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And, I am very sorry to add, this artful policy of Dr. Ranney, manifested through the Trustees, prevailed in forcing upon this Committee the conviction, that the law had better be regarded as a dead letter until subsequent legislation should repeal it!

As evidence of this determination, the Committee avoided me at their first meeting, when they knew I was then in Mount Pleasant, waiting there at the Governor's request, for the express purpose of educating them into the importance and need of the law being enforced.

At their second appointment I met Mrs. Darwin alone, whose conduct and words more than confirmed the fact that the law was regarded by them as not only a useless enactment, but as one they did not hesitate to openly ridicule and deride.

To shield Dr. Ranney seemed their settled purpose and firm determination! But to shield his patients from his arbitrary power was no part of their programme up to this date. In Mrs. Darwin I failed entirely to awaken one feeling of sympathy infavor of the law, or that unfortunate class the law was designed to shield from harm.

At this crisis I wrote to Judge R. Lowe, of Keokuk, Ex Governor of Iowa, who was chairman of this Committee, the following letter:

MOUNT PLEASANT, June, 27, 1872.

JUDGE LOWE -- Sir, I learn from Mrs. Darwin that your adjourned meeting of the 25th is deferred until July 2d. It was the Governor's wish that I meet this Committee in Mount Pleasant, and present for their consideration the same argument and appeal for the enforcement of the law, which I had used before him and the Legislature for its enactment, adding:

"I had never before realized its importance, and the committee may be equally ignorant on this subject."

To comply with his wishes, I accordingly suspended my business at a sacrifice of four hundred dollars already, and have been waiting here eight weeks to present the Governor's letter of introduction to this Committee.

I have offered to pay this Committee three thousand dollars of my own hard earnings, if necessary, to secure men who were capacitated for this important trust.

I have the names of four thousand men of the first standing in Iowa, who stand as my backers in enacting and enforcing this law, and this number is constantly increasing.

I have also a petition sent me from others, praying this Committee to enforce the law in every particular and begging me also to be their representative to defend their wishes to this Committee.

My object in writing to you, Sir, is to express my earnest desire to discharge these obligations, by meeting with you, July 2d, if agreeable on your part. I do not deem it my duty to intrude upon you an unwelcome elucidation of this subject. If, however, you desire light such as I can impart, I shall be happy to meet this appointment of the Governor and citizens of Iowa. It will take me one hour at least to do justice to this subject, and shall hold myself in readiness to meet this appointment any hour after six o'clock, A. M., July 2d, at my son's house in Mount Pleasant, T. Packard, the third house north of Asbury Church in this city. Very respectfully yours, for the oppressed

E. P. W. P."

Judge Lowe called upon me on July 2d, and allowed an interview of four hours and a half in all, and left, as I have reason to believe, a different man so far as his views of the need of the law were concerned. He now, like the Legislature, saw both sides, and therefore like them he changed from a derider of the law to its defender. Said he:

"This law shall be enforced! I have taken my oath to do it, and it shall be done!"

In coming to this determination he considered the following petition, from Iowa citizens, representing the wishes of the people, viz.:

Petition.

"To the Visiting Committee appointed to carry out the provisions of the law to "Protect the Insane."

Approved, April 23, 1872.

"We, the undersigned, fully satisfied that the law to 'Protect the Insane' is reasonable, just, humane, and much needed, do hereby petition you, the executors of the law, to thoroughly enforce it, in every particular, and thereby carry out the wishes of the people of Iowa to extend to this unfortunate class the protection of law while confined in their Insane Asylums."

He also considered an array of testimony of which the following is a type, showing Mount Pleasant Institution to be like others, in a corrupt condition, needing ventilation and reform, viz.:

a gentleman and lady living in this city, are willing to testify under oath, that their daughter-in-law was taken from the asylum in a condition indicating both neglect and abuse. She had been there only two weeks, but her health and mental and physical condition were far more deplorable than when he was entered. From her shoulders down both her arms were completely covered with black and blue spots. One side other head was badly swollen, indicating violent usage, which was confirmed by a physician extracting a stick of wood from her head, one or two inches in length.