition triumphed, by so changing the mode 
 
 of commitment, that, instead of the husband being allowed to enter 
 
 his wife at his simple request, added to the certificate of two physi- 
 
 C cians, 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
 
 NARRATIVE OP EVENTS. 57 
 
 to communicate by writing to any one outside of the Institution, ex- 
 cept under the censorship of the Superintendent, can now send a let- 
 ter 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 General 
 Laws of Massachusetts. I regard my personal liberty in Massachu- 
 setts 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 comparatively safe, 
 while in Massachusetts. 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 indicated his true 
 position in relation to my interests, by his self-moved efforts in my 
 behalf, in writing and sending the following letter to Mr. Packard.* 
 
 COPT </F FATHER WARE'S LETTER TO MR. PACKARD. 
 
 " 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 existed to jus- 
 tify you in retaining them, has, in process of time, entirely vanished. 
 There is not a shadow of excuse for retaining them. It is my pre- 
 sumption there is not an individual in this town who woirld 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 desti- 
 tute 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. The reasons why he thus left his ministerial charge in this 
 place, cannot perhaps be more summarily given than by transcribing 
 
 * See Appendix, p. 138.
 
 58 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 the following letter which father got me to write for him, in answer 
 to Rev. Dr. Pomeroy's letter, inquiring of my father why Mr. Pack- 
 ard had left Sunderland. 
 
 LETTER TO REV. DR. POMEROT. 
 
 Sunderland, Oct. 28, 1865. 
 
 DR. POMEROT, 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 father's defence of me, has been the indi- 
 rect cause of Mr. Packard's leaving Sunderland ; 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 under- 
 mine 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 day's trial, it is found to be rather 
 of 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. Me 
 Farland in the Asylum, that I shall yet live down this slander of In- 
 sanity, and also live down my persecutors. And Mr. Packard is af- 
 fording me every facility for so doing, by his continuing strenuously 
 to insist upon it, that I am, now, just as insane as when he incarcer- 
 ated me in Jacksonville Insane Asylum. And he still insists upon 
 it, that an Asylum Prison is the only suitable place for me to spend 
 the residue of my earth-life in. But, fortunately for me, my friends 
 judge differently upon seeing me for themselves. Especially fortun- 
 ate is it for me, 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 Sunderland, where Mr. 
 Packard preaches ! " Mr. Johnson replied in answer to this remark, 
 that he thought Mrs. Packard had a right to come to her father's 
 house for protection, and also that her father had an equal right to 
 extend protection to his only daughter, when thrown adrift and pen- 
 nyless upon the cold world without a place to shelter her defenceless 
 head.
 
 NAUUATIVE OF EVENTS. 59 
 
 Mr. Packard has withdrawn all intercourse with us all since he 
 was called upon by 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 lo him the forgiveness 
 my heart longs to bestow, upon this gospel condition. 
 
 Thankful for all the kindness and sympathy you have bestowed 
 upon my father and mother, as well as myself, I subscribe myself 
 your true friend, . E. P. W. PACKARD. 
 
 P. S. Father and mother both approve of the above, which I have 
 written at father's urgent request. E. P. W. P. 
 
 Fidelity to the truth requires me to add one more melancholy fact, 
 in order to make this narrative of events complete, and that is, that 
 Mr. Packard has made merchandise of this stigma of Insanity he has 
 branded me with, 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 was incapable of taking care of herself or her six 
 children and on this false premise he has based a most pathetic argu- 
 ment and appeal to their sympathies for pecuniary help, in the form of 
 boxes of clothing for himself and his destitute and defenceless child- 
 ren. These appeals have been most generously responded to from 
 the American Home Missionary Society. So that 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 pur- 
 loined from this benevolent society, by entirely false representations. 
 
 My family were not destitute. But on the contrary, were abund- 
 antly supplied with a supernumerary 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, 
 I.-aac, now hi Chicago, and twenty-one years of age, told me he had 
 counted fifty new vests in one pile, and he had as many pants and 
 coats, and overcoats, and almost every thing else, of men's wearing 
 apparel, in like ratio. He said I had a pile of dress patterns accu- 
 mulated 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 liis cunningly dervised begging system.
 
 60 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 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 hcnest claimant upon their char- 
 ides in this line, on the ground of poverty and destitution. She 
 accordingly started a subscription to procure him a suit of clothes, on 
 the ground of his extreme destitution, and finally succeeded in beg- 
 ging a subscription of one hundred and thirteen dollars for his ben- 
 efit, 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, 
 supports the three youngest children, mostly, thus leaving scarcely no 
 claimants upon his own purse, except his own personal wants. His 
 wife and six children he has so disposed of, as to be almost entirely 
 independent of him of any support. And it is my honest opinion, 
 that had Sunderland people known of these facts in his financial mat- 
 ters, they would not have presented him with one hundred and thir- 
 teen dollars, as a token of their sympathy and esteem. Still, looking 
 at the subject from their stand-point, J have no doubt they acted con- 
 scientiously in this matter. I have never deemed it my duty to en- 
 lighten them on this subject, except as the truth is sought for from 
 me, in a few individual isolated cases. I do not mingle with the peo- 
 ple scarcely at all, and have sold none of my books among them. 
 Self-defence does not require me to seek the protection of enlight- 
 ened public sentiment now that the laws protect iny personal liberty, 
 while in Massachusetts. 
 
 But fidelity to the cause of humanity, especially the cause of " Mar- 
 ried 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 to her and also demonstrates the fact, that the common-law, 
 everywhere, in relation to married woman, not only gravitates to- 
 wards an absolute despotism, but even protects and sustains and de- 
 fends a despotism of the most arbitrary and absolute kind. There- 
 fore, 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 neces-
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. Gl 
 
 sitj for a revolution on this subject can be made to appear in no 
 more direct manner, than by a practical ca-e, such as my own furn- 
 ishes. 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 experience, 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 hu- 
 manity claims that such liabilities should not exist in any Christian 
 government. The laws should be so changed that such another out- 
 ra^e could not possibly take place und^r the sanction of the laws of a 
 Christian government. 
 
 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 this same 
 feeling of indignation against tho-e laws which protect married 
 servitude. Married woman needs legal emancipation from married 
 servitude, 1 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 prin- 
 ciple of slavery is wrong, and the principle of emancipation is right, 
 and the laws ought so to regard it. And this married servitude ex- 
 poses the wife to as great suffering a-* 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 developed in my moral 
 and spiritual nature than they are, therefore more capable of suffer- 
 ing. I think no slave mother ever endured more keen anguish by 
 being deprived of her own offspring than I have in being legally sep- 
 arated from mine. God grant, that married woman's emancipation 
 may quickly follow in the wake of negro emancipation ! 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 In canvassing for my books various important questions have been 
 propounded to me, which the preceding Narrative of Events does not 
 fully answer. 
 
 FIRST QUESTION. 
 
 " Why, Mrs. Packard, do you 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
 
 62 MARITAL POWKR EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 husband for my protector; for I do not like this being divorced from 
 my own home. I want a home to live in, and 1 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 unwearied indefatigable exeriions ; 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, hav- 
 ing never been sick during this time so as to require five dollars doc- 
 tor's bill to be paid for me or my six children, and having done all 
 the housework, sewing, nursing, and so forth, of my entire family for 
 twenty-one years, with no hired girl help, except for only nine months, 
 during all this long period of constant toil and labor. I say, this self- 
 sacriiizing devotion to the best interests of my family and home, de- 
 serve and claim a right to be protected in it, at least, so long as my 
 good conduct 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 own home, and exclude him from all its rights and privi- 
 leges neither do I want he should treat me in this manner, espe- 
 cially so long as he himself claims that I have always been a most 
 kind, patient, devoted wife and mother. He even claims as his justi- 
 fication 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 beyond, her former re- 
 ligious 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 ?
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 6S 
 
 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 : to remove me from my family, for fear 
 of the contaminating influence of my new views ? Has a married wo- 
 man 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 husband ? 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 prac- 
 tically divorced from my own home and children, but also incar- 
 cerated for three years in a prison, simply for my religious belief, by 
 the arbitrary will of my husband, ought to raise the question, as to 
 what are the married woman's rights, and what is her protection ? 
 And it is to this practical issue I have ever striven to force this ques- 
 tion. And this issue I felt might be reached more directly and 
 promptly by the public mind, by laying the necessities 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 so be, 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 pro- 
 tection 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 re- 
 ligious bigotry under such manifestations, receive some check under 
 our government, which is professedly based on the very principle of re- 
 ligious 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 defenceless 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
 
 \ 
 
 64 MARITAL POWKB iiXiiiH J JLii-'l.-.l>. 
 
 man government thus to usurp the whole legal power of self-protec- 
 tion and defence, and leave confiding, trusting woman wholly at 
 the meivy of this gigantic power. For perverted men will use this 
 absolute power to abuse the defenceless, rather than protect them; 
 and abuse of power inevitably leads to the contempt 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 pro- 
 tection, 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 " Se- 
 cession " principle. It undermines the very vital principle of our 
 Union, and saps the very foundation of our social and civil obliga- 
 tions. For example. Suppose the small, weak and comparatively 
 feeble States in our Union were not protected by the Government in 
 any of their State rights, while the large, strong, and powerful ones. 
 Lad their Slate rights fully guaranteed and secured to them. Would 
 not this state of the Union endanger the rights of the defenceless 
 ones ? and endanger the Union also? Could these defenceless Spates 
 resort to any other means of self-defence 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 rests on just this principle, 
 as our laws now stand. The woman has no alternative of n^Ort 
 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, and it is the rights of the weak, which the govern- 
 ment are especially bound to respect and defend, to prevent usurpa- 
 tion and its legitimate issue, secession from the Union. What we 
 want of our government is to prevent this usurpation, by protecting 
 us equally with our partners, so that we shall not need a divorce n. all. 
 
 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, womanly rights. There are 
 man's rights and woman's rights. Both different, yet both eq ally 
 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
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 65 
 
 plainly teach. We maintain that the senior partner, the man, has 
 rights of the greatest importance, as regards the interests of the mar- 
 riage firm, which should not only be respected and protected by oar 
 government, but ako enforced upon them as an obligation, if the 
 senior is not self-moved to use his rights practically and one of the&e 
 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 protected by her senior partner. 
 Not protected in a prison, but in her own home, as mistress of her 
 own house, and as a Gfod 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 influence, 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 should have any their right to their personal liberty and 
 all these rights be passed over irito 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 
 entirely 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 standpoint 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 employed as 
 an evil to avoid a greater one, in many instances. Therefore, in- 
 stead 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 unmerited, unreasonable abuse a restitu- 
 tion of my rights, instead of a continuance of this robbery, sanc- 
 tioned by a divorce. 
 
 In short, we desire to live under such laws, as will oblige our hus- 
 bands to treat us with decent ra-pect, 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. 
 9
 
 CG MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 SECOND QUESTION. 
 
 " What are your 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 bus- 
 iness what I think but my own, since it is to God alone I am ac- 
 countable 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 guarantee 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 oligarchys ; but 
 on the contrary, these chains and restraints which have sp long bound the 
 human reason to human dictation, must be broken, for the reign of in- 
 dividual, spiritual freedom is about dawning upon our progressive world. 
 
 Yes, I insist upon it, that it is my own individual right to auperin- 
 tend my own- thoughts ; and I say farther, it is not my right to super- 
 intend 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 does kindly allow me 
 this right of a developed moral agent, although we differ as essen- 
 tially and materially in our views as Mr. Packard and I do. 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 practi- 
 cal 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
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 67 
 
 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 perse- 
 cution. It is my misfortune to belong to this unfortunate class. 
 Therefore I am not ashamed or afraid to avow my honest opinions 
 even in the face of a frowning world. Therefore, when duty to my- 
 self 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 can- 
 did answer, knowing that this narrative of the case would be incom- 
 plete 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 theirs. ' And furthermore, 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 Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and sent out on my 
 " under ground railroad." The only tidings I ever got 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 rad- 
 ical opinions is not a crime of sufficient magnitude, to justify all my 
 wrongs and imprisonment! Is not my persecutor guiltless in thismatter?
 
 68 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 COPY OF THE LETTER. 
 
 Jacksonville, HI., Oct. 23d, 1861. 
 MRS. FISHER. MY DEAR OLD FKIEND : 
 
 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 assimi- 
 lated 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 their organization, by striving to remodel 
 it, and thus defile God's image in them. 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, confiding soul. Why can 
 we not accept of God's well done work as perfect, and instead of de- 
 filing, 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 nat- 
 ural, 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 " 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 teaching*, authority enough for our opinions ? It is, to all hon- 
 est souls. 
 
 Indeed, Mrs. Fisher I have become so radical, as to call in ques- 
 tion every opinion in 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
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 69 
 
 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 influ- 
 ences, so that the light of the sun of righteousness finds less to obstruct 
 its beams in some than in others. Thus they become 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 mental courage sooner to have imitated you, and thus have 
 broken the fetters which bound me to dogmas and creeds. O, Mrs. 
 Fisher, how trammelled and crippled our consciences have been ! 
 O, 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 truth- 
 ism, and no pattern but Christ. 
 
 Henceforth, I am determined to use my own reason and conscience 
 in my investigation of truth, and in the establishment 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. I 
 know I am not willful, but conscientious, in my conduct. And, not- 
 withstanding 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 con- 
 siderations of minor importance. 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 sacri- 
 legious 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." 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
 
 70 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 free to be true and honest, for this persecution for opinion and con- 
 science' sake, has so strengthened and confirmed me in the free ex- 
 ercise of these inalienable 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 persecutors 
 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 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 that I shall be called insane, if I avow my 
 belief that Christ died for all mankind, and that this atonement 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 disci- 
 pline 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 govern- 
 ment, seem to contradict this interpretation, I conclude we must have 
 misinterpreted its holy teachings. For example, Jonah uses the word 
 everlasting with a limited meaning, when he says, " thine everlast- 
 ing 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 ca<e 
 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 pedition.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 71 
 
 Again, Mrs. Fisher, my determination and aim is, to become a per- 
 fect person in Ghrisfs estimation, although by so doing, I may be- 
 come the filth and off-scouring of all perverted humanity. What con- 
 sequence 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 char- 
 acter which entitles us to a 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 en- 
 tramrnelled 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 denomina- 
 tion of Christians now on earth, that they do not allow us an open 
 Bible and an unshackled 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 be- 
 lieve 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 far dis- 
 tant His coming will restore all things, which we have lost for his 
 sake. Our cause will then find an eloquent pleader in Christ him- 
 self, and through our Advocate, the Judge, Himself, will acknowledge 
 us to be his- true, loyal subjects, and we shall enter into the full pos- 
 session 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 ; remembering that it is enough for
 
 72 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 the servant that he be as his Master. For " as they have persecuted 
 me, they will persecute you also." " Be of good cheer." Mrs. Fisher, 
 " I have overcome the world." Blessed consolation ! Mrs. Fisher, 
 the only response I expect to get from this letter, is your silent heart- 
 felt sympathy in my sorrows. No utterance is allowed for my allevi- 
 ation. 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." Impossi- 
 bilities are not required of us. 
 
 Please tell Theophilus, my oft repeated attempts to send him a 
 motherly letter, have been thwarted. And he, poor persecuted boy ! 
 cannot be allowed a mother's tender, heartfelt sympathy. O, my 
 God, protect my precious boy ! and carry him safely through this pit- 
 iless 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. 
 
 THIRD QUESTION. 
 
 " Do you think, Mrs. Packard, that your husband really believes 
 you are an insane person ? " 
 
 I do not. I really believe he knows I am a sane person ; and still, 
 he is struggling with all his might to make himself and others believe 
 this delusion, because his own conscience is accusing him constantly 
 with this lie against it. With all his accumulated testimonials that I 
 am insane, and all his sophistries and reasoning upon false premises 
 to establish this lie, he cannot silence this accusing monitor within 
 himself, testifying to the contrary. Either this is in reality the case, 
 or he has at last reached that point, where a person has made such a 
 sinner of his own conscience as to believe his own lies ; or, in other 
 words, he has so perverted his conscience as to become conscientiously 
 wrong. But it is not for me to judge his heart, only from the stand- 
 point of his own actions, and from this basi?, I give the above as my 
 honest opinion on this point. 
 
 Two facts alone may be sufficient to give somecorroboration in support 
 of this opinion. After taking me from my asylum prison, and while 
 his prisoner at my own house, he asked me to sign a deed for the
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 73 
 
 transfer of some of his real estate in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and finding 
 I could not be induced to do it, without returning to me my note of 
 six hundred dollars he had robbed me of, and also some of my good 
 clothing, he sought to transfer it, as the law allows one to do, in case 
 the needed witness is legally incapacitated by insanity to give their 
 signature ; and for this purpose he was obliged to take an oatu that I 
 was insane. He did take this oath that I was insane, and thereby 
 outlawed as a legal witness. It was administered by Justice Labrie. 
 A few days after this, he called this same Justice in to our house to 
 witness my signing this deed, and used it as a valid signature. Now 
 to say under oath one thing one day, and to deny it the next, is rather 
 crooked business for a healthy Christian conscience to sanction. 
 
 Another fact. When he was preparing to put me into an Insane 
 Asylum, I asked him why he was so very anxious to put the stigma 
 of insanity upon me, when he knew I was not insane ? Said he, " I 
 am doing it so that your opinions need not be believed. I must pro- 
 tect the cause of Christ." 
 
 Cause of Christ i I felt like exclaiming, if your cause of Christ 
 needs such a defence, I think it must be in a sad condition. If it 
 can 't stand before the opinions of a woman, I should n't think a man 
 would attempt to protect it ! The truth is, the cause of Christ to him 
 is his creed a set of human opinions. While the real cause of Christ 
 is humanity ; and a very important part of this cause of Christ to a 
 true man, is the protection of his own wife. 
 
 FOURTH QUESTION. 
 
 " Could you forgive Mr. Packard, and live with him again as his 
 wife ? " 
 
 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 res- 
 titution. 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 for him to do, and that he shall do the same 
 thing again, if he has a chance to, I do not see any chance for me to 
 oestow my forgiveness upon a penitent transgressor.
 
 74 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 He feels that I am the one to ask forgiveness, for not yielding 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 vin- 
 dication 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 circum- 
 stances. 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. I am not conscious of feel- 
 ing 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 de- 
 served penitentiary punishment, Mr. Packard does, for his treatment 
 of me. Still, /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 un- 
 derstand his directions. And my heart daily thanks God that it is 
 not ray 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 my- 
 self from his abuse as best I can ; and it is not doing him good to for- 
 give 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-defence on my part, and a defence of the 
 rights of that oppressed class of married women which my case rep- 
 resents. I do not ask for him to be punished at any human tribunal ; 
 all I ask is, protection for myself, and also the class I represent.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 75 
 
 One other fact it may be well here to mention, and that is : I have 
 withdrawn all fellowship with him in his present attitude towards me. 
 I do not so much as speak or write to him, and this I do from the 
 principle of self-defence, and not from a spirit of revenge. I know all 
 my words and actions are looked upon through a very distorted me- 
 dium, and whatever: I say or do, he weaves into capital to carry on his 
 persecution with. And I think I have Christ's example too as my 
 defence in this course ; for when he was convinced his persecutors 
 questioned him only for the purpose of catching him in his words, 
 " he was speechless." I have said all I have to say to Mr. Packard 
 in his present character. But when he repents, I will forgive him, 
 and restore him to full communion. 
 
 FIFTH QUESTION. 
 
 "In what estimation is Mr. Packard held in the region where 
 these scenes were enacted ? " 
 
 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 him. Indeed, the tide of popular indigna- 
 tion rises very high among that class, who defend religious liberty and 
 equal rights, free thought, free speech, free press. . -V; 
 
 I state this as a fact which my own personal observation demon- 
 strates. 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 expressions of this indignant feeling 
 which I alone have heard, it would swell this pamphlet 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 ex- 
 pression I have often heard made from the common people. 
 
