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Thereupon Mr. Williams arose, like a perfectly insane man, and said, "I beg and beseech of you in God's name, spare that institution! Yes, again I beseech of you to spare that institution! Do not destroy that institution! Do what you please with the officers, but spare that institution: turn them all out if you will but, in God's name, I beseech of you to spare the institution!" Yes, citizens, that was said by Reuel Williams. I will here allude to one of the votes of the committee in my case. The question before them was -- "Had Mr. Hunt been retained too long at the Hospital?" The vote stood 9 to 7 that I had been. Upon reflection one of them went over to 7, thus making a tie vote. His reason for so doing, was, that if it stood that I had been retained unjustly by that institution, the State could not avoid making me a compensation for such false imprisonment!

Dr. Simonton was entrusted by the committee -- he being Chairman on the part of the house -- to draw up the report. This fact gave me great uneasiness, knowing, as I did, that he was entirely prejudiced against me and my cause; for from the first to the very last, he had manifested a full and determined disposition to crush me and the truth, in relation to the real facts of the case. Seemingly he was fully bent upon concealing all abuses, and did all in his power to crush me in particular, disregarding his duty, and his oath as an impartial member of the Legislature. His report hung fire until the session was at its last gasp, then the report turned up, too late to be reviewed or discussed. This report, my death warrant, was signed, sealed and delivered!

The barbarous triumphed; carried their point, though convinced as I ever must be, that three fourths of the members of that Legislature were fully possessed of the truth of my statements, the justice of my cause, and the iniquity and rottenness of the Maine Insane Hospital and its presiding Deity! I have not the least doubt but if there had been one week to have acted upon that report, it would have been recommitted, with instruction to report that Dr. Bates be discharged from all connection with the institution, and I should have received something for damages, as the members of the Legislature all knew, and perfectly understood my case, and I have no reason to doubt but they were in favor, by a very large majority, to have impartial justice done me for the wrongs that I had suffered, for to do me full justice is not in human power to do. This Dr. Simonton well knew, and hence the reason for the delay of the report, until the close of the session.

One of the committee replied that he was ready to meet the question upon that ground; for if the State had placed officers in that institution, who would wilfully detain patients, wrongfully, and unjustly, he, for one, was ready and willing to make them ample pecuniary renumeration, and thus wipe out the stain of injustice from the State.

And, more-over, if the vote had not undergone that subtle change, the fact would have been admitted and established that I, of course, had been a perfectly sane man for eight months before leaving the institution, and up to that time; a fact that Williams and Dr. Bates had not only deprecated, but fought against with all the determination of better men in a better cause.

CHAPTER X.

Gov. John Hubbard, of Maine, in his message to the Legislature last May, thus plies up the sublime and beautiful.

"It is our distinguished prerogative, under Divine Providence, to shape our own destinies as individuals and as states. Here, for the first time in the history of the civilized world, is every man allowed to enjoy his natural rights."

"Our social progress is not obstructed by laws or usages which originating in cunning or cupidity, have entwined themselves with the very frame work of society, and have entangled the masses in the meshes of a system of servitude more oppressive than any positive institution of slavery. I say, more oppresive than positive institutions of slavery; I will add, more degrading, because, when it exisits, as in the old world, it is between men of the same race, and blood, and color."

"It should not however, be that morality which adapts itself to circumstances, nor that which deals only in abstractions, but it should be a morality broad as the relations of man to man, deep as are the foundations of human society, and comprehensive as are all our connections with the intellectual and physical world."

"We cannot too vigilantly watch the working of our constitution, nor too closely scrutinize the practical operation of our laws."

Here I have an editorial extract from the Augusta Age, about the time Dr. Hubbard was nominated.

"Wherever the name of John Hubbard is known, his name is the synonym of manhood, one of statesmanship. Wherever known, he is loved, honored, revered -- he is loved, for his many amiable, social qualities -- honored, for his high-souled integrity, his manly frankness, and straight-forwardness of purpose -- revered, for his unwavering devotion to principle, his high-toned American feeling."