Bloomingdale Asylum, _Dec. 26th_, 1853.
To----, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir,
For several years past, I have repeatedly been on the point of making an
effort to resuscitate a slight, but to me no less cherished
acquaintance, by giving you some account of my doings and purposes,
which, I have sometimes flattered myself, might not be without interest
both to yourself and to such of your co-adjutors in Washington, as have
enlisted with you in the noble cause of extending and diffusing
knowledge among men. Of the proceedings of your institution I have
occasionally informed myself, both from the pamphlets and reports
periodically submitted to the public, and more especially from the
volumes of regular "Transactions," in the archaeological and linguistical
parts of which, I have taken so much the greater interest, as of late
years my own attention has at times been almost exclusively directed to
the same field of investigation. It is true, I have as yet neither been
able nor willing to give any positive result of my studies. I have
hardly done anything more than "to break the ice." This, however, I may
safely say to have done, having not only had the best opportunities,
(since I saw you last in 1848) of surveying the field in the
time-honored centres of intellectual light on the other side of the
Atlantic, but having also since my return, as a member of several
Learned Associations, had special occasion and incitement to keep alive
my interest in these engaging pursuits. And if there be any truth in the
ancient adage: [Greek: arche hemisy pantos], I may perhaps even
entertain the hope (_non invita Minerva_) of some future concentration
of my somewhat desultory excursions in these regions of light (where
ignorance indeed, but ignorance alone, sees only darkness) to some
radiant focal point. There are a number of subjects, closely connected
with the inquiries, that come under the cognizance of the
historico-philosophical section of your institute, which, I see, are
agitated anew by the _savants_ of the old world, and which to the
resolution of certain problems, relating to the primitive history of
this continent, are equally important here, perhaps entitled to our
special consideration. Recent investigations would seem to show, for
example, that our genial and acute Du Ponceau had by no means said the
last word on the subject he has so learnedly reported. Several new works
on the origin and classification of languages, that have made their
appearance in Berlin, &c., since the day of Humboldt's attempt, would
seem to invite to similar efforts on our side, and with special
reference to the immensity of our cis-Atlantic field, which ought to be
[Greek: kat' exochen] adopted as our own. Having most of these materials
at hand, I have sometimes been tempted myself to try, whether by an
_exposition of the present state_ of that science, as cultivated by the
Germans particularly, a new impulsion might not be imparted to it among
ourselves. Some such purpose has been among the tasks, which I had
proposed to myself for the present winter. The sudden suspension of my
studies, and the consequent uncertainty of my affairs, however, have so
seriously deranged my plans, that now I almost despair of being able to
accomplish any of my more immediate and necessary purposes.--You will
undoubtedly be surprised to learn, that I have been an inmate of the
Lunatic Asylum, at Bloomingdale, for now nearly three months; your
surprise will be still greater, when you come to learn, by what sort of
machinations I have been brought here.
For several years past, I have been made the object of a systematic and
invidious persecution, in consequence of which I have been obliged to
shift my residence from one place to another, to spend my means in
involuntary exile and unnecessary travelling, and altogether to lead a
life of a discouraging uncertainty.
Shortly after my visit to Washington, (1848), where I saw you last, I
was driven away from New-York, while yet absorbed in the midst of an
arduous undertaking, (my large German and English Dictionary, which in
consequence of my forced removal from the place of printing, I had to
finish at an inconvenient distance), under circumstances of the most
aggravated insults and abuses, (such as I had never dreamt men capable
of,) and about six months after its completion the same miserable clique
had already "finished" me in Boston and a regular "_hedjra_" to Europe
was the consequence.[1]--I spent a year in London, Paris and Berlin, in
a miserable struggle to repair my shattered health, (I had a cough,
contracted from sheer vexation, while in the clutches of the miserable
wretches, who seemed to be determined to vex me out of existence, which
clung to me a year and ever and anon returns again,) and what was still
more difficult, to forget the loathsome reminiscences of the immediate
past by bringing myself in contact with the sanatory influences of the
literature and art of the old world; partly with the intention of
remaining there. I returned, however, in the hope of finding my
difficulties subsided. But the same odious conspiracy, which had even
contrived to mar my comfort and happiness in one place on the other
side, (in Paris, where I spent the greater part of an academic year, at
the University and libraries, in various studies,) had, as I found to my
surprise, kept up a malevolent espionage over my peregrinations even,
and I have since been subjected to a series of vexations and intrigues,
which at times made me regret that I had not preferred any lot in a
foreign land and among entire strangers to such an ignoble
re-establishment at home. A personal attachment of former years was made
use of to harass and lacerate my feelings, and an underhanded, venomous
persecution, (which the parties, who were the authors, and who were in
alliance with certain ecclesiastical tricksters, did not even blush to
own), followed me at every step. The scum of New-York in the shape of
Negroes, Irishmen, Germans, &c., were hired, in well-organized gangs, to
drop mysterious allusions and to offer me other insults in the street,
(and thus I was daily forced to see and hear things in New-York, of
which I had never dreamt before,) while a body of proselyting
religionists were busy in their endeavors to make me a submissive tool
of some ecclesiastical party or else to rob me of the last prospect of
eating a respectable piece of bread and butter. This odious vice of
certain countrymen of yours was in fact the prolific source of all the
difficulties I complain of, and it is remotely the cause of my
confinement here.
