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Marital Power Exemplified in Mrs. Packard's Trial, and Self-Defence from the Charge of Insanity

by E. P. W. Packard · English · Gutenberg #36591 · 403,522 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Marital Power Exemplified in Mrs. Packard's Trial, and Self-Defence from the Charge of Insanity

Author: E. P. W. Packard


        
Release date: July 3, 2011 [eBook #36591]
                Most recently updated: January 7, 2021

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED IN MRS. PACKARD'S TRIAL, AND SELF-DEFENCE FROM THE CHARGE OF INSANITY ***




Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)









[Illustration: The House from which Mrs. Packard was Kidnapped in Manteno,
Kankakee County, Illinois.]




  MARITAL POWER EXEMPLIFIED IN
  Mrs. Packard's Trial,
  AND SELF-DEFENCE FROM THE CHARGE OF INSANITY;

  OR
  Three Years' Imprisonment for Religious Belief,
  BY THE ARBITRARY WILL OF A HUSBAND,
  WITH AN APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT TO SO CHANGE
  THE LAWS AS TO AFFORD
  Legal Protection to Married Women.


  BY MRS. E. P. W. PACKARD.


  CHICAGO:
  CLARKE & CO., PUBLISHERS.
  1870.




TABLE OF CONTENTS.


                                                                  Page

  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. Theophilus 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,                                    42

  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 as 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 religious 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 an 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
guests. The trio approached my bed, and each doctor felt my pulse, and
without asking a single question both pronounced me insane. 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
ask, what lady of refinement and fine and tender sensibilities would not
have a quickened pulse by such an untimely, unexpected, unmanly, and even
outrageous entrance into her private sleeping room? I say it would be
impossible for any woman, unless she was either insane or 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 kind_
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 Insane 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 statement, but now _know_ it to be too sadly
true; for the Statute of Illinois expressly states that a man may put his
wife into an Insane Asylum without evidence of insanity. 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 depot. 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 appointed for this purpose,
amid the silent and almost speechless gaze of a large crowd of citizens
who had collected for the purpose of rescuing me from the hands of my
persecutors. But they were prevented 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
themselves 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 husband 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 my foot on the ground after the
first four months. At the expiration of three years, 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 responsible for my support for life;
if his 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 before
them and "fire a few guns at Calvinism," as I expressed myself, that they
might know and judge for themselves whether I deserved a life-long
imprisonment for indulging such opinions. Dr. McFarland 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 don't care if they are, I am not afraid to defend
my opinions even before the Synod itself. I don't 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 position 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 tasteful a style as my own wardrobe and that of my
attendant's would permit. 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, individually, 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 ruinous to Satan's cause, and do
alienate my children from Satanic influences. I teach Christianity, my
husband teaches Calvinism. They are antagonistic systems and uphold
antagonistic authorities. Christianity 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. 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 several cried out: "Let her go
on! Let us hear the whole!" This document 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 commenced 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 requested to leave
the room. The Doctor left also, leaving me alone with the Trustees. These
intelligent men at once endorsed my statements, 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 expressed 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 fell in with this suggestion, and
I accordingly wrote my great book of seven hundred pages, entitled "The
Great Drama,--An Allegory," the first installment of which is already in
print and six thousand copies in circulation. This occupied me nine
months, which completed 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 removed me from this. But, like as
I entered the Asylum against my will, and in spite of my protest, so I was
put out of it into the absolute power of my persecutor 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 communicate to me their decision,
which was, that I go home to my children taking their voluntary pledge as
my protection; that, should Mr. Packard again attempt to imprison me
without a trial, 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 incarcerated 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, in a
few days, into Northampton Insane Asylum for life; as one of these letters
from Doctor Prince, Superintendent 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 follow in a
train behind, assuring the conductors that I must be treated as an insane
person, although I should deny the charge, as all insane persons did, and
thus make sure of their aid as 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 pretext 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. Packard 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. McFarland 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 action in the case of Mrs. Packard. It is proper enough to
state that I favored her readmission"! Then follows his injunction to Mr.
Packard 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 husbands, or
in a change of the laws, or in a thorough ventilation of that institution.
Such a ventilation is needed, in order that justice 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. Haslett, the most efficient friend I knew of in
Manteno, wherein I informed her of my imminent danger, and begged of her
if it was possible in any way to rescue me to do so, forthwith, for in a
few days I should be beyond the reach of all human help. She communicated
these facts to the citizens, when mob law was suggested as the only
available means of rescue which lay in their power to use, as no law
existed which defended a wife from a husband's power, and no man dared to
take the responsibility of protecting me against my husband. And one hint
was communicated to me clandestinely that if I would only break through my
window, a company was formed who would defend me when once outside our
house. This rather unlady-like mode of self 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; for my conduct and deportment had
uniformly been kind, lady-like and Christian; and even to this 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 Kankakee
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 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, CHARGED
BY HER HUSBAND, REV. THEOPHILUS 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.

A FULL REPORT OF THE TRIAL, INCIDENTS, ETC.

BY STEPHEN R. MOORE, ATTORNEY AT LAW.


In preparing a report of this trial, the writer has had but one object in
view, namely, to present a faithful history of the case as narrated 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 exception of a letter,
written by Dr. McFarland, to Rev. Theophilus Packard, which letter was
retained by Mr. Packard, and the writer was unable to obtain a copy. The
substance of the letter is found in the body of the report, and has been
submitted to the examination of Mr. Packard's counsel, who agree that it
is correctly stated.

This case was on trial before the Hon. Charles R. Starr, at Kankakee City,
Illinois, from Monday, January 11th, 1864, to Tuesday the 19th, and came
up on an application made by Mrs. Packard, under the _Habeas Corpus Act_,
to be discharged from imprisonment by her husband in their own house.

The case has disclosed a state of facts most wonderful and startling.
Reverend Theophilus Packard came to Manteno, in Kankakee county, Illinois,
seven years since, and has remained in charge of the Presbyterian Church
of that place until the past two years.

In the winter of 1859 and 1860, there were differences of opinion
between Mr. Packard and Mrs. Packard, upon matters of religion, which
resulted in prolonged and vigorous debate in the home circle. The heresies
maintained by Mrs. Packard were carried by the husband from the fireside
to the pulpit, and made a matter of inquiry by the church, and which soon
resulted in open warfare; and her views and propositions were
misrepresented and animadverted upon, from the pulpit, and herself made
the subject of unjust criticism. In the Bible Class and in the Sabbath
School, she maintained her religious tenets, and among her kindred and
friends, defended herself from the obloquy of her husband.

To make the case fully understood, I will here remark, that Mr. Packard
was educated in the Calvinistic faith, and for twenty-nine years has been
a preacher of that creed, and would in no wise depart from the religion of
his fathers. He is cold, selfish and illiberal in his views, possessed of
but little talent, and a physiognomy innocent of expression. He has large
self-will, and his stubbornness is only exceeded by his bigotry.

Mrs. Packard is a lady of fine mental endowments, and blest with a liberal
education. She is an original, vigorous, masculine thinker, and were it
not for her superior judgment, combined with native modesty, she would
rank as a "strong-minded woman." As it is, her conduct comports strictly
with the sphere usually occupied by woman. She dislikes parade or show of
any kind. Her confidence that Right will prevail, leads her to too tamely
submit to wrongs. She was educated in the same religious belief with her
husband, and during the first twenty years of married life, his labors in
the parish and in the pulpit were greatly relieved by the willing hand and
able intellect of his wife.

Phrenologists would also say of her, that her self-will was large, and her
married life tended in no wise to diminish this phrenological bump. They
have been married twenty-five years, and have six children, the issue of
their intermarriage, the youngest of whom was eighteen months old when she
was kidnapped and transferred to Jacksonville. 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 total
depravity, and that God has foreordained some to be saved and others to be
damned. She stands fully on the platform of man's free agency and
accountability to God for his actions. She believes that man, and
nations, are progressive; and that in his own good time, and in accordance
with His great purposes, Right will prevail over Wrong, and the oppressed
will be freed from the oppressor. She believes slavery to be a national
sin, and the church and the pulpit a proper place to combat this sin.
These, in brief, are the points in her religious creed which were
combatted by Mr. Packard, and were denominated by him as "emanations from
the devil," or "the vagaries of a crazed brain."

For maintaining such ideas as above indicated, Mr. Packard denounced her
from the pulpit, denied her the privilege of family prayer in the home
circle, expelled her from the Bible Class, and refused to let her be heard
in the Sabbath School. He excluded her from her friends, and made her a
prisoner in her own house.

Her reasonings and her logic appeared to him as the ravings of a mad
woman--her religion was the religion of the devil. To justify his conduct,
he gave out that she was insane, and found a few willing believers, among
his family connections.


This case was commenced by filing a petition in the words following, to
wit:

     STATE OF ILLINOIS, }
     KANKAKEE COUNTY.   } _ss._

     _To the Honorable_ CHARLES R. STARR, _Judge of the 20th Judicial
     Circuit in the State of Illinois_.

     William Haslet, Daniel Beedy, Zalmon Hanford, and Joseph Younglove,
     of said county, on behalf of Elizabeth P. W. Packard, wife of
     Theophilus Packard, of said county, 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 husband,
     Rev. Theophilus Packard, being forcibly confined and imprisoned in a
     close room of the dwelling-house of her said husband, for a long
     time, to wit, for the space of 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 wife; and they are advised and believe,
     that said wife desires to come to Kankakee City, to make application
     to your Honor for a writ of _habeas corpus_, to liberate herself from
     said confinement or imprisonment, and that said husband refused and
     refuses to allow said wife to come to Kankakee City for said purpose;
     and that these petitioners make application for a writ of _habeas
     corpus_ in her behalf, at her request. These petitioners therefore
     pray that a writ of _habeas corpus_ may forthwith issue, commanding
     said Theophilus Packard to produce the body of said wife, before your
     Honor, according to law, and that said wife may be discharged from
     said imprisonment.