 From the soldiers I have often heard these, and similar expressions ; 
 " 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 defence." 
 " If he ever gets you into another Asylum, our cannon shall open its 
 walls for your deliverance," &c. 
 
 The Bar in Illinois may be represented by the following expres- 
 sions, made to me by the Judges of the Supreme Court, in Ottawa 
 Court house " Mrs. Packard, this is the foulest outrage we ever 
 heard of in real life ; we have read of such deep laid plots in
 
 76 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 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 con- 
 spiracy where they ought to be put." 
 
 The pulpit of Illinois almost universally condemns the outrage, as 
 a crime against humanity and human rights. But fidelity to 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. Among all the ministers I have conversed 
 with on this subject, I have found only two ministers 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. "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' withold unless self-defence 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, the writer said : " 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." 
 
 The opinion of his own church and community in Manteno, where 
 he preached at the time I was kidnapped, is another class whose ver- 
 dict the public desire to know also. I will state a few facts, and leave 
 the public to draw their own inferences. 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-con- 
 spirators. When I returned, he preached nowhere. He was closeted 
 at his own domicil on the Sabbath, cooking the family dinner, while 
 his children were at church and sabbath school. His society was,'
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QTESTIONS ANSWERED. 77 
 
 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 sus- 
 taining him, that the trouble in his family had destroyed his influence 
 in that community. Multitudes of his people who attended my trial, 
 whom I know defended him at the time he kidnapped me, came to 
 me with these voluntary confessions : " Mrs. Packard, I always knew 
 you were not insane." "I never believed Mr. Packard's stories." 
 "I always felt that you was an abused woman," &c., &c. 
 
 These facts indicated some change even in the opinion of his own 
 allies during my absence. As I said, I leave the public to draw their 
 own inferences. I have done my part to give them the premises of 
 facts, to draw them from. 
 
 SIXTH QUESTION. 
 
 " 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, sat- 
 isfactorily, 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 promptness, 
 but more than my usual confidence that I am correct 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. 1 believe that if ever there was a man who practically be- 
 lieved in the monogomy 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.
 
 78 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 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 thisj 
 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, and 
 that it was the triumph of bigotry over his manliness, which occa- 
 sioned this public manifestation of this peculiar mental phenomenon. 
 Some of the reasons for thh opinion, added to the facts of this dark 
 drama which are already before the public, lie ha 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 dis- 
 tinctly recollect we had had a warm discussion on the subject of wo- 
 man'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 consideration. I never used 
 any other weapons in self-defence, 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 in- 
 stead of boldly meeting me as his antagonist on the arena of argu- 
 ment and discussion, and there openly defending himself against my 
 knockdown arguments, with his Cudgel of Insanity, I find he closed 
 off such discussions with his secret " confidential " letters to my rela- 
 tives and dear friends, saying, that he had sad reason to fear his 
 wife's mind was getting out of order ; she was becoming insane on the 
 subject of woman's rights ; " but be sure to keep this fact a profound 
 secret especially, never let Elizabeth hear that /ever intimated such 
 a thing." 
 
 I presume this is not the first time an opponent in argument 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 conscientiously convinced. But it cer- 
 tainly is more honorable and manly, to accuse him of insanity to his
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 79 
 
 face, than it is to thus secretly plot against him an imprisonable 
 offence, without giving him the least chance at self-defence. 
 
 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 confidence in the de- 
 ductions of his noble, capacious mind ; and here I found my positions 
 were each, and all, indorsed most fully by him. Said he, " Mrs. Pack- 
 ard, 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 con- 
 sider 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. 
 
 Again, his physician, Dr. Fordice Rice, of Cazenovia, New York, 
 to whom I opened my whole mind on this subject, said to me in con- 
 clusion " 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 hus- 
 band. I can respect Mr. Packard enough, notwithstanding, to do him 
 good all the days of my life, and no evil do I desire to do him ; and 
 moreover, I would not exchange him for any man I know of, even 
 if I could do so, simply by turning over my hand; for I believe he is 
 just the man God appointed from all eternity to be my husband. 
 Therefore, I am content with my appointed portion and lot of conju- 
 gal happiness." 
 
 Again. It was only about four years before I was kidnapped, that 
 Mr. O. S. Fowler, the great Phrenologist, examined his head, and 
 expressed his opinion of his mental condition in nearly these words. 
 " 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 working 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-
 
 80 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 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 available means are faithfully used to reach a more 
 progressive state. Now comes the question. Is activity and pro- 
 gression in knowledge and intelligence, an indication of a sane, nat- 
 fural condition, or is it an unnatural, insane indication? And is a 
 stagnant, torpid, and retrogressive state of mentality, a natural or an 
 unnatural condition a sane, or an insane state? 
 
 In our mental states we simply grew apart, instead of together. 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 towai'ds me, lest I outshine him. That 
 is, it stimulated his monomania into exercise, by determining to anni- 
 hilate or crush the victim in whose mental and moral magnetism he 
 felt so uneasy and dissatisfied with himself. While, at the same time, 
 the influence of my animal magnetism, was never unpleasant to him ; 
 but, on the contrary, highly gratifying. Yea, 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 whom I think could equal you in womanly virtues." 
 
 Again. While on this recruiting tour, I made it my home for sev- 
 eral weeks at Mr. David Field'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 possible, some insane manifestations. 
 But, to her surprise, eleven weeks observation failed to develop 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, say- 
 ing his wife was insane, and urged her to regard all my representa- 
 tions 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 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
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 81 
 
 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 a defence for me, when she received a most insulting 
 and abusive letter from Mr. Packard, wherein he, in the most 
 despotic manner, tried to browbeat 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 un- 
 masked state. " 0, how could that dear, kind woman live with such 
 a man ! " was her constant thought. 
 
 Nerved and strengthened by her husband's advice, she determined 
 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 : " Mrs. Field, can 
 you tell us why such a lady as Mrs. Packard, 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 ? " 
 
 Her reply I will not give, since her aggravated and indignant feel- 
 ings prompted her to clothe it in very strong language against Mr. 
 Packard, indicating that he ought to be treated as a criminal, who 
 deserved capital punishment. 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 language, although stiong, 
 does not conflict with Christ's teachings 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 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 Lad done.-o; for 
 Mr. Field makes reply: " I do believe men are possessed with devils 
 now a days, as much as they were in Christ's d xys, and I believe too 
 that some are not only possessed with one devil, but even seven devil?, 
 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 satis- 
 6
 
 82 MAUITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 fitfd 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 rights struggle. From the com- 
 mencement to its present stage of development, 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 a? an opinion only, no 
 one had thu least right to call him a monomaniac ; but when this in- 
 sane 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 considered, 
 namely, All that renders an earth-life desirable all the inalienable 
 right-! and privileges of one developed, moral, and accountable, sensi- 
 tive 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 affec- 
 tion, 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 cul- 
 minated, so that it has become a demonstrated fact, that its track lies 
 wholly in the direction of usurpation ; and therefore this track, on 
 which so many devoted, true women, have taken a through or life 
 ticket upon, is one which the American government ought to guard 
 and protect by legal enactments ; so that such a drama as mine can- 
 not be again legally tolerated under the flag of our protective govern- 
 ment. God grant, that this one mute appeal of stubborn fact, may 
 ba sufficient to nerve up the woman protectors of our manly govern- 
 ment, 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
 
 MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 83 
 
 fir.^t time I had left my husband during all my married life, longer 
 than for one week's time, I returnedto my home, to receive as corditil 
 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. In- 
 deed, 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 recognition of my womanly rights, 
 almost instantly moved my forgiving heart, not only to extend to him, 
 unasked, my full and free forgiveness for the past, but all this abuse 
 seemed to be seeking to find its proper place in the grave of forget- 
 ful 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, sensitive, heart of affec- 
 tion 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 wo- 
 man's sympathetic nature find in this, her native element, room for 
 full expansion 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 &nd bold was I in this avowal, during these three happy 
 years, that my correspondence of those days is radiant with this truth. 
 And it was not three months, and perhaps not even two months, pre- 
 vious to my being kidnapped, that I made a verbal declaration of this 
 fact, in Mr. Packard's presence, to Deacon Dole, his sister's husband, 
 in these words. The interests of the Bible class had been our topic 
 of conversation, when I had occasion to make this remark: "Bro- 
 ther," said I, " don't you think Mr. Packard is remarkably tolerant 
 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 organization? "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 ^lad
 
 84: 3IAHITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 you have got so good an opinion of me. I hope I shall not disappoint 
 your expectations ! " 
 
 But, alas ! where is he now ? O, 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. 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 iear " 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, in these 
 words : " O, husband ! don't yield to their entreaties 1 Do be true to 
 your marriage vow true to yourself true to God. Instead of taking 
 the side of bigotry, and going against your wife, do just protect to me 
 my right of opinion, which this deacon and sister seem determined to 
 wrest from me. Just say to the clas., " My wife has as good a right 
 to her opinion as the class have to theirs and I shall protect her in 
 this right you need not believe her opinions unless you choose; but 
 she shall have her rights of opinion, unmolested, for I shall be my 
 wife's protector." I added, "Then, husband, you will be a man. 
 You will deserve honor, and you will be sure to have it ; but if you 
 become my persecutor, you will become a traitor 'to your manli- 
 ness ; you will deserve dishonor, and you will surely get it in full 
 measure." 
 
 My earnestness he construed into anger. He thrust me from him. 
 He determined, at all hazard, to subject my rights of opinion to his 
 will, instead of protecting them by his manliness. The plot already 
 laid, eight years previous, now had a rare opportunity to culminate, 
 k sure as he was of all needed help in its dreadful execution. In Hire 
 short weeks I was a State's prisoner of Illinois Lunatic Asylum, being 
 supported as a State pauper! 
 
 From this fatal evening all appeals to his reason and humanity 
 have been worse than fruitless. They have only served to aggravate
 
 FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED. 85 
 
 hi? maddened feeling*, and goad him on to greater deeds of despera- 
 tion. Like Nebuchadnezzar, his reason is taken from him, on this 
 one subject ; and unrestrained, maddened, resentment fills his de- 
 praved soul his manliness is dead. Is he not a monomaniac ? 
 
 FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED. 
 
 I find in circulation various false reports and misrepresentations, so 
 slanderous in their bearing upon my character and reputation, and 
 that of my family relatives, that I think they demand a passing 
 
 notice from me, in summing up this brief record of events. 
 I 
 
 FIRST REPORT. 
 
 " Mrs. Packard's mother was an insane woman, and sevaral of her 
 relatives have been insane ; and, therefore, Mrs. Packard's insanity 
 is hereditary, consequently, she is hopelessly insane." 
 
 This base and most cruel slander originated from Mr. Packard's 
 own heart ; was echoed before the eyes of the public, by Dr. McFar" 
 land, Superintendent of the Insane Asylum, through the Chicago 
 Tribune, in a letter which he wrote to the Tribune in self-defence, 
 after my trial. The verdict of the jury virtually impeached Dr. Mc- 
 Farland as an accomplice in this foul drama, and as one who had 
 prostituted his high public trust, in a most notorious manner. This 
 presentation of him and his institution before the public, seemed to 
 provoke this letter, as a vindication of his course. And the most 
 prominent part of this defence seemed to depend upon his making the 
 people believe that the opinion of the jury was not correct, in pro- 
 nouncing me sane. And he used this slander as the backbone of his 
 argument, to prove that I was hopelessly insane, there having been 
 no change either for the better or worse, while under his care, and 
 that I left the institution just as I entered it, incurably insane. 
 
 I think I cannot answer this slander more summarily and concisely, 
 than by quoting, verbatim, Mr. Stephen R. Moore's, my attorney, 
 reply to this letter, as it was published at the time in the public 
 papers. 
 
 MR. MOORE'S REPLY TO DR. MCFARLAND's SLANDER. 
 
 " Your letter starts out with a statement of an error, which I be- 
 lieve to be wholly unintentional, and results from placing too much 
 confidence in the statements of your friend, Rev. Theophilus Pack-
 
 86 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 ard. Yo i say, " Mrs. P., as one of the results of a strongly inherited 
 predisposition, (her mother having been for a long period of her life 
 insane,) had an attack of insanity previous to her marriage." Such 
 are not the facts. Neither the mother, nor any blood relations of 
 Mrs. Packard, were ever suspected or charged with being insane. 
 And it is a slander of one of the best and most pious mothers of New 
 England, and her ancestry, to charge her and them with insanity ; 
 
 and could have emanated only from the heart of the pious , 
 
 who would incarcerate the companion of his bosom for three years 
 with gibbering idiots and raving maniacs. 
 
 /~ " Nor had Mrs. Packard an attack of insanity before her marriage. 
 
 \ The pious Packard has fabricated this story to order, from the circum-l 
 
 I stance, that when a young lady, Mrs. Packard had a severe attack 
 ^ of brain fever, and under which fever she was for a time delirious. 
 
 / and no further, has this a semblance of truth." 
 
 / This is the simple truth, which all my relatives are ready, and 
 many of them very anxious to certify to ; but the limits of this pam- 
 
 V phlet will not admit any more space in answer to this slander. 
 
 SECOND REPORT. 
 
 " Mrs. Packard is very adroit in concealing her insanity." 
 This report originated from the same source, and I will answer it 
 in the words of the same writer, as found in his printed reply : " You 
 say, ' Mrs. Packard is very adroit in concealing her insanity.' She 
 has indeed been most adroit in this concealment, when her family 
 physician of seven year's acquaintance, and all her friends and neigh- 
 bors, with whom she visited daily, and her children, and the domes- 
 tics, and lastly, the court and jury had not, and could not, discover 
 any traces of insanity ; and the only persons who say they find her 
 insane, were Dr. McFarland, your pious friend Rev. Packard, his 
 sister, and her husband, one deacon of the church, and a fascinating 
 young convert all members of his church and a doctor. These 
 witnesses each and every one swore upon the stand, " That it was 
 evidence of insanity in Mrs.- Packard, because she wished to leave 
 the Presbyterian church, and join the Methodist." I quote the rea- 
 sons given by these "Lambs of the Church," that you may know 
 what weight their opinions are entitled to. The physician, upon whose 
 certificate you say you held Mrs. Packard, swore upon the trial, that 
 three-fourths of the religious community were just as insane as Mrs. 
 Packard."
 
 FALSE REPOHTS CORRECTED. 87 
 
 THIRD REPORT. 
 
 "All her family friends, almost without exception, sustain Mr. 
 Packard in his course." 
 
 Not one of my family friends ever intelligently sustained Mr. Pack- 
 ard in his course. But they did % sustain him ignorantly and unde- 
 signedly, for a time, while his tissue of lies held them back from in- 
 vestigating the merits of the case for themselves. But as soon as 
 they did know, they became my firm friends and defenders, and Mr. 
 Packard's private foes and public adversaries. I do not mean by 
 this, that they manifest any revengeful feelings towards him, but sim- 
 ply a God-like resentment of his inhuman course towards me. All 
 my relatives, without exception, who have heard my own statement 
 .from my own lips, now unite in this one opinion, that Mr. Pack- 
 ard has had no right nor occasion for putting me into an insane 
 asylum. 
 
 But fidelity to the truth requires me to say in this connection, that 
 among my family relatives, are three families of Congregational min- 
 isters that each of these families have refused me any hearing, so 
 that they are still in league with, and defenders of, Mr. Packard. All 
 I have to say for them is, " May the Lord forgive them, for they 
 know not what they do." 
 
 But it may be urged that the published certificates of her friends 
 contradict this statement. This is not the case. Those certificates 
 which have appeared in print since my return to my friends, all bear 
 date to the time they were given previous to my return. 
 
 And in this connection I feel conscientiously bound, in defence 
 of my kindred, to say, that some of these certificates are mere for- 
 geries in its strict sense ; that is, they were drafted by Mr. Packard, 
 himself, and most adroitly urged upon the individual whose signa- 
 ture he desired to obtain, and thus his logic, being based in a false- 
 hood, which was used as a truth, and received as such, they are thus 
 made to certify to what was not the real truth. My minor children's 
 certificates are the mere echoes of their father's will and dictation. 
 He has tried to buy the signatures of my two oldest sons, now of age, 
 in Chicago, by offering them some of his abundant surplus clothing, 
 from his missionary boxes, if they would only certify that their mo, 
 ther was insane. But these noble sons have too much moral rectitude 
 to sell their consciences for clothes or gohl. Instead of being abet- 
 tors in their father's crimes, they have, and do still, maintain a most
 
 88 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 firm stand in defence of me. And for this manly act of filial piety 
 towards me, their father has disinherited both of them, as he has me, 
 from our family rights. 
 
 Another thing, it is no new business for Mr. Packard to practice 
 forgery. This assertion I can prove by his own confession. Not 
 long beforie I was exiled from my home, he said to me one day, " I 
 have just signed a note, which, if brought against me in law, would 
 place me in a penitentiary ; but I think I am safe, as I have fixed it." 
 Again, Mr. Packard sent a great many forged letters to the Superin- 
 tendent of the Asylum, while I was there, professing to come from a 
 different source, wherein the writer urged, very strongly, the neces- 
 sity of keeping me in an asylum, and begging him, most pathetically, 
 to keep me there, not only for Mr. Packard's sake, but also for his 
 children's sake, and community's sake, and, lastly, for the cause of 
 Christ's sake ! Dr. McFarland used to come to me for an explana- 
 tion of this singular phenomenon. I would promptly tell him the 
 letters are a forgery the very face of them so speaks for who 
 would think of a minister in Ohio writing, self-moved, to a Superin- 
 tendent in Illinois, begging of him to keep another man's wife in his 
 Asylum ! Either these letters were exact copies of Mr. Packard's, 
 with the exception of the signature, or, they were entirely drafted 
 from Mr. Packard's statement, and made so as to be an echo of Mr 
 Packard's wishes, but seeming to be a self-moved act of the writer's 
 own mind and wishes. 
 
 O, how fruitful is a depraved heart in devising lies, and masking 
 them with the semblance of truth ! and how many lies it takes to de- 
 fend one ! The lie he was thus trying to defend was, that I was in- 
 sane, when I was not, and all this gigantic frame work of certificates 
 and testimony became necessary as props to sustain it. 
 
 I now give the testimony of my lawyer, who, after witnessing the 
 revelations of the court room, thus alludes to this subject in his reply 
 to Dr. McFarland's letter. " The certificates produced, fully attest- 
 ing her insanity, before she was admitted, I suspect were forgeries of 
 the pious Packard, altered to suit the occasion, and your too gener- 
 ous disposition to rely upon the statements made to you, was taken 
 advantage of again, and they were imposed upon you, without the 
 critical examination their importance demanded."
 
 FALSE REPORTS C3RRECTED. 89 
 
 FOURTH REPORT. 
 
 " Mrs. Packard is alienated from her kindred, and even her own 
 father and husband." 
 
 I will confess I am alienated from such manifestations of love as 
 they showed me while in the Asylum ; that is, from none at all. Not 
 one, except my adopted sister, and my two sons at Chicago, ever 
 made an attempt to visit me, or even wrote me scarcely one line. I 
 do say, this was rather cold sympathy for one passing through such 
 scenes as I was called to pass through. This fact was not only an 
 enigma to myself, but it was so to all my Asylum friends, and even 
 to the Doctor himself, if I can believe his own words. He would 
 often say to me, " Mrs. Packard, who are your friends ? have you 
 any in the wide world ? If so, why do they not look after you ?" 
 
