From this fatal evening all appeals to his reason and humanity have been worse than fruitless. They have only served to aggravate his maddened feelings, and goad him on to greater deeds of desperation. Like Nebuchadnezzar, his reason is taken from him, on this one subject; and unrestrained, maddened, resentment fills his depraved soul—his manliness is dead. Is he not a monomaniac?
FALSE REPORTS CORRECTED.
I find in circulation various false reports and misrepresentations, so slanderous in their bearing upon my character and reputation, and that of my family relatives, that I think they demand a passing notice from me, in summing up this brief record of events.
First Report.
“Mrs. Packard’s mother was an insane woman, and several of her relatives have been insane; and, therefore, Mrs. Packard’s insanity is hereditary, consequently, she is hopelessly insane.”
This base and most cruel slander originated from Mr. Packard’s own heart; was echoed before the eyes of the public, by Dr. McFarland, Superintendent of the Insane Asylum, through the Chicago Tribune, in a letter which he wrote to the Tribune in self-defence, after my trial. The verdict of the jury virtually impeached Dr. McFarland as an accomplice in this foul drama, and as one who had prostituted his high public trust, in a most notorious manner. This presentation of him and his institution before the public, seemed to provoke this letter, as a vindication of his course. And the most prominent part of this defence seemed to depend upon his making the people believe that the opinion of the jury was not correct, in pronouncing me sane. And he used this slander as the backbone of his argument, to prove that I was hopelessly insane, there having been no change either for the better or worse, while under his care, and that I left the institution just as I entered it, incurably insane.
I think I cannot answer this slander more summarily and concisely, than by quoting, verbatim, Mr. Stephen R. Moore’s, my attorney, reply to this letter, as it was published at the time in the public papers.
MR. MOORE’S REPLY TO DR. MCFARLAND’S SLANDER.
“Your letter starts out with a statement of an error, which I believe, to be wholly unintentional, and results from placing too much confidence in the statements of your friend, Rev. Theophilus Packard. You say, “Mrs. P., as one of the results of a strongly inherited predisposition, (her mother having been for a long period of her life insane,) had an attack of insanity previous to her marriage.” Such are not the facts. Neither the mother, nor any blood relations of Mrs. Packard, were ever suspected or charged with being insane. And it is a slander of one of the best and most pious mothers of New England, and her ancestry, to charge her and them with insanity; and could have emanated only from the heart of the pious ——, who would incarcerate the companion of his bosom for three years, with gibbering idiots and raving maniacs.