       (Signed)  WILLIAM HASLET.
                 DANIEL BEEDY.
                 ZALMON HANFORD.
                 J. YOUNGLOVE.

     J. W. ORR, }
     H. LORING, } _Petitioners' Attorney_.

     STEPHEN R. MOORE, _Counsel_.


     STATE OF ILLINOIS, }
     KANKAKEE COUNTY.   } _ss._

     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 HANFORD.
       J. YOUNGLOVE.

     Sworn to and subscribed before me, this }
     11th day of January, A. D. 1864.        }

     MASON B. LOOMIS, _J. P._

Upon the above petition, the Honorable C. R. Starr, Judge as aforesaid,
issued a writ of _habeas corpus_, as follows:

     STATE OF ILLINOIS, }
     KANKAKEE COUNTY.   } _ss._

     _The People of the State of Illinois, To_ THEOPHILUS PACKARD

     WE COMMAND YOU, That the body of Elizabeth P. W. Packard, in your
     custody detained and imprisoned, as it is said, together with the day
     and cause of caption and detention, by whatsoever name the same may
     be called, you safely have before Charles R. Starr, Judge of the
     Twentieth Judicial Circuit, State of Illinois, at his chambers, at
     Kankakee City in the said county, on the 12th instant, at one
     o'clock, P. M., and to do and receive all and singular those things
     which the said Judge shall then and there consider of her in this
     behalf, and have you then and there this writ.

     Witness, Charles R. Starr, Judge aforesaid, this 11th day of January,
     A. D. 1864.

       CHARLES R. STARR,         [SEAL.]
       _Judge of the 20th Judicial Circuit of the State of Illinois._
       [_Revenue Stamp._]

     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
     Elizabeth P. W. Packard is now in my custody, before your Honor. That
     the said Elizabeth is the wife of the undersigned, and is and has
     been for more than three years past insane, and for about three years
     of that time was in the Insane Asylum of the State of Illinois, under
     treatment, as an insane person. That she was discharged from said
     Asylum, without being cured, and is incurably insane, on or about the
     18th day of June, A. D. 1863, and that since the 23rd day of October,
     the undersigned has kept the said Elizabeth with him in Manteno, in
     this county, and while he has faithfully and anxiously watched, cared
     for, and guarded the said Elizabeth, yet he has not unlawfully
     restrained her of her liberty; and has not confined and imprisoned
     her in a close room, in the dwelling-house of the undersigned, or in
     any other place or way, but, on the contrary, the undersigned has
     allowed her all the liberty compatible with her welfare and safety.
     That the undersigned is about to remove his residence from Manteno,
     in this State, to the town of Deerfield, in the county of Franklin,
     in the State of Massachusetts, and designs and intends to take his
     said wife Elizabeth with him. That the undersigned has never misused
     or abused the said Elizabeth, by depriving her of her winter's
     clothing, but, on the contrary, the undersigned has always treated
     the said Elizabeth with kindness and 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 Kankakee City, for the purpose of
     suing out a writ of _habeas corpus_. The undersigned hereby presents
     a letter from Andrew McFarland, Superintendent of the Illinois State
     Hospital, at Jacksonville, in this State, 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 readmit 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 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,
E. 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 practice
fifteen years. Have seen Mrs. Packard; saw her three or four years ago. Am
not much acquainted with her. Had never seen her until I was called to see
her at that time. I was called to visit her by Theophilus Packard. I
thought her partially deranged on religious matters, and gave a
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 is 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 perhaps one-half hour each time I visited her. I formed my judgment as
to her insanity wholly from conversing with her. I could see nothing
except an unusual zealousness and warmth upon religious topics. Nothing
was said, in my conversation with her, about disagreeing with Mr. Packard
on religious topics. Mr. Packard introduced the subject of religion the
first time I was there: the second time, I introduced the subject. Mr.
Packard and Mr. Comstock were present. The subject was pressed on her for
the purpose of drawing her out. Mrs. Packard would manifest more zeal than
most of people upon any subject that interested her. I take her to be a
lady of fine mental abilities, possessing more ability than ordinarily
found. She is possessed of a nervous temperament, easily excited, and has
a strong 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 produces,
oftentimes, ill-feelings towards the best friends, and particularly the
family, or those more nearly related to the insane person--but not so with
monomania. She told me, in the conversation, that the Calvinistic
doctrines were wrong, and that she had been compelled to withdraw 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. BROWN, 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. I had no
difficulty in arriving at the conclusion, in my mind, that she was 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 of the Holy Ghost were
represented in woman; and that the Son was the fruit of these two
attributes of the Deity?

_Ans._ Well, I am not sure but that was the idea conveyed, though I did
not fully get her idea at the time.

_Ques._ Was not that a new idea to you in theology?

_Ans._ It was.

_Ques._ Are you much of a theologian?

_Ans._ No.

_Ques._ Then because the idea was a novel one to you, you pronounced her
insane.

_Ans._ Well, I pronounced her insane on that and other things that
exhibited themselves in this conversation.

_Ques._ Did she not show more familiarity with the subject of religion and
the questions of theology, than you had with these subjects?

_Ans._ I do not pretend much knowledge on these subjects.

_Ques._ What else did she say or do there, that showed marks of insanity?

_Ans._ She claimed to be better than her husband--that she was right--and
that he was wrong--and that all she did was good, and all he did was bad;
that she was farther advanced than other people, and more nearly
perfection. She found fault particularly that Mr. Packard would not
discuss their points of difference on religion in an open, manly way,
instead of going around and denouncing her as crazy to her friends and to
the church.

She had a great aversion to being called insane. Before I got through the
conversation she exhibited a great dislike to me, and almost treated me in
a contemptuous manner. She 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 me and fill me
with light.

5. Her aversion to the doctrine of the total depravity of man.

6. Her claim to perfection or nearer perfection in action and conduct.

7. Her aversion to being called insane.

8. Her feelings towards her husband.

9. Her belief that to call her insane and abuse her, was blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost.

10. Her explanation of this idea.

11. Incoherency of thought and ideas.

12. Her extreme aversion to the doctrine of the total 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 standpoint of
Christian exegetical analysis, and agglutinating the polsynthetical
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 accordance with my
views, but that is no evidence that she is insane.

_Cross-examined._--I made this visit at her house, or his house, perhaps,
at Manteno. I conversed on various subjects. She was perfectly sane on
every subject except religion, and I would not swear now that she was
insane. She seemed to have been laboring under an undue excitement on that
subject. She has a nervous temperament, and is easily excited. She said
she liked her children, and that it was hard to be torn from them. That
none but a mother could feel the anguish she had suffered; that while she
was confined in the Asylum, the children had been educated by their father
to call her 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. Packard has lived
there six years. I have been sent for several times by her and Mr.
Packard, and found her in an excited state of mind. I was there
frequently; we were very familiar. One morning early, I was sent for: she
was in the west room; she was in her night clothes. She took me by the
hand and led me to the bed. Libby was lying in bed, moaning and moving her
head. Mrs. Packard now spoke and said, "How pure we are." "I am one of the
children of heaven; Libby is one of the branches." "The woman shall bruise
the serpent's head." She called Mr. Packard a devil. She said, Brother
Dole, these are serious matters. If Brother Haslet will help me, we will
crush the body. She said, Christ had come into the world to save men, and
that she had come to save woman. Her hair was disheveled. Her face looked
wild. This was over three years ago.

I was there again one morning after this. She came to me. She pitied me
for marrying my wife, who is a sister to Mr. Packard; said I might find an
agreeable companion. She said if she had cultivated amativeness, she would
have made a more agreeable companion. She took me to another room and
talked about going away; this was in June before they took her to the
State Hospital. She sent for me again; she was in the east room; she was
very cordial. She wanted me to intercede for Theophilus, who was at
Marshall, Michigan; she wanted him to stay there, and it was thought not
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 thought Moses had acted too hasty, but that all
things worked for the glory of God. I requested her to keep quiet, and she
agreed to do it.

I have had no conversation with Mrs. Packard since her 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 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 know she was crazy, but I did
not want to take the responsibility myself, so I put it to a vote of the
school, if she should be allowed to read it. She was allowed to read it.
It occupied ten or fifteen minutes in reading.

I cannot state any of the particulars of that paper. It bore evidence of
her insanity. She went on and condemned the church, all in all, and the
individuals composing the church, because they did not agree with her. She
looked very wild and very much excited. She seemed to be insane. She came
to church one morning just as services commenced, and wished to have the
church act upon her letter withdrawing from the church immediately. Mr.
Packard was in the pulpit. She wanted to know if Brother Dole and Brother
Merrick were in the church, and wanted them to have it acted upon. This
was three years ago, just before she was taken away to the hospital.

_Cross-examined._--I supposed when I first went into the room that her
influence over the child had caused the child to become deranged. The
child was nine years old. I believed that she had exerted some mesmeric or
other influence over the child, that caused it to moan and toss its head.
The child 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 her more or
less. This letter to the church was for the purpose of asking for a letter
from the church.

_Question._ Was it an indication of insanity that she wanted to leave the
Presbyterian Church?

_Answer._ I think it strange that she should ask for letters from the
church. She would not leave the church unless she was insane.

I am a member of the church--I believe the church is right. I believe
everything the church does is right. I believe 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 was formerly a
Congregationalist; 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. Packard seven years. I cannot tell
the first appearance of any abnormal condition of her mind. I first saw it
at the Sabbath School. She came in and wished to read a communication. I
do not recollect everything of the communication. She did not read the
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 stopped
all proceedings, and produced quite an excitement in the court-room; and
this report would not be faithful if it were passed over unnoticed. Mrs.
Dole, the sister of Mr. Packard, came in, leading the little daughter of
Mrs. Packard, and in passing by the table occupied by Mrs. 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 its
utmost, and not a mother's heart there but what was touched, and scarce a
dry eye was seen. Quite a stir was made, but the sheriff soon restored
order.)