 I used at first to say, I have many friends, and no enemies, except 
 Mr. Packard, that I know of in the whole world. All my relatives 
 love me tenderly. But after watching in vain for three years of 
 prison life for them to show me some proof of it, I changed my song, 
 and owned up, I had no friends worth the name ; for my adversity 
 had tried or tested their love, and it had all been found wanting 
 entirely wanting. So it looked to me from that stand point. And I 
 still insist upon it, this was a sane conclusion. For what is that love 
 worth, that can't defend its friend in adversity ? I say it is not worth 
 the name of love. 
 
 But it must be remembered, I saw then only one side of the pic- 
 ture. The other side I could not see until I saw my friends, and 
 looked from their standpoint. Then I found that the many letters 1 
 had written had never reached them ; for Mr. Packard had instructed 
 Dr. McFarland, and had insisted upon it, that not a single letter should 
 be sent to any of my friends, not even my father, or sons, without 
 reading it himself, and then sending it to him to read, before sending 
 it ; and so he must do with all the letters sent to me ; and the result 
 was, scarcely none were delivered to me, nor were mine sent to my 
 friends. But instead of this, a brisk correspondence was kept up 
 between Dr. McFarland and Mr. Packard, who both agreed in repre- 
 senting me as very insane ; so much so, that my good demanded that 
 I be kept entirely aloof from their sympathy. I have seen and read 
 these letters, and now, instead of blaming my friends for regarding 
 me as insane, I don't see how they could have come to any other con- 
 clusion. From their standpoint, they acted judiciously, and kindly.
 
 90 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 They were anxious to aid the afflicted minister to the extent they 
 could, in restoring reason to his poor afflicted, maniac wife, and they 
 thought the Superintendent understood his business, and with him, 
 and her kind husband to superintend, they considered I must be well 
 cared for. 
 
 And again, how could they imagine, that a man would wish to have 
 the reputation of having an insane wife, when he had not? And 
 could the good and kind Mr. Packard neglect even his poor afflicted 
 wife ? No^ she must be in good hands, under the best of care, and it 
 is her husband on whom we must lavish our warmest, tenderest, sym- 
 pathies ! Yes, so it was ; Mr. Packard managed so as to get all the 
 sympathy, and his wife none at all. He got all the money, and she 
 not a cent. He got abundant tokens of regard, and she none at all. 
 In short, he had buried me in a living tomb, with his own hands, and 
 he meant there should be no resurrection. And the statement that I 
 was alienated from my friends when I was entered, is utterly false. 
 No one ever loved their kindred or friends with a warmer or a purer 
 love than I ever loved mine. 
 
 Neither was I alienated even from Mr. Packard, when he entered 
 me. As proof of this, I will describe my feelings as indicated by my 
 conduct, at the time he forced me from my dear ones at home. After 
 the physicians had examined me as described in my Introduction, and 
 Mr. Packard had ordered me to dress for a ride to the Asylum, I 
 asked the privilege of having my room vacated, so that I might bathe 
 myself, as usual, before dressing ; intending myself to then secure 
 about my person, secretly, my Bible-class documents, as all that I had 
 said in defence of my opinions was in writing, never having trusted 
 myself to an extemporaneous discussion of my new ideas, lest I be 
 misrepresented. And I then felt that these documents, alone, were 
 my only defence, being denied all and every form of justice, by any 
 trial. I therefore resorted ta this innocent stratagem, as it seemed to 
 me, 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, giving as his only reason, that he 
 did not think it best to leave me alone. He doubtless had the same 
 documents in view, 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, as directed by
 
 FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED. ( J'l 
 
 him so to do, as I believed. I resolved upon one more strategem 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 
 kidnapped, I asked to see my dear little .ones, to bestow upon them 
 my parting kiss. But was denied this favor also ! 
 
 " Then," said I, " can I bear such trials as these without God's 
 help? And is not this help given us in answer to our own prayers? 
 May I not be allowed, husband, to ask this favor of God alone in my 
 room, before being thus exiled from it ? " 
 
 " No," said he, " I don't think it is best to let you be alone in your 
 room." 
 
 "0, husband," said I, "you have allowed me no chance for 
 my secret devotions this morning, can't I be allowed this one last 
 request ? " 
 
 " No ; I think it is not best ; but you may pray with your door 
 open." 
 
 I then kneeled down in my room, with my bonnet and shawl on, 
 and in the presence and hearing of the sheriff, and the conspiracy I 
 offered up my petition, in an audible voice, wherein I laid my bur- 
 dens frankly, fully, before my sympathizing Saviour, as I would have 
 done in secret. And this Miss Rumsey reports, that the burden of 
 this prayer was for Mr. Packard's forgiveness. She says, I first told 
 God what a great crime Mr. Packard was committing in treating his 
 wife as he was doing, and what great guilt he was thus treasuring up 
 to himself, by this cruel and unjust treatment of the woman he had 
 sworn before God to protect; and what an awful doom he must surely 
 meet with, under the government of a just God, for these his great 
 sins against me, and so forth ; and then added, that if it was possible 
 for God to allow me to bear his punishment for him, that he would 
 allow me so to do, if in that way, his soul might be redeemed from 
 the curse which must now rest upon it. In short, the burden of my 
 prayer was, that I might be his redeemer, if my sufferings could in 
 any possible way atone for his sins. Such a petition was, of course 
 looked upon by this conspiracy, as evidence of my insanity, and has 
 been used by them, as such. But I cannot but feel that in God's 
 sight, it was regarded as an echo of Christ's dying prayer for his 
 murderers, prompted by the same spirit of gospel forgiveness of ene- 
 mies. In fact, if I know anything of my own heart, I do know that 
 it then cherished not a single feeling of resentment towards him.
 
 92 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 But my soul was burdened by a sense of his great guilt, and only 
 desired his pardon and forgiveness. 
 
 As another proof of this assertion, I will describe our parting inter- 
 view at the Asylum. He had stayed two nights at the Asylum, 
 occupying the stately guest chamber and bed alone, while I was being 
 locked up in my narrow cell, on my narrow single bed, with the 
 howling maniacs around for my serenaders. He sat at the sumptu- 
 ous table of the Superintendent, sharing in all its costly viands and 
 dainties, and entertained by its refined guests, for his company and 
 companions. While I, his companion, ever accustomed to the most 
 polished and best society, was sitting at our long table, furnished with 
 nothing but bread and meat ; and my companions, some of them, 
 gibbering maniacs, Avhose presence and society must be purchased 
 only at the risk of life or physicaHnjury. He could walk about the 
 city at his pleasure, or be escorted in the sumptuous carriage, while I 
 could only circumambulate the Asylum yard, under the vigilant eye 
 of my keeper. O, it did seem, these two days and nights, as though 
 my affectionate heart would break with my over much sorrow. No 
 sweet darling babe to hug to my heart's embrace no child arms to 
 encircle my neck and bestow on my cheek its hearty " good night " 
 kiss. No nothing, nothing, in my surroundings, to cheer and soothe 
 my tempest tossed soul. 
 
 In this sorrowful state of mind Mr. Packard found me in my cell, 
 and asked me if I should not like an interview with him, in the par- 
 lor, as he was about to leave me soon. 
 
 " Yes," said I, " I should be very glad of one," and taking his arm, 
 I walked out of the hall. As I passed on, one of the attendants re- 
 marked : " See, she is not alienated from her husband, see how kindly 
 she takes his arm ! " When we reached the parlor, I seated myself 
 by his side, on the sofa, and gave full vent to my long pent up emo- 
 tions and feelings. 
 
 " O, husband ! " said I, " how can you leave me in such a place ? 
 It seems as though I cannot bear it. And my darling babe ! O, what 
 will become of him ! How can he live without his mother ! And how 
 can I live without my babe, and my children ! O, do, do, I beg of 
 you, take me home. You know I have always been a true and 
 loving wife to you, and how can you treat me so? " My entreaties and 
 prayers were accompanied with my tears, which is a very uncommon 
 manifestation with me ; and while I talked, I arose from my seat and 
 walked the room, with my handkerchief to my eyes ; for it seemed
 
 FALSE REPOHTS CORRECTED. 93 
 
 as if my heart would break. Getting no response whatever from 
 him, I took down my hand to see why he did not speak to me 
 when what did I see ! my husband sound asleep, nodding his 
 head ! 
 
 " O, husband ! " said I, " can you sleep while your wife is in such 
 agony ? " 
 
 Said he, " I can't keep awake ;-I have been broke of my rest." 
 
 " I see," said I, " there is no use in trying to move your feelings, 
 we may as well say our 'good bye' now as ever." And as I be- 
 stowed upon him the parting kiss, I said, " May our next meeting be 
 in the spirit land! And if there you find yourself in a sphere of lower 
 development than myself; and you have any desire to rise to a higher 
 plane, remember, there is one spirit in the universe, who will leave 
 any height of enjoyment, and descend to any depth of misery, to 
 raise you to a higher plane of happiness, if it is possible so to do. 
 And that spirit is the spirit of your Elizabeth. Farewell ! husband, 
 forever ! ! " 
 
 This is the exact picture. Now see what use he makes of it. In 
 his letter to my father, he says : "She did not like to be left. I 
 pitied her." (Pitied her ! How was his sympathy manifested ?) " It 
 was an affecting scene. But she was very mad at me, and tried to 
 wound my feelings every way. She would send no word to the 
 children, and would not pleasantly bid me good bye." Pleasantly 
 was underlined, to make it appear, that, because I did not pleasantly 
 bid him good bye, under these circumstances, I felt hard towards 
 him, and this was a proof of my alienation, and is as strong a one 
 as it is possible for him to bring in support of his charge. 
 
 Let the tender hearted mother draw her own inferences man 
 cannot know what I then suffered. And may a kind God grant, 
 that no other mother may ever know what I then felt, in her own 
 sad experience! 
 
 The truth is, I never was alienated from my husband, until he 
 gave ma just cause for this alienation, and not until he put me into 
 the A-ylum, and then it took four long months more, of the most 
 intense spiritual torture, to develop in rny loving, forgiving heart, one 
 feeling of hate towards him. As proof of this, I will here insert two 
 letters 1 wrote him several weeks after ray incarceration.
 
 94 MAIUTAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 COPY OF THE LETTER. 
 Jacksonville, JaJy \th, 1860, Sal>baf.h, P. M. 
 MY DEAR CHILDREN AND HUSBAND: 
 
 Your letter of July eleventh arrived yesterday. It was the third 
 I have received from home, and, indeed, is all I have received 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 
 monotony 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 with me. 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 mes- 
 senger 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, 
 
 ! 'tis hard 'tis very hard. O, may you never know what it is to, 
 be numbered with the insane, within the walls of an insane asylum, 
 not knowing as your friends will ever regard you as a fit companion 
 or associate for them again, outside its walls. 
 
 O, the bitter, bitter cup, I have been called to drink, even to its 
 very dreg*, just because I choose to obey God rather than man ! But, 
 as my Saviour said, " the cup which my Father hath given me, shall 
 
 1 not drink it ? O, yes, for thy sake, kind Saviour, I rejoice, that I 
 am counted worthy to suffer the loss of all things, for thy sake. And 
 thou hast made me worthy, by thine own free and sovereign grace. 
 Yes, dear Jesus, I believe that I have learned the lesson thou hast 
 thus taught 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 ber- 
 ries are upon my own dear table at home, and I not allowed to taste, 
 because my husband counts me unworthy, or unfit, or unsafe, to be an 
 inmate at his fireside and table. I eat, and retire, and pray God to 
 keep me from complaining. My fare does not agree with my health,
 
 FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED. 9o 
 
 and so I have begged of our kind attendants, to furnish me some 
 poor, shriveled wheat, to keep in my room, to eat raw, to keep my 
 bowels open. 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 tor our health and comfort, I only 
 must be deprived of them at my husband's appointment. The past, 
 O, the sad past ! together with the present, and the unknown future. 
 O, 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. 
 
 O, my dear precious children ! how I pity you ! My heart aches 
 for you. But I can do nothing for you. I am your lather's victim, 
 and cannot escape from my prison to help you, even you my own 
 flesh and blood my heart's treasures, 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 disgrace she has 
 brought upon your fair names, by being stigmatised as the children 
 of an insane mother, whom your father said he regarded as unsafe, 
 as an inmate of your own quiet home, and, therefore, has confined 
 me within these awful enclosures. 
 
 O, may you never know what it is to go to sleep within the hear- 
 ing 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 " ?o he giveth 
 his beloved sleep." O, 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." 
 
 O, 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. I have nothing to live for now, but to serve you, 
 as I know of. But you can get along without me, can't you? Pa 
 will take care of you. Do be kind to him, and make him as happy
 
 96 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 as possible. 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 com- 
 plaints, for I am so much better off than many others here. 
 
 Do bring my poor lifeless body home when my spirit, which 
 troubled your father so much, has 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. 
 
 O, 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 para- 
 dise here now, compared with what it was before I came. The 
 authorities assure me, that I am doing a great work here, 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 confident, 
 their counsellor, their bosom friend. O, 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 cannot 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
 
 FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED. 97 
 
 are not insane. Did you 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 hus- 
 band. 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 lov- 
 ing wife, ELIZABETH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM ANOTHER LETTER. 
 MY DEAR HUSBAND. 
 
 I thank you kindly for writing me, and thus relieving my burdened 
 heart, by assuring me that my dear children are alive and well. I 
 have foeen 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 Savior, 
 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 hon- 
 esty, " The will of the Lord be done." I can still by his 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, 
 
 Tlirough all events of things as well as He." 
 
 O, the consolation the tempest tossed spirit feels in the thought that 
 our Father is at the helm, and that no real harm can befall ua 
 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 boen to me the gate to Heaven. * * * 
 
 By Dr. McFarland's leave, I have established family worship 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,
 
 98 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 as long as I usually do at our own family altar. I also implore the 
 blessing of God at the table at every meal, while twenty-nine mani- 
 acs, 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. " Nevertheless, 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 wronged 
 you, or needlessly injured your feelings, and believe me yours, 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 P. S. Tell the dear children to trust God, by doing right. 
 
 I now do frankly own, I am fully alienated from him, in his pres- 
 ent detestable character, as developed towards me, his lawful wife. 
 And I claim that it is not' consistent with the laws of God's moral 
 government, for a fully sane being to feel otherwise. 
 
 But it is not so with my kindred, and other friends. I am not 
 alienated from them, for I have had no just and adequate cause for 
 alienation. They erred ignorantly, not willfully. They were willing 
 to know the truth ; they were convicted, and are now converted to the 
 truth. They have confessed their sin against me in thus neglecting 
 me, and have asked my forgiveness. I have most freely forgiven 
 them, and such penitents are fully restored to my full fellowship and 
 confidence. To pro^e they are penitent, one confession will serve as 
 a fair representation of the whole. I give it in the writer's own 
 words, verbatim, from the letter now before me. "We are all glad 
 you have been to visit us, and we regret we have not tried to do 
 more for you, in times past. I am grieved that you have been left to 
 suffer so much alone had we known, I think something would have 
 been done for you. Forgive us, won't you, for our cruel neglect?" 
 Yes, I do rejoice to forgive them, for Christ allows me to forgive the 
 penitent transgressor. But he does not allow me to do better than 
 he does to forgive the impenitent transgressor. And I do not ; but 
 as I have before said. I stand ready with my forgiveness in my hear* 
 to ektend it to him, most freely, on this gospel condition of repeat 
 ance practical repentance.
 
 FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED. 99 
 
 FIFTH REPORT. 
 
 " Dr. McFarland, the Superintendent of the Asylum, says she is 
 insane ; and he ought to know" 
 
 Yes, he ought to know. But, in my opinion, Dr. McFarland, does 
 not know a sane from an insane person ; or else, why does he keep so 
 many in that Asylum, as sane as himself? And mine is not the first 
 case a court and jury differed from him in opinion on this subject. 
 He has been so long conversant with the insane, that he has become 
 a perfect monomaniac on insanity and in his treatment of the insane. 
 I never saw such inhumanity, and cruelty, and barbarity, practiced 
 towards the innocent and helpless as he sanctions and allows in that 
 Asylum. I could write a large volume in confirmation of this asser- 
 tion, made up of scenes I myself witnessed, during my three years' 
 incarceration in that terrible place. The material i? all on hand for 
 such a book, since I kept a secret journal of daily events, just as 
 they occurred, so that my memory is not my only laboratory of such 
 truths. And in arranging this matter for a book, I intend to turn 
 Jacksonville Asylum inside out. That is, I shall report that Asylum 
 from the standpoint of a patient, and if this book don't prove my 
 assertion that Dr. McFarland is a monomaniac, I am sure it will 
 prove him to be something worse. But I claim to defend his heart 
 from the charge of villainy, and his intellect from imbecility, for I 
 have often said of him, " Dr. McFarland is the greatest man I ever 
 saw, and he would be the best if he wasn't so bad ! " 
 
 But this is not the place to make a defence for Dr. McFarland. 
 Let him stand where his own actions put him, for that is the only 
 proper place for either superintendent or patient to stand upon. But 
 I will own, God made him fit for one of his great resplendent lumi- 
 naries ; but Satan has marred this noble orb, so that now it has some 
 very dark spots on its disk, such as his patients can behold with- 
 out the aid of a telescope ! Yes, as a general thing, his patients 
 are not allowed to behold anything else but these dark spots, while 
 the public are allowed to see nothing except the splendors of this 
 luminary. And when my telescopic book is in print, the public may 
 look, or not look, at the scenes behind the curtain, just as they please. 
 The exact scenes are now fully daguerreotyped on my brain and heart 
 both, as well as on my manuscript journal. In this volume I am only 
 allowed to report what relates to myself alone. Therefore I haVe but 
 little to say ; for as it respects his treatment of me, individually, I
 
 103 MAK1TAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 regard him as a practical penitent, and on this basis, I have really 
 forgiven him. And God only knows what a multitude of sins this 
 man's repentance has covered! And my Christianity forbids my ex- 
 posing the sins of a practical penitent, after having practicalb' for- 
 given him. 
 
 As proof of his penitence, I bring this fact, that it was under his 
 superintendence, and by his consent alone, that I was permitted to 
 spend the last nine mouths of my prison life in writing " The Great 
 Drama." This book was commenced as an act of self-Jefence from 
 the charge of insanity, and this man was the first person in America 
 that ever before allowed me any right of self-defence. And this act 
 of practical manliness on his part, awakened, as its response, my full 
 and hearty forgiveness of all the wrongs he had hitherto heaped upon 
 me ; and these wrongs had not been " like angels visits, few and far 
 between." But I had, in reality, much to forgive. At least, so 
 thought my personal friends at the Asylum, if their words echoed 
 their real feelings. Their feelings on this subject were not unfre- 
 quently uttered in very strong language like the following : " If Mrs. 
 Packard can forgive Dr. McFarland all the wrongs and abuses he 
 has heaped upon her she must be more than human." And I now 
 have before me a letter from one who had been for several years an 
 officer in that institution, from which I will make an extract, as it 
 corroborates this point. She says, " How the mind wanders back to 
 those dark hours. O, that hated letter ! once presented you by a 
 
 , who delighted to torture those he could not subdue. Our 
 
 hearts did pity you, Mrs. Packard. Mrs. Tenny,(now the wife of the 
 then assistant physician, but my attendant at the time referred to,) 
 and myself often said, everything was done that could be, to annihi- 
 late and dethrone your reason. Poor child! They had all fled 
 none to watch one hour ! All I have to" say is, if there can be found 
 man or woman who could endure what you did in that three years, 
 and not become a raving maniac, they should be canonized." 
 
 Yes, God, God alone, saved me from the awful vortex Mr. Pack- 
 ard and Dr. McFarland had prepared for me the vortex of ob- 
 livion God has delivered me from them who were stronger than I, 
 and to his cause, the cause of oppressed humanity, for which I there 
 suffered so much in its defence, I do now consecrate my spared in- 
 tellect, and reason, and moral power. 
 