[1] The details of this scandalous act of vandalism, which
though it nearly cost me my life, I did not even mention in the
preface to my large German and English Lexicon, finished in the
course of the same year, are too diffuse and complicated, to be
noticed here. As the leading personages of this drama, however, were
the representatives of powerful and influential ecclesiastical
organizations, and as shortly before, repeated and desperate
proselyting efforts had been made by some of these men, and by their
miserable underlings, I cannot possibly be wrong in designating the
vile commotion, by which I was swept from my post, _as the venomous
explosion of ignoble and of bigoted elements_, which have in fact
been the prolific source of all the confusion I complain of now. I
distinctly remember the treacherous and inquisitorial anxiousness of
a certain (now) president of a prominent University, (with whom I
was reading Logic,) to become acquainted with German metaphysics,
the mysterious meetings of a certain ecclesiastical committee, the
efforts of a certain temperance coterie at a certain hotel, and a
dozen other despicable conclaves and combinations, whose
machinations were too palpable to be mistaken or forgotten. I also
know, that a certain philosophy to which I was known to be
particularly partial, is looked upon with jealous suspicion by
certain superficial and insignificant pretenders to that science,
whose ignorance and malice forges weapons of destruction out of the
noblest and sublimest conceptions that have ever emanated from the
intellect of man. To all these ambitious and noisy enemies of
intellectual freedom, _whose littleness asperses, calumniates and
levels whatever is gigantic and sublime_, I would here say, once for
all, that if they could but rationally comprehend this Goethe, this
Jean Paul, this Fichte, Kant and Hegel, whom they regard with so
much horror, their _moral regeneration_ would almost be beyond a
doubt, and if they could think and write like them, their title to
enduring fame would never need an advocate or petty trickster to
defend it.
In the course of this last year, however, these manoeuvres assumed a
still more startling and iniquitous shape than before. Hitherto my
_domicile_ had been safe and quiet. For, although meddlesome attempts
had been made to force certain associations on me and to cut me off from
others, I had still been left sufficiently unmolested to accomplish
some study without any flagrant interruptions. This last resource of
self-defence and happiness was destroyed me at the beginning of last
winter. New appointments at the University, (some of them degradations
to me, at any rate, employed for _humiliating_ purposes,) and the petty
jealousies, nay even animosities, which among men of a certain order of
intellect are the natural consequence of such changes, soon introduced
disorder into the Institution, fostered a spirit of rebellion against
me, and before the end of the first term of the present year, my course
of instruction was entirely broken up. The difficulty (which in fact was
wholly due to a shameless inefficiency of discipline,) was enveloped in
a sort of mummery, the sum and substance of which, however, was plainly
this: "that if I remained in the Institution in the unmolested enjoyment
of a peaceful life of study, my independent progress would be an
encroachment on certain colleagues of mine;" and this was in fact,
thrown out as a hint for me to leave. The rent of my private room in the
building had _already been nearly doubled_ by Prof. J. ---- for the same
reason. As the University, however, had contributed but an insignificant
item to my support, I neither considered it necessary to remove from the
building, which is accessible to all classes of tenants, nor did I make
much account of a self-made suspension of my course, although I grieved
to think of the means that had been used to superinduce such a
necessity. Prof. L----, who has always exhibited a pettiness of
disposition, altogether unworthy of a man of science, had _openly before
my eyes_ played the confidant and supporter of a disorderly student, who
on my motion was under college discipline, and the meetings of the
faculty were made so disgusting to me, that I could no longer attend to
make my reports. New methods of annoyance were devised. The council-room
of the Institution, next door to mine, was converted into an omnibus for
noisy meetings of every description--religious gatherings in the
morning--ominous vociferations during recitation time--obstreperous
conclaves of students in the afternoon--and violent political town
gatherings in the evening. Besides all this, the menials of the
Institution were corrupted into unusual insolence towards me, (among
them my special attendant,) and the vexations of this description became
so annoying to me, that for some time I had actually to do my own
chamber-work. I had almost forgotten to mention certain mysterious
_desk_-slammings in the council-room, and equally significant and
intimidating _door_-slammings, particularly at a room opposite mine,
which communicates (I believe) with a private part of the building, now
occupied by a dentist, (that sublime science having also found its way
into our college,) at unseasonable hours of the night, sometimes
accompanied with various remarks, one of which now occurs to me: "Oh,
you are not one of us!" (sung in operatic style.) The quiet of my
residence was, moreover, destroyed by horrid vociferations at all hours
of the night, before my very door, and regularly under my window, and
these were made not only by students, (of which there were only a few,
_supported in their insubordination_) but by an extra-academic body of
men and women, certain zealous religionists and their impenitent
coadjutors, evidently the abettors of my in-door enemies, _and by two of
my colleagues_. A night or week of such proceedings would be enough to
set a man crazy. What must be their effect if they continue for months?
