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On or about the 23d of February I gave a letter to Dr. Bates, which I had written to Gov. Anderson, as an appeal to him for protection from such unjust imprisonment, and cruel treatment, as I had received from the officers of that institution. I asked him if the laws had been framed for the government of that Hospital expressly for my case, and whether the people of the State of Maine knew that it was a tomb from which, if a person once entered, he could never return to the world, unless the officers should choose to send him away? I asked if the people knew that the government of that institution was that of an absolute monarchy, with a tyrant at its head ; where all manner of iniquity was and could be perpetrated with perfect impunity upon its victims. I did not know as Dr. Bates would send any of my letters, and I presume that he did not; but I intended by writing them to let him know that I know my rights when I had my reason, and by my conduct that I dared to assert and maintain them, even there, in that prison house of woe and despair, friendless and alone as I then was.

In my interview with Dr. Bates, in the attic, he told me, for the first time, that one reason why he could not send me away was that my wife would not consent to have me leave, because she was afraid of me on account of the horrid stories that had been told her, and that there were other people who were afraid of me; and that the reason I was not sent to Mr. White's, at Winthrop, the spring before, when I wanted to go there, was because there were people in Augusta who were afraid that I should get up in the night, and take a horse and come down and burn up the village, and murder some of the inhabitants before I could be secured, as I had used such language concerning them. I asked him what business any one had to inform her or others what I might have said about them, when I was deprived of reason and had no command over myself, and was not accountable for my language or my acts; and he himself called me crazy, and had reported me incurable in his first report. He replied that he did not know any thing about that, for stories of that kind would get out.

The truth of the matter was that all of the horrid representations concerning the situation which I had been in, had been told for the purpose of keeping me there, by creating a fear of me, and the causes of my madness had been carefully concealed from them. One or two of the Selectmen have told me, since I came out of the Hospital, that the only reason they did not let me go to Mr. White's the spring previous was, that Dr. Bates told them that it would never do to let me go there, alledging as reasons those same things which he told me they used to tell him, and he, Dr. Bates, told me about that time that he would give ten dollars out of his own pocket to get rid of me, as I caused him more trouble than all the rest of the patients he had in the Hospital. So here is a falsehood between Dr. Bates and the Selectmen, and I have no doubt but the Selectmen told the truth in regard to the matter.

About the 20th of March, after Dr. Coney had been elected one of the Selectmen of Augusta, I sent a request for him to visit me, as he had formerly been my intimate friend, and he came and saw me at work in the attic. I told him that I intended to leave there in the spring; that I had been abused enough, and had suffered enough, and I wished to go by the consent of all, without making any trouble; that I wanted the Selectmen to take me away, as I was kept there by their authority and I was determined to leave at every hazard, either dead or alive: that if the officers of that inquisition should abuse me any more I would as soon take a knife and cut them into mince meat as I would a knife from my bench to cut a side of leather into suitable dimensions for my work. He left me with the promise that he would do all in his power to have me removed, and would see me again in a few days. He, according to his promise, came again the first day of April, and gave me his word as one of the Selectmen that I should be removed in a reasonable time that spring, regardless of any thing Dr. Bates might say concerning my sanity or insanity, and at his request I remained until the last day of May, since which time my residence has been in the village of Augusta, and it is for the citizens to say whether I have been a sane or insane man since I left the Hospital, which is nearly four years ago, during which time I have been able to provide for my own wants.

Dr. Cony has since told me that Dr. Bates disputed his authority to remove me, asserting that I was an insane man, and he had no right to take me from his custody. Dr. Cony told him, right or no right, I was a sane man, and he would take the responsibility so to do. Dr. Bates was afraid that I should expose his villainy and that the people would believe my assertions, and then his salary would vanish out of his reach; that then he would not be able to swell and parade upon his portico, like Nebuchadnezzar upon his palace walls, (as one of the patients used to say of him,) but would have to return home and only be Dr. Bates, chief of the Norridgewocks. Dr. Coney has told me that if he had not removed me I should have remained there until death released me from their chains; and of that fact I have no doubt in my mind, and a few weeks or months would have closed the scene; for I had been prepared for several months with concealed deadly weapons, which I had determined to use upon Dr.Bates the first opportunity, and to have set the building on fire from one end to the other, (which I could have easily done,) and then I should have stamped myself with incurable insanity, beyond a doubt, in the minds of all the people.