 Tin's " Great Drama," written there, is my great battery, which, 
 hi God's providence, I hope sometime to get rich enough to publish;
 
 FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED. 101 
 
 and it is to the magnanimity of Dr. McFarland alone, under God, 
 that m;> thanks are due, for letting me write this book. He dictated 
 none o it. He allowed me perfect spiritual liberty, in penning this 
 voluminous literary production of seven hundred pages ; and if ever 
 there was a book written wholly untrammelled by human dictation, 
 this is the book. But. as I said, his magnanimity, even at the elev- 
 enth hour, has, so far as I am concerned, secured my forgiveness. 
 
 But he has been, and I fear still is, a great sinner against others, 
 also ; for, as I have often said, it is my candid opinion, that there 
 were fifty in that house, as patients, who have no more right to be 
 there than the Doctor himself. Judging them from their own actions 
 and words, there is no more evidence of insanity in them, than in Dr. 
 McFarland's words and actions. He certainly has no scruples about 
 keeping perfectly sane persons as patients. At first, this was to me 
 an enigma I could not possible solve. But now I can, on the suppo- 
 sition that he don't know a sane from an insane person, because he 
 has become a monomaniac on this subject, just as Mr. Packard has 
 on the woman question. The Doctor's insane dogmas are, first : all 
 people are insane on some points ; second : insane persons have no 
 rights that others are bound to respect 
 
 He has never refused any one's application on the ground of their 
 not being insane, to my knowledge, but he has admitted many whom 
 he admitted were not near as insane as the friends who brought them 
 were. He can see insanity in any one where it will be for his in- 
 terest to see it. And let him put any one through the insane treat- 
 ment he subjects his patients to, and they are almost certain to mani- 
 fest some resentment, before the process is complete. And this nat- 
 ural resentment which his process evokes, is what he calls their in- 
 sanity, or rather evidence of it. I saw the operation of his nefarious 
 system before I had been there long, and I determined to stand proof 
 against it, by restraining all manifestations of my resentful feelings, 
 which his insults to me were designed to develop. And this is his 
 grand failure in my case. He has no capital to make out his charge 
 upon, so far as my own actions are concerned. No one ever saw me 
 exhibit the least angry, resentful feelings. I say that to God's grace 
 alone is this result due. I maintain, his treatment of his patients is 
 barbarous and criminal in many cases ; therefore he shows insanity 
 in his conduct towards them. 
 
 Again, he does not always tell the truth about his patients, nor to 
 his patients. And this is another evidence of his insanity. I do say,
 
 11)2 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 Iving is insanity ; and if I can ever be proved to be a liar, by my 
 own words or actions, I do insist upon it I merit the charge put upon 
 me of monomania, or insanity. But, speaking the truth, and nothing 
 but the truth, is not lying, even if people do not believe my asser- 
 tions. For the truth will stand without testimony, and in spite of all 
 contradiction. And when one has once been proved to have lied, 
 they have no claims on us to be believed, when they do speak the 
 truth. Were I called to prove my assertion that the Doctor misrep- 
 resents, I could do so, by his own letters to my husband, and my 
 father, now in my possession, and by letters Mr. Field had from him 
 while I was in the Asylum. For example, why did he write to Mr. 
 Field that I " was a dangerous patient, not safe to live in any private 
 family," and then refuse to answer direct questions calling for evi- 
 dence in proof on this point, and give as his reason, that he did not 
 deem it his duty to answer impertinent questions about his patients ? 
 Simply because the assertion was a lie, and had nothing.to support or 
 defend it, in facts, as they existed. These letters abound in misrep- 
 resentations and falsehoods respecting me, and it is no wonder my 
 friends regarded me as insane, on these representations from the Su- 
 perintendent of a State Asylum. 
 
 I have every reason to think Dr. McFarland believes, in his heart, 
 that I am entirely sane ; but policy and self-interest has prompted 
 him to deny it in words, hoping thus to destroy the influence of the 
 sad truths I utter respecting the character of that institution. A very 
 intelligent employee in that institution, and one who had, by her posi- 
 tion, peculiar advantages for knowing the real state of feeling towards 
 me in that institution, once said to me, " 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, whatever he may choose to say upon the subject." 
 
 One thing is certain, his actions contradict his words, in this mat- 
 ter. Would an insane person be employed by him to carry his pa- 
 tients to ride, and drive the team with a whole load of crazy women, 
 with no one to help take care of them and the team but herself? 
 And yet Dr. McFarland employed me to do this very thing fourteen 
 times ; and I always came back safely with them, and never abused 
 my liberty, by dropping a letter into the post-office, or any thing of the 
 kind, and never abused the confidence reposed in me in any manner. 
 
 Would he give a crazy woman money to go to the city, and make 
 purchases for herself? And yet he did so by me. Would a crazy
 
 , FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED. 103 
 
 woman be employed to make purchases for the house, and use as a 
 reason for employing her, that her judgment was superior to any in 
 the house ? And yet this is true of me. Would a crazy woman be 
 employed to cut, fit and make his wife's and daughter's best dresses, 
 instead of a dressmaker, because she could do them better, in their 
 opinion, than any dressmaker they could employ ? And yet I was 
 thus employed for several weeks, and for this reason. And would 
 his wife have had her tailoress consult my judgment, before cutting 
 her boy's clothes, and give as her reason, that she preferred my 
 judgment and planning before her own, if I was an insane person ? 
 And yet she did. 
 
 Would the officials send their employees to me for help, in execut- 
 ing orders which exceeded the capacity of their own judgment to per- 
 form, if they considered my reason and judgment as impaired by 
 insanity ? And yet this was often the case. Would the remark be 
 often made by the employees in that institution, that " Mrs. Packard 
 was better fitted to be the matron of the institution than any one 
 under that roof," if I had been treated and regarded as an insane 
 person by the officials ? And yet this remark was common there. 
 
 No. Dr. McFarland did not treat me as an insane person, until I 
 had been*there four months, when he suddenly changed his pro- 
 gramme entirely, by treating me like an insane person, and ordering 
 the employees to do so to, which order he could never enforce, ex- 
 cept in one single instance, and this attendant soon after became a 
 lunatic and a tenant of the poor house. My attendants said they 
 should not treat me as they did the other patients, if the Doctor did 
 order it. 
 
 The reason for this change in the Doctor's treatment, was not 
 because of any change in my conduct or deportment in any respect, 
 but because I offended him, by a reproof I gave him for his abuse of 
 his patients, accompanied by the threat to expose him unless he 
 repented. I gave this reproof in writing, and retained a copy my- 
 self, by hiding it behind my mirror, between it and the board-back. 
 Several thousand copies of which are now in circulation. After this event, 
 I was closeted among the maniacs, and did not step my foot upon the 
 ground again, until I was discharged, two years and eight months 
 afterwards. When he transferred me from the best ward to the 
 worst ward, he ordered my attendants to treat me just as they did 
 their other patients, except to not let me go out of the ward; 
 although all the others could go to ride and walk, except myself.
 
 104 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 Had I not known how to practice the laws of health, this clo*e con- 
 finement would doubtless have been fatal to my good health and 
 strong nerves. But as it was, both are still retained in full vigor. 
 
 My correspondence was henceforth put under the strictest censor- 
 ship, and but few of my letters ever went farther than the Doctor's 
 office, and most of the letters sent to me never came nearer me than 
 his office. When I became satisfied of this, I stopped writing at all 
 to any one, until I got an " Under Ground Express " established, 
 through which my mail passed out, but not in. 
 
 One incident I will here mention to show how strictly and vigi- 
 lantly my correspondence with the world was watched. There was 
 a patient in my ward to be discharged ere long, to go to her home 
 near Manteno, and she offered to take anything to my children, if I 
 chose to send anything by her. Confident I could not get a letter 
 out through her, without being detected, I made my daughter some 
 under waists, and embroidered them, for a present to her from her 
 mother. On the inside of these bleached cotton double waists, I pen- 
 cilled a note to her, for her and my own solace and comfort. I then 
 gave these into the hands of this patient, and she took them and put 
 them into her bosom saying, " The Doctor shall never see these." 
 But just as she was leaving the house, the Doctor asked her, if she 
 had any letter from Mrs. Packard to her children with her? She 
 said she had not. 
 
 He then asked her, " Have you had anything from Mrs. Packard 
 with you ? " 
 
 She said, " I have two embroidered waists, which Mrs. Packard 
 wished me to carry to her daughter, as a present 'from her mother ; 
 but nothing else." 
 
 " Let me see those waists," said he. 
 
 She took them from her bosom and handed them to him. He saw 
 the penciling. He read it, and ordered the waists to the laundry to 
 be washed before sending them, so that no heart communications 
 from the mother to the child, could go with them. I believe he sent 
 them afterwards by Dr. Eddy. 
 
 In regard to Dr. McFarland's individual guilt in relation to his 
 treatment of me, justice to myself requires me to add, that I cherish 
 no feelings of resentment towards him, and the worst wish my heart 
 dictates towards him is, that he may repent, and become the " Model 
 Man " his nobly developed capacities have fitted him to become ; for
 
 FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED 103 
 
 he is, as I have said, the greatest man I ever saw, and he would be 
 the best if he wasn't so bad ! 
 
 And the despotic treatment his patients receive undr his govern- 
 ment, is only the natural result of one of the fundamental laws of hu- 
 man nature, in its present undeveloped state ; which is, that the his- 
 tory of our race for six thousand years demonstrates the fact, that 
 absolute, unlimited power always tends towards despotism or an 
 usurpation and abuse of other's rights. Dr. McFarland has, in a 
 practical sense, a sovereignty delegated to him, by the insane laws, 
 almost as absolute as the marital power, which the law delegates to 
 the husband. All of the inalienable rights of his patients are as 
 completely subject to his 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 is which licenses this deleterious element. No Republican 
 government ought to permit an absolute monarchy to be established 
 under its jurisdiction. And wtiere 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 government 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 orig- 
 inally designed and established, as humane institutions, and for a 
 very humane and benevolent purpose ; but, on their present basis, 
 they really cover and shield many wrongs, which ought to be ex- 
 posed and redressed. It is the evils which cluster about these insti- 
 tutions, 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 raided with the alloy; therefore, in destroying the alloy, great 
 care should be used not to tarnish or destroy the fine gold with it. 
 As my case demonstrates, they are now sometimes used for inquisi- 
 tional purposes, which certainly is a great perversion of their original 
 intent.
 
 106 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 SIXTH REPORT. 
 
 " Mrs. Packard's statements are- incredible. And she uses such 
 strong language in giving them expression, as demonstrates her still 
 to be an in=ane woman." 
 
 I acknowledge the fact, that truth is stranger than fiction ; and I 
 also assert, that it is my candid opinion, that strong language is the 
 only appropriate drapery some truths can be clothed in. For exam- 
 ple, the only appropriate drapery to clothe a lie in, is the strong lan- 
 guage 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 dra- 
 pery is, insane acts ; and an usurpation of human rights and an 
 abuse of power over the defenceless, is appropriately clothed by the 
 term, Despotism. And one who defends his creed or party by im- 
 proper 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 Intol- 
 erant towards him ; and this is an appropriate word to use in describ- 
 ing such manifestations. 
 
 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, without 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 minority, who will resist this solid basis even who would not 
 believe the truth should Christ himself be its medium of utterance 
 and defence. But shall I on this account withold the truth, lest such 
 cavilers reject it, and trample it Under foot, and then turn and 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 shall 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 inappropri-
 
 NOTE OF THANKS. 107 
 
 ate 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 be- 
 cause he uttered truths which conflicted with the established religion 
 
 O 
 
 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. And it 
 is my opinion that bigotry is the most implacable, unreasonable, un- 
 merciful feeling that can possess the human soul. And it is my fer- 
 vent prayer that the eyes of this government may be opened to see, 
 that the laws do not now protect or shield any 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. 
 
 NOTE OF THANKS TO MY PATRONS. 
 
 I deem it appropriate in this connection, to express the gratitude I 
 feel for the kind, practical sympathy, and liberal patronage, which 
 has been extended to me by the public, through the sale of my 
 books. Had it not been for your generous patronage, my kind pat- 
 rons, I, and the noble cause I represent, would have been crushed to 
 the earth, so far as my influence was concerned. For with" no law to 
 shield me, and with no " greenbacks " to defend myself with, what 
 could I have done to escape another imprisonment, either in some 
 asylum or poor house ? 
 
 It has been, and still is, the verdict of public sentiment, which the 
 circulation of these "books has developed, that has hitherto shielded me 
 from a second kidnapping. And this protection you have kindly 
 secured to me by buying my books. I would willingly have given 
 my books a gratuitous circulation to obtain this protection, if I could 
 possibly have done so. But where could the $3000.00 I have paid 
 out for the expense of printing and circulating these books have been 
 obtained ? No one could advance me money safely, so long as I was 
 Mr. Packard's lawful wife, and I could not even get a divorce, with- 
 out the means for prosecuting the suit. Indeed, it was your patron- 
 age alone, which could effectually help me on to a self-reliant plat- 
 form the platform of " greenback independence."
 
 108 MAK1TAL POTVER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 I have never made any appeal to the charities of the public, neither 
 can I do so, from principle. For so long as I retain as good health 
 as it is my blessed privilege still to enjoy, I feel conscientiously bound 
 to work for my living, instead of living on the toil of olhers.. My 
 strong and vigorous health is the only capital that I can call my own. 
 All my other natural, inalienable rights, are entirely in the hands 
 of my persecutor, and subject to his control. But while this capital 
 holds good, I am not a suitable object of charity. I am prosecuting 
 business on business principles, and I am subject to the same laws 
 of success or failure as other business persons are. I intend, and 
 hope to make my business lucrative and profitable, as well as phi- 
 lanthropic and benevolent. 
 
 I maintain that I have no claims upon the charities of the public 
 while at the same time I maintain that I have a claim upon the sym- 
 pathies of our government. It is our government, the man govern- 
 ment of America, who have placed me in my deplorable condition ; 
 for I am just where their own laws place me, and render all other 
 married women liable to be placed in the same position. It is the 
 " Common Law " which our government took from English laws 
 which makes a nonentity of a married woman, whose existence is 
 wholly subject to another, and whose identity is only recognized 
 through another. In short, the wife is dead, while her husband 
 lives, as to any legal existence. And where the Common Law is 
 not modified, or set aside by the Statute Laws, this worst form 
 of English despotism is copied as a model law for our American 
 people ! 
 
 Yes, I feel that I have a just claim upon the sympathies of our 
 government. Therefore, in selling my books, I have almost entirely 
 confined my application to the men, not the women, for the men 
 alone constitute the American government. And my patrons have 
 responded to my claims upon their sympathy, in a most generous, 
 and praiseworthy manner. Yea, so almost universally have I met 
 with the sympathy of those gentlemen that I have freely conversed 
 with on this subjec-t, that I cherish the firm conviction, that our whole 
 enlightened government would " en masse," espouse the principles I 
 defend, and grant all, and even more than I ask for married woman, 
 could they but see the subject in the light those now do, whom I have 
 conversed with on this subject. I am fully satisfied that all that our 
 manly government needs to induce them to change this " Common 
 Law" in relation to woman is, only to know what this law is, and
 
 NOTE OF THANKS. 109 
 
 how cruelly it subjects the women in its practical application. For 
 man is made, and constituted by God himself, to be the protector 
 of woman. And when he is true to this his God given nature, he is 
 her protector. And all true men who have not perverted or de- 
 praved their God-like natures, will, arid do, as instinctively protect 
 their own wives, as they do themselves. And the wives of such men 
 do not need any other law, than this law of manliness, to protect them 
 or their interests. 
 
 But taking the human race as they now are, we find sorr.e excep- 
 tions to this general rule. And it is for these exceptions that the law 
 is needed, and not for the great masses. Just as the laws against 
 crimes are made for the criminals, not for the masses of society, for 
 they do not need them ; they are a law unto themselves, having their 
 own consciences for their Judges and Jurors. I see no ca.ulid, just 
 reason why usurpation, and injustice, and oppression, should not be 
 legislated against, in this form, as well as any other. Developed, re- 
 fined, sensitive woman, is as capable of feeling wrongs as any other 
 human being. And why should she not be legally protected from 
 them as well as a man ? My confidence in this God-like principle 
 of manliness is almost unbounded. Therefore I feel that a hint is 
 all that is needed, to arouse this latent principle of our government 
 into prompt and efficient action, that of extending legal protection to 
 subjected married woman. 
 
 There is one word I will here say to my patrons, who have the 
 first in.-tallment of my " Great Drama " in their possession, that you 
 have doubtless found many things in that book which you cannot now 
 understand, and are therefore liable to misinterpret and misappre- 
 hend my real meaning. I therefore beg of you not to judge' me 
 harshly at present, but please suspend your judgment until this alle- 
 gory is published entire, and then you will be better prepared to pass 
 judgm. >nt upon it. Supposing Bunyan's allegory of his Christian pil- 
 grim had isolated parts of it published, separate from the whole, and 
 we know no:hing about the rest, should we not be liable to misinter- 
 pret his real moaning ? 
 
 Another thing, I ask you to bear in mind, this book was wr'tten 
 when my mind was at its culminating point of spiritual or ia< -nlal tor- 
 ture, as it were, and this may serve in your mind as an excusr, for 
 what nvay seem to you, as extravagant expressions; while tome, they 
 were only the simple truth as I experienced it. No one can judge 
 of these feelings correctly, until they have been in my exact place
 
 110 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 and position ; and since this is an impossibility, you have a noble op- 
 portunity for the exercise of that charity towards me which you would 
 like to have extended to yourselves in exchange of situations. 
 
 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 spir- 
 itual or mental agony, has a right to express his feelings in language 
 corresponding to his condition, and we have no right to call him in- 
 sane for doing so. - <. " 
 
 Upon a calm and candid review of these scenes, from my present 
 standpoint, I do maintain that the indignant feelings which I still 
 cherish towards Mr. Packard, and did cherish towards Dr. McFar- 
 land, tor their treatment of me, were not only natural, sane feelings, 
 but also were Christian feelings. For Christ taught us, both by his 
 teachings and example, that we ought to be angry at 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 punish- 
 ment upon them for their sins against me, if they could not be 
 brought to repent without. For my heart has ever yearned to forr 
 give 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 repent- 
 ance. And I say further, that it would have been wrong and sinful 
 for our government to have witheld this expression of their resent- 
 ment towards them, and let them crush it out of existence, without 
 trying to defend itself. I say it did right in defending 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-defence. I have simply defended 
 my own rights.
 
 NOTE OF THANKS. Ill 
 
 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 lan- 
 guage, than it is to accuse me of insanity for doing the fame thing 
 while in my prison. For prison life is terrible under any circum- 
 stances. But to be confined amongst raving maniacs, for years in 
 succession, is horrible in the extreme. For myself, I should not hes- 
 itate one moment which to choose, between a confinement in an 
 insane asylum, as I was, or being burned at the stake. Death, under fl 
 the most aggravated forms of torture, would now be instantly chosen 
 by me, rather than life in an insane asylum. And whoever is dis- 
 posed to call this " strong language," I say, let them try it for them- 
 selves as I did, and then let them say whether the expression 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. 
 
 In this connection it may be gratifying to my patrons and readers 
 both, to tell them how I came to write such a book, instead of an or- 
 dinary book in the common style of language. It was because such 
 a kind of book was presented to my mind, and no other was. It 
 was under these circumstances that this kind of inspiration came 
 upon me. 
 
 The day after my interview with the Trustees, the Doctor came to 
 my room to see what was to be done. His first salutation was 
 " Well, Mrs. Packard, the Trustees seemed to think that you hit 
 your mark with your gun." 
 