_Cross-examined._--I had charge of the Sunday School; am a member of Mr.
Packard's church. I knew Mr. Packard had considered her insane; knew they
had had difficulties. I was elected superintendent of the school in place
of Brother Dole, for the special purpose of keeping Mrs. Packard straight.


SYBIL DOLE, sworn, and says--

I am Mr. Packard's sister; have known her twenty-five years. Her natural
disposition is very kind and sweet. Her education is very good; her morals
without a stain or blemish. I first observed a change in her, after we
came to Manteno. I had a conversation with her, when she talked an hour
without interruption; she talked in a wild, excited manner; the 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 remaining 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 said very many things which seemed
unnatural. Her voice, manner and ways, all showed she was insane.

I was there when Mr. Baker came there, to see about 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 his wife and said, "Wife, were you ever out of bread,
and had to make biscuit for dinner? I must put you into an Insane Asylum!
No mistake!") I occupied the same room and bed with her. She went to Mr.
Packard's room, and when she returned, she said, that if her son was not
permitted to remain at Marshall, it would result in a divorce. She got up
several times during the night. She told me how much she enjoyed the
family circle. She spoke very highly of Mr. Packard's kindness to her. She
spoke 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 thankful, and
complimented me on my kindness. She consented for me to take the child; I
did so. In a short time, about ten days after, the other children came up,
and said, that she wanted to take her own child. I took the child down.
Her appearance was very wild. She was filled with spite toward Mr.
Packard. She defied me to take the child again, and said that she would
evoke the strong arm of the law to help her keep it.

At another time, at the table, she was talking about religion, when Mr.
Packard remonstrated with her; she became angry, and told him she would
talk what and when she had a mind to. She rose up from the table, and took
her tea-cup, and left the room in great violence.

_Cross-examined._--I am a member of Mr. Packard's church, and am his
sister. He and I have often consulted together about Mrs. Packard. Mr.
Packard was the first to ever suggest that she was insane; after that, I
would more carefully watch her actions to find out if she was insane. The
religious doctrines she advanced were at variance with those entertained
by our church. She was a good, neat, thrifty and careful housekeeper. She
was economical; kept the children clean and neatly dressed. She was sane
on all subjects except religion. I do not think she would have entertained
these ideas, if she had not been insane. I do not think she would have
wanted to have withdrawn from our church, and unite with another church,
if she had not been insane. She said she would 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 lived one week in Mrs. Packard's house. I was present at the
interview when Mrs. Packard ordered us to leave the room. Mrs. Packard was
very pale and angry. She was in an undress, and her hair was down over her
face. It was 11 o'clock in the forenoon--I staid at the house; Mrs.
Packard came out to the kitchen. She was dressed then. She said she had
come to reveal to me what Mr. Packard was. She talked very rapidly; she
would not talk calm. She said Mr. Packard was an arch deceiver; that he
and the members of his church had made a conspiracy to put her into the
Insane Asylum; she wanted me to leave the conspirators. Soon after dinner
she said, "Come with me, I have something to tell you." She said she had a
new revelation; it would soon be here; and that she had been chosen by God
for a particular mission. She said that all who decided with her, and
remained true to her, would be rewarded 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.

_Cross-examined._--Knew Mr. Packard two years before I went there 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 to her promulgating her religious ideas in the church; I
thought them wrong, and injurious. I was present at the Sabbath School
when she read the paper to the school; I thought that bore evidence of
insanity. It was a refutation of what Mrs. Dixon had written; I cannot
give the contents of the paper now.

I was present when she read a confession of her conduct to the church; she
had had her views changed partially, from a sermon preached upon the
subject of the sovereignty and 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 conscience in
charging her to be insane, when she only entertained ideas new to him.

I thought it was an evidence of insanity, because she 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.

When she found I was going to stay in the house, and that the French
servant had been discharged, she ordered me into the kitchen; before that,
she had treated me kindly as a visitor.

I thought it was an evidence of insanity for her to order me into the
kitchen; she ought to have known that I was not an ordinary servant. The
proper place for the servant is in the kitchen at work, and not in the
parlor; I took the place of the servant girl for a short time.

She wanted the flower beds in the front yard cleaned out, and tried to get
Mr. Packard to do it; he would not do it. She went and put on an old dress
and went to work, and cleaned the weeds out, and worked herself into a
great heat. It was a warm day; she staid out until she was almost melted
down with the heat.

_Question._ What did she do then?

_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 changed your clothes too.
And so would any lady, would they not?

_Ans._ Yes.

_Ques._ Then would you call yourself insane?

_Ans._ No. But she was angry and excited, and showed ill-will. She was
very tidy in her habits; liked to keep the house clean, and have her yard
and flowers look well. She took considerable pains with these things.

I remained there until she was taken away; I approved taking her away; I
deemed her dangerous to the church; her ideas were contrary to the church,
and were wrong.

The baby was eighteen months old when she was taken away. She was very
fond of her children and treated them very kindly. Never saw her misuse
them. Never heard that she had misused them. Never heard that she was
dangerous to herself or to her family. Never heard that she had threatened
or offered to destroy anything, or injure any person.


JUDGE BARTLETT was next called to the stand.

Am acquainted with Mrs. Packard. Had a conversation with her on religious
topics. We agreed very well in most things. She did not say she believed
in the transmigration of souls; she said some persons had expressed that
idea to her, but she did not believe it. It was spoken of lightly. She did
not say ever to me, that Mr. Packard's soul would go into an ox. She did
not say anything about her being related to the Holy Ghost. I thought
then, and said it, that religious 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, "I will have
no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. No! not so much as to
eat with them."

_Re-cross-examined._--_Question._ Did you deem that an 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. Counsel stated, he had been
telegraphed to come, and a reply was received, that he was in Zanesville,
Ohio, and would return in about ten days. They claimed his testimony would
be very important. This motion the counsel of Mrs. Packard opposed, as it
was an unheard-of proceeding to 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 their testimony,
and after that was heard, then the court would determine about continuing
the case to get Dr. McFarland, and perhaps he could be got before the
defense was through, and if so, he might be sworn; and held that the
defense should go on now.

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 was discharged from
the institution in June, 1863, and was incurably insane, which certificate
was signed by Dr. McFarland, the Superintendent. To the introduction of
this to the jury, the counsel for Mrs. Packard objected, as being
incompetent testimony, and debarred the defense of the benefit of a
cross-examination. The court 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 time (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 full.

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 in the spring. Knew Rev.
Mr. Packard and Mrs. Packard. First became acquainted with them in 1858;
I was then engaged in the ministry of the Methodist Church. I have
practiced medicine eleven years.

I was consulted as a family physician by Mrs. Packard in 1860. Was quite
well acquainted with Mrs. Packard, and with the family. Lived fifty or
sixty rods from their house. Saw her and the family almost daily. I did
not see anything unusual in her, in regard to her mind. I never saw
anything I thought insanity with her. So far as I know she was a sane
woman. I have seen her since she came from the Hospital; have seen nothing
since to indicate she was insane. My 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 medicine there
six years. I am not very intimately acquainted with either Mr. or Mrs.
Packard. Mr. Packard invited me to go to his house to have an interview
with Mrs. Packard. I went at his request. He requested me to make a second
examination, which I did. There had been a physician there before I went.
The last time, he wanted me to 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. LABRIE, 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 acknowledgment of a
deed from her. I went there, and she signed and acknowledged the deed.
This was within the past two months.

_Re-cross-examined._--I was sent for to go to the house in the spring of
1860. My wife was with me. It was about taking her to Jacksonville. Mrs.
Packard would not come to the room where I was. I stayed there only about
twenty minutes.

Have been there since she returned from the Hospital. The door to her room
was locked on the outside. Mr. Packard said, he had made up his mind to
let no one into her room.


The counsel for Mrs. Packard offered to read to the jury the following
paper, which had been referred to by the witnesses, as evidence of Mrs.
Packard's insanity, and which Deacon Smith refused to hear read. The
counsel for Mr. Packard examined the paper, and admitted it was the same
paper.

The counsel for Mrs. Packard then requested permission of the court for
Mrs. Packard to read it to the jury, which was most strenuously opposed.
The court permitted Mrs. Packard to read it to the jury. Mrs. Packard
arose, and read in a distinct tone of voice, so that every word was heard
all over the court-room.

     HOW GODLINESS IS PROFITABLE

     DEACON SMITH--A question was proposed to this class, the last Sabbath
     Brother Dole taught us, and it was requested that the class consider
     and report the result of their investigations at a future session.
     May I now bring it up? The question was this:

     "Have we any reason to expect that a Christian farmer, _as a
     Christian_, will be any more successful in his farming operations,
     than an impenitent sinner--and if _not_, how is it that godliness is
     profitable unto all things? Or, in other words, does the _motive_
     with which one prosecutes his secular business, other things 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 us in our judging of Mrs. Dixon's true _moral_
     character, next fall, by her _success_ in her farming operations this
     summer.

     My opinion differs from hers on this point; and my _reasons_ are here
     given in writing since I deem it necessary for _me_, under the
     existing state of feeling toward me, to put into a written form _all_
     I have to say, in the class, to prevent misrepresentation.

     Should I be appropriating an unreasonable share of time, as a pupil,
     Mr. Smith, to occupy four minutes of your time in reading them? I
     should like very much to read them, that the class may pass their
     honest criticisms upon them.


     AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION.

     I think we have no _intelligent_ reason for believing that the
     motives with which we prosecute our secular business, have any
     influence in the _pecuniary_ results.

     My reasons are _common sense_ reasons, rather than strictly Bible
     proofs, viz.: I regard man as existing in three distinct departments
     of being, viz., his physical or animal, his mental or intellectual,
     his moral or spiritual; and each of these three distinct departments
     are under the control of _laws_, peculiar to itself; and these
     different laws do not interchange with, or affect each other's
     department.

