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To show how far persons can be influenced by every ridiculous and unjust
means, in such cases of pretended Lunacy, to carry out their point, I will here mention
one. It was asserted by my family "That I brought half a barrel of water in the
bottom of my sleigh, all the way from the State of New York, upon bare ground." Now,
is this possible to be true? for the very jumping of the sleigh would dash it all out, and
all over me, before I drove three hours, even if I had not taken the trouble just to take
hold of the side-stays of the sleigh and turn it all out in a few seconds.
The truth is, in the winter of 1831, having made up my mind to come on
from New Lebanon, State of New York, to my family near Philadelphia, and the snow being
very deep, and the North River having been frozen all the way up for weeks and weeks;
having two excellent match-horses and a sleigh, and finding, by reading the papers, that
the sleighing was very good all the way on the Philadelphia, I concluded, as I could not
come in my carriage, I would come in my sleigh, a distance of about 350 miles, which I
completed in five and a half days; but the last day, when reaching as far as Trenton, it
began to thaw, and, by the time I reached Philadelphia, the snow was partly gone in the
middle of the turnpike, (as is generally the case,) although it was good on the sideroads.
I reached my family, residing in Byberry, about half after ten o'clock upon the night of
the sixth day, and, as is common, the thaw was succeeded by a rain during the night, which
left two or three quarts of water in the bottom of my sleigh. So much for the "half a
barrel of water from the State of New York that I brought in the bottom of my sleigh upon
bare ground," just like the snow-bank tale in the Morgan Hinchman
case, to try to make him out Insane.
It is well known by all those in court during the time of my trial, that
Jacob B. Cresson gave his testimony concerning my connection with the Shakers. Now, as he
was not born until the 27th day of May, 1828, and as I did not move in their neighborhood
until that year, he was only a few weeks old at that time. What a most
remarkable Precocious Boy this, in his malignity to, and
persecution of his own father.
"It often falls, in course of common life,
That right
long time is overborne of wrong,
Through avarice of power, of
guile or strife,
That weakens her, and makes
her party strong;
But JUSTICE, though her doom she do prolong,
Yet at the last she will her own cause
right."
It having been fully ascertained (as has been asserted in the public
statements) that the whole evidence and force of my persecutor's testimony against me was
directed by Religious Prejudice and Avarice alone, the
public at once made up their minds never to admit such a Precedent, not
for a moment, as it would be a very dangerous one indeed, and none would be safe;
they have therefore formed the one universal opinion that they now hold of the character
and intentions of that part of my family who persecuted me.
David Paul Brown, my wife's lawyer and encourager, when
acting as Counsel for Morgan Hinchman, to prove him perfectly sane for
not making over his property by assignment or deed of trust, turns right about and blows
hot and cold with the same breath, and tries to prove me insane
in order to force me to do it; but be it ever remembered, speaks
these words of Margaretta Hinchman, Morgan's wife, of the character of a "true
woman," and woman's love, very different from that of mine,
viz.
"I can only say that for the honor of the wife, and woman's
love, that when Margaretta Hinchman was subsequently asked did she ever consent in
word, thought, or deed, to the perpetration of this
outrage* upon her husband, the father of her children, she said she never did. It runs
counter to the current of the feelings of every noble woman." See
D'd P. Brown's speech on the Hinchman vs. Ritchie case, page 42.
N.B. And be it ever remembered, that as soon as ever I found that evil
advisers had audaciously and impiously obtruded themselves into the sacred precincts
of my once happy family, and once faithful wife; and
that they were determined to persecute me by false charges at Law, and
that too, after I had given my family more than one-half; I sent to them
the written proposal* already mentioned in this work, by Charles Chauncey and John D.
Jackson, which was copied and taken by my mother; besides two verbal proposals
by Dan'l McCurdy, but they were all rejected. Now if all these outrages
are permitted, where is my right of Religious Liberty? or where is any right at
all as head of my family?
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