 " Did they ? " said I. " And was it that, which caused such roars 
 and roars of laughter from the Trustees' room after I left ? " 
 
 " Yes. Your document amused them highly. Now, Mrs. Pack- 
 ard, I want you to give me a copy of that document, for what is 
 worth hearing once is worth hearing twice." 
 
 " Very well," said I, " I will. And I should like to give the 
 Trustees a copy, and send my father one, and some others of the 
 Calvinistic clergy. But it is so tedious for me to copy anything, how 
 would it do to get a few handbills or tracts printed, and send them 
 where we please ? " 
 
 u You may," was his reply, " and I will pay the printer." 
 
 " Shall I add anything to it ; that is, what I said to the Trustees, 
 and so forth ? " 
 
 " Yes, tell the whole ! "Write what you please ! "
 
 112 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 With this most unexpected license of unrestricted liberty, I com- 
 menced re-writing and preparing a tract for the press. But before 
 twenty-four hours had elapsed since this liberty licence was granted 
 to my hitherto prison-bound intellect, the vision of a big book began 
 to dawn upon my mind, accompanied with the most delightful feel- 
 ings of satisfaction with my undertaking. And the next time the 
 Doctor called, I told him, that it seemed to me that I must write a 
 book a big book and "that is the worst of it," said I, "I don't 
 want a large book, but I don't see how I can cut it down, and do it 
 justice. I want to lay two train of cars," said I, " across this conti- 
 nent the Christian and the Calvinistic. Then I want to sort out all 
 the good and evil found in our family institutions, our Church and 
 S;ate institutions, and our laws, and all other departments of trades 
 and professions, &c., and then come on with my two train of carp, 
 and gather up this scattered freight, putting the evil into the Calvin- 
 istic train, and the good into the Christian train, and then engineer 
 them both on to their respective terminus. These thoughts are all 
 new and original with me, having never thought of srch a tl ing, 
 until this sort of mental vision came before my mind. What shall I 
 do, Doctor?" 
 
 " Write it out just as you see it." 
 
 He then furnished me with paper and gave directions to the attend- 
 ants to let no one disturb me, and let me do just as I pleased. And 
 I commenced writing out this mental vision; and in six week's time 
 I penciled the substance of " The Great Drama," which, when writ- 
 ten 'out for the press, covers two thousand five hundred pages ! Can 
 I not truly say my train of thought was engineered by the u r Light- 
 ning Express ? " This was the kind of inspiration under which my 
 book was thought out and written. I had no books to aid me, but 
 Webster's large Dictionary and the Bible. It came wholly through 
 my own reason and intellect, quickened into unusual activity by 
 some spiritual influence, as it seemed to me. The production is a 
 remarkable one, as well as the inditing of it a very singular phe- 
 nomenon. 
 
 The e -timation in which the book is held by that class in that 
 Asylum who are "spirit medium-," and who e only knowledge of its 
 contents they wholly derive from their clairvoyant powers of reading 
 it, without the aid of their natural vision, it may amuse a class of my 
 readers to know. It was a fact the attendants told me of, that my 
 book and its contents, was made a very common topic of remark in
 
 NOTE OF THANKS. 113 
 
 almost every ward in the house ; while all this time, I was closeted 
 alone in my room writing it, and they never saw me or* my book. I 
 would often be greatly amused by the remarks they made about it, as 
 they were reported to me by witnesses who heard them. Such as 
 these: " I have read Mrs. Packard's book through, and it is the most 
 amusing thing I ever read." " Calvinism is dead dead as a her- 
 ring." "Mrs. Packard drives her own team, and she drives it 
 beautifully, too." "The Packard books are all over the world, 
 Norway is full of them. They perfectly devour the Packard books 
 in Norway." " Mrs. Packard finds a great deal of fault with the 
 Laws and the Government, and she has reason to." " She defends 
 a higher and better law than our government has, and she'll be in 
 Congress one of these days, helping to make new laws ! " 
 
 If this prophetess had said that woman's influence would be felt in 
 Congress, giving character to the laws, I might have said I believed 
 she had uttered a true prophecy. 
 
 One very intelligent patient, who was a companion of mine, and 
 had read portions of my book, came to my room one morning with 
 some verses which she had penciled the night previous, by moonlight, 
 on the fly-leaf of her Bible, which she requested me to read, and 
 judge if they were not appropriate to the character of my book. 
 She said she had been so impressed with the thought that she must 
 get up and write something, that she could not compose herself to 
 sleep until she had done so ; when she wrote these verses, but could 
 not tell a word she had written the next morning, except the first 
 line. I here give her opinions or the book in her own poetic lan- 
 guage, as she presented them to me. 
 
 * 
 
 LINES SUGGESTED BY THE PERUSAL OF THE GREAT DRAMA. 
 
 Affectionately presented to the " World's Friend "Mrs. E. P. W. Packard by her friend, 
 Mrs. Sophia N. B. Olsen. 
 
 Go, little book, go seek the world ; 
 
 With banner new, with flag unfurled; 
 
 Go, teach mankind aspirings high, 
 
 By human immortality ! 9 
 
 Thou canst not blush ; thine open page 
 
 Will all our higher powers engage; * 
 
 Thy name on every soul shall be, 
 
 Defender of humanity !
 
 114 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIE 
 
 The poor, the sad, the sorrowing heart, 
 Shall joy to see thy book impart 
 Solace, to every tear-dimmed eye, 
 That's wept, till all its tears are dry. 
 
 The palid sufferer on the bed 
 Of sickness, shall erect the head 
 And cry, " Life yet hath charms for me 
 When Packard's books shall scattered be. w 
 
 Each prison victim of despair 
 Shall, in thy book, see written there 
 Another gospel to thy race, 
 Of sweet " Requiescat in pace." 
 
 The time-worn wigs, w'ih error gray, 
 Their dusty locks with pale dismay, 
 Shall shake in vain in wild despair, 
 To see their prostrate castles, where ? 
 
 No mourner's tear shall weep their doom, 
 No bard shall linger o'er their tomb, 
 No poet sing, but howl a strain 
 Farewell, thou doom'd, live not again. 
 
 Yes, oh, poor Ichabod must lay, 
 
 Deep buried in Aceldema ! 
 
 His lost Consuelo shall rise 
 
 No more, to cheer his death-sealed eyes. 
 
 Then speed thy book, oh, sister, speed, 
 The waiting world thy works must readj 
 Bless'd be the man who cries, " Go on," 
 " Hinder it not, it shall be gone." 
 
 Go, little book, thy destiny 
 Excelsior shall ever be ; 
 A fadeless wreath shall crown thy brow, 
 writer of that book ! e'en now. 
 
 The wise shall laugh the foolish cry- 
 Both wise and foolish virgins, why ? 
 Because the first will wiser grow, 
 The foolish ones some wisdom snow.
 
 NOTE OF THANKS. 115 
 
 The midnight cry is coming soon, 
 The midnight lamp will shine at noon ; 
 I fear for some, who snoring lie, 
 Then rise, ye dead, to judgment fly. 
 
 The stars shall fade away the sun 
 Himself grow dim with age when done 
 Shining upin our frigid earth; 
 But Paci ar 1's book shall yet have birth, 
 But never death, on this our earth. 
 
 JACKSONVILLE LUNATIC ASYLUM, Jan. 27, 1863. 
 
 So much for the opinions of those whom this age call crazy, but 
 who are, in my opinion, no more insane than all that numerous class 
 of our day, who are called " spirit mediums ; " and to imprison them 
 as insane, simply because they possess these spiritual gifts or powers, 
 is a barbarity, which coming generations will look upon with the 
 same class of emotions, as we now look upon the barbarities attend- 
 ing Salem Witchcraft. It is not only barbarous and cruel to de- 
 prive them of their personal liberty, but it is also a crime against 
 humanity, for which our government must be held responsible at 
 God's bar of justice. 
 
 I will now give some of the opinions of a few who know some- 
 thing of the character of my book, whom the world recognize as 
 sane. Dr. McFarland used to sometimes say, " Who knows but you 
 were sent here to write an allegory for the present age, as Bunyan 
 was sent to Bedford Jail to write his allegory ? " Dr. Tenny, the 
 assistant physician, once said to me as he was pocketing a piece 
 of my waste manuscript, " I think your book may yet become so 
 popular, and acquire so great notoriety, that it will be considered an 
 honor to have a bit of the paper on which it was written ! " 
 
 I replied, " Dr. Tenny, you must not flatter me." 
 
 Said he, "I am not flattering, I am only uttering my honest 
 opinions." 
 
 Said another honorable gentleman who thought he understood 
 the character of the book, " Mrs. Packard, I believe your book 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 mill- 
 ions 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 ex-
 
 116 MA.RITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 travagant opinion, namely : that God does sometimes employ " the 
 weak things of the world to confound the mighty." 
 
 These expressions must all be received as mere human opinions, 
 and nothing more. The book must stand just where its own in- 
 trinsic merits place it. If it is ever published, it, like all other mere 
 human productions, will find its own proper level, and no opinions 
 can change its real intrinsic character. The great question with me 
 is, how can I soonest earn the $2,500.00 necessary to print it with? 
 Should I ever be so fortunate as to gain that amount by the sale 
 of this pamphlet, I should feel that my great life-work was done, so 
 that I might feel at full liberty to rest from my labors. But until 
 then, I cheerfully labor and toil to accomplish it. 
 
 NOTE OF THANKS TO THE PRESS. 
 
 In thi connection, I deem it right and proper that I should ac- 
 knowledge the aid I have received from the public Press those 
 newspapers whose manliness has prompted them to espouse the 
 cause of woman, by using their columns to help me on in my ardu- 
 our enterprise. My object can only be achieved, by enlightening 
 the public mind into the need and necessities of the case. The peo- 
 ple do not make laws until they see the need of them. Now, when 
 one case is presented showing the need of a law to meet it, and this 
 is found to be a representative case, that is, a case fairly representing 
 an important class, then, and only till then, is the public mind pre- 
 pared to act efficiently in reference to it. And as the Press is the 
 People's great engine of power in getting up an agitation on any sub- 
 ject of public interest, it is always a great and desirable object to 
 secure its patronage in helping it forward. This help it has been my 
 good fortune to secure, both in Illinois and Massachusetts. 
 
 And my most grateful acknowledgments are especially due the 
 Journal of Commerce of Chicago, also the Chicago Tribune, the 
 Chicago Times, the Post, the New Covenant, and the North Western 
 Christian Advocate. All these Chicago Journals aided me more or 
 less in getting up an agitation in Illinois, besides a multitude of other 
 papers throughout that State too numerous to mention. 
 
 Some of the papers in Massachusetts, to whom my acknowledg- 
 ments are due, are the Boston Journal, the Transcript, the Traveller, 
 the Daily Advertiser, the Courier, the Post the Recorder, the Com-
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 117 
 
 monwealth, the Investigator, the Nation, the Universalist, the Chris- 
 tian Register, the Congregationalist, the Banner of Light, and the 
 Liberator. All these Boston Journals have aided me, more or less, 
 in getting up an excitement in Massachusetts, and bringing the sub- 
 ject before the Massachusetts Legislature. Many other papers 
 throughout the State have noticed my cause with grateful interest. 
 
 As the pubKc come to apprehend the merits of my case, and look 
 upon it as a mirror, wherein the laws in relation to married women 
 are reflected, they will doubtless join' with me in thanks to these 
 Journals who have been used as means of bringing this light before 
 them. 
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 Although mycause/being based in eternal truth, does not depend 
 upon certificates and testimonials to sustain it, and stands therefore in 
 no need of them ; yet, as they are sometimes called for, as a confirm- 
 ation of my statements, I have asked for just such testimonials as the 
 following gentlemen felt self-moved to give me. I needed no testi- 
 monials 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 Massa- 
 chusetts, 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 judg- 
 ment 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 accom- 
 panying them, as gave them additional weight and influence in secu- 
 ring to me the confidence of the public. 
 
 Judge Boardman is an old and distinguished Judge in Illinois, re- 
 ceiving, as he justly merits, the highest esteem and confidence of his
 
 118 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 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 cotempora- 
 ries, in being sent to Congress by vote of Illinois' citizens, and 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. 
 
 JUDGE BOARDMAN'S LETTER. 
 
 To all persons who would desire to give sympathy and encouragement 
 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 frater- 
 nally 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 pro- 
 fession and in the offices he has filled, he has frequently investigated, 
 judicially, and otherwise, cases of insanity. That he has given con- 
 siderable 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 be- 
 lieves her not only sane, but that she is a person of very superior 
 endowments of mind and understanding, naturally possessing an ex- 
 ceedingly well balanced organization, which, no doubt, prevented her 
 from becoming insane, under the persecution, incarceration, and treat- 
 ment she has received. That Mrs. Packard has been the victim 
 of religious bigotry, purely so, without a single circumstance to alle- 
 viate the darkness 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 pre- 
 vails here, the same as in other States, where this law has not been 
 modified or set aside by tte statute laws, which gives the legal cus- 
 tody 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 im-
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 119 
 
 prisonment by her husband, by the legal complaint of herself, or some 
 one in her behalf, before the proper judicial authorities, and a hear- 
 ing 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 hus- 
 band, and sent to the Insane Hospital, without any opportunity to 
 make complaint, or without 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 neces- 
 sarily 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 hus- 
 band taught, and the doctrine of the Church to which he and Mrs. 
 Packard belonged ; the argument was, that of course the woman 
 must be crazy ! ! And as she persisted in her liberal sentiments, the 
 Superintendent persisted in considering that she was insane ! How- 
 ever, whether moral blame should attach to the Superintendent 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 suggestions, 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 state and condition in the future state of existence, or religious 
 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 judi- 
 cial circuit, in which he presides. That Mrs. Packard is a person 
 of strict integrity and truthfulness, 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 indignation against the author 
 of her persecution, and sympathy for her ; that nothing has transpired
 
 120 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 since, to overthrow or set aside the verdict of popular opinion ; that 
 it is highly probable that the proceedings in this case, so far as the 
 officers of the State Hospital for the insane are concerned, will un- 
 dergo 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 assistance 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' LETTER. 
 " 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 Illi- 
 nois. That Mrs. Packard was a victim of a foul and cruel conspiracy 
 I have not a single doubt, and that she is 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 opinion, 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. Whoever 
 reads her full and fair report of her case, will be convinced of the 
 terrible conspiracy that was practiced towards a truly thoughtful and 
 accomplished lady. A conspiracy 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 pro- 
 tection. 
 
 Trusting through her much suffering the public will become more 
 enlightened, and that our noble and benevolent institutions the 
 asylums for the insane will never become perverted into institutions
 
 TESTIMONIALS. Ifl 
 
 of cruelty and oppression, and that Mrs. Packard may be the last 
 subject of such a conspiracy as is revealed in her books, that \i ,;1 
 ever transpire in this our State of Illinois, or elsewhere. 
 
 Very respectfully, S. S. JONES.*' 
 ST. CHARLES, ILL., DEC. 2, 1864. 
 
 EDITORIAL REMARKS. 
 
 " Assuming, as in view of all the facts it is our duty to do, the cor- 
 rectness of the statements made by Mrs. Packard, two matters of vital 
 importance demand consideration: 
 
 1. What have *the rulers in the church' done about the persecu- 
 tion ? They have not publicly denied the statements ; virtually (on 
 the principle that under such extraordinary circumstances silence 
 gives consent,) they concede their correctness. Is the wrong cov- 
 ered 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 
 because she rejects Calvinism, then we are insane, liable to arrest, 
 and to be placed in an insane asylum! We have a personal interest 
 in this matter. 
 
 2. Read carefully Judge Boardman's statement as to the bearing 
 of " common law " on Mrs. Packard'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 help- 
 less ! The " common 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 im- 
 possible, such atrocities as are alleged in the case of Mrs. Packard 
 atrocities which, according to Judge Boardman, can be enacted in the 
 name of " common 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 Massa- 
 chusetts Legislature to change the laws in reference to the mode
 
 122 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 of commitment into Insane Asylums that winter, 1865, and as Hon. 
 S. E. Sewall was my " friend and fellow laborer," as he styles him- 
 self, in that movement, I made application to him this next winter, 
 for such a recommend as I might use to aid me in bringing this sub- 
 ject before the Illinois' Legislature this winter, for the purpose of 
 getting a change in their laws also. But finding that the Illinois' Legis- 
 lature do not meet this year, I have had no occasion to use it, as I 
 intended. Having it thus on hand, I will add this to the foregoing. 
 
 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 feeling, high 
 moral principle, and warm philanthropy. She is a logical thinker, 
 a persuasive speaker, and such an agitator, that she sometimes suc- 
 ceeds where a man would fail. I think she will be very useful in 
 the cause to which she has devoted herself, 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, Nov. 27, 1865. 
 
 After these testimonials, and the editorial remarks accompanying 
 them had appeared in these Boston journals, Mr. Packard sent vari- 
 ous articles to these journals in reply, designing to counteract their 
 legitimate influence in defence of my course. Some of these articles 
 were published, and many were refused, by the editors. The " Uni- 
 versalist," and the " Daily Advertiser," published a part of his vo- 
 luminous defence, which was made up almost entirely of certificates 
 and credentials, but no denial of the truth of the general statement, 
 The chief point in his defence which he seemed the most anxious t<v 
 establish was, that my trial was not correctly reported and not a 
 fair trial a mere mob triumph, instead of a triumph of justice. One 
 of these papers, containing his impeachments of the court, was sent 
 to Kankakee City, Illinois, where the court was held, and elicited 
 many prompt and indignant replies. An article soon appeared in 
 the Kankakee paper, on this subject, stating his defamations against 
 the judge, lawyers, and jury, and then added, " Mr. Packard is both 
 writing his wife into notoriety, and himself into infamy," by his pub- 
 lishing such statements, as he would not dare to publish in Illinois ;
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 123 
 
 and it was astonishing to them, how such a paper as the Boston 
 " Daily Advertiser," should allow such scandals respecting the pro- 
 ceedings of Illinois' courts to appear in its columns. I will here 
 give entire only one of the many articles sent to the Boston papers 
 in reply. This article was headed, 
 
 THE KEPLT OP THE REPORTER or MRS. PACKARD'S TRIAL, TO 
 REV. THEOPHILUS PACKARD'S CHARGE OF MISREPRESENTA- 
 TION. 
 
 " To the Editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser : 
 
 In the supplement of the Boston Daily Advertiser of May 3d, ap- 
 pears a collection of certificates, introduced by Rev. Theophilus Pack- 
 ardj which requires a notice from me. These certificates are intro- 
 duced for one or two purposes. First, either to prove that the report 
 of the trial of Mrs. Elizabeth Packard, held before the Hon. C. R. 
 Starr, Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit of the State of Illinois, 
 on the question of her insanity, as published in the " Great Drama," 
 is false ; or, secondly, to prove to the readers of the Advertiser that 
 Mr. Packard is not so bad a man as those who read the trial would 
 be likely to suppose him to be. 
 
 In determining the truth of the statements of any number of per- 
 sons relative to any given subject, it is always profitable to inquire 
 who the persons that make the statements are, what is their relation 
 to the subject-matter, and what their means of information. 
 
 I entered upon the defence of Mrs. Packard without any expecta- 
 tion of fee or reward, except such as arises from a consciousness of 
 having discharged my duty toward a helpless and penniless woman, 
 who was either indeed insane, or was most foully dealt with by him 
 who had sworn to love, cherish and protect her. I was searching for 
 the truth. I did then no more and no less than I should do for 
 any person who claimed that their sacred rights were daily violated, 
 and life made a burden most intolerable to be borne, by repeated 
 wrongs. 
 