And yet expressions like the following were perpetually ringing in my
ears:--"Go on!" "You _are_ the man!" "You are _not_ the man!" "Go on!
no, stop!" (by the same voice in the same breath.) "Out of the
Institution with that man!" (by the laurelled valedictorian of last
year.), "Stand up!" (by Prof. C----, close to my door.) "He started with
nothing!" (by the same voice in the same place). "Pray!" (by ditto.)
"You have finished!" "Go away!" "Thank God, that that man is out of the
Institution!" (by a lady member of a certain religious fraternity, on
terms of intimacy with a certain prominent politician of the
neighborhood.) "Pursue him, worm that never d-i-e-s!" (theatrically
shrieked by the same voice.) "You are a dead man! Dead, dead, dead,
dead!" (by the voice of a certain popular preacher.) "He is deceived, he
is deceived!" (by the spokesman of a body of theological students in
front of the neighboring Seminary, as I was passing.) And at times even:
"Die!" "Break!" (on the supposition that I was in embarrassed
circumstances.) "_Whore!_" even was one of the delectable cries! To
these I should add the mysterious blowings of noses (both within _sight_
and _hearing_,) frightfully significant coughs, horse-laughs, shouts and
other methods of demonstration, such as striking the sidewalk in front
of my windows with a cane, usually accompanied with some remark: "I
understand that passage so!" for example. A clique in the Historical
Society, (where I had been several times insulted at the meetings,) and
several religious coteries and secret organizations were evidently
largely concerned in the business. To these noises and sounds
corresponded an equally ingenious series of sights, so arranged as to
leave no doubt whatever, but that the impressions of my sense of hearing
were no delusion, and that there was no mistake about the authors. My
spirits and health were completely shattered by the close of winter, and
I crawled out a miserable existence, being confined to my bed most of
the time, unable to do anything but to read an hour or two a day. The
summer season emptied the University and the city, and I was relieved
from the pressure. The repose was like a gift from heaven. A stout
resolution soon consigned the terrors of the past to a _provisional_
oblivion. I collected myself, recovered my usual composure and bodily
strength, made arrangements for two additional text-books to my series,
at which after the 1st of July I began to work steadily, in the hope of
getting out of my pecuniary difficulty which the recent events of my
life had entailed. One of these is now ready for publication and will
appear in a short time. After I had fairly recovered the proper balance
of mind, I wrote to the Mayor of the city, and to Dr. Ferris, the
Chancellor of our University. To the former I complained of persecution
_ab extra_, which might be stopped by police intervention, of the latter
I demanded explanations for personal vexations and insults. Besides
having connived at, nay participated in the disorders of the
Institution, and besides having employed the menials of the
establishment to enforce a ridiculous submission to an unconstitutional
authority, the Dr. had in the presence of the Alumni of the Institution,
convened at a banquet in the Astor House, openly insulted me by saying;
"_Shall I have to become the step-father to that man?_" and again:
"_Next year I shall see another man in that man's place!_" Both these
expressions were used by the Dr. as he stood before the assembled
guests, while making a short speech. In uttering them, he looked at me
with a supercilious grin, and the question was addressed to the opposite
side of the house, between which and the speaker there was a manifest
collusion. My letter consisted of a protestation against the scandalous
disorders of the Institution in general, and a request that the Dr.
would retract the obnoxious offer of an unacceptable paternity as
publicly as it was made, to include also a recantation of the words:
"_Death you shall have!_" uttered near the door that connects my room
with that of the Dr's., _in his own voice_ and in connection with a
declamation of Patrick Henry's famous speech, "Give me liberty or &c."
