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CHAPTER XXXI.
Testimony Presented to the Committee by Mrs. Tirzah F. Shedd, of Aurora, Illinois.

It is for the benefit of those now in Jacksonville Insane Asylum that I give the following testimony to the public, hoping it may stimulate the people to provide some remedy for existing evils.

This is to certify, that I, Mrs. T. F. Shedd, was incarcerated in this Asylum on the 7th of July, 1865. I was imprisoned there fourteen weeks. My baby was five months and a half old, when I was taken from her, and my two other little girls, and forced entirely against my will and protest, into this prison-house, for an indefinite length of time, on the charge of monomania on spiritualism, brought against me by my husband.

True I had a mock jury trial at Geneva court-house, as the statute law of 1865 requires, still I felt that justice could not be done me before such a tribunal of prejudice as existed against me on the ground of my spiritualism. And so it proved. My case was not fairly tried before an impartial tribunal, and therefore, I was condemned as insane on the subject of spiritualism.

This decision therefore placed my personal liberty entirely in the hands of my husband who was fully determined to use this legal power to subject my views to his will and wishes. I, of course, resisted this claim, and assured him I should never yield my right to my personal liberty to him or any other power; for so long as he could bring nothing against me but what I regarded as my religion, I claimed the protection of my personal liberty under the flag of religious toleration.

Notwithstanding all my arguments, my entreaties, my prayers, my protests and my vigorous resistance, by fighting single-handed and alone my six strong men captors, for forty-five minutes, I was finally taken from my sick bed, bruised and sore from this brutal assault, and carried in my undress to the cars, with the handcuffs dangling at my side, leaving my little girls screaming in agony at this unnatural bereavement of their tender, loving mother. And yet this is a land of religious freedom! It may be a land of freedom for the men, but I am sure it is not for the married women!

And although entirely sane, the heartless Dr. McFarland did receive me, when my last hope of liberty died within me, and I found myself entirely in the power of a man, whom I had sad reasons to fear was not worthy of the unbounded trust and confidence he was then receiving from the people of Illinois. After I was discharged, I expressed this same opinion to him in a letter as follows:

"Dr. McFarland, I gathered facts from every department of the Asylum -- and your private conduct towards me which I well understood at the time -- enough to ruin you!"

I have no confidence in that man's honesty. His policy is stronger than his principles; and I told him this opinion too, in my letter to him in these words:

"You took my husband by the hand and when alone said to him, 'Mr. Shedd, this woman, meaning me, is not crazy, nor ever has been. Excited she may have been from various causes, but temporary derangement is not possible with such an organization, although I shall pronounce her hopelessly insane, because she will not say she has changed her mind!'"

Is not this decision that I am insane, the dictation of his selfish policy, instead of his honest conviction? It seems to me that he is willing to belie his own judgment to shield himself and my persecutors from harm. And the written advice he gave my husband, strengthens this conviction, viz. "Mr. Shedd, you must not tyrannize over her, but flatter her with presents, and let her have her own way as much as you can."

Why is this? Is he not afraid I shall become exasperated toward this party including himself, and expose them in consequence? It seems so to me, for he says it is impossible for me to become insane, and this advice did not seem to be needed for my protection or good.

I think Dr. McFarland is not fit for his place, and as I view it, the safest course for him to pursue now is to resign; and I advised him to do so in my letter, viz.:

"All that I now ask is that you give up that position which you confessed to me you were sick of five years ago, and re-lease those women you hold there as prisoners, under the will of cruel husbands, and others who call themselves friends."

This letter from which these extracts are made, was sent back to my husband with this single sentence added to it:

"Is Mrs. Shedd becoming more insane? A. M."

There were a great many spiritualists there, whom he called insane like myself, for this reason alone, seeming to fear them as witnesses against him, unless they carried his diploma of "hopeless insanity" upon them. He has been obliged to liberate many such of late, by the enforcement of the law for the "Protection of Personal Liberty," and he was very careful too to send this class of "hopelessly insane "(?) prisoners before the time appointed by the Legislature for their jury trial, so that by this policy they were denied the opportunity of a jury trial, in vindication of their sanity. And had the jury's decision contradicted the Doctor's opinion, as it did in Mrs. Packard's case, he might have had more reason to fear their influence.