 The report was made from written notes of the testimony taken 
 during the trial. And this is the first time I ever heard the correct- 
 ness of the report called in question. It would be very unlikely that 
 I should make an incorrect report of an important case, which I knew 
 would be read by my friends and business acquaintances, and which 
 (if incorrect) would work a personal injury. Policy and selfish mo- 
 tives would prevent me from making an incorrect report, if I was 
 2uided by nothing higher.
 
 124 M.VKITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 The first certificate presented is signed by Deacon A. II. Dole, 
 and Sibyl T. Dole, who are the sister and brother-in-law of Mr. 
 Packard, and, as the trial shows, his co-conspirators ; J. B. Smith, 
 another of his deacons, who was a willing tool in the transaction ; 
 and Miss Sarah Rumsey, another member of his Church, who went 
 to live with Mr. Packard when Mrs. Packard was first kidnapped. 
 Let Jeff. Davis be put on trial, and then take the certificates of Mrs. 
 Surratt, Payne, Azteroth, Arnold, Dr. Mudd and George N. Saun- 
 ders, and I am led to believe they would make out Jeff, to be a 
 " Christian President," whom the barbarous North were trying to 
 murder. Their further certificate "that the disorderly demonstra- 
 tions by the furious populace, filling the Court House while we were 
 present at the said trial, were well calculated to prevent a fair trial," 
 is simply bosh, but is on a par with the whole certificate. It is a 
 reflection upon the purity of our judicial system, and upon our Cir- 
 cuit Court, that they would not make at home. And I can only ac- 
 count for its being made on the supposition that it would not be read 
 in Illinois. " The furious populace " consisted of about two hundred 
 ladies of our city who visited the trial until it was completed, because 
 they felt a sympathy for one of their own sex, whose treatment had 
 become notorious in our city. The conspirators allege that Mrs. 
 Packard is insane. They each swore to this on the trial, but a jury 
 of twelve men after hearing the whole case, upon their oaths said in 
 effect they did not believe these witnesses, for by their verdict they 
 found her SANE. 
 
 The second certificate is from Samuel Packard. It is a sufficient 
 answer to this to say that he is the son of Mr. Packard, and entirely 
 under his father's control, and that it is apparent upon the document 
 that the boy never wrote a word of it. 
 
 Then follows a certificate from Lizzie, who takes umbrage because 
 I called her in the report the " little daughter " of Mrs. Packard, and 
 is made to say pertly she was then fourteen. She then acted like a 
 good daughter, who loved her mother dearly, and her size and age 
 never entered into the consideration of the audience of ladies whose 
 hearts were touched and feelings stirred, till the fountain of their 
 tears was broken, by the kind and natural emotions which were 
 then exhibited by the mother and daughter. When Mrs. Packard 
 was put in the hospital Lizzie was about ten years old, and a think- 
 ing public will determine what judgment she could then form about 
 her mother's "religious notions" and her "insanity," "to the great 
 sorrow of all our family."
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 125 
 
 One word further upon the certificate of Thomas P. Bbnfield, and 
 I will close. He says that the trial commenced very soon after the 
 writ of habeas corpus was served on Mr. Packard, and therefore he 
 could not obtain his evidence, and was prevented from obtaining the 
 attendance of Dr. McFarland, Superintendent of the Insane Hospital 
 of Illinois. Dr. McFarland was the only witness whose attendance 
 Mr. Packard's counsel expressed a desire for that was not present. 
 They had his certificate that Mrs. Packard was insane, which they 
 used as evidence, and which went to the jury. The defence had no 
 opportunity for cross-examination, while Mr. Packard thus got the 
 benefit of McFarland's evidence that she was insane, with no possi- 
 bility of a contradiction. What more could he have had if the wit- 
 ness had been present ? 
 
 The certificate further states that " a large portion of the commu- 
 nity were more intent on giving Presbyterianism a blow than on in- 
 vestigating, or leaving the law to investigate, the question of Mrs. 
 Packard's insanity." Well, what did the " feelings " of the commu- 
 nity have to do with the court and jury? You selected the jury. 
 You said they were good men. If not good, you could have rejected 
 them. The presiding judge is a member of the Congregational 
 Church, which is nearly allied to the Presbyterian. Five of the 
 twelve jurymen were regular attedants of the Presbyterian Church. 
 No complaint was then made that you could not have a fair trial. If 
 Packard believed* he could not, the statute of Illinois provides for a 
 change of venue, which petition for a change of venue you had Mr. 
 Packard sign, but which you concluded not to present, because you 
 thought it would not be granted. If you thought it would not be 
 granted, it was because you did not have a case that the venue could 
 be changed, because when the proper affidavit is made for a change 
 of venue, the Court has no power to refuse the application. The 
 trial was conducted as all trials are conducted in Boston or in Illi- 
 nois, and the verdict of the jury pronounced Mrs. Packard sane. 
 
 The published report of the trial is made. It no doubt presents 
 Mr. Packard and his confederates in a very unfavorable light, but it 
 is just as they presented themselves. If they do not like the picture 
 they should not have presented the original. 
 
 STEPHEN R. MOORE. 
 
 KANKAKEE, ILL., MAT 16, 1865.
 
 126 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In view of the above facts and principles on which this argument 
 of " Self-defence from the charge of Insanity " is based, I feel sure 
 that the array of sophisms which Mr. Packard may attempt to mar- 
 shall against it, will only be like arguing the sun out of the heavens 
 at noon-day. He is the only one who has ever dared to bring per- 
 sonal evidence of insanity against me, so far as my knowledge ex- 
 tends. Others believe me to be insane, but it is on the ground of his 
 testimony, not from personal proof, by my own words and actions, 
 independent of the coloring he has put upon them. 
 
 For example, I find he has reported as proof of my insanity, " that 
 I have punished the children for obeying him." Had this been the 
 case, in the sense in which he meant it to be understood, it would 
 look like an insane, or at least very improper, act. But it is not true 
 that I ever punished a child for obeying their father ; but on the con- 
 trary, have exacted implicit obedience to their father's wishes and 
 commands, and have even enforced this, my own command, by pun- 
 ishments, to compel them to respect their father's authority, by obey- 
 ing his commands. 
 
 But this I have also done. I have maintained the theory, by logic 
 and practice both, that a mother had & right to enforce her own rea- 
 sonable commands that her authority to do so was delegated to her 
 by God himself, and not by her husband and that this right to com- 
 mand being delegated to her by God himself, as the God given right 
 identified with her maternity, the husband had no right to interfere 
 or usurp this God bestowed right from the wife. But on the con- 
 trary, it was the husband's duty, as the wife's God appointed pro- 
 tector, to see that this right was defended to the wife by his authority 
 over the children, requiring of them obedience to her commands, as 
 one whose authority they must respect. Yes, I have trained my 
 children to respect my authority as a God delegated authority, equal 
 in power, in my sphere, to their father's God delegated authority. 
 And farther, I have taught them, that I had no right to go out of my 
 sphere and interfere with their father's authority in his sphere ; nei- 
 ther had their father a right to trespass upon my sphere, and counter 
 order my commands. I maintain, that the one who commands is the 
 dnly rightful one to countermand. Therefore, the father has no right 
 to countermand the mother's orders, except through her ; neither has
 
 CONCLUSION. 127 
 
 the mother a right to countermand the father's order, except through 
 him. Here is the principle of " equal rights," which our government 
 is bound to respect. And it is because they do not respect it, that 
 my husband lias usurped all my maternal rights, thus proving him- 
 self traitor, not only to his own manliness, but traitor to the princi- 
 ples of God's government. 
 
 But as this is a volume of facts, rather than theories, I will add one 
 fact in vindication of my assertion, that I uniformly taught my child- 
 ren to respect their father's authority. When I was incarcerated in 
 my prison, my oldest son, Theophilus, was in the post-office in Mt.. 
 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 letter, commanding him not to write to his 
 mother now in the 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 mother's express 
 commands. But now his love for his mother led him to question ^the 
 justice of this seemingly arbitrary command, and he, fearful of trust- 
 ing to his own judgment in this matter, sought advice from those who 
 had once been Mr. Packard's church members and deacons in Mt. 
 Pleasant, and from all he got the same opinion strongly defended, 
 that he had a right to disobey such a command. He therefore ven- 
 tured 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 me and kissing me with all the fond- 
 ness of a most loving child, and while shedding our mutual tears ' 
 of ectasy at being allowed once more to meet 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 forbid my coming, and you have always taught 
 me never to disobey my father." 
 
 " Disobeyed your father ! " said I. " Yes, I have always taught 
 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.
 
 128 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 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 disobedience 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," said 
 I, " 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 con- 
 science to settle, and I have sought your help in settling it, namely, 
 u has my son done wrong to visit me, when his father has forbid 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 
 had a right to visit his mother ! " 
 
 O, the joy I felt at this announcement ! It seemed as if a moun- 
 tain 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, " 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? Can testimony, how- 
 ever abundant, change this truth into a falsehood ? 
 
 That principle of self-defence, 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 cer- 
 tificate-!, can never be transformed into a truth. Neither can the 
 truth, however single, and isolated, and alone, be its condition, can 
 never be transformed into a lie, nor crushed out of existence. No.
 
 CONCLUSION. 129 
 
 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 lies, are 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 resist the storm even of a ventila- 
 ting 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 overthrow. 
 
 And here I wish to add, that it was not because Mr. Packard was 
 a minister, that bigotry had power thus to triumph over his manliness, 
 but because he was a man, liable to be led astray from the paths of 
 rectitude as other human beings are. 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 as other men are ; and ministers, like all other men, must 
 stand just where their own actions will place them, not where their 
 position ought always to find them. They ought to be men whose 
 characters should be unimpeached. 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 himself true to the in- 
 stincts of his God-like nature, as it is 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. 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. 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 ander such circumstances, only coun- 
 tenances their sin:-, and encourages them in iniquity, and thus puts 
 their own souls in jeopardy, as well as reflects guilt on those who thus 
 helped them work out their own destruction, when they ought to have 
 helped them work out their own repentance for evil doing. 
 9
 
 130 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 AN APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 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 gov- 
 ernment 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 outra- 
 geous abuses. ^ 
 
 Mr. Packard has never impeached my conduct hi 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 I 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 faith- 
 ful manner. In short, they maintain that I, during all my married 
 life, have been a very self-sacrificing wife and mother, as well as an 
 active and exemplary 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 mad had suffered a tithe of the wrongs which I 
 have suffered, the laws stand ready to give him redress, and thus 
 shield hun 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, 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 ? Be- 
 cause 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
 
 APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. 131 
 
 from the wife without leave or license from her ! Now, I say it is a 
 poor rule that dou'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 dont want our 
 husbands to have power to imprison us for so doing, as my husband 
 did me. It was in this manner that I insisted upon my right to my 
 property, with this fatal issue resulting from it 
 
 While the discussions in our Bible-class were at the culminating 
 point of interest, Mr. Packard came to my room one day and made 
 me the following proposition : " Wife," said he, " how would you like 
 to go to your brother's in Batavia, and make a visit ? " 
 
 Said I, " I should like it very well, since my influenza has in some 
 degree prostrated my strength, so that I need a season of rest ; and 
 besides, I should like an excuse for retiring from this Bible-class ex- 
 citement, since the burden of these discussions lies so heavily upon 
 me, and if it is not running from my post of duty, I should like to 
 throw off this mental burden also, and rest for a season at least." 
 
 He replied, " You have not only a perfect right to go, but I think 
 it is your duty to go and get recruited." 
 
 " Very well," said I, " then I will go, and go, too, with the greatest 
 pleasure. But how long do you think I had better make my visit ? " 
 
 " Three months." 
 
 " Three months ! " said I, " Can you get along without me three 
 months ? and what will the children do for their summer clothes with- 
 out 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 iny 
 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," said I, " I shall want 
 ten dollars of my patrimony money to take with me for spending
 
 132 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 money." (This patrimony was a present of $600.00 my father had 
 recently sent me for my especial benefit, and I had put it into Mr. 
 Packard's hands for safe keeping, taking his note on interest as my 
 only security, except with this note he gave me a written agreement, 
 that I should have not only the interest, but any part of the principal, 
 by simply asking him for it whenever I wanted it. When he ab- 
 sconded he took not only all this my money patrimony with him, but 
 also stole all my notes and private papers likewise.) 
 
 "This you can't have," said he. 
 
 "Why not? I shall need as much as this, 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 beef-steak, 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 un- 
 reasonable amount to take with me." 
 
 " I don't think it is best to let you have it. I shan't trust you with 
 money." 
 
 " Shan't trust me with money ! Why not? Have I ever abused 
 this ti*ust? 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 
 it with 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." 
 
 "One thing more I will suggest. You know Batavia people owe 
 you twelve dollars for preaching one Sabbath, and you can't get your 
 pay. \Now, supposing brother ' dun ' and get it, may I not 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 a.-k permission of you before spending a dollar of it." 
 
 " No. You shall neither have any money, nor have the control 
 of any, for I can't trust you with any." 
 
 " Well, husband, if I can't be trusted with ten dollars of my own 
 mtney under the^e circumstances, and with all these provisions at- 
 tached to it, 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, rather than go under such circumstances."
 
 APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. 133 
 
 " You shall not go at all ; " replied he, in a most excited, angiy, 
 tone or' voice. " You shall go into an Insane Asylum ! " 
 
 " Why, husband ! " said I ; " 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 ! " 
 
 And so it proved. It was my last chance. In a few days I was 
 kidnapped and locked up in my Asylum prison for life, so far as he 
 was concerned. 
 
 Now, I ask any developed man, who holds property which is right- 
 fully his own, and no one's else, how he would like to exchange places 
 with me, and be treated just as I was 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 will- 
 ing 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 at self-defence, and then be 
 robbed of all your life earnings, by a law which women made for 
 your good (?) as your God appointed protectors! O, my govern- 
 ment the men of these United States do bear with me long enough 
 to just make our case your own for one moment, and then let me 
 kindly ask you this question. 
 
 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 part- 
 ners in the family firm. We do not ask for a separate interest. We 
 want an identification 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 mo- 
 ment, what your laws are, in relation 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 sin- 
 gle women are all given to her as her right by nature ! Here the
 
 134 MABITAL POWER EPEMPLIFIED. 
 
 maternal nature of the single woman is respected 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 ille- 
 gitimate offspring of the unmarried women are protected to her. So 
 that the only way U> be sure of having our maternity respected, and 
 our offspring legally protected to us, is to have our children in the sin- 
 gle 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 re- 
 spected as those of the open prostitute ? I say, why ? Is it because 
 a woman has no individuality, after she is joined to a man ? Is 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 believed 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 wel- 
 fare 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 hus- 
 band'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, untarn- 
 ished reputation and influence. This has been submerged under the 
 insane elements of this cruel persecution. But my character is not 
 lost, thank God I 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 are all 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 consciousness of duty per- 
 formed, 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 
 e, and defied the powers of darkness to cast me down to any de-
 
 APPEAL TO THE GOVERXilJiNT. I3o 
 
 etruction, which extended beyond this life. And this desperate trea- 
 son 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 requires 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 mira- 
 cle almost, that I have not been driven into insanity, or at least misan- 
 thropy by it. But a happy elasticity of temperament conspired with 
 an inward consciousness of rectitude, and disinterestedness, has ena- 
 bled me to despise these fiery darts of the adversary, 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." 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 protector of the weak, not a subjector of them. It 
 is the exceptions, not the masses of the man race, who have perverted 
 or depraved their God-like natures into the subjectors of the depend- 
 ent. 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 hi 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. 
 Jfiaws 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 contrary, do them good, to be 
 compelled to treat us with justice, just as you claim that it will do the
 
 136 MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED. 
 
 slave-holder good, to compel 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 there is a 
 need or necessity for so doing. And I will repeat, it is for this pur- 
 pose that I have, hi this pamphlet, delineated a subjected wife's true, 
 legal position, by thus presenting my own personal, individual, expe- 
 rience for your consideration. 
 
 In summing up this argument, based on this dark chapter of a mar- 
 ried woman's bitter experience of the evils growing out of the law 
 of married servitude, I would close with a Petition to the Legislatures 
 of all the States bf this Union, that 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 wo- 
 man a right to her own home, and a right to be the mistress of her 
 own household, and a right to the guardianship of her own minoi 
 children*. 
 
 In other words, let her be the legally acknowledged mistress of hef 
 own household, and a co-partner, at least, in the interests and destiny 
 of her own offspring. Let the interests of the maternity be as much 
 respected, at least, as those of the paternity; and thus surround the 
 hallowed place of the wife's and mother's sphere of action, with a for- 
 tress 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 
 supreme ; and also designed that man should see that this sphere of 
 woman's sovereignty should be unmolested and shielded from any in- 
 vasions, either foreign or internal. In other words, the husband is 
 the God appointed agent to guard and protect woman in this 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, revolving 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 inalienable rights, she can have re-
 
 APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. . Id7 
 
 dress, and thus secure that protection in the law, which is denied her 
 by her husband. 
 
 In short, woman needs legal protection t*s 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 protection as a 
 married woman, it is not safe for her to marry ; for my case demon- 
 strates the fact, that the good conduct of the wife is no guarantee of pro- 
 tection to her ; neither is the most promising developments of man- 
 hood, proof against depravity 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 is 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 woman should be a legal partner in the family firm, not 
 a mere appendage to it. This principle of separating the interests 
 of the married pair is not wholesome nor salutary in its results. It 
 tends towards an isolation of interests ; whereas it is an identification 
 of interests, which the marriage contract should form and cement. 
 We want an equality of rights, so, far as copartners are concerned. 
 These property rights should be so identified as to command the mu- 
 tual respect of partners, whose interests are one and the same. In 
 short, the wife should be the junior partner, and law should recognize 
 her as such, by protecting to her the rights of a junior partner, and 
 her husband should be the legally constituted senior partner of the 
 family firm. 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 government can never echo this heavenly principle, 
 until it defends " equal rights," independent of sex or color.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 REV. SAMUEL WARE'S CERTIFICATE TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 "Tnis is to certify that the certificates which have appeared in 
 public in relation to my daughter's sanity, were given upon the con- 
 viction that Mr. Packard's representations respecting her condition 
 were true, and were given wholly upon the authority of Mr. Pack- 
 ard's own statements. I do therefore certify that it is now my opin- 
 ion that Mr. Packard has had n cause for treating my daughter 
 Elizabeth as an insane person. 
 
 SAMUEL WARE. 
 
 Attest, OLIVE WARE, 
 
 AusTiri' WARE, 
 SOUTH DEEBFIELD, AUG. 21, 1866." 
 
 The reader should be informed that the above certificate was given 
 after I had been a member of my father's family for six months, thus 
 affording him ample opportunity to judge of my real condition, by his 
 own personal observation, since Mr. Packard, and his co-conspirator, 
 Dr. McFarland, the Superintendent of the Asylum, both insist upon 
 it, that I am now in just the same condition in reference to my sanity, 
 that I was when I was kidnapped and forced into my prison. There- 
 fore, when my own dear father's eyes were fully opened to see the 
 deception that had been employed to secure his influence in support 
 of this cruel conspiracy, he felt conscience bound to give the above 
 certificate in vindication of the truth. Another evidence of my Fath- 
 er's entire confidence in my sanity is found in the fact that about this 
 time he re-wrote his will, and so changed it that, instead of now giv- 
 ing me my patrimony "in trust" as before, he has bestowed it upon 
 me, his only daughter, in precisely the same manner, and upon equal 
 terms every way with my two only brothers.
 
 MRS. PACKARD'S ADDRESS TO THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 GENTLEMEN OF ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY: 
 
 Thankful for the privilege granted me, I will simply state that I 
 desire to explain my bill rather than defend it, since I am satisfied it 
 needs no defense to secure its passage by this gallant body of gen- 
 tlemen. 
 
