Library Collections: Document: Full Text

One who defends his creed or party by improper and abusive means, is a Bigot.

One who is impatient and unwilling to endure, and will not hear the utterance of opinions in conflict with his own, without persecution of his opponent, is Intolerant; and this is an appropriate word to use in describing such manifestations.

A person under extreme physical torture gives utterance to strong expressions, indicating extreme anguish. Have we, on this account, any reason or right to call him insane? So a person in extreme spiritual or mental agony, has a right to express his feelings in language corresponding to his condition, and we have no right to call him insane for doing so.

Upon a calm and candid review of these scenes, from my present stand-point, I maintain that the indignant feelings which I still cherish towards Mr. Packard, and towards Dr. McFarland, for their treatment of me, are not only natural, sane feelings, but also Christian feelings. For Christ taught both by his teachings and example, that we ought to be angry with sin, and even hate it, with as marked a feeling as we loved good. "I, the Lord, hate evil." And so should we. But at the same time we should not sin, by carrying this feeling so far as to desire to revenge the wrong-doer, or punish him ourselves, for then we go too far to exercise the feeling of forgiveness towards him, even if he should repent. We are not then following Christ's directions, "Be ye angry and sin not."

Now I am not conscious of ever cherishing one revengeful feeling towards my persecutors; while, at the same time, I have prayed to God, most fervently, that he would inflict a just punishment upon them for their sins against me, if they could not be brought to repent without. For my heart has ever yearned to forgive them, from the first to the last, on this gospel condition.

I think our Government has been called to exercise the same kind of indignation towards those conspirators who have done all they can do to overthrow it; and yet, they stand ready to forgive them, and restore them to their confidence, on the condition of practical repentance.

And I say further, that it would have been wrong and sinful for our Government to have withheld this expression of their resentment towards them, and let them crush it out of existence, without trying to defend itself. I say it did right in defending itself with a resistance corresponding to the attack.

So I, in trying to defend myself against this conspiracy against my personal liberty, have only acted on the self-defensive principle. Neither have I ever aggressed on the rights of others in my self-defense. I have simply defended my own rights.

In my opinion, it would be no more unreasonable to accuse the inmates of "Libby Prison" with insanity, because they expressed their resentment of the wrongs they were enduring in "strong language," than it is to accuse me of insanity for doing the same thing while in my prison.

For prison life is terrible under any circumstances. But to be confined amongst raving maniacs, for years in succession is horrible in the extreme.

For myself, I should not hesitate one moment which to choose, between a confinement in an insane asylum as I was, or being burned at the stake. Death, under the most aggravated forms of torture, would now be instantly chosen by me, rather than life in an insane asylum.

And whoever is disposed to call this "strong language," I say, let them try it for themselves as I did, and then let them say whether the expression is any stronger than the case justifies. For until they have tried it, they can never imagine the horrors of the maniac's ward in Jacksonville Insane Asylum.

And here I will add, I do not write books merely to tickle the fancy, and lull the guilty conscience into a treacherous sleep, whose waking is death. Nor do I write to secure notoriety or popularity.

But I do write to defend the cause of human rights; and these rights can never be vindicated, unless these usurpations be exposed to public view, so that an appeal can be made to the public conscience, on the firm basis of unchangeable truth -- the truth of facts as they do actually exist.

I know there is a class, but I fondly hope they are the minority, who will resist even this solid basis -- who would not believe the truth should Christ himself be its medium of utterance and defense.

But shall I on this account withhold the truth, lest such cavilers reject it, and trample it under foot, and then turn and rend me with the stigma of "Insanity," because I told them the simple truth?

By no means? For truth is not insanity; and though it may for a time be crushed to the earth, it will rise again with renovated strength and power.

Neither is strong and appropriate language insanity. But on the contrary, I maintain that strong language is the only suitable and "appropriate drapery for a reformer" to clothe his thoughts in, notwithstanding the very unsuitable and inappropriate stigma of "Insanity," which has always been the reformer's lot to bear for so doing in all past ages, as well as the present age.