Bloomingdale Asylum, Nov. 17th, 1853.
My dear sir,
In reply to yours of the 12th inst., I can say what I might have said on
the first day of my confinement; that neither the chancellor nor any one
else at the University can have or ever could have any apprehension
whatever of being molested by me in any place or in any manner whatever,
_provided they mind their own business_ and cease to give me any further
provocation. The Chancellor's conduct was pre-eminently odious, and
beneath the dignity of his office. His letter, which I still hold in my
hands, is as ludicrous as it is false. He is certainly very much
mistaken in supposing that by his tiny authority he can so easily crush
a scholar and a professor of my reputation and "standing." "Proud of my
connection with the University and anxious to secure my co-operation,"
when but a month before he solicited the "fraternal aid" of a distant
brother divine in his attempt to ship me out of the city as a sick man,
of a distempered mind, concerning whom he was most deeply and devoutly
concerned, and (what is still more strange,) of a man whom he pronounces
"unfitted for the business of instruction?" This is his own language and
this is the whole discovery, the _denouement_ of the dirty transactions
by which I was harassed last winter. I admit that my conduct may be
regarded as too hasty. I might have defended myself in a calmer, more
dignified and more effectual manner. As it is, however, I shall make no
apology and I still think, that a month's imprisonment in the Tombs or a
severe castigation of a tangible description last winter would have
conferred a lasting moral benefit on certain persons in that
institution. In making this remark, I by no means intend to throw out
any menace, nor would I myself like the office of Knout-master-general
either to his imperial majesty at St. Petersburgh, or to his excellency
the Governor, or to the President of the United States; but I refer
simply to the moral good that would undoubtedly have accrued to the
souls of certain students and professors at the University during the
last winter from a dose or two of the "good old English discipline." As
to the infamous and unearthly noises that worried and distracted me for
at least six months, the ruin of my health and the entire suspension of
my studies were too grave a result to be easily overlooked or forgotten,
and the ignoble and bigoted clique at the bottom of that brutal
terrorism have certainly not failed to leave a lasting impression of
their power on my mind. No denial or assurance to the contrary will ever
invalidate the evidence of my senses. What I saw with my own eyes, and
heard with my own ears at the time I complained, is as true as are the
phenomena of my present experience. The guillotine alone was wanting to
cap the climax of those high-handed proceedings. It was a repetition of
the same narrow vandalism which in 1848 exiled me out of the city, and
in 1849 made me leave America in disgust. While I therefore disclaim
cherishing or ever having cherished the remotest desire to molest the
peace or safety of any member of the faculty--the fear of corporal
punishment betrays a bad conscience on the part of my adversaries and is
a virtual admission of their guilt, or else it is a fiction invented to
patch up a hopeless case;--I would at the same time assure all those
concerned in this business, that I am not an advocate of nonresistance
or of tame submission to such a gross injustice, and that in case of
need I can wield a pen to defend my rights before an intelligent public,
the opinion of which in matters of this kind, in America particularly,
is after all the last and highest instance of appeal.
The case is therefore perfectly plain. I deny having ever given any just
cause of apprehension to any man in the institution. The very
supposition is an absurdity. _They_ are the iniquitous aggressors
throughout. They have to endeavored to crush my intellectual
independence by carrying the principle of conformity to a ridiculous
extent, and by enforcing a submission to which no man of honor without
the loss of all his intellectual powers could submit.--I told the
chancellor on the spur and in the excitement of the moment what I
thought of the falsehoods contained in his epistle and of his previous
conduct which, if he is a gentleman, he is bound to justify. He gravely
ignored the letter of complaint I had addressed to him a month before,
or rather answered it by spectral demonstrations the night after its
reception. Such mummery and such terrorism, practiced on an officer of a
literary institution by a fellow-officer is surely out of place and Dr.
Ferris has not yet learnt (it seems) the meaning of an A. M. and of
certain other rights of Academic men, (to say nothing of the courtesy
customary among men of letters of every age and in all civilized
countries), to introduce or suffer such singular proceedings in a
respectable institution. As for myself I do not intend to be intimidated
in the least, and if my life and health last, I shall find the means of
defending both my honor and my position as a gentleman and a scholar. It
is all idle to attempt to crush or gag a man by terror. The humbug of
the spirit-rappers is no greater than the jugglery of
door-and-desk-slamming, of vociferations and mystifications so
successfully employed at the University during the whole of last winter.
As it regards therefore my alleged insanity on these points, I must
confess, that if a _denial_ of the _reality_ of this terrorism by which
the University (and certain societies) have carried on their nefarious
business of subjugation, be required of me, then I can _never_ become
rational again without adding falsehood to cowardice. It smacks too much
of the outrage of '48, when I was _compelled_ to admit the most damnable
affronts as delusive impressions of my senses and when other men's
infernal-pit-iniquity was alleged to be the offspring of my own
tobacco-fume! This is subjectivism with a vengeance! It is too big a
pill to swallow. It produces rather too great an excess of abdominal
convulsions, as the Doctors would say.
If by my conduct I have incurred any censure or violated any law, or
menaced the safety or the life or property of any man in or out of the
institution, why in the name of reason and of common sense do not these
gentlemen proceed in the regular way, to secure exemption from the fear
of danger? Could they not have legally coerced me to keep the peace? or
could they not (a still more rational course) have requested a committee
of the council to meet for the purpose of examining and adjusting a
matter of such grave importance? Could I not and can I not now expose
the hollow misery of the sham, the real nature of which is as plain as
the noon-day sun? The course they have adopted is surely derogatory to
the moral integrity of the parties concerned, and my stay among lunatics
and maniacs is an unpardonable abuse of an excellent institution. The
day before my arrest, eight young gentleman volunteered to commence the
study of the language which I more especially profess and I had engaged
to begin with a public lecture in the Monday following. These
proceedings rob me now, for this winter at least, of the only advantage,
which my connection with the institution affords me, and it is manifest
enough that the difficulty was "got up" for the express purpose of
anticipating and of frustrating my preparations for the present
semestre.
It still seems to me, that these gentlemen incriminate themselves in two
ways:--1st, By desiring me to remove out of the building, they incur the
suspicion of being themselves the authors or abettors of the nuisance I
complain of. I would propose to have some one stay with me and to retain
and pay for my study as usual. In that event I should have a witness and
the detection and punishment of the offenders would exonerate all those
who in case of my removal would have part of the criminal credit of
molesting the private residence of a professor and a scholar. 2d, The
fear of personal injury from the hands of one, who for many years past
has been known to be a man of peaceable and unexceptionable behavior and
who never attacked or struck any man in his life, appears to have its
origin in a consciousness of guilt and to be a virtual admission of it.
Do they perhaps think their conduct so outrageous, that the meekness of
Moses could no longer endure it without resentment? I grant that a
passionate man would be likely to take a more substantial revenge. I
myself however have no inclination to degrade myself in any such
way.--My confinement is on a false pretense, and if any made affidavit
to my insanity, they most assuredly must have perjured themselves.
Whatever I did, I have been provoked to do by what I deem a stupidity
and _a flagrant invasion of the rights and privileges of an academic
instructor, which no language can castigate with adequate severity_.
I am most respectfully and truly
your obedient servant.