 I desire to make this public statement of some of the facts of my 
 personal experience, relative to my incarceration in Jacksonville 
 Insane Asylum, that you, the law-makers of this State, may see from 
 the standpoint of my own individual wrongs, the legal liabilities to 
 which all married women and infants have been exposed for the last 
 sixteen years, to false imprisonments in Jacksonville Insane Asylum, 
 under the act passed in 1851, viz. : 
 
 " Married women and infants who, in the judgment of the Medical 
 Superintendent," (meaning the Superintendent of Illinois State Hos- 
 pital for the Insane,) u 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." 
 
 This act was nominally repealed in 1865 ; but, practically, is still 
 existing, in retaining. those who have been previously entered without 
 evidence of insanity, and in receiving others, regardless of the law of 
 *65, which demands a fair trial of all before commitment. In short, 
 the present law is not in all cases enforced, but this unjust law is still 
 in practical force in many instances. 
 
 Therefore, your petitioners, men of the first legal character and 
 standing in Chicago, in asking for the repeal of this unjust law, not 
 only ask for the enforcement of the new law by a penalty, but also 
 that a jury trial may be forthwith extended to the unfortunate victims 
 of this unjust law, who are now confined in Jacksonville Insane 
 Asylum. 
 
 In detailing the practical working of this law in my case, I must 
 rely upon your good sense to pardon the egotistical character of the 
 following statement.
 
 2 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 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 Co., 111., when this legal persecution 
 commenced. 
 
 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 rea?on 
 and common sense, to endorse theological views, in conflict with my 
 educated belief and the creed of the church with which I am con- 
 nected. In short, from my present standpoint, I cannot but believe 
 that the doctrine of total depravity, (which is the great backbone of 
 the Calvinistic system,) conflicts with the dictates of reason, common 
 sense, and the Bible. 
 
 And, gentlemen, the only crime I have committed is to dare to be 
 true to these, my honest convictions, and to give utterance to these 
 views in a Bible class in Manteno, at the special request of the teacher 
 of that class, and with the full and free consent of my husband. 
 
 But the popular endorsement of these new views by the class and 
 the community generally, led my husband and his Calvinistic Church 
 to fear, lest their Church creed would suffer serious detriment by this 
 license of private judgment and free inquiry, and as these liberal 
 views emanated from his own family, and he, (for reasons best known 
 to himself,) declining to meet me on the open arena of argument and 
 free discussion, chose, rather, to use this marital power which your 
 laws license him to use, and as this unjust law permits, and got me 
 imprisoned at Jacksonville Insane Asylum, without evidence of in- 
 sanity, 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 ! 
 
 It was under these circumstances I was legally kidnapped, as your 
 laws allow, and imprisoned three years at Jacksonville, simply for 
 claiming a right to my own thoughts. The first intimation I had of 
 this legal exposure, was by two men entering my room, on the 1 8th 
 of June, 1860, and kidnapping me. Two of his Church-member.--, 
 attended by Sheriff Burgess of Kankakee, took me up in their arms 
 and carried me to the wagon, and thence to the cars, in spite of rcy 
 lady-like protests, and regardless of all my entreaties for some sort 
 of trial before imprisonment. 
 
 My husband replied, " I am doing as the laws of Illinois allow me 
 to do you have no protection in law but myself, and I am pro-
 
 ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. g 
 
 teeting you now ; it is for your good I am doing this ; I want to save 
 your soul; you don't believe in total depravity; I want to make you 
 right." 
 
 " Husband," said I, " have not I 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 religious toler- 
 ance 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 nonentity, without 
 even a soul in law. In short, you are dead as to any legal exist- 
 ence, while a married woman, and therefore have no legal protection 
 as a married woman." 
 
 Thus I learned my first lesson in that chapter of " common law," 
 which denies to married women a legal right to their own individ- 
 uality or identity. 
 
 Here I was taken from my little family of six children, while my 
 babe was only eighteen months old, while in the faithful discharge of 
 all my duties as wife and mother, having done all my own work for 
 twenty-one years, besides educating our own children, and nearly 
 fitting our oldest son for college ; in perfect health and sound mind, 
 and forced into an imprisonment of an indefinite length, without the 
 mere form of a trial, and without any chance at self-defense. 
 
 True, my husband did even more than this " unjust law " demands, 
 for he did get the certificates of two orthodox physicians that I was 
 insane like Henry Ward Beecher, and Horace Greeley, and Spur- 
 geon, and three-fourths of the religious community ; and, besides, he 
 obtained the names of forty others, mostly his own Church members, 
 who thus co-conspired to sustain their minister in this mode of de- 
 fending the' cause of Christ against the contagious influence of dan- 
 gerous heresies aiwl fatal errors. 
 
 The influence of the community outside of the Church was thrown 
 into the opposite scale entirely ; but their influence was overpowered 
 by the majesty of the law, added to the dignity of the pulpit. I was 
 conveyed by Sheriff Burgess, Deacon Dole and Mr. Packard to your 
 State Hospital, in defiance of the indignant community who had as- 
 sembled at the depot in large crowds to defend me. Dr. Simming- 
 ton, the Methodist minister at Manteno, remarked to me, "Mrs. 
 Packard, you will not be there long," and plainly intimated that, in 
 his opinion, no man was fit for his position who would retain such an 
 inmate as myself.
 
 4 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 Dr. McFarland, of course, was obliged to receive me on this super- 
 abundant testimony that I was an insane person, although he apolo- 
 gized to me afterwards for receiving me at all, and for four months 
 he treated me himself, and caused me to be treated, with all the 
 respect of a hotel boarder. He even trusted me with the entire 
 charge of a carriage load of insane patients, and the care of my own 
 team, fourteen times ; sometimes I would be absent nearly a half * 
 day on some pleasant excursion to the fair-grounds or cemetery, and 
 he never expressed the least solicitude for our safe return. Indeed, 
 he trusted me almost in every situation he would trust the matron. 
 
 But, at the expiration of this time, with no change whatever in my 
 deportment, I forfeited all his good-will and favors, by presenting 
 him a written reproof for his abuse of his patients, which was after- 
 wards printed, wherein I told him I should expose hirn when I got 
 out, unless he treated his patients with more justice. 
 
 He then removed me from the best ward to the worst, where were 
 confined the most dangerous class of patients, and instructed his at- 
 tendants to treat me just as they did the maniacs, and be sure to keep 
 me a close prisoner, and on no account to allow me to leave the 
 ward, and compel me to sleep in a dormitory with from three to six 
 crazy patients, where my life was exposed, both night as well as day, 
 with no room of my own to flee to for safety from their insane flights 
 and dangerous attacks. 
 
 I have been dragged around this ward by the hair of my head by 
 the maniacs ; I have received blows from them that almost killed 
 me. My seat at the table was by the side of Mrs. Triplet, the most 
 dangerous and violent patient in the whole ward, who almost invar- 
 iably threatened to kill me every time I went to the table. I liave 
 had to dodge the knives and forks and tumblers and chairs which 
 have been hurled in promiscuous profusion about my head, to avoid 
 some fatal blow. I have begged and besought Dr. McFarland to 
 remove me to some place of safety, where my life would not be so 
 exposed, only to see him turn, speechless, away from me ! I have 
 endured the scent and filth of a ward, from which my delicate, sensi- 
 tive nature revolts in loathsome disgust, until I had had time to clean 
 the whole ward with my own hands, before it could be a decent 
 place for human beings to inhabit. 
 
 From this eighth ward I was not removed until I was discharged, 
 two years and eight months from the day I was consigned to it. I 
 did not set my foot upon the ground in the mean time, although, for 
 the last part of my imprisonment there, Dr. McFarland exchanged
 
 ILLINOIS LEGISLATURB. 5 
 
 some of the noisiest and most boisterous patients for a more quiet 
 class. 
 
 1 have been threatened with the screen-room, and this threat has 
 been accompanied with the flourish of a butcher knife over my head, 
 for simply passing a piece of johnny-cake through a crack under my 
 door to a hungry patient, who was locked in her room to Buffer star- 
 vation as her discipline for her insanity. 
 
 I have heard a fond and tender mother begging and pleading, for one 
 whole night and part of a day, for one drink of cold water, but all in 
 vain ! simply because she had annoyed her attendant, by crying to 
 see her darling babe and dear little ones at home. I finally persuaded 
 the matron, Mrs. Waldo, to interpose, and give her a drink of water. 
 
 There was but one of all the employees at that Asylum whom the 
 Dr. could influence to treat me, personally, like an insane person. 
 This was Mrs. De La Hay. Besides threatening me with the 
 screen-room, as I have stated, she threatened to jacket me for speak- 
 ing at the table. 
 
 One day, after ?he had been treating her patients with great injus- 
 tice 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, "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 patients, replied, " 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 ' record- 
 ing angel,' and Dr. MeFarland will protect me in doing so, too ! " 
 
 The indignant feeling of the house soon became so demonstrative, 
 in view of the treatment I was receiving, that the Dr. seemed com- 
 pelled to discharge Mrs. De La Hay to Defend his own character 
 from the charge of abusing me, and Mrs. De La Hay soon after be- 
 came insane, and a tenant of Jacksonville poor-house. 
 
 He cut me off" from all written communication with the outside 
 world, except under the strictest censorship, and made it a discharge- 
 able offence of his employees to permit me to have any means of 
 communication with the outside world, He has refused Mrs. Judge 
 Thomas and other friends, whom ho knpw desired to comfort me 
 with human sympathy and some choi viands, admission into my 
 presence, and has put them off with the inquiry, " why do you wish
 
 6 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 to single out Mrs. Packard from the other patients, to administer to 
 her comfort ? " and when asked by his guests, who often mistook me 
 for the matron, ".why he kept so intelligent a lady in an Insane 
 Asylum ? " he would reply, " you must not take any notice of what 
 a patient says ! " And the reply he would make to my indignant 
 friends at the hospital, who ventured sometimes to inquire " why are 
 you treating Mrs. Packard in this manner?" has invariably been, 
 " it is all tor her good ! " 
 
 Time will not allow me to detail my sufferings and persecutions at 
 that hospital ; I will only add, may the Lord forgive Dr. McFarland 
 for the injustice I have suffered at his hands ! And God grant that 
 the legislature of 1867 may have the moral courage to effectually 
 remove the liabilities to a repetition of wrongs like my 'own ! 
 
 Various attempts were made by my Manteno friends to rescue me, 
 but all in vain. My legal non-existence rendered it difficult to ex- 
 tend legal aid to a nonentity, except it come through the identity of 
 my only legal protector, and so long as it was possible to cut me off 
 from any direct application for deliverance, he could ward off the 
 habeas corpus investigation they wished to institute, and as long as 
 the Doctor claimed I was insane, so long this unjust law consigned 
 me to leg il imprisonment. My relatives and other friends applied to 
 lawyers, judges and the Governor in my behalf, but all in vain, as 
 these officers were only authorized to administer existing laws ; they 
 could neither repeal them nor act contrary to them. On the 18th of 
 June, 18(53, I was finally removed from my asylum prison, by order 
 of the Tru tees, as the result of a personal interview \vhich Dr. Mc-^ 
 Farland kindly consented to grant me, and put again into the custody 
 of my husband, who consigned me to a prison in my own house, 
 claiming, as his excuse, that I was just as insane as when I was en- 
 tered just three years previously, for I had neither recanted nor 
 yielded my right to my identity : therefore, in the judgment of your 
 superintendent, I am hopelessly insane, and am doomed, by his cer- 
 tificates, to a life-long imprisonment in the Insane Asylum at North- 
 ampton, Mass., and my husband was just on the point of starting 
 with me for a consignment in that living tomb, when he was arrested 
 by a writ of habeas corpus, issued by judge Starr, of Kankahee City, 
 and used by my Manteno friends in defence of my personal liberty. 
 I was now where I could make direct application, by passing a letter 
 clandestinely through a crack in my window. 
 
 The trial lasted five days, and resulted in a complete vindication 
 of my sanity, although his witnesses swore that it was evidence of
 
 ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. f 
 
 insanity for a person to wish to leave a Presbyterian church and 
 join a Methodist ! A full account of this trial is found m uu.= - Tnree 
 Years Imprisonment for Religious Belief." It was reported by one 
 of my lawyers, and is an impartial record of the whole case. 
 
 During the trial, Mr. Packard " fled his country" in the night, to 
 avoid the danger of a mob retribution. He took with him all our i 
 personal property, even my own wardrobe and children, and rented! 
 our home, so that I found myself, at the close of court, homeless, 
 penniless and childless. 
 
 And this, gentlemen, is legal usurpation, also, on the slavish prin- 
 ciple of common law the legal nonentity of the wife, the man and 
 wife being one, and the one, the man! Gentlemen, we married 
 women need emancipation ; and will ,you not be the pioneer State in 
 our Union, in woman's emancipation ? and thus use my martyrdom 
 for the identity of a married woman, to herald this most glorious of 
 all reforms married woman's legal emancipation, from that of a slave 
 in law, to that of a partner and companion of her husband, in law, 
 as she now is in society? 
 
 And, lest there be a misunderstanding on this subject, permit me 
 here to explain what kind of slavery I refer to. This slavish posi- 
 tion which the principles of common law assigns the married woman, 
 is a relic of barbarism, which the progress of civilization will, doubt- 
 less, ere long, annihilate. In the dark ages, married woman was a 
 slave to her husband, both socially and legally ,but, as civilization has 
 progressed, she has outgrown her social position that of a slave and 
 is now regarded in society as the companion and partner of her hus- 
 band. But the law has not progressed with civilization, so that mar- 
 ried woman is still a slave, legally, while she is his companion, 
 socially. 
 
 Man, we know, is woman's natural protector, and, in most instan- 
 ces, is all the protection a married woman needs. Still, as the laws 
 are made for the exceptional cases, where man is not a law unto him- 
 self, what can be the harm in emancipating woman from this slavish 
 position, so that she can receive governmental protection of her right 
 to " life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," as well as the mar- 
 ital protection? So, in case where the marital fails, she can have 
 legal protection, while married as well as when single. Then when 
 vour darling daughter is called to exchange the paternal protection 
 for the marital, she will not be obliged to alienate her right to gov- 
 ernmental protection by this exchange of her natural protectors, but 
 she, the tenderest and the best, can then claim of her government,
 
 g ADDRESS 10 THE 
 
 while a married woman, the same protection of her rights as a 
 woman, wliich your sons now claim as men. 
 
 The need of this radical change hi married woman's legal position 
 is more fully elucidated in this book, which contains a detailed ac- 
 count of my persecutions in Illinois, when your State hospital was 
 used, in my case, as an inquisition. My object in bringing these facts 
 to your notice is to secure legislative action, where these facts show 
 the need of action. 
 
 In conclusion, gentlemen of this Assembly, may I be allowed to 
 read a few extracts from Dr. McFarland's published letters on this 
 subject, showing, from his own words, his ground of self-defense. 
 
 The Doctor says : u All Mrs. Packard's wrongs, persecutions and 
 sufferings, of every description, tare utterly the creation of a diseased 
 imagination." 
 
 Now, I ask, is this so ? Can facts be transmuted into fiction by 
 the simple assertion of one man ? And is it a mere creation of a 
 diseased imagination that has torn me from my helpless babe and de- 
 prived my darling children of a fond mother's tender care ? Is it 
 the mere creation of a diseased imagination to find that good conduct, 
 not even the best, is any guarantee of protection to a wife and moth- 
 er under Illinois laws ? 
 
 Neither Dr. McFarland nor Mr. Packard himself, has ever denied 
 one of the facts in the statement I have made ; but as their only 
 justification, they claim that I am insane and the only proof of in- 
 sanity they have ever brought in support of this opinion is, "her 
 views of things," as the Doctor expresses himself, or. my private, 
 individual opinions. 
 
 Now I wish to ask the gentlemen of this Assembly, if, for my 
 using my right of opinion, or my right of private judgment, the 
 public sentiment of this age is going to justify Illinois in keeping 
 me a prisoner three years, under the subterfuge of insanity, based 
 wholly upon my " views of things ?" 
 
 Just consider, for one moment, the principle. Here my personal 
 liberty, for life, hangs suspended wholly on the opinion of this one 
 man, whom policy or interest might tempt to say I was insane when 
 I was not ; for this law expressly states that the class I represent 
 may be imprisoned without evidence of insanity, and without trial ! 
 
 Just make the case your own, gentlemen : would it be easy for 
 you to realize that it was a mere creation of your imagination to 
 have two men take you by force from your business and family, with- 
 out evidence of insanity and without trial, and your kidnappers claim
 
 ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE 9 
 
 as their only justification, that you are insane on some point in your 
 religious belief, simply because Dr. McFarland says you are, and 
 then lock you up for life, on his single testimony, without proof ? 
 
 Now we, married women and infants, have had our personal liberty, 
 for sixteen years, suspended on this one man's opinion ; and possibly he 
 may be found to be a fallible man, and capable of corruption, if we 
 may be allowed to judge of this great man from the standpoint of 
 his own words and actions. 
 
 Now, if the Doctor was required to prove his patients insane, from 
 their own conduct, there would be a shadow of justice attached to 
 his individual judgment ; but while this law allows him to call them 
 insane, and treat them as insane, without evidence of insanity, where 
 is the justice of such a decision ? 
 
 You do not hang a person without proof from the accused's own 
 actions that he is guilty of the charge which forfeits his life. So the 
 personal liberty of married women should not be sacrificed without 
 proof that they are insane, from their own conduct. 
 
 When Dr. McFarland has brought forward one proof from my 
 own conduct, by one insane act of my own, in support of his posi- 
 tion, I will then say he has cause for calling me an insane person ; 
 but until that time arrives, I claim he is begging the question en- 
 tirely, in calling me an insane person, without one evidence to sus- 
 tain his charge. 
 
 Gentlemen, it is not merely for my own self-defence from this 
 unpleasant charge, that I lay this, argument before you, but it is that 
 you may see, from my standpoint, how exceedingly frail is the thread 
 on which our reputation for sanity is suspended, and how very liable 
 married women and infants are to be thus falsely imprisoned in Jack- 
 sonville Insane Asylum. 
 
 If my testimony might be allowed to add weight to this suspicion 
 or presumption, I would state that, to my certain knowledge, there 
 were married women there when I left, more than three years since, 
 who were not insane then at all, and they are still retained there, as 
 hopelessly insane patients, on the simple strength of the above 
 ground of evidence ; and it is my womanly sympathy for this class 
 of prisoners that has moved me to come, alone, from Massachusetts, 
 in the depth of winter, to see if I could not possibly induce this leg- 
 islature to compassionate their case : for it is under your laws, gen- 
 tlemen, I have suffered, and they are still $unering, and it is to this 
 legislature of 1867 that we apply for a legal remedy ; and we confi- 
 dently trust you will vindicate the honor of your State in the action
 
 JO ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 you take upon this subject. "We trust you will not only have the 
 manliness aud moral courage to repeal this unjust law, forthwith, but 
 also extend, promptly, a just trial to its wronged and injun-d victims. 
 
 Again, Dr. McFarland writes: " Mr. Packard is suffering from a 
 cause which only gather his church and the public about him, in the 
 bonds of a generous sympathy." 
 