     For instance, a very _immoral_ man may be a very _healthy_,
     long-lived man; for, notwithstanding he violates the _moral_
     department, he may live in conformity to the _physical_ laws of his
     animal nature, which secure to him his physical health. And, on the
     other hand, a very moral man may suffer greatly from a diseased body,
     and be cut off in the very midst of his 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 _this_ ground, the Christian farmer has no more _reason_ to expect
     success in his farming operations, than the impenitent sinner. In
     either case, the foundation for success must depend upon the degree
     of _fidelity_ with which the _natural laws_ are applied, which cause
     the natural result--_not_ upon the _motives_ of the operator; since
     these moral acts receive their penalty and reward on an entirely
     different plane of his being.

     Now comes in the question, how then is it true, that "godliness is
     _profitable_ unto all things," if godliness is no guarantee to
     success in business pursuits?

     I reply, that the profits of godliness cannot mean, simply,
     _pecuniary_ profits, because this would limit the gain of godliness
     to this world, alone; whereas, it is profitable not only for _this
     life_, but also for the _life to come_. Gain and loss, dollars and
     cents, are not the coins current in the spiritual world.

     But happiness and misery are coins which are current in _both_
     worlds. Therefore, it appears to me, that happiness is the profit
     attendant upon godliness, and for this reason, a _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, "Godliness is profitable unto all things," to
     every department of our being.

     E. P. W. PACKARD.

     MANTENO, March 22, 1860.

Mrs. Packard then stated that the above was presented to the class, the
15th day of the following April, and was _rejected_ by the teacher Deacon
Smith, on the ground of its being irrelevant to the subject, since she had
not confined herself to the Bible alone for proof of her position.

As she took her seat, a murmur of applause arose from every part 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 1860. I lived a mile and a half from them. Have seen her very
frequently since her return from Jacksonville. Had many conversations with
her before she was taken away, and since her return. She always appeared
to me like a sane woman. I heard she was insane, and my wife and I went to
satisfy ourselves. I went there soon after the difficulties in the Bible
class.

She is not insane. We talked about religion, politics, and various
matters, such as a grey-haired old farmer could talk about, and I saw
nothing insane about her.


Mr. BLESSING, sworn, and says:

I live in Manteno; have known Mrs. Packard six years; knew her in the
spring of 1860; lived eighty rods from their house. She visited at my
house. I have seen her at church. She attended the Methodist church for a
while after the difficulties commenced, and then I saw her every Sunday. I
never thought her insane.

After the word was given out by her husband that she was insane, she
claimed my particular protection, and wanted me to obtain a trial for her
by the laws of the land, and such an investigation she said she was
willing to stand by. She claimed Mr. Packard was insane, if any one was.
She begged for a trial. I did not then do anything, because I did not like
to interfere between man and wife. I never saw 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 care of her family
than any other person.

I saw her at Jacksonville. I took Dr. Shirley with me to test her
insanity. Dr. Shirley told me she was not insane.

Cross-examination waived.


Mrs. BLESSING, sworn, and says:

Have known Mrs. Packard seven years; knew her in 1860. Lived near them; we
visited each other as neighbors. She first came to our house when she
returned from Jacksonville. I did not see anything that indicated that she
was insane. I saw her at Jacksonville. She had the keys, and showed me
around. I heard the conversation there with Dr. Shirley; they talked about
religion; did not think she talked unnatural. When I first went in, she
was at work on a dress for Dr. McFarland's wife. I saw her after she
returned home last fall, quite often, until she was locked in her room. On
Monday after she got home, I called on her; she was at work; she was
cleaning up the feather beds; they needed cleaning badly. I went there
afterward; her daughter let me in. On Saturday before the trial commenced,
I was let into her room by Mr. Packard; she had no fire in it; we sat
there in the cold. Mr. Packard had a handful of keys, and unlocked the
door and let me in. Mrs. Hanford was with me. Before this, Mrs. Hanford
and myself went there to see her; he would not let us see her; he shook
his hand at me, and threatened to put me out.


Mrs. HASLET, sworn, and said:

Know Mrs. Packard very well; have known her since they lived in Manteno;
knew her in the spring of 1860; and since she returned from Jacksonville,
we have been on intimate terms. I never saw any signs of insanity with
her. I called often before she was kidnapped and carried to Jacksonville,
and since her return.

I recollect the time Miss Rumsey was there; I did not see anything that
showed insanity. I called to see her in a few days after she returned from
Jacksonville; she was in the yard, cleaning feather beds. I called again
in a few days; she was still cleaning house. The house needed cleaning;
and when I again called, it looked as if the mistress of the house was at
home. She had no hired girl. I went again, and was not admitted. I
conversed with her through the window; the window was fastened down. The
son refused me admission. The window was fastened with nails on the
inside, and by two screws, passing through the lower part of the upper
sash and the upper part of the lower sash, from the outside. I did not see
Mr. Packard this time.

_Cross-examination._--She talked about getting released from her
imprisonment. She asked if filing a bill of complaint would lead to a
divorce. She said she did not want a divorce; she only wanted protection
from Mr. Packard's cruelty. I advised her to not stand it quietly, but get
a divorce.


Dr. DUNCANSON, sworn, and said:

I live here; am a physician; have been a clergyman; have been a practicing
physician twenty-one years. Have known Mrs. Packard since this trial
commenced. Have known her by general report for three years and upwards. I
visited her at Mr. Orr's. I was requested to go there and have a
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 in many
years. We talked religion very thoroughly. I find her an expert in both
departments, Old School and New School theology. There are thousands of
persons who believe just as she does. Many of her ideas and doctrines are
embraced in Swedenborgianism, and many are found only in the New School
theology. The best and most learned men of both Europe and this country,
are advocates of these doctrines, in one shape or the other; and some
bigots and men with minds of small calibre may call these great minds
insane; but that does not make them insane. An insane mind is a diseased
mind. These minds are the perfection of intellectual powers, healthy,
strong, vigorous, and just the reverse of diseased minds, or insane. Her
explanation of woman representing the Holy Ghost, and man representing the
male attributes of the Father, and 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 eminent men. On every topic I introduced, she was
perfectly familiar, and discussed them with an intelligence that at once
showed she was possessed of a good education, and a strong and vigorous
mind. I did not agree with her in sentiment on many things, but I do not
call people insane because they differ from me, nor from a majority, even,
of people. Many persons called Swedenborg insane. That is true; but he had
the largest brain of any person during the age in which he lived; and no
one now dares call him insane. You might with as much propriety call
Christ insane, because he taught the people many new and strange things;
or Galileo; or Newton; or Luther; or Robert Fulton; or Morse, who
electrified the world; or Watts or a thousand others I might name. Morse's
best friends for a long time thought him mad; yet there was a magnificent
mind, the embodiment of health and vigor.

So with Mrs. Packard; there is wanting every indication of insanity that
is laid down in the books. I pronounce her a sane woman, and wish we had a
nation of such women.

This witness was cross-examined at some length, which elicited nothing
new, when he retired.


The defense now announced to the court that they had 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 argument. The
prosecution would not consent to this arrangement.

The case was argued ably and at length, by Messrs. Loomis and Bonfield for
the prosecution, and by Messrs. Orr and Loring on the part of the defense.

It would be impossible to give even a statement of the arguments made, and
do the attorneys justice, in the space allotted to this report.

On the 18th day of January, 1864, at 10 o'clock, P. M., the jury retired
for consultation, under the charge of the sheriff. After an absence of
seven minutes, they returned into court, and gave the following verdict:

     STATE OF ILLINOIS, } _ss._
     KANKAKEE COUNTY,   }

     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_.
       DANIEL G. BEAN.
       F. G. HUTCHINSON.
       V. H. YOUNG.
       G. M. LYONS.
       THOMAS MUNCEY.
       H. HIRSHBERG.
       NELSON JERVAIS.
       WILLIAM HYER.
       GEO. H. ANDREWS.
       J. F. MAFIT.
       LEMUEL MILK.

Cheers rose from every part, of the house; the ladies waved their
handkerchiefs, and pressed around Mrs. Packard, and extended her their
congratulations. It was sometime before the outburst of applause could be
checked. When order was restored, the counsel for Mrs. Packard moved the
court, that she be discharged. Thereupon the court ordered the clerk to
enter the following order:

     STATE OF ILLINOIS, } _ss._
     KANKAKEE COUNTY,   }

     It is hereby ordered that Mrs. Elizabeth P. W. Packard be relieved
     from all restraint incompatible with her condition as a sane woman.

       C. R. STARR,
       _Judge of the 20th 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 startling
intelligence through her window to some ladies who had come to see her,
and were refused admission into the house.

On Monday morning, and before the defense had rested their case, Mr.
Packard left the State, bag and baggage, for parts unknown, having first
mortgaged his property for all it is worth to his sister and other
parties.


We cannot do better than close this report with the following editorial
from the Kankakee Gazette, of January 21, 1864:

MRS. PACKARD.

The case of this lady, which has attracted so much attention and excited
so much interest for ten days past, was decided on Monday evening last and
resulted, as almost every person thought it must, in a complete
vindication of her sanity. The jury retired on Monday evening, after
hearing the arguments of the counsel; and after a brief consultation, they
brought in a verdict that Mrs. Packard is a _sane_ woman.

Thus has resulted an investigation which Mrs. Packard has long and always
desired should be had, but which her cruel husband has ever sternly
refused her. She has always asked and earnestly pleaded for a jury trial
of her case, but her 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 in 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 dull
monotony of "insane, insane," escaping his lips in all his communications
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 sealed by official certificates.

Soon her aberration of mind led her to seek some of her better clothing
carefully kept from her by her husband, which very woman-like act was
seized by him as an excuse for confining her in her room, and depriving
her of her apparel, and excluding her lady friends. Believing that he was
about to again forcibly take her to an asylum, four responsible citizens
of that village made affidavit of facts which caused the 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 she 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 suffered, endure what she has
endured, and the world would be deprived of future clinical revealings
from his gigantic mind upon the subject of the spleen, and he would, to a
still greater extent than in the past, "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," she 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 have all the autumn glory of
perfection.

