“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,withoutthe 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, isallthat 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,tomeet 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.
“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,withoutthe 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, isallthat 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,tomeet 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;Ishall 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 alegalact?”
“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.Youare 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 asmy 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 toMassachusettsto protect the children from their mother, and I shall do it, inspite 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 withthem 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 Ithinkthey signed it intelligently, and from a desire for safer legislation. The others Iknowsigned 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 theexpression 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, withimprisonment.
2d. It is aCrimeagainst 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 isTreasonagainst 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 thingnew, 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 forirregularities 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 arepresentative of this class of prisoners; for, when Dr. McFarland was driven to give his reasons for regarding me as insane, onthisbasis, 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 ajust 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 isnotreasonably protected under our present legislation, while it allows the simpleopinionof two doctors to imprison a person for life, without oneproofin theconductof the accused, that he is an unaccountable moral agent. We do not hang a person on the simpleopinionthat he is a murderer, butproofis required from the accused’sown actions, that he is guilty of the charge which forfeits his life. So the charge which forfeits our personal liberty ought to beprovedfrom the individual’s own conduct, before imprisonment.
So long as insanity is treated as acrime, instead of amisfortune, as our present systempracticallydoes so treat it, the protection of our individual liberty imperatively demands such an enactment. Many contend thateveryperson is insane on some point. On this ground,allpersons 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 onthatpoint where he differs fromhimin opinion! This Monomania in many instances is not Insanity, but individuality, which is the highestnaturaldevelopment of a human being.
Gentlemen, I know, and have felt, the horrors—the untoldsoulagonies—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 allowedto 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]
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 anotherstep. Yours, Respectfully,“Rev. T. Packard.Samuel Ware.”
“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 anotherstep. 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 transcribingthe following letter which father got me to write for him, in answer to Rev. Dr. Pomeroy’s letter, inquiring of my fatherwhyMr. 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 yetlive downthis 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 placeto 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.
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 yetlive downthis 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 placeto 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 necessityfor 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 wereliableto suffer to the extent he did; so my experience, although like “Uncle Tom’s,” an extreme case, shows how all married women areliableto 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!
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 myhusband 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 todeservethis 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 havealwaysbeen a most kind, patient, devoted wife and mother. He even claims as his justification of his course, that I am sogooda woman, and helovesme 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, receivesomecheck 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 ourman 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 bothplainly 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 willobligeour 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 noone’sbusiness what Ithinkbut 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, Ipreferto 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. Thisclass 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 acrimeof 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 andnature 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 nowfree 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 tohisview 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 whatto themis 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 eternalperdition.
Again, Mrs. Fisher, my determination and aim is, to become a perfect person inChrist’sestimation, 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 thatdohis commandments shallknowof the doctrine.” I also fully believe that the more fully and exclusively Ilive outthe 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 theindependent 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 forthe 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 becomeconscientiously 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 thetransfer 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 anoaththat 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, ifyourcause of Christ needssucha 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 Christto himis his creed—a set of human opinions. While the real cause of Christ ishumanity; 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 ofpractical 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 brotherif 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, “allmenare liars,” I rejoice he did not say allwomenwere, for then there would have been no chance for my vindication of myself as atruthfulwoman! 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 thepenitenttransgressor. 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 everdeservedpenitentiary punishment, Mr. Packard does, for his treatment of me. Still,Iwould not inflictanypunishment, 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 inromances, but we never knew oneacted outin 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.”