 I reply to this assertion by stating a few simple fact?. Mr. Pack- 
 ard's church and people in Manteno, Illinois withdrew from him their 
 confidence and support, while I was incarcerated, instead of gather- 
 ing about him, because public sentiment would not tolerate him, as a 
 minister, with this stigma upon him ; and it was the fear of lynch law 
 which drove him from this State during the court, to seek shelter and 
 employment in Massachusetts, his native State. There he suc- 
 ceeded in securing a place as stated supply, by ignoring the decision 
 of your court, and by misrepresenting the west to be in such a i-emi- 
 barbarous state that it was impossible to get a just decision at any 
 legal tribunal in this uncivilized region, where, he tells them, " a 
 large portion of community were more intent on giving Presbyterian- 
 ism a blow, than in investigating the question of Mrs. Packard's 
 insanity ! " 
 
 He occupied his new field in Sunderland, Mass., fifteen months, 
 when I returned to my father's house in Sunderland, on a visit, and 
 the result was, my personal presence, together with the facts in the 
 case, upset him, so that neither Sunderland nor any other society in 
 New England can be induced to employ him in defiance of enlight- 
 ened public sentiment. Indeed, the public sentiment of New Eng- 
 land has so blighted and withered his ministerial influence, that the 
 remark of a lawyer in Worcester, Mass., made a few months since, 
 reflects his true social position there, at present. Said he, " there is 
 not a man in New England, neither do I think there is one man in 
 the United States, who would dare to stand the open defender of 
 Mr. Packard in the course he has taken, and in view of the facts as 
 they are now known to exist." 
 
 Now I would like to ask Dr. McFarland, where are to be found 
 these " bonds of generous sympathy " to which he refers ? in the 
 region of the west, or in the east ? 
 
 Here, where the Doctor's assertion is found to be plainly contra- 
 dicted by facts, can his simple assertions be relied upon as infallible 
 testimony and infallible authority ? 
 
 Again, another extract, and I am done. 
 
 Dr. McFarland writes, " I have no question but that Mrs. Pack-
 
 ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. ]_]_ 
 
 ard's committal here was as justifiable as in the majority of those 
 now here." 
 
 Now if this statement of your superintendent is true, viz.: that I 
 am a fair specimen of the majority of his patients, then the Doctor 
 himself must admit that the majority of inmates there are capable of 
 assuming a self-reliant position, and, instead of being supported there 
 as State paupers, as I was during my imprisonment of three years, 
 ought they not to be liberated, and supporting themselves and their 
 families as I am now doing ? 
 
 Mr. Packard has become an object of charity since he cast me 
 penniless upon the world, while I have, without charity, not only 
 supported myself, but have already become voluntarily responsible 
 for his support, and the support and education of my children, from 
 the avails of my own hard labor, since my discharge from my prison ; 
 while at the same time, he will not allow me to live in the house with 
 my dear children, lest my heresies contaminate them ! 
 
 Now, Gentlemen, is it not better that I be thus employed, selling 
 my books for their support, rather than be held as your State's pris- 
 oner and State's pauper simply because my " views of things" do not 
 happen to coincide with your Superintendent's views of things ? 
 
 It is true, and, gentlemen, your Superintendent's own statement 
 verifies it, that I am not the only one who has been so unjustly im- 
 prisoned there, and in the name and behalf of those now there, I beg 
 of this body that you extend to such a fair trial or a discharge. 
 Really, the claims of humanity and the honor of your State both 
 demand that my case stimulate the Illinois legislature of 1867 to pro- 
 vide legal safeguards against false commitments like my own. 
 
 Permit me here to add, that although I have come from Massa- 
 chusetts to Illinois at my own expense, without money and without 
 price, for the express purpose of bringing these claims of oppressed 
 humanity to your notice, I do not demand nor ask for any remunera- 
 tion for my false imprisonment in your State institution, nor for any 
 personal redress of those legal wrongs which have deprived me of 
 my reputation, my home, my property, my children, my liberty ; but 
 I do ask that the legal liabilities to such like outrages may be effect- 
 ually removed by this legislature, and that the justice of a trial by 
 jury may be forthwith extended to those now in that asylum, who 
 have been consigned to an indefinite term of imprisonment, without 
 any trial. 
 
 Gentlemen of this assembly, in view of the facts now before you, 
 please allow me the additional privilege or adding a few suggestions.
 
 12 ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 You see it has become a demonstrated fact that I, a minister's wife, 
 of Illinois, have been three years imprisoned in your State, by your 
 laws, simply because I could not tell a lie that is, I could not be 
 false to my own honest convictions ; and since I simply claim the 
 right to be an individual instead of a parasite, or an echo of others' 
 views, I am branded by your laws as hopelessly insane ! 
 
 Is it not time for you to legislate on this subject, by enacting laws 
 which shall make it a crime to treat an Illinois citizen as an insane 
 person simply for the utterance of opinions, no matter how absurd 
 those opinions may be to others ? Opinions cannot harm the truth, 
 nor the individual, especially if they are absurd or insane opinions. 
 
 But for irregularities of conduct, such as my persecutors have been 
 guilty of, the law ought to be made to investigate. Imprisonment 
 for religious belief ! What is it but treason against the vital princi- 
 ple of this American Government, viz. : religious toleration ? 
 
 Would that I could have claimed protection under the banner of 
 my country's flag, while a citizen of Illinois. But no ; this unju^ t 
 statute law has consigned me to the reign of despotism. And so are 
 all my married sisters in Illinois liable to this consignment, so long 
 as this barbarous law is in force. 
 
 And O ! the horrors of such a consignment ! Only think of put- 
 ting your own delicate, sensitive daughter through the scenes I have 
 been put through. Do you think she would have come out unharmed? 
 God only knows. But this I do know : that it is one principle of 
 ethics, that a person is very apt to become what they are taken to 
 be. You may take the sanest person in the world, and tell them 
 they are insane, and treat them as your Superintendent treats them 
 there it is the most trying ordeal a person can pass through and 
 not really become insane. 
 
 And most reverently does Mrs. Packard attribute it to God's grace 
 alone, for carrying her safely through this most awful ordeal, un- 
 harmed, and I am almost tempted to add God himself could not 
 have done this thing without the strictest conformity on my part, to 
 His own laws of nature, in connection with a well-balanced organiza- 
 tion. As it is, to God's grace alone. I spy it, I am 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. 
 
 Here let me make one practical suggestion. Is that kind of treat- 
 ment which causes insanity the best adapted to cure insanity ?
 
 ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE J3 
 
 O . my brothers ! my gallant brothers ! will you not protect U3 
 from such liabilities ? Will you not have the manliness to grant to 
 us, married women, the legal right to stand just where our own ao 
 tions will place us, regardless of our views of things, or our private 
 opinions ? that is, may we not have the privilege of being legally pro- 
 tected, as you are, in our rights of opinion and conscience, so long 
 as our good conduct deserves such protection ? 
 
 "We have an individuality of our own, which is sacred to ourselves ; 
 will you not protect our personal liberty, while in the lawful, lady- 
 like exercise of it? for personal liberty is a boon of inestimable val- 
 ue to ourselves as well as you, and by guarding our liberty against false 
 commitment there, you may have fortified the personal liberty of 
 some of Illinois' best and sanest class of citizens, whose interests are 
 now vitally imperiled by this unjust law. 
 
 Yes, gentlemen, I, their representative, now stand legally exposed 
 to be kidnapped again, and hid for life in some lunatic Asylum ; and 
 since no laws defend me, this may yet be done. Should public sen- 
 timent the only law of self-defence I have endorse the statements 
 of this terrible conspiracy against the personal liberty and stainless 
 character of an innocent woman, I may yet again be 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. 
 
 O ! I do want laws to protect me, and, as an American citizen, I 
 not only ask, but I demand that my personal liberty shall depend 
 upon the decision of a jury not upon the verdict of public senti- 
 ment, or forged certificates, either. 
 
 My gallant brothers, be true to my cause, if false to me. Be true 
 to woman ! defend her as your weak, confiding sister, and Heaven 
 shall reward you ; for God is on her side, " and he always wins who 
 sides with God." 
 
 Fear not ; fear nothing so much as the sin of simply not doing 
 your duty. Maintain your death grapple in defence of the heaven- 
 born principles of liberty and justice to all human kind, especially to 
 woman. Emancipate her ! for above this cross hangs suspended a 
 crown, of which even our martyred Lincoln's crown of negro eman- 
 cipation, 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-earne/l reward of Illinois' gallant sons, as em- 
 bodied in their legislators.
 
 14 ADDitESS TQ THE 
 
 And all we have to ask for Dr. McFarland is, that you not only 
 allow, but require thin great man to stand just where his own actions 
 will place him, regardless of his position, or the opinion of his ene- 
 mies or his friends. 
 
 Gentlemen, permit me also to say, that when you have once lib- 
 erated the sane inmates of that hospital, and effectually fortified the 
 rights of the sane citizens of Illinois against false commitments there, 
 you will have taken the first progressive step in the right direction, 
 in relation to this great humanitarian reform. And here I will say, 
 that from what I do know of the practical workings of the internal 
 machinery of that institution, as seen from behind the curtain, from 
 the standpoint of a patient, and from what I know of the personal 
 and private character of Illinois Statesmen, I predict it will not be 
 the last. . 
 
 And, notwithstanding the temporary disfigurement of Illinois' proud 
 escutcheon by this foul stain of religious persecution, which, I regret 
 to say, it now has upon it, may God grant that the present statesmen 
 of Illinois may yet so fully vindicate its honor, as that the van of 
 this great humanitarian reform may yet be heralded to the world in 
 the action of Illinois representatives, as embodied in this legislature 
 of 1867. 
 
 I hold myself in readiness, gentlemen, to answer any questions, or 
 perform any service in behalf of this cause you may desire of me ; 
 and, as an incentive to your acting efficiently in this matter, I will 
 state that several legislatures in New England are watching eagerly 
 the result of my application to you, this winter, and they have en- 
 gaged me to report to them the result. 
 
 I desire, therefore, an opportunity to vindicate your character be- 
 before these legislatures, on the basis of your own actions, for, after 
 you know of the existence of this barbarous law, and its direct ap- 
 plication to me, one of its wronged and injured victims, as you now 
 do, I shall no longer be able to plead your ignorance of the existence 
 .of such a law, as your vindication from the charge of barbarism, and 
 you must know that the intelligence of the whole civilized world 
 cannot but call a State barbarous in its legislation, so long as this 
 black and cruel law has an existence, even in continuing to hold its 
 \victims in its despotic grasp. 
 
 I know, gentlemen, that since 1 865, I can plead that you have 
 nominally repealed it, but so long as this law of 'Go is without a 
 penalty to enforce it, it is only a half law, or in other words, it is 
 merely legislative advice it is not a statute law, and so long as you
 
 ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE i K 
 
 do retain its injured victims in their false imprisonment, you have rot 
 rep-uled it. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, much as I would like to gratify the wishes of a 
 member of your House, in erasing the recoid of this laAv from my 
 bo 3k, o.i th .3 ground of its having been already repealed, I cannot 
 conscientiously do it so long as that institution continues to receive 
 inmates without a;iy trial by jury, or retains those who have never 
 had any such trial. 
 
 No, gentlemen ; this law and its application to .me, cannot be ob- 
 literated, for it has already become a page of Illinois' history, which 
 must stand to all coming time, as a living witness against the legisla- 
 tion of Illinois in the nineteenth century. There is one way, and 
 only one, by which you can redeem your State from this foul blct of 
 religious persecution which now desecrates your nationality in the es 
 timation of the whole civilized world, and that is by such practical 
 repentance as this bill demands. This done, I can then, and only 
 till then, vindicate the character of Illinois statesmen, on the ground 
 of their own ho lorable a j ,:ts. 
 
 In an appendix to this book, you will then find not only Mrs. 
 Packard's appeal to Illinois' legislature of 1867, but also the noble 
 manly response of its legislators, as echoed by their own honorable 
 acts. Bat, should you, for any reason, choose to turn a deaf ear to 
 this appeal in defence of your injured citizens, I shall not rest until 
 I have made this same appeal to the people of this State, and asked 
 from them the justice I am denied from their representatives. And 
 should I be denied there, I shall go to work single-handed and alone, 
 in liberating this oppressed class, by the habeas corpus act, before I 
 shall feel that my skirts are washed from the guilt of hiding these 
 public sins against humanity, which I know to have existence in the 
 State of Illinois, 
 
 And can you blame me for this manifestation of my heart sympa- 
 thy for my imprisoned sisters ? Can a sensitive woman feel a less 
 degree of sympathy for her own sex, when she knows, as I do from 
 my own bitter experience, the injustice they are daily and hourly now 
 receiving in that dismal prison ? 
 
 And ! if you or your darling daughter were in their places, 
 would you feel like reproaching me as a fanatic, for thus volunteering 
 in your defence ? No ; you would not. But I should reproach my- 
 self,, and so must a just God reproach me, should I dare to do le.s ; 
 for there is a vow recorded in the archives of high Heaven, that Mrs. 
 Packard will do all in her power to do, for the deliverance of these
 
 1 g ADDRESS TO THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 victims of injustice, if God will but grant her deliverance. I am de- 
 livered ! my vow stands recorded there ! Shall this vow be a witness 
 against me, or shall it not ? 
 
 Gentlemen of this Assembly, I shall try to redeem that pledge, 
 and so far as you are concerned, my work is now done. Yours re- 
 mains to be done. God grant you may dare to do right ! that you 
 may have the moral courage to dare to settle this great question, 
 just upon its own intrinsic merits, independent of the sanity or the 
 insanity of its defender. 
 
 Very respectfully submitted to the General Assembly of Illinois, 
 
 now in Session, by 
 
 
 
 MRS. E. P. W. PACKARD. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 12th, 1867. 
 
 The result of this appeal was the passage of the "Personal 
 Liberty Bill," entitled "An Act for the Protection of Personal 
 Liberty."
 
 ACTION OF ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THIS SUBJECT. 
 
 AN ACT in relation to Insane persons and the Illinois State Hos- 
 pital for the Insane. 
 
 SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 
 represented in the General Assembly : That the circuit judges of this 
 Satte are hereby vested with power to act under and execute the 
 provisions of the act passed on the 12th of February, 18.~j3, 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 ascertain the insanity 
 or sanity of any person alleged to be insane, the judge shall order 
 the clerk of the court of which he is judge to issue a writ, requiring 
 the person alleged to be 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 sr eriff 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 insan- 
 ity, shall have the right to process for witnesses, and to have wit- 
 nesses 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 ; anl no resident of the State shall 
 hereafter be admitted into the hospital for the insane, excfpt upon 
 the order of a court or judge, or of the production of a warrant issued 
 
 17
 
 jg H*. ACTION OF ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 according to the provisions of the act to which this is an amend- 
 ment. 
 
 SEC. 4. The accounts of said institution shall be so kept and re- 
 ported to the general assembly, as to show the kind, quantity and 
 cost of any articles purchased for use ; and upon quarterly settle- 
 ments 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 re- 
 move the evils it was designed to remedy. This law, having no 
 penalty to enforce it, was found to be violated in many instances, 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. Therefore, a petition was sent to the legislature 
 of 1867, signed by I. N. Arnold, J. Young Scammon, and thirty-six 
 other men of the first legal standing in Chicago, asking for the prac- 
 tical repeal of the old law of 1851, by the enforcement of the new 
 law of 1865. 
 
 The old law of 1851 is as follows, viz. : " 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 legislature was led to see that by the practical enforcement 
 of this unjust law, the personal liberty of married women and infants 
 was still imperiled, and also that the law of 1865 did not relieve the 
 wronged and injured victims of this unjust law, now imprisoned at 
 Jacksonville Insane Asylum. Therefore, the legislature of 1867 
 passed the following " Act for the protection of Personal Liberty." 
 
 AN ACT for the Protection of Personal Liberty. 
 
 SECTION 1- Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 
 represented in the General Assembly: That no superintendent, medi- 
 cal director, agent or other person, having the management, super- 
 vision or control of the Insane Hospital at Jacksonville, or of any
 
 ACTION OF ILLINOIS LEGISLATIVE. x g 
 
 hospital or asylum for insane and distracted persons in this State, 
 fhull receive, detain or keep in custody at such asylum or hospital 
 any person who has not been declared insane or distracted by a ver- 
 dict of a jury and the order of a court, as provided by an act of the 
 general as-embly of this State, approved February 16, 1865. 
 
 SEO. 2. Any person having charge of, or the management or con-' 
 trol of any hospital for the insane, or of any asylum 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 guilty of a high misdemeanor, and liable to in- 
 dictment, and on conviction be fined not more than one thousand 
 dollars, nor less than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned not exceed- 
 ing one year, nor less than three month 5 *, or both, in the discretion 
 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. 
 
 SEC. 3. Any person now confined in any insane hospital or 
 asylum, and all persons now confined in the hospital for tne insane 
 at Jacksonville, who have not been tried and found insane or dis- 
 tracted 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 a'ylum, in their discretion, of the provisions of this 
 act and of the said>act of 1865, and on their request, such persons 
 shall be entitled to such trial within a reasonable time thereafter : 
 provided, that such trial may be had in the county where such per- 
 son 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 transporta- 
 tion of such person to, and demand trial in the county where such 
 insane person resided previous to said detention, in which case such 
 trial shall take place in said last mentioned county. 
 
 SEC. 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 186") provided, within two months after the passage of 
 this act, shall be set at liberty and discharged. 
 
 SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the State's attorneys for the seve- 
 ral counties to prosecute any suit arising under the provisions of 
 this act.
 
 2Q ACTION OF ILLINOIS LSCHSLATCIIS. 
 
 SEC. 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. 
 
 The public will see that, under the humane provisions of this act, 
 all the inmates of 6very insane asylum in the State of Illinois, whe- 
 ther public or private, who have been incarcerated without the ver- 
 dict of a jury that they are insane, are now entitled to a jury trial, 
 and unless this trial is granted 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. 
 
 It is thus that the barbarities of the law of 1851 are wiped out by 
 this act of legislative justice. Now, all married women and infants 
 who have been imprisoned " without evidence of insanity," as this 
 unjust law allows, and who are still living victims of this cruel law, 
 will now be liberated from their false imprisonment, unless they have 
 become insane by the inhumanity of their confinement. And if it is 
 found by the testimony that they were sane when they were im- 
 prisoned, and that they have become insane by being kept there, is it 
 humane to perpetuate the cause of their insanity, under the pretext 
 that their cure demands it ? Or, in other words, is that kind of 
 treatment which caused their insanity the best adapted to cure their 
 insanity ? 
 
 This great question, \ho shall be retained as fit subjects for the 
 insane asylum, is now to depend, in all cases, upon the decision of a 
 jury ; and each case must be legally investigated, as the law of 1865 
 directs. 
 
 ANOTHER ACT OP LEGISLATIVE JUSTICE APPOINTMENT OF AN 
 
 INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 
 
 Resolved, the Senate concurring, That a joint committee of three 
 from this House and two from the Senate be appointed to visit the 
 hospital for the insane, after the adjournment of the legislature, at 
 such times as they may deem necessary, with power to send for per- 
 sons and papers, and to examine witnesses on oath ; that said com- 
 mittee be instructed thoroughly to examine and inquire into the finan- 
 cial and sanitary management of said institution ; to ascertain whether
 
 ACTION OF ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 21 
 
 any of the inmates are improperly detained in the hospital, or un- 
 justly placed there, and whether the inmates are humanely and kindly 
 treated, and 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. 
 
 And be it further resolved, That said committee be instructed to 
 examine the financial and general management of the other State 
 institutions. 
 
 Adopted by the House of Kepresentatives, 
 
 F. CORWIN, Speaker. 
 
 Concurred in by the Senate,- 
 
 WM. BROSS, Speaker. 
 
 The following gentlemen compose the committee : Hon. E. Bald- 
 win, Farm Ridge, LaSalle county ; Hon. T. B. "Wakeman, Howard, 
 McHenry county; Hon. John B. Ricks, Taylorville, Christian 
 county, on the part of the House of Representatives. Hon. Allen C. 
 Fuller, Belvidere, Boone county ; Hon. A. J. Hunter, Paris, Edgar 
 county, on the part of the Senate.