This letter of mine was answered by spectral demonstrations (not unlike
those of ghost-rappers,) in the Chancellor's room (next to my private
study) between 11 and 12 o'clock on the night after its delivery, and by
the insolent behavior of the University scullion, who on the following
day after many other impertinences told me: "_You must not speak so to
the Chancellor, my son!_" No other reply was made, and no further notice
taken of my complaint. And yet my deportment towards Dr. Ferris had
never been disrespectful, while his whole course towards me had been
singularly provoking and offensive. He seemed to be ignorant of the
fact, that I was both an alumnus and an officer of the Institution, and
that as such I expected to be regarded in the light of a gentleman and
of a scholar. By ignoring my protestations the Dr. treated me like a
freshman, while his goings in and out of the building and his degrading
alliance with the menials of the Institution, who were the accomplices
of the disorder, gave him the character rather of a mechanic's "boss"
watching over an apprentice than of a dignified president of a
respectable literary institution.
I had by that time, (the middle of September last,) almost wholly
recovered my health; the horrid recollections of last winter having been
supplanted by the amenities of my summer studies in solitude; and I had
nearly completed one of the new text-books I had agreed to prepare. A
week glided away--and two--the session commenced--I was quietly engaged
in my own business, without making any overtures to commence my public
duties. In fact, I hesitated about commencing at all. About the first of
October, a young man, a nephew of mine, brought me a telegraphic
despatch from a distant city, requesting a confirmation or denial of the
report there circulated, that I was dangerously ill, unconscious of
myself, &c., and in immediate imperative need of friendly aid, being
neither mentally nor bodily able to take care of myself. As there was a
mistake in the name of the enquirer, I considered the matter a hoax, got
up for mischief or the amusement of some inquisitive party, and retorted
an abrupt telegraphic: "_None of your business, sir!_" A few days after,
I received a letter of complaint from my brother-in-law, of----, stating
that the telegraphic enquiry had been made by himself, and with the
kindest regard to my comfort; that a letter from Dr. Ferris to a brother
Divine of that city had been the cause of the sudden consternation among
my relatives there. The Dr.'s letter was itself enclosed, having been
surrendered to the party for whose benefit it was composed. In this
letter the Dr. declares me _incompetent for the business of
instruction_, alleges, that during the last winter I had given various
symptoms of a disordered mind, which during the summer had increased
(?!!) to such an extent, as to give serious alarm to the humane feelings
of the Dr., and in consideration of which, he advises my friends "to
take me at once away from study, to some institution adapted to such."
On the morning of the receipt of this intelligence (the 5th of Oct., I
think,) I had just arranged my papers for my day's work, and in the best
spirits and in excellent health, (deducting a cough which during the
infamies of last winter I had contracted,) was about to begin preparing
some copy for the printer. This strange way of answering a just
complaint and grave accusations very naturally brought back the
recollections of all the contumelies and horrors of last winter, than
which the reign of terror has nothing more startling, save perhaps only
the guillotine or the inquisition. The patience of Job could not have
held out any longer. I went at once in search of the Dr., and finding
him in conversation with Prof. Loomis, in the lecture room of the
latter, asked him whether he had written the letter I held in my hands.
His cool reply in the affirmative was itself an insult, made as it was
in a manner, which confirmed my previous grounds of offence and the
impression, that the Dr. would not remember that I was not an
undergraduate in search of a step-father, but a gentleman and an officer
of the college. Impatience and anger could not be restrained, and I told
him that _he was a ---- and a ----!_ and read his epistle publicly in
the recitation-room of one of my colleagues, and in the hall of the
University, at the same time inveighing in somewhat violent terms
against the disorders of last winter. The result was general
amazement.--My conduct may be considered too hasty by many. It is true I
might have acted more rationally and calmly. As it is, however, so
flagrant an outrage deserved exposition, and the production of _such_ a
statement made after _such_ provocations is not only a justifiable act
of self-defence, _but a merited punishment of intrigue and falsehood_,
_which I shall never have occasion to regret_. Few men after such scenes
would have stopped short at mere words. From the "_Take care!_" of
Proff. L. ---- and J. ----, (who were criminally involved in the
conspiracy of '48,) I inferred, that something was coming; indeed, I
myself inquired, whether they were going to let such a grave matter rest
without notice, as they had done with all my lenient protestations.
