Appendix F.

To show how far persons can be influenced by every ridiculous and unjust means, in such cases of pretended Lunacy, to carry out their point, I will here mention one. It was asserted by my family "That I brought half a barrel of water in the bottom of my sleigh, all the way from the State of New York, upon bare ground." Now, is this possible to be true? for the very jumping of the sleigh would dash it all out, and all over me, before I drove three hours, even if I had not taken the trouble just to take hold of the side-stays of the sleigh and turn it all out in a few seconds.

The truth is, in the winter of 1831, having made up my mind to come on from New Lebanon, State of New York, to my family near Philadelphia, and the snow being very deep, and the North River having been frozen all the way up for weeks and weeks; having two excellent match-horses and a sleigh, and finding, by reading the papers, that the sleighing was very good all the way on the Philadelphia, I concluded, as I could not come in my carriage, I would come in my sleigh, a distance of about 350 miles, which I completed in five and a half days; but the last day, when reaching as far as Trenton, it began to thaw, and, by the time I reached Philadelphia, the snow was partly gone in the middle of the turnpike, (as is generally the case,) although it was good on the sideroads. I reached my family, residing in Byberry, about half after ten o'clock upon the night of the sixth day, and, as is common, the thaw was succeeded by a rain during the night, which left two or three quarts of water in the bottom of my sleigh. So much for the "half a barrel of water from the State of New York that I brought in the bottom of my sleigh upon bare ground," just like the snow-bank tale in the Morgan Hinchman case, to try to make him out Insane.

It is well known by all those in court during the time of my trial, that Jacob B. Cresson gave his testimony concerning my connection with the Shakers. Now, as he was not born until the 27th day of May, 1828, and as I did not move in their neighborhood until that year, he was only a few weeks old at that time. What a most remarkable Precocious Boy this, in his malignity to, and persecution of his own father.

"It often falls, in course of common life,
    That right long time is overborne of wrong,
Through avarice of power, of guile or strife,
   That weakens her, and makes her party strong;
But JUSTICE, though her doom she do prolong,
   Yet at the last she will her own cause right."

It having been fully ascertained (as has been asserted in the public statements) that the whole evidence and force of my persecutor's testimony against me was directed by Religious Prejudice and Avarice alone, the public at once made up their minds never to admit such a Precedent, not for a moment, as it would be a very dangerous one indeed, and none would be safe; they have therefore formed the one universal opinion that they now hold of the character and intentions of that part of my family who persecuted me.

David Paul Brown, my wife's lawyer and encourager, when acting as Counsel for Morgan Hinchman, to prove him perfectly sane for not making over his property by assignment or deed of trust, turns right about and blows hot and cold with the same breath, and tries to prove me insane in order to force me to do it; but be it ever remembered, speaks these words of Margaretta Hinchman, Morgan's wife, of the character of a "true woman," and woman's love, very different from that of mine, viz.

"I can only say that for the honor of the wife, and woman's love, that when Margaretta Hinchman was subsequently asked did she ever consent in word, thought, or deed, to the perpetration of this outrage* upon her husband, the father of her children, she said she never did. It runs counter to the current of the feelings of every noble woman." See D'd P. Brown's speech on the Hinchman vs. Ritchie case, page 42.

* Swearing that he was insane.

N.B. And be it ever remembered, that as soon as ever I found that evil advisers had audaciously and impiously obtruded themselves into the sacred precincts of my once happy family, and once faithful wife; and that they were determined to persecute me by false charges at Law, and that too, after I had given my family more than one-half; I sent to them the written proposal* already mentioned in this work, by Charles Chauncey and John D. Jackson, which was copied and taken by my mother; besides two verbal proposals by Dan'l McCurdy, but they were all rejected. Now if all these outrages are permitted, where is my right of Religious Liberty? or where is any right at all as head of my family?

* Which proposal see upon page 214.