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Modern Persecution, or Married Woman's Liabilities
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145 | Phrenologists would also say of her, that her self-will was large and her married life tended in no wise to diminish this phrenological bump. They have been married twenty-five years, and have six children, the issue of their intermarriage, the youngest of whom was eighteen months old when she was kidnapped and transferred to Jacksonville. The older children have maintained a firm position against the abuse and persecutions of their father towards their mother, but were of too tender age to render her any material assistance. | |
146 | Her views of religion are more in accordance with the liberal views of the age in which we live. She scouts the Calvinistic doctrine of man's total depravity, and that God has foreordained some to be saved and others to be damned. She stands fully on the platform of man's free agency and accountability to God for his actions. She believes that man, and nations, are progressive; and that in his own good time, and in accordance with His great purposes, Right will prevail over Wrong, and the oppressed will be freed from the oppressor. She believes slavery to be a national sin, and the church and the pulpit a proper place to combat this sin. These, in brief, are the points in her religious creed which were combated by Mr. Packard, and were denominated by him as "emanations from the devil," or "the vagaries of a crazed brain." | |
147 | For maintaining such ideas as above indicated, Mr. Packard denounced her from the pulpit, denied her the privilege of family prayer in the home circle, expelled her from the Bible Class, and refused to let her be heard in the Sabbath School. He excluded her from her friends, and made her a prisoner in her own house. | |
148 | Her reasonings and her logic appeared to him as the ravings of a mad woman -- her religion was the religion of the devil. To justify his conduct, he gave out that she was insane, and found a few willing believers, among his family connections. | |
149 | This case was commenced by filing a petition in the words following, to wit: | |
150 |
STATE OF ILLINOIS, | |
151 | To the Honorable CHARLES R. STARR, Judge of the 20th Judicial Circuit in the State of Illinois. | |
152 | William Haslet, Daniel Beedy, Zaimon Hanford, and Joseph Younglove, of said county, on behalf of Elizabeth P. W. Packard, wife of Theophilus Packard, of said county, respectfully represent unto your Honor, that said Elizabeth P. W. Packard, is unlawfully restrained of her liberty, at Manteno, in the county of Kankakee, by her husband, Rev. Theophilus Packard, being forcibly confined and imprisoned in a close room of the dwelling-house of her said husband, for a long time, to wit; for the space of six weeks, her said husband refusing to let her visit her neighbors and refusing her neighbors to visit her; that they believe her said husband is about to forcibly convey her from out the State; that they believe there is no just cause or ground for restraining said wife of her liberty; that they believe that said wife is a mild and amiable woman. And they are advised and believe, that said husband cruelly abuses and misuses said wife, by depriving her of her winter's clothing, this cold and inclement weather, and that there is no necessity for such cruelty on the part of said husband to said wife; and they are advised and believe, that said wife desires to come to Kankakee City, to make application to your Honor for a writ of habeas corpus, to liberate herself from said confinement or imprisonment, and that said husband refused and refuses to allow said wife to come to Kankakee City for said purpose; and that these petitioners make application for a writ of habeas corpus in her behalf, at her request. These petitioners therefore pray that a writ of habeas corpus may forthwith issue, commanding said Theophilus Packard to produce the body of said wife, before your Honor, according to law, and that said wife may be discharged from said imprisonment. | |
153 |
(Signed), WILLIAM HASLET. | |
154 |
J.W. ORR, | |
155 | STEPHEN R. MOORE, Counsel. | |
156 |
STATE OF ILLINOIS, | |
157 | William Haslet, Daniel Beedy, Zalmon Hanford, and Joseph Younglove, whose names are subscribed to the above petition, being duly sworn, severally depose and say, that the matters and facts set forth in the above petition are true in substance and fact, to the best of their knowledge and belief. | |
158 |
WILLIAM HASLET. | |
159 | Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 11th day of January, A. D. 1864. | |
160 | MASON B. LOOMIS, J. P. | |
161 | Upon the above petition, the Honorable C. R. Starr, Judge as aforesaid, issued a writ of habeas corpus, as follows: | |
162 |
STATE OF ILLINOIS, | |
163 | The People of the State of Illinois, To THEOPHILUS PACKARD: | |
164 | WE COMMAND YOU, That the body of Elizabeth P. W. Packard, in your custody detained and imprisoned, as it is said, together with the day and cause of caption and detention, by whatsoever name the same may be called, you. safely have before Charles R. Starr, Judge of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, State of Illinois, at his chambers, at Kankakee City in the said county, on the 12th instant, at one o'clock, P.M., and to do and receive all and singular those things which the said Judge shall then and there consider of her in this behalf, and have you then and there this writ. |