            "One who walked
  From the throne's splendor to the bloody block,
  Said: 'This completes my glory' with a smile
  Which still illuminates men's thoughts of her."

Feeling the accusations of his guilty conscience, seeing the meshes of the
net with which he had kept her surrounded were broken, and a storm-cloud
of indignation about to break over his head in pitiless fury, the
intolerant Packard, after encumbering their property with trust-deeds, and
despoiling her of her furniture and clothing, left the country. Let him
wander! with the mark of infamy upon his brow, through far-off States,
where distance and obscurity may diminish till the grave shall cover the
wrongs it cannot heal.

It is to be hoped Mrs. Packard will make immediate 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 merciless and
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 ventilated the dreadful facts of this conspiracy, and he
"fled his country," a fugitive from justice. He, however, left a letter
for me which was handed me before I left the Court-house, wherein he
stated that he had moved to Massachusetts, and extended to me an
invitation to follow him, with the promise that he would provide me a
suitable home. But I did not feel much like trusting either to his
humanity or judgment in providing me another home. Indeed, I did not think
it safe to follow him, knowing that 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
interference 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
in the way his own feelings of bigotry and intolerance should dictate!

This was the region of his nativity and former pastorate, which he had
left about eleven years previously, with an unblemished external
character, and sharing, to an uncommon degree, the entire confidence of
the public as a Christian man and a minister. Nothing had occurred, _to
their knowledge_, to disturb this confidence in his present integrity as
an honest reporter, and the entire community credited his testimony as
perfectly reliable, in his entire misrepresentations of the facts in the
case, and the character of the trial. His view was the only view the
community were allowed to hear, so far as it was in his power to prevent
it. The press also lent him its aid, as his organ of communication. He met
also his old associates in the ministry, and by his artfully arranged web
of lies, and his cunning sophistries, he deluded them also into a belief
of his views, so that they, unanimously, gave him their certificate of
confidence and fraternal sympathy. Yea, even my own father and brothers
became victims also of his sophisms and misrepresentations, so that they
honestly believed me to be insane, and that the Westerners had really
interfered with Mr. Packard's rights and kind intents towards his wife, in
intercepting 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 obtained
a certificate from my own dear father, a retired orthodox clergyman in
Sunderland, Massachusetts, that, so far as he knew, he had 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 become their minister in holy
things. He was accordingly hired, as 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, Ill., and showed how she was persecuted by her
     husband, Rev. Theophilus Packard, a bigoted Presbyterian minister of
     Manteno. Mrs. Packard became liberal in her views, 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_, and having her incarcerated in the Insane Asylum at
     Jacksonville, Illinois. He finally succeeded in finding one or two
     orthodox physicians, as bigoted as himself, ready to aid him in his
     nefarious work, and she was confined in the asylum, under the charge
     (?) of Dr. McFarland, who kept her there three years. She at last
     succeeded in having a jury trial, and was 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
     believe that she was _insane_! Is this the way to treat an insane
     wife! Abandon her, turn her out upon the world without a morsel 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 companion 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 woman, and he should have bent over her and soothed
     her, and spent the last penny he had, for her recovery! But instead
     of this, he gathers in his funds, "packs up his duds," and leaves his
     poor, _insane_ wife, as _he_ calls her, in the court room, without
     food or shelter. He abandons her, leaving her 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 _he_ 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 for the
     transfer of some of their real estate in Mount Pleasant, 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 acknowledged 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
     equivalent 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 procure for herself the necessaries of life.

     "He has left her homeless. Before the court closed, Mr. Packard 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, clandestinely, to Massachusetts, leaving her a 'childless
     widow,' entirely dependent for her living, either upon her own
     exertions, or the charities 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 smiling, joyous face to
     extend to her the happy, welcome 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 bestow 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 get even one
     glimpse of her sweet, darling boy. Her cruel husband, fearing her
     attempts to secure 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. HANFORD.

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 at
Kankakee, to see if I could in any way recover my stolen furniture, which
I had bought with my own patrimony. "Can I replevy it as stolen property?"
said I. "No," said my advisers, "you cannot replevy anything, for you are
a married woman, 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 nothing, 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
demonstrates. Now I can realize the sad truths so often iterated,
reiterated to me by my husband, namely: "You have no _right_ to 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 privilege of training and
educating your own children is a favor bestowed upon you by me, which I
can withhold 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 option." 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 IMPRISONMENT.

     "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 Illinois
     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
        distracted, 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."

     "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 instance 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 desire 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 woman'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 expressly
     states that the judgment of the medical Superintendent, to whom the
     husband's request is made, is _all_ that is required for him to
     incarcerate his wife for any indefinite period of time. Neither she,
     her children, nor her relatives have any voice at all in the matter.
     Her 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 carry out his single wishes
     concerning his wife's life-destiny.

     "Are not the 'Divorce Laws' of Illinois made a necessity, to meet the
     demands of the wife, as her only refuge from this 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
     Insanity,' 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, 1865.

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 thousand 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 unlooked 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
workmen 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 selling four hundred tickets in
advance on another edition. I sold and printed, and then printed and sold,
and so on, until I have printed and sold in all, twelve thousand books in
fifteen months' time. Included in this twelve thousand are several
editions of smaller pamphlets, varying in price from five to twenty-five
cents each.


INTERVIEW WITH MAYOR SHERMAN.

At this stage of my Narrative it may not be inappropriate to narrate 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 protect me
here?"

"Why, Mrs. Packard, what protection do you need? What dangers 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 manuscript 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-defense. For, Sir, my identity was legally lost in
his, when I married him, leaving me nothing and nobody in law; and
besides, all I have is his in law, and of course no one can prosecute him
for taking his own things--my 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?"

"He says if the Sheriff comes to him for the book he shall tell him he
must get the book where he can find it; _I_ shall not find it for him. I
then said to my printer, supposing he should come with money, and offer to
buy the manuscript, what then?" "I say, it will take more money than there
is in Chicago to buy that manuscript of us," replied my printer.

"I think that sounds like protection, Mrs. Packard. I think you have
nothing to fear."

"No, Mr. Sherman, I have nothing to fear from the 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 manliness, is there not a
possibility another may. I should not object to a double guard, since the
single guard of manliness has not even protected me from imprisonment."

"Well, Mrs. Packard, you shall have my protection; and I can also assure
you the protection of my counsel, also. If you get into trouble, apply to
us, and we will give you all the help the laws will allow."

"I beg you to consider, Sir; the laws do not allow you to interfere in
such a matter. Are you authorized to stop a man from doing a _legal_ act?"

"No, Mrs. Packard, I am not. I see you are without any legal protection.
Still I think you are safe in Chicago."

"I hope it may so prove, Sir. But one thing more I wish your advice about;
how can I keep the money I get for my book from Mr. Packard, the legal
owner of it?"

"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 before knew
that any one under our government was so utterly defenceless as you are.
Your case ought to be known. Every soldier in our army ought to have one
of your books, so as to have our laws changed."

Soldiers of our army! receive this tacit compliment from Mayor Sherman.
_You_ are henceforth to hold the reins of the American Government. And it
is my candid opinion, they could not be in better or safer hands. And in
your hands would I most confidently trust my sacred cause--the cause of
Married Woman; for, so far as my observation extends, no class of
American citizens are more manly, than our soldiers. I am inclined to
cherish the idea, that gallantry and patriotism are identified; at least,
I find they are almost always associated 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 Deerfield, 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 distant, to my father's house,
promising me I should meet my dear children there; feeling confident that
my father's request joined with his own, would induce Mr. Packard to let
me see once more my own dear offspring. As he expected, my father at once
espoused my cause, and assured me I should see my children; "for," added
he, "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 Massachusetts to protect the
children from their mother, and I shall do it, in spite of you, or father
Ware, or any one else!" Brother adds, "the mystery of this dark case is
now solved, in my mind, completely. Mr. Packard is a monomaniac on this
subject; there is no more reason in his treatment of sister, than in a
brute."

These facts of his refusal to let me see my children, were soon in
circulation in the two adjacent villages of Sunderland and South
Deerfield, and a strongly indignant feeling was manifested against Mr.
Packard's defiant and unreasonable position; and he, becoming aware of the
danger to his interests which a conflict with this tide of public
sentiment might occasion, seemed forced, by this pressure of public
opinion, to succumb; 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 himself and Mrs. Severance, as their body-guard, and with both
as my witnesses, 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, knowing that even in
Massachusetts the laws did not protect me from another similar outrage, if
Mr. Packard could procure the certificate of two physicians that I was
insane; for, with these alone, without any chance 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 Massachusetts, by petitioning them
for a change in their laws on the mode of commitment into Insane Asylums.
As a preparatory step, I endeavored to get up an agitation on the subject,
by printing and selling about six thousand books relative to the subject;
and then, trusting to this 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 Aldermen, 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 Legislature, and they referred it to
a committee, and this committee had seven special meetings on the subject.
I was invited to meet with them each time, and did so, as were also Mrs.
Phelps and Mrs. Denny, two ladies of Boston who had suffered a term of
false imprisonment in a private institution at Sommersville, without any
previous trial. Hon. S. 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 petitioned for, and that
they signed it out of compliment to the lady."

I differ from Dr. Walker in opinion on this point, for this reason. I
obtained these names by my own individual appeals, except from most of the
members of the "Common Council," who signed it during an evening session,
by its being passed around for their names. I witnessed their signing, and
saw them read it, carefully, before signing it. And I _think_ they signed
it intelligently, and from a desire for safer legislation. The others I
_know_ signed intelligently, and for this reason. And I could easily have
got one thousand more names, had it been necessary; for, in selling my
books, I have conversed with many thousand men on this subject, and among
them all, 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 gentlemen in their counting-rooms on
this subject, and they are carefully watching your decision on this
question.

