As the above letter was handed to my personal friends for the purpose of
conveying the desired intelligence, and sent to me, when the report of
my illness and mental derangement was found to be groundless and false,
there can be no impropriety or breach of courtesy or justice in its
publication. The serious consequences to which it gave rise, the
deprivation of my liberty for six entire months, and the suspension of
my functions as an academic instructor (though not of my activity as an
author, which under the most inauspicious circumstances was still
continued) alike demand, that it should be made known in connection with
my own communications before and during my imprisonment. A comment or
two will exhibit the contents of the Doctor's epistle in their proper
light.
1st, The Dr's. letter is itself a contradiction and an egregious symptom
of insanity on his part, which is, moreover, confirmed by his previous
conduct from his first entrance into the institution. In comparing the
University with the Lunatic Asylum, I find that the former during the
winter of 1852-'53 (I may add, ever since my return from Europe in 1850)
was a far more disorderly and irrational place than the latter, where
the occasional confusion or the perpetual (sane and insane) perversity
of men is the lamentable, but natural and necessary (consequently
_irresponsible_) result, of an internal physical or intellectual
disorder or defect, which is moreover susceptible of classification and
of a psychological exposition, while in the former it was "got up" for
the particular purpose of subjugation or of expulsion, and where
consequently it was the result of _responsible_ perversity and malice,
_susceptible of moral reprobation_.
2d, The allegation of my being "unfitted for the business of teaching,"
and of the propriety of finding me "another institution, adapted to
such, away from study," is an absurd and a libelous perversion of the
truth, which it is scarcely worth while to refute. From the year 1839,
the year of my matriculation at the institution, to the present hour I
have had no other profession, except that of having appeared in the
additional capacity of an author. Even during my undergraduate career I
taught successfully the various disciplines of our academic course, with
the approbation and to the satisfaction of the Faculty, members of which
examined and admitted to promotion several of my private scholars, who
had been expressly referred to me for tuition in the Classics, in
Mathematics, in Philosophy, &c.--Of my courses of instruction since my
official and regular connection with the institution (which dates from
the year 1846) in the language and in the literature which I was more
especially appointed to profess, it is not necessary to speak here, the
University itself having offered but little inducement and no emolument
or honor to the cultivation of the modern languages. In all the
professional services, however, which I have had occasion to render to
the institution of late years, my qualifications and my efficiency could
never have been honestly or honorably questioned. I have prepared my own
text-books, which have found their way into most of the literary and
educational institutions of this continent to some extent into Europe
even. One of them was begun at the very time, when "the indications of a
disordered mind had become more decided," and was completed with
scarcely a day's intermission of my work at the lunatic asylum, where I
subsequently improved my leisure (as far as my shattered health would
permit) by zealously engaging in some preliminary studies for a history
of modern literature.--It is equally needless to expatiate on my
extensive acquaintance, direct and indirect, with academic men and
methods both in the United States and in Europe, where within a few
years past I spent an entire year in the pursuit of literary and
philosophical studies at two of its most prominent Universities.--_To my
morality, both private and social, and to my religion, no one but a
hyper-puristic religionist or a calvinistic tyrant could possibly
object._--The real objection, and the cause of my being unfitted for the
business of instruction must therefore be looked for elsewhere. From
various indications and from several catastrophes in my personal
history, brought about by sectarian jealousy and fanatical intrigue,
from certain significant changes in the faculty of the institution, and
from innumerable efforts to subject me to a creed, or to the social
control of certain religious parties, I should infer that it manifestly
and palpably resided in a mistrust of what is vulgarly termed "the
soundness of my views" on certain questions, never discussed in
respectable literary institutions, and beyond their jurisdiction, or in
other words _in a suspicion of heresy_.--I claim, however, in opposition
to all these pretensions, which I deem an absurdity, my right (which is
_inalienable_ and _imprescriptible_) to my moral and intellectual
culture, commenced under the auspices and fostering care of my Alma
Mater herself (during a former administration) and continued and
perfected by years of serious and earnest effort in America and Europe,
