"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.