Now, from this stand-point of extensive observation, added to my own
personal experience, I feel fully confident these two Bills are needed to
meet the public demand at this crisis.


BILL NO. 1.

No person shall be regarded or treated as an Insane person, or a
Monomaniac, simply for the _expression of opinions_, no matter how absurd
these opinions may appear to others.

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 transmutation,
and, as our laws now are, the Reformer, the Pioneer, the Originator of any
new idea is liable to be treated as a Monomaniac, with _imprisonment_.

2d. It is a _Crime_ against human progress to allow Reformers to be
treated as Monomaniacs; for, who will dare to be true to the inspirations
of the divinity within them, if the Pioneers of truth are thus liable to
lose their personal liberty for life by so doing?

3d. It is _Treason_ against the principles of our Government to treat
opinions as Insanity, and to imprison for it, as our present laws allow.

4th. There always are those in every age who are opposed to 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:
_individuality_, which guarantees an individual right of opinion to all
persons.

Therefore, gentlemen, _protect your thinkers!_ by a law, against the
charge of Monomania, and posterity shall bless our government, as a model
government, and Massachusetts as the Pioneer State, in thus protecting
individuality as the vital principle on which the highest development of
humanity rests.


BILL NO. 2.

No person shall be imprisoned, and treated as an insane person, except for
_irregularities of conduct_, such as indicate that the individual is so
lost to reason, as to render him an unaccountable moral agent.

REASONS.

Multitudes are now imprisoned, without the least evidence that reason is
dethroned, as indicated by this test. And I am a representative of this
class of prisoners; for, when Dr. McFarland was driven to give his reasons
for regarding me as insane, on _this_ basis, the only reason which he
could name, after closely inspecting my conduct for three years, was, that
I once "_fell down stairs_!"

I do insist upon it, gentlemen, that no person should be imprisoned
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 liberty ought
to be _proved_ from the individual's own conduct, before imprisonment.

So long as insanity is treated as a _crime_, instead of a _misfortune_, as
our 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, _all_ 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 Monomaniac on _that_ point
where he differs from _him_ in opinion! This Monomania in many instances
is not Insanity, but individuality, which is the highest _natural_
development of a human being.

Gentlemen, I know, and have felt, the horrors--the untold _soul_
agonies--attendant on such a persecution. Therefore, as Philanthropists, I
beg of you to guard your own liberties, and those of your countrymen, by
recommending the adoption of these two Bills as an imperative necessity.

The above Bills were presented to the Committee on the Commitment of the
Insane, in Boston State house, March 29, 1865, 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 physicians, he must
now get ten of her nearest relatives to join with him in this request; and
the person committed, instead of not being allowed to communicate by
writing to any one outside of the Institution, except under the censorship
of the Superintendent, can now send a letter to each of these ten
relatives, and to any other two persons whom the person committed shall
designate. This the Superintendent is required to do within two days from
the time of commitment.

This Law is found in Chapter 268, Section 2, of the General Laws of
Massachusetts. I regard my personal liberty in Massachusetts now as not
absolutely in the power of my husband; as my family friends must now
co-operate in order to make my commitment legal. And since my family
relatives are now fully satisfied of my sanity, after having seen me for
themselves, I feel now 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.[1]

     [1] See Appendix, p. 138.


COPY OF 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 justify
     you in retaining them, has, in process of time, entirely vanished.
     There is not a shadow of excuse for retaining them. It is my
     presumption there is not an individual in this town who would justify
     you in retaining them a single day. Elizabeth is about to make a home
     at my house, and I must be her protector. She is very destitute of
     clothing, and greatly needs all those articles which are hers. I hope
     to hear from you soon, before I shall be constrained to take another
     step. Yours, Respectfully,

       "REV. T. PACKARD.        SAMUEL WARE."

The result of this letter was, that in about twenty-four hours after the
letter was delivered, Mr. Packard brought the greater part of my wardrobe
and delivered it into the hands of my father.

In a few weeks after this event, Mr. Packard's place in the pulpit in
Sunderland was filled by a candidate for settlement, and he left the
place. The reasons why he thus left his ministerial charge in this place,
cannot perhaps be more summarily given than by transcribing 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. Packard had left
Sunderland.


LETTER TO REV. DR. POMEROY.

     _Sunderland, Oct. 28, 1865._

     DR. POMEROY, DEAR SIR: I am sorry to say that my dear father feels
     too weak to reply to your kind and affectionate letter of the
     twenty-third instant, and therefore I cheerfully consent to reply to
     it myself.

     As to the subject of your letter, it is as you intimated. We have
     every reason to believe that father's defence of me, has been the
     indirect 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 undermine the confidence of this people in Mr. Packard. But where
     this simple fact, that I have been imprisoned three years, is known,
     to have become a demonstrated truth, by the decision of a jury, after
     a thorough legal investigation of five 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. McFarland in the Asylum, that I shall yet _live down_ this
     slander of Insanity, and also live down my persecutors. And Mr.
     Packard is affording me every facility for so doing, by his
     continuing strenuously to insist upon it, that I am, now, just as
     insane as when he incarcerated me in Jacksonville 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 fortunate 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 pennyless upon the cold world without a place
     to shelter her defenceless head.

     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 to 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 argument and appeal to their
sympathies for pecuniary help, in the form of boxes of clothing for
himself and his destitute and defenceless children. 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 purloined from this benevolent society, by entirely
false representations.

My family were not destitute. But on the contrary, were abundantly
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, Isaac, now in 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
accumulated from these boxes, to one yard in depth in one solid pile. And
this was only one sample of all kinds of ladies' apparel which he had thus
accumulated, by his cunningly devised begging system.

Still, to this very date, he is pleading want and destitution as a basis
for more charities of like kind. He has even so moved the benevolent
sympathies of the widow Dickinson with whom he boarded, as to make her
feel that he was an honest claimant upon their charities in this line, on
the ground of poverty and destitution. She accordingly started a
subscription to procure him a suit of clothes, on the ground of his
extreme destitution, and finally succeeded in begging a subscription of
one hundred and thirteen dollars for his benefit, and presented it to him
as a token of sympathy and regard.

Another fact, he has put his property out of his hands, so that he can say
he has nothing. And should I sue him for my maintainance, I could get
nothing. His rich brother-in-law, George Hastings, 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 matters, they would not have presented him with one
hundred and thirteen dollars, as a token of their sympathy and esteem.
Still, looking at the subject from their stand-point, I have no doubt they
acted conscientiously in this matter. I have never deemed it my duty to
enlighten them on this subject, except as the truth is sought for from me,
in a few individual isolated cases. I do not mingle with the people
scarcely at all, and have sold none of my books among them. Self-defence
does not require me to seek the protection of enlightened public sentiment
now that the laws protect my personal liberty, while in Massachusetts.

But fidelity to the cause of humanity, especially the cause of "Married
Woman," requires me to make public the facts of this notorious
persecution, in order to have her true legal position known and fully
apprehended. And since my case is a practical illustration of what the law
is on this subject--showing how entirely destitute she is of any legal
protection, except what the will and wishes of her husband secures to
her--and also demonstrates the fact, that the common-law, everywhere, in
relation to married woman, not only gravitates towards an absolute
despotism, but even protects and sustains and defends a despotism of the
most arbitrary and absolute kind. Therefore, in order to have her social
position changed legally, the need of this change must first be seen and
appreciated by the common people--the law-makers of this Republic. And
this need or necessity for a revolution on this subject can be made to
appear in no more direct manner, than by a practical case such as my own
furnishes. As the need of a revolution of the law in relation to negro
servitude was made to appear, by the practical exhibition of the Slave
Code in "Uncle Tom's" experience, showing that all slaves were _liable_ to
suffer to the extent he did; so my 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 humanity claims that
such liabilities should not exist in any Christian government. The laws
should be so changed that such another outrage could not possibly take
place under 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 those laws which protect married servitude. Married
woman needs legal emancipation from married servitude, as much as the
slave needed legal emancipation from his servitude.

Again, all slaves did not suffer under negro slavery, neither do all
married women suffer from this legalized servitude. Still, the principle
of slavery is wrong, and the principle of emancipation is right, and the
laws ought so to regard it. And this married servitude exposes the wife to
as great suffering as negro servitude did. It is my candid opinion, that
no Southern slave ever suffered more spiritual agony than I have suffered;
as I am more developed in my moral and spiritual nature than they are,
therefore more capable of suffering. I think no slave mother ever endured
more keen anguish by being deprived of her own offspring than I have in
being legally separated 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 husband for my
protector; for I do not like this being divorced from my own home. I want
a home to live in, and I prefer the one I have labored twenty one years
myself to procure, and furnished to my own taste and mind. Neither do I
like this being divorced from my own children. I want to live with my dear
children, whom I have borne and nursed, reared and educated, almost
entirely by my own unwearied indefatigable exertions; and I love them,
with all the fondness of a mother's undying love, and no place is home to
me in this wide world without them. And again, I have done nothing to
_deserve_ this exclusion from the rights and privileges of my own dear
home; but on the contrary, my untiring fidelity to the best interests of
my family for twenty-one years of healthful, constant service, having
never been sick during this time so as to require five dollars doctor'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-sacrifizing devotion to the best interests of my family and home,
deserve and claim a right to be protected in it, at least, so long as my
good 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 privileges--neither do I
want he should treat me in this manner, especially so long as he himself
claims that I have _always_ been a most kind, patient, devoted wife and
mother. He even claims as his justification of his course, that I am so
_good_ a woman, and he _loves_ me so well, that he wants to save me from
fatal errors!

It is my opinions--my religious opinions--and those alone, he makes an
occasion for treating me as he has. He frankly owned to me, that he was
putting me into an Asylum so that my reputation for being an insane person
might destroy the influence of my religious opinions; and I see in one
letter which he wrote to my father, he mentions this as the chief evidence
of my insanity. He writes: "Her many excellences and past services I
highly appreciate; but she says she has widely departed from, or
progressed beyond, her former religious views and sentiments--and I think
it is too true!!" Here is all the insanity he claims, or has attempted to
prove.