Two days after, on coming home from a walk, I was arrested by two
officers of the police, consigned to a low prison for several hours, and
without trial, (which was said to be over,) and without any legal
counsel, _converted into an insane man by the oath of two physicians_,
(one of them quite a young man,) who pretended to found their opinion on
an examination of about ten minutes, and since then I have lived among
lunatics in the asylum, from which I date this letter. My asseverations
and objections before the justice were in vain. Dr. Ferris and a
Wall-street broker cosily persuaded the judge in my presence, "to make
me comfortable!" I have since finished the volume I had begun, though my
absentment from my library obliged me to leave it less perfect than I
had intended to make it. For this purpose I was rational enough, it
seems. I venture, moreover, to assert, that in all other respects (save
only the obstinate affirmation of the _reality_ of the scenes of last
winter, which I am absurdly expected to deny,) my conduct _since_ my
imprisonment here has been found to be that of a man in the full
possession of all his intellectual powers. Nor can the physician at the
head of this institution conscientiously confirm either the sentence of
the judge, or the affidavit of his professional brethren. I look upon it
as perjury and a miserable shift to evade the real case of complaint, if
any there be. A rational trial before a tribunal, where each side of the
question could have been produced, would have been the part of honorable
men, conscious of their own rectitude, and of the justice of their
cause. But what aggravates these proceedings, is the strange expectation
that I should humbly acquiesce in the supposititious incrimination of
having been too unsafe to be left at large, of having been really
incapable mentally and physically to take care of myself--and the still
more singular menace of _swearing me perpetually crazy, and of
effecting a permanent abridgment of my liberty_, in case I should
attempt to defend myself, either legally or with my pen, against so
palpable and serious infraction of the dearest rights of an American
citizen. The scenes of last winter, of which I have given you but an
imperfect outline, which were got up for the purpose of consolidating
the power and preponderance of my adversaries, and of frustrating my
efforts to defend my position in my usual way, i. e., by giving positive
proof of my ability by actual services to the cause of academic
education--_these scenes of scandal and of terror I am expected to call
a delusion of my senses, and thus to falsify my personal history_,
_accuse my consciousness of mendacity, and literally to aid and abet
the iniquity of my aggressors_.
The day before my arrest, _I was solicited_ by a number of students to
commence my course, which I consented to do by the beginning of the
following week, and as this year I had already the proof-sheets of
several disquisitions on German literature in my hands, I could have
begun publicly and under the most favorable auspices. But it would seem
that these gentlemen were determined that I should _not_ begin, and that
they adopted this most admirable and effectual method of anticipating my
perfectly regular and legitimate movements. Indeed, by the enquiry,
"_What are you going to do?_" I have already been desired to infer, that
an entire abandonment of my profession was expected of me. Its exercise
had already been rendered as difficult as possible, several members of
the Council having for several years past virtually superseded me by
encouraging two other men on the same spot, which I in all honor was
entitled to occupy myself, and which contained hardly room enough for
one. What would Humboldt, Grimm, Ampere, Burnouf, and some of our other
friends on the other side of the water say to such proceedings? I am
reduced to penury, when from my public position I might be expected to
be independent, I am deprived of the liberty of academic instruction by
the terrorism of a narrow-minded clique, while successfully and
diligently engaged in adding fresh honor to my post, I am bereft of
freedom altogether by men, who owe their power to the fortuitous
concurrence of local and sectarian influences, who are utter strangers
to the large humanity of liberal culture, and who are too ignorant to
decide upon the merits of a man of letters, being themselves destitute
of both name and place among those who represent the literary and
scientific enlightenment of our age and country. But I have wearied your
patience already too long. I should like to have my case properly
understood at Washington, and you will pardon my having burdened you
with so much of the detail. In regard to my future movements I am
uncertain. Supposing even my liberation to be near at hand, it will be
difficult to commence in the midst of winter in the city, where all
educational arrangements are made in the autumn. This fact was well
known to those who have tied my hands. Several educational works I am
anxious to complete, one particularly, at which I was interrupted a year
ago this month.
I am, with great consideration,
most respectfully and truly
Yours,
G. J. Adler.