since. _I recognize no sectarian guidance or control whatever in any of
the independent sciences, cultivated from time immemorial at academic
institutions, much less in the science of sciences, the very law and
indispensable condition of which is absolute freedom from all external
authority or restraint._ The law of intellectual freedom, of which the
Reader will find a short exposition in the concluding document of this
pamphlet (which I have extracted and translated from a distinguished
authority on the "Philosophy of Right") is recognized by the spirit and
the letter of the Constitution and by the political and social history
of the United States, by the Revised Statutes of the State of New-York,
by all the leading universities _of Protestant and Catholic Europe_, and
by a number of similar institutions in America, among which stands,
"professedly" at least, the University of the city of New-York. The
attempts of certain parties in connection with the institution and _ab
extra_ to "smother" (to use one of their own cant words) and to crush my
independence by gravely endeavoring to _coerce me into an alliance with
a questionable religionism, which is abhorrent to my ideas, my
habits and my sentiments, and by fomenting internal disorders for the
purpose of effecting an exclusion_, are an unconstitutional, an unjust,
an iniquitous invasion of my most sacred rights as a man, an American
citizen, a scholar and a professor. I repel, therefore, Dr. Ferris'
insinuation as a maliciously astute and as a false one, which of itself
declares the Dr. _incompetent to decide upon the merits of a real
scholar, and utterly unfit for the important trust of presiding over
the interests of any other but a sectarian institution of the narrowest
description, of the most painfully exclusive moral perversity_.
To this I may add, that in consideration of the many and various
disciplines, earnestly and steadily cultivated by me for several years
past, such as intellectual philosophy, the learned and modern
languages, linguistics and the history of literature generally, I could
in academic justice _demand the right_ to instruct in any one of the
departments for which I was fitted. That such a right exists, and that
it is applicable to my case, the reader may learn from Sir William
Hamilton's Essays on University Education, recently republished in
America, to which I refer _passim_. I can therefore confidently
challenge not only the chancellor, but, in case of a concurrence in his
sentiments, the entire faculty of the University to the following
proposition:--In case my capacity to teach or lecture academically is
questioned, I propose to take, and I demand one of the following
chairs; _where under suitable auspices and with proper and regular
provisions for the maintenance of order, I could at once begin_:--1st,
The Latin language and literature.--2d, the Greek ditto, ditto.--3d,
Moral and intellectual philosophy, either systematically or
historically.--4th, History or the general history of literature (of
which I have at present a text-book in preparation).--5th, Linguistics
or the classification of languages, including general grammar.--6th,
the history of modern (European) languages and literatures.--7th, the
elements of the Sanscrit, of which I still have a Mss. grammar,
compiled by myself for my private use, during the winter of 1851.--I
omit mentioning the remaining academic disciplines, for which I have no
particular taste, but which I still could teach, and for which I could
prepare the text-books, if it were necessary to do so.
3d, The alleged indications of insanity were _utterly unfounded_ at the
time they were made. I had recovered my usual health and spirits
immediately after the commencement of last year, about the beginning of
July '53, when those who had flagrantly disturbed the quiet of my
residence in and about the University building had vanished into the
country. Of the winter of 1852-'53 I only recollect, that subsequently
to the dismissal of my class, which I could not in honor consent to hear
any longer, I made a fruitless attempt to continue my private studies,
and to finish a commentary on a Greek drama which I had begun at the
commencement of the term, and that the ominous symptoms of _external
insanity_ about me soon increased to such an alarming extent, that I was
forced to lay aside my pen, unable to endure the outrage and annoyance
any longer; that gangs of scandalous ruffians in the shape of boys,
girls, men and women, many of whom I knew by their voices, kept up at
certain intervals, by day and by night, a nefarious system of
mystification and of nuisance from January to the end of June, in the
council-room of the institution, in the hall, before my door, in front
of my window, and on the parade ground; that in consequence of all this
my rest at night was completely broken, until I could only sleep by day;
that after a while I was confined to my bed most of the time, and that I
frequently did not rise for breakfast till 6 o'clock, P. M.; that it was
painful and disgusting for me to be awake, and that all I read for