Now comes the question: Is this a crime for which I ought to be divorced
from all the comforts and privileges of my own dear home?

To do this,--that is, to get a divorce--would it not be becoming an
accomplice in crime, by doing the very deed which he is so desirous of
having done, namely: to remove me from my family, for fear of the
contaminating influence of my new views? Has a married woman no rights at
all? Can she not even think her own thoughts, and speak her own words,
unless her thoughts and expressions harmonize with those of her 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 practically divorced from my own home and
children, but also incarcerated 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 question. 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 concerned, 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 protection from the
abuse of marital power, not a divorce from it. I can live in my home with
my husband, if he will only let me do so; but he will not suffer it,
unless I recant my religious belief. Cannot religious bigotry under such
manifestations, receive _some_ check under our government, which is
professedly based on the very principle of religious tolerance to all?
Cannot there be laws enacted by which a married woman can stand on the
same platform as a married man--that is, have an equal right, at least, to
the protection of her inalienable 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 man government thus to
usurp the whole legal power of self-protection and defence, and leave
confiding, trusting woman wholly at the mercy 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 protection, and she should find it in that government she has
sacrificed so much to uphold and sustain.

Again, I do not believe in the divorce principle. I say it is a
"Secession" principle. It undermines the very vital principle of our
Union, and saps the very foundation of our social and civil obligations.
For example. Suppose the small, weak and comparatively feeble States in
our Union were not protected by the Government in any of their State
rights, while the large, strong, and powerful ones had their State 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 States 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 resort from any kind of
abuse from her partner, but divorce, or secession from the Marriage Union.
Now the weak States have rights as well as the strong ones, and it is the
rights of the weak, which the government are especially bound to respect
and defend, to prevent usurpation and its legitimate issue, secession from
the Union. What we want of our government is to prevent this usurpation,
by protecting us equally with our partners, so that we shall not need a
divorce at 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 equally inalienable. There must
be a head in every firm; and the head in the Marriage Firm or Union is the
man, as the Bible and nature both plainly teach. We maintain that the
senior partner, the man, has rights of the greatest importance, as regards
the interests of the marriage firm, which should not only be respected and
protected by our government, but also enforced upon them as an obligation,
if the senior is not self-moved to use his rights practically--and one of
these his rights, is a right to protect his own wife and children. The
junior partner also has rights of equal moment to the interests of the
firm, and one of these is her right to be protected by her senior partner.
Not protected in a prison, but in her own home, as mistress of her own
house, and as a God appointed guardian of her infant children. The
government would then be protecting the marriage union, while it now
practically ignores it.

To make this matter still plainer, suppose this government was under the
control of the female instead of the male 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 into the hands of their wives for safe keeping, and so long as they
chose to be married men, all their claims on our womanly government for
protection should be abrogated 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, instead of
being forced to choose the least of two evils, I would rather reject both
evils, and choose a good thing, that of being protected in my own dear
home from unmerited, unreasonable abuse--a restitution of my rights,
instead of a continuance of this robbery, sanctioned by a divorce.

In short, we desire to live under such laws, as will _oblige_ our husbands
to treat us with decent respect, so long as our good conduct merits it,
and then will they be made to feel a decent regard for us as their
companions and partners, whom the laws protect from their abuse.


SECOND QUESTION.

"What are your opinions, Mrs. Packard, which have caused all this rupture
in your once happy family?"

My first impulse prompts we to answer, pertly, it is no one's business
what I _think_ but my own, since it is to God alone I am accountable for
my thoughts. Whether my thoughts are right or wrong, true or false, is no
one's business but my own. It is my own God given right to superintend my
own thoughts, and this right I shall never 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 so long bound the human reason to
human dictation, must be broken, for the reign of individual, spiritual
freedom is about dawning upon our progressive world.

Yes, I insist upon it, that it is my own individual right to superintend
my own thoughts; and I say farther, it is not my right to superintend the
thoughts or conscience of any other developed being. It is none of my
business what Mr. Packard, my father, or any other developed man or woman
believe or think, for I do not hold myself responsible for their views. I
believe they are as honest and sincere as myself in the views they
cherish, although so antagonistic to my own; and I have no wish or desire
to harass or disturb them, by urging my views upon their notice. Yea,
further, I _prefer_ to have them left entirely free and unshackled to
believe just as their own developed reason dictates. And all I ask of them
is, that they allow me the same privilege. My own dear father does kindly
allow me this right of a developed moral agent, although we differ as
essentially 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 practical
godliness, so that I now know what I do believe, as is not the case with
that class in society who dare not individualize themselves. This class
are mere echoes or parasites, instead of individuals. They just flow on
with the tide of public sentiment, whether right or wrong; whereas the
individualized ones can and do stem or resist this tide, when they think
it is wrong, and in this way they meet with persecution. It is my
misfortune to belong to this 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 myself or others, or the cause of truth requires
it, I willingly avow my own honest convictions. On this ground, I feel not
only justified, but authorized, to give the question under consideration,
a plain and candid answer, knowing that this narrative of the case would
be incomplete without it.

Another thing is necessary as an introduction, and that is, I do not
present my views for others to adopt or endorse as their own. They are
simply my individual opinions, and it is a matter of indifference to me,
whether they find an echo in any other individual's heart or not. I do not
arrogate to myself any popish right or power to enforce my opinions upon
the notice of any human being but myself. While at the same time I claim
that I have just as good a right to my opinions as Scott, Clark, Edwards,
Barnes, or Beecher, or any other human being has to 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 radical
opinions is not a _crime_ of sufficient magnitude, to justify all my
wrongs and imprisonment! Is not my persecutor guiltless in this matter?


COPY OF THE LETTER.

_Jacksonville, Ill., Oct. 23d, 1861._

MRS. FISHER. MY DEAR OLD FRIEND:--

My love and sympathy for you is undiminished. Changes do not sever our
hearts. I cannot but respect your self-reliant, independent, and therefore
progressive efforts to become more and more assimilated to Christ's
glorious image. I rejoice whenever I find one who dares to rely upon their
own organization, in the investigation of truth. In other words, one who
dares to be an independent thinker. * * *

Yes, you, Mrs. Fisher, in your individuality, are just what God made you
to be. And I respect every one who respects himself enough not to try to
pervert 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 defiling,
perverting it, let it stand in all its holy proportions, filling the place
God designed it to occupy, and adorn the temple it was fitted for? I, for
one, Mrs. Fisher, am determined to be a woman, true to my nature. I regard
my nature as holy, and every deviation from its instinctive tendency, I
regard as a perversion--a sin. To live a natural, holy life, as Christ
did, I regard as my highest honor, my chief glory.

I know this sentiment conflicts with our educated belief--our Church
creeds--and the honestly cherished opinions of our relatives and friends.
Still I believe a "thus saith the Lord" supports it. Could Christ take
upon himself our nature, and yet know no sin, if our natures are
necessarily sinful? Are not God's simple, common sense teachings,
authority enough for our opinions? It is, to all honest souls.

Indeed, Mrs. Fisher I have become so radical, as to call in question 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 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 influences, 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 truthism,
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, notwithstanding
others deny this, I know their testimony is false. The Searcher of hearts
knows that I am as honest with myself, as I am with others. And, although
like Paul, I may appear foolish to others in so doing, yet my regard for
truth, transcends all other considerations 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 sacrilegious act. God himself has made me dare to be honest and
truthful, 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 free to be true and honest,
for this persecution for opinion and conscience' sake, has so strengthened
and confirmed me in the free exercise 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 discipline into entire
willing obedience to his will. Can I ever believe that God loves his
children less than I do mine? * * * And has God less power to execute his
kind plans than I have? Yes, I do and will rejoice to utter with a trumpet
tongue, the glorious truth, that God is infinitely benevolent as well as
infinitely wise and just.

Mrs. Fisher, what can have tempted us ever to doubt this glorious truth?
And do we not practically deny it, when we endorse the revolting doctrine
of endless punishment? I cannot but feel that the Bible, literally
interpreted, teaches the doctrine of endless punishment; yet, since the
teachings of nature, and God's holy character and government, seem to
contradict this interpretation, I conclude we must have misinterpreted its
holy teachings. For example, Jonah uses the word everlasting with a
limited meaning, when he says, "thine everlasting bars are about me."
Although to _his_ view his punishment was everlasting, yet the issue
proved that in reality, there was a limit to the time he was to be in the
whale's belly. So it may be in the case of the incorrigible; they may be
compelled to suffer what _to them_ is endless torment, because they see no
hope for them in the future. Yet the issue will prove God's love to be
infinite, in rescuing them from eternal perdition.

Again, Mrs. Fisher, my determination and aim is, to become a perfect
person in _Christ's_ estimation, although by so doing, I may become the
filth and off-scouring of all perverted humanity. What consequence is it
to us to be judged of man's judgment, when the cause of our being thus
condemned by them as insane, is the very character which entitles us to 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 entrammelled by some
yoke of bondage--that the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free
may thus be circumscribed. There is so much of the spirit of bigotry and
intolerance in every denomination of Christians now on earth, that they do
not allow us an open Bible and an 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 believe that the
more fully and exclusively I _live out_ the teachings of the Holy Spirit,
the more persecution I shall experience. For they that will live godly, in
Christ's estimation, "shall suffer persecution."

Mrs. Fisher, I fully believe that Christ's coming cannot be far distant.
His coming will restore all things, which we have lost for his sake. Our
cause will then find an eloquent pleader in Christ himself, and through
our Advocate, the Judge, Himself, will acknowledge us to be his true,
loyal subjects, and we shall enter into the full possession of our
promised inheritance. With this glorious prospect in full view to the eye
of faith, let us "gird up the loins of our mind." In other words, let us
dare to pursue the course of the _independent thinker_, and let us run
with patience the race set before us. Let us carry uncomplainingly the
mortifying cross, which is laid upon us, so long as God suffers it to
remain; remembering that it is enough for 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 heartfelt sympathy in my sorrows. No utterance is
allowed for my alleviation. And the only way that I am allowed to
administer consolation through the pen is by stratagem. I shall employ
this means so far as lies in my power, so that when the day of revelation
arrives, it may be said truthfully of me, "she hath done what she could."
Impossibilities are not required of us.

Please tell Theophilus, my oft repeated attempts to send him a motherly
letter, have been thwarted. And he, poor persecuted boy! cannot be allowed
a mother's tender, heartfelt sympathy. O, my God, protect my precious boy!
and carry him safely through this pitiless storm of cruel persecution. Do
be to him a mother and a sister, and God shall bless you. Please deliver
this message, charged to overflowing with a mother's undying love. Be true
to Jesus. Ever believe me your true friend and sympathizing sister,

E. P. W. PACKARD.


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 standpoint of his own
actions, and from this basis, I give the above as my honest opinion on
this point.

Two facts alone may be sufficient to give some corroboration 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 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 _oath_ 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 protect the cause of Christ."

Cause of Christ! 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 shouldn'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 restitution. He
directs me to forgive my brother _if he repent_--yea, if he sins and
repents seventy times seven, I must forgive as many times. But if he does
not repent, I am not allowed to forgive him. And so long as he insists
upon it, both by word and deed, that he has done only what was right 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 bestow my forgiveness upon a
penitent transgressor.

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 vindication of myself as a
_truthful_ woman! This one thing is certain, I have been imprisoned three
years because I could not tell a lie, and now I think it would be bad
business for me to commence at this late hour.

I cannot love oppression, wrong, or injustice under any circumstances. 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 feeling one particle of
revengeful feeling towards Mr. Packard, while at the same time I feel the
deepest kind of indignation at his abuses of me. And furthermore, I really
feel that if any individual ever _deserved_ penitentiary punishment, Mr.
Packard does, for his treatment of me. Still, _I_ would not inflict _any_
punishment, upon him--for this business of punishing my enemies I am
perfectly content to leave entirely with my Heavenly Father, as he
requires me to do, as I understand his directions. And my heart daily
thanks God that it is not my business to punish him. One sinner has no
right to punish another sinner. God, our Common Father, is the only being
who holds this right to punish any of his great family of human children.

All that is required of me is, to do him good, and to protect myself from
his abuse as best I can; and it is not doing him good to forgive him
before he repents. It is reversing God's order. It is not to criminate him
that I have laid the truth before the public. Duty demands it as an act of
self-defence on my part, and a defence of the rights of that oppressed
class of married women which my case represents. 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.

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 medium, 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 indignation
rises very high among that class, who defend religious liberty and equal
rights, free thought, free speech, free press.

I state this as a fact which my own personal observation demonstrates. In
canvassing for my book in many of the largest cities in the State of
Illinois, I had ample opportunity to test this truth, and were I to
transcribe a tithe of the 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 expression 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 expressions, 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 romances, but we never knew one
_acted out_ in real life before. We did not suppose such a plot could be
enacted under the laws of our State. But this we will say, if ever you are
molested again in our State, let us know it, and we will put Mr. Packard
and his conspiracy where they ought to be put."

The pulpit of Illinois almost universally condemns the 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 verdict 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-conspirators. 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 almost entirely broken up. I was told he preached until none
would come to hear him; and his deacons gave as their reason for not
sustaining him, that the trouble in his family had destroyed his influence
in that community. Multitudes of his people who attended my trial, 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,
satisfactorily, either to myself or others; but now I am fully prepared to
answer it with satisfaction to myself, at least; that is, facts, stubborn
facts, which never before came to my knowledge until my visit home, compel
me to feel that my solution of this perplexing question, is now based on
the unchangeable truth of facts. For I have read with my own eyes the
secret correspondence which he has kept up with my father, for about eight
years past, wherein this question is answered by himself, by his own
confessions, and in his own words.

And as a very natural prelude to this answer, it seems to me not
inappropriate to answer one other question often put to me first, namely:
"has he not some other woman in view?"

I can give my opinion now, not only with my usual 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. I believe that
if ever there was a man who _practically_ believed in the monogamy
principle of marriage, he is the man. Yes, I believe, with only one degree
of faith less than that of knowledge, that the only Bible reason for a
divorce never had an existence in our case.

And here, as the subject is now opened, I will take occasion to say, that
as I profess to be a Bible woman both in spirit and practice, I cannot
conscientiously claim a Bible right to be divorced. I never have had the
first cause to doubt his fidelity to me in this respect, and he never has
had the first cause to doubt my own to him.

But fidelity to the truth of God's providential events compel me to give
it as my candid opinion, that the only key to the solution of this
mysterious problem will yet be found to be concealed in the fact, that Mr.
Packard is a _monomaniac_ on the subject of woman's rights, and that it
was the triumph of bigotry over his manliness, which occasioned this
public manifestation of this peculiar mental phenomenon. Some of the
reasons for this opinion, added to the facts of this dark drama which are
already before the public, lie in the following statement.

In looking over the correspondence above referred to, I find the
"confidential" part all refers to dates and occasions wherein I can
distinctly recollect we had had a warm discussion on the subject of
woman's rights; that is, I had taken occasion from the application of his
insane dogma, namely, that "_a woman has no rights that a man is bound to
respect_," to defend the opposite position of equal rights. I used
sometimes to put my argument into a written form, hoping thus to secure
for it a more calm and quiet 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 instead of
boldly meeting me as his antagonist on the arena of argument 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 relatives 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 _I_ 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 certainly is
more honorable and manly, to accuse him of insanity _to his face_, than
it is to thus _secretly_ plot against him an imprisonable offence, without
giving him the least chance 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 deductions of his noble,
capacious mind; and here I found my positions were each, and all, indorsed
most fully by him. Said he, "Mrs. Packard, it is high time that you
_assert your rights_, there is no other way for you to live a Christian
life with such a man." And, as I left, while he held my hand in his, he
remarked, "You may give my love to Mr. Packard, and say to him, if he is
as developed a man as I consider his wife to be a woman, I should esteem
it an honor to form his acquaintance." So it appears that Mr. Smith did
not consider my views on this subject as in conflict either with reason or
common sense.

Again, his physician, Dr. Fordice Rice, of Cazenovia, New York, to whom I
opened my whole mind on this subject, said to me in conclusion--"I can
unravel the whole secret of your family trouble. Mr. Packard is a
monomaniac on the treatment of woman. I don't see how you have ever lived
with so unreasonable a man."

I replied, "Doctor, I can live with any man--for I will never quarrel with
any one, especially a man, and much less with my husband. I can respect
Mr. Packard enough, 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 conjugal 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-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 progression in
knowledge and intelligence, an indication of a sane, natural condition, or
is it an unnatural, insane indication? And is a stagnant, torpid, and
retrogressive state of 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 towards me, lest I outshine him. That is, it
stimulated his monomania into exercise, by determining to annihilate 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 several 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, saying his wife was insane, and urged her to regard all
my representations of family matters as insane statements. Then he added,
"Now, Mrs. Field, I must require of you one thing, and that is, that you
burn this letter as soon as you have read it; don't even let your husband
see it at all, or know that you have had a letter from me, and by all
means, keep this whole subject a profound secret from Elizabeth."

My sister, true to Mr. Packard's wishes, burned this letter, and buried
the subject entirely in oblivion. But when she heard that I was
incarcerated in an Asylum, then, in view of all she did know, and in view
of what she did not know, she deeply suspected there was foul play in the
transaction, and felt it to be her duty to tell her husband all she knew.
He fully indorsed her suspicions, and they both undertook 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 unmasked state. "O, 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 feelings
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 strong, 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 had done so; for Mr. Field makes reply: "I do believe men are
possessed with devils now a days, as much as they were in Christ's days,
and I believe too that some are not only possessed with one devil, but
even seven devils, and I believe _you are the man_!" I never heard of his
denying the charge as due Mr. Field afterwards!

From my own observations in an insane asylum, I am fully satisfied that
Mr. Field is correct in his premises, and I must also allow that he has a
right of opinion in its application.

Looking from these various stand-points, it seems to me self-evident, that
this Great Drama is a woman's rights struggle. From the commencement 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 as an _opinion_ only, no one had
the least right to call him a monomaniac; but when this insane idea became
a _practical_ one, then, and only till then, had we any right to call him
an insane person. Now, if the course he has taken with me is not
insanity--that is, an unreasonable course, I ask, what is insanity?

Now let this great practical truth be for one moment considered, namely,
All that renders an earth-life desirable--all the inalienable rights and
privileges of one developed, moral, and accountable, sensitive being, lie
wholly suspended on the arbitrary will of this intolerant man, or
monomaniac. No law, no friend, no logic, can defend me in the least,
_legally_, from this despotic, cruel power; for the heart which controls
this will has become, as it respects his treatment of me, "without
understanding, a covenant breaker, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful."

And let another truth also be borne in mind, namely, that this one man
stands now as a fit representative of all that class in society, and God
grant it may be found to be a very small class! who claim that the
subjection of the wife, instead of the protection of the wife, is the true
law of marriage. This marriage law of subjection has now culminated, so
that it has become a demonstrated fact, that its track lies wholly in the
direction of usurpation; and therefore this track, 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 cannot be again legally tolerated
under the flag of our protective government. God grant, that this one mute
appeal of _stubborn fact_, may be sufficient to nerve up the woman
protectors of our manly government, to guard us, in some manner, against
woman's greatest foe--the women subjectors of society.

It may be proper here to add the result of this recruiting tour. After
being absent eleven weeks from my home, and this being the first time I
had left my husband during all my married life, longer than for one week's
time, I returned to my home, to receive as cordial and as loving a welcome
as any wife could desire. Indeed, it seemed to me, that the home of my
husband's heart had become "empty, swept, and garnish

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