several successive months was "Hegel's Logic" for two or three hours a
day, and that for some time I only eat once a day. In May, I think, I
fled to a neighboring State and University, partly with the intention of
changing my place of residence.--As a psychologist I was well aware,
that sleep was a sovereign preventive, as well as a remedy for all the
disorders of the mind, especially for those which might arise from
external causes such as those I have just described; I therefore
anticipated and _prevented_ the unhappy consequences which the Dr. seems
to have expected from the outrageous nuisance of his cherished
institution, where such scenes of scandal only _date from the time his
prospective and his actual entrance on the duties of his office_, and
really seem to have been made to order, I know not for whose benefit
(certainly not for mine). _During the summer I was_, in consequence of
the happy reaction and repose, _unusually gay and regular in my work_. I
then wrote an introduction to Schiller's Maid of Orleans, another one to
Goethe's Iphigenia, and a third to Tieck's Puss in Boots, all of which
have since been published in my new Manual of German Literature. I deny,
therefore, having ever given any symptoms of insanity whatsoever at any
time of the year, while I admit that a renewal of the scandal (which the
parties concerned have endeavored to revive since my release this
spring, but which I checked by a speedy notice to the police court and
to some of my friends), in the autumn might have led to such calamitous
results. Neither my Kant, nor my Rauch, nor my Hegel, nor any other
philosopher or psychologist could for one moment be induced to admit,
_that the presence of external causes and tendencies to intellectual
derangement were necessarily attended or followed by the malady itself_.
This would be an egregious logical fallacy, to which no intelligent
physician in or out of the Lunatic Asylum could for one moment
subscribe, without justly incurring the risk of being charged with an
inexcusable lack of professional knowledge and experience or what is
still worse, with a criminal connivance at an unjust and inquitous
conspiracy against the reputation and the life of an American citizen.
To the charge of the folly of suffering so long and so severely from so
gross a system of disorder which might have speedily been checked by the
extra-academic authorities of the city, I can only reply, that the
confusion and the consequent embarrassment was so great, that it was
impossible for me at the time to come to any decision as to the course
to be pursued. The most advisable policy would have been, to have left
entirely, and to have directed the correction or the punishment from a
distance. The following letters, written from the Lunatic Asylum
(_between which and the University there was a manifest internal
harmony, and which was evidently commissioned to complete the work of
humiliation and of subjugation_), may serve to elucidate the facts of
the case with some additional particulars.
To the above mentioned causes of the ruin of my health, I may add, that
during the same winter I had an opportunity of witnessing a resurrection
of "Salem Witchcraft," practiced on me by a certain lady, a mother in
Israel of this city, who was manifestly in connection with the
ultra-calvinistic faction of the University, which is the one to which
Dr. Ferris is indebted for his elevation. I moreover discovered in the
same connection, one of the two sources, from which the low insults in
the street, at certain well-known hours of my walks, in certain places
and directions, (to which I made allusion in my letter to the mayor of
the city,) had emanated, and I received some additional light on certain
events of my personal history, to which I allude in letter No. 5.--A
father in Israel, a gray-headed sinner in my opinion, likewise informed
me _that they had the Irish to defend them_.--I venture to assert that
few of my countrymen, except perhaps the lowest rabble, would ever lend
their aid to such nefarious purposes.
From all that I have had occasion to observe of social disorder and
discontent in the city for several years past, I am sure that there are
men who foment intestine commotions, who shamelessly and openly conspire
against the honor and the interests, if not against the property and
lives of their fellow-citizens, and whom the State ought to prosecute
and punish as offenders against a clearly defined law of the
statute-book.
My sanity at the time of arrest I can establish:--1st, By the testimony
of those who saw me daily, and more especially, by that of a young man,
who came to see me frequently, after the reception of Dr. Ferris'
letter, and who in fact brought it from the office. 2dly, By the
testimony of a distinguished physician, who about a week before, dressed
a slight wound on one of my eye-brows, received from a fall against my
sofa in the dark. 3dly, By the fact, that I was quietly and constantly
engaged in writing, and in daily communication with the printer, who
stereotyped my "Hand-book of German Literature." _Symptoms of unusual
excitement, in consequence of such an outrage, are no proof of
derangement._